Chapter 7: Looking For A Purpose

The maids' ultimate move was not working this time. They begged, cried, kneeled, and yet Royal Princess Hypatia still insisted on looking at their quarter.

The guards' also sweating, they know their turn will come soon after Royal Princess Hypatia finishes inspecting the maid's quarter. The words of "No princess ever visiting man's place" will not work.

When the palace administrator said those words, Her Highness Royal Princess Hypatia answered, "I'm still such a young girl, don't you all having daughters at home? Besides, I just want to look. Who knows my memory will come back to me. My Royal Father The King had granted me his permission to visit every place in this palace except for the Governing Hall."

They all know the next words Her Highness Royal Princess Hypatia might say, but she kindly didn't say out loud.

"If my Royal Father The King allows me to, why do you dare to forbid me? Are your positions higher than my Royal Father The King? Are you rebelling by stating that your position is higher than my Royal Father? The owner of this Kingdom?"

If the Palace administrator quickly surrendered, what could the mere guards do? They only hope Her Highness Royal Princess Hypatia visit the guards' quarter tomorrow, so they all could have time to clean their dirty place, hide those erotic books and bury their smelly boots somewhere else.

No need to describe the panic on the maids faces when they saw Her Highness Royal Princess Hypatia's group walking toward their living quarters.

Who didn't know Her Highness Royal Princess Hypatia? She's the only person in this whole palace who has a small group consisting of 12 full gold level maids, 12 gold level guards, along with 18 silver level maids who are responsible for cleaning her palace and taking care of her every need. The maids and guards are each responsible for morning, afternoon, and night shifts.

Even though the guards only guard her whenever she steps out from her little palace's area, still the sight of 14 people walking around the small princess and heading to their living quarters is something that never happened in this place before.

Even Her Highness Royal Queen Chilonis only brings 6 maids and 2 guards when she's going walking inside the palace, only increasing the guards' number when she's going outside the palace.

One will wonder, how many maids and guards will the King and Queen assign if their beloved daughter steps out from this big palace to the outside world?

No matter how panicked they were, all of them could only kneel and let Her Highness Royal Princess Hypatia come, look at their room, and ask many many many questions to them.

"What is this for?"

"What is this flower called?"

"Where are you from?"

"Do you have a family?"

"Did you embroider this by yourself?"

"How much do you get paid each month?"

"Do you get a yearly bonus?"

"How many sets of clothes do you have?"

"Are all of your clothes provided by the palace?"

"Are your bangles and pins provided by the palace?"

"Where is the bathroom?"

"Where is the toilet?"

Actually, Hypatia felt the maid's quarters were quite decent. Bronze level maid occupied a big room with 8 beds. Each has a small cupboard next to their bed. A long table located in the middle, for them to put the water jars and do their embroidery.

Silver level maid level has four beds each room, gold level has two beds each room with a chair and table of their own. The head palace's maid occupied a different place, each having their own room. The decoration and the quality of their furniture increase along their rank.

Only the bathroom and toilet are slippery due to moss growing in the deepest part of the bathroom.

"Why my bathroom and toilet didn't have moss while you have it?"

The maids answered, they use the mixture from Palace's alchemist to clean the royal family living area. It maintains the stone walls and floor, preventing moss growing on them.

"Why the Palace's alchemist didn't give it to you?"

The maids all silenced.

When Hypatia said she wanted to visit the female slave's quarter, her maid cried so hard until Hypatia couldn't believe her maids were gold level maids who were supposed to be literate maids with educated backgrounds.

Losing to Hypatia's stubborn decision, finally the maids give up and order the slave to kneel in front of Hypatia, not allowed to raise their heads.

The slave's living quarters are much better than Hypatia imagined. It's clean enough. Their clothes and furniture are also quite decent.

Hypatia didn't know that the slave's cloth and furniture would be given to them if the palace's maid's belongings were broken. The slaves mend the ruined clothes or broken furniture by themselves, while the maids get the new one from the Palace administrator.

Well, the palace's maid clothes and furniture are even better than the ordinary citizen. Palace's slaves actually live a decent life compared to the slaves out there. After all, the only one who could punish them to death are only the royal family and their descendants.

