'Almas, was it tiring to do what you did earlier?'
-Just a bit, master.
'Next time, refrain from doing things like that until your body can handle the strain, got it'
-Understood.
At three in the morning, brother Nicholas entered the room I was using after taking a bath to remove the stench of blood that was spilled on him after his stress relief exercise a few hours ago.
"You're still awake?"
"I told you that I was going to wait for you, right"
Brother Nicholas walked slowly and sat down. He rest his head on my shoulder as he cried and let go of all the bottled frustration he has.
I took the towel from his hand and dried his wet hair for him.
After crying for about ten minutes he started dozing off.
"Are you sleepy?"
"....Yeah"
"Let's sleep together then"
"Like old times, huh"
Just as how the three Emond siblings did in the past, me and brother Nicholas also held each other's hand as we slept to let go the things that were weighing down on us and accept the reality and move forward.
...
When I woke up, it was already noon. Brother Nicholas was still sleeping as his body was tired when all of his frustration vanish, the mental strain then became fatigue.
"Samuel"
"Yes, my lady"
"We have a new mission. It is to make this town flourish before our guest arrive"
"Guest?"
"I am sure you are excited to meet him, right"
He immediately understood what I mean by who it was and cried from joy.
He then gave me a full thorough report about what he discovered yesterday after wiping his tears.
According to Samuel, the people are on the verge of suicidal rebellion. Some even have gatherings and weapons that were being prepared.
"Gather all the servants and knights who works in this mansion"
"Yes, my lady"
I left brother Nicholas at Almas' care after I left a letter saying that I have other things to do so that it won't surprise him when he wakes up.
Although my brother needs emotional support now of all times, something like this won't be enough to shake him down.
Swiftly, Samuel was able to gather all the servants in the hall that was used yesterday.
"I am Dianna Emond, daughter of the previous duke of Emond and the owner of this territory and this mansion. If you have any objection, raised your hand"
A knight raised his hand as he laugh.
"My lady you can't be serious about asking us to serve under you, do you?"
After the mocking statement, every other servant and knight bursted into laughter. Even the maid who was cowering from the baron to the point that she tremble visibly laugh with them.
They all don't know the fact that I was one who manipulated everything behind the scenes and now sees me as nothing more than an ignorant and haughty noble girl.
"Samuel"
"Yes, my lady"
"Whose position is higher?"
"It is yours, my lady"
"Right. For the filthy mouth that dared to mock me, cut his tongue... actually, cut his head instead"
The knights unsheathed their swords and pointed it towards me and Samuel.
"My lady, do you seriously think a single knight can take down all of us here?"
Said by the same knight who mocked me.
"Let me correct you. It is not one versus one hundred. It is thirteen versus one hundred"
The doors opened and the imperial knights began to come out from the doors which then surrounded everyone.
John headed straight towards the knight who mocked me and cut his head in one single strike. The cut was so clean that the head remained on its place while the body didn't fall down to the ground.
"Aaah!"
The servants screamed as they saw one of the knights dead.
"Sir John, it was me that was ordered to kill him not you"
"I am sorry Sir Samuel, I can't bear to see a low life insult lady Emond"
The knights charged and tried to kill the imperial knights but failed. The skill and experience difference was simply too vast for their numbers to overcome such flaw.
In the end, only ten knights were left from the one hundred earlier.
"You all are foolish, truly foolish. You all are working here for the pay, right. Then, let me tell you all something. All of you will work to rebuild this entire town into a proper town. If not then you will die. If you decide to escape, your loved ones will die"
Although I knew from the beginning that they were all rotten due to my knowledge about the novel, I still gave them a chance to show me their true selves and yet... how utterly disappointing for things to turn out this way.
Later that day, Roman and the Deltan family went back to the capital. Brother Nicholas wanted to stay here for a longer period of time but was dragged by brother Roman as he still have things to do as the duke of Emond.
Meanwhile, Andrin and some knights distributed food from the previous baron's storage and became popular with the people. Because of this the peoples' anger subsided for a bit and became open to me, the new lord.
The next day, Andrin went back to the empire with some knights from Veulad to escort him to report back to the empress, leaving all the imperial knights behind for me.
Two weeks passed since.
There were one hundred servants and ten knights. Among them, only fifty remained.
The ones who tried to escape all failed due to John's spatial sensitivity thus met a gruesome death. It wasn't really unexpected since they were all forced to do labor which made some faint while some vomit.
Another week passed and only eight of the remained.
The others weren't able to endure the hardship they were facing any longer and tried to fled but died in the end while there were a few who died from exhaustion.
Knock. Knock.
"Come in"
The five remaining servant and the three knights entered the room along with the imperial knights.
"I am truly amaze by your endurance and patience. Now you all are free...."
The eight celebrated.
"However, for attempting to poison me, you all other than that girl and that knight, the rest are sentenced to death"
Six of them died in an instant without even being able to react or say anything.
The imperial knights who worked under John were also crazy for blood. Perhaps it was their instinct that made them react to my order so quickly.
"My lady why did you spare the other two?"
"Samuel, there is a reason why I didn't ordered to kill all of them. They were against the idea of poisoning me from the beginning"
It was all thanks to Almas who was reporting to me in real time what they were doing everyday.
"From now on, you Rosette will become the head maid of this mansion. And you, dame Erica will be the head of the knights"