Polymath Redux

Chapter 12: What it means to be a cog

"You want us to be the mistress' maid and butler?"

Yda asks, though she honestly seemed more excited than she was confused or annoyed like she always was when speaking with Mordred. Noticing this Mordred felt a little haughty as his experiments on her was working as intended.

"That's right, you're going to be the head maid and butler to the rich merchant, Morgana Daltress."

Mordred replied.

"Well, that doesn't seem all that much different from now, but what specifically do we have to do?"

"You'll be going on a small business trip to the Baliazoural empire's capital. It's for 'official business'."

As Mordred emphasized the word 'official business' it was followed by a distinct and painful silence. One so quiet that it would be extremely easy to hear even the drop of a pin. Cold sweat rushed down Yda's back as she heard those words come out of his mouth, that she had been told to visit the enemy capital, 'was he insane?!' she thought.

However a look of arrogance and smile confirmed that he was indeed serious about this little trip. 'This was it', Yda thought to herself, she was going to either die in the hands of the enemy country or die by decapitation from disobedience. 'Ah, mother in heaven, I'll be coming to you soon'.

"Don't worry, as long as you don't mess up nothing's going to happen to you. Anyway pack up your stuff since you'll be leaving in two days."

As if to offset her worries Mordred tried to promise her safety, and while she knew he was fairly strong she didn't know just how strong. In any case since he didn't seem like he would be coming it was all meaningless even if he was strong enough to protect her.

"..."

Yda dropped to the floor and on her knees in a dejected manner, repeating the words 'it's over', to herself under her breath.

"Well, I'll leave the details up to Morgana. I need to be heading out so good luck."

"Ah! Wait you crook!"

Yda tried to chase after him but the closing sound made by the wooden doors simply accentuated the fear and panic in her heart. At the midst of such cold treatment it was Morgana who crouched down and started to calm her down with her soothing and motherly voice. 'There, there~' she would say as she stroke through her hair gently.

Unbeknownst to either of them, Grimal had a rather dissatisfied face as he saw Mordred leave. Despite only having been born just a few minutes ago he sort of understood the relationship between the man named Mordred and his master, but even so he didn't really like the way she was being treated.

Still, as a devil he possessed a keen sixth sense and noticed that there wasn't even an opening in Mordred's defenses that he could exploit; he was special; powerful, at least far stronger than Grimal himself. Not even in his tone did he falter even once as he spoke in an authoritative and commanding voice. This fact, Grimal could not accept it, as a proud member of the devil race he should be able to exploit any mere human.

However when he could not find any opening he could not help but feel even a tiny bit of admiration towards him, still that did not mean he would tolerate any affront to his master for much longer.

"Thank you mistress, but are you okay with doing whatever that man tells you to? Though I'm not entirely sure on your relationship with him."

Yda asked while embracing Morgana and planting her face inside her plentiful bosoms.

"I see, Mordred is... special, to me. But don't worry Yda, when he says that he will make sure you'll be safe, then he'll make sure that that is the case."