Who is Lord Motten?

Having walked Elsie part of the way towards the manor and managed to convince her that I wasn’t going to drop dead from the cut on my head; I began the walk back home, making sure to give her a kiss goodbye as we parted ways. When I returned home, a delicious aroma was drifting from the kitchen. As good as my mothers cooking could be, she never made anything that had smelt this good before. I walk in and think about covering my wound but come to the conclusion that it wouldn’t work for long.

“Hey, what smells so good?” I say as I see my mother standing over a platter of something in the kitchen.

She looks back and smiles at me, noticing me coming in “Oh, it’s another dish from Henry. He said it’s a new stew he had been working on, I think he said it had parsnips, carrot, potato, beef, and some other things in it. As great as his food is, you really need to let him know that you’re feeling better” she says as she takes a ladle and pours some of the stew into two bowls.

“I know, I know, but it just tastes so much better than you’re cooking. I’ve grown accustomed to a certain standard in these past weeks” I joke as I take off my jacket and join her in the kitchen

She gives me a glare but quickly smiles, “someone’s chipper today, what you were doing today?” she asks, taking a quick taste from the ladle before she brings them to the table.

“Oh, I just went for a swim in the lake with Elsie” I say nonchalantly as I take out two spoons from a cupboard and fill two cups with water from the bucket before bringing them over to the table

“Oh?” she says in an excited voice, “No Henry? just you and Elsie at the lake together? Swimming of course” she adds, leaving the rest unsaid.

I blush at that, realising that she probably has a pretty good idea of what happened, “Er… Henry had to help at one of the farms… so we decided to go with just the two of us” I try to protest, not even believing myself as I say it.

She nods her head as she sits down and spins her spoon through her stew before taking a sip of it, “uh, huh” she says “I’m sure you were really disappointed to not have Henry with you” she says, grinning to herself and trying to hide it with another mouthful of her stew.

I blush again and quickly try to change the subject before she pries for more details, “ahem… there was a royal herald in town today, telling us who the new lord will be” I tell her quickly as I begin to tuck into my own bowl.

“Oh, who is it? I know a few good people who were given a title for completing contracts for the crown” she says, seeming to perk up at the thought of her past.

“I think he said it was a Lord Motten? Harod Motten? I think” I take another sip of the stew; it was really good; Henry had outdone himself this time. “You ever heard of him”

My mother’s expression falls at the sound of his name, and she goes silent for a moment, looking into the liquid in her bowl

“What is it? Do you know him?”

“No” she says after a pause, “No, he was before my time. I think he retired from adventuring a short time before I started” she sighs, “But we heard stories about what he was like, and of him after he settled into being a lord. They weren’t good stories”

I quieten too as she says that “Not good?” I say at last, looking across to her “So what is he like then?” I ask, not sure I want to hear the answer.

She sighs and has a few more spoons of the stew before she talks, “there were a lot of them, some of them were really bad. People said that he would steal from his party members, when they eventually kicked him out, he made sure that no one else would join their party and they wouldn’t be let into anyone else’s. He has a pretty powerful spirit, so he was no joke in a fight and his father had a lot of influence at the time.” She pauses as she takes another spoonful, “and then there was how violent he was; if people laid a hand on him, even just knocking into him, he wouldn’t hesitate to challenge them to a duel. Even the people who didn’t have the abilities of an adventurer. Most of them would end with someone dead” she stops talking after a moment.

“Wow, he sounds pretty bad. Why would the queen send him to govern lands then, if everyone knows he’s like that?” I ask, almost forgetting the stew in front of me as I listen intently

“Well probably because that wasn’t the worst of it” she says as I look up expectantly

“He’d go through a lot of parties, people were always eager to ignore the stories about him because of how powerful he was… but he would do things to the women in the parties… they said that he would **** himself on them and told them that they should be grateful for the privilege of being with a lord” she swallows the stew and looks again, “and those stories didn’t stop after he retired, he would take advantage of the lesser nobles and would threaten those with family in adventuring parties with his friends, telling them that accidents always happen when taking a contract. And of course he’s one of the nobles that take advantage of their right to own a harem. People said that a lot of his women had had **** magic worked on them” she finishes speaking, looking into her bowl as her spoon spins the floating vegetables around

“So what? They’re just going to punish us because he’s a monster. It’s not like he’s going to stop now, is it? He’ll just be doing all of that here, to us” I say, starting to get angry that the queen would send him here, he sounded nothing like Lord Beckront, he was a real lord, someone you could respect and trust.

“Yeah, in the capital it’s like no one else really exist outside of their walls. It’s even worse inside the citadel. If they send him out of their walls then he just disappears, regardless of what else happens. She says, finally finishing her stew and taking a drink from her cup.

“I guess I won’t have to put up with him for long anyway, the test of divinities is coming up and Lord Beckront said he set some money aside to help me go” I say as I resume my own meal, “I’m just sorry that you’ll still have to put with him. And hey, maybe he’s changed since then” I add trying to sound hopeful.

She gives me a smile, “maybe you’re right, I suppose anything is possible. Now are you going to tell me how you got that cut on your head”

My hand instinctively moves to the wound on my head, feeling some swelling around the cut, but it stopped bleeding a long while ago and just gives me a little ache, “it’s nothing to worry about. I just hit it against some stone at the lake” I say, not exactly lying.

She gets up and takes her bowl, cup, and spoon to a counter as she begins to clear the table. “Well if it’s nothing to worry about, then you won’t have any trouble doing some training” she says with a smirk taking form across her lips. She walks to the doorway and picks up our training swords, “since you’ve been ‘relaxing’ all day, then maybe… oh I don’t know, two hours of training?” she says swinging the blade playfully around the room.

I almost **** on my stew, dropping the spoon from my mouth. “Uh, aheh… no, two hours isn’t a problem” I say, knowing I can’t say no as I **** myself from my seat, savouring as much time as I can with an intact body before I drag myself to the door and pick up my blade, “let’s get it over with then”