On the night after our discussion in the dungeon earlier, I was sitting on the side edge of my bed in my own bedroom in our manor at the Imperial Capital. I was ostensibly in my robe, but I was actually butt naked under my white veil.
As for why I was in my current situation, I was patiently waiting for someone to come. For this reason, I would be having intimacy with that person, of course. But that person was someone I had not shared a bed with—someone I would be doing the deed with for the first time.
It all started when Mary approached us to have our time. We had been very busy these recent days regarding the dungeon, so today we had our free time, which gave space for Mary to talk about the postponed discussion.
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Earlier this afternoon…
Once we were done settling the future plans for our family and the dungeon, I suddenly remembered the matters with Mary that we had been postponing. Since we were not as busy as usual, I told my sister to finally tackle it, and then we came to see Mary afterwards.
The meeting then took place in the parlor of the manor at three o’clock. As Big Sis and I were sitting together on a sofa, the door opened and Mary came in, and it seemed that she brought someone with her.
The person was a young woman with golden blonde hair. Well, I knew the person she brought; I think her name was Riley. She was apparently a servant of this manor exclusively, not of our main mansion.
She was beautiful, I had to admit, but I usually did not interact with her that much since she was practically working here. I had no idea why Mary pulled Riley out of this matter. But Riley was wearing a nervous face, so I could see that this matter was about her.
“Good afternoon, Young Lady. Good afternoon, Young Lord.” Bobbing her body, Mary politely greeted us one by one, so Riley did. “Pardon me for pulling both of you into this situation.”
“Don’t worry about that, Mary,” Big Sis responded. “You two may take your seats.”
“Please excuse us.” Mary excused themselves before they walked in and sat on different seats.
“Well, then.” As soon as they settled in and felt comfortable with their seats, I asked. “Would you mind if you tell us what’s the matter here?”
“Um… the truth is… There are two things I want to talk about. One of them tackles the matter about Mary, and as her superior, I want it to be settled first.”
Mary said, and then she took a glance at Riley, who was sitting on a couch diagonally from her. Big Sis and I glanced at her as well, but all we saw was a young woman who was slouching her head as she clutched the skirt of her maid uniform. She might be nervous or shy about it.
“I understand.” I glanced over at Mary before staring at Riley anew with a gentle smile. “Okay, Riley, can you tell us what your problems are?”
I asked Riley casually, but with a hint of professionalism to add some seriousness. She seemed to be hearing my question since she raised her head and faced me. She was hesitant at first, but she was directly engaging in a conversation with the children of her mistresses.
“Aah… Good day, Master Raphael. Um… I was raised by my mother alone since my adventure father died on a mission when I was still a kid. My mother has been supporting me since then.”
“Uh, huh.”
“She worked hard until I could stand on my two feet. But now, her hard work has been slowly deteriorating her body, which caused her respiratory problems. When her condition worsened and she started vomiting blood a month ago, I immediately consulted her with a city doctor, and she was diagnosed with the White Death.”
Riley said the latter with a melancholic tone.
“The White Death, huh?” Big Sis pondered. “That’s a serious illness there.”
(The White Death… Isn’t that tuberculosis?) I thought inwardly before Riley continued.
“We were shocked by the result of her diagnosis. The White Death is said to be incurable and the mortality rate is frighteningly high. Right now, my mother is bedridden and her treatment cost a lot. Even my salary as a servant of an aristocrat was not enough to pay the tabs.”
Soon after she said that, Riley lowered her head.
“For the sake of my mother, I even thought of selling my body to the red light district to earn more money…”
“?!”
Both me and Big Sis widened our eyes upon hearing her words. Riley then raised her head and looked at us with stern eyes.
“Thankfully, Miss Mary was there to listen to my situation and stopped me from doing so because it would ruin my life as a woman and as a person. She told me to be careful with my decisions and think about their consequences. Also, she told me to share my problem with the two of you…”
“And that brought us here, huh?” I said.
“Pardon me for disturbing the two of you,” Mary excused apologetically. “I know that the Young Lord is a capable person, so I thought that you could help her…”
“Don’t feel sorry for yourself, Mary; you did not do anything wrong at all. But, the White Death, huh? I think I can do something about that. You see, I have been acquainted with a friend of Gabrielle in Astley. He is a person who is good in multiple fields, including medicine, so I think I could use his method of treating the disease on Riley’s mother.” .𝘤𝑜𝑚
“A friend of Gabrielle?”
“Yeah, a fellow artist like me.”
Actually, that friend of Gabrielle was a clone of mine that I stationed in the Kingdom of Astley. He is a famous person in Astley right now for his exceptional talent in many fields.
One of the reasons I created him and gave him so many talents and knowledge was to divert the attention of the people from mine toward him.
“Never mind that. For the medication…”