"My lady, did you really sleep in that illegitimate son’s room? The Marquis even slept there too..."
Charlotte paused what she was doing and turned to look at Natalia who was making her bed.
Natalia continued, her hands not stopping as she took out the covers and replaced it with a new one.
"You not only had breakfast with them the morning of yesterday, but you even had dinner with them."
Her words made Charlotte uncomfortable. Natalia had always referred to Wade as ’illegitimate don’t, but she had never stopped her. Natalia had been her personal maid ever since she got married. She had always made herself readily available to Charlotte and had been chosen to be Charlotte’s maid since Charlotte got comfortable with her relatively quickly.
She was Charlotte’s most loyal and trusted maid and Charlotte barely kept anything from her.
It took a few seconds for Charlotte to reply.
"It’s not his fault my husband was unfaithful. Before I get a divorce, I want to do sothing good for him."
Again, Charlotte couldn’t bring herself to tell this maid of hers that the divorce was postponed for a month and that she had promised George and herself to give their marriage another chance.
"You’re too kind, my lady. The Marquis and that illegitimate son of his has hurt you so much, yet you still think about them." Natalia said in a complaining tone.
"He is indeed an illegitimate son, but he is the Marquis’ son and has been acknowledged by him. If George heard you call him an illegitimate child, I may not be able to help you." Charlotte warned.
Natalia stilled, her hand smoothing the bedsheet pausing. Her face paled a bit.
She had always spoken freely with Charlotte, especially since the Marquis caused her to be heartbroken.
She and Charlotte had beco even closer and she could say anything about Wade and George in a show of anger and grievance for her lady without being scolded by Charlotte.
So why now...
Natalia locked eyes with Charlotte and caught the worry in the latter’s eyes.
Her tensed shoulders relaxed. Her lady was right. If soone else heard, she would be in deep trouble and Charlotte truly would be unable to help her.
Her lady cared about her and that was why she was worried about her. She didn’t want her to get in trouble.
Thinking of this, Natalia resud her actions with a small smile.
"Anyway, it doesn’t matter, my lady. Soon, you’ll leave this unhappy place." Natalia said cheerfully in a comforting tone.
Charlotte only humd.
***
"Princess Tia, these are the reports for the restaurant and the art store." Owen placed a stack of docunts on Aristia’s desk.
Aristia looked up and nodded at him, "Thank you." She would look through them later. Just thinking of the steady flow of inco coming in from both sides gave her a bit of satisfaction.
Of course it was only a bit. For soone who was making way more than this in her original world, she was barely satisfied with her earning now.
She closed the book she had been reading. She placed it on the desk beside the docunts Owen had just put on it.
She stood up and stretched her hands, looking out the window. The sun had set.
She left her ho office slash study that Wilson had prepared for her in the mansion. It was right opposite her room.
It had two desks and chairs, a couch, tea table, and shelf.
Owen’s desk was a distance in front of hers, leaning on the adjacent wall to the left.
"Princess Tia, it’s ti for dinner." Adeline bowed, going to stand behind Aristia.
Aristia gave a nod and headed to the dining room with Owen in tow as Adeline waited outside the door to the dining room.
Alaric arrived at the dining room at the sa ti as she and Owen did.
They each took their seats at the table. The door opened again and Wilson and Catherine entered, looking very much like the lovey-dovey couple that they were.
They took their seats at the table, finally taking their eyes off each other. They reminded Aristia a lot of her parents.
Wilson began to eat, and everyone followed suit. There wasn’t much conversation at the table, except for Alaric talking about his new classes.
There were still servants in the dining hall, therefore, the family refrained from asking about anything related to her secret identity.
After dinner, the family retired for the night.
Aristia had a dream.
In the dream, she was a teenager. She felt a sense of deja vu at the dream. She realized that she had dreamt of a similar scene. She noticed that she wasn’t in her room. The room she stayed in was unfamiliar to her.
[Where am I?] She thought.
