“Hal Doxon, we need you to come with us” said the man leading the trio who looked to have been awaiting his arrival.

Clearly, they had known the precise circle in the Duchy capital that he was going to arrive with.

Hal noted that the fact that he was a Doxon was known and acknowledged and he wondered if that made the situation safer or more dangerous for him.

He honestly could not tell.

Blame it on the fact that he had been away for a year.

Maybe he was a bit out of the loop in regards to reading people and their intentions.

The fact that the man sounded polite could be a good or a bad sign but Hal decided to go with good… At least for now.

That said, it would be stupid to simply nod along and go with them without at least a bit of clarification, 

“And… You are?”

The man chuckled,

“We serve the Evgeny family… Our Lady has ordered us to escort you to the family estate.”

“Evgeny? Your Lady? Wait… Did Elsa send you?” he asked and the man nodded after which he probably expected Hal to simply follow after them but Hal was not done with his request for clarification,

“Exactly what does she want from me?” he asked.

“Excuse me what?” the man sounded confused at Hal’s question while the other two looked at each other in wonder.

“What does she want from me? I’ve been away for a while you see and I have a lot of catching up to do. The devil knows I have a lot of angry piranhas who are going to tear me up the moment they see me.

And I honestly CAN’T wait to be torn apart.

I have a busy schedule, my time is precious, so I will ask again, why does she want to see me?”

Now the lead man looked back at the other two in confusion and joined in their look exchange.

Hal raised a brow,

“No answer? Well, I’ll just be on my way then” he said and true to his word, he turned and walked away.

He was more than five blocks away from the Teleportation building before the trio realized he had not been joking.

That he indeed was going to just leave.

“Young Lord Hal, please wait up”

The fact that they had called him young lord reiterated to Hal that they were very much aware of who he was.

It put them in quite a tight spot.

Yes, they were here by order of their Lady Elsa but intimidation was definitely not a tactic they could use against Hal.

In terms of status, he surpassed most of all those living in the Doxon Duchy.

He was the Duchess’ son for heaven’s sake.

They quickly caught up to him,

“Please wait” said all three of them like they had rehearsed it.

Their confident visage from when Hal had first laid his eyes on them was now nowhere to be found.

“Oh, have you thought about it. Are you going to tell me why she called for me?” he asked with regal poise despite looking ready to walk barefoot to wherever his destination was.

The three once again shared looks before the lead man finally said,

“We… We don’t know” they indeed did not know why Elsa wished to see Hal.

They had just been ordered to meet up with him at that particular Teleportation building and then escort him to the Evgeny family Estate within their wide-spanning territory.

Also, they knew that there would be consequences should they fail to escort him over. No one was likely to care that they had tried their absolute best to get him here.

There were only two outcomes; they either succeeded by getting him to the estate or they failed by not getting him to the Estate.

Hal sighed and seemed to take pity on them before he said,

“Alright, that’s fine. If you don’t know, you don’t know.” 

The three nodded while the main man said,

“Yes, so will you come with us?”

“Why would I? I still don’t know what the reason behind the invitation is. How about you call her? Contact her with your communication Talisman and ask her.”

The smile that had been forming on the lips of the trio slipped and they looked at Hal as though he was insane,

“Contact her?” one asked.

“Contact Lady Elsa and ask?” another asked.

Hal nodded as though oblivious to their discomfort or terrible position,

“Exactly. Contact her and ask her why she wants to see me”

“Are you… Are you serious?” the main man asked.

“Dead serious” Hal said and his eyes flashed.

There was something about his tone and the way he said it that shut off all possible protests as the main man brought out his communication and contacted Elsa.

“What is it,” Elsa asked out of the Communication talisman and the main man gulped before he said,

“Young lord Hal is with us and he… Well, he says he won’t come with us until he knows what you want to see him for” 

Hal gave him a thumbs-up especially because of how steady his voice had been.

There was silence before Evelyn sighed and said,

“Tell him, when he gets here, he’ll know” 

Hal, who of course heard her words mouthed to the main man whose eyes were on him,

‘Tell her it’s not good enough. I want to truth’

The main man was so good at reading his lips, he got it all at once,

“He-He… He said it’s not good enough. That he wants the truth. My lady, please know that these are all his words. I wouldn’t dare to call you a liar”

Elsa ignored the main man’s words and answered Hal’s,

“Fine. Tell him that he owes me. It has been a year” with that, she disconnected.

Hal was sure that she was groaning right now and was most likely cursing his name as hard as she possibly could.

The main man sent the Communication talisman into his spatial ring with a shaky hand just as Hal said,

“That’s good enough, I guess. That’s your carriage, right” he pointed at a luxurious carriage packed not too far away from the Teleportation building.

As he walked on ahead of the three, they watched him walk with his hands behind his back in a relaxed pose and wondered just how much of an effect his little stunt would have on their lives.

“Fuck!”

***

The Evgeny territory was more than a few distances from the Sensual palace territory and nearly as grand.

In fact, Hal now believed that the reason the Sensual palace won in terms of grandeur was that it had been built as a Sect. With the large and tall communal infrastructures in place.

The Evgeny Territory, however, felt first and foremost like a home, albeit a gigantic home that screamed ‘power’. The Evgeny was yet another family to have enjoyed a level of privilege and status for being in a close relationship with the Duchy ruling Doxon family.

The carriage took Hal past many of the buildings and towards Elsa’s residence which was as grand as he expected it to be.

It said a lot about Elsa’s free-spirited and travel-loving nature that she left this clearly cushy lifestyle to go to the Silva Duchy.

of course, it also said a lot about the intrigue she felt towards Hal who was partly her reason for going to the Silva Duchy.

The three escorted Hal into Elsa’s lounge where she lay on a cushy sofa that looked more than wide enough to double as a bed.

She frowned at Hal’s arrival before she dismissed the l three who were all the more worried about their fates upon seeing her frowning face.

“Leave us” she said and once they were all gone and the noise-canceling runes in the lounge were activated, she stood to her feet and sauntered towards Hal.

Hal chuckled as she approached but it was directed towards the fearful exit of the three. 

He felt Elsa was surely not so unreasonable to not realize that it had all been his fault and that the three were practically just tools for his amusement.

“You look cute when you frown” he told her.

There it was again…

He was calling her cute but Elsa said nothing against it and instead grabbed the front of his clothes to pull him closer and connect their lips in a passionate and ardent kiss….