妻子的秘密

“No need for the formalities. I was out on a tour of the city because I had heard of some bad things from a very reliable source. And when I came here, I find my son saying some unbelievable things.” The man before me who had just finished speaking is King Gravos himself and Adel’s father, as well as the idiot prince’s father.

I did not say anything as the King stared down Prince Lance. It’s not that I couldn’t, but I wanted to see just how the prince would respond. I can say, however, is that the pressure from the knights surrounding the King was beyond anything I could have ever expected. Even I was feeling a bit of cold sweat build up on my back with them around.

“Lance, care to explain your words just now? What do you mean by the slums are hard to handle?” I also wanted to know the answer to this myself. So hearing the King ask this question, my ears perked up. I wonder how he would answer since he can not just give a half response when the King himself was asking the question.

“Your Majesty, it is not that….” Prince Lance seems to be hard up for words. Seeing him, sweat did make me feel good. And I kind of figured I already knew the answer to the reason why it was ‘hard’ for him to handle the slums.

I know I shouldn’t be saying anything, but if this continues with the prince trying to stumble over his words, then we will never get anywhere, and I only wish to help the people in need and not suck up to some nobles, so I decided to add my two cents. “Most likely because his supporters need the slums to do their dirty dealings.”_-.

“Oh? Lance, is this true?” King Gravos’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Prince Lance. I could even see beads of sweat rolling down the prince’s face. I am sure the King had read the report about how Count Freedman had his own people in the slums. And I am sure he had things investigated thoroughly as well.

I watched as Prince Lance gritted his teeth and clenched his fists before a self defeating smile formed on his lips.  “Yes….. But they told me they were not doing any serious crimes…..”

“Are you an idiot!? Who in their right mind would believe such crap!?” I lost it. That answer threw the last bit of my restraint out the window. “Prince Lance, I will give you this. You love this kingdom to a point,  but everything else you are an idiot about. Why would you believe the words of a noble without investigating anything!? For you to even know they have dirty dealings in the slums means that you must have talked about trying to fix things for the people here but gave in to the nobles who were trying to use you to hide their dealings, and you are letting them. You are basically doing all the work while they count the money. I am younger than you, and I can tell they are just using honeyed words because you are too naive!”

My chest heaved up and down. My cheeks were flushed. I was seriously pissed off right now. “Faith, relax. No need for you to get riled up over this. Lance, you are under house arrest for the time being. Head back to the castle. I will deal with you later.”

“But father I…. I will see you later then.” Prince Lance looked as if he wanted to say something, but it seemed he knew better not to. Especially with how his father was looking at him at this time.

“Faith, I am sorry. My son has caused you many headaches.” Seeing King Gravos lower his head towards me made me feel a bit off.

“Please do not lower your head. You are the king of this kingdom….” I quickly stepped forward to help him stand up. The black knights around him did not stop me. I guess this was a form of acceptance? Or trust?  It could also be that the King already said not to stop me if I were to approach him. Either way, at least they did not see me as an enemy.

“This is to show my sincerity. I asked you to the capital, and you have had to deal with many things. I have heard this is not the first time my son has caused you problems. And this is my own fault for not educating him properly on the ways of the world.” King Gravos raised his head to look at me before stretching out his big hand and placing it on the top of my head. “My Daughter sings praises about you every time I see her. I must thank you for opening her heart from being surrounded by people who only wanted to take advantage of her and for showing her what a true friend really is. Seeing her truly smile has made the castle that much more brighter.

“I should also thank you as well, Miss Sophie.” The King turned to look at Sophie, who was trying to hide like a small animal behind Thurul, but with Thurul being a dwarf, it was kind of hard.

I chuckled and shook my head. “I apologize on her behalf, Your Majesty. Sophie is still not good with strangers. She takes a while to warm up to people.”

“It’s fine. It is only natural after everything she has gone through. Now that the things that need to be said are out of the way. I must ask you, Faith Cyrilia. What are your plans with slums? I would like to hear your thoughts.” I guess the King was poking around longer than I had thought.

“Well, as you know, I am building a company to mass produce my pens. And when I came this way to save Sophie a while back, I saw how this place was and thought maybe I could change it. To be honest, it was Thurul, my business partner, that gave me the idea when he said he would hire some orphans to inspect pens. I figured with the factory since I need employees anyways, it would be easy to find hard workers near the slums. So with employee housing and a decent paying job, they could begin to lead better lives without worrying every day.” I really did need to thank Thurul for this idea. If not, I would have been stuck on what to do about a lot of things. I had wanted to help the people here as well so this all worked out well.

“I see… This is quite a good idea. So you basically plan to keep expanding?” The King asked.

“Well, I will start with the pen factory. I also have a few other ideas as well. And if business is good, I can begin working on building more factories as well. Basically, we can turn the slums into an industrial park that gives its workers’ employee housing. It will push out the scum that wish to commit crimes every day right out of the city, effectively cleaning up the slums. Of course, this will not happen overnight, but it will eventually work out.” I had quite a few other ideas as well, but those would need more time and planning. For now, I can just work towards trying to give people jobs.

The King went silent as he began to ponder my words. He looked up and looked at the women and children standing before him with lowered heads. I am glad he did not look at them with disgust but pity instead. “I will finance it. The funds that should be going to this section of the city seemed to have been misappropriated. So those funds will now be given to you, Faith. From this day forward, the area known as the East Side Slums will be under your command. If you truly make this place into a place where people can live better lives by the time you graduate from the academy, then I will reward you well.”

“And if I fail, Your Majesty?” I can see getting a reward, but I do not know what will happen if I fail.

“If you fail? You will just need to keep working harder at your goals. My Incentive is only to give you a reward if you can do things in a shorter amount of time, nothing more, nothing less.” The King said with a smile, causing me to let out a sigh of relief.

All I know is that this funding will be very useful in the future. But there was one thing I did wish to ask. “Your Majesty, is there a way you can help me find someone who can inscribe runes for barriers? I would like to keep people out of the sections that are being reformed.”

“I will leave one of my personal guards here. Each one is able to set up such barriers. They will also take care to make sure knights begin patrolling this side of the city once again. I will send someone tomorrow with the paperwork to sign over the east side slums to you. The original owners will have their rights revoked.

“Now, let’s find a place to sit. I would like to hear all your plans and ideas that you have for this place in more detail.”