Forielle led a happy life before everything changed.

She was born into a noble family, and even though her father held only the office of count....

He was still honored with the dignified position of a minister of the royal court for his steadfast contributions to the development and continued progress of the kingdom.

Her father taught Florielle all that she knows, and was the kindest person she had ever met.

He impressed upon her and the rest of her siblings the need to always be as kind as possible to everyone, and as a daughter who takes after her father, she came to live this way naturally.

Florielle has two elder sisters, both of whom were just as kind to her as her father and even more protective.

Life was good with her small noble family andher close nit group of noble girlfriends.

She would mostly spend her time being tutored at home, like all other noble children, and chatting with her friends about what it would be like when they finally awaken after turning eighteen.

Eighteen was the safest age to awaken without complications for all denizens of the world of Arleria.

After which, the individual is meant to follow a path suited to their awakened abilities.

But on the eve of Florielle’s awakening, something tragic occurred.

Soldiers broke into their modest estate, and at the lead were a few veiled figures.

It all happened so fast, and before Florielle had time to process exactly what was going on, she had been deprived of her consciousness.

She woke up to find herself, as well as her mother and sisters, being held inside the most vile confinement space she could ever imagine, and they had also been stripped of their noble wears and possessions; they were only wearing rags.

Soon, they were all thoroughly interrogated on suspicion of treason by association, and their stated crime was that the head of the Seablooms had been in collusion with demonic factions.

A demon sympathizer. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Florielle, as well as her mother and siblings, were shocked beyond words by this ludicrous situation.

Yet not once did any of them believe their father and husband had actually done anything like that.

Her father was always happy, and she could recall that it was only after every royal court’s summons that that happiness seemed to be dulled a little.... But it always picks back up after a while with his family.

A man who showers his family with so much love and instills noble virtues in all his daughters would never collude with demons.

Floriells could still remember the last time she saw her father. It was just after the usual court summons, but this time, he appeared particularly disturbed, quite different from the usual.

She regrets that her last image of him was one where he looked so defeated.

Florielle, her mother, and sisters all pleaded the innocence of the man they all loved from their confinement...

But no matter how hard they tried to make the rest of the world see just how amazing the man they knew was, no one gave their words any credibility....

since apparently, there was even evidence of her father’s crime found at their home.

And soon, news came to them from their imprisoned cages that the head of their household had been publicly executed.

This broke their mother completely to the extent that she stopped talking entirely.

That night marked the end of their family, and the end of Florielle Seabloom’s happy life.

They spent a few extra months in captivity, but for some unknown reason, they weren’t executed like their father....

And soon, Florielle watched helplessly as her sisters were moved out of confinement one after the other and sent to different high noble houses to serve in different capacities.

Her mother was the last to be relocated, leaving just Florielle imprisoned underground.

She expected she too would be sent out somewhere, but instead, she discovered that they’ve been underground in the royal palace the entire time when the head maid of the palace came for her herself.

That was how Florielle’s new life as a maidservant began.

Even though she’s no longer allowed to legally answer to the name Seabloom, the supposed sins of her father were all that anyone saw when they looked at her.

Being marked as someone who has connections with demons would, of course, invite the hatred of everyone around....

Because with every ten humans gathered, demons must have caused hurt to one of them, whether directly or indirectly.

Florielle’s days were filled with spite and ridicule from both her fellow maidservants and every other staff member of the palace alike.

All of this, Florielle had learned to endure, and just like her father had taught her, she let the pain last only a night before letting it go in the morning. Like that, three years quickly flew by.

Florielle had gotten into the rhythm of bottling up this hurt, forgiving those who caused it, and moving on day by day. This was her life now, and the hurt was part of it.

At least, she thought it was.

Until she met him, that is.

One of the highly esteemed figures chosen by the goddess with status equal to high nobles.

She had expected a lot of hardships after being assigned a personal maidservant to one of these heroes, but all of her expectations had been wrong.

On the very first day she met her lord, he had asked her name.

Florielle had almost forgotten her name by this point. Only the moniker of a treasonist daughter, or simply maid for those too tired to curse her out that day, had been her new identity.

There was also the way her lord looked at her, like he could see through all the hurt she had buried deep inside, even though she appeared outwardly fine.

He was kind, gentle, and most importantly, he treated her like a person, like he really saw her, and considering their difference in station, that just tells her what type of person he is.

Florielle found herself slowly growing fond of everything he did.

The nice things, the scary things, and the naughty things alike.

She found herself making every excuse to maintain some form of contact with this person. She found such solace in his warmth that she could hardly explain what it was.

His every touch and action had at some point become part of the reason she gets up and runs over to his cabin every single morning.

The ridicule and hurt from those around her were becoming progressively overshadowed by the joy she feels whenever she’s around her lord. But she still did not know what any of this meant.....

However.....

All that changed on the day she saw her lord with that young lady.