_ Serve the prince

"Who is calling out to me?" Afina blurted as she hurried to stand beside Gia behind the door.

She could hear approaching footsteps and that prompted her to squeeze her head beside Gia just in time to see a high-house security guard stopping in front of their door.

"Is this the room of the blue-haired girl?" the agile-looking man in a black suit and also a black headset shooting from his ear asked.

Gina nodded. "You are in the right place"

The guard had already seen Afina and he need not be told that she was the one he demanded.

"Come with me" he instructed.

Afina stiffened straight away. Why should she follow the guard?

Had she done anything wrong?

She could not bring herself to talk but Gina did the querying for her. "Why?" the girl asked sharply.

"The matron wants her," said the guard.

Even Gina couldn't dare to say anything after. She only looked on at Afina with empathy and nodded for her to go.

Without the assertion from Gia, she knew she needed to anyway. There was no disobeying the matron's order.

Praying for her fate not to be a cruel one, she silently followed the guard.

Thoughts were ravaging her mind. Why could the matron possibly want to see her personally?

She knew the woman did not like her but she wasn't expecting any trouble too soon.

Too surprised she was to find three of the five girls in her section of the floor waiting outside of their rooms and watching her go with the guard as they left.

What was their problem?

Those gossiping nosy brats!

As they descended the staircase, she found the matron was still standing at the same spot and also discussing with the royal advisor still.

The guard headed straight outside while she to the matron.

As if her presence was a comfrey plant itching Royal Advisor Celio, he headed for the door the moment she arrived beside them.

"Matron Valentina, you sent for me" Afina bowed then raised her head back up.

"From tomorrow onwards, you shall be the one to serve the prince wine when he is cultivating" the matron instructed.

Serve the prince?

Dumbfounded Afina couldn't help but gasp. "The prince?— as in prince Cargan?"

"Is there any other prince of the line that you know of Blue?"

She wanted to say something else but he brain wasn't working perfectly. "It's Afina matron Valentina" she corrected the matron.

Not that she could care less about being called blue but the shock over her was overwhelming that she said whatever came to her mouth out loud.

"You are so blue that your blueness even caught the prince's attention. I will call you blue and you will respond to it!" the older woman snapped.

If only the woman knew she picked no offense for being called blue. Everyone in her street calls her that.

Even her parents.

"I thought the high house scholars don't serve under the prince directly" she managed to say albeit her brain wasn't doing well a good job of comprehension.

Matron Valentina seemed not interested in answering Afina's questions. "They don't but there can always be an exception for a blue-haired girl from the slum" sizing her up, "with a green qi of the ninth stage too" the matron added.

Unable to pinpoint why she was assigned this job exactly, she allowed a frown free passage upon her face. Was it because she was from the slum?

Was it because she was blue-haired and had blue eyes?

Or...

Could it be because of her qi?

Whatever it was, she set it aside. "I do not know how to go about doing that assignment matron Valentina" she politely said.

"Tell your maid about it. They know everything there is to know about the high house" Matron Valentina replied then walked out the door of the duplex.

Afina waited until the woman was out of sight before she sighed.

"Nobody wants to cut the slum girl some slack!" she said out loud frustratingly and threw her hands up in the air.

But wait—!

She would be serving under the prince. Prince Cargan?!

Privately?

In his famous cultivation pool?

Not once had she ever thought she would set her eyes upon the prince. She even said to herself that it was wishful thinking if she thought she would see him before leaving the high house.

And the famous cultivation sand pool of prince Cargan- she was going to see it?!

Even set her eyes on it and stand close to it?!

Being a lover of cultivation grounds, she couldn't wait to see the legendary cultivation sand pool of the prince.

Its mere ambiance would awaken all the potential of her qi if she stood close to it long enough.

Just how powerful could prince Cargan be?

Imagine an immortal being with a red qi. He'd be synonymous with the powers of a deity figure if he managed to climb all the cultivation stages.

As she climbed the stairs back to her room, she halted and went frozen.

"What if this is all a trap? So that the slum girl could make a mistake and be sent back home?" she muttered to herself.

Oh, how dare she be overjoyed about this?

It is but a trap!

That witchy matron Valentina! That lethal reptile!

She was still fuming as she made her way back to the second floor where their rooms were when her jaw slacked.

The girls were still out of their doors waiting.

For who?

Her?

Why?!

She allowed herself to cover her opened mouth and give a shake of her head before she took the next step.

"Why did the matron call you back?" she heard a familiar voice ask.

It was the girl from the waiting room again. What was the girl's deal with her?!

Seeing that she made no move to answer her question but only proceeded to return to her room which was at the third door by the left, another question was thrown at her.

"Is it because you are nothing but a low-class girl from the slum?" the girl dared to further ask.

Biting her lower lip in a bid to suppress her anger, Afina stood.

"When the high house pick-up bus pulled into that shitty street, I was amazed and disgusted. But when I saw who entered the bus from the street, I died. It was a blue-haired girl!"

"Why don't we call her blue?"

"Blue!"

The girls began a mockery of laughter.

Afina's back was turned to them. It was only one whose room was opposite hers who could see her face and countenance.

If they thought calling her blue was mockery just as the matron had done, they were fools.

It was all jokes on them.

She had been blue all her life more than she was Afina.

Absolutely no one calls her Afina from her street. Even in high school, only her teachers called her Afina.

"But she has a green qi. One at the ninth stage at that" someone amongst the girls had said.

Taking the girl's word for sarcasm, all the other girls took to hearty laughter.

"Now, come on Sophie, don't be so mean. Are you taunting the girl for her weak orange qi?"

"Orange? Don't be so generous! She merely has a stupid blue qi I'm sure!"

Were all the taunts from the rest of the girls.

"Girls! I swear, I saw it. I was in the interview parlor already when she came in. It was a green qi of the ninth stage!" the other girl hollered.

The other girls would have none of it. Never could they believe a girl like Afina could possess such a type of qi.

"Did she bribe you to say this? She told me herself she hasn't even used a cultivation chip all her life! She merely uses the cultivation grounds which everyone knows are fake!" the waiting room girl blurted.

Again, the girls resumed laughing mockingly at Afina until she couldn't take it any longer.

She pulled open the door of her room and stepped in.

However, she heard the last mockery from the girls.

"Look– the blue qi girl is running!"

"Of course, she would run. Her blueness portrays her blue qi quite well. I bet she was born with no qi at all!"

The last one she heard until she sighed and walked into the room was the girl who had seen her qi. "I swear, I saw it. She could crush you all if she wants to. She has a green qi of the ninth stage!"

"I'm glad you picked me as your maid," Gia whose face was coated with warmth and pride said to her.