Miss Hawkings’ Study

  It seemed pointless to keep posing questions on the matter as she had an inkling suspicion on the answer but she did it anyway

  “What are side effects?” Veronique wanted to know if she was right in her hunch ‘I bet they stopped doing it because it had an adverse effect on the noble’

  “If too many bonds were made with the same person, that person would end up being drained to an early grave” Miss Hawkings had answered and bingo it was exactly as the redhead had thought

  ‘Of course it went in disuse because it was bad to the one in power’ one could say it was a tale as old as time ‘I am glad it didn’t actually work, I don’t want Kain to die’

  “would the cuffs still work with Alexander?” Rhea had suddenly asked “I know the Duke is not his Dad”

  “No, the cuffs wouldn’t work with Lord Alexander” the woman had replied “they only work with Aurelia’s blood descendants”

  “But isn’t he the heir?” Veronique found it a little weird that such thing wasn’t a bigger deal

  “That would be correct, but the cuffs are merely a symbol now so it’s not a great loss” Miss Hawkings didn’t seem to put importance on it, so maybe it wasn’t as important as Veronique thought it was.

  Yet it opened up other questions in her head

  “But what’s an Artifact exactly?” she had asked “what’s stopping the Duke from just having another cuffs made so it would work with Alexander?”

  “Such thing would be impossible” the woman had said with finality before she elaborated on it “the Unique Skills used to make those cuffs died with their maker, it’s the whole reason Artifacts are so priceless, there is only a limited number that can be made with a specific combination of Unique Skills and the process to imbue an object with a Skill is not easy”

  “So once the person with the Unique Skill kneels over they are going to increase in price?” Veronique guessed ‘kind of like art pieces’ she made the comparison in her head

  “Yes, if as you put they kneel over, then the Artifact would have an increase in value” Miss Hawkings confirmed even if she clearly disapproved the phase Veronique had used and speaking of such “that aside I heard that Lady Veronique said an interesting word during the duel”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “Err I don’t know what you are talking about” Veronique attempted to play dumb, but she already knew she was screwed from the moment the older woman had brought it up.

  “Really? Then the Duke has been lying to me?” those next words had just confirmed it “You are lucky your blunder went mostly unnoticed due to the duel”

  “…wait if you already knew what had happened why did you ask us to tell you?” the redhead had pointed out, knowing Miss Hawkings didn’t enjoy losing time out of her lessons

  “ Why not? You think your point of view to be so uninteresting?” Miss Hawkings had responded “Besides this way I ended up filling up some holes in both of your knowledges”

  “What did Veronique do wrong?” Rhea had suddenly said

  “She said an unladylike word” Miss Hawkings had been vague about it, but this just made the child think harder to guess herself

  “Was it ass?” she had said with a sweet smile, at which Veronique ended up almost chocking from holding back her laugher

  “Lady Rhea don’t ever repeat such word” Miss Hawkings wasn’t amused and she was outright glaring at Veronique

  “Okay” Rhea had agreed even if she didn’t understand what was going on.

  “As of you Lady Veronique” she addressed the redhead directly “I believe you need a little condensed review about the proper manners of a lady” and at that Veronique groaned already knowing she was about to get bored to death.

  Outer Garden, Woods

  Dressed in a simple clothes that were now a bit small on him, a figure was taking the route to the exit of the Aurelia Estate using the woods to avoid the shame of being seen walking the main road.

  Noah had ended up carrying his possessions in the satchel hanging on his waist, he hadn’t even realized most of what he had thought of his was actually propriety of the Aurelia and as of his salary it had always gone straight to his family.

  He ended up with nothing but the clothes he had when he crossed that gate with his father the first time.

  In truth it was even less because he had no intention of showing up his face back to his family, no doubt the tales of his shame would end up reaching them soon, probably sooner then he could reach them on foot.

  His father would no doubt beat him to death over the shame, how could the son he had trained lose to an Undead?

  He had no idea on what to do now.

  Noah had given his body and soul ever since he had started to crawl to become a Knight, even when Commander Regulus kept hammering down on him he had never given up, and his perseverance had rewarded him with being a Knight of Aurelia.

  Only for everything to go to shit because he couldn’t keep his emotions in check, but how could he? His own ceremony was shared with twenty more, there wasn’t a crowd from all over the Estate watching and only the Duke had been present.

  It was nothing compared to what Kain had got, everyone wanted to go to his ceremony after his heroics in keeping Lady Rhea and Lady Veronique safe.

  Daryl died for the same goal and people were already forgetting him.

  It felt like a spit to the face and Noah couldn’t keep himself at check to swallow the insult.

  All he could do now was hope the Royal Knights would let him join to act as a meat shield.

  “So kid are you really giving up?” a voice through the woods made Noah stop and reach for a sword he didn’t have anymore, he caught something being thrown to his head with his bare hand only to frown and look at it with puzzlement as he noticed what it was “What kid did you never see an apple before?” Noah’s eyes snapped forward, before him was no other Lady Veronique and Lady Rhea’s Skill instructor.