The Crownhorn farm incident (part 2)

"We will be imposing on you again, mister Bernard."

"Not a problem at all! Not at all!"

Kenneth nodded at the round man, who hurriedly began to bow down to him.

"Mister Crownhorn... did you make sure that the slurry can't get to the water the animals drink? Also, the hay beds..."

"..."

Zorivia spoke up, but the initial response that she received was rather mean side-eye.

"Young Miss... you have to understand that none of those things is cheap, and we are already struggling. The changes and accommodations that you suggested are simply out of our reach – besides, the problem got solved, didn't it?"

Bernard exchanged tired looks with Kenneth before turning towards Zorivia and shook his head with a dismissive and incredibly sleazy smile.

"...o-oh... then no other cow began to show the symptoms...? But still, it would be best to... in order to prevent sickness in the future..."

Zorivia cowered and backed off, and started to mumble.

"Young Miss. If you are so worried, the best thing you could do is give me more of the medicine you used to heal the sick cows in order for me and my employees to keep the animals in the best shape... hey, you! Why are you dawdling for?! Keep moving those haybales! Do you think you get paid for just holding it?!"

The round man spread his arms and made an expression as if the solution he gave was the only possibility there was before spotting one of the workers carrying a stack of hay over his shoulder, standing around without any purpose.

"..."

The worker, who didn't even show his face leaned down, picking something from the ground before hurriedly running into the stable on the other side of the courtyard.

"Do you have more of those potions, young Miss?"

"...I do..."

Bernard looked back at Zorivia and even reached out his hands expectantly – to which the blond-haired girl nodded, admitting that the round man was correct and obediently moving to the back of the carriage and searching through the baggage by herself.

"Here... but you must promise to at least make sure that the water the cow drink is..."

"Young Miss, this farm has been around several times longer than you are alive. There is no need for improvement as everything works as intended!"

The girl didn't hand over the several vials she was holding and tried to make the round man understand the importance of implementing much-needed changes – but Bernard grabbed all the vials out of her hands and scoffed.

"You can feel at home – the rooms that you spent the night a week ago are free."

Bernard added while hurriedly walking away with the healing potions and disappearing into the stable on the side of the courtyard.

"Here. Is this what you wanted? Getting used like a fool that you are."

"... I'm sorry..."

Kenneth, who didn't even lift a finger or said a single word to help the daughter of his master a moment earlier, now became a lot more talkative and scolded the blond-haired girl who lowered her head and followed him up to the Crownhorn family's house.

As they entered the building and found their way to the rooms they used before and their coachman was moving their baggage after parking the carriage, the round man was carefully stashing the precious healing potions in the secret compartment in the stable.

"Ah, I love naive kindhearted people like that~!"

Bernard hummed, pushing aside stacks of big silver coins and even a single stack of small gold coins to make space, and after making sure that the secret compartment could be closed without issue, he locked it and turned around...

*WHAM*

"GFRGH...!"

Right then, a fist-stone from the side of the road smashed right into his mouth, bursting his lips and breaking a good deal of his teeth, sending the round man on all fours, spitting the teeths' shards mixed with blood and saliva.

*WHAM*

"GAGFGH...!"

Before the fallen man could even properly grasp the situation, something hit his face again, this time from the side, breaking his jaw and sending him rolling to the sides in the pole of fresh slurry – that is a mixture of manure and piss...

*thump*

"BLFGBHGLBLBHBHL...!"

Then the attacker placed his feet on the back of Bernard's head and forced his face deep into the slurry, causing the head of the Crownhorn farm to breathe in and gulp down a great deal of the gathered filth.

As Bernard was slowly stopping to attempt fighting back and began to simply twitch, the attacker took back his foot and crouched by his side, grabbing the man's hair and pulling his head up to look at his slurry-stained face.

"Mister, I also like kindhearted people... But, you seem to have a death wish. Where did you think that girl had been? Young lady Zorivia Rotteloss was meeting with her fiance – his royal highness Noah Allworth in the royal castle."

"...ghaaagh...!"

The person that attacked Bernard turned out to be a young boy with black hair and a serious face, speaking slowly and clearly, which made the round man let out a pained groan as he tried to spit out the slurry from his mouth.

"You didn't possibly think that the big guy Kenny and the coachman were the only ones keeping an eye on someone so important, did you?"

"!!!"

The black-haired boy asked and tilted his head, making his peculiar earring sway, making Bernard go silent as his eyes widened in realization.

The movement of the yellow marbles on the end of the reverse cones was strangely... threatening... but not as much as the words of the black-haired boy.

"I will leave you with this friendly warning... let's say that a cow kicked you – it's a good lesson, I would say. Even someone from a long line of farmers can have a lot of things to learn about his animals."

The boy added, nodding his head several times with a serious expression as if he was saying something profound.

"...or that he should respect his betters..."

"!!!"

The black-haired boy suddenly hesitated, and the next moment he already had a sizeable knife in his hand, utterly terrifying the round man.