As soon as I landed in Brecei, the first thing I needed to do was get some casual clothes. I was so used to wearing three piece suits now, that it was hard to decide what would be casual enough to wear. I wanted to go unnoticed by anyone here. But, unfortunately, my plans of wearing a hoodie was destroyed by a sudden phone call from my manager who I had left with mother in Japan.
I somehow had to find my way to The National University of Sydney and take a look around.
Apparently, the university my mother had constructed along with father, needed some reconstruction and mother offered to do it herself. So, I needed take a look at the severity of the department that required the reconstruction.
My plan was simple, go to the university, talk with the maintenance director, report to mother and leave for Aunt Merrisa's house. But, like always, nothing went as planned.
As I entered the university, wearing a suit, all eyes on me, I took my first turn into the departments and bumped into someone.
A girl in her early twenties, probably.
"Watch where you're going." I told her. I reached out a hand for her but she definitely had an attitude and the guts to slap away Japan's biggest construction company's owner's hand. So, if she thought she had an attitude, I had too. I walked past her, without even apologizing and went to the maintenance director.
It took longer to talk things out with him than I expected. The old guy, who was probably in his sixties, kept on rambling about his old days and the days when my mother used to study here and how good of a student she was.
I was done with my work at NUS by 6.p.m. It took me a whole hour to find Aunt Merrisa's house. She lived in an elite housing society which was much expected after the type of man she married. She wasn't exactly a gold digger, but she wasn't the most honest of all either.
The last time I had visited her, was the year father died. I don't remember clearly, but I was either about to turn eighteen or already had turned eighteen. Whatever it was, my last and only visit to her house wasn't pleasent.
As I entered the house, a clingy Abbigail grabbed my arm and greeted me. She had always been like this. I don't know what kind of hopes she had, but I definitely wanted to make it clear to her that she wasn't my type. Infact, I saw her as a sister. But I wasn't so sure she would accept it if I were to tell her that, giving the kind of attitude she had.
I looked around the house. It was.... ordinary. Not something that would catch ones eye. It was a big mansion, sure. But, Aunt was quite stingy. Stingy enough to not keep a maid even after all the wealth she had.
After the weird policy The King of Brecei made four years ago, wealthy families were literally forced to adopt children from the orphanages in Brecei. During those days, I had heard Aunt had adopted a girl. But she thought of her no better than a maid.
I had expected her to be a normal looking girl, with a submissive and naive personality because only a fool would let someone treat them like a maid. But when my eyes settled on the tall girl setting the dinner table up, my eyes widened in surprise. If my height was 6'2 than she was at least 5'9.
Long curly hair which were a shade between bright red and ash red, tied up in a messy bun. Her emerald green irises glinting like literal gemstones in her eyes, settled on mine. Judging by her expression, she was equaly horrified to see me. She was the bratty girl I had bumped into at the university. But now that I was seeing her like this, messy, unkempt and all exhausted, there was nothing about her that would tell one that she was arrogant.
Aunt noticed me staring at her a little too long and she clearly didn't like it. So, in order to distract me from staring at her longer, she dragged me to the dinner table.
After dinner, even though Aunt stopped me, I insisted on helping the girl, who's name was Emery, pick up the dishes from the table and take them carefully back to the kitchen.
"What's your name?" I askedd, trying to start a conversation. But she ignored it.
"I....I actually was about to apologize to you, earlier today, when you fell, but I was in a hurry." I said, trying to justify my behavior earlier. But then the realization hit me:
If she works as Aunt's maid, and doesn't even study, then what the hell was she doing in Sydney's most elite university?
"Can I ask you something?"
"No." She replied, almost automatically.
"Look I'm confused-"
"And I am tired." She said, cutting me off. "I would appreciate it if you ask Ma'am about which room you're sleeping in and I'll take your luggage there."
That was enough for me to stop there and leave. If she was gonna play her card this way, then I had no need to stay here and pretend to be nice. If she was trying to act all mighty than she could expect the same from me.
-----------------------------
🔸Tip: Almost two decades after Chris Brecei ascended to the throne and running the country successfully, the situations of the country took a turn and became succiduous due to the rampage desicles had brought, causing many children to become orphans. At that time, Chris Brecei made a policy that the wealthy families in the country were to adopt at least one child. This policy was pretty inconvenient as it applied on nobles too. However, along with this policy, the age limit for employment in the DHO was lowered from 18 to 16.