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Chapter 9 - Intruder

ARIELLE

Bingo!

I grinned, slowly turning around to savor Hanna's expression. And I wasn't disappointed. 

She didn't even have to see the girl's face to turn as white as a sheet – the mere sound of her voice was more than enough. 

As I watched the maid shake under the weight of realization, a thin, sickly pale girl slowly approached us both, her bony hand trembling. She looked like a walking corpse – skinny, pallid, with short black hair and abnormally dark circles underneath her big brown eyes. 

She was staring directly at Hanna, her glassy, empty eyes locked on her with deadly focus, and with every step she took in our direction, Hanna's body shook even more, almost making her crumble like a dry biscuit. 

"Hanna? It's you, isn't it?" The girl asked in a raspy tone, clearly not used to talking for a while. 

"Do you know this girl?" I asked as I planted my hands on the sides of my waist. 

"N–No!" She shook her head frantically, taking a step behind me as if she wanted to hide. "I don't know her, Miss! She must be mistaking me for someone else!"

"But she called you by your name." I stepped aside, exposing her to the girl once again. "Isn't it weird?"

It wasn't weird at all – I already knew what was going on here. I was the one who planned after all. 

In my previous life, I happened to overhear an interesting conversation which etched in my memory for quite a while, mainly because it was about one of the rogue shelters I grew up in. This very shelter, to be precise. 

One day, as I was coming back from the training lessons with the pack, I stopped at the kitchen to get some water. There were several maids there talking about work, and somehow, their conversation changed subjects. 

The new subject, fortunately for me, was how Hanna, a complete outsider to the pack, had managed to land a job there. 

Ans Hanna's response left a rather bitter taste in my mouth for a while. 

"There was a job opening," Hanna said quietly, "several packs were looking for maids. The conditions were dreamlike – I mean, for someone like me, moving from a dirty homeless shelter to a proper packhouse was definitely a step up!

Naturally, I wanted to get this job to the point where I was ready to do anything to get out of there. And I mean anything. And that's exactly what I did!"

"What did you do?" Another maid asked in an excited whisper. 

"Unfortunately for me," Hanna replied, "the last position for this pack was already filled in. A girl named Marine got it. I was so desperate, I could cry. You should have seen that bitch! She was small and frail – how could she possibly survive working here? So you can say that I actually did her a great favor by taking the job instead of her!"

Her laughter was just as vile as always, and I felt cold chills cover the entirety of my skin. I had known she was a total bitch, but I had never expected her to be that bad. I was just damn lucky that I could remember that incident right off the bat.

"It's me, Marine!" The girl's weak voice jolted me back to reality. "What are you doing here?"

"Marine?" I smirked, pinning Hanna with an accusatory glare. "I remember hearing that name before... Ah, I think the maids have mentioned it before! Didn't you have a friend named Marine?"

Hanna's eyes widened with both shock and terror. I was bluffing, of course, that conversation hadn't happened yet, but the look of pure terror on Hanna's face was worth the gamble. 

"A friend?" Hanna's voice suddenly grew cold, her brows furrowing. "Hardly! I don't even remember this girl!"

"How can you say that?" Marine exclaimed, grabbing Hanna by the hand. "Don't you remember? I was supposed to get a job at the Blackstone pack, but then you drugged me and locked me up in the closet! You pretended to be me and got the job instead!"

"You!" Hanna shrieked as if she had been doused with cold water, shoving the girl aside. "Shut your mouth! That's why I keep telling them that they need to kill these insects off!"

"Oh my!" I stepped in, my grin growing wider. "I can't believe it, Hanna! You stole your friend's job? And not just that – you actually drugged her and hoped she would die? Have you absolutely no shame at all?"

"Miss, that's not true!" Hanna tried to defend herself again. "I just... She would get kicked out right away! It would have been a waste of a perfectly good job! I mean, look at her! She is barely standing!"

"I am barely standing because of you!" Marine yelled out, beating herself in the chest. "Do you know how sick I was after you poisoned me that day? I am still battling stomach issues!"

"Hanna," I stepped between the girl and her, my eyes narrowing as I locked them on Hanna's. "Do you know that going against the official employment order of the orphans is a crime punishable by death? Such orders are issued by the royal family themselves – I can report you right now, and tomorrow, you will be hanged."

"Miss Arielle, please!" Hanna pleaded, falling to her knees as she grabbed my hands in hers. "I was desperate to get out of here! Look at how they all live here, look at Marine! I couldn't rot here – I am too pretty to rot here!"

"Are you pretty enough to be executed, though?" I grinned, savoring her despair. 

"Please, Miss Arielle! I will do anything! Please!"

"Alright," I said, kicking her away from my legs and freeing my hands. "I won't let anyone know that, however... you will have to drop your arrogant act and start behaving properly in my presence."

"I will, I will, I promise!" She nodded, slapping her hands together into a prayer. "I will do anything!"

"Sure you will," I muttered through gritted teeth. This whorish leopard would never change its spots. "And one more thing," I then added, finally able to smile again. "You will give your daily rations to Marine. And once we're done volunteering, she is coming back with us to Blackstone. I need my own maid, after all."

I didn't want to listen to whatever Hanna still had to say and headed straight for the exit, utterly exhausted by the depressing sight of the shelter's house. 

The fleeting moment of triumph was already wearing off, and the dreadful realization came down crushing – I had to spend ten days moving from one shelter to another, spending my days surrounded by dirt, sickness, and death. 

"Well, it's a price to pay," I sighed as I took a seat on a swing underneath a towering oak tree. 

"And what are you paying for?" A voice rang from behind me, nearly knocking me to the ground. 

I froze, cold sweat running down my back as I slowly turned around the face the sudden intruder. 

Goddess... It's him.

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