After the Duke left my appetite immediately came back and I continued filling my mouth before following the Duke outside. It seemed I had taken a long time because some knights glared at me when I appeared. Amaranth immediately noticed and he started walking towards them angrily. I grabbed his arm, forcing him to stop:
"Please let me go, Zeidan. I will make them regret disrespecting you.
-Let them be. I don't care.
-But...
-Let's just go."
I did miss their glares. I preferred them acting like this then pretending to be all nice. I already tried making them like me in the past and it was all for nothing. Why waste my energy on them? I ignored them and started walking towards the carriage.
I didn't have time to get on the carriage when I heard a scream behind me. It was so loud that my knees almost gave out. I turned around and the first thing I saw was blood. It was everywhere and it took me a long time to make out where it was coming from.
A knight was kneeling on the ground, covering his face dripping in blood. Close to him was a sword covered in red and following it up with my eyes I noticed that the one holding it was none other than the Duke. He was towering over the knight, his face darker than I had ever seen. He looked so different that I felt goosebumps over my whole body.
"Ah... My eyes... My..."
I didn't know who was more surprised: me or the other knights. Everyone was just staring at the blood, having no clue what to do. Everyone just froze, thinking that we had seen it wrong. But the sobs weren't going away. The Duke continued staring at the knight he struck, not moving an inch. After what felt like an eternity he finally broke the silence and it was as if he had given me authority back over my body:
"May this serve as a lesson. If you disrespect my fiancé, you are disrespecting me."
He finally looked up and the knights looked away:
"Did I make myself clear?"
He continued staring at them for some more and I could see them shaking. They turned into misbehaving children and I wasn't reassured at the idea of leaving my safety in their hands.
Once sure that he had been heard, the Duke turned towards me. I couldn't help flinching and seeing him walk towards me wasn't reassuring at all. Seeing my surprise, Payne stopped and looked down at his clothes. He immediately hid his sword away and started fidgeting like a child. I was flabbergasted. Why was he acting like a misbehaving child when he just took his knight's sight away?
"I am sorry that you had to see this. I will get changed and we will be back on the road.
-Okay..."
I had no idea what to say at that point. Why was he talking as if what he did was nothing? Seeing him turn around, I grabbed his arm. Payne froze and he turned around so fast that I thought he would fall over.
"Did you just carve that man's eyes out just because he glared at me?
-He dared disrespect you."
I sighed:
"Don't do that starting from now."
The Duke started frowning.
"What? Did you think that I would be grateful? Don't use me as an excuse to hurt your men. I don't care what they think of me. They will never like me anyway."
His frown got worse:
"Why would you think that way? Did they tell you something?"
The Duke turned around and his knights looked like they would faint:
"No one told me anything. I can think for myself. Why would they like the son of the enemy? I don't care if they hate me and you forcing them to like me won't help at all. I don't need them. If they hate me then they should just avoid me. I will be doing the same. And if they don't I will punish them myself. I don't need your help.
-Young Marquis...
-Don't call me that. Even my family didn't call me that. Just call me Zeidan."
Having said what I wanted, I turned around and climbed on the carriage. Adaranth followed me and closed the door behind himself. We could hear nothing but silence for a very long time when suddenly the carriage started moving.
I could hear Adaranth's thoughts from where I was sitting and started smiling:
"What is it? Just tell me."
Adaranth flinched having been caught:
"I... Are you okay?"
I shrugged:
"Of course. I don't care what they think of me. I think the same of them."
Adaranth didn't seem convinced.
"Trust me, they can't hurt me."
There was nothing I could say that would reassure Adaranth therefore I decided to change the topic:
"That Duke really is crazy isn't he? How could he just attack his own man? I would hate to work for that guy."
Adaranth's complexion only got worse:
"What if he attacks you? He did that to his own person so what will he do to you?"
I shook my head. Despite being annoying and rude, the Duke never once hurt me. He had a lot of flaws but at least I knew that I was safe for now.
"He won't. He needs me. The Queen came up with this marriage idea to reconcile our families.
-But... I heard he was the one who sent the proposition.
-After the Queen forced him."
Adaranth frowned:
"Are you sure about that, Zeidan? From what I heard the Duke was the one who wanted to marry you.
-Impossible. Why would he?
-You must be right. It must have been some groundless rumor."
Adaranth must have been very stressed because after we cleared that misunderstanding, he immediately fell asleep. I took my coat off and folded it under his head doing my best not to wake him up.
Just as he was sleeping, I heard a knock on the window. At that point I was used to having a knight checking up on me but what I didn't expect was to see the Duke outside the window.
"Your Grace? Do you perhaps need something?"
Hearing me whisper, Payne looked inside the carriage and noticed the sleeping Adaranth. He then looked down at my clothes and the next second he was gone. I had no idea what just happened and stayed in front of the window, wondering if I had dreamed that part. The Duke came back seconds later and he made me jump. He handed me something through the window and it took me a second to realize it was his cape.
"It is very cold. Please put this on.
-I'm fine."
I tried giving it back to him but the Duke didn't reach out for it and just asked:
"Are you hungry?
-No."
I continued pushing the cape towards him but he just continued:
"Do you need anything?
-No."
He nodded and disappeared for good that time. I got left alone with the cape and stared at it with disgust. I may have been petty but I preferred to get sick than to put that on.