Two very shady ladies stood in front of my mansion in the early night, two horses in tow. I certainly wouldn’t even bother with them as they certainly couldn’t have anything good in mind. I mean, what in the world were they thinking, standing there in front of the gates, holding a lamp up and chatting loudly with each other?
“They should have spotted us by now?” Hannah mentioned touching the iron gate until it crackled with electricity once more.
“They definitely have. Hey, over here! Please, help two damsels in distress.” I waved towards a nearby guard who didn’t look as if he wanted to approach us. He almost looked a little bit scared with his trembling knees, his clanking armour and spear pointed at us.
“T-This is the estate of the White family! A-Any further aggression and we will involve the royal g-guards!” He looked kind of cute, so scared about the electricity still affecting the gate.
“Hey, Hannah … I think we have their attention now.” I claimed and gently touched her hand which was still electrocuting the metallic gate.
“If you say so.” She sighed, cancelled her magic and pushed against the gate which immediately opened, now that the magical protection wasn´t working anymore. Without even bothering, Hannah stepped onto the White´s estate, probably expecting me to follow suit immediately.
“Hey! It is rude to step into the garden of someone else without permission!” I exclaimed, shook my head in disappointment and smiled at the frightened guard. Truthfully, he did have all reason to be scared as not everyone could disable the defences of a ducal family easily … Hannah may have gone a little too far. “… Anyways, can you deliver mu- Lady White that we are only here to visit her daughter and not to … do anything bad?” I asked while looking at Hannah who suddenly found interest in her shoes.
“A-At this t-time?” The guard asked, making me look at the moon which hung high in the sky. It wasn’t that late though as there were even some pedestrians coming from the royal palace.
“Aye! You know, I am in that age were going into bed early is boring, so I did hope my dear friend Luna would still be awake. My name is Lucy, and this here is Hannah. We are from the Trading League.” At my tender age of 411, going into bed early was quite hard. My vampirism may or may not have affected this as well … who knew? “I´m sure Luna is so excited to see me!”
“I … I will notify the madam immediately. P-Please wait here.” As soon as the brown-haired guard turned around, my smile died down immediately. Well, at least he did what we wanted, but it took too much time to get there. Apparently, the White family had too much faith in their magical barriers around the estate and thus it took a lot of time to even get the attention of any guard. Surprisingly, these magical barriers were my bane as I alone had no way of entering the family property now. Well, I had Hannah, my level 304 maid with me for that.
“Where did they get this guard from? Leaving us here without any supervision …” The gates were open, the magical defences still down and guards were nowhere in sight. Security was apparently not a concern for the White family.
“I only incapacitated the outer shell of their defences. They apparently turned this whole forest into a defensive structure.” Hannah claimed and I looked into the forest. From time to time there were magical circles carved into the wood but otherwise, it didn’t look threatening at all.
“How do you know that?” I asked with interest.
“Just like you can sense death, I can see masses of mana.” She said and placed her hands on her hips proudly.
“… amazing.” I mumbled and noticed how lights turned on at the mansion. Mary had probably been informed already, which was quite fast in my opinion. “Is there anything else I should know?” I asked in wonder.
“This and that … you know how it is.” Hannah said while scratching her cheek which made me even more interested. But I also understood the need for privacy, especially because I was a walking vault, filled with secrets.
“I see.” I mumbled and smirked in her direction. “You can keep your naughty secrets from me.”
“They aren’t naughty!” She exclaimed slightly abashed and looked away from me, already turning slightly red.
“Oh?” I mumbled and inched closer to her only to grab her arm and hug it tightly. She looked even redder afterwards, especially after I smiled dumbly at her.
“It is just that I … nice try.” Hannah said and pulled her arm out of my embrace. It did seem as if I went a little too far in teasing her. Pouting, I freed my eyes of non-existent tears and snivelled a bit.
“Meanie …” I mumbled, but stopped my act as soon as I noticed the familiar guard approaching once more. “Daughter of a merchant and maid combo, let´s go.” I whispered and set up my friendly smile once more. “You are back again? That was fast! Thank you for helping us out so swiftly.”
