Chapter 101 "I'm afraid I won't find a good husband..."
I gave her a forced smile. At the pawnshop entrance, she suddenly said, "Last night, Madam and Master had a fight. Master blamed Madam for not managing the household finances well, nor for her daughter. Now they can't even find a tutor, and their daughter is about to turn fourteen and enter society. Madam cried half the night. If you go and try now, perhaps Madam will take you in."
An hour later, led by the kind maid, I arrived at the noblewoman's magnificent and warm drawing room. The heavily made-up lady leaned back in an old armchair, her face haggard, her eyes swollen, as if she had been crying for a long time.
After hearing my more complete self-introduction, she said, "You said you speak the Elven language. I happen to have a book of Elven poetry. Can you read it to me?"
After I finished reading, she asked me to introduce myself in Elvish. Although she couldn't understand it, she listened to me with great interest.
"How did you learn this language?" she asked.
“I once traveled with a caravan and taught the caravan leader’s daughter.” I made up the story without batting an eye. “We met some elves who were doing business, and we got along quite well with them. That’s how I learned a little something.”
"How long have you been learning? From your explanation just now, you didn't seem very fluent."
I wasn't very fluent in it. I usually spoke the language of the Eastern Frontier with the elves, and sometimes I alternated between the Eastern Frontier language and the elven language, so I wasn't very familiar with it. But at the time, it didn't have much of an impact on my life, because the elves I spoke with were all of high status, and they all spoke the language of the Eastern Frontier.
I nodded. "Because I've only been doing this for about six months, I'm not very proficient yet, but I still know the basics."
She hesitated for a long time, but finally agreed to hire me.
I was overjoyed and moved into the noblewoman's house that very night. Of course, I also asked the noblewoman for an advance on my salary to pay the landlord the rent for that period of time.
The noblewoman's daughter is named Ianne, a reserved and shy little girl, but once you get to know her, she will become very lively in your presence.
Besides teaching her the Elven language, I also taught her mathematics.
“She must excel in mathematics,” her mother, the heavily made-up noblewoman, told me. “No nobleman would want to marry her if she can’t keep accounts, manage the household finances, or even the family’s finances.”
Ianie was indignant. "If I can't get married, I can't get married. I don't care about getting married."
His mother was furious: "What do you know? If you can't marry a good man, we have no status in this family. Your father's heart is always with his mistress."
Ianie pursed her lips and stopped talking.
Afterwards, Ianie said to me, "Isn't it normal for a man's heart to be with his mistress? All men love their mistresses, not their wives."
Before I could say anything, she continued, "For example, our king, Duke Abdul, and Prince Bernard, who is most popular with women, aren't they all more fond of their wives?"
"Did Prince Bernard have many mistresses?" I asked curiously.
“So many,” she said enthusiastically. “Four ordinary mistresses and one chief mistress, haha, all the mistresses are so beautiful, but the chief mistress is the most beautiful. I think being a mistress is pretty good, much more favored than being a wife, and men only treat mistresses well.”
"Because they can't give a mistress the title, they can only compensate with pampering. Otherwise, why would anyone be willing to be with him?" I said calmly.
"Why don't you want to?" she asked defiantly.
“There is no dignity,” I said. “They are just men’s playthings.”
She dismissed it with disdain, saying, "A mistress is not a plaything; she is a man's master, and men listen to their mistresses."
I didn't say anything more.
As winter deepened, it snowed almost every day. Iani loved to play, enjoy building snowmen in the snow and having snowball fights with the maids, but disliked studying and reading. Her mother had to yell at her every day to get her to sit at her desk.
Not every child is a top student, nor does every child love reading; this is something I deeply feel.
Amidst the swirling snowflakes, Iani was playing hide-and-seek with her maids when the noblewoman, standing at the second-floor window, called me up.
“I need your identification and a letter of recommendation from at least one nobleman,” the noblewoman said. “I was very busy recently and didn’t have time to ask you for it.”
"Okay," I replied respectfully.
As soon as I stepped out of the room, I pressed my temples, my head throbbing. Good heavens, where was I going to find identification and a letter of recommendation from a wealthy family? I made an excuse to go out and meet the old lady from the employment agency.
The old lady said that the full set would cost at least 500 gold coins, "200 gold coins for identification and 300 gold coins for a letter of recommendation from a nobleman."
"So expensive!" I exclaimed in astonishment.
"There's nothing we can do about it, that's the going rate." The old lady took a drag of her cigarette.
I sense she's unhappy that I found a new job on my own. Her job-finding business is based on referrals; if everyone found jobs independently like I did, would she still be able to continue? Therefore, she won't help unless I offer a high price.
Dejected, I walked along the snow-covered street, looking up at the swirling snowflakes. Why does fate always have to torment me like this? Can't it just let me have a few days of peace?
I tossed and turned all night, barely sleeping, and stood at the window in a daze before dawn.
