Crow returned Penelope’s smile when she thanked him for offering his help. His eyes flicked briefly to John, but the knight didn’t seem to have any thoughts on the plans they were making. At least, if he did, he was a master at keeping them to himself. He turned forward again as they kept walking, noticing that a few guards here and there were casting him estranged looks. They had probably noticed that he was wearing the same outfit as he had the day before. He wanted to roll his eyes. In the outer villages, it wasn’t uncommon for a man to only own a couple sets of clothes: something light in the warm weather, and something made of a heavy wool for the cold seasons. The only reason he had a couple extra tops and bottoms when he was living in the outer villages was because participating in the war had put his clothes at risk of being shredded to pieces. It was just nice to have a backup.

It was astounding how much the nobles in the inner kingdom cared about appearance. He had only worn this tunic for one extra day, yet a couple of the knights looked at him as if he hadn’t bathed in months. Part of him was tempted to start rewearing his clothes regularly, if only to pester the snotty noblemen who wrinkled their noses whenever someone acted in ways of which they disapproved. However, he was sure his father wouldn’t be happy to hear that he was intentionally giving himself a bad name, so he pushed the temptation aside for now and just turned his chin up at any man who gaped at him instead.

When he and the Vermillions arrived at the Great Hall, Crow was the first to step inside. Since he’d had to dance and talk so much at the party, he hadn’t had time to eat very much, and his empty stomach was now punishing him for it. He was eager to have a hearty breakfast to make up for the loss. However, before he could take two steps toward the closest table, he halted at the sound of a familiar voice behind him. Narrowing his eyes, he turned and poked his head around John to see that Cedric had approached Penelope to ask her to join him for a meal. Quick to shut that down, the viceroy parted his lips to tell her former suitor that they already had plans that morning, but before he could vocalize the first word, John intervened.

Crow watched with intrigue as the older knight shooed the younger one away. He hadn’t thought about it before, but he supposed John must not have liked Cedric either. If the latter had courted Penelope once before, that meant he’d gotten permission to do so from her father. Knowing how terribly their relationship had gone, he assumed John must have had some lingering hard feelings. A smug smirk crossed his lip as he watched the unfriendly exchange, taking pleasure in the startled look on Cedric’s face.

To his further delight, the other knight seemed to take notice of his presence when John stepped out from between them. Cedric looked like a stag standing in the face of a hunter, and the viceroy grinned at him cockily before walking with the others to their table. He may have been trying to keep up a decent reputation with most of the people in the castle, but he couldn’t have cared less what Penelope’s ex-lover thought of him, so he didn’t bother hiding his gratification with what had just happened.

Piled with the other things that had been going so well for him lately, watching Cedric get turned away by John had left Crow in a great mood that morning. He slid onto the bench next to Penelope, ready for whatever conversation the older knight was planning to have with them about their approaching courtship.