Capítulo 14: Reminiscing Her Past (1)

Morning.

Chalice was used to waking up early. She had experienced an array of jobs and the thing they had in common was that she needed to go in early. This had set up an irrevocable alarm in her body clock.

She proceeded to do some light tai-chi exercises for the heck of it and to also put her ridiculously big balcony to use. The morning breeze ought to help her start off good. Besides, she felt that she had been gaining weight recently. Dang the aristocracy and their scrumptious, mouth-watering, weight-inducing food!

Chalice had developed a foodie complex since she had transmigrated in this world. She had quite the extensive and demanding work history and eating delicious, home-cooked meals are a luxury. She was bitter about this, so she had proudly decided to never neglect satisfying her taste buds.

She was finishing up with her exercises when a knock resounded in her door. Chalice gave her consent, while she wiped off her sweat. She saw Luke coming in her room with light, measured strides before stopping at her balcony door. She saw a look of mild horror when he saw her, then proceeded to keep his down.

Aside from being her right-hand man, Luke had somehow also become her maid...er nanny. Since the people she trusted were limited to three people alone, it was inevitable that Luke had to be the one to take care of her personally at the absence of Lucy. She couldn't possibly expect her trustworthy yet hopelessly narcissistic knight to attend to someone's need other than his own. Though at first it had been met with a vehement protest by Luke, himself in the end he was thoroughly defeated by Chalice 'logical' and certainly not shameless arguments.

"My lady, your bath and clothes had been prepared. If you could tidy yourself up, we could go down for breakfast. And please, do mind your appearance at all times, my lady."

Chalice giggled at Luke's obvious discomfort seeing her in her sleeping gown. Her eyes filled up with mischief as another opportunity to tease the poor man presented itself to her.

"And whatever is wrong with my appearance, dear Luke?"

She asked while languidly sauntering nearer to him. Chalice almost laughed out loud when he discreetly took a step back from her.

"It is a bit inappropriate, my lady."

The man said in a flat tone. However, there was a dubious red color slowly spreading in his ears.

"How so? I am in my room. I can wear what I want in here. Tsk. Tsk. Why? Does it make you uncomfortable? That's no good Luke. You're bound to see me in a lot of situations like this. You need to get used to it. I can't have just anyone asissting me much less enter my room."

Chalice smirked at him.

'Aiyah. Poor guy. This much is already affecting you? What if I pulled out the big guns then? How would you fare?'

She sighed internally. Luke may not be a simple guy but when it comes to matters between men and women, he seemed to be too pure. Chalice couldn't help herself but be tempted to taint him. She shook at her evil thoughts. Another bad habit she acquired in her past life. The previous Chalice may be dubbed as a man-chaser but compared to a certain 21st century transmigrator currently residing in her body, she was utterly clueless.

"Please, my lady. As much as it amuses you to tease me. We have to keep track of time. Please take a bath now. So we can get on with breakfast."

"Aah. You're no fun, Luke."

Chalice pouted but nevertheless went to the bathroom. Leaving a certain man with an unrequited love staring at the door of the bath, not knowing whether to revel in joy at being able to take care of her or to drown in despair of having her near yet so far.

After a subsequent uneventful breakfast, Chalice directly went down to business and continued to read the financial reports of their fief for the past years. She had no problems when it comes to crunching numbers. It was easy for her to keep up with the trail of the incomes and expenditures.

Chalice could not help but reminisce her past life. The last job she had quit before waking up in the duke's mansion was a finance analyst. In truth, even though in Chalice's personal opinion her past life was merely so-so. On an outsider's perspective it isn't. She was really just an oddball eccentric. A recurring trait of a genius.

Yes. The her in the modern world of Earth was a genius. Her mother was a biologist who had a penchant for botany, while her father was a doctor of many specializations but mainly virology. And her, their daughter possessed an eidetic memory and an ability to grasp things even after just seeing them once.

Since her parents were employed by a huge pharmaceutical corporation, she mainly lived most of her life in the lab and homeschooled by her parents. However, the corporation had dealings with the underworld and had forced them to develop a deadly weapon meant biological warfare. It was an enhanced version of respiratory syncytial virus. A virus which was usually a common cause for various respiratory complaints, but was modified to break down the entire respiratory system within a minute prior to exposure. Given the highly contagious nature of the virus and its ability to survive for hours on surfaces, if used as a weapon it could wipe out an entire city in merely hours.

Her parents were highly righteous people and it went against their conscience to allow such a dangerous threat to fall into evil clutches. Hence, they tried to escape the corporation and sought refuge with the government. Nevertheless, the people of the underworld cannot let go such treasure. Thus on their way to a safe house, the convoy that Chalice was in along with her parents were ambushed. Their car crashed into a trailer truck while in pursuit, killing both her parents on the spot and leaving her hanging by an inch of her life.

Chalice survived that night, but she was taken by an organization under the government which served to dispose of those that threaten order. In a simpler sense, they were the government's guard dogs. She, a mere 10 year-old, underwent brutal training exceeding even that of a soldier. Along with countless lessons of almost every profession and even those which were deemed indispensible to her missions like hacking, disguising, and even the art of seduction. But she pushed through all of it, in her mind was the determination to get revenge for her parents who only tried to do the right thing. She became a notorious agent, an assassin who took down hundreds of heinous criminals who were under the guise of proper, law abiding citizens of the civil world.

But after having punished and taken down the corporation involved in her parents' death, Pia started to feel lethargic of her life. She had achieved her goal, and she no longer had any motivations.