“It’s charging at you, get ready!”

Kamil shouted at Raem who was facing a wild boar. He readied his shield and prepared to take its charge. It was as tall as two thirds of Raem and, therefore, it looked quite intimidating.

“Woooaaaaah!” Raem screamed as his shield creaked loudly when he took the full brunt of the boar’s tusks. He was even being pushed back. Meanwhile, Kamil fired several wind arrows. The boar’s thicker fur meant the arrows could not pierce its target like it did with rabbits. It still punctured holes in its body however where blood poured out literally. It soon became a battle of attrition. They had to bleed out the boar because it wasn’t going down without a fight.

“Phew!” Kamil swept his forehead off. “Man O man, that thing was ROUGH!”

Raem was on four, panting hard. “I thought it was gonna kill me…”

The boar went down finally but it wasn’t taken down exactly. It bled out. Soon, though, he stood up and had a very proud look on his face.

“We killed it though!” He exclaimed joyfully. The boar was big enough to provide them with more than enough meat and then some. He would need to sell extra.

“Let’s carry it home. It’s pretty big. We are going to need some time to skin it and prepare the meat.”

Raem nodded strongly. “Right.” He grimaced momentarily as he put his shield on his back.

“Raem, show me your arm.”

“Milord?”

“Just let me take a look.”

Raising his sleeve, Raem himself was shocked to see his arm below his elbow was all bruised.

“You will feel fine until tomorrow. Then it’s going to hurt like hell,” Kamil explained. “We are not going out to hunt for a few days to a week.”

“Seriously?”

Kamil folded his arms, observing Raem’s heavily bruised arm.

“Me thinks we are gonna need a third member.”

The main reason his arm was bruised so badly was due to the fact that it had taken them over an hour to take down the boar during which Raem had to take attacks from the boar with his shield. He was literally being a meat shield. If the boar went down faster, the damage Raem would have received would have been more manageable.

We probably need an offensive mage.

The thing was heavy, and it wasn’t easy for a pair of boys to carry him home but they did eventually make it back while attracting some attention from locals. It wasn’t every day where two boys would carry a dead wild boar that was as big as them.

Karla was speechless when she saw the dead boar being carried tied to a wooden stick. However, she made a mad dash to her son’s arm after Kamil explained his bruises.

“Lady Karla, he will be fine but will be out of action for up to a week.”

“Mom, I feel fine.”

Well, you feel fine now. You will cry tomorrow.

“It’s good that you will have meat to consume. That’s the best medicine for it,” Kamil explained.

After skinning the boar, the meat was indeed too much. Most of it would go bad in a day. They had a choice at this point.

One was to sell the meat. The other was to preserve the meat.

While Raem was clueless in how to preserve, Karla seemed to know.

“I don’t have nearly enough salt,” She said. Salt was an expensive commodity especially for a city like Lux where there was no natural salt mine or facility nearby. It wasn’t prohibitively expensive but it wasn't that cheap, either, in relative terms. Everyone needed some amount of salt daily. Even the lowest end food, the veggie scrap soup, needed salt to be edible. Otherwise, it would be pure torture to consume it.

For example, Karla had only a small pouch of salt which would last her months. Salting meat would require a bag of salt. Some salt could be recovered back, but an upfront investment was required to salt all meat from the boar.

Thus, Kamil came up with an alternative solution.

“We could smoke it. That’s another way to preserve it,” he replied. “Do you wish to keep the meat and not sell it?”

“Raem is going to need meat to recover faster, yes?”

To which he nodded and advised, “You should sell some still. I mean this is a lot.”

In his previous life as Tom, a boar would last a family of four about four days although he took only a day of break. The rest was smoked in case of emergency. In other words, for Karla and Raem, it was simply too much. They were better off selling some and gaining coins.

Karla eventually agreed to sell half and brought crude brown papers to pack them. Meanwhile, Kamil prepared to smoke the rest.

“Get me as many wooden sticks as you can, Raem. Get me at least three long sticks that are as tall as you.”

Nodding at once, he ran back into the house.

He had to conduct a makeshift smoking station. Using wooden sticks, he made a tripod and placed remaining meat pieces on a higher ground over a campfire. Then, using the boar fur, he constructed a smoke tent. The fur would be wasted but, due to the holes made by his wind arrows, it wasn’t going to patch many coins to begin with.

