Capítulo 16: Elise Make a Friend, The Flower Crown-II
Cynthia glanced at the servants and waved off her hand, telling them to dispatch from whatever they are doing. She stepped forward with a sigh that escaped from her mouth. "There's no need for that anymore. We have found the girl."
Hearing the news, Austin breath out in relief. "Thank the Gods." He slid the coat again over his shoulder and asked. "Where was she? Where did you find her?"
Cynthia told the maid beside her to find Maroon and fetch him back and to stop the ongoing order. "The master's room. She was sleeping beside the lord."
"Master room? Do you mean the Lord's room?" Austin's face was smeared in shock, repeating the words that Cynthia said as though he forgot who was living in the Master room. The black circle in his yellowish eyes nearly turned to an oval in a startle.
"There isn't any other master room that the Lord's, Austin."
Austin was still taken aback by the discovery. "I know. I was just... Surprised, greatly surprised. I- no, I should have known that Elise couldn't go out without the Lord's noticing her. But the bedroom? The Lord has brought countless women there, but I have never seen one that came out aliv-"
"Shut it." Cynthia warned, stepping on Austin's feet so he would stop spouting nonsense. "You should stop talking with your foul words, especially when you are in front of the girl. She's a pure child and no one wants you to share her your rotten behavior."
Austin looked down at his poor feet that were stepped by Cynthia with the face of a grimace. Cynthia wasn't a woman of strength, but nonetheless, she was far stronger than a human and had never been the person to hold back her strength.
Bending his knees on to his waist, his eyes spotted Cynthia exiting the servants' quester and shouted. "Hey! Cy, where are you going?"
"Where else, entertaining the adorable girl of course." Cynthia smirked leaving the man jumping on one foot to chase her.
By the time Elise opened her two eyes, she rubbed her eyes in a drowsy state to see that the person beside her had left. She glanced around, looking at the large window on her left that had been opened so the morning light could go through. Mila entered the room with a lot of hesitation. She was still able to calm herself a little when she entered Elise's room as it was beside the Lord's but the Lord's room was utterly different.
The presence and pressuring aura diffuse in the whole room, as though a thick fragrance of death hovering through the room. Calming herself with a chant of prayers, she entered the room and saw the girl in the middle of gazing the window beside her with a slightly ruffled appearance. Mila's eyes turned softer from the sight. She looked around to see whether the girl was touched by the Lord, but deep down she knew that although the Lord wasn't a good man, he would never touch a little child.
"Have you woken up, dear?" She walked beside her to see the girl nodding.
"Good morning, Mila." Her soft voice and adorable appearance brought a gentle smile back at Mila, easing the nervousness to the room. "Good morning, Elise. Let's get you a bath and then breakfast."
Mila's hand connected with the girl to the bathroom on her own room that was right beside the girl. As soon as the finished the bath, Mila braided her hair to the side, giving some laces ribbon to adore her hair. Elise who had never seen someone braiding her hair looked at Mila's talented hands in wonder and amazement.
"Thank you." Elise murmured while fiddling with her small fingers. She wasn't used in talking to someone as her previous family had always been shouting at her to shut up whenever she tried to talk. Even making a whisper didn't sit well with them.
Mila also had noticed how less the girl talked, but judging from the first appearance when the Lord brought her back to the mansion and some old scars on her body, her previous life must haven't been a good one. A child abused by the people she lived in, just by the thought of such an adorable little girl being subjected to violence, Mila knitted her brows. Mythical beings had never been the best kin in the world, but the human was no less than them.
The little girl and the black-uniformed maid walked down to the dining room where Ian had sat on while reading some newspaper from the town. Maroon with his red dull hair stood beside the Lord, taking the neatly folded newspaper that Ian passed to him as soon as he saw his little puppy.
"The dress is still a little big for you." He commented while seizing the hem of the dress that fell to her ankle. The dress and nightgown that Elise had been wearing since last night wasn't because Ian had considered the thought of buying a dress for his future slave as he was never the type to read too far to the future. And at that time, he could never guess that he would be buying a slave from the auction hall.
The dresses were for the guests who would be staying at his house, as he was the Lord there had been many occasions when people from his business, magistrate, aristocrats, or the church stayed there. Maroon prepared the dress for a ten to an eleven-year-old girl as most of the nobles would only bring their child outside when they reached the age.
Ian had guessed that the dress would be a little bigger to Elise, but he didn't expect her body was that small and short that she could barely walk without stepping over the dress. The ribbon in the middle of her waist was also the proof that Mila had been working hard to lift the hem of the dress a little above her little feet.
"Well, it still looks better than that white ragged fabric before." Ian picked the knife on his right and spread the strawberry jam across the crispy toasted bread to pass it over the girl who had been waiting for him with her large expectant eyes.
"You worked me, a Lord more than all the other women around me before." He passed the bread to the clueless girl who couldn't understand his words. But as long as she could eat the bread to fill her rumbling stomach, Elise wouldn't care much about what the other party is saying at least that what she thought to herself.
