Sentenced into an unknown amount of time in house arrest within her own workplace, Lili knew not what to do now. She understood the reason for her sentence and was willing to serve the time, but honestly it just sounded so boring.
Or well at least her day had been quite boring and depressing thus far. Laying flat on her belly on the carpet next to her bed Lili played with her hair as she let out a miserable sigh and thought back on her day so far.
Yesterday with the excuse of collecting stones, Jack had brought her many stones which she used to create the usual twenty light stones. After which she had given them to Jack and quickly fallen asleep.
And like usual she woke up the next day, ate her breakfast remembering to leave a good portion of it to mother, after which she had felt really lost. What was she to do now other than create some more light stones.
Thinking of this she had immediately went back to doing what she usually did, exercising. While exercising in her room, she sadly found out that this was not fun. She wasn't able to exercise properly because of her broken hand, and so she only managed to train her lower half which got boring after a while.
With sweat on her face and her but feeling pumped the mades had suddenly come in. And so she was basically forced into the bath where she got her daily washing, after which the maids dressed her up in her maid outfit. Which seemed quite unnecessary since she couldn't really see anyone except Jack and no-one was coming to see her.
But oh well, at least she was looking quite cute, minus the missing teeth and bandages. With nothing to do she then tried playing the Lute. But sadly this too she couldn't do properly because of her broken hand.
Sure she did think of just healing herself, but no. That would just be too suspicious, she needed to play the wounded waiting game for now.
And like that she now found herself miserably laying there on the floor, feeling sad and depressed not knowing what to do. But despite this all life wasn't really all that bad, she felt really grateful for all that she had now in this nice room which was much more than she surely deserved.
Or well this was what she wanted to be thinking like, but she just couldn't help herself, she wanted to do something. This was boring, she was a young energetic girl. She needed to do something, but what.
Laying there in the silence of her room, with only her own thoughts as company, she did wonder if and when she was going to be paid her first salary? Was she being paid by the hour? Well probably not, but well there had to have been some bonuses involved in this job, right. Well whatever the case she needed some money and soon to save the others. Hmm, maybe Jack had the answers to this. Surely he would know of any bonuses and her salary overall, after all he had been working here for a while, right.
Excited at the thought Lili got up and ran to her door. Knocking on it excitedly, Jack soon opened it and stood there in confusion as she asked about this, to which he merely said.
"I'm sorry Miss that I do not know. You should ask the Queen that yourself or just read the contract you signed. You red it right? Usually it says it there quite clearly."
Taken aback by Jack's words and seeing the two other guards looking at her questioningly Lili felt pressured. Brushing away some of her loose hair Lili played it cool and said.
"Yeah, of course I looked over it, I'm not an idiot. I was just curious if you knew anything about it, like is my pay maybe better than yours? You know just as a comparison."
Hearing her words Jack seemed to be about to burst out into laughter. Wait what, did I say something funny? What's wrong with this guy, is he making fun of me?
The two other guards also looked at each other in quiet amusement as Jack answered Lili by laughing slightly in her face as he said.
"Hahaha, now that would be a sight to see. I might not know how much you earn but I'm quite sure it's nothing close to our pay. I mean just imagine a small girl actually earning more than a man, and a knight of all things. No offence Miss Lili but no ordinary woman in this country at least is able to earn anything over two gold coins a month. Maybe one of the high-class wenches in the brothel might be able to get that during a good month, but I doubt that. Especially with the war going on and everything else. Although it would be quite something, if you living here in the royal castle with all your needs already met actually were earning more than any of us, hahaha. Of course I mean no offence Miss, just stating the obvious as all."
Hearing Jacks words Lili felt her little heart light up in rage. What he just said sounded like, well like really offensive. Why couldn't she as a girl earn more than some knight or a guard, royal guard or not.
Wait wasn't two gold coins like a really small amount, like minimal wage almost? In modern terms that's like two thousand dollars a month, thats bull shit. What type of an economical situation was this country in for women to be earning so little. Wait why was he talking of women as being lesser, why couldn't women earn as much as men?
Gritting her teeth in anger Lili pointed at Jack and spit words at his claims in a challenge.
"Hey that's rude, you shouldn't speak of women like that. We can earn just as much as you and do whatever you can do too."
Hearing this Jack raised an eyebrow and then suddenly burst into laughter as did the other two guards.
Lili could just feel her face turning red in rage at these guys words. What was wrong with these people, she was being serious. This wasn't a joke. In anger She raised her squeakish voice at the three and said.
"Wa WA, what's so funny? I'm being serious you know. Girls can be knights too."
Saying this the laughter quieted down a little as Jack took one of the guards halberds and put it upright in front of Lili and said.