“I am … I am happy to be of service.” He didn’t stumble over his words anymore, but he still wasn’t keen on getting close to a monster … which was Hannah this time. “This way, please.”
“Thank you very much. I hope we didn’t wake anyone up with our request?” I asked as I strolled beside him. Equipped with a normal sword and a few metallic protectors here and there, he really did look like a low level guard.
“Rest assured, the young lady was still awake and directly asked me to guide you inside once she spotted me in the foyer.” He may not have noticed but I was able to smell a lie from hundreds of metres away, especially when my conversation partner looked me straight in the eyes.
“That’s so sweet of her! I am so lucky to have a friend like her, don’t you think so as well, Hannah?” I asked my brain cells already working hard to figure out why he lied and what the truth may be. Because no matter how easy it was for me to pick out a lie, I still couldn’t discern the truth.
“Indeed, mistress.” Hannah said, only glancing to the side until I winked at her knowingly. I wouldn’t mind giving her confirmation that she was also my friend, no matter how often she wanted to hear it.
“Anyways, you said you were from the Trading League? Why does such a mighty lady like you work for merchants?” The guard asked, probably directed at Hannah but still tempting me to answer right away.
“This little brat here tends to get into trouble rather easily.” Hannah mentioned and patted my left shoulder a bit. I felt the gravel underneath me feet crunch a bit more than usual as I gave my best not to grit my teeth in frustration. If she really wanted to play a maid on equal footing with her mistress, then I needed to give her a stage, even though I didn’t like it.
“Hey! Hannah, I never get into trouble. Okay, there was this one time … yesterday. But before that? I cannot remember anything in that direction.” I said and looked towards the stars for a little while.
“You are a magnet to trouble and given your father´s position, you really shouldn’t be. You are really sharp when it is about people, but you fail to consider your own standing every time.” I didn’t look at her, but from the sounds, I couldn’t pick out a hint of a lie. I didn’t consider my standing often enough? What standing did I even have?
“Your father? Is he that special?” Interjected the guard and thus answered the questions I had about his previous lie. He was more than likely ordered to spy on us … Mary was really concerned about her daughter, wasn’t she?
“Oh, yes! But he told me to keep quiet about it, so if you could tell Miss White not to investigate my family …” I asked and placed my palms against each other, basically begging him to keep quiet about everything I say.
“Lucy! You are talking about a duchess!” Hannah chimed in unhappily as I apparently forgot that I shouldn’t speak about nobility in a condescending way.
“Oh … Mr. Guard, if you would be so kind to tell the esteemed duchess regarding her question about my identity that I am sadly not able to reveal anything. I hope she does understand.” I corrected my words even though I was sure that everything I told him would be relayed to Mary.
“Regarding her question?” I only needed to smile a bit and the guard closed his eyes, just before he gripped the handle of the massive entrance door. We both knew Mary asked him to figure out who I was. “I see. You really are sharp.”
The door opened in front of me and before I could even strode into the entrance hall, Luna came already flying out of it. With a bright smile on her young face she threw herself into my arms without any hesitation. It was a damn sweet time as I hugged her back and turned around in a circle sending her legs flying outwards. After one turn, I already began to get concerned about her health though and stopped immediately. I may have gone a little too far as she swayed from the left to the right a bit, probably very dizzy from being flung around a bit.
“Luna!” I exclaimed, happily embracing her once again after she shook off her dizziness somewhat.
“Lucy! I´m so happy you are back!” And so was I. Happy to be back at home, even though said home didn’t recognise me. Mary looked down from the upper floor right next to the stairs, a smile on her lips, but still concerned about the two people which were as close to strangers as possible.
“Aye! Lucy, this is my friend and maid Hannah. Hannah, this is Lucy.” I introduced after placing both of my hands on her shoulders to calm her down somewhat.
“You are her friend?” Luna asked wide eyed. She may have given away that something was amiss with her reaction but luckily, she was turned away from Mary.
