The Demon's Bride

Brave Comeback

At noon, Elise's stays at Ian's study room ended when Maroon arrived at the room. The man glanced at Elise sharply. For some reason, Elise didn't think of the man as a bad person, however, he did made her feel unsettled with the gaze that he gave. Elise didn't wait for Maroon to keep staring at her and quickly bowed to Ian to excuse herself.

"Wait, puppy." Ian called from his desk attaining Elise's questioning gaze when she turned her face. "What can I help you with, Master Ian?"

"You forgot your family's portrait." Elise looked beside the couch and noticed that Ian's words were right. Because of the sudden arrival of Maroon, she felt flustered and forgot the important portrait of her family. Feeling embarrassed by her own clumsiness, Elise went to take the protract sitting on the couch and bowed to Ian. "Thank you very much for the reminder, master."

"I told you not to be formal didn't I? Well, old habits die hard so I would let it pass for now, but next time be yourself." Ian spoke waving his hand faintly. His words were gentle and tender. Elise took his kind words deeply to her heart and broke to a smile from the words that he lightly spoke.

"I will try my best." Elise returned softly and passed Maroon's left side to leave the room. After the light thud from the door, Elise placed a hand over her chest, feeling her heartbeat that continuously racing and something in the core of her body feeling heated by Ian.

Elise stopped by her room for a moment and opened the wrapping of her portrait to gaze upon the smiling faces of her small family. Her gaze mellowed but she didn't want to dwell in sadness for long. She choose a place for her to hang the portrait and stared at it for a minute to left the room and proceed with her job for the day with a spirited smile.

Ian was a busy man, unchanging like how he was nine years ago. In fact, Elise felt that he actually became even busier now. He often went out from the mansion over to some places for his work. The morning greeting before Ian left the mansion was the only way Elise could see and greet him in the morning. Meanwhile, Elise who is often partially judged by the servants didn't made much advances in making new friends. Though she did talk with some of the maids who didn't judged her in a negative spot.

One afternoon, Elise woke up in the early morning and had her job to clean the West Wing of the Mansion. Partly due to the fact that she's the only human after Mila at the mansion and the slowly growing jealousy and envy of the other maids that saw her to have a close relationship with the Lord, Elise didn't have that much people talking to her. While sweeping the long hall, a senior maid with a long curly brown hair named Tracey spotted her and called. "Elise."

Elise turned her head, as she was a new maid, she doesn't know most of the maid's names and thought it would be rude for her to ask thus she replied briefly while hiding the her nescience. "What can I help you with?"

"Do you know how to cook?"

Elise nodded. "Yes, but I only know how to cook-" human's food. Before she finished her words, Tracey had clapped her hand. "Good! Come with me now! We are in a hurry for dinner preparation. Let's go!"

Elise didn't get her chance to ask whether the dinner she's supposed to help with is a normal food like what humans normally eat. When she arrived at the kitchen, Tracey lead her to peel some potatoes and she sat there with a small knife. She followed her normal way of peeling the potatoes skillfully and noticed the woman beside her peeling carrots with a very slow pace. She peeked between her bent head and saw the skin of the carrots was very thick like a pieces of small cuts carrot. Worriedly, she asked herself. Does the woman beside her could peel a carrot?

When she turned her head, she met another pair of black eyes and a silky Raven locks of hairs streaming down to the woman's shoulder. "Vella."

Vella turned her head, her left hand was holding the same small knife that Elise was holding and on the right, she was holding to a very small piece of carrot that looked like a very small chunk of a leftover carrot. "Oh. It's you, Elise." She glanced down at the perfectly peeled white skin of the potatoes on Elise's hand and looked down to re-examine her own peeled carrot and muttered, "You're very good at peeling the vegetables." She didn't meant to be saracastic but due to her cold and snappy tone, she sounded like giving a harsh criticism to other's ears.