Rat Infested House

Marquis Wormwood inherited the Marquis title from his father the former Marquis after his death. It has now been two decades since then. He has four concubines in addition to his main wife the Marchioness.

He has not made any contributions to the state or achieved anything as such his Marquis title is but an empty shell. They stand to lose the title if their family does not have anyone who has made achievements to the kingdom.

Marquis Wormwood sat in his study with a headache. As is it, he was already not qualified to attend morning court, he had three sons. Two were twin boys born from one of his concubines but ever since they accidently fell into a lake during winter, they have never regained full health. His other son is from his Main wife but the boy is only 8 years old and cannot achieve anything yet but he still needs someone to be close to the royal family to avoid being forgotten by the court completely.

If his existence is completely forgotten then it would be hard to recommend his son to any position and he may have to start from the bottom up which will take him too long to achieve anything.

At this moment he heard the sound of heels as they hit the Mable floor approaching his study and a few moments later his wife came in carrying a white and gold invitation later and a big smile was on her face.

"Honey, we just got an invitation from the palace to attend the princess's coming of age ceremony."

The Marquis receive the letter with caution afraid of causing any damage to his golden ticket that just fell from the sky when he needed it the most. He opened it and started reading the contents.

"Honey, is says that all of the noble families will be there, we should take Julia along and maybe we can find a nice family we can engage her to." The Marchioness proposed.

The Marquis looked up from the invitation and at his wife, that being a good idea and all but he doubted there was any noble family that would want to tie themselves to a family that was in decline.

He didn't answer her right away but continued to read the invite when a particular sentence caught his attention. It read that they also wanted one of the families to volunteer their daughter to be the princess's new study partner.

"Did you see this sentence where they say they want a new study partner for princess?" The Marquis asked his wife.

The Marchioness answered with a stiff face, "Yes?"

"Then don't you think that it would be better for Julia if she were to become the princess's new study partner."

The Marchioness strongly rejected the idea, "No way in hell is that happening to my daughter."

"But this is better, we won't be able to marry any of the girls to good noble families with our current status anyway." The Marquis tried to persuade her.

"How is it good to send our daughter to an early grave." The Marchioness wasn't moved one bit.

She fixed the Marquis with a stern gave as she accused, "You know that the princess is said to be demoness and that she killed all her previous study partners, how could you want to send your own daughter to such a fate."

The Marquis scolded his wife, "Don't believe those rumours, they previous girls dying was an accident, it has nothing to do with the princess." How could she badmouth the princess, what if it got out.

The Marchioness did not take the scolding to heart at all and still went on to say, "Smoke does not appear without a fire."

The Marquis sighed, "What do you suppose we do then? We need someone who is close to the royal family or one of the stronger noble families who can pave a road for Armand so that when the time comes he can have a smooth career."

The Marchioness paused at the mention of her son's future, but her daughter was equally important. Even if the news about the princess being a demoness who kills her study partners is nothing but rumours fabricated by malicious people, what if there is a chance that it is true? She can't wait until she sees her daughter dead to know whether it is true or not. As the saying goes, it is better to be safe than sorry.

She kept battling herself when she thought of something, "Honey, does it have to be Julia specifically?" She spoke with a cunning smile of her face.

"What are you trying to say?"

"Why don't we get Selah to volunteer instead, she turned 15 last year so she is basically the same age as the Princess, she is more suitable to be her study partner."

The Marquis thought about it and agreed, it could be any of his daughters after all, it didn't matter which one as long as he can have someone close to the royal family.

The Marchioness excused herself, "Then I will go and inform her to prepare."

The Marchioness left the study and went to very back of the mansion, she stood at the walk through looking at the dilapidated courtyard in-front of her with disgust, the front of the courtyard was over grown with weeds, the small house in it had its paint peeling off, the wood beams looked rotten and just about to fall, there wasn't even a pavilion for receiving guests outside, it simply looked like a house for rats.

She pointed a manicured finger at one of the servants, "You go and bring Selah to my room as quickly as possible,"

The servant bowed and went inside the courtyard. The Marchioness turned and started to head back to her own more luxurious courtyard. She didn't want to say in this pest infected place longer than she needed to, what if she caught something and brought it back to her confortable room, a place so full of weeds most definitely has bed bugs and other creepy crawlies.