Chapter 184: What Do You Have In Mind?
"Fernwood village?" Ivan blinked puzzledly at her request.
His crimson eyes studied her anticipatory demeanor as she awaited his response, whilst he saw her nod her head in answer to his inquiries. His current state of mind made him take more time than required to ponder extensively on her request before querying further. He could use this conversation as a method to distract his demons from clouding his thoughts with more irrelevant conceptions.
"This is abrupt." Ivan finally answered, his tone laced with slight abstruseness before gazing at her face questioningly. "Is there a reason behind your visit to your hometown?" At his question, he noticed the way her eyes widened upon referring to the place as her hometown. She must have presumed he forgot the name of her village; would she find it more creepy that he has all her personal records kept in his archive?
"Y... yes." Samantha brought herself to answer before jagging her fingers together, and she hesitated for a moment before looking up to meet his eyes. "I didn’t know you’d recognize the name of the place so easily."
"That’s because I have somewhere urgent to be tomorrow, and I will be away for two days." He told her, causing Samantha’s gentle eyebrows to furrow at him since he never informed her of this.
"Where are you going?"
"Fernwood." He dropped before moving his eyes to meet her surprised ones. "There’s news that the village council of Fernwood is subjecting my people to hunger. I’m going there to investigate the matter myself, and it will take me two days to sort the issue before I can return."
"Fernwood councils again? I always assumed those men would change," Samantha shook her head in disappointment as she remembered those old councilmen in Fernwood. "I’ve had a few unlucky encounters with them myself, and I’d have to sacrifice a few of my silver coins just so they don’t take our food resources away. From what you’re saying, it seems they’ve grown more hardihood to deprive the land of what they have. Fernwood is not even that big. Why would they do something like that?"
"So it’s true." Ivan hummed as she blurted out her encounter, a frown dawning his visage. They’ve bothered his little lamb as well. "Now I’m more eager to meet these corrupt officials. It’s quite obvious they’re depriving the people of their resources to increase illegal trading. I’ll have to arrange more goods for the villagers now."