– Arius –

I walked off with Chione after grabbing a tight hold of her arm. She was protesting and trying to pull away but when we were a safe distance away I stopped and looked at her. "You wanted to pay me back?" I asked. "Well here's am excellent idea... you can pay me back as my personal maid."

Chione gawked. "Personal maid?"

I nodded.

"What does that even mean?"

"You'll have to attend to me. Mostly in the mornings and evenings, so throughout the day you can continue with your usual assignments," I said. "I can get you a separate room–"

"No!" She squeaked. "No, I'm fine in the Servant's Quarters."

"Okay, well Aziza is no longer in charge of you so you have nothing to worry about when it comes to her."

Chione hesitated, looking both nervous and relieved. I didn't really know if that was a good thing though. So I let out a breath, not wanting to seem too needy or anything like that. "Go ahead," I said with a smile. "Go do what you normally do for today and I'll start your lessons on how to be a good personal maid to the prince tomorrow morning, understood?"

She hesitated once more before nodding and turning to run off towards the stables. Once she was gone, I sighed.

Well, things may be starting to get a little interesting.

– Chione –

I couldn't believe what had just happened. Arius's personal maid? I was going to be his personal maid? How could I be a personal maid? Usually personal maids were girls who were raised to become maids! I was still relatively new! How could I possibly become a personal maid?

When I arrived at Ram's stable, he looked at me with surprise. "Chione! You're back!" He walked over to me with a small smile. "How did it go? How is your father?"

I smiled back at him, happy to see him. "My father has recovered. He's better."

Surprisingly, Ram looked more relieved than I expected him to be. "That's great to hear... now why do you still look so worried then?"

I let out a breath, and as always I felt like I could trust him enough to talk to him. "The Prince... or the Pharaoh, made me his personal maid!"

Ram's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Personal maid?" He asked. "Why?"

"I think it's because he thinks Aziza may murder me or something of the sort."

Now Ram chuckled. "Well, why are you so worried? Being a personal maid to the Prince should be considered an honor."

I guess it was an honor... but that didn't help me from feeling less worried. "He said that I could continue to work with you and Doctor Tumini... so that's good news."

"Good news indeed. I was worried for a second that I'd lose your help."

I smiled, always glad that he felt like he needed me. "Do you know what I'd have to do as a personal maid?" If Arius said that I could still work with Dr. Tumini and Ram, then it couldn't be that bad, right?"

Ram turned to the horse he was tending to before I arrived and began brushing through it's mane. "Nothing too difficult," he said. "From what I know, it involves making sure the royal has awoken on time, preparing his bath, organizing his things, getting his clothes and jewels ready for him in the morning, bringing him his meals, and so on and so forth."

I nodded. That didn't seem too bad.

"Just helping him get through his day faster. You'll be fine," Ram smiled at me. "The Prince is a good man, he won't overwork you."

I nodded again. "All right, I suppose that's fine."

Ram chuckled. "I, however, most definitely will overwork you," he grinned widely. "Get over here and help me out. This horse is going out to town with his master today."

I let out a laugh and rushed over to help him.

Despite having just returned from a long trip, I spent the rest of the day working. Maybe it was to keep my mind off of all the unbelievable events that had happened over the last couple days.

Once night came, I walked back to the Servant's Quarters in exhaustion. I thought I could just go straight to bed and wakeup tomorrow feeling back to normal... but of course, I was wrong.

My walk back consisted of many maids stopping me multiple times to tell me how luck I was to be the Prince's new personal maid. I was also asked many times what I did in order to get that chance.

When I was finally able to make it back to my room, it still hadn't ended.

Though Namare was, as usual, already asleep, Ti and Saia did not waste a moment.

"The Prince's personal maid!" Ti sighed dreamily. "You are so lucky Chione!"

"You get to be the first face that the Prince see's in the morning and the last face he see's before he goes to bed!" Saia said with a happy sigh. "How romantic."

"There's nothing romantic about it," I countered. "I'm his servant who has to clean after him. That's it."

"If it was any other royal, than maybe... but Prince Arius... or Pharaoh Arius, for now, is really, really nice," Ti said. "The gods must love you."

I collapsed onto my mattress and turned around to face the wall. "We will see about that."

~ ☥ ~

When I felt someone shaking me to try and wake me up the next morning, I was not ready to be awoken. I groaned as my eyes opened slowly.

It was still dark out. "Wha–"

"Chione!" Ti called as she continued to shake me, "You're a personal maid now which means you have to wake up early!"

Since Ti worked in the gardens, she always had to wake up early. There were a lot of early morning chores she had to do before the Pharaoh woke up, like clean the pathway towards the temple and get the water ready before everyone wakes up and all the lakes begin to get busy.

"Wake up Chione, get ready and we'll head out together."

I groaned before letting out a breath and getting up.

I got ready quickly, washing my face and changing into my usual white maids dress. I didn't want to make Ti late.