“Apparently I am now.” Hannah mentioned while looking at me as sternly as she could. “Miss White, it is a pleasure to meet you.” She said while curtsying elegantly and then looked at me. My mouth curved downwards a bit, but I still followed suit immediately, giving Mary the respect she deserved due to her position.
“There is no need to be formal.” Mary said, stealing the phrase I used so often in the past.
“Thank you. Miss White, can I ask you for allowing me to spent another night in this mansion? My parents are on a business trip now and I feel quite lonely alone at home.” I explained and gesticulated pleadingly.
“Hmm … how long do you intend to stay?” She asked, still not entirely convinced of Hannah and me.
“As long as I am allowed to.” I said while looking at Luna who nodded happily.
“I see. We have enough rooms so it shouldn’t be a problem if you two make yourself a home here. I would like to have a word with your parents though.” That would be quite hard to do. I was just thinking about who could jump in as my parents when Hannah agreed.
“That shouldn’t be a problem, milady.” She said, clearly disregarding that I had no parents. Well, at least Mary was somewhat pleased with us now and didn’t seem to mind as I grabbed Lunas’s hand.
“Let´s make some cookies, shall we? Or a cake?” Or both? Preferably both. Pulling Luna behind me, I left a surprised Mary alone with Hannah who would need to explain the apparent situation a bit more thoroughly. But I had faith in her which enabled me to storm into the kitchen without any worry. “We need flour, butter, sugar, the sap of a flower tree, goat milk and three eggs. Do you want them sweeter?”
“Sweet is always great…” Luna said, clearly a bit overwhelmed by my method of opening every shelf and rummaging through the contents. “I don’t know where the things you mentioned are though.”
“You don’t? That leaves me with no choice but to search for edible feathers myself …” I mumbled and opened the next shelf where I directly found around a quarter of everything I needed. “You don’t cook very often, do you?”
“No, not at all. Did noblewoman learn that two hundred years ago?” No … but they did host tea parties where they ate sweets. And that was probably the only work they had in their lives.
“Well … I guess not. Can you warm up the oven to around two hundred degrees? There should be a knob to turn …” I mumbled and looked over to Luna as she knelt down in front of the oven. “yeah, that one. The 200 has to be where the little marker is. Perfect!”
She really wasn’t well versed in baking. Not at all. Luna didn’t know where the utensils or ingredients were and didn’t even know how to separate the yellow of the egg from the rest. But she did have fun while eating the leftovers of the dough and even with decorating the cake I made afterwards with a lot of sweet things. Naturally I couldn’t let her do anything on her own because I actually wanted to eat the things I made, which may have looked a little condescending, but whatever. I was sure she wouldn’t mind.
“You really are well versed in baking for a vam… for someone as influential as you.” Nice save. I had to disagree though. A true saint would never make a mess out of the kitchen like I always did. Flour was across half the workbench, ingredients only halfway in their shelves and our clothing was a bit dirty.
“Hehe~ what you have seen were years and years of tedious practice until I figured out the secret to cooking.” I said while picking up a single cooking from the still hot tray.
“And that is?” She asked with interest and picked up another cookie as well.
“Put a lot of love in it. But don’t tell that anyone.” I answered while giggling a bit. The taste of the cookie did support my claim though. A note of vanilla, a hint of cinnamon and so much more turned into a crescendo of taste all while the cookie crumbled on my tongue and sang the song of sweet to every single one of my taste buds. I closed my eyes to enjoy the taste a little bit longer all while ignoring how Luna picked up cookie after cookie, Hannah stormed through the door, stopped for a second and then dashed towards the filled box of cookies.
Abruptly, I opened my eyes and tried to grab the box which was already being dragged out of my reach, without even bothering that I dirtied my dress even more. Hannah basically hugged the round box, leaving me with no other option but to grab the edge of the lid as she tried to flee with it.
“Hannah!” I exclaimed as I was dragged across the workbench through the flour.
“Mine! All mine!” She said greedily and finally managed to wrestle the box free. She immediately turned around afterwards and attempted to run out of the kitchen again like some cookie obsessed monster, but I only needed three words to make her stop.
“We have cake~” Let´s just say that she was very cooperative afterwards.
