I Can't Eat Love

Part 14

The next lesson at the Royal Treasury started with a lecture from Jim.

"Look," He pulled me aside, his face serious. "I know you have a lot going on, and you can't really slow down, but try to take better care of yourself, alright?"

I raised an eyebrow. "What happened to 'not lecturing me about going all out'?"

"Well, I thought I could do that. But now it's starting to affect my quality of life." He grumbled, pouring himself a drink as well as some tea for me.

"How is it...?"

"It's Tommy!" He blurted out, gesturing and almost spilling from the glass in his hand. "Whenever he gets stressed out, he has to clean something. Your home and his home are spotless, so what does he do?! He comes to my house!"

"He... cleans your house?"

"Deep cleans it. After that little 'fainting' episode of yours, I was woken up before dawn due to the sound of him polishing my floors!"

"..." I stared at him in shock and he sighed, throwing back his drink in a single gulp.

"Look, I'm not saying to stop trying to save your duchy, just attempt to limit the strain on yourself a little?" He looked tired. "I need to sleep and my poor tables and floors are being polished into dust."

I had to smile, even as the thought of my actions have such a strange unknown effect made me nervous. "I'll try to take care of myself better."

It would be easier now that my plans were on track, anyways. There was still plenty of hard work ahead, but building on the groundwork I'd already laid would help things along.

Nate arrived, and we discussed a few issues on land disputes. Towards the end, after Nate broke up a yelling match between Jim, and me he sat back with a sigh.

"This was fun."

"Yeah, " Jim agreed, "I'm going to miss this."

"Miss this?" I asked, confused.

Shrugging his shoulders, Jim explained. "Well, thanks to your popular talks at your birthday party, I've been strong-armed into taking on three new students. I was planning to give you a few weeks off, maybe to relax a little..." He looked pointedly at me, "...and when you come back all five of us can go over scenarios perhaps every other week."

"All five?" I thought about that number, confused, "Three students, you, Nate and Me... that's six."

Jim turned his head to Nate. "I thought you told her?"

The young man grimaced. "Not yet."

"Told me what?" I felt slightly annoyed at being out of the loop.

Nate stood up, stretching with a groan. "I'll walk you out, and we can talk on the way."

_________________________________

"So what's going on?" I asked as soon as we left the treasury.

"I have to return to Tilendria next week." He realized I had stopped in my tracks and stopped, turning to face me.

"Already?

Nate laughed at that. "I've been here almost a year! Next month is my eighteenth birthday, and my responsibilities at home... well, I can't stay away any longer."

"I see." I hadn't thought about it, but it made sense that he would have to return. My stomach started hurting, I wondered if I had eaten something off earlier.

"I just..." He paused, taking a deep breath. "I want to thank you."

"For what?"

"For treating me like my own person... someone who actually has value." He turned away, running his fingers through his hair in a nervous gesture. "I've told you about my brother..."