He gave further instructions to Raem.

“Check once in a while. When a piece of meat becomes smoked enough that your fingers don’t feel any moisture, you take it out and let it dry further under the sun.”

Raem nodded along.

“You can consume it right away once it’s out of the smoke tent though. It should taste good.”

“Isn’t the meat raw?”

“It is. But smoked meat is safe to eat uncooked.”

Raem looked amused with the new knowledge.

“Do make sure to keep them away from moisture though. Do keep that in mind.”

“Understood.”

“Alright.” Kamil dusted off as he stood up. Looking at the sky, it looked like it’s slightly past noon. Although it was early, it was time to quit for the day since Raem would be out of action for a while.

“Since you will be out of action, I will check up on you in like three days or so. Rest well, do check on your equipment, too, like your shield. I bet it’s gonna break soon.”

Raem’s eyes widened and he ran upstairs. Soon, a scream was heard.

“My shield!!!!”

It was a basic wooden shield with an iron trim to hold everything together. It was never going to hold on when a wild boar was hitting at it for over an hour. He ran down with his shield in his arms. He had faint tears in his eyes.

“Milord, my shield is broken. I can’t afford a new one.”

“How much does a shield like that cost?”

“This one cost 50 iron coins. Mom bought it a few years ago.”

Folding arms, Ewald gave it a thought. Eventually, he told Raem, “Don’t tell your mom. We can’t hunt wild boars without a shield though. We will stick to small games and save up.”

“O, okay…” Raem looked down.

50 iron coins would be a lot for a family with no stable income. He was sure that Karla would still buy him a shield however. After all, he was starting to make money now, and a shield would be vital equipment for a warrior. Still, he wasn’t going to let it be known and decided to take care of the matter on their own.

Okay, let’s go back to the manor. I need to tend the tea field also.

Once he made his way back to the tea field, there were two maids who saluted the moment they saw Ewald coming out of the shed.

“Anything to report?” He asked them casually. He was getting used to them now.

“Nothing, Milord. We eagerly wait for your harvest.”

They were indirectly saying “Give us tea”.

He felt it was kind of rude. At the same time, the maids were working from early morning to midnight. He got that info from Emily who told him that she woke up before the sun would come up and went to bed at midnight. If they were working that many hours, they would at least deserve some kind of respite. That was his line of thought. Therefore, he decided not to criticize them too much.

Once that was done, he paid a visit to Elias Hunt.

“A new member?”

“Yes, Raem and I were able to take down a wild boar today, but -”

“Wait,” He interjected. “You two took down a wild boar?”

“Yes.”

“Impressive.”

“Just barely. We bled it to death. Couldn’t kill it.”

“The fact that you bled it to death is actually even more impressive. That means you held on for that long.”

“Luck probably played its part. Hence, my request for a third member. A mage preferred.”

Elias folded his arms. “Someone of your age, I assume.”

“Yes,” He added, “And perhaps someone who knows our situation.”

He would scratch his chin for a while. He grimaced at one point.

“There is … someone,” He trailed off and added a moment later. “Although I am not sure whether she is up for it.”

“She?”

Apparently, Edmund’s eldest illegitimate daughter was a fire mage with a score of five.

“Since your father has been planning to cut off his illegitimate daughters, she has been training as a maid.”

“Here in this manor?”

“Yes.”

“Have I met her before?”

“I doubt that. Her name is Esther. She’s been training as a maid for a while now but Theo Ros has also taught her the basics of fire magic.”

“How old is she?”

“Ten.”

This reminded him.

“What has happened to the father's legitimate daughter? Wasn’t her name Icilia or something?”

Elias’ face darkened immediately, and he caught that.

“She is … away with her mother,” He replied reluctantly.

She is dead, isn’t she.

He decided not to pry further. He had never met her and had no strong feelings toward her even if he realized that she might have been killed off. He felt a bit sad but, not even knowing her face, his sadness lasted only for a moment. At the same time, this taught Ewald an important lesson. It was that Edmund was a very ruthless man.

“I see.” He changed the subject. “Is Esther willing to go on adventuring, though?”

“I shall ask. Please stand beside me.”

He called a guard in and asked him to patch Esther. About 10 minutes later, a young maid entered. She leaned slightly toward Elias.

She had short crimson hair with blue eyes. She was a real beauty or at least that was what Ewald felt upon seeing her for the first time.

