Interlude 02 : Yumil

Inside the hallway of the Gregorios family's mansion, we can see a young girl around the age of ten, brown hair with emerald eyes is walking toward the direction of the servant's quarter. She is a maid-in-training that started to work in the mansion for a month now. Yes, her name is Yumil, who was hired by Urien after being recommended by Yubel.

"I wonder what Miss Luna wanted to inform me about?" the girl thought while humming a song. After being taught how to be a perfect maid by Luna, she held immerse respect for the silver hair maid. "Will I be able to become someone like her and serve Lord Urien in the future?" she put her hand on her chin and lost in her own world.

She stood in front of the room of her teacher and then knocks on the door three times, neither too fast nor too slow. The door slowly opens and the girl who looks like in her late teens invites her in.

Yumil then proceeds to sit on the chair at the opposite side of the girl who invites her in.

"You said you wanted to tell me something, Miss Luna," Yumil asked.

"That is correct, Yumil. Master told me to give you two days break a week," Luna told Yumil while giving her a glance while thinking, "Although Master told me to give her days off the next day after she arrived, I needed to make sure that she really deserves her days off. Not that she needs to know."

"Really? Lord Urien did? Please tell him that I give my thanks," Yumil bubbly replied. It has only a month since she got here but her lord already thought about her and gave her the days off. "As I expected, my lord really does care about me. I must live up to his expectation," she gave herself the motivation to try harder for her lord.

"Err… may I leave now, Miss Luna?" she asked the maid sitting in front of her. Luna just smiles at her and nodded.

"Thank you! I will be leaving now, Miss Luna!"

After leaving the room, she walks in the direction of her room. As it is already night, the hallway is dark without light except for the candlelight from her hand and the moonlight coming from the window. But she is not scared of the dark. She is, after all, the user of Darkness attribute magic. Instead of scaring her, the darkness makes her feels warm.

She walks quietly and is now in front of her room. Her own personal room that her lord gave her, a peasant girl without any family members. "Ah~ Lord Urien is truly a kind person," is what she is thinking while twisting the doorknob.

Her room consists of a single bed, a wardrobe, a study desk, and a small bathroom. Just a simple room compared to the nobles' and Miss Luna's room. She washed her hands and legs then walk toward her bed. But not before writing down what happened today in her diary.

How can a simple girl from a slum know how to write? Well, Miss Luna taught her how to read and write before starting her maid training. It took her two weeks to learn how to read or write but Miss Luna told her that she is doing great and Lord Urien is happy for it. Oh, how she was happy and all over the moon the whole day after hearing that.

While laying down on her bed, she thought about her life up until now. She was just a simple girl living in a slum together with her mother. She never knew about her father because her mother didn't tell her anything about him. But, her mother did give her a necklace that was given to her by her father.

Her mother died when she was eight years old. Starting from that time, she became alone in this cruel world. She didn't want to steal for food. So, she worked days and nights for a single loaf of bread. But she was satisfied with that. It is what she got with her hard work, unlike the kids who are stealing to eat.

She worked, worked, and worked. She tried to live on with a single bread loaf a day by eating the bread after soaking it in water. It doesn't make her stomach full but enough to work for a day. It went on for a year until another tragedy strikes when she became 9 years old.

That day, like usual, she was doing her work given to her by one of the people from the city. But over ten people are starting to surround her when she got to the place where there aren't many people in the surrounding.

"Well, well, well… what do we have here? A young girl going around all by herself without any guardians," one of the men surrounding her said.

"Who… who are you all?" her voice is shaking when she asked this question. After all, a single girl being surrounded by tens of grown-up men strike fear into her heart.

"What do you think we are going to do?" the man laughingly asks. The greed in his eyes is apparent to see. Not only him, all of the people surrounding her have greed in their eyes. They are without a doubt, also from the slum trying to make easy money. Slavery, she immediately understood what she was going to be sold as a slave.

"Please, don't…" tears are starting to form in her eyes. The only thing that is inside her mind is, "Why am I the one who got to suffer like this?" She tried her best to live the way her mother told her to. She didn't steal anything, tried her hardest to work on her own to get for what she did with her own strength. But those don't matter now. She is going to get sold as a slave.

Something broke inside her and the darkness started pouring out from her body. The air started trembling with a large amount of mana being released. Everything around her started thrashing around and the people surrounding her got blast off with the force of mana burst.

