The Head Maid's Advance

Wyrian met with Lady Kethel in the middle of the indoor garden hours after dinner, he noticed she didn't wear her glasses, clearly seeing her fierce yet so beautiful face with her usual uniform, just the greyish maid dress with a skirt that ends above her ankle, she untangled her braided hair for the event and tied it on a ponytail, despite the ponytail, it showed the length of her brown hair, Wyrian calculated that if she were to ever let her hair down, it would reach her waist.

Wyrian showed up with a loose white tunic, and pulled both of its sleeves that revealed his right forearm with the spell tattooed and the left arm without, and tight leather trousers that revealed his manly curves, and unkept faded short hair.

"Shall we get going, Lord Kepper?" Lady Kethel chimed, she was excited to start the stroll.

Wyrian nodded and started to walk.

They walked on the hallway leading to the backyard, they were both silent during the walk, the only sounds you could hear were the steps that are oddly loud, the breeze outside and occasionally the wolf howl that seems to be getting louder. It was silent, but it was more refreshing than awkward.

Lady Kethel broke the silence by saying, "Tell me about your life, Lord Kepper..."

"Interested in me now?" Wyrian humored, firing off flirtatious tones to Lady Kethel.

"Indeed I am." Lady Kethel responded quickly that it unintentionally made Wyrian back a step, "I was interested in why Lord Krestus intentionally gave you Liefnin Valley when he hadn't even considered giving it away for decades."

Of course she would be curious about that. An auxiliary commander from commoner origins suddenly became a noble knight and appointed a barony in such a short amount of time would be in everyone's curiosity.

They exited the hallway and found the backyard, seeing the moon is in its full shape, there was no need for light.

"In all honesty, I haven't had a clue of why he gave me this beautiful valley." Wyrian responded, "All I know is that he entrusted me this barony for some reason."

"Then..." Lady Kethel added, stopping their tracks, facing him and looked at Wyrian's carmine eyes with her sharp piercing almond eyes, "What's your story?"

Her question stunned Wyrian for a second, not because of the question but because of Lady Kethel herself, her piercing eyes accompanied with a somewhat flirty grin as she stood tall and arms crossed with a purpose of satisfying her curiosity opened some doors Wyrian would've never thought.

He composed himself, as a former commander he has an ability to do so, then he thought about Lady Kethel, she was strict and stoic at daytime yet at this night stroll she was a little easy-going and had little tones of being a tease, Wyrian felt a little unnerved about her sudden gap.

"Simple really..." He started, dropping his doubt, "A commoner turned soldier turned commander under Duke Krestus and now Baron of Liefnin Valley."

"I'm sure there's more stories in there than a crude simplification, Lord Kepper." Lady Kethel teased. "Especially before you became Lord Krestus' advisor."

"That's another long story for another day..." Wyrian paused, he thought the improvement of their relationship was a little too fast yet felt so natural even if any third party did not see it. He was thinking about what their relationship would be: are they just acquaintances? are they master and servant? or are they now friends?

"Lord Kepper?"

Wyrian woke up from his deep thought, he looked at Lady Kethel, who despite having a sharp, strict and piercing pair of eyes, it is also filled with a hint of concern.

"Say, Lady Kethel... mind if I call you by your name only, as Kethel?" Wyrian proposed, with conviction on his words. It surprised him more than her that he can say such words unironically, he may have used similar phrases to flatter women to aid Duke Krestus' cause as a spy, but never before he felt so nervous and embarrassed with such an embarrassing line.

To Lady Kethel's surprise, she quickly reverted back to her usual fierce eyes and replied, "With all due respect, I refuse your proposal, Lord Kepper." Wyrian stood there and felt the pang of disappointment, "Not yet anyway." Lady Kethel teased.

"Can I ask the reason why?"

"The obvious reason would be that we have just met just this morning, the other is we are both master and servant.." Lady Kethel explained.

"Even if I ordered you to drop formalities as your master?" Wyrian asked, not out of malice but of curiosity.

"That would be an abuse of authority and Lord Krestus who placed his trust in you for this barony would be disappointed that he trusted a tyrant if he ever heard about this."

"I'd never be one, I'd hate to see Duke Krestus be disappointed." Wyrian shrugged.

Lady Kethel smiled and continued, "Besides, any noble families would not ever cross that in their minds." Lady Kethel explained.

"I was just recently appointed as a baron, I have not yet accustomed to noble habits, especially since I've been a commoner." Wyrian stated, "As the founding member of the House of Kepper, I doubt I'd be fully accustomed to such habits unlike the other families."

"Then I suggest doing your lessons for your etiquette with me in your free time." Lady Kethel teased, slightly leaning towards Wyrian.

"Are you offering me a daily date with you, Lady Kethel?" Wyrian teased back.

"If it made Lord Kepper improve his decorum, then yes, I'd be glad to offer it to you."

Both of them chucked silently.

The comfortable silence is loud, but Wyrian has to confirm something.

"You said you rejected my proposal, *yet*. What do you mean by that?" Wyrian asked.

Lady Kethel pondered for a while and then met Wyrian's eyes and replied, "I haven't trusted you yet."

Wyrian was shocked but not surprised.