Cynthia felt her head grew swollen from Ian and Austin's crude words. She couldn't expect them anything, she thought to herself and swore to protect the little girl from adopting their vulgar behavior. "I think she needs a governess, my lord." Cynthia began from the side, sitting straight with her hands on the back.
"That. I agree, however she's still a child and studying is too burdensome as she had no such obligation now other than playing. Also, she's too stiff for her age and talks less. As her chaperone, your work is to make sure she could express herself a little more."
Cynthia finally understood what the Lord said by a chaperone, he seemed to be thinking of the girl well, which was good to her as she labeled him as a person who only wanted to do pick the girl as an amusement without caring about the girl's condition. "I understand." she bowed and nudged her elbow to Austin who had been dozing off beneath the warm sunlight.
Austin woke up in surprise, shaking his head before stretching his sore back like how a cat was. "The sunlight is warm. It's making me a little sleepy..."
"I know idiotic cat!" Cynthia stepped on his feet as she knew he couldn't wake up with only a light nudged.
"Aww!" Austin whined to feel Ian's eyes on him from ahead.
"I should have brought a dog to the mansion instead of a cat. I think they could do a better job at picking scents too." Ian complained between his breath and passed the glass of milk to Elise before standing up from his seat to exit the dining room.
"Then you should have brought a dog in the first place." Austin grumbled in a whisper. Ian heard him talking from afar but decide to pay him a kindness today to ignore his lament.
Elise spent her days mostly by playing with Cynthia and Austin. Although at first, she was rather awkward with them. She had come to a liking with the two friendly people and began to talk a little more than before.
Sometimes, the two chaperones would bet among each other for their work at the house of the day by the number of how much they were able to talk with Elise. Elise didn't notice their game and spoke as she like, making a fair factor to judge the winning and losing between the two.
A week has passed after Elise arrival at the White's mansion and on her stay in the house, she began to learn many things about the Mansion and her master. One of it was that unlike her assumption of Master Ian would be spending his time in the wide mansion, he rarely stayed at the house for more than four hours. He was a hard-working person in Elise's eyes as he had never wasted a single second and kept running along the time here and there.
But she often wondered what Ian work as. He had a big house and before he bought her with four thousand gold coins. The magnanimous amounts of coins that she could not even imagine to take a peek at.
Capítulo 17: Elise Make a Friend, The Flower Crown-IIII
On another bright afternoon, Elise sat on the green field near the garden with Cynthia. Different kinds of flowers laid beside them. But Elise's blue eyes were glued on Cynthia's nimble hand who had weaved the flowers' stems into a crown. Turning the well-made crown on her hands, Cynthia checked over the structure before passing it to Elise's hand in delight. "What do you think? Beautiful isn't it?"
Elise nodded with all her might. "It's beautiful, Cy!" She saw Cynthia giggled and murmured "excuse me" to take back the flower crown for a moment to place it upon Elise's red hair. "This is how you used it."
A cat with golden fur and three large striped on his body ran toward them. On the cat's small mouth, another batch of purple flowers was held. The cat stopped beside them bending his head to allocate the flowers in one large batch. When he looked up to the adorable little girl touching the flower crown on her head with extra carefulness in order not to break it due to its fragileness, the cat spoke in human language.
"I never know that you are good at making those, Cy." Cynthia glanced down at the cat who was undoubtedly her friend Austin with a sighing reply.
"My little sister used to beg me to make one for her." she thought for a moment to stop the knitting on her hand. "Anyway, Austin I thought you could only speak in meows?"
"I wouldn't you're not a cat and how could you understand if I spoke in meows? I can speak well even in my cat form." He bragged. Cynthia was about to reply to his words but Elise had taken the cat on her arms to carry it to her side for a long petting and brushing to his pelt. Feeling the ticklish little hand rubbing on his neck, Austin protested with a "No, don't." but his cat's instinct took over him as he had purred with a relaxed face on top of Elise's lap.
"Meow." Austin subconsciously let out a voice that made both Cynthia and Elise burst into coordinated laughter. The laugh was loud enough to bring back Austin from his listless state and jumped from Elise's side.
"You adorable being if you look at me that way, how could I get angry?" He protested in a gentle manner whilst rubbing his paw and licking it. "You shouldn't rub me too much. I don't like tickles."
Cynthia had a hard time composing herself. From behind she rubbed again the unclosed wound on Austin's pride. "I thought you weren't going to speak in meows? It took you less than a minute to actually purred."
"I can't help it, alright? Although I'm a werecat, I'm still a cat." Austin cursed under his lips. "Do you know where did the Lord go?" Cynthia raised a question that quickly steered Austin's attention from the latter. "The human person named Mr. Brown who was working with him invited him to his party. I heard that the human is trying to make a relationship to happen between his daughter and the Lord."
"Hah." Cynthia scoffed aloud stopping her hand to shook her head. "How stupid. I don't think humans forgot the forbidden rule against the marriage of human and mythical beings don't they? He must be crazy enough to marry his own daughter to a mythical being."
Austin kept on playing with the lavender that Elise moved in front of him to give it a good chase and huffed harsh breathing to answer Cynthia. "Well our Lord doesn't look like one and not even us know if he is a mythical being. He looks very humanly except for the fact that he isn't humane at all. Well except for the fact he brought Elise." Austin smiled to the little girl and Elise returned back the smile warmly making a fuzzy warm feeling to the werecat.
