3. The prince

Back at my dorm.

Yeah I have a dorm—a shabby run down compartment located at one of the far ends from the main mansion close to the towering fence.

Each of the maids had their own space and mine was just at the end of the corridor, of a run down building.

I plopped on the bed that had clearly seen better days, my eyes wondering, clothes littered about.

"What is this.."

I stretched out my hand, my fingers passed though the words almost like it wasn't there.

[Would you like to absorb the information?]

Those words hovered as I held the book in my hands.

'Absorb the information..?' I thought.

[Ding]

[Information will now be processed]

The scenery shifted.

Everything turned black..

The shabby appearance and scattered clothes all over the floor of my tattered room was gone.

Infact my whole room was gone.

Replaced by a quiet black void, filled with bright stars.

'What is this..?'

My feet were cold.

Everywhere was dead silent, void of sound so as though I could even hear my heartbeat.

'where am I ?'

The stars above aligned, making an oddly beautiful pattern that stretched across the black skies above.

'Is this... '

A human shaped silhouette stood in front of me, wielding what seemed to be the shadow of a sword.

'Am I in a trance?'

I looked at it, body stiff. Not because I didn't want to move but because I genuinely couldn't, it felt as if my body was being kept in place by an unknown force.

[Tutorial has begun]

The silhouette got into an unusual stance, not like the ones I've previously seen done by the guards in the estate.

The silhouette moved.

My eyes widened.

What my eyes saw was an ethereal dance.

I've previously learned basic lessons to swordsmanship, although I haven't practiced anything physical yet, mainly because I can't.

'A slash is said to be perfect when it travels in a straight line '

Those words were still stuck to me.

The void instantly faded and I was back to my shabby old room, eyes wide, blinking.

'What just happened '

[Toturial complete]

[Swordsmanship mastery: 0.001%]

[...Stats loading...]

[Name: Gregory Ashaa]

[Rank: Earth]

[Sword mastery: 0.001]

[Mark --- Void]

-----Skills----

[Absorbsion>>Absorbsion (fatal)]

[Mode: freelance mode]

I looked at the floating words in front of me in disbelief.

'Earth rank?'

In this world there where seven ranks of power.

Mortal to primordial—Mortal being the weakest and primordial being the strongest.

Zach was taught this by one of the previous maids who had been drafted.

To put it into perspective..

• Mortal

• Earth

• Sky

• Star

• Heaven

• Void

• Primordial

Mortals were like mundane humans.

And primordial rank entities were capable of splitting dimensions.

And I was at the earth rank, how?, When did that happen?, and most importantly where did this floating system of words come from?.

My mind drifted to the every event back at the underground cemetery.

I still remember the moment I touched something on Leonard's grave these words started appearing from nowhere.

'Leonards grave..'

Did it have something to do with these random words.

*Knock knock*

I heard a frantic knock on my door. Quickly I hid the book under my pillow telling the guest to come in as I faked just getting out of bed.

A yound maid roughly a few years older than me with blonde hair and a pleasant face looked at me, her eyes wide .

"Y-You're just getting out of bed.."

Her annoyed tone made me smirk.

"Yeah of course Amy" I responded, slowly standing up.

"What's the matter.." I asked, Amy's tone seemed shaky a bit back there. I looked at her, totally puzzled.

"T-the prince is here"

'..!!!!..'

My heart instantly dropped.

"Y-you mean.. "

"Yes.." she snapped, fear evident in her eyes.

My eyes widened.

I bolted around the room, hurriedly tieing my apron, hands shaky.

"W-where is he.." I stuttered, frantically running around as I put my beret.

"He's carriage is coming in through the front gate right now" She said, equally as terrified.

I knew what the prince was like.

Let's just say, the prince, was impatient.

Last time he came here—which was roughly a month ago, he murdered two slaves, just because they were late to attend to him.

"Summon all the maids " I told Emma as I rushed past her.

"I-I've already done that" she followed closely behind me.

As we rushed to the mansions back door passage I spotted a golden carriage, just entering the front gateway being taken care of by the gate keepers

' He's here ' a chill ran down my spine.

The maids gathered in no time.

We all clustered in front of the front door, all bowing our heads.

The gate creeked open and a long white haired man stepping in, adorned by a black coat with gold outlines.

"Greetings your highness" we chanted in unison.

The young man's lazy gaze drifted around, the huge parlor, adorned with fine furnishings, and pristine black tiling, and his clear crystal blue eyes stared at us like a tired farmer watching his livestock.

'God.. I hope this day goes smoothly.. please ' I inwardly prayed.

" Where's that old hag..? "

He stepped forward calmly, followed by robed guards.

"T-The madam step out to go to the meeting with the king.." I spoke.

I had to speak, I was the one in charge after all.

"Are you the one in charge?" He asked.

"Y-yes" l bowed.

He looked around. Then his lips curled into a smirk.

" This place is sparkling, good work", he stuck his hands into his coat pocket

' Don't Tell me...'

A silver coin flew in the air... landing on my palm.

I looked at the token with disbelief.

The empire had three currencies, bronze silver and gold— with gold being the highest and bronze being the lowest.

To put it into perspective, a silver coin is worth 100 bronze coins, which is alot.

' I can't believe this is the frist time I'm actually touching a silver coin in my life '

' I've never seen the prince in a good mood like this before. I must not anger him'

Thankfully the cooks had prepared dinner, but the prince refused, saying he was full.

He quietly walked over to the library and slammed the doors, his guards stayed at the entrance, baring they're swords.

I watched all this frist hand.

As the temporary mistress-I mean mister of the house I was tasked to make sure the princes' stay was flawless.

' Thank god I read the houserules .. all through '

I sighed...

I really thought the prince was gonna cause some scene at the very least but here I was, baffled.

'Guess the royals aren't too bad after all '

I smiled inwardly, my thumb rubbing at the sliver coin as I stared at the shut doors of the library entrance.