ROTLE- Chapter 43- A Dedicated Nanny (Patreon)

Pain was always an old friend. It was an old friend but never one of the good ones. A friend that grew on you even when you knew they shouldn’t. They were never there from the beginning, merely popping up out of nowhere without warning like pimples on a new teenager. Then they stayed, refusing to go until you made your peace with accepting them.

Pain was a terrible friend. But a friend, regardless.

The room was a little colder than most. Its walls lined with some decorative art crafted by some artisan either too eager to abuse their creative control or old enough to revel in it but still new enough to not have learnt control were a deep brown. The artistic design was more a culmination of drakes and fire and strangely wild plants that looked like monster ginseng if it had aged poorly.

On one side of the room was a reading desk, complete with a half-unrolled parchment, a quill, and some dramatic ink that could be just as red as it was black. Its ability to maintain both colors while shifting seamlessly between them at the same time was due to a special ingredient. Drake’s blood.

The entire floor of the room was covered in a carpet that was as green as the forest. Sometimes, if you looked down at it as you walked and just let your mind wander a little—eliminating the distractions of reality—you could believe you were in the forest. With its countless blades that poked up like grass and got between your toes and its brown undertone that you had to strain just a little to see, it would be easy to get lost in it.

But only as easily as your imagination could run wild.

There was a cupboard to the east of the room, right next to a window that never opened. It was brown and simple. Its artistry contrasted so much with the room that it looked like it had been stolen at the last second from a servant’s room. Either that or the carpenter had a personally petty disposition with the entire room. The crafter had most likely been a new carpenter or at least not a [Carpenter].

As for the actual artwork, or at least what people called artwork, a painting of a man ardorned the wall. It was odd as it wasn’t a framed picture but one painted directly onto the wall. An old man in a royal military garb. It was a sharp mix of green and brown with gold buttons that held the shirt together all the way to the man’s neck. The official colors of the Naranoff household.

The man’s deep brown eyes were the first thing Aiden saw when he woke up since the painting was right in front of the bed.

He frowned at the sight but said nothing. Someone had propped his upper body up on a small hill of pillows so that he was almost at a seated position.

The brown eyes he saw stared at him as if he could look into his soul. Aiden knew the man, but only by his position. He had been a survivor of the raid against the dragon by the first king od Bandiv, one of the few first lords of the kingdom. Chances were that his brown eyes were not as mysterious and piercing as the picture made them out to be. It was, after all, the way with post humous paintings. The painters tended to take the little they had with original paintings and embezzled a little, allowed their creative abilities run rampant.

Still, while it was the first thing he saw, the first thing Aiden noticed was the slight ache in his nose and cheek.

“You’re awake.”

Aiden’s eyes moved in their socket, a slow glance to the side. He wasn’t necessarily weak. If he was to find a word to best describe how he was feeling, he would pick ‘lazy.’

To his side, he found Elaswit seated next to his bed and what he could only describe as a magnanimous chair. She had a strong look of relief on her face, her lip tipped up at the corner in an awkward smile and a warmth touched her eyes.

Aiden looked back at the picture of the first recognized Naranoff Lord. It was a terrible idea to have a picture of the man in a guest room, especially at the angle it was placed. Pictures like that should be in the living room or tucked somewhere in the corner.

“How long was I out?” he asked. His mouth tasted dry. Too dry.

Beside him, Elaswit gave a weak smile. “He said you’d likely ask that. Straight to the point. You’ve been out for three days.”

Three days.

Had he really overloaded his body that much? In all fairness, he couldn’t say he was surprised. After Gangnar, any more potions or enchantments had been a terrible idea. However, he had forced himself to use a few more just to navigate himself and the princess to relative safety.

It had gotten so bad that his weavings had started lasting less than a minute and their effects had dropped back down to what they had been when he’d used enchantments before having a class.

At least I learned that repeated weavings lose their effect quickly.

Three days. He’d likely already missed the spar between the two groups back at the palace, not that he’d intended on being a part of it. He’d just been hoping to get back in time to watch it. Considering the fact that they’d had to practice as a team for a few days, there wouldn’t have been a way for him to join without disrupting the teamwork of whatever group he would’ve joined.

The question now was if he would make it in time to join the expedition to the town of cannibals.

