As the carriage made its way up the road, it was silent. Although Crisplet was smaller, he was still not calmed down from earlier, and I couldn’t blame him. I was annoyed and upset, going over the event, wondering if I could have handled it better, but no. This house had confronted me in public, demanding I go with them, with threats. I would not be pushed around like that.

  “Don’t worry about it too much, Trev,” Jen said, gently patting me on the arm.

  “Yeah, don’t worry, because we’ll deal with it,” Liane muttered.

  Crisplet let off a burst of sparks, clearly on Liane’s side.

  “It’s fine. We’ll get back to the house, we’ll inform Hari and Milo, and we’ll send off messages to the palace. It will be curious to see how this plays out,” Jen said with a chuckle.

  “Is it because he’s with the alchemist guild?” I asked.

  “Trev, he’s not just with the guild. He’s the current head of the guild. Generally speaking, he has the king in a stranglehold,” Jen said before getting interrupted.

  “So does Trev,” Liane said with a laugh.

  “That he does. That’s why it’s going to be interesting to see this play out,” Jen said.

  “Is the meeting this afternoon going to be as bad as that encounter? Tony warned me about his father, said he was likely up to something,” I asked as I peered out the window at the passing buildings.

  Both Liane and Jen looked at me, a little shocked.

  “He said that? Well, he shouldn’t be anywhere near as hostile, but it’s certainly best if you don’t lower your guard and make sure you don’t agree to anything,” Jen said.

  Liane nodded. “He won’t.”

  The carriage went quiet again as we moved through the streets. I was second-guessing myself. Should I have gone to speak with him?

  Letting out a sigh, I shook my head. No, no, I shouldn’t have.

  After switching carriages and entering the house, I found Archie first, finding him surprisingly outside in the garden where I had ripped out the plants to finish my quest.

  Crisplet had parted ways with me at the door and went upstairs, taking his statue with him. I suspected Crisplet was talking to Lily, which had me slightly concerned, and I would need to rush upstairs next before she decided to take matters into her own hands.

  I felt immediately embarrassed. “Sorry about that, I took those,” I said, scratching the back of my head.

  Archie jumped, clearly not expecting me. “Nonsense, don’t be sorry, sir. These are your plants. We’ll get them replaced.”

  “Archie, there should be someone coming to deliver a lot of salt later today. If you could just leave it somewhere safe for me until I can store it,” I said.

  “Absolutely, sir, but you know we have salt in the pantry?” Archie said.

  “This will be for seven large barrels of salt, although he’ll probably be taking the barrels with him, since I didn’t have any,” I said with a laugh, realising I was likely going to come back to just a pile of salt on the ground.

  “That’s not a problem, sir. I can organise to get him barrels. Leave it with me,” Archie said, straightening himself up before bowing.

  “Uh, do you need money, then?” I asked, confused.

  “No need, sir. Your party member, Sir Lindberg, has already provided the house with ample funds,” he said, bowing again.

  “Thanks, Archie! I’d better get upstairs before we have a major incident on our hands!” I said, as I waved and went back inside.

  Entering the room, I expected to find Lily and Crisplet talking. However, what I found instead was vastly different. Lily was sitting in the middle of the room, watching as Crisplet moved from spot to spot with the statue, putting it down, inspecting it, then moving it to another spot.

  I sat on the floor next to Lily and watched the event play out, with Crisplet trying nearly a dozen places before finally deciding the small table next to the bed was the best location.

  He gave off a burst of sparks as he stood back, inspecting it.

  “Looks great,” I commented.

  Crisplet seemed to have just noticed I was there at all, shooting a piece of coal at me that harmlessly bounced off.

  “Sorry, I just came to make sure Lily didn’t chase after the person who accosted us,” I said with a laugh.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  From the look I got from Lily, before she then stared at Crisplet, I realised he had not told her anything at all. The longer Lily and Crisplet spoke, the more I started feeling the aura shift, going from light and maybe even humorous to anger.

  “It’s alright, Lily. This one we’ll sort out. We need to do it diplomatically, but if he causes me any harm, or wishes to, I won’t stop you,” I said reassuringly.

  The look I got was difficult to understand. It felt as if she were studying me.

  Eventually, the anger faded slightly. “We are having a meeting with another noble later today, one that I was warned about. I don’t expect harm or direct trouble, but it might be worth keeping an eye on the situation,” I said.

  I couldn’t help but laugh as Crisplet came over and flexed.

  “Yes, you’ll be coming with me as always,” I said, before a knock on the door got my attention.

  “Trev? You in there?” Milo’s voice could be heard.

  “Yeah, I’m here,” I called back, getting up, watching Lily fade as Crisplet quickly went back to the brazier.

  “Want to come down and have a chat with everyone? We’ll go over what happened today and what to expect this afternoon,” he said, appearing around the side.

