The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 312: Accepting (2)

Unlike Celine, Phillip made no attempt to greet Rafael. There was only one thing he had to do since he promised Annalise.

"I take back stabbing you with my sword," Phillip said, feeling like he had done his part since the apology was over with this.

Annalise’s hands itched to pull on her father’s ears as she scolded him like her grandmother said she had to do when he was young. "What kind of apology was that?" Annalise asked, looking to her mother for help. If that was her father’s best apology, he could keep it. "An apology should have sorry in it."

Celine placed her on her hips, displeased with the apology. She heard from Annalise how Rafael tried to stop the guards from attacking them and shielded her right before a loud noise was heard.

Phillip’s told a different story, but knowing her husband, he was bending the truth. How were they to get to know the man their daughter picked if Phillip was going to drag out something so small?

"I accept it," Rafael said, surprising the two women and Phillip. He didn’t need an apology from Phillip. Frankly, he didn’t think he was going to hear anything that sounded like an apology from Phillip. What he wanted was for that moment to be forgotten and for it to never happen again.

It was obvious the apology wasn’t coming from the heart and not accepting it would have them standing here until a generous one was said.

"You do not need to forgive him so easily to get on his good side. That won’t work. If you have not noticed it by now, my father is really stubborn," Annalise said, watching her mother work her talent of scolding her father without saying a word. "I hope to one day be able to scold you without having to say a word."

"Between you and me, you are the one always giving trouble," Rafael reminded her. He was the calm one in their relationship. It was him having to tell her not to do something.

Annalise wanted to argue against it, but she couldn’t think quickly on her feet to find a time Rafael had gotten in trouble. It was somewhat annoying that she had to think hard for a time he gave her trouble while her mind was starting to remind her of the times she got in trouble with Mavis.

"A proper apology will be given by the end of the day and Rafael, I hope you will join us for dinner. Unfortunately, we can only allow you to join us. We don’t want to cause panic at home by bringing you and one of your knights," said Celine, looking at the knights behind them.

Rafael ignored the sound of Phillip groaning like someone had hit him. "I would love to join you," he said, accepting the invitation.

Phillip smacked his face. Why was Rafael coming to dinner when he already had the plan of taking Rafael on a walk to test him? What did they need to sit down and eat together? "We’re wasting time standing around talking about him when we should be talking about a truce. Something you used today injured one of our men. What was it?"

Rafael had been curious about what the bullet Martin fired had hit. It missed Annalise and her father, but there were a lot of people in that direction. "It was a gun. It was not supposed to be used and you already killed the man who used it. I can call for one of our doctors to take a look at the injury."

"Our doctors will take care of it," Phillip said, denying the offer. "After all, your people have always sought us out for our knowledge of medicines and healing. I’m ready to talk about why we are gathered here. We won’t attack if your king stops trying to claim our land as his. My people have been here long before that palace went up. Doesn’t he have enough land?"

"He doesn’t need anymore. It is not like he leaves the palace often. That’s why it was so hard to," Annalise paused, realising she did not share with Rafael that she tried to send poison to the king. Then there was the man named Grant.

Luckily, Thomas didn’t succeed with her plans of poisoning the king or there wouldn’t be a relationship with Rafael now.

"All we want is for your king to stop trying to claim our land, stop trying to change our ways, and stop trying to make your way to our homes when you are not welcomed. Like in the past, I am willing for us to share knowledge with each other, but I will not bow to your king," Phillip said.

Without meeting the young king, Phillip already knew the king would not bow to him so why should he? He was no different from the king aside from not having a large home.

"You do not need to act as we do, but it would be expected that you follow some rules that would not get you arrested should you leave here. Just like there are rules here we should follow. I don’t think the king is interested in getting you to bow to him. There is still a debate about the land," Rafael answered, knowing there were many people in the palace who thought differently about the land.

Rafael didn’t think Tobias cared about getting the land, but one of his duties passed down from his father was to settle getting the land. He was pushing this war because there was pressure to finish what was started.

Tobias might be willing to leave the land alone to end the war, but there were still people in the court who wouldn’t agree with it. People Rafael didn’t exactly have a good relationship with to be able to help Annalise.

"There is no debate about the land. It belongs to us. We’ve always been willing to let you visit in the past before this war, but then your side tried to claim it. Tried to take what you found intriguing. I have no problem trying to kill you again if you fall back into your old ways. However," Phillip said, glancing at Annalise. "My daughter believes she can find peace for us so I am giving you a chance."

"Talking to just you won’t bring peace. One of us needs to speak with the king. I am giving that role to my daughter and I will allow her to leave to work on a truce. This time, she will be travelling with a few of our warriors. I won’t attack the guards as long as they don’t step on our land until the truce is officially made," Phillip promised.

It pained him to send Annalise away, but she was determined about all of this, so he would support her. The one thing that really got under his skin was having to send her with Rafael where he could not watch them.

"I will order the guards to not attack and allow Annalise and her guards to travel with us. I will leave some of my knights here when we leave to stop any guards from trying to step onto your land. We will leave to go back to the palace as soon as you are ready," Rafael said, agreeing to Phillip’s demands.

All the man wanted was for no one to step on his land. Rafael couldn’t believe that a war was going on for so long when the demands were so little, but then kings wanted everything in the kingdom to be acknowledged as their own unless they gave it away. Then there were the rumours of valuable materials on this side many wanted.

Celine stepped in between the two men since the meeting seemed to come to an end. In her eyes, there wasn’t more needed to be said since the king needed to be involved from this point on to make the truce happen.

"So, we should take Rafael with us now to finish talking with him alone and then have dinner. Phillip, you said you wanted to go on a walk with him with no one around. A walk that does not involve killing him," Celine warned Phillip.

"Come with me," Phillip said, walking away from the group to go back to his horse. "Annalise, you must stay with your mother," he added when he heard extra footsteps. "I won’t kill him. Maybe."

Rafael got back up on his horse to join Phillip wherever he wanted to go and before he left, he turned to his knights and said, "Go back with the others. I will return tonight."

Rafael didn’t fear being alone with Phillip since as much as the man wanted to strangle him, Phillip didn’t want his daughter to hate him. Phillip looked like he would cry if Annalise didn’t want to speak with him.

"Is this really a good idea?" Annalise wondered out loud, watching Rafael follow her father without any complaints. She wanted to follow the two of them, but they needed to get to know each other without her around. freeweɓnovel.cѳm