[ The Administrator ]

Part I Side Story - A Mysterious Young Mistress

****Ivy****

I remember my first meeting with the young mistress.

It had only been a few months since the attack on the Whiteheart household when I joined them. With the lord and his son still nowhere to be found, the lord's younger brother was temporarily bestowed with the title of Marquis of Eskor. The investigation kept going but as the months passed, people slowly stopped hoping for the lord's return and the investigation efforts dropped. Commoners like me had no real interest in the nobles' affairs. The assassination attempt merely served as a new subject of gossip, but without any real progress in the investigation, people quickly lost interest in it. While this case was never officially closed, it soon became completely forgotten by the general population.

As a lot of servants were killed during the attack, when things finally calmed down, the Marquis hired new employees. I was one of them. I was never familiar with high nobility, but when the opportunity to work for such an esteemed house came to me, I took it without a second thought.

The Marquis was always busy. Strangely enough, his family never moved in. In nobility, only the heir was allowed to stay in the main residence. Once they reached the age of seven, the other sons either joined an order of knighthood or were left in the care of a branch family as an apprentice. In either case, they permanently left the house once they got married. Perhaps it was because he expected his older brother and his son to return anytime, but even after he became the new head of the house, the Marquis' family never moved in with him. For us, employees, it was only beneficial. With less nobles in the residence to look after, the life in the Whiteheart household as a servant was not so bad. The working conditions were good and the income was high. The only downsides were the occasional whims of the lord's younger sister, Lady Nora. But it wasn't my first time working with nobles, so overall, this job was pretty peaceful. However, with no family to support or to return to during days off, my life at the Whiteheart estate was also pretty dull and boring. But it all changed when the young mistress arrived.

It was twelve years ago.

Although it was a summer day, the weather wasn't particularly good. The morning had been sunny, but in the afternoon, a thick layer of clouds suddenly appeared, scattering showers in the capital in a rumbling thunder. An ominous sign. After leaving the estate for a couple of months, the Marquis and the Lady had finally returned. But they hadn't returned alone. I was on kitchen duty that day, so I didn't see the carriage arrive, but it didn't take long for the news to spread around the estate.

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"Guys! Guys! They're here!" A valet suddenly barged in the kitchen.

At his announcement, several servants sighed.

"Looks like the peaceful days are over..."

"We can't slack off anymore, huh?"

"I just hope the Lady is in a good mood."

The head cook loudly cleared his throat.

"Alright, alright! This does not change anything for us. Keep working!" He ordered before turning his attention to the valet. "And you, don't you have anything better to do than disturbing my kitchen?"

"You'll never guess who's back!" The valet declared, ignoring the head cook's remark.

"What? The Lord and the Lady, obviously."

"The young master!"

"Huh?"

Silence fell upon the room as we all exchanged doubtful gazes.