Ronak
Micha kept peeking over to me as we walked out to the training field for some spell and polearm training. I know I'm the one who started our odd little competition, but honestly, I was just so curious if Micha was brave enough to actually do something. I know a letter was sent to Kas because Olivia told me, but I'm honestly surprised that Micha would do such a thing.
He was getting a bit bolder because of his confidence lessons with Giselle, but he was also becoming more comfortable around me. Not that I didn't like it. Quite the opposite, actually. I liked Micha going out of his way to surprise me, and I really liked it when he got a streak of confidence in the bedroom.
This though… was the complete opposite of confidence. Micha was just standing there fiddling with his cloak as I shot a few spells off. "Did you not want to train today?" I turned towards Micha and froze as he started to open his cloak. What was I saying about confidence again? Fuck, he… he can't wear something like that out here! I rushed over and pulled his cloak closed. "Micha, I know we made a dumb bet, but if anyone sees you wearing that, I'll have to pluck out their eyes." I pulled Micha's cloak open just far enough so I could get another look at him.
Holy shit. He had taken one of his training outfits and had it altered. The top, which was already tight, had been shortened to show off his stomach, and it even had a large diamond cutout that showed off his chest and collarbone. The arms of it seemed to have some sort of lacing that ran up them, too. The sides of his tight compression pants had a similar lacing along them, but the cutouts were so large that I could see most of Micha's thighs and a lot of his bond marks. I mean… it wasn't that much more indecent than his adventuring outfit was, but knowing that Micha had this altered just to please me was fucking hot.
"I-I'm not going to lose," Micha said as his hands came up and grabbed my sides. He tugged on my shirt until it popped free from my pants. His fingers weren't as warm as they normally were because of the cold, but as they brushed across my skin, I got goosebumps. Was the challenge not to get turned on? How did I ever think I was going to fucking win something like this?
Simply being in the same room as Micha for too long made me feel turned on. I found everything about him charming. Even his naughty behavior enraptured me. How completely unlike me to take on a losing battle…
"Ronak?" Micha called my name and brought me out of my thought process. Ah, his eyes were so beautiful.
"Fucking hell." Micha let out a little squeal as I threw him over my shoulder. Whatever, if this is the one battle I lose in life, then I can live with that.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maybe my brash decision wasn't the brightest one. The look of pure delight on Micha's face as he handed me a box was almost creepy. It had been a few days since I had completely had my fill of Micha. The smug little brat kept rubbing the fact that I lost in my face.
"Go on now," Micha said with a cheesy grin on his face. "This is what you get for losing and breaking my back."
"I didn't break your back." It was just sore from me being a bit aggressive… I still regret ripping those pants. Micha threw out the entire outfit as 'consequences for my actions'. Fuck, you'd think I was a child or something.
"You might as well have." He grumbled as he started pushing me towards the bathroom. "Now be an honorable loser and go put that on." Micha giggled like a maniac as he attempted to push me. Mmm, but it would have been more satisfying to dress you up. The fact that Micha selected this as his reward was a bit odd. Though I can't imagine he picked out anything too lewd.
"I'm going, I'm going," I grumbled as I willingly walked into the bathroom. Micha excitedly slammed the door behind me, and I glanced down at the small box in my hands. Shit, Kas, did you have this rush delivered to us? It hasn't even been that long since Micha requested the outfit.
I found myself hesitating to open the lid. Micha, I wasn't afraid of. Kas and his erotic tastes, now that I was afraid of. Even looking at some of the outfits that he had in his lingerie catalog made me a little nervous. Like, what fucking kinky shit is he into?
I lifted the lid of the box and paused. The fuck? Is this even considered an outfit? It's basically all straps. Ah, I see why Micha is embarrassed when I ask him to put on outfits. I wasn't drowning in embarrassment like Micha usually was, but I admit that I felt a little embarrassed as I pulled the 'outfit' out of the box.
"Micha's a kinky little bastard," I grumbled as I pulled what seemed to be a collar from the bottom of the box. This… this is a collar for pets…
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Micha
My nerves were going haywire. I-I can't believe I won, and Ronak has to wear something embarrassing! Hehehehe! He's been in such a bad mood whenever I bring up his complete and utter failure. I guess I have been rather smug about my win. Hehe, who knew that Ronak would lose one of his bets! I'm going to make sure that he never forgets about his failure-
The door to the bathroom finally opened, and my face instantly turned pink. "I can't believe this is what you're into." Standing in the doorway was Ronak, but of course Ronak was wearing the strappy outfit I told Kas I wanted. I-I didn't give him many more details besides the fact that I wanted his chest accentuated, and by golly, was it doing that and more. W-was that a collar? I-it even had studs along it as if Ronak was a scary pet. From there, he had straps that went over his shoulders and under his arms. They were connected by two bands that stretched above and below his pecs. I-I couldn't stop staring at them, though. Kas intentionally made the straps push on Ronak's chest, didn't he? Gosh, dang, I could get absolutely lost in those voluptuous pecs.
