Day passed, to another day…

761 NE-07-13

            Adel woke me up…I got up from the bed…like usual, she led me to the vanity table to do my morning routine. While in the morning routine, Adel gave me the information that in front of the door, the one who got ordered to watch me had come; right now he was in the living room, waiting for me.…He already came when I just got up from bed... The usual morning routine had been done. I stood up and looked at the mirror…The more I looked at myself in the mirror, the more I could see my mother in the reflection…Maybe because all the dresses were my mother's old dresses…It was a one-piece, tight-fitting dress with sleeves and a V-Neck…The skirt itself was so tight to my body…It was so different from my old dress, where it had a voluminous skirt…

            Adel asked, Perhaps you want to have breakfast first? Or meet this guard first?"

            "I want my breakfast first…"

            We left the room, and walked toward the dining room, ignoring the guard. In the dining room, Cassius and Valerie were standing. I walked to my seat, and after that, I asked all of them to take a seat like yesterday. We had breakfast together.

            After I had breakfast, I walked to the living room to meet the guard. When I put my foot in the living room, he immediately got up from his seat…I asked him to take his seat back, and I also took a seat…After each of us sat down, he started to explain what I would do in the palace according to the Queen’s order…According to his explanation, I would be assigned under the Arch-Treasury, and there would be 4 people. For the surveillance, he would stay side by side with me the entire time until dusk.

            I asked, "Can I bring my own guards?"

            "Your own guards?? Ah!! Those people who were with you…sure, you can bring them, but they will not stay beside you; instead, they will stay on the training ground." His intention changed to Adel, "And your maid beside you—the Queen takes an interest in her, and wants her to stay with your guards in the training ground…"

            I was surprised, and said "WHAT!! She will stay beside me…why does the Queen want her on the training ground?"

            "She didn’t inform me of the reason for that; I am just a guard; I do what the Queen ordered without asking.

            I looked at Adel, who was beside me, and said to him, "But, I still need her with me…"
            "You don’t need to worry about anything in the palace; surely there are still some servants that can help you………I think that is everything, and now we can depart to the palace…"
            He got up, left the room, and immediately went to the front door. I told Adel to explain everything to Cassius and Valerie; they would come to the palace with me…At once, she left the room, while I was waiting in the living room..A few minutes later, Adel brought them in front of me…

            I asked them, "Do you already know why you are here?"
            Valerie answered, "Your maid told us everything, we know it already.."

            "Great, then…now let’s depart there.."
            I got up from my seat, and proceeded to leave the house, followed by the others. In front of the house, the carriage was already prepared, and the guard rode a horse…I immediately went inside the carriage; the others, like usual, went to the front of the carriage, and we departed from the house to the palace with the guard, who rode a horse beside the carriage. 

            …

            Arriving in front of the palace, the carriage was stopped. Adel opened the door, and I left the carriage. After I left the carriage, I saw the guard get off his horse and bring the horse’s rope to another guard. 

            He walked toward us, and said, "You can leave the carriage in here; there will be another guard who will take care of it……now you can follow me; I will show you the way…"

            We went to the palace, led by the guard…While walking, I noticed that the attire of the guard was more extravagant, elegant, and different from another guard of the palace; the biggest difference was the blue robe behind him.

            In the distance, I could see two people in the intersection of the hall. The closer we walked to them, the clearer I saw. They were a sort of maid of the palace and a guard. 

            Arriving in front of them, the guard said, "This is where you need to separate…" He introduced me to the maid, "She is one of the servants here; her name is Flavia, and she will be the one who will help and accommodate you while you are in the palace…" She lifted her skirt, and greeted me. She had long, brown, curly hair. What I had seen from her was that her age was maybe the same as Adel's.

            He introduced the guard to the others, saying, "He is one of my men, he will lead you to the training ground, so you need to follow him…he will introduce you to everyone on the training ground……………………Now lady Aurelia can follow her; she will lead you to the room, where you had been assigned; surely I will still accompany you."

            Flavia, the guard, and I turned right, and the others went the opposite of me…She led me to a different hall, so we walked to a different side of the palace…In this hall, I could see a lot of people with extravagant attire walking around..I assumed they were the nobles who were in the court…When we were walking in there, their eyes focused on me. I saw some of them start to whisper to each other, and I just ignored everything from them.

            .

