It was one warm and sunny spring. The Ruby palace"s garden no one ever took care of still looked beautiful as there were a lot of pretty flowers bloomed.
I ran through the path with flower petals sprinkled from the sky, to a maid who just happened to pa.s.s by the hallway. I lightly grabbed the edge of her skirt.
"Sister, sister."
I was sure she was on her way to do her other duties after finis.h.i.+ng her previous one. Her previous duty being checking the foods that were being delivered today for the week, as today was the day they were being delivered.
She tilted her head to look at me. I switched the "sparkly eyes" mode to its highest and made a cute face.
"Give me choco for Atti please." (Choco referring to chocolate.)
I"m five years old. Only five. That"s why I"m not embarra.s.sed. I"m not shameless..... is sh*t. Sniff, the shame!
"Cute princess, should I give you chocolates?"
"Uh huh! I like choco. Many many please."
Sister maid seemed to have fallen for my cuteness and was already searching through her pockets. She was a maid named Hanna working in the kitchen, and I knew that she always has some candies and chocolates to give me.
"Do you like chocolates that much?"
"Atti loves chocos! Love thi~s much!"
I raised my hands and drew a huge circle in the air. It was embarra.s.sing indeed, but if I get a treat, this much is nothing.
"Atti loves Hanna too!"
"Oh my."
Give me! Give me the chocolate!
"Hanna, what are you doing?"
My plan on gaining my treat was extinguis.h.i.+ng by someone else approaching us.
"Seth!"
"Didn"t you pay attention to Miss Lillian"s words? She said not to give the princess her snacks without permission."
The maid appeared from the end of the hallway was a skinny maid with a very cold expression.
She was a sister maid named Seth, and she always blocked other maids from giving me my treats just like this.
"But it"s only one."
"It"s a problem because it"s not just you who thinks that way."
Grrr, do not meddle with my relations.h.i.+ps with chocolates!
Seth and Hanna had these auras that made people inapproachable to them, however, I was not included with those "people".
"Sister."
This time, I grabbed onto Seth"s edge of the skirt and shot my eye attack.
"Atti wants to eat choco please."
Sister Seth"s face turned pale as I gave off my best cute face.
"I can"t, princess."
But I know! That your mind is changing!
"But I really can"t..."
It ended with my win.
A moment later, sister Seth lowered her body to my height and gave me a handful of chocolates.
"It"s a secret to Miss Lillian."
Ever since Lilly stopped giving me sweets as often, it became a secret of me and the other maids that we give and take sweets. Well, they give and I take.
"Thaaaank ya, sister!"
I kissed on her cheek, smiling brightly. I saw her expression softening looking at my cute face.
(The cute actions Atanasia did from "Sister, sister." is called "aegyo" in korea, which means acting cute.)
Did you see that? Really, that sister looks strict on the outside, but she is actually really soft.
Kyaaa. A beautiful cold maid who is only soft to me. This feels... goooood~~
"Ah! Seth, that"s unfair! You did that on purpose to get that kiss, didn"t you!"
"Cough (Clearing throat). What are you talking about? Do you think that I"m like you who goes falling in each and every traps?"
"Then why did you give the princess chocolates? Ahh, that kiss from the princess was supposed to be mine!"
The two started to fight behind me.
I ran to escape from the hall in case Lilly spots me.
Even though I feel like something is going to happen, not being spotted by Lilly is also important.
The time went by like a waterfall and now I was 5 years old.
Lilly, each time they see me do this, didn"t use her formal tone and words as she started to complain, but this was an easier way for me to live a little easier and better.
Also, what do you need from a princess from this old corner room.
With my hard work, I"ve got the maids who ignored me to give me snacks and starting a good conversations themselves to me. That I guess could be a success.
Of course, normally, maids starting a conversations to me would be... well, normal, but in the palace I", in right now, such a rule didn"t exist.
It was when I started to walk, they stopped ignoring me.
Before then, I was really annoyed with the maids who ignored so I would start crying and likely to do something like spilling water on the cup acting like it was an accident, but I realized that a better relations.h.i.+ps were more helpful.
I was already in a bad relations.h.i.+p (?) with Claude and it wasn"t any better if the maids were in a relations.h.i.+ps like that with me. Moreover, if it were to flow like this, it isn"t any different from Atanasia from the original plot!
The evidence that had helped me to think it this way was that it wasn"t only me who thought my valuables in my room were disappearing. Don"t make fun of me because I am poor. The people who are rich doesn"t know of these little things! Sniff.
Usually, people working in the palace are all n.o.bles, however currently in Ruby palace, the servants were most likely people who were a level lower than those n.o.bles.
And that was because of Claude who had killed everyone who had once lived and worked in this palace that they didn"t want to come.
So the people who were crying and begging not to be hired here but were, were some people from viscount, and baron family"s.
In one sentence, it means that people who didn"t have power and didn"t give any importance if dead or alive were forcefully hired into this place. It was people who had worked for the viscount and baron family"s who started doing their job here.
At first, they were likely not to show up often. However months and a year pa.s.sed the servants had realized that the emperor didn"t give me a cr*p about me. Since then, my life was even lower than the life of some dusts in the corner.
Even though Claude was scary, I don"t know if they forgotten what fear felt like and started to steal valuables of the Ruby palace.
CLT: ...??? I"d say it"s almost there. Almost when she meets Claude!