Lin was feeling something she was pretty sure didn’t have a name. She was proud of Mia for everything she did, a little afraid of her too, Lin wasn’t a fighter. She was very confident in her abilities to deal with the situation her family found itself in but also a little embarrassed about Mia in a way.

“Is everything alright?” A woman asked Lin.

“Of course. Just lost myself in my thoughts for a moment.” Lin answered after taking a sip of tea.

Lin was currently in the residence of a noble, a count and his wife to be more exact. Ever since word got out of what Mia did, a lot of people are trying to make contact with her family. The job to deal with those people fell at the hands of Liza and Lin. Liza was dealing with the more common people, the ones she could throw stones at if necessary, while Lin was dealing with the more well off people that came in contact with them.

Lin had to dip a little into the reward Mia received for saving everyone to buy a few dresses so she wasn’t looked down by the nobles. There was still plenty of money left and she knew that Mia wouldn’t really mind it but it was Mia’s money and no more than necessary would be used.

“So, what is your opinion of things so far?” The man asked again.

“Well Count, we are flattered by your proposal but we think it’s a little too early for us to talk anything about marriage, much without Mia herself. Your son seems to be a great boy but if he will be with Mia it depends entirely on him.” Lin said to the Count, with a sincere smile on her face.

Most of the people that came to her family were trying to get the family to approve an arranged marriage between Mia and someone else. Boys, girls, a few older teenagers and even a full adult once. If Mia was just a normal girl, Lin would jump at any of these opportunities but that sadly wasn’t the case. Marry explained that Mia should be compared to a force of nature now, even if she still is adorable. Anyone who has no possibility to handle that shouldn’t even be trying to get that close to her. That and the fact that Mia herself now has the power to decide who she will be with. The girl once said she liked someone but never told who, so things might get a little heated if anyone decides something like marriage for her.

“We would be more than happy to have a small tea party so Jun and Mia could get to know each other.” The woman, the Countess said.

Lin looked at the pair. Both were asian looking like her. While she was using a long traditional chinese(not that she called it chinese) jade hanfu dress, the pair in front of her were using a very flowery Hamaka in the case of the Count and a flowery Kimono in the case of the Countess. The office where they were having their talk was full of art pieces made of precious metals and above the table where the Count probably worked there was a big painting in the wall of the entire family, the both of them along with 4 children, all boys. In the painting the youngest one was barely a few years old but the two adults still look like they used to in the painting.

“You son, Jun, is in the academy, right?” Lin asked.

“Yes, he has been there for two years now.” The countess answered.

“Then I would suggest you talk with him about making contact with her there. If he isn’t man enough to make contact with her by himself, I don’t see much of a future for them.” Lin said, giving a metaphorical jab in the direction of the countess.

“Don’t worry. We raised our children ourselves, he will handle it, right dear?” The countess said, sending a jab back.

“Of course.” The Count added.

“Well, thank you for the company. I wish I could talk more but we all have responsibilities to attend to, don’t we?” Lin said.

“Yes. I hope we find time to have tea again.” The countess said.

“A maid will guide you to your carriage.” The count said. Soon after a maid came and Lin went back to the carriage that she rented for the week, driver, horses and all.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Where to, ma’am?” The driver asked.

“Home, I need to see my little girl.”

“In that case we should go somewhere else. I was informed that Miss Marry and Miss Mia left the house. I was going to inform you along the way if you weren’t going back home, ma’am.”

“Do you know where they went?”

“To find your husband, ma’am.”

“Take me to the barracks he works at. Worst case we find them along the way.”

“As you wish, ma’am.”

As the carriage began to move, Lin was cooling down. Talking with a noble is like fighting but without hurting each other physically. So far they always try to be the ones in the top of the conversation, be it by putting themselves up or putting her down. She sometimes wished she could just slap people but life wasn’t always fair. She couldn’t wait until all she had to do was to keep up with the gossip around her neighbor, whose child was doing what, who was with who, not all this power play the nobles did.

After several minutes of travel, just before the carriage arrived at the barracks, it stopped.

“What happened?” Lin asked.

“I am seeing Miss Mia, Miss Marry and Mister Huang in a restaurant to our right.” The driver said. Lin took at it from the inside of the carriage and she also saw them surrounded by a bunch of people.

“I will be leaving here, I don’t think I will need your services for the rest of the day.”

“I will wait a few minutes near here in case you change your mind.”

“Thank you.”

Following that Lin got out of the carriage and began to walk towards the restaurant. It was a very middle of the way one. You could see people from both the top or bottom of the society eating here without a problem.

As she was approaching the open door of the restaurant, someone called her.

“If it isn't Miss Lin. How are you today?” An overweight woman in an expensive pink dress, covered in jewels, asked Lin.

“Miss Guanini, what a surprise to see you here.” Lin said with a strained smile.

“I heard that I might find your daughter around here so I took my boy here for a walk so he could introduce himself to her.” The woman said to Lin, showing her son, an overweight kid that barely fit in his kid tuxedo.

Sonia Guanini was the wife of a foreign merchant who had a strange taste for women. To put in simple terms, the entire family was slimy and not good people. They were one of the first people that tried to arrange something for Mia and Lin in no uncertain terms said that it wasn’t going to happen. The woman didn’t seem to have gotten the message.

Lin didn’t like the situation that she found herself in. She would like to just tell the woman to screw off but doing that would hurt her and her family in the long run. Luckily Marry appeared to rescue her.

“Lin, we are here already.” Marry said.

“Hello Marry. I was just explaining to Miss Guanini here that her son should try to contact Mia at some other time.”

“Hello. Yes, now would not be a good time.” Unlike Lin, Marry could indeed fight someone if the need arises.

“Nonsense! We are already here, why get in the way of future love birds?” The fat woman said.

“Who is my future wife?” The boy asked. As far as LIn and Marry could tell, the boy wasn’t the brightest one around.

“It’s probably that little girl eating noodles over there.” Sonia said to her son, pointing towards a girl with black hair alone in one of the tables.

“No.” Marry said.

“Is it that girl eating fish in the middle of the restaurant?” She said, pointing to another lonely girl, this time with greenish hair.

“Also no.”

“Eerm… Where is she?” The woman asked, very confused.

“You know, you can follow us, but do so at your own risk.” Marry said with a mischievous smile.

The fat woman just nodded and everyone followed Marry to the second floor. There, the woman almost fainted and the boy ran in fear as he saw what was happening.

Mia was in the middle of an eating competition against a lot of guards, and winning. If that was all there would not be much to be afraid of but Mia was a little intense. Mana was pouring from her and she was strangely aggressive, literally fighting against people at the table trying to take food away from her. Two guards are on the ground with bruises of questionable origins and the ones left at the table were using Huang as a shield while the devil he called daughter was making the restaurant go bankrupt.

“Is, is, is that your daughter?” The fat woman asked with fear in her voice.

“Yes, that is our daughter.” Both Marry and Lin said to the woman who left faster than one would imagine she could.