(BL) The Villain wants a Divorce!

”Lord Ridgewood, I want to ask this before I’ve tainted your imagination with my words.” Cass started, and Lord Ridgewood sat forward, leaning against his knees. Cass realised, belatedly, that Lord Ridgewood had taken off his sword and had leaned it against the couch. Cass hadn’t even considered that a knight like him would have had it on him even in the mansion. He hadn’t even noticed it.

How had he not? He knew that Lord Ridgewood trained everyday with it. He had seen several practises. He even knew that he wore that leather belt thing to hold it in place. Had he just not...paid attention to what side he wore it on? Like, where the sword sat? Granted, he had been walking ahead of Lord Ridgewood, so he hadn’t even seen where it sat. But...swords weren’t quiet, right? He should have heard it, right?

Unless there was magic cast on it? Cass could feel his thoughts spiraling, and he knew that instead of speaking to Lord Ridgewood, he probably should have given his mind a rest, but here he was. In a room alone with a man who he had very little interaction with.

Getting distracted, Cass cleared his throat and turned back to Lord Ridgewood. ”As I am not able to attend many of the balls and events hosted by the other nobles since I am always busy at the end of the month, I wanted to get your view on how they treat everyone in the hero party.” Cass said, and Lord Ridgewood seemed surprised by the question.

”How do the other nobles treat everyone? Why? Is something wrong? Did they do something?” Lord Ridgewood was immediately on edge, and Cass winced.

”Please, Lord Ridgewood. Answer the question before jumping to any kind of conclusions.” Cass asked calmly, while Lord Ridgewood’s gaze flew to the paper on the table behind his pile of books. His expression darkened as he frowned. He closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath before he composed himself. He nodded slowly.

”Right. Forgive me. I just...tend to get a little antsy when other nobles are brought up.” Cass could understand that. He did too. Antsy to punch them in the face. As far as he was concerned, he hadn’t met any good nobles yet.

He said what he said. That list also, tragically, included Lord Blackburn, who had been not nice to anyone. Out of self preservation of course, but still! Not good!

Lord Ridgewood fell into his own thoughts for a long moment, letting Cass just sit in silence while he did so. It wasn’t too long, but when he finally sighed, Cass had to try not to jump.

”Well, I can certainly say that it wasn’t...great treatment. Some of them were outwardly hostile, but that’s how most nobles are. Those who dislike others have a hard time keeping their feelings to themselves.” It wasn’t an excuse, but it did feel like one. Cass knew that Lord Ridgewood wasn’t on the noble’s side.

Or, he certainly hoped not, but he didn’t know the man well enough to be fully sure of that. Hell, he didn’t even know if Vespertine was going to side with him or not.

Cass sighed, rustling the paper in front of him before he picked it up and handed it over to Lord Ridgewood. He took it carefully, staring at it and the names with several tallies next to them.

”What is this list? It’s several pages long.” Lord Ridgewood said, and Cass sighed.

”That is the list of nobles, Lords and Ladies, who asked Lady Fiona for help. The tallies are the more concerning part of it.” Cass said and Lord Ridgewood frowned.

”Why? What do they mean?” He asked and Cass sighed.

”Those marks are there to show how many letters that they have sent. The same letter. Over and over. Not handwritten either. It was like someone had written a template and they had a servant fill it out and send it to her whenever they needed something.” Lord Ridgewood’s already pale face went whiter.

”Those damn fools.” He muttered darkly and Cass sighed.

”Lady Fiona had no idea of the slight. I still think she is having a hard time understanding why it is such a big deal. I wanted to know if those idiots had been treating her like this also in public. I’ve gone through everything, or at least the most recent requests. Those who sent personal letters, even rude ones, are going to get better treatment going forward then these fucks.” Cass felt the word slip out from his mouth and jerked, worried that he’d said something to upset Lord Ridgewood.

Instead, the man looked murderous.

”How dare they think that they can get away with this kind of disrespect? How dare they think that just because she is inexperienced, that we would let this stand? How dare they treat the hero like this? Especially someone like Lady Fiona, who has shown them nothing but kindness and respect?” He was livid. Cass had actually never seen this much emotion from the man.

He was a little scared, if he was honest. He swore that his already bright green eyes got even brighter, but he was sure that was just a trick of the light and the intense emotion washing off of him. He was glad that the sword was a few inches away, even if he knew that the anger wasn’t directed towards him.

