Chapter 63 Another trustworthy person.

After the signing of the contract it was time for Lili to go find this future location of her new Inn. Set on this task by the princesses themselves, Lili was then assigned a second guard as she headed into the city.

To Lilis surprise and Jack's as well, Sir Chad Armstrong was the one to join them. Despite his earlier words in the yard, he actually didn't seem too bad of a man. Chad had even gotten down on one knee, taken Lilis dainty little hand and then kissed it lightly as he gave her his vow of protection which Lili didn't refuse.

With the two young knights by her side Lili then began to make her way out of the castle, but just then the weather worsened once more and rain clouds came pouring rain all across the land. So with the horrible weather in mind Lili put on her trusty black cloak and other black clothes that made her seem like a ninja, and then they headed out.

With her in all black, and Jack and Chad wearing white cloaks they were surely quite a sight to be seen, but Lili didn't care about that, as she only had one thing in mind and that was finding that Inn. Accalia had mentioned the place having a name and the place being somewhere in the center of town, close to the main street, but Lili had no idea where such a place was and so she needed to go and search for it.

While walking Lili did ask out of curiosity about Chads and Jack's ages which apparently were only two years apart from each other, Jack being the younger one with two years less to Chad.

She also found out that the 16 year old Chad was just like Jack who was unmarried and still in search of a partner. To Lili this seemed quite understandable as the man did seem like the type that would have a hard time committing to anything serious. But more importantly she found out that Chad actually knew this Inn that she was searching for.

So as they exited the two sets of gatehouses of the castle and headed into the cities surprisingly quiet streets, Lili was amazed by what she saw there. The city was clean and orderly with a lot of white all around. There were white buildings with white marble bricks, some sort of furry white dogs, furry white cats, white pigeons flying about and a decent amount of white people going about their late day business. Speaking of the people they were all quite decently dressed and quite lacking in diversity.

All the people were white with German or French looks, some had darker hair and eye colours, while others had different shades of blonde hair and blue eyes. But all were white with many having quite fair skin. Nowhere were there any Asians, African Americans or black people in general or any Indians, or well anything else except white people.

Lili had figured that this being the capital and all that would surely have people of other ethnicities but apparently not. Although she did find their clothing styles here in the capital to be quite nice. All the people here seemed to be dressed quite similarly to the Romans or maybe the ancient Greeks with their colourful tunics and all that.

But despite the cities lacking diversity Lili did find it to be quite beautiful and even awe inspiring. While the rest of the country was like something out of the dark ages, this was like a place straight out of some fantasy version of Rome or something like that. Here she could even find her nostalgic memories of the past emerging once more, she felt like she was in some fantasy reenactment festival with a lot of nerds in cosplay.

Oh how she could just feel her body start to be filled with goosebumps as she thought of this all, it just felt so nostalgic to her. And damn did people riding horses around look quite nice and they didn't even produce pollution or anything, except when they farted, but whatever.

While lost in thought they then already came to the section of the main street where the Inn could be found. The Inn was called the Bolton family Inn and it was apparently just off of the main street in the center of town.

Heading there in front of the thing Lili felt pleased by what she saw. There squished between a bakery and a cheap looking tailor's shop with quite simple and cheap dresses on display, there between them it stood, The Bolton family Inn.

The Inn seemed quite spacious and thick looking from the outside with it's wide appearance and with the two stories it had. Plus the outside of the place did seem quite white and clean with it's white marble blocks that it was built out of.

Although there was something off about the place. Despite the hour being as late as it was, the place was totally closed.

Thinking back Lili could only recall her mother speaking about finding a safe place out of the underground under this building. She never did say why exactly it was safe for them to use as an entrance to the underground.

Looking at Jack and Chad they too seemed confused by this situation. According to Chad this place was supposed to be open at this hour.

Curious of this Chad began knocking on the door and yelling to anyone who might have been behind the door to open up. Hearing no answer coming from the door, Lili and Jack headed to the windows and started peering into the building to see what was going on.

Sadly all Lili could see was a dark abandoned Inn with no one to be seen there. Then suddenly a loud sound of wood breaking was heard as Chad kicked the door Inn. Surprised by this Lili yelped out and said. "Ahhhhh, Chad what are you doing? You can't break people's doors like that, can you? Can you?"

Chad merely covered his face with his cloak as he said. "There is a strong stench of death here. Keep your distance, I'll go in first." Then he headed inside. Seeing this Lili and Jack went after Chad and as they came to the door they were immediately assaulted by the awful stench of death that Chad spoke of.

