Tiffaney had never realized that there was a downsize to eating too much. In her life the opportunity to have enough to overeat simply never occurred. Extra helpings were something that orphanages could do occasionally, not for dirty children like her who didn't deserve to eat.
Noble child now simply stood in the hallway, her soul slowly leaving her body.
After her retreat, Maid 'Shax' had caught up to her, hoisted her over her head and sprinted back to the dining hall. Carried like a rug overhead the child couldn't tell what was happening before she was stuffed into a chair out of the way within the main seating area of the cafeteria.
Several people formed an assembly line to ferry food from the cafeteria out to the table. There, maid Jac slowly force feed her soup and bread, then a sweet clustered, salad, some cheesy flat bread, mixed vegetables, two fruits from unknown places, several cookies with a glass of milk and an after-dinner mint. After which some of the ones who had assisted in the delivery helped her stand and slowly guided the new noble whale out into the hallway.
"This soul refuses to stay any longer!" Holding a small sign, the soul wisps if the young noble continued to attempt to escape the insufferable feeling of being overstuffed.
Blankly the girl stared before slowly listing and lastly crashing into a comatose state. From her vantage point of the ground, she watched a large ax swing out of the celling in an arc along where she had been standing, unknowingly having tripped such a trap when she leaned into the wall.
"Careful there's an ax that is attached to the center wainscoting." Maid Mare had spotted the noble lady being stuffed like a turkey and laughed silently. It was rare that someone wasn't willing to eat within these walls.
"Are you still alive?" She asked the rounded form on the floor, as a slum rat herself the girl didn't know a single real noble but wondered if they all spent so much time on the ground.
"I didn't know how uncomfortable it was to overeat…" Slurring her words she attempted to focus on something other than the uncomfortable bloated feeling in her gut.
"I am a bit disappointed you didn't projectile vomit on maid Jac. She might take care of us like an older sister, but she is always skiving of work. She isn't that cute either!" Laughing softly to herself, maid Mare gave her honest assessment of the senior maid.
"Then what does a stick with a nose have to say about being cute?" From the ground, Tiffaney shivered as icy winds blew off the older maid.
"Got class! See ya, Tiff!" Maid Mare had been given the name apparently because she constantly sprinted away, like a galloping horse most of the time. Busy holding the stone tile down, the noble noted that this was the second time the maid called her Tiff, as well as the second time she ran off.
"Tsk, what a good for nothing. She is right though, class for the older servants starts soon. Why are you on the floor?"
Because you stuffed me like a goose to be turned into foie gras! Tears formed in her heart as the noble resolved to eat normally. Beatings hurt but this constant uncomfortable feeling that swayed back in forth, never out of mind, never ignored, roaring just enough to irritate but not enough to grant any relief.
"Well let's get you up, I don't know how much you will need these classes, but you will at least have to reach level three to stay here." Unlike anywhere else in the world, advance dedicated education of children did not exist on an institutional format.
"Level three?" Lady Oaken Staff had received bridal education as well as basic world education, but no one had thought to organize task, knowledge and skills into groups and levels tide to age and other developmental milestones.
"It's not that big of deal, basic reading, writing and math." For a moment the noble was stunned, that seemed too simple for someone who was mercilessly caned for failing to remember the name of every noble family, territory, rank, and faction.
"How many strikes do the instructors use for every incorrect response?" The noble asked after rising and starting the trek to the classroom section. Noble children received extensive instruction in a wide variety of topics almost directly tied to the management of a noble house or politics. Even if they were more an excuse to hit children who didn't belong to the main wife, only royal level academies existed, specific to military officers and administrators.
"Strikes?" Nodding the noble recalled that most education was limited to direct inheritance. Nobles restricted knowledge deliberately to retain generational power and dominance, backed by stewards who controlled the true resources of the planet.
"Normally they do half if your answer is incomplete, but some would just say the whole answer or the whole punishment." Maid Jac had a sinking feeling that she was not going to like it when the young child clarified what strikes were.
"Well if you have clearly defined levels, how many times they chastise you physically must also be the same." The noble felt this was better at least one could brace themselves for how many hits they would receive. Somehow the maid felt this would not be the last time she felt pain for the small child in front of her.
"Physical reprimands do not include hurting others, so zero is your answer." Even more shocked the noble child responded.
"Then how does anyone supposed to learn? All our lessons started with being forced to stand holding buckets of water for ten minutes."
Swearing to herself that the nobles first lesson was going to be playing with the young kids the maid was about to speak before she continued.
"We than had to bend and hold our arms out for five minutes, after which if it was history that morning, we each had to do ten spankings…" Looking into the distant as she recalled something occurred to her that she had not been able to voice before.
"I thought it was strange that the only the one teacher would do that but if we said anything to the other professors, we would have endured much worse he always said."
Jac was beside herself, some old dude had just died, even if the man in question wasn't aware that his death keel had sounded. Lady Dyne had few true bottom lines, but each of them ended in execution. Children were protected, to violate that was to enrage a family that answered to no laws within the empire. If the lady didn't the maid would, no one should harass cute innocent children in that manner.
"Well right now your first lessons will have to wait, so will your interview to figure out where your level is at. We have several kids that are too young to learn that will need to be taken care of and that will be your first job here." Maid Jac didn't tell her that it was actually an excuse to make this poor child experience some gentle joy from playing.
"Now than we are almost there but there's a pole trap along the left side. So, make sure you don't step on the cracks in the tile." The servant corridors and spaces had strong utilitarian but still clean floor tiling.
"Cracks in the tiles, like this one?" The noble asked as she looked at her foot, clearly placed across two tile grout lines.