"As boys less than ten years of age we all were made to train with these while carrying weights. So it shouldn't be a problem for you to lift this with one hand right. After all girls can train to be royal guards as well, right, hehehe?"
Looking Jack holding the huge halberd off the ground Lili couldn't help but feel a bit nervous. The thing was huge, like almost twice as tall as she was and so shiny and heavy looking.
Was he seriously expecting her to hold that massive thing in the air, with one hand, and without letting it touch the ground or something. The thing must have weighed like almost as much as she did a few years ago when she didn't have her assets that added a lot of weight. Although that wasn't much since she wasn't even 120 centimetres tall and last she recalled she weighed like 24 kiligrams, but in her weight range this thing was like impossible for her to lift.
For a moment she looked upon it and hesitated, then she looked to the three smirking assholes. Ooh how she wanted to prove them wrong, she was no weak girl, she was a strong girl and she was going to prove it.
With a mad frown Lili snatched a hold of the halberd with her right hand, grabbing a tight hold right under where Jack was holding the thing. Like so, her right arm was aimed upwards, hopefully giving her some time to resist the coming weight and not to let it hit the ground.
Then without a word Jack released his grip and the weight came. To her small self, it felt like a huge barbell with weights was within her hand and then it wasn't.
With a small tud sound, the halberd fell immediately to the ground. She still managed to keep it upright, but it was no use the assholes had already broken into loud laughter.
Despite this she didn't give up and gripped the halberd with all her might. Sure she couldn't hold it in the air, but she could at least lift it.
Lili bent her self backwards slightly, trying to get some leverage from her legs for the lift. The halberd wobbled, it's top felt heavy making it hard to keep it stable.
She gritted her teeth, her face turned red and she lifted, but no she didn't. Damn, what the fuck? Was what came Lilis mind as she looked upon the heavy halberd.
Then like snatching a stick from a kid, Jack took the halberd with ease from Lilis hand and gave it back to the guard.
Seeing this Lili couldn't help but feel amazed as she spoke out loud and said.
"What? No way, howd you move it like that?"
Laughing at her astonishment Jack merely flexed her biceps and said.
"I'm a man."
And like the bullet that fucked up her legs in her past life, Lili felt Jack's words fuck up her little heart. Unsure, humiliated, but most of all offended by this. Lilis face heated up in a shameful rage as she used her working left hand to point at Jack as she yelled out some words to counter his.
"Mmh, well so what! I'm a girl and your not!"
To these words only laughter of the men followed. They seemed to take this all as a mere joke, but she didn't see it like so. Grabbing the door handle Lili pulled on it and shut the door quickly with a hard bang right in front of their faces.
Aaaaaahhhhhhh, why the hell did I say that? Damn it damnit damnit, so stupid. Lili thought as she ran to her bed and in shame climbed under it's covers.
Hiding in her bed in shame Lili felt mad towards Jack. Argh, why were those guys such jerks towards her? Didn't they know that calling girls weak and basically unqualified for certain jobs was sexists? But then again these were backwards medieval people so she couldn't really blame them for not knowing any better. Now she'd just have to show them that they were wrong, hmm, somehow, but how?
Thinking of it Lili really had no clue how she was going to show that. That halberd must have been like 10 kilogrammes at least. That was basically like almost half her body weight and not only that, but it was huge. Lifting such a thing with just one hand just wasn't doable for her, well at least not now. So to show those guys that she was no weakling she would just have to wait for herself to grow taller and stronger.
Pumping her little fist under the blankets into the air Lili felt relieved again, she felt like a winner thanks to her own thoughts.
Wait what was that talk about her probably earning a minimal wage or basically nothing. Was she just working here for the benefits of having free food and a roof over her head, surely not, right. Well who cares, it's not like that sexist jerk knows anything. How dare he call women's highest paying job here being a successful prostitute, surely not. Surely there were common women in this world with private businesses, a,k,a, women CEOs and women of law and such. Or well it was the medieval ages so maybe not, but just because it hadn't been done here didn't mean that it couldn't be done, right. Maybe she could do that and show that all these women dissing men were wrong.
Feeling excited at the mere thought of this all Lili couldn't help but start squealing in excitement at all the possibilities here as she started rolling around in her bed.
For a while this went on, her mind went wild with imagination, until she finally stopped and thought. Oh, but how would I do any of that?
Sticking her head out of her blankets she looked for an answer to this. Music, fitness, food, what type of an business or trick could she maybe use to do these things. Maybe her healing magic, no, that sounded dangerous. She didn't want to die in a blaze of glory again. Because witches and the church and such.
With this in mind her gaze then landed on books, yes books. Every entrepreneur and wise dude began their journey with books, right? Well except for social media influencers, but well that didn't really count here.