“Sir. Hunt, I’ve answered your summon.”

Nodding, Elias beamed a smile at her. “Esther, this boy next to me is Ewald.”

She glanced at him and looked down right away.

“He seeks a mage for his adventure. You are a mage. Are you up for it?”

Esther looked confused for a moment. She eventually asked Elias.

“What would I gain from it?”

He was about to make an answer, but Ewald replied faster.

“A different future,” He said aloud. “You can become a maid for life or become something else.”

“Something else?” She mused aloud.

“Do you even like being a maid?”

She grimaced momentarily in her silent reply.

“It’s not fun, is it. Waking up early, working for a whole day, and they have hierarchy even. So, I present to you another path where you need to risk your life. In return, you get more freedom and even a chance to find your own partner instead of being used as a tool for an arranged marriage.”

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Until this moment, she had her eyes downcast but slowly met her eyes with his. She knew she would never be acknowledged by Edmund, and Elias had told her that her only future was likely becoming a maid and a slim possibility of being married off to a wealthy merchant.

She looked at Elias for confirmation.

“If you wish to have a different future, I can make it happen. Lord Fenchel has left your future to my hands entirely,” Elias told her.

In other words, she was abandoned.

“However, once you choose to leave here. That is it. There is no coming back.”

She looked back at Ewald. Would she trust her future to this child? Being a maid was a backbreaking job, but it was a safe job with no risk to one’s life. They were fed and were given rooms even.

“Must I give you an answer now?”

“Preferably, yes,” Ewald replied. “Because I am looking for someone now. If you don’t give me an answer now, I am going to look for someone else.”

“Then I refuse.”

“I see. Thank you. You may leave,” Elias told her as he waved her away. She left the room at once.

“I feel like she would have accepted if you didn’t threaten her with kicking her out.”

“It is true though.”

“Is it?”

“It’s an unspoken rule. Once a maid tastes the outside world, she is not allowed to come back. They must also stay virgin although I am sure that this rule is overruled in some cases.”

So, that’s the reason Karla has been kicked out, huh.

“Anyone else, Sir. Hunt?”

“Well, there are some more, but none of them is a mage.”

“Are mages rare?”

“The Fenchel house employs more mages than any other house. We recognize their importance and role. Some noble houses look down on mages and focus on knighthood although water mages are universally welcome.”

“So, who else?”

“Plenty of squire in the ranks. There are also some maids who are being trained as assassins.”

“Maid assassins?”

He recalled an incident not too long ago where a maid had tried to take his life.

“While it is fine for you to take a maid assassin, the rule still applies. She won’t be welcome back.”

In the end, Ewald chose to postpone picking one from the Fenchel house because he wanted to pick a female member.

Esther was smoking hot though.

“What a waste,” He whispered to himself as he made down to the tea field.

Two maids saluted at him at the field. Nodding along, he inspected the plants and began to harvest the leaves after getting out a basket from the shed. The two maids observed him with curious eyes, perhaps wanting to find out the secret behind harvesting. From untrained eyes, Ewald was simply picking out random leaves.

“Milord, are you simply picking random leaves?”

“No, there is a method which I cannot reveal.”

The secret was under the leaves. The ones that needed to be harvested had thick veins full of what would taste sweet. On the surface, however, such leaves would look exactly identical. Even knowing this secret wasn’t enough to be able to properly distinguish which was which because, again, to an untrained person, he wouldn’t be able to feel the slight difference.

The difference was less than a millimeter in thickness.

Once the basket was full, he handed it over to one of the maids. She accepted the basket with reverence. The basket would go to a basement of the manor where a section had been assigned to the tea leaves.

Seeing the two maids disappearing into the garden, he figured he’d check up on Raem and headed down to the tunnel.

As soon as he emerged from the tunnel of the decoy house, he heard screaming.

“Awwww! Awwwwwww!”

It was Raem’s voice. He went straight upstairs and found him rolling around on his bed in his room. Karla was also there.

“Milord, I am so glad that you are here!” She welcomed Ewald. “Raem is …”

“It hurts! It hurts!” He had the heavily bruised arm close to his chest and was rolling around in pain.

“Nothing I can do,” Ewald said flatly. “But it will get better as days go by.”