It took some forcing to look away from his bulging pecs, but I wasn't disappointed when I did. From his sides, two straps came down and crossed along his torso like an 'x'. They met at a belt and were connected to the thigh harnesses Ronak had on. He had on a pair of his black boxers underneath, but I wasn't that upset. The look was… hot. Really hot. So hot that I was starting to feel hot. Concerningly hot.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ronak
Micha's adorable eyes were like saucers as he stared at me. His face had turned an alluring shade of pink, and it was pretty funny to watch his eyes trail down my body before returning to my chest. Ha, good thing I pulled the strap a bit unnecessarily tight. It's really paying off-
Micha's breathing started to become irregular, and I was instantly engulfed with pheromones. This little… "Did you go into heat over an outfit?" Micha didn't respond, though, as he started to anxiously paw at the buttons on his shirt. "What to do with you?" I teased as I crawled onto the bed with him. The moment my knee touched the bed, Micha started to scoot towards me on his bottom. When I was within his grasp, his small hands came up and grabbed the collar around my neck.
"Bad alpha." I was a little taken aback, but Micha grabbed my free hand that wasn't supporting me and pulled it over to his groin. It was obvious before he even made me touch him that he was feeling aroused. "You made me too excited." Micha whimpered.
I couldn't help but crawl forward and tip Micha over. I knew I had to show restraint, but how could I resist such a temptation? "I'm bad, huh? You're going to think I'm bad when you're whining tomorrow-"
"You talk too much," Micha whined as he tugged on my collar. "Make me feel good already." His greedy little hands came up and started fondling my chest. Honestly, I could have sat there and let him do it for a while longer, but I had quite the needy omega on my hands.
"Will I be a good alpha if I do a good job?" I teased as I started to pull his shirt off.
Micha let out a cute grunt and grabbed hold of my collar with both hands. He really fucking liked that, didn't he? He pulled me down, and his panicked tongue found mine. Mmm, he really was warm. I knew that attractive outfits got him worked up because there have been plenty of days that I've witnessed Micha taking what he calls 'eye candy breaks', but I didn't think that I'd actually trigger his heat with one. I guess he did get rather worked up over my adventuring outfits. Though I was intentionally flirting with him both times.
I managed to get his pants off, and Micha squirmed around anxiously. Fuck, he's so wet, and I haven't even done anything. I shouldn't have worn these damn boxers. They're in the way. Had I known we were going to jump right into sex, I wouldn't have worn them. I thought for sure Micha would tease me quite a bit before I initiated anything. It does make me feel rather fucking smug knowing that I can get him this aroused, though. I can't believe this little fucker acted like he didn't like me for the longest time. Look at him desperately begging for my body.
"Too slow," Micha grunted as he tried to sit up. I tried popping one finger into him, but he wasn't having anything to do with it.
"You don't want to be stretched out? You'll whine big time if I don't."
Micha's eyes were awfully blurry as he glared at me. It reminded me of when he was sick and… was it me or were his pupils kinda crimson looking?. Pheromones started to assault my senses; they were so strong that I had to release some of my own as a reprise from his. Was Micha trying to induce my rut? My head felt a little fuzzy, but I had enough of my bearings to resist. "Alpha, give baby!"
I promptly sat up and stared down at the writing pile of desperation that was Micha. "The fuck?" He totally wasn't conscious of what he was saying, was he? Micha let out an aggravated whine and shimmied his hips closer to mine as if that was the problem. "I'm not going to give you a baby-" His aggravated whine turned into an absolutely feral little hiss. Guess he didn't like that response much. "Right now. No babies right now." The slight alteration of my response didn't elicit a much better reaction from Micha. He just kept making a feral hissing sound. "You are trouble, you know that?"
Despite it feeling like I was making love to a feral gremlin, I at least calmed him down by pressing into him. Though once my tip managed to pop inside, I had to pause. He felt… different… Like way warmer than usual and extra soft. Are… these his omega parts that are usually closed off? Fuck… I really am rolling the dice here… but if I stop or run as I did during his last heat cycle, I'm going to have one pissed off omega on my hands…
I pressed a little further into him, and Micha started making erotic moaning sounds. Shit. I wiggled my hips a bit further. Fuck. As I pulled out slightly, Micha let out the most alluring of sounds. Oh my fucking gods… I thrusted into him rather hard, but it was like thrusting into velvet, and the sounds he was making were addictive. Grah! I-I need to stop. I'm going to lose control, but… how is it that Micha feels so damn amazing?! Fucking hell! What am I supposed to do?! I want him so fucking bad, but my instincts are telling me that this is dangerous! If I continue swinging my hips into his velvety insides, I'm going to completely lose myself to the feeling…
Micha's hands wrapped around the straps on my chest, and he let out an angry little snarl. I… I… can't keep going… Instead of risking anything, I ended up flopping down and squishing Micha underneath me. He let out a little grunt, so I rolled to the side before I ended up hurting him. I took slow, steady breaths as Micha squirmed about. He poked me repeatedly, but I just sat there thinking about dumb things to distract myself from how badly I wanted him.
