Loyalty is Royalty.

That's what they were told from the day they started serving the house till the day they were no longer able to do so.

Like the rest, Silvie believed every word of it and engraved them in her heart. She worked diligently with passion and gratitude, even more so when she realized that the house she served treated her way better than what the servants of many noble houses had to go through.

As long as she worked neatly and hard enough, no one treated her badly, and she was even given a bed to sleep on.

Everything was going alright. Silvie was getting through life. She was not mistreated. She was glad that she was given food to eat after a long day of work.

She was grateful to be… alive.

Yet…

Why did things change so much?

Silvie really detested that day, the day her world changed. From a lovely maid of a respected household, she was turned into a pig marked to be slaughtered.

Like every other day, that was also a normal day. The only thing different she could think of was that the precious daughter of her lord, William Herbert, had suddenly fallen sick.

She had gone out to play with the head maid, Maya, and some guards, but she did not seem as lively as before. She seemed annoyed for some reason.

So being a kind maid, she was. Silvie took dinner to her room, but little did she expect. The moment she fed a spoonful of soup to the girl, she would vomit everything on her face.

Tessa was so scared and flustered that she asked her to keep quiet about the incident and even had her clean the room and sheets personally.

Yet the next day she woke up, and Silvie found red spots glowing on her face, and the next thing she knew, she was surrounded by the guards of the house and chained to the bed.

Everything she ever owned was burned right before her eyes, including the only memory she had of her mother, her favorite hairpin.

With each passing day, the eyes that once looked at her with kindness now saw her as nothing but a stain on humanity.

Her pain made none feel pity. She was just kept barely alive for the day of her 'reckoning.' Like those hypocrites had a right to judge her.

When she had lost all hope, one came right burning through her despair. Shining brighter than the hottest star, more than her hair.

Even after she left, she could hear her words echoing in her mind.

'I want you… Silvie'

The image of Agnes overlapped her mind; she was leaning down on her bed, lifting her chin with her bent finger.

Which she never did.

'I want you… Silvie,' the words echoed.

Which Agnes did not mean in the way she was thinking. And she even added something along the lines that she wanted Silvie to work for her and be loyal to her.

She even offered her a contract, which Silvie showed no hesitation in signing.

'My soul, my body, and my heart will always be yours… lady Inez.'

She repeated those words in her mind the day Agnes came to see her one last time and passed her the knife she used to cut her bonds.

She did not care if the woman with red hair was setting a trap or if she had lied about having a cure. With every fiber of her being, Silvie was going to cling to her last hope; she won't let doubts cloud her survival instincts.

Silvie waited till the priest and William went back downstairs before cutting her bonds. As she knew she would get caught otherwise.

Getting out of those thick leather straps was the easy part; the difficult part was escaping the mansion.

Good thing was that her redheaded savior had given her instructions on how to do that as well.

'This is weird… I always thought sneaking out like this would make me nervous and scared, but…' as she sneaked down the stairs, Silvie secretly marveled at her own emotions. 'I am feeling a calmness like never before.'

While all the staff was busy seeing off Agnes, she stealthily made her way toward the back quarters.

The servants lived in the area separated by the area where they did the laundry of the whole house.

'How exciting.' A second ago she was fearing for her life, and now Silvie found the thought of being caught exhilarating.

Fortunately or unfortunately for her, the area was empty, as the servants were busy with their work or seeing off the guards. She quickly snatched a drying robe from the string and ran around the back, leading to an area where two guards were patrolling along the wall.

'How did lady Inez tell me to sneak around them again?' Silvie hummed while thinking as she shuffled through her memory. Soon she recalled what she had been looking for: 'Ah, that's it.'

She pressed herself against the cold, hard wall and peeked at the current positions of the guards.

Both guards were walking side by side while whispering to each other, maintaining their straight postures.

After one glance, Sylvie moved back and took a breath while muttering to herself.

"They'll walk past the eastern laundry gate first, then stop to chat near the lamp post. When that happens, move. Don't hesitate, don't think—just move."

And just like clockwork, she heard it. The crunch of boots slowed, followed by one of the guards grumbling about the weather.

And then she saw it… the guards had stopped.

NOW!

As silently as humanly possible, Silvie darted out of the shadows with her robe fluttering behind her.

By the time it stopped. the guard turned around; the flying robe had disappeared beyond the gate that moved a little from the remaining energy of motion.

"Did we leave the gate open?"

"I don't know; let's close it before anyone finds out."

The two guards rushed and locked the small gate and sighed in relief after they found no one in the vicinity.

Pressing against a tall tree behind the mansion, Silvie let out deep misty breaths of excitement, making her plump chest move up and down.

"Huff! Huff!…" After escaping the impending doom, Silvie did not care about her near-death experience or the fact that she was almost caught. She only cared about one thing.

'I am comminggg… Lady Inez.'

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