"When I took over your family's businesses, I discovered Elsie's logbook in which she had detailed where she had obtained her test subjects for the poison she developed."
Lord Canning put a pause here to his explanation as though waiting for the words to sink in and get some feedback from Annabeth. The sudden twist in the story attracted Annabeth's undivided attention. Needless to say, she wanted to know more about the poison, for security reasons of course.
"Poison?" She asked, feigning ignorance at the mention of something she knew.
But it wasn't entirely pretending. Annabeth had no clue Elsie had actually developed the poison herself, the military guarded its secrets well.
"Yes, poison. I only found out after digging deeper what kind of poison it was and how she made it," Lord Canning replied, still staring outside.
"Salazar supplied the test subjects for those experiments. The number of people that died as a result of that psychopath's experiments was astronomical but not as many as those she killed after developing it."
"My sister…" he stopped himself, as his head bent downwards a little and corrected himself.
"Your mum and dad died from Elsie's poison a few years later. Elsie was also killed by her own poison," he said and turned around to face her.
Silence befell the room as Lord Canning studied Annabeth's expression. He was searching for a reaction, sadness or any expression that he could give comfort on so as to switch the topic as quickly as possible.
"I'm sorry for all of this. If I had known earlier then maybe I could…"
"It's fine," Annabeth replied. A small and pure smile came across her face that left Canning a bit shocked.
"What?"
"I said it's fine. It's in the past and we can't change it. We can regret it all we want but that won't change anything, we will only be more miserable," Annabeth said.
This was a much more mature side of her and it caught Canning a little off-guard. He did not expect Annabeth, who was a goofball of late, to say something mature. Annabeth seemed to have accepted her parents' demise a long time ago, and he, Canning, was the one that never really moved on.
He was happy and slightly embarrassed by the whole situation. He was happy because Annabeth could be mature when necessary but embarrassed that she probably thought he never healed from the pain of his sister's death.
In truth, he was upset when he found out that Elsie killed his sister but it wasn't enough reason to hunt down Salazar the bandit. Canning had different reasons for the bandit takedown but he wasn't ready to share with Annabeth the real reason. He decided to let it be and allow her to think that way of him. It was much easier that way, he thought.
In the end, he was the one getting comforted.
"I just think holding on to the past is more painful and leads only to a path of destruction," Annabeth continued.
For someone who took a long time to let go of grudges, these words were almost hypocritical. She could immediately appreciate how applicable her words were to her own life. She had spent her previous lifetime holding onto a grudge and trying to return to her former glory that she ended up dying again.
Lord Canning smiled at hearing these words. He really hoped Annabeth lived by this principle for the rest of her life. If she never held grudges then maybe this cruel world would not hurt her, he thought.
"Thank you," Canning finally said with a smile, hoping to have assured Annabeth that her advice had been heard.
For the rest of the day, the entire mansion was filled with much more cheerful conversations. Annabeth was given the day to relax and so she spent it chatting away with the servants and Canning.
Lord Canning was a noble that didn't really act obnoxiously towards his servants by treating them as commoners, and with that earned their friendship and above all genuine respect. This friendship and respect also extended towards Annabeth, who had grown to accept them as friends rather than servants.
Whenever she had time to spare, she would help the servants with their chores while chatting with them on their lives and would tell them snippets of her life where she had not been acting maliciously. She told the stories as though she had heard them somewhere and the servants were amused about how someone who rarely traveled knew a lot about the world. They soon came to the conclusion that she had read the information in her books since she was very fond of them.
***
The next day, Annabeth met Lord Canning and Menzine outside the mansion after having her breakfast. From experience, she had learned that whenever the three of them met in one place, she would receive some outrageous training scheme that would push her to her limits. Having the energy to push through it was essential.
Lord Canning and Menzine stood on a paved area behind the mansion. It was large enough to be considered a modern-day basketball court but it had several large metallic pieces around that looked like they made something when assembled. Overall, the place looked like a junkyard that had received a professional makeover.
"Good morning, lady Annabeth," Menzine was the first to greet her with a slight bow.
Despite how many times he had been told not to bow at her, he refused and remained vigilant in his task. Both Annabeth and Canning gave up on their persuasions and let him do as he pleased; passive laziness was in their blood.
"Good morning Menzine. Good morning slaver," Annabeth greeted Menzine and Lord Canning respectively.
She knew her training would be as strenuous as a slave's regular day of work. She gave her uncle a 'slaver' title as a joke but it was probably a tasteless one based on both Menzine's and Canning's reactions. They both shook their heads with uneasy smiles. She had broken Menzine's poker face, an achievement so early in the morning.
Breakfast was indeed the meal of conquerors, she proudly thought.