...

Shortly before The Arrival of the Nine-Fire Youth, Inside a Carriage on the way to Wolfsteeth

"Are you really fine?"

Ocilia lifted her head and looked annoyed at where the voice came from, "Urgh, Aurum, for the last time, I am fine."

Aurum held his hands up in peace before Ocilia and chuckled, "All right, only wanted to make sure. No need to look at me so threatening, hehe."

Maurice chimed in to mediate between the two, "Listen, we are here for Mr. Alexander, so please cooperate as well as possible."

Three of Alexander's retainers sat in the carriage toward Wolfsteeth and were ready to spend the gold they had to help their Master reach his goals in one way or another. While Aurum was visibly excited, Ocilia wasn't since she needed to do something she wasn't keen on doing. However, she wanted to be helpful to her Master since she barely did anything, in her opinion, and, thus, was readying herself for the following weeks to live like a rat.

Ocilia looked with large bags under her eyes toward Maurice, "I am fine..." she rubbed her eyes with her hand palms, letting them slowly slide down, "...I just hoped for a bit more downtime."

After what happened in Wolfsteeth, Ocilia barricaded herself in her room for weeks, crying, weeping, and getting angry at everything around her. She didn't want to talk to her Master or anyone else about what happened. In her view, it was inappropriate to burden him or her parents with such a minuscule problem.

She killed her old friends in self-defense without provoking them. It was a clear-cut case, so her mind should be calm, but it was far from it. Her old friends, she wasn't even sure if she could call them like this, betrayed her for coins—a notion she couldn't even imagine doing. It felt terrible. She felt like they saw her as a pest, only to be eradicated for gold.

After moving into the estate, they didn't talk much and weren't on the best of terms, but didn't friendship mean something, or even the help she provided over the years? Sure, she didn't like them much after they cut contact with her when she decided to stop lending them coins and only talked with her again when she had a job for them. Still, it was nonetheless heartbreaking to her that they decided to choose a path this horrendous in the end.

However, it was also a liberation for her. All her old connections to her past were either dead or didn't want to have anything to do with her except borrowing coins. She was, as her Master described it once to her, a blank sheet of paper, ready to choose her colors how she liked, not bound by any previous drawings or coloration. She didn't like his metaphors usually, but this one spoke to her. Instead of seeing everything as overly negative, she saw it now more like a new beginning.

Yet, her philosophical contemplation ended when she left the room. Her conscience crushed her like a mountain when she heard that Aurum wanted to go to Wolfsteeth for her Master's charity project, at last starting it. She felt terrible for not doing anything for a long time, so she joined him, even though her Master told her she could relax much longer, but it didn't feel right to her, so she proposed something to him, to which he readily agreed under the promise that she should be safe and have some fun while at it so she could recover from her visible mental fatigue, 'Fun, huh?'

Ocilia hated the city and loved the estate. Even though there was gossip, it was mostly harmless, and all they were interested in was some useless crap like who slept with whom. On the other hand, Wolfsteeth, where she had lived, was like a trash bin for all the pests to gather in and around. She couldn't relax and have fun in a city full of cockroaches, but she didn't say this as her Master was very sensitive to commoners, like he was with her when she became his apprentice, for which she was thankful.

Before further pondering her apparent hypocrisy, she felt Aurum looking at her worryingly. She decided to converse a bit before he would run to their Master and tattle about her, "So, on what do we need to spend the..." She pointed to the back of the carriage where the chests with the gold were, "...thousands of gold coins."

Aurum cleared his throat and smiled, explaining, "Ahem, we have around 250 thousand average gold coins. With this, we can stay for a couple of weeks and start the charity we planned for so long while supporting other institutions in the southern and northern districts. I will also meet beforehand some friends who will support me."

Maurice shook his head, "I can't believe that we sold those white parchments for so much."

Aurum smirked at him, "So much? I only got 40 or so percent with us, and part of it goes to other things, too."

Maurice looked at him perplexed, "Other things?"

Ocilia looked at Aurum and opened her hand, waiting for her spatial pouch, "I am the other thing, and I need around ten thousand."