Pushing away the blankets, hopping out of bed, Lili quickly made her way to the bookshelf. Sure she sucked at reading this strange English and she hadn't done it at all in her past, but she was surely going to try.
Beginning from the bottom left row, she concentrated and focused on the title of the first book. It wasn't easy, but with some effort she realised the books title to be The Art of Sharpening Ones Tools.
Seeing the title Lili couldn't help but say jokingly out loud words that she shouldn't have, but couldn't resist saying. "Oh Prince you dirty, dirty man. What have you been reading?"
Her mind went wild with naughty thoughts of the Prince sharpening things and tools that she shouldn't have. And so with great interests she started to look into the book more deeply, and immediately found it to just be a book about sharpening weapons and tools. It was exactly that what the title had said it to be, which actually made her feel somewhat relieved for some reason.
While relieved, this was most definitely not that what she was looking for or even interested in. And so she looked forward to other books and there she found even more books about similar things, like polishing, maintaining things and even a book about how to store ones tools. While all of these were probably really full of good info they just sadly weren't her cup tea and quite dull sounding and so she quickly moved forward.
Then came books with titles like, The Way of The Wild Man, Country side Living, The Bushmen, Deep In hostile lands and so on. All books seemed to have something to do with surviving in certain situations and making use of ones surroundings to survive.
Looking further up the bookshelf, she could see books about war. Books like The way of Men and Beasts, The wars of beginnings, Knights Flank and most interesting of all was a book called The Art of War. Looking further upon this book Lili found it to be written by a Prince Arthur the wise.
Wait what? Prince Arthur the wise? Wasn't that the man that she was supposed to be serving, but why were his books here? Wait was this dude seriously calling himself the wise, in his own book, in a book written by him?
Seeing this Lili couldn't help but huff in disdain. To call ones self wise on their own book and to keep his own book within his own room, wasn't that just a bit too much? When you only have limited space within your bookshelf why would you use any of that space for things that you have written and so you already know? To Lili this was just dumb and a sign of the man's arrogance, or maybe he just had low self esteem and a small dick. Giggling at the thought of this Lili continued her search.
Looking at the other books after that she could see the same thing there as well. The path to victory, written by the Genius Prince Arthur. The Art of Defence, written by Prince Arthur the Firm. The way of the warrior, written by Prince Arthur the Strong. The way of Justice and Order, written by Prince Arthur the Righteous. The Undefeated Master of the Martial arts, written by Prince Arthur the Unstoppable.
What the fuck is this? Just looking at the titles and the things this man was calling himself made Lili feel like dying out of embarrassment. What was wrong with this guy? How could anyone write this? This was just absurd, was she seriously supposed to serve such a man? These books had to be a joke or something, right?
Curious of this strange Prince Lili took the book of The Undefeated Master of the Martial arts out of the bookshelf and looked further into it. And as she did this she immediately was amazed by what she saw. There were many drawings of MMA techniques, in-depth descriptions and mother fucking philosophy?
"Ones I was asked why I train to fight, why do I put myself through such hellish training and suffering? For what reason? To this the answer is simple. I fight because I cannot count on others fighting for me. I fight so no-one else has to fight, I fight for the weak and the innocent, I fight for those who simply cannot fight for themselves. Because I'm a man and a protector."
Wide eyed Lili looked at this text and couldn't quite believe it. Was this really written by the same man? Just who was this prince?
Reading more of the book Lili quickly found it to actually be extremely legit and familiar. It was most certainly a well written beginners guide for the practitioners of mixed martial arts, but how did the Prince know about MMA? Thinking back on it Lili couldn't help but remember her fight with the Princess, she too seemed to know things about fighting, so maybe it was just a common thing in this world?
While interesting, sadly this just wasn't the book she was looking for. Dragging a chair to the bookshelf Lili looked for more books and finally found something. One was called, A Humans Guide For Surviving in Terra. By the look of the weird creatures drawn on the books cover this book seemed to be a bestiary of sorts, meant to help you survive against whatever horrors this world might have had in it.
Then there were books about herbs, plants, cooking, crafting, smithing, economics and most interesting of all agriculture and mining. While mining was not her thing, it was important and something she was interested in knowing more about. And then there was agriculture, a thing she wanted to learn more about, not because she didn't know anything about it, but because she wanted to know what these people knew of it. And by the looks of it the prince hadn't written these books, so these were most likely just basic things known in this world.
With this in mind Lili took the book of agriculture in hand, headed for the balcony and sat on a nice comfy chair there and began to read. And for the first time in this life she really began to read, although really slowly.
She even managed to find herself engulfed in the reading of this primitive book about agriculture. In her past she merely always fell asleep while reading too long and so never really read anything, but not today, not in this life. In this life things were different, she wasn't feeling sleepy and she wasn't a man.