章 17: Early morning problems

Later in the evening, Cassius had one of the family custodians bring him a meal, and Cassius relayed instructions to prepare a sumptuous breakfast for Cassius and his men for the late morning after their PT.

He then spent the rest of the night refining his design, and when he was finally satisfied with it, he decided on a light starting exercise for the morning.

'Still' He thought to himself, 'None of the people I interacted with today appeared to have been surprised to see me, with the exclusion of Jacobs… but that was more genuine surprise than it was an 'oh fuck he's alive'.

What a busy first day he thought as he drifted off to sleep, careful to lock his door to prevent any more 'late night visitors'.

Around 5:00 AM sharp, Cassius awoke like clockwork and quickly donned his 'training clothing' that he had eyed from the morning before. Attaching the large dagger to his hip, and securing his training sword to the opposite side he made his way to his door.

'What a shame I still haven't located a mirror' he thought, before facepalming and despondently thinking 'I could have used water or any reflective surface yesterday'

He had figured out his hair was a bright red when some of his hair had gotten in his way, but little else about his features. Touching his face just told him he had a decent amount of baby fat on him, and searching through his memories was for nought.

Shaking his head he slowly left his room, realising nobody was to be seen except for some noises in the distance and the sound of clinking armour. 'They're a little late.' He would have to let it slide though, he understood there were likely no mechanical clocks in present on this backwards planet.

After another 5 minutes of waiting, Horace and Carmen came sprinting around the corner as if the devil was chasing them, fully equipped in all their gear with a very concerned guard chasing them.

Almost sliding into position in front of Cassius, the two men came to attention at the same time fists clenched at their sides in their best military attention. The guard eventually caught up and was surprised to see Cassius awake, and Cassius inturn was surprised to see the young guard from the night before. 'This might make for a fun game later' he thought, he planned on training up a few scouts for his unit anyway, might as well use use Mr. Oblivious as practice.

"Good morning.. Lord Cassius…" The out-of-breath guard was quick to greet him, realising the two younger men weren't lying about having to report to him.

"Good morning Ser…?"

"No Ser, My Lord, just Alec." The guard appeared to be in his early 20's, and sported a new helmet that he hadn't worn the day before.

"What can I help you with then Alec?" Cassius gave the guard a quizzical look, realising what had probably occurred. Two armed men charging into the keep was probably not a good look.

Alec, a little uncomfortable with having to speak directly to nobility, squirmed and gestured to his two reporting, insanely scared shitless men who had just broken multiple rules to get this deep into the castle.

"Could you kindly remind your men to follow proper procedure and not insist on running through the Kitchen hall? They had nearly ran over the Margrave on their way here this morning!"

Cassius's eyebrows shot up in surprise, and shot a look over at the two very, very frightened men. Audacity must have been having a sale recently for these two to have possessed the stones to almost run over his father in their haste.

Neither of them could be blamed however, they wanted to make a good impression and had never met or rather seen the Margrave in person.

Cassius chuckled a little, visualising how surprised his father must have been trying to get breakfast with his people, and instead having a stampede of soldiers rushing past him.

"I'll be careful to remind my men in the future Alec, thank you for the warning."

Alec nodded to the Lord, unsure of whether or not he truly cared but was sure he at least performed what was required of his duty before departing with a nod.

Turning back to Horace and Carmen, he gave the two a wry smile. "Please, for the love of god, do not run over my father in the future."

The two remained mute, but nodded solemnly at his words. The group continued to wait in silence while Cassius was becoming increasingly annoyed with the other group's tardiness.

Finally, he had to ask. "Have you seen the others?" When has he, in his 30 odd years of service, ever been stood up like this?

"Yes, M'Lord, they were sitting in the meal hall seemingly enjoying their breakfast." Replied Carmen in a display of observation

Cassius's brow slowly furrowed into a deep frown, as his ocean blue eyes darkened.

"Say that again?"

"They appeared to be tightly packed around Kel, who seemed to be in a heated argument with the men, I only just noticed them when we entered, M'Lord"

Cassius sighed, he had really wanted to just straighten these men out and correct their deviant behaviour without causing physical harm. But the worst case scenario had occurred, he was going to have to remind these men of his position one way or another.

Unfortunately that talk would proceed in a very different way than Cassius had anticipated, as moments later, a very angry Jacobs stormed down the hallway. It was obvious that whatever had happened in the past dozen or so minutes had been enough to infuriate the man.

Cassius noticed that although Jacobs had been intimidating before, what with his large frame, and intense stare, that he now appeared downright terrifying. His face a mask of fury, his facial features beheld barely restrained anger.

Cassius's already furrowed brow sank further, "What appears to be the problem, Captain?" He asked, mentally bracing for the obvious bad news.

The corridor felt like it had begun to shrink under the force of his anger, and his voice, when he finally spoke, was low and dangerous, carrying an edge that cut through the air like a blade.

His voice crackled with frustration. "The men from yesterday will be waiting for you in the courtyard, one of them has seen fit to disgrace himself once again, Lord Cassius."

Confused and alarmed, Cassius demanded clarification. "What? Explain in detail, Jacobs."

Jacobs took a breath and recounted the events that had unfolded. He explained that the Margrave, Jacobs, and the Castellian of the Castle Guard had just entered the kitchen hall. They first narrowly avoided colliding with a very rushed Horace and Carmen, the pair apologetic as they rushed past the season trio he recounted.

Following which, the group, though slightly vexed by the ruckus caused by the youths, were otherwise in good spirits about the enthusiasm displayed—until Jacobs spotted the group from before.

The men were visibly panicked, and were surrounding one man, Kel who had decided to, for some terrible reason, throw Cassius's threats to the wind and had become heavily intoxicated the night before, and continued on throughout the night.

Jacobs stated that through his observation, he could tell the group of men were completely at their wits end with Kel had begun to grow increasingly confrontational with the group. Eventually resulting in him starting to hurl great insults at the group and blamed the world for his present state.

"I then proceeded to investigate it personally, the four men noticed me and quickly snapped to attention and reported the matter of Kels drunkenness."

Jacobs could obviously tell, the man had made no efforts to hide the fact and smelt of a brewery, even from across the table they stood behind, he could tell.

"Kel, in what I can only describe to have been madness lashed out at the men for ignoring him and his barbs, the four of them were easily able to restrain the man."

After Jacobs finished the retelling, Cassius was shocked and grappled with the unexpected turn of events, he knew he had to act decisively.

"Your father witnessed the entire event, and had the group escorted outside to await your judgement." Jacobs said, his anger dissipating quickly. "He trusts you'll judge them fairly."