As if the interviewers noticed her trouble," "Place any of your palms on the qi tester, young lady," she heard the butler's voice say to her.
It was funny how the matron had a strong and determined voice that sounded too thick for a woman, and the butler sounded too feminine a voice for a man.
However, Afina decided on placing her right palm on the tester, and thanks to the pictures of it in magazines she read back at home, she was able to understand the part where she would plummet her palm. It was the transparent glass-like part of the qi testing machine.
Her palm felt too aware of the qi tester as first as it heated below it until all of a sudden, her palm felt numb, and she could feel nothing at all.
At the end of the surge, which lasted for the best of a minute and a half probably, a beaming green light so brightening it shone all over the stage, swallowing the white lights that illuminated the interview parlor.
"Heavens! You are at the highest stage of your green qi level!" she heard the gasp of the butler behind her.
Too stunned to turn, not sure if she should turn at all, she remained frozen to the spot, her palm still settled upon the tester.
"Come, child, come," the matron motioned for her to turn and move closer to face them on the stage.
Abruptly and having to fight so hard to shake her shock away, she turned away from the tester and fixed her palms beside her. Then, she took some steps forward to face her interviewers.
It was then she saw the faces of the other girls who had gotten interviewed before her. They had a mixture of amazement and envy in their eyes.
Yes, if it were her too, she'd be amazed to see an ordinary girl with a green qi at its highest level. Just one more round of the nine stages of leveling up, and she'd be on the same qi color as the princes. An almost impossible abomination.
"Tell me, which of the conglomerate families are you from?" the butler asked her with so much interest.
Conglomerate? Her mother was but a resigned maid of the lowest level in the high house, while her father mined divine stones for cultivation chip manufacturing companies.
"I am not from a conglomerate family," she provided, already seeing her chances of getting employed get slimmer. She couldn't see quite well the keen facial expressions of the interviewer anymore. Her mind was but a chaotic ocean right now, roaring in shock and uncertainty.
The matron was the one who asked her the next question: "What family are you from then?"
Was that suspicion she heard in her voice?
"My mama, Xylia, was a maid in the high house. She had to resign to sell me her slot just so I can apply for the open post since I registered late," she managed to say.
She was being honest and straightforward, but was frankness what she needed to get this post? She knew not how to act otherwise though. Blame it on mama Xylia, who taught her only how to be truthful in this lie of a world they lived in.
If she could not see the expressions of the interviewers clearly before, she sure as hell saw the look of disgust that sparked across the matron's face. "Xylia? The one who works with the butchering section of the divine kitchen in the high house—the one who butchers the turkeys and chickens?"
"Yes," Afina affirmed abruptly.
Her mama Xylia brings home for them the sick turkeys that were considered polluted to be consumed in the high house often too. Those were about the best feast they have back at home. She particularly enjoys the laps. Already—she could taste the deliciousness of the very delicate skin of those turkeys on her tongue with just a single thought of it.
The matron went still. Oh, this post was not hers to be awarded for sure!
The indifferent feminine butler asked the next question. "How did you come about a green qi? One at its highest level too?"
That, she had no idea. Unsure of the right thing to say, "I cultivate on holy grounds for a shilling or two," she provided.
"Oh, please!" the matron grumbled.
All the girls sitting behind gave a burst of mocking laughter too.
She knew that such an amount of money was close to nothing, but it was the truth.
The butler, however, continued to address her. "Are you aware some holy grounds are fake? The owners just set up such settings to exploit illiterate lower class like yourself."
She had to gulp, a hard one at that.
Did the long-headed feminine butler just regard her as illiterate?
Illiterate?!
She was far from that. Mama Xylia and Father Atticus had done their best to make sure she attended the affordable Divine Schools up to a fairly high level.
"A teacher from a Divine School I once attended said the impact of any form of cultivation on our qi depends on our level of beliefs," she told the butler without mincing her words.
That corrected his misstatement of dubbing her illiterate and also answered his question.
The matron's voice came tackling her. "What does belief have to do with logic?" She rolled her large, well-fitted eyes.
Afina had no answer to that, so she maintained silence without a spoken word, her head hung high still.
She was not about to be intimidated by these two fussy Divine persons.
"You must have mastered your ability as a Sandline Clan. How much have Holy Grounds contributed to the mastering of your powers?" the butler continued to throw the questions at her.
Again, she gulped. This was the part where she was supposed to lie to buy her way in.
But...
If the High House was filled with people who were too judgmental and class-conscious, she wanted none of it.
So, she went with saying the truth. "I am from the Flameline lineage, but I have lived my whole life in the Sandline. However, I have done some self-training and also took a bit of a lesson from school. I can control my powers quite fairly well, yet," she said.
And again, the spectating girls took to laughing.
"I've had enough of this already!" the matron yelled in frustration.
The butler, nevertheless, still had the indifferent look on his face. "I hope you know that here in the Sandline, we do not discriminate between lines. I will ask the last question now to pave the way for the next person in the waiting line. Why have you decided to come work for our beloved Prince Cargan?"
"Because Mama Xylia wants me to. She sees a brighter future for me when I am protected by the four walls of the High House," said Afina.
Again, came the matron's disgusted remark. "Not for yourself? Because your mother sees it for you?"
"I don't know. It is she who has formerly worked in the High House. She will know better than me," Afina answered.
"Why is your hair still blue when you know the criteria for being here is having a brown hair color of any shade?" The matron was the one who asked her this time.
Afina unconsciously touched her hair. "Oh, my hair? The dye never stays. I have a natural blue hair color that does not allow for any dye I apply to it to change its color, no matter how many times I try."
This time, instead of laughter, gasps of astonishment were what she heard from the other girls.
"Thank you, young lady. Join the girls sitting behind us in one of the chairs," the butler told her dismissively.
She walked towards the other candidates in obedience. "Call the next one in," the butler clamored.
The brunette understood the assignment. After all, she had been doing it all day.
In accordance with the butler's order, the secretary who opened the door yelled the next number.
Following her yell arrived another lady who looked as timid as Afina was when she first entered.
The dominance of the sight was enough to humble anyone, but it got better as the interview prevailed.
Although she was sure employment in the High House was a no-no for her, not with the number of better candidates available.