<h4>Chapter 108: To believe or not to believe.</h4>


    Rnd’s ears twitched, he vaguely heard his wife telling someone to invite his knights into the room and carry him out to the carriage. His shook his head slowly and came back to his senses slowly, turning his head and eyes that were upied with disbelief to Sigrid.


    "Don’t move." he said, and cleared his voice. It was rougher than usual.


    He reached out and picked up the half full cup of coffee which Sigrid had been drinking, downing the hot drink in one gulp. His tongue was scalded and he opened his mouth wide as he put the cup down.


    "Ah, ah, ah, hot..that was hot." he fanned his tongue.


    He looked like a panting dog on a hot day that was trying to cool down. General Paxton had his recording crystal out already, any moment that Rnd suffered a humiliation was a moment worth capturing to him.


    Sigrid sent for cold water, ice cubes and honey, those were the options avable for such a minor injury. Rnd sat down and cleared his throat again, he rearranged his clothes and changed his expression. A prince had to be elegant at all times, no matter the circumstances.


    "Where were we?" he asked.


    "At the part where you were jumping around and going ah, ah, ah!!" General Paxton fanned his mouth andughed softly.


    In response to his childish actions, the duke and duchess red at the general. He rolled his eyes and folded his lips.


    "Before you froze in shock, I believe that my granddaughter had just finished narrating the tale of our doom." Duke Thorin spoke politely but with resoluteness. "I understand that what you have heard may not make a lot of sense to you and you must be confused."


    Rnd shook his head, "No, I am not confused, I have understood all that she has said quite clearly. I just don’t know if it should be believed." He stood up and walked behind Sigrid’s chair. He started pacing from side to side, "This is insane, I have no other words to describe it. You want me to believe that she had a dream about the future."


    "She did." The duchess confirmed.


    "I did." Sigrid confirmed at the same time as her grandmother.


    One of Rnd’s fingers moved around in the air, forming a circle, "In this dream we all die, all of us in this room."


    "Your knights too and most of your servants, don’t forget them." Sigrid mentioned casually, reaching her hand out to pick a walnut cookie from a te. It was warm, freshly baked and sprinkled with sugar on top.


    Just as she brought the cookie to her mouth, two strong arms grasped her shoulders, startling her and the cookie dropped to the ground.


    "Hey," she whirled around, ring at him fiercely.


    he was startled as was everyone, since when did Sigrid be brave enough to shout at the crown prince? John recalled that she had once Rnd on the day of their wedding so maybe it was not surprising that she had shouted at him.


    Rnd went back to pacing, "If this is true," he looked around at each of them, "not that I believe it but if this is true, why are you all sitting calmly? We are sitting in a carriage that is heading for a cliff and there is no grass to protect us below.Why are you calm?" he bellowed loudly.


    "We really fried his brain." General Paxton said and then he raised his voice, "Hey almighty crown prince, does this look to you like nothing? Why do you think we are meeting here secretly or why we all traveled inconspicuously?"


    Iryne nodded. "Why do you think my daughter had a salt recipe ready to trade for the position of an only wife when she was summoned by the king, or why she surrendered her father’s salt business and asked for a death free medal?"


    "Or why we handed over our military power and joined the field of agriculture. Let’s not forget the fact that we fired half of our old workers, closed some of our businesses, sent half of the Thorin’s away from the capital city...." John added.


    "John!" Deanne hissed at her muddleheaded brother-inw. "Stop telling him everything, he is one of Emmah’s men."


    Rnd scrunched his nose up as if he was trying to block a bad smell, his eyebrows rose really high and his upper lip curled slightly.


    Pointing to his chest he uttered a question, "Me! one of Emmah’s men, are you insane? I am the crown prince of Eldoria, I am not a man that is led around by a woman’s nose."


    All of the Thorin’s responded by sneering, chuckling or openlyughing in mockery. They made it clear that his words were rubbish and unbelievable.


    "You don’t believe me." he said, his voice packed with disbelief. "Sigrid, tell them."


    She snorted and squeaked beforeughing lightly, she looked at him and shook her head. "My love, I cannot defend you here, my grandparents were in the royal court when you and your brotherpeted over who could fawn over Emmah the most. Both of you were holding her hands in public, touching her forehead, covering her with your cloaks, carrying her around as if she had no feet."


    "He took her to the home you share, don’t forget that." Iryne added.


    Everything that was mentioned served to make Rnd feel embarrassed.


    "What were you thinking?" Duke Thorin growled out the question that he had long waited to ask. "In public!!" he eximed. "You did this in public. I heard that you are displeased because your reputation has been smeared in public and people are iming you had an affair of sorts with that evil woman but can you me them?"


    "I me the rise ofdy nche." he murmured. He raised his eyes and met the harsh re of the duke so he changed his answer. "I am not without me, I could have behaved better." Rnd run his hand through his hair and sighed. "This is crazy." he muttered.


    Sigrid scoffed, "If you think that this is crazy then you should buckle up because another thing that happened in my dream is about to happen. Your miss Emmah..."


    "She is not mine." Rnd rejected the insinuation immediately.


    "Fine, miss Emmah has taken prime minister Windrider to find the luminite mine, upon seeing knights with my family sigil she and the prime minister decided that if they could not have the mine they would take the matter to the king." Sigrid sneered. "Emmah has advised the prime minister to dig into our Thorin family’s wealth, especially anything rted to gold.


    The prime minister has decided to adopt her, and he is going to introduce her to noble society as his daughter. If you don’t believe me, ask your people to sniff around and see if my words are correct."


    All the Thorin’s were relieved, they had already taken as much gold as possible from the mines and abandoned them two months ago.


    What they did not know was that Sigrid had asked the bank to collect and process the rest of the gold in mines. They were now empty shells, all traces of previous activity had been removed, in fact she had requested the bank to make it look like nobody had been in those mines for one hundred years.


    She was hoping that Emmah’s n seeded, what would she do when she proudly presented empty mines to the the king?


    "So, do you have secret gold mines?" Rnd asked, suspiciously he looked around.