Zion reached the building after half an hour and pushed the door open. There were two guards on either side of the door, but they made no attempts to stop him. Their only work was to note the names of people who entered the palace and let them in.
He walked toward the counter in front of which, an elf with white long silky hair had his head lowered as he jotted down something on a scroll. After that, the elf put the feather pen back on the ink vessel and looked up to find a beggar in ragged clothes. He frowned as a hint of disgust flashed in his eyes, but he covered it up soon enough and asked, "Are you here for a servant's job?"
Zion nodded while deliberately having an innocent child-like expression on his face.
The elf pulled out another scroll from below the counter and gave it to Zion. "Attach your thumbprint there and take this to the head servant." As he said, he pointed at the counter to his left and lowered his head to continue writing.
Zion frowned as he stood there for a moment. Why did he feel like he returned to the time when he had entered the Vanne kingdom's palace in a similar way? His lips pursed, and he walked toward the corridor. After a while, he reached an open ground where several servants were gathered. They were all working in the garden, tending to the flowers.
The head servant could be easily recognized standing in the middle of the garden with an irritated look on her face. Even though she was an elf with beautiful facial features and long pinkish hair floating behind her back, the criss-cross frown on her forehead made her look uglier than before. She opened her mouth and continued scolding a pitiful servant in front of her who had a guilty look on his face.
"What, now you're going to cry." The head servant glared at the elf standing in front of her. "Am I a fool to take you in? I took you in only to show you sympathy, and is this how you pay me back? Where's your freaking conscience?! Get out of here! Right, this instant!"
The elf servant wiped his tears and turned around to get out of this place. He had had enough scolding for today!
After dealing with that servant, when the head servant looked away, she noticed a new beggar-like person standing in front of her with a dazed expression on his face. She instantly pulled up the corners of her lips and formed a fake smile. "So, you're the new servant. Welcome!"
Zion's lips pursed as he glanced at the direction where the crying servant went and then at the 'smiling' face of this woman in front of her. The way she scolded just now was enough to send a chill down his spine. He could see other servants trembling around him, and if he were also one of them, he would have watched this scene with a pale face.
But he had a goal behind approaching the palace in a beggar's identity. He wanted to find evidence against that gentle-looking husband. He was sure that he would find more about this masked man at this place. So he had no choice but to endure the scoldings of this head servant in the near future.
He took a deep breath and handed over the scroll to the woman, who gave it a glance and closed it before putting up a fake smile again. "Okay, you'll be responsible for handling the East garden from now on, and if the humans working under you make trouble, you are free to give them. That's the only position that's vacant for the elf servants, and I'll be checking monthly records on how you handle them. If I find you slacking off, you'll receive punishments on their behalf too!" Her voice had a cheerful tone that made it seem as if she were telling him the good news. She clapped her hands and said, "Now, off you go. Filch, escort him to the East garden, please."
Another servant who was squatting and tending to the rose flower got up and wiped the sweat off his forehead before he nodded at Zion and gestured to him to follow.
They entered the same corridor again, but this time, they took another turn and went out of the building before walking around in the garden, toward the palace. On the way, the elf servant who was sweating profusely at first calmed down and started chatting. "This is your first day, so make sure you don't end up making any mistakes. You don't have any experience as a servant do you?"
Zion pursed his lips and shook his head. Although he had experienced life as a servant in the previous kingdom, he couldn't say that out loud. So he would just pretend that it was his first day here.
The elf servant also didn't doubt Zion's words and nodded, but there was a hint of sympathy in his eyes. "Just be careful not to make any mistakes. The head servant deliberately gives hard tasks to the new servants to send the useless ones off early." Then he smiled and said, "Don't you worry, Rupert. I'm here for you! I'll explain everything clearly so that you won't make any mistakes!"
Then he went on telling Zion about every single detail about a servant's job. Starting from the process of cleaning to managing the humans. The man left nothing and kept on babbling in front of Zion endlessly. To the human, it seemed as if he had accidentally turned on a radio that talked on and on about how a servant should do his job. By the time they entered the East garden that was inside the main palace, Zion had an urge to hit the elf's face. He even tightened his fist as veins popped up on his forehead, but he took a deep breath to control himself.
Zion already knew of those things, and he bet he could do a servant's job better than anyone else! Then why did this elf servant continue to speak endlessly about it in so much detail? Did they think he was an illiterate elf who didn't know a single thing?! Thinking of this, the anger that had been suppressed rose in his heart again.
He took a deep breath and controlled himself. After all, he came here on a mission, not to have a fistfight with an elf!
Just as they stepped inside, they heard a familiar female voice. "Is that a new servant?"