Over the years, Eva found herself incredibly pampered beyond reason. Her parents fed her very well and never expected her to do anything. In fact, they dissuaded her from doing anything at all, saying that it is not needed. 

She could not understand why she was worth all the pampering, especially since she could not add much value to her family's profession as compared to her sister. Nonetheless, she copied how her family trained their bodies which was by routine physical exercises and intentionally doing more of the heavy work in the estate. Since she had no privacy to herself in this life, she could not afford to practice her martial arts or personalise a training regime for herself. She also could not suddenly appear to know how to read or write when her family was completely uneducated. They were simply well trained in what they were supposed to do in the estate. As a result, the identity of a helpless little pampered girl stuck with her.

Her parents seemed to carry out an assassination around once every few months. 

When Briana turned 12, her parents decided to bring her out for scouting missions. This meant that they would have to leave 6-year-old Eva alone at home for a period of time, so they disclosed their second life to her while they were eating their dinner.

Eva, however, did not look surprised at the information and simply waited for them to give her any instructions they had. Her parents looked at each other with a baffled look, wondering if Eva understood what they meant.

This was when Briana explained, "Oh! She probably remembers from the time I told her about it while you were out at night! She was still only one or two years old at that time! She's really a bright child like you said, mother!"

Her parents beamed.

"You'll be the hope of our family!" Her father said.

"Perhaps she should learn to read and write?" Her mother wondered.

"What good would come of it?"

Her parents started discussing seriously what they could do with her smarts in front of her.

Eva could not help but feel her heart warm up and let a soft smile show on her face. The way they focused on developing her strength and loved her despite her weaknesses reminded her of her family. 

She began feeling that she was not that unlucky. Not counting the first world she transmigrated into, she has been getting a really nice family or at least a nice family member. Each time, it only added on to her unspoken desire to be back by her family's side.

Suddenly, BaoBao spoke as if to burst her bubble. Remember that this is the punishment world. No good comes out of anything in your life here.

Perhaps being a mute and weak girl while living in poverty, subservient to another, is the unfortunate life I'll live in this lifetime?

I don't think it's that simple... I've heard that punishment worlds are really harsh... Harsh enough for hosts to attempt suicide! Don't you remember what I told you before?

Everyone has a different tolerance. Perhaps this kind of living conditions could be a living hell for a host who is too used to riches and having an able body. But not for me.

You don't know what could happen... Don't let yourself get too attached to them... Are you sure you want me to call you by Eva in this world? Perhaps I should call you by-

Eva. I don't believe I can go back to my family. I don't know if I can. So at the very least, I wish to live as Eva and enjoy the time I have now with my current family.

What if your family turns out bad instead...?

They seem good enough, don't you think so, BaoBao? It's been 6 years and I'm still so loved. I'd worry more about if they would get taken away from me. I need to identify the plot of this world, or at least the plot that my family's involved in, as soon as possible.

BaoBao could not help but worry for Eva but he agreed to help her with the best of his abilities.

A good chance for her to investigate by herself has also arrived now that she was 6 years old. This was the age when she would start helping out with small and simple chores in the big estate such as sweeping the floor and cleaning the furniture. 

On one of the weekends, she was cleaning the coffee table in the spacious sitting room on the first floor as per her mother's instruction when two girls and a boy with their attendants entered the room.

One girl has blonde hair that looked as yellow as the sun, honey brown eyes, and was all dressed up in a cute baby blue Victorian dress. The other girl has blonde hair that looked closer to brown, sky blue eyes, and was dressed in a simple but cute pink dress with some ruffles. The boy has pale blonde hair, pale blue eyes, and was dressed in a simple but clean and refined looking white dress shirt and black dress pants.

She headed off to clean some other unoccupied place without greeting Briana who was standing behind the girl in the blue dress.

"What's a young girl like you doing here?" The girl in the blue dress suddenly broke her conversation with the boy to speak to Eva. 

Seeing that Eva was not replying and simply looking at Briana, she did the same and turned to look back at Briana. "Are my parents receiving any guests today?"

Briana politely lowered her head. "No. She's my sister."

This was when she took a good look at the simple and plain dress that Eva was wearing and noted the rag cloth she was holding in her hand. "Oh! Why didn't you tell me that you have a sister?"

"You didn't ask."

"But she looks so cute! Why don't you talk about her?"

"Anything looks cute to you."

Esmeralda turned her attention to Eva and welcomed her with a bright sunny smile. "It's nice to meet you! How old are you?"

The girl initially did not recognise Eva's identity because only Eva's family did not need to wear the uniform given to the other servants. They were only required to do so whenever there was an event. This was a small show of good faith to thank her family for their service.

Eva used her fingers to indicate her age.

"Oh! You're three years younger than me! I thought your family only started working when you're 10 years old. I only knew Briana when she was 10 because that was when she was assigned to me. I'm guessing you'll join me by my side once you turn 10 too?"

Eva nodded then stared at her silently without an expression.

It was customary for Eva's family to be attached to the masters of the house from young to serve them as their personal attendants. This was so that they would achieve an understanding of their masters such that they would immediately know what their masters needed or wanted with minimal instruction. However, before they were attached, they would need to be familiar with all of the housework so that they could maintain the quality of the work of all the other servants as well.

"Hmm... You're really quiet, huh. At least you don't seem as unfriendly as your sister here." She teased and winked at Eva. "I'm Esmeralda, he's Dylan, and she's Saddie. Dylan's the same age as me. Saddie is only a year older than you. What's your name?"

Eva looked at Briana.

"Her name's Eva. Eva, go ahead and continue with your work now."

Eva bowed before leaving. Esmeralda pouted. "Why don't you let me make friends with your sister? She obviously listens to you."

"You have real and proper friends to entertain at the moment, little miss."

"Your attendant doesn't seem very well-trained or polite, does she?" Saddie spoke with slight derision in her voice.

"It doesn't matter. That's the way she likes it anyway, isn't it?" Dylan defended Esmeralda with a gentle smile.

"Exactly! Dylan really knows me." Esmeralda smiled with satisfaction.

"Everyone here knows how you value equality and authenticity. You're not going to stop trying to befriend Eva, are you?"

"Of course!"

When Saddie saw how her brother looked at Esmeralda adoringly, she could not help but feel jealous. She pouted and tugged on his sleeve. Dylan turned back to look at her with a kind smile. "Yes?"

She then smiled sweetly and hugged her brother's arm. "Nothing."

He patted her head and it made her giggle. She really loved her brother's doting and warm nature.

Everything went on with Eva's knowledge thanks to BaoBao's surveillance.

Looks like we have our candidates. Esmeralda's personality shines and she draws people in naturally. Dylan's soft and supportive nature makes him easily taken for granted. He may be the second male lead. Let's play safe and delay my meeting with her as much as possible.

Mm!

 

Unfortunately, despite her best efforts to avoid Esmeralda and her friends, which had indeed been successful thanks to BaoBao, the day came when she could no longer avoid the meeting.

She was cleaning one of the shelves on the first floor when Briana came over to tell her that her presence was requested.

Eva acted surprised.

"Don't worry, you didn't do anything wrong. As you can probably tell, the little miss of the house is just eccentric." Briana whispering to her before sighing. "She would treat you very nicely but be careful not to get too close to her. You never know when she might be a target." Briana told Eva what she had been told as a child by their parents.

Eva nodded and Briana smiled.

"She'd give up after a short while. Steel your heart. Let's go."

Eva followed her up the stairs and down the corridor to her left. Almost immediately after Briana knocked on the large white door to her right, the door burst open and the jovial Esmeralda welcomed Eva with arms spread wide open. "Eva!!"

Eva bowed as a greeting.

"Oh, no need for that! Come in! From now on, I'll teach you how to read and write!"

Eva stood rooted to the spot. She cocked her head and frowned to indicate her lack of understanding.

"You can't speak right?"

Eva nodded.

"How do you expect to communicate with others then?"

She gestured at Esmeralda then towards herself before shrugging.

"This wouldn't work all the time. Not everyone would understand either. And it's not very efficient, is it?"

Eva waved her hands in the air, pretended that she had a book in her hand, shook her head, before finally shrugging.

Esmeralda took a while to infer the meaning behind her gestures. "You have a point..." She frowned and went deep into thought, then suddenly hammered a fist into her palm. "I know! I'll just educate every servant under my family! This way you'll be able to converse with everyone else here easily and not just with me! Doesn't that sound good?!"

Eva had a completely flat expression on her face. It indeed sounded like a very pretty and enabling plan but it was too ideal for it to be realistic. At least not now. She shrugged once more. 

"I'll ask my parents! I won't disturb you from your work now! Thank you for coming, I had fun!"

This was fun? Eva and BaoBao thought at the same time.

 

As the days passed on uneventfully once more, it was like Eva guessed. Esmeralda's parents vehemently and resolutely rejected her idea no matter how many times she brought it up to them. Finally, they explained themselves that they could not afford to have better servants than the royal family lest they get in trouble for anything. There was just the social hierarchy in place that they had to respect. They also reminded her that a duchess that she would grow up to be would not be respected as much as a duke simply because of her gender, so if she wanted more power to change anything, her best bet would be to marry a powerful man. This then led to them nagging at her to focus more on her studies instead of fooling around all the time.

This made Esmeralda sulk and become depressed since she insisted that there were bigger matters that required people's attention and that she should not need to marry someone powerful to do something meaningful. This made Eva feel slightly impressed. It was quite something to have such an attitude when she was only a young prepubescent girl.

What Eva did not expect was that Esmeralda's doting parents would come to a compromise with Esmeralda as a result of her locking herself up in her room for days. In the end, Esmeralda had the permission to educate Briana and Eva, which Esmeralda brought up to Eva's parents.

This was what they were now talking over the dinner.

"Who'd have thought that things would turn out this way?" Her father laughed.

"Our concerns about money and image were dealt with just like that." Her mother seemed very pleased as well. It had been those issues that kept them from sending their children to school. They believed that Eva could communicate with them well enough as it is.

"Now that the children will be able to read soon, perhaps we can start taking on jobs like these." Her father put out some letters on the table. "Some of the tasks do not come with pictures, but I'm able to recognise numbers at least. Look at the amount of money this job would reward us with."

Eva's eyes gradually widened the more she read the letters. From the way the letter addressed her parents as "your organisation", she understood that her parents were independent assassins.

She also guessed that the other organisations that the letters mentioned were proper assassins who did their research instead of blindly taking up jobs, because she shared the same sentiments as those other assassins - Rejecting was the smart choice. 

Every letter was written full of anger and hatred. There was no proper reason to kill besides describing the target as "deserving to die". This was not worth killing the targets who seemed to be big players in the country's economy or crucial in maintaining the current peace in the country. It would only cause unrest and instability. 

During such desperate times, jobs for assassins would lessen since people would feel more liberated to take matters into their own hands instead of resorting to covert means. 

The problem now was, what would her parents think even if she explained what the letter said to them.

While Eva was struck with fear of the future in store for her family, the other members remained blissfully unaware of it.

"Look at her, father, mother. Eva already looks interested. Her potential in this area really shows, huh?" Briana pointed out.

"That's right." Her parents agreed with smiles on their faces.