Chapter 53: Chapter 43: The worries of an Esquire and a Certain Maid.

Echoes of Fire and Shadows

Chapter 43: The worries of an Esquire and a Certain Maid.

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 -----Neris' POV-----

My name is Neris Shtrel, current heir of the Viscount Shtrel. I am 14 years old. I am currently a student of the Blaise Academy and an esquire on my Aunt's knight order, the Roses of Nebandia.

After parting ways with my aunt and my companions, we went on a short tour around the city before coming to a house in the Artisan's District. 

Just a few minutes ago, I was brought into a room by a group of girls who were all younger than me.

The room in question had a lot of furniture, bookshelves in every corner filled to the brim with all kinds of books, a fireplace with a large cauldron, shelves with different types of ingredients, a single bed, a nightstand, a dresser, a wooden chest at the end of the bed and a desk. This room could easily belong to either a witch or an alchemist.

The room looked like it hadn't been used in years, but it was a little strange that there wasn't any dust whatsoever in here.

Maybe, the lack of dust in the room had to do with what happened to Mr. Fred? I wasn't sure, so I didn't bother trying to answer something I didn't know.

What I did know is that I was currently standing in the childhood bedroom of my future mother-in-law, Ms. Lilia… I was with Liliana, Luna, Leaf, and Mia.

Liliana, Luna, and Leaf were all sitting at the desk and looking at an old map of the city, while Mia and I were sitting on the single bed in silence… Mia was seemingly lost in thought.

I was feeling a little awkward and I didn't want to be rude and barge into their conversation…

"So? Where should we go with Julius after taking him to our old house? I say we should go to the port! I'm in the mood to eat some delicious fish!" Liliana said with excitement as she pointed to a place on the map.

"I'm not sure if I want to go back to the old house…" Luna seemed a little worried. "Also, I think he would prefer to go to check out the market for rare ingredients first. Though, if I had to choose, I'd like to take him to the National Library or maybe the Imperial Plaza." Luna pointed at three places on the map.

"Jeez, Luna… Is this about those guys? Why are you even worrying about them? We can use magic now and if they really try anything, Julius and I would be there to protect you, you know?" Liliana nodded to herself in order to reassure her little sister.

"I know, but…" Luna still looked worried.

"No buts! Turn that frown upside down right this instant! You can't find the perfect place to confess your feelings with that kind of expression!" Liliana stood up on her chair and pointed at Luna, trying to encourage her.

"I guess you're right… Sorry, sis." Luna immediately shook her head a few times and composed herself. Her worried look was quickly changed with the smile I was so used to seeing on her face.

"That's better!" Liliana nodded with satisfaction before sitting down.

I wonder what was worrying Luna so much? I don't think it is my place to ask… It would be too nosy on my behalf.

Oh well… In any case, I found out quite a while ago during our trip that both twins have feelings for their adoptive little brother and he apparently doesn't know.

I was obviously a little surprised at first, but it didn't feel that strange to me since it isn't unusual for nobles to raise their children with their future spouses just to make sure that they have adequate heirs and ensure the proper continuation of their bloodline.

As a matter of fact, I was told by my Aunt Ophelia that my parents even considered for a while adopting a boy to get me a fiancé since my mom didn't want me to marry and have kids late as she did. Of course, they decided to not go on with the idea since my mother became pregnant with my little sister and they didn't want to raise two young kids and a baby at the same time while being in their forties.

Well, it was probably for the better since I at least can get to choose who I will spend my life with. It is not like I judge the twins for liking their adoptive brother or their parents for allowing that kind of thing, on the contrary, if it makes everyone happy then I'm all for it!

I just don't want anyone to decide for me… Or at least I thought that way until recently…

"So what about this place? It looks fun!" Leaf pointed at another place while standing on top of the table.

"Leaf… That's a cemetery…" The twins said in unison with a flat tone.

"Oh… A spooky place… Never mind then!" Leaf averted her gaze with embarrassment.

Leaf is so cute! I want to squeeze her and play around with her like we did on the trip! I wonder if I still have some candy to give her? The faces she makes when eating something sweet are just adorable~!

While I was thinking of the things I wanted to do with the adorable white-haired fairy, someone decided to poke my cheek to get my attention.

The moment I turned my head around, I saw Mia who had a smile on her face.

