Tyranny of Steel

While Honoria was visiting Bernegar for lunch at his Castle, Agnellus eventually returned from the dockworker with whom he registered his arrival. Of course, he had to pay a fee for using the dock, but that was not an issue for the veteran merchant.

What was an enormous issue was that the moment he returned to his galley, the Princess he had been tasked with protecting by his sister was nowhere to be seen. This caused an immediate sense of panic to fill in the man's gut.

Though he technically said he would help her until she arrived in Kufstein, he had at least wanted to make sure the young woman made it to the Castle okay. After all, if she was going to be meeting with Berengar, he too wanted to meet with the man so that he could negotiate access to Berengar's jewelry trade.

Both he and Honoria agreed beforehand that he would accompany her and pretend to be her servant, which would allow him to negotiate with Berengar for the jewelry business while maintaining the girl's cover.

Yet before he had the opportunity to take advantage of that, the girl just up and disappeared on him. Thus Agnellus began to search around the city of Kufstein for Honoria quite frantically. He would never forgive himself if something happened to her on his watch.

As for Honoria, she was currently eating lunch with Berengar and Linde. It was utterly unknown to her that her cover was already blown, at least enough to warrant a full-scale investigation into her identity.

As such, she was enjoying her time getting to know Berengar, who was more than happy to oblige the girl he thought may very well be the Byzantine Princess. To Berengar, it was better to keep the girl he suspected to be the Princess of the Empire by his side and provide her safety and security in his lands until he could verify her identity.

The reason for this was simple. If Valeria turned out to be Honoria, and he turned her away on the suspicion that she was the Princess. The Byzantine Empire could blame him for any misfortune that might befall her after he had kicked her out of his domain.

After all, the more Berngar talked to Honoria, the more he realized she was just a naive girl who had only recently come to know the cruelties of the world. For example, at this moment, Honoria did the unthinkable. She asked Berengar about a serious matter that a person would typically avoid discussing in their first meeting with someone who had a noticeable disability.

"So tell me, Berengar, how is it that you got yourself that fashionable eyepatch."

The food had yet to arrive when Honoria asked this question, which meant that they had been speaking to one another for less than half an hour; hearing this question Berengar put on a bitter smile as he tried to deflect the painful memories of how he nearly lost his life in battle.

"Let's just say I was wounded in battle, and we should leave it at that."

Though Berengar often reflected on his mistakes, as that was the only way to learn from them. He did not enjoy others learning of them; as such, his propaganda network had spun quite the tale about how Berengar found himself surrounded by multiple Teutonic Knights and, through sheer force of will, and overwhelming skill managed to overcome the odds, losing his eye in the process.

In truth, in a moment of recklessness, Berengar charged beyond his lines and into the fray where he lost his trusty steed and suffered a grievous injury in single combat against his brother before blowing the kid away with a pistol.

Despite this unflattering truth, the battle at Oberstdorf was too chaotic for anyone to witness how Berengar was indeed injured, so he used his injury to paint a picture of invincibility in the face of immeasurable odds. After all, if anyone could pull off such a feat, it was surely Berengar.

Despite having made up such a story to conceal his costly mistake, Berengar did not feel like lying to the girl about how he was injured and thus tried to kick the can down the road to inform her at a later date. That is, Should they ever grow close enough for him to reveal the humiliating truth of his injury.

However, Honoria didn't seem to take the hint and continued to press about the issue.

"You lost it in battle? That is fascinating! Who were you fighting? Do you still have the eye, or is it completely removed? Can I see it?"

Meanwhile, Heraclius merely shook his head at Honoria's response and looked at her as if she were an idiot. If an eagle like him could tell Berengar did not want to talk about the issue, why could this girl not see it?

As such, the mighty eagle began to peck at Honoria's face lightly, it was not enough to break her skin, but it was his way of saying that she was making a mistake. Honoria reacted by shoving Heraclius to the side, and the eagle rolled his eyes in response. With an expression on his face that said

"It is your funeral."

