I mean who wouldn't be?Duchess Ella was almost one hundred percent sure everyone would be surprised at how hard working Lady Melissa was when it came to swordsmanship; some might even be jealous of her dedication.
It had been absolutely such a long time since Duchess Ella had seen someone as dedicated to swordsmanship as Lady Melissa.
The last time she had seen someone so dedicated was one of her past co-workers if she could even call him that.
He was none other than Duke Gaston and often Duchess Ella's lessons with Lady Melissa would remind the Duchess of her previous co-worker Duke Gaston.
Duchess Ella wasn't exactly sure why yet somehow she just kept getting reminded of Duke Gaston whenever she saw Lady Melissa practicing so hard, perhaps it was because of how Duke Gaston had acted in the past.
He had used to be a cheerful young man back in the olden days, yet as time passed people change.And he started turning off his feelings and not letting anyone get close to him.
Duke Gaston would keep people at arm's length and he was always so blunt and stoic it was sad how much Duke Gaston's personality had changed after he became the Duke of the Mieth family, he found out all about the family secrets.
Including him having a sister he never knew about, it was just so well hidden that Duke Gaston never suspected something like that ever happening.
Especially in his own house, he just couldn't believe it all.
But he was forced to come to terms with the truth sooner or later, as his parents themselves had admitted the truth to him.
Duke Gaston had originally found out about it through overhearing a conversation with a bunch of maids.
He could still vividly remember the day it had happenned, he was 17.
Duke Gaston was walking to his parents' room when he heard a bunch of maids gossiping and just chatting.
He didn't care much and went back to walking to his parents' room before he heard a word.
That stopped him in his tracks.
"Hey, did you hear about the rumour?"
One maid whispered, though the maid wasn't quite good at whispering as Duke Gaston was able to hear it even though he was a few feet away from them.
"What rumour?"
Another maid asked, now with a confused look on her face.
"You know...the rumour about the Duke and Duchess of the Mieth family?"
"You know... THAT rumour."
Yet the first maid was still left with a confused look on the second maid so she continued her statement.
"The one where the Duchess had a child but didn't want to so she killed the child."
A gasp left the maid's mouth.
"What are you talking about!You shouldn't say stuff like that,especially since we're in the Mieth estate!"
The maids soon after moved to another location in fear that someone had overheard their little session.
Duke Gaston was first left in a state of shock but well he didn't really believe it because there was no way right?
As much as he disliked his parents for how they had treated him in the past he still had a sense of care in his heart for them.
Even though they had physically beaten him multiple times he had that small sense of hope hoping that perhaps one day if he tried hard enough, his parents would finally spare Duke Gaston a glance, perhaps even sparing some of their time to chat or have fun with Duke Gaston.
It was a 'stupid' dream as many might say, and Duke Gaston would agree, but he just desperately yearned for his parents affection so he tried his best.
The only thing he didn't try as much as was swordsmanship, but over the years he ended up trying hard on that too.
But what he worked the hardest on?It was academics, the Mieth family had a long line of scholars.
And truth be told Duke Gaston wasn't the brightest student, nor was he the quickest to understand but he tried, he tried to get his parents affection, tried for them to even spare a single glance for him.
Yet in the end it had failed.
Though Lady Melissa wasn't sure whether Duke Gaston had a talk with his parents regarding his sister, as in Lady Melissa's past life, they had only told Duke Gaston on his 25th birthday.
On the day Duke Gaston was suppossed to feel the most happy, he had felt the most despair and anger he had felt in a long time.
He left his own ball in a state of rage and fury coursing through his veins.
Out of all the days, they had to tell him during his BIRTHDAY.
He just couldn't believe the audacity of his parents.
After spending 20+ years trying to get his parents attention, he had eventually given up on it.
But when he became the heir all of a sudden they wanted to mend their relationship with him?
When they could've done the same thing all these years?
He just couldn't believe his parents, he knew they were greedy but..he was hurt, they were just greedy for Duke Gaston's money.
Duke Gaston wasn't dumb at all, instead it was the absolute opposite.
Neither was Duke Gaston naive, he wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, his experience with life had made sure of that.
And truth be told Duke Gaston was happy at that time, how hard of a childhood he had.
Sure it wasn't as hard as many others' childhood with abandoned parents, or parents that were way worse than his.
But it had made him who he was now, the successful Duke Gaston which many women had wanted to be with and many men had envied over.
He had all kinds of titles, and not a single one of them was talking bad about him.
Hard work eventually pays off.