Olivia didn't understand majority of what they were saying, but she knew instinctively that her life from now onwards would become far from easy.
"Listen here, there are over a hundred and thirty bedrooms in this castle, excluding the servant's and slave's quarters. And four towers structured around the main castle, and at the highest floor, lives the Alpha of our pack."
The whole floor? Olivia thought to herself, wondering why one man had to have an entire floor all to himself?
"You will be working alongside the maids under the third division, and we're responsible for cleaning the third tower, and all of the gardens in the castle." Freina lectured, breaking her concentration from the window she was wiping clean.
It had already been a week since she accepted the responsibility of taking care of Olivia, and during this past week Freina busied herself with helping Olivia adapt to her surroundings.
"But considering you're blind, you'll be working in the inner castle, perhaps you'll join the wash maids." She suggested, she had been thinking of what sort of work would be better suited for Olivia.
Olivia curled her right finger into a tight fist, "I don't want to work here, I'm not a slave, let me go home!" She protested, for the fourth time since waking up.
Freina huffed, "I've told you already, you can't leave this place, you'd place yourself and the commander at a greater danger…"
"You don't need to take care of me!" Olivia spat at her, she clutched tightly onto the wooden cane in her right hand, bruising herself with her tight grip. "I'm just a slave girl, I don't need your pity, so why won't you let me run away?!" For the past week Olivia had asked that question, and for the past Freina hadn't responded to her even once.
Freina squeezed the rag in her hand into the bucket and continued wiping the window. Olivia hissed and struck her cane in front of her to guide her out of the room.
The castle was large, so it wasn't hard for Olivia to walk around without bumping into something. And, she had been to this particular room four times during the past week, so she knew what to expect.
"I'm not going to stay here! I'm going to run away, and then I'm going to find father." Olivia muttered to herself, as she marched at a fast paced through the halls.
None of the other maids from the third division paid her any heed, as Freina had asked them not to. However, no one would've expected the unexpected visit to the third division, by two well known figures around the pack.
"Ew, this tower is very dirty, just look at the maids here, they look no better than the common slaves!" Nadia cried out in a haughty tone, cackling in amusement as she trotted down the hallway.
Standing closely behind her was her handmaid, Yelena, the oldest daughter of the second division commander.
"Miss Nadia, you mustn't say such things out loud." Yelena stated, in a not so quiet whisper she added, "Though I must agree, these maids are best suited for the third division, it must be why your father had them live in this tower."
Nadia laughed out loud and held her chin up, "Father definitely knows what's best! And my father is the best, which means I'm the best! Isn't that right?"
The other maids who had the faintest clue that Nadia would be arriving, immediately stopped cleaning and lined up on each side of the hallway, with their hands in front of them, and their heads lowered.
"Greetings, Miss Nadia." They chorused in unison, acknowledging the presence of Alpha Lucian's daughter, Nadia.
"Tch, took you long enough to pay your respects. A second longer and I would've had all of you miss out on dinner." The bratty eight year old spat out, crossing her hands over the yellow and white patterned silk fabric she had on.
Olivia could hear a high pitched voice in the near distance, acting on instincts she swiftly turned around, wanting nothing to do with the scene.
However, just before she could make her escape back into the room, Nadia's sea green orbs caught sight of a moving figure walking away from her, and without paying respects too.
"You! Stop right this instance!" Nadia ordered, gripping the hearts of the maids, who still feared what Freina would do if anything were to happen to the child.
Olivia was oblivious she was the one being referred to and continued marching away, placing a hand on the nearest wall, whilst sticking her cane forward.
"What? Did you not hear me? I said stop!" Nadia widened her eyes in rage when Olivia continued on, as though the Alpha's daughter meant nothing.
"How dare she ignore Miss Nadia?!" Yelena spat out in disbelief, she turned to the nearest maid, "Tell me, who is that girl? I'll have my father handle—"
"There's no need, I'll teach her a lesson myself!" Nadia announced, right before she marched through the line of helpless maids, over to where Olivia was struggling to backtrack her steps.
Olivia heard something rapidly approaching, but before she could turn her head back or react, Nadia had already gotten to her and yanked hard on her black ponytail!
"Stop! It hurts!" Olivia cried out in confusion, the person's scent was far different from any of the maids, and her grip didn't feel like an adult's.
"It hurts?" Nadia mocked, "I haven't even started to punish you for acting so cheeky just now!" She raised her voice and pulled harder on Olivia's hair, smiling at the pained expression on her face.
Olivia desperately dropped her cane and reached for Nadia's wrist, and without giving it a second thought she peeled the girl's fingers off her grip, and then pushed her away!
Startled by the sudden retaliation, Nadia fell hard on her behind, "Y-You hit me!" Nadia pointed out, crying buckets from having someone get rough with her.
Yelena and the other maids hurried to Nadia's aid.
"Despicable thing!" Yelena raised her hand and awarded Olivia a tight slap to the face, causing her to stagger and lose balance, and then fall over as well.
"Ouch, that hurt!" Olivia screeched, without her sight, her senses were sharper, and she ended up feeling sensations like pain more than others.
"Miss Nadia, are you alright?"
"Shall I get some medicine for you?"
"Please come lie down!"
The maids desperately pleaded, hovering over the child. Although Olivia hadn't technically hit Nadia, shoving her was just an equal crime, and the penalty for laying a hand on the Alpha's daughter, was severing of the hand used to commit the act.
"Get away from me!" Nadia screamed, forcing the maids to back away.
The girl on her feet and held her hand to her cheek, pretending as though she had been slapped across the face.
"You dare to hit me?! I'm going to tell my father! Yelena, seize her! She's coming with me…" Nadia was in the middle of saying, only for her words to get cut off by a fast incoming peeble?!
In the blink of an eye, a smooth peeble came flying at Nadia, and nearly hit her right eye, fortunately, it missed her by a hair and crashed into the vase behind her, shattering it to pieces.
Olivia covered her ears upon hearing the shattering sound, uncomfortable, she frantically reached around for her cane. But instead of the poorly crafted wooden stick, her palm landed on a pair of shoes.
"Shoes?" She muttered to herself, taking a feel around it to make certain.
Whereas, Nadia was shellshocked to lay her eyes on a silver haired boy, with three identical looking peebles balanced perfectly in-between his fingers.
The boy despite being merely twelve years old, had an experienced look in his eyes and a calm demeanor about him. He lowered his gaze to the girl on the floor, examining his shoes and frowned.
"Y-You! H-How dare you try to kill me?! I'm going to tell my father about this—" she was saying, only for the kid to interrupt her by throwing another stone at her, this time, just barely missing her left eye!
Nadia's chest skipped a nervous beat, she wanted to scold the boy for being rude, but just by looking into his cold black orbs, she lost the will to even say anything back.
The maids exchanged frightened glances with each other, all too aware of who this child was, and much aware of the sort of trouble that was brewing with this uneventful interaction.
The silver haired boy tucked the stones into his pocket and crouched down Olivia's level. He reached for the hand Olivia used to touch his shoes, unknowingly wiping the grass and mud off of it.
Seeing this, Nadia recollected herself and scoffed loudly as the boy helped Olivia off the ground, "How unsightly! I can't tell which of you two is more disgusting to look at. You both should just drop dead—" Nadia was in the middle of saying, only for him to toss her a harsh glare and hiss.
"Shut the hell up." Kieran demanded in a hardened tone, giving no qualms to who this girl was, or the consequences of his actions.
He stood defensively in front of Olivia and said boldly to the Alpha's daughter. "You're as annoying as a fly clinging to a corpse."