I had awoken to the sounds of curtains flapping to the cool breeze. As I opened my eyes, the familiar sight of the ceiling greeted me as if it was an old friend. I slowly raised my body, only to be stopped by a soft grip on my arm.

She must have been worried sick. I carefully patted Risa as she slept by my side. I was certain she was the one who made them come to the dark alley. As thankful as I was, I was restless and anxious being surrounded by so many strangers, them coming to help me really made me thankful for my party. In the corner of my eye, I noticed the bloodstain on the bed. I must have bled a lot.

After carefully getting out of the bed, I checked my body. The wounds and scars were nowhere to be seen because of Kihana’s healing. Although I looked better on the outside, my body still felt a bit heavy and if I performed even a casual activity, my mind would start to become wobbly. I needed to rest more, at least for a day.

Soon, Risa started to wake up. Just like a girl who clung tightly to their teddy bears at night and found it nowhere to be seen in the morning, Risa’s sleepy eyes bulged and she immediately raised her body to find her teddy bear. As she saw me standing beside the bed, two emotions clashed to determine which one would be plastered on her face. In the end, the two emotions reached an impasse and decided to live in harmony instead. Though, harmony wouldn’t be the right word for an angry, sleepy child.

“I’m sorry for worrying you…” I immediately prostrated in front of her and apologized. If I had died on that dark alley, she would have died, too. Although I didn’t know that I was going to be assassinated, it was still my fault. Why? Simple, I was weak. I couldn’t even handle two assassins by myself, and they would have achieved their goal if Elis didn't appear to save the night. If I was stronger, that wouldn’t have happened in the first place.

“Lift your head up,” Risa said in a cute, sleepy voice. As I did, I saw her rubbed her eyes with a pouty mouth. Afterwards, she pinched both of my cheeks. “That’s for making Risa worry. But what’s done is done. Risa hope you learned something from this.”

I heavily nodded as my love for her grew deeper. I let my guard down because of that I almost got her killed. Never again. I have to get stronger if I want to protect her.

Merry came in the room and as she saw me, her expression understandably changed. She then came close to me and looked at my face. She examined my hand and face to see if I was okay.

“I’m okay now –“Suddenly, I found myself looking at the same ceiling and it greeted me again.

What just happened?

It turned out, she punched me. Why? I found myself asking the same thing. She was probably mad. I mean, now that I think about it, I always get myself in trouble whenever she wasn’t by my side and then she would come to save me as if she was the one who had to clean up the place. Having a troublesome friend like me, it was only natural for her to be mad.

I stood up, gently moving and touching my jaw. Merry’s punches were no joke. “I’m really sorry, Merry…”

“You always make me worry…” Her brittle voice made its way on my ear. It was only a few words but hearing it with that voice made me want to punch myself a couple of times.

“You should be thanking her instead, Onii-chan! She’s the one who carried you all the way to the house. She’s also the one who removed all the blood and dirt from your body. Not only that, but if it wasn’t for her, we wouldn’t have known you were in danger in the first place!”

Oh, so it was Merry who noticed I was in danger? It’s probably because of the slave thing.

“I did forget to say thank you…” I scratched the back of my head while turning away. For some reason, I find myself flustered. “Thank you, Merry.”

“You’re welcome…but I’d rather have your gratitude for something else…” She then turned around. “But let’s continue this for later. William is summoning you.”

“And we found out who orchestrated your assassination.” Merry’s voice turned sour and Risa’s sleepy face transformed into pure rage. Risa’s glaring eyes stared into me, allowing me to take a look at the cruelty in her eyes.

I felt the gravity of her stare. I couldn’t speak and even nodding was hard but I managed to do so. This was the first time I saw and felt her genuine wrath.

*

We met the others eating at the dining hall, with Feim and Lindwal standing near the wall. The food looked great and smelled so good I could smell them on the way over here.

The solemn atmosphere disappeared as Merry opened the door. The corners of their mouth slid upwards, forming a smile. It made me smile, too, knowing that they cared for me. It felt nice surrounded by people who cared about you.

