"Ling you will be in charge of the training shack for the rest of the week since Liyan is sick," says Mrs. Dae in her assertive tone while delivering the chores to the maids. "I will take you there," she states after dismissing everyone but me from the room.

Surprisingly Qian wasn't here but no one else seemed to bother with her absence. I assume it is something regular since she is Qin Mue's house pet.

As we both walked quietly through the woods I could notice the uneasiness on Mrs. Dae. Part of me wanted to ask what was bothering her soul but I knew that I couldn't. I was in no place to ask such a thing.

Soon the sound of clashing swords starts echoing through the trees and out of a sudden a loud male voice yells.

"Look out!" I instantly push Mrs. Dae forward as I fall onto the ground.

"Shit," I whisper as I place my right hand on top of my left arm. It was painful but not unbearable.

"Are you alright Ling?" says Mrs. Dae as she quickly regains her footing and turns to me.

"Thank god you heard me, some recruits just enlisted and they..." a young man in his twenties states as he tried to catch his breath. His short brown hair looked made of silk, thin as the essence of clouds, and his darker skin tone complemented his chocolate eyes. "Are you alright miss?" he states as he goes down to my level.

"I'll go get the doctor, please stay here until then Mister Cales" she leaves after letting out a relieved sigh.

My body gets up on its own and I continue walking towards the shack after taking a look at the wound on my arm. Like I had suspected, it was indeed a light wound, the arrow passed by, barely. Mister Cales kept on following me in silence as a puzzling expression was being created in his face.

"You know you should just wait for Mrs. Dae right?" he asks me politely however I continue walking, ignoring his presence. "You should get this treated too," he states as he grabs my right arm forcefully.

"Mister Cales, thank you for your concern." I turn my body around and face him. "As you can see this is nothing more than a mere scratch, there is no need to panic over such a small injury however your recruits look like they need to practice a lot more so they will hit the right targets, no?" I give him a polite smile as he softly starts to let go of his grip. 'This girl... What an interesting find' he thought as he looked at me dumbfounded."Now if you will excuse me," after bowing down my head I take my leave.

To be honest it is no surprise that he is very lucky with the lady's, besides being extremely handsome he also has a good status at a young age. He must not be used to not having the opposite sex fawn and drool over him.

As I open the shack I am greeted with a distinct smell of male sweat as several dirty clothes had pilled up alongside several armors and swords that needed to be polished. It looked dusty like it was barely used so I am pretty sure that Liyan never dared to clean this place up.

"So dusty..." I say after letting out a sneeze. How could Liyan work in a place like this? Is she a masochist?

I look around and find a first aid kit with some pads and ointments. Quietly I sit down on a chair and remove the upper part of my uniform leaving me only with my undergarments. Then, I take off my left arm from the sleeve and start opening the ointment case.

"It will get infected if you do it like that," I instantly look towards the open door to see Cales leaning against the wall. "Let me do it, in the end, it was my fault either way," he states as he lowers his body down in front of me. Silently he starts placing the ointment with his cold and clean hands just to later cover it with some pads. 'She's just a kid. What is she doing in here?' he thought as he glanced at me.

"You are pretty relaxed for a maid in the soldier's quarters" he starts placing everything back into the aid kit as I get dressed again.

"Why wouldn't I be? They are not interested in an ugly maid with the body of a fourteen-year-old," slowly I get up and head towards the covered windows. As I swipe the curtains I see a pile of dust dropping out making me cough.

"Is that why you use that on your face? So you look ugly?" my body turns as I feel a figure behind me, pushing me onto the wall. Mister Cales was leaning his body towards me, pressuring me to reply.

'How could he know? No one else had noticed' I kept asking myself as his dark brown eyes were focused on mine. They were not lustful or angry, they were filled with greed, the greed to know it all.

"Mister Cales I was born this way, there is no helping it if I am not to your liking," I smile coldly as I shove his arm away softly. 'Her presence is strong and those eyes... I have a bad feeling but at the same time I need to know more about her' a grin appears on his lips as his mind kept on thinking.

"Ling was it? I will play that little game of yours for now" his strong body heads towards the door and soon enough disappears on the horizon.

My body lets out a sigh of relief. I already had the Ice Knight on my tail and now I have another unpleasant person suspicious of me. I knew I had to be careful of my movements, I've known it for a long time however now it is more than clear that I cannot make a single mistake or my head will roll.

