CH 1

1. Suspicious Apprentice Maid

[Siana’s POV]

Siana was a princess of a small kingdom.

But Siana’s life was far from a happy one.

That was because her biological mother died shortly after she was born.

The king greeted the new queen as if he had waited.

The young and beautiful new queen whispered to the king in a sweet voice like honey.

“Don’t worry, Your Majesty. I will raise poor Princess Siana like my own daughter. I will make her a more elegant and beautiful princess than anyone else on behalf of the late queen.”

From that day on, Siana had to learn etiquette, drink tea, dance, and embroider.

But it was abuse in the name of education.

The new queen sat with an annoyed face. In front of her young Siana stood.

Siana’s face was pale as if she was about to collapse.

She bowed her head more than 100 times already to the new queen.

While wearing the stuffocating corset and a dress as heavy as her body.

But for the new queen, it didn’t matter.

“Oh my. No matter how many times she practices she isn’t improving.”

The new queen sighed and beckoned.

The maid next to her handed a whip in her hand.

“From now on, I will scold you whenever you don’t do the greetings properly. Do the greeting again.”

Siana trembled and held her skirt with both hands and lowered her head.

“ Princess Siana, greets you Mother.”

It was an elegant greeting that was unimaginable at such a young age, but it was clumsy in the eyes of the queen who reached the peak of etiquette.

The corner of new queen’s red lips went up. At the same time, the hand with the whip went up.

Whack-!

Siana bit her lip.

‘It hurts!’

At that moment the door opened.

It was the king who entered through the open door.

At the sudden appearance of the king, the queen’s face stiffened as if embarrassed, and Siana looked at the king with tears in her eyes.

‘Father, it hurts. Please stop my stepmother.’

“Your, Your Majesty, this is…….”

The king said before the new queen made excuses.

“You’re doing great. Children who can’t understand words should be taught even if it means scolding them.”

Then he said a sentence to Siana, who looked at him with big eyes.

“You are a princess of the kingdom. Learn properly so that you don’t become a nuisance to the royal family.”

That was it.

The king left the room again, and the new queen giggled like a witch.

Again, the new queen took the whip in her hand.

Siana thought.

‘I really hate it. I wish my family would disappear!’

— I thought so, but I really didn’t expect it to happen.

When Siana was eighteen, the Imperial army invaded. The castle was captured in less than a day.

All the royals were dragged out.

The king and the new queen, the prince and princess who the new queen gave birth to, and even Siana, who was trembling alone in the corner of the room.

There was a man sitting in front of the royals kneeling, supressed under the hands of soldiers.

That man was called the “Prince of Blood,” he was Rashid, the crown prince of the empire that conquered the continent.

Rashid said as he lowered his eyes.

“There was no answer to the letter recommending you to surrender, so I came all the way here. What’s your answer now, are you going to surrender now or not?”

Unlike his brutal nickname, he had a soft voice like the autumn wind.

Siana felt a glimmer of hope in her.

‘Maybe he won’t kill us.’

But the king’s voice shattered Siana’s hopes.

“We will never humbly beg for our lives from an invader or anything. I’d rather die!”

“I see.”

“What?”

At that moment, the sword in Rashid’s hand swung.

In an instant the king’s life ended.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

The royals, who had been holding their breath, screamed.

Rashid said in a friendly voice, looking down at the royal family who had become violent.

“What you want is a record of not bowing down to the one who invaded the kingdom until the very end. I’ll leave as many records as you like, so die comfortably.”

The royal family couldn’t even make a sound in extreme fear, and their heads were blown one after another.

Siana’s hands trembled as she watched her family die.

The death of her family, to whom she had never shared the slightest affection, she wasn’t saddened by it.

It was a strong survival instinct.

‘It wasn’t a happy life, but I don’t want my life to end like this!’

It was the moment when Rashid approached her.

Thud!

Siana screamed loudly, bowing her head on the floor.

“Please spare me!”

“…….”

Rashid’s sword stopped for the first time at the voice like a lion, that didn’t match her small body.

Siana did not miss the moment and shouted again.

“I’ll do anything. Please spare me!”

My heart pounded.

She could feel Rashid’s gaze over her head.

His eyes were so intense that her body trembled even though she was only staring at the floor.

Rashid asked in an innocent voice.

“I can’t believe it, you will do anything. Are you saying you want to be my woman?”

At his bizarre words, Siana jumped inwardly and replied.

“No way! I’m far from a seductive beauty. On the contrary, everyone I meet asks if I feel sleepy and don’t feel threatened by me. . And besides I don’t have a cute charm and I can’t smile coyly. I’m sure your Highness will not like me.”

Rashid’s lips twitched slightly at the absurd self-introduction.

“Then what should I use you for?”

Siana’s eyes darted about. I had to give him a convincing answer.

“I’m very healthy. And I know how to embroider, and I’m good at learning things quickly. Therefore….”

“Therefore?”

“Wouldn’t it be perfect to treat me as a maid?”

“…….”

At that moment, silence lingered.

‘Did I say too much nonsense?’

Siana closed her eyes tightly, wondering if it was really over.

But Rashid’s sword did not swing. Instead, I just heard a giggle.

Unless I am hallucinating right now, but it is definitely Rashid’s laughter.

After a while, Rashid spoke in a more relaxed voice.

“Raise your head, I want to see your face.”

Siana slowly raised her head, swallowing her saliva.