"She… she can use magic! Run!" All the men surrounding her ran away after seeing her uses her magic. Magic that she never knew she had. But, there is one man still laying on the ground instead of running away. When she walks near him and checks him, "He… he is already dead. I… I had killed someone," she immediately vomits right there and there.

The thought of killing someone is too hard on a kind girl like her. She is kind by nature and hasn't hurt nor thought about hurting a single soul. But what she saw in front of her made her feel uncomfortable.

After that day, her surrounding changed again. All the people from the slum alienated her and calls her a witch. Not everybody in the world can use magic. And those who can use magic are the nobles. But she knew that she is not noble. If she were noble, she won't be living like this. So, she must be one of those irregular. Irregulars are people from the commoner standard who can use magic.

But what made the people from the slum call her a witch is because of her Darkness Element Magic. Darkness Magic is as rare as Light Magic which is considered as the attribute of a hero. But there aren't many records about Darkness Magic and almost all of the people who can use Darkness Magic either become a necromancer or defect to the Demon country.

So, people are starting to target mockery and throw stones at her. People aren't giving her works as they used to. She sometimes had to pass her day with just water. And when she got a job, they didn't even give her a loaf of bread for mowing the entire lawn with just her hands.

In that case, she ate the grasses she gets from the lawn. She sometimes dries them in front of her house and made the hay. She left some for herself to eat and then sell the others to the people who need them. But of course, they will try to make it hard for her. After selling all the hay, the owner of the lawn came and ask all the money she got from selling the hay because what she selling is from their lawn and thus, they own it. She was reluctant to give them back the money she got. Of course, she gave all of the money back. Her mother taught her not to steal after all.

Just like that, another year had passed by and lady luck starts to shine on her. During her 10th year of age, she heard a voice of a young girl calling from in front of her house. She rarely got any guests. Scrap that, she had never got a guest aside from the people who tried to harass her.

"I am coming!" she shouted from behind her house. When she got to the door, she was greeted by a girl neatly dressed in an expensive and beautiful dress. The girl is around her age with blue hair flowing down from her head like water.

"You are Yumil, correct?" the girl in front of her asked.

"How did she know about me? Did someone decide to inform the guards about me? Am I going to get arrested for having a Darkness Magic?" she thought. But she replied the girl with a respectable tone, "Yes, my lady. Do you need me for something?"

"Yes, you see, I heard about the rumors and came here. I heard that you would like to have a job," the girl in front of her asked her. She couldn't believe her ears. Instead of getting arrested, she was going to be given a job. A JOB!

"Really?" she asked with a hopeful tone in her voice.

"Yes, you will be going to the Gregorios territory. I will introduce you to the person you will be working for. And I almost forgot. My name is Yubel Zestina," the girl in front of her introduced herself. After hearing the girl's name, she immediately kneels down in front of her. The girl she was talking to before is the daughter of the owner of the land she is currently staying.

"Ah? The young lady of the Zestina family? I am sorry for not kneeling," she apologized.

"Stand up. We will clean you at my mansion and immediately go to my friend's territory."

The girl, Yubel immediately turns around and leave telling her that she will be waiting for her near the tree on the other side of the road.

Yumil starts to pack her things. There aren't many things to pack as all she had are clothes which are look like rugs and a necklace her mother gave her. She then looks at the house she lived with her mother and filled with nothing but pain. She turned around and left the place without looking back.

She didn't stay long at Zestina's mansion as after taking a bath given to her by the young lady and dressing something presentable, they immediately start their journey to the Gregorios territory.

It took them a week to arrive at the territory. When she got into the territory, she was awed by the people is smiling all the way. There aren't any bandits like other territories they've passed before coming here. And the fields are filled with various crops. Just by looking at them, she understands that the lord ruling this territory is loved by their subjects.

"Well Yumil, we had arrived at our destination. Welcome to Gregorios territory and to the mansion of its lord," Yubel told her while showing her the mansion in front of her. She was going to work under the lord of this territory? She couldn't believe it. She thought she was working under someone living in the territory, not under the lord.

"Are you sure I will be able to do great, lady Yubel? I don't know a single thing about being a maid," she asked fearfully, afraid of angering her.

At that, the lady in front of her flinched, "Don't sweat about details," Yubel fans her hand in front of her face.

After going inside the mansion, they are led to the living room to wait for the owner of this mansion to come. She thought it will be a middle-aged man who will come but she didn't expect that the one who came was a boy who looks like the same age as her.

