Yasmin and Isabelle were given a tour around the mansion as ordered by the marquess after he excused himself to enter his office, where his right hand man waited to give a report. A young looking man stood by a desk and chair in front of a large window, the afternoon sunlight shone through and reflected off his dark brown hair. The man was currently organising some stocks of paper but paused his actions once he heard the door open and close again. Chestnut brown eyes met dark cold ones, the man stood a little straighter and placed his hands behind his back while bowing his head in respect.
"Welcome back, sir."
The marquees walked further into his office and sat behind his desk, his shoulders slouched as he let out a long sigh, "Drop the formalities, we both know it doesn't suit you."
The man grinned widely before leaning his hip against the desk, "But my dear master," he began, his voice playful with a hint of mischief, "It would be disrespectful of me to address my boss in a casual manner– oh, what would the king say? Surely he would be furious to hear me addressing his favourite nephew without respect."
"Are you finished?"
"Not yet"
"Nicolie"
"Alright I'm finished," the man, Nicolie, relented with his hands raised in surrender, "You are no fun Marcel. "
"So I've been told," Marcellus got up and took off his cloak, "Any reports?"
"Yes," Nicolie straightened as he began to give his reports "Not much happened in your absence that I wasn't able to handle myself, lord Javier had sent a request to stop by and I responded by letting him know you were out on business for the time being and you'd respond personally once you've returned. The new soldiers have adapted quite well to the training and battle strategies, and the servants have been doing their tasks accordingly with little to no mishaps. The self defence training has been going well also, and finally you have received a message from the king…"
Marcellus, who had his back turned, straightened once he heard the last report. "What did he say?"
"He said to come see him at the palace once you've returned, it… sounded urgent."
"...understand, I'll leave at once." Marcellus grabbed back his cloak and started towards the door.
"You've just returned sir," Nicolie blocked his path, "Please consider getting some rest first."
Marcellus looked at Nicoli before letting out a sigh, his friend and most trusted subordinate was always looking out for him. He honestly wouldn't have made it this far without him.
"Alright," he relented, "I'll head out first thing tomorrow."
Nicoli smiled then patted his shoulder, "Good choice– oh– by the way, you've brought more servants?"
"Hm."
"I thought you said you wouldn't buy anymore slaves?"
"I did."
"...then why did you?"
"The king."
Nicolie's mouth twitched, "Can you stop giving me these short answers and answer me properly!"
"Okay."
"..."
The marquess could feel his friend's annoyance rising and decided to finally answer him straight, "The king keeps complaining about how I don't have enough servants and always tries to send me more. You know I don't like when the house is too crowded so I picked up those two to settle things."
Nicolie hummed in thought, "How do two more servants stop the king from complaining? Isn't the number still small?"
"It adds up to 64."
"Huh?"
"When I was younger the king gave me a box with the number 64 engraved on it. He told me that it symbolises positivity, success, prosperity, good luck, and progress. I remember his exact words were "you should put your heart into the efforts to accomplish your future goals and work diligently." From then on I've always treated the number like some sort of good luck charm."
Nicolie nodded his head in understanding, "I see, so if you add up the number of servants to 64, it will seem like you're doing it in order to remember that special gift from which his majesty bestowed upon you in your childhood…. very cunning of you sir."
Marcellus only hummed in response before walking back over to his desk where he started to go through some paperwork. Nicolie could only sigh at his workaholic friend before patting his head and leaving his office to resume his own work.
At the same time, two girls were being given a tour around the mansion. The head servant I-da, had introduced herself to them outside and was now showing them around the mansion while talking and explaining everything with animated expressions and voice. Yasmin watched her with an amused little quirk of her lips, it was fascinating to see a character that she created and designed come to life yet again before her eyes. She still couldn't fully believe it, was she really in her book?
"As you can see the house is quite big, so you need not worry yourself about remembering every place at once but, you must remember where the kitchen and servants quarters are, speaking of kitchen– are you girls hungry? You must be, after that long journey. I remember when I first came here, I was absolutely famished! I ate three whole plates of food. Three! Can you believe it– and I'm rambling…." I-da let out an awkward laugh while brushing out imaginary wrinkles from her tunic. "Sorry about that, I'm easily distracted… not always though! J-just… sometimes…"
Yasmin laughed softly, even the shy Isabelle couldn't help but give a little smile at the awkward head servant.
I-da gave a little cough, "Ah em ... .yes, so let's proceed."
"Each servant here has been given a specific role to adhere to and currently all posts have been filled. Though it is rude to question my master," I-da paused briefly to glance at the two girls, "You aren't really needed here."
Of Course Yasmin already knew this. In the original plot Marcellus had only bought more slaves in order to please the king. At that time he had only bought Isabelle and picked up a young boy on the way home but, because of her arrival she filled the boys gap instead, and since the carriage had stopped more times than it had in the original, Marcellus had missed the opportunity of meeting the young boy.
'Now that I'm thinking about it, it is quite strange…'
"I'm sure master Williams has his reasons," I-da continued, "Master Williams is a great man. He doesn't treat us lowly slaves as such and instead consider us as normal human beings, he may look quite intimidating but he's far from it. You know, as a slave you have to be branded by your master to show who you belong to. It's a process that all slaves dread, yet he didn't do it, he gave us all pendants instead- it was truly a surprise but, it was also where our loyalty for him started."
Yasmin felt strange, she knew about everything that the head servant said– of course she did– she was the one who wrote it. Yet, she felt this weird feeling inside when she heard how I-da spoke. It was a feeling she couldn't describe.
I-da continued playing barbie tour guide right up to dinner time, the girls still hadn't seen all of the mansion. The marquess mansion was quite large in size and consisted of other buildings other than the main house. Though, we can't only blame the size of the mansion, rather it was the overly excited and easily distracted barbie tour guide that prolonged the tour. It was like an episode of 'Dora The Explorer', I-da would explain about every single thing in sight even when the answer was obvious. The barbie tour guide/Dora The Explorer a.k.a I-da ended the tour once she realised it was getting late and the girls probably hadn't eaten yet. It was about time for dinner anyways so she took both girls to clean up before taking them to dinner.
"I'm sorry," I-da apologised for the fourth time, "I really didn't notice it had gotten this late, you must have been starving…"
"It's fine. It's fine, no need to keep apologising." Yasmin felt like she'd snap if she heard one more 'I'm sorry'. It was a phrase she hated with a deep passion. Besides Yasmin didn't mind the prolonged tour, she too was excited to see her thoughts and creativity laid out in front of her.
I-da smiled before pointing towards the wall, "Behind those doors is the female servants bathhouse, you're free to use whatever you like to clean up. I'll return with clean clothing while you wash up."
Yasmin watched the retrieving back of the head servant before turning to face Isabelle who had been quiet this whole time.
"Even ninjas make more noise than you…"
"Hm?" Isabelle made a confused sound.
"Nothing, let's clean up."
"En."
A bath can really do wonders. It was like magic, you go in dirty and come out clean. Like some sort of new birth or something. It was this case for Isabelle, it's like she became a different person. Though the bruises still remain, her skin was rid of all the dirt and grime and, milky soft skin came to light. Her hair looked brighter, soft blonde strands devoid of there previous knots and rested over her shoulder in a damp loose braid
'Wow! She really went from 10 to 100 real quick'
Unlike Yasmin who had to fight for her life to detangle her lion's mane of hair. It was really difficult too with none of the usual equipment she'd normally use. Even now her hair wasn't fully detangled so she could only put it in a high bun, the main go to hairstyle for all curly haired individuals.
They were currently in the servants' lunch room waiting for I-da to bring them dinner. Many servants stared at them with confusion, if this were a comic book they'd probably have question marks floating above their heads. After cleaning up earlier, I-da had returned with fresh clothes as promised and led them straight to the lunch room where all the servants gathered for dinner. The room resembled that of a prestigious high school cafeteria. Everyone sat around long dark wood tables and lamps generated by magic crystals hung on the walls and the ceilings. Gentle chatter filled the air along with the occasional scraping of utensils and shuffling of busy bodies moving around. Yasmin could feel the eyes of many servants staring at their table but she ignored it and played with a loose curl at the back of her head.
"I hope I didn't take too long."
Both girls looked up to see I-da placing a tray of food on the table, beside her, another girl stood holding her own tray.
"Hello, I'm Nitta."
"Hello Nitta, I'm Yasmin and this is Isabelle."
"Hello…" Isabelle said softly.
Nitta smiled before taking a seat, "It's nice to see some new faces around, it's been so long since the master has brought back anyone from… that place." Nitta voice dropped as she end her sentence, "It's honestly a surprise itself that he actually brought back more people, he's very conservative about his space–"
"He probably did it because of the king." A new voice chipped in suddenly and all members of the table turned to look at the newcomer. A young man with dirty blonde hair stood near their table with a tray in his hand, "Mind if I join?" He asked, yet went and took a seat without waiting for an answer.
"Franky!" I-da exclaimed, slapping the young man's arm. "Don't just mention the king like that– and where are your manners?"
"Dead, just like my mother."
"Franklin!"
"Pfff," Nitta covered her mouth to prevent food from falling out, "Sorry sorry, didn't mean to laugh."
Yasmin and Isabelle exchanged glances before looking back at the three.
"Sorry about those two," I-da said with an apologetic smile. "Oh right, you guys should start eating. I hope you like beef stew."
I-da took off two plates from her tray and passed them over to Yasmin and Isabelle. Isabelle accepted the plate with a 'thank you', while Yasmin stared down at it with abhor.
'Right… this again.'