Sophia

With my hand over her mouth, I pick her up by the stomach and I stand up. I carry her to the end of the hallway and grab the sword that I just threw. I put the sword in my belt. She's still sobbing, her tears and snot are dripping all over my hand. I have to get out of here before anyone comes.

Where do I go now? My original plan was to go to my parent's house, but I can't carry her through the city, somebody will see me. Everywhere else in the house there are servant's working so the only real place where I can calm her down is my room. But if they catch her in my room crying, I'll probably be killed! Hell, if they catch me now carrying her like this I'll probably be killed too! Fuck!

Well, it's not like I have much of choice. So, to my room it is. While keeping my hand over her mouth I carefully walk through the hallways of house. Checking every single corner before turning. Making sure that nobody even knows I'm here. She's slowly calming down. I guess the sobbing and screaming into my hand have exhausted her. Most of the servants are in their respective places of work. The gardeners are gardening, the cooking staff is cooking, and the guards are doing their rounds outside of the house. The only people that could be currently in the house are the maids.

So, I have to watch out for them. The problem now is that I don't know what their cleaning routine is. They could be cleaning my room now for all I know. Well, I guess that's a gamble I'll have to take. I maneuver the hallways; I haven't seen anybody yet. I finally reach the hallway that leads into the servant's part of the house. I turn my head around the corner and FUCK! The maids are literally cleaning the servant's rooms right now.

Motherfucker! Where now? The only other unoccupied place is the guest rooms which are right next to Mikhail rooms. Mikhail is not only the advisor to the Mistress but also the estates and the towns accountant. So, he spends a lot of time in his room just writing and calculating. If he catches me, he'll absolutely obliterate me. If the Mistress or the Mistress's family catch me, I'll at least get a trial but If Mikhail catches its death on site. But he's the only option I have.

I can also go to the Mistress. I can ask her to help me. No, I don't know how she will deal with this, she could take my side, or she could take her sister's side. How about this, I'll go to the guest rooms. If Mikhail is in front of them or somewhere near them, I'll go to the Mistress. If he, isn't I'll enter the room and deal with Sophia myself. I immediately turn around and speed walk towards the guest rooms. It's literally next to his room. I'll go to the last room and deal with her there. If I pick the first room, he might hear us.

I walk past Mikhail rooms, then from his room I hear footsteps. He's coming towards the door. Shit! I open the first room and enter it. Closing the door behind me. I hear the door of Mikhail's room open. FUCK! I notice the guest's room has a wardrobe across the bed. I run over to the wardrobe, and I open it. It's empty. Great! I enter the wardrobe while carrying Sophia. "Stand!" I whisper in her ear. She stands up while I still have my hand over her mouth. I close the door of the wardrobe and I wait. She's calm. I don't know why. She's completely stopped crying. "Shut up and don't move" I whisper to her.

The door of the room opens. It stays quiet for a couple of seconds, then the door closes. Mikhail might have entered the room. I don't know. I don't hear any footsteps in the room. He may have just opened the door and peeked his head in the room. I'll wait. I don't want to rush it and get caught. What, hold on. The inside of my hand is wet. I move my hand away from her mouth. My hand is covered in blood. Shit! Did I burst her lip with my punch? Fuck! You know what I don't care. I have to deal with Mikhail first. I move my hand back to her mouth.

I wait. She's rather calm. I don't know why but she's being obedient. If I was her, I would start screaming, crying, trying to get Mikhail's attention. We wait for about 5 minutes. Then I decided it's finally time. I let her go. She doesn't scream, she doesn't even make a sound. I open the doors of the wardrobe to check the room. There is nobody in the room. I leave the wardrobe and check the room again. Again, there is nobody in here.

I turn back to Sophia. She looks scared. Her mouth is all bloody. I extend my hand like a gentleman. "Come on" I say to her. She grabs my hand and steps out of the wardrobe. "Sit down, let me clean you up" I say to her. She sits down on the bed. I take out a cloth out of my pocket and wipe her face. "You're not mad" she says. What? What is wrong with this girl. "No, I'm not mad, but what the hell were you thinking attacking me from the back like that?" I reply. "I don't know" she replies. Jesus, she really is a kid after all. I mean of course she's a kid she's 12.

"Did you do it because I offended you" I ask her. She doesn't answer. I finish wiping the blood of her face and then I wipe the blood of my hand. "Don't keep quiet now. You could have injured me, or even killed me! What the hell were you thinking" I say. She still stays quiet. Huh, fuck. What now. Well, I guess I could use some healing magic on her lip.