Once I was ready, Ti and I left. She knew a couple of the real Pharaoh's personal maids, so she gave me some advice on how to act as we walked towards the palace. Mostly the advice consisted of making sure I didn't touch him. Also that I didn't upset him. And that I always make sure I keep him satisfied.

We parted ways once we arrived at the palace. I continued on down the hallway, which I believed led to the Prince's chambers. I still didn't really know my way around the palace that well yet... especially the side of the palace that held the rooms of the royals.

I had to ask passing guards for directions and when I finally made it to his room, the two guards posted outside of it looked at me with surprise. "Maid, what are you doing here?" One guard asked. He kept his voice low, since it was still early in the morning, yet it was still stern.

"I'm the Pharaoh's new personal maid... I was told I have to come early to–"

"Ah," the second guard said. "Yes, we were told about you."

"It's your first time being a personal maid, yes?" The first asked.

I nodded.

The second one snorted and shook his head for whatever reason... as if he knew exactly how to be a soldier from the moment he came out of his mother.

"The Pharaoh is still asleep," the first one continued. "Go inside, in his bathing room there will be a pot which you can go grab wither with. Use that water to prepare his bath for him. Make sure it is warmed up. The Pharaoh usually wakes on his own so there will be no need for you to wake him."

I nodded.

"And absolutely under no circumstances will you touch him," the second guard said. "It is forbidden. Do you understand, maid?"

I nodded again.

The guards eyed me for a moment before stepping aside and letting me go into the room.

I let out a sigh before walking in.

His room was massive... the room alone was maybe the size of one of the floors of our Servants Quarters. It was dark since the sun hadn't risen yet, but the curtains were drawn over the window so even if Ra had risen, his rays probably wouldn't have reached into the room that effectively anyways.

From what I could see, it almost felt like there were two rooms connected to one another. The first room almost felt like a study. There was a desk and shelves that were covered in scrolls. I wondered what was on the scrolls. Stories? Political documents?

Either way, I probably wouldn't find out. It would be safe not to touch anything.

If I walked straight, I would be in the second room where Arius' bed was, right across from me.

I could see a person on the bed, covered in blankets... obviously Arius.

His body was moving up and down, slowly. He was clearly in a deep state of sleep, which made me wonder if he was actually going to be able to wake up in a short while.

But I ignored that and went straight for the bathing room. I grabbed a hold of the pot and spent the next little while going too and from the room and filling up his bath with water.

There was an artificial lake right under his room so it wasn't that hard to get the water... it wasn't like when I had to get water for the horses. In that case, I had to walk across the palace.

So even though it was my sixth time retuning to the room with a large pot of water, I wasn't particularly exhausted yet. It was during the seventh trip back up to his room that I walked in on Arius making his bed.

He didn't notice me at first, probably still drunk with sleep but also looking quite focused on making his bed.

I stood there, frozen for a moment, not really knowing what to say.

When he turned around and finally noticed me, he let out a startled breath. "Chione."

I smiled. "Uh... good morning."

He still looked surprised before beginning to run his fingers through his very short hair, trying to fix it though it didn't need to be fixed. "I forgot–" he hesitated, not knowing what to say either.

For some reason I found this funny.

He seemed so sure about making me his personal maid and now that I was here he seemed to have no idea as to what to do.

"The water is almost ready," I said, deciding not to make this any more awkward. "It'll be just a couple more moments." With that, I returned to the tub and filled it with the last pot of water. I continued to allow it to heat up and when it was finally done, I stepped outside. "It's ready."

Arius nodded. "Thanks," he said before walking into the room and pulling down the curtains to hide him.

– Arius –

I rubbed my face with my hand and held back a groan. I had completely forgotten that she was going to be here, and now that she was here I was panicking.

This seemed like a great idea at the time... but I hadn't thought about the fact that she would be doing jobs like preparing my bath and cleaning up after me.

I didn't think about the fact that she would be in my room while I was sleeping.

Not that I necessarily had a huge problem with that... but I would be sleeping... what if I did something odd while sleeping?

You could never know. When my brother was younger, he used to talk in his sleep. Ramose slept with his mouth wide open and often snored. Even Tabia wasn't a very pretty sleeper.

Would I do anything like that?

I let out a sigh and stepped into the warm bath. She hadn't put any oils in it so it smelled like plain water. At least it was warm.

I told her yesterday that I would teach her how to be a personal maid... I guess the first lesson would be to make sure the scented oils are in the bath.

But then again, that wasn't an essential rule or anything like that... it was more so a preference.

I sighed again.

Why did it feel like this was going to be more complicated than I had expected.

After my relatively short bath, I stepped out of the washroom and saw that she was still standing there, waiting.

"So what exactly am I supposed to do as a personal maid aside from prepare your bath?" She asked me.

Well, Uncle's personal maids helped him put on his clothes and jewelry. I didn't need her to do that for me.

I didn't want her to do that for me.

"One thing that they do is inform the guards outside that I am awake. Once that's done you can head off and do what you usually do. I can get dressed on my own."