“Terrin!” Fuyuki stood up and basically leapt at me. After falling, she placed her hand on my eye and opened them carefully. After checking, she checked other parts of my face and body, as well. “I declare that he’s all good!” she then happily clapped.

I didn’t mind what she did, though. I liked seeing Fuyuki’s quirkiness. “You can only be one, a doctor or a cat. Which one is it?” Takana exasperatedly asked Fuyuki as he easily lifted her up by her clothes.

“Why not both? Surely, there must be a cat doctor out there somewhere! Tell him, Terrin! If unicorns are real, why can’t cat doctors exist!?” Slowly, Fuyuki descended to madness. Well, she was always crazy, anyway.

“But unicorns doesn’t exist Fuyuki…” Kihana showed the truth carefully. Consider a scene where a mother was telling her child that Santa doesn’t exist. This was the comical scene right now.

I burst out laughing. I didn’t know if they were acting but if they were, they were good. I realized then that we were being disrespectful to William and the others. We sat down on the table afterwards.

“So, Terrin, how are you today?” William asked indifferently. He then continuously cut a piece of meat with his knife. With a cracking sound, the silver plate broke.

He’s mad.

I straightened my back and gulped silently. “I’m doing fine today. How about you, William…?”

“I am doing well today,” He snapped his fingers and Feim arrived with a letter. “In fact, we received a letter from the Cristas this morning. Its contents are about the events from last night. Do you remember what happened last night?”

“More or less,”

“Do you have any idea who wanted to take your life last night?”

I had no idea. Not even a clue. “No. I haven’t made any enemies and I don’t think I’m someone important for somebody wanting me to be dead.”

“Well, whether you like it or not, somebody wanted you dead. The motive and the playwright are in this letter.”

He handed me the letter. As I read the letter and find out who did it, I nodded in agreement. Now that I think about it, it somehow made sense.

Elis had extracted the information from one of the assassin by torturing them. Surprisingly, the assassin gave up the information about their boss. Usually, an assassin abided by its contract not to reveal who they worked for. It was simply a work ethic. “The truth remains in the dagger” was what Marsha taught me.

Anyway, the assassin revealed it was the Sangaas who ordered the assassination. That was most likely why William was furious. My speculation was that he was furious because the Sangaas were the one who did it. Just like Takana, I didn’t entirely trust William.

The reason they ordered it because they wanted to force William to change their representative. In other words, they wanted me replaced.

“We should call the authorities!” Fuyuki angrily suggested. “I’m so mad! How can they just decide to kill someone like that?!”

“They’re nobles, Fuyuki. You should know how they value life.” They had experienced the cruelty of the nobles before. Specifically, the King’s cruelty.

“Besides that, we don’t have any hard evidence. Even if we told them about the assassin’s confession, they could simply say that they don’t know him.” Feim added.

“Even if we past all those, they have a tremendous influence at the Royal Courts. The possibility of winning and serving justice is nigh to nil. There’s nothing we can do but accept the fact they almost got him but we should be thankful he survived.” William said.

“How about you, Terrin?” Merry looked me in the eye and asked. “What do you want to do?”

What do I want to do? Well—

“I want to fight Galbero and defeat him. That’s the only way I can feel justice is serve. “

“What a remarkable answer, Terrin.” William seemed delighted. “Indeed, if you, who they thought were a weakling, defeated them, I am completely certain seeing humiliation in their face would be very satisfying.” William seemed really delighted to what I suggested.

He’s not alone, though. I want to humiliate Galbero for endangering Risa’s life. I will teach him a lesson. I placed my hand in my heart. I’ll only use it for a minute, at best.

“I recommend staying within the residence for today,” William said. “It’s only for safety measures. Now, let’s continue eating.”

*

Forbidden to go outside, we instead prepared a party for Elird, just like we planned. With the unenthusiastic help of Feim, who only accepted because of the gift from Merry, we started decorating the dining hall.

