After leaving Briego’s house, Sarina walked onto the road, heading toward the Fang house. On her way, she didn’t encounter any guards or mishaps. She arrived at the small front garden, made her way to the main door, and, with the spare key she had brought along, opened it very slowly to ensure the door didn’t squeak.

  After closing the door, she placed the key on the keyholder and then made her way to her room. Sarina’s room was located on the left side near the entrance. Going further down, one would find Kylina and Lisa’s rooms. Beyond that was the kitchen. On the right side of the house, the Matron’s room and the domestic hall were stationed.

  Sarina treaded lightly on the wooden floor. Shortly after, she opened the door to her small room.

  It had been about an hour since she had left the house.

  Sarina walked to her cabinet and changed into her white nightgown before lying on the bed and falling asleep soundly. After a long day of working and exercising, she was fatigued. It wasn’t long before she fell into the depths of her sleep.

  …

  The next day.

  “This morning, a cute little bird came to my window. Once I realized, I opened the window and caressed it. I thought of going to the kitchen to fetch some pieces of bread, but once I arrived, it was nowhere to be seen,” Kylina spoke with a tinge of disappointment as she motioned a spoonful of oatmeal into her mouth.

  Sarina finished swallowing her food. “Maybe it will appear again if you leave some food for it beforehand.”

  “Hopefully.” Kylina sighed as she took a light sip from her tea.

  The maids had woken up and reported to the Matron. After she gave the briefing for the day, the maids quickly brewed some tea and made oatmeal for breakfast. Now, they sat at a round wooden table, speaking leisurely while eating.

  “What species was it?” Lisa chimed in, placing her cup down.

  Having swallowed her food, Kylina replied, “I don’t know. I’m not versed in birds, Lisa.”

  Lisa smiled: “I recently bought a book about animals. It includes all species, genus, and more.”

  Kylina sparked up with a little interest. Seeing this, Lisa continued, “It seems you're interested. As your big sister, I'm inclined to help my juniors. Haha, with just a small fee, I can lend you the book.”

  Kylina lost all her interest in that moment, rolling her eyes and changing the topic.

  “Talking about animals, Sarina, what's your favorite? Mine has to be puppies—they're so cute!”

  Sarina was about to eat a spoonful of oatmeal. She stopped with the spoon in mid-air and was about to reply when Lisa snarkily added, “You know, puppies aren’t an animal—you mean dogs. As your big sister, I might shed a tear from what I just heard. Maybe if you read my book—”

  Kylina cast her a quick side glance, clearly telling her to shut up.

  Sarina spoke, “If I were to pick my favorite animal, it would be rabbits.” Sarina replied briefly without much thought. She had never considered what her favorite animal could be, so she just chose one that was considered cute by the public.

  Kylina placed her free left hand on her chin and nodded approvingly. “Excellent choice. They are so adorable. I just want to pinch their cheeks. I find it funny how they can rotate their ears at will.”

  “You know rabbits can rotate their ears up to a two hundred and seventy-degree angle to hear predators.”

  Sarina shook her head: “She won’t read your book, Lisa.”

  “What she said.”

  Lisa suddenly raised her voice and spoke passionately. “The clan must shut down that evil bookstore! How is a book worth three pieces of mana stones? Ridiculous!”

  “Then why did you buy it…” Kylina quietly muttered to herself.

  Clap clap

  Lisa clapped twice and cleared her throat. “Anyways, let's eat a bit faster. We need to do some restocking and buy some herbs for Lady Matilda. And, of course, most importantly of all, tea leaves, you know how the Matron gets.”

  The two maids laughed lightly before speeding up the rate at which their spoons left their bowls and into their mouths, sipping their tea quickly.

  After eating, Lisa and Sarina went toward the food market. On the list the Matron wrote, they needed to buy: celery, onions, tomatoes, spinach, five pounds of beef, three pounds of fish…

  In total, they spent five pieces of mana stones. For a large family such as the Fang family, five pieces of mana stones were chump change, but for a regular mortal, five pieces of mana stones, if spent well, could last three months without the need to work.

  They made their way through the various stands. Mortals, as well as some maids, shopped alongside them. The street where the food market was located wasn’t full, but it held a good handful of people. Every five steps, there would be a person.