"Neris, what do you think of Julius' black hair now that you've seen it?" She asked with an inquisitive tone, finally breaking the awkward silence between us.

"Well…" I paused before giving her an answer.

The first word that came to my mind when I thought about his hair was 'exotic'... That's exactly what his hair color was. 

I had never seen anything like it in my life even after living for five years in the capital where all kinds of people from all different races live. His hair is something that I can only describe as marvelous.

"I think it is quite lovely." I told her my honest opinion.

Truly… I will never understand why people with black hair have to suffer being called children of demons even though it has been thousands of years since they were defeated and driven out of the continent… 

In my opinion, it is just an old belief that will never bring anything positive. That stigma should have been eradicated long ago.

Just look at Julius, he's definitely not a demon! If anything, I'd say he is a little angel! 

"Hehehe! I'm glad that you think so too!" Mia nodded with satisfaction. "Then… What do you think of Julius? Do you like him?" She asked and smiled again. This time, however, her smile was full of mischief…

"Umm… That's…" I was at a loss for words thanks to the sudden question…

As I had said before, I don't want anyone to decide anything for me. So, when my Aunt Ophelia was talking with Ms. Lilia and Mr. Fred on my behalf to get Julius and me engaged, I was extremely angry at her.

I was so angry and against the whole thing, but I couldn't express it properly… It was all because of my shyness and clumsiness when I'm in front of important people…

Ever since I was little, I would get extremely nervous whenever I met someone with a higher status than me. A good example would be her Highness Marina when I first met her when I was 10 years old.

I don't want to make it seem like I'm bragging, but most of my classmates in the academy and my companions in the Roses of Nebandia all say that I'm usually a calm, composed, and very competent person, but whenever I'm interacting with someone of higher status, all that goes down the drain…

So, as you can imagine, I was pretty nervous since I was in front of the legendary Skull Crusher as well as his wife, the Crimson Witch who was the apprentice of the most powerful magician in the last century, and finally, the head butler of the Royal Family… 

How could I not get nervous in that situation?

Though, I must admit that I was thankful to Ms. Lilia, who even though was a little drunk, still had enough common sense to say that she would consider my aunt's proposal if I did well in the upcoming tournament and only if her son and I liked each other. That meant that I had a way out of my aunt's reckless proposal, so I was very thankful to Ms. Lilia!

I was still planning on expressing my dissatisfaction with my aunt, but I forgot about it completely when Julius told us the story about how he had almost been devoured by a giant frog and had to slay it from the inside to save Leaf, the tiny fairy.

It was such an unbelievable story, but then again, both Julius and Leaf were covered in some slimy substance and the other kids were there to confirm that it had actually happened.

The day after that incident, the whole engagement ordeal completely slipped from my mind. 

Just like the rest of my companions and my aunt, I found Julius to be very adorable and wanted to spend time with him so I could spoil him a little.

He was a little odd for a kid his age. He could be very polite, charming, and thoughtful… He even talked like an adult most of the time! But then, all of a sudden, he would act like a normal and excitable kid when something managed to catch his interest.

Whenever we would stop to rest or stop traveling for the day, if you invited him to play anything, from board games to playing around with a ball, he would always accept to play no matter what.

 Not only that, but he would always ask all of us to tell him stories of our job as knights (I'm still an esquire, I might add) and would listen very intently with sparkling eyes and then remember as well as bring up even the smallest of details during our next conversations with him.

I remember there was a time when we stopped for the day and decided to set our camp near a large flower field. That day, Julius came to our camp and started asking everybody about their favorite types of flowers. 

The moment he got the answers from everyone, he quickly disappeared from the camp and went somewhere on his own. As you can imagine, he returned much later, a little before dinner, and gave everyone a bouquet. That's right! He gave every single one of us, 150 knights, a bouquet made of each person's favorite flowers! 

For the record, my favorite flowers are orchids and he managed to find a large amount of them even though they seemingly weren't even growing in that field!

When I asked him why he went out of his way to give all of us such wonderful gifts, he replied that he would feel bad if he didn't give us any after gifting a few bouquets for his mother, Liliana, Luna, Mia, and Leaf…

At that moment, I remembered the whole engagement ordeal and I started to think that maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I were to be engaged to such a sweet person like him.

Over the next few days, I started to feel more and more drawn to the idea of accepting the engagement, especially after I started learning how wonderful and weird Julius could be. 

