Lucia had just finished cleaning up the chaos the dogs had created when a knock alerted both her and Veronique of a visit.

  “Come in” Veronique called out, not even looking up from her book, she had read through about a quarter of it and was quite focused.

  “Lady Veronique” however hearing Mr Jerkings’s voice made her regretfully put the book down to pay full attention to him, that was when she noticed a quite peculiar type of Dead standing right next to the head butler, she looked at him in puzzlement as he was completely different from all the others.

  First thing he wasn’t a rotten corpse and she could tell it was a he, yet it didn’t seem as if he had skin in the conventional sense, there was some kind of skeletal look to him but he wasn’t a skeleton since there was some kind of flesh underneath the bones.

  It was as if someone was born with their bones on the outside and everything was kept together with some rough looking gray leather like skin.

  Another peculiar thing was the violet eyes with the black sclera, which popped a little thank to the bones around the orbits being more prominent and sharp then they should be.

  Also he was tall and bulky, yet not disproportional, Mr Jerkings only reached his shoulder and he was wearing some kind of leather armor, an halberd could be seen hanging from his back.

  Veronique was quite sure she had never seen anything like that and was puzzled on why her mind would conjure such thing in the first place, which meant she was outright staring at this peculiar hallucination, then Mos and Bos started barking wildly as he got closer

  “Eh?” Veronique said in confusion then recomposed herself thinking the dogs must have it out for Mr Jerkings again and acted to correct their bad behaviour “What did I tell you two?!” she scolded them as she faced the dogs with a severe expression, which she dropped the moment she noticed their frightened looks “What’s wrong?” she asked out as both dogs whimpered, Bos stood its ground despite the fear but Mos rushed to her legs for comfort

  “Fear not Lady Veronique, it is normal for animals to feel dread when they are not used to the presence of one of the Undead” Lucia explained as the redhead bent down to pick up Mos

  “One of the what?!” Veronique asked not sure if she understood it correctly, a cough made her switch her attention back to Mr Jerkings, Mos burying its face in her elbow as soon as she turned and the weird dead came into sight, while Bos moved to partially hide behind her legs and did its best to stare down at the threat

  “Lady Veronique, this is Kain your personal bodyguard” Mr Jerkings gestured straight to the hallucination, which Hanging Jaw choose this moment to walk through

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  “Wait you are real?!” Veronique asked out loud in surprise, at which Kain simply nodded in response not moving from his rigid on guard stance.

  “I take it you have never seen one of the Undead before” the butler said “I can assure you Kaine was handpicked from our knights and swore loyalty to our house” Veronique had no idea why Mr Jerkings seemed to want to reassure her of this fact.

  ‘Wait was there some racist…err specist shit going on?’ she thought not really sure of what word to use there

  “Sure…wait why do I need a bodyguard?” it has never been a need before and it didn’t seem as if even the servants were concerned over her so she doubted any assassin or kidnapper would ever have an interest in her.

  “It’s just the standard, Lucia there doesn’t look like a fighter” Mr Jerkings simply said, blatantly avoiding the question yet giving some weird look towards Lucia

  “Actually she’s really strong, she carried most of those herself without breaking a sweat” Veronique felt the need to defend Lucia’s skills, at which the maid blushed a little

  “I see, regardless it’s better to be safe then sorry” the butler insisted “who knows what kind of snakes are laying in wait to harm your person” he kept giving Lucia some bad looks, the redhead wondered what was it about

  “If you say so, but is it really necessary? he’s scaring my dogs” Veronique gave one good reason to have the guard dismissed, even if she felt a little bad as Kain seemed to deflate at her statement.

  She wondered if he got that a lot.

  “I am sure they will get used to his presence as time goes by” Mr Jerkings wouldn’t bulge “Duchess Lucretia had expressed concern for your well being so Kain is a necessary addition”

  “Fine…you got that schedule?” Veronique understood that there was nothing she could do about this if the order came from the Duchess, so she changed the subject to the dreaded lessons from the old hag as she wondered if despite her words the Duchess actually disliked Lucia and that was the reason now Mr Jerkings seemed to dislike her too.

  “Of course” he gave her the paper and she immediately felt her eyebrow twitch in displeasure

  “Those lessons start at 7 a.m?!” she exclaimed

  “Not exactly Miss Hawkings likes to keep an eye on how one behaves throughout the day to correct them later” Mr Jerkings explained “Why did you think she was accompanying Lady Rhea in the garden?”

  “Wait, so how this is going to work my day and Rhea’s day don’t align at all?!” this was simply a disaster

  “You will probably have to tag along Lady Rhea till the end of the lessons” the butler supposed

  “You mean to tell me that I got to leave Mos and Bos alone till 5 p.m, are you out of your mind?!” given the mess they pulled in her room today she wasn’t looking forward to such thing at all.

  “The dogs don’t seem to fare well alone” Lucia piped in providing some context for Veronique’s outburst

  “But they won’t be alone, won’t they?” Mr Jerkings pointed out “Neither your maid or bodyguard will be needed during those lessons”

  “Isn’t the whole point of a bodyguard to be with me at all times?” Veronique asked in confusion, not getting the point of Kain if it was just okay to not have him around for most of the day

  “Miss Hawkings is more then enough to keep you safe” the butler vaguely explained “and regardless nobody would dare to attack you in the main wing”

  “Ugh I guess it is as it is” Veronique grumpily agreed, giving up on arguing on it as she didn’t have a choice but to comply.