Sword Art Online
A Forbidden Love
Chapter 3 – Work at The Riches
That following morning, Kazuto's head lifted from his pillow with a start. The sun's rays was quietly shining through his brand new silk curtains, making him rush out of sleep.
Even though he had become a little startled by the sudden sunrays from outside, who had just managed to break through a cloud barrier, he couldn't help but have a small smile on his lips. He hadn't had that good of a night's rest for a long time now, and for once, he could let his aching bones rest to the fullest.
He stretched his arms in the air and yawned as he swung his legs over the edge of his master bed, before taking a glance at the clock on his nightstand. The shock that came from the sight almost made him puke up the tea from the evening before.
"12.15!? I should have been up hours ago!"
He yelled to himself in a panic as he rushed over to the wardrobe in the other end of the room to quickly change into his new work uniform. Since he had already had a bath the night before he figured he didn't have to have another one in the morning, and he quickly changed before rushing out to brush his hair, and teeth, and put on some deodorant, before rushing downstairs in a panic.
When he finally reached the foyer, he was panting quietly and leaned silently against the stair railing to catch his breath. Weird. He had been told to meet up with the other servants here in the foyer every morning so they could run through the tasks for the day. Why wasn't anyone waiting for him here?
But then again, he guessed he was being so late that no one had bothered to stay behind for him anymore, and had just gone to do whatever they were supposed to do. That thought crossed his mind as he made his way towards the dining area to find anyone who might be able to supervise him.
As he reached the dining area entrance he pushed open the doors with both arms and stepped inside, only to find the dining hall to be completely empty, besides one lone person who was sitting in the far back and sipping tea from a teacup. It was Asuna.
He widened his eyes a bit as he saw her. Once again he was put aback by her radiant beauty. He was completely captured by her presence alone, and that was enough to set his heart beating, though he set the feeling aside for now as he approach the young mistress of the house.
"Good afternoon Ms. Asuna" He said with a smile and a humble bow.
"Oh, Kazuto! Good morning to you as well" She said with a gentle smile.
She put the teacup back on it's saucer on the table before she spoke again.
"What can I help you with?" She asked as her gaze fell on him.
He smiled and leaned back up from his bow as she addressed him, clearing his throat in slight embarrassment from his sleeping in this morning.
"I uhm, was kind of hoping you could tell me where your father was" He mumbled as he scratched his neck "I slept in this morning, so I have no idea what I am supposed to be doing this afternoon"
"Oh yeah, Father did tell me of that" She said with a slight giggle "He told the servants to let you and your aunt sleep. They were supposed to take it easy on you for the first few days, get you used to the idea of being a servant. After all, you both have been through so much"
He could feel his heart sting slightly at Asuna's words. He felt like he didn't deserve his boss's generosity at all, and that he should have started working right from day one, but he also felt a magnificent gratitude towards the man, a gratitude that he would make sure to pay back one way or another.
"So, if you were wondering what you should do,"
Since Kazuto didn't speak up, Asuna took this as her que to keep speaking.
"maybe you could help me with the garden work"
This little piece of information struck Kazuto as a surprise. A young rich girl like her was doing manual work at home? He didn't want to judge a book by it's cover, but he had almost thought the family would have their servants do everything for them. It surprised him to an extent to know that Asuna had chores too.
"You do chores Miss?" he asked surprised, earning an earnest giggle from his boss's daughter.
"Of course, I can only be asked of that much" She said with a calm manner "I am but a human. I should learn to fend for myself in case we would lose all this one day, god forbid it"
That made a lot of sense to him. If the possibility of Asuna and her family ever losing the many millions they had in their position, Asuna would be forced to learn to fend for herself and for her family the same way that he had been, though he didn't wish that fate upon even his worst enemy.
"So, you want to come help me?" she asked with a smile as she stood from the table "My tea is done, so I was going to the garden now"
He had been eyeing her outfit for now, and he was for the first time greeted with something that didn't seem all that grand. It was a mint green summer dress, accompanied with a green garden apron and a thick set of gardening gloves, along with a huge summer hat to protect the wearer from the relentless sun above.
He nodded quietly at her invite and bowed in respect.