"Don't get me wrong." Lady Kethel stated, raising her hand at face level, suggesting a pause even when Wyrian hasn't said anything yet, "Your reputation and respect from Lord Krestus was enough for me to trust you as a comrade in Liefnin, but even then your reputation towards women was no help."

"Most of them were for the mission." Wyrian tried to justify "And the others is-"

"to survive, I understand." Lady Kethel finished his words, "But what purpose would giving advances towards me would gain? If it were to improve your reputation in the manor, you could've flattered the other maids."

Wyrian paused, thinking about an answer to give. "I don't really understand it..." Wyrian replied, "All I know is that I wanted to learn more about you first time we've met, you're beautiful and fierce, and maybe my reasons and advances were shallow, but you're the first one I'm interested about, without an objective or need, and being flirtatious is all I know."

"I'd never call your advances; shallow, Lord Kepper." Lady Kethel commented, "I'd be a hypocrite if I were to do that."

"Hypocrite?" Wyrian asked. The word definitely took his attention.

Lady Kethel looked around her, finding the garden, the training grounds and the mountains on the horizon blanketed by the full moon's light.

"Walking through the night always makes me feel relaxed, the cool breeze calms my nerves and clears my mind." She humoured, "And I've always done it alone, in fact, it was my private pastime that I prefer doing alone, but for the first time I invited someone in my private stroll and it was with a man I just met this morning. Don't you think it's ironic to call you shallow when I did is also equally shallow as your advances?"

"Then we're both shallow, then." Wyrian said, satisfied by the answer.

"Indeed, that is why we should set the line before we regret rushing too fast." Lady Kethel pointed out.

"Then, how should I gain your trust?" Wyrian asked.

"Time will tell..." Lady Kethel replied.

They both continued to walk after that, that they reached the fountain in the middle of the garden, they both were looking at the flow of the water.

"You asked me about my life before Lord Krestus." Wyrian stated, "Now I'm curious about you. What is your life before meeting Lord Krestus."

"I was a-" Lady Kethel's words were cut off when a loud stomp landed in the garden, as soon the smoke faded, it was a werewolf standing in front of them.

Its height towers over the fountain both Wyrian and Lady Kethel were looking at before, it's covered with dark fur alongside sharp claws and bloodthirsty eyes. Naturally, as part of the Lativian military, he has fought monsters and demons that strayed from Rusa, a neighboring militaristic kingdom that borders the Dark Continent where monsters and demons come from.

Werewolves are a curse that is completely dangerous, they become berserk whenever the full moon is up high, and one can wipe out an entire well armed mercenary camp.

With a werewolf upon them, Wyrian was in a dilemma, whenever he fought it face to face, acknowledging the absence of his weapon, he can't fight it hand on hand and his magic is too weak to wound a werewolf or to just grab Lady Kethel and run away which is impossible because of the werewolf's agility.

The werewolf was in all fours, a signal for it to pounce on someone, and its target was Lady Kethel who was standing there.

Without thought, Wyrian ran towards Lady Kethel and tackled her as the werewolf pounced, missing both of them.

"RUN!" Wyrian roared to Lady Kethel on the floor. "I'll try to distract it as long as I can, so go run and survive!"

But to his surprise, Lady Kethel didn't move and run, but instead looked directly at Wyrian, with a grin and fiery blush.

"I'm glad you want to sacrifice your life for me to survive." She said, standing up, "But, I can take it from here." She lifted her skirt, revealing her knee high socks.

"What are you doing, idiot!" Wyrian exclaimed, not believing the ridiculous scene in front of him. Until he saw, on her thighs, was a series of belts holding long sheaths each thigh, too long for a knife, yet too short for it to be a sword.

She drew the two of them each in her hands quickly as if the skirt isn't in the way. "I will now serve you, not because it's my obligation to Lord Krestus..." She posed a stance, her almond eyes turned into glowing amber, her hair untied itself and it ends up letting down her long hair reaching her waist as it shined brightly with the moonlight like a waterfall, the ends of her brown hair starts to float as if suspended in water, cackling with mana, "But because I would love to protect my new master, who has concerns for me."

She charges towards the werewolf, the werewolf swung its left arm trying to slice Lady Kethel with its sharp claws. But she dodged it gracefully and saw an opportunity of an exposed arm in front of her, she sliced the tendons of the exposed arm quickly and gracefully that the werewolf's left arm lost its movement. Out of rage, the werewolf swung its remaining right arm towards Lady Kethel, she dodged it by jumping over, as if she didn't have her ankle length skirt, and slicing it's arms mid air, as she landed she finished cutting it's tendons, losing its right arm as well. After the left and right arm lost, Lady Kethel sliced the remaining tendons on the werewolf as if she was dancing, slicing its thighs, shoulders and more, after completely slicing it to the point that it can't move at all, to finish it all, she delivered a strong spinning kick on the werewolf's head making it passed out.

Lady Kethel looked at Wyrian and sat on the air, with both of her "knives" filled with blood alongside her beautiful face and her plain grey maid dress, "You asked me what I was before meeting Lord Krestus, isn't that right?" She teased, squatting in front of his, "Oh well, before that I was the head of an Assassin Order..." she confessed, her hair shined against the moonlight, with a straight and slightly flirty smile on her face.

*"Ridiculous and Dangerous, it was"* Wyrian thought, how well would his job as a baron be?