Main Dinning Room

  The first brew of this so called tea, the one that would lower mana, had been served to Veronique this morning to go with breakfast.

  It had to be approved and deemed safe by both Doctor Copperfold and their brewer, which Veronique never meet and didn’t even know their name, but apparently they were the ones responsible for replenishing the Doctor’s medicines.

  The appearance of such tea wasn’t appealing, but from the Duchess’s eager expression Veronique knew she couldn’t refuse to drink it.

  Leaving for last something that she knew would taste bad wasn’t a bright idea, so she drowned the cup of tea in one glop.

  Now she was already expecting the taste to be unpleasant, but this went way behold her expectations

  Veronique decided that it this was the most foul thing she had ever tasted in both of her lives, even beating her attempt at cooking that somehow had made her cheesy pasta taste like salted vomit.

  Speaking of vomit that’s exactly what Veronique wanted to do right now, but she couldn’t merely because it was probable that they would make her drink it again if she did and she would probably never hear the end of it from Miss Hawkings later.

  “Was it good?” Alexander mocked her with an insufferable smirk, no doubt enjoying the show, even if after his supposed talk with the Duke Alexander didn’t seem as mad at her anymore it didn’t mean he stopped being a dick to her.

  “You want to try?” Veronique challenged him, at such prospective he paled and got a worried expression on his face

  “No Veronique, this tea is safe for you to drink but it would be harmful to anyone other then you” the Duke intervened putting an end to such discussion “you will only be given it once a week to keep your mana under control till you learn an active skill to bring it down yourself”

  “How do I know how much mana I have?” it was an issue Veronique had been thinking about, since she had tried to find a ways to make her status window pop out like in a videogame without success.

  Unless getting embarrassed to death by Lucia could be considered a success.

  The maid had creeped up on her while Veronique was trying out if yelling out stuff like -open status- would make the window appear, after all going from the theory she was studying intent was a base component on making a skill work before it was learned so maybe such endeavor could have worked.

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  It was worth a shot.

  “Usually one starts to feel lightheaded when mana is about to run out, but in your case I will have commissioned an accessory to have your mana level visible” the Duke answered Veronique’s question

  “But such things are so expensive!” Alexander suddenly yelled out

  “So what? You think I can’t afford it young man?” the Duke gave him a warning look even if there wasn’t any real heat behind it, the man seemed too tired about something else to really care about such a minor thing.

  In truth it was as if he was simply going through the motions to keep the show going.

  “It’s not that…it’s just” even such a feeble stare was still enough to make Alexander sweat a little and hesitate on his next words

  “Say what you want to say” the Duke urged him on

  “Isn’t it wasted on her?!” Alexander just said it and such words made the Duke’s eyes grow a bit sharper

  “Do I need to remind you that Veronique has been a part of this household way before you?” the Duke reminded him and put things out in the clearest way possible “I am the judge of what’s wasted or not, and no one else, understood?” in essence this was his money and he spent it how he wanted.

  “Yes Sir” Alexander had said with his head bowed.

  “Good” the Duke left it at that, but Veronique had the feeling this accessory would become another problem for her the moment Alexander succeeded the Duke.

  It did sound as something quite useful and maybe the issue could be solved by her just giving up on it, but if Alexander wanted to be a dick about it he could demand for it to repaired, since she damaged it from use, and it was probably something so expensive it would put her in debt for the rest of her life.

  She needed to patch out this pitfall as well and that was without taking in account that still having such expensive thing on her would make her an easy target for bandits and criminals for when she wouldn’t live under the protection of the Aurelia Estate anymore.

  ‘Thinking about it, couldn’t Alexander just decide to hand her the bill of all of her expenses?’ she thought with a worry

  “Veronique what’s wrong? Do you feel sick?” Duchess Lucretia had asked her with a worry

  “No, I fine, it was just lost in thought” Veronique was quick to wave the concern away and started to actually eat her breakfast to make her words more believable, even if the tea did make her a bit nauseous.

  Miss Hawkings Study

  “Veronique try to avoid making such a fuss at breakfast” Miss Hawkings had chastised her

  “What fuss? I only got lost in thought” Veronique had no idea what she was talking about

  “Not that, I mean the utterly unladylike face you made while drinking your tea as well as your complete disregard of all the connected rules” the older woman made her criticism known, at which Veronique had to take a minute to fully process

  “Are you out of your mind? That thing was more akin to medicine then a tea, I am not daintily sipping that foul thing during the whole breakfast” she immediately protested feeling sick just thinking about doing such thing “I would throw up if I did”

  “I don’t make the rules, it’s a tea, you got to drink it the proper way” Miss Hawkings had clearly understood her objections but etiquette rules were as unforgiving as steel

  “Just have the death soup be brought to me at dinner” Veronique offered an out, knowing she could be as unladylike as she wanted in the east wing

  “Can’t do, both the Duchess and the Duke want to be sure you drink it” Miss Hawkings had to shoot it down the idea even if she sounded a bit remorseful about it, but that might just be the redhead hearing things.

  “How nice” it was the only thing Veronique could say about it ‘at the least I only have to drink it once a week’