Nightmare

"Hey! What are you doing?" A girl looked curiously at Luka.

Luka was startled a little when he opened his eyes. He was so focused on what he was doing that he forgot that he wasn't the only person in the mansion.

After being pulled back to reality, Luka took a good look at the person who disturbed him. A girl that was around his age with silver hair and golden eyes.

"Uhh... practicing?"

"What are you practicing?"

"Aura..."

"What's Au–"

"I'm sorry who are you?"

"My name's Rosaline! What's yours?"

"Luka."

"Nice to meet you, Luka!"

"Nice to meet you too..." Luka was still confused and trying to figure out who's the girl when...

"Lady Rosaline! Where are you?" A maid came to the garden and shouted the girl's name, seemingly looking for her.

'Lady Rosaline? Weiss said that name. Is she the Duke's daughter that I'm supposed to be serving?'

The maid finally found Rosaline but was surprised a little to find someone else with her.

"Lady Rosaline! There you are. Your father is looking for you." She looked towards Luka and said, "You're the new kid, Luka, right?"

Luka responded with a nod.

"Since you're gonna be Lady Rosaline's butler we'll be working together soon. My name is Rachel."

The maid left with Rosaline. Rosaline turned around and waved at Luka. Luka waved back and saw a bright smile from Rosaline.

"That girl's the Duke's daughter huh?"

Luka looked up at the sky and noticed that he's been practicing for hours that it's almost night-time.

He stood up and stretched his numb legs and arms, then walked towards his room to sleep.

==================================

"Luka... wake up Luka..."

Luka woke up on the familiar hay bed that he's been using for most of his new life. He got out of it and was greeted by his mother.

"Good morning mom," Luka said groggily while yawning.

"Go down and eat your breakfast. Elder Zeph needs help finding something... again."

"I wonder what he lost again."

"Your father's out hunting so be a good boy and help the others with Elder Zeph's problem.

He went to the small dining table and quickly ate the baked potato. It was as tasteless as always, but he's grown used to it. They sometimes get salt from traveling merchants, however, those get used up very quickly to preserve meat by curing and drying them.

He walked out the front door to see the village empty and deserted. He wandered around the village. Sometimes entering some houses and calling out the names of his neighbors, but no one responded. He scratched his head, confused as to what is happening.

"Where is everyone?"

"Lu...ka....."

Luka heard someone behind him and turned around. What he saw froze him in place.

The house was in ruins and his father was kneeling in front of it with several weapons stabbed to his back. Blood was dripping from the lifeless corpse of his father.

He turned around again to see the entire village in the same state as his house; in ruins with flames burning the wooden parts. Dead and bloody corpses of the villagers were littered everywhere with horrified expressions frozen on their faces. The sky was colored in a bloody red shade with black clouds looming over everything.

"No..."

Luka suddenly saw his mother in the distance. He did not hesitate to run towards her; but when he reached her and tried to hug her, he only touched air, as if his mother was never there.

He noticed a shadow looming over him. He looked up and saw the dark figure that destroyed everything.

"You... you took everything from me!" Luka shouted at the dark figure with anger.

As if responding to Luka's thoughts and emotions, winds suddenly started to form around Luka and the dark figure. Pebbles, wood, sand, all kinds of random objects were picked up by the gale circled te both of them.

*BOOM*

Lightning flashed in the sky above with thunder following shortly after, blinding and deafening Luka with a bright light for a few seconds. The moment he opened his eyes he saw the corpses of his parents between him and the dark figure.

"YOU BASTARD!!!"

Luka woke up while screaming as he sat up with bloodshot eyes. Beads of sweat were rolling down his forehead. His ragged breathing was the only thing that could be heard in the room.

"Just a dream.... just a dream..." Luka held his head, trying to bottle up his emotions. Noticing his clothes drenched with sweat he got off the bed and slipped into new clothes. Just as finished doing that the door to his room opened.

Luka saw Weiss enter with a pitying look in his eyes.

"Get up Luka. It's morning, perfect for training."

"Oh... right."

...

"Do I really have to wear this?" Luka groaned as he finished wearing a butler's uniform of his size that was custom-made to hide the slave collar around his neck. It had a coat of arms embroidered on the left arm of the coat, similar to Weiss' uniform. The coat of arms was a tree with 3 diamond-shaped 'fruits' arranged to form a triangle.

They were in a wide room with several windows to bring in light.

"Yes you do. You will serve Lady Rosaline, the daughter of His Grace Duke Callisto von Montampes. Have pride in serving her."

Luka wanted to retort by saying 'Why should a be proud of being a dog of an aristocrat.' but he decided to keep it in. He didn't want to be punished as he instinctively touched the slave collar.

"So, what do I do? Learn how to brew the perfect tea?" Luka remarked sarcastically.

"You will learn tea brewing soon. But first, you must fix your posture..."

.

.

.

'When will this end?!' Luka grumbled in his mind.

He was standing straight with several books on his head and shoulders. His task was to last as long as he can balancing the books as more and more books are added as time goes on. He also has to walk around every minute or so while still keeping the books balanced..

He failed many times, to the point he got sick of standing up and just wanted to lie down on the floor and take a nap.

Weiss was just sitting 2 meters in front of Luka while drinking tea and brewing new batches on the table beside his chair when he runs out of it. Sometimes taking a bite on a macaron from a plate on the same table.

From Luka's perspective, Weiss looks like he was just lazing around and not even paying attention to his etiquette training, but somehow when Luka makes a slight mistake Weiss notices immediately and punishes him with a wack in the head.

However, Weiss wasn't being lazy contrary to Luka's thoughts. He's been paying attention to Luka and it looked like as if he was pondering something.