Luckily for Berengar, a distraction came in the form of food, and as such, an excited expression appeared on his face as he announced its arrival.

"I am afraid we will have to discuss this some other time. The food has arrived; I hope it is to your liking!"

Honoria took one look at the food on her plate and thought it was relatively simple, at least when considering the fine byzantine cuisine she was used to. However, the moment she bit into the pork schnitzel, she felt as if her tastebuds had entered heaven, and she could not help but moan in pleasure.

After eating a few bites of the food in front of her, Honoria exclaimed her thoughts aloud having already completely forgotten about her question.

"I had no idea Austrian cuisine was so delicious!"

To this, Berengar smiled proudly before responding to her comment.

"Well, I am glad you enjoy it; my chefs work very hard to prepare the best cuisine for myself and my guests to dine on."

At this point, Honoria had begun digging into her food, completely forgetting the reason she was officially in Kufstein, to begin with. That is until Berengar brought it to her attention.

"I suppose we should get down to business now that the food has arrived. How much of my jewelry can I expect you to purchase, and what is the price you offer for it?"

The moment she heard this, Honoria dropped her fork in shock and began to panic as she voiced her thoughts aloud.

"Agnellus!"

Berengar and Linde were confused by her actions. As such, Berengar tried to figure out what she was talking about.

"I am sorry, who?"

It was at this moment Honoria realized she had made a scene and calmly collected herself before speaking.

"Agnellus... he is erm my subordinate, he handles the business affairs. I accidentally left him at the docks..."

Berengar desperately wanted to facepalm at the girl's remarks. Honoria had spent all this effort to create a cover story, and in the end, she left behind a critical asset at the docks, one that could seemingly verify her identity in the event there were some suspicions. Berengar did not know who this Agnellus was or what his relationship with the girl was, but he figured it could not be anything good.

Now that Honoria was in Berengar's lands, she was under his protection, and as such he wanted to get to the bottom of this. If Agnellus had done anything inappropriate to this girl during their travels, he would be severely punished.

As such, the young Duke clapped his hands, and a couple of guards stationed nearby walked over to him. As they did so, they saluted their liege by pounding their breastplates and standing at attention before Berengar gave them their orders.

"Search for this Agnellus from the Byzantine Empire within the city, and bring him to me. He is probably looking for the girl as we speak, so it should not be too hard to find him."

With that said, the guards yelled in the affirmative.

"Yes, your grace!"

After doing so, they immediately departed from the Castle and formed a search party to find Agnellus. While Berengar, Linde, and Honoria waited. Berengar began to ask a question of his own to the girl.

"So tell me, Valeria, what is Antioch like?"

Honoria had no response to this question; she had never been to Antioch, nor had she ever had anyone describe what the city was like to her. She could probably imagine a fake answer, but it would be easily discovered if Berengar looked into it. As such, she gave a vague answer trying to deflect the question.

"Oh, you know, it is just like any other city in the Empire..."

To this, Berengar smiled and nodded his head politely while saying a typical response.

"Of course"

however, her lack of knowledge of the city she claimed to be from only further convinced Berengar that the girl in front of him was, in fact, Princess Honoria. Only a girl locked up her entire life would use a major city of the Empire as her backstory and not know the first thing about it.

Linde was also cautiously watching the scene, and though Honoria did not realize her lies had been seen through, Heraclius sure noticed it. However, despite being on alert, he did not sense any hostility from Berengar and Linde, only pity.

Heraclius had an excellent judge of human character; something told him that Berengar was not the kind of man that would cause unnecessary harm to Honoria, even if deep down the eagle could tell that Berengar was by no means a kind-hearted man.

As such, the trio began to make pleasant conversation over the meal, waiting for Agnellus to arrive so they could continue this grand charade that everyone in the room was aware was an enormous lie. It would be some time until Agnellus was found, and by the time he arrived, all of the food would have been consumed by the people sitting at the table.