Chương 118: 117. Instincts

Gorsazo and Duvas looked around as well, but Feroy was still nowhere to be found.

"I'm n ot sure, my Lord," Duvas replied.

"I think the last time I saw him was in the evening, but I haven't seen him since then." He asked, "Should we ask Hudan? He is outside the gates keeping an eye on the feast, but he should still know where Feroy is." Kivamus nodded.

"Actually, yes. Ask him to come here. You were telling me earlier that Feroy seems off today, and now we can't find him anywhere. It's getting me worried." Giving a nod Duvas walked towards the servants' hall and after calling a servant, he told him to bring Hudan. Kivamus and others waited for Hudan outside the manor house, though it felt very cold here, since there were no braziers nearby.

"Is Madam Helga still outside?" he asked. Duvas nodded.

"No, she returned back to the kitchen to check the taste of the next batch of food, although Syryne is still helping out the other maids to serve food." Before long, they saw the huge build of Hudan jogging towards them. Reaching nearby, he said, "You asked for me, milord?" Kivamus nodded.

"Where is Feroy? None of us have seen him since the evening."

"Oh..." Hudan muttered with a frown.

"He is out in the village for a patrol."

"Alone?" Kivamus asked.

"But why?"

"He had been saying since the morning that everything was going so well, that something didn't feel right to him - even though he couldn't tell what he felt might be wrong." Hudan continued with a shrug, "I think he was getting edgy for no reason, probably because he had spent the last three weeks out with the caravan, while constantly worried about an ambush. So I told him to relax, but he said that he trusted his instincts and something just felt off to him.

So even though there were two guards already out on patrol, he went for a patrol around the village himself." Hudan added, "I did tell him to take another guard with him, but he said that we needed our guards to keep the villagers' crowd in control, and that he would be fine by himself. And since the evening, he's been out of the manor, and hasn't returned back yet." Kivamus frowned after listening to that.

"What do you think about it? Could he be right?"

"I haven't the foggiest idea," Hudan replied.

"After he went out, I did ask the guards who were out on patrol in the previous shift whether they had seen anything suspicious, but there was nothing to be concerned about." After a moment, he added with a shrug, "Although I can't deny that Feroy's instincts are often right, and without trusting his instincts, he wouldn't have survived long while living with mercenaries, but it's not like he's living between such cutthroat bastards here." Kivamus still wasn't sure what to think about it.

On one hand, there was no basis for him to be worried, especially since Hudan had confirmed with the guards who were previously on patrol. But on the other hand, it seemed like Feroy did trust his instincts, so there could still be something there.

"I'm sure it's nothing, milord," Hudan reassured him.

"Don't worry about it, and just enjoy your meal. I'll keep an eye on everything outside, and I'll come back to report to you after the feast has ended and the villagers have returned to their homes."

~ Maisy ~ ~ In the middle of a feast! ~ Ten-year-old Maisy was waiting in line for her turn to get food along with Elsie. Her little brother Timmy and Elsie's younger brother were standing behind them, talking about a neighbor of Mr Kigeir who had become a manor guard. Did they really want to become guards? It didn't matter right now, since tonight, she would get to enjoy eating at a feast! She didn't even know what a feast was before tonight, but as it turned out, she loved feasts!

Although it was very crowded here, the villagers were standing properly in lines now, and there was no more shoving to get ahead in the lines anymore. It was a different matter that she hadn't even eaten anything from that feast yet... But she already really, really, liked feasts! But the line still wasn't moving! Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Well, that wasn't true.

The line of children in which they were standing was still moving, but it was moving so slowly! And she was hungry!

"When will our turn come?" Elsie whined from her place behind Maisy. Maisy shrugged.

"I don't know..." Elsie pointed towards the front of the line, and whispered, "I think that fat boy there is taking too much food. That's why the line isn't moving!" Maisy grinned.

"You don't know that. Because you can't see there! Because you are still too short!"

"No, I'm not! And I'm still taller than you, shortie!" Elsie retorted, and looked away while sulking, but Maisy knew that her bad mood wouldn't last long. Before long, Elsie asked again, "When will our turn come... I'm hungry!"

