In Alaric's room.
"Tomorrow go to Jaden's room and ask him if he wants to be compensated," he told Ronnik.
"What do you mean?"
"I suppose he'll want to be paid after he resigns his position."
Ronnik hesitated. He knew Alaric wasn't in the habit of expressing guilt, but this time... it was different.
"Are you so sure he'll leave?" he finally asked.
Alaric averted his gaze.
"After what happened, do you think he'll want to stay?"
Ronnik observed him carefully. The Duke looked tired, heavy.
"What if he doesn't want to leave?"
Alaric looked at him sharply, as if he had never considered that possibility.
"Why should he stay? You know better than anyone how hard it was to find an assistant who wasn't afraid of the
'Duke Alaric' rumor. Edmund Jaden was different. He didn't seem to be afraid of me, but he experienced the rumors firsthand."
Ronnik sighed. He couldn't deny such a thing. He did know all this, but he didn't think 'Jaden' would leave.
The next day came and found Alaric wide awake and Elinora pensive. She had finally managed to sleep but she couldn't get what she had experienced yesterday out of her mind.
She may have been hurt but she never for a moment blamed Alaric for her wounds.
It's more my fault. I shouldn't have approached him so suddenly, she thought.
She was already getting ready to go to the office when there was a knock on her room door. She was quite surprised as she did not expect anyone to come to her room so early in the morning.
"Who is it?"
"Jaden, it's Ronnik."
After doing a quick check around the room to make sure there was nothing to give away her true identity, she opened the door. Ronnik walked in without saying much but a "Good morning."
"I come on behalf of Duke Alaric. His Grace wants to know if you want compensation," Ronnik began speaking without delay.
"Compensation for what?"
"He assumes that after what happened yesterday you will want to leave."
Eleanor was taken aback.
"Leave? Why? Did I make a mistake?"
"It's not that-" Ronnik tried to tell her, but she was already out of the room.
She could not understand.
I know the Duke's situation shouldn't be made public, but why am I being fired? I wouldn't say anything about the incident anyway.
She headed for Alaric's office and almost ran through the halls. She didn't want to leave, she had nowhere to go and she certainly didn't want to go back home.
When she finally arrived she walked into the office without knocking on the door. Alaric was sitting at his desk with a stack of papers beside him.
"What-" he wondered but didn't have time to finish his sentence because Elinora interrupted him.
"You're firing me? Why?"
"I never said I was going to fire you."
"I promise it won't happen again... What did you say?"
There was confusion between them. There seemed to have been some misunderstanding when Ronnik came into the room shouting out in a breathless voice, "That's not it!"
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