Aurum casually took a small but very finely made pouch from his side pocket and threw it to Ocilia while continuing, "Mr. Alexander gave her the task to sniff out some black markets."

Maurice raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean with sniff out? Do we need to start killing thieves?"

Ocilia side glanced at him and sighed, "First, I volunteered for this, and second, Master wants manuals, spells, and other..." She air-quoted what he said, "...fun stuff."

After hearing it, Aurum brought out a folded paper and gave it to her. She touched and smelled it. It was excellent quality and many times more robust than the first version of the paper they made, 'I can't believe this little thing brought us so much coin.'

Her Father now worked for Alexander and was part of the team that created the paper; as such, news about the gold mine they had quickly made it to her. After every new batch they made, the process became not only faster but also the product, the paper, became better. Sometimes not so much or worse, but overall, it became better, 'Hopefully, Master will sell it for more to Green as it is excellent.'

She opened it and read the content. She immediately creased her eyebrows, "What the fuck is this? It just states that Master wants anything he doesn't have?! Does he want me to buy out the underworld?!" She looked at Aurum in disbelief since it was his task to ask their Master for more precise instructions on what to buy.

Aurum shrugged, "You have not ten but twenty thousand gold coins to play with because of this, so just buy anything you can get your hands on, but do not buy any mana items since the Lady didn't allow it."

Ocilia frowned, "Fine..." It was usual for her Master to give cryptic tasks, so this wasn't the first time she had to deal with it. Sometimes, he even gave her the homework of finding the topic herself and analyzing it so he could grade it. She hated it.

She moved slightly to put the pouch around her waist and continued, "I will be gone at night, so it will most likely be that we don't see each other much. However, I will leave you a note of what I bought the night before every morning. If there is no note, contact the guards immediately and look for me. Who knows what kind of trash is down there."

Aurum looked at her sternly, "Don't call those people trash. They didn't choose to become like this."

Ocilia raised her eyebrow, "Oh, the one who never lived with those vermins has some empathy? Don't worry. When you have to deal with the northern district, all you want to do is to burn..."

Aurum raised his voice angrily, "Stop! I will not allow you to talk like this!"

After hanging the pouch, she leaned forward and looked Aurum deep into his eyes, "Listen here, you joke of an accountant. While Master has never been outside his golden cage, he will see it like I do when he is allowed to leave..." She leaned back and pointed at him with her hand palm upwards, "...you, on the other hand, should know better."

Aurum clenched his teeth and spoke through them angrily, "Lia..."

She immediately interrupted him, "Don't call me by my nickname. I don't like you and even less trust you not to jump the moment Master does something you disagree with. You are obviously someone with no loyalty."

Aurum became much more stoic, ignoring her provocations, "Ocilia, I think you are the result of your environment. You think like this now is only because you saw the worst and experienced it as such. The people deserve a chance for a better life, and even if you disagree with helping adults, what about cygnets?"

She looked at him and suddenly smirked, "I think that trash comes from trash..." but sighed immediately afterward, "...however, hatchlings are truly not responsible for their situation, so when it comes to orphanages, you have my full support."

Maurice looked at both of them interchangingly and smiled happily, "See? We can all go along just fine, right?"

Ocilia looked at him and smirked, "Be careful in the South. There are a lot of little creeps trying to pickpocket you..." She shrugged, "...I know some of my previous friends made a living out of it."

Maurice sighed, "Killing made you an asshole, Lia."

Aurum also interjected, "If you are tired or in any way not on top, just go back and relax. The last thing I want to do is to explain to Mr. Alexander why you are suddenly without eyes while there are eight great recovery potions on sale in the underworld."

She dismissed both of them, "I am just tired. I will sleep when we get to the hotel since my time to shine is the night."

Aurum shrugged, clearly not caring, "Fine with me, just don't forget the memo, though, because I will act and send out the city guards down there."

She nodded, "Good."

There was some silence for a couple of minutes till Maurice broke it, "Well, are you hungry? Want to go together to a restaurant? I know one that makes the best dumplings you ever had..."

