Vincent felt a sense of relief when he entered the carriage bound for home. He had only known his family for a few short weeks before he had to leave for a year, but strangely enough he missed them. He especially missed Catherine, his mother in this life. When he was at camp, he wasn’t allowed to communicate with them so he had been quite lonely.

“Young Master, due to increasing monster activity on the road to Redwall, we’ll have to take a detour.” The driver spoke out from the front.

“Monster attacks? Now?” Vincent asked quizzically.

“Yes, Young Master. Ever since the frost melted, the villages bordering the Emerald Forest have been seeing increasing attacks. Since Young Master is traveling alone, it is best if Young Master detours south towards Florence before we make way to Redwall.”

“Florence?” The name rang a bell and Vincent sat upright.

“Yes, Young Master. The town of Florence is within Redwall territory, just south west of Redwall.”

“R-right. Do what you must.” Vincent answered back as he sank into deep thought.

Florence was just an average town that specialized in grains. Aside from being a town, it’s not known for much else. However, there was something in Florence that was really important to Vincent. Vincent gulped loudly as he showed a crazed smile.

“The opening scene of Blaze Fantasia. The introduction of the main characters.” Vincent mumbled to himself.

Vincent remembered in the prologue of the novel, the MC was arrested by the town guard after having a run-in with Vincent. This was the specific event that was about to happen and he had to prepare himself for making his first impression to the MC. This could determine his fate. A cold sweat crawled down his forehead as he sat in his carriage bound towards his future.

A few days passed by before the aged walls of Florence came into view. In the time that it took for him to get here, Vincent had conceived a plan. A plan to antagonize the MC, but not to the point where the MC would hate him to death. He had to play his role in the story and use himself to develop the MC; he couldn’t avoid the MC.

“Young Master, we’ve arrived. It would be best to rest here before we continue onwards to Redwall.” The driver said as the escort got off the carriage to present the Redwall seal to the gate guards.

“Un. Go ahead and do that.” Vincent answered. He was hastily adjusting his clothes, not to allow any wrinkle nor dust remain on it. Soon, he would have to present himself in front of an audience.

They had arrived in the evening and at one of the busier times as the people on the road were quite a few. Vincent’s eyes scanned the crowd in front, caring little for everything else. Soon, as if right on cue, an elderly woman stepped onto the path of the carriage.

“WOAH!!!” The driver called out as the horses buckled. However, they couldn’t stop in time and it looked like the old lady was going to be ran over. Just as the inevitable was about to happen, a blur shot across the street and pulled aside the old lady.

“Watch where you’re going, Hag!” The escort yelled out in a fluster. He nearly fell off his seat when the driver abruptly stopped the horses. Vincent, who had already expected the event, had braced himself so he didn’t suffer.

“Why don’t you watch where you’re going? Everyone has a right to walk the street!” An indignant youth answered back. In the youth’s arms was the old lady, she had gotten up and repeatedly thanked the youth.

“Please, Sonny, don’t anger them. Do you see that crest? They’re from the Redwall Household.” She hastily murmured into the youth’s ears.

“Redwall? Who cares if they are nobles? Even if the King were to stand here, I would still say that they should know who was in the wrong.” The youth crossed his arm, he stood aloof as if he didn’t care for a thing in the world and yet his eyes burned with justice.

“Silly child!” The urgency in the old woman’s voice could be picked up as she pulled at the youth. “You don’t know what you’re saying…”

“Did I hear that correctly?” A cold voice sounded out from within the carriage. Soon a face that could match the voice appeared.

“T-that’s!...” The gathered crowd sucked in a cold breath.

“Master Vincent!” The old lady grew weak at the knees as she fell down only to be supported by the youth beside her.

“You. What did you do to her?” The youth said as he held up the cowering old woman.

Vincent examined the dirty youth as he smirked. “Nothing. However, I would like to ask you one thing.” He held up his finger, drawing attention of everyone to him. “The crest is a symbol of a noble house’s efforts and duty to the kingdom. They have spent generations shedding blood for the kingdom. For you, a mere commoner to look down on generations of sacrifice, how close-minded are you?”

The youth’s expression grew worse when he heard those words. “Nonsense! Effort and duty? Hah! All I see are pigs who grew fat feeding from the efforts of the masses. They take more than they need and leave little left for those they have sworn to protect.” The youth scoffed.