As soon as Rashid and his eyes met, Siana was shocked.

‘Hick, What is this beauty?’

Rashid’s face she saw up close was completely different from when she saw it from a distance.

Mysterious purple eyes seen between blood-soaked silver hair and long eyelashes.

He was unrealistically beautiful.

‘They said that he was a swordsman who no one can defeat on the continent, but isn’t he taking advantage of the enemy’s fascination with his face and slashed them?’

I looked at him with reasonable misconceptions, Rashid lowered his eyes and said.

“It’s is as they say. It’s a round and bland face like bread made with only flour.”

So you are saying that I don’t have the qualifications to become a maid?

Siana bit her lips with a nervous look.

How long has it been?

Rashid’s eyes narrowed.

It was a strange smile with eyes that seemed to fascinate anyone at a glance.

“Okay. Be a  maid in the imperial palace as you wish.”

“Ah…!”

Siana’s eyes sparkled.

She survived this hell!

Siana, who clenched her fists, soon came to her senses.

I had to properly greet the benefactor who gave me this opportunity.

Siana got up and straightened her back. And she grabbed both ends of the skirt and bowed gracefully.

It was a perfect princess greeting that had been honed for decades.

“Thank you, Your Highness the Crown Prince. Siana Asylond von Silité, will never forget this grace.”

Rashid looked at Siana with his widened eyes, then smirked and muttered so quietly so that Siana couldn’t not hear him.

“Looks like I picked up something cute.”

* * *

With that, Siana hid her identity and became the apprentice maid in the imperial palace.

From a princess of a country to a maid in another country, others might despair, asking how they could be a pathetic maid, but Siana was okay with it.

‘Every time I move, the bread is made, dirty clothes become clean, and the garden becomes beautiful.’

Siana’s emerald eyes twinkled.

‘It’s much more comfortable than when I was a princess who had to drink tea, dance, and smile like a doll while wearing a tight corset all day.’ She said inwardly.

‘Being a maid is the best!’

I even thought it would be okay to live as a maid in the Imperial Palace for the rest of my life.

Of course, life in the palace wasn’t just happy.

A mean voice came over Siana’s head, who was crouching down and wiping the marble.

“Huh. She’s doing something she wasn’t even told to do. Does she wants to look good to the maids?”

Siana raised her head.

The woman looking down at Siana with her nose raised to the end of the sky was Jeanne, the same apprentice maid.

Jeanne, who had goldfish-like followers behind her, said with a fierce look.

“No matter how hard you try, you are a slave who was brought from a defeated country. No matter how hard you try, you won’t  be an official maid for the rest of your life.”

Jeanne, the leader of the apprentice maid, hated Siana from the beginning.

Territorial or belittling. It was something like that.

Before Siana could say anything, there was a thumping sound of footsteps.

It was Chuchu, another apprentice maid, who appeared.

“Jeanne, are you bullying a person who works quietly again? Stop talking!”

Jeanne flinched at Chuchu’s shout.

Even for Jeanne, who has nothing to fear, Chuchu was a tough opponent.

Because she was ignorant and big and very strong.

So Jeanne decided to take a step back this time.

“Have a good time with the poor person who is nothing.”

Jeanne turned around with a snort. She didn’t forget to kick Siana’s cleaning tools while passing by.

Other apprentice maids giggled along with Jeanne.

“That plague.”

Chuchu looked at Jeanne’s back with an absurd face, and then turned her eyes toward Siana.

“You don’t stand still either, just hit her hard. Doesn’t that mean girl torments you even more because you are quiet?”

Siana was a little shocked.

Was that “bullying” me?

To Siana who was abused by the new Queen all the time while she was growing up, bullying wasn’t just like that.

It was more terrifying and vicious.

Compared to that, Jeanne’s grumpiness was cute.

Chuchu, who could not have known Siana’s thoughts, muttered with a disturbed face.

“Well, considering that girl’s family, it’s not easy to stand up against her… …”

There was a reason why Jeanne, who was the same apprentice maid as them, was so arrogant.

Because she is the daughter of a fairly famous merchant in the empire.

As with all things in the world, having a good background , was important to be promoted as a maid.

It was an established fact  that Jeanne would be the fastest apprentice maid who would succeed in becoming an official maid.

That’s why other maids are hanging around her like goldfishes, thinking they would also be promoted as fast as her.

Chuchu murmured as she let out a long sigh.

“What a goddamn world, a person who doesn’t even work properly uses her background and succeeds.”

Although Chuchu is considered as a promising talent for in the eyes of some maids due to her extraordinary size and strength, but it couldn’t guarantee her future.

Because she was just a miner’s daughter.

But the little girl next to her had more worse situation than herself. (Chuchu’s pov)

Chuchu asked, clicking her tongue.

“By the way, do you really have no one backing you? Still, if a foreigner enters the palace as an apprentice maid, there must be someone who would have helped you.”

Someone who helped me. Yes there was.

It was Rashid, the crown prince of this empire.

He made the princess of the defeated country, who was supposed to be dead or imprisoned, a maid in the Imperial Palace.

However, Siana did not gave much importance to that act.

‘It must have been because he felt sorry or funny when my head banged the floor that time, to beg for my life.’

Sympathy given on a whim by someone who has too much.

It won’t mean much to him.

Perhaps the crown prince has already forgotten about me.

So Siana replied firmly.

“There was no one.”