.

The butler appeared to be familiar with Damien, taking the books from his hands which Damien entrusted to keep in the room. Penny wondered if it was alright to give it when she remembered that to any other person except her the books were nothing but about varieties of vegetables. 

"Lord Alexander is currently out with Sir Elliot. Let me take you and the lady to your a.s.signed room," the butler's voice was low and bland. Expressionless and emotionless as he spoke. By the looks of it, she could tell that the man was a vampire. His eyes must have been bright red when he was young and they must have dulled over time. 

Following the butler, they were taken to their room. The mansion was big, maybe not as big as the Quinn's but of fair size for a mansion. It looked much more human-like compared to the other mansions she had been to which were darker in comparison. 

She remembered the lord's mother was a white witch. A woman who was married to a pureblooded vampire and who was killed by the villagers. Somehow the beginning part of the story reminded of her own where Penelope was the white witch and Damien was the pureblooded vampire who had fallen for each other. 

That was right. For awhile now she had been denying her feelings for Damien, dodging what and how she felt for him but after what happened, she didn't want to hide about it anymore. She had cried and cried when he had not woken up, scared that she wouldn't be able to let him know about her true feelings. She wondered if in the future she would end up meeting the same fate as the Lord's mother. She thought about it because she doubted if any of the white witches ever lived long. Most of them either were killed or they disappeared from sight to never return again. 

With their bags placed and the butler who stepped out like a phantom whose legs appeared to glide across the floor, Penny sat down on the bed. Lifting her legs up in the air. She then looked down at her arm which was now covered in cleaner clothes which were given to her in Wovile in Lord Herbert's mansion. 

Damien sat down next to her, letting his back touch the surface of the bed, his long legs resting on the floor. He looked at the blank ceiling of the bed, "Ah, I miss home."

Turning her head, Penny asked him, "Why didn't we go back there?" Penny didn't know that Damien had planned to visit his relative who was also the Lord of Valeria. A man she had met months ago and was about to meet again. Now that she had acknowledged her feelings for him, she wondered if it would be awkward when she would meet Lord Alexander.

"Bonelake will be a mess right now and the council will be chaotic because of the ma.s.sacre that was going to take place. Even though the ma.s.sacre was unsuccessful, soon they will have a team a.s.signed where they will start to dig and find the root of who and from where this was set up. Do you know how much paperwork that is?" he raised his leg up so that his heel rested on the edge of the bed. His brown shoes looked clean and polished.

"You don't want to go back because you have work?"

"Paperworks take time. First comes the survey and in the survey of the scene comes detection and information which needs to be collected. After the survey is the interrogation and the case handling where people are annoying but it is enjoyable. Then you file them and put it through the box where the elders of the council look through it which is later decided if the case has already reached an end where a direct order is sent out. If not, the case goes under a series of trials in the court council to have a fair judgment."

"You could always pa.s.s the work if you ever felt it was too much,"

"They are all a bunch of dimwits who don't know where and what to do," Damien rolled his eyes. "Asking them to do anything would be equal to me piling up with more work. I don't trust them with their lack of expertise."

"No one is born with expertise," Penny defended the unknown councilmen.

"I was born with it," came Damien's quick response. This made Penny twist her lips and she turned and sat in a way now so that she could face him without having to twist her neck, "You don't believe me."

"I did not say anything, Penny shrugged her shoulders with a smile, "You are very unique, Damien."

"I know. I am too precious," he said with a smirk and a smile broke on Penny's lips, "During my late teen years I used to work under Rueben before. The head council," Penny looked at him in awe, she had come to learn how the head council was the highest standing person. Damien was his apprentice? "After a few months of work, he decided that I would do better in gathering information than sit in the meetings which wasn't for me. Also for other things."

"Other things?" she questioned.

"There are some old geezers who didn't like how I spoke or my views when I pointed out how they used their position for their own benefit. Unfortunately, even if you find mistakes, there are some you cannot remove from their a.s.signed position for the years they have served. So I served them their own dish by cutting out their supplies from the black market which included things as well as information," he explained. Raising his hand, he took her hand and tugged her hand for her to lay down next to him.

"They didn't retaliate?" on her question, he smiled cunningly.

"When a person is accused of stealing apples and claims he doesn't have that fruit. When he's robbed, he cannot cry out loudly about his lost apples," but it wasn't just the source but he had also got some of them resigned by their own will. Too many players at the table were not good.