Aurum interrupted him, "You really don't like silence, huh?"

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Ocilia agreed with him, "He doesn't. He always tries to chat with everyone..." She suddenly remembered how he had acted some years ago. She smirked at him, "...after becoming Master's personal guard, he walked all proudly through the estate and flirted with every girl he could find while chatting up a storm at them. Many stopped greeting him in fear that he would try again to talk with them for hours, hehe."

Maurice wanted to defend himself, but Aurum asked Ocilia before that, "Did he have success, though?"

Ocilia laughed, "Haha, oh no. Personal guards are maniacs who train for the whole day and, in the evening, fall dead tired into their bed. Who wants to have such a husband? Every servant who works for a bit at the estate knows this..." She nodded toward Aurum, "...look at yourself, me, or any other personal helper of Master. Nobody has any time for stupid stuff like romance."

Maurice quickly interjected before anyone could say more, becoming red in his face, "I have a girlfriend, and I have time for her!"

Ocilia was the first to laugh, "Haha! Which hatchling could you convince?"

Before Maurice could defend himself, Aurum patted his shoulder, "Hehe, don't worry, this will quickly change when Mr. Alexander gets more soldiers to which..." He playfully viciously smiled at him, "...you will lead and train them. There will be no time for whoever is now your loved one, no matter how young she is."

Maurice became exasperated, "First, she is older than me, and Mr. Alexander talked about how he wants us to have a life?! What was it called again?"

Ocilia remembered what her Master said, "Work-Life balance and how do you want to have any private life with how fast Master moves? I prophecize that the moment he turns ten and gets out of the estate, you will have to follow him all the time because of how dangerous it will be."

Maurice shook his head, "I think he will be much stronger than me, so he will not need any protection. It kind of defeats my purpose, which is sad, but I am thankful that he is that strong, honestly."

Aurum chuckled slightly, "Hehe, she doesn't mean it like this."

Ocilia explained, "Do you remember how he threw a fireball at you because he got so annoyed? Or how he almost froze the swan-kin servants? Or how he almost turned Anastasia into a shashlik? Or..."

Maurice interrupted her, obviously understanding her point, "Got it! I will have to protect the others and not Mr. Alexander!"

At most events, she was there. Others, though, she only heard about and knew it wasn't exaggerated. Her Master was touchy and also liked to provoke. Being around others who weren't his family or servants was a disaster in the making.

Aurum shrugged, "Find some people who can serve him under you. Otherwise, you will burn out at some point..." He put one leg over the other and pointed his chin towards Ocilia, "...look at Ocilia and how terrible she looks. She is his only disciple and has no one under her. She is doing all the menial work for Mr. Alexander and organizes his research, which, as much as I know, a lot."

She shook her head, "Wrong. The moment I have more time, I will ask Master to get some more disciples, and I have already some in mind."

Aurum raised an eyebrow, "Who?"

She smirked, leaned back, and crossed her arms, "My siblings will be some good serva... disciples."

Aurum thought momentarily and nodded, "I actually like the idea. He can trust your siblings..." He tilted his head to one side, "...well, most of your siblings, but since you are trustworthy and loyal, he will also obviously trust your little brother and sister."

Ocilia didn't look at him and only closed her eyes, "Thanks. I don't like you either way, though.

Aurum audible sighed, "This is based on reciprocity."

After some silence, Maurice tried to talk again, "Sooo... dumplings, yes or ..."

Both interrupted him:

"Just shut up."

"Shush."

...

The Little Forest (Restaurant) inside the Wintersleep Hotel, Wolfsteeth

"Like I said, they have the best dumplings!"

Ocilia grabbed one from Maurice's plate and took a bite, "Hm, you are right. Not bad."

On the other hand, Aurum only had some tea with sweet pastries while writing his notes, "So, how do we do it now?"

While Ocilia dumbed dumplings into some sauce, she asked, "What do you mean? I will work at night while you do your stuff during the day."

He nodded, "Fine, how can I contact you then if something comes up?"

