The following day, Roland arose bright and early. The girl with the elaborate blindfold had materialised outside his door right on time. Due to the absence of the Willow this morning, little Swallow wasn't sure what to do with herself. Using this opportunity, Roland pretended he had just planned the perfect plan.
He tried to avoid eye contact while he begged rather aggressively for a day off to recuperate. By the time he finished ranting, Swallow merely yawned before telling him she was going to sleep.
Roland took that as a go-ahead to have his day off. After the previous night, Roland had already decided how to proceed with his escape plans.
The first mode to address was locating Wizard Grey's hideout. He spent much time deliberating on the best way to go about this. Since his trusted knight was being forcefully suppressed, he held no direct contact with anyone else who could help.
'They're unlikely to grant me access to just leaving alone. So I'll need to take a tiny detail with me." Roland said, pondering the accessible people within this castle. He scratched at the scalp buried beneath the growing tangle of thick vines in his head. Not long after, a broad and stoic face appeared through his thoughts.
"Of course, I'll just ask him."
Roland spent the morning roaming around the outer barracks of the castle. This place was as big as he might've imagined. And stepping foot onto each long hall felt like he was an ant in the middle of a spacious world. A lot of the tall walls were covered in large framed pictures. The crimson blood rug beneath his feet never seemed to end. After bumping into a few maids he met along the way, he was finally steered towards the outer gardens. Where the barracks were built. And where he would find the man he's looking for.
Roland walked across the thin strip of gravel lined against the sea of trimmed grass outside. At the end of the road, a small red stone building stood. At the end of it, he met the faces of two tall men. He gave a quick glance at their leathers and light armour.
He made a wave and formed a boyish smile.
"Good day friends." He said with affection in his speech
The two guards furrowed their brows to get a better look at him. One of them nudged the other and shared a strange, knowing look. They moved their right fists over their chests and reluctantly bowed.
"Young L-lord of the house. How many we help."
Roland watched their bodies twitch in an attempt to show their respect. To this, he could only shrug with a wry smile. He wondered how many people had been briefed to hate him secretly.
"I'm looking for Aa-ea-mon? Is that the proper way to say his name?" His question was sincere, but the two guards merely glanced at one another.
"Eh-Aeomon is inside. Would you like to- "
"Don't mind if I do." Roland swiftly pressed against his heels and moved between the two. He opened the door carefully before walking inside. A long hall filled with several long benches greeted him. The room was filled with beds, armour, and weapons, and stations with uniforms and other clothing items.
Roland scanned the many faces going about their business. His eyes flickered, finally catching sight of the man he was looking for. Aeomon stood to one side, examining a scroll covered in writing back to front. He hovered over a short table with a quill and ink, along with a shirt dagger to the side.
Roland's not-so-subtle approach drew his attention almost instantly. For the first time, Roland saw a mixture of emotions flash across the man's stoic, cold face. He looked surprised, then oddly guilty, before a little anger crept in.
"L-little Lord? What are you doing here?"
Roland smiled broadly as he approached the knight.
I'm "Looking for you, "he said, arriving just before the tall Aeomon. Roland stared blankly at the towering giant. Hee could still remember the way he fought against those boars. His handling of a sword was excellent, too.
'That reminds me, I must go through the battle sequence with omega.'
Roland still had a few things to cross off his checklist, and practising these people's fighting and movement styles was high on that list once he concluded his escape mission.
Meanwhile, Aeomon seemed slightly annoyed by the silence, but his next choice of words wasn't what Roland had expected.
A deep sigh was breathed through his bearded mouth.
"Little Lord…Forgive me for my performance during the hunt. And my inability to be man enough to check up on you afterwards. "
'Huh? Why's he talking about that stuff.' Roland was sure he wasn't annoyed about that. "Oh yeah, sure, that's alright, nothing you could've done." He cleared his throat before getting to the real reason he was here.
"I need your help. I'm planning on a short trip to the further woods. I think I dropped something quite important to me—a keepsake, so to speak, one that belonged to my mother." He purposely lowered his gaze, feigning sadness with a drawn-out silence.
Aeomon stared awkwardly at the boy. It was apparent he had no real training in this kind of matter. "I…I see. If it's just over to the further wood, I can send two soldiers to accompany you. Is that alright? Unless you feel you need more?"
