Chapter 24 - Banishment

Despite the look of injustice plastered on Elyria's beautiful face, she kept her mouth shut, following Edward's command.

"Okay! I'll tell you!" Arthur threw his good arm up as if surrendering. "You see, one of my personal guards had been missing since the night before, and I was very worried about his wellbeing. So while I got ready to leave, I asked another guard to meet me at a tavern where he was last seen."

Edward tapped his fingernail several times on the desk. "Get to the point, Arthur."

"Father, I promise this is important!" Arthur assured him. "When I arrived at the tavern, the guard I sent ahead was missing...

I was alone and scared, so I entered the tavern to look for him when I was suddenly attacked by the men inside! They hauled me through a tunnel into a large underground room with an altar and over a hundred people locked in cages!"

"What is this!? He's clearly heard about the attacks in the capital and making up a story!" Elyria cried out.

"Nuh-uh." Arthur stuck his tongue out at her. "It's true, and I would've died had Mr. Fenric not stumbled onto the place in search of his own men who had gone missing the night before."

Edward raised his eyebrow once more. "Assuming you're speaking the truth, you haven't explained how that connects to Elyria's servant."

"Edward! You're not actually entertaining this nonsense, are you?!" Elyria screeched as her face turned red.

"That's simple!" Arthur turned towards Elyria with a smirk. "If she wasn't an Agelian spy, why would she instruct the stableboy to falsely accuse my guards of theft right before I went to a place full of Agelian cultists?"

Elyria's fury deflated the moment Arthur finished speaking. Of course, it wasn't a perfect excuse to kill Merin, as there were clearly some holes in the story he was spinning, but Arthur knew it didn't matter.

Since Merin was already dead and unable to refute the accusations, the stableboy would be the only source of information. Elyria sure wasn't going to admit she had Merin harass his men as that might implicate her in an Agelian plot. If she did, even her father wouldn't be able to save her.

"Do you have proof?" Edward asked, continuing to tap on the desk with his fingernail as if he were a metronome.

Arthur nodded and turned to shout toward the closed office door. "Foster! Bring him in!"

Shortly after Arthur's shout, Foster entered the office with the stableboy.

Edward glanced at the two newcomers. "They are?"

"This is Foster, the guard I went to the city to find, and this is the stableboy who accused my guard Harkon of theft under Merin's order."

"F-forgive me, lord. I didn't know..." The stableboy sobbed as he dropped to his knees and pleaded for mercy.

"Ah, before I forget! Foster, please hand my father the list of names Merin gave the stableboy."

Arthur rubbed his chin and looked at the silent Elyria while Edward received the list of names. "I wonder how that Agelian spy ended up with the names of my guards. Perhaps there are more Agelian spies within the manor as we speak... Father, you must be sure to root them all out before they have a chance to attack again!"

The stableboy's head popped up in a panic. "A-agelian spies? Lord, No! I don't know anything about any spies! I only did as Merin told me, I swear, lord!"

After glancing at the list of names, Edward dropped it onto his desk before closing his eyes and massaging the bridge of his nose.

When he opened them, he looked at the two guards that escorted Arthur inside. "Have the stable hand executed. Spy or not, a false accusation against a noble's agent is a false accusation against the noble he serves."

The stableboy's frenzied pleas became more desperate as the two guards carried him out of the room, but Arthur had no pity for the man. Had he not seemingly taken such pleasure in executing Merin's orders, Arthur might've spoken up on his behalf, but that wasn't the case.

Once the room quieted down, Edward turned his attention to Arthur. "Whether Merin was a spy or not, only I hold the right to enact justice in Revan.

Therefore, you have committed murder, and for that act, you are hereby banished from Revan manor. Retrieve your guard from the dungeon, pack your things, and be gone by sundown."

Arthur bowed as he fought back a smile. "Yes, father."

Elyria scoffed, clearly unsatisfied with such an outcome but lacking the courage to speak given the circumstances. Arthur, on the other hand, was delighted with it. He got revenge for his mother while pissing off Elyria at the same time.

Also, Arthur didn't feel comfortable staying in the manor after Elyria decided to begin targetting his people. If she crossed that line once, she would likely cross it again, especially now that he had killed Merin.

He'd be living in military tents for the next god knows how long, so it didn't matter to him if he started tonight or a week from now. Therefore, Arthur felt as though his punishment had little effect on him.

As he exited the office, he spotted Fenric being escorted by some city guards.

"Ah! Mr. Fenric! I just explained to my father how you dashed in and saved my life right as those Agelian cultists were about to sacrifice me!" Arthur shouted. "Thank you again for saving my life."

When Arthur decided to kill Merin, he assumed that the city guards would be the ones to report the story to his father. However, since Fenric was here, he wanted to get their stories straight.

