The Mansion's kitchen was huge as their house in Erots. In the center, there were five stoves made of stone circles, and there were coals underneath that serve as fuel. Everyone was busy. There were approximately ten people working.
"What do you want to eat, your highness?" Lo slightly raised her voice so that everyone can hear.
"I have something in mind, so prepare the ingredients for me, please." She had theater training in high school, which was why it's easy for her to assume a role.
Everyone moved and put all the ingredients she ordered.
"Princess, are you making bread?" Lo observed Isabel kneading the flour.
"No, but it's something that you will really like." She mimed Hash's wink to look cool.
After she perfected the consistency of the dough, she flattened and made it into a dumpling skin.
She had the servants minced a wild bore, then added the ingredients. It didn't take long for the dumpling to cook from the makeshift steamer.
"All right!" She yelled and claps her hands.
"Everyone stop working. Let's all have lunch together." Getting along with the employees was one excellent strategy to operate smoothly. She learned a lesson or two from the Art of War.
But everyone froze in their places.
"That's an order, come on!." She didn't know that it was never a custom of Novalia for the servants to eat with royalties. They could eat with anyone in the Kingdom except with the royal family.
"I'll punish you if you don't eat with me." The kitchen exploded with laughter. It confused Isabel and nobody explained to her that punishing a servant was illegal. There's a law that protected servants from violence and harassment.
"I'll fire everyone who won't eat with me." It stupefied the servers even more.
"I'll count from ten to one." She clapped her hand and yelled.
"One!" In a flash of a second, everyone was crowding the pots she made. One by one, they dug into the sumptuous steamed dumplings.
"Delicious, isn't it?" Everyone nodded. They genuinely enjoyed the dumplings. The lunch had obviously delighted Lo.
"Now, can anyone tell me what power do I have over the Master's concubines?" All the pork dumplings she stuffed in her mouth muffled her voice.
The servants stared at each other again like silently communicating.
"Well, since the estate needs governance, I guess the prince will assign them their official duties." Nala, the head servant, answered her coyly.
"Estate?" she probed, shifted her attention to Nala, which now looked nervous about the spotlight.
She summarized what Nala had explained. By estate, it meant that Hashim's properties were almost as wide as the whole province. Everyone around the estate paid their taxes and rent to him, except his own employee, which he granted lands and houses. It was so successful that the King wanted to implement the same for the entire kingdom. In other words, the prince was his own king in his estate, and he needed governance.
"Perfect!" A wide, evil grin spread across her face.
On the gate's tower of the capital's walls. Hash ground his teeth while looking at his binoculars. Beside him was his trusted ally, General Mason.
General Mason was good at profiling the enemies. Right now, he was ogling at his own binoculars.
The Byzen soldiers were marching towards the capital. From the general's educated guess, two rows of skilled archers in the front, both sides and at the back, while skilled swordsmen in the middle. But he also guessed that the skilled archers were also the weakest.
"How dare they!" He grunted, clenching his fist. He can easily blow them with one of his creations, but he doesn't want to use his ammunition for this useless attack. All he needed were distractions to separate their formation.
He remembered Isabel's firecrackers! Shit! He couldn't use a cell phone to contact her. He summoned one of his soldiers to get to Isabel's workshop, which was practically in the backyard.
Back at Hash's kitchen. There's some kind of relaxed atmosphere in the kitchen. Everyone was laughing and talking.
"What power has the first wife over the rest of the wives?" She asked nonchalantly. It's almost like she's not interested. But her mind was alert to whatever the kitchen servants' answer will be.
"If we will base it on Novalian's wealthy men's wives." Each one of them was comfortably answering her questions.
One of the errand boys said that first wives were head of the household. They manage the finances and will have the power to punish anyone in the family. This was the answer Isabel was waiting for.
"Awesome." She stuffed more dumplings in her mouth and gave the boy a thumbs up.
"Okay, here's the deal. I won't allow any of the prince's concubines inside the kitchen, without my permission, especially if Hash was home."
She ate too many dumplings that t made her voice gassy, but no servants complained about her demand.
"Great! Thank you so much! I enjoyed my lunch with you guys. Can someone bring some of these to the ladies?" This time, the servants' eyes widened.
They will serve leftover food to the other wives?
"Let's not make it a big deal, okay? We shouldn't waste food." She said, stood up, and left the kitchen to spy on what's happening in the entrance hall.
Lady Gwin's things were all piled up in the main hall, while Lady Mau's luggage and stuff don't have enough space to place in. Her exotic lamp was leaning on one of the piled-up luggage of Lady Gwin. She looks frustrated while the second wife was sitting pretty on one of the lounges eating the dumplings Isabel made.
And few more minutes, other wives crowded the receiving hall. Isabel has been living in a minimalist lifestyle for quite some time, and she hated clutter.
She stood on the highest platform in the house and called everyone's attention.
"Anyone! Take these clutters out of the house now." He smiled at the servants, who followed her orders.
"No! you can't put my things away. They're my dowry." As what Isabel has understood to a dowry, it's a gift from the wife's family. They also have that kind of tradition in Borres.
"Uhm, nice!" A living tradition! This is interesting, she thought.
"But it can't fit in the house, so it still has to go." She had the servant continued taking away the pieces of luggage.
"We can auction them so we can have profit." All wives protested.
That's the situation that Hash's men got into.
"Your majesty Prince Hash needs you to read this message." The soldier handed her a piece of paper. Lady Gwin's eyes narrowed, and nostrils enlarged, extremely jealous of the prince's attention to Isabel.
Hash wrote it in English. There's a strange thing about it, but she can't quite point out. It's on top of the already piled up stranger things.