The smell of it was absolutely repulsive and made her immediately want to spill her guts out and run away. Oh god, she was already feeling it coming up, she was going to puke, but luckily she didn't. Luckily only gagging noises were heard from her as Jack softly patted Lili on her back. Surprisingly the man didn't seem affected by the smell at all. Damn he must have had one rough childhood.

Feeling curious and inspired by Jack, Lili held strong and then headed inside with Jack right behind her.

And there in the main hall they found one dead hanging man who was already rotting and smelled absolutely awful. And upstairs was a woman laying in bed completely dead with a shiny key within her cold dead hands.

Originally Lili had come here in hopes of brokering a deal with the owners to buy the Inn, but now it seemed that such a thing was no longer needed here. With the owners dead and no relatives in sight the building then fell into the hands of its original owners, which was the royal family.

With this in mind Lili had ordered Jack to go alert the city guards of what they had discovered here, and so an investigation began leaving Lili with nothing more to do here.

Before leaving though, she had tried to look for the underground entrance in the cellar that Mother had talked about, but nothing except some dirt on the floor could be found there. Wherever the entrance might have been hidden, it seemed that her mother had most likely already hidden it well. Maybe with a bit more searching she could have actually found the entrance, but her little tummy and mind just couldn't take staying in the Inn no more. The place just smelled so awful and with the rats and mice running around it just further added to the disgusting horror of it all.

Sure she had seen some shit in her time as a police officer in the past, but here her little mind and tummy just couldn't take the sight of such things no more and so Lili decided to return to the castle.

Honestly Lili didn't really feel like setting up her first business in that place no more. But then again she figured that leaving such a sizable place vacant would just be a waste, plus in a way she could honour the memory of the Bolton family by making their former Inn into the cities best inn. And also there was the thing that there was the secret entrance to the hideout there.

Later on once the authorities have done their thing and the Inn was cleaned, she would then need to do her own inspection of the place and see it made ready for use again. But all that was something that would be left for the far future. For now with the day coming to a close, Lili decided to finish up making her daily light stones and go visit the secret hideout for the first time in a decently long while.

With her long blonde hair tied up into cutesy twin tails, ninja like black tight black clothes on with Arts cloak on top Lili was ready. Grabbing the sack of light stones off the floor, Lili with some effort lifted it over her shoulder like Santa clause with a bag of gifts and then headed out the door.

With but a twist of the door handle Lili opened and pushed open the door, which was more of a relief to her than what she would have ever imagined it to be. Truly freedom was nice, especially being able to open once own door freely was really nice.

But as she stepped out the door she was suddenly met with the sight of Chad standing guard right next to her door. Seemingly surprised as well at the sight of her Chad said. "Miss Lili, what are you doing dressed like that? You aren't planning on going into town at this time of day? I mean, I'm sorry Miss, but by the orders of the Queen I cant let you go out into town so late. For your own safety."

To Lili this was quite new, she hadn't heard of such a rule. Although it did sound somewhat reasonable, but quite unnecessary since she was no normal girl. She wouldn't be stupid enough to let someone rob her in the dead of night. But more importantly she was quite surprised to see Chad here and so she asked. "Chad what are you doing here? Isn't it still Jack that should be keeping a watch over me?"

Hearing this Chad looked around and then quietly said. "Well that's just what I was wondering about myself. Just earlier I saw Jack and his father both carrying a load of what looked like blankets and pillows into the garden. Because of that I began to wonder who exactly was then watching over you and so I came to look and found one of the royal guards guarding here. Apparently Jack had said that he was going for a bathroom break, but that was already over two hours ago. And so I told the guard that he could go and I could take over, but I still haven't seen Jack anywhere and Sir Reginald over there guarding at the Queen's door is looking quite suspiciously upon me already. If this goes on I fear that he might file a complaint about Jack neglecting his duties, which is not good."

Hearing this Lili couldn't help, but wonder had her asking Jack to help out with her mother possibly endangered Jack's job as a knight or something now?

Suddenly a feeling of guilt and concern came over her. Thinking quickly of a response Lili placed a finger on her lips, showing Chad to be quiet as she then pulled on his sleeve and said. "Follow me."

Walking past Chad, Lili was immediately assaulted by a slight feeling of danger. Down the hall she could see the scary looking man who was apparently called Sir Reginald staring daggers at her. This man was one of the Queens personal guards, but unlike Sir John Bell, this dude was like super scary and seemed hostile towards her for some reason.

Though Lili didn't want to admit it, she did feel quite intimidated by the man. She couldn't even look him in the eye and just stared down at the floor as she quickly ran to the stairs and down them with haste.

