Chapter 21: First Day of Nobility
Sheena woke up early despite it having been a fairly late night. She sat up, and looked at the room's other bed. Lloyd was gone.
It was early, she thought. He'll be around. She got out of bed and into her day clothes. Then she wandered through Zelos' house.
She found Lloyd, Zelos, Angus, and, a bit surprisingly, Elpida in the front room, all apparently searching for something. "Morning," Sheena said. "What're you all doing?"
Lloyd looked up from where he was probing the recesses of the sofa.
"Helping Elpida look for a ring."
The small young woman stood up. "Yeah. Have you seen it? It's made out a greenish metal, and it's sorta long."
Sheena frowned. "I think I've seen that before."
Zelos nodded. "We both though that, but we can't find it."
"I'll help," Sheena said, bending to look under a table.
Ten fruitless minute later, Lloyd straightened up and rubbed at his back. "Hey, Zelos, when's breakfast?"
"Seeing as how it's the cook's day off, I'd say as soon as somebody fixes it. Thanks for volunteering, Sir Knight."
Lloyd groaned. Sheena patted his shoulder consolingly. "I'll help."
And so it was that Tethe'alla's newest knight spent his first morning as a bona fide nobleman in a kitchen, frying a couple dozen slices of bacon, cooking a large pot of oatmeal, and making a small mound of toast.
The smells of plain, homestyle, stick-to-the-ribs cooking filtered through the house. As the others came awake, they drifted down to the kitchens. Ribs, without his hat or mask, even leaned in the corner, drawing something on paper while using his slate to press against. However, after Elpida filched her third slice of bacon, he was drafted into service as a guard, and posted at the door to the kitchen.
When breakfast was done, the group gathered around the long, formal table in Zelos' dining room. Sebastian the butler even joined them.
As everyone was busy eating their fill and talking, the staid and proper man prodded at his bowl of oatmeal. "What is this foodstuff," he asked Elpida, sitting next to him.
"Oh, that's oatmeal. You eat it with a spoon. Try some."
Sebastian cautiously sampled a spoonful. "Rather bland," he said as he pushed the bowl away.
"Then you want it like this," the tiny, bubbly teenager said, grabbing a cinnamon sifter from the closest condiment rack. She gave it a few vigorous shakes over his bowl, then dumped a spoonful of sugar on top of the cinnamon. "Stir it up," she ordered imperiously.
Shocked to his core, Sebastian followed the voice of authority and stirred the mix into his bowl. When it was mixed to her satisfaction, Elpida nodded. "Try another spoonful," she commanded in the certainty that she'd be obeyed.
Sebastian gulped. "My word. That was much more worthwhile. Thank you miss," he added as he loaded another spoonful.
The bubbly young lady laughed and half-rose from her chair to kiss Sebastian's cheek. "You're such a dear man!" She looked further down to the table. "Zelos!" she called mischieviously. "I'm going to steal your butler, all right?"
Zelos nodded back at her. "Go ahead!"
After breakfast, Lloyd went out to the front room to wait a few minutes before going to the castle. Sheena and Angus found him on the couch, staring at the ceiling. When they came near him, he lowered his gaze. "Hi. You both want to come with me?"
Sheena nodded. "Ready when you are."
Lloyd glanced at the clock. "Let's go."
The doors swung open and the guard stepped in. "Your Majesty, may I present the Eternal Swordsman, Reuniter of the Worlds, the Lord Sir Lloyd Irving."
The king stood up as Lloyd and his friends came in. "Welcome, Sir Knight. Let us proceed to the Library where we may converse in private."
"That was swift," Sheena murmured to Lloyd.
A couple of minutes saw them into the Library. The King, as usual, limped over to the table, removed his crown, and sat down with a slight groan. "Congratulations, Sir Knight."
Lloyd winced. "Please don't call me that, your Majesty. I'm not used to it."
"I'm helping to wear the shock off," the King grinned. "Anything you want to talk about before were settle into serious business?"
"Yes, your Majesty. Why did you give me this title?"
The King rubbed at his beard. "I suppose you should know. All right.
"Partly, it was because if anyone deserves, you do. If my underlings had half of your nobility and conviction, I wouldn't need to be as manipulative of them, because they'd do what needed to be done without having to be tricked or led into it.
"Another part is this is my way of aiding your cause."
"What do you mean?" Lloyd asked curiously.
