3 The fourth daughter

— "Everything got complicated since that woman came." A black-haired man walked from side to side of his room while talking to the walls of an empty room. "Anyway, why does my father favor that worthless mongrel so much? Can't you see that this woman is not qualified to run our territory?"

After calming down for a few seconds, she finally allowed herself to sit at his desk to calm her fury.

— "I will prove to my father that I am the right one to take his position and not that woman." Immediately after reaching a conclusion, he opened one of the drawers on his desk and pulled a letter from the inside. "I will accept the proposal made to me by that killer. As that man said, that half-breed is better off dead."

Very carefully and making sure not to be seen he began to write a response to the letter he had received. After confirming that the content of his answer was correct, he approached his office window and handed the letter to a raven who rested in the frame of his window.

— "If you had not appeared in our house your life would have been much longer Priscilla." A slight smile was drawn in the corners of his mouth when his plan had finally been put in place. "Now I must convince others to help me and with that, the preparations to get rid of Father's favorite will have ended."

***

It had been two years since Priscilla, a girl with beautiful blue hair, had woken up in an unknown mansion. When she arrived at the mansion the girl was fourteen years old and was already approaching her sixteenth birthday.

At first, she distrusted the people of the mansion and feared them, her memory had not fully returned and her memories were still somewhat confused. Priscilla remembered some things from her time before arriving at the mansion, with the drawback that those memories were not at all rewarding.

Priscilla was combing her beautiful hair sitting in front of the full-body mirror in her room as she posed different things.

�� "My name is not really Priscilla Lombardi, but I do not remember my real name... I wonder what kind of name I had before I came to this site?" Priscilla watched her room as she tried to remember something from her past.

In the room was a gigantic two-and-a-half-seater bed with expensive velvet blankets, the bed also had an extremely elegant carved wooden cover, on the wooden floor could be observed two fur carpets and various furniture of intricate craftsmanship with complex carved-on them.

Among the furniture, there was a small white tea table with a wooden base and Ivory cover, a generous wardrobe that could perfectly be considered a separate room, several shelves, a table to place your beauty products, a desk, and two bookcases.

— "Anyway, so much space is necessary? Such a spacious room only makes me uncomfortable, especially when I'm alone." Priscilla did not feel well in a room as spacious as hers. Some insecurity or discomfort flooded her every time she looked at the room. "Now that I think about it, my rehabilitation ends today." Priscilla sighed heavily.

Shortly after waking up in the mansion, she discovered that he had trouble walking. Apparently, his legs were not used to such strenuous effort, so when she tried to get out of bed her legs trembled like those of a newborn deer and yielded to the weight of her body.

Because her father was convinced that Priscilla was a gift from the gods, he simply thought that the girl who had appeared in his house was created in some way, so she was no different from a newborn and it would take her a while to learn to walk

Of course, this was not the reason, Priscilla at some point in her life suffered from paralysis, which prevented her from walking, that was the reason why she could not walk normally, but somehow her body had recovered, this makes her situation inexplicable in some way. However, upon awakening she vividly remembered the face of a dangerous red-haired boy who had threatened to stab her with a knife, forcing her to move against his will.

The only good thing that came out of that encounter was that Priscilla discovered that her legs could move and with that in mind, I spent the last two years in rehab hoping that at some point I could walk normally.

Priscilla observed the landscape behind her window, the courtyard of the mansion was bathed in the light morning, from her window he could see a few servants work in the garden, others carried bags of different products, also could see the soldiers talking while they guarded the gates of the property and some servants harvest the fruits of the property trees.

— "Tok! Tok!" The characteristic sound of the door sounded. "Come in." Priscilla gave her consent for the person behind the door to enter the room.

The person who appeared was called Dacy, a maid who worked for the Lombardi family since she was little, wore a characteristic black and white maid uniform, with a skirt five fingers below the knee, her hair was brown, her eyes were amethyst and had a nice bow that gave her a youthful air.

— "Miss, breakfast is ready. your father waits at the table and has asked you to bring what is necessary for the rehabilitation session." Dacy kept her head down as she waited patiently for Priscilla to give her answer.

The maid was a year older than Priscilla, it was for that reason that the Duke had put her in charge of the care of his fourth daughter, that and the fact that she had been the one who had taken care of Priscilla when she was unconscious.

— "Thank you, Dacy, I'll be down in a second." Priscilla was having problems with her hair, for that reason she had not come down in time to the dining room.

—The maid slightly raised her head and she noticed that Priscilla was having trouble with her hairstyle. "Need your help, miss?"

— "Eh? W-well..." seeing the girl's nervousness, Dacy sketches a smile before approaching to Priscilla.

— "Let me comb your hair miss." Dacy took a comb and began to untangle Priscilla's hair, she did not use too much force while keeping the strands of Priscilla's hair apart with the help of the skillful fingers of her hand. "The miss is the only one of the four Masters who never ask for help." Dacy expressed her honest opinion while untangling Priscilla's hair.

— "I'm not used to others doing things in my place." Priscilla was sitting in a small chair while Dacy fixed her hairstyle.