Two very shady ladies stood in front of my mansion in the early night, two horses in tow. I certainly wouldn’t even bother with them as they certainly couldn’t have anything good in mind. I mean, what in the world were they thinking, standing there in front of the gates, holding a lamp up and chatting loudly with each other?
“They should have spotted us by now?” Hannah mentioned touching the iron gate until it crackled with electricity once more.
“They definitely have. Hey, over here! Please, help two damsels in distress.” I waved towards a nearby guard who didn’t look as if he wanted to approach us. He almost looked a little bit scared with his trembling knees, his clanking armour and spear pointed at us.
“T-This is the estate of the White family! A-Any further aggression and we will involve the royal g-guards!” He looked kind of cute, so scared about the electricity still affecting the gate.
“Hey, Hannah … I think we have their attention now.” I claimed and gently touched her hand which was still electrocuting the metallic gate.
“If you say so.” She sighed, cancelled her magic and pushed against the gate which immediately opened, now that the magical protection wasn´t working anymore. Without even bothering, Hannah stepped onto the White´s estate, probably expecting me to follow suit immediately.
“Hey! It is rude to step into the garden of someone else without permission!” I exclaimed, shook my head in disappointment and smiled at the frightened guard. Truthfully, he did have all reason to be scared as not everyone could disable the defences of a ducal family easily … Hannah may have gone a little too far. “… Anyways, can you deliver mu- Lady White that we are only here to visit her daughter and not to … do anything bad?” I asked while looking at Hannah who suddenly found interest in her shoes.
“A-At this t-time?” The guard asked, making me look at the moon which hung high in the sky. It wasn’t that late though as there were even some pedestrians coming from the royal palace.
“Aye! You know, I am in that age were going into bed early is boring, so I did hope my dear friend Luna would still be awake. My name is Lucy, and this here is Hannah. We are from the Trading League.” At my tender age of 411, going into bed early was quite hard. My vampirism may or may not have affected this as well … who knew? “I´m sure Luna is so excited to see me!”
“I … I will notify the madam immediately. P-Please wait here.” As soon as the brown-haired guard turned around, my smile died down immediately. Well, at least he did what we wanted, but it took too much time to get there. Apparently, the White family had too much faith in their magical barriers around the estate and thus it took a lot of time to even get the attention of any guard. Surprisingly, these magical barriers were my bane as I alone had no way of entering the family property now. Well, I had Hannah, my level 304 maid with me for that.
“Where did they get this guard from? Leaving us here without any supervision …” The gates were open, the magical defences still down and guards were nowhere in sight. Security was apparently not a concern for the White family.
“I only incapacitated the outer shell of their defences. They apparently turned this whole forest into a defensive structure.” Hannah claimed and I looked into the forest. From time to time there were magical circles carved into the wood but otherwise, it didn’t look threatening at all.
“How do you know that?” I asked with interest.
“Just like you can sense death, I can see masses of mana.” She said and placed her hands on her hips proudly.
“… amazing.” I mumbled and noticed how lights turned on at the mansion. Mary had probably been informed already, which was quite fast in my opinion. “Is there anything else I should know?” I asked in wonder.
“This and that … you know how it is.” Hannah said while scratching her cheek which made me even more interested. But I also understood the need for privacy, especially because I was a walking vault, filled with secrets.
“I see.” I mumbled and smirked in her direction. “You can keep your naughty secrets from me.”
“They aren’t naughty!” She exclaimed slightly abashed and looked away from me, already turning slightly red.
“Oh?” I mumbled and inched closer to her only to grab her arm and hug it tightly. She looked even redder afterwards, especially after I smiled dumbly at her.
“It is just that I … nice try.” Hannah said and pulled her arm out of my embrace. It did seem as if I went a little too far in teasing her. Pouting, I freed my eyes of non-existent tears and snivelled a bit.
“Meanie …” I mumbled, but stopped my act as soon as I noticed the familiar guard approaching once more. “Daughter of a merchant and maid combo, let´s go.” I whispered and set up my friendly smile once more. “You are back again? That was fast! Thank you for helping us out so swiftly.”