There was an option of calling Elias, but he felt that wouldn’t be a wise choice. Besides, he felt he wouldn’t even accept being called here.

“He hasn’t eaten anything today...,” Karla trailed off, clearly worried.

“He will feel better tomorrow. I can guarantee that.”

Relieved to hear that, she went downstairs eventually to perform house chores. With her gone, Ewald called him out to stop rolling.

“Urggggh….” He did stop rolling but continued to moan painfully.

“Raem, have you visited the guild often?”

“What…? Oh, the guild… I have …”

“I am looking for a third member, a girl and a mage hopefully. Ring any bell?”

“No…, I always looked at the request board only…”

Sighing, he went downstairs and found Karla dusting off the house. As a former maid, the house chores must have been routine work for her.

“Lady Karla, I have an inquiry.”

“Yes?”

He asked whether she knew any children of their age capable of combat.

“I am afraid I don’t have any idea. I have seen children around here but I know none of them personally.”

Running out of options, he decided to pay a visit to the guild. He wasn’t supposed to go outside alone but figured why not.

“Oh, It’s Kamil, isn’t it?

The guild receptionist, Sarah, recognized him right away.

“You remember me?”

“You are the youngest guild member. Of course, I’d remember you.”

She looked beautiful as usual, donning a bright professional smile on her face.

“Are there many children registered?”

“There are some but not that many.”

“Raem and I are looking for a third member, a mage preferred and maybe a girl. Could you perhaps look through your file?”

“A girl? Does it have to be a female?”

“Well, I’d prefer a girl personally but I guess gender doesn’t matter.”

Sarah seemed to have caught on what was going on in Kamil’s head.

“Alright, I will look through the file.”

She vanished from his sight as she bent over to grab something behind the counter. With a grunt, she brought up a large file of papers in a basket. There were seriously a lot of papers.

“If it’s too much work, you don’t need to …”

“It’s fine,” She interjected. “It’s not like I have lots to do here at this time of the day.”

The file was large because it hadn’t been culled, he was told.

“Some children on file here would be pretty old by now,” She added. “I guess I will do this work today. This will take some time. Have a seat somewhere.”

Nodding, he found an empty seat and sat on it. A waitress in a skimpy dress came by shortly after.

“Kiddo, want a drink? It’s on me cuz you are cute.”

Beaming a childish smile, Kamil replied, “Thank you, beautiful lady!”

The waitress smiled back and darted joyfully to the kitchen. She brought back a cup of lemonade. He really expected a cup of water.

“Oh, wow, thank you, beautiful lady!”

Sarah smiled while overhearing Kamil and the waitress. The guild lobby which doubled as a tavern wasn’t terribly busy. There was a group of four adventurers in a corner eating something, and that was it. It was largely empty at the moment. There were two waitresses in equally skimpy dresses who checked on Kamil one after another. It felt like ages when Sarah finally raised her head and rubbed her eyes. Kamil approached her at once on cue.

“Okay, I found a few.” She had three papers in her hand. “They are aged 9 to 13.”

“Eh, I thought you got promoted to iron rank after hitting 12?”

“True, but 13 is still a bit too young. No group will take them. So, until one hits 15, they are really just doing wood rank requests. Or the younger ones could form a group of their own, but I’ve yet to see anyone doing that.”

“So, who are those?”

“I’ve got two girls and a boy.” She looked at the first paper.

“Lara, 9 years old. It says she has an earth affinity of 4.”

Then, she looked at the second paper.

“Rosa, 10 years old. A warrior or so she claims.”

The final paper.

“Dion, 13 years old. A fighter. I’ve seen him before. He does fight.”

“So, you’ve seen Dion before but haven’t seen Lara and Rosa?”

“Correct,” She nodded. “This means Dion is serious about being an adventurer. The two girls may have registered for the fun of it.”

He felt Dion was too old. At 13 years old, he felt Dion would leave as soon as he got an offer from an adults’ group. Lara seemed to be the most ideal candidate. With an affinity of four, she wouldn’t quite become a full-time mage, but she could be able to fill the role for the time being.

“Where could I find Lara?”

“Let me see her address… Looks like she lives on the outskirts. A farmer’s daughter most likely.”

Her address was very vague. Basically, it said, “A house with a red roof with a wheat field next to it, on the outskirts of Lux.”

“Thank you, Lady Sarah, for your help.”

