Esther was standing in front of a bunch of wooden crates that were being unloaded. Two men were busily taking the crates off from the back of the wagon. A merchant approached her while rubbing his hands meanwhile.
“Ma’am, I’ve brought the stuff you’ve requested,” he told her rather timidly.
“Oh, you have? That took a while, didn’t it?”
She was wearing a dark brown overalls and had her hair tied into a large ponytail. If Daniel was around, she would have untied her hair. Since he wasn’t around at the moment however, a ponytail was much easier to move around and do chores. Quite frankly, having long hair was just very inconvenient. She was eventually going to convince him for permission to cut her hair to shoulder length. She also had a pencil in her ear and a small memo book in her hand. There was another memo book in one of her pockets as well as more pencils. She was a full-blown merchant at this point. She didn’t even wear dresses unless Daniel was around, a trend she borrowed from Flora because it was simply just convenient. Elegant dresses were harder to move around and change.
“Yes, yes, it is even rare in Estana, so …”
A worker carried a sack that was the size of a toddler toward them.
“Noah, check it out.”
A man in his early 20s wearing butler attire was standing a short distance behind her. With well combed black hair and a cleanly shaven face, he looked the part. He approached the sack and bent down to open it. What looked like dark green powder was present. He took a bit of the content and proceeded to taste it.
“It tastes like the stuff we’ve been after,” he declared.
What Esther was after was sour spice which wasn’t popular within Estana but did exist. She came across this type of spice not long ago from a local spice vendor who was carrying a tiny bit because of low demand. While it looked to have no practical usage for regular dishes, she came up with an idea to make candies with it: Sour candies. Acquiring it in sizable quantities wasn’t easy. It had taken her three months just to get the sack in front of her.
“And the other thing I asked for?”
“Ah, yes, of course…” The merchant pulled out a small gray linen pouch. “The seeds are here.”
She planned to cultivate the spice if possible since it proved to be hard to acquire. Meanwhile, Julian did warn her that children had no expandable income, and that making sour candies which primarily targeted the younger audience had no chance to make money on its own. They would need to nag their parents. Of course, she was no fool and was aware of this. Another reason was that Marat had been asking her to donate some candies to the public library, which had become a sort of gathering spot for kids every morning. Candies were luxury goods. Only noble and merchant children would get a hold of them in their youth. At the same time, they weren’t exactly expensive to produce although time-consuming. Sugar in this world came from sugar grasses which were almost indistinguishable from regular grasses. Additionally, the method to extract sugar from such grasses had been kept only for the wealthy although it wasn’t exactly a secret. In the end, due to the process of extracting sugar being time-consuming and labor-intensive, it wasn’t generally worth it for commoners to produce their own sugar. Julian’s business had the resources to be able to produce sugar.
“Good.” Taking the pouch, she handed him four silver coins.
“Ehm…” The merchant let out a low grunt, signaling that he wasn’t pleased with the payment. He added, “I went through a lot of trouble getting those…”
“Fine,” she replied curtly while clicking her tongue, eventually dropping a single additional silver coin onto his palm.
“Fine,” the merchant replied, sounding a little frustrated. He clearly expected to be paid more but settled at five silver coins. The thing was that he had to risk his life to get the spice sack and the seeds because he couldn’t purchase it; He basically had to go where the spice originated, which was deep into Estana territory. In other words, he had to navigate through the deserts, meaning he had a chance to encounter the giant spiders, not to mention the added danger of being a foreigner. Turning around, while throwing the coins into his own pouch on his belt, he went back to the driver seat of the wagon and began to grumble. Once unloading the rest of crates was complete, Noah paid them their due, and the wagon moved out of the warehouse and then the next wagon, which was also full of crates, moved in. This would continue on for the rest of the day non-stop.
By the time they were done, the sky was turning crimson red, casting long shadows for stacked crates.
“Phew,” she cast an exhausted sigh while wiping sweat off her forehead with her sleeve. The warehouse had been receiving crates non-stop for over half a day, and it was full of crates when she was done. But most of them would vanish in a matter of days. Goods moved really swiftly in Ceres.