Mind you, he was and still is completely unaware of my aunt's arrangement with his mother. I know that is the case because I have asked both of them multiple times during the trip, which could only mean one thing…  It meant that Julius was being genuinely sweet and kind to me and the rest of the knights, not because anyone had told him to be like that, but just because that's how he is. 

This beating heart of mine was truly moved by his kindness!

He could understand most things we explained to him very quickly, often dwelling deeper into the topic and even asking difficult questions related to the topic afterward.

He was also pretty industrious and nimble, more often than not dismantling tents and preparing the horses left and right without breaking a sweat, making us able to depart at record times!

There's also the fact that he likes doing chores. No… Saying that he likes chores is an understatement, he loves doing chores! He did everything that needed to be done around the camp very quickly and very efficiently, often leaving a lot of us without jobs to do. It got to a point where we had to beg him to leave us something to do since my aunt was starting to think that we were lazy!

He also liked barging in and helping out the people on kitchen duty, even when they told him that he could relax and wait for the food to be ready, which is how we all discovered that he was a pretty skilled cook despite his childish appearance.

As I spent more days traveling together with him and his family, I just couldn't help but be charmed by the strange boy who simply couldn't stay quiet in one place for more than five minutes.

Sigh… To think that someone that is just four years younger than me could be so interesting... That short trip with him was truly an experience from out of this world!

As I have said before, I don't want anyone making choices for me, but this time, I think it may be a good idea to accept this arrangement.

In the last couple of days, I have been feeling nervous, restless even… All because I want to prove myself to Ms. Lilia and Julius during the tournament…

Before this trip, I wasn't particularly motivated to try to win the tournament, especially after knowing that my cousin, Alberis, who is one of the strongest and most skilled students of our generation and basically the star of the Blaise Academy, would be participating… But now, I don't care if I have to fight my own cousin, I want to win the tournament! You better believe I will win it!

So to make a very long story short…

"I think I do like him…" I answered Mia's question while blushing.

It is true that there's a bit of an age gap between Julius and me and there's the fact that we don't even live in the same region, but I don't really mind either of those things. 

As a matter of fact, my own father is ten years older than my mother. Even with that said, it is not like Julius and I would get married right away for very obvious reasons. 

Patience is the virtue of saints, after all.

As for the distance, we can simply write letters to each other. Although, if he is to become my fiancé, then I would like to get to know him as much as I possibly can before our inevitable wedding, so I could also easily buy us a pair of the latest Communication Crystals, so we can talk whenever we want. I have more than enough money to pay for them since it is an important investment!

"I imagined that would be the case!" Said the rabbit girl, who was barely a year younger than me, with a very cheeky expression. "So? Are you gonna tell him? The only conditions I have to accept you into our merry group are that you'll have to help out Liliana and Luna with their confession, you'll have to get along with us and you'll have to love Julius from the bottom of your heart forever!" Mia explained with an innocent expression.

I have to love him from the bottom of my heart huh… 

Hmm… I can't deny that lately, whenever I think about Julius' cute face, I get that feeling of butterflies in my stomach and my chest starts feeling so warm and fuzzy… I love that feeling.

"If you'll accept me, then I will gladly fulfill all of those conditions! I'll even bet my honor as a future knight!" I smiled at Mia before bowing my head.

I guess what Mother said about falling for someone was true… It is such a nice thing to be a maiden in love~.

That being said, I'm a bit worried about something… 

Would Julius like a girl like me, whose sole obsession is to become a knight? A girl whose only hobby is to train her martial skills?

It worries me a little because Mia and the twins are extremely beautiful and very feminine… I don't think I could compete with the three of them when I'm such a tomboy…

"Hehehe! Then welcome aboard!" Mia suddenly started patting my head while sounding very happy about my acceptance.

"Thank you very much, Mia." I thanked her with a smile on my face. "But are you sure you want another girl after Julius? You two are engaged, right? I can understand the twins since they have been in love with him for a long time and they are your best friends. But why me…?" I said awkwardly.

If I was in Mia's place, I would like to have someone like Julius all to myself. But she doesn't even seem to mind that he has other girls chasing after him.

In all honesty, it is a little baffling that Julius already has a harem of his own at his age, but I can understand why. Those round cheeks of his and that cute smile are things that must be protected at all costs!