During the first class in the morning, Iani was a little absent-minded and misspelled several Elvish words during the dictation.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"I'll be fourteen next week, Miss Lana, and I'll be attending a social ball soon. It's just a low-level noble ball, but I'm still so nervous."
"Why?"
"I'm afraid I won't find a good husband. What if my husband only likes his mistress?"
"You can also like yourself and be kinder to yourself."
"That's easy for you to say," Ianie muttered. "Maybe I should become a mistress too. Being a wife is exhausting. You have to manage the household, and if you don't manage it well, you get beaten up."
"Get beaten up?" I was surprised.
“My mother is often beaten by my father. By the way, you haven’t met my father yet. He lives with his mistress and hardly ever comes home. But when he does come home, he argues with my mother and beats her. I’m so scared that I only dare to stay in my room.”
We were silent for a moment. To ease the tension, I asked again, "Your first social dance must have been quite a grand affair, right?"
“Of course.” Iani became excited again. “Many nobles will be attending, although not the highest-ranking nobles, but still quite a lot. It is said that Prince Bernot’s head lady-in-waiting will also be attending this year. She just married a head guard whose father is a baron, so she is considered a noblewoman. Many noble ladies and young misses want to befriend her, hoping to make an appearance in front of Prince Bernot and have their names mentioned occasionally.”
My heart skipped a beat. "What's the name of this head maid?"
Long ago, when Princess Yanni heard me say that my name was Salin, she laughed and said that there was also a head maid named Salin in Bernot.
“Saling, are you also interested in this manager?” Ianie asked curiously.
It really is Sharin! I was secretly surprised.
Ianie added, "But she won't introduce you to Prince Bernot; she wouldn't even look at ordinary noblewomen."
“That would be perfect,” I said.
On the night of the social ball, I had no choice but to do the same thing I did in the Elven Realm: I put a laxative in Iani's personal maid's tea. The maid had an upset stomach and couldn't go, so the noble lady temporarily replaced her with me.
On the carriage, the noblewoman brought up the matter of identification and recommendation letters again. “They’re on their way,” I said. “My relatives back home have already sent them to me.”
She then fell silent.
Amidst the wind and snow, the carriage quickly entered a beautiful avenue, covered with lush greenery and filled with colorful flowers that wouldn't wither even in the snow. There were also numerous guards standing watch on both sides of the avenue.
“This is where the higher-class nobles and wealthy people live,” Ianie whispered in my ear.
"So beautiful!" I whispered in admiration.
After traveling a short distance, the carriage stopped in front of a tall, pointed-roofed house with a red roof, blue bricks, and walls covered in ivy. The garden had a large lawn, and although it was covered in snow, it still looked very impressive. At first glance, it resembled a villa inhabited by old-money nobles in 18th-century England.
The three of us stepped into the house, and a beautifully dressed servant opened the carved door for us.
A dazzling crystal chandelier, a magnificent red carpet, a long table covered with a white tablecloth, laden with exquisite and fragrant food, bottles of fine wine, and delicate and unique glass goblets.
Although it was a banquet hall for lower-ranking nobles, it was many times more beautiful than the banquet hall of the former Bernot fiefdom. I stared at it in awe for quite a while.
The musicians were playing music merrily, and a group of elegantly dressed men and women were dancing, their wide skirts and hems gliding across the soft carpet, dazzlingly beautiful.
Ianie found her childhood playmate and ran over to her, laughing. The noblewoman gestured for me to follow.
I am now Ianne's personal maid, and must be by her side at all times.
Iani and her companion sat in a corner, eating fruit and chatting, discussing court gossip at length. I, however, was listening to two nobles talking not far away:
"I heard that the two elven kingdoms are about to go to war."
"Where did these two elven kingdoms come from?"
"You don't know?" A nobleman laughed exaggeratedly. "Of course, this new elven kingdom has only been established for less than half a month, so it's normal that you don't know."
“Oh, tell me about it.” Another nobleman, extremely interested, leaned closer.
"After the previous king of the Elf Kingdom, Daio, fled like a stray dog, he established a new kingdom called Achia with the help of his uncle, the most powerful elder in his mother's family. Achia was the name of Daio's great-grandmother, who once led her people to live in a barrier. They named the new kingdom this to highlight their status as the direct descendant and to imply that the current Elf king's bloodline was impure."
The two nobles laughed simultaneously. The one who spoke first continued, "Speaking of which, where did this Kingdom of Achia get its fortune from? Or has it been secretly accumulating wealth all along? Not only has it used its wealth to build legions and buy mercenaries, but it has also used its mineral resources to cultivate relationships with powerful figures from various countries and form alliances. In fact, if the two elven kingdoms were to go to war, the former elven kingdoms might not necessarily have the upper hand. Achia has two massive legions and mercenaries, and it has also won the support of the eastern, western, and northern borders. Haha, this war is going to be a long one."
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Author's Note: Happy National Day everyone! There will be an extra chapter for National Day, and another one at noon!
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