Chapter 231: Chapter 231

The evening breeze was a slight breeze, silently swinging a slow melody. The few trees and other foliage around them danced to it.

The short shrubs around swayed slowly in this, like the gentle rocking of a mama to her baby. Considering nature only, this would have been seen as a peaceful and beautiful day by all means, but the few people around felt none of it. How could they, when they were stressed to the max?

A few grunting sounds could be heard in a small open area.

"Move sideways!" The harsh and crisp sounds could be heard.

Suzie moved swiftly with each command. Her muscles hurt, and her legs felt weak. All cells in her body screamed out in pain, begging her for relief.

However, Suzie knew that the only way to do that was to ’run away’ from this... but was that even possible? She had made her decision and had to stand by it. There was no other way out.

She took a step back, narrowly missing a fist.

"T-ime- out!" She managed to say as she wheezed for breath. She was sweating all over like she had never done in her life.

She quickly glanced at a wall clock, and her mouth dropped open.

’How was that possible? Only thirty minutes had passed. When did I get so much out of shape?’

She wheezed, trying to catch her breath. The man in front of her was a beast in human clothing!

’Wait! He is no human! Yh! That explains a lot!’ She thought to herself, trying to catch her breath as she walked over to a corner and slammed down. She felt as if she needed a lot of distance between them. The man was not doing anything to her per se, but Suzie felt a level of oppression just by being near him. She had never felt that from him in the past few times she had associated with him.

’Is it because I know what he is now, so he is not bothering to ’hide’ himself from me?’

The man in front of her, Murray, did not even break a sweat. At that point, Suzie started to rethink her decision. Maybe she should have taken the easier option?

She grabbed a towel and wiped her face and hands, thinking back to how she had found herself in that situation.

A few hours earlier....

Suzie huddled inside the kids’ room. Without Shelby saying anything, she knew that she needed to keep an eye on the two kids. It was not obvious if she was there for herself as well. The day had been eye-opening and stressful.

As a maid of her calibre, Suzie had been taught to work like a deaf, mute, and blind person, but even with all the training that she had received, she felt that this was a little too much for her.

’Master Ian and the kids are not human? Does that mean Madam Geneva and Sir Alex are also not? This is so scary!’ However, thinking about it in detail, Suzie came to one realization: She had never felt threatened by any of them except Ian. The man only needed to exist for people to fear him.

’That does not count,’ she thought.

However, Suzie could not help but start thinking of all the people in the house over in her mind,

’What of Master Brad? And that...’

That was the state she was in when Shelby came to find her in the children’s room.

"Miss!" Suzie scrambled to her feet, but Shelby did not miss her disturbed look.

Shelby sighed, not knowing how to calm Suzie down.

Upon seeing Shelby, Suzie bowed her head and fidgeted with her pigtails. This was something she unconsciously did when she was nervous. Seeing Shelby reminded Suzie of all the words she had spoken to her mistress earlier, ’I promised Miss that I would stay by her side! I must be strong!’

Just as Shelby opened her mouth to say something, Murray appeared in the room, startling Suzie.

"Oh my!!" She placed her hand over her chest and shrieked out as she felt her heart rate shoot up. She immediately covered her mouth and checked to see if the sound had awoken the kids.

Shelby was long used to this and did not flinch, but she couldn’t help but glare slightly at Murray.

Murray bowed to Shelby, "She needs to start getting used to it, your highness!"

Shelby sighed and sent Suzie a smile, hopefully to comfort her.

"Follow me!" Murray turned and left the room, and Suzie hurried to follow him. The comic walk she did when she was nervous was more pronounced, and if it weren’t for the stern mood, Shelby would have laughed out loud. However, she understood Suzie’s predicament.

’She’s in good hands!’

Murray walked along the corridor and deep into some of the unoccupied areas of the East Wing. Soon, they arrived at a big empty room. A large glass door separated them from the outside, giving them an indoor-outdoor feel.

It was as if they were outside, but they were not. It was quite nice! Suzie had never been to that part of the estate before. It almost looked like a training room or boxing ring of a sort without the ring; however, the floor was all cushiony.

"Have you made up your mind? It’s not too late for the memory wipe...."

It was unclear why they kept telling her that. Maybe they were trying to scare her, but it did not make sense that they kept threatening her with a memory wipe.

Her pigtails bobbed up and down as she nodded heavily.

"I want to stay by Miss and help her if possible!"

Murray took only a moment to stare intently at her and then said,

"Since you have made your decision, don’t regret it!"

Suzie stared at him blankly, and then he said, without any warning,

"Come at me, let’s check your foundation..."

Suzie hesitated for only a short moment, but she understood what they were about to do. She looked at Murray for a bit before she rushed at him, her eyes trained on him for sudden movements.

She also tried to find any weakness or shift in stance to take advantage for herself. How did she even know this? It was simple: Suzie had not only been selected to be Shelby’s personal maid for her domestic capabilities.

She was no ordinary maid

Still, Ian never touched her because he was satisfied with her background. It was not just the simple fact that Suzie had graduated from the Maid and Butler Services with a high-ranking Diploma before twenty-one and also as one of the youngest to have ever done that.

Getting into this institution itself was a great achievement on its own. This was an institution that only graduated about 30% of its matriculants. The backbreaking training included house, table and staff management, valet skills, gardening, communication, walking martial arts, defending, etiquette training and many other things.

One was trained basically to be able to do every single task in a household to perfection. The rule of thumb was to pass every single course with exceptional grades in order to be able to graduate. It was obvious that most people gave up halfway because of how harsh it was. She was an elite handmaiden with just a sunny disposition, but her work was always done to perfection in any way, and this was no different.

She swung her arms, and Murray easily evaded with a stern look. He saw all her movements as if he had put a movie on a slow run. However, one eyebrow went up.

’Her form is sturdy, and the punch is sure.’ She treated the test spar with all the sincerity she could muster, and Murray nodded in satisfaction.

Murray slid his legs a little, and Suzie jumped up slightly to avoid that leg, earning Murray another level of approval before he sidestepped her and tapped her back lightly.

She had evaded Murray but had still fallen by his hand. She got up immediately, her eyes narrowing. If Shelby had been there, she would have wondered where her sunny maid was because this one was a very serious looking one.

Suzie stomped her legs and tried to swing it in a wide kick, but Murray easily grabbed it and swung Suzie around. She crushed onto the nearest floor again and sighed in relief.

’TG! The floor has cushiony stuff... but I will still wake up with a lot of pain tomorrow.’

The spar reminded her of her time back in the academy—just a harsher version of it. Murray did not hold back at all.... At least, that was how it looked to Suzie, but she had no idea that if Murray had indeed done that with his full strength, she would not have lasted for even a second.

Suzie rolled over the ground and jumped up again.

’I have to make mistress proud of me!’

Bending her knee, she evaded the next oncoming attack and tried to throw a punch, but her fists were caught in his, quite painfully.

’He really will not give me any advantage, huh?’

"You’ll do well" He nodded after Suzie asked for the timeout.

While Suzie thought she had lost half her vitality in sparing with Murray, he was very impressed with her. This was for the simple reason that not many people could spar with him and last even ten minutes, but this jovial and sometimes childish-looking girl had lasted a whole half-hour.

’A mere human had done that, huh?’

Murray’s level of respect for Suzie went up a notch then.

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