Dress Code

Linmin quickly put the food away and made himself more presentable as right now, there was a rather sizable amount of blood on his hands, thankfully, he worked in a clean manner and only the apron had been dirtied, so it did not take too long for the second wife to arrive before the front door, looking as elegant as usual.

He checked through the peephole before opening the door, just in case, but as expected, it was a feeble-looking, white haired girl with soft green eyes, fidgeting around and clearly looking worried, if not outright scared.

'Why would you be scared? Do people not know what's good for them?' hiding his thought being the usual expression, one that was neither cold nor too warm, the face of a perfect servant that could easily fade into the background and be hardly distinguishable from a piece of furniture when standing still.

As habit would have it, he always assumed that particular expression when focusing as well, or even when just not thinking about anything in particular, the training he had gone through to originally become his lord's servant had been ingrained so deeply that the mannerisms had simply become natural.

The door opened up, and the pale girl was greeted by what she assumed was a pretty, young woman, wearing a red dress and tights of the same colour, long hair dyed yellow, and eyes of a similar colour as hers, it was somewhat idiotic, but the fact that she seemed to share a few things with the person in front of her put Jingyi more at ease.

"Hello, you must the one called Jingyi, come on in" quickly ushering the girl in, she was impressed by the rather lavish interior, which was much brighter and welcoming-looking than she had expected, in her mind, Edrick's dwelling would have been a dark and sordid place with chains on the walls.

Using the time she was distracted, Linmin quietly shut the door and locked it by turning the key twice using his own double of the keys, all four of the wives had their own keys, and there was room with some spares, but naturally, that room was not easily accessible by just anyone, and as Anoteros had decided, any door leading to the outside were nearly always locked, pretty much only left open when someone had to get through.

And with winter being so dreadfully cold, all windows were tightly shut.

'That's done, she can't run away now…' Linmin stepped to the side of Jingyi, and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, forming a genuine smile.

"You did good to accept Lord Edrick's offer, there is possibly no greater occupation than working within this residence, you shall be housed, fed and dressed amongst other things… Why don't we get you to your room?" not allowing her to ask too many questions, the second wife just put one hand against her back and led the way.

"Huh… Hum… You already prepared a room for me?" thankfully, the outer disciple wasn't asking difficult questions first.

"Yes and no, there are many empty rooms that we are expecting to fill with maids in the future, Lord Edrick is a handsome, powerful, dashing, wealthy, pure-blooded man of high nobility, so it is only natural for him to live in a residence of extraordinary proportions, tended to by many dutiful maids, right? So naturally, we have gone ahead and prepared a few rooms ahead of time" Linmin spoke as slowly as was possible without making it obvious that he was just trying to keep her from asking anything else.

"And would you look at that, here it is, it is rather small by our standards, but most certainly far above the room you used to occupy in the outer section of the sect, yes?"

The room was simple, but rather cozy-looking, one just had to not pay attention to the fact that the window was suspiciously shaped, there was a bad, which was definitely far larger than anything Jingyi was used to, in fact, it could be considered too spacious for a room that was supposed to only be of use to a single person, but obviously, a bed a maid slept in was also a bed she would be played with upon, and the player was of a rather big build.

There was also a nightstand equipped with a candle, a closet built directly into the wall, which had spare sheets and the likes, a desk, a chest and lastly, a chifforobe-type closet, which Linmin walked to soon after stepping inside the room.

He opened it, and the area within meant for hanging clothes already had a wide selection of different attires.

All of them were the attires that would be worn by a maid depending on the region and culture, knowing that their husband wasn't one to care about such things, and knew that he would prefer if the maids each looked different from one another, not just in their physical looks, but also clothing.

So there was a wide range to choose from, from the black and white to colourful, to the more conservative long dresses to the short or frilly.

"Let's get to the more interesting part, we're going to pick the style that suits you best, but let's be careful, a maid needs to be constant in her looks, alright? So once it's picked, it can not be changed" he explained, and Jingyi nodded, visibly growing anxious the more she stayed inside of this residence.

Even without Edrick being anywhere around, the simple fact that she inside of his den put her on edge, within the sect, be it the dormitories or even the main building, she had not been safe from him in the least, inside of his residence, hidden away from the rest of the sect, far from any other residence, which aren't even occupied, and hidden amidst trees and nature…

She would be more vulnerable than ever, she could scream as loudly as was possible, and no one would hear any of it, her guts felt like they were tied into a knot…

'Calm down… There is no other choice anyways…' Jingyi tried to settle down and grabbed the first attire Linmin handed for her to try, she just needed to think about something else.

"I… I haven't asked for your name yet… Who are you? I don't think I have ever met you in the sect before…" she had heard that Anoteros had wives that were also special disciples by simple virtue of being his women, but the exact names she wasn't sure about.

"Ah, I am Linmin, Lord Edrick's second wife, I am in charge of the house and various other things, so you'll be working with me, unless you show that you have some talent to be the personal maid of the other three wives, or perhaps of Lord Edrick himself? Wouldn't that be exciting?"

"I-It would be for sure…"

"Mmh… The classic black and white one is pretty nice, I guess… But I feel like you would benefit from having a more vibrant colour as part of your uniform"

"If I may ask… What kind of person is he? I… I haven't gotten to speak with him that much"

"Lord Edrick? Aah… He is just the best, I honestly don't think there is a better man anywhere else in the world, I am not hyperbolic when I say that he is the perfect husband- Although he will not show the same amount of love to you as he does for us, rest assured that now that you are a part of this household, that you'll get to enjoy a preferential treatment that no other men is capable of even coming to match…"

"You'll feel his love when he—Let's say when he puts his special mark on you, it shouldn't take too long, he will surely do so after your initial period of training is over, but enough blabbering! Try this one now"

Jingyi just nodded along, but despite how friendly Linmin was, it was clear that the second wife would not be an ally no matter what Anoteros was going to do to her.

'Maybe… Just maybe… One of the other three wives will be more sensible? Surely, they can't all be totally devoted to him…'

"Oh, that is a good one, seems like picking one that goes with either your eyes or hair will be the best choice… So which do you think Lord Edrick will prefer? The white or green one?"

"I… Huh… White maybe? He is often dressed in dark, maybe he'll appreciate some brightness to balance things out?"

"Great answer, put that one on, and then I'll show you around the residence really quickly, and then you'll come help me in the kitchen, alright?"

"A-Alright!"