Try and Catch Me

The Midnight Visitor (2)
When Lia embraced Eldric, she let the dagger slipped out of her sleeves so she could cut away the binds. She did not know it would work but that was the best she could do in that situation.

“It was a stupid and reckless thing to do.” She lamented.

Eldric chuckled. “Stupid and reckless, yes. But very brave too.”

Lia snorted. “I’m glad it worked out though. I was pretty sure Pen would catch me doing that.”

Eldric winced at the mention of Pen’s name.

“Sorry, is she a taboo topic? I won’t talk about her then.”

He waved his hand away. “No, it’s fine. Penelope and I grew up together. We used to live in the same town before it was blown into smokes.” Eldric said that Unseen gathered all the kids from their town and took them in. Once in the group, they were taught different things.

“Pickpocketing, stealing, lying, the usual stuff,” Eldric shrugged.

“Sounds fun,” Lia said without any fun in her voice.

“I did everything they told us to do to survive and that’s when he noticed me. He trained me personally and treated me as his son and heir. He told me about how to charm people and to let them be used to your advantage. He told me that I should use my good looks to charm the wealthy nobles and please them in bed. In return, I would ask for their money and support.”

But there was training, he said, to be a casanova. For the final test, the leader gave him an aphrodisiac and locked him in a room with beautiful servants. Among them was Pen.

“Penelope,” he croaked her name, “she was pure and innocent and I loved her for that.” He laughed bitterly. “When we were kids, we used to promise to be together forever. When she came to my bed, she thought we were fulfilling that promise. But then she had to watch on the sidelines as I… with other servants…”

Lia had an epiphany. Pen was his childhood sweetheart, perhaps even now as they were speaking, he still considered her as his sweetheart. That explained the pained expression he had back then. Maybe that was also why he flirted with any innocent beauties in the novel. He was looking for a resemblance of Pen in them.

“But how…?”

“I thought it was the end of the world when the next day she told me that I was a monster so I thought if I am a monster, then might as well do what she thought I was. Until I met another servant who used to be friends with my parents, she let me escaped. When I was wandering on the streets, I encountered a wealthy young man and tried to rob him but he turned out to be the King.”

Lia spluttered. “The King?”

Eldric smiled. “Funny right?”

But Lia was not in the mood to laugh. Her heart was heavy with all of this information. It must have taken a lot of courage for Eldric to share his past.

“Thank you for telling me all of these. You didn’t have to, but you still did trust me with these, so thank you.”

“You’re still not… afraid?”

“I think I’ve already given you my answer to that.”

Eldric smiled. “I should leave you to rest.”

Lia laid down on her bed as Eldric tucked her in and whispered thank you before he left.