Adrian and his company reached the keep. He broke away from the rest of his men, entering the keep with only his knight by his side. He had asked a high-ranking knight about the situation at the front and received an answer that brought him much relief, the horde was dying down, being dealt with just as quickly as it had appeared.
Another sigh of relief escaped him when he finally took off his armor and took a bath. Even now, it still felt strange to bathe with servants standing off to the side, though they kept their eyes away, ready to assist him the moment he needed anything.
Just as he was about to head to his room for a well-deserved nap, a few servants approached him.
Apparently, a certain lady wanted him to come down to the courtyard to socialize. Adrian resisted the urge to groan openly. He grabbed his knight, who had also been on his way to sleep, and together they made their way to the yard.
The place was massive. This particular courtyard was entirely different from the other two he had visited before.
That was when he realized he would be in the company of ladies instead of the lords he had expected, save for a few young boys running around. It seemed the majority of the lords were up on the walls.
Adrian saw more than two dozen ladies gathered, many with their children, making the crowd quite large. He spied Lady Thea among them, who was looking at him with an amused expression, alongside the wife of the Earl, Lady Marissa.
“Lord Harrow, I am sure this must be abrupt, calling you here…” Lady Marissa began.
“I am glad to be here, Lady Marissa.” Adrian replied, bowing slightly. His knight followed suit, keeping his expression entirely flat. The women whispered under their breath, some smiling at Adrian while others evaluated him with contemplative looks.
Lady Marissa, her soft brown hair framing her face, smiled. “We never got to properly talk, Lord Harrow, champion of the jousts. Not to mention, you did exceptionally well in escorting Lord Jayson and the prince. Someone also just reported to me how you did your best to ensure the guests from various regions were safely evacuated into the stronghold before you entered yourself.”
“It is the duty of a lord, even if this is not my territory, to protect the people.” Adrian said.
He wondered if his response was a bit unusual, as he received a few odd looks from the crowd, excluding Lady Thea, who just looked highly amused.
“Well said. As expected of the champion.” Lady Marissa praised. “It is a pity this monster surge disrupted the competition. Do you think your team, led by Lord Jayson, would have won?”
“I don’t dare speak so confidently as to say we would have won, but we did our best before we encountered Lord Tuckstone.”
The mention of their encounter with Lord Tuckstone caught everyone's interest immediately.
“Can you regale us with what happened?” Lady Marissa asked, no doubt for the sake of the other ladies, as she likely already knew the details herself.
Adrian gladly retold the events, occasionally answering questions from the ladies about the monsters. Lady Marissa interjected with her own thoughts from time to time, as the most knowledgeable person there regarding the region and its history, she spoke of a similar creature from the past, a smart monster, though such things were incredibly rare.
Lady Marissa described a particular type of beast that was not just intelligent, but capable of leading a horde like a general. Of course, its tactics weren't truly comparable to human command, but it still made the horde far tougher to deal with since the creatures could actually retreat instead of just plunging blindly to their deaths.
What usually allowed humans to triumph over monsters was their minds and their walls, give the enemy even a shred of intelligence, and the struggle would intensify significantly.
Pretty soon, the conversation shifted back to their current situation. “Walt has told me that the monster surge is dying down.” Lady Marissa noted.
“Will the competition resume another day, Lady Marissa?” one of the ladies asked.
“I have not discussed it with my husband, but with the way things are, it likely will not. The safety of our guests will be prioritized.” Lady Marissa answered. She then turned to him. “I apologize for it, Lord Harrow. We promised a grand competition, but instead, what we gave you was danger and an abrupt ending.”
Adrian smiled and shook his head. “I do not mind, Lady Marissa. Besides, I have already earned plenty from the competition, and not just gold. It is truly a time that I will look back on even decades from now.”
Regardless of everything that had happened, he was glad he came here. How else could he have earned thousands of gold pounds? And it was nearly over, too.
As for that previous offer to join a group exploring underground, Adrian had initially thought of accepting.
He had wanted to gain the favor of the prince and the Earl, make friends with the elves, and possibly talk to them about a few things.
When else would he have the chance to speak with elves, anyway? But that was before this monster horde arrived, suggesting there were plenty more monsters lurking out there.
