บท 13: Chapter 13 - A New Court Lady and Bath.

After the assault, Rei stayed at Ben's house for a week, it was a really boring week as she was not allowed to leave her own room most of the time due to her safety issues, furthermore, within the seven days in the week, Ben only stays in the house for less than two days, he usually stayed overnight in the castle.

Within that week, Rei only stayed in her room and did some reading when she was bored, Holly came to visit her a few times when she was not going to the castle with Ben, however, due to some unknown reason, she doesn't seem to be quite friendly to Rei compared to the first time they met each other in the castle.

When that boring week finally passed, she was escorted back to the castle by Satoshi and the King's dedicated palace guards that are led by that shady man.

As Rei once again entered the castle and got back to her room, she immediately noticed some differences…

***

"An Er, is it just my imagination or all the palace maids around this area had been changed to a new batch?" Rei asked as soon as she reached her room, she sounds worried.

"It's not your imagination, My Lady. Although just a short glance, I can't find any familiar face from all the palace maids we saw just now, including the one who gave me those misleading information." said An Er who is equally worried.

"Did His Majesty dismiss all of the previous maids just because of that? That's a bit too reckless and exaggerated," said Rei, who found it a bit hard to accept the drastic changes in the castle.

"Well… I guess that's an effective way to solve a problem, aside from being a bit too extreme." said An Er as she helped Rei to take off her overcoat.

Shortly after they settled themselves, their door is knocked on by a lady. An Er opened the door and found out it was a palace maid, in her hands are some towels and bath products. An Er observed that palace maid for a while and noticed that she was a bit different and special from the other palace maids, from her look, clothes, and accessories used, An Er realised that she is not just an ordinary maid.

"Good day, sister, my name is Jade, I am the newly assigned head court lady by His Majesty for Lady Rei." she greeted An Er politely in Qin Empire's official language.

Despite being a bit confused, An Er bowed to Jade for a bit before leading her into the room to meet Rei.

"Greetings, Lady Rei, I am Jade, from now on, I will be your personal assigned court lady," said Jade as she gave Rei a ninety-degree bow.

Still a bit confused by the sudden situation, Rei gently nodded to Jade once.

While Jade was introducing herself, Rei briefly observed that newly assigned court lady, and is amazed by her overly tidy and clean look. From her neatly bunned hair, to her short trimmed fingernails and finally, her perfectly cleaned shoes, there wasn't a single blemish in this court lady's attire, as if she was a properly discipline lady soldier instead of just a court lady.

"My Lady, as a starter for my job as your servant, I shall serve you for your first bath after you returned back from outside the castle," said Jade, in a formal and polite tone.

"Bath? But it's the coldest period in winter right now, our Lady Rei had just recovered from a bad fever days ago," said Xi Er, Rei's younger maid.

"Sister, rest assured. I will make sure to keep Lady Rei away from cold throughout the whole bathing process, and I will never allow myself to let her catch a fever from it," said Jade, still sounding rather polite and formal.

"I understand your professionalism, Sister Jade, but the preparation for a proper bath during wintertime is very costly and time-consuming, don't you need some preparation beforehand?" An Er asked, in a polite tone.

"Pardon me, I don't understand what you were talking about. The preparation procedure should not take more than thirty minutes, so, this should not be an issue," said Jade as she walked towards a side door in Rei's room that is actually connected to a clean and hygienic bathroom.

Jade proficiently touched a pop-up spot on the wall and the surrounding temperature raised as she did so. Then, she walked towards a stone bathtub at the other side of the bathroom and turned one of the 'loose' stones on the bathtub, within seconds, the bathtub immediately filled up with warm water that is at the perfect temperature for a good bath.

"My Lady. I had prepared the water needed for your bath. After choosing the essential oil you like, we may proceed with the bath." said Jade, in an overly formal tone that caused a slight discomfort in Rei…

***

Despite being a bit confused and not trusting her newly assigned personal court lady, Rei enjoyed the first decent bath she had after she was exiled from the Qin Empire. Yes, you did not read wrong, Rei hasn't been bathing properly for more than ten days but still smells nice.

Those straight men she had been interacting with only taught her about the use of toilet and water supplies. They totally forgot to let her know that the bathtub in her room has an auto-heating function, while those previous scheming maids wouldn't even bother to let her know about it.

Anyway, back to the bath. While getting massaged by Jade, Rei closed her eyes and enjoyed the scent of the jasmine essential oil she chose. The elegant and delicate scent of the jasmine flower successfully brought Rei's mind back to her life in Qin Empire where she used to serve one of the emperor's consorts in bath with fresh jasmine flower petals…

"Hmm?" Rei opened her eyes as she recalled the emperor's consorts.

She looked around her surrounding and stared at Jade who is serving her in bath, she can't help but have a weird thought.

"Is the King… married?" She asked carefully.

"If by marry, you mean having a queen, the answer is no," said Jade, who answer that question in a proper tone.

"Uhm… Did His Majesty always have a habit of assigning a personal court lady to anyone?" Rei asked again, even more careful than before.

"No, not very often, only some specific individuals had been granted this privilege," said Jade, with a smile which is overly formal and somewhat stiff...