Chapter 60: Eating With His Majesty (1)
"What did you just say?" Eiravyn’s voice was draped with a dangerous tone. That everybody in the room instantly felt suffocated; the people standing in the dining room, all held their breath, afraid to breathe, as they felt the chilling aura of their king.
They all turned to look at Serena; she just got there and she already made their king this furious. Some felt sorry for her, while others felt like she derserved whatever was coming for her. What will King Eiravyn do to her now? They thought.
But the girl was completely clueless to the concerns of the people around her, she just stared at Eiravyn, blinking her eyes innocently at him, as she tried to recall what she might have said this time.
"I’m really hungry now, can we eat, please." Serena asked in a puppy voice, pouting her lips. As if on cue,her stomach roared again - loudly this time - Making her smile sheepishly at Eiravyn even though she felt embarrassed at the noise her grumpy tummy was making.
Instantly, Eiravyn’s mood changed; the thing he wanted to say was forgotten completely, as he sighed. ’This Kitten... is really unbelievable." He muttered to himself.
"You there! Taste the food!" Eiravyn ordered a maids standing by his side as he turned to look at his mate.
The maids turned to look at each other. "His Majesty is going to let her go just like that?" One maid whispered to a maid standing beside her. She was so shocked that her eyes were wide open In disbelief. This was the very first time, their king stopped himself from going on a rampage when his aura had blazed like hellfire just a moment ago.
"Please, excuse me, Your Majesty." The maid, Ember, Eiravyn had called earlier, walked to them. As she took tiny portions from all the food served on the table onto a smaller plate, she tasted each of the dishes.
When she was done, she turned to her king, while nodding, before taking two slow steps away from them and walking back to where the other maids were standing.
Serena watched all this play out in front of her, she wasn’t so ignorant that she didn’t realize how things worked around here. She had at least watched and read about this kind of lifestyle, actually she was a huge fan of K-dramas back in the human realm, and mostly enjoy watching Sageuk ’historical k-dramas. But now that she was sitting there, experiencing it in person. She felt a little awkward, that this kind of archaic traditions still exists in this present time where a maid tastes the king’s food to check for poison.
Why would a maid taste the food before the king eats it? A maid also has a life of their own; they have family and most have children ’They are living beings and not animals.’ She couldn’t stand this behavior, even when she knew the main reason was to check for poison - she still felt like it was strange.
Serena was about to ask Eiravyn about this, when Eiravyn started cutting the steak into bite-sized pieces.
"Eat this..." Eiravyn said as he pushed the plate of steak he had just finished cutting and placed it in front of Serena and gave her a fork. "Now eat."
Eiravyn’s tone didn’t allow objections. Not that Serena had any. She was already so hungry and looking at the bite-sized steak only made her mouth water.
She mumbled her thank you and started eating the food on her plate, what she wanted to ask Eiravyn before forgotten.
The people standing there couldn’t take their eyes off the expression on their king’s face, he looked stern, and sounded bossy, as usual, but it was undeniable that he was giving extra attention to Serena. It was something no girl received so far.
"Who was this girl?" Ember muttered to herself, and a maid standing close to her heard her, they both exchanged glance, the same thought in their mind, and ’Who was this strange man? Was he really their king or an imposter?’
A blissful smile appeared on Serena’s face as the steak with a hint of rich, savory, meaty juice melted in her mouth together with the tender juices to crispy and charred flavor.
She was so focused on her food, without paying much attention to her surroundings. Whereas Eiravyn was deep in thoughts as he heard her thoughts when she said maids were living beings too.
’If only you knew.’ He muttered to himself as his mind replayed an incident that happened many years ago, but Eiravyn merely shook his head. He would make her understand, just not now.
Serena was mid-way through with her food. When she suddenly remembered something she had been meaning to ask Eiravyn. ’How foolish of me, to have forgotten about this just because of food.’ Serena berated herself internally.
"I could’n get ’ny sig-nal..." Serena mumbled with her mouth full of food.
"You should swallow your food first before you speak, Little Kitten. Otherwise you will get indigestion." He said, offering her a glass of orange juice, he realized that she had a habits of talking whilst eating.
Serena picked the orange juice from Eiravyn and gulped it down in one gulp, she turned back to Eiravyn.
"I’ve been trying to call my best friend, and it was telling me no signal. Is there an issue with the transformer here?" Serena finally asked, curiosity clouding her voice. She really needed to talk to someone she knew.
"Are you feeling bored?" Eiravyn asked, before adding, "you can tour the kingdom, or go out to the tour the towns if you want. Your maids will be assigned to you tomorrow morning, you can always talk to them whenever I’m no around."
"No, no, that is not the problem, I just wanted to inform them that I’d arrived safely. Is there a way I can reach them, maybe with your phone? Since mine is showing no signal."
Eiravyn sighed. "You can do that later, you barely ate your food, is the food not to your liking?" He asked her instead, "I thought you enjoyed the food I packed for you on the way here, or do you want me to change the chef?"
Serena rejected Eiravyn offer to change the chef, she already felt like the people here don’t like her, what will they think of her if the chef got changed in the very first day of her staying here.
"Oh! No, please don’t..."
"Then, why are you not eating your food, the last time I checked you’re a foodie." Eiravyn asked, before Serena could respond, he was already cutting the waffles.
’Wait was that for her as well.’ No way she was eating that as well, she was already full.
"Eiravyn, I’m really full. I don’t think I can eat anymore."