I hover my hand over her lip and use healing magic. Since it's a minor injury it'll heal pretty quickly. "Does it hurt anywhere else". I ask. "My cheek and my back hurt" she replies. I probably kicked her to hard. She doesn't have any bruises on her cheek, that's good. "Can you take off your dress so I can heal you?" I ask. "No! A lady should never show that much skin to a man she isn't married to!" She replies.

"Then, what now. If you don't want me to heal it, you'll just have to deal with it until it heals naturally" I say. "I'll just ask my sister to heal me" she says. Fuck! I can't let her show this to her. Mistress will probably ask where she got it from and then she'll rat on me and get me killed. Fuck me! But If I tell her not to do it, she'll realize that she has the power to end my life just by snitching on me to one of the nobles. Of course, I can defend myself, but it doesn't matter since it's a word of commoner against the world of a noble. I have two options right now. I can try to convince Sophia not to tell on me or I can go to the Mistress, explain the situation and ask for help and I can pray to God that she helps and doesn't just kill me on the spot.

The problem is not the Mistress but her father. Mistress is a rational person, she'll probably understand that her little sister tried to pull something like this, and she'll try to help me, but her father is the Earl, I doesn't matter how the Mistress defends me her father is a hundred times more powerful than her. If he finds out that I, a commoner, attacked his daughter, he'll have me hung by dawn. Also, the Mistress might not even side with me. I don't know. I'm fucked. I'm completely fucked. I rub my forehead trying to figure something out. Sophia is quiet, she's staring down at her hands. She's fidgeting with her hands. She's clearly anxious about something.

"Is it true that you were able to use multiple types of military magic when you were my age" she breaks the silence. "Huh, oh, yeah. I learned them from a friend's older brother who was in the military" I reply. "Really? How long did it take you" She lifts her head and asks. "I don't know a couple of weeks" I say. "Really? I have been already studying them for 5 months and I just can't get the magic to stay on me. I mean I can create the coat of magic, but it bursts instantly" she says. "Yeah, I mean I could help you. That is if I survive." I laugh. She looks back down at her hands and she starts to fidget with her fingers.

She breaks the silence again. "I'm sorry." She pauses. "I'm sorry that I attacked you." She continues. "Oh ok" I reply. "So, could you like not tell other people about what happened between us?" I continue. She stays quiet for a couple second and then "I won't tell anyone; I mean it's kind of my fault" she says. Kind of? I mean it was fully your fault. Well, you know what It doesn't matter. As long I don't get killed.

"The best course of action now is to wait for your back bruise heal on itself. If you show it to one of staff or nobles, they might start asking question" I tell her. "Yeah, I won't" she says and stands up. She walks past me. Should I just let her leave? I mean she could still tell on me. Well, it's not like I have any other option. "Oh, yeah and could you be nicer to your sister at least for the weekend" I ask her. She turns around. "Yeah, I'll try. But she can really just get on my nerves sometimes" she replies.

I don't know what's with her but she's listening to everything I say. It's like I killed that spoiled brat with that punch. "Can you also help with my magic." She asks me. "Uh, yeah sure." I say. "Ok" she replies. It gets awkward between us. She walks to the door and opens it. She peaks her head through it and looks around. Then, she walks out of the room and I follow her. There's nobody in the hallway.

We walk to the end of the hallway. "Where are you going now?" I ask her. "I'm going to my room" she replies. "Oh, ok and you won't tell anyone what happened?" I question her. "No, I won't" she says with confidence in her voice. "When are you going to help me with my magic" she asks. "Just call me and I'll be right there" I reply with a smile. "Oh, ok" she replies. She then leaves me and goes on her own way. I go the opposite of her.

She's very weird now, I don't know how to feel about this. Well, she said she won't tell anyone, so I'll just go on my day as I planned. Should I follow her? It was too easy to convince her and if I start following her now she'll see me. There's nothing I can do now. The moment she left that room my fate was decided regardless what it is. I'll keep my sword on me just in case and I need to make an escape.

I went back to my family home, I ate, spent some time with my parents, helped around the shop and then at nightfall I went back to the estate. During the hours I was gone nobody came looking for me. The estate was quiet, I talked with the guards for a little bit. It seems that the Mistress is still in her office. I guess she hasn't made up with her father. I guess, I'll go to the library to study. Oh, yeah after the butcher incident I was given permission to enter the library without supervision.

I enter the library; I take one of the candles and light it. There's another candlelight somewhere in the library. It seems that I'm not alone. I walk towards the light. It's Mistress, she is sitting in a chair hovering over a book. "Mistress?" I say. "Oh, Leo. You're already back?" She asks me. "Yeah, I mean it's already nightfall. How are you? Are you good?" I ask. "Yeah, I am, it's just that today has been hell and I've been thinking a lot" she replies. She rubs her forehead.