"Why would I be worried?" Mia tilted her head innocently. "Have you seen how Julius easily charmed all of your lady knight friends?" Mia then smiled cutely.

"That's…" I was at a loss for words.

"As my mom would say, it is pointless to worry about something like that! True, I can get jealous from time to time, there's no helping it. But as long as Julius keeps loving me and makes me the happiest rabbit in the world, I don't really care." Mia said as if it was natural. "And let's face it, Julius is too cute... Way too cute for his own good! I'm certain that there will be a lot more girls like you chasing after him in the future. So instead of spending all of my energy worrying about that, I'd rather put that energy into spending time with my loved one!" Mia nodded to herself.

I couldn't help but feel speechless thanks to how mature she was about it… 

We're only a year apart in age and she already sounds way more mature than me… I'm a little envious of her.

"Plus, Julius already has another fiancée, so what are three more? I think that the more the merrier!" Mia smiled warmly at me. 

Hold on, what!? He has another fiancée already!? I didn't know! What's up with that precocious boy!?

"Oh! But please don't misunderstand me! I'm only allowing this because I like you! If that wasn't the case, I would be going out of my way to sneakily sabotage all of your attempts to get closer to my Julius~." Mia said with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. 

"Is that so…?" I said with an awkward expression.

Scary… I think I will take back what I said about her being more mature…

"Yep! I gotta protect my Julius from getting deceived by bad women!" Mia said with pride.

"Says the thief who just swooped in and stole him from us within an hour of knowing him…" Luna said with a frown.

"Jeez! Are you still mad about it? It has been three years since that happened! I'm going to help you confess and everything! Isn't that enough for you to forgive me?" Mia started pouting.

"I will only forgive you if we are successful." Luna said with a very serious expression.

"Sigh… Fair enough." Mia let out a sigh before smiling wryly.

"Alright, now that we have welcomed Neris into our club, how about we finally start making an actual plan?" Liliana suggested while smiling warmly at me. 

Thanks to the fact that everyone's gazes were on me, I just blushed and nodded. I was feeling a little ashamed…

Well, even if I was ashamed, I was also happy that they had accepted me so quickly.

"I just had a great idea!" Liliana said as she stood up from her seat. "Neris, the tournament will be held at the Entertainment District, right?" Liliana asked me before grabbing the map and pointing to the location of the entertainment district.

"Yes! It was decided to be held there instead of the academy grounds because of the sheer amount of potential participants we will have this year thanks to her Highness Marina and her Highness Alicia who are both graduating this year, making this tournament a very important event. 

Thanks to the high number of students that are so eager to participate, there will also be a few preliminary battles to determine who is going to enter the actual tournament! 

You are reading story Echoes of Fire and Shadows at novel35.com

Ah! As usual, anyone can come and watch the tournament as long as they pay for their seats, and since this year the event is going to take place in the entertainment district, it is expected that thousands of people will come and watch!" I got a little excited as I answered Liliana's question…

"Thousands of humies in one place… I wanna see that!" Leaf flew with excitement all across the room.

"Hehehe! Then that's just perfect for my plan!" Liliana said with a satisfied look on her face. "Now listen up! The plan to make our confession so surprising and so shocking that Julius will have no other choice but to accept our feelings after immediately falling for us will take place at the end of the tournament!" Liliana said with authority.

I quickly raised my hand as something was bothering me.

"But why there? I think there are so many beautiful places to confess our feelings other than the tournament's arena…" I asked Liliana.

For some reason, the other girls gave me a weird look…

"Wait, you don't know?" Mia tilted her head looking quite dumbfounded.

"Know what?" I was confused.

"That Julius is participating in the tournament too? Actually, that's the whole reason why we came to the capital." Luna said with a blank expression.

Are they joking? No… Judging by the looks on their faces, they aren't… Then…

Huh!? He is participating too!? How!? Why!? He is not a noble, how could he participate in this tournament!?

Naturally, I was extremely flabbergasted thanks to what I had just learned…

"Weird… I thought he had told you already! You were basically his shadow while we were traveling here…" Liliana couldn't believe that I didn't know.

"Is he really participating…? This is not a joke, right?" I asked nervously.

"Nope, we are not joking about this." Luna shook her head. "As for the why Julius didn't tell you… If I had to guess, I would say Mom is the one behind that. She loves to surprise people, so she surely asked Julius to keep quiet about the tournament so she could see your and your aunt's reactions when you saw him there in the tournament. Sigh… Mom can be a handful sometimes." Luna let out a sigh and shook her head again.