  After examining the goods and comparing them to the list, they nodded.

  “This should be all of it,” Sarina said, holding four bags, two in each hand.

  “Now to the butchery. Hm, Sarina, the bags look quite heavy for a lady to carry alone. Let me help you.” Lisa was concerned to see this girl, no taller than 170 centimeters, carrying heavy bags. It looked like she would fall at any moment. Oftentimes, it was Lisa who would do more of the heavy lifting, making her junior rely on her due to her slightly superior physique. She now found it strange that Sarina took the initiative and held onto the bags.

  Sarina was using this opportunity to strengthen her body. Holding the bags with correct posture would activate a myriad of muscles, including the shoulders, upper back, arms, and core.

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  She shook her head. “I appreciate the help, but I’m really fine. As maids, we lift heavy objects daily. This is a good opportunity to strengthen a bit. Plus, I can’t always trouble you.” Sarina served her a decent excuse to make Lisa less worried.

  Lisa dismissed her worries slightly, understanding Sarina’s purpose, but added, “If you're on the brink of losing your grip, just tell me.”

  After receiving the meat, Lisa and Sarina walked on the cobblestone road, one holding two bags and the other four. After walking through some streets, they arrived at the house, placing down the newly bought goods.

  Sarina wrapped pounds of meat in a leaf and placed it in the cooler artifact, as well as some vegetables. Not all of it needed to be stored in the cooler artifact, so she placed the rest neatly in baskets on the kitchen island at the center of the kitchen.

  It was still early in the morning. Breakfast needed to be served. Kylina joined in, and the three maids began to cook.

  They prepared a simple creamy broccoli soup alongside some buttered bread, with eggs and cheese on the side. Before breakfast was ready, they notified the young masters before they departed for the academy.

  “What a pity that Master Hector stopped you right before the Wind Blade would strike the mannequin,” Paul spoke in disappointment.

  “Right, perhaps making him suffer backlash was a little too much for his taste. Before, he didn’t even care about the competition. It just seemed like he was enjoying a good show.” Melissa then motioned a spoonful of broccoli soup into her mouth.

  Jinto wasn’t too bothered about being cut off. He was going to win anyway. It showed the students that he had the capabilities to win against Gent. As for what they thought of him for going about it in such a way, Jinto only cared slightly. It was fair to say that his reputation had somewhat changed—now, the students would view him as some snake-like guy. But Jinto thought that as long as he showed his goodwill to the students, they would forget it. Furthermore, some youths knew about Gent’s rampant personality, so Jinto handling of the situation left them with a sweet taste in their mouths.

  Jinto placed an egg on his toast and, with a spoon, smeared some of the soup, drenching the egg and toast slightly as he put out his thoughts. “I'm guessing that as a Master in charge of students, he has to be wary of such incidents. Although it's a shame Gent won’t be able to fulfill his part of the bet, his humiliation was shown in front of everybody.”

  Paul had already mostly finished his bowl of soup. With both hands, he chugged it until nothing was left before saying, “Haha, hearing ‘Master Jinto’ coming from his mouth would be comedy gold.”

  “Now we have to be vigilant. That bastard might just come seeking revenge. Well, it’s not like it matters—one against three. Our odds are quite good. I doubt that prestigious Olsen would even trouble himself to help Gent,” Melissa gave a quick assumption.

  “Revenge? Poor fella is probably in bed as of now, recovering from the backlash, haha.” Paul couldn’t contain his laughter, imagining the scene of Gent lying in bed.

  Melissa gave a devious smirk: “It would serve him right.”

  “Anyways, it was all thanks to Sarina, who gave me some guidance.” Jinto looked back to his left, where Sarina was idly standing by.

  Lisa and Kylina raised their eyebrows in curiosity but didn’t say anything, as it would be rude to speak while the young masters ate.

  “Thank you for your praise, young master.” Sarina bowed in turn.

  Melissa agreed: “I must say, Sarina, you really are quite capable. Being able to deduce how a spell could work without even being a magician? It was brilliant.”