I need to finalize the cities- "Ronak?" Micha angrily poked me and tugged on my collar. Nope. Totally thinking about schools and not how good you feel. I'd like to increase the amount of locations by- Micha let out another angry hiss and ground against me. Fuck. I-increasing reading levels increases general knowledge. "Rooooonaaak!" Increasing general knowledge increases production and working- Th-there's totally not an omega smashing his squishy ass against me right now. Nope. Not at all. "Baaad alpha!" Yeah. I am terrible. You should have run away before getting marked by me.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Micha
I let out angry little cries as I cooled myself down. Worthless! H-he- he's supposed to put out the fire! Not me! The least he could do was lie at an angle that's not so awkward! My body slightly twitched, but it was so disappointing. The heat wasn't nearly as strong as it was, so I let out an aggravated huff and lay down next to Ronak.
He tried to bring his arm up around me, but I let out a loud cry and swatted at his arm. "I'll make it up to you later when you're not in heat."
"No!" I snapped like an angry crab. I want you now, not later!
Teeth sank into my neck, and I let out a defeated grunt. "You're such a brat. I should burn this outfit. Save us both the trouble-"
"NO!" I could feel the straps slightly digging into my back, but I knew full well that the outfit made me terribly excited.
"If all this outfit does is induce your heat cycle, then it can't stay." Calming pheromones started to aggressively assault my senses, making me feel tired.
I grumbled something incoherent into Ronak's arms and shut my eyes. What a big meany.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I got rid of the outfit." Ronak declared as I softly blinked and ran my hands across his chest.
"Whaaat?! That was my reward!" How could he! He can't get rid of something so attractive! I-I mean… I have very few memories of what happened, but apparently it wasn't much because I don't feel bad at all. "Why would you do that?! I barely got to enjoy it!!"
The look Ronak was giving me instantly soured. "I knew you weren't in your right mind."
"Wh-what?" In my right mind, what was he talking about?
"Do you not remember begging this bad alpha for a baby?"
I let out an embarrassing squeak as I buried my face into his chest. "I-I did what?!" I knew I accidentally went into heat, but I didn't realize that I completely lost myself like I did last time. Just how good was that outfit?!
"And then you were pissed because I didn't finish."
"Y-you didn't?" I asked as I peeked up at him.
"Well… not with you. You're such a brat that I had to take a very long and very cold shower." So neither of us had a good time… I-I shouldn't have purchased that outfit. "Just how badly do you want kids?" Ronak teased. What?!? M-me?! He's talking about me?! "This isn't even the first time you've begged me. Honestly, at this point, if I have to torture both of us by resisting a third time, I'll just give up and give you what you want." D-did I really subconsciously want to have kids that badly?! Gah! I-I can't believe that I begged for such a thing! It's not that I didn't want to have kids with Ronak eventually, but now just wasn't the time. Most of Ebonhold didn't like my existence, and while I think they would be happy for Ronak to have a kid, I don't think now is the time. We need to do things properly, so I don't become absolutely loathed.
"B-but we're not married a-and you haven't met my parents!" My voice was a bit muffled because I was hiding my face in Ronak's chest, but I'm pretty sure he could hear my embarrassed squeals.
"Then you need to stop going into heat. It's nothing, but torture."
"A-and who's fault is that?!" I whined. It's not like I chose to go into heat. They were induced. Clearly, it wasn't just my fault.
"Then no more outfits for you, and I'll reduce the amount of pheromones I put out." What?! No! He can't do that! I mean, I did feel a little sad about the outfit, but I can't live without his pheromones! "Calm down. I'm just not going to put out as many when we make love." No fair! I love it when Ronak fills the room with his scent! He can't take that away from me! "Shall we see if I put out enough pheromones to satisfy you?" Ronak's naughty hands started to wander down to my bottom, and I couldn't help but bite my lip. I-I guess we didn't do all that much yesterday… I peeked up at him and his naughty grin before hiding my face and nervously nodding. I mean, we were both already naked… It would truly be a shame to waste such an opportunity…
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Shouldn't I be getting ready for lessons?" I grumbled as Ronak flopped onto the bed beside me. He was all sorts of stinky from morning training, but I didn't mind.
