Chapter 40: These Are My Servants

Ophariel frowned, shifting her gaze from the young women back to Julian standing before her.

“Are these the servants you mentioned, my lord?”

“What do you think?” Faced with Ophariel’s question, Julian shrugged, snapped his fingers, and a sly smile appeared on his face.

“I think they must meet your requirements.”

Ophariel indeed couldn’t find fault with Julian’s words. Although she had anticipated that Julian might bring her unprecedented surprises, after seeing these young women in person, Ophariel still couldn’t hide her surprise and confusion.

At this moment, behind Julian stood ten young women of varying heights, all radiating youthful vitality. They all looked very beautiful and cute. Although their rural coarse cloth clothing somewhat diminished their beauty, Ophariel was certain that if these young women were properly groomed and dressed up, they would become very beautiful and attractive.

If it were just this, Ophariel wouldn’t be too surprised. Although in the world of ordinary people, beautiful young women seemed so unattainable that they might not see one in their lifetime, it was completely different for Ophariel. After all, the royal palace itself was a place that gathered all kinds of beautiful women. Even at those balls, one could see many pure, glamorous, lively, or cute young women. So, for Ophariel, it wasn’t very unexpected that Julian could obtain these beautiful women.

Perhaps this lord knows some human trafficker.

This was, of course, just a slightly malicious imagination of the princess. In fact, what surprised Ophariel most was the discipline these young women displayed. Although Julian said they were purchased slaves, in Ophariel’s view, she couldn’t see any signs of confusion, loss, or unease in these young women. This was very abnormal. Generally speaking, when they are bought by a stranger and brought to an unfamiliar environment, possibly spending their youth and life here, shouldn’t they feel a bit uneasy about this?

Thinking of this, Ophariel carefully observed these young women again. Indeed, whether it was those who looked a bit older or those who were relatively younger, their expressions didn’t hide any shadows. They seemed to have no nervousness, unease, or any fear about this new environment. They just looked at the castle before them and this princess with a hint of excitement in their eyes. Ophariel wasn’t sure if it was her illusion, but she felt that the way these young women looked at her wasn’t like they were examining her for the first time, but as if they had known her for a long time.

This was, of course, impossible.

Ophariel smiled bitterly and shook her head, throwing this strange thought to the back of her mind. She had been dead for thirty years. Even if someone knew her, they would probably be in their thirties or forties now. These girls weren’t even born at that time, so how could they possibly know her?

If the attitudes of these young women only made Ophariel somewhat confused, their displayed demeanor made her astonished.

Even under Ophariel’s intimidating gaze, these young women didn’t waver at all. They stood straight, chests out, slightly lowering their heads like “well-educated lower-class people”, maintaining both humility and dignity. This was a very difficult balance to achieve. Training servants is a very difficult task. If they appear too weak, they will be looked down upon. If they appear too proud, they will be labeled as disrespectful to their masters. Finding a balance between these two points is something many people find difficult to do. But now, these girls could perfectly achieve this point. They used their actions to show others their status, but at the same time, they also demonstrated their dignity through their behavior.

Moreover, what puzzled Ophariel most was that she actually saw pride and honor in these girls? This was really unimaginable. If Julian were the patriarch of a large family, and this family had unparalleled influence in this area, then it wouldn’t be strange for the servants to feel proud of being able to work and serve in such a great family. But the problem now was that Julian was just a descendant of a fallen noble, and his family had no reputation at all. Why would these girls stand here with such a sense of glory and pride? This requires a long time to precipitate and accumulate, just like the royal family. If it didn’t have hundreds of years of ruling history and brilliant achievements, no one would feel proud of working there. Even old Marfa only had a sense of belonging here because her family had been working in the castle for generations, but even for her, the foundation of that feeling was still the castle itself, not Julian.

Did Julian say something to them?

Thinking of this, Ophariel couldn’t help but glance at Julian again. She had to admit that this young man was quite eloquent. If he used sweet words to deceive these inexperienced girls, making them believe they were serving an honorable family, it wasn’t entirely impossible. But to deceive all ten at once?

