49 The Earl

Cleo looked at the woman and then at the two that were unconscious.

"How do we make sure he doesn't come after us?" It seemed she wanted to avoid further trouble with this man.

"Uh.. uh… well I… oh wait! We just gathered an herb that can be used to affect a person's mental state. It's called Lichen herb. Its juice can be used to make another person weak willed. If you drink too much of it, it can cause memory loss. If you feed him a lot of that plant, he should forget this encounter"

Cleo looked at me and Turek. I gave her a go ahead and so did Turek.

"Why do you even have this herb? How were you planning to use it?" asked Cleo.

"Master took fancy to a guard named Leana when we were passing through the gate a few weeks ago. She refused his advances and the other guards protected her, so we couldn't bring her by force. He wanted to use this herb and mix it in her food to make her submit to his will. We bribed one of the cooks at her barracks for it and he agreed to do it."

I stared in shock upon hearing the story. So this is the guy that wanted to marry Leana? It seemed obvious now that he had no intention of marrying her. Most like he just wanted to make Leana this plaything. My opinion of this guy dropped even further. This guy was the scum of the society.

"What's his name?" I asked her coldly. The woman was so much stronger than me that there was no way she would be frightened by me. After all, she thought of me as just a kid. But she gave a quick look towards Cleo and replied

"His name is Alan Shwartz. He is Earl Shwartz's son. "

When I didn't look impressed she added "Earl Shwartz moved to this city almost one year ago. He was thrown out of the capital by the King because of the scandals he had caused by abusing his power. He was sent to this remote city on the border to keep him away from the important affairs."

She took a breath and continued "The earl started abusing his power again as soon as he got here. Even the Viscount here is helpless against him as his rank is lower. The Earl tried to use his power to force Leana to marry Alan but the Viscount refused. Leana is not a slave and according to kings law she cannot be forced to marry anyone. The Earl was furious but in front of the king's law, even he was helpless. So Alan tried to find other ways to get her. This is the latest one."

The woman looked down as if in shame. It seemed she wasn't a bad person herself. She had been forced into this by the pervert lying on the ground. I thought for a moment and asked "What is your name?"

"Uh… my name is Tina. Me and Ginny are twin sisters. Alan bought the two of us at the same time from the slave market in the capital."

I thought Tina was just a victim of her circumstances. Cleo was still looking at her coldly so I said

"I think we can just let them go after feeding them the juice of Lichen herb. That should stop him from coming after us. As for Leana, we will have to think of ways to save her from this pervert. Do you have to tell him the truth if he asks you what happened?"

"Not unless he suspects that I am lying and orders me to. I cannot ignore a direct command but the seal give me enough free will to skirt around the truth. To be safe, you can feed the juice to all three of us. I wont lose my memory right away so you don't have to worry about me attacking you after forgetting what happened."

"Can you make this juice?" asked Cleo.

"Yes, my sister is better at potions but I can make it too."

She bent down and took out the bag that was attached to Alan's leg. It also had the instruments to make the juice. Tina started making the juice as we watched.