Under the order of the senior maid, several maids moved in perfect unison. Trisha was cold in her naked body, but she couldn't even hold her arms in her fierce eyes. She thought the necessary physical examination was over, but Trisha didn't know what to say.
"Where is Trisha Blanc?" The maid called her name from a distance.
The distance between them made it hard for Trisha to see if it was her turn already. She didn't exactly know what the rest of the maids were doing. Soon, her curiosity was settled when the maid poked her in the breast with a long stick in her hand.
"Ahhh!" Sound surprised, Trisha uttered a cry, but without regard to the maid, who wrote something in a piece of paper.
"Get off your hands." The stick wiped off her hand covering her womanhood.
"Why are you doing this ?" The maid ignored Trisha's question. Again, the stick struck Trisha's rebellious hands covering her intimate part, the red hairs came to light when the hands were removed. Soon, the maid turned to Trisha's back, stabbing her bottom and wrote something else again.
"Oh, this one has unique red hair."
Trisha could not hear them whispering among themselves.
"Now I'll check one more thing and finish it."
The maid stood before everyone. Another maid brought a chair and positioned it in front of a table. It was a delicate position if a naked person were to sit on it.
"Come here one by one and sit down. There, starting with the red hair." the chief maid commanded.
Trisha sat in the chair hesitatingly. The rigid wood against the bare skin of her bottom felt cool to the touch and strange.
"Put one foot on the desk as indicated." the maid continued.
"Yes?" Trisha replied, her eyes going wide.
Although there were two marks on the desk, it was a different thing altogether when they were to place their feet on it and unfold their legs for everyone to see.
"Hurry up, or do you want punishment instead?" commanded the maid.
"Oh, no…" Trisha, with her eyes closed to shame, stammered. She slowly sat up and placed both feet on the desk, exposing her tender flesh to the air.
A senior maid wearing gloves poked her folds without hesitation, a mechanical move with no grain of consideration.
"Ack!" Trisha exclaimed in pain.
The maid nodded as she opened her folds, checking the flesh inside.
"Pass. Next, come."
Trisha did not know what on earth had just passed. She was even bewildered on why she was picked from the new maids or for what exercise they were here for. Furthermore, what happened to those who passed?
The new maids gathered in this room were clueless as her, also having the same common background. But unbeknownst to them, there was a special purpose for maids selected in this room. The girls who had been undressed earlier were well aware of it. The rest, including Trisha, will soon find out.
***
Lucas took a sip of tea with a sour look on his face.
"Edwin."
Emerald pupils stared across the man in front. Sunlight was pouring through the window, Edwin's huge shadow covering Lucas from where he stood.
"Your Highness."
The twenty-year-old grand Duke was Lucas' first cousin, and was the only peer he had ever encountered since he was a child.
Despite their blood ties, their appearance was quite vast. If Lucas sported bright blond hair and emerald eyes which were a typical feature of the imperial family, Edwin had jet black hair, dark and as unfathomable as his bottomless orbs.
"How's everything?" Lucas asked.
"There's a lot of terrible ruckus." The Duke said as he sat on the chair opposite to Lucas who had a frown on his face.
To Lucas, the imperial palace was full of dull, boring things. It only brightened a little when festivities commenced, and especially now that the preparations for the national wedding had begun. He called Edwin out of frustration, but he couldn't find anything to do with him. They both have already grown up with different kinds of personalities.
"I envy you sometimes," Lucas said nonchalantly.
Edwin turned twenty this year. He was only three years older than the prince and was much smarter than Lucas at an early age, not changing even when they reached adulthood. Edwin showed off his strong physique as he grew, to add, he was tall and had remarkable physical ability. Lucas, by comparison, was more of a good-looking little boy.
"That can't be right." Even his voice was a pleasing bass on Edwin's side. His low voice screamed that of a man.
"How was it, the prince's bride to be?" Edwin asked the prince.
"Oh, it was quite interesting. She was very irreverent and arrogant." While saying so, there was no trace of anger on Lucas' face.
Only then did Edwin become curious about the rumored chosen candidate. Lucas, who gave such a confronting remark, had called it 'interesting'. Perhaps, he must have been pleased to find the rumors about Diana Carl's beauty were true.
"She was very beautiful, wasn't she?"
"Definitely." Lucas did not deny it, a very generous assessment given his arrogant nature and demanding tastes; in fact, Diana made a very strong impression on Lucas.
It was a very strange love, like a doll made by a face painter, and the hair curled under the sun was truly breathtaking.
As soon as Lucas saw Diana, he recalled the princess he saw in a fairy tale book as a child. Diana's blue eyes, which dared to defy him, were still clear in his reverie. He felt at that moment that he had become an ordinary seventeen-year-old, and not a crown prince, one of the exhilarating stimulus of a normal, everyday life.
"It wasn't boring at all." A strange smile came to Lucas' lips, recalling the impoliteness in Diana's attitude. It was the look of the boy looking forward to the new toy.
"You said she was arrogant?" Edwin asked curiously.
"That will be fixed upon entering the palace." Lucas answered confidently.
It was an authoritative remark peculiar to the royal family. Edwin nodded with a slight smile. He had become the grand duke after his father's early death, and thus, was thrust into maturity at short notice. He found it hard to sympathize with Lucas' immature mind that bordered on fixation for humans as if they were toys.
T/N: Our male lead finally makes an appearance. ♡