"I guess we should be getting ready to train you." Huh? What did that mean? I poked Ronak until he looked up and grabbed my finger. "You are always looking to have this removed, aren't you?"
I elected to completely ignore Ronak's comment as I pulled my finger free from his grasp. He was all talk and no action, well… that is, unless I poke too hard. Then he's all action, and I can't walk for a few days afterwards. "What do you mean, train me?" Those were far too foreboding words for me to simply ignore.
"Oh, Giselle has something to do today, so I'll be taking over on your training. Besides, I think it's about time for you to start actually doing a little bit of work. You've more than proved yourself capable." I-I am? He thought I could actually do real work?
I sat up in bed a little and gave him a puzzled look. "Aren't you going to be busy with your trainees?"
"Nope. I pawned that responsibility off to Gerard. He's keeping an eye on them and will bring me a pile of satisfactory work by the end of the day to look over." In other words, Ronak didn't want to deal with them after feeling incredibly frustrated yesterday. Apparently, they just weren't catching on as quickly as Ronak had expected, and he was feeling downright irritated by the time we sat down for dinner.
"I hope I can live up to your lofty expectations." I didn't want him to be annoyed with me…
"You already have. My sunshine is a cut above the rest. That's why you're mine." Ronak childishly stuck his nose up into the air, so I reached over and pinched it.
"I thought you picked me because I smelled good."
"That too," Ronak smirked as he grabbed my hand and gave it a kiss. "Alright, enough loafing around. Time to put this brat to work."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I was pretty excited to work alongside Ronak until I realized that we wouldn't be alone and that Ronak wouldn't be doing much work. "Mmm, how ironic." Ronak grinned as he put his feet on the sofa.
"Very funny," I grumbled as I glared at him from my desk. I was surprised he was being so un-archduke-ly in front of Harper.
"First thing, before we tackle anything, open the top right-hand drawer. It should be stocked with ink, quills, and two little bells. Pull out the bells."
I did as he asked and looked at the two bells. They weren't very big; both were probably the length of my hand. Huh, one seems to be engraved with an 'O' while the other is an 'H'. "What are these for?"
"Ring the one with an 'H'."
As I rang the little bell with an 'H', nothing happened. The bell was oddly silent, but then, all of a sudden, a gentle ringing could be heard from Harper. She held out her wrist where a small golden bracelet was. Hanging from the bracelet was a tiny bell, only the size of my pinky nail. "Are these connected?" I asked, but as I lightly rang the bell a second time. I got my answer in the form of Harper's bracelet ringing.
"Since you can't communicate with people in your head, I figured that this would be a good solution when you need something."
"Oh, so the other one is for Olivia?"
"Yep. When you need her, just ring the bell, and she'll appear. I put a second one for Olivia in our room on the bookshelves, too." Oh, that's convenient! He must have done this after I needed her a few weeks ago and didn't know how to find her. Pft, Ronak is pretty cute. Always coming up with ideas to make my life more comfortable. "Benedict can make more if, down the road, you find yourself calling on someone a lot."
"That reminds me that I've been meaning to ask, what's so special about Benedict's magic?" I meant to ask when we came to Ebonhold, and now almost a month has passed. Time sure flies when you're busy.
"Basically, he's really good at making magic tools. That also means he can do some much-needed upkeep on already made ones." I noticed Ronak's eyes wander to Harper for a second before returning to me. Did he not want to say what his magic actually was in front of her?
"Oh, so he can fix our tub?" It's supposed to shut off automatically when it reaches the top, but it has a bad habit of shutting off before it reaches the top.
"I'm going to have him look at it when he's done making me something." I was rather curious what Ronak supposedly wanted, but I doubt he would tell me, especially with Harper in the room. "Documents will be placed on your desk like I normally have them ordered, unless you find that you like a different arrangement. Anyways, to the right are things that need to be looked at right away, and to the left are things that aren't an emergency."
I stared down at my desk at the couple of piles that ran across the top. So, this letter is the most important thing that needs to be dealt with? I opened my mouth, but Harper beat me to it by retrieving my letter opener off the shelf for me. "Here you go."
"Thanks. Oh. Is this from your new estate up north?" I asked as my eyes ran over the contents of the letter. It seemed to be an expenditure report for the new staff members who were hired.
"It's our estate, but it should be. Do you know what to do with it?" Ronak was really taking a liking to 'training me'. He was stretched out on one of the sofas in front of my desk with my pillow behind him and another one in his arms. He's lucky the pillows were delivered the other day. Giselle was rather surprised at how empty my office was, so she showed me some catalogs that she liked to order from. I even asked the greenhouse to give me a few of my favorite plants to put in here. I didn't have a big, beautiful window as Ronak did, so I wanted to breathe a little life into the place.