“How was your first day as a manager?” Julian asked while approaching from back. She had been here as a part-timer before, thus she knew how busy it could get but had no idea that it’d be busy all day long.
“How can you keep track of things here?”
“Well, I must admit that the scope of the work might be too much for a person nowadays. I didn’t foresee this kind of success when I made my suggestion to the duke and I certainly did not see the business explode this quickly.”
Every incoming crate had to be inspected. Otherwise, there was a risk of being scammed. Most merchants could be trusted since trust was as valuable as money in this line of business, but there were always a few who tried to pull fast ones. Being banned from Julian's business was a death sentence for any merchant, however, because being unable to sell in Ceres would reduce many opportunities as a merchant.
“She has done well, master,” Noah declared with a curt nod.
“You don’t have to tell me. I can see clearly,” Julian replied with a weak grin. “Get something to eat, will you? I know you haven’t eaten since early morning.”
There was simply no time to eat. No warehouse manager would eat anything until the job was done. It became the norm at this point.
“Yeah, I will. I will see you tomorrow, Julian and Noah.” Massaging her shoulder, she left the warehouse. She was dead tired, but it felt fulfilling. She wasn’t just a girl confined in a room anymore. She was doing actual work.
“Welcome back,” A maid greeted her formally. “Would you like a bath?”
“I’d like to eat something first. I am starving.”
She wasn’t joking. A proper noble lady would have collapsed at this point. Thankfully, she was used to not eating on time. Being a vendor at a busy market stall would do that to anyone.
“Understood. I will get something prepared ASAP.”
Julian’s manor was a simple two-story building constructed from stone foundation and wood. It was far from a luxurious manor but it was well above average. Her room was on its second floor. Its size was small and it was an unremarkable room with basic furniture. She didn’t mind this because she rarely spent any time in her own room. Resting was pretty much all she did in this room of hers. As if to reflect that, the room didn’t even feature a desk. There was just a small round table, a bed, a wooden bathtub, and a small cabinet for clothes.
“Well, at least this overalls is comfy as hell,” she remarked as she jumped on her bed and began to stretch her limbs. “Ohhh, this feels so nice…” Then she immediately began feeling sleepy and was about to doze off when she heard knocking. The maid, as promised, was quick to prepare a meal.
“I’ve prepared something you can eat right away and it's easy on the stomach,” she said while dragging a food cart into the room. There was a plate with boiled shrimp on it. Meat and bread weren’t something one should eat before sleeping. There was veggie soup but it wasn’t nutritious at all for someone who was working all day long. Shrimp was an ideal choice which was pure protein. Of course, the maid didn’t know the full nutrition values. All she knew was that boiled shrimp was easy to digest and seemed to be far more nutritious than just regular vegetables that were consumed on a quick notice.
“Thank you,” Esther said curtly while lazily standing up to approach the food cart, grabbed several, and then threw them into her mouth. She didn’t even bother dipping them into a sauce. She was tired and was getting sleepy by seconds. It wasn’t long before she passed out on her bed, snoring. The maid beamed a gentle smile at her before bowing and taking the food cart out of her room as silent as possible.
Esther used to hate the night time because it was hard for her to fall asleep. Since all noble ladies did was just stay in their rooms in general, they weren’t tired when they went to bed at night. Every night was hell for her because all kinds of dark thoughts invaded her brain. She kept on asking questions that she had no answers for. Why she was being neglected, why she was given a maid’s room when she was a princess, why, why, and why - All those questions had no answers for a child’s brain. This eventually led her to loathe the night. Thankfully, it mattered less and less after she left the Lux Fenchel manor because she was actually so tired that evening that she dozed off almost instantly.
