Lira makes her ways toward the bed sheets hanging on the poles. From the sight of it it seems as though they've been out all morning. Just like her and the other heart servants this morning. Under the heat of the indescribably hot midsummer sun.
From a garden away she can already hear the voices of palace servants at the laundry. Voices of males and females. They seem to be - singing?
Multiple female voices began to sing, "Before the imperial family we bow~"
The male sang harmoniously, "We scrub the floors and the fields we plough~"
"To the endless skies we have been seek to do the laundry~"
"Even though we do hard chores, we all sing freely~"
Suddenly they all sang in unison, "Nothing can stop us to sing to our hearts content~"
"We sing with our voice to a hundred percent~"
They all whistled a catchy tune. In the meanwhile, Lira began to slither towards the laundry to get a better view of the people with amazing singing.
She envied them very much. Although when she was young her parents would always say she would get out of this poor village and become a famous singer. However, it seems she's not a singer that's travelled all of Divia. But rather a servant - a heart servant.
She hides within the shadows of the tall trees revolving around the edge of the laundry area.
"We sing, we laugh, we cheer~" They all wooed in unison
"We do what we love to do~" "We love to do~" They repeated the chorus a few more times before making a harmonical ending.
Abruptly they stopped their extension of the last note. None of them clapped but they remained neutral like nothing happened. As if they could sense her slowly emerging from the bush, they started working diligently. Some of the servants worked together to get the bamboo off its pillars to take down the sheets.
"That was wonderful," Lira chimed to the guy nearby.
"Thank you you're too kind...." He made eye contact with a beautiful girl with a sky night black gown. And a black rose in her hair. He was one of the fanning servants for the 4 men this morning. Among all the heart servants this morning, the one who gave him the most striking impression was the black rose.
"Miss," he seemed hesitant about how to address her, "Black rose."
Lira chuckles, "You can call me Lira."
"Hello Lira, I'm Haruto." He shyly blushes while continuing to fold the sheet he took down from the bamboo poles. He should've remembered her name from this morning, but.... You know when it's those moments that are the most crucial your mind decides to wander off. Great, indeed.
"I was sent by the 10th Prince here to do the laundry," Lira decides to continue with her tactic of staying neutral about it. Keeping calm at all times. As this sentence can be interpreted in different ways, such as that maybe she didn't get dismissed and rather she was just sent to do the laundry for him.
Haruto chimes cheerfully with joy seeing another cute girl join their team, "Welcome to the group Lira," he looks her up and down - what a fine body. That's built for doing hard chores. "But... Do you know how to sing?"
Lira rubs her neck, "Not really, I'm not as good as any of you." She states humbly.
"Well we'll see about that," he smirks like a wild fire.
Lira wanted to protest, but she hesitated the moment he caught the attention of everyone working in the laundry.
Haruto could see bright as day that she was lying about her skills, he understands that she's a humble person. He takes off her black rose off from her head, while calling everyone's attention, "Hey everyone, meet Lira a new member to the team." He stashes the black rose away in his pocket. He's a kind person and he wants to do something nice for this poor girl who was possibly dismissed by the 10th Prince. He didn't want to ruin her day anymore. Since nobody was at the selection this morning except for him, by taking off her black rose nobody would know who she really is. But his main intention is to keep the rose as memory of her.
Everyone chimes joyfully in unison, almost as singing is just their normal way of speech, "Hello Lira, welcome."
"Pleased to meet you all," Lira gives them a sensible bow, her body lowering to 90 degrees, "Please take care of me."
They all begin approaching and speaking a little too loudly, "Oh my she's so humble,"
"How cute."
"I think she's cuter than you Miki."
"What are you on about, Miki is our most beautiful one here,"
"Look at her black gown it must be expensive."
"Tell us about yourself Lira"
They all began crowding around Lira. They all seemed like exceptionally nice people, but I don't think they understand personal space. She was almost drowning in attention she could hardly breathe.
But just then, "Welcome our new girl~" somebody magically sung.