Darkness' Touch

Chapter 5: Lingering Presence

"Did the lady always talk like that?" as soon as Avy left the garden, the other young gardeners came out of their hiding place, the bushes behind the old gardener stood. There were four of them listening to their conversation quietly since they were too afraid to face the lady.

"How would I know? I worked in this garden since the day I entered this Estate." Elias, one of the garden caretakers answered.

"You're amazing Sir Hanson. You didn't even stutter in front of her." another one named Lorry praised the old man as if he did a major thing that they can never do.

Sir Hanson chuckled softly. "Youngsters these days fear a child who's only lost from her path." He told them before going back to his work, leaving the four confused

"What does that mean?" asked the boy named Rowen

The other, Jerad shrugged and said. "Old people always talk old."

~~~

"I completely forgot about the appearance of the main characters. And I forgot about that bastard." it has been hours since she found out about the identity of the man with blue hair and it has been hours since she started recalling the characteristics of every single important person written in the novel for future purposes.

"Miss, where should I put these Romance novels?" she heard Mariel ask her, referring to stacks of books on the floor. Since she's not into those things, she ordered her maid to replace everything with books about Alchemy, Magic, and others about the world she was in, including the information about the Imperial Family and famous Clans and Houses throughout the Empire.

"You can take them." Avy answered, still focusing on the notebook on top of her desk. 'This girl spent her whole life burying her face on Romance books yet gets herself killed because of romance itself. How come she didn't learn anything from those books? Stupid.' she rolled her eyes and opened a book that she will use as a reference for her character recalling. Entitled, Pillars of the Empire.

"B-but Mi'lady. These books are expensive. It will only be wasted on a maid like me." Mariel said.

"By the way. Are lightning-type magicians immune to lightning?" she asked out of nowhere, ignoring the maid's statement about the books.

"Mages are only immune to their own magic, Miss. If it came from another, they are nothing more than normal people." Mariel replied.

"A pity. I was just thinking about befriending that boy and using him as a lab rat to test my electric-based ideas though." Avy mumbled, caressing her chin causing the maid to look at her with curiosity and confusion.

"Pardon...?" she tilted her head cluelessly

"Ah. Nevermind. I really have to start reading these books. I feel so stupid." Avy said, putting he attention back on her work.

"About the books..."

"Keep them or throw them. It's up to you." she started scribbling on the paper in front of her and a couple of minutes later, she returned her gaze on her maid.

"Do you know any place where I can buy these things?" she asked, showing a messy drawing of tools and materials that she needed.

"I know a place. But I heard it closed because of the incident in the forest this morning, the owner got involved in the chaos. I will just ask the other servants, My lady." said Mariel that piqued Avy's curiosity.

"Incident?"

"Oh! I was going to tell you after getting the books but you seemed busy with something." the Maid reasoned, referring to Avy's continuous mumbling earlier. "I heard from another maid that a beast Man wreaked havoc in the forest and almost killed the hunters in the area. The hunters are just low-class Mages so all of them got injured so bad before they killed the Beast Man, it was a relief that a miraculous girl appeared out of nowhere and healed them all in a matter of seconds." she narrated.