10. New Challenge Arises

"The Gouen Kingdom is secretly trading slaves?" I slowly asked, swallowing the words one by one, carefully attaching a gauze on his side forehead, under his particular instructions.

He sighed in accordance, nodding scarcely but still messing up my application. I detached and reattached the unperfect medication I was practising, trying to acknowledge facts as naturally and maturely as I could, not that I had idea of how to.

"And they are using Nalilia's roads to travel at night?" I gulped, cleaning my hands from extra ointment. That alone made me ask many questions about the actual city' security. If the roads were not safe, was Nalilia?

"As far as we know." He touched his wounds to make sure I did a competent job in patching him up. I should start and get used to it, who knew when the next time would be.

"Who is procuring the slaves?" I perched on my knees as I cleaned the temporary workspace, his bed, of the medical supplies I was able to get my hands on.

"That... I have no clues, His Highness might know, but he wasn't keen of the idea of spoiling a mere guard to such information." He sighed, looking at his own bare scratched palms.

He wasn't a mere guard, everyone knew that at the Palace, not someone who exceeded in every field like Lancelot.

"What else do you know?" I wavered, my body willing to grab both his hands and hold them together in mines.

Lancelot didn't speak, but closed his eyes as to force himself to connect the dots.

They were risking a black business in a land I thought was the most secure in the whole country. I was wrong. I knew slavery was abolished in both Nalilia and Erule, being peace contracted Cities.

Weiss, as neutral and in far land was surely not involved either.

Then who? The Holy City, Ciesa? That was the opposite side of the country, why would they travel here and not directly by sea? Was the actual good from my most familiar home, Nalilia? Where were the slaves from?

"So?" I pushed the discussion, but neither I knew where I was trying to lead to.

"So?" The repetition went through, his eyes looking back at me, finally not focusing on his wounds any longer.

Lancelot slowly lied back down on the mattress. Pushing the conversation after all that happened wasn't probably the best idea, but who would actually sleep in a moment like this? I helped puff his pillow again, this time his body and hair washed and cleaned.

I really, really wanted to stay put there and be on guard, I could not tell when he would wake up or if he needed my help for anything.

"What's the plan?"

"Princess, there is no plan. No plan involving you or me."

I leaned forward his body, not wanting to believe his words.

"You're saying there is a slave trading going on between Gouen and possibly someone close to us and you are saying we are not going to be involved? As a Princess and a Knight?" A rank was still something we could work with. Or was it too late?

"Yes, why would you care now when you never cared about politics and palace problems? You want to go back there, now that you are running away? You do know that if you step back there, Percival is going to send you to Erule for the immediate marriage right? He said he would take care of it as the First Prince, we did our duty, there is nothing wlse we can do. If we make a step too long we might hinder his whole plan. We must trust him, when did His Highness did something wrong?"

When he killed his own Father? Was that something I could really trust?

Though, all of his points were fair, and I could not say a word back at him, if not more of me wanting to do something I was not able to.

"You did great until now. There is nothing else you have to worry about. Now go get some sleep, we will be better tomorrow." As he closed his eyes, he brushed the back of his hand on my cheeks. That did reassure me.

Then why was I not feeling better?