After the incident, Edric had to use every ounce of his authority as a Farben to shift the entire bill onto the family estate. He didn't feel the slightest guilt about making the main house pay. If anything, he was glad to do so.
The hotel manager doubted his ears when Edric said that the Farben family would be covering every last coin, to a point that he called the police thinking he was a scammer or something like that. Yet, he paled and stammered when the police chief recognized him.
By the time the paperwork was signed and the staff began sweeping up glass and plaster, Edric felt nothing but bone-deep exhaustion.
The sky was already lightening through the gray clouds that persistently refused to go away. Dawn had come without apology.
His siblings had already moved to eliminate him before the sun even rose on the first full day of Lloyd's absence. Less than twenty-four hours, and someone had already sent killers to his door.
'What a blessing morning…'
Before any further trouble could reach them, Tina and Edric were already in the carriage, racing back toward the mansion. Neither caught even a moment of sleep during the long journey. Tina remained alert at the reins, guiding the horses through the dark, while Edric could not stop turning over in his mind who had sent those people after them.
After hours of careful thinking, Edric could only get to one conclusion: it had to be Cyan. No one else operated with that kind of cold, meticulous patience. How he had discovered exactly where and when Edric would stay was a mystery. If anything, Edric suspected the assassins had already been positioned before they even arrived. Probably one or two, maybe even three, had been waiting in every decent hotel in Whystan, ready to strike the moment he let his guard down.
Such was Cyan's way. He was smart. He knew Edric would refuse to stay at their family's house, so he went and set a trap…truly diabolical.
'Even I have to admire his devilness,'
He still didn't understand why Cyan was even targeting him. Rufus he could understand, even Alani made a twisted kind of sense, but Cyan? A complete mystery. Shouldn't Cyan be focusing on Dunstan? The eldest brother was the closest in the line of inheritance, the one with the actual army and the clearest path to the throne. Why waste resources on the weakest link?
Kill the weakest before he could eat the scraps and get strong? That was a possibility.
It would make sense in a cold, logical way. Eliminate the easiest prey first. Remove any chance that the unawakened, sickly little brother might somehow survive long enough to become a threat later.
'Annoying motherfuck…'
Edric leaned his head back against the velvet cushion, golden eyes half-lidded as the carriage swayed gently beneath him. The forest road stretched ahead, evergreen trees closing in like silent sentinels. He didn't know whether to feel insulted or strangely flattered that Cyan considered him dangerous enough to warrant an assassin on day one.
Either way, the message had been sent. The game they had been playing until now was just a warm-up. The real thing would start now.
***
After crossing the old field of roses, Tina guided the carriage into a small wooden building beside the mansion, the stable. The poor barn had little to no luxury whatsoever, but at the very least it was well taken care of… by Galleon, of course.
After stepping out, Edric patted the poor horses, his left hand moving in slow, careful strokes along their damp necks. They've been his horses since he was little, basically he grew up with them; the two chestnut horses were tired of having to run without rest and needed it to rest.
So Edric took a step backwards, walking to the door, he turned and observed as Tina unhitched them in silence, her movements precise despite her own exhaustion. Putting hay and water for them, before brushing the fur and walking towards him. She closed the door behind and raised the umbrella over their head, as they slowly walked towards the mansion.
As soon as they stepped into the main hall, Edric yawned.
"Finally home," he said.
Everything he wanted right now was to lie down and sleep, yet that would ruin the fragile sleep schedule he had fought so hard to establish. He needed to stay awake a little longer, even if his body screamed otherwise.
"Are you having lunch, sir?" Tina asked.
"Right, it's lunch time. I wonder what Galleon made today." He was indeed hungry.
'Speaking of lunch… one of those assassins said something about Tina being a "Farmer".'
He had been meaning to ask her for a while now, but with the amount of trouble and exhaustion they had endured over the last hours he hadn't had the chance. But now…
"Hey, Tina—"
"Raquel, don't run in the corridor!"
The voice and the sound of footsteps came so suddenly that Tina had little time to react. She was exhausted, her reflexes dulled by lack of sleep and the night's violence. Before she could move to intercept, a small girl barreled around the corner at full speed and slammed straight into Edric.
If it hadn't been for his damned leg he might have stayed upright. Instead, he fell.
The impact was surprisingly gentle for how fast everything had happened. Raquel was tiny, barely reaching his waist, and she landed on top of him with a startled squeak. Edric hit the marble floor hard enough to knock the breath from his lungs, cane clattering away across the polished stone. Pain flared briefly in his hip and shoulder, but it was the shock more than anything that kept him motionless for a heartbeat.
Raquel scrambled back immediately, wide-eyed and horrified.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to—!"
Behind her, Rachel appeared, running to catch up, face flushed with embarrassment and worry.
"Raquel! I told you to slow down—oh no—"
Tina was already kneeling beside Edric, one hand on his shoulder, the other reaching to check for injury.
"Sir?" Her voice was calm, but the worry was unmistakable.
Edric exhaled slowly, forcing air back into his lungs.
"I'm…fine."
He wasn't fine. Not really. But he wasn't injured either, just winded, embarrassed, and suddenly very aware of how fragile he was. How could a grown ass adult be knocked down by a little girl? Pathetic, honestly.
Raquel's lower lip trembled.
"I–I am s–sorry, s-sir. I-I didn't mean to…"
Edric managed a tired half-smile, pushing himself up on one elbow.
"It's fine."
He glanced at Tina, who was already retrieving his cane with practiced efficiency. Then he looked back at the two girls—Rachel hovering protectively behind her sister, Raquel still frozen in a mix of guilt and fear.
'Gods dammit.' That was not how he had imagined meeting his guests. Hell, he hadn't even wanted to meet them in the first place, but now it was too late.
Even as Rachel helped her sister up, Raquel's fearful eyes never left him. For a moment Edric wondered why she was so afraid. He wasn't the most friendly person, true, and the dark circles under his eyes surely didn't help, yet the mixture of caution and outright terror in Rachel's expression told him there was something deeper at play—something he probably shouldn't prod.
Who knows what kind of trauma lives inside a person's mind.
He accepted the cane from Tina and let her help him to his feet. Once upright, he straightened his dark clothes as best he could and looked down at Raquel. His best, practiced smile on his face.
"It's a pleasure to meet you both, I'm Edric Holden. It's a pleasure."