The First Female Duke

Chapter 3

--The two owners of the castle turned out to be great nobles who would soon leave the town of Akiyoshi, perhaps never to return.

The news spread among the servants, and the impact was actually no less than an earthquake.

Mrs. Mowgli had previously been proud to serve the town's only nobleman, she managed all the castle's food and drink, and although her position was not comparable to that of Fanny's housekeeper, she still had considerable authority among the servants. Under normal circumstances, she would continue to work at the castle until she was too old to make a single morsel, at which point the castle would naturally give her a generous pension. For this reason, Mrs. Mowgli had never worried about her future, but as things stood now, she had to worry about the future.

When Her Ladyship and Her Ladyship returned to Thagmart, would they take those who had served with them?

Mrs. Mowgli, no matter how vocal she is among the servants, is ultimately working in the back kitchen and is unable to listen to what Her Ladyship and Her Ladyship are thinking, and for this reason, Mowgli reaches out to her niece, Mary.

"What arrangements have Mademoiselle made for you, and have you asked?" In the corner, Mrs. Mowgli lowered her voice.

Mary bit her lip and shook her head in half frustration, "I didn't dare ask."

"Then what is your idea that the probability is that this castle ...... lady and her ladyship will not return, and that if we do not follow, we shall at most get a fortune."

"Of course I want to follow the lady, but ...... Tacomat," Mary showed a trace of trepidation, "that is the castle of the Willey family ah, the servants there all went to the butler's college, right, I, I can't compare to them ......"

Mrs. Mowgli looked at her scared and worried niece and sighed silently, thinking in her mind that if she were still young, if she could get Mary's current job, she could do it ten times better.

But there were no ifs, she didn't have Mary's luck.

Mrs. Mowgli grew serious, and as Mary was her niece, she spoke without veil:

"Are you stupid? So what if Taggart's men are powerful? Are they already Miss's personal maids? Even if there will be people competing with you, but you have served Miss earlier than them, you know Miss better than them, these are all your advantages, and now that there is an opportunity that will allow you to work at Tagmart, how dare you still hesitate!"

Mrs. Mowgli was rather hateful.

Mary's brain was straight, and there were some complicated things she could not think of, but she had the courage to go forward as long as she was shown a clear path.

"So, what am I going to do?"

Mrs. Mowgli braced herself:

"My silly niece, do you have to wait for the master to speak on such matters? Of course we'll say it first; you'll just tell the lady straight out that you can't spare her, and she'll naturally understand what you mean."

This is already regarded as boarding her legs to teach her where to take steps from, if this still can't understand she doesn't need to be Miss's personal maid, Mary nodded her head repeatedly, itching to go back immediately to talk to Miss about this matter, just about to turn around, and then braked her feet as if she remembered something.

"Auntie, in a moment when I ask Miss, by the way, I will also help you ask."

Thank goodness Mary had finally opened up, and Mrs. Mowgli gave a small smile of satisfaction.

"Mother, this time back, the castle people ......"

As soon as Mary tentatively voiced her thoughts to her, it dawned on Edith that the settling of the castle servants was also a problem, at least for the most part, and that she couldn't change the future of those servants; the decision was in her mother's hands.

Polina frowned, her first thought was Mary, "Your personal maid ......"

Edith immediately responded, instantly:

"Mom, Mary is going to follow me."

Paulina was a little disappointed, "Well, of course mom will respect your wishes."

"Then ......"

"Naturally, the others can't be brought back to Taggart."

Tagmat was never short of servants, and more than a few people with excellent training found ways to worm their way into Tagmat.

Edith raised her eyes slightly and glanced at Paulina's face, as if regretting it:

"Oh, well, in that case, I actually quite like Mrs. Mowgli's dim sum!"

Polina gave a start, her eyes falling on Edith, who looked down sheepishly at the gaze.

"Baby still want to bring Mowgli?"

"I-I just like her treats, nothing more." Edith's voice was getting smaller.

Polina, however, suddenly laughed as she stroked Edith's head and said gently, "If you want to, that's certainly fine. Mom just wants to tell you that as a noble, you are more than welcome to speak openly about your needs."

"For example, your maid pleaded with you to bring Mogli on board, it's not a big deal, and if you can reap Mary's heartfelt support, then it's a good deal, and you don't need to cover up your temptations to mom."

Edith blinked her blue eyes and thought in mental awe:

Surely it was a difference in times, she was only eight years old and her mother was already teaching her about chutzpah?

"Yes mom, I know." She said so.

Fanny, who had served Polina since she was a child, needless to say, the servants who had followed the party to Tagmat this time were also Mary and Mrs. Mowgli, and the rest of the people, who had been given a large sum of money, were not sent back, but stayed behind to watch over the castle.

