Chapter 10 I Have To Make This Work
“This… this cannot stand, Isabella. I understand how close you two are… but this… this is far too much leverage. Have we not done enough for him as it is? You must let him go,”
“He is a man after all. He needs… There is training he must undergo before he gets the position of a guard. He is just a stable hand, my darling. His social status—”
“I will not accept—”
Maeve raised her head.
Instantly, the Count and Countess stopped speaking. Leander hurriedly hid behind his wife who looked like she was using all her nobility abilities to act unaffected by the stare.
Still, Maeve didn’t stop looking at them for the next five minutes before she sat erect and said, “These are all the papers of the properties we still have. We’re not in any type of serious debt, yes?”
“T-The house might be foreclosed on,”
Maeve sighed. “Of course,”
“You were never supposed to see any of this. This is not the life your Father and I want for you,” Guinevere didn’t exactly have a soft face but when she looked concerned for Isabella, it showed itself. “If you could… if you would love to choose a vessel, preferably one of noble blood, we can—”
“Lucien!”
The man didn’t waste any time in appearing in her room. Lucien Averay looked different. He had washed up so he looked cleaner, and with the official uniform for the Montague family on him. He looked like he belonged in it, in army wear. Too good in fact.
Maeve faced her front. “Slit your throat,”
Guinevere’s face contorted in terror as Lucien without wasting a single second took out his knife from his pocket and raised it to his neck but before he could do anything, Maeve’s voice called out, “I think you should slit the neck of the Count and Countess instead,”
Lucien didn’t even hesitate. His eyes seemed to glimmer with strange intensity as he pulled out his sword and moved to strike them. Guinevere shut her eyes, waiting for the impact but it didn’t hit her. Instead, it struck the desk next to her, splitting it in half immediately.
Leander fell to the floor in fear, Guinevere looking at the divided table before her eyes moved to Maeve who was now walking towards them and placing her arm over Lucien, “He might not be the fastest or most skilled person, but he will do what I want when I want him to. Would you rather my personal guard to be someone we can’t trust, especially with what happened at the Palace?”
Guinevere didn’t know what to say. She hadn’t spoken about the presentation day events because the Queen had announced no one to breathe a word of it outside the palace grounds— which showed favourability but also intensified the gossip over her daughter.
That wasn’t new, people always had something to say about Isabella because of how precious she was to the high noble class… but this time, things were different.
The rumors still spread and people were beginning to say the most terrifying things about her, and the woman didn’t know what she could do.
But now… now it seemed her daughter who was very avoidant and preferred reading a book and staying alone had changed overnight. She was more… different, scary, yes, like a demon, but there was fire in her eyes. And something else. Something that terrified her still.
Guinevere Montague was not sure this powerful woman was her daughter at all.
She sighed, bowing her head. “You are right. You are our pride and joy, and the future heir to the Montague family. As my daughter, I believe you will make the right decisions,”
It didn’t matter. As long as her Isabella was here, alive and safe, that was all that mattered. That was all she would focus on.
“Leander. Come. Let us leave her be,” Guinevere held her head high as she walked out of the room, her husband tailing behind her. She let him out of the room first before she turned her focus to Maeve, saying with a soft voice, “Can I send in snacks while you work?”
Just like she had been switched by a gluttonous being, Maeve’s face filled with glee, practically almost drooling as she replied, “Yes, please,”
Guinevere couldn’t help the smile that came to her lips. “Alright,” and then she was out the door.
As soon as she was gone, the sound of Lucien sheathing his sword back echoed through the room before he turned around to look at Maeve who was now walking away from her table to the one Lucien had broken as he asked nervously, “Did I do well, Lady Isabella?”
“Just call me whatever you want,” Maeve answered, stroking her chin. “Next time, go for something cheaper. Maybe a chair. Not sure if we can afford being spontaneous anymore,”
“Noted,” Then ever so quietly, he added, “The… gifts the Queen sent await you in the other room. Maids have been sent here to remind you. What should we do with them?”
