Virtue (Temari, Hinata, Sakura, Ino, Tenten) SLOW UPDATES

King's Chosen 4

PART THREE: HINATA

KING'S CHOSEN

CHAPTER FOUR

Life at the palace was more than Hinata was used to. She had only spent a week there and she was already overwhelmed. Back at home she tended to herself and took care of her uncle. Here in the palace the servants did everything, even the menial and, in her opinion, private job of washing her clothes. Needless to say Hinata got into trouble with the servants for doing the things they were supposed to do. It was unusual for her, being idle while everybody else was so busy.

"My lady, I have said times without number that doing chores is unbecoming of a queen prospect!" Hinata flinched as her assigned maid snatched the clothes she was about to wash from her hands.

"It shames me to have another cleaning my undergarments." She admitted with red ears while her maid just rolled her eyes.

"The servants of the castle are paid to do their jobs, doing it for us is the same snatching our job from us. We still get paid but we would feel incompetent that we weren't able to meet our master's needs. Moreover if head lady Kagome hears word of this we would be in trouble." The woman explained sternly while Hinata bowed her head in remorse.

"I see now that I was being selfish. My apologies." The raven muttered.

"Oh no my lady, you shouldn't bow your head to a mere servant like me!" The woman was flabbergasted. She had never seen somebody like Hinata before. A certain person came to the maid's mind and she chuckled. "Goodness, you're just like him."

"Like who?" Hinata asked curiously. The maid didn't answer.

"Why don't you go for a walk while I take care of this for you my lady?"

Hinata released a deep sigh as she stepped outside. Was she really doing such a bad job as a queen prospect? The girl caught sight of another queen prospect with her array of servants. It was the haughty one that challenged her on her arrival at the palace. Hinata was immediately curious about why she had several servants trailing behind her while she herself had only one assigned maid. Hinata was not complaining though. She could barely stay in good terms with one servant after all.

The sound of items clattering on the floor followed by a swift thwack and a pained yelp broke Hinata out of her inner rousings. It all happened so fast that Hinata couldn't understand what the commotion was about until her eyes found the queen prospect just a ways ahead of her. A servant, a young boy, bowed profusely while holding his throbbing cheek and muttering strings of apologies to the angered queen prospect. The prospect's other servants kept their heads bowed meekly, all the while casting pitiful glances at the servant boy on the receiving end of their mistress's wrath. On the floor around them were scattered pieces of expensive jewelry, some had been damaged by the fall already.

"You clumsy fool! Do you realise how costly these are? Your whole family's lives put together couldn't pay for the damages you have done. You ought to be punished with the whip!"

Hinata gasped at the cruel but true things the noble in front of her said to the helpless servarnt. The boy was in tears, begging for mercy from the queen prospect while hopelessly gathering the broken jewelry pieces on the ground. His fellow servants looked on with teary eyes of their own. In addition to the special royalties the queen prospects gained just by making it past the selection stage, they were given just as much authority as the head servant herself to do with the palace servants as they pleased. The servants knew very well that whipping the boy was not an ordinary threat made by their mistress, she was going to see it though. Some guards were already approaching and Hinata struggled to make it to the boy when the most unexpected thing happened.
Another servant boy jumped out from among their mistress's other servants and stood protectively over the trembling one on the floor.