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Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 208
🕑 Added 2025-03-19 14:29:12 +0000 UTCThe next day, after I woke up, one of the castle’s butlers came by to deliver two wooden cases. The first case contained a ceremonial sword with the kingdom's insignia at the base of the blade and on the pommel. This sword symbolized my duty to the kingdom. Dad has one just like it hanging on the wall of his office.
The second wooden case was much smaller and square. Inside was a cloak with the kingdom’s insignia on it. The butler informed me that this was for me to wear during official functions.
As for the itinerary away from home, we were going to spend a week here in the capital before heading back home. And the king was kind enough to lend us a guest house just outside the castle walls to house me, Dad, and his knights.
This morning, Dad and I decided to do some day shopping and get some souvenirs for Mum and the staff back home. As we left the guest house, two of Dad’s knights followed us as escorts because what kind of noble walks around without an entourage would be downright disgraceful.
As for the rest of the knights, they had the same idea as we had and went off on their own to buy stuff back for their own families back home.
We rented a carriage to take us around shopping for the morning, and when early afternoon came around, we told the driver to take us to the Royal Academy for the later part of our itinerary.
We waited outside the main gates until the school bell rang, signaling the end of classes for the day.
Minutes later, students started streaming out of the buildings, and among those faces was my younger sister, Charlotte, my younger brother, Cedric, and lastly, my childhood friend and personal maid, Emma. We sent a letter to them yesterday to inform them of our arrival so we could spend time together.
They looked around at the rows of waiting carriages until Emma locked eyes on my waving at them. She alerted my siblings to my presence, and they came running over.
We got out of the carriage to greet them, only to have Charlotte and Cedric slam into Dad to hug him, and Emma did the same to me. I am not so sure if it is just me, or if Emma feels softer than I remember the last time she hugged me. But before that train of thought got too far, I banished it and hugged Emma back. She is too young to be thinking about lovey-dovey stuff. For now, she is just like a younger sister.
After we were done greeting each other, we piled into the carriage and went out for a day on the town, hitting up any shop they wanted.
When the topic of me being knighted, Emma and my siblings started bombarding me with questions about what it was like to be a knight, only to disappoint them with the frank answer that nothing in my life would change with the new title.
For the rest of the week that we were in the capital, we spent our afternoons with Emma and my siblings after their classes and got to spend the weekend with them before we had to head back.
During this week, I also took the opportunity to check in on my house’s future retainer, Elise. She is still a few months away from turning sixteen, which makes her of legal working age, but it didn’t hurt to check in with her.
I had a general idea of where she lived but had never been there before. If I remember right, she said she lived in the merchant district above a bookshop and a tailor shop owned by her parents.
After some asking around, we finally found the place. It was a two-story shophouse, but the first story was duplexed into two different shops. One of the signboards read ‘Melvin’s Books & Stationeries’ while the other read ‘Molly’s Needle & Thread’.
When we looked through the windows, we saw the woman, who must be Elise’s mother, busy with a customer, while the man in the bookstore seemed to be reading a book while waiting for customers. So, we decided to drop in on Elise’s father, Melvin, first.
When we entered, there was a bell ring from above, letting Melvin know he had customers. He looked up and saw me, “Lord Ironcrest! I was not expecting you!” he said as he put down his book and straightened his shirt.
At first, my reaction would have been to ask him to do away with the formalities, but now that I am with Dad, I keep up the formalities. If Dad wants to keep things formal, it would be up to him He is the one with the purse strings after all.
“Mr. Melvin, good to see you again. We were in the capital and decided to check in on Elise before we headed home. Oh, by the way, this is Baron Alden Ironcrest, my father.” I said while gesturing to Dad.
Melvin quickly came from around his desk and bowed toward Dad, “My Lord, it is an honor to finally meet you. Thank you for hiring my daughter. She may be inexperienced, but I am sure she will be an asset to your house.”
Dad just smiled and said, “At ease, Mr. Melvin, this is just an informal visit. From what I have seen when your daughter came to visit, I am sure she is a wonderful girl.”
“Thank you, My Lord. I will go fetch Elise.” Melvin said before zooming into the back, whisper-shouting for his wife and daughter.
Within a few seconds, we could hear the sounds of muffled voices and things dropping on the floor from the tailor’s side of the shophouse. I could practically hear the customer being chased out and the door locked. A few seconds after that, Melvin came back with his wife, Molly, and Elise.
We were then invited upstairs to their home on the second floor while Melvin went to lock up his shop.
After tea was served, we did what we came to do: check up on Elise.
Turns out she had been doing what she did before attending the Royal Academy, helping her parents run their shops to earn some extra money. Which she loved to do, especially because she got to read any new book that came into her father’s shop.
Seeing her love for books, Dad promised her that she would get access to my family’s library when she came to work for us in a few months.
After we were done with tea, we bid Elise’s family goodbye.
***
The ride back home was quite different from the ride to the capital. Apparently, word of Dad’s title and my knighting travels fast, and we were invited by quite a few nobles to rest at their homes on our way back.
Seeing no reason to reject their offer, we rested at their homes. The only bothersome part was the Barons and Viscounts who hosted us always hinted at introducing their daughters or relatives to me, saying that me being the youngest knight in the kingdom’s history was a huge honor.
I did not even know I was the youngest knight in the kingdom’s history until the hosting nobles said so. I looked at Dad for confirmation, and he shrugged. Even he did not know. All he knew was that being the youngest knight in history was good for the family’s name, so he took it in stride.
