Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Deon was not at the Agrece mansion at that time though. He was away doing Lante’s bidding. The woman standing before me was probably the only one in our household who was ignorant of that fact. Or perhaps she did know, but as she was not the sharpest of the mother hens, she had simply forgotten the whereabouts of her only child. In a way, she was not all that unlike Deon when it came to her inclination toward negligence and the sort of coldness of the soul that suggested.

“Yes, someone go fetch Deon,” she said while glancing behind her.

Even if he had been home and had been willing to come, there was no way I would have had tea with him. He and I were not close, not at all.

“My Lady, young master Deon is currently away.”

One of her underlings had been kind enough to enlighten her.

“Oh! Is that so? On what business?” She asked in a way that made it all the more apparent that she was only just catching on that her own son was indeed absent from the estate.

“I’m not exactly sure, madame, but it was for some assignment given to him by the master.”

Maria nodded her head as if she finally got the picture. Then she turned her full attention to the servant.

“What was your name again? You came into my service recently on Louelle’s recommendation, did you not?”

‘Yes, My Lady. My name is Lanna.”

“Oh, what a pretty name. Thank you for informing me about Deon.”

The servant bowed her head even more deeply after receiving Maria’s praise. Then Maria’s warm gaze suddenly morphed into a wicked smile.

“But who said you could speak without my permission?”

Swish.

A crimson liquid formed an arc in the air. At the same time, the servant who had just been facing Maria began to slowly crumple onto the ground.

Thud.

Not a speck of life remained in the prone figure.

“Go and feed her to the demons.”

Maria spoke in the same tone she used all the time as she shook off the blood that had stained her parasol after slicing through her servant’s jugular. The blood had splattered all over the green grass. Upon hearing her command, her servants began to move in sync like army ants.

Maria then turned to me wide-eyed as if she had just remembered something.

“Ever so sorry, dear. I hope you weren’t soiled by that dirty whore’s blood.”

From the moment I noticed Maria lift her parasol, I had predicted what would happen, so the servant’s blood had only reached the edge of my shoes.

“No, it didn’t reach me.”

“That’s a relief. Now then... Shall we proceed to the garden, dear?”

I glanced at Maria’s bloodstained dress which had taken the brunt of the red spatter. It was rather appalling to hear her still insist on going to the garden for tea even in that state. Of course, I was aware of what sort of person I was dealing with, but even so, I was disgusted.

“I’m afraid I have a prior engagement. I’ll be sure to join you for tea another time.”

Perhaps because she was sort of simple, she didn’t even try to detain me. It was fairly obvious that she regretted my leaving without having tea with her.

“Very well. But do drop by my room whenever you have the chance. I want to show you the new clothes I bought for my dolls. There are so many I would love to see you in as well!”

I gave her a winning smile as if I couldn’t wait for the chance in order to carefully mask the fact that I would never set foot in her chambers. That was how we parted with entirely different opinions of how our brief encounter had gone. As soon as I turned around, the smile fell clean off my face.

* * *

“Sheesh, this seriously reeks!”

Jeremy’s tone left no question that he was annoyed to the hilt. His body was covered all over in demon slime, which was also making his vision dark and hazy.

“Those creepy freaking bastards. I’m not even allowed to kill them.”

The latest training session consisted of collecting venomous stingers from the demons enclosed in the sector B farm. Drug and poison trafficking were among the many illicit trades that Agreces engaged in. The training served as an educational opportunity, as well as a chance for the family to collect precious poisons to sell. However, it was a task that was much easier to hear of than to do since we weren’t allowed to kill the demons while gathering their poison.

Training, my ass. This is more like free labor. I don’t get a single penny to show for my effort.

Jeremy cursed inwardly as he spit out a glob of the viscous liquid that had somehow found its way into his mouth. It was then that he noticed a throng of some sort coming his way. He scowled while furiously wiping the poisonous liquid off of his face. After doing so, he could see somewhat better, and the group of people had moved much closer. He could also see that they were carrying a corpse.

“What’s going on? You all come here to recycle that?”

“Yes, Master Jeremy.”

“If I were you, I’d take it somewhere else. You’d be signing your own death certificates if you went in there now.”

He had just left the training farm in total chaos. In his fury and frustration at having to collect the venomous stingers, Jeremy had goaded the demons until they were ready to behead the next living thing to cross their path. Therefore anyone who went inside the farm at that particular moment did so at the risk of his or her life.

“That’s all right, master. We should be able to withstand them for a short while.”

The servant spoke calmly.

“Just a moment. Who’s your master?”

Jeremy only asked in order to confirm his hunch.

“We belong to Lady Maria.”

He smirked almost immediately as he began to understand. If they were Maria’s servants, then they should be able to withstand a few minutes on the farm with the demons. He knew she was one who especially hated helpless servants and made a concerted effort to never hire weaklings in the first place. Of course, he himself could kill a dozen of them with the mere flick of his wrist, but that was beside the point.

The real point was that there were even some servants who were fairly skilled fighters. Still, Jeremy found Maria’s insistence on hiring battle-ready servants rather odd. It wasn’t as if they were meant to serve any tactical purpose. They were just simple servants, so he wondered why she required them to be so highly skilled.

“All right, go on then.”

Had Jeremy offered to lend them a hand, the matter would have been over in a flash. However, when it came to things that were completely unrelated to Roxana, he loathed the idea of wasting his time. He instead leaned against the wall by the farm entrance and crossed his arms while watching the female servants walk past him to go inside.

For a while, he listened as the demons unleashed an unholy racket, but strangely enough, he couldn’t discern any cries for help. Then the servants reappeared without the corpse and shut the door behind them. Although their trip inside had only lasted a few minutes, it was beyond lucky that no one was hurt. Still, the cold sweat that was forming beads on each of the servants’ foreheads was evidence enough of how difficult their task had been.

“You can’t say I didn’t warn you all to take that thing somewhere else.”

Jeremy straightened up from the wall he had been leaning against while smirking at the servants’ sorry state. He hadn’t considered how far the next training farm was from where they stood, and how they would have been delayed had they chosen to go there. Such a delay would have put them at risk of suffering their master Maria’s even deadlier wrath. She was indeed highly temperamental.

“We best be going, Master Jeremy.”

“Sure, sure.”

Jeremy nodded emotionlessly at the servants as they began their retreat. But as they began to walk away, he began to follow from a few steps behind them. Seeming to sense something, the servants turned around to look behind them.

“What’s the matter? Just keep going.”

Jeremy spoke in a facetious tone. It was obvious to the servants that he was following them, but there was nothing they could do. They turned around again and marched on as Jeremy tailed them close to their heels.