Esme stepped out of the kitchen and a tray of tea in hand. However, she halted her steps when she saw that the guests were now gone.
"They left?"
A sigh of relief escaped her mouth as she asked that question. However, she quickly bit her bottom lip, realizing that Arthur might have said something to them and caused them to get upset and leave.
"Yeah, apparently they don't appreciate being turned down"
Arthur responded with a shrug of his shoulders before standing up from the couch they were going shopping prior to Bulat barging into their home.
"I see, What are you going to do with the tea then?"
"Aren't you going to ask about what we discussed?"
"What two men discussed amongst themselves is not a woman's business"
She reasons while walking towards the table and placing the tray of tea atop it. She figured it was better just to drink the tea rather than throw it away.
"So if I had discussed with him about letting you be sold as a slave, would that be none of your business too?"
"That's illegal, and please don't joke like that"
She waved his words away, not truly taking them as seriously as she should have.
"You're missing my point here. This is our house. Whatever happens and whatever is discussed in it, is your business to know. If he had truly offered me something I wanted in exchange, I work for him. Would you have been fine with that?"
He pressed on, his words carefully measured. However, one could easily tell there was some frustration in his tone.
"I didn't miss your point, Arthur. I understand it clearly, but a man's business is his own. It would be too disrespectful for me to insert myself in your business."
Esme reasoned, to her it made no sense why she would ask him about what he and Bulat discussed, her opinion was unnecessary and it was customary for a woman not to question her husband about business he discussed with another man.
"So is a woman's business her own as well?"
She did not answer him, not because she did not have an answer to his question but because the answer to that question was not so cut and dry.
"It's a little more complex than that, Arthur. Yes, a lady's business is her own, but as it is a man's duty to protect, it's important to know his wife's business"
She answered while also turtling in on herself, she picked up on the anger in his voice earlier and she felt the urge to step back but remained rooted where she was.
Arthur sighed before letting himself blink for longer than a second.
"Ok, I understand, but I want you to understand that your voice here is important. If my job is to protect you, that means I need to hear your unfiltered thoughts so I can be able to protect you better and more effectively"
She gave him a nod, understanding what he was getting at. However, despite that, there was this feeling of discomfort in her stomach however even so she acquiesced to his request.
"Now, they came here because from what I could gather, they wanted me to work with them or something along those lines but I feel he wants to get rid of me more than anything, you got any thoughts?"
A pregnant silence settled between them, Arthur gave her all the berth needed. He wanted her opinion and waited as long as he had to, however, hesitation had taken over Esme.
She couldn't truly convince herself that this was right, despite Arthur having said so, it was foreign and didn't feel natural, the matters of men are for men, not women.
Arthur's gaze told her he was waiting and would continue to do so until she spoke.
The silence between them continued for a moment more until Esme pursed her lips and finally spoke.
"Uh... He wants to get rid of you. It's the obvious choice"
"Please explain"
Obviously, he could guess the reasons why but, he needed her to get used to offering her opinion on "manly matters" but also because he did not think he got the full picture yet, after all if Bulat wanted Arthur gone, there was no reason for him to come here.
"Because you are most likely to become an obstacle to whatever he's doing in this neighborhood, we've denied paying the protection fee. That means everyone else will probably want to follow our example and do the same.
They don't have the power you have individually, but as a collective, they can chase him away with enough numbers."
She explained, her eyes gazing onto the floor as she spoke. She couldn't allow herself to look at him directly while speaking about matters that don't concern her. It felt far too odd.
"Oh but if that's what he's afraid of, then why not put more pressure on the civilians to make them fear him more to the point they aren't willing to oppose him?"
"That's because you're here. The reason he came here is because he didn't know you, and thus, he could not make the assumption that you would stand with the civilians to oppose him. He came here to get a good picture of you, recruit you, or find something that he could use against you."
Hearing her reasoning, Arthur let out a hum, then gave a nod of understanding. What she was saying was all sensible. The next concern now was what Bulat was going to do now that he couldn't recruit Arthur.
Arthur wondered if the man had found something he could use against him. From their exchange, Arthur couldn't really see anything that could be used against him in any way.
"So now it's a matter of finding out what his next move is,"
"Yes, which means we should be careful. We shouldn't leave the house carelessly."
"Nah, we don't need to go that far. He won't try anything on the house. If he does, he knows I'll come after him, so the house is safe from any of his attacks. "
Esme was quick to rebut his words, believing his assumption was mistaken.
"No, that's not it. Even if we know he's the one who does it, you can't just attack him, without any evidence, and if everyone is afraid of him, they'll never go against him.
Bulat and his men can attack us all they want but we can't attack him back unless we have the evidence, not to mention He won't be doing it himself but instead he'll use his underlings so it will be even harder to prove.
It's also worth noting that if he has the guards under him, than means he has connections to at least one noble"
The odds were against them, no matter how powerful Arthur may be he can't just use that power to harass someone he thinks is a bad guy. Instead, he would be the one branded as the bad guy.
"Can't you–never mind. So what can we do now?"
