To put it bluntly, I wasn’t what you could call a “gentle” or “sensitive” person. If there was a problem, I would do my very best to solve it as efficiently as possible. That said, I had been often told that my solutions were rather unorthodox.
“My lady,” one of the maids asked, her voice noticeably infirm, “what are you doing?”
“Securing provisions,” I replied, browsing through a cupboard, looking for any long-lasting food. To my great misfortune, our household’s stocks were very frugal. To put it bluntly, compared to an ordinary noble’s household, we were positively impoverished.
The reason for that was simple: my family were always a bunch of meatheads. They would excel in combat, bringing glory to their house, but in peacetime, their inability to properly manage their lands spelled doom to whatever riches they would acclaim.
“Nothing here, either,” I sighed and left the cupboard alone. I could’ve taken a few pieces of jerky or some such, but doing that would have made me feel guilty, as if I was stealing that food even though it technically belonged to me.
I left the kitchen, followed by the bewildered gazes of the staff and the maids, and marched towards the training grounds. “Plan B it is,” I mumbled, feeling a teensy bit nervous. To my great lucky, the grounds were empty, so I was free to grab my bow. However, before I could take it to my room, a familiar voice called me by name from behind.
“And what exactly are you going to do with that thing, young miss?”
Smiling at me, there stood an old man. His gray hair was pulled into a simple pony tail, and the ends of his equally gray mustache curled upward, showing his amused smile. His name was Marius, my personal archery tutor. Apparently, he was a friend of my late grandfather and personally trained my father as well. To me, he was a something close to a grandfather figure, especially since my actual grandfather died before I was even born.
“Isn’t it obvious?” I tried to feign confidence, hoping that my acting skills would be enough to fool him. “My bow requires some maintenance. The string is about to snap; I need to change it. In addition, it would be most prudent to apply some polish. I’m planning to take it to do so in my room.”
“Now,” I said, feeling proud that my bluff worked, “if you’ll excuse me.”
But before I could leave, I felt something warm touch my head. It was Marius’ hand, rough and calloused. “Spit it out, missy,” he said warmly. “You’ve been spacing out ever since your dad brought home those two. I can tell.”
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
Suddenly, I felt a strong urge to share my plan with him, to let him convince me that it was stupid and that I would be better off quitting it before anything bad happened. However, I remained steadfast and unyielding.
“Honestly, your dad was always a bit dumb. Who in their right mind would dump a bombshell like that on their child and then say nothing?” he shook his head with a sorrowful expression, “that dunce.”
“I am taking this to my room,” I said, clutching a bow in my hands. “Please.”
“Fine, fine,” Marius conceded, letting go of my head with an easy-going smile on his face. “Do what you want. Just make sure it’s fine for our next lesson. Speaking of which...”
I followed his gaze and noticed a young boy staring at the two of us. I had seen his face before, when my father brought him to our house a few days ago. Brian Gray, my young half-brother, was here.
“Go on, lad,” Marius said cheerfully. “Every Gray needs to know his way around a bow, and you’re no exception. My lord has ordered me to whip you into shape stat.”
From what I remembered, Brian was always a shy and reserved character, who would occasionally show his backbone when push comes to shove. It seemed that he was no different as a child. Slowly and hesitantly, he walked towards us, his eyes madly dashing across the place.
“H-Hi,” he mumbled to me, “n-nice to meet you.”
“The pleasure is all mine,” I said with a graceful bow – the result of all the etiquette lessons I had been taught. “Elizabeth Gray, at your service.”
“B-Brian,” the boy offered me a hand. He probably saw adults in his village do this among themselves, but for a noble, such an act would be considered incredibly rude, especially when done to a woman. Therefore, I decided to explain that to him before he could make a fool of himself later down the line.
“Never do that again,” I explained. “It might be common amongst commoners to shake hands, but a proper noble would never accept such an introduction. It would behoove you to learn some etiquette unless you want to bring shame upon your name.”
I stopped for a moment, thinking of another advise to share with him. “Try to stutter less,” I finished and left him under Marius’ care, feeling fulfilled by doing my duty as an older sister. In my previous life, my motto was always to be as straightforward and honest as possible. If one desired to improve himself, one needed to listen to other people’s critique and do their very best to overcome those flaws.
A trusty bow in my hands, I happily marched towards my room. After checking around to see if anyone was following me, I locked the door behind me and pulled out a large bad from under my bed. I quickly checked its contents, afraid that the maids found it while cleaning and took my carefully prepared resources away.
Fortunately, it was all there: a bunch of coins, some inconspicuous clothes I asked Henrietta to find for me and my piece de resistance – a small black orb. It took some time to prepare everything, and with my bow, all preparations were complete.
In a few days, I would escape fake my own death, escape this household and start a new life under a fake name, and the twisted fate this world picked out for me would be completely averted. Honestly, it was genius solution on my part... as expected of me.