Trash Panda

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

As soon as John mentioned the king, Crow deflated slightly. He had been hoping to start courting Penelope and tell his father about it later, so Albin wouldn’t have the chance to stop them, but it sounded like her father wasn’t even going to humor that option. He drummed his fingers against his leg beneath the table, wondering if there was a way he could approach the subject delicately enough to at least convince the king to hear him out when he brought it up. Perhaps if he promised to continue investing most of his energy into his studies, Albin would be placated enough to let him prepare for marriage on the side.

He was drawn from his musings as John brought up the dowry. The mention of it made him blink confusedly. Even though he knew it was customary for a noble father to offer collateral to the man who took his daughter’s hand, he hadn’t thought the knight would offer payment to him. For one thing, he had been a peasant until less than a month ago. For another, he’d always found the tradition to be crass. It felt strange that a noble would be compelled to pay someone to marry his daughter, as if he wouldn’t want to take her otherwise. He knew John didn’t think he was interested in Penelope because of the monetary compensation, but he would have married her even if he didn’t see a single copper coin in return.

However, he was living in the world of the aristocrats now, so there was no point in voicing his dissent. If John wanted to uphold tradition, the viceroy wasn’t going to try to stop him. “I have no idea what I would do with all that gold,” he smiled sheepishly. “But if you insist, you can size the dowry however you’d like. I don’t have an opinion on the subject.”

As he finished speaking, his gaze drifted past the knight’s shoulder, where he saw Preston and two other servants approaching their table with plates of food. It seemed his earlier guess had been right, and Penelope would be able to personally ask the attendant to deliver her message to Hunter. He subtly nudged her side with his arm and nodded in the boy’s direction to make sure she had noticed him walking over.

~Bonsoir~

That's okay! Take as much time as you need ^^

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow thought that was the greatest thing ever xD
He also took the opportunity to rub it in Cedric's face a little

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

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.

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

True. I feel like he'll just bitch about it, honestly xD

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow nodded thoughtfully when Penelope said she was going to speak to his father as soon as possible. He wasn’t yet close enough to Albin to know what his schedule consisted of, but he hoped the king would make time to meet with her and see just how many people in his kingdom wanted to see the war end peacefully. From the brief glimpse he’d gotten of the petition at the party, it had looked like a compelling list. In his opinion, the monarch would have been making a rather unpopular decision if he stubbornly decided to go forward with his original plan to form an alliance with Gorm after this.

Thinking about his father, the viceroy was reminded of the brief conversation they’d had a while back in which Albin had advised him against courting anyone. The memory made him frown slightly. He had been fortunate enough to earn John’s blessing, but there was no telling what the king would say when he found out about his intention to marry Penelope. From what he knew about noble culture, the woman’s family had far more say in the matter than the man’s, but his father was the ruler of the entire kingdom. His word carried more weight than the average duke or baron. If Albin wanted him to wait until he was further along in his training, he wasn’t sure if they would be able to refute him.

Crow was drawn from his thoughts when Penelope asked him about his attendant. “Preston?” he echoed bemusedly. “They do know each other, so I’m sure he can.” He wasn’t sure how much contact his servant had with his father’s attendant, since Preston often kept to himself. Though they had shared stories about their experiences in Myrefall, he knew next to nothing about the boy’s current life in the castle. The peasant was something of an enigma, quiet and difficult to read. Regardless, he had seen him with Hunter two separate times, so that gave him enough reason to believe the former knew how to find the latter.

“He should be at the Great Hall this morning,” he mused. Since he’d spent the night in Penelope’s bedchamber, the dining area was the most likely place for his attendant to find him if he had been clever enough to put two and two together. The boy already knew about his secret relationship with the knight, so he was sure he would have realized what had happened when he had been missing from his room. But just in case… “If we don’t run into him there, I can look for him after my lesson with the king and pass the message on for you.”

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

He surprised Crow too, haha

I feel like William is just going to be pissed xD

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow couldn’t believe how incredibly well things were going at the castle within the last two nights. Yesterday, he’d gotten a break from his classes, had a surprisingly relaxing afternoon with his siblings, enjoyed the party, and had gotten to sneak away for some alone time with Penelope. Today, he had woken up next to the knight, and John had announced that he approved of their eventual marriage. It almost felt like a dream. If it was, he hoped he would never wake up.

As her father proposed a way to get him out of the bedchamber in plain sight, the viceroy raised a quizzical brow at him. He hadn’t expected the rule-abiding older man to come up with a plan so quickly, let alone help them in the first place. However, in the next moment, he remembered that John had had an affair with one of his servants long ago. He wouldn’t have been able to pull that off if he didn’t have a crafty side. It had just taken until now for him to show it to them.

When John told them to clean themselves up, Crow nodded and straightened out his clothes. He noticed with some embarrassment that, in a rush, he’d put his tunic on backwards, so he turned it around and smoothed down the fabric to make the wrinkles less noticeable. When that was done, he waited for Penelope to fix her hair first before he borrowed her comb to untangle the knots in his own. Just one glance in the mirror was enough to show him that he looked much more put-together than he had when her father had first arrived.

Once everyone was ready, John led them into the hallway, where a few other castle guards were making their way to the Great Hall for breakfast. The men were clearly surprised to see their king’s viceroy appear in the lower wing so early in the day, but Crow pointedly walked next to John instead of Penelope, so it would appear that he was visiting the father and not the daughter. The ploy seemed to work. At the very least, no one was whispering or otherwise drawing attention to them.

As they walked, another thought came to mind, and he turned to Penelope curiously, “By the way, now that you’ve got all the support you needed, when are you going to be meeting with the king?”

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Yep! Just having a degree is good for jobs if I change my mind later.

We'll be a little opposite then, haha. I'm going on vacation from the 29th to November 2nd xD I'll also get a post up for you either later today or tomorrow!

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow is shellshocked xD

I can't wait for the reveal to everyone else who has no idea lol (mostly Naida)