She didn't know what to say until the subject changed to her. The young boy noticed her and asked the blue hair girl sitting near her.

"By the way, who is the one standing behind you?" the boy asked with there is some curiosity inside his voice.

"Oh, the girl? She is the one that I got for you," Yubel replied.

"For me?"

"Yes, I found her on the outskirt of my territory. She wanted to have a job but nobody wanted to hire her because of the rumors, you see? Although I want to hire her in our mansion, there is no place left as all the places are filled."

The boy leans to the front and asked as if he was interested in her rumors. She got scared, scared that after learning about the rumors, he will not hire her to work at the mansion. A place where for the first time, she wanted to work not because of her need for survival. But because of her own determination.

"Rumors? Do tell me," the boy asked Yubel.

"The rumors stated that she is a witch –," before Yubel could say anything more, he looks at the girl standing behind Yubel.

"You are hired," he told her.

She couldn't believe her own ears. Did she get hired just like that? Just to make sure, she asked the boy in front of her, "Just like that?"

"Yes, just like that. Now, can you tell me your name?"

She was over cloud nine. The boy in front of her knows that she was suffering from the rumors and instead of listening to it to the end to make her more depressed, he immediately hired her. Because he didn't hear the rumor to the end, he won't know what type of magic she uses.

"My name is Yumil and I have no last name. I can use <Darkness Magic>, my lord," she informed him herself while giving him a curt bow.

"I see, Yumil, you will work in this mansion as a maid. Luna will teach you everything you need to know. We don't have a magic instructor, so you need to learn your <Darkness Magic> on your own."

"No, no, no. Just being able to get a job is enough for me, my lord."

"Then, I welcome you to Gregorios mansion, Yumil. Luna, can you please show her the place she will be staying?"

A girl in her late teens appeared suddenly in the room and she is not ashamed to admit that that gave her a scare although she thought she doesn't fear any more surprises.

"This way, please," the lady guided her to the place she is going to stay for the rest of the time she starts working at the mansion.

All the people staying near the Lord are kind to her. Mr. Keith, Miss Luna, Sir Gurguit, Lady Macha, Lady Nightingale, Lady Delfina, and most of all, Lord Urien himself cares about her. If he doesn't care about her, why would he give her the days off? After tomorrow, it will be the weekend and it is her day off. She needs to try her best tomorrow too. He was the one that gave her everything she had now. She, without a doubt, will try her best to please the Lord that cares for her.

The next day, it was like usual, she works hard for Lord Urien. She learns how to be a good maid. But today, she was meddled by a young gardener.

"Are you free tomorrow? Let's go to the town and have some fun!" the boy in front of her is around twelve years of age, an orphan working at the mansion.

"No, I am not free. I have something to do for Lord Urien. Please have a good day," she lied and immediately turns around.

"Tch, that asshole got all the girls he wanted," the boy muttered in low voice. But it is loud enough for her to hear. All the time stops for her. "Did he just insult? Who? To Lord Urien?" she muttered then turns around immediately.

"What? Did you change your mind?" the boy asked.

She didn't reply and look at the boy coldly. The boy who was confused because he looked coldly by a girl, look at the right side where his arm is located. But the thing is that his arms went missing.

"ARGHHH!!!" he screamed like a girl. Then, he looks into the shadow as he heard something from the ground. There are many shadows of the beasts munching on something. They just appeared inside the shadow and ate his shadow's right arm.

"Nobody gets free after insulting Lord Urien," she said. She thinks back to the time she was taught how to kill a person by Mr. Keith. She looks at the ground then smiles as there is no blood spilled.

"Listen, little Yumil, when you kill someone, make it sure that you leave no evidence of the person you've killed. I use <Blood Magic> so, it might become messy if I kill someone. You can kill them without spilling anything. Learn everything from this book, it is the book that I got as a spoil from working under Lord Shade," she thought back to the time when Mr. Keith gave her the book about her attribute. She used <Hell Fire> when letting the beast munch off his arm and stopped the blood from spilling.

"You are kidding, right?"

"No, reflect yourself in hell, cur. This is for insulting Lord Urien," she said. After that, the beasts started to munch on the body. Although they eat the shadow, the body got eaten too. The thing is that the blood doesn't spill a drop.

She looks at the place where the boy was. Then, turns around without looking back. She will forgive nobody who tried to harm her Lord. Her Lord, who is kind to her and takes care of her. She will do anything for him. Even the things her mother forbid her.

But first, she will need to prepare tea for her Lord.