Chapter 8 - Exploration

Naturally, Rowan and Severus were rather quiet the first two days until they finally got the courage to begin exploring Prince Manor. On the third day, they carefully explored some of the outside grounds, before beginning their exploration of the Prince manor itself. On their fourth day at Prince Manor, Rowan and Severus made their way up to the attic. Hearing a chivalrous voice coming from inside, Rowan and Severus peeked inside to only see a pearly white head playing chess with his main body in knightly, gleaming armor. "I said, left!" The ghostly head sternly chided a rook to move.

Severus gapes as Rowan further pushes the door open at seeing the main ghostly body firmly pointed to a chess piece on where to move as the wizarding chess piece moves on its own. "Huh, wizarding chess," Rowan muttered.

The handsome young ghost in the prime of his youth glances up to reveal a rather attractive face with perfectly shaped locks on his head. "Oh, my visitors!" The ghostly head eagerly said. "Where are my manners?!" The ghostly body quickly rises and gently grabs the ghostly head, before properly holding the head to its ghostly chest as the head faces forward. With a breathtaking smile that even made Rowan's heart twang just a bit, the ghostly man says, "Hello, I'm Sir Knight Prince at your service," and bowed.

Severus gapes in awe and shock, "You're a ghost!"

"That is correct, I am the only ghostly Prince still in residence, born in 1517 and died in 1537," Sir Knight Prince nobly said.

Rowan eyes Sir Knight Prince with a grin. "If you don't mind asking, what happened there?" Rowan pointed to her neck in a slicing motion.

Sir Knight Prince sighs out loud. "Let us just say it was a youthful folly on my part due to my misspent youth in bad company."

"What?" Severus sputtered.

Rowan chokes as she points rudely at Sir Knight Prince. "You actually slept with someone's wife or daughter, didn't you?!" Rowan sniggered.

Sir Knight Prince gazes majestically out the window that perfectly shows his best side profile. "Tis better to have loved than to never have loved at all," Sir Knight Prince poetically said.

Severus blanches as Rowan's eyes glitter with delight. "Please, do tell, who was she?" Rowan asked as she eagerly drew closer trying to get the gossip.

"No one of importance!" Sir Knight Prince sputtered.

"No, she must have been or else that wouldn't have happened," Rowan snickered as she pointed to the wound on Sir Knight Prince's neck.

Sir Knight Prince seeing himself beseeched on all sides tactfully opts for an offering of riches to save his meek lowly ghostly life. "Have the two of you found the Prince manor hidden passageways?" Sir Knight Prince willingly said.

Rowan's eyes glitter like Christmas lights as she says, "Do tell us more, Sir Knight Prince?"

Wiping ghost sweat off his forehead, Sir Knight Prince says, "Well, there's one in the study behind the bookcase. I can't show you given that Reginald is in the study, but if you just pull the third book on the fifth shelf and it will open up to a tunnel that connects to the old stables. Now it's just an old storage shed, but still, it does lead out of the manor," Sir Knight Prince explained. "And for the rest, I can lead you to them they are a little trickier to access."

"Please lead on!" Rowan happily said as they followed Sir Knight Prince out of the attic. On their way to the first passageway, they pass by all the generations of the Prince ancestors that curiously studied them back.

After seeing the portraits of the Prince family, Rowan came to one solemn conclusion, those that continued the Prince family line were all gaunt like figures with dark hair. And those that seemed remarkably cheerful or were rather good looking either married out of the family or tended to die rather young such as in case of Sir Knight Prince. Yes, the good looks in the family literally tended to die off.

"And here we are," Sir Knight Prince loudly proclaimed as they halted before a nude, female Greek statue on the third floor. Severus blushes as his eyes dart away as Sir Knight Prince with an appreciative gleam in his eye for the female statue. "Now just tug down her robe," Sir Knight Prince instructed.

Severus and Rowan turn to dubiously eye Sir Knight Prince as though he is a pervert. "The passage was made by one of the Prince forefathers as he had several mistresses," Sir Knight Prince hastily explained.

"Figures," Rowan thought to herself as she and Severus silently debate, who was to be the unlucky fool. After a silent, but a rather fierce game of paper, rock, scissors, Rowan emerged victorious in the end.

Rowan makes a fist in delight as Severus reluctantly tugs on the skirt of the fair maiden. A creaking sound is heard as the wall swings back to reveal a passageway. "This passage just goes down to the fifth bedroom on the second floor as that was where the founder's favorite mistress at the time use to stay at," Sir Knight Prince explained.

"I feel that the Prince family has produced plenty of dubious, lustful characters," Rowan drily said as she eyed Sir Knight Prince in emphasis.

Sir Knight Prince glances away as he guiltily says, "That may be true, but the younger generations have done much better!"

"That's only because they all died young and foolishly in wizarding duels," Rowan stiffly retorted, acutely aware of said deaths due to the plaques under the family portraits.

Sir Knight Prince has no comeback to that and quickly leads them to another passageway. The portrait in question is of two lovers as a man rows a maiden across a lake portrait only for their two be wiggling tentacles starting to creep out from under the dark waters of the lake. "Early hentai, huh?" Rowan privately mused to herself.

"Just run your finger against the left side and there will be a small indent to further push in," Sir Knight Prince patiently instructed.

Rowan does as she is instructed when the portrait swings upward to reveal a descending tunnel. "This tunnel here leads to the dungeons," Sir Knight Prince said as he leads the way inside. Rowan shrugs and follows as Severus furrows his brows and does the same.

The portrait closes shut behind them, but despite the gloom, Sir Knight Prince's silvery glowing body provides excellent lighting. They emerge into a damp dungeon filled with storage items and cobwebs. Rowan and Severus choke at the mildew and dust as Sir Knight Prince points to the south wall and says, "Just tap this wall over here thrice."

Severus does as he is told as a dark tunnel appears in view. "This tunnel leads all the way into Norton next to the local historic house of some muggle noble. Either way, I don't recommend using it much as two of you are a bit young to go exploring the town on your own," Sir Knight Prince said.

"Thanks," Rowan said with two thumbs up. Sir Knight Prince sighs to himself at finding himself so easily blackmailed by the newest generation. But what is a medieval ghost to do in the face of the living?