  I followed him downstairs, going through the library stairwell. It really made me wonder if there were other passages through this house. Surely this stairwell wasn’t the only way through the house that was out of the main path. The house was so big, after all.

  In the library, Liane, Jen, and Hari were already seated; Micca was clearly still sorting out the shop, likely with Darren and George.

  Taking a seat in one of the comfy cushioned armchairs, Hari spoke first.

  “Heard you had an interesting encounter at the market,” he said.

  “Interesting is not the word I would use. Threatening and stupid,” Jen said.

  “I wish Lily were there,” Liane muttered.

  I wasn’t so sure about that. It would be nice if Corin hadn’t been able to throw his weight around, but how many innocent people at the marketplace would have been hurt? We had seen the angry Lily aura in action, and even high-levelled people struggled. There were children at the market.

  No, it’s best she wasn’t there, I thought, shaking my head.

  “I asked Lily not to seek him out or do anything unless he directly threatened or harmed me,” I said.

  I knew that Liane would have preferred I just let Lily do whatever she was going to do.

  Milo and Hari both nodded. “That’s for the best, Trev,” Milo said.

  “It’s one thing if she did, in fact, beat up an adventurer who wronged you. It’s a completely different matter if she attacks the head of a noble house, and especially one as influential as Valrith,” Hari said.

  “But that brings us to the main point here. What are we going to do? We cannot pretend it didn’t happen, and I don’t want to put words in Trev’s mouth, but he threatened to corner him at the dinner next week, so that needs to be addressed, and we shouldn’t back down,” Jen said.

  “Oh, we won’t be backing down,” Hari said.

  “What’s concerning me are the comments. It stands to reason they’d know you have a cooking class. That is about the worst-kept secret imaginable. But if they are confronting you like that, wanting to address rumours, it would imply they know, or at the very least think they know, about your buffs,” Milo said, rubbing his chin.

  “How, though?” I asked.

  “I won’t pretend that we did a good job hiding it, especially early on. We informed the guild; we made mistakes, and even in your hometown it was widely known. The alchemist guild’s information network is vast, and I don’t doubt they have informants in these locations,” Hari said.

  “Then you have Micca and the shop. Kathrine was certainly smart enough to put it together, even if she didn’t say anything,” Jen said.

  “So do we just own it then? Like with Lily?” I asked curiously.

  Milo shrugged. “Honestly, that’s up to you. The reason we hid it was due to not wanting the attention of exactly the people we’ve caught the attention of, but your situation has changed drastically since then. No longer are you a defenceless boy, so you need to decide.”

  I took a moment to really consider it. On the one hand, I didn’t want to hide always, and I thought maybe if people knew I was the chef, then people wouldn’t go after Micca once we left. On the other hand, I didn’t want to be hounded constantly.

  “Is there a way to admit to some of it while downplaying the extremes?” I asked.

  “Sure. When we spoke to the guild, they only knew of minor effects, and all the stuff that has been leaked has been minor. We could also play up that it’s very mana-intensive and requires lots of ingredients,” Milo offered.

  “Or we just tell him to leave us alone or speak to Lily if they wish to complain,” Liane said with a chuckle.

  “I think it’s best we admit to some of it, especially where the royals are concerned. It will probably benefit us, since the Valrith house holds its control on power by being the only house in that market,” Milo said.

  “Okay, well, I think it’s best we do it in a meeting with the King, then. That’s not something I want to send through a messenger,” Hari said, looking very serious.

  I just nodded. I said I wanted to be more confident. This is something I needed to do.

  “Let’s discuss your meeting in a couple of hours. You’ll need to dress formally, you too, Liane,” Milo said.

  I interrupted. “I was warned earlier by Tony that his father would be up to something, and to be careful.”

  Milo nodded. “I suspected that anyway. These noble houses don’t keep power by being friendly. They all have underhanded tactics and are in it for their own gain,” he said.

  “Lily and Crisplet will be with me,” I said, looking down at Crisplet, getting a burst of sparks.

  “Oh, he won’t try anything physical. Not the Fairmonts. He will probably try to convince you to back him publicly, or bring you into a very one-sided arrangement, but Liane won’t let anything like that slide,” Hari said.

  “So just be polite and keep your guard up,” Milo added.

  “So don’t be your normal self,” Jen said with a laugh.

  “What do you mean?” I asked, confused. I was normally polite.

  “I mean you’re normally far too nice and trusting. All of these people are selfish, Trev. They are not your friends. Don’t forget that no matter how nice they seem,” Jen added.

  “Right, go get dressed. I’ll get the carriage ready, and while you’re there, I will send off a message to the royal palace and organise a meeting as soon as possible to address the conflict today. It’s best we get in early before they get in the king’s ear anyway,” Hari said.

  I was soon upstairs, putting on my new formal clothes with the embroidered cat and elemental.

  Time to put on my best acting skills.