"Good. Go get your gardening clothes, and meet me in the foyer. I shall lead you to our garden"
He nodded and bowed again before running back up to his room to get the new clothes. When he came back he was dressed in a pretty decent set of clothes, nothing to brag about, but nothing too hideous either.
He was almost looking like what you would think of a stereotypical young farm boy, complete with a pair of thick jeans so they wouldn't get ripped, and a short sleeved green checkered shirt, with heavy boots. Not the heaviest hillbilly, and anyone from an outside perspective would have seen him as quite the handsome young man.
As soon as he stepped into the foyer, Asuna noticed him, and she lit up in a smile as she turned towards him gracefully.
"Good, you're ready" She said with a smile "We'll take a shortcut through the pantry. It's much quicker than to walk around the mansion"
"I would guess" Kazuto mumbled as he followed after her "This place is huge"
"You'll get used to it I swear" Asuna said with a smile "When we originally moved here from Kyoto, I thought I would need a map to keep track of the place as well"
"Maybe that wouldn't be such a bad idea" Kazuto mumbled as they approached the door to the pantry.
As they stepped in, Kazuto couldn't help but look around in awe. Even a room like this, which would normally be pretty small in comparison to other rooms in a home, was huge by his standards. It was easily the size of two master bedrooms by itself.
It was decorated in a pretty special way too, making it look like something from the early 1700. A lone black iron lanterin was standing on a shelf in each corner of the room, illuminating the room in a gentle and warm glow.
Each shelf was adorned with all different kinds of meat, sausage, and other pleasantries. Bread, jelly, marmalade and many other things was standing there as well, and in each drawer was different kinds of beans, for taste in soups or sauces, or many different coffee beans from all over the world. It seemed they mostly used this room for storage of breakfast utilities.
The walls consisted of brutedly formed rock formations and the room itself was sunk a little into the ground, which made it that mostly all year around, it would be cold enough in the room to keep the food fresh.
When Kazuto was finished gawking at the many delicious snacks adorned on the shelves, they continued through the halls until they reached a glass door which led out to a greenhouse which was directly connected to the backside of the main house.
Inside the greenhouse was row after row of fresh and lush-looking vegetables, of any kind you could think of. Peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, pumpkins, anything. Asuna told Kazuto that most of the time, the servants would take care of everything, but the greenhouse was something that Asuna and her mother had made their own weekend and free time project together, something between mother and daughter.
"Then my big brother and father can keep their video games" She said with another giggle.
"Hehe, sounds reasonable enough" He said with a smile as he followed her.
As they walked along a grasspath to the main garden, a thought occurred to him.
"Hey, Ms. Asuna?"
"Please, just call me Asuna"
"Right, A-Asuna" he stuttered a little "I just thought of something. Yesterday evening, I met this cute little black haired girl in the hall. She said she was your adoptive daughter, right?"
"Yes, that's right" Asuna said, her smile growing even wider from proudness "That's my daughter, Yui Yuuki. I took her home a few years ago after finding her in the street"
"Huh!? She lived in the street!?"
"Yes, unfortunately" Asuna's expression grew grim "I don't know what happened exactly. Only that she was walking around and calling for her parents when we found her walking through the streets one day for grocery shopping.
She had told us that her parents had told her to stay at the local park and play with the other local kids until they had tended to a more personal matter of their own. But when ten in the morning became noon, her parents had still not come back.
She began looking for them, but she never found them again. My guess is that she and her family is poor, and that they abandoned her because they couldn't afford any food for her as well"
Kazuto could see how Asuna's shoulders trembled in rage as the memory rushed back to her in her head.
"I just can't see what good it would do…" She hissed through her teeth "Didn't even have the guts to leave her at a children's care center, and go through a painful goodbye… Just left her there… Unwilling, so they didn't have to go through a tough situation… What kind of parents is that!?"
Kazuto looked at her in worry and discomfort, before putting a gentle hand on top of Asuna's shoulder to calm her down. It appeared to make her jump a little, and when she turned back around to face him she had an expression of surprise on her face.
"It's okay Asuna" He mumbled, even forgetting his normal formality to the woman in front of him "You're giving her the best life you can offer her. That's the best justice I can think of"
She looked at him with a hue of surprise hanging over her for a moment, before she took back her resolve and nodded with a gentle smile.
