Step step
Sounds of shoes clacking against the floor echoed.
Step step
The maid who had been in a lascivious act with the baron now walked through the corridor of the castle. Her shoes clacked against the floor with urgency as she took long strides.
Wrinkles and creases on her dress, with the silver of water shining on her hair, told of the urgency she was showing.
Turning around, she increased her speed as the sun shone on her face, showing the blank features. Her face now had a contrasting difference with how she acted with the baron.
The seductive smile and the warm expression were not seen; instead, the blank face devoid of emotions had covered her beautiful features.
Moments later, she reached her destination—a private chamber.
Her face once more retained the glow as she looked at the armored knights standing before the door.
"Is Lord Castellan inside?"
"Yes, he is."
The knight on the right side of her spoke up.
"May I enter?"
The knight glanced at her.
"Wait here."
He said, before knocking on the door.
"My lord, the head maid wants to have an audience with you."
After a few seconds of waiting, a rough yet charmingly soft voice echoed.
"Send her in."
"Yes, my lord," the knight said, turning to glance at the maid. "You may enter."
"Thank you, sir."
The maid replied with a smile as she bowed to him before entering the chamber, which was now opened by the second knight on the other side of the door.
Click
As the door closed, the knight who had opened it spoke up with a sigh.
"Sigh, life's easy when you are a beautiful woman."
Hearing his words, the other knight's face scrunched up as he looked at him with a disgusted expression.
"I-I mean, for her it's an easy life; it's not that I want to become a woman, idiot."
"... I see."
The knight who had opened the door once more spoke up with a shake of his head.
"She just came and got the position of head maid."
His voice turned to a whisper as he cursed. "It's all because of that disgusting bastard. He is ruining everything his father worked so hard to make."
"Hm."
The other knight hummed, agreeing with him as he continued to curse the new baron, Elias Varen.
***
As the maid entered the chamber—lit by a chandelier—which looked no less luxurious and elegant than the baron's, someone spoke up, breaking the silence.
The voice was the same, rough yet charmingly soft.
"What can I help you with, Ms. Head Maid, Sylphie Cash?"
As the voice entered the maid's—Sylphie's—ears, she gritted her teeth, swallowing, before she relaxed her agitated expression.
Relaxing her expression, she looked at the man sitting on the chair. He donned a white linen shirt, which covered his muscular body. Spectacles were perched on his nose as he sat on the chair in brown trousers, working through a stack of paperwork kept on his desk.
"Hm," he hummed without looking up. "Are you going to stay silent, Ms. Sylphie?"
"..."
"You know," he said, at last looking up. The light from the chandelier shone, highlighting the features of the man. Black hair, with some white in between, was slickly styled. He also had a full white beard that hinted at his age.
The man, removing his spectacles, continued. "If you don't have anything to say, it would be quite nice of you if you could take your leave, Ms. Sylphie. I have a lot of work to take care of, sadly, or I would have entertained you."
"Aria," Sylphie said, swallowing. "Can I see her?"
"Hm, you want to see your sister, Ms. Sylphie?"
The man said with an amused expression, tilting his head slightly.
"... Yes."
"I see," the man nodded, stroking his beard, before he spoke up again. "How about no?"
As his words ended, it felt as if the room's temperature decreased. Sylphie felt the dread that she had felt when she first met the monster before her.
However, she still spoke with ragged breath while fighting the urge to kneel.
"B-but, you said I could if I did my work perfectly. And I did. I have seduced Baron."
As her words registered in the ears of the man, the room's temperature once more returned to its prior condition. The pressure decreased from Sylphie as she took long and deep breaths, trying her best to maintain her posture despite her legs feeling like jelly.
Silence once more shrouded the room, not even broken by the stuttering breath of the maid.
But...
The next second, the silence of the room was broken.
"Haha," the man laughed, looking at the maid before him. "You think you have seduced him. No, you haven't."
Shaking his head, he continued.
"That damned fool would try to bed a grinding stone if it wore a pretty face," he said. "You were no different."
Ending his words, he stood up and approached the maid. Reaching her, he shot his hand forward, and before the maid could react, his hands tightened around her neck as he picked her up in the air.
"I don't want a fuckable doll for him. There are many if I wanted that."
He said as the maid thrashed, hovering in the air.
"Ghk—!"
Completely disregarding her purpling skin due to the cutting off of air, he continued as he stared at her with his dead black eyes.
"I want someone who can make him completely obsessed with her. And that someone is supposed to be you. Not a random woman he fucked because he found her pretty." His voice got rougher and rougher as he spoke, to the point that it felt like a demon itself was speaking. "I want you to make him listen to your every word. I want you to make him follow your every action like a dog in heat, expecting a treat from his master—you."
"I want you to control him and lead him astray. And, if you can't do it," he released the maid, letting her fall on the floor with a thud. "Forget about meeting your dear sister."
Done with what he wanted to say, the man simply stared at the maid, who was gasping for air with teary eyes.
After staring at her for a few seconds, he turned back, moving towards his desk.
"Well," he spoke, his voice once more sounding rough yet charmingly soft. "You have worked, Ms. Sylphie, so I can't let you go without a treat—I mean, reward, can I?"
The man smiled at Sylphie as he took out an orb from his desk.
"Here."
At his words, the translucent orb got filled with grey smoke.
Following that, a few seconds later, the smoke cleared as a picture of a crying woman, huddled in a corner of a room, was glimpsed.
Seeing the picture, Sylphie forgot to breathe; a sense of heaviness overwhelmed her as she started to crawl towards the desk, with tears falling from her eyes.
'Aria!'
However, the man, in the next second, put his hands on the orb, causing it to return to its translucent state.
"No need to thank me; it's the least I could do," he said, staring at the broken demeanor of Sylphie.
A smile tore through his face as he once more put the spectacles back on his nose. "So, go and do your work if you want to meet your sister, alive that is."