"First, since it's a 'new' estate, I'd actually like to compare it to the other estates' records just to make sure that nothing seems out of place. There's no reason why their expenses should be higher than the other ones, is there?"
"Mmm, no. Myles has been up there to help get productions into place, but he shouldn't be racking up any bills. I'd really only compare it to the Southern estate. It will give you the best comparison."
"Okay." Harper retrieved the books that I needed as I went about comparing the numbers and double-checking the math. Everything seemed fine, but… "Why would this estate need more maids than we even have here?" It wasn't just one or two, either. There had to be about ten extra maids. Was this a wrong number, or did they really hire that many?"
"Do you see how some of them have little ticks next to their names?"
"Yeah." Was that supposed to mean something special?
"The ones that have ticks are temporary. They'll work until the job is completed, and then they'll be released from their duties."
My brows furrowed together. "Why would we need temporary maids?"
"You know that bigger town your family lives near?"
"Are you referring to Berilton?" Where was Ronak going with this?
"That's the one. That's where our estate is located. Maybe you've seen it before, it was a rather large and dilapidated building."
"Y-you bought that place? Why?" It used to belong to a noble many, many years ago. Long before I was even born. However, when the old man died, a new noble never moved in. Eventually, commoners pillaged the place, and at this point, it was nothing but a shell of what it used to be. The last time I saw it, ivy and mold were starting to take over. The amount of money, time, and effort it would take to make that place livable would be insane.
"Mmm, because it's close to your childhood village. Don't worry, by the time we visit this summer, you won't even know that it was dilapidated. Everything will be completely remodeled and fixed up." My cheeks turned a little pink. He chose to buy a place in Berilton just because it's close to Wildborough? H-he didn't need to do that…
"Y-you're crazy," I mumbled as I hid my face with the letter. I could tell that Ronak was going to say something, but he didn't. "Here, Harper, these can be put away now. Everything looks fine." I scooted the book closer to me and got to work transferring the information from the letter into the records. Huh, this actually isn't too bad. Obviously, I'll get faster and quicker to recognize problems as time goes by. Yeah, I can get used to this.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Is that the last of them?" Ronak asked as his eyes followed the letter I passed to Harper.
"I believe so. My desk is empty now." I happily ran my hands over the pretty white top and smiled at Ronak. "Did I do well?"
"Mmm…" My eyes went a bit wide as Ronak hesitated. He wasn't going to be mean, was he? "I'd say you did a fine job, especially where you haven't done work like this before. I stole quite the talented sun from the sky."
Warmth flooded my face as Ronak intentionally flirted with me, as Harper stepped out of the room. The big dork was doing it the entire time I worked, too. As if Harper couldn't tell something was up. My dumb cheeks turned pink each time he'd say something cute. "Wh-why did you hesitate?"
"It's not very fun when someone pauses to think, is it?" Gah! Th-that's not fair! My question was so simple compared to half of the ones you ask me!! "You look like a puffer fish when you do that." Ronak snickered, but it turned into a soft laugh as I glared at him.
"You're a meanie," I grumbled as I released the air from my cheeks.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ronak
Shit. Micha looked so cute as he worked diligently. If his dumb assistant weren't here, I'd have a boner. Mmm, then we could have erotic desk sex. Yeaaaah, we need to do that one of these days. I'd love to spread Micha over my desk-
"Did you fall asleep?" Micha's voice was so soft as it called out to me.
Fuck. "No… I was busy thinking about things. Did you say something?" Only the best fucking things.
"Yeah, I'm not sure what to do about this letter."
"What does it say?" I lazily asked as I kept my eyes closed. Mmm, can't look at Micha right now. Not after having thoughts like that. I wonder if it's the letter that I intentionally slipped into his piles? There wasn't anything wrong with it; I just wanted to see what he would do.
"It's a request from someone in Ebonhold." Oh, yep, it is the letter I popped in there. "They want to know if it would be acceptable to have more night classes for adults at the school. She claims that she's tried attending multiple times, but they always have a full class."
"What do you think should be done?" I asked.
"Well… I don't know the whole scope of the situation, so it's hard for me to pass judgment."
I opened my eyes so I could glance over to Harper, then at the bookshelf she needed. "In the public works section, there's a book on all the schools in the dukedom. Give it to Micha." I turned my attention back to Micha. "Since the program and schools are run by me, anyone who works there is technically our staff too. There are ten schools currently. While I don't expect you to manage them alone, I thought you'd like helping."
Micha flipped through the book that was alphabetized and came to a stop at what I assume were the Ebonhold pages. "There are only three teachers, and they have class sizes of up to fifty?!" Micha gave me a baffled look. "That's a lot of kids…" He mumbled. I guess it has gotten a bit out of control. "How many of the teachers teach at night?"
