A pleasant surprise (1)

"My lady, do you know what your own position is within the Empire's hierarchy?"

Sunlight poured into the deluxe study room. There, a pretty young girl was sitting in front of an old scholar. Despite the wrinkles, it was not hard to believe that he used to be a dashing young gentleman.

He was Vance Bailey, an ex-imperial scholar, someone who gained the Emperor's respect despite his commoner origins. After retiring from his duties, Vance became a private tutor.

It was no doubt that all parents wanted the best for their children. The old scholar became something similar to a best-seller item. It was incredibly hard to hire him even if one possessed mountains of gold.

Of course, to the big powerhouses, hiring him wasn't impossible.

As of now, he was the young lady's History and Literature tutor. They were concluding their lessons when Vance stopped in his track and asked a question out of the blue.

"I'm not sure. Can you enlighten me, Professor?" Adelaide blinked in confusion, like how a child should be.

Vance sighed. He then took out a paper scroll from his black leather bag and spread it out in front of her.

It was a huge diagram showing the Empire's hierarchical details.

"The royal family stands on top; theoretically speaking, they hold the ultimate power." Vance's finger pointed at the very top sector of the diagram and explained with his deep and comforting voice.

"Now, here, my lady, is where the Winford duchy's position for nearly a thousand years." His finger slid down to Winford's family emblem right below the royal family's section.

"I see."

"In other words, excluding the royal family, the current duke, and young master Alfred, everyone is below you in terms of class. I'm not saying this for you to be arrogant, my lady, but please take my words to heart. If I'm being honest, no one, not even the royal family, has the rights to put their hands on you for no reason.

Personally, as a commoner, I don't support any act of false superiority. However, that does not mean our country's orders, principles, and discipline should be ignored."

'Did he exclude Elicia intentionally?'

"I understand. Thank you for your wise words."

"No, I'm glad to have such a diligent student like you, young lady. Your determination reminds me of my heyday. Ah, please excuse this own man for using such inelegant words."

Adelaide smiled at her teacher's small joke as they bid goodbye. Compared to half a month ago, their relationship had improved so much.

Vance may not expect it, but she understood the intention behind his last words very well.

'With all those breaking news published by the press, he must have heard about the incident. So, what he just said was to boost my confidence.'

'He suspected the incompetent duchess after only coming here for two weeks…truly a wise man.'

'Yes, she couldn't escape the eyes of Vance Bailey. Hell, even I noticed. Did she think I didn't know about her intense gaze?'

The duke kept his promise and hired Adelaide the best tutors possible within the Empire. Not counting the exceptional Imperial Scholar Vance, Adelaide even had a Viscountess famous for her manners to be her private etiquette teacher.

In short, even nobles of lower-ranking became her home tutors.

However, like a child taking revenge, Duchess Elicia chose the strictest people she could find. As Duke Charles was a busy man (or he simply couldn't care less), Elicia was the only one meeting the tutors. She was full of grace, as always, but her words contained slight disdain and disappointment towards Adelaide.

She hinted to the tutors that Adelaide was not obedient and might be hard to deal with.

Combined with their already strict style of teaching, some tutors held certain prejudices against Adelaide when they first met, but she did not take that seriously and studied diligently as she was told.

Being a model student was no stranger to Adelaide, someone who used to be the teachers' pet back on Earth.

Nevertheless, the duke kept his part of the deal seriously, so Adelaide took some time to research what a blood contract meant.

'Turns out, people stake their own body parts in that thing. If one party dies, the other one will be released from the contract, given the fact that they must not break any conditions beforehand and was not directly related to the other party's death.'

'I guess that's why people don't want to mess with the other's safety. They die, and you lose a limb or organ for no reason; that's not worth it.'

Adelaide continued to ponder as she walked slowly on the long corridor. It was nine in the morning – the ideal time for sword arts lessons.

Normally, it would be considered rare for ladies to take sword lessons, but Duchess Elicia insisted on doing so. It seemed like the woman's only intention at this point was to mentally tire Adelaide to death.

'Such childish tactics. If it were me, I would've done a much better job. Oh, and of course, another stupid move of her is…'

She saw Mila, her personal maid, walking towards her from the opposite direction with a distressed expression.

"What is it, Mila? What did mother say about my grades and homework?"

'What could she even say, I aced them all.'

"It's unfair." Mila looked slightly angry, which was rare. "Her Grace did not compliment you enough as she should have."

"Maybe Mother was just having a bad day.", replied Adelaide in a relaxed tone. Those compliments were all meaningless anyways.

"I understand, but…but…she even said you must finish all of the work tomorrow."

'Ah.'

"Didn't I just give you all of this week's work?"

"Her Grace demanded next week's as well, my lady. I said there were parts that the home tutors did not teach yet, but she said our lady could manage them just by reading textbooks."