With Chad in tow Lili went into the gardens and after a moment of looking around she found a nice looking stone bench that was hidden quite well with many trees and large bushes around it.

Chad looking confusedly at Lili just stood behind her as she scanned the surroundings for anyone. Then once the coast was cleared and there was nobody to be seen anywhere she turned to Chad and nervously fidgeted as she said. "Umm, Chad? Could you, could you sit down for me?"

Chad seemed to hesitate, but nodded his head nonetheless as he said. "Yeah, sure." As he then sat down on the bench and looked down at Lili, she just couldn't help but notice that she barely even came to his chest level even as he sat there. Damn this dude was big.

Checking her surroundings once more Lili then turned to Chad and once more nervously said. "Ummmm, please don't freak out Chad. Just try to trust me, ok. I'll make it quick." Getting in close, right In front of Chad. Lili looked downwards at his big legs and placed her dainty little hands on his knees.

Chad flinched at the touch and then without warning pushed Lili as he yelled. "No miss, stop it! We can't!"

Lili yelled. "Ahhhhh!" As she was pushed hard and flew to the grassy ground.

For a moment Lili lay there in shock. She couldn't understand why Chad had suddenly pushed her, but more than anything she was in shock at just how strong Chad was. The man hadn't even seemed to try that hard and still he had managed to send her flying for a meter or so to the ground.

Memories of her past fight with Art and her feeble struggles against the Kane brothers flashed in her mind. She could still recall just how weak she had been in comparison to them. And here even after years of training and some growing, she still seemed so weak and insignificant in front of this man. Sure she knew herself to be weak, but only now did she truly feel like she understood just how weak she really was.

A hint of fear flashed through Lilis body and a thought came to her mind. Damn men are scary, but then she heard Chad speak. "I'm sorry Miss Lili, I shouldn't have given you those kisses on the cheeks before. I see now that it has made you think more of me than what you should, but please don't. For I never meant it to be anything serious and besides now I know that you are already taken, so it just cannot work between us. Please just forget about me and forget what I have done to you, as hard as it must be to do, I beg of you to just do it."

Now feeling just confused herself, Lili didn't know what this man was speaking of no more. Did she do something wrong or give off the wrong impression or something?

Not sure of what it was that she had exactly done wrong here Lili just said what was on her mind. "No Chad, stop it. Just stop rambling and listen to me. There is something that I feel that I need to confess to you, ok."

Pushing herself back up to her knees, Lili looked up into Chad's eyes and seriously asked. "Chad your my Knight, right?"

Nodding his head Chad Simply said. "Yes of course, by the orders of the Queen I am to protect you with my life if need be."

Feeling satisfied by the answer Lili then continued. "Then do you swear not to do any harm towards me and to not do anything that could possibly in danger me? And do you also swear to keep the words said between us a secret from all others and not to tell anyone of what I'm going to show you?"

Now looking really confused and concerned, Chad hesitated, but still said. "Yes, of course. Of course I'll protect you Miss Lili. Only if your actions were to endanger the royal family would I then have to step in, but otherwise I'll always be on your side."

Biting her lip, Lili looked away and went silent for a moment, but then turned back to wards Chad and honestly spilled out that what she had been hiding. "Chad, what I'm about to tell you is really big, so please don't tell anyone about it. You see, I asked Jack to bring whatever supplies my mother asked of him to her. Because you see my mother lives in the garden well that is connected to the sewers and I can do magic. But you see it's not bad magic, it's actually just healing magic. And because of that magic or whatever, Jack and his father think that I'm something special or something and just wanted to help me out. So please don't make any complaints about them or blame them for going behind the royal families backs or something, ok. It's not their fault, but mine."

After saying this Chads eyes went wide, mouth fell open, he took a careful step back and said. "Wait what? Your a witch?"

Just then a hint of danger came upon her and she could see Jack hesitantly move his hand to his sword.

Oh shit, was all that Lili thought as panic struck her. She quickly jumped forward yelling. "No Chad, let me explain."

Lili fell in front of Chads feet, grabbed a hold of his left leg and heard Chad pulling out his sword as he yelled in panic. "AHH, Unhand me which or I'll run my blade through your spine!"

Lili didn't listen and simply spewed forth her magic into Chad, who luckily wasn't hating her yet and so she was able to spew her magic within him. Doing this Lili immediately realised that there was hardly anything wrong with the man's body and so she needed to try really hard to make a significant difference to hopefully prove that her power wasn't anything bad. She wanted to show him that her power was only a force for good. Plus him being her personal guard now made it really important that she could bring him to her side.