Yes, even though the castle was not worth much in Polina's eyes, it would always be her property, Edith thought, which is the same as a modern tycoon blithely saying I have a couple of islands in Malaysia, and the castle, as a piece of property, will always need a couple of caretakers.

--Maybe someday the owners will get tired of seeing the bustle of the big city, reminisce about the old days, and want to come back to experience what was once a small aristocratic life in the countryside?

It's all up in the air.

A neat line of wagons was arranged horizontally in front of the castle gate, these reddish brown horses with thin necks and long legs, lush manes and eyes, definitely a fine breed of horse not seen in a place like Akiyoshi Town.

Edith curiously came forward to survey those horses, one of them actually snorted at her, Edith was startled.

Paulina laughed and pulled her away a bit.

"When we get back to Tagmart, Mother will naturally arrange for someone to teach you how to ride."

Edith looked up, "Mom, will I have a horse of my own in the future?"

Riding was a very important part of the noble culture, and Edith knew she would inevitably learn this in the future.

Fanny was about to reach out and carry the smaller Edith to the carriage when Polina shook her head and carried her up herself, waiting for both of them to enter the spacious and comfortable carriage before Polina said calmly:

"Of course, Mother will be giving you a young pureblood, and you can feed her yourself when the time comes."

The caravan moved slowly and Edith lifted the curtains to look at the legion of knights traveling with it.

They wore armor and long swords at their waists, staring resolutely straight ahead as their horses' hooves kicked and brought up light dust.

"Mom, is this a knight?" She used to only know from books on the basics of magic that there were not only magicians but also knights in this world, but it was the first time she saw them up close like this.

Perhaps it was because Edith's gaze was too burning, the knight closest to the carriage window looked over towards Edith, and when their gazes were paired, Edith shrunk her head a bit in embarrassment, resulting in this knight's feet knocking on the stirrups and snapping a salute towards her.

Edith nodded shyly, then lowered the curtain.

Heart beating a little faster, Edith blushed and excitedly asked Polina, "Mom, if a knight and a wizard fought, which would be more advantageous."

Polina's chin was slightly tucked, she had a delicate and perfect jawline, and even when she was sitting in the carriage, her sitting posture was so elegant that no one could pick a fault.

"Edith," she called her name.

"You have to realize that there are some things that can't be directly compared. For example, we wizards would be better at group attacks, but knights do have amazing power in their single attacks as well."

"So, what we need to do is not to compete with the knights, but to learn to cooperate with them."

Edith nodded good-naturedly as she looked at Polina, thinking in her mind:

Probably the real nobles are like mom!

--Elegant and sensible, always proud, always humble.

The caravan slowly moved forward, their goal was Nobia City. It was a large, luxurious city, and places like the small town of Qiuji were merely affiliated with Nobia City, and there were countless other similar towns. Nobia wasn't just a city, it was a fiefdom with a vast territory - and Willey, was the oldest great noble on this fiefdom.

As the caravan slowly drove into the city and the streets became visibly bustling, Edith's state of mind also produced a subtle change, which manifested itself in the fact that the frequency of her movements became higher, which made her appear to be a bit fidgety.

"Edith?" Polina's gaze came over, "You look a little uneasy."

Edith sat up straight and cleared her throat, she was going to deny it, but surely her lying mother would be able to tell, so she finally decided to be honest, "Ahem, mom, are we going to run into some, well ...... trouble back at Tagmart?" Edith said euphemistically.

Influenced by a large number of TV drama novels in her previous life, now in this situation, Edith almost inevitably thought of some conspiracy struggles.

With such an old noble family, with such complicated personnel, could her mother really inherit the title smoothly?

How sharp Polina is, even if Edith's statement is vague, she understands it in an instant, almost immediately, she laughs, Edith lowers her head in shame, perhaps she is overthinking? But the next second, Polina's gentle yet calm voice said:

"Of course."

"Not everyone wants me to inherit the title."

Edith was surprised at how blunt her mother was with her.

"But there's not much point in them rebelling." A lot of things had been a foregone conclusion since her name was written in her father's will, and unless she died unexpectedly or did something to betray the family, the owner of Tagmart, would only be her.

"You don't have to worry about anyone coming after us" Trouble was bound to come.

Polina's tone was light:

"But at least, those people aren't stupid enough to put their fault-finding out in the open."

The truth was just as Polina had said, as they stepped out of the carriage in their black gowns, and the castle's stately and grandiose gates opened unreservedly for them - an ancient castle that had endured hundreds of years and never lacked the weight of history.

Her mother took her by the hand and gently, firmly, and unquestioningly, she walked inside.

They passed through the old city walls, past statue after statue, lawns and walls of flowers meticulously manicured, and of course, there would be no shortage of rose gardens and white doves, as her mother had called them.

Her mother was unusually silent during this time, not even looking at her, but Edith sensed from the warmth of her palm what her mother wanted to say.

--Edith, this is Taggart, our home.