CRIMSON LILY [To Be Published Under PAPERINK]

CHAPTER 13

IT'S BEEN TWO MONTHS since that incident at the lake, and a month since that poisoning incident. Fortunately, like what I had expected, the poison wasn't that lethal to me.

It only made me sleep for a couple of days. I took that positively as a good rest, but I didn't know that chaos had ensued throughout the estate during that good rest.

Turns out that the duke orchestrated an investigation after I attempted to kill myself. He found out about the abuse that happened within the estate.

Contrary to what I had thought, the duke wasn't aware of the servants' abusive actions towards me. What infuriated him more was the fact that his trusted butler knew everything and yet he didn't tell him the whole issue, believing that it would be best to deal with it in that way.

With the duke's orders, all the servants who abused me since I was young were punished and kicked out of the estate without getting anything.

The head butler, who turned a blind eye during those hateful times was severely punished by cutting three of his left fingers and deducting half of his pay for this year. They couldn't kick him out since his family had been serving the Eveningstars since god knows when.

Eclipse and Caspian were given punishments as well for taking the side of the maids who abused me. Half of their assets had been confiscated, though they will be able to get them back after repenting.

Kaiser, who almost burned the maid's quarters, punished the head maid by himself. I wasn't so sure about the details of what he did, but Marina said that they couldn't hear the head maid's voice, other than loud whimpering and wailings coming from the dungeon.

Aside from that, the servants who stayed beside me and took proper care of me were handsomely rewarded. Though, I wonder what they received. They never told me what they asked or received as a reward. Not that I'm curious about that.

And I wasn't exactly moved by their actions. That was their duty in the first place. But since I hated having any debt to someone, especially someone inside this house, I started baking for the duke and Kaiser in order to repay them.

Knowing how sharp they were, they both figured out the reason behind me personally baking for them. They both assured me that they wouldn't ask anything in return, except for my safety.

The three of us started spending time together these past few weeks, or that's just Kaiser trespassing teatime with the duke.

"Only a few weeks more before the ball. Have you commissioned a dress already?" The duke asked.

"Yes, your grace." I placed my teacup on the coaster then turned my head to the side. The leaves danced gently as the cool breeze graced us with its presence.

Kaiser requested to redecorate the central garden, the one located in the main building, and it only took two weeks to be finished. Now, the central garden looks more mesmerizing compared to the other gardens in the estate.