Chapter 58 – The Dinner

Aile started to worry about how Sara and the princess used his logic to justify stealing stuff. They even picked a target carefully. He sighed at them, he was not too worried.

Stealing from Duke White's son seemed logical, in fact, he wanted to see the adult's expressions when they find out the princess was the one who looted him.

He was happy that they were getting along together. He knew that he should interfere somehow, but he thought that when someone stopped them, they will be mildly reprimanded. It would be a better lesson for them that way.

He enjoyed how the princess and Sara's minds worked and finally decided to return toward the table. As he was planning to go back, he heard another intriguing conversation.

***

"Magistrate Hazel, what do you want from us then?"

"I would like to receive some military assistance to deal with the bandit problem!"

"I am sorry that is something we cannot support at the moment, the reserved military is currently being used in another location. The pirates and bandits have not attacked your town so we cannot send the combat units until there is an actual threat."

"Why do we have to wait until a town is destroyed before offering help. These are the people of the empire!"

"I apologize, these are his majesty's orders."

Sigh

"Can you at least tell me who had the reserve army! So that I can ask them to lend me some troops!"

"I apologize I can not do that, you can ask his majesty."

"Ok, then can I request an audience with the king when he arrives here!"

"I am sorry the majesty has specifically told us that he will be coming here for the birthday and will not work during this trip."

***

Aile knew that Hazel faced a constant headache form the pirates and bandits, and it seems someone influential is causing the problem. They are going so far as to even busying the imperial reserve army. The royals have put her in a bureaucratic loop when she asks for help. Clearly, there are a lot of forces at play to stop Hazle from having a piece of mind.

Since Aile was getting a lot of information from different conversations, he decided to eavesdrop on a few more. He heard prince Yegon arguing with a royal about his risky journey to here. They were trying to convince him to go back and continue his studies, while the prince adamantly said, "no".

Then he heard the second piece of information that stated a bit of his curiosity. The maids were talking about how the aloof prince and princess showed interest in talking to Aile and Sara. Apparently most of the time, these two will not even show respect or talk to high ranking nobles. However, they actually initiated a conversation, which was an unusual action, especially as both of them did it at the same time.

Aile now knew why everyone was so surprised.

Aile did not find any more thing interesting and entered back to the main hall. Not too far away, he spotted Sara and the princess. Surprisingly, he saw Sara quickly approaching him, followed by the princess at a slower pace.

Sara reached him and gave him a hug and said, "Thank you, I talked with the princess, and I like her, she is way better than that useless person." Aile knew that she was referring to her half brother as the useless person.

He smiled back, they knew each other well enough, and that smile was enough of a response to her.

Soon the princess arrived, "Hello Aile, how do you do?"

Aile was a bit surprised but responded anyway, "I am good, thank you, princess Alice." He was not sure why she acted so differently now. Then it clicked with him, she was wearing a veil yesterday, and Aile had not seen her. Therefore, she acted unsuspiciously suspicious around him to not give anything away as she believed that Aile did not know her identity yesterday.

Then the princess tried to dig a few obvious pitfalls for him to encourage him to bring up yesterday's events. She even asked him what he was doing at different times yesterday, and she was close to demanding an alibi. She somehow expected Aile to tell her everything. After that did not work, she even dropped hints about stealing, running away, fighting dishonourably to get a reaction out of Aile, but she failed. Aile had professionally dodged all of these conversations. She eventually gave up her approach.

Then she said, "How do you like this town, it is a beautiful place? I picked it for my birthday."

Aile replied jovially, "Your highness had picked a beautiful place for the celebration."

Then the princess grinned, "It seems that we like a lot of similar things, I have just become friends with Sara, we should become friends too."

Aile could not reject such a thing from a princess, so he nodded. He was not sure, what was her angle with the request of friendship. But he did not mind playing with her for a bit more.

"That is good! Now we are friends! You and Sara are invited to a special party tomorrow night in here. Make sure you bring a gift for me tomorrow. Sara does not need to, bye."

Then she just left. Aile guessed that she was annoyed that her plans did not work, so she just made Aile's life more problematic by making him buy a present. This is because Aile did not have enough time, as tomorrow most of the shops will be closed, and he would be busy at the official birthday celebration.

Sara gave Aile a smile as if everything that happened here was normal and followed her.

Aile sighed at how quickly Sara left him for the princess.

Although the task of finding a gift never bothered him, it seemed to be more of a prank to him rather than an obstacle.

Soon after the official dinner started, Sara and the princess were genuinely happy. Prince Yegon was avoiding eye contact or any sort of contact with the other royals and sat next to Aile and started a conversation. He was clearly not planning to listen to them to continue his training and lessons here or to go back. Hazle had a forced smile after her plan to receive help failed and so the dinner started.

The princess only took one dish. Similarly, the other royals also did not start off with many varieties of stuff either, as to not force everyone else to a few options. The princess made an unusual gesture of serving Sara some of the same meal she had, clearly showing the friendship they had developed. This made the entourage surprised again.

Aile took a few pieces and spoons of different meals to taste. He was planning to identify a dish that he liked to have more of and to avoid the ones that he did not find appetizing enough.

However, soon after the princess took a little from each of the dishes that he picked. Preventing Aile from having more. Aile sighed it seemed her revenge plan was still going. Like this, Aile managed to taste 8 dishes without getting full. Everyone else was focused on their meal and somehow did not notice the princess's behaviour.

The meal finished, and the princess officially invited Aile and Sara to her special close group celebration in front of Hazel.

Then, the royal-group went out first. Then with a sigh, Hazel took the lead followed by Sara and Aile.

Aile noticed that Hazel seems to be more worried about the bandit problem then he thought. This gave him a better impression of her. She seemed to really care about her people, as she is actively trying to gain support from the royals. However, even Aile could tell that it was not a great idea to go to this path.

There seemed to be a clear divide between the white clan and the royalty. Hazel seemed to be perceived as Duke White's faction to the royals, making her their lowest priority.

From this exchange, it could clearly be seen that she was not willing to be related to the Duke's faction either. As she was not even willing to ask for their help or they are responsible for the pirate and bandit problem in the first place. After all her territory comes under the White clan. There is no way that they are not aware of the problem.

Aile was now sure that her actual relationship was terrible with the Duke's faction. She does not seem to have any allies in this political arena. Aile sighed at her misfortune.

Then they got out of the hall and slowly walked back towards their tavern.

The beauty of Hazel and Sara got their group quite a few looks until they reached their tavern. With their arrival, they quickly went their separate ways to their rooms, to get some sleep as tomorrow will be another busy day.

Aile got to his room and remembered that he did not have much practice with his blade.