The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 313: Accepting (3)

"You’re not afraid I lied to the women and I am leading you to your death? Think you can take me?" Phillip asked, glancing to his right at Rafael. He was confused by how comfortable Rafael was with following him.

If Rafael asked him to walk somewhere alone, Philip would think the young commander was trying to kill him.

"Yes," Rafael honestly replied.

From the stories he heard from his father, Phillip was an excellent fighter, and with him continuing to keep the border guards off his land, Phillip was still dangerous. However, Rafael didn’t fear him. An injury caused when he wasn’t looking was not something to make him cower around Phillip.

Rafael trusted his skills that he would be able to kill Phillip if he wanted. If not for the fact Phillip would be his future father-in-law, Phillip would be dead hours ago. He was not his father to have a draw with Phillip.

Phillip chuckled, entertained by Rafael’s confidence. "We didn’t have a proper fight for me to see if you are like your father or just given that position because you’re his son. I will say it is good to see you’re not soft since you are walking around after what I did to you. I won’t let my daughter be with someone she has to protect."

Phillip led Rafael far away from where the others remained. He wasn’t ready to take Rafael to their homes yet since he didn’t want to run into anyone and be interrupted. He led Rafael into the thick trees to an area where he used to train on his own.

"I don’t like you for my daughter. It isn’t just that you are a knight or River’s son. It is the mere fact that you come from that side. There will be a lot of judgement Annalise will have to face. People picking her apart. My daughter will never be able to fit in to be like the women you are used to. I don’t want her to be forced to change to be by your side," said Phillip," getting off his horse since it could not go any further.

"I don’t want her to change. Why would I ask her to change when I love her the way she is now? I’ve accepted a lot of things about Annalise. Like her need to fight or snakes," Rafael replied, once again thankful he didn’t have a fear for them.

Phillip chuckled. "You have no idea how much she loves them. How much her mother loves them, but Celine never looks at them as pets like Annalise does. I can remember each time I had to pick up one from her bedroom and place it back where it belonged. Then there were the spiders. Imagine having to look all around your house for a lost spider to stop your daughter from crying."

"I don’t believe it yet that you two will leave here and when your peers look at you with her, you will not ask her to stop the things she does because it is not normal there. My concern makes me the bad guy, but I don’t care. I must be concerned when it comes to my daughter," Phillip said, walking away from his horse to an area he cleared away over the years

"I honestly wanted to bring you here to test your skills with a sword, but if my wife finds out, I won’t hear the end of it. Find a good rock to sit on," Phillip said, as he sat down on a wooden chair he kept here.

"I prefer to stand," Rafael replied, he tied his horse to a tree. Phillip did not trust him and Rafael did not trust Phillip. After all, he was the man stealing Phillip’s precious daughter.

"Since you are closer to it than I am, squash that flower to the right of you for me. With winter coming, there shouldn’t be too many right now, but a few of them are still full of life. It’s not good for Annalise to be around them," said Phillip, feeling the need to start a fire to burn the flower.

Rafael remembered Annalise’s dislike for flowers. Now he finally saw the special flower that caused her trouble. "She told me about being afraid of flowers. I thought it was a joke at first, but she was serious about it. I kept it in mind when deciding gifts for her," he said, destroying the flower with his shoe.

Rafael had never seen the flower before despite travelling all around the kingdom. He had little interest in them, but with his parents slowly becoming gardeners, he collected a few to take home to his mother when he could. "Where else can I find this flower?" He asked.

"To make Annalise sick?" Phillip questioned, standing up. He had one terrible experience with her touching these flowers and he was not going to go through it again.

"So I can keep Annalise from where they grow," Rafael answered, standing his ground with Phillip.

Phillip folded his arms, deciding if Rafael was telling the truth. "I wouldn’t know where they grow in your kingdom. I’d have to ask my scouts, but I have only seen them growing around this area so I keep Annalise away from here."

Phillip spent his little free time looking around for the flowers and then training as the flowers burned in a fire. He looked around most of the land for the flowers, but never saw more of them among all the other flowers. He had to intensely wash himself before going back to Annalise.

Annalise didn’t come to this area after the incident they learned how she reacted to the flower, but since others wandered nearby. Philip feared them picking the flower and taking it near Annalise by accident so he kept up with getting rid of them.

"For the last time, I will not hurt your daughter. I want to keep her safe," Rafael said, hoping Phillip would stop thinking he was out to harm Annalise.

"You couldn’t if you wanted to. She told me that she flipped you. I believe she can protect herself, but fathers worry. I am sure River is somewhere worrying about you. I wish he had come so I could settle who won our fight," said Phillip.

"I won’t like you anytime soon. Perhaps never. There is something about you that upsets me. I am not looking to have my daughter running away again so I will play nice with you. However, if you for any reason hurt my daughter, I will kill you and bury you here in a place Annalise cannot step foot on. I just wanted to see if you like it as a nice resting place," Phillip said, looking around. "It’s not too bad."

Rafael didn’t know how to respond to being taken to a potential future grave meant for him so he stayed quiet. There was something wrong with the entire family yet he couldn’t help feeling like he was the crazy one for not walking away from all of this.

Annalise added enough chaos to his life. Adding her parents was more than he could handle.

"Now that we have gotten my threat out of the way, we should start heading to my home before Annalise or Celine sends someone to hunt us down. They were not joking about being good hunters" Phillip said, walking by Rafael to take him on the real path to get to their homes. "If you want to get on my good side, if my wife asks you to stay the night, say no. I don’t want you under the same roof as my daughter."

"Which reminds me. Isn’t there some kind of practice over there to only have sex with the person you want to marry or something? I don’t want to think about it, but if you are doing something with my daughter, you better think of marrying her. It hurts me to think I might have to let you into my family," Phillip said, placing his right hand on his chest because of a growing ache there.

Rafael silently followed Phillip in getting their horse. He wished that he could express to Phillip that though he liked holding Annalise, she was the more touchy one. He also wanted to reveal that Phillip had no reason to worry about if he would marry Annalise in the future.