  Paul swallowed his food before singing more praises. “If it weren’t for you, this lad here would be a personal assistant for some bastard. Jinto, you should just get on your knees and bow in thanks.”

  Sarina bowed even deeper with embarrassment. “Young master Paul! I—I can’t imagine such a scene.”

  The curious maids grew even more curious about what Sarina had done. Isn’t this scene too ridiculous? A mortal servant being praised by magicians, none other than the young masters of this household? They simply couldn't imagine it in their wildest dreams.

  Melissa snarkily said, “Yes, good idea, Paul. Bow three times, each time devote yourself deeper and—”

  Jinto looked at them with a slightly annoyed expression.

  “Just stop.”

  After some more chatting, they finished their breakfast and headed towards the academy.

  The maids swiftly began to clean the table, placing the dishes on the cart.

  “Ahem, so Sarina, mind telling us what just happened?” Kylina couldn't contain her curiosity any longer. As soon as they left, she erupted.

  Lisa perked her ears while remaining quiet.

  Sarina laughed in embarrassment.

  “It’s nothing, really. I just gave some pointers to young master Jinto. I saw that something was troubling him, so I assisted by providing another perspective. As for his realization, it came on his own will. I simply just added a few of my opinions,” Sarina explained. Internally, she was very glad of how Jinto did things. He explained to Paul and Melissa that she had helped him and even praised her publicly in front of the maids.

  It was safe to assume that this young master abided by a strong moral code, and now Sarina enjoyed the benefits of it.

  “By the way he spoke, you must have provided crucial help. Wait. Isn’t this how romance happens? A handsome man finds himself in trouble, but then a beautiful young lady comes and helps him out of the mud. After some time, they realize they have feelings for each other, and at the climactic ending of their final goodbye, they reunite!” Kylina daydreamed.

  “With such imagination, you should be an author.” Sarina, with a cloth, started to clean the table.

  Lisa shared her thoughts. “Kylina, the broke author—I can really see it! But Sarina, it seems you gained young master Jinto’s favor and even earned young master Paul’s and young miss Melissa’s acknowledgment. It seems I might have to call you big sister Sarina in the future.”

  Sarina’s face flushed red. “I'm embarrassed when you say it like that.”

  …

  The maids had finished their day. After a day of cooking, cleaning, laundry, decorating, and attending to young miss Lily and the other ladies, night finally descended.

  After chatting in the domestic hall, the maids bid farewell to each other.

  Sarina entered her room, stretched, and continued her routine exercise. She opened the window to let the nightly breeze ease her sweat, and after waiting a while, she snuck out of her room.

  She went down the hall and shortly arrived at a simple wooden door she was all too familiar with.

  Sarina grabbed the handle and turned it slowly. With slight force, she pushed the door open.

  After pushing the door slowly to not create any noise, she saw the scene before her—it was the sleeping Kylina, covered by a bedsheet. She slept soundly on her side, in a fetal position. She wore a nightgown similar to Sarina’s, with a bonnet on her head.

  Sarina made her way in, placing the toes of her foot first on the floor, then slowly rolling her feet until her heel touched the ground. Walking this way made almost no sound.

  She headed towards the small desk, just like the one in Sarina’s room. She arrived in front of it. Not seeing what she was looking for, she pushed one out of the three compartments of the desk.

  The compartment contained two ink containers and a quill. Quietly she placed it back, opening the second. She then found a sole book in it. Sarina grabbed it, then closed the compartment.

  She quietly made her way out of the room, closing the door. Separating Kylina’s room from the hall.

  Sarina made her way to her room. After closing the door she made her way into her desk and sat down on the wooden chair. She opened the book, and read over it.

  Many of Kylina’s most mundane thoughts to her desires were written. Sarina didn’t care much about the contents of it; she studied Kylina’s handwriting. She tore an empty page, and started to copy it. She used the content of the book as reference while she tried to imitate it.

  She carefully examined Kylina’s letter size, slant of the words, quill pressure, their shape, and spacing. With those factors in mind, Sarina was confident to imitate Kylina’s handwriting almost perfectly.

  She practiced on a spare sheet of paper after jotting down a two page word of contents, she was satisfied with the results.

  She tore another page and, using Kylina’s writing style, began to write a letter.