“Welcome to Crassuz Duchy goddess. My name is Dan, the butler of this household. Beside me are Mara and Leah; they will be your personal attendants from this day forward. We deeply apologize that the Duke is unable to welcome you today as he has not yet returned.”

“Hello to you too. I am Astrid.” I said with a tired smile.

“You looked very exhausted, my lady.”

“Ah yes, sorry about meeting you all like this.”

“That is perfectly fine; I will accompany you to your room. The knights will be escorted to their quarters as well. The Crassuz knights will guard the goddess' doors tonight. You all must be tired. Show them the way.” The butler said, instructing the maid to lead my knights to their quarters.

“Good night, goddess.” the four knights said.

“Good night, Astrid.” Sebastian added as he bade farewell.

I simply smiled at them in response.

…

On the way to my assigned room, the butler kept talking about the long history of House Crassuz. He mentioned that this household was known for a lineage of great mages who helped the guardians win the previous wars.

“I am very honored to witness this upcoming great war in my lifetime.” the butler said, smiling with a dreamy expression.

‘That’s a very odd dream.’ I thought while making a confused face.

“Why are you so happy to see a war? A normal response to this would be fear or anger. Don’t a lot of people die because of war?”

“Oh no, you misunderstood me, goddess. This is a historical event that happens every century. Citizens are not afraid of these demons anymore because the guardians are here to protect us. And this time, many knights and mages will aid the guardians as well, so it is anticipated as another victory for Araceli.” The butler explained.

“Here we are; you’ll be residing here for the next months.” the butler added when we arrived in front of the room designated for me.

It was a beautifully furnished room with a terrace that offered a full view of the ocean and the night sky.

“We hope the room is to your liking.”

I was so mesmerized by the room that I could not hide my smile, “This is wonderful, Dan, thank you so much!”

“You are most welcome. We’ll leave you to rest now. Also, your training will begin the day after tomorrow. Rest well and good night goddess.” the butler replied.

Once the butler and the maids were gone, I hurriedly went to the terrace to enjoy the view.

As the cold wind blew against me, I suddenly thought about the life I left behind in the world I came from.

“I’ve been here for three days now; do my friends know I'm gone? Have my parents already found out?”

I sighed.

Feeling cold, I decided to go inside and lay in bed to sleep.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

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It was midnight, Eros ran towards Urania’s cottage near the river. He hurriedly knocked on her door and called out her name.

“Eros, why are you here at this hour?” Urania asked, seeing the exhausted Eros.

“You need to run and leave this place immediately!” he edgily replied.

“Eros, calm down; tell me what is happening.”

“You’ve been charged with the murder of Adon. They held a council meeting earlier, and it was said that you were last seen with him. They found him dead this morning.”

“What?! How do they come up with the assumption that I killed him?”

“The cause of death was … it was made by your scepter.”

Urania looked around for her scepter but could not find it. At this point, she was trembling, not knowing what to do.

She just mumbled these words to Eros: “I did not do this, Eros.”

Urania was on the verge of tears.

Eros consoled her, “I know, that’s why you need to go; they are on their way here.”

“For now, you need to run and leave this place immediately.”

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I woke up to the sound of knocks from Mara and Leah. ‘Ugh, I didn't get to finish my dream; what happened to that Urania? Was she able to run away? If I sleep again, can I go back to where I left off?’

“My lady, are you awake?” the maids called from behind the door.

“I won’t be able to sleep again at this rate.” I whispered.

“Yes, you can come in.” I responded to Mara and Leah.

“Do I have any schedule today? Like, do I need to attend anything or meet anyone?” I asked while Leah was combing my hair.

“As far as we know, you don’t have any engagements today since the Duke has not yet returned. Tomorrow is when you’ll start to get busy, goddess.” Leah replied.

“You are free to go anywhere today; do you have something in mind that you want to do?” Mara added.

“I saw an ocean last night, so that’s first. Oh, and I also want to see the market and do some window shopping.”

“What’s a ‘window-shopping’, goddess?”

“Ohh … it’s when you just look around. I don’t have money, so I won’t be able to buy anything, hence the window shopping.”

“You’ll be given a monthly allowance, goddess. If you want to buy anything later, you can ask the butler to advance your allowance.”

“Really? I can do that?” I replied cheerfully.

My face brightened at the thought of money; maybe in this world, I could buy anything without worrying about bills.

“Also, can you call me something other than ‘goddess’? I don’t really like being called by that title. You can call me Astrid.”

“We cannot do that, goddess.” Mara replied.

“If you’d like, we can call you ‘my lady’.” Leah added.

“That would suffice; thank you Mara and Leah.”

…

Leah, Sebastian and I headed to the market. Dan provided us with a carriage and pocket money for our travel.

We agreed to go to the market first since I wanted to watch the sunset near the ocean later. I told Sebastian not to bring the other knights to guard me because I did not want to attract any attention while roaming around. He was hesitant at first, but he gave in after I persisted. He also rode with us in the carriage, as I asked him not to bring his flashy horse to the market.

I could not contain my happiness when I finally saw the market. It was the first time in a long time that I felt how lovely my surroundings were. The place was filled with different kinds of street foods I’d never tasted before, the people were lively, and there were many things to see and do.

We were in front of a barbecue stall waiting for our food to be cooked when suddenly a swarm of people filled the streets. The place became so crowded that Leah and I were squeezed by people trying to pass through. I tried to reach Sebastian’s hand while he stretched his arms out to grab me. I could barely see Sebastian, trying his best to reach me. Leah, on the other hand, was calling out to me, but I got pushed and pushed until I was completely separated from them.

To be continued.