"Teach Banshees? Me?"
Zoe clutched her black dress, her face full of panic.
She was nothing more than an ordinary maid. The wildest fantasy she had ever entertained was being noticed by the young master and becoming his secret lover.
She had seen that plot in a novel she had secretly brought with her.
And now Theus was telling her that a group of terrifying-sounding nonhuman beings wanted her to teach them?
What could she possibly teach them? More likely, she would be served on the table—only to find a group of monsters sitting around it, drooling and holding knives and forks as they waited for her to climb onto a plate.
"Relax. They're all easy to get along with, and not just anyone gets to meet them. You only have the right to know about this after passing a background check... I mean, there's a confidentiality allowance."
The word allowance brought Zoe back to her senses somewhat. Her wages as a maid were not high, yet she loved reading knight novels. In this era, novels were an amusement only noble young ladies could afford. She had to save for a long time just to buy one.
In truth, more than half of her education had come from reading novels, though she had never told anyone that.
Teaching monsters was terrifying, but if she could save enough money to buy novels...
"What novels?"
"Eek!" Zoe stumbled back two steps. "I-I said that out loud?"
Theus's eye twitched. Could this maid really keep a secret?
"You're planning to save money to buy novels? Come to think of it, I never knew you had that hobby, Miss Zoe. You wouldn't want anyone to find out that you've been secretly reading novels, would you?"
Zoe backed away several more steps, her eyes filled