“L, lady?!” She jolted upon hearing the honorific. It must have been her first time being referred to as a lady. She even blushed. Adventurers, who were mostly common folks, wouldn’t call her a lady after all. Waving her good-bye, Ewald returned to the decoy house where he found Karla cooking something in a pot.

“Lady Karla, how is Raem?”

“He says it hurts like the end still.”

“I see. I will be back soon.”

Then he went out again. This time, to the outskirts. Initially, he thought he’d have a hellish time locating the farm house with a red roof. As it turned out, there were only four houses with a red roof around the outskirts, and only one of them had a wheat field right next to it.

“Hmm, the sun is starting to go down,” He remarked as he approached the farm house with a red roof. The wheat field was starting to turn yellow, and he saw a family of four working on it. Surveying the field, he saw the probable girl, Lara, working in a corner. It looked like she had a younger brother who was also working along with her parents.

“Hello, Lara?”

The girl who was pulling out a weed with both of her hands looked up. She had crystal blue eyes with very short black hair. Her hair was really short for a girl.

“Yeah? Never seen you before?” She wondered aloud. There was a bruise on her face which he didn’t give much thought to.

“Well, you see-”

Kamil had to give her a mixture of truth and lie. The story was that he and Raem were trying to form a group and then hunt small game such as rabbits and wild boars and that he was looking for a third member.

“Rabbits and boars… Meat?!” She stood up at once. “Meat!” She repeated.

“What’s going on over there?!” A man who seemed to be her father approached them after noticing the commotion. The first thing he did as soon as he arrived was smacking his daughter’s head sideways who, in turn, fell.

“Did my daughter do something again?!”

This motherfucker -

“No!” Kamil protested. “I was just talking to her!”

The father, then, pointed at him. “You ain’t taking my daughter! Go away!”

He felt something hot inside him surging upwards. Gulping to calm down a bit, he turned around and left.

“Now is not the time,” He said to himself as he left. He glanced back and saw Lara slowly getting up with her hand on her side of her head. Without saying a word, she got down and grabbed the weed she was pulling before.

The next day, when he arrived at the decoy house, Raem was feeling better and was devouring his meaty stew at the dining table. He apparently hadn’t eaten anything for a whole day. He wasn’t using his left arm though which was too bruised to use properly.

“Feeling better?”

“Yes, Milord. It still hurts but not as bad as yesterday.”

“Good. I will be back soon.”

He went back to the farm house again, hoping to find the girl, Lara, alone. He found the parents at the field, but the two children he saw yesterday were nowhere to be seen. He surveyed his vicinity and found no trace of them.

“Perhaps they are in the house?”

He sneaked around their house to find an open window. Taking a peek, he did spot the two children. The boy was eating something, and Lara was sewing.

“Hey!” He tried to get her attention without alerting anyone else. Startling, Lara looked around and spotted Kamil at the window. After nervously looking around, she quietly put down whatever she was working on and approached the window.

“You are from yesterday, right?”

“The name’s Kamil. You are Lara, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Have you given a thought about what we talked about yesterday?”

“What?” She tilted her head in confusion. She soon realized what he was talking about. He could even see her drooling.

“I am hungry…,” She whispered to herself while holding her tummy.

The boy was eating something though.

“You are hungry? Your brother is eating, no?”

“Only my bro gets to eat two times a day. I eat only once a day,” She told him indifferently.

His heart bled when he heard this. But she wasn’t at least outright starving, he defended her parents because he knew how hard it was to bring food to the table everyday. He also couldn’t outright criticize her parents for prioritizing his son.

“Lara, let’s go on adventuring. Sneak out.”

“What?!” She exclaimed only to cover her mouth at once. She looked back to check on her brother who didn’t notice.

“I know we’ve just met. But I have a feeling that you need to get out of here.”

She looked at him with suspicion. He understood why and knew he was pushing it. At the same time, he also knew that she was an abused child. He had to get her away from her parents. It was easier to be said than done however because, again, they had literally just met. He racked his brain to figure out how to make her trust him. Then he realized that wouldn’t alter anything. He would need to convince her parents. Recalling what happened yesterday, he felt talking to him would be futile.

Time to use my rank as a noble.

He waved her good-bye and went straight to Noah who was drilling his soldiers in the training around.

“Young master! It’s been a while.”

“Sir Harder, I have a favor to ask.”