Again, his eyes moved over to Elaswit. She did not look like someone who’d been through what they’d been through.

“The Healers said you were full of far too many enchantments,” Elaswit said after a while. “They said they hadn’t seen anything like it. They said it was like the toxic effects of potions, just from enchantments. Is that how you’ve been coping with a domestic class?”

Aiden smiled sadly. “We do what we must, princess.”

He was a bit impressed that Brandis hadn’t told the princess about about his class. Now that he thought about it, maybe Brandis was treating his class as something of a kingdom’s secret. After all, if he was being honest, it was a very versatile class. Limited only to how many enchantments he knew and could use.

At this point Aiden was very much like a [Mage]. Just as a [Mage] was limited only by the number of spells they knew.

Maybe it was a good thing to keep himself a complete secret. He would have to find out just how many people currently knew of what he was capable of besides Ted, Brandis, the [Sage], Letto, Drax, Anita…

Aiden almost groaned at the number of names. Too many people already knew, which meant he could kiss the entire secrecy thing good bye.

Beside him Elaswit’s relief had become an uncomfortable frown. Aiden caught it out of the corner of his eye. Then he realized that he hadn’t moved any other part of his body except his eyes.

Making sure that laziness was the reason he hadn’t moved, he moved his hand. It came up easily and Elaswit watched it.

It was a little surprising how easily it moved when all his mind could remember about moving his body was pain. Even now that he was awake, there was just somewhere in the back of his mind that felt like everything he should do should be painful.

Aiden dropped his hand.

“You did good,” he said to her. “You did good.”

Elaswit gave him a weak smile. There was no pride in it.

A moment after, her eyes moved slightly, turned down and away. She refused to meet his gaze. A frow creased her lips. Her jaw tightened as she clenched her teeth. It was the certain look of someone who needed to say something they felt was important to say but was difficult to say.

It was the face of a person about to admit to something they were ashamed of.

“I’m sorry,” she said finally.

There wasn’t really very much for her to be sorry about if Aiden was being fair. Following him was the only thing she needed to apologize for. And in the end, she’d done a good job so it didn’t need an apology.

Still, the old squad leader who didn’t like being disobeyed tried to raise his head. Habit had gifted Aiden with a grand variety of admonishments in his lexicon to berate anyone properly. But Aiden was not that man. He reminded himself of this as he smothered the urge.

The question now, however, was what was a proper response? Did he tell her that she had nothing to apologize for? Did he accept her apology? Was this him having a conversation with a princess or him having a conversation with someone he’d gone on an adventure with?

She’s a princess, he decided. It was all she would be to him. To think of her as someone he’d gone on an adventure with would blur some line. It would mean that he acknowledged her as a companion of some kind.

Aiden shook his head slowly, staring straight at the picture. “You’ve nothing to apologize for, Princess.”

He caught her grimace.

She looked down at her hands. He couldn’t see it but Aiden had a feeling she was fidgeting. He waited, gave her time. It was the least he could do.

“I froze up,” she said.

Aiden nodded, knowing what she was talking about. “Everybody freezes up, princess.”

“I’m not everybody,” she muttered, almost to herself. “I’m the daughter of Brandis.”

Pride. Aiden thought. “Even princesses freeze up.”

Elaswit shook her head. “The daughter of Brandis does not.”

Aiden looked at her. This time he turned his head to do so. The daughter of Brandis does not.

Her pride was not in her title as a princess. It was in her bloodline. At least, it was in her father as a person and not a king.

He would be lying if he said he was not impressed.

It was good pride…

But it was still pride.

“Princess,” he said gently, drawing her attention, ignoring Valdan who he found standing at one corner, sword at his waist. Only when she raised her head to meet his eyes did he continued. “Everybody freezes up. Every. Body.”

“You didn’t.” Her voice was almost accusatory.

Because I’m ot everybody.

Aiden had almost asid the word. But he’d killed them before they’d left his mind. After all, he’d frozen up once upon a time, too. So many years ago.

“I watched you,” Elaswit continued. “From the moment we went in you were attentive. You missed nothing. You didn’t even when you almost died.”

“And you stepped in.”

“Because I was scared.” Elaswit shook her head vehemently. “I jumped in because I was afraid of what would happen if you died. I couldn’t have won on my own.”

