~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bellrain was a beautiful city, with ancient roman houses,
roads made out of stone connected everywhere, and a robust sewage system that brought running water to all parts of town where water was needed.
Bellrain was separated into multiple sectors, be it commercial, industrial, or the housing sector, as well as being separated by outer and inner walls that gave the population a certain level of security regarding outside threats.
At the center of the city, there was a massive school adorned by a huge sky blue bell at the top of a hundred feet tall towers, it was believed that the old bell gave the city its name, and it was rumored to be even older than the city itself.
There was a Manor on the outskirts of the inner walls of the city of Bellrain where a middle-aged rough looking black man was looking into some documents, after a few minutes the man raised from his chair and yelled
"Jyro!"
A young man with broken glasses and a butler outfit walked briskly inside the room and kneeled in front of the man.
"Ma-Masster you called?" The young man said while shaking.
"Prepare two guest bedrooms, and tell Berta we will be having a few visitors by dusk."
"I-I-Immediately sir!" The young man stood up and ran out of the office, almost as if his but was on fire..."
The old man sighted. To think he was asked to make a warrior out of this meek attempt of a man...
'I still have a few months and I haven't accepted him as a disciple yet.' The old man thought after watching the kid get away.
The man dropped his papers on his desk, on top of them there was a letter...
"For Henry Hendricks. From Marie."
~~~~~~ Later at night. ~~~~~~
"Sir Hendricks, Marie, and company have arrived."
"Is dinner ready?" Hendricks said without removing his eyes from the documents at hand.
"Yes sir. I have asked them to wait in the dining room for your arrival, as per usual."
"Good." Hendricks placed his papers in a drawer and left his office.
His manor had a certain elegance, although the main building wasn't big it was practical.
The lighting was provided by a piece of rock on a brass-like support attached to the smooth stone walls.
Hendricks arrived at the dining room and looked around as if searching for someone, after a few seconds his face darkened in understanding and he approached Nana who was sitting quietly with Janette on her lap.
Hendricks placed his gigantic hand on Nana's shoulder and said.
"I understand now, I'm sorry for your loss Marie."
"I don't want your pity, Henry, Although I would like to say that this isn't about me anymore... I need a favor." Nana said with a nonchalant expression.
"Oh?" Hendricks raised an eyebrow, which made his body and face full of scars look intimidating but Nana's expression remained unconcerned as if she wasn't even a bit nervous about having her request denied.
"Let's discuss the details after dinner, shall we?"
Henry pulled away from nana and positioned himself at the head of the table where an oversized and custom-made chair was waiting for him. As he signaled towards Berta who has just arrived with a small cart full of plates.
It was a huge contrast in quality between what Nana and Janette had been eating the last few days, but at the end of the day, it all tasted the same for them...
"Thank you, Berta, you can go now."
"At your service, Sir." Berta left the room after a brief bow.
A few minutes later...
"Care to tell me what are your intentions, Marie?" After eating enough to feed a small family Hendricks started to talk once more.
"I need you to be Janette Mentor." Nana said after placing her glass on the table.
"You already know that won't be possible, Marie."
"Why so? Janette, Dear. Show that old man what you can do..."
Hendricks's mouth twitched slightly, but Janette noticed so, and she decided it was best to try her best after seeing Nana's expression.
Janette separated from the table and sighed.
Slowly a weird kind of steam arouse from her body but after leaving for a few feet it started to condensate and compact on itself until it formed a thick veil around Janette's body
Hendricks was looking at her unimpressed and he threw a piece of bread against Janette.
The piece of bread flew on an arc until it arrived at Janette's special barrier, the second those two make contact a loud *ZAAP* could be heard around the room.
That's when Hendricks started paying a bit more attention...
"I see... Not only are you a few years ahead of schedule but you also managed to add offensive capabilities to a defensive technique. But it's not enough yet..." Hendricks analyzed while resting his chin on one of his hands...
"Jyro!" Hendricks yelled, his yell was strong enough that it managed to make the things around him vibrate slightly, and also broke Janette's concentration.
Almost instantly a young man came rushing and kneeled in front of Hendricks while panting.
"Ma-a-ster you called?"
"Listen, Marie, let's make things interesting. This boy right here, Jyro. He was sent to me for the exact same purpose as your visit. I haven't decided what to do with him yet.
