Celtine wrote at his attention."Yes, I have some big news and I can"t wait to tell you!"
"What is it master?"
"This s.h.i.+rt is an offering of Holia. I"m getting married!"
The two girls were sent reeling back from the shock. Celtine dropped her pen in a daze and Harriett simply collapsed on the spot, falling onto her knees and looking forward with unfocused eyes.
Emp understood they were taken very off guard by that sudden announcement but he wasn"t sure if they were only surprised or distraught by the reveal. He felt that the boys in the village would have cheered and clapped instead, showing their happiness. The reaction of the girls was off.
Not even five seconds after she fell down, Harriett sprung back up as if she had caught fire. Quickly spewing out questions after questions.
"Master is getting a wife! This is momentous news! What is the confirmation, when will the ceremony be, where will it take place, who was it that asked master first, what should I start preparing first? A list! I need to make a list of all that master will need for it! Will she be brought here, should I prepare another bed, oh, silly me, of course not, master"s bed is perfect as it is."
She mumbled at lightning speed and walked back and forth in the room before rus.h.i.+ng into her own to gather things she thought she needed as quickly as possible. She seemed to be anxious and surprised, but neither too happy or displeased about it. She could only see all the work this meant for her.
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She came back with some ink and papers and started writing lists furiously. The list included a lot of items, including clothes fit for a high n.o.ble wedding, official invitations, flowers, musicians and so on.
Seeing this, Emp hurried to stop her. He grabbed her hand to get her attention and looked into her eyes.
"Harriett, calm down, not only are we not in a hurry but I won"t need any of that."
"What does master mean?" She was clearly not understanding what he meant. All of those were essential to her understanding of what a marriage was.
"I"ll answer all of your questions but put that feather down first."
Harriett complied and tried to calm herself like Emp asked of her. She took two big breaths, noticed that Celtine was still standing there in confusion and led her to a chair, picking up her pen on the way. Once everyone was sat, she turned back towards her master and spoke with resolve.
"Please master, tell us all about it."
"Calla was the one who gave me that s.h.i.+rt."
"The girl from the village, the one that made our delicious lunch yesterday?"
"Yes, exactly the one. For now, she doesn"t know I"m a n.o.ble, I will only tell her and her parents when I bring her the confirmation gift. Calla is a very meek person, I do not want to scare her with a bunch of extravagant decorations, renowned musicians and all the young n.o.bles from the school all at once. Do you understand what I mean?"
Harriett nodded confidently.
"Master wants a smaller private ceremony with carefully selected attendees and a simple design."
"Yes, more like that. It will take place in the village with her family and our friends from there. It will all be organized by them in the traditions of the village, there is no need for you to exert yourself with this."
His words seemed to relieve her of a large weight. She breathed out in relief. Taking care of that sort of event was harder and more complex the higher a n.o.ble was. It would have been worse for her because she didn"t have an army of servants to help, she only had the cripples Celtine. Knowing her workload wouldn"t increase by a hundredfold let her focus on the event itself rather than its organization.
"What happens next then?" She asked. "What does master require of me?"
"First of all, I would like to know how you both feel about this."
"I will do as masters says, my feelings have nothing to do with this."
"They do, I value you and your thoughts. I you think there is something wrong I want to know. I want to share my joy with you but if you don"t like it, I want to know. In fact, I"d like you to always tell me when you have a problem with anything at all because I want to help."
"If master likes her then I"m happy for them both. My only concern is that she will become our mistress and we know nothing of her. I worry of what might happen."
Emp had not thought about this point at all. It was true that those two did a bunch of work for him but he really considered them more a close friends than servants so he had not realized that Calla would have authority on them, at least to an extant.
The same would happen if it was Mable instead.
"I don"t think you have to worry about that too much." He said after some consideration. "Calla isn"t the sort that would ask someone else to do anything in her stead. I"d like you all to get along but I"m pretty sure she won"t join us here in the school anyway."
He"d bring her here to present her to Mable and Love but afterwards, she would probably go back to Dark-glint with the other him.
It was pointless of her to stay here, she"d be far away form her family and friends, she couldn"t join as a student before the next cycle in three years and even if she did, she"d just feel out of place. Emp was pretty sure she wouldn"t want to stay in that small room all the time either. Instead, it was more logical to stay in Dark-glint, at least until he was done with the school.
"I"m eager to meet her then, I will do my best to please." She answered him with a weak smile.
"What else is there, I can see that this isn"t all."