“I am … I am happy to be of service.” He didn’t stumble over his words anymore, but he still wasn’t keen on getting close to a monster … which was Hannah this time. “This way, please.”
“Thank you very much. I hope we didn’t wake anyone up with our request?” I asked as I strolled beside him. Equipped with a normal sword and a few metallic protectors here and there, he really did look like a low level guard.
“Rest assured, the young lady was still awake and directly asked me to guide you inside once she spotted me in the foyer.” He may not have noticed but I was able to smell a lie from hundreds of metres away, especially when my conversation partner looked me straight in the eyes.
“That’s so sweet of her! I am so lucky to have a friend like her, don’t you think so as well, Hannah?” I asked my brain cells already working hard to figure out why he lied and what the truth may be. Because no matter how easy it was for me to pick out a lie, I still couldn’t discern the truth.
“Indeed, mistress.” Hannah said, only glancing to the side until I winked at her knowingly. I wouldn’t mind giving her confirmation that she was also my friend, no matter how often she wanted to hear it.
“Anyways, you said you were from the Trading League? Why does such a mighty lady like you work for merchants?” The guard asked, probably directed at Hannah but still tempting me to answer right away.
“This little brat here tends to get into trouble rather easily.” Hannah mentioned and patted my left shoulder a bit. I felt the gravel underneath me feet crunch a bit more than usual as I gave my best not to grit my teeth in frustration. If she really wanted to play a maid on equal footing with her mistress, then I needed to give her a stage, even though I didn’t like it.
“Hey! Hannah, I never get into trouble. Okay, there was this one time … yesterday. But before that? I cannot remember anything in that direction.” I said and looked towards the stars for a little while.
“You are a magnet to trouble and given your father´s position, you really shouldn’t be. You are really sharp when it is about people, but you fail to consider your own standing every time.” I didn’t look at her, but from the sounds, I couldn’t pick out a hint of a lie. I didn’t consider my standing often enough? What standing did I even have?
“Your father? Is he that special?” Interjected the guard and thus answered the questions I had about his previous lie. He was more than likely ordered to spy on us … Mary was really concerned about her daughter, wasn’t she?
“Oh, yes! But he told me to keep quiet about it, so if you could tell Miss White not to investigate my family …” I asked and placed my palms against each other, basically begging him to keep quiet about everything I say.
“Lucy! You are talking about a duchess!” Hannah chimed in unhappily as I apparently forgot that I shouldn’t speak about nobility in a condescending way.
“Oh … Mr. Guard, if you would be so kind to tell the esteemed duchess regarding her question about my identity that I am sadly not able to reveal anything. I hope she does understand.” I corrected my words even though I was sure that everything I told him would be relayed to Mary.
“Regarding her question?” I only needed to smile a bit and the guard closed his eyes, just before he gripped the handle of the massive entrance door. We both knew Mary asked him to figure out who I was. “I see. You really are sharp.”
The door opened in front of me and before I could even strode into the entrance hall, Luna came already flying out of it. With a bright smile on her young face she threw herself into my arms without any hesitation. It was a damn sweet time as I hugged her back and turned around in a circle sending her legs flying outwards. After one turn, I already began to get concerned about her health though and stopped immediately. I may have gone a little too far as she swayed from the left to the right a bit, probably very dizzy from being flung around a bit.
“Luna!” I exclaimed, happily embracing her once again after she shook off her dizziness somewhat.
“Lucy! I´m so happy you are back!” And so was I. Happy to be back at home, even though said home didn’t recognise me. Mary looked down from the upper floor right next to the stairs, a smile on her lips, but still concerned about the two people which were as close to strangers as possible.
“Aye! Lucy, this is my friend and maid Hannah. Hannah, this is Lucy.” I introduced after placing both of my hands on her shoulders to calm her down somewhat.
“You are her friend?” Luna asked wide eyed. She may have given away that something was amiss with her reaction but luckily, she was turned away from Mary.
