29 Learning of My Brother

I arrived to the castle shortly after my departure. There were guards on each side of the castle gates.

I opened the windows of the carriage and waved to the guards to get their attention. The one on the left saw me gesturing for him to come closer and he slowly walked towards my carriage with his chainmail clinking as he walked.

'Good afternoon. I am Elaine Castelle and I wanted to visit my brother.' Hopefully they would let me enter the palace as I am a noble and not give me much trouble.

'Were you given permission to enter?'

Oh no, since no one invited me to enter the castle, does this mean I won't be able to get in?

'Well, you see....' I tried to come up with something, but before I could another guard came running to the one I was talking to and whispered something in his ear.

After the guard finished listening to the whispering he said, 'Open the gates.'

With that the golden gates to the palace were opened and he let me enter without an invitation.

I wonder who helped me get in, more that that how did they know that I was coming?

Deciding that I would find out sooner or later as the person probably wants to see me I figured I would just wait for him or her to show themselves.

The carriage went around the front garden to the palace doors that were opened as I went down from my carriage. I walked on the red carpet leading to the castle and was greeted by a servant.

He was dressed in a white uniform and black pants and he told me he had a message to give me.

'I will be waiting for you in the garden.' With that he left without another word.

I tried to stop him and ask who told him to give me that message, but he shrugged me off and left. It was un-lady like to chase after a servant in the palace so I let him leave.

Now at least I know whoever helped me enter was waiting for me at the garden. I decided to visit the person later after I met Elaine's brother first.

Getting him to agree to my plan of helping the refugees would probably be tough. I didn't know how Elaine's relationship was with her brother. He was barely mentioned in the book. All I know is that his name is Oliver Castell, that he worked in the palace and he didn't come to Elaine's funeral. 

Seeing how I never heard from him at all since I woke up in this world, I'm going to assume that he didn't have a good relationship with the family or at the very least he was distant.

I approached another servant to ask them if they knew where Oliver Castelle worked and they told me to go down the left wing hall, go right at the first turn and to knock on the 5th door down the corridor.

Lisa stayed behind me as I followed their instructions and together we reached the door that was pointed to us. I gulped down some saliva that had built up in my mouth and knocked on the large wooden oak door three times.

'Come in!', a low but strong voice said. I pushed the door open and in front of me was a room filled with books from both the left and the right. There was a huge sized window on the opposite side of the door that let in the sunlight through the clear glass.

Facing the door was a desk in the back of the room near the windows that had piles of papers on it. On that desk was a man about 20 years of age who had brown hair and dark brown-almost black eyes behind his squared glasses.

If it wasn't for the palace servant who directed me to this room, I wouldn't have believed that the man in front of me now was Elaine's brother. He had a kind smile on his face and welcomed me into the room.

'Elaine, it has been a while hasn't it?'

I put my hands in front of my body and held them loosely together.

'Yes, brother.' The tension in my shoulders were slowly being lifted as I felt that the man in front of me held no contempt or hate towards me, but a sort of kindness only family has towards one another. Maybe I had misjudged him.

'Please, sit! Sit! You must be tired coming all the way over here.' He stood up from his wooden chair and guided me to the sofas in the middle of the room.

'The room is a bit messy, apologies as I have not had the time to clean up.' He started to clear up the mess on the coffee table in front of me where paper were strewn everywhere.

'Argh!' At one point he knocked his knee on the edge of the coffee table and stumbled to the floor letting go of all the papers he was holding.

I felt bad seeing him try to make me comfortable where here he was hurting himself. So, I stood up and helped him to pick up the papers on the ground. From the ground he looked up at me behind his glasses as if not believing the sight in front of him.

He then got up and brought over some tea cups and a kettle to put on the now empty coffee table.

Then he poured each of our cups with steaming hot tea. 

'So what brings you here, Elaine?' Even as he asked me that question there was a hint of a smile on his face like he was happy to see me, but if that was the case why haven't he contacted the family at all? Surely even a simple letter would be enough.

I decided to keep my guard up and held the tea cup tightly in my hands.

'I wanted to ask you for a favor, brother.' The word felt odd coming out of my mouth as it was a word I have never used before.

'Oh?' At this his mouth formed a O shape and his eyebrows lifted up. He leaned a little bit more forward in his seat and asked, 'What favor did you have in mind, sister?'

I then told him of the flood and how the refugees were suffering. Then I told him of my plan to propose to the king of rebuilding the homes of the refugees using soldiers and if he accepts, his earth magic.

'That is interesting,' I couldn't see his eyes from behind his glasses as the sun was shining on them.

'Why the sudden need to help people?' He got up and went back to the desk he was sitting in when I entered the room and he took something from under the desk.

I stood up and said, 'This could help our family's reputation to increase, don't you think brother?'

He seemed to find what he was looking for and he stood straight up.

'Who are you?', he said as he held up a gun in his hand and pointed it towards me.