Love In The Palace

Servant

-unedited, be mindful of grammatical and spelling errors-

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"Queue up and register your presence! Then line up as you're told inside!"

It doesn't take too long until it's my turn and I line up following what the previous people have done. After all hundreds of candidates have lined up, the female servant with a little bit more elaborate hairdressing and uniform, probably the head-servant here stands up and talks with a loud and clear voice.

"As all of you have known, you're all not yet servant. There'll be training starting from tomorrow to judge how fit each and everyone of you are, to be the palace servant. It may sound low to all of you, but palace servants are supposed to carry elegance and grace in handling chores, especially when the palace is holding a banquet or ceremony. There should, and must, be no flaw ever or even nine lives are not enough to save you." The head-servant pauses for a while before continuing again.

"Training will only be carried out for three days. In those three days, you have to perform your best in order to be shortlisted as servants. The best of the best could be chosen as new servants for the important figures in this palace, such as the concubines, princes and princesses. The ones with bad performances..." She pauses again.

Can go back home? Can we go back home?! If we can, I'll purposely perform badly!

"Will be downgraded to clothes washer until you're released from the palace." Her lips form a smirk, eerie enough to scare all the girls around and create goosebumps. Wash the clothes? Of all chores that I've ever done in the Leanne family before, washing clothes is the hardest chore to do, especially in the winter. The freezing cold water is unbearable and you'll have to wash and wash and wash again stained clothes to remove the stains. They must be perfectly clean, especially when this is the palace. And seeing the humongous size of this palace, I believe that the number of clothes to wash is innumerable.

"But before all of you are led to your chambers today, standing by my side will be your instructor for the next three days." The head-servant stands aside, letting another seemingly high-ranking servant to take her place.

"My name is Manda. Call me Head-servant Manda. I don't tolerate unpunctuality so make sure that before the training starts, each and everyone of you are already here. Unpunctuality is recorded and you'll immediately be downgraded to clothes washer." Everyone looks down, stealing glances at each other. It's nothing different from war, a war of smaller scale, a war of survival, a war for a better life among the servant candidates.

"Now all of you follow me!"

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I scrape off the dirt in and out of the jug, making sure that there's no scratches and it's shining clean. This is one of the training. Waking up early, so early that even the sun hasn't risen up yet sure is really tiring, especially when I did not sleep well. I look around again, everyone is busy doing their work. Some has even made friends, while I'm just a lonely bird at the corner, trying not to offend anyone, trying my best to survive.

"Hi." A girl approaches me from behind, squatting down with me as we both clean our own assigned jugs.

"Err.. Hi." I look at her, she looks innocent, like a gullible fifteen years old, as if she knows nothing about the world.

"I've always wanted to talk to you. We were in the same wagon, remember? I sat in front of you." Now that I pay attention to her face while trying to recall again, she does look familiar. I smile and nod my head. She returns my smile with a bright grin.

"My name is Autumn! What's yours?"

"Uh... Jade. My name's Jade."

"You have such a nice name!" It's the first time someone has ever praised my name, not even Rowena has before. It feels like butterflies are surrounding your heart as spring arrives. Warm and happy. I can't hide the joy in my eyes.