Let me at them and someone, pass me the chocolate so I can lick them all over.
Maeve closed her eyes, counted to three then said, “We cannot refuse the Queen’s gifts, that we would be akin to treason… or whatever. Still, this is good, I can use this as an excuse to see her again though I’m not sure if I truly want that. Oh, and them, I don’t believe in them dallying around lazily. I’m sure they wouldn’t want that,”
NACE appeared immediately, \[YOU ARE JUST JEALOUS THAT THEY GET TO REST AND YOU DO NOT\]
Maeve acted like she didn’t see it. “Give them jobs to do,”
When she looked up, Lucien looked completely different. His lips were pulled in an extremely wild smile, happiness and glee radiating off him so brightly that Maeve had to clutch her chest and jolted away in fear as she asked, “A-Are you happy about making them… work?”
“No, why would I?”
He was still grinning.
Maeve felt her surprise start to give way to something else— some might even call it wicked joy, but that didn’t matter. She moved closer to him, almost snickering as she took her hand out, her eyes filled with cruel joy, “Make them suffer tremendously. Stable work, yes?”
He clasped hers, still smiling like he had just won the lottery. “Horse manure duty? A way for them to prove their worth and strength to you as a powerful noble, I mean?”
She had to hold back from cackling as she whispered, “You truly are my best friend,”
\[… YOU ARE CORRUPTING THIS KIND MAN\]
Maeve let out a cough, taking her hand away as she said in a more serious voice, “Yes. Where were we? You may leave to relay the message. I have another thing to settle. Farewell,”
He bowed and without asking any questions, headed out of the room.
As soon as he was gone, Maeve turned her attention back to the system. “Let’s make this quick. I have auditing to do. Hopefully, I finish soon enough to take a nap. Have you received the contract yet?”
\[YES\]
“Gone through it?”
\[YES. AND YOU MUST BELIEVE I AM A FOOL\]
“Oh well,” Maeve was returning back to her work desk and putting on her glasses as she let out a fake sigh, “It was worth a shot. Still, you have twenty four hours to go through it and give me an answer… or wait, has the time lessened? Who would have thought? Not me, I fear,”
\[HAHA. VERY FUNNY\]
Maeve thought it was.
The contract was simple, filled with only six clauses. NACE had to appear when Maeve needed it with options to opt out of certain uncomfortable situations in three seconds or it gets to not speak for an entire day. Let Maeve do things the way she wishes, creating alternate key beats like she did before without changing the main arcs of the story too much and if NACE disagreed, she had to find a better, easier way.
When Maeve did a good job (which she already was. She was a genius), NACE wouldn’t give her rewards but a skill she could use— a useful one, she knew first hand systems could be petty. After every big plot thing, Maeve could get a day off, when those days off reach three, NACE transports her to the Sanctuary, a perfect, quiet cozy cabin where 1 hour of real sleep is 8 hours of vacation.
NACE also had to explain certain things when she gave full bios of people, how magic worked. Little things like that, not excluding spoilers or things Maeve couldn’t seem to remember. If the world actively tried to kill her, marry her off or take away her bed consistently, she had to be fired immediately and taken to another world where she got full retirement. No refunds or take backs.
\[THE ENTIRE THING IS A TRAP\]
Maeve couldn’t hold back her grin. Years of being a corporate slave taught you some tricks, she feared. “Whatever do you mean?”
\[I WILL NOT—\]
“Ah, ah, ah,” Maeve stood up from her chair, her finger wagging in the air. “Before you say something you will regret, why don’t you think about it? Hmm? In private. I will be here. Go. Shoo. Take your time,”
Yes, yes. The evil plan is working.
As soon as she watched the screen disappear, she hurried to her bed and threw herself on it. “Now, to have a small nap. Oh bed, I have missed you so much,”
Her joy, however, was short-lived.