Unable to keep anything from her master, she revealed another thing.
"Master is getting married in that village but will master let me come as well?"
"Obviously, I want you and Celtine to be there. This is important to me that I share this with you two. We will go there together and bring her back with us once this is done in order to greet everyone. You knew I"d say something like this though, this isn"t what is really bothering you. You"ve been like that since I shared my feelings with you two. Are you willing to tell me why?"
She made a reticent face so he gave her a way out of his question.
"I don"t want to extract the information out of you, you can just tell me when you are ready to do it if you want. I just don"t like to see you so preoccupied all the time."
"I... It would be easier if master ordered me to say it." She told him in a troubled tone.
Emp looked towards Celtine to get some clue on whether it meant she was asking him to order her but she still seemed completely lost in her own thoughts. He wouldn"t be surprised if she had listened to none of this. He"d ask about her in a bit but for now, he opted to give the order.
"Fine then, if this is what you want. It"s an order, Harriett, tell me what has been bothering you all this time, don"t hide anything from me this time."
Under the influence of his order, she forced the words out like they were a curse.
"The wife of my father."
Obviously, with only that he didn"t get it at all. He knew that she disliked the woman because she had been thrown away by her fault but this didn"t explain anything. He gave her all his attention as he waited for the rest.
After that, the more of her thoughts she confessed, the more tears streamed down her cheeks with them. By the end of her speech, she was openly crying and all her words came out as barely recognizable whining.
"I was afraid it would happen again, I didn"t want to be sold off again. I didn"t know master well but I knew master would go far. I wanted to make sure I would stay with master but even if I trusted master to keep us, I... I couldn"t leave my fate into the hands of some future wife again.
I had the audacity to believe that I might be able to seduce master first and carve myself an unshakable position at his-your side. But, the day you told me that you held feelings for me, I realized how wrong I was. I really learned to know you in that time we spent together and I... shared how you felt.
I understood I had betrayed you and your trust. I had successfully seduced you for my own gains and I felt so very guilty about it master! I"m so sorry, master. That was unfair of me, I am not deserving of your affection master! I don"t know what to do now. I want to keep serving you, I just want to stay by your side but what I did was simply unforgivable. I"m not fit to be your slave at all, master is too great to be my master."
After she was done talking, Emp was tempted to ask if that was all. He expected something bigger because of how emotional it made her but in the end there wasn"t any big problem at all. She was just making up her own worries. He didn"t feel betrayed or angry at all.
He brought her into his arms to console her, hugging her warmly to show her he wasn"t upset.
"That"s the silliest betrayal I ever heard of." He told her as she sobbed unto his shoulder. "If you see it that way than Calla too betrayed me. She made me love her with her amazing food and lovely compa.s.sion, don"t you see it"s ridiculous?"
"Master doesn"t understand, she liked you so she did but I"m different. I"m just a slave and I wanted to use master for my own gain. I"m a terrible person."
Her words were a mess of sobs and wails. Emp patiently kept rubbing her back and denied her claims.
"I disagree, you moved out of fear, that doesn"t make you a bad person. Look at how guilty it made you feel, you"re crying so much. If you were truly so malevolent, you wouldn"t be in this state right now. Plus, you just said that you did love me, how is that taking advantage of me then?"
"I"m so sorry master!"
"There"s nothing to cry about. I forgive you, I do not think any less of you. Everything is fine. I won"t get rid of you, I don"t feel betrayed and I still think what I told you that time, I do like you."
Harriett kept crying but his words had reached her. She was no longer as devastated as before, now she was just emptying all her pent up guilt to soak his precious s.h.i.+rt.
He kept her in his arms until there were no more tears to be spilled before he said anything else.
"You"re always making things way bigger than they are, like that time at the entrance ceremony."
"Master thinks I"m stupid." Harriet blamed herself.
Emp smiled and rubbed her back some more.
"No, I do think this is silly but in a fun sort of way. This is also part of what make you what you are. Keep being you and I will keep rea.s.suring you whenever you over-complicate things. I like you just like you are."
"Does master really think this?"
"I do. Don"t punish yourself over this anymore, it isn"t worth it. I want you to look forward with me and smile again. You will be with me for as long as you wish. There will be no one to tell me to get rid of you but it won"t be because you tricked me, it will be because you are worth too much to me to give up on you. Get along with Calla please, she is not a danger to you."
"I understand master... Thank you, for your kindness. I will not let you down ever again."
"You didn"t, that"s what I"m telling you."