The next morning, Rei woke up really early, she dressed herself up a little with one of the new clothes gifted by the King the day before and applied a thin layer of make-up. She stared at her own reflection in the mirror for a while with a thoughtful look for a short while and stood up with dedication. Then, she left the room with a cup of tea she prepared earlier.
***
Rei walked on the narrow hallway, the same path and the same time as the day before, except she was now followed by a group of palace maids instead of catching up with Satoshi's steps like the day before. After passing through the narrow hallway, Rei once again reached that tall and wide building where she met the King the day before, however, all the doors of the building are tightly closed.
"Hmm? The King is not in the meeting hall today? Well, Mr Satoshi does mention that it's a special meeting after all, I guess." She thought.
After a brief pondering, Rei turned her eyes to the other building on the opposite side. She noticed the second door from the left side is guarded by a whole group of palace guards, then, she remembered what the King told her the day before.
And so, she changed her path and walked towards the building on the opposite side. However, this sudden change of path from Rei was totally out of the palace maids' expectation, they were shocked and do not dare to proceed, while some even started whispering behind of her in the foreign language that Rei couldn't understand but none of them tried to stop her.
Although a bit confused and doubtful towards the weird behaviour of the maid, Rei chose to continue her steps and headed straight away to the building on the opposite side. As Rei approached the room she is heading to, she can clearly feel the hostile glare from the guards outside the room.
Rei carefully continues her steps as she tries to look as calm as she could to prevent any unnecessary misunderstandings. However, just when she was two meters away from the room, she was stopped by two palace guards that flashed their swords at her.
Rei was slightly startled by the sudden occurrence and stepped back a bit. She finally understood the reason behind the behaviour of the palace maids.
"Hey, you two, keep your swords in the sheath, it's just a weak defenceless girl." said a man who walked out from behind the other guard.
That man has a shady look and wears a different and more refined outfit than the other guards.
"Lady, I believe you are new here, but you are not allowed to enter this place without any special permission." said the shady man with the foreign tongue Rei couldn't understand.
Rei blanked out a bit trying to figure out what the shady man said, and she suddenly remembered that golden leaf Satoshi handed to her the night before. She sheepishly took out that small box and flashed the golden leaf to the shady man.
Upon seeing that golden leaf, the shady man was slightly in disbelief, with extra cautiousness, he carefully examined the golden leaf for a while. After confirming the validity of that golden leaf, he nodded and proceed to command the palace guards to open a path for Rei before bowed to her along with the other guards.
***
Rei carefully peeked into the room to see what was inside, and to her surprise, it was a quiet, clean and neat study room, that consisted of a working area, a lounge area and a pantry. She slowly walked in and saw the King in the room, he is currently working on some paperwork at a working desk near the right corner
On the working desk, a whole stack of documents and letters can be seen with some neatly arranged stationery on the right side of the table. Unlike the day before, the King was wearing a more casual outfit. Rei doesn't know whether it was just her imagination or what, but he looks less overpowering than the day before, or rather, he looks 'warmer' and 'brighter' in his casual outfit.
Noticing someone had entered the room, the King looked up in shock and was quite surprised to see Rei. Despite he was the one that asked her to stop by again anytime, he didn't expect her to actually come to see him again.
Rei bowed to the King without kneeling as she remembered what the King said the day before.
"Your Majesty, I had prepared some flower tea for you…"
"Just put it down over there."
The King interrupted Rei before she could finish her sentence. Rei nodded and put down that cup of flower tea on the left side of the table as the other side is occupied with stationeries and some overloaded documents.
Then, the King started staring at Rei without saying anything which caused Rei to be slightly uncomfortable.
"What is your name? Or rather, how should I address you?" The King asked, out of the blue.
"Eh?... Ah… My name is Shangguan Rei, Your Majesty." said Rei, a bit surprised by that sudden question from the King.
"Shangguan Rei, that's quite a nice name… So, you are from the infamous Shangguan clan in Qin Empire. But if I was not mistaken, the Shangguan clan is one of the noble clans in Qin Empire, right?" said the King which successfully alerted Rei.
"Yes, Your Majesty, the Shangguan clan is indeed one of the noble clans in Qin Empire that are directly in charge of military matters in Qin Empire. However, despite having the surname 'Shangguan', I don't really come from the Shangguan clan. I was from a rural family but got fostered by them in order to send me into Imperial City." said Rei, trying her best to explain herself as she has a feeling that the King is testing her.
With that answer, the King silenced and got into a deep thought.
Same with Rei.
"Despite the good, charming look, it is undeniable that he is the rumoured heartless, evil tyranny lord." That's what she thought at that moment
However, things are just slightly different from her expectation.
"Hmm… Miss Rei?... No, too formal… Rei-chan?... Uhm… Why does that make me sound like Maria?... How about Lady Rei?... Uh… Maybe not…"
"Heh?"