Suddenly, just like the last ti, a figure clothed from head to toe jumped in from the window and smiled sinisterly. Her body moved on its own accord and she made a run for it, she ran and stopped at a door in front of her and pulled open the door. She was watching everything through the eyes of the girl.
But as soon as the door opened, the scene changed. She was now running in a forest.
She could feel her heart beating strongly in her chest as she ran, feeling out of breath. The thought flashed across her mind. She couldn’t let them catch her.
[Fight back!] Aristia wanted to yell. But she couldn’t. She wasn’t in control. And she doubted that this body that wasn’t hers wpould be able to fight that person. She probably wouldn’t be so skilled to fight an assassin.
Even if she was capable, she was probably outnumbered.
Whoosh!
She heard a sound followed by a patter of footsteps. At that mont her body turned, allowing her to catch a glimpse of the sa fully clothed person in black who was just within arms length. She couldn’t see his face as he wore a mask.
He stretched out his hand to catch her and his hand was just a second away from making contact with her, but just at that mont, her eyes snapped open.
"That was a repeat of the other dream." She mumbled, rubbing her eyes.
She realized that it was morning now.
She got down from the bed at the sa ti the door opened. Adeline entered carrying a small bowl of water.
"Good morning, Princess Tia." She greeted.
"Good morning, Linny." Aristia also gave a smile.
She cleaned her face with the bowl of water, then she changed into her training clothes and headed to her training class with the captain.
She begn to train vigorously as she had been doing since manifesting her aura of her own accord. But she put in extra effort today.
Even though she didn’t understand why she had such a dream, she was reminded of the need to train her body.
Her eyes narrowed. [This body is also not strong enough to fight an assassin.]
She assessed that the most she could fight and win was an eight year old boy in her current state. To her, that wasn’t impressive.
She needed to beco stronger for her own sake, in a world where there were things like magic, aura and daemons.
Clang!
She dodged in the nick of ti as Owen’s wooden sword made a swipe at her side, at the sa ti using her own sword to deflect the attack.
Her possession of aura made it easier for her to sense the incoming weapon and dodge swiftly.
"You’re distracted." Owen said with furrowed brows, not stopping his attacks. This was the fourth ti sothing similar had happened this morning.
An onlooker would have thought that Owen, who was nine years old was being too hard on her, who was six years old, but she had asked him not to go easy on her.
She shook her head, knowing that what Owen said was true. She was distracted. She sighed. She also needed to train her senses.
She pushed the thoughts of the dream to the back of her mind and focused on the training.
The captain stood to the side watching the sparring between both his students. ’What has gotten her so distracted?’ he thought.
In a window facing the training grounds of the Grand Duke’s Mansion.
"She’s training too hard." Catherine murmured, her brows slightly furrowed.
She couldn’t help but be worried at how Aristia exerted herself during her trainings.
Even if Aristia didn’t train as hard, to a woman who hadn’t ever trained at all, it would still seem hard, stressful and tiring.
Her lady-in-waiting, lanie, said nothing. However, it was clear that she shared the sa thoughts as her lady.
Catherine turned away from the window and headed elsewhere inside the mansion with lanie following after her.
The training had ended. Aristia returned to her room to take a bath.
She dipped in the bathtub and felt her body relax in the hot water. She released a sigh, lightly pushing the water about with her hands.
Adeline then proceeded to bathe her, washing the sweat that had ford due to the exercise off her body.
She carefully washed her hair, gently massaging her scalp with her fingers. Aristia felt sleepy at the sensation. Her eyes narrowed and she almost purred like a cat.
[I don’t know why that feels so good.] She was talking about the feeling when soone’s scalp was massaged.
She slowly closed her eyes and couldn’t resist saying, "You have magic fingers, Linny."
Adeline’s hand on her head paused at her words, but only for a mont, as she resud her action.
"You think so, princess?" She asked.
Aristia didn’t need to look at her to know that she was smiling. She probably found her words funny as she didn’t possess any magic.
Aristia woke from her drowsiness when she felt herself being carried out of the bath.
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