He didn't think it mattered too much if Fenric had told the original story they agreed upon since Edward already seemed to be aware that Arthur was hiding his strength. So he would assume that Fenric had not mentioned Arthur's involvement for that reason, but since things turned out like this, Arthur decided to inform Fenric so he didn't walk in blind.

Fenric's brow furrowed for a moment before seemingly understanding Arthur's intention and slightly bowing his head. "I was only doing my duty, lord."

"Be sure to come and see me after you speak with my father. I'd like to speak with you more." Arthur added as he passed by.

Fenric nodded. "As you say, lord."

After leaving Fenric, Arthur headed down to the dungeon with Foster and the invisible Kyren. It wasn't exactly common to have a dungeon within one's manor in Ollerin, but the Revan family wasn't exactly known for being the most forgiving bunch throughout Ollerin's history.

As one would imagine, the dungeon was dark and damp. A chubby middle-aged guard sat on a stool at the bottom of the stairs. After a brief conversation, the portly man brought Arthur to the cell Harkon had been placed in.

Kyren wasn't kidding when he said Harkon was pretty beat up. Two black eyes, a broken nose, cracked lips, and that was just the extent of the damage that Arthur could see.

Arthur's anger grew as he turned to the jailer next to him. "Who did this to him?"

"Dunno, lord. My shift started 'bout an hour ago, and he was already like that when I got here."

"Who works the—" Arthur suddenly took a deep breath and cooled his temper. "—never mind."

It didn't matter who's hand was directly responsible for Harkon's injuries. In the end, Elyria ordered it, and if he killed every commoner following her orders, he'd soon find himself atop a mountain of corpses.

Besides, he was confident that if he killed another servant today, his father's subsequent punishment would be far more severe than a simple banishment. So this was a debt that had to be collected at a later date, but it would be collected nevertheless. He'd make sure of that.

Harkon was hurt, but he was awake and able to walk on his own. So Arthur sent Foster along with him to collect his personal guard and Senna. Arthur figured Harkon's face would be sufficient enough evidence that it wasn't safe for his new guard within the manor.

They'd likely be unhappy finding out they were now being targeted due to being assigned to Arthur, but there was nothing he could do about that.

Once in his room, Arthur began packing his things in silence. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kyren looking stoically out the nearby window.

"You gonna tell me what has you all grumpy and quiet?" Arthur asked him as he hurriedly filled a suitcase with clothes.

Kyren shook his head and sighed. "You wouldn't understand."

"Try me." Arthur shot back as he closed the now full suitcase and turned to look at him.

"I don't want to do it again. I'd rather not exist at all." Kyren muttered.

Arthur questioned whether he was speaking to a grown man or an emotional teen due to his overly cryptic answers. "Are you going to elaborate, or..."

"...Arthur, I spent nine years wandering Nithe alone. Nine years without speaking to another human being. I ain't the friendliest guy, but even now, I don't know how I didn't lose my mind over those years."

When Arthur heard Kyren refer to him by his name, he recoiled his head and squinted his eyes as if he wasn't sure what he had heard. He searched his memories but couldn't recall a single occasion where Kyren hadn't referred to him by a nickname or simply 'kid'.

"Do you have any idea what I had to do to even try and figure out what was happening to me? I can't touch anything, remember? That means I can't simply pick up a book and read it. I had to wait until someone grabbed it and opened it before I could see whether it could help me or not.

I know how stupid it sounds, but what else was I supposed to do? I ain't clever like you. All I know is fighting, and it worked for me until I became like this."

Arthur knew Kyren hung around libraries for the first nine years but hadn't really given it much thought until now. Having to wait days or weeks for someone to pick up a specific book and read it over their shoulders only to not find any answers must've been insanely frustrating.

"If you die, that's what I have to look forward to, and I can't do it again... It ain't even about you making me a new body, either. I just don't want to be alone again. I can't. I'd rather die and be erased."

Arthur wasn't sure what to say. "...You know I had to try and save Foster, right? I couldn't just leave him to die. Even if he wasn't my friend, I'd still at least try to save him since he was one of my men. Besides, I had no intention of risking my life.

If Fenric hadn't caused an explosion, I would've been able to dispatch those three Agelians without consequence. They wouldn't have had the opportunity to switch their ritual to the second rite, and no abyssals would have been released."

"I ain't some whiny child, and I ain't mad at you." Kyren scoffed. "I know you did what you had to do. I just didn't like thinking I was about to return to where I was before we met."

Arthur wasn't great at handling other people's emotions. He was the type to bury his feelings deep down and was probably on track to become a stress-induced heart attack statistic at age thirty-five back on Earth. Of course, a car accident prevented that probable future, but reincarnation hadn't changed that aspect of his personality.

Kyren seemed aware of his difficulty finding the right words to say and released his usual boisterous laugh. "Don't worry about it, kid. Just make sure you don't get yourself killed before making me a new body."

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