"How could this have happened...?" I mumbled, my voice sounding hollow even to my own ears. I looked at the young maid trembling before me. "Are you absolutely, unequivocally sure about this?"
"Yes, Master." she whispered, her eyes fixed firmly on the floor. Her hands were shaking so violently they rattled the hem of her apron.
"Huu... tell me in detail. What has she... What kind of teaching... What kind of treatment has June been inflicting on to Ren ?" I asked the maid.
"....Yes, Head maid June normally shuts the door during the lessons," the maid answered, her voice cracking "She forbids anyone from approaching the west wing study. She says Lady Ren's 'deficiencies' are a private family matter."
"And ?" Gilda, my wife, who was also in the room, sitting on the sofa, asked.
"And we can often hear her scolding. And also..."
"Also what ? Tell me!" I almost screamed at the maid.
"Heek! Also! for a few months we could hear lady Ren's crying voice as well as the sounds of hitting!" She answered in a panicked voice.
"What ?! So much is happening and we were not even informed ?! Do you think Ren is a joke! So much so that even a mere Maid can trample on her now!" I stood up abruptly and lashed out on her.
I cannot take it anymore!
"Hiik!" The maid squeaked as she kowtowed "I am sorry master! I am sorry! Head maid June is our supervisor and we can't go against her! She threatened all servants to keep silent about it, otherwise we would be fired! she also threatened to have us blacklisted from every noble house in the Empire if we spoke of this matter!"
"Huu..." I sat back down, Leaning back, clutching my head.
It's not that I do not understand their Situation.
I do! As a former soldier, I know she can't go against her supervisor. I know that! I know how silence was coerced through fear.
I just... I am just angry at myself.
June might be the culprit. She might have tortured Ren like a caged animal. But, In the end of the day, me, I was the one to assign her that role, to give her that power and to Provide her with ...that Very Cage.
How ? How could I have not noticed. How could i have let this happened?
"Dear, calm down." Gilda said softly
"I am calm." I answered, though the tremor in my hands betrayed the lie.
"No, you are not" she countered, her voice sharp as a blade, and then she looked at the maid "and you."
"Y-yes ?!"
"If you have no more to say, then get out"
"Y-yes!" The girl scrambled to her feet, desperate to escape the office.
"Wait," i stopped her.
"Yes? Your Grace?"
"Is Ren.... Is she Awake yet ?"
"The young Lady came home late last night. So, she must still be asleep."
"I see... When she wakes up, bring her to my office. and, do not forget. Do not involve the Head Maid. She should not be able to know anything about what have transpired in this room."
"Yes!" Saying that she gave us a final frantic bow and left the room.
I stayed seated on my seat with my eyes closed, still clutching my head.
The room Stayed Silent for a few minutes.
"...It's my fault." Gilda broke the silence, her voice cracking.
"Why are you blaming yourself? You couldn't have known."
"Because it is my fault! I should've known! I should've... I should have paid more attention to their lessons but instead..." She bit her lips.
"But instead I only focused on the results." She said in a low voice.
"It can't be helped. You've been busy with your own responsibilities as the lady of the house." I said but then I said something i probably shouldn't have, "you didn't even pay much attention to Adrien for this past few months."
"Theo!" Hearing what i said, she snapped at me, her eyes flashing with a fire, but not a fire of anger or blaming but something else, entirely "I am as much of a mother to Rem as I am to Adrien."
Are you, though ?
"...I am sorry. I misspoke." I apologized. It truly was out of the line for me. I guess, I am more stressed than i thought.
I have no right to blame her. Especially, if it's About that child, Ren.
How can I expect to ask for justice for that girl when I, myself once wished to end her ?
"Can you leave ? I... I think, I need a bit of alone time." I asked her to leave.
"...Alright." She did not argue back, and saying that she stood up and left the office. Giving me the solitude i wished for.
I sat there quietly in my office room, at my desk. No sound, not even the sound of wind and only the smell of papers stayed with me.
I opened the drawer of my desk and took a picture from it and put it on the desk. and leaned in toward it to get a better look at it.
Naty.....
I looked at the picture or rather the beautiful woman in the picture. She was wearing the Royal academy uniform. The woman in the portrait smiled back at me
She was Natasha La Carvy, the sole daughter of a count family and....
...My first unforgettable love.
Back when we first met, we were strangers. Complete strangers who were not really supposed to meet ever again, to talk again, to get involved with each other again. But, Fate perhaps had other plans.
The night I met her, I had absolutely no idea of what she and her whole existence would become for me.
Back then, I did not know what would she bring to my life. What colors would she paint my monochromatic life with, Colors i didn't even know existed. That at some point in time, she would mean everything to me.
I never expected or wished to find someone who would change me or my life so much, so profoundly, but I met her anyways. Whether by a tragic twist of fate or a pleasant twist, I met her in the end.
As time went by, She became someone I could not help but care about, from someone, I could not even imagine to spare more than a few glances to.
With every passing day, every passing month she became more than just a person to me, for me and at one point even my hope.
Eventually, She became A part of my life, with whom, I did not ever wish to part ways with. And yet, Fate had other plans.
She is A regret That I do not wish to forget, because... if I do, I am afraid, i will lose a part of myself, A lesson of the past that i learned from her.
I closed my eyes, the smell of old parchment in the office was slowly getting replaced by the phantom scent of perfume and Wine. I still remember it. I still remember That night. The Night when a pink-haired sick little girl swooped in my life unannounced. The night everything started, Everything changed...