"What is it?"
Hearing him change his sentence forced her to question him, if he had a way out of this then it was worth hearing, although she couldn't really think of a way that would do so cleanly and without any consequence.
It was possible to let Bulat be and let him do as he wants, to everyone else in the neighborhood however if they don't submit to Bulat and are the only ones exempt from his protection fee that would cause resentment amongst their neighbours.
Not only that, but it's easy to see that they would start wondering why Arthur, an explorer, someone with the power to kill Bulat easily, was not doing anything about him.
"Well, I was wondering, since you're also a princess and all, couldn't you say something to the king? But I know you probably don't want to do that, considering…."
He didn't finish that sentence, as from what she has told her the royal family wouldn't care what she has to say, not to mention they probably wouldn't even be willing to talk to her.
"They wouldn't care what I have to say. Even if they did, they would delegate it to some other low-ranking noble that Bulat could just pay off"
Arthur plopped himself on the couch with a frustrated groan. This was becoming more and more complicated the longer they talked about it.
The only thing that mattered when killing a monster was what you could get from its corpse. Aside from that, it didn't matter what method you used as long as it was dead.
"Let's move on from this then, I'm starting to get tired of it"
The man suggested while pouring himself a cup of tea. It was starting to get cold, but he didn't really care. It made no difference to him if it was hot or cold.
"No, not yet, your idea has some merit, instead of me being the one who brings the topic to the royal family, it should be you, and you can use that to get authority from the king to get rid of the "undesirables" in the area.
This way, you would be acting in the king's name, meaning no noble could question you or arrest you."
She explained before sitting right beside him on the couch and poured herself a cup as well The discomfort in her stomach had lessened. However, it was still there, thus, she figured something to drink would help.
"That makes sense. Let's do that"
Arthur was quick to be on board, mostly because he didn't care anymore, he was over talking about this, they were supposed to go shopping, and he was looking forward to buying her some clothes and seeing her smile again.
"hmm"
Esme took a sip from her cup and continued to think, her brows knitting together almost as if she was frustrated and Arthur beside her couldn't help but take a glimpse at her face and he couldn't help but find her thinking face to be very easy on the eyes.
"Actually, no. If we ask the king, that will make you indebted to him, and thus open the door for the royal family and the nobles to use you for their ends."
Thinking further, she couldn't help but realise that such a scenario was already in motion. She hadn't thought much about it before now because she was happy to be finally married and be away from her siblings. However, it's clear now.
The king marrying her to Arthur was less about throwing her away but more about connecting an Explorer to the Lionheart Kingdom.
Even if she's a commoner by noble standards that did not deny the fact she still had the king's blood in her veins, she will always be part of the royal family no matter how useless or unwanted she may be and that was enough to connect Arthur to the royal family.
"No, it's already happening right now. They're just waiting for the opportunity to present itself"
"What?"
Arthur turned to her mid-sip, a bit puzzled. He was already over this entire situation.
"I'm saying we can't ask the royal family for help as that gives them a chance to control you. We'll have to handle this ourselves"
Despite saying so, she still found it hard to think of a way to deal with the issue without contacting the royal family or at least a noble who has greater authority than the ones Bulat was working with.
"I'm fine with that, I want you to know I'm okay with owing the nobles a debt if it means we get to deal with this situation smoothly and quickly"
He still maintained that Bulat was no threat to him or Esme for that matter, if it came down to it, Arthur could just kill Bulat and call it a day but the backlash from that wouldn't just affect him but affect Esme, meaning he had to be careful.
It was similar to how getting rid of wolves would cause rabbits to overpopulate.
"I'd rather we don't do that, we don't know what they would ask for in return, You're an Explorer. Owing a noble a debt could mean a lot of things"
If Arthur went to the royal family and asked the king for authority to personally handle the crime in the slums, in return the king would probably ask him to become part of the Royal Knights, making Arthur a pawn of the king.
Even if it's for only a short while, like a month, that would still be too long.
"So we just need to find a noble of high enough rank but also one that's not going to try and use me for nefarious purposes?"
It didn't necessarily need to be the royal family, just a noble high enough in rank to put pressure and block the noble that Bulat was in cahoots with, stop them from using their influence and power to get rid of Arthur.
"Yes but I doubt–"
She paused, immediately cutting herself off. She knew a noble who would be just right for their purposes, but unfortunately, they were loyal to the royal family and would no doubt inform the king about the situation.
"What is it?"
"We'll I do know of a noble like that, but it would be better to speak to his wife than him, unfortunately we can't do that"
"Why not?"
He raised a curious brow as he asked that question.
At this moment, Esme was speaking about something that she as a woman shouldn't be involved in.
Arthur is supposed to handle this by himself as a man. It's his duty to ensure the safety of his home.
Essentially, this was not a matter that he could talk to a woman about. Not only that, speaking to another man's wife without his permission or knowledge is frowned upon and can be seen as infidelity.
That's what she explained to him. Giving him a good idea of how difficult their situation currently was.
The young couple was unfortunately stuck with difficult options
...