“Annie, Rina, Brooke, this here is Sophie, she will be staying with us from now on. So please treat her well.” I decided to give Sophie a proper introduction to the maids. “Sophie, Annie is the head maid, so if any troubles crop up, just ask her. Annie, I will let you assign whoever you want to Sophie. Just know she is quite the shy one.”

“Then I will have Brooke wait on Miss Sophie then.” Annie gave me a bow before turning to Sophie and bowing to her. “Miss Sophie, it is a pleasure to be working for you.”

Seeing the flustered look on Sophie’s face made me chuckle. I knew she would react like this. But I am sure she will slowly get used to it. Brooke was a little clumsy, but she was a good girl and the younger of the two. So they should get along nicely, which was why Annie probably chose Brooke. The younger one would seem easier for Sophie to get used to. But I am sure in time, things will slowly work out.

“Okay, now that introductions are done. You girls can go to sleep. Sophie and I will clean up tonight. It’s already so late.” It was pushing early morning hours, and I could tell Rina and Brooke were having issues staying awake, so I wanted them to head to bed.-.

“Young Miss, I will stay awake to clean up.” Annie offered, but I quickly rejected her offer.

“It’s fine. Go get some rest. Sophie and I will be up for a while longer. There is no need for you to stay up. So go quick.” I shooed her away. She could only nod and listen to my words.

They had already made dinner, and it was slightly cold because we took so long, but that was fine. Since Sophie was so quiet, I began telling her this and that about myself and the things I had to deal with as I grew up. She seemed to find it all interesting and even nodded her head in a few spots when I talked about being hated for being demi human. As a demi human herself, I am sure she had to deal with some hatred as well.

After dinner, Sophie and I retired to my room after cleaning up. She did not seem very against spending the night together. Tomorrow I planned to get the maids to set up one of the spare bedrooms. There were six altogether, so there was plenty of room. “Tomorrow, I will get a room ready for you, but if you still feel uncomfortable, you can sleep with me if you want.”

“Thank you…. I….” Sophie had tears rolling down her cheeks. I bet she is probably homesick by now.

“Miss home?” I asked, and sure enough, she nodded her head.

“My mother and I used to sleep together all the time. We would talk about our days and figure out ways to tease my father the next day. We were shunned by our village, and my father worked hard every day. I rarely could leave the house. The village kids would throw insults at me and pull my tail and ears. I guess this is where my inability to be good with crowds came from. ” Sophie’s voice grew soft at the end, but I could see why she would not be good around others. “I would probably be like you as well if not for my strength. The best way to defeat your fears and things you are not good with is by facing them head on. Today you took a big leap and even got up on stage. That takes courage. You did well.” I said, reaching up and scratching Sophie’s ears…. So soft and fluffy! Ahh, to die for…. Ahem….

“I really did not think I would be able to do it either. While I know I really messed up and caused you a lot of trouble, I am glad I did it. It was the first step for me to shake off this issue. But I was only able to do it because you were supporting me. Your words gave me the courage I needed to keep pushing forward. But now that I am thinking about it, I am worried about what will happen to my family. Do you think the count will be so low as to actually do something to them?” Sophie’s voice began to tremble. I could tell she was about to start crying again.

I couldn’t help but sigh because I know I could not say: no, he won’t. There is actually a fairly good chance that he may try to use them to make Sophie willingly go back to his side. But before that happens, I should try to contact Adel and see if she can do something. I know it is a bit out of line to be trying to use my connections like this, but I have no choice. It is either that, or I kill the stupid count altogether.

But if I did that, I am sure there would be backlash from the other nobles. They would think of me as a threat to not only them but to the whole kingdom and push the king to get rid of me somehow. No matter how good of an accomplishment I made, they would still try to kick me out. The only option to do that would be to use my biggest trump card! Little Bell! But wait… speaking of Little Bell… where has she been this entire time!? “Little Bell?”

“Hmmm? You called?” Little Bell appeared in front of me in a ray of light, rubbing her little eyes. Sophie stared at the little spirit in front of her with wide eyes.

“Where have you been!? I was about to start panicking.” I really was. If the leader of the spirits found out, I lost Little Bell wouldn’t the whole kingdom suffer? More than that, my parents would be the ones to suffer the most. Just thinking about it scares me to death.

“I was inside you. The day we left the forest, the elder had formed a space within your body for me to retreat to. I didn’t want to disturb you today, so I went into the space to sleep….” To be honest, I am not sure how I feel about this. Little bell has her own house inside my body. And it was put there by the leader of the spirits…. I think these spirits are much more than what they let on.

I took a deep breath and slowly let it out before looking back at Sophie. “Sophie, this is Little Bell. She is a spirit. She has traveled with me for a while. But she is also a very big secret that can not be revealed easily. While I say this, she is also our biggest trump card if the count decides to capture your parents and try to use them against you. We will have a means of taking him down. So don’t worry, okay?”

Sophie was trying to process everything and absentmindedly nodded. I could tell it was a lot to take in, but all she needed to know was that things would be okay. That night, Sophie fell asleep curled up and snuggled up next to me. I even heard her mumble in her sleep, calling out for her mother. It pained me to know that a girl her age was suffering so much. I gently stroked her head while I softly spoke with Little Bell.

“Little Bell, what is the space like? And where is it exactly?” I was truly curious. I had a Little Bell’s house inside me, and I couldn’t even check it out. This kind of irked me and also made me feel slightly weird. From some of the books I have read, there are many where the main characters will have special spaces inside their souls or minds that will be home to the contracted beasts or whatever they contract. I always felt it was kind of weird. I mean, there were some, where the female lead will have some old man inside them seeing everything they do. It made me wonder if these authors were just perverted or what. But if you put aside the fact that some old man was watching a girl dress, undress, and bathe all the time, the stories were pretty good otherwise. But these characters could visit these locations, whereas I can not. Well, for the time being, anyway.

“It is a small pond with a little forest surrounding it. It is not that big. It has many pretty flowers, so I like to lay on them and fall asleep.” From how Little Bell described it, it did seem like a small little paradise just for her. For some reason, I feel slightly jealous. But one day, I will also have a small abode I can use as a place to escape to. I mean, there are small worlds. If I grow powerful enough, I may just be able to create one of my own and make it a paradise for me to retreat into.

I smiled and reached up and patted Little Bell on the head: “Sounds like a wonderful place.”