Early Morning

Henrich got up from his bed & was now standing on the balcony overlooking the garden. From yesterday, he was feeling a bit of uneasiness inside his heart. Like something was not right.

He couldn't focus on anything, nor could talk to talk to anyone without getting irritated. He told all this to his wife, who just told him it was all because of stress & he should rest.

So he rested, but sleep was not that easy to come. He tried his best to push all thoughts to back of his mind, but it didn't work out. Still, he fell asleep for 2-3 hours, but that discomfort never left him.

Soon a knock on the door was heard & a maid entered the room carrying a letter. She handed him the letter & left quickly, saying nothing as it was too early to disturb him.

So Heinrich opened the letter, expecting it to be a feudal matter, but as he read the contents, his eyes widened in horror. There were only a couple of lines written on it & the first line mentioned an assassination attempt on his son, something for which he was never prepared.

No father was ever prepared to hear his son was in danger, no matter how idiotic he could be. Leonhart was his son, his own blood & flesh. He could be a worthless piece of garbage, but he still was his son whom he raised & loved.

With shaking hands, he read the next lines, which mentioned that he was fine & well. Reading that line, Heinrich took a sigh of relief, but seeing the next sentence, his face stiffened.

Leon had survived, but his entire security team was wiped out, which should be possible only if there were too many attackers. And who even attempted to commit this heinous act against his soldiers?

Heinrich got out of his room with a ferocious expression, clutching that letter in hand. He had to find out who was that son of a bitch who attempted this & kill him with his bare hands.

On his way to his office, ordered a guard to call the man who came with this letter & his advisors who were present in the town immediately and within half an hour they were all before him.

"You people know why are you here, right?" asked the duke with a tense expression.

"No Lord." replied Harold the wisest, who was here in a hurry with disheveled hair & dress. He was sleeping peacefully just a minute ago & now was here having no idea of the reason.

"Tell him." said the duke, pointing towards the soldier who was one of many people who had travelled all night to reach the duchy. They were ordered to deliver this letter to the duke as fast as possible.

One soldier or one horse couldn't possibly travel whole night with no rest, so it travelled from one checkpoint to another delivering the news & the letter.

"Yes Lord. There had been an assassination attempt on Lord Leonhart. And...."

"What?" shouted Harold on top of his lungs. There had never been any attempt to kill any Espers in recent years, so this came like a sudden shock. Who would be on their right mind try to do that?

"Yes Lord. So..."

"What happened then?" yelled the old man once again to know how it turned out.

"Lord Leon is fine. He was unharmed during the entire conflict, but the people who were in charge of his security were not lucky. They all died fighting." Replied the soldier in a stoic tone.

"How many were there?"

"There were 20 personnel assigned for his security & over 50 assailants attacked them all at once."

"It was a one-sided battle, huh?" said Harold with a sigh. 20 souls were lost in a conflict which shouldn't have happened if they were prepared beforehand. But how could they even know of their death, waiting in the corner?

"Yes, Lord."

"You can leave now."

The guard bowed once again & left the room, leaving the advisor and the duke alone to their thoughts.

"Lord so..." Harold tried to say something, but Heinrich spoke, cutting his words in a heavy tone.

"Take our carriage & 300 knights to Nortion. Get Leon & that Count. Reach here within tomorrow evening. It's an order." said the Duke in a tone devoid of any emotion.

All of those lives could have been saved if the ruler had paid more attention to what's going on. It was his duty & he failed at it. He was responsible for all those deaths & now had to pay the price.

"Yes Lord." said the man with white hair bowing down & left the room in a hurry.

From his words Harold was sure that something bad was going to happen & it was out of anyone's hand to save Palatine.

***

The day passed & night came, still James stayed inside his room. He didn't feel like going outside or talk to anyone. Just kept sitting on his bed, rambling over his decisions & thoughts.

He was here to fix the farming mess but now got into another enormous problem. It was written in his luck that things would definitely go wrong at the right time for all the wrong reasons.

All the soldiers except Hansh had perished protecting him. 20 people died because of him. They were gone, leaving their families in misery & who was accountable for all this?

Leonhart was.

Hansh who was alive but injured, & other bodies were taken back to barracks from where they were sent to Elanor to their respective families. James was not allowed to meet anyone, but got the news that this whole assassination attempt was for him.

He was their target, but they failed at a cost of many lives.

Now James held himself accountable for their deaths. They had families, children & because of him, they would not see them again. All of their lives ended abruptly because he tried to go to Nortion.

All of them could have lived if he hadn't thought about changing the whole farming structure. They could have seen their families again, but he took that chance away.

Many people would now suffer because of his actions, which he never wanted to. He never wanted to give anyone pain or suffering, but now every step he took lead to some grave consequences, for which he was never prepared.

Lying on the bed, he covered his eyes with his hand to block all the lights. His heart was heavy, thoughts were all over the place, couldn't think straight.

All of this combining with the guilt of unable to do anything was pushing James into a dark corner where there was no light or no hand to pull him back. It seemed like his life was catching up to him.

He promised himself to accept this new world, but now this world was breaking him. His resolve to make things better was weakening. What if more people died because of him? What if he was breaking things instead of fixing them?

What if...

Knock! Knock!

A knock on the door was heard waking James from his distressed thoughts &the maid named Sophia entered the room with thy guy named Harold who was in Nortion after travelling the whole day.

He was tired but still had to meet Leonhart & let him know about the plans.

Seeing Harold, James got up from his bed but didn't care to stand, as he knew he was the one who held the most authority.

"So Harold, any reasons for this sudden visit?"

"Duke Esper has sent me to take you back home, as he is worried about your safety here." Replied the old man in a courteous tone.

"Oh." James expected something like this to happen, as Heinrich would have already known of what transpired.

"Yes Lord. So please rest for the night. We will begin our journey tomorrow at dawn as we have to reach the capital before evening."

"Sure."

Bowing down once again, both the maid & Harold left the room, leaving the young Lord alone to his thoughts.

***

"So..."

"So..."

"So what?" yelled Theo with an irritated expression on his face, couldn't be able to resist this nonsensical conversation anymore. He had wasted his valuable time here planning the entire things with these morons, which ultimately failed just like any of their other plans.

"Yes, Lord Ervin, what should we do now?" asked Karl with a distressed expression on his face.

Ervin, who was biting his upper side of his fist the whole time, said nothing to both of his remarks. He didn't look at them as they expressed their concerns, which infuriated Theo, as he spoke in a booming voice, slamming his hands on the table.

"Why can't you say something? We have done everything you told us to, but what the fuck is the result? We dirtied our hands, because of you, but tell me Ervin, what did we get? Huh Tell me?"

This sudden outburst was enough from Theo to get Ervin's attention as he tilted hi head to look towards them with his deep amber coloured eyes. His face was emotionless, like always & his tone was grim.

"What do you want me to say?" asked the man named Ervin in a nonchalant tone, with a deadpan look in his eyes. Things had not gone according to their plan, which wasn't something they could ignore like before. This time it was a large scale project which involved many people & if any of them was ever caught, then this entire game would jeopardize.

"Tell us what should we do?"

"Kill everyone who knew about this plan. Compensate their families so they can live for the rest of their lives. Wipe the slate clean & we will start again."