"I happen to believe in what you do. I think that you're right, and I trust you. I won't be around forever, though, and some future ruler—maybe even the next one—may want to reopen Exsphere research and use, and enact another set of anti-half-elf laws. You are a knight, and the Lord of a new order of knights. You can arrange it so that your knights will continue your work long after you and I are gone."
Angus nodded. "Lad, he's given you a great gift. This is a good man we've before us."
Lloyd nodded. He held out a hand to the king. "Thank you, your Majesty."
The king nodded and smiled. He reached out and shook Lloyd's hand. "You're welcome, Sir Knight." Then he coughed politely. "Now I must raise a subject of some delicacy. Since you are now obviously in my favor, and you've earned nobility instead of being born to it, you're now the sole topic of conversation among the noblewomen. You might want to give serious consideration to asking a nice young lady to be your wife—you'll have no peace, otherwise."
Lloyd also gave a small cough, and colored up. "Ah, uh, I've already asked Sheena to marry me."
"And she agreed? Well, congratulations to the both of you. Maybe you're not quite as innocent as I thought."
Sheena and Lloyd shared a glanced at the memory of Lloyd's out-of-the-blue proposal the previous night. Sheena kept mercifully silent, but her eyes twinkled.
Apparently unaware of the unspoken communication, the King nodded. "Well, I'll put out the word that you're spoken for. In a couple of days, you'll be left alone."
"Now for the serious business. Along with this title, I'm granting you a small estate to the northwest of here—in the forest by that river. It's undeveloped, so you get to what you want. I'll pay for any construction you do. You'll need a coat of arms, too. Then there's the Knighthood itself. I'll need a name, and a list of vows and precepts and so on for your knights. You can give them to me in a few days, if you want time to think about it." The king smiled. "That about wraps it up."
In the silence, Angus cleared his throat. "Yer Majesty, I'd like to talk to you after this."
The King nodded. "Lloyd, you and Sheena don't need to stay here if you don't want to."
Sheena glanced at her fiancé. "I'd like to leave."
"Me, too," Lloyd said, standing up.
Word of their arrival must have spread a bit, because Maline was waiting outside the Library.
"My Lord Knight," she said in a voice dripping with honeyed flattery. "Such a surprise to see you here."
Sheena stiffened. "Maline, why don't you stay away from Lloyd? He doesn't want you around and all three of us here know what you're trying to do."
Maline gave her a sneer. "How would a sneaky tramp from Mizuho even presume to think she knows the mind of Lord Irving?" She turned to Lloyd. "Come, Sir Knight, let us leave this low-born streetwalker."
Lloyd glanced at Sheena, and saw the tears in her brown eyes. Vaguely, he realized that Sheena must have had to deal with stuff like this every time she met one of noblewomen right here. And, he noted in a kind of detachment, Sheena was edging her hand towards the pouch that she kept her cards in. He could be looking at a murder right here, and he was inclined to let it happen. But he heard his mouth say, "No, Maline. Not with you. Never with you."
"I don't understand," Maline said, still trying to smile at him.
Lloyd heard his mouth say, "Let me spell it out, Maline. You disgust me. Dealing with you makes me feel like I need a bath afterwards. You're a parasite. You're so much like a tick I'm surprised you don't live off of blood. You're only after me because, right now, I'm the talk of Meltokio. And then you have the nerve to insult Sheena, and you're so self-centered that you thought I'd agree and leave Sheena for you. You make me ashamed to be called human, you know that, Maline? You think beauty and a title is everything. Maline, you're beautiful, and you're nobility, but, you know what? You don't have a chance with me. You never did. For your information, I've asked Sheena to marry me, and she agreed. If you keep coming after me, Sheena will kill you, and I won't try to stop her."
Maline was in tears. She started to say something, but, in an instant, Lloyd was holding Flamberge. "GO AWAY!" he roared.
She stumbled backwards, and then turned and hurried off as fast as her skirts would allow.
Lloyd stood there, a haze clearing from his vision. Then someone slapped him on the back. He turned—to see one of the king's guards, visor raised, grinning at him.
"Good job," the man offered. "We all hate her, and it's good to see her get what she had coming to her."
Lloyd and Sheena left. When they were out of sight of the guards, Sheena sniffed. "Thanks, Lloyd."
For an answer, Lloyd hugged her. She stiffened slightly, then practically melted against him. He held her for a moment, then she pulled herself together, and nodded. "Let's get to Zelos' house," she told him.