Chapitre 19: _You are going to serve the prince blue!
Afina was surprised to find that kind of expression on Gia's face. The girl seemed indifferent about her at first but the admiration look on her face at the moment was alien to Afina.
"Why?" softly, she asked.
Has anyone even looked at her with such an expression before?
Looked at her with admiration?
Except for silly Blake of course. There was none.
Gia took her hands. "Oh, I cannot believe you are such a heavenly figure! A green qi at the ninth stage? I overheard everything!" her face was reddened with– was it excitement or something else?
Humph! The girl had overheard everything the other girls had said to her yet she did not come to her defense. Here she was idolizing her after she had received so many insults.
She might as well throw her heels over her plump face as she pulled them off now.
All Afina could give was a sheepish smile.
"Just a few more years of cultivation and you'd be on par with the princes!" Gia shrieked.
Her fingers went to her lips immediately. "Shh, don't say that. Anyone who hears that might mistake our conversation as treason"
"But it's the truth. I can't believe I am maid to a deity!" Gia who took no heed to Afina's words shrieked louder.
Excited girls don't just listen, do they?
"I'm not a deity Gia. I'm just a girl who frequents cultivation grounds and can remain there cultivating for hours because I have nothing else to do!" I had to raise and fall on my shoulders.
Gia must see with her that she wasn't playing and was definitely no deity.
"Cultivation grounds?" Gia's round face crept into a frown. "Come on. We all know almost all of those are fake. To even find a valid cultivation ground would be almost impossible but when you do, they could barely hold any sturdy ambiance to highlight your qi an ounce even"
She had that look of disbelief on her face as though Afina was not being truthful with her.
Well, Afina wasn't lying and that was it. She had only cultivated on cultivation grounds and nothing else.
"A divine teacher once told me that the level of the impact of the cultivation on our qi depends on our beliefs. Believe this cultivation method will work for you, and it will" Afina shrugged as she hopped her butt on her delicate mattress. "Ah— we don't have to be in heaven to feel paradise. This is paradise" she breathed in the air of luxury flying around the the room and ticking her nostril.
"You don't mean to apply beliefs with logic, do you? They don't work together. What's there to be seen can not be written away with belief!" Gia, who was unrelenting queried.
Afina threw her body and legs over the bed after throwing her heels all over the place again. "Why do you sound like Matron Valentina right now?" she clicked her tongue in a sing-song manner.
"Geez, please! I sound nothing like that witch" Gia was quick to protest.
This caused Afina to laugh.
No one liked the reptile, it seemed.
Gia was picking up Afina's heels. "Why did she call for you by the way?"
Right, Afina had almost forgotten about that.
She would be serving the prince wine from tomorrow onwards. Oh dear, oh dear, someone was after her life definitely.
"She instructed me of my new duty," Afina said evenly. Her concerns wouldn't allow her to explain further.
Gia on the other hand was desperate. "What duty?" she blurted, shut the door of the closet where she had nicely kept Afina's heels, and came to sit with her.
"I am to serve the prince wine every day in his famous cultivation pool from tomorrow" Afina sighed.
If she wasn't seeing Gia's face, she could hear the heavy sigh which escaped her lips.
"The prince?!"
"Yes"
"Hell- how is that possible? You only arrived here a few hours ago. Why the prince?"
Afina had to roll her eyes. As if she knew why too! "I don't know" she forced herself to say.
"I mean, there is staff who has been in the high house for years and still hasn't seen the prince. I have never set my eyes on him before. Why you?" Gia ranted on, eating Afina's hears out.
"Heck Gia, I don't know! The matron only told me that just when she called me now and left me with no explanations" Afina almost raised her voice.
Little yet rare things could bloat her annoyance and this Gia was doing was one of them.
Gia went silent for a while before finally speaking.