We hanged decorations on the wall, placed mats on the dining table, wrote a big congratulatory sign and cooked delicious foods. It was nice and we all had fun as time passed by. Later, Fiss brought Elird in the house and we enjoyed a fine evening.

At first, Elird was a bit reluctant but with the help of Takana and alcohol, they managed to rile him up. As he drank alcohol, the tears slowly came out of his eyes, as if the alcohol he was drinking became tears. Completely drunk, he bawled his eyes out as Takana looked drunkenly irritated. The girls mostly talked to each other while Risa enjoyed desserts and a book besides Merry.

After the party, Merry helped me bring Takana and Elird in Takana’s room, where both of them would sleep, sharing a single bed. Fiss would be staying with the girls.

Risa, after reading books she liked and desserts she enjoyed, easily fell asleep, succumbing to the seductive charms of our bed. I sank in it, too, but its seductive charms didn’t work on me. I laid in the bed until I got bored and decided to seek some fresh air. I put on an extra clothes as I knew it would be windy. I quietly sneak off the room.

As I slowly descend, I saw a faint light near the imperial stairs. Somebody was roaming tonight. I hid, for some reason, and saw who the roaming guard was.

William? I thought he’d be asleep by now…

An unexpected opportunity arosed.

William stared at the painting on the wall, shining a light on it with his lamp. After staring at it for a moment, he trudged through the darkness of his house while I silently stalked behind him.

As we got outside, I felt the cold breeze. There were lampposts here and there, so it wasn’t entirely dark but I stayed in the shadows, hoping not to get noticed.

So, that’s where he’s going…I’ve never really seen anyone enter that place.

Slowly, William made his way on the far back end of his estate. I’d expected him to come to his workshop but, surprisingly, he went to the warehouse.

William? Are you…hungry?

I furrowed my brows as William showed me another surprised. Instead of going to the general warehouse, he went inside the food warehouse. It was strange. If he wanted something to bite, he could have called Feim.

After William entered, I waited a bit to see what would happen. After debating to follow him inside or not, I decided not to. Getting food shouldn’t be much time-consuming, right? I was in no rush, anyway. Why go in and possibly get caught, when you could wait things out. As Marsha once said, “Patience is an Assassin’s greatest friend.”

I waited while enjoying the cold breeze. I consciously patted myself in the back for putting on another layer of clothes.

Hmmm…it’s been a while.

Definitely enough time had passed. I debated again whether to go in or not.

Well, let’s just do it.

Unfortunately, there was only one point of entry in the warehouse. There were no windows where I could look at what was inside. I placed my head on the door to hear if William was nearby. After confirming not hearing anything, I slowly opened the unlocked door. Although the door creaked, there was no immediate reaction I could see or hear.

After opening the door, I climbed down the stairs to underground. Foods such as poultry, fruits and vegetables were needed to be kept at a lower temperature. Building underground solved that problem and kept the food for a long time even in the summer.

The warehouse was definitely spacious and clean. All kinds of food lived here; Poultry, fruits, vegetable, fishes, and many more. There were also many big barrels of alcohol that would make Takana cry on the spot he ever saw this.

Where did he go?

I searched every nook and corner of the warehouse and I couldn’t even find a strand of William’s hair. The only way out of here was the stairs.

There must be a secret passage here… What are you hiding, William?

With reverberating grinding sounds of gears, suddenly, one of the barrels spun and opened like how a door would. William came out of it and I immediately hid in one of the corners. William closed the barrel nonchalantly and made his way upstairs.

Seeing that everything was clear, I went to the barrel. I tried to find a handle and saw a protruding circle on top of it. I clicked it and half of the barrel opened. Inside, I saw a single button on the other half part of the barrel.

Wait…

I was about to put my foot inside and go in, when my mind reminded me I was ill-prepared for this. I didn’t have any weapon with me or any medicine. I had to always remember that if I die, Risa would die, too. Right now, anything could happen if I pressed that button.

I decided to back away…for now.

I went to the stairs and gave the barrel one last look.

I will be back.