"Yeah, I guess" She mumbled appreciatively "Thank you Kazuto. It's nice to know you're doing the right thing every now and again"
As they talked they eventually reached the huge garden. Before Kazuto could even gawk at the sight of a rich family's garden, Asuna had already given him a digging spoon and a small bucket to carry the dirt.
"Now, here's what we have to do" She said with a confident tone "We need to plant, and replant, some of these garden flowers here. My mother likes order, so keep in mind that she'd like for them to be color ordered"
He nodded quietly at the, what he thought was an oddly specific detail to include, but he was only mildly surprised. Asuna's mother, in all due respect, had seemed to be a woman of control and order. She seemed to be the type to be harsh if anything was out of place, which was obvious in the way her and her husband's servants behaved, and how every little thing in the house was polished and placed to perfection.
He looked around at the flowery scene around him. He couldn't help but crack a smile as the sun's warm rays of light hit his neck, making him hum in satisfaction. Yesterday it had been so unbearably hot, almost making it possible to sizzle eggs off the street pavement. Today, the weather was just right. Warm, but with a gentle breeze from his left to cool him down when he worked to hard or too long.
He carefully dug the ground and placed each flower where he was instructed to by his young mistress. The flower bed seemed to mostly consist of white and red tulips, though a few purple lilacs and red roses was mixed in the far back as well.
When about half an hour had passed, and the sun in the sky had reached it's top point, Asuna could no longer withstand the baking warmth, even with her clothes protecting her from the sun's rays. She stood up and dusted off her garden apron of dirt, before looking down at Kazuto with a smile.
"Continue here for a moment, okay?" She asked, smiling "I'll go get us some tea, be right back"
He nodded quietly at the sweet gesture and followed Asuna with his eyes until she disappeared into the house and out of sight.
He couldn't help but smile. She was really beautiful, he just couldn't stop thinking about it. Every little movement of her was graceful, and every little detail seemed so well practiced. He kept trying to forget about her in that sort of way, but couldn't help but stare at her hips as they swayed in tact with her walking as she left him on his own.
He didn't know why he was so fascinated by her, besides her beauty. They had only known each other for a short while, but still, he found the girl intriguing. He often found himself wanting to learn more about her, to learn what was behind that graceful, almost ice-queen like outer shell of hers.
He almost completely forgot about the flowers he was supposed to plant because of his internal thought train, that when Asuna came back with a tea-set and a small tray of cookies and sweets, he had barely planted any new flowers at all since she left.
"Kazuto, what have you been doing while I was gone?" Asuna asked with a sly smile and a raised eyebrow "You haven't got any progress"
"Oh uhm, sorry Asuna, I was just…" He mumbled, a bit embarrassed that he had gotten caught in his own thoughts "I'm just thinking of a lot of stuff is all"
"I understand" Asuna said with a nod as she put the tea-set and sweets in the grass between them "Having come from such a hard background, I can see why your head would be filled with thoughts"
He nodded quietly, and bowed his head at her as to thank her for bringing all of this out for him.
"Let's not eat this in the grass" Asuna said with a smile "We could go to the terrace overlooking the garden instead. We'd be able to sit much more cozily as well"
Kazuto nodded and smiled at the idea, before standing up and brushing himself free of dirt.
When he reached down to pick up the tray of sweets for his mistress, partly as a form of thanks to her for bringing them out here, and partly for feeling like he had to be more like a servant towards her, their hands came in contact with one another for a split second. They glanced at each other for a short moment before letting go of each other's hands sharply, the first one blushing even brighter red then the other.
"U-Uhm, come on then" She mumbled, trying to fake her embarrassment "We'd have to hurry, or the tea would go cold"
"Somehow, I doubt that would be possible in this heat" Kazuto mumbled in a way to save the situation.
And with that, they headed towards the terrace, in a long awkward jock.
A/N
Hey guys! Thank you so much for reading this week's chapter!
Again, I can't believe how much support this thing is getting. Geezus 0-0
Also, I'm sorry that this chapter is a little shorter, but since I was sick until Thursday *Sigh* I'd have to shorten it down if I wanted to do it for the deadline. Hope you understand. This is also the reason that I will only be able to upload this chapter, and I will have to wait with After The Incident for a little while. I am so sorry for this, but I can't really do anything against sickness.
See you next week, and keep reading guys :)
