Death Frost | Deathsworn #2

Chapter 86 ❆ Family Business

The people in this house were disciplined in etiquette, but there were times of joy like now when they let lose, and so their wares were banging a little more on their plates than usual.

Humming along the music playing on the gramophone, Mistress Kora had us pass over a dish while Mistress Veronika opened her mouth to speak.

"The Temple doesn't casually allow their disciples to leap three ranks in one go after their first test," Mistress Veronika said, eyeing me with approval. "That's only reserved for the forerunning geniuses. It doesn't happen every year, and there happened to be two all at once, And they're all of ours."

"That's right. If you keep it up, you won't have a problem facing that test six...no, five years from now," Mistress Kora followed.

Ah, that. I had to pause from the scrumptious dinner, grunting.

Fighting against Kaiser's father. That buff-looking man. I had it tough. Would it be possible for him to do me a favor considering I saved his wife? Yeah, right. I think I already cashed in on that.

"Now that you're moving on to your next year, Evyionne, we're going to have to give you a heads up about many things," Mistress Veronika said. "It's also time you get more involved in the family business."

I paused, exchanging glances with Maun. "The family business?"

"That's right!"

"Am I going to be a courtesan?" I asked.

Mistress Kora coughed. Maun tilted his gaze over to us innocently.

"No! Gods, no! Not that family business!" Mistress Kora replied, horrified.

"I don't think it's that bad though," I said.

"No. End of discussion."

"Okay," I said.

I wasn't particularly keen on doing the job the mistresses were involved in. I could only imagine myself trying to flirt with somebody, and the dinner I was trying to swallow immediately reversed and tried going the opposite direction. Thankfully, I was able to keep it down, and proceeded with the rest of my food calmly.

Eren was unfortunately unavailable, so she wasn't around to share the good dishes. I heard her complain about how bad the food was back in the Academy, but I could tell she was very happy about how her lessons were proceeding. She raved on about her progress. It was a good change of pace from her usually dispirited self.

"It'll probably be better if we show you," Mistress Veronika said. "Come tomorrow after class."

I nodded. "Can Maun come?"

"He's family now, isn't he?" she replied with a smile.

-*-

I have made my promise to Viron about finding his younger sibling. Although I left much of the preparations to my mistresses, I assumed they would be bringing me in to the dark side after some point.

From what I can remember—ever since I arrived at the House of Oblivion, they have actively shielded me from all things related to the family business. At first, I thought it was because being a courtesan was less than tasteful, but it would seem that that was just at a surface level.

Being a courtesan...well, that should be a coverup of a sort, especially now that they said the family business was actually something else entirely.

I wouldn't be surprised if they used that as a front to get all sorts of things done. Their skillset was always an overkill for this type of job. Mistress Veronika finished training from the Temple, and Mistress Kora's got amazing medical background he could practically bring the dead back to life. My other mistresses were all treasures wasted on the common men...Well, not exactly. Since most of their customers were the elites of society.