It was already dark when Avy arrived at the Estate, maybe around nine in the evening and most of the lights were already turned off, everyone must be on their bed after an exhausting day. Since the world she was currently in had magic as a substitute for electricity, she didn't have a hard time going home, aside from when she needed to walk out of the dark forest with only a small illumination stone that she brought with her.

"I hope no one notices my presence or I'm dead," she muttered, clutching the bag of materials she got and she crawled into the hole she also used to get out.

For a huge Duchy, the Arkwright estate seems to only have more than a dozen knights guarding the estate and only more than forty to fifty servants managing the place so Avy was able to sneak in easily.

"I'm hungry." She said and went straight to the kitchen, she hadn't eaten anything after eating breakfast which was like thirteen hours ago.

As expected, the servants already retired for the night and only the guard knights were awake. Since she was so careful not to get caught, she turned the illumination stone off before she stepped foot inside the kitchen, only the moonlight coming from the window guided her toward the pantry. The night is silent except for the footsteps she made.

*STAB*

Her heart stopped beating and she lost her voice to even scream when a knife suddenly came flying towards her, stabbing the wall next to her and barely missing her nose an inch.

"Speak your name."

~

Raux, a former assassin and the Arkwright Family's trusted Cook was on his way to his room when he heard light footsteps from the estate's hall. He wasn't supposed to be alarmed since it could belong to anyone living in the mansion, but the odd thing was, he wasn't able to feel any presence anywhere. If it was a servant, he would recognize it right away, but it is someone foreign and suspicious.

It was impossible for the knight to let someone in without receiving them at the front door, the Duchy's security is not a joke since only the highest and the strongest Knights handpicked by the Former Duke were assigned to guard the estate. The second Prince's guards were also added since it was more likely for someone opposing the imperial family to come and assassinate him.

He moved fast but quietly as ever, in able to not cause any panic, he should quickly eliminate the intruder and dispose of him as soon as possible. The lady of the House is quite sensitive and given her attitude, she might wake everyone up to search the surroundings and that would not be a good thing for the tired servants who worked all day.

He entered the kitchen and saw nothing but he was quick to move when he heard steps from the other side. He pulled a knife and threw it in the direction of the noise.

"Speak your name." He said coldly. Raux is a man of few words and he doesn't like talking, if this person turns out to be an assassin, he will take him out without any hesitation.

"Dang it."

A familiar voice was heard, Raux looked from left to right and went back to where he threw the knife. And there she was, the Miss came to light wearing commoner clothes.

"My lady?" he said.

"Who're you?"

"It is Raux, my lady." Raux went to switch on the illumination stone, giving light to everything inside the kitchen. He looked at Avy, she was pale. Of course, she would be. He threw a knife towards her, it's a good thing he purposely missed.

Avy sighed. "I'm not a thief or anything. I was just looking for something to eat." She stated, ignoring the fact that she went on another trip outside the walls.

But Raux chose to turn a blind eye to this matter.

"I will cook-"

"Don't bother. I must've interrupted your sleep."

"It is fine." He said.

"You sure?" he just nodded in response, more than a dozen words are enough for a day.

"Thank you then."

Odd.

It was odd for the Lady to act that way. The servants were right about her acting slightly differently from how she used to. But of course, Raux kept it to himself. For a quiet man, he tends to think about so many things but fails to voice it out.

On the other hand, Raux scared the living daylights out of Avy who was completely overwhelmed to even say that she was surprised. Fortunately, her heartbeat continued to go on when she knew that he wasn't going to kill her and dispose of her body like what she did that day to the first corpse she had seen in her whole life.

Her heart would not last if she experienced that every day. Watching the back of the man who almost killed her with a knife cooking food for her. Then she realized the clothes she was wearing, finally registered in her mind that she was found out.

"I don't care if you tell this to the Duke. It's not as if he will kill his daughter or anything," she said nonchalantly. She can always order Mariel to buy materials outside for her.

'Oh wait. How about the kid?'

"I will not, miss," Raux answered right away, his voice is forward but still respectful making Avy feel relieved a bit. It seems like he's not the type of person to lie, he doesn't even look like someone who would talk unless he's spoken to.

After a few minutes of waiting, Raux put the dish in front of the hungry girl who looked at it in awe. It was a combination of vegetables that almost looked like a salad but it had chunks of meat and undeniably mouth-watering sauce. It was indeed lavishly prepared.

She was famished, and of course, the food would taste good even if it was not, and Avy is too honest to compliment things that don't suit her standards.

"How long have you been holding a knife? It's exquisite," she praised, mouth half full.

"Twenty-four years."

"You must've started so young."

"I was fifteen when I learned how to cook." Avy was surprised that he started talking more, but she was more surprised that he was already in his forties since he definitely looked young.

"I thought you're just thirty at most, are you sure you're almost forty?" she told him, feeling comfortable because of the delicious food in her mouth. If Lucy was there, she would certainly take videos of her eating like she was starved for a week. Heck, she was devouring the food on the plate like it was cotton candy.

"I am thirty-one, my lady." it only took Avy a short five seconds to get what he meant. And of course, she paused, not only digesting the food but also the information she heard.

