Outer Garden

  What was referred to as the outer garden was no other then the large piece of land delimited by a wall, not quite an impressive one meant to keep out dangerous beasts more a discouragement for thieves and trespassers should the hounds and the Knights of Aurelia residing inside be an insufficient deterrent.

  Here a bit a way from the main buildings and closer to the wall, Kain and Lucia were letting Mos and Bos tire themselves out.

  “I hope Lady Veronique’s skill assessment is going well” Lucia said out aloud without letting the dogs get out of her sight “Kaine what were your s-skills? I know Knight are allowed to have an assessment too, w-were yours any g-good?”

  The guard merely shook his head

  “That b-bad?” the maid commented then added seeing Kain’s saddened look “What’s wrong?”

  “Hey Kain why don’t tell her? Embarrassed?” an high pitched and irritating voice suddenly reached their ears

  “Of course he is!” it was followed by laughter, turning towards the source they saw three Knights in armor causally walking towards them, two of them were holding their helmet under their arms while the other simply had the face guard up

  They were all about the same height, one had black hair, the other was blonde while from the third a single strand of curled red hair could be seen escaping from the captivity of his helmet.

  This last one had the peculiarly of having shaved eyebrows.

  “And who w-would you t-three gentleman b-be?” Lucia had asked as they approached

  “Daryl, Vincent and Noah, we are three actual knights unlike Kain there” the blonde one introduced himself, the one with black hair and the redhead

  “Kain is a knight t-too” Lucia didn’t like the jab Daryl had made at Kain and made sure to make them know about it, hoping they would apologize and not be in short a sack of dicks.

  “Miss, I can assure you we are the real thing, not like this skilless husk” Noah had boasted, his hostility towards Kain more palpable as opposed to the other two, who seemed to be jerks just for fun.

  “Skilless?” Lucia asked confused, she had grown up in a farm and wasn’t all that knowledgeable about the Undead as they weren’t that common.

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  Kain was the first one she had ever meet and he has been nicer to her then the whole staff combined.

  “You heard it right miss, Kain got no skills and neither can he gain one, it is the same with all the other Undead, they can’t learn or use any” Vincent had added to it “and he did try” the trio snickered making the maid frown.

  She hated this sort of thing.

  “I am sure he’s strong enough even without them” Lucia was mad enough to lose her shutter “didn’t the Undead help us regain our land?”

  “Sure, Undead are strong and fast, but the only reason they were of help was because those creatures were distracted with attacking us humans, anyone could do it” Noah told her she was right and downplayed the contribution from the Undead in the same breath “Why do you think our commander let him go to play guard with the bastard? He’s completely useless to us, but he refuses to accept reality” he added making the other duo look at him alarmed, it was as if they had known saying such thing was a bit too much.

  “You-” “what’s going on there?” Lucia was about to defend Kain, but a voice interrupted the upcoming argument.

  A woman dressed in light leather armor, her dark hair tinged with gray from age, her eyes were of golden and similar to the Duchess but instead held an hardness to them.

  “Nothing Miss Atelier we were just talking with an old friend” Daryl took the lead and stepped forward the other two, who didn’t dare to utter a word, as a matter of fact the trio shrieked out of fear at the evil eyes the Hound Master was giving them.

  “Well do such thing in your free time and go back to your spot, or should I have a chat with the Commander?” she threatened them and they all knew she would have no trouble to deliver

  “No of course not, we are going” Daryl was quick to say, they all bowed to Valentia and rushed to resume their duties.

  Once they were gone from sight Valentia turned her attention to them

  “Now what are you two doing?” she asked as if on clue Mos and Bos ran past of them barking happily as they started to play fight to their heart content.

  “We are w-watching Lady Veronique’s dogs, they n-needed a spot to play but we didn’t w-want to risk then f-following her scent back and cause a d-disturbance” Lucia shuttered out an answer, her nervousness coming back at full force

  “And why isn’t Lady Veronique here?” Valentia wanted to know, her tone growing low and dangerous

  “She’s b-busy having l-lessons with Miss Hawkings, otherwise she w-would have walked t-them herself in the Inner Garden” Lucia answered, her heart thundering in her chest as she feared the woman would take the dogs away if she said the wrong thing “B-besides she wouldn’t be allowed to c-come out there”

  “Right, my niece’s paranoia, as if anyone could get past my hounds and the Knights” Valentia seemed satisfied by the answer as she looked around “very well this isn’t a good spot for those dogs, its too close to the Knights’s barracks” then she started to walk away before she stopped to glare at the two of them from over her shoulder “what are you two waiting for? Get those dogs and follow me, unless you can’t handle them”

  “W-we can, I-I can assure y-you” Lucia quickly said taking out the leashes and rushing to get Bos and Mos, Kain trailing behind

  “Good, then follow along” Valentia ultimately said, but watched with the corner of her eye that they did indeed get the dogs without much of an hassle before she resumed walking

  “One more thing” only to stop a few steps after

  “What is i-it?” Lucia asked apprehensive and hoping she didn’t do anything to upset the woman

  “Don’t ever call me Miss Atelier” she warned them “my name is Valentia I am the Hound master not some Miss” the loathing on the word Miss was out of scale “Understood?!” Valentia was deadly serious when she said such thing

  “I u-understand, Hound M-Master Valentia”