"Well, to be fair, I don't think anyone would believe Julius if he said that he was going to act as Marina's champion in the tournament. They'd probably laugh in his face, so that also must be a reason for him to keep quiet." Liliana nodded to herself.

Come again…?

My mind couldn't process what Liliana had just revealed… I could only stare at the wall in front of me with a baffled look on my face…

…

…

…

"HUH!? JULIUS IS THIS YEAR'S SPECIAL PARTICIPANT!?" I screamed at the top of my lungs thanks to the shock.

It wasn't until after a full minute or so of processing what I had just heard that I was able to react to the surprising news…

"Yeah, that's definitely the kind of face mom would want to see!" Luna said with amusement.

"Hehehe! I can understand why she wanted Julius to keep quiet about it, these kinds of reactions are the best!" Liliana also looked very amused.

"It really is funny to see Neris being so surprised!" Leaf suddenly stopped right in front of me and smiled from ear to ear.

"Jeez… Ms. Lilia sure is as mischievous as ever… No wonder you two are also like that." Mia said to the twins.

Hold on… If Julius is going to participate, then that means that he and I could possibly end up fighting each other?

Ugh… Just thinking about hurting him or hitting that cute face of his makes my heart ache! How am I supposed to win the tournament if I have to fight the boy I like!

Gods… What am I going to do now…?

Wait… Isn't this an unbelievably good opportunity to impress Julius!? I can show him directly my skills with the sword and make him fall for me after a mesmerizing display of swordsmanship! After that, I can win the tournament to make him respect me and fall for me even more!

That does sound like a good plan!

"Rude…" Luna frowned thanks to what Mia said.

"And what is that supposed to mean, Mia? Luna and I are good girls!" Liliana said sarcastically.

"Yes, yes, sure. You two are certainly very good girls." Mia said jokingly before rolling her eyes.

"Anyway, now that Neris is aware that Julius is going to participate in the tournament, let's continue preparing our master plan! Here's what I got…-" Liliana said with a voice full of determination and excitement.

I was already crafting a plan of my own in my mind, but since I had agreed to help them out, I decided to listen carefully to everything about Liliana's plan.

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-----Marie's POV-----

"Here's your tea, my lady." I said as I placed a cup of tea on top of an elegant desk.

"Sheesh… How many times do I need to tell you that you don't need to act so serious when we are alone? We are lovers, remember?" Eliana said to me with a less than pleased expression.

"Lately, it doesn't seem that way." I huffed before putting my tray on the desk and sitting on her lap.

It has been three years since I was saved from that brothel by Eliana and I became her lover and servant.

Everything has been pretty good in the last couple of years. I have thanked the gods many many times for Eliana finding me and ending the lives of the monsters who had me captive. I will be forever grateful to her.

After being released from slavery and spending a few days in Norvek with my new lover and employer since she had some work to do, then I was brought to the capital city of the Empire, Mutm. I came to live at the Imperial Castle with Eliana since she, for some reason, fancied someone like me.

Here in the castle, there was no lack of food, clean clothes, comfortable beds, warm baths, and all the luxuries you can imagine, something that would be unthinkable from where I'm from.

Don't get me wrong, I lived a very comfortable life with my family back in our village, but we obviously didn't have this level of luxury.

In any case, when I first arrived at the castle, I was taken under the wing of both Mr. Tian and Ms. Agnes, the head butler (the only butler) and the head maid of the castle. Both of them taught me the ropes of my job, manners, the correct etiquette of us servants, and everything I needed to know about the huge castle and the Royal Family.

I must admit that it was a bit difficult to learn everything at the pace they were imposing on me, but I was able to push through. Though, it certainly didn't help that besides Mr. Tian, I was the only commoner amongst the servants. The rest of the servants were all second or third daughters from the high nobility, most of them being children of Marquises or Earls and even Dukes. 

All of those girls were certainly not amused by my presence here in the castle. However, since I am an exclusive servant of Eliana, I don't have to deal with most of the other servants regularly with the exception of Mr. Tian and Ms. Agnes.

