Ludger frowned slightly. He did not bother hiding it.
“I don’t want to do nothing for three days.”
The words came out flat, but the irritation underneath them was obvious enough.
For him, waiting around in the capital while the city filled with unknown guests, hidden agendas, and suspiciously polished smiles felt less like rest and more like being forced to sit still while someone slowly tightened a rope somewhere out of sight.
He looked toward Torvares.
“Was I wrong to come this early to the party?”
Before the old lord could answer, Viola did.
“No.”
She sounded entirely certain of that, which was annoying on principle.
Then she leaned back slightly and added, “Besides, Grandfather and I will be around the manor most of the time.”
Ludger looked at her.
Viola continued, “We’ll be receiving some visitors.”
That tracked.
A house like Torvares’ was never truly quiet during an imperial gathering. Not with nobles, allies, opportunists, and curious people all crawling through the capital like ants around spilled honey.
“So you two can do whatever you want in the meantime,” Viola said, glancing between Ludger and Luna.
Ludger raised a brow faintly. “Shouldn’t we stay around in case some troublemaker arrives?”
Viola looked almost offended by the suggestion.
“No one would do something like that so close to the party.”
Her confidence in that was irritatingly noble. Too clean. Too dependent on the idea that people only acted when it was convenient and sensible. Ludger did not answer her immediately.
Instead, he turned his eyes toward Torvares, looking for confirmation. The old man met his gaze. And said nothing.
He only wore that hard-to-read expression of his, the one that could mean agreement, disagreement, caution, or that he was thinking three steps ahead and saw no value in explaining the middle of the path yet.
Ludger stared for a second. He had no idea what the old man was thinking. That was rare enough to annoy him. Because Torvares was not smiling. Not quite frowning either.
Just... weighing something.
Viola noticed the silence and looked between them. “What?”
Torvares finally moved, setting down his cup with the same steady calm he always had.
“It is unlikely,” he said.
That was not the same as impossible. Ludger noticed the difference instantly. Apparently, so did Luna, though she said nothing.
Viola clicked her tongue softly. “That’s still close enough.”
“Close enough,” Ludger repeated. “That sounds optimistic.”
Viola gave him a sharp look. “You expect trouble everywhere.”
“That’s why I usually notice it before it arrives.”
She looked like she wanted to argue with that, but Torvares spoke first.
“There’s no harm in caution,” he said.
That ended the exchange cleanly enough. Still, Ludger kept his eyes on the old lord for a brief moment longer. Torvares’ face remained unreadable. And that bothered him more than the conversation itself. Because if the old man truly believed there was absolutely no chance of problems, he would have said so plainly. Instead, he had chosen unlikely.
Which meant he had considered it. And if Torvares had considered it, then the possibility was real enough to keep in mind. Ludger leaned back slightly in his chair, his expression settling again.
If he had free time, then he would use it. He was not made to sit still in a capital full of moving pieces and pretend boredom counted as patience. Viola, meanwhile, seemed satisfied enough once the conversation stopped circling around danger.
“So,” she said, as if the matter were already settled, “try not to start anything.”
Ludger looked at her. “That depends.”
“On what?”
“Whether anyone annoys me.”
Viola let out a long breath through her nose. “I just said not to start anything.”
“And I just said that it depends.”
Ludger had been waiting for Luna to say the obvious.
Something along the lines of staying near Viola, watching over her mistress, and making sure nothing troublesome reached the manor no matter the occasion. That was the sort of answer he expected from her. So when she spoke, what she actually said caught him off guard.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“I’ll be looking around the city tomorrow,” Luna said calmly, “to see things from a more ordinary perspective.”
Ludger looked at her. Luna continued as if the idea were completely natural.
“If we mix into the crowd and act like normal people, we should be able to find those warriors naturally, without alerting them.”
For a brief second, the table went quiet.
Then Ludger raised a brow and said, “We?”
Luna nodded once. “That’s right.”
Her expression remained composed, but there was a quiet certainty in her voice now.
“You should come as well.”
Ludger stared at her. Luna, of course, kept going with that same even tone that somehow made every odd suggestion sound more reasonable than it should have.
“If I go alone, I’ll stand out,” she said. “And some people might try to stop me, talk to me, or otherwise waste my time.”
Viola immediately looked like she was trying not to react to how accurate that was.
Luna ignored her and kept her attention on Ludger.
“But if you’re around,” she said, “that won’t happen.”
That made him narrow his eyes slightly.
“Because I’m so approachable?”
“No,” Luna said. “Because most people won’t want to interfere if you’re there with me.”
That was probably true. Annoyingly enough.
