" So you are here to work as a maid?" An old woman in her fifties looked at Ginny and carefully assessed her as if carefully scrutinising whether she was even fit to sit in the room and give the interview for the position of the maid in the house of Terranova. A week ago, Leilani raised her hands in surrender and stated clearly that she was useless until and unless she got her hands on the books that exquisitely described the curse of the living dead, and if Ginny wanted to save her father she needed to bring those books to her.
Ginny tried to make threats, tried to coax and even bribe Leilani into giving in to her wishes and be the one to go to the Terranova territory in the disguise of a maid but the latter simply chuckled and looked at her like she was looking at a fool. ' Duke Terranova is an archmage do you think just anyone can sneak in there? He is known for his distrustfulness and I am ready to bet my life that he must have at least a hundred precautionary measures against impersonators.'
In the end, Ginny had to give up her initial plan. Fortunately, she was lucky as a batch of maids were already fired from the Terranova territory and she was able to get in with the other lot of girls who wanted to give the interview—— their number close to none. Because his identity as a sinner was known to the world, no one was willing to come to the Terranova territory, even those girls who came with her to give this interview looked close to tears most probably they were sent here by force given the payment was extraordinary.
Ginny took out the paper that she always carried with her and scribbled. " I am" before showing it to the woman who took another glance in her direction and shot her a sympathising look. "A mute, this is going to be troublesome." She tapped her well-manicured nails on the tabletop and nodded her head to her rhythmic thoughts before opening her mouth again. " Are you up for evening shifts as well? I am not asking for everyday shift but occasionally…there are finicky times when you have to pick the slack of others, are you willing?"
Naturally, she wasn't, taking out another paper, Ginny wrote, ' I have a sick father at home' and showed it to the old woman who once again shot her a pitiful glance but her expression remained stern, she placed her palms on the table with a thump and finally looked at Ginny. " I know that you have it tough but we are looking for maids that are available 24/7, if you are not up for it, then there is nothing I can do about it."
Ginny gritted her teeth, she really couldn't let go of this opportunity. Leilani and Duke Terranova once stood at the opposite ends, so it was impossible that Leilani will be able to get inside this palace that was so highly secured that it felt like a prison. And if she were to be kicked out as well then who will be responsible for stealing those books? In the end, even though she hated to agree with the conditions that were being presented to her, Ginny agreed to them.
" Excellent, don't worry the Terranova house will not treat you badly either," said the old woman as she stood up from her chair and motioned Ginny to follow her. " Come with me, I will show you around the castle and then you can start working from the next Monday. And by the way now that you are going to work here, I will introduce myself—— Greta Hopkins, remember my name well."
Ginny nodded before following Greta who carefully guided her through the maze-like palace. " And this here is the library." She pointed to a black iron door that was locked with numerous magical locks attached to it. " Don't ever go there, the Duke has forbidden anyone from getting close to that room, only him alone can go in and out of there..only enter that room if he allows you to. He likes his peace, the Duke."
'Sorry, Greta' but I will definitely have to get inside the room' thought Ginny feeling a bit guilty. Greta looked like a good woman, friendly even, it will be such a shame that she has to one day break the trust of this woman.
" And this is the second floor of the castle," she announced as the two climbed up the stairs and walked in a corridor that was so dark and chilling that it looked like it was taken right out of context from a haunted house. The candles in the five-armed candle holder flickered and snipped before lighting up once again, dark mist curled around their feet as they walked inside the corridor. " Don't be scared, though it looks terrifying, it's completely harmless. You don't have to worry about getting sick from it, in fact, it's quite a useful thing, every time you see that it's changing from light to heavy, you will be able to understand what kind of mood the Duke is in, the days when it's heavy, remember to take extra precautions."
Though Ginny didn't answer Greta didn't seem like she needed much of a response, she was able to go on and on without much reaction from her and maybe it had to do something with how silent the castle was, even though the old batch of servants were fired there was no way, that it should have been this empty right?
Just as Ginny was thinking about it, a long, thick snake two sizes bigger than an anaconda slithered out of the corner and snapped its jaw at her. Stunned, she took a step back and Greta immediately stood in front of her though she looked anxious while facing the snake. " Down, Lexus."
However, the snake named Lexus didn't look at her, its eyes were locked on Ginny who was blinking her eyes furiously. Reptiles were cold-blooded animals and even if she was a siren she wasn't able to grab a hold of their emotions, right now as she looked at the snake hissing at her, she couldn't decipher whether it was trying to get close to her or was it trying to attack her.
" Well, Well, Well…look at that Lexus, Greta brought you lunch."