The Demon's Bride

Chapter 45:Brave Comeback

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At noon, Elise's stays at Ian's study room ended when Maroon arrived at the room. The man glanced at Elise sharply. For some reason, Elise didn't think of the man as a bad person, however, he did made her feel unsettled with the gaze that he gave. Elise didn't wait for Maroon to keep staring at her and quickly bowed to Ian to excuse herself.

"Wait, puppy." Ian called from his desk attaining Elise's questioning gaze when she turned her face. "What can I help you with, Master Ian?"

"You forgot your family's portrait." Elise looked beside the couch and noticed that Ian's words were right. Because of the sudden arrival of Maroon, she felt flustered and forgot the important portrait of her family. Feeling embarrassed by her own clumsiness, Elise went to take the painting sitting on the couch and bowed to Ian. "Thank you very much for the reminder, master."

"I told you not to be formal didn't I? Well, old habits die hard so I would let it pass for now, but next time be yourself." Ian spoke waving his hand faintly. His words were gentle and tender. Elise took his kind words deeply to her heart and broke to a smile from the words that he lightly spoke.

"I will try my best." Elise returned softly and passed Maroon's left side to leave the room. After the light thud from the door, Elise placed a hand over her chest, feeling her heartbeat that continuously racing and something in the core of her body feeling heated by Ian.

Elise stopped by her room for a moment and opened the wrapping of her portrait to gaze upon the smiling faces of her small family. Her gaze mellowed but she didn't want to dwell in sadness for long. She chose a place for her to hang the portrait and stared at it for a minute to leave the room and proceed with her job for the day with a spirited smile.

Ian was a busy man, unchanging like how he was nine years ago. In fact, Elise felt that he actually became even busier now. He often went out from the mansion over to some places for his work. The morning greeting before Ian left the mansion was the only way Elise could see and greet him in the morning. Meanwhile, Elise who is often partially judged by the servants didn't made much advances in making new friends. Though she did talk with some of the maids who didn't judged her in a negative spot.

One afternoon, Elise woke up in the early morning and had her job to clean the West Wing of the Mansion. Partly due to the fact that she's the only human after Mila at the mansion and the slowly growing jealousy and envy of the other maids that saw her to have a close relationship with the Lord, Elise didn't have that much people talking to her. While sweeping the long hall, a senior maid with a long curly brown hair named Tracey spotted her and called. "Elise."

Elise turned her head, as she was a new maid, she doesn't know most of the maid's names and thought it would be rude for her to ask thus she replied briefly while hiding the her nescience. "What can I help you with?"

"Do you know how to cook?"

Elise nodded. "Yes, but I only know how to cook-" human's food. Before she finished her words, Tracey had clapped her hand. "Good! Come with me now! We are in a hurry for dinner preparation. Let's go!"

Elise didn't get her chance to ask whether the dinner she's supposed to help with is a normal food like what humans normally eat. When she arrived at the kitchen, Tracey lead her to peel some potatoes and she sat there with a small knife. She followed her normal way of peeling the potatoes skillfully and noticed the woman beside her peeling carrots with a very slow pace. She peeked between her bent head and saw the skin of the carrots was very thick like a pieces of small cuts carrot. Worriedly, she asked herself. Does the woman beside her could peel a carrot?

When she turned her head, she met another pair of black eyes and a silky Raven locks of hairs streaming down to the woman's shoulder. "Vella."

Vella turned her head, her left hand was holding the same small knife that Elise was holding and on the right, she was holding to a very small piece of carrot that looked like a very small chunk of a leftover carrot. "Oh. It's you, Elise." She glanced down at the perfectly peeled white skin of the potatoes on Elise's hand and looked down to re-examine her own peeled carrot and muttered, "You're very good at peeling the vegetables." She didn't meant to be saracastic but due to her cold and snappy tone, she sounded like giving a harsh criticism to other's ears.

Elise who had seen the girl beside her as a good person didn't took her tone to her heart and smiled back. "I used to help around the kitchen back in my hometown. Do you want me to teach you?"

Vella didn't say anything for a moment, she glanced at Elise's hand and inched closer next to her. "I'll take your offer then. How do you peel this carrot?"

Elise smiled, Vellad seemed to be eager and a type of a diligent person. She raised her knife, teaching the girl the easiest way to peel the skin of the vegetables. After watching Elise's performance, Vella rose her beautiful straight brows, almost furrowing she asked. "But isn't that too little?"

Elise looked down at the peeled skin that Vella mentioned to be "too little" and let out a chuckle. "No, the skin isn't that thick." But as she finished speaking with her soft chuckle, she noticed that perhaps her laughter offended Vella and explained. "I'm sorry, my little brother used to ask me the same question."

Vella turned her eyes back to the carrots, seeming very concentrated but she still replied. "You have a little brother? How old is he?"

Elise felt a little pain on her heart. She shook her head a little. Sorrow isn't something good, if her family up in heaven saw her getting gloomier each day, they would surely be saddened. "Fourteen years old this year."

