บท 43: White Mansion Rules
By the time Elise and Ian finished their dinner, Ian cued Maroon who stood beside him and came the last dishes which was Elise's favorite, desserts. Her eyes stayed at the small cakes and as she pushed her fork to place the small bites to her mouth, she chewed it slowly, trying to decipher what the cook use to achieve the fluffiness and the mild sweetness. Seeing how slow Elise eating the cake, Ian curiously asked. "Is the cake not to your taste?"
Elise shook her head and started. "The cake is very soft, I don't think they put egg yolks inside to achieve the texture. I think by beating the white eggs for a few times will achieve this texture, also it has almond pieces in it so it wouldn't be boring to eat the fluffy texture." Whenever Elise ate desserts, her first thought was to how she could recreate the dessert again due to William's fondness of eating desserts. She spoke with her eyes beaming with curiosity and amazement that Ian had himself looking at her delighted self with a pleased expression.
"Is that so?" He hummed.
Elise felt that her commentary of the cake would perhaps be boring to Ian and gingerly muttered. "I apologize if it sounds boring master Ian."
Ian shook his head. "No, it isn't. In fact, it is quite interesting, continue." He offered her to continue to eat the cake with his sweet smile.
Elise continued to eat again with the melodious sound of her heartbeat. When she finished eating and was about to excuse herself, Ian thought about something and spoke. "Your work offer."
Elise repeated. "Work offer?" Does he mean the job she is working now as a maid?
"I promised you three things for your work in my mansion, didn't I?" He reminded. "Good payment, a place to live in, and also studies that would help you with your work in the Church. I have fulfilled my first and second promise now it's about the last one."
Elise saw his hand pulling something from his pocket to pass it toward her hand. She murmured "thank you" and look at the metallic key in bewilderment. "What is this key for, master Ian?"
"The library, it should suffice to teach you some of the knowledge you would need for your work. White's Mansion has the greatest knowledge of all lands, it's not often for people to have the chance to see the library, take this as your chance." Ian spoke as he stood up from his seat with the same unchanging smile.
Elise gripped the key softly and broke to a smile. "Thank you very much, master Ian."
Ian stopped his steps turning his head he stated. "Don't be stiff, puppy speak like how you always do. I prefer your usual self better than your stiff one. Also, make sure you use the key well." He knew it would take time for her to speak the way she did before. Even though the people in White Mansion seemed to be unaffected by the change of time, time had moved for her and the years created a little distance between her and the people in White Mansion. As much as she want to talk comfortably with them like the way she did when she was a child, she had grown and there was a space where she wasn't with them, making her feel a little hard to overcome the bridge the years had made.
She nodded, keeping his golden words to her mind. After the dinner, she went back to her room to have her smile still remained unfading from her lips. She glanced down at the key of the library that Ian gave and giggled herself happily. Although they didn't do a grand thing and only ate together, Elise could feel a hint of warmness spreading from her heart. As her heart loudly thudding, her mind was filled with his smile and his deep silvery voice, Elise still hadn't noticed her own feeling clearly but she knew that her feeling had grown differently since the first time they met again. When the dusk fully ended, Elise prepared herself to sleep when she noticed Aryl coming back after disappearing in the middle of the dinner. "Where did you go, Aryl?"
Aryl stayed over in front of the mirror that Elise used to brush her hair. "I just saw something for a moment." Truthfully, when Aryl heard Ian mentioning Cerberus, she quickly put up her heaviest guard and left because she felt the demon was trying to threaten her. Due to the fight that happened almost a thousand years ago, the faeries found Cerberus who had taken almost half of their populations, they have grown to fear and scorn anything that came from Hell. But regardless of how she found the Cerberus frightening, she couldn't stay away far from Elise in fear that the girl would step aloft danger. When Elise was still a child, she thought that the dog was a normal pet, not until she knew that the adorable dog was actually Cerberus under Ian's magic spell. "Anyway, are you going to meet that dog?"
"Curly you mean?" Elise asked and received a nod from Aryl. "I will. After I left here nine years ago, I never saw Curly again, but he saved my life once. I have to meet him again and thank him."
Seeing Elise's heartfelt eyes expectantly to meet the Hell Hound dog, Aryl gave a helpless sigh. It's still a dog, yes still a hell dog not the demon itself, Aryl concludedin her thought and heard Elise speaking while rising from her chair. "Alright, let's go to sleep now, Aryl. Tomorrow I am going to officially start my first day to work in the mansion I have to wake up early."
"Yeah. You're right." Aryl replied and extinguished all the fire gleaming over the candle with a snap of her finger to tuck into the blanket beside Elise's side.
The next early morning, Elise tied her bright red hair like sunset into a high ponytail and wrapped the curved white apron over her waist. When she was done, Elise walked out of her room to the butler's quarter to receive Maroon's order and schedule for the day like all the maid. After walking down the very long and dimmed hallway, Elise arrived at the room and joined with the rest of the maids to see Carmen and Vella standing at the end of the line. She joined beside them and saw the deep red haired butler ordering the rest of the maid with their jobs, dividing some with their work groups. When it came Carmen, Vella, and Elise turn, Maroon swiped his dull eyes over Elise and she spotted a small frown forming over the expressionless man's forehead.
"You two will have your usual work at the East wing first floor." He ordered for both Carmen and Vella to receive his order with a nod. He shifted his pressuring gaze from them and turn to Elise. "As for you, you will be serving the Lord at his office."
Elise rose her brow, almost questioning the man to repeat his words.
"You all can go now. Dismissed." Maroon said briefly and went out of the room first as though he couldn't bear staying at the same spot for long and waste his time in futile things.
Carmen and Vella walked out beside Elise as the rest of the maids left the room. With a sigh, Carmen spoke. "Although Mr. Maroon have a very good-looking face it's a shame that he always use that deadpanned look at his face."
Elise saw Vella rolling her eyes at her friend and warned. "No talking back about the butler, Carmen. Did you forget what happened last year when the maids talk about the butler?"
Elise saw an intrigued look. "Last year?"
"You are new here, Elise so I wouldn't blame you for not knowing this but this mansion have rules, some don'ts servants should avoid. When someone dared to break the iron-clad rule in this mansion what awaits them is the end of their fates. About the thing that happened last year, you see. There's this particular maid who have a very loose mouth. She chirped out everything, complaining the butler and thus a week later she disappeared from the mansion without a trace. The butler claimed that the maid left on her own but who knows whether she really went back to her family?"
Elise mulled to herself. The story that Carmen gave did sounded frightening. No matter how hard it is or how horrible Maroon was, she doubted anyone want to retire from working at the Lord's house after a week. But she also doubted that the people in White's Mansion would do anything out of the line such as punishing a maid to death due to their fondness in spreading rumors.
"Carmen, silence." Vella warned again.
Carmen raised her hand, brushing off Vella's warning lightly. "It's a story, Vella. As long as no one hear us talking nothing should happen to us. You're such a worry-wart."
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