            We arrived in front of a room, I looked up; there was a sign saying "Arch-Treasury.". It was the room I had been assigned. Flavia opened the door, and I could see inside the room. It was a chancery room, and there was a lot of paperwork in the room. The size of the room was the same as the size of my father's room. There were five people in the room; two were ladies, and the others were gentlemen. They were sitting at their own desks. Flavia led me to the desk in the center of the room. 

            At the desk, there was a middle-aged man who took a seat. The guard who was behind me, immediately in front of me,

            The guard said, "This is Lady Aurelia; the Queen ordered her to be here to help the treasury."

            The man was quite surprised and said, "AURELIA!!! IS SHE FROM THE AURELIUS FAMILY??"

            Everyone in the room was surprised after hearing it from the man.

            The guard answered, "Correct, she is Lady Aurelia from the Aurelius Family…"
            I lifted my skirt and greeted him…

            "Where is the order? You talked about…I WANT THE PAPER ABOUT THIS.." The man said to the guard..

            The guard took out a paper, and gave it to him. The man read it, and a few seconds later, his face was disbelieving. Seeing that, everyone in the room rushed to the desk and took turns reading the paper. I was confused. What was the big deal for me to be here?

            The guard said to the man, "As you can see, Lady Aurelia will be assigned here, but there is an addition from the paper that is not written in there…I had been assigned as the guard of Lady Aurelia by the Queen’s order; I hope you allow my presence inside the room to stay beside her." 

            I was surprised; he introduced himself as my guard, not as the person who was surveying me. The man and everyone in the room became more surprised.          

            The man said with a worried tone, "Is the Queen aware that a guard is prohibited from staying longer inside one of the courtrooms?"

            "You need to ask that to the Queen for the answer…I am here just by her order…"

            "Arghhhh!!! Sure, sure, I will make an exception for you to stay beside her in the room. The man pointed at Flavia and said, "And how about her? Is she her personal maid, so she needs to stay beside her?" 

            "She is just the servant of the palace; she is not her personal maid, so she knows the rules." The guard answered.

            The man looked at me, and said, "So Aurelia…Let me introduce myself. I am Livio Atius, the one who is in charge here…" He turned to the others and said, "All of you need to introduce yourself.
            One by one, they introduced themselves, 

            The first man introduced himself "My name is Marco Atius, and as you can see from my name, I am his son…" He pointed at Livio.

            The second man introduced himself, "I am Tito Julius…", He had blonde hair and blue eyes like the royals. 

            Julius?? I immediately asked him, "Julius?? Are you related to the royals?"

            He answered, "Yes, I am. I am the third…"

            I said to him, "So you are his brother…"
            Now, it was the ladies' turn to introduce themselves.

            The first lady introduced herself "I am Clara Alliena. nice to meet you, Lady Aurelia..". Clara's appearance was more feminine, and her dress was more glamorous. When I saw her dress, it reminded me of my dress when I was 15 years old.
            The second lady introduced herself "My name is Hillaria Antia; it’s an honor to be acquainted with you, Lady Aurelia…". Hillaria’s appearance was like Lady Octavi's; her dress was more like a man's attire with the pants she wore.

            I introduced myself to all of them, saying, "My name is Aurelia Aurelius; I hope my presence here can help all of you, and I hope we can get along with each other.."
            After all the introductions, Flavia left the room, Clara led me to my desk, and the guard was still beside me. At the desk, Clara explained everything to me, how to handle the paper, how to bring the paper, and other things. 

            She finished explaining and asked me, "Lady Aurelia, may we have tea time together after this?"
            I answered, "I gladly accept your invitation, Lady Clara.."

            She came back to her own desk. I took a seat at my desk, and beside my desk was Tito's desk. He passed me a note about what I needed to do for today. For today, I just needed to sort the fund papers for each category…While I was working, I felt a little bit uncomfortable because the guard kept standing behind me. Sometimes, I took a look around, and everyone just kept staring at the guard.

            Time had passed, and suddenly I could hear a bell. I saw everyone suddenly become more relaxed and hand out their work. Clara and Hillaria walked toward my desk.

            In front of my desk, Clara asked, "It’s over, Lady Aurelia…Now may we have a tea time together??"

            "Ah! So that bell works for…" 

            "That is a sign bell…"

            "How about the paper? Where do I need to hand these?"
            "You can leave them at desk, someone will take them.."
            "Well, if that’s the case…"

            I got up from the desk…