The fact that I am an exclusive servant and a commoner on top of that, saves me from having to attend to His Majesty, the Emperor at night on his bed…

That's one of the first things I learned from Ms. Agnes when I came to the castle… She warned me that His Majesty is apparently a man with a high libido and likes taking maids to his bed despite having multiple wives and concubines. She told me that if I was still a pure maiden, even if I was a commoner, I should try to be as inconspicuous as possible in front of His Majesty so he doesn't take a liking to me…

I have only served His Majesty's twice, and on both of those occasions, I followed Ms. Agnes' advice. I did what he had asked of me very quickly and tried to be as inconspicuous as I could so I could protect my chastity.

Well… I don't know if I could be considered chaste anymore since I have done quite a lot of things with Eliana, but I have never laid in bed with a man. Ever since I was released from slavery, I developed an aversion toward men… 

It is very difficult for me to trust a man… Right now, I can count with one hand how many of them I think I can trust. Mr. Tian is one of them.

"I know that I have been neglecting you, but I have been doing the jobs of ten people and educating my nieces on top of that..." Eliana let out a heavy sigh as she saw the tower of documents on top of her desk.

"Still, when was the last time you kissed me?" I asked coldly.

Eliana, my lover and former princess of the Empire, has not touched me in months… It is all because of her job…

Three years ago, it seemed like we were madly in love with each other. I couldn't help it… She was the angel that gallantly came to save me in my time of need… But these days, it almost seems like she's drifting away from me like she's already bored of me… I still love her, but her becoming distant hurts so much…

"Erm… Two weeks ago?" She tried to guess.

"One month ago was the last time you kissed me on the lips. Two weeks ago was the last time you kissed me on the cheek." I answered her question with annoyance.

"Ehh? It has been that long…?" Eliana looked shocked.

"Indeed." I nodded. 

"But why haven't you said anything then?" She asked with a saddened expression.

"I have. You always give me the same excuse about how it has just slipped from your mind or how you are just too busy." I was a little pissed off. "Am I even your lover at this point? You don't even look at me when I'm warming your bed at night." I felt incredibly sad and hurt by her lack of interest.

"I'm sorry…" Eliana apologized.

"You're forgiven, but apologizing won't change things I'm afraid." I said with indifference.

"Then how about this?" Eliana said before turning my head around and giving me a deep passionate kiss.

At first, I was taken by surprise and since I was pissed off at her, I didn't want to kiss her, but after just a few seconds of her wonderful kiss, I couldn't help but give in and kiss her back very passionately.

"You're not the only one who has been frustrated with this, you know? Do you have any idea how much stress I have accumulated these days? Do you even know the number of times I have fantasized about pushing you against the desk and having my way with you to blow off all of my steam?" She said with a seductive smile after separating our lips, a thin thread of saliva was the only thing that kept us connected.

"Well, stop fantasizing and do it. Who's stopping you? I'm sure your work can wait for at least an hour or two." I said as I started groping my own breasts and winking at her. I was doing my best to tempt her.

"Oh? Daring today, aren't we? Then don't mind if I eat you up right here~." She said before she started giving me tender kisses on my neck.

In my head, I was celebrating since my lover and I would finally do what lovers do best once again! Unfortunately for us, our passionate moment was about to be ruined…

"Ahem." An old man coughed to catch our attention. 

Both Eliana and I looked at the person who interrupted us with angry expressions on our faces.

The old man was no one other than Mr. Tian, the head butler of the castle, who had been away for several weeks until now.

"I apologize for interrupting your fun, my lady, but I have come to inform you that I have returned and that the child of the Skull Crusher has safely reached the city." Mr. Tian bowed politely, clearly not caring about what we were doing.

"Mr. Tian, what was that thing you taught me about knocking on doors before going in?" I asked sarcastically in a polite tone.

"I did knock on the door. Quite a few times actually, however, you and Lady Eliana were quite busy in your making-out session to even notice that I was knocking." He replied as politely as usual. "Though if you allow me to suggest something, this humble servant thinks that you two would be more comfortable if you did that kind of thing in a bedroom." He said while looking at me.

I couldn't help but get red in the face after being subtly scolded by my superior… 

"Hoh… So the boy has finally arrived…" Eliana said with a wide smile. "Tell me Tian Sebas, how were your lessons with the boy? Is he still as interesting as he was back when we met him? How was traveling with him? Were you able to see him fight or at least could you tell if he had gotten any stronger?" Eliana asked several questions with a serious expression.

