"It's Redwick, young master." Redwick said facing the door to the office room. He heard a soft sigh from inside before his young master's voice.
He opened the walked into the room. His young master as seen for the past few weeks had been attending to the office room as usual.
I took a look at the old man and pointed him towards the seat, "Sit Redwick, we need to talk."
Doing just as I said, I sighed once again, "This is going to be hard to say." ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ novel•fire.net
Not really but I had to pretend at least.
"But you have two choices to make here, Redwick."
"Pardon?" He asked clearly confused at what I was going to do.
"I'll be brief with you Redwick. Since you are my most trusted person, I'm giving you this choice." Redwick didn't understand what I was saying but he listened, "Tell me truthfully, who do you think all of this stuff should go to?" I said spreading my hands.
"Be serious with me as I have been with you. Tell me, do you think all of this should go to my new stepmother?" I asked as his face turned sour, "Do you think that my father would want that?"
"I… can't really sa-"
"You were his most trusted confidant, of course you can. Just tell me," I gave him a serious look, "do you think he would feel justified by all of his hard earned things going to a woman he barely knew instead of his own blood?"
"I…I…" Redwick thought long and hard before he gulped while quietly saying, "the master… may not have-"
"Yes, you're right. He definitely wouldn't have liked that." I interrupted the old guy before he could say anything unsavory, "But it's still all happening, do you know why?"
He gave me a blank look, "Because he didn't surmise that he's death would be so close, nobody could have. But it still happened and here we are… trapped because of some stupid rule that would rightfully strip me of my house."
Redwick hearing me, felt himself slowly incline towards the injustice that was done upon me.
"So that's why I've decided that I'm going to leave, Redwick."
"Young Master!" He felt shocked at the revelation, "you can't do that. That would be-"
"That would be what? Dishonorable, humiliating, going beyond my family code?" I tell him as he quiets down. "It would be, but it'll be much better than what I'll face if I were to stay here."
"So that's why I want to ask you, do you want to stay in service of that woman or do you want to come with me?" I ask him, "Don't worry, whatever you decide I won't hold it against you."
Redwick awestruck, looked to me and only saw the truth. Now he had to face this question himself and ask if he wanted to stay or go with me?
He looked down at his aged hands and then at me. Thinking about the young days when the past me would ride upon his shoulders as he ran around, me studying under his guiding hand and sleeping under his cared gaze.
If he would go then it he could be with his young master but if he stayed, then he would work some woman that he never even seen. Someone who's behavior he's still yet to see. With his aging body, it was becoming hard for him to work so much, especially now that a new mistress will descend upon this house.
So it was clear to him what he should choose.
He looked at me with renewed vigor, "If you would have me young master, then I would like to extend my services to you?"
I smiled, relieved by his choice, "Good. So from now on, you will work for only me, no madam or anyone, okay."
"Alright, with that done," I flip through the papers on the desk before showing him one. It had a location on it, saying land for rent, "I want you to look at this place for me, see if you can buy it or not."
Redwick nodded, "Yes, youn-… Master."
"Also hire a good doctor that specializes in prosthetics and buy as many magic books that you can find."
Redwick nodded before he remembered something terrible as he said, "Master, while you were gone, the scouts we send had returned back with the last master's body."
"Oh?" I asked, interested, "Where is it now?"
"It's inside the basement," Then he mucked his mouth as if thinking if he should say it or not, "If you don't mind, it would be better if we have a closed casket burying."
"How bad is it?" I asked, understanding what he meant.
Under the basement, inside a cold room.
The lights inside the room was lowly dimmed, the smell of something rotting so putrid that people would vomit right after smelling it.
I look at the 4.8-foot stature bald naked body lying before me on the table. The smell was worst, enough for me to want to run out of here as fast as possible. But it wasn't as bad as the damage done upon the body.
There were multiple stab wounds on his chest, leg, a few on the hands and few more on his face. I wasn't a crime scene specialist but I could guess whoever did this, did it out of pure hatred for him.
Redwick beside me said, "This was an act of vengeance, master."
"I can see… it's quite bad, someone must have really hated him to do this." I could literally see 'I hate you' all over his body, "Do you have any guess at who or what might have caused this?"
"I'm sorry, but no." Redwick shook his head, "The master was very secure about his private matters."
I nodded, "We will do a closed casket burial as you suggested. Don't send out any invites, this must be done quietly."
"And about the new madam?"
"I'm sure, she would be glad not to have witnessed this." I point, "And we can't afford to wait for much longer, the body might not be in any condition for burial by that time."
"Understood," Redwick said walking away from the scene before stopping and glancing back, "I would also suggest more caution. Whoever did this might come for you too."