Ocilia first took a giant bite while thinking. She wasn't too keen on working with Aurum, but since he was her Master's accountant, there was no avoiding it. She decided to be at least somewhat cordial and not work against him.

After swallowing down, she looked at Aurum, "Even though I will sleep while you do your charity stuff, you can wake me up..." She looked at her greasy hands and quickly used the cleaning spell on them while continuing, "...but if you need me at night, this will be tricky..."

After the spell was done, she shook her hands slightly so the greyish-black flakes could fall down to the ground and continued, "We can do it like this: We can try and coordinate with each other, depending on what you have to do, deal? I need to stay probably longer here, though."

Aurum looked around him, and half a dozen people were looking at Ocilia while whispering. He frowned, "First, don't use magic in the open. Second, I am fine with that arrangement even if I don't understand why you would need more time."

Ocilia looked around her. She shrugged as she didn't care for the others, "Ignore them. If going by Master's wish, they will also learn how to do magic in the foreseeable future, and I need to..." She took another dumpling from Maurice's plate while he looked slightly distressed, "...orient me first. It's not like they will suddenly give me all I want because I have gold."

Aurum leaned back and took the tea, "Sure, I trust you not to besmirch his name."

She stopped dumping the dumpling in sauce and looked sternly at Aurum, not liking at all what he said on so many levels, "Listen here, posh-boy..."

Aurum interrupted her angrily, "Posh-boy?! I am the son of an accountant and potter. Not some noble!"

She smirked at him, "Accountant? Potter? You are the son of Salyna, and as much as I know, she is so filthy rich that she sent you to one of the more expensive boarding schools to learn things you could as easily learn from a failed merchant..." Her smile widened, "...this speaks more about you than you know."

He suddenly stood up and became overly flustered, opening his wings wide. However, as he was about to scream at her, Maurice banged his hand on the table, "Shut up! Both of you!"

Both looked at him how he emitted slight bloodlust at them. Ocilia barely saw Maurice this serious or angry, as he typically had a warm personality. This was one of the reasons she liked him quite a lot, as he always encouraged her to do her best when she was down. The other was that he was, like she, loyal and would give his life for their Master without questions asked.

Yet, his following words sounded like he was about to bash them with his mace, "I've had enough of your fighting! If you don't shut up immediately and try not to fight like puppies, I will drag you back and tell Master that you were uncooperative!"

Aurum stared at him momentarily but sat down silently without saying anything, even though his feathers were pretty ruffled. Ocilia, on the other hand, tried to grab another dumpling. However, as she was about to take it, he swatted her hand away, "This is my food! Get yours!"

Maurice sat down again, and silence invaded the table till Aurum broke it after gulping down the tea in one go, "Fine..." He looked at Maurice, "...I apologize to you and..." he turned to Ocilia, "...and to you too."

Ocilia nodded at both as an apology and said, "I am sorry too."

Aurum nodded back, "By the way, do you have the Leonandra name?"

She raised an eyebrow and asked, irritated again, "Why do you need to know this? Do you think I don't see myself as part of the household and am not loyal?"

He chuckled while wiping away the tea on his lips with a serviette, "You are jumping to stupid conclusions. I need to do some administrative work and need your fully recognized name."

She sighed, feeling a little stupid as she jumped to such conclusions, "Ocilia Leonandra."

A worker approached their table before he could continue. It was a very nervous owl-kin who was sweating buckets, "E... Excuse me, my dear guests, bu... but could you..."

Before he could continue, though, Maurice took out the Leonandra household emblem and threw it on the table. It emitted a potent demonic aura, the only discernible thing about the ugly-looking plaque.

It looked roughly made, but the metal it was made of was relatively rare and robust as everything else corrupted the moment the demonic energy directly touched and even faster if it should hold the energy and emit a specific aura. From talking with some senior blacksmiths, it was almost impossible to work with the metal. Ocilia didn't know why, but making a plaque, which also looked good, needed highly skilled blacksmiths, which they didn't have.