"No-no two is enough ahaha. More than enough."
Roland secretly jumped with joy at how easy that was.
Roland watched the impassive face contour between sternness and softness. He found it amusing, in truth, watching guilt dictate someone's decisions. Nevertheless, he sighed in relief once Aeomon gave the go-ahead. Two guardsmen from the barracks were assigned to him. And now he had his reason to leave the castle grounds.
Time moved along, and a gentle chill walked across the vast spread of emerald land. Compared to being stuck in the castle all day, his surroundings this early afternoon felt like a deserved reprieve from the shenanigans of the last few days. Roland manned his familiar beige stead, whom he had recently named sunfoot. His handling of the thick reigns was still poor, and the inside of his thighs hurt after riding for a while. But he sat with not much complaints today. Just seeing the rolling grass hills and surrounding forests improved his mood.
'This reminds me of some things I enjoyed doing during those rare times away from the federation.'
Roland still thought about those days from time to time, as distant as they were. He still carried those memories like the last remnants of a deceased relative.
Their horses trotted carefully over the crunchy ground. Roland curiously tilted his head towards the humid air above. Since they entered the deeper forest, he had lost sight of the clear skies and the raging sun. The cool wind he enjoyed enveloping him hardly brushed through this deep into the forest.
Roland exchanged conversations with the two guardsmen tailing him, but much else wasn't said. This, of course, suited his temperament. He would much rather have personal discussions with the artificial system within his head.
Half a mile from their entry point, Roland noticed a bed of white-petalled flowers growing wildly across the ground. He had already made a mental note of the old man's instructions. After encountering the bed of white flowers, a giant oak tree covered in moss should be seated just against a short hill ahead.
Roland peered closer towards the rising hill, where he saw a wide tree with a great cluster of leaves blooming out of every piece of branch gnarling away from its side.
Roland's eyes flashed wide. He swiftly dismounted his horse and waved his escort to his side. They looked confused as they approached the smiling boy, who kept his hands behind his back.
"Right, so I think I lost it somewhere around that tree over there. I don't want us to lose sight of our trail, so you guys can help me look around here. I'll… check around that hill over there look, and I'll let you know if I find something?" Roland swiftly twisted on his heels, purposefully not giving the two a moment to respond.
He climbed the hill without any difficulty and circled the giant oak carefully. He found nothing out of the ordinary from a first look.
'I hope that old geezer wasn't lying to me.' He thought to himself. Roland still didn't trust Wizard Grey. Given how this kind of thing usually played out, he was half expecting some kind of betrayal along this quest at some point.
Roland took this time to enjoy the slight vantage point he gained standing on the top of the hill. From here, he could see across the crowded green bed. Vines looped and tangled amongst themselves, and colourful birds perched on high-raised branches. When he stood quietly like this, he could hear the air talking—a consistent buzz of hundreds of tiny insects in a choir.
A growing smile formed against the boy's youthful face. He stared dreamily into the open sea of natural life, thinking of this world and all its incredible splendours. He felt a growing intimacy surrounded by the vast wildness of nature. Roland knew he always had that. Only circumstances made it difficult to fully appreciate these things in his previous world.
'I never got to enjoy anything like this before.' He wore a smile whilst exhaling a calm breath. Roland's gaze fell upon nowhere in particular; from the corner of his eyes, he caught sight of a feint footpath trailing away from the towering Oak tree. He followed the pathway that slinked over the hill drop through a cluster of crowded bushes where a weathered, stoned totem stood outside what looked like the entrance of a sealed cave.
Roland's eyes perked up, and he approached the sealed mouth with his outstretched hand. His fingertips caressed over the sandy surface. The second he pulled his hand back.
"What's the master's secret code? " a deep voice growled to his side.
Roland jumped backwards and readied himself for a sprint away. Only when he realised the stone totem was the actual one talking did he feel curious enough to hold his retreat for now.
"Who-who are you?" He asked curiously, alert
"What's the master's secret code." The totem's mouth moved sterner with an ugly grimace.
Roland frowned at that but remembered what the old Wizard had told him.
"Apple Honeycomb… and Dew drops." He said begrudgingly.
The totems mouth dropped open and out fell a bronze talisman big enough to sit in his palm. Roland eyed the golden disk suspiciously before moving closer to retrieve it.