Raux has been working with knives ever since he was seven.

'Maybe I was mistaken.'

"It's a strange hobby." she continued eating.

"It was a job, but it is indeed strange."

Avy almost choked on the food after hearing those straightforward words. The former assassin didn't even hesitate to reveal and say something like that. She started hitting her chest and Raux immediately got her a glass of water.

When she finally pushed down the food, she looked at the tall man. "What do you do then? Chop bodies of something?" she said in a joking manner.

"Slitting the throat is cleaner and easier-"

"Like pigs and chicken?"

"People."

Her mouth gaped open and she didn't know why she was still surprised. She thought of him doing a job like assassination and being the hitman of the rich, of course! It was the world of fantasies. What does she expect?

"It's a good thing you became a chef instead," she muttered and just finished her meal, not a bit of appetite lost.

After eating everything on the plate, she stood up and grabbed her bag on the floor before turning back to the man and handing him something.

"My payment," she said.

"An apple." Raux stared at the fresh apple in his hand.

"Do you know that an apple a day keeps the doct- err healer away?"

"I don't quite understand how it works."

Avy snorted. "You can throw it hard when one approaches you."

"But it would be a waste-"

"Yes. Yes. I was just kidding. An apple a day is healthy for the body." she didn't give him any more glances and just walked away, back to her room, leaving the confused man behind.

Strange.

He has been serving the Arkwrights ever since he was in his early teens and the last time he saw the lady acting nicely, or relaxed, at the least was when she was a child, before their mother died. Is the lady perhaps coming back to her old self?

The lady is not naturally bratty and snobbish but due to the Duchess passing away, she was taken care of by a family full of males who don't know how to raise a female child. All they did was give her education, and the proper attention she needed and get her everything she wanted. She also grew up hearing the expectations of the high society since she is the only girl born in the famous Ducal House, causing her to hate the crowd and lock herself away from the people around her.

The old servants who watched her grow up were sent to all the other estates owned by the Family, replacing them with new ones who never knew why the small lady became who she is now and only a handful knew about it. Maybe it was the reason why she felt isolated even in her own home, choosing to stay inside her room, building had own world. As a child, she was supposed to be understood but instead, she was judged.

Now that she's older, she's not hoping to be understood anymore and she decided not to do it too, for she grew up with all the expecting eyes and judging gazes, and she felt that there was no need to do so.

Raux silently wished that the display of kindness he witnessed that night would last.

~~~

"Oh my goodness, My Lady! Thank God you made it back-"

"Tired. I'm going to sleep." Avy cut her maid off and put her bag down before throwing herself onto the bed. Mariel knew better than to interrupt her mistress' rest and decided to leave.

The dark-haired girl was beyond exhausted that she wasn't given a chance to recall everything that happened that day and drifted off to sleep almost immediately. Both her mind and her body were not accustomed to the sudden changes. She used to think about explainable things and do science projects without tiring her body too much, and she silently wished it would turn back to what it was before.

Not too long after her consciousness faded, she opened her eyes standing in the corner of what looks like the Estate's Hallway. A small girl with curly black hair wearing a fancy dress with a stuffed animal in her arms was standing a few meters away from her, all alone.

The little girl was staring at the enormous portrait of a woman on the wall. It was a woman with black noodle-like hair as hers, her eyes were strict and sharp but instead of red, they were bright violet.

After a few minutes of looking at the painting, the little girl finally decided to leave, Avy curiously followed her which led her to the front of the Estate's Main Hall. The girl slightly opened the door, she made a gap just enough for her to peek inside. And so she did the same.

"Is it true that the lady was not affected by the poison?" came from a noble inside, a few were talking to each other and their voices were loud enough for them to hear.

"They say poison was found in both of the Duchess and the Lady's tea cup but the Duchess was the only one who fell ill." one commented.

"How unfortunate."

"It should've been the Lady who died."

"Watch your mouth. The Duchess is still alive."

Avy's brows knitted together after hearing those words when she remembered the child was also listening. She looked down but she was unable to see her reaction.

"Avy?" she turned around only to see two young boys standing behind her. The older one was holding the hand of the younger who seemed to be just two or three years old.

She realized that it was not her who he was talking to, but the little girl.

"What are you doing here?" the young Ashton walked up to the girl since she did not move even after hearing his voice.

"The Lady is not needed, after all, the Duchy already has two sons, a daughter will not be of any use other than being sold off to marry."

Ashton had the same expression as her, he pulled his little sister's hand and led her away from the Main Hall. Avy was able to catch a glance of the small lady's face, distress was written all over it.

"Don't listen to them. Those brainless nobles only know how to talk nonsense."

"Will Mom become strong again if I die?" Ashton stopped in his tracks and looked back at his sister with a frown.

"Who told you that?" he asked, he was well aware of how their family's only girl is viewed in the social circles, and even as an eight-year-old, he was raised to understand things that most of the children his age won't be able to.

The nobles see her as a way to enter the house of the most powerful family in the empire that rivals the authority of the Imperial Family. Everyone in their family knows that, thus the reason why Avy was made aware of the people's intentions, she chose to keep her distance.

She grew up without friends.

"They said, It should've been me who died."