Wine Everhart

Taking the hands of the blushing Wine, Ethan's golden eyes reflected a serene light as he strolled out of his room.

The room was nice and cozy.

But his goals lie not here in these shallow depths but in a deeper well, so he continued walking through the hallway, but this time, he didn't hum.

And some maids followed him, nervously and instinctively. But a passing glare from his golden pupils stopped them in their tracks, sending a chill down their spines.

While walking towards his goal, he suddenly questioned, "Wine, are you an orphan? A prospective maid?"

"Yes... teacher, I was adopted by the Ancestor after my mother died, and I'm supposed to be the next Family head's private maid," she replied, hesitant yet somewhat emboldened by their slowly built amicability, "and I don't remember much about my mother either." She added.

Children, he pondered, seldom harbored inhibitions — it was a prime opportunity to instill teachings, to impart the notions of right and wrong upon them. The Ancestor was no idiot.

"Are you not against becoming someone else's maid?" Ethan inquired, his voice flowing like a calming waterflow as they reached their destination, in front of the room where his family's higher-ups were.

The door to the basement.

Stumbling to keep up with him, Wine stopped and looked at the door for a moment, her big black round eyes brightening in intrigue and curiosity before looking back at Ethan, replying with a question: "Why should I be against being a maid...Teacher?"

With a smile on his face, Ethan's voice emanated the professionalism of a seasoned teacher as he pointed out: "Why should you be someone's maid? You have thousands of options in front of you, and you have yourself to take care of; in fact, you should have a maid instead of being one yourself."

Wine gulped and blinked but then said, her voice sounding rather sad, "But Young Master, I'm not worthy… I'm just a lowly girl–" A timely tap on her forehead made her stop speaking and look at Ethan, who replied with a frowning yet smiling face, "I told you not to call me 'Young Master,' remember?"

A cool wind passed through the hallway. By now, all the windows had been closed, so the storm happening outside didn't affect the inside of the home much.

They couldn't even hear the rain; it was a unique sensation of calmness.

"Oh, sorry! Teacher," Said Wine as she looked at him, rubbing her forehead in a daze and expressing her previous meaning with a humble gaze thrown at her new teacher, her dark pigtails flowing in the final passing of wind inside.

Ethan sighed and looked towards the ceiling; some slight thudding sounds were coming from there, and the wooden bars keeping the roof tightly held kept trembling; he pointed at it and asked, "Do you know why the wooden bars are trembling?"

Wine looked at it, its tremble was weak, but it was there. Surprised, she thought for a second and then asked, "Is it because the rain is too strong?"

Ethan shook his head, "No, it is because the Rats that live there are running around because of the rain, scrambling here and there due to the cold."

"Rats?!" Wine exclaimed with a disgusted tone, "That black slimy creature Meimei showed me?"

Nodded Ethan, "Probably." And then asked, "Do you know one special thing about these slimy, disgusting, Rats?"

Meekly, Wine inquired, "What thing?" Her voice evaded the subject —

she was somewhat reluctant to address it.

"There exists a fascinating parallel between rats and humans, Wine. It is a curious fact that rats, much like certain aspects of us, possess a tendency to create their own societal structures," with a brief pause, he proceeded, "And in those societal structures, there are often lords, the alpha of the bunch, who acts like a king yet every other rat obey for not much reason…and no one even rebels, Do you understand what I am saying?"

Wine nodded. Ethan continued, "Do you know what would happen if another rat wanted to revolt and take the alpha's position?"

Wine scratched her head but found no answer. She asked, rather doubtful:

"They fight?"

"No, the alpha won't even have to," Ethan replied with a sneering tone, guiding her to something, "The creatures that are of equal authority to the one that wants to revolt will fight the rebel on the alphas' behalf instead. They don't want the balance to be broken or a new lord to be born after all, so what happens then?

Do the rats fight each other and all just…Die?"

"uhm...no?" she questioned while chewing on her lips with her pearly whites.

"Yes, they won't all fight each other to death. Of course, they won't. And instead, the possible resistance from all around keeps every single one of them who could have been a king at bay, as a servant who has to fight for food," His smile turned into a smirk, and his golden eyes deepened a layer; he clenched his hands at the air and then said, his voice deeper than usual, "That's the same thing with humans. When you surround yourself with weak, servile humans, they also try to make you like themselves. Keeping your potential at bay, holding you back, making you incapable of resistance against the fight with your own destiny,

Even your own mind will start to feel more comfortable being servile, you won't like resistance, and you can't fight resistance.

Do you understand what I'm speaking about?"

Wine's heart shook, and then she came to a sudden realization, "Are you saying that I want to be a maid because everyone expects me to be a maid?"

Ethan chuckled and looked away from the ceiling, focusing right at Wine's face, her black eyes, "I have made no mistake. You are the one girl worthy of being my disciple, and you are smart, at least, the smartest and with the highest potential at your age I had yet seen..." His voice trailed off, leaving a lingering presence in the room, before he abruptly asked, with a much more serious face, "I had never asked you this before, but are you truly ready to be my student, to accept me as your teacher and walk this path alongside me?"

Her face blushed red; this was the first time someone had praised her like that. "Yes." She replied instantly — she wanted to be a Wuma, it was a dream come true, and the Young Master was said to be the next family head by some of the maids too, meaning that she was supposed to be his maid in the first place, so if he was ready to teach her — there was no reason to deny.

Not to mention the wisdom he imparted her with just some simple lessons.

Ethan closed his golden eyes and smiled, hiding the leaking brilliance, before opening it and looking towards the closed door and asking, "Then shall we start our lessons?"

The little girl nodded, her face beaming like a bright little sun and her big black eyes shining. The pigtails on her head were finally serenely sitting in their place due to the lack of wind.

Everything was so calm and so serene; it was like the beginning of a good book.

Like the Beginning of a good lesson.

Like the start of another one of Winslow's miracles.