Chapter 214: In the Corner

They didn’t only just have dinner but somehow Danny’s wife, Angela managed to convince them to stay the night. As Danny had mentioned several times beforehand, she could be very convincing when she wanted to.

Not only that, but Cory didn’t seem to want to leave them either. Thus, Reinera made the executive decision to stay the night. Julius wasn’t complaining though. The stew was one of the best stews he had in a while and Angela had promised to make some of her biscuits the next morning.

The same biscuits that Julius was currently devouring alongside Reinera.

“Are you guys sure that you don’t want to come with me?” Danny asked them after sipping on his cup of coffee.

“I’d think it would be better if we didn’t get too involved with nobility,” he replied to Danny after he finished chewing his food.

Danny had told them the plan for young Cory when they were riding in the carriage. Apparently, Cory wasn’t just some regular local noble. He was the grandson of Marquis Easten, the presiding lord of Blumand and much of the region.

Julius was a little taken aback by this revelation. He had thought Cory was just an unfortunate noble’s son, but being the grandson of the current Marquis was much more serious than he had been expecting.

Hmm, now that I think about it, don’t I have a similar status? He asked himself wonderingly.

Never mind that.

How had the group that took Reinera managed to capture the relative of such a prominent figure? He was starting to think that this group was much larger than he initially believed.

He also didn’t think it would be best for them to get too involved with the Marquis. If he and Reinera wanted to take some time and explore some of the Empire before returning they would be better to remain low-key.

“Why?” A soft and adorable voice called out.

All heads swiveled to the young boy who had spoken for the first time. Reinera’s eyes got especially wide. She had been trying to get a word out of young Cory the entire time yesterday but never was able to.

Reinera stood up and went over to where Cory was sitting. He was still playing with his new toy, completely ignoring the food on his plate.

She crouched down and spoke in a soft tone. “When we saved you from those bad guys, we had to be secretive about it. If they found out we did it, it could cause problems for us. That is why we are going to let Danny handle getting you back to your family.”

Cory looked up with his big bright eyes and reached out his arms to her. “But I want you guys to,” he said while also glancing at Julius with pleading eyes.

Oh, that’s not fair.

Reinera seemed to think so too, because she was folding faster than a lawn chair after all of the food at a barbeque was gone. He could see it in her face.

She looked toward Julius and gave a hesitating bite of her lips. He already knew what she was thinking in her head. She was most likely believing that it wouldn’t be that much of a risk to go and personally deliver Cory to his family.

“We probably shouldn’t,” he said gently, not sounding very convincing himself.

He saw both Reinera’s and Cory’s faces drop down in disappointment. Their sadness was evident.

“I wouldn’t say it would be that much trouble,” Danny interjected.

Quiet, Danny. Don’t make this any harder for me please, he begged the man.

Reinera’s and Cory’s faces brightened up at that and gave another hopeful look toward Danny.

“The contact I have from House Easten is supposed to meet me at the gates for a dropoff of some goods for the property. He will sneak us through and take us to a place where I can drop Cory off. Then the guard will take him to his parents quietly. You won’t have to worry about dealing with his parents or any nobility at all. The only people who will know you guys came along would be me and Cory himself. It will be simple,” Danny explained confidently.

Reinera gave Julius a pleading look. “See? It will be easy. We escort Cory to his family’s estate and leave just as easily. That would make him feel better, right Cory?”

The little boy nodded his head so vigorously that Julius thought his head might come off on accident.

He recognized when he had been beaten. So he gave a small defeated nod. However, he had to hide a smile as Cory ran out of his chair to wrap Julius in a hug with his small arms.

***

The plan was for Julius and Reinera to pretend to be workers for Danny while keeping Cory hidden in a small compartment underneath the merchandise. Some stealth enchantments should help hide the boy, but they shouldn’t need them according to Danny.

“Are you sure this will work?” Julius asked again.

“Yes, I am sure. I do deliveries here all the time. They know who I am, plus my friend is on duty today. He will make sure we get through without trouble,” Danny said confidently.

He turned to Reinera.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Do you know anything about House Easten?” He had already asked Danny before, but he sounded kind of biased, not to sound too distrustful of the man.

“I haven’t met them before, but I do know their entire family is generally considered honorable and extremely competent,” she said to him.

Well, that’s good news. I would have really been against it if it was a corrupt noble.

When they got to the gates of the estate, Julius could not help but be impressed. It was quite the place.

Even though, he had grown up on a similar-sized estate, House Hyperius’s Estate was lacking in comparison to Easten’s. Many people were running around, all busy doing something. The estate was also in much better condition.

Was House Hyperius poor? Julius realized with a short gasp.

As he was having a miniature existential crisis, he stopped to observe the metal gates that surrounded the property. Every inch of metal on the gates was polished to the point that Julius had to squint at the glare. It was made of some sort of metal that gave Julius the feeling that he could spend a lot of time trying to break it but find himself unsuccessful.