Chapter 63: Chapter 63"Rose, if anything feels familiar to you try to think harder about it so you can have some clues about where you came from. Does this kingdom not have records of missing people?" asked Zayne.

    "I do not know. I have always heard that going to the courts or town guards here is hard. They are far too busy to deal with small matters if there is no money involved. That is why I never planned to run there if I escaped the brothel and I do not know my last name," Rose answered, not hopeful it would help her.

    "It would be a good start to search for every missing girl named Rose. The person who sold you might not have travelled too far from this town to sell you. Unless this is the only town that deals with selling others as slaves," Zayne wondered.

    The more he learned about this kingdom from being here the more he cared less about making a truce. They could spread lies about how wonderful the kingdom was through merchants but now that Zayne was here, he could see the truth.

    "Your king is an idiot and we should have just killed him-"

    "No!" Rose exclaimed. If Zayne had done that then many innocent people would have to be killed before he reached the king. What would have happened to her during that time? Graham might be so crazy not to move the women in the brothel. "It is better to have peace." Sёar?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    "That is not always true. We have taken over another kingdom and placed someone else from their side to lead. He only needs to listen to our king’s commands. That kingdom was far worse than this one with small wars within its borders and now it thrives," said Zayne.

    He continued to explain, "Sometimes it is good to remove a bad king and war is the only way to do it."

    "Then, if your king was awful, would you kill him?" Rose asked, testing to see if it applied to his home.

    "I have already made him aware that if he were to spiral and start a downfall of our kingdom, I would kill him. Innocent people do not need to suffer because of fools in powerful seats," Zayne answered.

    Rose believed the same. "I am confused by something. You have been banned from the palace once and told the king that you would kill him. Are you a good general for them to keep you around? Or is it your family? I’ve seen sons of wealthy families get to do as they like here."

    "I am not spoiled and it is because I am a good general. You must forget about me being banned," Zayne said, regretting that he spoke of it.

    "How can I forget that you have cut off someone’s fingers? I feel frightened to show you my fingers," Rose said, hiding them beneath the table.

    Should she ever make Zayne angry her first instinct would be to protect her fingers.

    "I won’t cut your fingers. I hope," Zayne added to scare Rose. He laughed as she leaned away from him. "Rose, it would be impossible for you to upset me as that person did. I will leave your fingers alone. I should be the one worried about you and fire."

    "If you keep mentioning a fire so much, it would make me want to do as you have been asking for but I like this house. I would not burn something that I like," Rose replied. "Did you hear that? It sounded like a door closed. Janice must be back."

    "Wait," Zayne said, reaching into his pockets. "Here."

    "What is this? Is it money? But you paid me this morning so I could give Janice money for what I needed. What is this for?" Rose asked, confused.

    "It is the rest of what you were to be paid. You are cleaning this house alone so you are to get a little more. If you try to give it back to me, I will toss it out the window. You decide," said Zayne.

    Rose knew that he might be so crazy to throw away money. She thought she was paid enough already but she could save what was given to her now for her plans. "Wait. Aren’t I to give this back to you for your carriage? Here," she handed the small pouch back to Zayne.

    Zayne had been hoping she had forgotten about that. He wasn’t going to take the carriage back on his ship so she could just have it along with this home. "Wouldn’t it be cruel of me to take your first payment back from you? Think of how that makes me feel."

    "Right," Rose said, realising her mistake. "Then the next one you can have and I can use this to buy what I need."

    Zayne nodded his head. "Well, aren’t you so smart?"

    Rose narrowed her eyes, suspicious of Zayne. "Are you making fun of me?"

    "Janice is back. Do you want her to see us together?" Zayne asked, distracting Rose.

    "Right," Rose remembered, moving fast to tidy up the table. "Thank you for what you have taught me today. My writing will improve by the next time you are here. I promise you."

    Zayne watched the show of the little bunny tidying up with great speed and then he felt a breeze as Rose rushed by him to leave the room. Honestly, what was so bad about him teaching Rose? If not for Janice being present, there wouldn’t need to be all this sneaking around like they were doing something wrong.

    Zayne stood up as it was time to return to his camp. It would be another few days before he returned here to teach Rose again.

    As he exited the room and made his way down, Zayne could hear Janice telling Rose about what she bought. The positive side was Rose having someone to speak to and a mother figure. "I am leaving now," he said as he walked to the door.

    "Oh! Goodbye. Have a safe trip back," Rose said, waving her hand goodbye.

    Janice looked at the two and once more found something suspicious. She waited for the door to close behind Zayne and then asked, "You are being careful, aren’t you?"

    "It is not heavy," Rose answered, lifting the vegetables Janice bought.

    "Not about that. When it comes to that man, you are being careful right? While he seems to be kind, it rarely ends well for people like us with people like him. I don’t want to tell you what to do but I only ask that you be careful. I don’t ever want to see you get hurt," said Janice.

    "Oh. It is not what it looks like,’ Rose said, finally understanding what Janice was thinking. It might have looked strange for her and Zayne to come from the same direction. "I do not want to be with anyone and Zayne has said before that I am not the kind of woman he would have an interest in."

    Janice couldn’t believe the part about Zayne because she had noticed his gaze. "Maybe I have mistaken what I saw. Well, it’s good there is nothing to worry about. Let’s take these things to the kitchen and then I can show you what I got for you."