Mr Jerkings’s private quarters

  Mr Jerkings wished nothing more to be able to do anything about the current situation, but his hands were tied, putting Kaine as Veronique’s bodyguard was all he could do and he couldn’t even tell the Undead that he needed to keep an eye out specifically for Lucia to not raise alarms.

  Duchess Lucretia wanted to solve the matter personally and it drove him mad that there was a clear issue that he couldn’t deal with on the spot.

  He knew his composure was failing him over this and he needed to get a grip of himself soon before his performance dropped as well.

  Yet he couldn’t help but worry that his intervention could have made things worse for Lady Veronique, who seemed to have just started to try to behave properly, even if he was starting to doubt such thing due to what he heard she did over breakfast.

  Could the Lady have just played him like a fool?

  Music Room

  Veronique had tried to fix the small hole she left in garden to the best of her ability before she just asked Rhea to lead her to the Music room, or the sun room as the kid called it.

  She understood the nickname when they reached it, as it was quite an illuminated room with big arched windows depicting some story at the top of the window’s arch where the glass was arranged in a mosaic.

  ‘Ducks worshiping a human?’ she thought a bit puzzled by it, before she started to focus on the rest of room, which wasn’t small in the slightest and there wasn’t a doubt it was able to house an orchestra without problem.

  Well not one of the really big ones, but that didn’t matter.

  Veronique had no idea if the Aurelia did use the room to let their own an hypothetical orchestra practice or it was just a flex for personal use…thinking about it both things would be equally over the top and unnecessary, but at the least if they did have an orchestra some people would get a living.

  There were several musical instruments kept in the glass cabinets bordering all the walls but the one behind what she assumed would be the director’s spot.

  That one had bookshelves.

  ‘This whole place is so full of books everywhere that I wonder if some of those aren’t just fake’ Veronique wondered remembering it was a trend in her old world to use fake books as decoration ‘I doubt anyone there has ever read all of those’

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “Didn’t you want to read?” Rhea had pulled on Veronique’s dress to gather her attention

  “Oh sure, I was just wondering if anyone had ever read all of the books in the house, between those there and the ones in the library it just seems impossible” she voiced her thoughts

  “Mh I don’t know that, Miss Hawkings?” the kid turned to the old hag, who seemed more then pleased to answer

  “Lord Alexander is making quite an effort on that goal, but the books there are also in the Library with the exclusion of the antiquities, which are technically still present as a copy” she said

  “What about other the languages?” Veronique asked wondering if there were translations and fearing that she would be expected to learn several new languages in the future as part of her education.

  “Other languages? Both the Undead and the Avians have always adopted our language, even if those living far away from us have developed some quite incomprehensible dialect” Miss Hawkings disparagingly said her enthusiasm to answer to the redhead’s question visibly less.

  “We don’t have any other language?” she asked, stopping the urge to ask about the Avians.

  “If you are referring to the works of the Lost Civilizations those are exposed in open museums, only a despicable noble family would dare to keep them under lock and key in their own estates” Miss Hawkings explained expressing true disgust towards those unnamed families “The Aurelia has been able to donate to the public twelve of those priceless pieces of history” and finished the discourse with unshakable pride

  “What are they about?” Rhea asked curious

  “Nobody knows, the best scholars of Luminance are still working on translating them, it is quite a difficult work without a frame of reference” Miss Hawkings explained sounding a bit discouraged by such facts

  “I bet Alexander can do it” the kid pointed out with conviction, it made Veronique a bit jealous but she knew when she was out of her league…even if she wouldn’t admit it out loud

  “Yes, Lord Alexander is quite gifted” Miss Hawkings agreed then seeing the redhead sour expression added with an hint of a warning “Is there something you want to add, Lady Veronique?”

  “I was just wondering how it was possible for only one language to survive” she said mostly to diverge the discourse before she made a fool of herself

  “You really are hopeless” the old woman was exasperated “Oh for Luminance…in short centuries ago a great evil nearly wiped out humanity as whole, it was only due to the Lorens intervention that we were able to survive extinction and resist till the calamity of the Labyrinth passed”

  “The what?” the first thing Veronique thought of was the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, but she doubted that was related in the slightest.

  “It seems etiquette isn’t the only thing you are ignorant of…I will ask the Duke to assign you a tutor to help you remedy to it before you make a fool out of the whole Aurelia’s household” Miss Hawkings lightly insulted her and the only reason the redhead didn’t react was that Hanging Jaw and Clashing eyes had distracted her by putting themselves at the old hag’s sides with their arms in an X gesture, Veronique adverted her gaze as she noticed the woman followed her line of sight “Do you even remember your skills?” Miss Hawkings added leaning towards her with her arms on her hips

  “I have no idea what you are talking about” Veronique admitted growing angrier by the second but keeping her composure.

  “Fine, Lady Rhea will be due to her skill assessment next week, I guess since you got to tag along with us anyway you can redo yours, but you better take notes this time” the woman said as if she was doing her a favor of some sort.

  “Sure” Veronique said to make the matter drop, even if she had a lot of questions she didn’t want to give Miss Hawkings the satisfaction of answering them.

  “I can’t wait to know my skills!” Rhea was pulling on her arm again “I hope we match!”

  Veronique just nodded and mentally noted to ask Lucia what this skill thing was…assuming she survived Miss Hawkings’s upcoming lesson.