On one particular evening, just a day after I'd commissioned Alebn's services, a woman came to see me. I didn't have an office, so the guestroom it was.
She wore a crisp white shirt, tucked underneath that long, seamless black skirt. A round single glass hung over her left eye with a chain of sort hanging by her ear, all the way to her neck. She seemed tidy, and well kept… all except her hair which was spiky and like a man's.
"Sir David," she offered a nod and took a seat without me having to say anything.
"Miss Librian."
"I suppose you don't remember my name," she said. "Well, you were quite young when I first came here, so I suppose you wouldn't recall… I am Margarette Flaner. The librarian."
Ah yes, the woman who'd banned me from my own library.
Which, to be frank, I found rather odd. How'd she, a mere librarian had the authority to ban me, the literal son of the noble whose library it was in the first place. Of course, there was a logical explanation, and one that I found to be highly illogical.
"I see," I said, motioning Molly to fetch me some tea. Tea arrived almost immediately. I suppose she'd pre made it. "So, what do I owe this pleasure?" I said. Molly poured me a cup while the librarian poured herself one.
Despite how shit David was, he did in fact study to sound more mature than he was, which was a major boon for me, because I often spoke like an adult whenever I wasn't trying consciously to sound like a child. Which, sadly, was most of the times.
Margarette swiveled her nose across the cup, taking in the hot aroma of fresh tea; almost like she was tasting wine or something. "This is good tea," she said, taking a sip. "Did you have this imported?"
"Damian did," I said.
"I see, Sir Damian must favor you quite a lot."
"I wonder," I tried to snicker but it came out as a snort.
The woman smiled, almost like she understood something from this exchange… "Did you use external means to access books?" She'd been tiptoeing around the topic so much that I thought she'd take her time to actually get there. Yet-
"Yes."
"You are aware that is a breach of our contract, yes?"
"Unfortunately, the contract is only binding for my father and his successor. And since I am not the official successor- as you can see- I don't believe there is a breach, is there?"
She kept up the smile but it was sort of falling apart thanks to that rogue vein on her head. Heh, lady was pissed.
She kept drinking, and without a word too. She even took seconds!
I did too. This was good tea… still tea though.
Couple of minutes later, Margarette stood up and flashed me a tilted smile. "I will see you soon."
The fuck is that supposed to mean?
Molly picked up the tray and eyed me. "Are you sure sir? She is known as the… you know."
"Yeah, I know…" I gulped. "Ball Crusher…"
Thud!
The sound kind of spooked me but it came from outside the room so all good… I got oddly curious so I poked my head out and there was a fist sized dent on my guard's shield and the soldier had quite the pale look. Heck, he didn't even glance at me, the literal guy he was supposed to be guarding.
What the fuck even happened here….
***
"Well, she is a Noble," Damian started off.
No wonder she kept looking at me like that…
The house of Galford had a contract with the house of Flaner regarding books. The librarian, Margarette Flaner was the second daughter of Viscount Alhaizen Flaner and was stationed here as a librarian, mostly as a political tool. The same way, my sister Zina Galford was placed in the Flaner household.
The reason? All the books in both of our libraries were identical and shared possessions of the two households. The viscounts were friends and they'd sworn to marry their kids off… meaning, Margarette was supposed to be Damian's wife.
But there was a problem.
"I should have just said no," Damian said, explaining most of that convoluted shit. "Leina has been fuming all morning."
Dude already had a girlfriend, now wife.