"Young master, Zeff, where are you going?"
When Zeff was walking towards the door, he heard someone's call. Zeff briefly frowned after hearing it.
When he glanced, he saw a lady in her 30's. She had long maroon hair that was tied into a bun style.
"Miss Ona, I just want to go outside," Zeff responded in a somber voice. He believed it was the most natural reply that the young Zeff could have, given his current situation that is sulking because of his results in the Appraisal Ceremony.
'As far as I know, Miss Ona was the only helper left in our family after the Anworth family started going downhill from the nobility. Even though we could no longer pay for her service, she still insisted on staying with us.'
'She's doing all sorts of chores in the mansion, but mostly, she's assisting my mother.'
'When the bandits came to attack, it was her, Miss Ona, that my mother appointed to take me away to escape from the town.'
'It was also her who took me to the Sylverious family. I don't know if Miss Ona is directly connected to the Sylverious family because after she took me to that family, I never saw her again.'
But this time, Zeff had a feeling that Miss Ona wasn't merely an ordinary person. His instinct as a fighter was screaming that it was the case.
Under that innocent and gentle smile of her, was prolly another beast in hiding.
Zeff felt a chill run down his spine. There was nothing he could do at the moment. He was very fragile in his current state. Anyway, he needed to be careful around her. And also, he needed to keep an eye on her.
She stared at him for a couple of seconds, which caused him to get alerted deep inside. It would not be good if she noticed something unusual in him. Zeff tried his best to maintain the sulking expression on his face.
"I see. Please be careful not to wander too far, Young Master Zeff. Her lady Zarina asked me to check on you and make sure you are okay," she said with a gentle smile again.
Zeff secretly sighed in relief. But soon he froze once again when she said another thing. "Also, Young Master Zeff should not feel down with the result. I'm sure your parents will do something about it," she added before she bowed and walked away.
'That was unexpected,' Zeff thought before he looked away with a snort.
While facing his back to Miss Ona, "I'm going to that swing," said Zeff before he started walking towards the door. Upon hearing his reply, "Okay, be careful," she said and walked, but Miss Ona stopped briefly and sent another glance at him.
Zeff didn't bother looking back at her again.
She only resumed walking away when Zeff's figure disappeared at the door.
Zeff arrived at the garden after several steps. It was the garden of different kinds of plants, flowers, and herbs of high quality that his mother had carefully cultivated. He went directly to the right side of the mansion as his objective was in there.
After turning to his left, he saw it, the tree with a swing hanging on one of its branches.
Zeff walked in front of the tree. The tree was quite tall for a kid to climb. And it has a wide trunk that was impossible to hug for a kid like him.
He looked around and felt nostalgic at the scenery.
He turned back his gaze to the ground, near one of its protruding roots. There he saw what he came here for.