"I think only one. Is it not indicated in there?"
"Ummm… Oh, is it represented by this little moon? Then yeah, it seems only one teacher is teaching at night. I take it that the others don't want to do it because they're women?"
"If I had to guess." I mean… I never asked or cared to find out…
"Hmm… Class sizes are getting rather large. What about expanding the school to house two more classes? That would drop class sizes to twenty or thirty, which is a bit more manageable. Then we can try making sure that at least one of the teachers is a guy who's willing to teach at night." Micha gave me a cute little look as his cheeks turned a bit pink. "O-or if you have a better idea…"
I couldn't help but grin. Micha's idea wasn't the worst. Honestly, I've been meaning to address Ebonhold's school problem for a while. Hmm, I think it will be best for Micha to see this through to the end. It will be good practice for him. "No, let's go with your idea, but there are a few things that logistically need to be worked out. First, how do you plan to fund this project? While I've generously paid for everything in the past, it's not sustainable. Soon, books will need to be replaced, and simply building two new classrooms will be rather costly. That doesn't include all the new supplies that will be needed." My uncle straight-up laughed in my face when I told him my plan. He said that my schools for commoners would do nothing but leech my money since I was letting commoner children attend for free. Clearly, my uncle didn't have the foresight to see how beneficial it would be in the long run.
Micha's face scrunched up as he thought. Honestly, I was expecting him to admit defeat and not give me an answer. "Umm… What if… the schools and night school cost money to attend?" I raised my eyebrow slightly, and Micha began to panic a little. "I-I mean… We wouldn't charge the families of the children much. Maybe only a few coppers to have their child attend for the year. That could be gathered and allocated to help pay for the teachers' wages through the year… Two or three copper doesn't sound like much, but when there's a hundred and fifty kids, it adds up. The night school, I would charge a little bit more for. That way, it not only will pay for the additional wages of a teacher working longer hours, but it can also help pay for the construction and new supplies. Obviously, we'd have to pay for everything up front, but over time, we'd get paid back. Then, after that, we can use the money for things that the school needs." Micha took a big breath and looked at me with bashful eyes.
Huh… Look at him coming to similar conclusions that I have. Not bad. Not bad at all. Though I can tell he wants to charge far less than I do… "Good, but what happens when everyone in an area grows up and can read and write? They won't need night classes, and our precious funding will completely disappear." I had put a little bit of thought into this, but I was extremely curious to know what Micha could think up.
"Right… Umm…" Micha scratched the side of his head for a second, then peeked over to Harper. "Oh! What if they eventually transition to skill classes? We hire experts to teach classes on different subjects. They could run for a length of time and then swap out to something different."
Huh. That's not a terrible idea at all… "What sorts of classes would be offered?"
"We could cross that bridge eventually," Micha grumbled under his breath. Trying to be a procrastinator, huh? That's not going to do. His idea gets better and better the more I think about it, but I want to hear all of his ideas first.
"Why not cross it now? We have two classrooms that sit empty at night, do we not? If we start offering skill classes now and advertising that the money will go to expand the school, I'm sure people will be excited."
"What sort of classes would commoners be interested in?" Not that I really wanted her input, but Harper, who had mostly been a silent observer of our conversation, finally spoke up.
I slightly scowled at her, but Micha's eyes lit up. "All sorts of things! There could be classes on forageable plants, job-related classes, hunting, cooking, or baking, and there could even be one targeted towards adventurers!" Whoa, Micha was bombarding me with excitement. Plus, his ideas were all over the place. They needed to be better thought out than that.
"Calm down. I think the best place to start would simply be to survey our current night school students on things that they'd like to learn besides how to read and write." Micha's ideas weren't terrible. If anything, some of them were terribly interesting. However, right now wasn't the time to make things too complicated. Just simply offer two simple classes and go from there. Maybe in a few years, we could look into some of Micha's more interesting ideas.
"Oh," Micha softly giggled and covered his big, warm smile that he flashed at me with a hand. "Sorry. I got a bit excited about the idea."
"I'm aware." I had to roll my eyes. I was more aware than anyone how Micha was feeling at any given time. At first, it annoyed the hell out of me, but now I found it rather calming knowing that Micha was happy and content. "For now, write her a response that her concerns have been heard and that we are working on something to remedy the problem."
"Okay!" Micha excitedly chirped as he grabbed his quill. Pft, he's so damn cute.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Micha
Of course, Ronak had to return to actual work the next day. His days of leisurely lying on my sofa were incredibly short-lived. My schedule got moved around, too. Giselle, Harper, and I would start the mornings in the classroom, working on etiquette and embroidery while also spending a decent amount of time learning about the dukedom. Then we would transfer to my office, where Ronak would let me take care of some actual work. When Giselle or Harper weren't sure how to advise me, Ronak would pop in. They seemed a bit intimidated, but I didn't care at all. I liked having Ronak teach me things.