And, as she matured, she earned answers to those questions she had eventually. She also did not harbor any bad feelings for Kamil in spite of the not-so-amicable breakup in Lux. Looking back, she realized how spoiled she was. However, there was one thing that had not changed ever since her childhood: Her desire to find home, a place to belong. For her, a home was a place she had a right to be, a place where she had a part. In other words, she did not want to be in a place where she could be kicked out by someone’s whim. She wanted to be where she was fundamental to the place. Essentially, she was traumatized by her experience in Lux. She never really did have a home by her definition until she met Julian and eventually ended up in Laufeld, which was later renamed to Ceres. As Julian trained her in math and basic trading, she became an essential part of his business; She became someone who mattered instead of looking simply pretty in a room. Therefore, she was unwilling to abandon what she had earned at last, which was why she refused to become Daniel’s mistress initially. She was vehemently against leaving Ceres and leaving everything behind just to become just a pretty girl in a room. She was more than willing to marry a commoner. Nobility had no meaning to her. This was why she went out with Faro in the first place. The boy was one of the few who looked good enough in her eyes. All other boys were sons of wheat farmers, and none of them looked good. If she was going to marry a commoner, she wanted the man to be handsome at least. Of course, their relationship never went far. She didn’t really have feelings for him in the first place, therefore the breakup was easy.
When she opened her eyes, it was already early morning. She slept like a log.
“Ooh, that was a good sleep.”
For her, a good sleep was not having any dreams.
“Did I fall asleep on my bed like this, fully clothed?”
She did. After summoning a maid, she took a bath and had a proper breakfast this time.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Master Julian would like to see you in his study when you are able,” her maid informed her discreetly. Esther knew what he was calling her for. It would be one of his math lessons.
“I see. Thank you.”
They may not have been proper nobles, but their wealth enabled them to live like one. Additionally, Ceres lacked the noble class to begin with, therefore there was no noble who protested their rise in social hierarchy. It was important to distinguish noble families and the noble class. There were in fact noble families within Ceres, but there was no noble class. A noble class was a society of noble families grouped together to form a social barrier. A group of wealthy people trying to protect their status quo was a way to explain a class. Essentially, the number of nobles in Ceres was too small to form a class yet.
Julian and Esther were having a math lesson in his office. At the moment, she was using a memo book to perform math. Julian wanted her to do math in her head only and not rely on a pen and a paper. Since she knew complex math, it was only a matter of getting used to crunching numbers in her head. Of course, some people were incapable of doing math smoothly, he determined that she wasn’t one of those. At one point, somebody knocked on the door, it was Noah.
“Master and Miss,” He paused for a brief moment, looking troubled, “Lady Flissing is here.”
She was confused for a moment. “Excuse me? Who’s here?”
“Lady Flissing, the mother of your benefactor.”
Daniel was not legally her husband. It was unheard of that the mother of a “benefactor” would visit his mistress. Frowning, she looked at Julian and told him, “I am very uncomfortable about this.”
“Should I … refuse her?” Noah carefully asked because it would be a decision that should have never been taken lightly.
“No, I am afraid we cannot,” Julian replied while crossing his fingers on his desk. “You must meet her, Esther.”
“I don’t wan-” She paused, quickly realizing that her old side was surfacing. She used to run away from troubles in her childhood.
“There is nothing to be afraid of,” He told her calmly. “We have done nothing wrong. You’ve done nothing wrong. She is likely here to check up on you.”
Pointing at herself, she said, “Me? I am just a mistress, though?”
“That… is what puzzles me,” He agreed. A mistress usually stayed in the shadows. They would not show their faces openly and they certainly would not expect a visit from the madam of the house unless something went awry. “Have you done anything to upset Lord Daniel?”
“What? No! I’ve complied with every request she has made! Not once have I pushed him to do anything! He volunteered to work at a stall on his own! Noah, back me up here!”
“She speaks the truth, master. She was very obedient.”
“Then there should be nothing to worry about. Just go meet her.”
“Ugh…,” She grunted. It appeared that she had no other choice.
He added quickly, “Oh, be sure to greet her in a dress.”
“Double ugh…, fine.”
Noble dresses were a major pain to get into and move around. Once she became used to pants, she never voluntarily wore dresses. Her major complaint in such a dress was doing number one which took a good five minutes to undress, do the deed, and then took another five minutes to dress up. And then there was a corset which she firmly believed to have been invented by the devil.
“Lady Flissing,” Esther performed a curtsy as soon as she entered a guest room where Lena was waiting. Holding the hems of her skirt, she performed a curtsy as formal as possible. Noah was originally right behind her, but he soon left after closing the door, leaving just the two women in the room.