The Blue Bell Academy will start its enrollment in a few months, in two months' time I want Janette and Jyro to have a spar, if Janette wins I will accept. If she doesn't then you will have to look somewhere else." Hendricks's expression was as if he was about to laugh, after all, Jyro was almost twice Janette's age.
"As for you, Jyro, I believe I don't have to tell you what will happen to you if you fail..." Hendrick said full of smiles, after all, it was almost as if two problems had been resolved by one another.
"In the meantime, Janette will have to work as a maid, that way I can use the excuse of compensation to give her pointers without having to accept her as an official disciple, the same way I'm doing with Jyro... Do you agree with the current setup?"
Hendricks said as he walked up to Nana's side and put out his hand.
He was almost three times as tall as Nana so it made his posture a bit awkward since he had to bend the knees so his hand was at Nana's level.
Nana accepted the handshake with a serious expression, she was worried about the outcome of this sudden decision and how will impact their lives.
After all, Janette was all that was left of Nana's family as well...
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"This is your room, Madam, Missy." Berta brought Nana and Janette to a room on the second floor. This room was right beside Hendricks's office as per his request.
"Starting tomorrow morning I will present the whole staff to you, and two days from now, on Monday, you will start working with us Missy, we will get the correct attire for you tomorrow. Good luck" Berta left with a warm smile. As an older woman and a servant, she enjoyed seeing such a well-mannered child, so she couldn't help but take a liking to her.
After closing the door behind themselves Nana unpacked the little they had on themselves. Their clothes were worn out and dirty so it was a blessing seeing two sets of clothes prepared for them. Although they were really simple it was still a sign of goodwill that won't go unnoticed.
Janette's expression was still cold, the fact that they lost Eric had finally been acknowledged and the pain slowly started to subside, but the anger she felt didn't...
"What do you think Nana?" Janette said while changing her clothes.
"Henry is an old friend of mine sweaty, even though we haven't met in the last thirty years he hadn't changed a little bit. He's a good man." Nana said while reminiscing about the past.
"That's not what I meant. Do... Do you think I can win?" Janette said after a brief pause. Her self-confidence had taken an unwarranted hit after Eric's passing after all.
"As of today? No... But you will have a chance in two months, I believe you should be ready by then. You are really smart honey, it could take even less than that but you know what your father used to say..." Nana said without knowing about Janette's insecurity.
Janette smiled a little bit and replied. "Providence smile to those who come prepared." "Goodnight Nana, I love you."
"Goodnight my child." Nana said back, feeling a little warm on the inside, after all, Janette rarely was affectionate with her words before the incident...
The Next morning...
A small group of people was gathered in front of a set of stairs they were all wearing the same kind of uniform.
The men wore a fine set of black shoes, a black suit, and a tie.
While the women used a black long dress with a white removable apron on the front and a black and white headband in order to keep their hair tied up.
Nana and Janette arrived at the top of the staircase where Berta was waiting for them.
"Let's go, I'll introduce you to the rest." Berta stretched her hand and Janette and her went down the stairs holding hands.
She was expecting Janette to be scared but her cold and confident expression only accentuated the beautifulness of Janette's big and bright green eyes.
"This one here is Mario. He is the head butler, if you had any questions you can ask either one of us ok?" Berta said while showing Janette a man with grey hair and a serious expression. without waiting for Janette's response she continued...
"This one is Rigo, he's in charge of taking care of the garden, and Sir Hendricks's personal training grounds." A tall and skinny guy waved his hand at Janette slowly with a smile.
This one is Jyro, I'm sure you two know each other already." At this point Jyro was almost blue, trying to hold his breath, he was doing his best to maintain a professional expression but he was just ten years old after all...
"Moving on to the women, First of all, I'm Berta. Head maid."
"Then we have Erin and Elena, they are the cooks. And Leonor takes care of most of the superficial cleaning. As you can see those three are triplets, don't worry if you can't tell them apart being fair no one can..."
"Hey!" Elena protested playfully, it was obviously a joke but it managed to make Jyro who almost passed out at this point burst out laughing.
And so it all began. Will Janette be able to defeat Jyro? Will she get a cute maid outfit? Will Berta be able to tell the triplets from each other? Only time will tell...