This possibility seemed a bit too low.

“Welcome,” Ophariel thought for a moment and decided to leave these questions for later. She smiled gently at the girls and nodded to them.

“I think you’ve already heard the general situation from the lord. So I won’t repeat much. Now, I’ll have Marfa take you down to prepare your own rooms…”

“You will live in the servants’ quarters on the first floor,” Julian interrupted Ophariel’s words, which made her frown slightly in displeasure.

“I hope you can adapt to your new life in the shortest time possible. Alright, girls, you can retire now. I have something to discuss with Miss Ophariel.”

“Yes, master,” Faced with Julian’s order, the young women answered in unison. They almost simultaneously lifted their skirts, curtsied slightly to the two, and then followed Marfa, who was standing nearby, out of the hall with smiles. From beginning to end, they never showed any disrespectful behavior. Everything was so quiet and peaceful.

“My lord, where exactly did you trick them from?” As soon as these young women disappeared, Ophariel immediately began to question.

“They are definitely not ordinary village women, nor are they slaves. How exactly did you obtain them?”

“I said, no stealing, no robbing, no fraud. Everything was completed on the basis of fair and reasonable transactions,” Faced with Ophariel’s inquiry, Julian very “innocently” spread his hands, smiling with a sincere expression as he answered.

“Don’t worry, nothing will happen.”

“Nothing will happen? I don’t think so…” Ophariel frowned, looking suspiciously at the young lord before her.

“Especially that girl called Charlotte. Don’t try to fool me, she’s not a slave. You can tell from her skin that this girl has received very good care. This is not something slaves are qualified to enjoy!”

As she spoke, she lightly clapped her hands, her sapphire blue eyes staring intently at Julian, clearly demanding an explanation from him.

“Couldn’t she possibly be the daughter of some fallen noble family? Miss Ophariel, I don’t think this is strange, is it?”

“The daughters of fallen noble families don’t know how to serve others, Lord Julian,” Whenever Ophariel started using both name and title together, it indicated that her attitude had changed.

“You are also a descendant of a fallen noble family. Have you ever learned how to serve other nobles? To show them smiles, to put down your own status?”

“Everyone is different, unique,” Julian shrugged, looking into those sapphire blue eyes.

“Perhaps that young lady has other ideas?”

Ophariel sighed deeply. She didn’t believe this was Julian’s true thoughts, but now, she could only shift the question to other aspects.

“Why do you want these girls to live in the castle? I think you should understand very well, my lord, that if it causes panic, it will be very troublesome.”

Every midnight, those wraiths gathered in the castle’s basement would come out to get some air. To avoid panic, the servants had always lived in the side rooms outside the castle, and Ophariel had also made rules forbidding them from entering the castle after nightfall without permission. Now, these young women were just brazenly let in. What if something happened to them at night? What should be done then?

“There’s always a way. Don’t worry, I guarantee they will follow the rules, and I will also explain to the wraiths,” Julian waved his hand.

“Miss Ophariel, I understand your thoughts, but now, we are about to welcome a viscount. Do you want me to say to that noble viscount, ‘I’m very sorry, respected sir, we have a rule in our castle that no one is allowed to move freely after midnight. I hope you can abide by our rules’ or something like that?”

Ophariel opened her mouth, then closed it again. It was obvious that this was impossible. Although it’s right to follow the host’s rules on the host’s land, the other party was after all a viscount, while Julian didn’t have an official title yet. Although no guests would wander around the host’s castle at midnight, explicitly stating it would still hurt the other party’s feelings. After all, no matter how hypocritical noble interactions are, they are built on mutual respect, and given Julian’s current status, it’s clearly not appropriate for him to remind the other party what they should or shouldn’t do.

So what to say? Oh, sorry, our place is haunted every night at twelve o’clock…

“I think I understand your meaning, my lord,” Ophariel helplessly pressed her forehead.

