Bab 37: expected ambush
"Welcome your Highness"
An elderly Butler opened the door to the Aindra family abode and greeted the princess with a bow, whilst gesturing for her and Entourage to enter.
Entering the home of the Aindra family both Arthur and Renner were greeted by quite the lavish and luxurious living room, the wall hung beautifully art pieces that drew the eyes of any guest, the furniture was luxurious as well, with the table having been made of a crystalline glass like structure and having a simplistic vase on top of it.
Having entered the room, Renner was greeted by the Patriarch and his wife, as they both stood and offered greetings with a bow.
Azmith was a lanky yet tall man who stood at a tall height, his eyes a shade of green and hair was short barely going past his ear and blonde, both green and blonde hair were traits his daughter inherited from him. His face was clean shaven without a beard or moustache. His wife, on the other hand, was a beautiful maiden with dirty blonde hair and clear blue eyes. She was plumb and buxom with ample breasts and equally ample behind.
Arthur could easily tell that Lakyus's father certainly had a type, and he didn't disagree with it.
"welcome to our humble home, you're highness"
Azmith spoke, with his wife offering a silent curtsy. Common noble etiquette is that the wife does not greet the guests if the husband is available.
"it is my Pleasure Viscount. Your home is quite impressive"
Renner complimented as the butler led her to her seat, Renner was the first to sit, and the host sat right after her, however Arthur remained standing behind the couch, which oddly bothered Renner for some reason.
"Sebastián, please bring us some tea, which do you like, your Majesty?"
Zenith, the wife asked the princess, another moment of common noble etiquette, the wife is to always be the one who provides the guests with refreshments or at the very least be the one to mention them before any discussions take place.
"any type is fine, but although I have hardly had black tea in a while, so perhaps I'll try it"
With that said, the butler bowed and exited the room to prepare the tea.
"I must say Princess hearing the news that you wish to meet with me was something I had expected Quite a while ago"
"Is that so?"
"Indeed my lady, ever since the rumors of our involvement with each other began, I take it that such rumors began because of your acquaintance with my daughter?"
Thus began the small talk, Arthur suppressed the urge to roll his eyes at such a tedious thing. Nobles never get straight to the point and must always meander around the conversation, but It was fine after all, After this meeting, things will be interesting again.
"indeed, I thought it best to let their imaginations continue to concoct whatever it is they want plus such rumour made it easy for this meeting to happen, so I thank you for not dispelling them once you heard about them"
"Of course your Majesty, but I myself have goals I wish to achieve as well, but before we get into that, is the man behind you, sir Arthur Pendragon. The swordless swordsman?"
"indeed, I see his reputation is not lost on you Viscount"
Renner replied, feeling an odd amount of pride, but of course, she made sure not to show it on her face.
"of course, he's fame stretches throughout the kingdom, I heard he slayed an undead dragon in E-Rantel and got rid of the giant Basilisk, both terrifying creatures that only high ranking adventurers can handle"
Azmith continued with a glint of excitement in his eyes. The Viscount was the type of man who respected warriors like Gazeff Stronoff as such people like Arthur with great accomplishments always sparked his interests
"I would not know anything about such things, so perhaps speak to him about it"
Renner moved the conversation to Arthur, and The Viscount turned his head towards the knight, with curiosity.
"So Sir Arthur, how was facing a beast with a petrifying gaze and deadly poison?"
"the beast was hardly a challenge, once you know it's blind spot you can easily defeat it, although I'd say the poison is still deadly even after it's slane but overall it was not a challenge"
"of course, of course, although still new you are radiate the aura of a distinguished knight, it's men like you that this kingdom needs"
Azmith concluded and Arthur could not help but feel a bit proud of himself, getting glazed was never a bad thing however at the same time he did not have a response to the Viscount's statement but luckily the butler Sebastián came into the room with some maids who began setting the table for tea.
"the tea is ready, my lords and ladies"
He announced as the maids began to pour the tea for everyone and handed it to each individual, including Arthur, who didn't really like black tea but whatever.
"If there's anything else, please do not hesitate to call for, I'll be excused."
The butler announced before he exited the room with the maids, leaving everyone to their discussions.
"Your Highness, excuse my boldness, but what brings you to my humble abode today?"
the Viscount asked, deciding to get to the meat and potatoes of this meeting. Renner took a sip of her black tea before realising it did not have enough sugar and proceeded to put three sugar cubes in the tea, stirred, and sipped again before answering his questions.
"As you know, both my brothers have the backing Marquis Bulloupe and Marquis Raeven"
Azmith gave her a nod, he understood what she was getting at, which meant he could possibly gain something from this as well.
Barbro is the crown prince meaning that the throne is practically his, if he was an only child there would be no doubt about that however, There's Zanac, who is also eligible for the throne, When there's two princes a succession war is an obvious occurrence, the birthright of inheriting the crown becomes a contest and the one who has the most backing is usually the winner or rather the side with The most influence and manages to convince the king is the winner.
The point is to convince the king that the prince(whichever one) has trustworthy retainers that will guide him to be a good king, and unfortunately, both Zanac and Barbro were at a stalemate.
