Til Kingdom Comes - The Banished Prince Vol 1: The Beginning

C055 I Will Never Forget Myself

"You mean, you are going back to Darlington to perform the last rites for my parents? Then there is no such thing as visiting your spouses? How about parents? Siblings? Relatives?"

I inquired since I was curious on why they had made such an excuse to be out to perform their duties for the me.

"The Shadows has no parents, spouses or anyone left. When we were being conscripted, we have to leave everything behind. Our main profession is exterminating those that proved a threat to a person of interest."

"The secondary profession could be a teacher, a priest, engineers, doctors and anything that disguises our main identity well."

The rest of the pioneers were also surprised that the so called engineers were also part of the alliance group called The Shadows.

"I joined as early as my teenage years, right before I became a teacher, Your Ladyship. Hehe. It is just that our jobs were very risky and we won't like the idea of leaving spouses behind, that's all, Your Lordship."

The rest then understood on why the Shadows remained single or have to leave their families to serve in this group. It was such a secretive group that only certain people would be aware.

"Our whole lives are dedicated to serving those whom we protect. By the way, I had already sent a note back to our headquarters that we had found the rightful heir and wished to stay put."

"Oh...? You already did that? Which means you and the rest of the engineers would be staying here for good?" I implored since I never expected that we would have such a strong backing before us that would prove to beneficial in the future.

"I've discussed with Marcel to watch his back because the moment when One-eyed finds that his 20 lackeys did not return, they would be targeting caravans and merchants next. This would be their MO — modus operandi. Right now, I had assigned 3 men for Marcel and one extra man for each wagon as a precautionary measure."

"Is Marcel part of The Shadows?"

"Yes and No. He is a merchant by profession, a chairman of the Merchants Association. He would pass on vital information periodically to some Shadow members for new developments around the country."

"In fact, it was due to him when he reported that he had met a young master that bought alot of supplies for the old settlement. As he came by on next trade, he saw a lot of changes and might have thought that Your Lordship must be of noble stature because of the gold coin that Your Lordship used to pay for the purchases."

"This lead us to assume that you might be someone whom we are looking for to protect. We took a chance and somehow contracted us with Marcel to keep our identities on the down low. Without his information, we might be scouring the whole lands here, in search of you, Your Lordship."

Eagle explained his initial findings and we are glad that he had taken the initiative to make the first move to see whether I was the one he was looking for to serve.

"When the first day I arrived, I recognised my very own students and also Your Lordship as I had seen Your Lordship in the main hall about a year and a half ago. Your Lordship may not recognise me at that time because I had a mask over my face and disguised as a chimney man."

I had the vaguest idea, maybe I was grabbing something to eat in the kitchen but I can't remember if there's anyone else in the kitchen beside the cooks and some delivery men.

"Actually all of us worked for the Royal family under a guise. There were 12 of us and we were known affectionately as The Dirty Dozen. That means we do the cleaning up when someone messes things up or going to mess things up. 2 had unfortunately fallen during their line of duty and we decided to drop the nickname altogether. God bless their soul."

"Amen..." the pioneers blessed under their breath.

"So, we are here to stay for good. I don't wish to repeat the same mistakes again and witness history repeats themselves. We are the best combatants for the task of taking care of this village as it grows."

"Your Lordship may need some watchtowers and I wanted to propose to it but Your Lordship had overtaken me since Ben or Frank mentioned that once the barricades are completed, it would be the watchtowers next."

"It is I, who reported the progress," Frank corrected Levingstone as he puffed out his chest with pride. Pride because these 10 men pledge their allegiances to GraceHaven as well as to their beloved Prince.

"That's great. However, I will assign 4 of my men to guard these watchtowers after sundown. They would rotate their duties accordingly. What Your Lordship need is the Domestic Affairs Minister to deploy 4 citizens. Remember, no one else is to know our very existence. And no one is to know we are going to Darlington to perform our last rites for the deceased Royal family."

"Can I follow you? I mean..."

"No. It is out of the question. On the surface, we need 5 days to go back to see our spouses. Why should Your Lordship be risking your life for? Your Lordship place is here, for the citizens of GraceHaven."

"But...I wished to..."

"I understand what Your Lordship is trying to say. Your Lordship also wanted to perform your last rites for them right? Fret not. I will bring back some belongings and 3 coat of arms flags, no.. 4 coat of arms flags so Your Lordship could perform your last rites and pay the last respects where people would not be seeing Your Lordship doing it openly. Be utmost discreet."

"What belongings you want to bring back?"

