They had been waiting long enough, Aaron started fidgeting his suitcase again when the door behind them creaked open. A graceful old lady entered the room with her butler.
Aaron quickly stood up and greeted Ruth, Rayla following his gesture.
The room was quiet. They could hear Ruth sighing heavily several times behind the large table separating them, she stared at them as if she wanted nothing to do with them but was forced.
“Lady Ruth, you don't seem to know about our arrival. Didn't Lady Ruth receive the letter the Duke sent you?” Aaron broke the silence with his question.
“I know. I received it. Got something to do. Sorry to keep you waiting, Sir Aaron... Lady Rayla.” Ruth seemed reluctant to answer his question. No, she was unwilling to talk to them but she had to.
Rayla and Aaron glanced at each other for a moment.
“It will be dinner time soon. Jaz, please accompany Lady Rayla to her room. I need to speak to Sir Aaron privately, I'm afraid our conversation will take too long.” Ruth decided to deal with Rayla tomorrow, otherwise she couldn't have dinner with Hera later.
Rayla was standing where she was but not yet following Jaz, who had opened the door for her. “Lady Ruth, thank you for your consideration. But instead of going to my room, may I meet Lady Hera?”
…
Even though it was only for a moment, Rayla and Aaron could see something changing on her faces when she heard Rayla's question.
“She's outside now. I'm afraid she will be too tired to see you, Lady Rayla.”
Ruth meant well by her words, but Rayla felt like she didn't want her to meet Hera that quickly.
For some reason Rayla felt that it would be very difficult for her to meet Hera in the near future, she even suspected that the girl did not know about her arrival at all.
“Please follow me, Lady Rayla.”
Rayla had no other choice but to follow Jaz into her room.
Ruth smiled warmly at Aaron who looked nervous. “Now... Sir Aaron, please tell me everything you know about Hera's condition.”
...
Hearing Aaron's stammered explanation made Ruth's warm smile fade away, her face darkening every time Aaron repeated the same thing. She originally thought that having Sir Aaron here would make them clearer about Hera's health condition, but who would have thought that he didn't know anything about Hera.
“Enough, Sir Aaron.” Ruth pressed her forehead hard, her emotions unbearable to the point of making her face flush with rage, she didn't want to hear Aaron's pointless explanation any longer.
She knew from Freya that the servants' treatment of Hera was very bad, of course they did not abuse her physically, but ignoring her to the point of forgetting about her health... Tsk... No wonder Hera refused to be examined, she may not know that something is wrong with her health.
Ruth then realized something.
Hera was foreign to the excessive attention Ruth was giving her, perhaps that was the reason why she chose to listen rather than talk about herself.
Aaron closed his mouth tightly, his head lowered trying not to look directly at Ruth who was showing her conspicuous annoyance.
“Let me get this straight, Sir Aaron. You don't know anything about Hera's condition. So why are you here? What's your purpose in coming here? If your only goal is to examine her, my family doctor can do it, after all you are all starting from scratch.”
“The Duke was worried about his daughter so he…”
“Worried? Hah…” Ruth sneered, she was amused. “Isn't it too late for that?”
…
Aaron held his breath. Lady Ruth is the family of the late Duchess, the Duke's mother-in-law. He didn't know why Lady Ruth harbored such deep hatred towards the Duke of Silverna.
Somewhere in Greene's mansion.
Rayla followed Jaz through the open field where a dozen knights were sparring against each other. Born into a military family, she straight away knew the knight strength of the Greene family, it was weak but efficient for their humble selves.
When one of them saw Rayla, eyeing at her vest, they immediately stopped their evening sparring section and bowed to her.
Who doesn't know about the Heiza family, especially the twins, the Duke puts all his pride in his twins. The two of them have the right to succeed the Heiza family, but everyone knows Rayla will give the rights to her beloved brother while she works under him until they find her the perfect husband.
And also most of the knights in every noble family were trained by Heiza for several years before they were hired by other noble families.
“Fight with me.” Rayla walked over to them, she was full of excitement.
Jaz could only follow her silently. They did intend to introduce Rayla to their knight tomorrow, but if she really wanted to do it now, so be it.
Nobody responded to Rayla's request.
“I'm already here. So just might as well see how strong the knights of the Greene family are.” It was just an excuse, in fact, she just wanted to vent all the emotions that had been buried in her heart since the past week. “Where's the captain?”
A man with short blonde hair, with good body proportions came forward. No one would look down on someone from the Heiza family, so he wasn't calm at all. Instead he was more alert, the grip on his sword tightened even more.
“Please evaluate me after this, Lady Rayla.” He took a stance, his gaze sharp and focused on the calm Rayla.
It was not a difficult fight, but it was not easy either.
All the knights and Jaz watched from the sidelines, no one made a sound, all that was heard was the sound of gasping for breath every time their captain was cornered.
At one point the captain was forced back by Rayla and was close enough to give up, but as a captain, his pride would never allow him to say the word. So, he tried to counterattack. He didn't need to hesitate just because his opponent was a lady, he also knew that Rayla would not accept her win if she had known that her opponent was deliberately succumbing to her.
The sound of swords clashing against each other violently suddenly stopped.
“You're not bad.”
In the end, Rayla's sword was aimed at the captain who was no longer holding his sword that had been knocked out of his grasp, the fight ended in Rayla's victory.
“Sir Herveus, you have trained under the Heiza family for years, please train the knights under the Greene family the way we train you.”
Herveus was surprised that Rayla knew about him, but before long the corners of his lips lifted and he burst out laughing. “Of course, Lady Rayla. With you here, milady, we won't be lazy anymore.”
A loud groan came from the other knights but he ignored them.
Rayla's eyebrows rose in confusion at Herveus' words. “What do you mean?”
“Our madam, Lady Ruth, told us that you will train with us. I don't know why, but seeing you here today I guess that's true.”
“That…” Rayla wanted to clear up the misunderstanding, but Jaz interrupted her.
“Enough. Quickly finish your training.. I'll take Lady Rayla to her room first...”
Rayla's room was not far from the training ground. Jaz opened the bedroom they had just rushed to clean this morning and let Rayla in.
“Your luggages is already inside. If you need anything, you can tell Mrs. Oz, she will bring your meal later. Get some rest today Lady Rayla, it must be a long journey for you to be here. I'll take you to Lady Ruth tomorrow… evening.”
“Sir Jaz… Can I meet Lady Hera tomorrow?” Rayla's patience was getting thinner by the minute, they tried to keep her away from that girl, somehow upsetting her.
Jaz was reluctant to say anything about it. “You can… after you talk to Lady Ruth about the ground rules regarding Lady Hera. Please wait for tomorrow, Mrs. Oz will bring your meal soon. Rest well, Lady Rayla.”
Rayla clenched her fists tightly. “Fine. If they don't want me to see her, I can secretly meet her.” She gritted her teeth.
“That would be hard to do, milady.”
Someone was waiting for Rayla in her room, sitting on the sofa while reading a book.
“Helen? Since when… it doesn't matter. What do you mean?”
“You know that the Greene family is not strong or influential enough to attract a guardian's attention, however, I did run into a fellow guardian.” Helen closed her book. She looked Rayla straight in the eye, her expression dead serious. “He doesn't look happy with us here.”
