章節 61: Information
William made his way to his personal bed-chamber after he had his meal with the rest of the Blackwells; after hearing about this new task, he decided to spend the afternoon in the castle reading while he waited for the information regarding his destination to be sent to him.
A few hours later, a servant arrived and delivered some parchment papers; William put the book that he was reading on his desk, took them, thanked the servant, and sent him on his way.
Upon inspecting the parchment papers in front of him, he noticed that there was not much written on them, which was a bit strange.
'Was this deliberate or is this just the result of the poor communication and information gathering methods and habits of noble society manifesting itself in front of me.' William wondered.
It took him no more than thirty minutes to read all the content of the parchment multiple times just to make sure he missed nothing.
From what little he got, two viscounts in count Obarth's territory are having a dispute over a forested area at their shared borders; apparently, their predecessors agreed to jointly exploit it for its known medicinal herbs but one of them is now trying to clear the section of the forest on his land to turn it into farmlands.
"Now why would he risk conflict with his neighbor, no doubt induce a headache for the Count and endanger a profitable deal just to make way for more farmlands?" William wondered, something was obviously missing, and he did not like the fact that he would be going in without knowing it.
This was not going to discourage him though, so he headed for the library to brush up on the local geography just to get himself a clearer picture. He decided to spend the rest of the day doing the research on his end.
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The lord's study chamber, Castle of Landow.
The marquis was busy taking a look at some highly important information he had received not long ago, when the head butler of the Blackwells Alfred, entered the room and greeted.
"My lord!"
Lord Ulric, and without looking away for the letter he was reading, mentioned for Alfred to come in.
The head butler did as his lord willed and came inside, headed to the office of his lord, and waited silently for him to finish his reading.
A few minutes later, lord Ulric placed the letter down and said.
"Go ahead Alfrid, what is the matter?"
"My lord, what you commanded has been done, the information has been sent to your offsprings."
"Ah yes, the information, what was their reaction so far?" The marquis questioned.
"Your eldest seemed to have left the castle grounds soon after receiving the information, to where precisely I have no knowledge, your youngest, on the other hand, appears to have taken a liking to the library, seeing as he had headed there soon after he received the information pertaining to his mission."
"Looking for as much information as possible is a very important step before taking action." The marquis nodded, and though his expression had not changed much, inside, he was satisfied with William's course of action.
"My lord if I may, is this the wisest course of action to take?" Alfred asked.
Hearing this, the marquis replied with his own question.
"What do you mean?"
"It would not take long for the both of them to realize that this is a test that may lead to a change in the succession order of the house, and should William prove himself worthier than Marek, there is a high chance that it will lead to a conflict between them."
Lord Ulric smiled slightly at this statement; indeed, Alfred's worries were not entirely unfounded.
"Maybe, but nonetheless I must give the position of successor to the worthiest of the two, this is my responsibility towards the house and the people. On top of this, this "test" is merely one among what will probably be many more to come. The process of selecting a possible new heir is going to be a long one Alfred."
After this statement, the marquis took the letter he had been reading not long ago and slightly waved it towards the house's head butler as he said.
"Onto an equally troubling subject, I just received some very interesting and troubling news."
At this, Alfred simply waited for his lord to continue in silence.
"One of our men in the dark had been able to track the so-called 'Night' all the way home."
"And where might this "home" be my Lord?" Alfred asked.
"A village near Solaris." Lord Ulric answered with a slight frown on his face.
"This is indeed troubling news my Lord, it will be hard to investigate further so close the southern duke's seat of power." Alfred remarked.
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Business district, Landow.
Rose was walking around in the bustling marketplace and heading towards the baker she so often purchases her bread from.
As she turned around a corner, a random stranger abruptly bumped into her. At the moment of contact, he whispered.
"The young lord wishes to meet you, the usual place in an hour."
The stranger asked after he apologized and drew away from her.
"I am so sorry young miss, are you okay?"
"Ehh.. yes yes I am fine young man." It took her a few moments to process what had happened, by the time she understood he had already excused himself after one final topology and was on his merry way.
An hour later Rose had arrived at a very respectable inn; the Green Gate Inn was especially known for its great food, and at certain peak hours required a reservation to have been made to gain access to a table.
At the entrance, she was met with a servant who politely asked if she had a reservation; yet after stating her name she was quickly escorted to a private dining area at which she was greeted by Marek.
"Hello Rose, please sit down. I hope that did not pull you away from something important."
She smiled as she sat down across from him. "Hello Marek, no you did not pull me from anything of importance, though I did find it strange that you called me here all of a student, you missed me so soon?"
"Yes, I did, though that is not entirely the reason as to why I sent someone to call for you."
"Oh, then what is it? You have all my attention." Rose said with a playful smile.
He sighed deeply before he spoke.
"I will be leaving Landow for some time."
At this sudden news, Rose's smile disappeared and was replaced with a frown.
"So soon? Is it something dangerous?" She asked.
"No, nothing really dangerous, just something I have to do for my father that will take me away from Landow for a while."
Hearing that it's not dangerous, Rose's frown lessened somewhat, though this spurred her to ask another two questions.
"When will you leave and for how long?"
"Soon, in a day or two probably, as for the how long I will be away, I don't know for sure, it could be a week or fifteen days."
"That long?"
"Yes I am afraid so, I had barely just come back from hunting bandits and now I must leave you once more." He said a bit apologetically.
The room turned quiet for a few moments, and just as things were about to get awkward, Rose smiled and said.
"Then we better make the best of this day or two right?"
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