Mrs. Dae returns alone, stating that the Doctor had gone to Hulye to meet with Lord Mue who was feeling unwell. She then proceeds to explain all the tasks that I had to do for the rest of the week: doing the soldier's laundry, polish and clean their swords, arrows, and armor pieces, deliver the food provided at specific times such as lunch and dinner, among other trivial things.

"Did you get everything?" she asks politely as I nod. 'She is still developing and with her complexion, the soldiers should ignore her presence. She can't go inside the mansion for now or who knows what will happen when Qin sees her,' Mrs. Dae thought as she caressed my hair, messing it slightly. "Good. If you need anything else let me know. Don't push yourself too much alright?" she gives me a kind smile and then leaves the shack.

I straighten up and roll up my sleeves. Firstly I need to clean this place, there is no way I will be able to work with the amount of dust in here. I start by placing all the weapons and dirty clothing outside and, right after that I pick up a small cloth and start cleaning the dust off the different shelves. Then, I grab the broom on one of the closets and start wiping the floor. The smell of dust had finally disappeared.

"Why are the clothes outside on the dirt?" says a light female voice. Qian.

"I was cleaning the shack since it was filled with dust" I reply politely as I headed towards the door where she was standing. "But what are you doing in here, if I may ask?"

"I'll lend you a hand at lunch" her lips were portraying a simple and beautiful smile however it was carrying completely different intentions. 'I'll let you know your place Ling' Qian thought as she kept on glaring at me with a sense of superiority.

We head towards the open training field just to hear the echoing of the swords clashing grow louder and louder. I look to my right and witness Cales dueling a rookie. The poor guy was wobbling from side to side as his body was filled with dirt. On the other hand, Cales would barely move, he would just dodge every single attack, swiftly as if he was only a feather.

"I want to know," I whispered on accident as my eyes were focused on his figure. His eyes spot me and he smirks as he dodges his opponent and then, for the first time, attacks back, landing the poor guy straight onto the floor.

'A little bunny came to visit, should I go say hello?' Cales thought as he started to head towards me.

Suddenly a shiver runs down my spine and I immediately look towards the woods. There was someone there. Again.

'Did she just...? That's impossible, her intuition can't be that good,' he thought as he stared into the trees.

"Are you going to just stay there?" Qian grabs my arm and I wake up from my daydream. I nod and we continue walking.

She finally stops and I look forward just to be greeted with a big wooden house. The doors open and the smell of a stew fills in my nostrils. The space was large and there were several wooden tables placed through the area except on the back, that's where the food was.

We walk behind the counter and after a couple of minutes, the sweaty and tired soldiers start to appear.

"We're lucky today, Qian is here!" says one of the first soldiers as he enters the room. Then rapidly all the other men follow his footsteps almost as if they were hungry dogs that had just spotted their prey.

"Oh my, are you all working hard today as well?" she asks in a high-pitched voice. I feel my body cringe with her sudden change of personality. The men kept on luring out to her, talking and fighting for her attention. Looking at her, you could tell she was enjoying it and when her eyes crossed mine I understood.

'Do you understand now Ling? This is the difference in our status so don't do anything stupid or we will play the same game Malu played last time' her cynical smile was hiding her true intentions, her true thoughts.

This was a warning, she was letting me know to be in my own corner since she controlled all of these men. I head towards the second big cauldron with an unknown stew and start mixing it. All the men were flirting with Qian, ignoring my presence however, once the rookie squad walked in everything changed.

The environment grew quiet as they lined peacefully to gather their food. All the rookies looked exhausted and filled with small cuts and bruises alongside some dirt. They are all extremely young as well, some might even be younger than me. To be honest they were somewhat pitiful.

I look at the dogs drooling over Qian as she put up such an innocent act and compare them to the new recruits. There's no way these weak guys were involved with what happened that night, so that means... It was them.

"I'm sorry!" a soft voice says after a loud sound occurs.

"Sorry? Now I'm all dirty, you think a sorry will save you?" says a large man with a face covered with scars. His muscles were made of pure brute strength and his shoes were covered with stew alongside his dirty sweaty shirt. The room grew quiet as the attention was focused on both of them. "Lick me and I will forgive you" the man says in his mocking voice.

Him. I recognize him. I recognize that voice.

"Lick me and I will save your family right away" he said to Stella as she cried her heart out.

I put down the spoon and grab a big cup filled with water. As I approached I could see the poor recruit lowering himself down to lick that pig's shoes.