I even had him commission a little bell system for us. There were plenty of times I wanted to summon Ronak to me. I mean… we didn't spend all day together. Just most of it. Hehe.
Obviously, Ronak wasn't going to wear a bracelet that jingles, and he wanted me to be capable of ringing him at any time, not just when I had access to a bell, so the regular system wasn't going to work. To remedy that, Ronak had my engagement ring enchanted, since I wear it every day, and now, when I rub the ring's ruby repeatedly, Ronak's new earring makes a soft chiming sound.
I wasn't even aware that Ronak had pierced ears until he showed me the earrings. Apparently, Ronak was okay with an asymmetrical look because the dork insisted that his demonic form needed one of the earrings, just in case he was transformed, and I tried summoning him. According to him, before training with the Commander, he went through quite a rebellious stage, so he had his ears pierced. Too bad Aunt Berengiere didn't have any photos of that, I would have loved to see.
His new earring made me blush because he insisted on a pair that reminded him of me. I thought he would go for a simple ruby or gold stud, but instead, he got a pair of golden wings that hung from golden hoops. I guess to the average person, they look like bird wings, but we both knew what they were referencing. Gosh! Ronak can be such a dork!
"Oh! Umm… what do I do with this sort of letter?" I asked as I handed the letter to Harper, who handed it to Giselle. She looked over the letter and then back to me.
"Unfortunately, I'm not completely sure what your household policy is on such a thing. It can vary greatly from house to house."
The letter was transferred back to me, and I stared at it for a second. Two of our employees want to get married, huh? It almost sounds like they're asking us for permission the way it's phrased. Well… I sure didn't know what to do, so there was only one person I could get advice from. I gently rubbed my ring and looked up expectantly.
There was an odd sound as Ronak teleported, and just as he had been recently, Ronak appeared with one hand on my desk and the other on my chair. "You rang?" Ronak said in a calm voice as he looked down into my eyes.
"You know, one of these days, I'm going to have something here and move my chair just a little to the side to prank you." I grinned as my hand snuck over to sit atop his that was resting on my desk.
"Wouldn't matter. I almost get an image of what you're doing before I teleport to you. So I highly doubt you'll be able to trick me." Ugh, no fair! How was Ronak able to get all this information about me, and I got little to no information on him?! I've been able to teleport to his location ever since the maid incident, but I don't get such convenient information; I just happen to appear near him. "What is it that you need?"
"Right." I giggled as I handed him the letter. Our hands that were together started to drift apart, but Ronak grabbed hold and laced his fingers through mine as he stood up. "A maid and gardener want to get married. Why does it almost sound like they're asking for permission?"
"Because they are." Ronak set down the letter and glanced over to me. "They need permission from us before they can get married. This situation isn't a problem, but sometimes an employee will want to marry someone who doesn't work here. They'll ask for permission to move to Ebonhold, or I've even had a couple of people ask me if they could move their wife here and have her hired to be an employee."
"What do we do then?"
"Since both of them are already employees, you can tell them that they are free to do as they see fit. I'll tell Gerard this time that their accommodations need to be moved to one of the shared couple rooms downstairs, but in the future, that's something that you can request." Oh yeah. I did notice when I took my tour with Giselle, Harper, and Olivia that there were single rooms and rooms that were much bigger. Those must have been for couples.
"Well then, I'll make the request!" I can handle such a thing, no problem!
"Okay then. I'll trust that you get it done." Ronak gave my hand a little squeeze, and I wiggled my fingers back in return.
"Do we give them a gift or something to celebrate?" I smiled up at Ronak, and he gave me a dull look.
"No."
"What?! You don't do anything to celebrate their union?!" That seems a bit rude. I know they're our employees, but we could at least do something.
"No. I expect their families to take care of that."
"But-!" Ronak let out a long, aggravated sigh, silencing me.
"What is it that you want to do?" He grunted
"Can I at least have a little flower arrangement sent to their new room after they're married? It's not like it's going to cost us much. We already have tons of flowers in the greenhouse, and I'm sure I can find a nice vase in town." I batted my eyelashes and gave Ronak my best pleading look. Please, please, please! We can commemorate their happy day a little, can't we?
Ronak let out another annoyed sigh. "It's your problem now, so do as you see fit, but it better not escalate into something crazier than that. I'm putting my foot down on flowers."
"Yay! Then I'll give the happy couple our permission!" I happily chirped as I released his hand and grabbed my quill. Ronak sighed again, but I ignored him. With a snap of his fingers, he was gone, and I was left with Giselle and Harper, who seemed a bit stunned.