"And the reason for that is?"

"Next week is our Empire's Independence Day. Her Grace said she did not want you to be occupied and miss the chance to eat as a family."

The 7th of January was the day the Empire was found, hence said Independence Day.

'Who does this bitch think I am? God's descendant?'

Adelaide swore internally, but she had already expected this to happen. It wasn't the first time Elicia attempted to make her feel pressured.

'It is fortunate that I'm not actually a six-year-old brat.'

As her study schedule would always be planned one month ahead, all the study contents, works, and assignments had already been decided.

'I would never lose my pride as a model student. You think I didn't do everything?'

Adelaide was not a brilliant genius, but her ability to understand and comprehend was a little on the exceptional side.

She did not plan to reveal all her finished works. She was not a genius; what if people misunderstood her as one, and decided to cram those vague advanced knowledge into her poor brain?

Nonetheless, a week in advance was something doable for a bright person.

"I've already finished it. I'll give you later after my practice. Please give it to mother before dinner."

"Pardon me? Yes, yes, I will. Of course, it wouldn't be a problem for our smart lady."

Adelaide smiled and headed to the practice field.

'I gotta amass karma, you know. It's a moral principle that you shouldn't upset someone who wouldn't be alive five years from now.'

'In fact, you should treat them well.'

ΘΘΘ

"Goodnight, my lady."

"Thank you for today, Samuel."

Adelaide yawned and bade goodbye to her personal guard. His presence was similar to air – he kept quiet when on duty and would only open his precious mouth when needed. With Adelaide's current level, she had no way to identify his aura, much less the servants who had no basis at all.

The small girl took leisure steps towards her king-size bed and climbed on it. With a sleepy face, she turned off the light and tucked herself in.

She then closed her eyes. Normally, one of the maids would do all this miscellaneous work for her. However, Adelaide had plans that night, so she insisted on being alone.

After two to three minutes, her eyes opened wide. Unlike before, Adelaide looked sober.

'Let's revisit the place where it all began.'

With a hood already in hand, Adelaide teleported straight from bed. Unlike her first attempts, she was now a somewhat expert at teleporting.

Her actions did not create any noises, and the familiar feeling of disintegrating her body appeared. After a brief moment of concentrating, Adelaide found herself in a pure white corridor.

'Shit, I'm standing right in the middle of the way.'

She took a look around hurriedly and covered her small body in the black hood.

It was the same hood that the boy Edel gave her months ago when she was about to escape from the Baron's underground facility. Adelaide heaved out a sigh as she looked at the empty corridor with her hand pressed on one of the walls. Almost immediately, the entire blueprint was shown in her mind.

However, the gray spot that represented the other ring was nowhere to be found.

She was looking for the boy, Edel. The silver ring Adelaide gave him was special: its position was linked to her Map Master skill. Of course, Edel was not the reason why she was here.

She was just checking out of convenience.

'Oh well, I expected him to go back to where he belonged.'

Adelaide's real purpose was to sneak on the Baron. He was one of the culprits that kidnapped her, but Adelaide was sure he was not the mastermind. Not when he and his future direct descendants had to depend on Winford's blood to remain sane.

There must be some kind of secret.

He was also the source of Adelaide's sufferings. If it were only the original girl, Adelaide would not care less, but since she became a lab rat herself, she had to know everything.

Just when she was about to teleport straight to Baron James' wardrobe, Adelaide heard people talking. Footsteps accompanied the sound of their conversations as they got closer to where she stood.

'I should go…'

"Prepare the documents, Oliver. We have to pull an all-nighter today."

"Yes, sir."

"Are we short on staff again? Ugh, those lazy bastards."

"You know very well that not all of the missing personnel were actually lazy."

'…huh?'

They were familiar voices.

Adelaide froze as three people coated in white went past her while conversing among themselves. They could not see her as she was in particle form.

The three men did not wear masks, and Adelaide had never seen their faces before, but there was no way she would misidentify those people. They were the three that were in charge of 'torturing' her with those painful aie doses for weeks.

"I know, I know. How did the girl escape, anyways? Truly a mystery."

"The Baron suspected there was a traitor."

"Reasonable conclusion, but it sounds strange no matter how much I think about it…."

"Then stop thinking."

'Should I make you stop thinking for good?'

Adelaide slowly materialized behind the three men. Her head tilted slightly to the side trying to think of a solution. She didn't bring a weapon sharp enough for the occasion, but she also did not want to miss such an opportunity or the element of surprise.

Adelaide was resentful, of course, but she was not consumed by anger. She was in a state where anger and rationality co-existed.

'It is only proper to pay them back with interests. Isn't that how debts work?'

Adelaide glared at the three white coats with a crazed determination.

'What a pleasant surprise', she thought.

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LNg: Next chapter might contains uncomfortable(?) scenes.