“You would’ve found a way.”

He didn’t think she would’ve found a way. But that didn’t matter now.

“But you got up.” She looked him in the eye. “You got up and you went right back into it. All on your own. You were down, broken, a mess. But you still got back up without hesitation.”

Aiden knew where this was going. It wasn’t simply because she’d frozen. Elaswit would’ve handled this better if freezing up was the problem. She could’ve told herself something, be it significant or not. Her mind would’ve lied to itself or given her some form of assurance to help her sleep at night. It would’ve helped, because sometimes you had to lie to yourself to survive.

You could stand in the face of impossible odds and tell yourself that you could do it even when you knew that you could not. You tell yourself you’ve got it even when you know that you absolutely do not. You tell yourself that they would love you even though you know they would not.

People lied to themselves all the time. It often helped them survive a harsh world. It gave them a chance to move past what would’ve brought them down and become better.

But that was the problem with lying to yourself. You couldn’t do it if the truth was staring you right in the face. And Elaswit had watched him get up and get back into the fight. Something she had not done.

Aiden raised his hand, moved it through his hair. His normal response would be to give her a pat on the shoulder and tell her to push past it. But he didn’t think that would work right now.

“You got up,” Elaswit muttered, voice low.

After a thoughtful moment, Aiden pushed himself up, adjusted on the bed. He brought his legs down so that he sat on the edge of the bed, directly in front of Elaswit. He was still wearing the same tattered clothes he’d come out of the cave with. He had not been changed.

He didn’t know what could console Elaswit. In fact, he didn’t know how to console people. The Order not necessarily being about emotional support and therapy hadn’t taught him those skills. So he tapped into the little he remembered of his time on earth and gave it a try.

“Princess,” he said, picking his words carefully. “Do you want to know what happened? Do you want to know what really happened?”

Elaswit nodded.

“Then I’ll tell you,” he said.

“No lies,” she interrupted before he could continue.

Aiden looked at her, confused. “What?”

“I spoke to Sir Valdan, and he told me that we came out through the entrance.”

Aiden paused. “Oh.”

“There was no second entrance, was there?” she continued. “So other exit that comes with natural arrays.”

Aiden shook his head. “I’m sorry.”

Elaswit took a deep breath. “I understand what you were trying to do when you did it. I understand why you did it. But I do not appreciate it, Aiden. When you lie to someone, you belittle them. It is you telling them that you don’t think they have what it takes to handle the truth. It’s not a good thing.”

Aiden nodded. “For that,” he said. “I apologize.”

“Thank you.” She gave him a warm smile. It saddened a moment later. “About that truth.”

“The reason I moved was because of who I am,” Aiden said. “And the reason you froze was because of who you are.”

Elaswit’s face fell a little more at his words. Behind her, standing at the corner, Valdan covered his face with his hand and shook his head in disappointment.

Aiden’s brows furrowed. “I think I’m not explaining this properly.”

“Are you sure?” Elaswit asked with a raised brow. “It sounded like you were explaining it properly.”

“You make what I said sound like a bad thing but it’s not.” Aiden scrambled for how he could explain better. “What I’m trying to say is that I’m just one boy out of a group of fifteen. I’m expendable. If I go, no one will miss me. No one will mourn me. I’ve got nothing to lose, and no one will lose if I’m gone. But you, princess, you have a responsibility. If you hadn’t made it, your parents would mourn. Your brothers would mourn. The kingdom would mourn… Nella would mourn.”

“That’s—” she began, but Aiden cut her off.

“You don’t want to understand. You froze because you are a good person, princess. Because you care. You understood that your life was not only yours. It belonged to your family as well, to your friends. And that isn't something you just throw away. You didn’t step in to save me because you were scared. You did it because you were a good person. You risked your life because there was something to protect. It was the same reason you hesitated. Because there was something to protect; the happiness of those you know and love. In your moment of fear, you understood what your death would mean and it made you take a moment, it made you think twice.”

Elaswit frowned. Aiden could see her mind trying to make sense of it. Her shame from her action was doing its best to belittle her attempt. Shame was a powerful enemy. It left people unable to forgive themselves.

Aiden leaned forward, maybe a little too much, so that he was all that was in front of her. If she focused on his face, maybe it would distract her from her shame.