Vella sang an 'oh' as she answer and mumbled. "I'm the only child, so I don't have any siblings but having one sound fun. Carmen is the eldest at her house, so she always complained about how rowdy her family is, but in truth she didn't seem to dislikes it."

Elise remembered how bright Carmen was and thought that her being the eldest child really do fit her image. Hearing Vella's words, she could imagine how her friendship with Carmen was closer than how it looks in the surface.

"You two seemed to be a very good friend." Elise muttered aloud.

Vella shrugged her shoulder, giving a complaining tone opposite to her feeling. "We've been roommates for seven years what could you expect? She glued herself to me most of the time."

Elise chuckled and saw that the carrots in Vella's bucket seemed to have grown its quality. She praised heartedly, "You've improved."

"Thanks to you." She spoke in a clipped tone but her gratefulness could be felt.

Elise who have finished peeling the potatoes stood up but remembered something that she hadn't yet asked. Her hand fidgeted upon the bucket of peeled potatoes that she peeled and turned her had to ask. "Um, Vella."

Vella lifted her chin with her eyes still focused on her carrots. "What is it?"

"Can you-" Elise tried to find the right words but didn't know what to say or how to say it right. She took a very deep mouthful of breath and braven herself. "Please be my friend?"

To her words Vella lifted her chin fully with her pair of black eyes. She gave a little frown that made Elise to rethought of her own question. But unexpectedly the woman spoke with a profound tone. "Hadn't we become friend since we eat together?"

Really? Elise asked to herself. Since at her small town she never made a friend that have the same age as her, she didn't know whether or how to make friend. She tilted her head at Vella's question and nodded.

"Carmen also have already think of you as a friend. You need not to worry and ask the same question to her." Vella shifted her eyes down to the last carrot she had peeled on her hand and placed it to the bucket, adding, "I have also finished my batch. We should give this to the cook and our work should finish here."

Vella rubbed her cheek feeling a little embarrassed by Elise's words and stood up beside her. "You don't have to thank me. Let's go."

After Elise and Vella finished their work in the kitchen, they went out of the room to proceed their next job at the mansion when a woman with a tanned skin stopped in front of them to block their path. Her eyes traveled at bitte Vella and Elise before her sarcastic tone came out from her lips. "The cold woman and the slut new maid. What a perfect match."

Elise was surprised by the word coming from the woman. Even though it was their first time meeting, she had called her and Vella in a very crude nickname. Perhaps the rumor had turned sour? Without her awareness, the rumor had snowballed heavily for her to be accused as a slut who slept with the Lord for her position.

Vella rolled her eyes at the stupidity and chuckled mockingly. "Are you jealous because she ate with the lord, Nancy? And now you came to mock others, how embarrassing."

Nancy, the maid clicked her tongue. "I would t loose in matter of being an embarrassment to you wouldn't I? Ms. ex-convict-" then the woman gave a surprised tone, "Ah! Pardon me, I forgot that your name had changed to Ms. Vella Tune. Or perhaps Ms. Vella Goone? Because you kept on changing names, I forgot which was your real name."

Elise saw Vella's face changing to an ashen one. Her brows knitted and her palm had balled to a tight fist. "Bringing my past into this, I still think I'm not lower than the woman who loved to sleep everywhere. In term of embarrassment like you said, I would come to the last place than you."

"How dare you!" Nancy raged. Being a half human and mythical being, Elise could see the pupils of her eyes contracting to a sharp oval. She's a werecat! An agitated werecat would first change to a form of half-beast cat, making them to have a very sharp claw that is far fiercer than a normal knife, a dangerous weapon that could even take a person's life. Not to mention, she was in an agitated state, a state where usually mythical beings would become stirred with anger and in worse cases, lose themself to anger and attack everyone to dead. Elise thought in a split of second and shielded Vella with her hand.

"Pardon for my rudeness, Ms. Nancy." Elise spoke with the same gentle tone that she always used but today her tone was guarded to protect her friend. "Please calm down. At the moment you are the first one who brought up the matter in a very impolite way."

Nancy's eyes calmed down for a moment, she rose her brows. "Then what?"

"In the laws of the Church, article twenty three part four: those who attacked verbally and lead to a fight between mythical beings deserved a maximum seven years in jail and also three years as to psychical labor. Also, article four part ten: those who show aggressive behavior as a mythical beings by all rights deserved a maximum of five years in jail. By this two rules, Ms. Nancy, you are accounted and are at fault at the moment. Please rethink of your behavior now or you would be regretting the consequences of your action." Elise spoke the rules fluently with a firm eyes. Hearing the jail time that Elise muttered, the woman silenced down instantly. Her eyes still bore the same annoyance but it had lessened from Elise's brave comeback.

"I'll remember this!" Nancy harrumphed and stomped her feet to storm away of the place.

Vella saw the woman left and scoffed. Elise, on the other hand felt lucky that the woman was still someone she could still reason with. If she didn't and come to a psychical fight, she would doubt a human like her could win from their enhanced powers.

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