Luna folded her hands lightly on the table and added, “At the same time, if you don’t wear any pieces of your usual gear, only a handful of people would recognize you.”
Ludger thought about that. Also true. His gear, more than his face, did a lot of the work in announcing who he was. The way he dressed, the way he carried certain things, the very clear difference between traveling armed as himself and moving around like someone who belonged to the ordinary flow of the city, those things mattered.
Without the recognizable pieces, and with enough normality layered over him, most people in the capital would probably just see another sharp-looking young man moving through the crowd.
A dangerous one, maybe. But not necessarily Ludger. Viola leaned slightly forward then, clearly interested despite herself.
“That’s… actually not a bad idea.”
Ludger looked at her.
She lifted one shoulder. “What? It isn’t.”
Torvares stayed quiet for a moment, considering it.
Then he said, “Done properly, it would be less noticeable than having you openly search.”
Ludger’s gaze moved back to Luna.
She met it without hesitation. There was something slightly strange about that too, though he could not have said why. Just the fact that she had already thought this through enough to present it so neatly.
Luna did not usually speak unless she had already arranged the thought into something solid.
He leaned back slightly in his chair. “And what exactly does acting like normal people mean?”
For the first time, the faintest pause touched Luna’s expression.
Then she said, “It means not looking like we’re searching.”
“That doesn’t answer the question.”
“It answers enough.”
Viola snorted softly.
Ludger kept his eyes on Luna. “You’re being vague on purpose.”
“Yes.”
That, at least, was honest. Torvares let out a low hum and looked between them.
“If you do this,” he said, “then keep it simple. No unnecessary risks. No direct provocation. Observe first.”
Ludger gave a small nod. Luna did the same.
Viola, meanwhile, looked mildly annoyed that she would not be part of it, though that feeling was probably wrestling with the more practical side of her that knew her being present would make blending into a crowd much harder.
Eventually she said, “Try not to look too suspicious.”
Ludger glanced at her. “That advice would matter more if it came from someone less memorable.”
Viola clicked her tongue at him, but did not deny it.
Luna, as if the matter were already decided, simply said, “Then tomorrow morning.”
Ludger looked at her for another second. Then nodded once.
“All right.”
It was practical. And if Luna was right, then walking the city like ordinary people might reveal far more than prowling through taverns and rooftops as himself ever would.
Still, one part of the exchange remained stuck in his mind.
The way she had said you should come as well.
Calm. Direct. Already certain he would agree if she explained it properly. Ludger did not comment on that. He simply returned his attention to dinner while thinking that tomorrow, apparently, he would be pretending to be normal.
Which sounded like a deeply unreasonable task.
Ludger studied Luna in silence. Her reasoning was sound. Annoyingly sound, actually.
Blending into the crowd, moving through the city without openly searching, using normal behavior to avoid alerting the very people they wanted to observe, that all made perfect sense. It was practical, subtle, and exactly the sort of approach that usually worked better than barging around with visible intent.
And yet… The way she had said it felt strange. Too smooth. Too prepared.
Not rehearsed badly, but rehearsed well. Like she had already arranged every line in her head before dinner even started and was now delivering them in the exact order needed to make the idea sound natural.
Ludger narrowed his eyes slightly.
Was that an excuse?
For them to have a date or something? The thought was so abrupt and irritating that he almost frowned on instinct. Then he looked at Viola. That turned out to be a mistake.
Because Viola was very clearly trying to hold back a smile. Not a normal one, either.
It was the sort of expression people made when they knew something, or at least thought they did, and were enjoying the fact that someone else was only just starting to notice it.
Ludger’s eyes shifted from her to Torvares. That was somehow worse.
The old man had the look of someone wondering what exactly he was doing there. Not confused, not opposed, just carrying that faint, quiet expression of a person who had somehow ended up seated in the middle of something he was choosing not to comment on yet.
Ludger stared at him for a second. Then looked back at Luna. She remained completely calm. Of course she did. That only made the whole thing more suspicious.
For a brief moment, Ludger wondered if he was reading too much into this. If he was letting a few odd looks and one suspiciously prepared explanation push his thoughts in a ridiculous direction.
Maybe that was it.
Maybe he was just becoming self-centered. Like his father had apparently been in his youth. That possibility alone made him internally recoil.
No. Absolutely not. He refused to become that. So, in the end, Ludger did not say anything. Did not ask. Did not risk sounding like an idiot by trying to probe a situation that might only exist in his own head.
He simply looked at Luna and said, “Sure.”
That was enough. If there was anything strange about this, he would confirm it the next day.
And if not… Then he would pretend tonight had never forced him to seriously consider whether Luna had just invited him on something dangerously close to a date.
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