Recap:

Matthew looked around the halls for a second when his eyes clouded over for a moment. His eyes grew unfocused as he gently placed a hand on the wall next to him, thinking of the dream, thinking of his memory of the night his brother disappeared. Matthew lifted the hand not on the wall and gently touched his right cheek, almost feeling the stinging heat there from getting slapped all that time ago.

Matthew felt a few tears gather up in his eyes as he softly said, "I'll find you Alfred... You too Francis..."

Chapter 2- The Mission

Matthew quickly shook his head to clear his thoughts. He needed to focus on the job ahead. Living in the past would do nothing, but get him killed and if he died he really would never find Francis or Alfred. As long as he did what Arthur wished for just a while longer he'd be reunited with the two. At least, that was the deal.

Matthew let out a loud sigh before he started down the hallway quietly and quickly, his feet barely making any noise as he walked along the polished floor. The large house was nice, but had a creepy feeling to it considering very few people actually did live there and that caused the house to be eerily silent. It almost gave it a haunted feeling, but Matthew didn't believe in ghosts so he dismissed the idea of the house being haunted as soon as it came to mind.

Matthew reached the door to the meeting hall an opened it without a sound. He walked in and looked around the huge room. The ceiling was high and there were a few tables and chairs scattered about the area since the room also served as a dinning hall when meals were served.

Matthew turned towards the upper area of the room and saw Arthur sitting at the head of a table with a few people standing all around him talking rapidly and loudly.

"It's the middle of spring and the animals in the stables are about to give birth, but we don't have enough food for all of them. They're going to start starving to death!" A young boy snapped.

"When are you going to send someone into town to get flour or meat? I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure I don't want to live off of dirt." The cook shouted over the others.

An older man raised his voice above the others to get his own two cents in. "The horse stable is falling apart because of the heavy snow last winter and it needs to be fixed, but I don't have the wood for it and I can't go chop down the wood myself because I can't pull the wood cart when it's full!"

The voices were slowly getting louder and louder as the group of people tried to be heard over one another and continued to get more and more worked up. Arthur's head was whipping from side to side as he tried to answer each need or question thrown at him. He was flushed with anger as he opened his mouth to shout at them all to just shut up already.

Matthew moved forward swiftly to stop the chaos. "Hey! Guys, you can't all yell at Arthur like that. He can't keep up with you," Matthew said as he stepped forward to try and stop the madness. The people around Arthur quieted for a bit, knowing that the soft spoken blond wouldn't be able to talk over them, and looked at Matthew, favoring the younger man's kindness over Arthur's bitterness.

Matthew smiled gently at them and said, "If you need meat and there are too many animals, slaughter a few of the animals to get the meat you need. Make sure to leave mothers and their offspring alone. Try to take the ones that don't produce as much milk or do as much work and only take what you need. We can't afford to waste. Frank, take Kumajirou with you into the forest when you go to get wood. Kuma may be small, but he's strong enough to help pull the wood cart. Get more wood than you need to fix the stable and then take whatever you don't use into town to bargain for more animal feed and enough flour for the cooks." He only addressed the ones that he was able to clearly hear, but knowing that the others there still had complaints he calmly said, "If anyone else has something they need just calmly tell Arthur one at a time. It's hard to keep up when you have a ton of people shouting at you."

Arthur was a bit surprised that Matthew, the softest spoken person he knew, had been able to stop the shouting, but he recovered from the surprise and cleared his throat to regain the room's attention. "Quite right, Matthew. Now, if you'll excuse us, I need to talk with Matthew in private so uh... Just come back one at a time later and I'll work out the problems," Arthur said in a clipped voice. He was clearly still upset about all of the people bothering him like that, but it would look bad if he reprimanded them just after Matthew settled the matter.

The group around Arthur gave him a slightly cold look before turning to leave. They slowly filed out of the room without another word. One or two gave Matthew a soft smile, but most gave him a look of pity. They knew what kind of things Arthur and Matthew had to talk about and they knew exactly what Matthew's missions were for.

Matthew gave each of them a kind smile as they passed, trying to ignore the looks of pity he received. He didn't want nor needed their pity. Matthew was capable of taking perfectly good care of himself and that's all that mattered in his mind. That and finding his family.

Arthur gave Matthew an awkward smile, still not good with talking to the blond even though he had been in charge of Matthew since the boy was little. "Right then. Thank you for helping with that. Now, for the mission briefing," Arthur said, clearing his throat again before continuing, "Your job is to kill two brothers so they can't live to carry on their father's name. This job will be tricky because they have a very good amount of defense and 24/7 guard along with the fact that if you kill one and fail to kill the other protection will just increase. As cover you'll be going in as a sort of servant to the family. Your job under their roof is undetermined so far, but once you arrive at the house they will tell you what you're going to be doing. Your mission is to do your best to get as close as possible to one of the brothers. Or to get the father to like and trust you greatly. You'll be reporting to one of the fae each week until I give you the signal to take them out. If possible try to get rid of the father as well. That will all start tomorrow though. Today you'll be riding to the town in a carriage and you will explore the house grounds to be aware of places you can possibly use to kill the brothers or the father along with escape routes should someone pursue you after the mission is 'll be staying at a tavern called Fleur de Lis. You'll need to eat dinner there as well. In the morning one of my... er... connections will bring you the things you'll need for your role as a servant along with what you'll need to complete the mission. On your way to the town you'll be expected to look through a file prepared with all of the information you'll need for the mission including a map of the inside of the house and a biography on all of the people working and living in the house." He stood up and held out a file to Matthew, waiting for him to take it and then leave.

Matthew gave Arthur a semi-bow before he straightened up and said, "A- Arthur, has there been any news on my brot-"

"No. There hasn't been any news on either of them so stop asking. I'll tell you what I've found when you've earned the information." Arthur snapped, not caring that he cut Matthew off.

Matthew bit his lip to hold back a sharp retort and just nodded. "Yes, sir," He muttered before snatching the file out of Arthur's hand and storming out of the room. This would be a long ride.

A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews, faves, and alerts! I wasn't sure if anyone would be interested in this story and then I got quite a bit of positive feedback and it made me really happy~ I'm sorry that I took so long to type up this chapter and that it's such a short chapter, but don't worry, next chapter is probably going to double the current word count of this fanfic pretty easily. Plus, there's going to be action in the next chapter. You'll get to see some magic, a fight, and a few near fights so get ready! Plus, Gilbert's gonna finally come in next chapter! Hope that made at least one person happy.

So, next chapter should actually be out faster than this chapter got out. All I need to do is write the 5th chapter of another fanfic and then write a one-shot.

Thanks for reading and please review, after all, reviews are love~