The Uncommon Villainess

Chapter 15

       "Delighted to make your acquaintance, my Lord." I shook his hand and bowed a little. He let go of my hand and gave me a smile for my greeting. 

       "My daughter will assist me in my business and managing all my properties from now on. A helping hand would be very helpful for us." Father said that while directing his gaze between both of us.

A smile formed on Lord Hart Ellington's face. He curved his lips slightly and directed his gaze from father to me.

       "I will be gladly to do so, Duke Langston. I had heard the rumours about your daughter's brilliance and wonder if your daughter can exchange her ideas and words with me." 

I was taken in by his clear green eyes and choked a little when I heard his praises. I didn't know the details about those rumours about me but I hope its were the nice ones.

       "You flatter me, my Lord. I'm just an ordinary person after all. I will need your guidance in future." I just uttered those words simply because it was true after all. My ideas on last project was based on my past life when I was managing some charity projects. I just borrowed it and used for good purpose.

Our meeting last longer than I thought. From the talks, I learned a lot about our family's business, partners and many other things as well. At the end of the meeting, I could feel like my brain would exploded from being overloaded.

My father and Lord Ellington stayed to continue their never ending talks while I excused myself first and escaping from the room. I could never beaten my workaholic father. His passion towards works really amazed me that day. 

*******

The next few days, I was currently on our family's carriage to visit our territory. My visit start with nearest town which was Ebraxas town. This town has population of nearly 25 000 people. It was the nearest place to the palace and the centre of most of the activities. This town has the most  ongoing businesses consisting from small vendors, restaurants, inns, main offices and others. Dukedom of Forest consists of several big town, small villages for residential , arable and livestock farms, as well as forest, rivers, queries and coastline.

Ravaryn Kingdom has seven major dukes and Duke of Forest has the largest territory among it. Second is occupied by Duke of Shaw which ruled by Duke Maynard Ellington. Apparently, my father and Duke Maynard Ellington is the current Right and Left Prime Ministers of King Finlay Cuthbert. 

       "My Lady, we have arrived." Riftyn's voice sounded from outside the carriage. For today visit I was accompanied by Clarissa and my new personal knight, Sir Maguire Hobert. Sir Hobert was selected personally by my father to become my personal knight. He said it was necessary for my safety as I will be going to many places and meet a lot of people in future.

I was strolling around the town and saw bustling view in front of my eyes. Delicious and tempted  scent of food filling the area. Waiters could be seen waiting and guiding customers into their diners. Along the way, I observed the town is occupied with various stores such as beauty parlour, haberdashery, cafe, sweet shops, armoury, book store, boutique, butchery, bakery and etc. Simply said Ebraxas town provided all you need in your daily live. No wonder it is the centre of activities in Duke of Forest's territory.

As I was leisurely strolling along the road, a man in his forties stopped in front of me and introduced himself as the second son of Earl of Delan, Niles Jethro or Chief Niles Jethro as he is the Head of management. 

After he finished talking some introduction about the town and showing me a bit about the town, he led me to a two storey building which I assumed is the main headquarters. On the first floor is the lobby and a young girl was seen to accept greeted me. Chief Jethro showed me around the office and we currently at a meeting room for me to introduce myself to the staffs and get used to their work.

The main offices consisted of almost 20 workers and they mainly organised and managed the flow of business between all of the towns and villages. I noticed that the other towns and villages didn't have their own offices or buildings as they only had messengers to send news and carried it from main headquarters to their own places.

This need to be fixed. Every town need to have their own office and small villages can use a small room to act as the office. I need to find people too or I can dispatched several workers here to work there. Well, I need to discuss this first with father.

All the issues need to be settled one at a time. I don't have to be rush about it as I needed to ensure the work to be done efficiently and correctly. The meeting took almost two hours and I left for a walk around the town after that.

As I was walking around, I stumbled upon a little boy. The boy has a blonde hair and small stature. I managed to catch him before he fell down.

       "Are you okay little man? Do you hurt somewhere?" I asked while lowering my body to  match up my eyes on his height. He seemed hesitant to answer my question and looked a bit afraid.

       "Do not be afraid. I will do you no harm." I assured him while offering him a candy that I bought earlier. He cautiously took the candy and clutched it firmly on his tiny hand. Watching this child being so scared inflicted a pain in my heart. He is so young yet he had experienced such hardship.

I wonder where his parents and what they do for him to live like this. But they are not to be blamed also as I knew that some families only have enough earnings to keep they alive every single day. Some are unfortunates when they lost their families at young age. Life do seem unfair for some people.

       "Where do you live? Do you have guardians?" I directly staring at blue eyes but he didn't meet my eyes and only kept looking down the entire time. I sighed internally as this was not going well and I asked Sir Hobert to ask around about the boy's identity.

Not long after that Sir Hobert appeared and informed me that this boy is Dion and he is one of the homeless children at Boaz Valley. One of the children? So there are more children like him? Nobody reported about this to my father before. It is my first time hearing that. I need to investigate about this matter.

After that we moved to Boaz Valley and what I saw with my two eyes really broke my heart. Shabby houses could be seen with malnourished youngsters scattered around it. What goes on here? Why they being left here?