The Duke’s Study

  The moment Veronique had been dismissed by the Duke, Julius had emerged from the shadows.

  “You know she looked more upset about still having to attend public events over knowing you are setting her up as the future Hound Master” he pointed out entertained, acting his usual self despite the massive black eye marring his right side

  “She’s just a child, she doesn’t understand the responsibilities she will have as the Hound Master and the downsides she will have in our society for being one” the Duke excused her childish behaviour knowing that a Noble with job considered so beneath of their status would have no chance of ever gaining a good standing in high society and Veronique’s wasn’t good to begin with.

  This solution was basically the last step before he would have no choice but to send Veronique away or outright stripping her of the Aurelia’s name

  “That’s assuming she survives her military service” Julius reminded him

  “I am fully aware, I will let her know when she’s a bit older, telling her now is just cruel” the Duke knew his friend wanted to know why he didn’t tell her the truth now “by already setting her up as Valentia’s apprentice at the least she won’t be planning for her future and be disappointed”

  “You think that will lessen the shock?” Julius didn’t seem convinced

  “Maybe, enough of this” and neither was the Duke so he changed the subject “Care to explain to me why you ended in one of our holding cells and I had to cover for your sudden absence?” lying to his own guards wasn’t something he wanted to make an habit

  “There was a misunderstanding, I just followed a suspect in what happened to be the woman’s bathroom then I was just surprised” Julius had the decency to at the least be embarrassed about it as he avoided the Duke’s direct gaze

  “And Miss Hawkings ended up giving that black eye?” the Duke concluded unimpressed before he closed his eyes and took a deep breath “be more careful next time, most of the Staff doesn’t even know you exist and we got to keep it that way” It was for the best that Julius and his unique Skill were kept secret, the whole household would get paranoid if they knew they could be watched at any moment even if the man mostly kept to the Duke’s office and wasn’t able to be everywhere at once

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  “My apologies Al” Julius apologized using that nickname hoping to mess a bit the Duke

  “Don’t Al me, now who was the suspect and what did you find out?” the Duke let it pass and kept the discussion on point

  “It was no other then our Senior Maid Eva” the bodyguard responded grimly turning serious in an instant

  “Eva?” the Duke had said incredulous

  “Yes, I noticed her trying to dispose of a sack, I was just checking it when I got caught” he explained the context

  “And what was in it?” the Duke inquired with a slight frown hoping against all odds that it was all a misunderstanding of some sort

  “It was an empty sack, but I swear I smelled Magika herbs in it” Julius responded in a grave tone

  “What was Eva doing with Magika herbs?” he questioned

  “I have no idea Al, I ended up in the slammer before I could investigate on the matter” the answer wasn’t satisfying “but didn’t you happen to notice our sweet Veronique started having her outbursts again?” Julius inquired

  “You think?” the Duke didn’t want to voice the accusation, as Eva had a daughter to think about and if she did what was implied there then the consequences would be dire.

  He knew Eva had been cross with Veronique ever since that accident with the tea, but he didn’t think she would be risking her own daughter’s future to answer back that slight.

  “You know the staff hates her, if she had one major tantrum yesterday then you would have been forced to keep her to the East wing, maybe even ban her from the Main wing all together” Julius made good observations

  “Do you have any tangible proof of this other then your testimony?” but it was all mere conjecture without proof and the Duke didn’t want to put a daughter in the streets and a mother behind bars or worse if he could help it

  “Unfortunately not, the bag was gone when I checked it again” Julius had to admit “but it is curious that both of Rhea’s guards got sick yesterday forcing Noah and Kain to be put on the spotlight at the last minute”

  “So some of the staff might be colluding together to undermine Veronique even at the cost of damaging the Aurelia’s reputation?” this would be the worse case scenario and it couldn’t be tolerated

  “They might be, or they all choose to act on the same day” Julius couldn’t be sure of either way, for all he knew they all just wanted to take a small jab at Veronique.

  “Regardless what they thought, Veronique ended up doing better then they expected” the Duke reasoned “maybe this will be enough to make them step down” it was an optimistic take, more optimistic then his usual train of thought

  “You want to let this one pass?” which was why Julius was surprised to hear such words coming from his mouth

  “Believe me I have no choice, the Staff is still riled up and we got no proof” the Duke explained himself, already calculating what disaster a swift action would cause on his relationship with the rest of the Staff, and that was without taking in account how the citizen’s would react.

  “Nothing major actually happened this time, and it works in our favor if they think they got away with it” but the Duke wasn’t a fool

  “In short we let this one go to catch them red handed next time?” Julius caught on fast on the plan

  “Exactly” just because he choose to not strike back in this instance, it didn’t mean that he wasn’t going to strike back twice as hard when he could.

  Hopefully if that time came Eva wouldn’t be involved and he wouldn’t be forced to enact the law.