Vincent’s eyes narrowed as he replied, “By your logic, you mean for the royal family to live among the peasants while shouldering the burden of governing the kingdom?”

The youth’s expression grew worse and just as he was about to answer, a hand was placed over his mouth. “Silence, stupid child!” The old lady had interfered and inserted herself between the two. “Master Vincent. Please forgive this child for his impudence. He meant no harm by those words.”

“Hmmph.” Vincent sniffed as he looked down on the pair. “You’d do well to heed these words. Social statuses exist to protect the order of things. Think about just who are the protected and who is protecting.” Vincent said as he moved to enter his carriage.

“Wait!” The youth shook from of the old woman and made to grab Vincent’s shoulder.

“Stop!” Vincent yelled out. His domineering tone shocked everyone as they froze. Even the youth was momentarily stunned. “If you so as much dare lay a hand on me, don’t expect to be eating from that hand anymore.”

As if taking it as a challenge, the youth moved forward with this intentions. However, before he made contact, a squad of town guards broke into the crowd.

“Get back right now!”

“Back!”

“Get back!”

“Make room!”

“Get back, William!” A rugged guard said as he pulled back the youth.

“But!...”

“Shut up and get back from Master Vincent!” The guard growled with a cautionary tone. His stern expression finally swayed the youth into acceding with his request.

“Fine.” He shook off the guards hand as he took a few steps back.

“I was wondering what was taking the guards so long. I’ll have to ask my father to review the training regime of the guards in Florence.” Vincent said aloud as a warning. His eyes disdainfully looked down at the youth.

“What?” The youth glared back.

Vincent looked away towards the guard, “Guard Captain. Take this kid away and lock him up for attempting assault on a noble. I will check to see whether you heeded my orders or not on a later date.” Vincent entered his carriage right after without hearing a reply. The carriage soon left the bustling crowd, leaving behind a group of angered townsfolks and rumors.

Soon rumors of the overbearing noble trash, Vincent, would spread around. It was but another rumor amongst many of the horrible deeds of Vincent Silverlight.

In the carriage, Vincent let out a relieved sigh. “Acting is tough.” His hand was shaking from the nervousness. In this point in time, the MC was still weak, but in comparison to him, Vincent was even weaker. The MC was also able to view his status and his stats would be in the high 20s.

“However, I was somehow able to get through it.” He grit his teeth in excitement. His first impression was better than in the original novel. In the original novel, Vincent had injured the old woman in a fit of rage, breaking her legs and had also ordered the guards to beat up William before throwing him in jail. In this scenario, the old lady soon died from the pain and malnourishment and that was the first time the MC, William, wanted to kill Vincent.

“That reminds me. Another reason why William hated nobility so much was…”

Later that night the escort that was attached to Vincent’s carriage knocked on the door to his room.

“Enter.”

“Young Master, it’s as you’ve said.” The escort showed a note with a few details written on it. “The orphanage has not received funding for a few years now. The facilities are little more than walls and there are no staff besides that elderly caretaker from earlier.” He looked visibly concerned as he felt apologetic for how he had treated the old woman earlier that day.

Vincent received the note and looked through the information before tossing it in the fire. “I’ll bring this up to Father once I’ve returned. You may turn in to rest now.”

“Y-yes, Young Master. Thank you.” A strange expression appeared on the escorts face as he thanked Vincent and left.

“Why would he thank me?” Vincent wondered before turning in for the night.

Late at night, within a jail cell, a youth was angrily staring through the bars. On the other side was the rugged guard captain. The guard captain looked uneasy as he tiredly sighed, he knew why William was glaring at him.

“Look, William, there’s nothing I could do.” He shrugged, “That noble trash was right, be grateful that Old Gertrude stopped you before you said those words.”

“Those words?” William wondered.

“Treasonous words. If you had said those words back then, I would’ve been forced to take your head and not just arrest you.” The guard grumbled as he reached for a flagon.

“Then when that guy said, to think about who is being protected and who is doing the protecting he meant…” Realization finally dawned on William as he sucked in a cold breath.

“That’s right, William.” The guard captain took a long swig of beer before adding, “After your released tomorrow, don’t forget to go thank Old Gertrude. Also please be sure to watch what you say from now on.”

“I understand, Sam. Thanks.” William meekly answered as he sank back down into the hard cot. He thought back to the silver-haired youth with bright blue eyes. The more he replayed their confrontation, the angrier he got.