Chapter 73: The Severity Of Disobeying His Majesty’s Orders
Serena could not help asking, "Who is the eldest amongst you?"
"I’m the eldest, by three minutes, my lady." Astrid said softy, her tone smooth as silk. And Serena realized that her guess had been correct all along.
She nodded and smiled sweetly, and the two servants relaxed visibly. They had expected their new lady to be uptight since they barely knew anything about her. Surprisingly, she was nothing like the ladies they had served so far.
They still had their guards up, but you could tell they were more relaxed now compared to when they first came in.
After a moment of silence, Serena’s stomach growled loudly. She blinked and turned to the servants. She could guess they’d heard the noise her stomach made because they had a look of surprise on their faces.
Serena had skipped dinner yesterday night as she had woken up late and didn’t have the nerve to venture into the kitchen in search of food. And even if she did, she was not sure she would be able to make her way there in one piece without getting lost — the royal house was just that huge. So she was not surprised she had woken up hungry this morning.
"My lady, are you okay?" Aurora asked, as her lady’s face looked red, and when Serena saw the worried look on the servant’s face, she immediately composed herself.
"I... I’m fine. I didn’t had dinner last night. I think I’m just hungry. That’s all." Serena tried to smile amidst her embarrassment. When she saw that her servants’ faces had visibly paled at her words.
They immediately bowed deep and kept their head lowered as they cried, "We are so sorry, My lady!"
Serena was startled by the sudden outburst and turned to look at them, wondering why they were sorry when she was the one who had skipped meals the night before. Why were they acting like it was their fault?
Serena smiled trying to brighten up the mood.
"No need for that, I’m the one who skipped my meal on purpose. It’s nothing to be sorry about." Serena said with a light shrug, but that seemed to have further made matters worst — or so she thought.
Because they shook their heads and still kept them lowered, "His Majesty the king had told us specifically to make sure we serve you your breakfast first thing this morning, but we had been too distracted with the potted plants breaking that we..." Astrid suddenly paused as the twin servant pairs cried out together.
"We are so sorry my lady, it won’t happen again."
Serena really wanted to laugh at the whole irony of the situation but looking at the twins reactions and expressions, she quickly shook her head and tried to reassure them instead.
"Really, it’s okay. I promise you I’m fine. It just a misunderstanding and a minor issue." Serena said with a smile.
But the twin servant looked at her in shock. They had forgotten the orders of the king, and this lady called it a minor issue when His Majesty the king could punish them over this - but she called it a minor issue.
At first, when the king assigned them the task of taking care of this lady as her personal servants, they were not sure who she was or what are position in the kingdom was. Honestly, even now they still were not sure, which was why they addressed her as ’My Lady’. But hearing her dismiss their king’s order - even if it was their fault — did not sit well with them.
"His Majesty will punish us," Aurora said with a low voice.
Serena was stunned. Why acting like it’s a big deal to forget the king’s order and why were they still on this topic? It was almost as if you could get beheaded for disobeying the king’s order, even when you did so unknowingly. She wanted badly to move on from this topic, as it was making her uncomfortable.
"Okay, I get it but since none of us here will tell him that, then there’s no need to worry and besides I’m the one you were supposed to serve and I said it was fine. Is that okay?" Serena asked but did not wait for them to respond and instead said.
"Why don’t you prepare my breakfast for me now?"
Astrid and Aurora exchanged glance and then looked at Serena, wondering if she meant every words she said. Most of their former mistresses they’d served would have blown this out of proportion and would have found every little chance just to get them punished, but she looked so calm and smiled sweetly at them that they could not help but nod at her order, chanting internally for her to mean every single words she said.
The two servant nodded hesitantly, "Would you like to eat your meal in the dining hall?" They asked.
Serena deliberated internally for some time.
"Will His Majesty be eating breakfast with me? Or do you know where he is?" She asked them instead.
Astrid responded to her this time,"I’m sorry my lady but we are not sure where His Majesty is right now but I can go and check for you." Her gaze was cast downward, apologetically.
Serena quickly shook her head. "That won’t be necessary, I don’t want to bother him. I will eat right here in my room." Serena replied. She was already so hungry and did not think she would be able to walk through the long distance leading to the dining hall.
"As you wish my lady. I will go down to the kitchen to help so My lady will not have to wait long." The servant named Astrid said. She left after bowing while Aurora stayed to accompany Serena.
"My lady. Is there anything you want to do today? His Majesty said we can assist you anywhere you want to go, as long as you are not going outside of the royal house, but we have to make sure we’ll be back before the afternoon sun sets to start preparations for the banquet today." Aurora provided for her, her voice rising to a higher octave when she mentioned about the banquet.
Serena thought long and hard, she wanted so many information about the kingdom so she had planned to stay indoors in her study. She was still thinking about what she would do when Aurora’s loud excited chatttering voice roused her from her thoughts.
"My lady, I know you must be very excited about the banquet as this is your first banquet in the kingdom."
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