After spending at least half of the morning crying with each other we finally let go of each other and saw the aftermath.

“Mom you look like a panda.”
“And you too, my little crybaby.”
“Hehehe.”
“Fufufu.”

I felt like I was closer than ever with Martha after our crying session and I felt like a huge burden was removed from my heart. Unfortunately this was just the beginning, a happy ending won’t come that easily.

“Um, Lotte, about the way you call me...”
“I know, I will only Mom when there’s nobody else.”
“*sigh*I could never say no to you.”
“Hehehe. That just shows how much you love me!”
“Come here, you.”
“No, not the tickles!”

And just like that the tears in my room transformed into laughter.

After that I had breakfast at the dining room. It felt really nostalgic walking inside the mansion and seeing all the faces of the servants. Sadly I spent breakfast all by lonesome just like usual. 

While eating breakfast all I could think of was my family. I could just save a lot of money and bought a lot of jewelry ahead of time. That should be enough for Mom and me when everything inevitably went wrong. But I didn’t want that. Even after everything that happened to me I still didn’t hate my family, in fact I wanted to save them. Maybe this was why people called me naive.

Father.

Yes, everything started from him. If I wanted to save everybody I need to start from him.

But how?

Even with all those experiences from my dream I still wouldn’t understand anything about Father’s work. After his death Stefano handled all of it by himself and after he disappeared I was forced to marry that old disgusting bastard and he also never let me take part in anything. I really doubt that Father would even pay any attention to me if I asked him about his work.

“Milady, is my cooking not to your liking?”

I heard Meahold, our chef, asked me a question and brought me back to the dining room. It seemed that I was lost in my own thought that I didn’t even touch my food.

Wait! That’s it!

If I didn’t know how to do something all I need to do is to learn something else to cover for my weakness. If I couldn’t help him in his work then I could at least make him less stressed. I then started to eat the rest of my breakfast as fast as I could.

“Meahold!”
“Ye yes, Milady!”
“Bring me to the kitchen.”
“Yes? Did I make some sort of mistake?”
“Just bring me to the kitchen.”
“Yes!”

I then went to the kitchen following Meahold. When I opened the kitchen door I could see the kitchen staff opening their eyes wide. I knew that this is not something a noble should do but I simply didn’t have any other idea. 

“Do you know Father’s favorite food?”
“The duke? As far as I know the Duke doesn’t have any preference in regards to food, Milady. He will simply eat whatever the menu is for that day.”

Of course, for that workaholic food is just simply fuel, it didn’t matter what he ate as long as it could provide him some energy to work even more.

“Meahold, teach me how to cook.”
“Milady, that’s not something that someone of your status should do.”
“I don’t care about any of that, just teach me how to cook.”
“But if the Duke found out...”

While we were busy arguing with each other the kitchen door opened once again. It was Mom. I didn’t know that Mom also had any business in the kitchen.

“Mo.. Martha, what are you doing here?”
“Milady. What are you trying to do?”
“I will learn how to cook.”
“But why? Did the food not to your liking.”
“No, it’s just...”
“How about we go back to your room first? If we stay here for too long we'll disturb the kitchen. They need to prepare food for lunch too.”
“But...”
“Come with me, please.”
“Okay.”

“Now, tell me why did you bother the cook?”
“But Mom, I just wanted to learn how to cook.”
“This is the first time you ever demand something so strongly, do you realize that?”
“That’s...”
“Can’t you tell me?”
“Umm... It’s Father. I want to cook something for Father.”
“For the Duke?”

I really couldn’t lie to Mom ever since I was a kid. I explained to her about the danger of Father working too hard and I wanted to prevent it before it was too late. But I didn’t tell her about the full story from my dream, I didn’t want her to worry too much.

“I see… but it's still not nice to bother other people, you know? They need their job too.”
“But they usually just do what I say without any complaints.”
“Hmmm… then Lotte, what do you think of me?”
“You’re my mom.”
“But I’m also a servant just like the others.”
“But you’re special.”
“And just like me everybody else is special too. What do you think if Meahold got fired?”
“The butler will find another cook?”
“Fufufu, then who will make that favorite cake of yours? Only Meahold knows how to.”
“...”
“Remember this dear, their work is to obey you but wouldn’t it be nice if you ask them nicely? You also won’t like it if someone suddenly appeared and demanded things from you, right?”
“Okay.”
“I know you will understand.”

Mom patted my head and gave me a hug. What she said suddenly hit me, after I woke up from that dream while I didn’t come to hate my father I still felt that everything was his fault. I thought that our family was destroyed all because of him. But what if it was also my fault? Am I part of the problem? I felt my heart sink from the thought. I looked at Mom and saw her gently looking at me back. 

If only I can be as kind and gentle as you. No, I can’t be like this. I need to change my plan. I need to start not from Father but myself.

“Um.. Mom, can you teach me how to be nice?”
“Be nice?”
“You know. I don’t want to upset other people like before.”
“Hmm… then how about we start with simple things first, but...”
“But?”
“Right, it's really simple things for us commoners but I don’t think it is something that nobles usually do.”
“It’s okay, Mom, I’ll do it. I don’t care about what other nobles do, also I can just ask my tutor if it’s okay or not later.”
“Fufufu, as you wish my little Princess.”
“Mom~~”
“Alright alright. These things are the life lesson that my mother taught me when I was even smaller than you.”
“So is she my grandma?”
“Hmmm I guess you can call her that. Ahem, the lesson is to always say thank you when somebody is nice to you and to say sorry when you do something wrong. Oh and don’t forget about your greetings to others.”
“That’s it?”
“Yup”
“But I already know all that.”
“But have you ever done it before.”
“Ummm… no...”
“Then how about you start doing it now?”
“Now?”

MoodyJockey

any kind of comment and critic are welcome!