“Apparently I am now.” Hannah mentioned while looking at me as sternly as she could. “Miss White, it is a pleasure to meet you.” She said while curtsying elegantly and then looked at me. My mouth curved downwards a bit, but I still followed suit immediately, giving Mary the respect she deserved due to her position.
“There is no need to be formal.” Mary said, stealing the phrase I used so often in the past.
“Thank you. Miss White, can I ask you for allowing me to spent another night in this mansion? My parents are on a business trip now and I feel quite lonely alone at home.” I explained and gesticulated pleadingly.
“Hmm … how long do you intend to stay?” She asked, still not entirely convinced of Hannah and me.
“As long as I am allowed to.” I said while looking at Luna who nodded happily.
“I see. We have enough rooms so it shouldn’t be a problem if you two make yourself a home here. I would like to have a word with your parents though.” That would be quite hard to do. I was just thinking about who could jump in as my parents when Hannah agreed.
“That shouldn’t be a problem, milady.” She said, clearly disregarding that I had no parents. Well, at least Mary was somewhat pleased with us now and didn’t seem to mind as I grabbed Lunas’s hand.
“Let´s make some cookies, shall we? Or a cake?” Or both? Preferably both. Pulling Luna behind me, I left a surprised Mary alone with Hannah who would need to explain the apparent situation a bit more thoroughly. But I had faith in her which enabled me to storm into the kitchen without any worry. “We need flour, butter, sugar, the sap of a flower tree, goat milk and three eggs. Do you want them sweeter?”
“Sweet is always great…” Luna said, clearly a bit overwhelmed by my method of opening every shelf and rummaging through the contents. “I don’t know where the things you mentioned are though.”
“You don’t? That leaves me with no choice but to search for edible feathers myself …” I mumbled and opened the next shelf where I directly found around a quarter of everything I needed. “You don’t cook very often, do you?”
“No, not at all. Did noblewoman learn that two hundred years ago?” No … but they did host tea parties where they ate sweets. And that was probably the only work they had in their lives.
“Well … I guess not. Can you warm up the oven to around two hundred degrees? There should be a knob to turn …” I mumbled and looked over to Luna as she knelt down in front of the oven. “yeah, that one. The 200 has to be where the little marker is. Perfect!”
She really wasn’t well versed in baking. Not at all. Luna didn’t know where the utensils or ingredients were and didn’t even know how to separate the yellow of the egg from the rest. But she did have fun while eating the leftovers of the dough and even with decorating the cake I made afterwards with a lot of sweet things. Naturally I couldn’t let her do anything on her own because I actually wanted to eat the things I made, which may have looked a little condescending, but whatever. I was sure she wouldn’t mind.
“You really are well versed in baking for a vam… for someone as influential as you.” Nice save. I had to disagree though. A true saint would never make a mess out of the kitchen like I always did. Flour was across half the workbench, ingredients only halfway in their shelves and our clothing was a bit dirty.
“Hehe~ what you have seen were years and years of tedious practice until I figured out the secret to cooking.” I said while picking up a single cooking from the still hot tray.
“And that is?” She asked with interest and picked up another cookie as well.
“Put a lot of love in it. But don’t tell that anyone.” I answered while giggling a bit. The taste of the cookie did support my claim though. A note of vanilla, a hint of cinnamon and so much more turned into a crescendo of taste all while the cookie crumbled on my tongue and sang the song of sweet to every single one of my taste buds. I closed my eyes to enjoy the taste a little bit longer all while ignoring how Luna picked up cookie after cookie, Hannah stormed through the door, stopped for a second and then dashed towards the filled box of cookies.
Abruptly, I opened my eyes and tried to grab the box which was already being dragged out of my reach, without even bothering that I dirtied my dress even more. Hannah basically hugged the round box, leaving me with no other option but to grab the edge of the lid as she tried to flee with it.
“Hannah!” I exclaimed as I was dragged across the workbench through the flour.
“Mine! All mine!” She said greedily and finally managed to wrestle the box free. She immediately turned around afterwards and attempted to run out of the kitchen again like some cookie obsessed monster, but I only needed three words to make her stop.
“We have cake~” Let´s just say that she was very cooperative afterwards.