Now, Adrian wanted nothing more than to leave the area and return to the comfort of his own keep.
“I’m sure the Earl will be glad to hear that.” Lady Marissa said. Soon, the other ladies crowded into the conversation, and the Earl's wife chose that moment to gracefully step back.
Adrian answered their questions as politely as he could, but then a topic came up that he really should have expected.
“Lord Harrow, you don’t have a wife yet, correct?”
The speaker was Lady Cella, the wife of Baron Segfield, a woman nearing her forties. There was a distinct glint in her eyes.
“No.” Adrian said quickly.
But before he could say more, Lady Cella spoke again. “That shouldn’t be. You are young, talented, and have a bright future ahead of you. It would be even brighter with a proper wife.” she reasoned, shaking her head slightly as if Adrian's bachelorhood were a tragic loss.
“I don’t have plans to take a wife at the moment…” Adrian said immediately, wanting to stamp the topic down.
“Oh? Why is that?” Lady Cella asked, feigning surprise.
“Could it be because you want to… look around first before buying?” It was then that Lady Thea chimed in. Although her tone was polite, even a little reproachful, there was a flash of pure amusement in her eyes as she looked at him.
“No, it’s because…” Adrian scrambled to think of a valid excuse. “I don’t think I can be a proper husband yet.”
That seemed to surprise the group. Even Lady Marissa, who had just closed her eyes to sip her tea, opened them and looked at him.
“Oh? Not a proper husband? What do you mean by that?” Lady Cella asked, the other ladies looking just as curious.
Adrian inwardly groaned. But groaning wouldn't end this conversation. He could only hope this wouldn’t reach Ela when he got back home, he’d have to make sure Dexton kept his mouth shut, too.
“Uh… it just means I’m not ready. I have… qualities I still need to work on. Otherwise, marriage would just be a hindrance and a struggle instead.” Adrian said, mentally sighing.
“And I would like to choose a person I truly care for.” He added simply and sincerely. That was the primary reason he didn’t want a wife, or an arranged marriage, anytime soon.
His answer took the ladies aback. Both Lady Thea and Lady Marissa looked at him with raised brows.
“…That is… an admirable way of thinking, Lord Harrow,” Lady Cella nodded slightly, momentarily disarmed.
‘Or naïve…’ Adrian thought, seeing the look in a few of their eyes. But it didn’t matter.
His words seemed to have halted the marriage topic. After exchanging a few more words and offering his thoughts on visiting the wall, Adrian was finally dismissed. Having finally secured some time for himself, he took the chance to properly rest. The moment his body hit the bed, sleep immediately claimed him.
---
The feast was grand, and seemingly even more festive than the first day.
It made sense, considering the Earl had just announced that the final competition would unfortunately not continue due to the situation. He promised that all participating teams, especially those who had lost people, would be compensated, and expressed his deepest regrets for what had happened. The greatest losses of the event were the heir of a baron and the third son of a viscount.
Adrian, who had no reason to skip the feast, could only click his tongue at the tragedy. With such a loss, if the Earl had insisted on continuing the competition, he would have just been rubbing salt in the wounds of the lords who had lost their sons. Adrian sighed, unable to shake a complicated mix of emotions.
The tourney was officially over, and what an experience it had been.
Now, he was just looking forward to going home.
However, no matter how much Adrian tried to fade into the background, his appearance still caught the attention of the other nobles. Soon enough, he was surrounded by lords and ladies whose names he struggled to remember.
‘This is the last night, probably… just endure,’ Adrian thought to himself as he laughed politely at a lady's joke.
Then, a lord with a rather strange mustache spoke up. “By the way, Lord Harrow, I've heard a few rumors…”
“Oh?” Adrian wasn't interested in the slightest, but he gestured for the lord to continue anyway.
“I heard rumors that the reason you went out to explore the town was that you forced yourself on a woman, and that, well… you pay whores and have your way with them.”
Up until this point, Adrian had patiently endured a barrage of praises, tactical questions, and interrogations about whether he'd teach young men to fight or what kind of women he preferred. But this latest rumor? It was so utterly ridiculous that Adrian couldn’t help himself. He snorted, and then he burst out laughing.