Only those close to the household had it, a typical sign of close retainers. Even Ocilia had one, but she never used it, thinking it would come over as rude, using her Master's household name for unimportant things.

The owl-kin opened his already big eyes even wider while the feathers on his wings began to ruffle out of stress. Maurice looked at him like he was ready to kill him the moment he said something wrong, "Tell the other guests to fuck off. I have no urge to change the hotel because some bastards think that having a passionate discussion is too much for their small brains."

The owl-kin bowed down and immediately apologized, "My deepest apology!" He went away without saying a word. Everyone around them started to gossip and whisper. Some even immediately left.

Such a reaction was typical, and the gossip would quickly spread. Since the Leonandra household ruled this fief, their retainers were practically their extensions, and their behavior represented their Masters.

The positives were that they could act much more freely. Yet, when Ocilia's parents learned what happened, her Mother would scream and reprimand her. At the same time, her Master would laugh at her for acting as she did, even though she didn't do anything. Regardless of her behavior, being associated with a group was the same as approving such conduct, so she would need to look out for it. However, her current group wasn't something she could choose.

The others weren't better off. Ocilia knew Maurice would get beat up by Cross if he ever found out about this, and Salyna would probably also reprimand Aurum heavily. It was only outside the guard household circle where nobles and their retainers could behave like thugs in their territory without worry. However, the Lord, and especially the Lady, was stringent regarding their conduct.

For example, if Ocilia stole goods, she could expect to pay compensation should this ever come out. Much worse would happen if she dared to threaten the one she stole from. She could expect to get beaten up and then punished. Yet, nobody needed to know about Maurice's cute outburst.

She smirked at him, "Small brains?"

Maurice shrugged, putting the plaque back into his pocket, "I am not a pro in insulting others. Cut me some slack."

Aurum laughed out loud, "Haha! This will be fun."

Ocilia looked at him and back at Maurice, "Is he going crazy?"

Maurice looked at her while Aurum tried to get air as he laughed too much. He solemnly said, "Huh, we are here for Master's dealings and need to make a good impression somehow, but I guess we already failed, so..."

Aurum interrupted him after calming down, "Good impression? Why? You are right, fuck them. Ocilia will crawl through sewers, and I am about to work with what..." He opened his arms wide and looked at all the wealthy people around him, "...they see as the lowest of the low. We have gold and status, so everything they say, we can ignore fully."

Ocilia stood up and looked at Aurum, "Now I like you more. The arrogance is something Master's servants should show..." She turned around and was about to walk away to her room, but turned back, "...now if you excuse me, posh-boy, I need some sleep before I crawl through shit water so I can buy badly made manuals for a Master who will use it, to blow himself up with."

As she was leaving the restaurant and towards her room, she heard what Aurum said, "I fucking hate her..." However, she could hear the smile in his voice.

There was something her Master was able to do, and it was to bring the worst out of everyone. There was barely any conduct for his close ones: Cursing, fighting, insulting, everything was not only okay, but her Master even wished for it as he was exemplary of such behavior.

Till now, even though Aurum was straightforward to their Master, it wasn't the case for others. So, coming out of his shell and insulting a whole restaurant of wealthy merchants and even minor nobles was a sign that he slowly became a genuine servant of their Master.

Arrogance and pride. Even her parents slowly changed and started to look down on others. Even knowing the other personal maids, they were the same and flaunted the same attitude when they visited Wolfsteeth or even at the estate.

Others knew they were Alexander's servants, and the rumors about them weren't flattering. The bad reputation built slowly up, but nobody cared as they felt superior to everyone else. Not because of status or wealth, no. It was because they got more powerful, more competent, and better at what they were doing.

Their Master shared everything with them: Magic, training methods, tricks to successfully go through skill tests, and much more. There were no secrets. When they became closer to their Master, they developed a drive to improve. Their levels increased faster, tests became more straightforward, and new passions were discovered, which they followed with delight: They changed and saw themselves as more sophisticated in comparison to those who lazed around all day.

It was an incredible high, which only got faster the more their Master discovered things to share with. Being less than proud of their accomplishments would be an insult to him.