The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 293: Plans for war (1)

"This is one of the worst rides I have ever been on. How long have we been travelling for?" Logan asked, looking up to the sky at the sun. The weather was hellbent on killing him. "I miss the high winds and rain at home."

"Stop complaining," Christian said, wishing Logan would shut up. It was bad enough he had to deal with the heat which was worse thanks to his armour, but now he had to listen to Logan complaining. "Take off your helmet, you idiot."

"You were complaining not long ago, Christian. What was it? That we need to set up camp or you’ll pass out?" Logan said, turning around to look at Christian. "Before that, it was complaining about having to pee as if you can’t stop to go to the nearest tree and then catch up to us? Are you afraid the men will get a glimpse of how small you are?"

"This is a conversation you do not want to have with me, Logan. I’ve been unfortunate to see you naked and now why women don’t stay with you after one night," Christian retorted. He was not afraid to whip it out, but Logan should be.

"We are close to where we planned to stop to give the horses a break. Can’t the two of you shut up until we reach there?" Micheal asked and then took a bite of an apple he stole from the supplies. "You’re like children. How is it that the two of you rank so high? Besides, you two don’t have anything to boast about."

"How about you stop eating all the damn food before we all get the chance to stop and eat? He’s eaten his share of food, Rafael."

Rafael tried his best to ignore all of them. This was a small reminder of why he wasn’t ready for children since his first instinct was to turn around and hit all three of them.

This journey was nothing compared to how much they had travelled before. He advised them to take off their helmets so they could stay cool under the sun. The days were hot because of the armour they wore while the nights were cold. Still, he found it better than travelling during the coming winter.

If they stuck to setting up camp at night and riding all day, they would make it to the border in a day’s time. They had been travelling for around a day and a half now, but there was still more than a day’s ride to reach the border. Had they gone straight to the border from the manor, they would have been much closer.

Rafael looked around at the small homes of farmers who used the lands to grow crops they would travel to town with to sell. There were the occasional large mansions of people who preferred to live away from the heavily populated areas.

Being forced to listen to the knight’s ridiculous conversations, he understood why some people chose to settle far away from others.

"We are not too far off from a town," said Christian.

"We are not stopping yet. We are sticking to the plan so we stop somewhere with water for us to wash up and the horses to have a drink. Is the weather getting to you or are you simply afraid of being sent to the border?" Rafael said, studying Christian’s reaction.

None of his knights were ever sent to the border. Many of the fights they had were nothing like the ones there. They were dealing with an enemy who was able to keep the king’s men off their land for over a hundred years. No one was ever excited to go to the border since it was a long fight where many would lose their lives.

"I am not afraid," Christian honestly answered. "I just would have preferred travelling in a carriage or without my armour on. Who would be a fool to attack us? Look at us," he said, turning around to look at the army of knights.

Logan joined in looking back at the men riding behind them. "Now that I see us all together, the manor does need to be expanded quickly. When we return, there will be the boys who won the competition looking for shelter. We should request more land and gold from the king when we are finished with the border."

"Our dear commander isn’t thinking about expanding. He’s probably thinking of telling the king not to call upon him so he could spend time with Annalise. I am yet to erase the memory of him being kissed in the front yard. I no longer have to worry about him having troubles with women," Christian said, deciding to tease Rafael to pass the time.

"I’m a little jealous that I was training hard, but Rafael was having the time of his life with a woman," Michael said, jealous of the goodbye kiss Rafael had. There wasn’t a woman running to bid him goodbye with a kiss or so much more. "Whatever happened to him not getting involved with the maids? She is a maid, isn’t she?"

"Clearly that is out the window," Logan answered in place of Rafael. "Now he can’t speak about our relationship with the maids. We’re going to return to a manor full of gossip among the maids. So many broken hearts."

Rafael closed his eyes, resisting the urge to turn around and kill all three of them. He stayed quiet during their complaints, but now they were pushing him to get off his horse to silence them.

"I am not fond that she is the woman to make you come out of this stay away from women phase, but I found it funny that Logan was competing for her love and failed miserably. It goes to show that if you like the same woman as Rafael, you should just give up. He does nothing and gets the girl," Christian said, impressed by Rafael’s talent.

"Wait! So when we return, we will have to treat Annalise like the lady of the manor?!’ Michael exclaimed as he now realised this. "Their relationship isn’t that serious, is it? That woman kind of scares me."

"You loudmouth idiot," Christian muttered. "Was I the only one paying attention?"

"It is too soon for marriage or is it?" Logan asked Rafael. "Do you want us to shut up?" He asked after Rafael glared at him.

"Would you really need me to tell you?" Rafael questioned, turning his focus back to the road.

"It can’t be helped that we are interested in your relationship. When was the last time we spotted you with a woman, and we have to be invested in who might potentially become the lady of the manor. She’ll be Callahan so we must protect her," Logan explained.

Logan didn’t know how serious Annalise and Rafael’s relationship was, but if Rafael had plans to have her take the Callahan name, the knights would see her as family and go out of their way to protect her. They had to know early if that was Rafael’s plan so they could stop anyone trying to interfere with the couple.

The last thing they wanted was for Rafael to go back avoiding women. Rafael being in love might have him go easy on them when training.

"Right now I would prefer all of you to focus on what awaits us so I don’t have to drag any of your asses back to your families and apologise. The border guards will be our first issue. Don’t expect a warm welcome and do not fall into their trap of responding to what they say. We are to try to end this war and go home,’ Rafael said, keeping his eyes on the path leading to the border.

He was impatient to get this over with as opposed to the other times he set out for war. Rafael couldn’t shake the bad feeling from Annalise going to see her family.