I arrived back in my room, just short of sunrise. I liked to keep my word after all. I immediately drew the suitcase out from my bed, opened it and threw everything I had on me inside. My dress, my coat, my backpack, even my underwear wandered into the suitcase. I swiftly squeezed it shut afterwards and closed it with my lock again, only to realize that I left my sunglasses inside my pockets. Annoyed, I retrieved them and wore them, just in case the sunrise came faster than expected.

I quickly looked around the room and soon found the dress I wore yesterday. I dressed, naturally with underwear and unlocked the door. Afterwards, I threw myself on my bed and picked up a random book from one of my chests.

Soon, I heard the maids chattering outside as they made their way from the servant quarters to the mansion. I didn’t know what they were talking about as the sun started to reduce my sharp senses into a mess, but they sounded rather playful. In any case, it didn’t take long for them to knock on my door and intrude into my room.

“Come in.” I said and slowly laid the book to the side. The three maids from yesterday entered my room and all stopped as soon as they spotted me.

“Milady, it is not proper for a lady to dress herself.”

“It is simply too embarrassing to change in front of others.” I stated.

“It is fine … you do need to take a bath though.”  I swear my blood froze at this moment. I simply didn’t know how to deal with these three overly friendly women while trying to be friendly myself.

“Uhm … okay?” I said and stood up from the bed. All three women smiled brightly as they escorted me out of the room downstairs into a room meant for changing clothes. I looked around, trying to find anything that could help me to escape this situation the whole time, but remained disappointed till the very end.

“I can bath on my own.” I stated as I couldn’t find any other way around it.

“If you say so … please leave your clothing here, we will prepare a clean dress for you.” I couldn’t say exactly what was wrong with my current dress but didn’t say anything this time. Dealing with them was seriously hard, especially because they meant no ill will.

“Thank you for your hard work.” I said and waited until they left the room, only to swiftly take off my clothing again and flee into the bathroom. A hot, steaming bathtub was already prepared for me, luckily alongside a cloth to wash myself and a towel. They already knew I wasn’t going to accept them inside this room and thus prepared everything in advance. They were definitely not dumb, I had to give them that.

I still needed to look as if I just bathed, so I leaned over the bathtub, sank my hair inside it and quickly lifted my head up again as they were soaked. Afterwards, I used the cloth to wipe myself completely free of any dirt and used the towel to dry myself. As my hairs were quite long, it took some time to dry myself completely and just in time I finished rubbing my hair as the maids announced that they had prepared the new dress.

As soon as I heard the next door closing again, I walked out of the bathroom and frowned immediately. The underwear was quite normal and thus, I wore it immediately. The other stuff though …

First of all, why did I have to wear a corset? Wasn’t I already thin enough as I was? And why did I have to suffer through this pressure it put on my belly? I hated it so much I nearly threw it away but stopped as I noticed the letter with Mary´s signature.

‘Wear everything. Love, Mary.’

She was making fun of me. She knew I hated these things, she knew I despised that they were customary in this nation for every noblewoman. I gritted my teeth, put the letter away and looked at my new dress which was even worse, if not directly humiliating. It was so frilly I nearly bit my own tongue in disgust. It went to my ankles and like usual, had absolutely no pockets. Alongside being extremely tight around my waist, it was also extremely restrictive. I couldn’t see myself fighting off a group of bandits if I were ever attacked on my way to the royal castle … not that I could do that during the day anyway and the chances of that happening were basically null, but the principle mattered!

Angrily, I wore my underdress and asked the maids to come inside.

“There is no way around this?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“Sadly, there isn´t.” I nodded and handed her the corset in defeat. I would pay Mary back for this and I already knew how. With a smirk on my face that soon turned into a painful gasp, I endured the humiliation as the maid pulled on the strings on my back after putting the corset on me. It hurt by quite a bit, even though I was already used to pain. Wearing the dress was a lot better than expected, although the frills made me look incredibly girly and frail, an image I tried to avoid with all my might.

“And why am I wearing this in the first place?” I asked, only then realizing that there had to be a reason for all the fuss.

“Your private tutoring sessions are starting today, Milady.” Without further ado, I stormed out of the room angrily, upstairs while lifting up my dress and opened Mary´s door, slamming it nearly against the wall as it swung open. Just at the right time, I realized the maids were still following me and grabbed the handle before it was too late. Mary wasn’t exactly asleep anymore but was still drunk on sleep.

“Mum? Mum … MUM!” I poked Mary´s back, just as she rolled over to the side. “Wake up, the sun is already shining.” Mary still didn’t stand up, but rather rolled away from me.

“It is too early …” She said and tried to shoo me away with a simple hand movement. I had none of that and kept pestering her with a rather pressing matter.

“Is it true I have an appointment at ten with the second prince? I don’t want to go, he is a bully.” I pouted unhappily.

“And that is exactly why you will go. You need to get along with everyone, not just the ones you like.” She was kind of right, but I still hated it.

“Fine! I´ll do it. Do we play a few card games after that?” I tried to compromise.

“No, I have work to do and you will have etiquette classes right after you came back and we ate.” My compromises failed incredibly.

“Don’t give me that c…” I stopped mid-sentence and changed my choice of wording. “I do not require such classes.”

“You do. Even though you read everything about etiquette, reading is still very different from actually doing it.” She had a fair point, but I already could do most of the stuff through the time I spent with Aska. She seemed to have read my thoughts perfectly though and continued shortly after she stopped. “If your chaperone believes you have learned everything, you are free to do whatever you want during that timeslot.”

“That timeslot?” I asked in utter disbelieve.

“You will help me in governing the domain afterwards.” Which mean a lot of paperwork. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t want to.

“That’s unfair!” I protested. I didn’t want this life. I expected a leisurely lifestyle during the day, eating all different kinds of food, fooling around with Mary … not this.

“You are my daughter, so act accordingly.” Ouch … I couldn’t even refute her as the maids were still inside the room, probably violating several rules in the process as they shouldn’t be there at all.

“Fine … do I have days off?”

“The weekends.” So I only had to go through this one day before I could relax. And then it would begin again someday …