‘Don’t leave me aloneeeeeee!’ She screamed in her head.
Lena, spotting long straight blond hair that reached down to her waist, looked like a literal angel. Her elegant, but simple, blue dress enhanced the image further. She had a cup of Macomaco tea in front of her on an antique table. She had a certain aura around her that cried grace. There was another cup of tea, presumably meant for Esther.
“Welcome, Esther. Have a seat please,” she told her softly.
“Yes, Milady.” Her voice was stiff.
“Please,” Lena beamed a smile at her. “Let us be less formal. We are not strangers to each other.”
“As you wish.” Her voice was still stiff.
Having sat down, she took a sip of the tea as lady-like as possible. It had been years since she had to act like a noble lady. She acted less formal in front of Daniel even. Noticing that she was acting very stiff, she assured her once again.
“Please, I did not come here to make you uncomfortable. There has been nothing wrong. My son is happy with you. I’ve come here to simply meet you in person since you are like a daughter-in-law to me.”
‘Hello??? I am a mistress!’ She retorted in her head.
“You flatter me, Milady, but I am a mistress. I do not deserve such praise.”
“That may be so, but you do realize that you are the only woman he is with, yes?”
Daniel had no official wife and had just a mistress in Esther. Thus, Lena was correct. His divorce with the second princess was declared final on the surface, but that was far from the truth in reality. It was uncertain when the divorce would become truly finalized at the moment. Therefore, Esther, being the only woman he was with, was more or less the wife. Therefore, perhaps rightfully so, Lena wanted to see her since Esther was also known as the ruby of Ceres for her beauty.
“Yes, ma’am. But it does not change the fact that I am only a mistress.”
“What if I told you that it could change? You could become more than just a mistress.”
She saw where it was going and decided to put her feet down.
“With all due respect, I intend to stick to the contract I’ve signed.”
She wasn’t going to leave Ceres no matter what. This was her “home”.
“I see…” Lena looked disappointed clearly but did not press the topic further. Instead, they had chit-chat about casual topics for a while. Thankfully, Esther found her easy to converse with.
“How did it go?” Noah asked once he saw Lena off to the Fenchel manor where she was staying at the moment. Esther was down on the table with her arms spread out, looking exhausted.
“I am sooo tired… The mental gymnastics I had to perform…, you have no idea, Noah.”
While she was educated as a noble lady, it was her first time actually talking to a noble lady who was a big shot. She had to dust off her old memories and did the best she could to perform as a noble lady. Being with Daniel required far less energy since all she had to do was act cute. As a mistress, that was all she had to do.
“What would you like to do now?”
“I am going to get changed first. This corset I am wearing is choking me alive! I will inform Julian on how the meeting went after that.”
“I see.”
After getting rid of her dress as quickly as possible, she put on her brown overalls and wore a simple gray shirt. In spite of putting on simple clothes, her crimson hair stood out anyway. She felt like the color of her hair was becoming more vivid to a point that everyone noticed her presence whenever she was around. It was hard not to spot someone with sparkling flaming hair indeed.
‘I really want to cut my hair. It stands out just too much…’
Sadly, as a mistress, she required Daniel’s permission to change anything significant about her appearance. This was, in fact, in the contract.
“She suggested such?” Julian raised his voice.
“Yes, she did.”
Lena indirectly implied that her position could be upgraded. As a mistress, the only upgrade was being an official wife.
“Well, you do have the proper bloodline…,” he mumbled. “You are of the Fenchel after all.”
She didn’t look quite pleased to hear that. They abandoned her after all. Granted, Edmund did attempt to reconcile, but she didn’t take it too seriously. Because, in the end, what was done was done. She was abandoned, and nothing was going to overturn that fact. She didn’t exactly hate him, rather she had no feelings whatsoever left. She'd feel nothing even if she was told that he was killed in a battle.
“I am not leaving here, period. It is non-negotiable.”
“Esther, the Flissing is one of the most prestigious houses in the kingdom. All young noble women would kill to become the first wife of the Flissing.”
She waved away. “Well, not me. I couldn’t care less.”
He cast a doubtful gaze at her. “Are you sure? As in absolutely sure?”
