Gilded Cage~ Shapeshifter Rebirth

Chapter 10 |Past~Arina|

I no longer returned to that secluded spot. I didn't dare. I stayed with the bench that bathed under the sun. After that meeting with the evil young master, he continued to come to the lake every two week on the day before rest day. He no longer appeared on rest day like that time. Maybe I was just unfortunate. But to avoid further misfortune, I trained myself to be more perceptive of my surrounding as well as speeding up my response time. Being caught once was just coincidence, but twice? There's seriously something lacking in me. 

The evaluation had passed without any big problems, I continued to secure my place as the average apprentice. Next up was another huge event, celebrating the birthday of the current head of the family. Each court had to think of something to perform to celebrate this event. It's a pain every year. You had to involve every single apprentice in the court and the performance should not overlap with the ones in other courts. Many important people would be invited to celebrate our leader's birthday, so the performances were also a way of showing others how strong and competent we were. 

In the past, I would not be called into the meeting for deciding what to perform, I just followed the decision of the court's senior. But this year, I was the treasurer, so I needed to be present and banned everything that would lead to the bankruptcy of our court. Each court was given a certain amount at the beginning of each month. The money would be responsible for everything used inside Mirror Court. For example, food, candles, clothing, papers, inks and special events such as this one. 

"It's going to be a sword dance no matter what. But we have to think of something special to beat the other courts," Mirror Court deputy, Casey, said while pulling her hair. 

That's right. In order to show the guests our power and competency, of course the demonstration would be related to sword in someway. For female apprentices, it's usually sword dance. For male apprentices, it'd be something akin to sword dance but with more fighting. 

 "How about firework in the back," one suggested. 

"That's a nice idea. It's more or less the same each year anyway. The dance just had to be different. You know Georgia is the deputy for Dew Court? The one with the power teleportation? My friend from Dew Court said she had already planned the dance and it's going to be spectacular with her power. Why was I assigned as the deputy? It's so hard thinking of a dance."

I lowered my eyes and squeezed my hand together beneath the table. That's a big risk for Georgia to take, but she had always been a risk taker. Her power wasn't teleportation, but shape-shifting like me. She just shape-shifted partially to some animal to make herself look like she's moving very quickly. 

"As long as the firework doesn't come too expensive, we can handle it. We have special allowance from the main house for the celebration," I added. 

"Good. Then firework plus dance. Now move onto the dance part. Those babies have to be involved too, but they can't even hold a practice sword, let alone a real one."

The 'babies' she's referring to was the newly admitted apprentice. They had just received their training for around half a year, as Casey said they couldn't even hold the practice sword right. It'd be a disaster if we gave them real sword, who knew if they'd cut themselves by accident. But it's tradition that everyone used real sword during demonstration. The higher-ups just weren't afraid of assassin from the apprentices. 

"Everyone went through that," I said. "We just had to be more careful with them. Each one of us babysitting one of them." 

 Everyone nodded in unison, it couldn't be helped. 

"It's time to get this month's allowance, I will go first," I said. 

Everyone waved their hands in unison and ushered me away.

"Finally, it's the start of the month! We can finally ask the kitchen to cook something! More than one dish of meat!" Casey pumped her fist in the air energetically. 

"We might have to save some money for the fireworks," I called back in a singsong manner. 

"Argh!"

Treasurers like me were required to go to the main house on the first day of each month at a specific time to collect that month's allowance. The main house was situated in the living area of Ivory Manor's head family. We called it the main house, but it's just the house where servants, those who worked under the Manor and us apprentices went to to collect our allowances or wages. We wouldn't even meet anyone from the head family. 

There was a short line when I arrived. It was the first day of the month, so many people were here collecting their salaries. There were two middle aged women in front of me gossiping. 

"I heard that Lady Rosanne fell ill again." 

"That's what my friend working under Rose Court said as well. Screaming and crying all day." 

"Poor lady. Everyone knows our lady is the most beautiful girl among all sects back in the days and he had to do something like this."

"Shh. I know right, poor lady." 

Lady Rosanne was the only daughter of the current family leader, Lord Atherton. She was said to be a very beautiful woman and married the Duke of Cregan. But their marriage didn't last long, a few years after her marriage, she ran back home with her newly born son. It was said that the Duke betrayed her, which was later proven to be true. Lady Rosanne's father was outraged, but in the end he couldn't do anything because the Duke held most of the power in Cregan. Even a manor as powerful as Ivory Manor could do nothing. Lady Rosanne stayed in the Manor from that day onward and her son was raised as young master of the Ivory Manor. 

"Poor lady. Even though his son is really handsome and all that, but rumors have it that Lord Horace likes Master Clark more and wants him to inherit the family, not Master Carlisle. Master Carlisle was not as bright as Master Clark, people said."

"What's the problem with that? Even though Master Clark is just his great-nephew, Master Clark has a powerful power! Have you seen how he could manipulate sand and fire at the same time? Unlike Master Carlisle who could handle a sword well enough, no one knows what his power is!" 

"True that. True that. But do you think he'll inherit the role of Duke of Cregan?" 

"With the farce that happened at that time, I think it'll be..."

I cleared my throat before the two middle aged women in front of me went into topics that shouldn't be touched. The two women laughed embarrassingly and started to talk about inane topics like the weather. 

I wonder who the young master I met was. Then I shook myself out of it. Did his identity matter? Nope, of course not.   

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Author's note

We get some gossip material here ;) Hope you like this chapter!

Thank you for reading. See you next time!