“Oh?”

Ewald, flanked by Noah Harder and two additional guardsmen, approached the farm. The farmer ran to them with a confused face.

“Ehm, sirs, is there something I can help you with?”

“I am Ewald Fenchel. I would like to employ your daughter’s service.”

“Ehm, what?” He was utterly confused.

“I require a plaything and I feel that your daughter is suitable for the task.”

“Plaything…?” He didn’t appear to know what it meant.

“Matters not,” Ewald pressed. “A silver coin if you let me borrow your daughter whenever I want.”

His eyes sparkled at the words “A silver coin”. Rubbing his hands, he bowed repeatedly with a broad smile on his face.

“Of course, of course, it matters not. My daughter is all yours.”

“Bring her here.”

Nodding, he ran to his wife and haphazardly explained whatever he thought was going on. His wife seemed oddly happy and they ran into the house.

“Milord,” Noah said.

“Yes?”

“Does Sir Hunt know about this?”

“No, he does not.”

“Do you intend to let him know?”

“Not right now. I was hoping to keep this between us for the time being?”

“The silver coin is coming out of my pocket, yes?”

“Eh, well, yes. I owe you one.”

“That’s fine, sir. You’ve been giving Greta Macomaco tea, haven’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Those are expensive from what she told me before. Let’s say this makes us even.”

The parents soon came out of the house while pushing Lara from behind. They were all smiles, the parents.

“You?” She pointed at Ewald. “What’s going on?”

“I shall explain later. Come with me.”

Once they arrived at the decoy house, Noah and the guardsmen left. Karla welcomed them although she, too, was wondering what was going on. He explained briefly that he was looking for a third member for the party since Raem would get hurt too much with just him. And that Lara was being abused by her parents.

“The bruises on her face, it’s done by her parents,” He added. Karla grimaced upon hearing that. Lara herself didn’t seem to know that she was being abused however.

“I gave them a silver coin and told them that I was borrowing her to play with. However, there is a chance that they thought they sold her to me.”

Upon hearing that, Lara downcast her eyes. Gradual tears formed in her eyes, realizing that she was sold off.

“Lady Karla, please look after her. As for money -”

“It’s fine, Milord. The rabbit hides and meat I sold have given me some breathing room.”

Before leaving, he had to make sure of something important.

“Lara, you do have an earth affinity, yes?”

“I think so. I was told by someone that I had four or something.”

“Good. Do you know how to cast earth magic?”

She shook her head.

“I see.” Ewald himself didn’t know any earth spells at all and couldn’t recall any earth mages within the Fenchel manor, either.

“Well, I will ask Mrs. Harder later,” Saying to himself, he patted Lara’s shoulder. “I need to go. Listen to Lady Karla here and eat well.”

“Meat?!” She yelped.

“I do have some smoked meat strips,” Karla replied with a warm smile.

“Meat!” She jumped up and down in sheer joy.

“Mom, what’s the commotion …” Raem almost tripped while walking downstairs upon seeing a strange girl at the doorstep.

Ewald threw a casual salute at him. “Yo, Raem, this is Lara. She will be our third member.”

Raem cast a doubtful gaze over her. She was thin, too thin. Ewald knew what he was trying to say.

“She is more of a mage, an earth mage I was told.”

His expression brightened up at once. “Oh, she can cast stoneskin then? That would be mighty useful for me.”

“You know the earth magic spell list?”

“No, sir. Stoneskin is the only earth spell I am aware of. I know it since I was told it’s the most useful spell for frontline fighters.”

“By the name, I assume it boosts your defense?”

“Right.”

“That does sound useful then. Well, let her settle down for now. We will look into this later.”

Raem bowed lightly toward him. “Understood.”

As he was walking through the dark tunnel, he came to a realization that there was one more mouth to feed.

“Man, a rabbit a day is not going to cut, isn’t it,” He said to himself. Then he thought about Lara’s situation. It worked out somehow, but he wanted to make it clear later to her that she was never purchased and he had every intention to let her go back to her family if she wished. He just had to get her away from her family for the time being because he felt that there was a genuine concern that she may not survive to adulthood in her current situation if left alone. Her family was prioritizing her son. While he couldn’t blame them for doing so, it didn’t mean he’d just sit and watch it happen.

As he emerged from the shed, there were three maids this time who saluted at him at once.