“To be honest, perhaps my considerations were really lacking…”

“No, the responsibility doesn’t lie with you,” Seeing that he had successfully settled Ophariel’s questions, Julian also waved his hand, then he asked.

“How have things been recently?”

“Everything is going smoothly, my lord,” When it came to the current situation of Twilight Castle, Ophariel obviously immediately became energetic. She took out several documents from beside the desk and handed them to Julian.

“The road repairs have been completed, and all the problems you entrusted to me have been resolved. And…”

It must be said that while reporting to Julian, Ophariel also had many doubts deep in her heart.

Before he left the castle, he handed over all affairs to Ophariel to handle, and he also put forward many unexpected requirements beyond Ophariel’s expectations.

Julian not only required the repair of the road from Twilight Town to the outside, but after obtaining sufficient “reserve funds”, he also proposed bolder ideas, ordering Ophariel to thoroughly repair the internal roads of the small town as well. This really made Ophariel somewhat incomprehensible. She even speculated with the old town mayor whether this young lord had some kind of road repair compulsion.

Of course, Julian wasn’t just repairing roads. He even required Ophariel to demolish those uninhabited and dilapidated houses in the small town, expand the waterways, and even re-planned part of the town’s public areas. In Ophariel’s view, this was really incomprehensible. Although these actions could improve the quality of life for the residents here, they had no benefit for them. And to be frank, although Julian now had some spare money, before the fiscal balance was achieved, spending money on such things was not praiseworthy.

At first, Ophariel thought this was Julian’s way of wanting to raise the taxes on these residents, but to her surprise, Julian not only didn’t raise the taxes on these residents, he even issued a decree reducing the tax revenue of Twilight Town by 30%.

This was great, originally they could receive 100 gold coins every month, now they could only get 70? Did this lord know that 70 gold coins couldn’t even buy a decent teapot in a big city?

Complaints aside, Ophariel didn’t refuse Julian’s orders because of this. In fact, although this princess performed very ignorantly in military and combat aspects, she was a first-class talent in internal affairs and negotiations. She not only successfully pacified the restless civilians but also handled these things Julian called “infrastructure construction” in an orderly manner. Although five days wasn’t enough time to show any obvious effects, all matters, big and small, had been organized clearly by this princess, without any errors or problems.

Of course, there were also rewards. At least two days ago, a merchant came to the door, hoping to build a lumber yard here, and Ophariel had also negotiated the initial conditions and requirements with them, just waiting for Julian to return and finalize it. Once this deal was settled, Julian’s territory would have a considerable additional income.

“Well done,” After carefully reading the report submitted by Ophariel, Julian nodded satisfactorily. All along, he had doubted whether the memory of the so-called “genius princess” in his mind had been beautified, but from what he could see now, this princess was indeed very capable and had her own ideas.

“Since merchants are coming, we can’t relax either. Let’s drive the commercial development of the small town as well.”

“Commercial development?” Hearing this, Ophariel raised an eyebrow.

“My lord, are you planning to spend money again?”

“Don’t worry, this time it’s definitely not wasted,” Julian said.

Does that mean all the previous spending was wasted?

Ophariel opened her mouth, barely managing to swallow these words back. She looked helplessly at Julian, waiting for the lord’s orders. She really didn’t know what he would think of next.

“I remember there’s a tailor shop in the small town, their craftsmanship is quite good… Our maids can’t serve guests wearing old, dirty cloth clothes.”

Saying this, Julian’s lips curled slightly, revealing a smile mixed with a sense of pride and interest.

“I’ve already designed the style… Since this castle is to be renovated, the maids’ uniforms should also be changed.”

“Changed… again?” Ophariel repeated Julian’s words in confusion. She stepped forward, took the sketch Julian handed over, and carefully examined it. Then, she widened her eyes in surprise and looked at her lord.

“My lord, is this really a maid’s uniform?”

“Of course,” Faced with Ophariel’s question, Julian showed a matter-of-fact expression.

“Does this look like anything else besides a maid’s uniform?”