"Have you not talked to your father?" I ask. "No, we haven't seen each other since the incident, I actually haven't talked to anyone expect for you in the past couple of hours" she says. "If only my sister didn't have to mess everything up. I had the perfect plan for everything today. You know, after my mother passed away, I really wanted to talk and connect with my dad and sister" She continues. So, her mother is dead. I sit down next to her. "Yeah." I say. "Do you want to talk about it, or do you want me just to listen?" I ask her. She's clearly anxious about this whole situation, it would be best If I calm her down just a little bit. Before she can answer I say " But, I don't think you'll have to worry about your little sister anymore".

"What do you mean?" she snaps at me. "What did you do?" she continues. "I was able to talk to her and calm her down" I say. "Really, how?" she says. "I don't know I just kind of talked to her and she listened to me, and she isn't mad at me. She also wants me to teach her how I mastered military magic" I say. Mistress grabs me by the shirt "You're not joking right?" She asks. "I'm not" I say. "So, she doesn't have a problem with me or you?" She says. "No, the only thing you have to do now is talk to your dad and finally fix this situation" I say. She looks at me with a shocked face and then she throws her arms around me and hugs me.

"Thank you so much" she says. She tightens her hug around my body. I hug her back. "Thank you" she repeats again. I can smell her perfume. It's nice, it smells purple, I can't explain it but it just smells purple. She pulls back from the hug. She looks happy, I guess I was the only one who delivered some good news to her. I'm happy that she's happy. "Great" She stands up. "I'm going to talk to my father, immediately" she says. "What are you going to do" she turns to me. "I'll stay here and study" I say.

"Ok, great I'll talk to you later. Bye!" she says while walking out of the library. Somehow, I was able to create a miracle. I stand up and grab a book. As it rained outside, I spent the rest of the night reading at candlelight.

Tomorrow, the first thing that I did was help Sophia with her military magic. She came to me early in the morning asking for help. Now, we're in the garden, she's sitting in dirt practicing military magic. She's wearing some kind of training outfit. That's what she describes it as but to me it just looks like sweatpants and a t-shirt but more expensive.

She's able to create all the military coats but they're unstable, at one clap or disturbance they'll probably pop. She's ,as I said before, obedient. I don't know why she's like this. Maybe she's in love with me. No, that's crazy, or at least I hope not. The last thing I need on my plate is a love sicken twelve year old girl chasing after me. I saw the Mistress and her father talking earlier today. It seems that the talk went well and that they're on friendly terms.

I look back at Sophia. I clap my hand and from shock she breaks the military magic. "What the hell" she says. "If it can break from one clap than it's not good enough." I say. "Don't focus on making a perfect coat, focus on pushing as much mana out of your body to make a thicker coat" I continue. "Yeah, but it'll be heavier for me to carry" She argues. "Yeah, but if you're in a fight it'll be easier for you to just bring a massive amount of mana rather than spending minutes trying to make the perfect coat which won't break." I argue. She sighs and then closes her eyes and starts practicing again.

That's about how I spent the rest of my weekend, just working and helping Sophia practice. On Monday the family left. Sophia didn't seem to want to go back to her house, but she had to. After that the Mistress called me into her office.

I open the doors of the office and I enter. Closing the door behind me I say "Mistress, you asked for me". She's staring at some papers and then she answers "Yeah". I try to approach her, but she stops me "No, stay there". She stands up and walks over to me. She stands near to my face. "What did you do?" she says. "What do you mean" I reply. She grabs my collar "I mean what did you do to my sister, you clearly didn't talk to her. You did something else. She's completely different" she says. Fuck me! I guess it was naïve to think that the Mistress wouldn't notice the sudden change in her sister behavior.

"We fought" I say to her. "When I left your office Mistress, she attacked me from the back with a sword and I defended myself" I say. "So, you beat her up" she responds. "I didn't beat her up, I defend myself. I didn't even have a weapon on me at the time. I only used my fists" I respond. "Why did you lie to me then?" she says. "I didn't want to get killed Mistress. It is illegal for a commoner to lay hands on noble much rather beat them up and your little sister agreed not to tell anyone" I explain to her.

She lets go off my collar. "Get out of my office, tonight you'll come to my office, and I'll deal with you personally. Now leave!" she says to me. She turns around and walks back to her desk. I turn around and walk out of the office. Closing the doors behind me I think about how fucked I am.