"as such, I wish to have your support so that I may be able to stake my claim at the throne as well"
This would have been quite the shock if Azmith hadn't already seen it coming, there has never been a woman as a ruler before and unlike the Prince, a princess is only ever used as a political tool to strengthen the relationship between the Royal family and a noble family of influence, for a princess to want the throne is unheard of. Azmith's wife beside him could not help but feel like this was a huge deal, but her husband wasn't reacting to it, so she maintained her composure as well.
"within the noble court there's two factions that dominate, the noble faction and the Royal faction both hold significant sway in the decision making and policy making, however there's also nobles like me, who don't fall in neither and are essentially neutral, we're few in numbers but we exist, because of the two dominant factions there's a lot of rampant corruption, a significant amount of nobles partake in criminal activities and that is unacceptable"
"I suppose it is, isn't it?"
Renner agreed, already seeing where the Viscount was going with his statement.
"I will offer my support and will recruit others who are unaffiliated with any faction under the condition that you place me in charge of the court of law."
Azmith stated with a firm look in his eyes, he didn't use to be unaffiliated with the faction and in fact was part of the Royal faction however he became disillusioned with that when saw that it wasn't only the Nobles faction that partook in illegal activities but a large majority of the noble court.
"the reason the kingdom is suffering so much is because of the rampant corruption in the noble court, the nobles like to think The kingdom is on par with both the Slane Theocracy and the the empire but in reality we are far behind both in development and in fire power and we'll never achieve both if we allow such corruption to continue any longer. So with that in mind, your highness, please allow me to be in charge of the Re-estize court of law"
The man took a bow as he seemingly begged the princess and both Renner and Arthur could see where Lakyus got her sense of morality from, although Azmith's admiration of Arthur convinced him that Lakyus's chunni behaviour is somewhat inherited from her father.
"very well, as the princess right now, I cannot do much but secure me the throne and your dream is guaranteed, coincidentally me and Your daughter as well as Arthur here, have been trying to root out and destroy Eight fingers, knowing that our objectives align is very promising"
She said as much before both she and Azmith stood up and shook hands.
"Indeed, Your Highness, I look forward to working with you"
With a firm hand shake and a bow, Azmith concluded before turning to look at Arthur.
"it was a pleasure meeting you, Sir Arthur, I hope to hear more of your adventurers in the near future"
Arthur gave him nod and a smile as he followed Renner toward the door and exiting the house, leaving the hosts feeling two different emotions, the wife was feeling shock over the fact the princess wanted to participate in the succession war, with slight disappointment that she won't be able to gossip about it and the Husband had a huge grin on his face, feeling more than a little happy over what he talked about with the princess.
"Darling, let's celebrate!"
He announced before suddenly picking up his thick wife by the waist and lifting her up, his lanky build was very misleading. Although If Azmith had a single disappointment, it would be the fact he did not see his daughter with the princess. He feels there was a misunderstanding with her that needs to be fixed.
.....
"Why did you not sit next to me in that meeting?"
Renner curiously asked Arthur after having entered the carriage, closing the door, the two sat parallel to each other, with Arthur facing towards her.
The carriage moved. There were little guards around the carriage despite it belonging to the princess, and there was only the coachman and Arthur. Of course, with Arthur there was little danger to the Princess's life.
"What do you mean?"
"I believe my question is clear"
Arthur felt some hostility from her, something that confused him a bit, where did it suddenly come from.
"I thought a knight was not supposed to sit while his lady is seated? Isn't that common etiquette?"
"I suppose it is, forgive my sudden outburst"
She said, deciding to let it go, it seemed that his closeness with Lakyus the other day had bothered her more than she was willing to give it credit.
"Do you want me to sit next to you next time?"
He asked and Renner remained silent for a bit, the answer is yes, she wants to foster a deep relationship with him so that he is emotionally dependent on her but at the same time she can't force that so answering yes would be forcing it but answering no would be pushing him away and he might get closer to Lakyus.
"I would say yes, but if you feel it is unnecessary, then I will not question you"
She answered, Renner could not help but feel like she was suddenly the one who wanted his attention rather than the other way around.
"would you like me to sit next to you right now?"
Arthur pushed his advantage, it seemed his relationship with Renner was progressing well, which was a good thing, although he wondered what he did wrong to garner her hostility from earlier.
"ah–"
Before she could answer the question, the carriage suddenly stopped, and they both heard the scream of the coachman, signaling to them there was a problem.
"how inopportune, but it looks like you were right"
*BAM!*
Arthur kicked the carriage door open and launched the individual who was preparing to open it forcefully. The sight that greeted him was an empty street with three individuals standing waiting for him, well two individuals, one was sprawled on the ground with the carriage door on his chest, there was a look of shock as soon as they saw him, he was definitely not who they were expecting to see.
"I believe you were expecting someone else? Well, tough tities, you got me instead"
...
A/N: Apologies, Yall, I planned to upload on Thursday but I got lazy and I was watching peak,Dungeon meshing so sorry for that.
Also, hopefully, the relationship with Renner and Arthur isn't too fast and feels believable enough.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone