Melina was about to go in search of Berlin when she saw Ms Carlos scolding another servant who had tripped over the cart given to her, falling on the ground and causing her knee to bleed. Even though she was bleeding and in pain, that didn't hinder Ms Carlos from using the whip on her in the presence of the guests.
"Stand up, you clumsy child!" she shouted as she gave the young girl a second whip on her back. The girl didn't need anyone to tell her as she quickly stood up with her face flushed red out of embarrassment at the high-status people staring her way. She looked at her bleeding knee which she quickly covered with her dress before she looked at Ms Carlos and bowed her head deeply in apology.
"I'm sorry Ms Carlos." was all she could muster up the courage to say before she picked up her cart and disappeared to serve the other guests.
"I should never have brought these inexperienced maids here if not for the situation of things in the palace. Haha. Forgive me, please." Ms Carlos had pleaded with the curious guests as she slightly bowed to them for the misguided behaviour of the servants that had been placed under her care.
"Maybe you should have done better at training them instead of coming here to embarrass the royal family with such poorly trained maids, don't you think?" Lord Samuel, who was a Chieftain member now spoke in irritation while eyeing the head maid.
"True father. Look at the maids. They all look so malnourished and skinny. How will they work well if they are not fed well?" Lord Samuel's daughter, Brena commented while looking down at the head maid, who felt a sting of hurt at the two's words, making it seem to others as if she was incapable.
"They are maids Lady Brena, they shouldn't be fed to satisfaction else they would be too lazy and chubby to carry out the palace tasks. Not to forget that the palace has a lot of chores to be carried out," said Lord Nicholas' first son, Andre.
Andre was a handsome young man which most of the women of the high class doted on and loved to be around as he had such a charming aura around him. He found it easy to sway ladies of the high society but for some reason not Lady Brena as she always seemed to be disgusted whenever he spoke or gave his opinion, just like now.
"Isn't that a more reason for them to eat good food and be taken care of? They should be seen as treasures of the palace as everything is done and made possible by them. If the palace is so wary of them becoming too chubby to do anything, then it should get more servants to carry out the palace activities. It is as simple as that." she retorted.
"The male servants, yes, as they carry out the most amount of hard work in the palace but I disagree about having the maids do the same. They barely perform that much hard work in the palace and don't deserve to eat good f-" he didn't even finish his words because of the cold stare he felt Lady Brena pass at him.
'There we go again...' Lady Brena whispered in her head as she felt her blood boil at the nonsense he uttered and though she seemed to be the only one angered by his sentiment, she wasn't alone.
Melina was at the other end already serving food from the trays on the cart and noticed that like earlier, she had already started drawing attention to herself because of her red hair. Not wanting to end up like her fellow maid had, she lowered her head to only see the cart and let the people murmur whatever they wanted. She did not realize when she already raised her head to look at the commotion that was taking place and slowly began to get angry when she heard what Sir Andre had uttered. What did these people even take servants for? She wondered but hastily returned to minding her business when she noticed Ms Carlos look her way.
"Could we already stop discussing this topic about such lowly humans when we have bigger things to celebrate about?" Finally, Jordyn who was getting agitated at how Lady Brena was trying to support these low-life servants spoke.
"Absolutely. The rituals for the King's burial are over. I think it's time for us to have our refreshments without complaining." Lady Maya who was a wife to another Chieftain, Lord Zuko voiced out.
However, Jordyn didn't even care anymore. Tonight, she was much more interested in spending some quality time with her soon-to-be husband, she taught in her head as she looked over the other side of the large room and noticed Prince Leon sitting on a seat that was close to the throne where the King usually sat at events like this.
It was now empty and had a calabash tied with red clothes placed on top of the seat, which was the ritual done to appease the dead King. She looked away from the place as her focus was on wooing Leon at the moment.
Consciously straightening her hair, she gracefully walked over to where Leon sat.
Meanwhile, Prince Leon who was sitting close to the throne where he and his father usually sat scanned through the people as he spoke with his friend, Matthew.
"You remember our plan, don't you?"
"I do but at the moment I don't think it would go well with the amount of people present here. And I also refuse to believe the traitors would simply just come out like that when things seem pretty tied up around them" Matthew replied, not having a good feeling about this plan which was an attempt to bait the person who was responsible for killing the King.
"Them?" Leon turned to him with furrowed eyebrows.
A small chuckle left Matthew before he said "You don't think it's one person involved in our King's death, do you?"
"of course, I am aware of that. I know whoever it was had an accomplice who was most likely a servant but I find it hard to believe my father was killed with a team of murderers. It sounds... Eerie." Even Leon himself was surprised that his father had enemies as he had always known this man to be loved. And now that he thought of it, he felt like there was a great possibility his father's sickness was also not a mistake. Someone did something! He gritted his teeth in annoyance. He was about to speak again when he noticed a figure walking majestically towards him and even without seeing the face, he knew who it was.
Earlier, other people had come to greet him right after the rites and though he disliked the attention, he had acted up thinking that was all he would get until now that he had to deal with this lady again.
Matthew noticed the change in his demeanour and looked around to see who had irritated Leon before he caught sight of the one person he was the least excited to witness.
Looking around him, Matthew noticed Lady Alice standing by a long rail. .. all alone. Not wasting a moment as he saw Jordyn still approaching, he dashed off to the rails where the eye-catching lady stood.
"I can see my lady seems to be having a great celebration... " he paused and stared at the lady whose attention he had caught. "... Alone. " he then finished off.
Alice was not the type to speak much or socialize as she was more of a lone bird who never entertained much audience around her but that didn't stop her from being polite whenever someone tried to engage her.
"Hello Matthew" She smiled and gave a slight bow which Matthew returned. "I can see you're in a good mood tonight," she said and looked around her as if searching for someone.
"Of course, my lady, I'm always in a good mood even when things around me are not going smoothly" he playfully said to her with one side of his lips up, giving Alice a creep as the earlier smile she carried flattered. She wasn't used to speaking especially not with men except her brother and her betrothed, Lord Nicholas's third son, Sir Julian who she was always forced to have talk sections that never ended well.
Braising herself to speak, she said "I am very sure my brother will need you by his side you know... You should speak with him" she spoke as she nudged her head towards where her brother sat.
"Oh, I am sure he doesn't need my company at the moment as you can see. He needs some free time with the love of his life just like-" he didn't even get to finish his statement before someone interrupted. "As you can see, Lady Alice doesn't need your company..."
An annoyed Sir Julian came into view upon seeing this womanizer with his betrothed.
"You could do well to give her some space..." he uttered with an annoyed stare, pulling Alice behind him which only made the young girl cringe harder. This same person always annoyed her with his mere presence.
The smile on Matthew's face slowly dissolved looking at the person who was right in front of him with clenched jaws.
Sir Julian stepped forward and stared him in the eye before he said in a warning tone "You had better be careful around Alice. Just because Prince Leon has favoured you a lot and the king is no more doesn't give you the right to come near her the way you like because I will personally be the one to cut your head off your shoulder..." he glared at Matthew who only gave a slyly smile as if mocking him before saying
"I would love to see you try... " he replied, sparing a glance at Alice before dashing off in the opposite direction.