After Smila checked each paper, Ella nodded and said, “Good. Your job is simple. You will be assigned a region and walk around the slums every day while collecting all kinds of rumors. You must tell me right away when you find a person who’s sick or someone who suddenly stopped showing up to work.”

“Milady, there are more than 10 people who are sick in my neighborhood already,” said Max.

Half of the people they knew were in the slums because they had a sick family member. That was why most came to live in the slums and settled there. Max couldn’t understand Ella’s orders.

“I’m not talking about someone who was sick before. I’m talking about someone who was perfectly fine before getting sick. People who get sick overnight. You must tell me right away if you find anyone with blue markings on their skin.”

“Blue markings? Like a bruise? I have that right here..” Max pulled off his shirt and showed a bruise on his waist.

“Kyaaah!” Smila screamed. At once, many people, who were hiding around the garden, poured out. These knights, who were sent by Philip, immediately aimed their swords at Max’s throat. Maylin was already in front of Ella, blocking her.

She thought as much, but it seemed there could be ears outside. No, it wasn’t only ears. There were hands, feet and bodies..

“I thought I clearly ordered no one to be around.. Why are there so many people here?”

Ella’s threatening voice even made the knights with swords flinch and turn to her. They never thought a 17-year-old girl, raised and well-protected within the estate, to be so overwhelming. The knights looked at each other in astonishment and dilemma. Should they put down their swords or punish this peasant who had done a terrible thing to the lady?

But Maylin, who knew Ella well, quickly changed her attitude and began to persuade her that there was no choice. “How can I not come when you’re meeting with strangers? I was just doing my job!”

Although her words seemed confident, Maylin knew she had done wrong, so her eyes couldn’t meet with Ella’s. If her large body could shrink, it seemed it was going to crouch into dust. She looked so remorseful that Ella couldn’t scold her in front of these many people. This was why Ella and Evan couldn’t win against Maylin as she raised them herself, so she knew their weaknesses.

“Maylin, you do know what you are saying doesn’t make any sense. Right? Go back. And take them with you.”

Maylin quickly thanked Ella, who went easy on her even though she was enraged, and took Mari and Joanne with her. What was left were the knights who weren’t sure what to do. As a threatening sight reached them, they took a step back without realizing it.

“Don’t knights know when to retreat? How can you assist my father and my brother when you’re so slow? Or are you so foolish that I have to tell you where to put your sword each time?”

“But milady! This man dares to pull up his clothes in your presence! We wouldn’t have come out of hiding if it wasn’t for your screaming. This man must be punished!”

Some knights had put down their swords, but some stubbornly held their swords and protested to Ella. They seemed to want to justify their actions, but it seemed like an excuse to her.

“Why does it matter when I said it was okay regardless of what he took off?” said Ella.

“But you screamed..”

“It wasn’t me, but her. Do you think I would be frustrated by such a petty thing?”

In most cases, a noble girl would have screamed like Smila, but Ella wasn’t an ordinary noble girl. The 38-year-old woman inside her was from Earth from the 21st century, where it was too easy to get access to a man’s skin. She wasn’t innocent enough to scream just because she saw some skin.