— "I sincerely prefer the personality of the Miss to that of her other brothers, but you must be aware of your social position."

— "That's annoying. Anyway, why should I behave in such a problematic way?"

— "The honor of his family is reflected in his behavior and appearance Miss."

—"Is it so? I guess I'll take your word for it, Dacy. By the way, do you know anything about my application to enter the school?"

— "I heard something about it, but it would be more appropriate for your father to give you that news." Dacy quickly finished fixing Priscilla's hair. "You're ready, miss."

— "Oh, it looks great. Thank you very much, Dacy" Priscilla liked to style her hair with a ponytail and as always Dacy's work was impeccable.

—"Don't worry about that, miss."

With preparations ready, the two girls left the room and headed to the dining room of the mansion. As they crossed one of the wide corridors, decorated with an expensive carpet, with various vases and armor in sight, on their way they crossed with one of Priscilla's adoptive siblings.

— "You're as lazy as ever. what time do you think it is?" The person who criticized Priscilla was called, Augusto Lombardi, he was the eldest of the brothers of the Lombardi family.

Augusto did not like Priscilla, since he was originally the undisputed heir of the Lombardi House. However, after Priscilla's arrival, his position became unstable and he hated the blue-haired girl, although he did not openly prove it.

He was a young man of 22 years of age, of thin complexion, 176 centimeters tall, short black hair, with rather striking green eyes and a characteristic mole on the right side of his lower lip.

— "Good Morning brother. how did you sleep?" Priscilla had no interest in dealing with her older brother's complicated personality, so she chose to make a cordial greeting.

— "Pretty good. I heard your rehab finishes today and I decided to come and have a look." Augusto sounded cordial. However, in his tone, there was a slight tone of annoyance that he had a hard time hiding.

— "I am very grateful for your consideration." Priscilla made a slight bow to her brother, while thanking the people he had had towards her.

— "I will be present at the celebration of your recovery. I hope that on this occasion you will be able to keep the proper label." Augusto began to look out the window completely ignoring the person he was talking to. This could easily be interpreted as disrespectful and that was the case. Someone like Augusto did not want to show respect to the young woman of unknown origin who had complicated her life and looking her in the eye would be the equivalent of degrading her own position.

Priscilla simply made a cordial gesture to say goodbye and then continued on her way to the dining room where her father was waiting for her. Augusto turned his gaze to observe the young woman as she retired when a somewhat gloomy-looking person approached his back.

—"Is that the girl of the solicitude?" Asked the person who was behind Augusto.

— "I am paying a lot of money for this work to be done properly. I really hope your organization lives up to its reputation." Augusto kept observing the hall that had long been completely empty while talking to the figure behind him.

— "I arrived at this place without being seen by anyone. Doesn't that prove my ability?" The stranger approached Augusto as he shrugged.

— "Judging by the cost of your services this is the least I expect from you is there any complication I need to worry about?" The figure was revealed a little, shown a brown cloak and a small dagger at his waist. Apparently, the person was so sure of his ability that he did not even bother to hide his weapons.

— "Uhm, there's really nothing like that. However, there is one news that might interest you." The person covered by the mantle placed his hands on his sides in a tired manner as he leaned towards his client.

— "Interesting?" Augusto could not afford to turn over, because if someone were to see him converse with a person as suspicious as the one behind him, it would be information that could very well be used against him in the near future. For that reason, he was talking to the hallway, so if anyone saw him, he would only have to say that he was being attacked by a suspicious person.

— "I'll tell you for the right price." The stranger came even closer to Augusto's back as he waited for an affirmative answer regarding payment.

—Augusto made a slight gesture of discomfort as he snapped his teeth, then exhaled heavily and responded. "Charge it at the cost of solicitude."

— "Oh, always is a pleasure to do business with you." The strange hidden by the cloak made a respectful bow before Augusto before continuing. "We have recently received reports that the lord of the neighboring lands plans to attack the territory of Duke Lombardi when the barrier that drives away the beasts is temporarily dissipated." After hiding his extinction for the profit that all the organizations that provide mercenary services have during the fall of the barrier of the land of the beasts, the stranger continued "As you know, this is an opportunity to prove your worth as a future Lord of the territory."

— "I see, it could be a good way to increase my capital and strengthen my position." Augusto was momentarily lost in his thoughts before continuing. "When this work is completed I will hire them to investigate that matter."

Those were exactly the words the man in the cloak wanted to hear. Due to the risks involved in investigating a Landowner, his organization could not afford to investigate them freely, but one payment drastically changed things.

With one payment, the losses could easily be justified and the organization's profit would be guaranteed even if the effort turned out to be a disappointment.

"Uhahaha!" His laugh sounded like that of a true lunatic as he listened to the sound of coins falling into his pocket. "It will be as your ordered, My Lord." After bowing to say goodbye, he turned around again while whispering. "As your request, your sister will never come to the party tonight." Then he continued on his way while still laughing without caring about who might be around. "Uhahahaha! Certainly a profitable negotiation." Augusto made an expression of disgust as he listened to the man slowly retreating using the hallway.