During school they had been through fire drills constantly, so William did have an inkling of what to do. This modern knowledge that he held close screamed at him to take action, when he saw that Brice intended to pour all the water from the jug onto the flaming whisky. William yelped, “NO don’t!” as a formality.

He knew that action would get his message across much faster than words. So within a second he flung the water jug out of Brice’s grasp, leaving the boy quite baffled.

While William flicked his gaze around for a better way to stop the fire, Brice lamented, “Give me that jug! The fire can only be extinguished by water! Right..?”. William couldn’t spare his time to answer Brice, so without permission he splashed the water over Brice’s thick quilt. The owner of said quilt had a hard time believing his eyes. “What are you doing!?”, he almost screamed in panic.

William saw that this amount of drinking water wasn’t nearly enough to properly soak the quilt. So he turned around to spot a basin meant for quick morning baths. Luckily Brice was too overwhelmed to have spotted it as well. So before he got any unwanted competition, he ran over and lifted it towards the bed.

Then he messily let the quilt absorb the water. When it was heavy enough with cold liquid, he commanded Brice to: “Come help me lift this quilt over the flames! We need to be quick and precise. Or the flame won’t be suffocated in time!”. Brice neared the other unsure of what she meant. William wanted to assault this fool but gave him a second chance, “Take the edge of the quilt and help me place it over the fire! Or do you want the whole chamber to be engulfed by flames!?”.

They miraculously worked together. At least well enough to drop the quilt onto the flames. William stared at it with great unease. He knew if they were too clumsy, the flames would soon eat at the quilt and consume it as well… Fortunately, the quilt was cool and damp enough to stop the flames intermingled with whisky. Without struggle, it quickly got choked to death.

Brice stood yet again unsure of what had just happened. He stared at their success. Bewildered that the servant girl’s method had actually worked. But even though the danger had been dealt with he still wasn’t satisfied. He scolded William amidst his confusion, “You lousy servant! Why did you pour water all over my fine quilt and use it as a flame repellent, instead of dumping the water directly onto the fire!? It doesn’t make any sense!”.

Hearing this disoriented brat yap at him, made it irresistible for William not to smirk. To think this medieval simpleton was so brainless? It was enough to cause a celebration from those Brice had so often looked down upon. William managed to stop his smirk from fully crawling onto his lips, before he explained, “Ah, that… A wise man once told me, that pouring water onto flaming liquids will only cause it to spread even further… As for why I used the quilt? Well… Fire essentially needs three things to live: A material that it can eat, heat and air… By using the quilt and soaking it in cold water, we removed two of the three things it needs to survive. Namely: heat and air… And there you have it… My lord”.

In his heart, William thanked those kind firemen that sometimes came to visit his school. Without them he would have been just as clueless as the buffoon standing before him.

Brice was astonished at how wise this servant girl was. William was as well. He was used to being called dimwitted or an idiot. And yet, Brice had met many wise people before in his life, so the commodity quickly wore off. He just hadn’t expected William to be the one speaking of such things. Rather someone like… Remony? That would be more acceptable.

Brice sat down on his chair already tired of this mess. He sighed, “To think you actually had some brains in there… I’m shocked…”. This subtle flattery was enough to make William smile. Brice saw this and shook his head at this gullible duckling…

He continued this conversation in a mellow tone, saying, “I must thank you for destroying my quilt and needlessly taking on the task of putting out the fire… I allow you to clean it up… This instant, thank you”.

This sentence destroyed William’s pride. He gaped and stared at Brice. Without thought he let the words out; “What, why!?”. His hands were quick to come up and block his mouth but it was already too late. William blinked at Brice. Anxiously he waited for the bomb’s fuse to rapidly burn down and cause a merciless explosion… Yet, that never happened?

Brice massaged his head with his right hand. It hung low as he contemplated what to do with this amatour jester. “Urgh… If you want to have Rex’s position you have to be more perceptive than that…”.

William blinked obliviously at his master once again, not understanding the situation. As he gathered the slightly burned quilt into the basin, he asked, “Rex’s position? You can’t mean that I’m a possible candidate?..”. Brice clapped his hands together as a wake up call to himself.

He had gotten the sudden urge to leave this room for a nice morning stroll. Before going he said to the servant girl, “I’m afraid so… We can’t keep hiring new servants. It’s too much of a hassle to seek out new ones. Especially when someone capable is available right under my nose… So have this room cleaned when I come back... And of course the quilt needs to be replaced!.. If you can do that, I’ll let you fulfill Rex’s position from today, until the Winter Weddings commence..:”.

Although William didn’t want to spend even more time with this human being, he knew that a higher pay was in it for him. Which meant the time spend waiting until he could get a proper sword would be shortened!

The moment Brice came back from his little excursion, William was in the midst of putting the final touch on his bed: Namely the new quilt. Brice snorted and said, “It’s nice to see that you’re sincere… The job is yours”. William kept looking at Brice as he sauntered in, as if he waited for something more.

Brice had to set things straight, so he quickly stated, “Now don’t go around expecting any praise. It’s your job after all… As well as polishing my armour, including these boots that I’m currently wearing... The path was a bit muddy this morning… After that, you can deliver this message verbally to my father: The young lord will be out hunting the next three days… Of course you need to prepare the gear I need for that hunt as well… Understood?”.

“Sure”, the servant replied. It was challenging but William managed to hold back his desire to make this dude bald as well!