"Who might you be?"
Lylia with a smile "Nice to meet you, I am Alice. I was appointed as you new assistant. I will be under you care starting today."
"Good to hear that you have made it here safely."
Safely? Dude is this place dangerous?
Vale pointed at the desk vertically placed in front of him.
"You may sit over there. I will be giving you an easier task as this is your first day."
"Thank you!"
Why did I thank him? Forget it.
After sitting, Lylia's eyes fell on the duke's desk. The desk was filled with a bundel of finished and unfinished paperworks. There was an empty cup of coffee which he just drank.
Even though he does a lot of work, his desk is neatly maintained.
His desk has a lot of space to keep his work related stuff. If I get a better place to live in maybe I can customize a similar desk.
Unlike the archduke Vale Izlington's desk, Lylia's desk is pretty small. There is a box of letters kept beside the desk, a bunch of papers kept on her right side, and a set of stationary on her left.
"Reply to all those letters kept inside the box over there." The duke ordered with a much colder expression than before.
Seems like someone is serious about their work. And how does it look easy to this guy?
I just wish I don't find a lot of invitations. I don't like to reply with flattery, but most of them are nobles, so I don't have eany other choice.
Lylia stared at a fancy envelope, she picked it up and stared at the seal for a minute trying to understand which high ranking house it was sent from.
The envelope didn't mentioned anything about the sender, the only useful detail is it's design and the seal.
This seal is only used by imperial officials, it might be the ministers who sent this, the emperor or the empress.
To understand who sent this letter, we can look at the corners of this letter. There are few lines on all four corners –If it's gold then it is sent by the emperor. If it's rosegold then it is sent by the empress. The amount of lines significe the ranking of the sender.
These lines are coloured rose-gold, so...
"Your highness, her majesty the empress has sent a letter."
"What is it about?" He asked.
"Uh... It's an invitation..."
She quickly opened the letter and summarised it to him.
Why didn't I open the letter? This is not how I usually do my work, seems like I became dumber ever since I came to this world.
The empress was inviting the duke and his brother for some personal reason in this month's founding festival's banquet. And the attendance is mandatory, so they don't have any other choice.
....
The day felt irritatingly slow, somehow I managed to finish more than half of my work within a day.
Now I can finally got home!
Lylia opened the door happily, planning to make her favourite curry with some fresh groceries she just bought.
"Welcome -nya." The voice echoed through the dark room.
A dark figure, with four legs and glowing red eyes which shines bright in dark places, possibly because it's one of the felines –is creeping towards me.
Scary, thankfully I know this cat.
Lylia turned back to switch on the lights. Lights in this world are only turned on when they obserb adequate amount of mana.
If this cat is here then...
[Greetings User!]
Greetings my **s, for the past four years I was delighted not seeing these two here.
"There were few glitches in the system, so I couldn't meet you for few years -nya"
Yeah glitches. I feel dumb listening to this guide.
It was few years ago, when I was 8 years old, playing my role as a mere slave. I wasn't given anything to eat nor drink. I wasn't even allowed to drink some water from the well.
everytime those nobles were busy in their own world. I would steal whatever edibles I saw in the kitchen and quickly eat it.
After a month or two, they would sell me back to where they bought me from.
Maybe, it was that day when everything changed?
The lady with long white hair, and red cape. She came to buy a slave –she didn't have any specific requirements for a slave, but she chose me. The very moment when we made eye contact, she asked my price.
But, why did she buy me? I was a sick 8 year old girl, a half vampire, so I can't do much unless I drink blood. I was seriously a burden to everyone, she knew it, but still proceeded to buy me.
When she bought me, she said the manager that her carriage is parked further away from the shop, and she will be taking me with her alone. Those people agreed to it with no hesitation knowing there might be people harming us.
The lady walked deeper into the slums, and I followed her. While walking in one of those dark valleys, she suddenly stopped –no one was around. It was an isolated area.
She took off he red robe revealing her beautiful strands of white hair glimmering gold under the sunlight. she wrapped it around me with a gentle and caring smile.
It was my first time in a while when someone treated me like this. That smile melted me right away.
The beautiful lady looked at the wounds on my neck with a pitiful expression, but didn't utter a single word.
The lady slowly moved her hands forword, maybe to check how deep my wounds are.
What does she want? Maybe I should make a run for it –No, it won't work, I will get caught again, and get whipped until I start bleeding.
Before lylia could escape, the lady without wasting a second tightly held her neck with both of her hands, and pierced her right hand's thumb into my neck.
I can't move. I can't breathe. Is this how I die? It hurts a lot. Why did I think she was kind?
I looked up at those ruby red eyes staring coldly at me. I hated it. I wanted to stab it.
Maybe... I died? But I didn't.
I opened my eyes –still in the same street and, the same attire. I looked around, but there was no white haired lady nearby, the only out-of-ordinary thing I could see were few flying letters.
[Welcome user!]
I couldn't process anything that just happened to me, so I just started back at the cat which was continuously staring at me without moving an inch.
"Mr. Cat?" I asked.
"I am a woman."
To be continued---
its been a while since I wrote a chapter, sorry for not updating for few weeks, i just have a lot to study.