45 Chapter 45 Peter The Ra (1/2)

As soon as everyone was gone, Joseph picked up his copy and headed out the door with Stella in tow. His guards already knew what was going on, as he had briefed them earlier that morning. He made his way quickly to the king's personal chambers, where he knew he would be at this particular time, as he had made an appointment to see him.

”His majesty is waiting for you,” sniffed the man at the door. Joseph wasn't sure what position this guy held, but he had been there when his father made the contract with him, and his opinion of Joseph was not very high.

”Ah, Joseph, I hope this won't take long, I have a lot going on today.”

”Yes, your majesty, I just wanted to give you my report of today's meeting with those you appointed to me.”

He handed the king the notes he had made of what he had told them earlier, and stepped back.

”This is all? You could have given this to my head servant to give to me!” The king was not very impressed, barely glancing over the doc.u.ment before setting it down.

”Your majesty, I don't mean to be rude, but we both know you have people in your court who are not necessarily thrilled with my presence here. I was afraid if I handed those doc.u.ments to anyone other than yourself, they may not have made it to you intact.”

The king looked at him for a moment, then sighed and picked up the papers again. Reading through them, his brow furrowed in thought. It was plain that he had not antic.i.p.ated them to be so in depth.

”Alright, I will read through them completely. If that is all, you may go.”

Joseph bowed and left. Stella followed and the guards joined up with them outside the kings chambers. Without a word to anyone, they went straight to the dining hall, where he wasn't surprised to see all five of those from the meeting, missing. With a small smile, he sat down to enjoy his meal, before returning to his room.

While he waited for their return, he had Stella bring him an apple that she had brought up from the dining hall. He had finished DECAY the night before and wanted to cast the rune quickly. As the apple rotted in front of them, he tossed it in the chamber pot. 1 point was better than nothing, though he knew that he could have done a better job for more points had he wanted to. The risk of getting caught was too high, so he kept it quick and discreet.

As they started to return, after a couple of hours, their moods were vastly different.

”Sir Joseph, I hope we can come to a better understanding of all you hope to accomplish,” said Peter, tightly. It was obvious he was trying to hold back his obvious dislike for the boy, but Joseph was alright with him not liking him. He needed to get stuff done, not make friends.

As everyone else filed in and went to take seats, Joseph clapped his hands.

”I thought we might sit in court this afternoon. I feel we were able to accomplish quite a bit during our meeting this morning, and I thought it might be a good idea if I were to propose it before the king.”

Peter immediately looked green around the edges, but the rest of them didn't seem to have a problem with that.

”Are you sure you're ready to propose it so soon?” asked Daniel, glancing at Peter rather amused. ”I would hate for you to be disappointed if someone else was already going to mention the conditions of the roads. They've been a sore point in the kingdom for a while.”

Peter shot him a glare, but said nothing.