"What the fuck do you think you are doing!?" the man yells at me as his eyes filled with rage after I poured down the water cup in front of him.

"Cleaning. You said you were dirty and as a maid, I must clean what is dirty" I reply to him coldly as I see the young boy get up from the floor slowly. "Are you going to tell me I didn't do a good job? Don't you feel refreshed now?" his hand grabs my tied-up hair making the small bow crumble and all my hair fall while I carried a vengeful smile on my lips.

"Who do you think you are joking with little bitch?" he lifts me as I kept quiet. "Are you not going to talk now? Did the cat get your tongue?" he growls furiously.

"Even if I talk I don't think you are smart enough to understand, you pig" I was boiling inside, I wanted to kill him, I wanted him to suffer. As he was about to shove me onto a wall he stops and his hand starts to tremble.

'What is this... Her eyes are golden... I can't look away... What is this pressure? My body doesn't want to let her go but my brain tells me to kill her right now... What is going on?' he thought as his breathing started to be unsteady and her muscles began to tremble.

"Your eyes... Monster..." he mumbles as he suddenly drops me onto the floor as his final strength leaves his body. His expression portraying confusion and fear while his hands grabbed his chest from the unsteady breathing. The boy I had helped alongside other rookies come towards me and help me get up. All of them asking me how I was while their eyes showered me with concern and appreciation for my actions. I look back at the man just to see a blade against his neck yet his eyes were still focused on mine.

'This girl... She's dangerous. She needs to die.' the soldier thought as he regained his senses.

"You went a bit too far this time Roge" says Cales as he appears from behind the man holding his sword right onto his neck. "Lu Feng will know about this. I assume you are ready for your punishment, yes?" Cales was carrying a cynical smile as he felt pleasure from threatening him.

"Mister Cales, I'm sure we can all get to some sort of agreement" says Qian as she approached him from behind the wooden counter. "I'm sure we can both get something we want" she presses her breasts onto his arm as a lustful aura surrounded her.

"You are right Qian, then should you take his place?" Cales moves his arm and the sword was now pointed at her neck. She was nervous even though she was trying her best to hide it. Her legs were slightly shaking as a few sweat drops were falling from her forehead. Qian kept looking around for help but no one in the room dared to move or even make a sound. Cales pressure was overwhelming, if someone moved they would meet their maker. "Who do you think is more precious to Qin Mue... you or him?" a sadistic smile appears on his face as Qian started to step back in fear.

"Mister Cales, please consider your surroundings" I approach him trying to appease his blood lust. He glares at me with his cold and dark eyes making me regret my actions for a glimpse of a second. Then, with a polite smile, he retreats after putting away his sword. Without saying a word he leaves the room and the environment grows lighter. Qian leans onto one of the tables to avoid falling on her knees.

"You are all very hard-working men so please finish your lunch and continue your training" I bow down as they all sit down back on their respective tables. "You can handle the rest right, Qian?" she nods and I leave the room.

I walk back to the wooden shack and look into the small mirror on top of the desk. Somehow I kept on thinking about what Roge said.

"Your eyes... Monster..." I whisper as I looked into the mirror however my eyes were as brown as they could be. They were so brown they could even be compared to tree logs. After letting out a sigh I tie my hair up again and head outside to start doing my chores.

A couple of hours pass and I was done. The soldiers barely use armor or even the real swords so the only real pain in the ass is doing the laundry. I sit on the chair and lean back, my eyes facing the ceiling.

"Excuse me..." a low and soft voice echoes in my ears and I get up, startled. It's the boy from lunch with his short ginger hair and his freckles. His constitution looked weak almost as if he would fly away with a small breeze.

"What can I help you with?" I say as he fidgets his fingers. He looked shy and not very good with words.

"Thank you for today" he bows down his head.

"Don't mention it. Just be careful with those guys. Stay low and they won't bother you," he lifts his head and I greet him with a kind smile. By the looks of it, he was about my age, if not a bit younger.

"How can I repay you? Let me help you somehow!" excitedly he runs towards the desk and grabs my hands.

"There's nothing..." I start explaining just to be interrupted by him.

"I'll do anything!" he proceeds and I understood he wouldn't back away from this.

"I'll think about it alright?" after an awkward smile he agrees to my demands and leaves the shack happily. "What the hell was that?" I whisper to myself as I tried to comprehend what had just happened.