Orstoll was lauded as a large, prosperous nation by other kingdoms, but the late king’s debauchery had driven it to the brink of financial ruin. Roy directed every task involved in running the kingdom, shored up the kingdom’s struggling finances, and worked as a knight to root out the last deep-rooted criminal threats. Thanks to his efforts, Orstoll was day by day returning to its former glory, and yet one huge problem remained from his father’s negative legacy.
Roy’s father had borrowed from other nobles to offset his dwindling supply of fun money and, instead of repaying his enormous debts, created and adopted a law to resign his rights to tracts of land. He did so for the lands controlled by Duke Zerenade and all his vassals, essentially giving them the right to run these lands as their own mini-monarchy. This became a criminal refuge with flagrant drug and human trafficking occurring in broad daylight. To this day, the people of Orstoll referred to this region as the Dark Dominion.
Even if the government were to send in a team of investigators, they were required to give advance notice. Since everyone in the Dark Dominion worked for the duke, they could completely conceal all proof of any illegal dealings before the investigative team arrived. Therefore, regardless of the information sent home by spies, all Roy could do was arrest the tip of this evil iceberg. Then, to make matters worse, connections among the criminals leaked the existence of these spies. Without any official proof that the duke was involved in these crimes, Roy had no way to lawfully seize the rights granted to him. Likewise, if he seized the duke’s rights by force, he ran the risk of destroying his relationship of mutual trust with his noblemen. It would likely lead to war and more of the nobility siding with the duke. A war like that could easily split the country. Thus, Roy and his men continued to gather reliable proof in order to sweep away the last of his father’s legacy.
Roy lived his entire life looking ahead, because he had a future worth aiming for: a kingdom where every person could live in peace and happiness. He worked towards this goal with a single-minded determination. In some ways, this was a good thing, but in other ways, maybe not so much. He didn’t spend his life looking back over his shoulder and worrying about the past, but this also meant he missed some things that he really should have given a second thought.
At any rate, Roy no longer had the luxury of debating about whether this was a good thing or not, as he was now a wrongdoer. He didn’t have the time to worry about his own comfort, as his victim sat before him, grinning away and sipping a cup of tea.
Fie and Roy were sharing tea for two. It had been a week since she was brought to live at the palace, and in that time she and Roy had already met for tea several times. Roy was concerned about Fie’s well-being, whereas Fie was simply happy to meet with her captain, so it was in their mutual interest to meet.
For the various witnesses (and of course there were witnesses; this was a castle), the fact that Roy had turned a complete one-eighty from his initial disinterest in Fie and now engaged in clandestine meetings with her was very interesting indeed, and all sorts of rumors were born. However, from Fie’s perspective, her sole care was that she missed seeing her squire friends, and so she cherished any opportunity to spend time with a dear companion.
Today’s conversation had to do with Fie explaining more of the details of her situation.
“I apologize...” Roy said again. It had become a habit at this point.
“I keep telling you, please don’t worry about it, Your Majesty,” said Fie with an embarrassed smile. This tea party was a nonstop apology fest on Roy’s part, and since Fie had already forgiven him, it was getting pretty obnoxious. She wouldn’t have minded if it made him feel better, at least, but he sunk deeper into his remorse and self-loathing, his face growing paler, with every apology.
This was not a good trend, as far as Fie saw it. She wanted to encourage him somehow, to start freeing him from his feelings of guilt, but it was not going well. She tried to take another shot at it today and said, “You did this all for Fielle, didn’t you? I don’t think you had much of a choice in the matter either. Besides, they used to treat me like this all the time back home, so it’s nothing new. Don’t worry about it.”
Stab! There went another blade right through Roy’s heart. He ached to think of this poor girl sitting before him who shrugged off her own pain by saying it was “nothing new.” Not to mention, here he was adding insult to injury on this poor girl. Fie had no idea, but the nicer she acted, the more Roy could see into the depths of her soul, in all its abused glory. The more she treated him kindly and tried to encourage him, the more the guilt stabbed at him. What a mess.
The two sat in silence for a few moments before Fie put her teacup down with a little tinkle. She scrutinized Roy, wondering what she could do to free him from this situation, as Roy, unable to meet her eyes, agonized over what he could do to make this up to her.
I wish he would stop being so stubborn and have a real talk with me, Fie thought, but she knew that telling him this would do no good. Come to think of it, this might have been the first time in Fie’s whole life anything like this had happened. She had been looked down upon and mistreated since birth, but, after coming to Orstoll, had lived through many new experiences: being treated like a friend, being told off after making mischief, and even being cherished. Yet now the same person who had done all of these things felt such guilt for his own actions that, no matter if she forgave him, he refused to accept her forgiveness. Fie had no experience with this sort of thing at all. It was a step beyond forgiving or not forgiving, the crossroads of “he won’t think he’s forgiven even though I forgave him” and “even if I forgave him, he won’t forgive himself.” It was a first for both of them. Fie, in her lack of experience in social interactions, awkwardly wondered what to do. Her year with Roy, Crow, Queen, Gormus, and all the rest had taught her the basics, but it was too short a time for her to learn everything.