Cass was afraid when people got violent. So sue him. It was a rather rational fear, and he was sure he shared it with many normal people.

”I agree that this shouldn’t be forgiven. They assumed that Lady Fiona would never share her letters with us. That changes going forward. I will not be allowing this to continue, even if Lady Fiona protests. No one gets away with treating someone associated with us this way. It’s so disrespectful to us, and to her. She is bending over backwards to protect their asses, and this is how they treat her?” Cass might be angry at her, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t get mad on her behalf.

Lady Fiona did work hard. She also downplayed her abilities in her story as well. Cass could tell from how much work he had heard she was getting up to, how tired she looked, and how much free time she had. They had only had down time for this long because of reasons outside of their control. Lady Fiona had no choice but to rest, but now the next ark of the story began in earnest.

Cass was going to have to keep his wits about him as the story slowly began to shift because of his involvement. And this? This was going to be one of the things that changed because of him. And Lord Ridgewood. And Draken, and probably Vespertine as well.

”Good. I will send word to my father as well. He will be furious about this.” Cass nodded.

”I...have planned to slowly but surely pull funding from these families as well. Not enough to harm the actual citizens, but enough to scare the nobles who did this.” Cass said and Lord Ridgewood, who had been pissed, turned his gaze towards Cass.

”You...you’re what?” He asked and Cass swallowed, suddenly nervous. Uh oh. Was that...too far for him? He had seemed rather upset, so that was the only reason Cass had told him the eventual end goal of his plan. Now he was being stared at with eyes he couldn’t read, and Cass felt a small bead of sweat roll down his spine.

”Well, they’re nobles. They are just going to laugh off a slap on the wrist. Everyone responds to when their livelihoods are in danger. I have the ability to scare them, so that they know better than to mess with the hero again.” Cass did his best to sound confident, but the longer that Lord Ridgewood stared at him without saying anything, the longer he doubted if he had made the right call.

Eventually, Lord Ridgewood nodded.

”It isn’t...something I would do, but I can see the merit in it. That’s quite...a serious plan. Do you need the Duke’s permission to do so?” He asked and Cass waved a hand dismissively. He was trying to play it off cool even as he was kicking himself for telling Lord Ridgewood his plan. That did not seem to go over well. He knew Vespertine probably wouldn’t have any issues with it, but Lord Ridgewood?

He was righteous, and loyal. Well, as far as he knew. Cass was actually not really looking forward to testing if that was the truth or not. He’d already been disillusioned with Vespertine, he didn’t really need another one.

”I don’t need that. I wouldn’t worry about that aspect, Lord Ridgewood. Anyway, I just wanted to inform you of the current situation, and keep you abreast of the actions I planned to take. Just so that you didn’t worry that I planned to do nothing in the face of this slight.” Cass told him and Lord Ridgewood watched him for a long moment before he nodded, getting to his feet.

”Well, thank you for doing so. Sometimes it feels like the rest of you are running around without me, so I appreciate this concern. I will pay you a visit if I learn of anything new. Until then, see you in a few days for the dungeon clear.” Cass nodded, getting to his feet as Lord Ridgewood did the same. He pulled his sword on first, before picking up his books. Cass did the polite thing and opened the door for him, allowing him to exit first as he came to stand beside Byron.

”Did Sam come back yet?” He asked and Byron shook his head. He was hiding his concern fairly well, even if Cass could feel it.

”He hasn’t, my Lord. Shall I go look for him?” He asked and Cass sighed.

”I’ll come with you. If there is a situation, I want to be there to help mediate it.” Cass told him and Byron swallowed, nodding as the two of them watched the back of Lord Ridgewood.

”Much appreciated, my Lord.” Byron said and Cass chuckled.

”Appreciated? It’s my duty, Byron. You don’t need to thank me for that.” Cass sighed, glancing around. ”Now, get to work, but don’t make it too obvious what you are doing. We can’t let others know of your special talents.” Cass joked, but his gaze was rather serious. Byron swallowed, nodded, and then calmly took a deep breath, before exhaling. Slowly, he began to move, Cass taking the backseat on this one to let Byron focus on where he was going. He was basically standing back and holding his leash, letting the man sniff out Sam.

Hopefully nothing too serious was going on when they got there, and Sam was just caught up in a deep conversation he couldn’t escape.