Hypatia found that even though it's quite clean, she still found many bugs and insects crawling near the corner and holes.

"Why didn't I find any bugs in the maid's quarter?" She asked.

"We use boiled herbs and use it to clean our floor and wall, Royal Princess." Her maid answered.

"Then, why don't they do the same?"

In the eyes of the maids and guards, Hypatia's round light green eyes stare at them innocently. How could they answer that the herbs are valuable, they could only get the herbs from the royal apothecary for a small bundle each month, only enough to use for their quarters. As long as the slaves didn't have lice or skin disease, then it's okay.

The guards are relieved that the sun is slowly going down, which means their turn is tomorrow. That night, all the guards and the slaves responsible for cleaning their place worked all night. Some of the guards even begged the maids to lend them beautiful jars, herbs to repel the sweat smell which seems to be permanently attached to their beds and cupboards. Even they shamelessly borrow flowers to make their desolate quarters look like a place for humans to live.

Thanks to this whole night of hard work, Her Highness Royal Princess Hypatia didn't ask them many questions. The guards seriously think it's better to undergo intensive one week hell training compared to facing Her Highness Royal Princess Hypatia visit again.

Hypatia didn't say much to her family until she finished her one month Palace tour. She didn't leave her study too, diligently doing her homework even though she was bored to death while learning about Gods and the temple's history.

She could only lament inside and cursed the librarian when she found the library didn't have novels to amuse her boring days.

She missed her novels.. Ahh.. Don't even mention netflix and youtube, if they don't even have novels here, then how could she release her boredom? She used to release her lonely single lady hormones by reading smuts and watching soft porn. But maybe because her body right now is only ten year old, she didn't have any sexual frustration at all.

She tried to visit her siblings, but of all of her half sisters, only one who hasn't married away. Her youngest half sister will be 15 year old this year, and already has a fiancee. She will get married once she turns 17.

Besides, due to her tragedy one and half year ago, all of her half siblings are quite tense if they receive her visits.

Hypatia makes a report from her visit, complete with detailed observation from her eyes. She has had a habit of writing diaries for more than 20 years, and she is still doing it now.

Chilonis visits her everyday. Once Hypatia made a resume of complete observation, she thought, why not make everyone living better? From her observation in Palace administration, the Kingdom flourished under King Cleombre's reign. The palace workers have a salary raise every three year, while the palace's spending was much lower than previous reign.

Hypatia thought, of course it will decrease. Can you compare previous reign with more than 100 Paulitus's descendants with Cleombre's pitiful harem size and only having 13 descendants? Even that super big harem on the backyard having so many empty rooms!

Empty rooms means less maids. Less maids means they could increase their salary without having to raise the palace's expenditures.

Because there was no urgent need to expand the palace's income, King Cleombre never raised the tax for the whole 10 years of his reign. Lower tax means happy citizens. Happy citizens means increased productivity.

Queen Chilonis herself never indulges in jewels and expensive hobbies. She often sponsored the women's school and encouraged female's merchant to do business inside the kingdom while the male's merchant expanded business to their neighbouring kingdom.

Hypatia really wonders why she was transmigrated here. The kingdom seems to be doing just fine. Her parents here are so great. In terms of their ability as ruler, they clearly are much greater compared to her own parents on earth.

The rule of succession is clear, under this flourishing kingdom, it seems no one wants to rebel. This is Hypatia's deduction from her royal brothers and her teacher's explanation about the political situation in this kingdom.

Between Cleomenes and Cleonymus, they are also very close as siblings. Hypatia didn't see any palace intrict like she read in her novels.

Cleomenes will get married next year to the daughter of a High Minister. He said he fell in love with her at first sight.

So.. Why did she transmigrate here?

In the middle of this confusing state, Hypatia decides to throw a small request at her Royal Mother.

If this is not a politics novel, not a medical novel, not a romance novel (what kind of romance a ten year old girl could do?), not a magical novel, and not a farming novels, then maybe she need to change the environment for the maids, guards, and slaves first, as well as to improve the kitchen's hygiene.