The meeting had progressed another 30 minutes before Edward alone was dismissed.
He glanced at everyone at the table then slowly got out of his chair, and was led outside by Emilia.
The last few minutes had been especially tense in there, they were moving from matters to matters so quickly that his head had almost started spinning.
He let out a sigh and mumbled to himself. "This stuff is not for me..."
Emilia gave him a side eye, but didn't say much other than, "Walk properly."
He fixed his posture, and tried his best to push those matters out of his brain.
But still, his brain somewhat refused to listen.
He reminisced about how the duke had held his hand.
The same emotion that had almost overwhelmed him starting bubbling up in his chest again.
This is not the time...
He forcefully pushed it back inside, deciding to deal with it later. Having been a highly competitive gamer in his last life, he was somewhat adept in pushing away unnecessary emotions like nervousness.
Edward exhaled, then looked up Emilia, who was walking by his side.
"Emilia."
"Yes, young master?" She looked at him.
"Where are we going."
"You will see." She responded simply.
All he could do was give her a nervous glance.
I'm dead...
***
"Do I have to?"
"Yes."
He looked at the stack of paper in front of towering over him like an ominous monolith. He glanced at Emilia once more, and when she shot him a glare, he meekly let out a sigh and sat down in front of the desk.
The papers were all the documents he had to go through being the heir of Myrvale, including the one that had piled up while he had gone missing.
He grabbed the first document from the top of the stack.
'Report on the conditions of the workers'
He looked at it for a moment, then when the confusion refused to clear away, he dared another glance at Emilia.
"Emilia..."
She replied, her voice heavy. "Yes, young master?"
"I don't know what I'm supposed to do with these..."
She looked at him for a long moment, then moved away from the bookshelf she was dusting to beside him.
"I will help you for now, just follow my lead."
It took them the better half of the day to finally sift through all of the documents.
Edward let out a small yawn, and stretched his back, just like a cat.
"mmh~"
His entire body felt stiff from sitting so still for so long, and he could already feel the weird letters swimming around in his vision.
He looked outside his window, the warm rays of sunlight was pouring into the room, giving it a golden tinge.
It felt refreshing, this quiet afternoon, in his previous life, he had always been busy grinding games to properly sit back and just... exist.
He gave himself a moment to appreciate the beauty of this quiet world, peering into the details of the intricate furniture that populated the office room. Then, slowly, he slid the chair back and stood up, making sure to not make any unnecessary noises.
Emilia had already gone somewhere, telling Edward that he would be free once he was done with his work. But still, the lingering fear still stopped him from not maintaining grace.
Standing where he was, he quickly skimmed over the documents one last time, making sure he hadn't missed anything. Then, finally, smelling freedom he walked out of the room with a small smile.
The satisfying click of the door still lingered in his ears as he slowly walked through the hallways, not exactly sure where he was going. He was humming a simple tune, one that he couldn't even remember where he had heard it.
The first five minutes of his walk had been pleasant, fun even, still humming the tune in the back of his mouth.
By the next five minutes, the tune had died out, and his steps started ringing a tad bit louder along the walls.
And after another five minutes, he stopped walking completely, and stared ahead at the ominous hall in front of him that just wasn't ending.
He looked behind him, the long hall way stretched endlessly in that direction too, distorting his sense of direction.
He inhaled a shaky breath.
"This..."
He nervously looked around, not even seeing a window in sight.
"This is going to be problem... isn't it?"