"Stop nagging!" Maisy chided. Elsie looked away with a huff and began playing with her long blonde ponytail. To be truthful, Maisy still didn't know what a pony was, and how its tail could look like a girl's hair, but Elsie had told her so, so she had believed her. Mostly. But she still hadn't found any unicorns in the village - even though Elsie still kept claiming they lived in Tiranat - so she knew that she couldn't believe everything Elsie said. As she looked at her friends' hair, she thought that maybe...

in the future, she would also keep a ponytail like Elsie. Maybe... She wasn't sure how it would look on her black hair, but it had to be better than the haphazard way she had chopped it off a few months ago so it wouldn't get in her face. As she waited in the line, she saw that there was also a barrel full of water kept near the tables, from which a man - who was probably a servant in the manor - was pouring water with a wooden ladle for another man to drink.

Looking at the small amount of steam rising from the barrel, she was glad that it wasn't cold water or Timmy wouldn't be able to drink it at all. She wistfully looked at the maids who were serving the food. Would she also be able to become a maid in the manor in the future? She knew that for now, Mr Kigeir and the baron of the village were providing food for children like her, but eventually she realized that she would have to take care of herself and her brother and provide food for themselves.

But was it even possible for an orphan like her to get such an important job in the village? Even Elsie - who was a merchant's daughter - wanted to become a maid in the manor so she could earn coin by herself, unlike Elsie's older brother who wanted to become a merchant like Mr Kigeir, while their younger brothers still weren't sure - although they spent most of the day talking about manor guards or doing mock battles between themselves with wooden sticks.

A short while ago, she thought that she had seen a maid earlier who looked to be only a few years older than her, but although she kept craning her neck to look ahead, she hadn't seen her again. Maisy realized that she was too young to become a maid right now, and Elsie had even told her that there was a lot of competition to become a maid in the baron's manor. But she still hoped that in the future, she would be hired as a maid of the manor. Maybe Elsie could also become a maid there!

Then both of them would be maids in the manor! And she wouldn't be bored at all and they could be friends forever! They kept waiting as the line moved further, and after a very, very long time, her turn came, and the pretty maid behind the table who had short red hair put an empty plate in front of her. Elsie giggled from behind her, "Awesome! You didn't get anything, which means more for me!"

"Shut up," Maisy retorted, "or I will take your food too!"

"I won't let you!" Elsie said with a grin. Maisy just laughed at their banter - which was another new word that she had learnt recently - and waited as the maid began giving small portions of so many kinds of food on that wooden plate. When it was full, the pretty maid handed her the plate with a smile, and told her to eat the small sweet smelling thing only at the end - something which she called a tulora... no, uh... toloba, no! uh... a toloraberry pie! Yes! That's what it was called!

And finally, the maid told her to enjoy it and sent her away. She saw that as she moved away, Elsie grinned and walked to the front of the line, playfully shoving her on the way, but Maisy managed to prevent anything from falling off her plate. She moved a little away to the side as she waited for Elsie and their brothers to get their food too, and finally she looked carefully at her plate. And she couldn't recognize what most of those things were...

It seemed like there were three kinds of soups but she didn't know what kind, along with two kinds of bread. But what was the difference? She would have to wait for the food expert Elsie to come and tell her. There were also many other things as well, which she didn't recognise. After a very long time - time she spent wondering what all those bowls of food on her plate contained - all of them had got a plate full of food in their hands, and then they marched to where Mr Kigeir and his family were sitting.

They all took a seat next to them, but she noticed that Mr Kigeir and others had already eaten half of their food - which was a lot more than what was given to children in their much smaller plates, but eh... it didn't matter. She couldn't eat that much anyway. She poked Elsie, who was sitting next to her, and asked her about what those whitish things were on their plates. She saw in the light of a brazier which was burning nearby, that it was nearly milky in color, but there were two such things.

Elsie nodded and sagely pointed at one of those things.

"This is butter." But she kept looking at the other thing with a frown. Eventually, she asked Mr Kigeir, "Papa, what is this?"