"The last clothes that they wore. Don't worry, we treat the dead with respect even though it may be skull and bones left. I'm sorry to mention it that way but we would bring back those clothes for Your Lordship as they did not sacrifice themselves for nothing."

"The Princess..."

"Yes, Princess Kayla that was in the cellar with Your Lordship... We know because we went through there. But we can't find Your Lordship anywhere and even searched the whole Manor so we had thought Your Lordship was being abducted. But rebels don't abduct anyone. Who they going to get ransom from, am I right?"

"By the way Jack, there are some spoils I want you to take care of. It's in a sack behind your shop, you may smelt them down if you may."

"Aaww... I can't smelt at the moment, my large smelter is in the store back at Darlington. By the way, no one noticed you carry a sack of things when you came over to sit during the evening dinner? You really lived up to your name. By the way, errr... Could you... I mean could I ask a huge favour from you, Eagle?"

He used the alias since we are in the group and would be calling him by his name only in public. Likewise, the engineers would call me 'Young master' instead of my actual honorific in front of the public for this moment.

"What's the favour, Jack? If Our Lordship had no issues, we will honour it."

"Aahh... Do you mind Your Lordship? I would like to have Eagle retrieve all my working tools from the blacksmith except for the furnace and bellows."

"I also would like to propose, could you also bring back anything valuable from the bakery like anything metal like trays and bread moulds? It's a cast-iron rectangular..."

"Yes, my Lady. We understand how a baking mould looks like. It's something that existed in the Royal kitchen as well. All the metal baking tools... Checked."

"I also would like to add to the list," I said as I squinted my eyes as there would definitely be more than one.

"Firstly once you had gotten my family's personal belonging after you had paid the last respect, could you proceed to my room?"

"Yes, your royal bedroom on the second floor where Your Lordship had some savings behind the picture, right?"

"Oh, you also knew about it? Well, that had been taken already. It's another thing... A small pouch, in my wardrobe, on the bottom panel there's a hidden small panel. Could you bring it to me? And also you cited the 4 flags and please bring back our family crest as well as the long sword underneath it. That's my father's sword when he used for knighting."

"Sparrow, have you got everything down in ink?"

"Yes, Captain..." Sparrow spoke as he checked on his piece of paper on what he needs. "Tools and smelter from the blacksmith. Metal trays and baking moulds from bakery and Royal kitchen. 4 flags, personal belongings, hidden pouch, longsword, family crest."

"Would there be anything else?"

"Last but not least, an additional loom. And all the shields, axes, swords, pikes and spears that you can discover along the way. So you go in empty and comes out wagon load. Eliminate anyone within your capacity suspected from being a rebel. Any survivors, please guide them back here. Do you need to use two wagons?"

"The current one that we use would be fine. My men would pursue back on foot if we could find any survivors. It's only a ride till near sundown if we start from daybreak on wheels and a day and a half on foot."

"Why do Your Lordship need so many of those? Is Your Lordship trying to build an army?"

"The metal shields and axes are full of metal, so I plan to pass to Jack to smelt them down for something else that could be used like arrowheads and others. Will let you see when the times come."

"Alright, I understand what your Lordship is trying to do. Your Lordship wishes are our command. We would be moving out by midday hereafter so we would be in Darlington by midnight. We could sneak in and perform what we need to do first before we attend to the needs especially to this village.

"We would be on the lookout for revolutionaries in that area if any because we would be acting like looters during the day and observe our situation closely as we acted carelessly."

"Furthermore, in time to come in the near future, there would be nomads coming along, visiting pastures for their dairy cows. Does Your Lordship intend to take them in? They may arrive within 3 weeks or slightly more."

"But if they wanted to stay I would scrutinise them for Your Lordship thereafter. We have ways and means to uncover evil intentions and ways and means to make them disappear from the face of this earth. May we do not face such people in the future."

"That would be great, Eagle. I really comprehend what you had done for us and your extended service. But as for payment..."

"Tokens right? Don't worry about it, Your Lordship. We would require 2 residential plot, and 5 men would be assigned to one. Treat us like one of your citizens. At the meantime, I myself would be at the mill, 4 would be at the watchtowers and remaining 5 would be deployed as labourers. As I had mentioned earlier, no one is to know our identities. One period of time, would the citizens finally would understand who we are."

"Hmm, the Chadwells still lingered at the seat when everyone had left. Are they waiting to talk to us also?" Heather interrupted our dialogue when she caught the Chadwells at the corner of her eyes still sitting on the benches after the rest had scampered after hearing me roared out earlier.

"The Chadwells...? Hmm... There's nothing wrong with them, Your Lordship, But I would better off warn Your Lordship about something..."

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