Keeping her eyes closed Lili just focused on her magic and anxiously waited for something bad to happen, but nothing came.

A few moments passed and as Lili opened her eyes and looked up at Chad she could see that the young man wasn't moving. Although his sword was still within his hands which caused Lili to flinch in fear and roll away creating some distance between them.

To her relief Chad didn't chase her and as she turned around the man was merely looking at her as he then asked. "What are you?"

Hearing this Lili just stood up straight, flashed a bright reassuring smile and said. "I'm Lili, a girl with the power of the holy healing light within myself. And no I'm no witch or something ok. I don't do curses or turn people into toads or something like that. I simply just have the power to heal those who don't hate me and or those who wish to be healed."

Suddenly Chad dropped his sword and then fell to his knees and bowed to her as he cried out. "I'm sorry. Please forgive me for my insolence. I, I I didn't know that you were an angel of the lord. I thought, I I I. I'm sorry, please punish me for my sins."

Lili couldn't believe it, once more she had someone acting before her as if she were some kind of an holy being or an angel, or whatever. Was healing magic truly that rare in this world, she couldn't believe it until she actually saw it? Or well, then again if she couldn't see it being done anywhere then didn't that just prove that it was really rare?

And so once more kind of like with the old man John Bell, Lili tried to explain herself. But just like before with Sir John, Chad didn't listen to her. He just didn't seem to be convinced by her trying to explain that she was just a normal girl with some healing magic and that was all.

Not wanting to waste her entire night trying to convince Chad otherwise and with her mother waiting for her Lili then just decided to leave this matter be. If these people wanted to think of her as something more than just some girl with magic then so be it, she believed in democracy and so she believed that everyone was entitled to whatever opinion they wished to have, as long as that opinion didn't involve harming someone else physically.

Grabbing her sack of stones off the ground she then told Chad to follow her to the well. But as she started walking, Chad suddenly grabbed Lilis sack of stones with one hand as if it weighed nothing to him and then said. "Please let me carry it for you, Miss."

While kind, this action of Chads was kind of humiliating for her. The man probably didn't mean anything bad by it, but what he was essentially saying was that she was weak. Which she sadly had to admit and so Lili submitted to his request and gave him the sack of stones.

Despite this Lili felt quite happy knowing that she had one more trustworthy person on her side. And not only that, but Chad was also quite a strong and handsome man which Lili for some reason found really pleasing, especially the handsome part.

Most of all the man's handsomeness was even more visible and clearer now after her magic. The man truly looked like a blonde, blue eyed Chad.

Skipping through the garden paths happily with Chad behind her Lili felt happy as she went along. Then as they came to the well she stopped and saw Jack and his father John hauling things into the well together.

Seeing this Lili felt a bit disappointed. Sure John was to be trusted, but she hadn't given Jack permission to tell him about the well.

Huffing in disappointment Lili then walked over to the two who seemed surprised to see Chad there as well, but Lili didn't care, She just looked to Jack and questioned him on why he had told his father of the well.

To this Jack had nervously explained that he supposedly had run mostly out of his savings. Because of this he had turned to borrowing money from his father who had quickly managed to figure out what had been going on.

Apparently Accalia had been not only asking for one or two different things, but like a shit ton of things. So many things that the young knight had totally ran out of his years of savings as he hadn't questioned Accalia at all and loyally just gotten whatever she had asked for.

While it was a heart warming story of loyalty, of a knight doing that what was asked of him by her, Lili couldn't quite believe how much this dude was simping towards her right now. The man was truly invested in fulfilling her order, which was to get her mother whatever it was that she asked for.

Shaking her head in slight disappointment, Lili then explained Chad being here to the two others and then told them all of her plan to go into the underground to meet her mother.

But as she said this Jack all of a sudden stepped forward and excitedly said. "Miss Lili, please let me come with you. Please just let me gaze upon your mother at least once, or well, what I mean is. Mmm, well I'd like to see what your mother has done with all that I have given her, mmm, yes that's it, thats what I meant to say."

Hearing this the two others quickly joined in as well and expressed their interest in meeting Lilis mother and the underground as well. Feeling conflicted by this Lili didn't know what to do.

Would it be alright to show them the undergroun? Thinking of this, Lili figured that she had already trusted them with her powers, plus they already knew of her mom being within the underground.

Letting out a deep sigh, Lili said. "Fine, whatever. You can all come with me, but once more you are not to speak of this to anyone else. And please don't judge my mother for what she is, I will not accept any discrimination towards her."

And with that said and them agreeing to her terms, Lili climbed into the well where she could already see her mother's glowing red eyes looking brightly upon her figure.