Unfortunately, no matter how much Sui searched for her blanket, it refused to appear.
The cold air surrounding her made sleeping impossible, and Sui was forced to wake up and look around for the blanket.
Tired brown eyes looked at Sui from an equally haggard face.
But the hostility in those eyes was very familiar to Sui.
"Asuka, did you take my blanket? Why would you do that? Give it back to me."
Sui demanded, and then she noticed the blanket in Asuka's arms. She tried to reach for it, but Asuka held it out of Sui's reach.
"Did serving the royalty make you believe you were also a noble? Wake up now! Our duty hours will start in five minutes. You should be thanking me for even waking you up on time."
Asuka sounded pissed, almost as if she did not want to wake Sui up.
The older girl had never liked Sui, even before they had been assigned as roommates.
From what Sui knew about Asuka, the older girl's hostility, emerged because of Sui's age and her experience.
Unlike Sui, Asuka was from a low-income family and had applied for the maid position as soon as possible due to the age limit.
Asuka had been selected as one of the youngest maids ever in the Imperial Palace, and she wanted to use her youthful face and charms to secure a high position.
However, her dreams of being the youngest maid ever had been shattered as soon as she had met Sui, who had been only 12 at that time.
It was not even legal for a 12-year-old to be an official maid because the minimum age to apply was 16. But who could say no to free labor (and Sui was almost a slave, so her consent did not matter)?
That made Asuka jealous of Sui.
"Huh? What time did you say it was? Holy Shit! How long did I sleep? Fuck! I am late for work."
Sui's mind went from zero to 100 in a few seconds as soon as she realized what Asuka said.
She quickly looked out to confirm the truth for herself, and just as Asuka had said, the first sun was rising in the sky.
'I-I overslept? How? I've never overslept before, no matter how tired I have been.'
"Oi! Whatever you are thinking about, you, you, you can wait for later. Shouldn't you be preparing for your duty today? There are only a few minutes left."
Asuka looked to be in a better mood now, and the smile on her face was massive as well.
But Sui had no time to think about Asuka and her happiness. She needed to prepare herself and meet the princess.
Sui was so hurried that she did not even notice what she was doing.
Her eyes flashed golden for a second, causing Asuka to pause. But then she decided it must be a trick of the light and quickly forgot about it.
Sui quickly dressed and wore a mask since she did not have time to wear make-up.
She will just have to ensure she does not expose any unnecessary skin.
Once her basic preparation was done, Sui grabbed a tiny pink bottle and dropped a few drops of its liquid in her eyes.
The golden hint faded away from her eyes and would remain like that for about a week before Sui had to do this again.
'I'm running low on the potion and my cosmetics as well. I must visit the town soon to procure more of them.'
Sui breathed a sigh of relief once she was ready and headed out.
She was half an hour late from her usual arrival time, and Sui felt scared of the punishment she would have to face.
There was a chance that the princess would not care about Sui being late, but the nanny would surely object to Sui's tardiness and try to find faults with her.
Moreover, Sui had a feeling that the nanny was looking for a way to get rid of her. Of course, the nanny would nitpick her actions.
The guards had changed from last night and this bunch looked much more friendly than before.
"Hello miss! Are you here to report for duty? You can head straight to the princess's quarters."
The guard quickly gave Sui her instructions, but he seemed chill about it. Sui also did not notice any malice or glee in his expression which meant that the guard was not trying to get her into trouble.
The maids were running around in the princess's castle even at this early hour to prepare for the day, but most of them looked lazy.
The whole palace looked a little lazily maintained during the morning hours.
Sui wandered around for a little while before she realized an extremely important fact - she did not know where the princess lived in this huge building.
The maids pretended they did not see Sui as they moved around her and Sui had never felt this alienated before.
They must have noticed that Sui was lost by now, but the maids still chose to keep their distance.
The nanny must have instructed the maids to ignore Sui if she needed help, and Sui was split between asking for help and not asking for help.
In the end, Sui gathered her spirit and called out to a shy maid.
"Excuse me! Do you know where the princess's quarters are?"
Sui asked the maid, but the shy girl looked startled by Sui's sudden attention and dropped the clothes she was carrying.
'I-I…uhm…that is…I don't…"
The poor girl was shaking at Sui's question and it made a lot of other maids stop and look at Sui with a glare.
Sui knew that the maids that worked in the same palace had a strong network that supported each other and the other maids were quick to come to the shy maid's help.
"I apologize, Miss Guard. This child is new here and does not know much about this palace. Cam you overlook her mistake once? We shall be grateful for your understanding."
The elder maid quickly helped the younger maid out of trouble and Sui was left standing in the hallway.