"Is it your qi? I mean, are you even from the slum at all?" the girl was leaning in closer to her. "Look at your skin, it's ravishing. Not the type of skin a slum girl will have"
Yeah, Gia was correct. Usually, unless she mentioned it, no one ever believes she was from the slum. She had always had the cotton baby pink skin that she always wondered where she got it from.
"Unless mama Xylia's cucumbers could amount to a spa, then I am but a girl from the slum." Afina nodded, her body still lazily scattered over the king-size bed.
Suddenly remembering something, she sat up from the bed immediately. "Matron Valentina asked for you to teach me whatever there is to know about prince Cargan" she held Gia's hands realizing tomorrow was too soon to learn all of those.
"Well, the prince is actually an easy subject to learn about. What you should worry about are his wives. Those high-house mothers are more prideful and complex than a peacock!" Gia lamented.
If the prince was simple as Gia had said, then she should be able to do well tomorrow. That was if she didn't sink under his dominant gaze.
Would he even look at her at all?
Oh, damn this!
Afina slumped back on the bed, yanked her legs over it, and began to wail a false cry.
"Come on, it is a privilege that was bestowed on you. Be grateful! Many will do anything to even set their eyes on the prince for one. Oh, the other girls will be so jealous of you now!" Gia's excitement returned.
Arggh!
This girl dared to laugh when she was in so much distress. "Gia?" Afina called as she sat upright from the bed.
"Hmm?" the other girl's brow raised.
"I hate you!" Afina blurted.
To her utmost surprise, "Well, I am glad a deity possesses such a strong feeling for me" was Gia's reply.
Seriously?!
Afina rolled her eyes. "Cut the crap, Gia. I'm no deity. Just tell me about prince Cargan."
"As I aforementioned, there isn't much to know about him. Except from what I learned, anyone who works closely with the prince should be ready to have their ears burned with moans of pleasure from any of his wives that was on the slot that day. The Prince is a busy man so he has to squeeze between his leisure to satisfy his numerous wives every month." Gia explained.
For Pete's sake what?!
Hear moans of pleasure from the prince and his wives? That would be too corny to listen to.
Dear divine heavens, would she be subject to hearing that?!
"Why would a man keep fifty wives?" Afina blurted out.
Gia grew secretive and covered her face with an open palm as though there was a third figure in the large room who would listen to the conversation.
"Well blue—" out of the blue, she tapped her head. "Silly me! I heard the girls calling you blue tauntingly and I adopted the concept. Pardon me blu— Afina"
Again, Afina was subjected to rolling her eyes.
"It's okay. Call me blue if you want. I don't mind" she shrugged.
The girl looked reluctant still until Afina mouthed an 'I swear!'
"Okay, so blue, I've heard the whispers in the maid's section that the prince is a monster. Not just him, but his brothers too. Sometimes, at least once or twice in a year, prince Cargan turns into a monster because—"
"He is being punished by a divine punisher for his sins" Afina finished for her.
Yeah, she had heard about those parts back in the line.
Gia beamed with a smile. "You know it! That is why he needs to sleep with those many women. He is selling their soul to the punisher for pardon."
"Yes, I do" Afina replied. 'Except the selling of the soul thingy of course,' she further affirmed in her mind.
However, "Please continue with the facts on the prince." she demanded from Gia.
"Of course. He stays in his cultivation pool at least for two hours on his busy days and could stay for up to six hours on his free days."
Afina hoped to hell tomorrow was one of his busy days.
"So I only need to serve him wine during those times?"
"Yes, I guess. You can ask the matron or the butler to be su…"
Afina gulped down deeply. "I can do this"
"Yes, you can. I think the matron wants to get you expelled for giving such a task. The prince is very irritated when he sees colors. He hates them. And you have—" She was circling her hands over Afina's face.
"Blue hair, blue eyes" Afina finished for her.
If matron Valentina wanted to get her expelled, then the woman was in for heartbreak because the last thing Afina would do was get herself expelled from the High House.
Cadeaux
-- Cadeau
reçu État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone