“Hah?” Vera looked at a pair of white, girlish hands as they offered a neat letter.

“Please accept this!” A confident-looking boy in a red and gold blazer, their school’s uniform, said.

Vera nodded and took the letter. As the boy let out a wild grin, she tore it up.

He paused, his smile losing a bit of vigor.“Um...you didn’t read it.” The boy reminded.

Vera tilted her head at him. “Why would I bother?”

The question had him speechless. “But... that...uh...” He stumbled over his words. “...I’m confessing to you, though?

Vera was blunt. “I realized. But what do you even know about me to confess like this? I’ve never talked to you before today, and now you ambush me with this half-hearted nonsense? You’re pretty arrogant for someone with such a weak chin, potato-shaped head and mismatched ears. Oh, and is that a receding hairline? At your age?”

Each sentence of her’s cut the boy down peg by peg, turning him to stone by the time she was done. To the onlookers, it was like he’d lost all will to live. “...Mommy...” A single tear ran past the boy’s cheek, all previous confidence scattered like dust in the wind. Rather, his whole self-esteem had just hit rock bottom.

And yet she wasn’t quite done with him.

" What,” She continued. “Just because you’re in a higher year, you thought I’d be too flustered to refuse if you confess in such a public area? Planning to use peer pressure, were you? I fail to see why else you’d make a private matter so conspicuous. My, my, aren’t you quite the schemer.” She offer a short, derisive laugh. “If you’re so manipulative already, I dread to think what kind of scum you’ll become when you’re older. Well, I guess such low methods are how lesser men get women” She snorted with obvious contempt. Vera didn’t care at all about his feelings, and it showed. “Take your weak-willed sentiments and find a dumber girl to try and coerce. In your case, she’d best be blind as well.”

With that, she continued on her way. The boy had caught her while she was crossing the courtyard on her way to class. It was rather bold to do so in front of so many people and so she didn’t trust in his sincerity at all. Not that it would have mattered in any case.

This was just another in a long line of suitors who’d come to offer her their half-hearted words of love. Just like this one, she hadn’t even talked to any of those previous boys either. Why would they think she would accept anything they said? It was ridiculous.

Though, it has to be said: Each of them who’d come had been handsome youths. But Vera? Her standards were much too high when it came to that. You have to realize, she spent every day with the Young Master growing up. From a child to now, her world view of men had been tainted by a person who had a face that could charm devils and make angels gush.

What other option did she have but to have wildly unrealistic standards?

in any case, that was also besides the point. She’d never give the time of day to confessions like these. They came to her hoping she’d go out with them, but not once did any of them bother to befriend her first.

Stranger danger is something she was taught long ago, as everyone should have been. Were these kids stupid? Thinking she’d go out with people she didn’t know at all.

It was honestly just annoying.

“And we can add one more to your body count.” Damien whistled low, matching her pace beside her. She didn’t talk to him.

Ever since his little act that day Vera had refused communication with him. Well, somewhat. Okay, not really. She was a bit colder to him than normal, but not to the extent where he noticed. She was honestly still mad at him, however.

“See? You think about me so much!” He’d teased her back then.

Vera had no idea whether he was really playing around or if something unexpected had happened. Her body just felt cold and numb all over, and when he suddenly “came back to life” and poked her cheek, smirking triumphantly, something popped in her mind.

And then her fist met his face.

And then she hugged him.

And then she hit him again. After that, she stormed off with a, “I pretended because i didn’t want you to feel bad! Stupid, shitty Young Master! As if I didn’t know were acting!”

Since then, yes. She’d given him the cold shoulder. A little bit. For example, she no longer ironed his clothes as well as usual. She would also serve him slightly cold breakfast. What’s more, she even secretly dipped her finger into his milk before he drank. He would be consuming her germs! It satisfied her immensely to think he may even get sick from it.

Recently she’d even gotten a little more vindictive by cutting off a button on his uniform and keeping it so that he couldn’t fix it. Well, he did fix it...but the button didn’t match!

She sometimes wondered if she was actually being too soft with her revenge against him. But she didn’t bother to think on it further. She didn’t want to hurt him, after all.

Well, Maybe a little.

...Okay, no, not really.

But she did want to inconvenience him in whatever small way she could. And he hated cold pancakes with contrastingly hot eggs.That is enough.

“They’re talking about you again, you know.” Damien snickered. He looked over at the onlookers who were whispering amongst themselves.

Vera had become famous for her merciless crushing of her admirers. She was popular because she was so cute, to the extent even the second and third years showed interest in her, but everyone who went to try their luck ended destroyed.

Many tears had been shed in front of her. Some of those she cut down even had developed psychological problems dropped out of school, unable to be even within walking distance of her without falling into a state of silent, abject fear.

She’d been dubbed the “Walking Trauma” because behind that face lay a girl capable of leaving scars on your psyche that no amount of time could heal.

“I can’t remember asking.” She replied to him.

“You didn’t.”

“Hence, an indication of how much I care. Which is none.” She stated. “Besides, isn’t your body count higher?

“So?” Damien had been getting confessions from all these little girls almost every day. But because of his tastes, obviously he rejects them. However he did it in a way that was gentle and kind, keeping with his new persona, so as to not ruin his new reputation. As such, they were let down easy.

Unexpectedly, however, this backfired as all those he rejected kept coming back so that they could get rejected again. It seemed like they were getting addicted to his soft words and attention? It was annoying, but he couldn’t just tell them to fuck off.

“Well, whatever. What were you saying you were working on recently?”

“Ah!” A light came into his eyes just then. “I’ve been into botany lately. Baumeister’s library has a bunch of stuff on the subject and, as you know, I’m quite interested in my herbs.”

This was a layered statement. Damien loved his herbs when cooking. He also loved weed. What’s more, he also enjoyed mixing certain herbs to make diarrhea-inducing concoctions that he uses against enemies.

Vera remembered the time a few of the tutors his father had given him for sword training ended up pissing him off. So he poisoned them, and they crapped themselves into a near-death state. Shat all over themselves in front of several servants, then fought each other for the toilet.

It had been a dark day. A green-ish brown day. Vera shuddered just remembering it.

“Please don’t.” She told him.

“Don’t worry.” He rolled his eyes. “I’m not going to do anything bad. I’ve just been experimenting with some things. You’ve always been good with plants, mind helping me out? I’m trying to grow some specimens for my research but I can’t get the bastards to do it.” He’d been having a bit of trouble sleeping lately and so wanted to make one of the recipes from the books he’d read, but the ingredients, though not rare, were a little difficult to acquire in this area.

He wanted his own supply, too, so he tried buying the seeds and growing them himself. The seeds he found, though only after searching ever apothecary in the city.

He did believe he could grow them, its just proving damn hard! But you know, Vera had a green thumb like no other. Actually, her entire head was green! So she was the first person he thought of to help. Her, Baz and Mary could grow anything.

“I’ll come by the Greenhouse later. That’s where you’ve been, yes?”

“Yep. So you’ll help? Great!”

“...You know, you’re starting to remind me of someone.” His uncle, Llyr, had the exact same fascination with plants. Specifically, with the drugs you could make with them.

And so began their partnership.

***

A month later and Damien had managed to create a miracle pill he called,“Ambien”. It was a drug that was something like a mild sedative and it’s effects were fast activated, allowing one a full and comfortable night’s sleep. It quickly became popular among their studious classmates who suffered from longtime insomnia due to constant over-work. Sleep had become a secondary necessity compared to good grades.

This “Ambien” had caused quite a stir among both students and staff, actually, and the headmistress had even asked if Damien would like to sell the recipe, saying he would make quite a hefty sum. He refused, later telling Vera, “Someone slips you this in a drink and you wake up 8 hours later with a sore asshole.”

Which was surprisingly thoughtful on his part. His uncle wouldn’t have cared if it’d been him. Not that he would ever share the recipe, as greedy as he is.

Damien had distributed the pill to a few people around the school only once, then later made a different version he then dubbed, “Melatonin” which was weaker and safer and for people who only needed a nudge to help them sleep.

He still took the ambien, however.

It was currently in the early morning and Vera arrived, as usual, to prepare his clothes and make breakfast. His dorm room was quite far from the women’s dorms, and he always locked it, but that didn’t matter to Vera who could teleport inside whenever she wanted.

Such was one of her many gifts.

Vera walked to the window and drew open the curtains. As it was still so early, he probably would not wake for at least another hour given the pill he’d made a habit of taking. She didn’t quite know why he took it so often, but she didn’t question it as it did no harm.

Damien moved just then, choosing to lay on his back.

“Lazy bum.” She shook her head at him and headed towards the closet to remove his day’s clothes.

After laying them on the ironing board she then went about cleaning the room. Usually the servants in the Claybrook estate would have long since begun ironing his shirt and trousers, but Vera didn’t bother with that yet.

The weather was getting colder again. She’d iron them later, when he finished breakfast, so that they would be warm for him.

This was, of course, a decision made with pure professionalism as an elite maid of the Claybrook family.

“He’s such a slob ever since he came here.” Vera muttered, picking up old clothes from the floor and putting them in a basket.

Finishing that, there wasn’t much left to do. She cleaned the windows, then gathered the piles of love letters from his door--there were always so many each day, it was a wonder how the girls didn’t tire of writing them--and teleported to a volcano at the other side of the world where she dumped them.

Coming back, she then took a seat on the chair opposite his bed.

She twiddled her thumbs and looked off into space, lost in her own thoughts. Just then, Damien moved once more. His arm stretched out across the bed.

Vera looked away. Then back. And away again. Finally, she started to stare.

Her eyes drifted along the empty room.

Eventually, she rose from her seat and walked towards the bed. He’d be asleep for a good while yet, after all. And there’s no one around.

I just want to try it, She thought, very reasonably.

Vera laid down, her head on his arm. She waited, but...no, there was something wrong.

It doesn’t quite feel right...

She inched closer to him. Then a bit more. She started to feel his breath in her ear. Moving a tiny bit closer still, she wedged herself into the crook of his shoulder. The rhythm of his heartbeat was both soft and steady, like a lullaby.

Ah...he smells good...its so cozy...warm...

Vera blinked away her growing drowsiness in a panic. This is dangerous, she thought with some alarm. I shouldn’t stay like this.

And so with a sated curiosity, she resolved to get off. Yes, she indeed did. However, her body stayed motionless. How ridiculous. I’m going to get up now.

Again, she made up her mind to move. And yet, she was still. Instead, she took Damien’s arm and placed it in a position where it was like he was hugging her.

...I’m weak.

Vera lamented her own feebleness and somehow scooted even deeper into his embrace, choosing to rest her head over his chest.

Yeah...now it felt right.

With that, she slowly drifted off into sleep.

So this is what it feels like to be Dolly, huh.

45