Chapter 68 – Roth Clan

Then Duke White walked away from Hazel. As soon as he turned around, Hazel had a panicked expression for a brief second. This did not go unnoticed by Aile. Aile sighed, it seemed that Duke White had managed to frightened Hazel.

The rest of the day went uneventful. Aile just talked to Laila and Leia. They got close to him quite quickly, and the topics they conversed on varied, from their favourite food to the politics of the nobles.

From these conversations, he learned that Duke White had been trying to form an alliance with a neutral powerful noble clan, the Roth clan.

He had offered benefits and even a political marriage between himself with the noble's sister. He also proposed another marriage between his son and Duke Roth's daughter. However, it was rejected. Duke Roth wanted to remain neutral. After all, he was representing the Roth Clan one of the five main noble clans.

The other intriguing news was Duke White's second son had a bit of a rivalry going on with Duke Roth's son. This had ended up in some conflict between the two.

As soon as Aile heard that, he had a plan. Aile then asked about Duke Roth's son and if there was anything unique about him. Surprisingly, Laila described him and pointed at his direction. Aile identified him very quickly.

Laila smiled at Aile and said that Leia always describes people to her, so she could give a description of Roth clan's heir and she could find his direction by the sound of his voice.

This surprised Aile, and he noticed that she similarly utilized her senses like him. He thought perhaps he can ask her about it later and gain some inspiration.

Aile marked Roth clan's heir and continued to talk with Laila. Although he trusted her, he did not want to let her know of his plan right away. It would take time to build trust.

The conversation kept on going, and Aile learned a lot about the nobles. He also learned about the different parties and inevitably found out that Duke Noland was in the king's faction.

Aile knew that someone had requested to provoke him through Duke Noland. If he is in the king's faction, could it mean that it was the king? This was surprising to Aile because it did not make sense for the king to investigate him.

After thinking, he ruled out the king because he was surprised by Alice's action when she talked to him during the gift exchange. He would not be surprised to see Aile, Prince Yegon and Princess Alice talking to each other if he had investigated him. After all, a lot of royalty was present at the dinner organized by Hazel, and if the king was keeping tabs on him, he would have already heard the news.

Then he remembered Duke Noland and thought perhaps someone else requested the investigation. After all, it seemed that he was willing to use his daughters as bait. Making him the perfect candidate to test him. It could have even been Duke White requesting it anonymously.

As a matter of fact, he was the most likely candidate. Most people did not know him. Thus, they would not have a need to investigate him.

Hazel would not waste her time experimenting here. She could do it at Port Kiar more discreetly. The only possible candidate left was Duke White.

The other nobles would possibly want to investigate him now that they think he could be the heir of the white clan. However, they could not organize such a thing in advance. His reaction at the age of 10 would not give them much information either.

Could it be that Duke White suspected Aile and had put up that ruse to open up Aile and know his secret? Anyways this was not good news to him. Whoever it may be, they were probing him, and their plan was quite elaborate, which was to see his reaction over time and find out more about him. This would be a daily report from Laila if she accepted their proposal.

In the end, he stopped daydreaming and started to be more vigilant. Because it seemed that there was someone that kept an eye on him.

Soon the sun passed over the head of everyone, and it was the end of the official celebration.

Hazel came to Aile and congratulated him. She also nodded at Laila and Leia. Then she informed Aile that Sara would spend her time with the princess and she asked her to tell him not to wait up. Aile, Laila and Leia with Hazel then headed towards their tavern, Siren's Song.

Once they viewed it, Leia praised the aesthetic design of the tavern, and how the integration of seashells and glasses suited the town. Aile had a weird feeling as he looked at Laila who could not see it. He did not know how to respond to Leia.

If he enthusiastically comments about it, then would that make Laila sad, as she could not see it?

And if he does not give a proper reply, then it could make Leia sad because she would feel Aile ignored her.

Laila then chuckled and said, "How does it look, Leia? Describe it to me!"

Leia then painted a picture of the tavern and its design for her. Everything was described in detail. However, Aile thought that the description was a bit exaggerated.

But nonetheless, he learned that he can describe things to Laila in such situations.

Once they reached upstairs in the cosy hallway, it was another complicated situation for Aile. He was not sure if he had to invite them to stay with him or was that not something that happened. Then Laila said, "Where is our room, Aile?"

"Do you want a separate room?"

"Of course not, we are married now."

"This way!"

They finally arrived at Aile's room. It was spacious and surprisingly clean, as most of his stuff was moved out of this tavern because he felt a bad omen in the morning. Although the room did have a little stuffy smell. Aile opened the window, and the air of the room soon turned fresh.

Laila walked around the room with the help of Leia to determine the location of everything as Leia explained it to her. After a quick tour, she let go of her hand and started to move freely. They seem to have enough experience with each other to know the extent of demonstrations. Aile took note of it as he might have to guide her through a room in the future. Laila no longer needed to be helped after the initial explanation by Leia, and she figured out the setup of the room.

Then came the problem of the bed. Aile only had a small single bed.

They contacted the tavern owner, and he apologized that they did not have any more. Due to the celebration, every bed was occupied.

After some threats, bribes and cohesion, they managed to get another single bed.

Leia suggested that they move the bed close to each other and make it bigger so that all of them could fit. All three of them felt a bit uncomfortable, but they were married now, so they had to get used to this arrangement sooner or later.

Then everyone took a little break, calming down, washing up and settling in. After that, Laila and Leia came to Aile with an embarrassed expression.

Aile asked if they were ok after some more questioning, he found out that they did not have any more clothes and other things they needed. They wanted money and Aile to go with them for shopping.

From the way they talked and the words they stressed while speaking, Aile noticed that they were more concerned about the money and his presence seemed optional. Aile agreed to go out with them, he wanted to get to know them a bit better, and he also had a few things to do. So, he was not planning to follow them for long.

They smiled back at how agreeable he was. First thing Aile did was go to the room across. He knocked on it.

Knock

Knock

Knock

The door was opened it was not Jake, after asking about him soon he popped his head and nodded at Aile. He got dressed in no time and came out. Aile then gave the girls 2 gold coins each and gave another one to Jake, his mission was to keep an eye on them. As Aile will leave them halfway, He wanted nothing bad to happen to them. After all, Duke Noland was not happy with them. No one knew how he would react and retaliate.

Jake was very joyous getting another gold coin, the two girls were smiling too, but they were not nearly as happy as Jake. Like this, the shopping started. They first went to Aile's favourite little stall close to their tavern, where he had bought his casual clothes.