Rather be a Lover than a Fighter

Chapter 6: The Servant

I entered my bedroom and quickly crossed it, to open the door that was in the wall to the right and lead to my office. The room itself looked untouched, but the mountain of paperwork on the desk said otherwise, and I could only sigh, when I saw it. My sisters would have to eat dinner without me again, because I would have to work through the rest of the night, if I wanted to get this done by morning. I sat down on my chair and took the first sheet of paper from the mountain, to read through it thoroughly. Only few of them actually needed my signature, but it was still required of me to read every single one, since the others were mostly reports of things that happened while I was gone. It was my responsibility to know what was going on in this Kingdom, so I always requested to be handed every single report that was made in my absence, no matter how unnecessary. The citizens of this country deserved to have my full attention, even if I was not their ruler yet, I needed to know about their problems for future references. The king was very proud of the fact I put so much effort into the matters of the state already, which was another reason he wanted me to stay out of battle. My sister hated studying these things, so he was worried what would happen, if I died, and she had to take over my position as crown princess. The worry was understandable, but I already assured him that there was no way I would let myself get killed, before making this country a more peaceful one. This request from the weaponry to farm more iron proved, that my mission has not been fulfilled, and I needed more time. I put the request on a small pile of papers that required further attention and picked up the next thing from my mountain of work, when I realized that it was a letter this time. It was still in its envelope, but since it was opened already, I assumed somebody looked at it before delivering it here. The envelope had the seal of Persikan on it, so I could only assume it was the marriage proposal that they sent to my father. He probably wanted me to read it before I met with Prince Voldron tomorrow morning, in order to be prepared for the interview. The letter that was inside the envelope seemed to be quite short for a marriage proposal, but that simply meant I had less to read, which I did not mind. A final sigh was meant to help me regain some focus, and since it did help a little as I started to read the letter quickly, before I would lose it again.

I folded the letter neatly and put it back into the envelope, to keep myself from ripping it apart, since I was sure the king wanted to have it back sooner or later. If the Prince wrote that letter himself, there was no way I could ever marry him, so I could only hope that this was not the case. Suddenly, I heard a quiet knock at the door, that led directly from the corridors to my office, which meant it was someone that was not allowed in my bedroom. Of course, I did not answer, but since my personal servants all knew about that, I was very surprised when a second knock followed. They usually only knocked once to let me know they were coming, then they came in immediately without any answer needed. I rose from my desk chair and made my way to the door, in order to open it myself, since the guest would apparently not enter otherwise. Once I opened, I was surprised to see the new servant that brought me to the palace this morning, and got lost while trying to follow me. "Your Highness, I beg your pardon, but I brought you your dinner", the boy said, and I stepped aside to let him enter the room. He bowed while passing me, something I was never really fond of, but since it was plain courtesy, I learned to tolerate it. "I am very sorry about making you open the door", the boy hastily apologized, "I was told you would not answer, but I was unsure if I could enter without permission". He was definitely new, and it was a mystery to me why someone got to be one of my personal servants within their first day, but I just had to accept it. "I am sorry about earlier too", he suddenly said, while setting down the tray of food and drinks on my desk, "when I lost you in the corridors I mean". It took me a little off guard that he would apologize for something like that, but I regained my composure before he looked at me again. Then I simply shrugged to make sure he knew that I did not care about either of those things, I would have forgotten about it if he had not mentioned it. I walked to sit back down at my desk and eat my dinner, as his eyes widened, and he quickly followed to stand in front of it. Then the boy pored some water from a big mug into my cup, which I gave him an appreciative nod for. When he sat the mug back down, he brushed the letter I put at the edge of my desk, and it fell down to the ground. "Oh sorry, I did not see it laying there", the servant boy apologized again, as he bent over to pick it up, "it seems quite important, the seal is from Persikan". It surprised me that he was able to recognize that, since most people did not even know about the names of our neighboring countries if they did not live next to a border. "Does it need to be delivered somewhere", he asked curiously, "I could make sure that happens, if you want me to". I surprised myself a little, when I nodded slowly and took the letter out of his hands, to lay it back down on the desk. Then I took my feather and dipped it in ink, before writing the full name of my father on the back of it, hoping that he was one of the few servants, that could read. "Seems like I was right", the servant said proudly, "this is probably indispensable, if it is supposed to go to the king". I rose my eyebrows a little, impressed that by his vocabulary and the fact, that he could actually read, but I did it quickly enough, for him not to notice and just nodded afterward. This boy was very surprising, and I felt a little curious about his background, since of all my other servants, only two were actually able to read. Most of them have also been with me, for my entire life, so I did not understand how he could have gotten this work, within his first day at the castle. "Do not worry, your Highness", he assured me swiftly, "I will see to it, that this letter reaches the king without any trouble". Another one of my boring nods was all I could answer, but he did not seem to mind and simply reciprocated it. "Now then", he suddenly said and bowed again, "I shall leave you alone to eat your dinner and work on the rest of your assignments, your Highness". I took the mug he just filled with water and drank a sip, before I put it down again and let my head fall down into a slow nod. Then I watched as the boy took the letter from the desk and turned around to exit my personal office. He stopped shortly before closing the door though and turned back around to look me right in the eye and while smiling brightly, he said: "You truly are kind, your Highness."