"You want to give them flowers?" Giselle finally said as I brought my letter to an end. She didn't give me a judgmental look or anything, but her tone of voice gave her away. I had heard that tone of voice far too many times at the academy. She did not like my idea in the slightest.
"Yeah. Think about how happy they'll be when they come back to the estate after getting married and see a lovely bouquet waiting for them." I smiled at Giselle. Even if she doesn't approve, it doesn't matter. Ronak permitted me, and that's all I care about. "They deserve to celebrate their love, too."
Giselle fell silent and didn't comment on what I said, so I simply turned my attention to the next thing that I needed to do. I… was probably not behaving very archduke-ly, but I don't care. There's nothing wrong with celebrating things in life.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ronak lunged forward, so I raised my polearm to defend. He was wielding a practice blade, and his strike was relatively gentle compared to what he normally could do. "Don't forget to plant that back foot and keep your knee bent." He said as he took a slight step back.
I nodded my head and let out a little grunt as I lunged forward with my new practice polearm. Ronak finally had one commissioned that looked similar to my summonable weapon, but it took a while since Ronak had to find someone who could make it with the right materials. My summonable polearm was incredibly light. Almost like carrying nothing, so finding something that was a suitable replacement was hard. Obviously, my practice polearm wasn't as light, but it was trying its hardest.
Ronak easily blocked my incoming attack. "Don't leave yourself open." He said as he lunged forward.
I made a golden shield appear as he struck, even though he wouldn't have hit me. "I wasn't open. It was a bait." I partially lied. Okay, fine. I was a little open, but I knew I could make a shield in time.
"No. No magic. I want you to learn to guard properly before we add magic in." I managed to block Ronak's incoming attack and sidestepped so I could counterattack. "Not too bad. Keep focusing on getting faster. You're light on your feet."
I tried to strike Ronak, but like always, he managed to swing his sword around to snag the tip of my polearm before it struck him. He used enough force that my polearm flew from my hands and clattered to the frigid ground. Gosh, and he wasn't even using two swords. I'd be dead if he had two.
"That's enough for today. You're getting better. We need to work on your footwork, but you're coming along-"
Before Ronak got done complimenting me, I let out a big, relieved sigh and flopped down onto his cloak, which he always kept spread out on the snow-dusted ground for me. "So tired." I groaned as I scooted over to make room for Ronak.
My schedule feels a little insane these days. I'd wake up to go train with the knights every other day, then I'd get ready and study with Giselle before transferring to my office to do work. After that, I'd have lunch, and then Ronak would drag me out here to work on spells or with my polearm. Then I'd drop by the greenhouse to care for my plants, and I'd return to our room to freshen up and study. Study, study, study. I feel like that's all I do these days. After studying for what felt like a lifetime, I'd have dinner with Ronak and would be endlessly tortured until I fell asleep.
"Don't be so dramatic," Ronak commented as he sat down and stuck his practice sword back into his storage. "You're improving every day."
"That doesn't mean that I'm not tired." I groaned before rubbing my nose around in Ronak's stinky cloak. Mmm, cherries.
"Hmmm, you have been working rather hard. We'll have to do something fun to celebrate." I peeled myself off Ronak's cloak so I could suspiciously stare at him. What was his version of doing something fun? It probably had something to do with making love. "You're always so judgmental. I never even said what we're doing."
"You have a bad record," I grumbled.
The corners of Ronak's lips curled up into a smirk as I lay back down. "I just thought for Winterfest we could go somewhere."
"Weren't you the one who said that by the time winterfest rolls around, Ebonhold gets snowed in?" I raised an eyebrow as I stared at Ronak. The idea of traveling in a wobbly wagon that was struggling through the snow didn't exactly sound like the most pleasant thing in the world.
"I did, but I also didn't say that we were going to go far."
"Then where are we going?"
Ronak got a mischievous look in his eyes and looked away from me. "That's for me to know and for you to find out." I puckered my lips slightly. That's no fun, but I liked surprises. Actually, the fact that Ronak was trying to keep it a surprise was rather charming.
I reached over and poked Ronak's thigh. "You're pretty cute, ya know?"
"I'm pretty sure if anyone heard you, they'd think you're deranged." Oh yeah. I've gotten quite a few strange looks from people when I call you cute or dorky. I didn't mind, though. Ronak's cuteness was mine, and that's all that I cared about.
"I love you." I giggled as I poked him again.
Ronak snatched up my finger and pulled my hand up to kiss my knuckles. "And I love you too, you little weirdo." I couldn't help but giggle. Yeah… I might have completely fallen head over heels for this big meanie. Was it the bond? Maybe a little, but I've come to find so many parts of Ronak charming that they overwhelm anything the bond influenced. I'm going to keep working so hard. Just you wait! I'm going to be an excellent archduke!