Claus did his best to maintain a calm demeanor, but as he left the room with Kukuri, he was inwardly terrified.
Why do I have to walk alongside an assassin? These people are scary!
For some reason, Liam trusted him immensely, so Claus had been assigned all kinds of tasks. For his own part, however, Claus had no idea why he held such an important role. His abilities were those of an average knight, at best, and he had no particular talents to speak of. Yet he’d been made House Banfield’s head knight.
Claus did his best to wear a neutral expression so no one would see the turmoil he felt inside. As he maintained this facade, the taller Kukuri looked down at him from an angle. “I owe you my thanks, Sir Claus,” he said. “Please allow me to repay you.”
“Repay me?”
“Yes. Your defense saved us. If you would like someone killed, please tell me. We’ll get rid of anybody in your way, even Christiana or Marie.”
As Kukuri snickered to himself, Claus thought, So he was upset with those two as well. Okay. Still, we can’t kill our allies, can we?! “I don’t need anyone assassinated; your appreciation is enough for me.”
“Are you sure? Those two are after your position, you know. I’m certain they would take the opportunity to kill you if it presented itself.”
Kukuri didn’t need to tell him that. Claus was plenty wary of those two already. Yeah, I bet they’d kill me to take the role of head knight. I’d give it up in a heartbeat, but I doubt Lord Liam would let me.
Although Kukuri had just told him that Tia and Marie would kill him if they had a chance, Claus would never have considered doing the same. He understood that House Banfield would suffer greatly if it lost any of them. It wasn’t that Claus didn’t value his own life, but he also felt indebted to Liam and didn’t want to do anything to drag his lord down if he could help it. He didn’t want any blood spilled between allies, although he wasn’t about to let them kill him either.
“It’s not necessary. It wouldn’t benefit House Banfield,” he insisted. “What if I asked you to simply protect me from them instead?” Kukuri’s organization could probably fend off any assassination attempts made by Tia or Marie.
When Claus asked for that instead, Kukuri stroked his chin. “Hmm…I don’t mind,” he said, accepting the request.
And so, by defending Kukuri, Claus made a new, rather sinister connection.