“Julian, I. Am. Sure.”
‘I am never going to become a pretty doll confined to a room!’
“Well, if you say so, I am going to have to take your words for it.”
Logically, it would have been better for her to become the first wife of the Flissing. As Julian said, any young, unmarried, noble women would kill for such a position, except for a certain ex-princess. At the same time, however, he knew her backstory as well as her potential trauma she may have experienced. She was kicked out by the Fenchel with ten silver coins to her name. She had no outside experience and was a spoiled child due to her upbringing. In other words, they must have known that she would not make it, yet they let her go anyway. If it wasn’t him who picked her up, she could well have been abused by others before being thrown away to die in the wilderness or worse.
“I am going to go to the market, Julian. I will see you later.”
When she was younger, she worked at one of Julian’s market stalls exclusively as a vendor. After she became Daniel’s mistress, her role saw a slight upgrade, and she became a sort of manager slash vendor. He entrusted a single market stall to her entirely with a small upfront money to keep it running. It fell to her to keep it running without asking for any further funds. She had been successful in operating the stall while making profits. Whatever she earned was hers truly. As a side effect, she didn’t require an allowance. Her stall was not far from the public library, and kids often flocked to her stall to see anything new popped up. Knowing this, she stacked up a fair amount of toys and things that’d interest children, which were nothing more than rudimentary stuff such as wooden horse statues and soldier figurines. The upcoming sour candies were going to be a part of the items. Yes, children didn’t have money, but their power of nagging was magical. This was an untapped market at the moment, and she hoped to take a dip into it. It was around noon, meaning the children were all gone when she reached her market stall. Instead, miners were lined up, buying bread, jerky, and other stuff for their deserved lunch break. The stall was manned by two people, a young man and woman. The woman was in charge of selling, and the man was in charge of making sure that nothing was running low by frequently restocking. They were too busy to greet her upon her arrival, and she took no offense at all. She observed silently from the back of the stall to make sure that everything was going as it should have. It was only when the lunch break was over that the two people could take a breather.
“Our apologies, young miss,” The man said apologetically while the woman took a waterskin from below and took a long sip.
“It’s fine. You were busy. Anything to report?”
“No, ma’am, nothing out of the ordinary.”
“Have you sold any toys?”
“Just one,” The woman replied. “The kid brought his mother and nagged a lot.”
“He ended up sitting down and crying his eyes out to get her to buy a wooden soldier figurine,” The man added with a grin.
‘Damn, that is a lot of effort just to get himself a figurine… Would selling sour candies really work?’
“I see, thank you.”
The figurine in question cost a single iron coin which didn’t really net a healthy profit. Currently, the price was set to the absolute minimum in order to entice sales. Ideally, something like a small pouch of candies needed to have a cheaper price tag due to them being consumables. An iron coin had four parts, making it possible to charge a quarter of a coin; It was the absolute minimum she could charge. Noah reported that the sack she paid for would be able to produce thousands of candies, and a small candy pouch was going to contain ten candies.
‘Could I still make a profit by selling the candy pouch 0.25 iron coin per?’ She mused in her head, performing a quick math in her head. ‘0.25 multiplied by …, let’s assume, 2,000. That’s 500 iron coins or five silvers…’ She had to add the cost of pouches as well. ‘Ugh, don’t tell me that the pouches would end up costing more than the candies themselves… Can I use something else other than pouches…?’ She was walking around in a circle until an idea came to her mind. ‘A piece of a paper? Could I use a small piece of paper to wrap them? How much would papers cost anyway? Are they even cheaper to begin with?’
“Young master?” The two people called her out since she was circling around. Snapping out of her thoughts by their voices, she rushed to tell them.
“It’s nothing important. I will be on my way.”
“We will see you tomorrow then.”
Nodding, she turned around and headed toward a workshop Julian owned. They were supposed to have begun processing sugar, and she wanted to observe the process since she had never seen it before. She had no intention to stop what she had started. As a merchant, she always had to take a certain level of risk. Otherwise, she’d become simply stagnant. Either way, the life of a merchant was far more exciting than becoming a noble lady. She wasn’t going back.