"That's it?" She seemed shocked.

"That's it."

Her eyes widened for a moment before she let out a short chuckle. "I didn't expect it to be so easy."

"Well, you are expected to return here before sunset to prepare my evening bath. Also, don't forget to add oils into the bath... it's a personal preference of mine."

"Are you sure that's it? There's absolutely nothing else at all that I should do?"

"That's it," I said. "I will send someone to retrieve you if need be."

She nodded. "Then, if you don't mind, I will head out to the stable to get a head start on helping Ram."

"Sure, go ahead."

With that, she bowed and rushed off.

– Chione –

I wasn't sure if he was just being nice to me or if he genuinely did not need my help. To be honest, Arius didn't seem like the kind of person who would get a maid to do all of his work for him, so maybe he didn't actually need my help.

But either way, I had technically woken up extremely early for nothing. I had a lot of time to spare before my actual shift with Ram started.

I decided that the best thing to do would be to get a head start on that work, head out to Doctor Tumini early after, and then get back early so I could sleep more. That way, I won't struggle so much to wake up so early.

Yes. That sounded good.

I expected my walk towards the stables to be a quiet one, seeing as it was still very early in the morning and not many people were up yet... however, it definitely wasn't.

Many people were looking my way and saying things. They weren't even trying to pretend that they weren't talking about me.

Of course, their conversations had to do with the fact that I was now the new personal maid of Arius.

Most of what I heard consisted of then questioning why Arius would pick me. Some even commented on the fact that I wasn't even that pretty. Others liked to bring up the fact that I didn't know how to read.

All in all, the other maids did not seem too pleased because I apparently wasn't good enough.

I let out a loud breath of frustration.

Great... I was slowly becoming the one that most people disliked.

– Arius –

Despite the slight change in my morning ritual, the rest of my day went by normally. I conducted the morning prayers, had something to eat, spoke to people in the throne room, conducted the afternoon prayers and then went to have lunch.

Tabia decided to join me for a walk after our lunch. It always felt nice to walk off all the food we ate and though she was annoying and liked to talk my ear off, I never said no when she chose to join me.

"So how was your first day with a personal maid?" She asked. I didn't look at her, but I imagined that she was wagging her eyebrows.

"Normal," was my answer.

"You're not going to expand?"

"No. It was normal," I crossed my arms and continued walking towards the garden.

"Oh, c'mon Air-y. Isn't it just fantastic? Having a personal maid makes my life so much easier... it should do the same for you, no?"

I shook my head and shrugged. "No. It felt like a regular morning."

Tabia pouted her lips. "You better not be cutting her some slack simply because you're in love with her."

Now I rolled my eyes.

Suddenly, she started grinning from ear to ear. "I have an excellent idea."

Before I could even turn around and look at her, she was already running off as fast as she could.

I raised an eyebrow and then sighed... I definitely had a bad feeling about whatever it was that was going through her head.

– Chione –

When I had finally returned to the stable with the last pot of water for the horses, I was surprised by the presence of an extremely royal looking woman in the stables.

The moment I saw her, I had no idea how to react. What was such a royal looking, beautiful woman doing in the stable? But when Ram walked in behind me, I saw him look in surprise and bow, so I bowed too.

"Lady Tabia," Ram said. "What brings you to my stables, might I ask?"

I had heard of Lady Tabia many times. I saw her quite frequently with Arius and I heard that she was his cousin. Apparently they were very close.

Lady Tabia kind of sounded like a mystical woman when other maids talked about her. Apparently she was everything you would never have imagined her to be.

Despite her beautiful face, her absolutely perfect makeup and hair and the focused, feline like eyes she had... Lady Tabia was apparently not only kind, but unbelievable boisterous.

"Ram!" She greeted him with a wide grin. "How are you?"

"Well, my Lady. Thank you. And you?"

"Absolutely perfect," she said. "Now, I'm assuming the girl right next to you is Chione? I've never actually been given the chance to properly meet her."

I looked at her with surprise.

She came looking for me?

"This is Chione," he said. "Is something wrong?"

"No, no," Tabia waved her hand as she walked over to me. "Nothing at all. It's just that she has yet to receive the proper training of being a personal maid and so I thought I would steal her from to so she could get that over with."

Ram hesitated and looked at me before nodding. "Well, she got here very early and so she's finished most of her work so I don't see anything wrong with that."

I looked nervously at Ram before I looked back at Tabia. Training? For some reason, the word sounded a little frightening. The odd grin on Lady Tabia's face didn't make me feel all that better.

"Lovely!" Tabia said. "I'll be taking her now then. It won't take that long, I promise." Ram bowed once more as Lady Tabia walked over to me. "Follow me."

I nodded hesitantly before bowing once more and following behind her. All of my plans to go to sleep early were no longer possible, so I held back my sigh and followed her. 

And I couldn't deny that I was nervous.

Unbelievably nervous.

What on earth would this 'training' with this strange woman entail?