“Princess,” he said, and she met his eyes. “You did what the daughter of Brandis would do. I may not know your father very well, but I have had enough conversations with him to know that what you did was what his daughter would do.” He patted her on the shoulder. “Trust me.”

“Mother did say he spends an awful lot of time with you,” Elaswit said, finally cracking a smile.

Aiden had no idea where that was coming from. He’d probably spent three encounters with the king. One of them had almost cost him his life.

In all fairness, you were the one who requested that meeting.

Behind Elaswit, Valdan nodded in approval.

“He’s been here the entire time,” Elaswit said.

Aiden’s attention shifted back to her. “He has?”

She nodded. “I heard he carried you here by himself. Didn’t let anyone touch you. He put you in bed himself and has been standing guard ever since. He was like a dedicated nanny slash bodyguard.”

Aiden grinned, shooting Valdan an impish look. “Is that so?” he dragged the word out dramatically.

“At this point I’m beginning to think my father should be worried,” Elaswit said, still smiling. “You just might steal his knight from him.”

Aiden allowed himself a laugh at that. It was an interesting concept, and he would be lying if he said he hadn’t considered it. Valdan was trustworthy, strong, and from what Aiden had recently confirmed, the man could be trusted.

His conversation with Elaswit took on an easy note from there. Apparently, she had been unconscious for a single day. When she’d finally come awake, she had failed her unique quest. It was a sad thing, but at least she was alive.

From what Aiden learnt from her, she had failed it on default. Not because she had stayed away from it for too long or anything like that. It was because someone had cleared out the remaining gargoyles. It seemed that someone had gone into the cave and completed the kill count.

She grumbled about it and complained about how someone out there had stolen her unique skill and how she would have to find another place to get a unique quest. The levels and masteries being what they were, it was next to impossible to get a unique skill once you got a class. Unique skills were naturally born from successfully achieving at least two skills at the same time.

It was easier to do with basic skills since foundational skills grew quickly enough as compared to normal skills. And they were easy to keep watch of. But once a person got a class, foundational skills weren’t so easy to gain. The average skills also weren’t so easy to keep track off. That you had ninety-nine percent in a skill did not necessarily mean that the next time you used it you would hit a hundred percent.

Also, Aiden came to learn that the Healers that house Naranoff had brought in to treat her had run into something of an issue in her treatment. When she’d woken up, she’d been raving mad. She’d broken the arm of one of the Healers and practically shattered the jaw of a made.

It had left Elaswit significantly remorseful to learn of this when she’d finally woken up. Aiden could only imagine how bad she would’ve felt if they weren’t on Nastild. If a shattered jaw wasn’t so easily treated and a broken arm took up to six months depending on how bad the break was.

“So how did they sort it out?” Aiden asked. He was stretching his arms and upper body, still seated on the bed. “If the Healer’s failed to heal whatever was bothering you, what happened?”

Elaswit frowned, a woman with her pride stomped and shattered on the ground.

Valdan chose the moment to speak. “They called in a Mage Radiant.”

Aiden looked up at Valdan.

“An actual Mage Radiant?” he asked, then let out a low whistle.

“You know them?” Valdan asked, confused. Then his face took on a new expression.

Aiden ignored it, nodding. “Of course I do. The princess told me a little bit about them while we were in the cave.”

He met Elaswit’s eyes with a soft smile. It must’ve been difficult waking up only to hear that a group of individuals you hated with a certain kind of passion had saved you and healed you when no one else could.

Elaswit frowned at him in defiance and Aiden’s smile only deepened.

“Must’ve been tough, huh,” he told her. “Would you like a head rub?”

“Don’t patronize me,” she snapped at him, not truly angry.

“So no head rubs?”

Elaswit folded her arms and sat back, petulant. “I’m not a child.”

“So you’d take head rubs if you were ten to twelve years younger?”

Elaswit glared at him. It lasted only a few seconds before she sighed in defeat. “It was horrible. And it just had to be a lady. She just stood there as they explained, staring at me with her smug face and her overpriced staff and her pompous outfit and her well put together makeup.”

The smile on Aiden’s face never left. “Did she have one of those goggles on?”

“What goggles?” Elaswit paused. “The ones the kids use if they have bad eyesight? Of course not. Mages have perfect vision.” She shook in restless annoyance. “I should’ve punched her in the face.”

