Chapter 36 Negotiation
Roland was dragged out of bed by Nightingale.
After he had heard that Nana’s father came for an audience, he was surprised at first. Soon he realized that this was a rare opportunity – If he wanted the girl to stay during the Months of the Demons and help fight against the demonic beasts, he would have to find a reason for the Pine Family to remain in Border Town during Winter.
Originally, this was a very tricky situation. After all, the 4th Prince’s popularity among the nobility had plummeted, and he had a strained relationship with the stronghold. This were the reasons why most of them nobles leave Border Town. However, from the beginning, Roland hadn’t considered working together with the nobles. They may have a lot of power, but they weren’t suitable for a joined work.
He quickly washed his face and dressed himself, then immediately went into the reception hall.
Mr. Pine was already brought into the reception hall under the guidance of the guards. When Mr. Pine saw the prince, he immediately stood up, enraged, and asked, “Your Highness, where is my daughter?”
This was the first time that Roland saw Nana’s father. He had a muscular build, but wasn’t too tall, and with his beard he had a very rough image. With his cotton coat that reached his waist and his leather pants that hadvery large pockets his dressing style looked more like that of a person from the Orient, rather than someone of noble rank.
“She’s fine, Mr. Pine -“
“Why was she directly let through by the guards, while I was stopped at the door?” Nana’s father interrupted him out of anger. “I need an explanation, Your Highness! Please bring my daughter out and let me see her!”
What was happening? Roland was full of wonder. He was convinced that Mr. Pine was clear about the situation that his own daughter had unfortunately become a witch. So it would be normal if Mr. Pine humbly asked him to hide the message, or he would just allow Roland to solve the problem. But Roland had really not expected that Mr. Pine would be so aggressive and wouldn’t act according to aristocratic etiquette.
As to why the guards let Nana come in without questions was only because of Roland’s standing orders. Nana would come every few days to play with Anna, so the guards were already used to her coming.
After considering for a moment, Roland gave the order to have a maid bring Nana over to them.
No matter how rude the other side behaved, he was still Nana’s father so it was only right to let the two meet and talk. If he showed any intention to send his daughter to the church or generally to abandon her, it wouldn’t be too late to take measures against him.
Nana and Anna both came together into the hall.
At the moment Mr. Pine could see his daughter, the impertinence seen in his eyes immediately vanished. He opened his arms wide in the direction of Nana and shouted loud: “Dad is here, so come to me!”
But the little girl was just hiding behind Anna, only exposing half of her head, “I’ll be sold to the church by you, right?”
“Oh… You silly girl, what are you talking about? Naturally, I would never take you to the church, so let us go home together.”