"Also, I have a piece of big news for you." Austin jumped to the spot beside Cynthia and talked again, but the little girl spotted a flying being with the legs of a horse. It was the faeries that Ian told her about before in the carriage, the faeries named Sulix.
Being a curious little child, Elise walked over the bushes where the Sulix was stopping at for a talk. Cynthia was in the middle of her explosive news and kept on changing faces intrigued by Austin's news, not knowing the girl had left.
"Excuse me." Elise knelt beside the Sulix who was chewing on a stem of an unripe stem. The purple winged Sulix stared at her face and snapped her finger at the realization of who Elise was. "Ah! You! The sweet child!" she flew over Elise's head flapping her hand which connected to the back of the wings in delight. "Did you remember me? I talked to you before at the Demon's carriage."
"Demon?" Elise asked cluelessly, not understanding who the Sulix called a Demon.
The Sulix sat mid-air, making a seat that looked comfortable to her eyes. "He hasn't told you yet, well that's fine. Just act as though you hadn't heard any of that."
The small hands above the dress tightened. "He's not a Demon. Master Ian is very kind. He saved me from the slave auction." she protested, how could Master Ian become an evil person? Even though he had saved her from the place where people called Hell on Earth.
Seeing the fondness that the girl had for Ian, the Sulix who never want to have the bad side of the girl quickly apologized. "Is that so. Then perhaps it was a slipped of a tongue, forgive me."
Elise nodded to accept her apologies. The Sisters in the Church once told her that accepting apologies is something that as the children of Gods should do. And for her as long as the Sulix understood that Ian wasn't a Demon, her dislike quickly appeased.
The Sulix changed its sitting position to lay her body and cupped her cheek as though they were exchanging tales. "What's your name, little girl?"
"Elise." She replied back, her blue eyes staring at her wings that charmed her in. "What's your name?" Elise queried the little being to have her shaking her head as a reply.
"I don't have a name." the little girl heard her answer and returned with a surprised face. Before in the past, the Sisters on the Church brought little babies to the church and at one point, Elise asked what's the name of the little friends, but the Sister shook her head in pity and replied that they don't have a name as they were abandoned by their parents.
"You should have a name." Elise insisted, her eyes a little moist with tears of empathy.
Seeing Elise's insistence, the Sulix replied with a long hum to flew over to her face and gave her an idea. "How about you give one? A name?"
"Me?" Elise asked again and the Sulix insisted. "Yes. You. Do you have anything now?"
Elise looked above the Sky to help her squeeze some good names on her head and mumbled out. "Alexa?"
The Sulix repeated the name once but then shook her head as a rejection. "I've heard too many people with that name.
Elise nodded to her reply and thought for a longer time. "Elizabeth?"
"No, that sounded like a name that came from the Church." Elise heard her mentioning the Church in distaste but didn't put much attention to it and came out with another name. "Then, the name of this flower-" Elise took off her flower crown and showed the red Amaryliss flower to the Sulix. "-Amaryllis. Aryl."
"Amaryllis." The Sulix called out the names, her eyes stayed on the beautiful little flower on the crown. "Aryl. Yes, that sounds good to me. Call me Aryl from now on, Elise." Aryl saw the girl smiled widely for being able to help a new person from being nameless and returned back with a gentle kiss on her cheek before making a turn on the air.
"The thing before you told me. You were a slave before?" Aryl asked again, pulling the fact that slipped out of her lips.
Elise nodded, it was what Ghost Arain had told her. She didn't understand anything deeper beneath the word and replied to the friendly Aryl. "Yes. Master Ian bought me." She muttered out the words that she heard from the slave traders in oblivious.
Aryl frowned in disgust as she thought that the little girl was forced to live with the imbecile inside his house. Forced to life with Ian, meaning living in a place of dreadness, just by imagining that Ian would chop and cook the girl after she came to age made a chill run down through Aryl's back. "How hateful." she murmured in a whisper.
"What about your parent's Elise?" To this question from Aryl, Elise's head drooped down slightly.
Her blue eyes deepened in the color of the bottom of the Sea, gloominess floated for a moment. "They don't want me." She replied the same answer that she received from her aunt, Angelica.
By those four words, Aryl seemed to be reading more into the context. She understood that the girl had a pure heart, but it was filled with scars since her childhood. A pitiful girl who had done everything with all her best from the awful world. She was a pitiful little child. The sweet child would always be loved by faeries and some kin of mythical beings, but humans rarely liked them as a person as they feared the extraordinary power that they had. It had been said since a long time ago, the sweet child would live in a twisted fate yet she was too young to experience such misfortune. First, her evil family who abandoned her and the second, the damned demon who for sure never had a heart.
Aryl bit on her little nails and muttered out. "This couldn't go on."
At that point, Austin and Cynthia realized that Elise had gone from her spot and dispatch again to find her. Austin used his sharp cat eyes to spot the flower crown on Elise's laps sticking out of the bushes and called her out. "Elise!"
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