Aiden watched the worry and stress leave Elaswit, replaced with a childish rage towards someone who was probably out of the manor and on her way to whatever task she had elsewhere.

“I still say they should’ve brought a man,” Elaswit insisted.

Aiden cocked a brow at that. He turned his attention to Valdan who shrugged as a sign of his ignorance of what was happening. Then he turned his attention back to the princess.

“Why a man?” he asked.

“Because men tend to be nicer to me,” she answered.

“I don’t follow.”

“He wouldn’t have been so smug about it. He would’ve probably taken the chance to flirt a little.”

Aiden was confused. “And you would have… like that?”

“Gods, no.” Elaswit shook her head. “But it beats smug any day.”

I guess so. Aiden wasn’t sure if he would prefer a flirty woman or a smug man to wake up to from a terrible event.

With the life he’d lived, the smug man would probably be more familiar. A flirty woman would just confuse him. Not because he wasn’t very good with women but because in his experience with flirty women, one could kiss you just as easily as she could kill you.

Aiden’s brows furrowed as he watched Elaswit’s hand suddenly start inching towards him. He raised a questioning brow at her only to find her looking back at Valdan as she reached for him. As for Valdan, he had a tired expression on his face.

It made Aiden wonder what exactly was going on.

When her hand touched Aiden, Valdan simply shook his head and looked away like a father tired of a child’s shenanigans.

“I guess you're safe now,” Elaswit said with a childlike smile, taking her hand away and returning her attention to Aiden.

“What was that about?”

“You know when I said he took care of you by himself?”

Aiden nodded.

“Well, I mean it quite literally.” Elaswit thumbed over her shoulder at Valdan. “He didn’t even let them bathe you. Touching you was quite the taboo as far as he was concerned. Even Nella’s father wasn’t allowed.”

“You exaggerate, princess,” Valdan said in a gruff voice.

Elaswit didn’t answer him. Instead, she gave Aiden a gentle pat on the knee and stood up. “I think he wants to have a deep man to man conversation with you. He’s been itching for a very long time. Once you’re done with that, you and I are going to have a quick chat about what happened at the end of our little trip.” Her face fell slightly at the mention of the trip. “I don’t remember how we left and one of the Healer’s said you had facial injuries that could’ve come from a fight with another person.”

Aiden wasn’t sure what importance such a conversation would have, but he wasn’t bothered about it. They would have it and be done with it.

So he nodded. “Sure.”

Elaswit nodded once, then firmed her face into a smile. “Good.”

With that, she turned and walked away. There was a bit of a skip to her steps, but Aiden noticed the oddities. It was a little awkward, a little forced.

She waved fancifully at Valdan when she opened the door, using more fingers than hand. “Good bye, nanny.”

Then she was gone.

The room settled in an easy silence after that. It lasted a while. Maybe a few heartbeats, no more than ten but no less than five. Valdan watched Aiden through it all, a silent guard at the corner.

“She masks her discomfort well for her age,” Aiden said out of no other need than the need to defeat the silence.

Valdan nodded.

“Poorly,” Aiden added, meaning it. “But well for her age.”

Valdan cotinued to watch him.

“I will not leave my king,” he said simply.

Aiden nodded. “And no one will ask you to.”

“Good.”

Then Valdan turned to the door. He pulled a simple sheet of paper out of his pocket and placed it against the wall. It was made of white sheet with an intricate design grafted in blue ink. It stuck to it like a talisman.

“I’m no [Enchanter],” he said, then touched a finger to it. “But this should do.”

The lines of the enchantment glowed a soft blue before fizzling out, and Aiden watched the air shimmer slightly, the way it always did whenever an enchantment designed to keep things in or out was activated.

“I do not know if this room is being surveilled.” Valdan said, walking up to Aiden. “But I am of the opinion that we would not like to risk it.”

He took the chair Elaswit had been sitting on, occupied it. Aiden watched him throughout the entire process. Suddenly he remembered the first thing the knight had told him when he’d escaped from the cave.

The man had had questions.

And he has come to collect.

“Now.” Valdan folded his arms and rested his back carefully against the chair. “Why have I stood guard at your door for three days, allowing no one to touch you?”