The Young Lady of The Manor

The Young Lady is to turn 12 this year.

{Edit: Changed Butler to BodyGuard// Just made more sense.}

Therefore she is a couple of months, my elder.

The picture I painted was of a girl with long blonde hair, an elegant face, and peachy eyes sitting by a silken table and sipping from a fancy cup in only the finest dress.

As the Count told me of her hobbies, his voice became a muffle as I looked to my left.

Numerous yells and clatters were sounding behind a thick oak door.

Curiosity grasped me and I found myself opening the door.

The Count was too busy walking onwards and modestly speaking to notice my act.

As I swung the oak doors outwards with my two hands a sight for sore eyes was put into a spectacle.

I looked as a young-lady with Auburn hair sat on a single-seat table.

The table had pink coloring and a small stand of colored tea cakes.

A small cup of tea had been spillt on the napkin before her and her face was not shouting or moving.

She merely looked at the cakes intensely as she ignored the two housemaids shouting at her from either side. She seemed to be intent on deciding which cake to eat next despite the obvious mess and the continuous ramblings from the maids.

"Audra."

It was only with a word from the count that the young girl, Audra turned her head as her eyes broke out from their transe and widened.

"Father."

She spoke out suddenly and quickly tried to clean up the mess.

The Count kept his modesty and asked a simple question in order to flatten out the situation.

"What is enacting as of now?"

I was not even noticed as the count took the scene under his control.

Curling her hair and furrowing her eyebrows, Audra tried to prostrate her innocence as well as possible.

"Well, I was thinking of how I should go about cleaning this mess. But it seemed like Lisa and Sarah felt that they should've taken the matter into their own hands. Patience is of the most important is what I believe you told me, father."

She nodded her head slightly towards the end of her sentence.

Is this not straight-up manipulative?

I squinted my eyes to see how the Count would react to this speech-like response.

The Count merely let the information process before coming up with a speedy solution, all whilst letting his noble voice power through the room.

"Apolodgise Audra."

Audras eyes looked concerned and she placed her hands on the table.

Standing up and pleading with her father.

"There is someone I must introduce to you."

The Count pointed at me.

All eyes turned.

The pressure made my vision feel peripheral as I look as two brown-haired and middle-aged maids looked towards me.

The Young lady had a bit of appraisal and surprise when she saw my figure.

I did a small wave with my right hand.

Wait.No.

Feeling my reputation already staining, I played it off as a chance to roll back my messy vermillion hair.

I then bowed whilst playing with my hair.

That should be enough right?

The Count looked at me with an unsteady smile as he gestured for Audra to apolodgise.

Audra shut her eyes firmly as she took her tone down a pitch.

"Yes. I'm sorry Lisa and Sarah for making that mess. I will try a better way to save the situation if this situation occurs once more."

The maids were unsatisfied but prodded out of the room, taking the dirty table-sheet with them and the tea-cake stand.

Audra lifted her right hand slightly before lowering it back down as the tea-cakes were rolled away.

A look of sorrow in her eyes.

She soon lost these emotions and looked at the newest visitor.

Me.

An odd silence engulfed the room.

I broke past a mental barrier and decided to introduce myself properly.

Keeping my gaze firm, I bowed down so that I could see just above her head and spoke modestly and tonelessly.

"Brala Viko, a pleasure to meet you."

She didn't bow or really try for her introduction. She merely looked at me as if I was a pile of crumbs on her dress.

That she could brush off at any second.

"Aubra Craul."

She looked at her father in impudence. Wondering why a young red-headed boy was within the mansion.

I took a deep pause to acknowledge how I looked.

My face was covered in dirt, my hair was dry and messy. My back wasn't slouched but far from graceful or acceptable in noble-terms.

My hands were kind of curling over themselves and my clothes were hardly an improvement from rags.

I was carrying a blade in the mansion and my left hand was twitching slightly.

I blew down slightly to vent my embarrassment.

"Who is he?"

She asked while trying to look for herself.

Bored, she sat down once more and waited for her father's response.

"Your new bodyguard."

The Count once again spoke modest and broad.

"WHAT."

The Young Lady instantly rose, her head leaned forward revealing a muddled expression of shock,anger and confusion.

Her lip quivered.

Numerous thoughts ran through her head.

She spoke high-pitched and shaky when she thought of what this meant.

"B-but Father. I know my last bodyguard wasn't treated up to standard but to give me a child? Are you saying that I've lost the right to the family name?"

Eh?

I looked at my hands.

Was I truly being used to disown a little girl?

The Count merely chuckled for the first time since I had met him.

