After the signing of the contract Lili was given many congratulations by the people in the room and a big warm hug by the Queen herself, who then sent her off to go study. Apparently down in the lower ground section of the castle there was a teacher already waiting there for her arrival.
To Lili this just proved that she was clearly expected to sign the paper and nothing else. Did she even have a choice, she wondered? But education did sound good as there were many things that she lacked and so she did as was commanded.
With the old maid in the lead and Jack following behind. Then they went behind the wide staircase and entered a door which led to a circular room, with a long circular staircase going down.
Sadly the top section of the castle while nice didn't have any elevators and so they had to walk down a lot of stairs. The only other option was to go down the long winding pathway, but that was apparently just meant for carrying supplies and such.
While heading down the stairs Lili felt quite amazed to see the old maid carrying herself down them quite well, it seemed the old granny still had a good pair of strong legs on herself.
Then after some time they came upon a thick wooden door. There still seemed to be at least one round of stairs to be taken down, but the old maid decided to enter this wooden door.
Stepping through the doorway, Lili then came upon another hallway with a stone stairway on her right and right opposite of the stairway was another stairway and a similar looking hallway on top of it. Both stairways led to a stone platform that had stairs that led to a huge throne that stood upon a circular stage that had three stone steps leading up to it.
Then as they walked onwards down the hall she noticed many wooden doors going along the left side of the hall, and on the right past the stairway there was a long stone railing going all the way to the end of the hallway until it turned to the right. The railing itself was separated at regular intervals by massive stone columns. And all around there were maids cleaning the floors and dusting off the surfaces as a few guards patrolled around.
Walking a bit further along the hallway Lili then noticed that on the opposite side, past the railing on her right, there was a similar looking hallway. And down below It seemed that there was a huge throne room and these two hallways were like balconies that simply overlooked the huge throne room down below.
The throne room was vast with a beautiful red carpet going all the way from the end of the throne room where massive wooden double doors stood, to the stone steps leading to the platform where the mighty throne stood. Finally she took note of the stone lanterns that hung in between the massive stone columns bringing light into the throne room. And up above hanging from the arched stone ceiling of the throne room there were huge chandeliers hanging off of the ceiling by the support of many chains.
There in the throne room she also saw men dressed in fine, black leather clothes using a huge ladder to change and light up the chandelier candles. Looking at how high they were as they did this job, Lili couldn't help but get chills. The ladder was sturdy looking, but there was no safety equipment on them and so if they fell then that would most certainly cause a few broken bones. A truly dangerous job by the looks of it.
But other than that chilling sight, Lili was absolutely amazed by all that she saw here. This place truly felt like the image she had seen in so many movies and video games about fantasy medieval worlds. Finally she felt that she had found that what she had been so looking forward to for so long. While she was no mighty prince born to this place and in-line to become it's boss one day. And sure she most definitely wouldn't be going out to fight in wars to fight the kingdoms enemies and in it's glory or whatever. But at least she was finally here, and that in itself was good enough for her.
Then before she even knew it they had come to the end of the hallway to a crossroads with two halls. One short hall on the left that turned somewhere else and the hallway on the right that overlooked the throne room and also led to a similar crossroads.
But they went neither way, instead the old maid knocked on the door in front of them and waited. After a moment of waiting the door opened to the sight of an extremely old and grumpy looking grandma. Her back was arched, a finely crafted wooden cane was in her left hand supporting her seemingly shaky legs, she wore a beautiful deep blue and white coloured dress and despite her age her deep blue eyes still looked so mesmerising, unlike her curly gray and dead looking hair.
Then the old granny, with her grumpy voice said.
"Huh? What do you want?"
The old maid seemed a bit taken aback as she lowered her head and humbly said.
"Your Grace, your new pupil is here for her first lesson as you have requested."
The old granny raised an eyebrow at the maid as she then stepped aside and gestured for Lili to step forward and introduce herself.
Doing just this, Lili bravely came forward and confidentially said.
"I'm Lili, nice to meet you, Ma'am."
Immediately as she said this the old maid backed away a little, Lili felt nervous. The granny looked at Lili from the doorway intensely, clearly inspecting her from head to toe.
The silence of the moment felt a bit chilly, but Lili didn't falter and just stood her ground in front of this grumpy granny.
Then with her finger she gestured to Lili to come a bit closer. And so she did, but apparently not close enough as she was then gestured to come even closer and closer. Until she was right in front of the old granny that even with her arched back stood a head higher than Lili.
She grabbed a hold of Lilis chin, brought her face right in front of Lilis face and then turned her head side to side. Lili didn't resist this and stayed strong.
Then the granny pulled away and said.
"Good, but not good enough."
Suddenly Lili got a feeling of slight danger coming towards her head, but she didn't understand what it was and so she held strong.
Then she noticed the granny lifting her cane and with a light smack, she hit Lili upon her head. There was only a slight pain as the granny then said.
"Lower your chin and maintain eye contact."
She did as the granny said. then she was smacked lightly on her upper hip that was covered by the miniskirt. Lili flinched a little and bent her knee, as the granny then said.
"Keep your eyes open and on me. Hands on your side and use your fingers to lightly lift up that skirt."
Doing this Lili then got a light tap on her right knee as the granny commanded.
"Extend your right foot at least 10 centimetres behind the left. And then hold that pose and remember to smile."
At first Lili had felt a bit confused about what was going on, but now she felt that she finally understood, as she held the pose as commanded. A slight smile came to the old woman's face as she said.
"Very good. Now from this day onwards you may call me teacher as you will not have any other, as you will need no other. Although some do call me Duchess Linn Lionheart, although I'm technically duchess no more, as I did sadly give that position to that bitch. But anyway, you will only call me teacher. Do you understand that, girl."
Hearing the word duchess Lili couldn't help but feel a bit nervous as she said.
"Yes, teacher."
Luckily no hit came, meaning that she said the right words as her teacher then said.
"Good, now straighten your knees and slowly return to a standing position. And remember normally a curtsy like that is to be held only for a few seconds, any longer than that is a sign of weakness. And with that said, you have now learned your first lesson."
Hearing this Lili felt overjoyed at her accomplishment, as her teacher then stepped aside and invited her into the room for more lessons. To Lili this was a happy occasion, she couldn't wait to start learning more about this world and how it operated. With this knowledge she could hopefully get closer to being able to find away to free the enslaved girls.