Zenora
14. The Dinner

Emily’s point of view:

He was so sincere and gentle with me, that I almost couldn’t believe that a rugged robust man like him, could be so calm and wise as he is now. What he said came down deep and I decided that I wanted to learn more from this man before I gave myself completely to him. He was right to wait for it and I couldn’t thank him more.

He washed my body with soap and we sat in the tub till the water ran cold. We talked a lot about my childhood and how I was trained by Dennis. And he in his turn talked about how he lost his father at a young age during the war. The same war that got me separated from my family. He is twenty-eight now and the youngest General this kingdom has ever known. He actually followed in his father’s footsteps after he passed. Not exactly becoming the General at that exact moment, but through rigorous training and the many tactical accomplishments, he made during his life. He finally became the leader when the old General who took over from his father, died from a serious illness.

We got out of the tub, dried ourselves with towels and put on our clothes that were laid out on the small bench near the bed. I guess Moira had noticed that we were all sweaty from the training and brought us some clean clothes to wear. Of course, she knew from Natalya that I didn’t wear dresses, so she had picked a pair of cotton pants and a loose light brown shirt which was fitting around my waist. I guess they had it tailored quickly during the day when I was gone with my father.

I decided that when the tailor comes, I’ll get some proper clothes made, but for now, this suited just fine. We had gotten ready and it was evening now, so dinner was about to start.

Brock took me downstairs to the dining room. There was a long table standing in the middle of the room and my father sat on a large chair at the head of it. He had already gotten his food brought in from one of his servants when we walked into the room.

“Please take a seat dear.” My father said. So, I sat on a chair closest to his and saw delicious fruits and wine standing on the table already. Then my father ordered his servant to turn on the lights and she flicked a switch that was on the wall close by. I looked a bit confused, electricity in a castle?

“We are not living in the middle ages, little one.” Brock said when he saw me a bit confused.

“I have been on Earth long enough to know what kind of stories roam around about castles and they are nothing like anything you can find here.” He said again.

My father looked a bit confused on his turn now, wondering what was in those stories that were on Earth. So, I told him about the story of King Arthur and the round table and the movies that go along with it. He didn’t know what a ‘movie’ was though, so I had to explain that as well. He was laughing at the idea that there was no electricity or proper ways to clean used water, or having proper medical facilities in those stories. He just simply explained that research continued during the years, to the point where the kingdom did develop such necessities. But the looks of the castle just remained the same as he was used to it. I guess that he didn’t want to change the castle so much as it reminded him of the times when my mother was still alive.

Food was brought in during our conversation and I happily ate the grilled chicken and drank from the red wine. After two or maybe three glasses of wine, as I don’t remember exactly how much, I asked for some water since I got a little tipsy from the alcohol. My dad laughed at me and ordered a servant to get me some water. But when I said my thanks to the little lady my dad frowned his eyebrows.

“Why did you do that?” He asked, looking at the servant and I remembered the way that Natalya had acted to me and the giggling from Moira when Brock had said thanks to her.

“Why? Well, because it is common courtesy when you say thanks if someone does something you have asked them to.” My dad just frowned again. “Just because you are the King, dad, doesn’t mean you have to be rude to your own people, right?” I asked him while I continued eating my meal.

“That’s just the way we live honey, we have always done it this way. My parents did the same and their parents did the same before that. The servants do exactly what I say, without even daring to ask why.” He said to me a bit annoyed and irritated by the way how I talked up to him, but I didn’t care how he felt at this moment.

“So, if I say to them to jump into a lake, crowded with crocodiles, they will happily oblige to my commands? That’s just crazy! Just because I was born a Princess doesn’t mean that I have the right to have slaves do my bidding and disrespect their lives.” I said a bit angry now.

“Servants, not slaves.” My dad said.

“Are they getting paid for their services?” I asked him and he didn’t know what to say. “Are they getting paid?” I asked him again.

“N-No, but..”

“Then they are slaves in my opinion.” I said calmly and stood up from the table to walk away.

Brock stood up as well and grabbed my arm and I turned around to face him.

“This,” And I pointed to the servants. “is just like the stories of the middle ages!” And I pulled my arm away from him and walked out towards the door. The servants who stood there opened it and I said loudly my thanks and walked out towards my room.

Shit… I might have a drink too much…

Brock’s point of view:

Wow, did that just really happen? I never would have imagined that she could be so fierce and even dare to speak up like that to the King. I mean, she is his daughter but hell, this was something else. How am I going to fix this now? I saw the King sitting in his chair with his mouth open and clearly couldn’t apprehend what had happened just now as well. I needed to be calm and careful about what I was going to say next.

“When Dennis gets here, I’m going to have a word with him. How could he have raised her like that?! Doesn’t she respect me at all?” The King said angrily.

“I don’t think it has something to do with how Dennis has raised her. In fact, I think he did a pretty good job actually. She has become a very intelligent and open-minded young female. Besides that, she is focused, strong, brave and fierce when danger comes to her. Especially that moment when we got attacked at the tower, she didn’t have to think twice to shoot an arrow straight into an Orc that was about to end my life.” I said calmly looking at the table, not daring to look the King straight in his eyes.

“She is? And she saved your life?” The King asked with emphasis on the ‘your’ part.

“Yes, and how much I would not like to admit to that, I can’t go around the fact that I did not see that Orc coming.”

“You like her, don’t you?” The King said with a smile.

Now I was the one blushing. She did something to my mind and body which I can’t describe. Though I have been thinking about how I was going to explain this to the King. I’m his General, am I allowed to love his daughter? Do I dare to admit to him that I like her? What is he going to do when I say this? He is a caring King, but this is about his daughter! He might as well just explode and order his guards to kill me. I’d like to see them try, but that’s not the point right now.

“I know you like her very much, Brock. Even though I haven’t seen my daughter in nearly twenty-one years, the way she looks at you is just the same as her mother did to me. It gives me the certainty that she likes you just as much. If you promise me, here and now, that you would never dare to hurt even one single hair on her head, then you have my permission to continue what you have.” He said with a wise tone to his voice.

I looked up at the King and didn’t know what to say! I’m so glad that he didn’t get angry with me at all.

“Besides that, anyone who can hit you with a training baton is allowed by me to pursue anything that person wants to do with you.” He smiled and laughed a bit out loud.

What? Did he see what happened earlier today between me and her? My jaw fell to the ground, did he see what we did after that as well?

“Cat caught your tongue, General? Don’t worry I haven’t seen anything, I just heard from the two warriors what happened, right before you glared at them with your angry look.”

That must have been the two men sitting on that log near the training fields. I’m glad no one saw the rest of what we did after that. I sat up straight now and faced my King. “Yes, I like her very much and no, I would never hurt your daughter. I’d protect her with my life.” I said.

“I know, now let’s get talking about what she said because she got me spinning in my head right now.” The King said and then ordered all the servants to leave this room and told them to go get the financial counsellor to join in the room with us.

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