"Gods no, dear."

"Infact."

He put a firm grip on my right shoulder.

His hand was polished and smoothed out.

"He's already stronger than your last bodyguard."

What.

I furrowed my eyebrows.

Was he lying to his daughter right now?

He hadn't even seen me fight.

Audra seemed to agree with me as she kept her frustrated stance and called out this obvious lie.

"That can't be. He's younger than me! The only boy younger than me who I wanted as a guard was William Yellow but that Scarlet took him"

She clenched her fist at the name of Scarlet whilst I questioned who on Earth William Yellow and Scarlet were.

She had stopped twirling her hair, she now let her eyes seethe as she glared at her father who was obviously spraying lies.

Her father merely humbly kept his hands behind his back.

"Pass the stone, Darling."

Audra showed a look of a hah?

"Go on, pass it."

Her father gestured lightly.

She walked to the other end of the room and brought out an ethereal black object.

Its edges were all smoothed out and a mysterious black smoke wailed within it.

She placed it on the table.

The Count placed his finger on it in a relaxed matter.

He tousled his hair slightly as it soon began to grow.

And now, sacrificing its height, a large puddle-like substance was present on the table.

Confused, I looked at the two wondering if I was missing something.

They merely stared into this black puddle. The count with a look of satisfication and Audra with a look of dreading.

Soon, the puddle shook.

No water spillt or moved.

And an image soon formed.

As my vision is sucked into its captivation, I feel my senses change.

I can hear the yabbers and jeers of drunk men.

Warmth. I feel warm and cozy as the couch behind me sinks.

Infront of me, a man with short black hair who seems to be around 25 is meekly backtreading as 9 aggressive and well-built men face him off.

He raises his hands and his awkward and frightened voice sounds like a chipmunk.

"H-hey fellas, why don't you just take our table and we call it a day?"

He even offers some coins.

My eyebrows are crossed.

I look down.

I'm wearing a frilly gold dress.

My voice speaks for me.

I'm whiny and girly.

"What are you doing Jackson."

Jackson turns back whilst keeping a head out to stop the men's advances.

"I'm just settling some affairs miss, these guys will wallop us if we dare go against their orders. Come on Young Lady, let us leave now."

His voice shook and his breathing was heavy.

I was brimming with anger and breathing in and out like a beast as the bar people looked at me with sadness, pity and shame.

As soon as we left the bar I shouted at my bodyguard.

He just kept his eyes shut as he smiled briskly.

"What are you doing Jackson? You're hired to protect me not run away. That was my favorite bar! I wanted to eat there. Aren't you meant to be an intermediate-rank swordsman? Those are just big burly beginners I've heard from the townsmen. Let me eat there."

I pointed a smooth finger towards the lit-up bar. My eyes pierced his weak bones.

Jackson spouted more incompetent excuses and I found us on the carriage back, Jackson still mumbling and apologizing. I felt invisible grows emanate from my mouth.

Jackson soon resigned.

I soon felt my body get yanked out.

I looked to my right and realized that the Count held the back of my rags with his left hand.

"Do not get too curious Brala, for if one is, they will find themselves in that grey world forever."

Audra clocked her tongue at my naivety.

"I don't see how this is relevant."

She looked to the side and elegantly curled her hair whilst lightly pouting.

I merely stood still like a gnome.

The puddle soon slowly contracted to its ball-like state.

The count placed it back in the drawer.

When he returned he had a new ball.

It was a dark and bloody red.

As he placed it down, unlike the previous it instantly transformed into a puddle.

And I found myself staring at a gruesome muddle of colours.

It looked as though one had spillt dark colours onto a canvas as my view stood taller than usual.

Ah. So I'm the count right now.

I kept looking at this muddy canvas confused.

I looked down whilst tousling my hair and checking the time.

I took my eyes of my watch and looked down.

Bzzt.

The sound of lightning crackling sounded as two red eyes shone in the darkness.

The colour scheme now disappeared and all that came was shock.

Under this young boy with crackling red eyes, I now noticed that the muddled colours were of bloodied muscly men.

It was as if my blurry vision had become amazing clear.

As if every edge was in sight in this beautiful scene.

The boy himself, was tired as he sat there with bloodied knuckles.

I even felt an extremely faint killing intent erupting from the boy.

It was me.

And I yanked myself out of this world.

I didn't even need to be here.

I was the most knowledgeable man for the account of that memory.

Audra took a few steps back.

She stared at me profusely.

I merely shrugged my shoulders.

And the Count smiled calmly.

Guess I'm hired.