Chapter 103 I’m Sorry
Chapter 103 I’m Sorry
He tightened his grip on Eadweard's wrist to strengthen his point.
"This is between you and me."
Eadweard grimaced in pain and yelped like a puppy who had been whipped. Still trying to be macho about it all, (even though he was very much in pain) Eadweard looked at Xzavier in his best 'manly' face, and put on a show of being unafraid;
"You vermin! Do you not know... "
Even in pain, Eadweard was still trying to treat Xzavier like he was a second class citizen. Actually, Xzavier didn't care what Eadweard thought of him. All he wanted at this moment was to squeeze out an apology even if he didn't mean it. Xzavier wanted this memory burned in the farthest reaches of his brain, so at any point in the future, whenever he might consider acting out of line to a female, he would remember this moment and desist from it.
Thus, saving more ladies from his unsolicited groping in the future. The back and forth between both men continued for a minute or two. Xzavier would apply much firmer force on Eadweard's wrist, forcing out a scream from him, and Eadweard would skip like a wild young buck, trying his best to hold out on his dignity for as long as he could.
When Eadweard woke up that morning, he didn't think he would be subject to this kind of humiliation. If he had known that this was what fate had prepared for him, he would have stayed in bed for a whole week, not daring to come out, totally bound by his fear of this nightmare from coming to pass. But alas, it was happening already, and worse still, in the presence of people whom he wouldn't deign to clean the toilet he pooped in.
Finally, after a few repeated cycles of confirmations and contests, Eadweard caved in shamelessly. Much to the astonishment of everyone gathered in the crowd, the exalted playboy prince of the revered Anjou family looked at Adalia with sorry eyes and said the magic words reluctantly;
"I'm sorry."
Xzavier shook his wrist violently, and more came out;
"I am sorry miss for being uncivil towards you."
He bowed his head in shame and cries of surprise went up from all the corners of the crowd. Store keepers had locked up their nearby stores just to witness this. Housewives who had come to shop for groceries were littered among the crowd. So, there was an overflowing abundance of tongues wagging excitedly.
The whole crowd immediately burst into a frenzied gossip! Just as the trees in the jungle produced their own different produce, each person with their own distinct comment! With varying degrees of interest, the talebearers in the small gathering drank in the scene and relished the thought of how they would re-tell this tale again to their social circles much later on. The mere thought of describing the mortification of the Anjou prince filled them with an intoxicating feeling that was akin to psychedelic drugs. For this category of middle/working class housewives, gossip was their drug. And at that very moment, they were as high as the heavens.
Eadweard watched with a look of horror as the whole crowd reveled in his shame. He absolutely hated everyone there in that moment, and it irked him that his power and status couldn't have all of them arrested in that very moment. But most of all, he hated Xzavier. Eadweard hated him with everything in him and wished he could just pulverize him at the snap of his fingers.
With the bitter tone of one who had been forced to endure a terrible humiliation at the hands of his oppressor, Eadweard scowled at Xzavier;
"You might have won this round, but rest assured that you will never know peace! Better enjoy the good life while you still have the chance!"
Eadweard's plan was to have everyone hear him threaten Xzavier so it wouldn't be said that he had been a weakling all through this period. But his plan was as pointless as treatment after death. The crowd was already bursting with the comments of multiple entities, no one cared about what he had to say any longer.
As he led his injured servant out of that sorrowful den filled with the vicious poison of gossip, Eadweard shouted above the din to establish his point again;
"Watch your back! I am coming for you!! You're a dead man! A dead man I tell you!"
Xzavier wasn't listening anymore. He could never take anyone seriously if they droned out empty threats. He always lived by a creed that was the exact opposite of that; if you want to do something, just do it. Don't talk about it. He turned his back on the empty babbler and saw the worshipful and admiring looks of Adalia, Earlene, Cadence, and lastly, Laddie.
Stunned, he started to wonder why they were looking at him that way. He immediately stopped himself when he remembered that standing up to oppressive nobles here was as common as the appearance of a blood moon in the sky- it only happens twice in every three centuries.
Quaid hadn't been at home at the time Adalia rushed to inform everyone of what was happening. So, after the incident, before whispers to the event began to fly across town with the speed of a pandemic, and on the wings of gossip mongers, Laddie rushed to the city hall to meet up with his employer.
The old man hadn't moved this quickly before. From the scene of the action, he had doubled back to the governor's mansion as quick as his feet could carry him. Upon his arrival, he immediately boarded on the many coaches reserved for the governor, and ordered the coach man to take him into the city immediately. As the horse drawn coach gently pulled out of the gate on onto the streets, sensing the Senior Mage's urgency, the coachman drove the horses like a wild man.
They furiously tore through the streets with the passion of a war chariot. Along the way, a couple of absent minded pedestrians were almost knocked over because they had wandered too close to the curb. Inside the chariot, Laddie kept stroking his beard excitedly. It had been a really long time since anything of this nature had actually excited him.
He replayed the scene he had only just witnessed over and over again in his head, and juxtaposed it with Adalia's narration of what happened earlier on before they arrived at the scene. He perfected every detail with as much flair as he could. The governor would definitely want to hear this.
It was only when he felt the carriage pull up to a halt that he realized he had arrived at the city hall. A brief knock came at his door from the valet outside and the door opened from the outside two seconds later.
Like the dignified entity that he was, Laddie stepped right through the doors without any hiccups and breezed through the protocols involved with seeing the governor without an appointment. Laddie met the governor in the lobby surrounded by foreign investors and emissaries. The governor had on his most charming smile and laughed every now and then with a hearty cheer.
When he lifted up his eyes to see his children's tutor strolling down the hall of the lobby to meet him, the governor's smile faded as quickly as the wiping away of a chalk written text on a board. Immediately, without even needing to talk, a silent understanding passed between them. The message was simple;
"We need to talk right away!"
Quaid smiled at his small entourage and whipped up some flimsy excuse about a personal emergency. He then handed them over to his deputy, and signaled Laddie to meet him at his office. Without saying a word, the two quietly ascended the flight of stairs that led to the governor's office. The silence was a bit awkward, but it was a a necessary evil for it was often said by Quaid that 'the walls have ears.'
Eventually, they got to the top floor. Surprised to see him, Quaid's secretary tried to keep her sandwich hidden as she stood up abruptly to greet him and his guest. Quaid shut her down before she could fully get up from her desk.
"Save it Bonnie. Just make sure no one bothers me for the next half hour or so. Got it?"
The plump, thirty eight year old married woman nodded vehemently in response to the governor's order. And as she did, chunks of grilled meat fell out of the sides of her mouth. Quaid shook his head disappointedly and left with Laddie.
As soon as they both stepped into the glorious office that belonged to the governor of Princy State, Quaid Princy closed the doors behind him and turned to face Laddie.
"I'm guessing this emergency is an Xzavier based emergency right?"
Laddie nodded and bade the governor to take his seat.
"Take a seat Quaid, you might want to be seated for this."