"As his professor, I don't have any complaints. Rather than that, I would say that he and the other children were capable of blowing away my expectations." Mr. Tian said calmly. "Calling him interesting is an understatement, my lady. As for his fighting potential, I can assure you that the child will not disappoint. I was able to witness one of his fights from afar and I must say that the Skull Crusher couldn't have chosen anyone more capable than that child as his second apprentice." Mr. Tian spoke with admiration as he rubbed his chin.

"Oh really?" Eliana's eyes started sparkling with interest as Mr. Tian kept talking.

"Yes. The boy is very special. Even more so than what we initially thought. The sheer amount of dedication and determination that Julius displays still surprises this humble old man." Mr. Tian nodded.

Julius… That black-haired boy that I met in Norvek three years ago… I haven't thought about him in a while, but whenever I do think about him, I feel at ease. Despite my aversion towards men, I actually would like to see him again… He owes me a hug, after all.

"Hehehe! If he really managed to impress the Dark Reaper so much, then this tournament will be a piece of cake for him!" Eliana was very pleased. 

"That was a lifetime ago, my lady. I am nothing but a humble butler and a professor of etiquette." Mr. Tian said before bowing.

"I suppose that's true. In any case, I guess I should go and meet our little guest." She said happily as she motioned me to get off her lap.

"..." I couldn't help but glare at her, but still, I reluctantly did what she expected me to do.

Eliana stood up from her desk almost reinvigorated and with a big smile on her face. 

Sigh… Again I will be left yearning for the touch of my lover… Is the rest of my life going to be like this?

"Should I go and tell Her Highness Marina and Her Highness Alicia? That their champion has arrived?" Mr. Tian asked.

"Ehh? How did you even find out about that when you were away for so long!?" Eliana looked baffled.

"I have told you many times that the walls in this castle have ears, my lady." Mr. Tian smiled softly.

"Yeah, I would prefer if you kept my plan to have little Julius represent both of my nieces in the tournament as a secret for now… And if possible keep it a secret from both Marina and Alicia." Eliana pleaded to Mr. Tian… "I just want to surprise my niece with the boy she's obsessed with and play a prank while I'm at it. There's nothing wrong with that, right?" She said with a cheeky expression.

"Are you sure about that, my lady?" I asked. "Do you remember the excitement that Marina shows every time she receives a letter from Julius? Do you think she would take it kindly if she found out that her friend is in the city and you didn't tell her anything?" I tried to make Eliana change her mind.

"I must agree with Marie. The Princess will not be happy about it in the slightest. It would be for the best to tell her." Mr. Tian agreed with me. "Her friendship with Julius has certainly made the Princess much happier these days. This humble servant thinks that her Highness would be enraged if you took time away with her friend from her." Mr. Tian said firmly.

"Alright… Alright… I'll tell her…" Eliana reluctantly agreed. "Though, I won't tell her he's going to represent Alicia in the tournament as well. I won't budge on that!" Eliana crossed her arms and spoke with a bratty tone.

"Very well. I shall inform her highness." Mr. Tian bowed once again so he could take his leave.

"Tian Sebas, please inform Alicia instead. Marina is out of the castle at the moment and she should return by noon tomorrow at the earliest. I'll tell her the news myself when she returns." Eliana informed Mr. Tian about Her Highness's absence.

"Understood, then I shall inform the little princess and prepare a carriage to depart soon." Mr. Tian nodded and quickly left the room, leaving Eliana and me alone again.

The room was silent for a few moments until Eliana suddenly got very close to me.

"I'm sorry, but duty is calling. I'll make it up to you." She gave me a kiss on the cheek. "Please put on for tonight that sexy lingerie I love and prepare yourself. We will not be sleeping at all~." She seductively whispered in my ear, making me flinch…

"Oh…" I was a little surprised by the suddenness of her proposal, but I was happy. "It shall be done, my lady~." I couldn't help but giggle afterward.

"I'll meet you at the stables then. Don't be late~." She winked and smiled from ear to ear before leaving the room.

I was left in the middle of Eliana's office, looking at the door while feeling hopeful and slightly anxious.

I hope Lady Eliana and I can be as close as we used to be when we became lovers… I can only pray to the gods for that to happen…

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Chapter 43: The worries of an Esquire and a Certain Maid.

END

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