Veronique looked at her dogs in shock, sure they were still small and their barking was kind of cute.

  Mr. Jerkings was also backing in terror, the scene of the grown man cowering towards a small dog had always made her laugh at the expense of the poor fool in her past life, but she found it impossible to laugh in this moment.

  All she could see was an older version of Phobos being decapitated with the single stoke of a sword and Deimos getting stabbed through its back as it tried to come hide behind her out of fear.

  It was just a flash, probably the fruit of her own grim imagination, but a grim reminder that she needed to straight up this behavior immediately.

  “Shut it!” Veronique shouted out putting herself between her dogs and the butler

  “You two should be ashamed of yourselves!” her voice had gotten a deeper commanding tone, one that she had never used till that moment, which had instantly made the dogs stop barking.

  “Bad dogs” Veronique had deadpanned her face stone cold serious, Mos and Bos immediately lowered their ears and started crying as they went to hide under her bed.

  “Now Mr Jerkings” Veronique addressed the butler, who was looking at her in awe as if in that moment he saw something that made his whole world view of her change.

  “Don’t you think we made father wait enough?” she really needed an excuse to get out of her room before she caved and went to comfort her dogs.

  “Sure” Mr Jerkings was quick to regain his composure

  “Follow me my Lady” he politely bowed and addressed her before leading the way to the Duke’s study.

  Veronique had been too caught up in her thought to notice the change in behavior

  ‘Yelling at them broke my heart’ she thought ‘But it’s for their own good’

  ‘I can’t let them get away with acting like that’ Veronique shock her head as if to cancel that horrible vision of her dogs’ death

  ‘Not like I did with her’ she remembered how she was completely clueless on how to raise a dog properly and how that made her absolutely mess up with her little one training.

  Not that the people around her made it easier, who is a ten-year-old supposed to know how to train a dog? She almost killed it once with chocolate because she didn’t know it was poisonous to them.

  However, that will never be an excuse for her negligence when she got older and its not an excuse now.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  She needed to inform herself and be a responsible owner this time around.

  “Mr Jerkings, do we have a library?” Veronique asked, expecting an affirmative answer but she wanted to be sure

  “Of course, my Lady” Mr Jerkings had responded

  “May you accompany me here after this meeting?” she tried to be as formal as possible as she understood it was something highly valued in this society.

  “Unfortunately, as the head butler I have other duties to attend, but I will personally pick someone to assist you” came the regretful answer

  “Fine, that will be acceptable but make it quick” Veronique poorly masked her disappointment and tried to keep being polite.

  ‘I must start Bos and Mos training as soon as possible’ she thought with renovated determination, but first she got to deal with the Duke.

  She fished her brain for some information about the man that she may have read in passing, it must have count for something that he kept Veronique around for that long after she went crazy…or maybe it was just what it was expected of him to do?

  Did the Duke had to keep Veronique’s crazy under wraps so it wouldn’t bring dishonor to his house or some bullshit like that?

  Her superficial read didn’t include any information about what happened the Aurelia after Veronique was sent to the mental asylum and thinking about it she can’t even trust what she read 100% because it was from a fan website where everyone could edit everything.

  She frowned.

  What if all she knew was a big fat lie?

  “We reached the Duke’s study Lady Veronique” Mr Jerkings had declared, interrupting her thoughts, as they reached an ornate double door.

  “Thank you, Mr Jerkings” Veronique responded back trying to keep speaking formally or break her composure as she caught sight of the jaw dropping corpse standing by the door and giving her the thumbs up while the half corpse that usually circled around her no stop was moving aside.

  A quick glance around showed the rest of her grim visions were up the usual stuff, so what was this about? Usually they all kept to their routine like NPCs in a videogame.

  Did those two change it or something?

  “May I advise her ladyship to keep this formal tone with the Duke?” the butler had suggested to her, breaking her from her musings and setting her back to the task ahead, he had acknowledged the attempt, despite how clumsy it must have been as the redhead was sure that even if she nailed the correct words her body language must have broken all the proper rules those nobles must have.

  “I will keep that in mind” Veronique said, even if what she truly meant that she will try as she already doesn’t know how she was supposed to correctly address the Duke and was still debating on it as she made her way inside the office.

  It wasn’t overly illuminated, the curtain were keeping most of the light out, but not enough to make it dark and it also wasn’t overly fancy as one would assume it should be.

  It was a mere office, practical and serving its purpose with few embellishments to stay up to the standards for a noble house.

  Full bookshelves flaked the walls, artworks were placed in between them as if to break the space, Veronique couldn’t focus on them besides acknowledging them a portraits as her full attention had to be towards the head of the House.

  There at an ornate and polished wooden desk was a man with lavender hair and deep ocean blue eyes, a well kept beard framed his face but wasn’t prominent.

  “Father you called for me?” Veronique had decided to greet him this way, after all she was his daughter what could go…

  ‘Eh what’s with that glare?’ she immediately regretted her decision as she was meet with what she could only describe as the evil eye.

  “Veronique, Miss Hawkings has notified me of your disrespectful behavior” the Duke went right to the point, his voice even but severe.

  The right balance to portrait authority and respect.

  “Explain yourself before I decide your punishment”