Chapter 10

10 Catching Up

‘Even in the face of danger, our Princess doesn’t back away from having a positive outlook towards the future... I have to bow to her willpower.’ Tilla gave a pitiful smile to the Princess.

If the Princess was going to stay in Sorvando no matter how dangerous the place was, then Tilla was going to try her best to make the Princess feel as comfortable as she could.

As always, Tilla was going to devote herself to taking care of the Princess in the hopes of making her dull life a little brighter.

Tilla took in a deep breath and then exhaled all the negativity that she had been inhaling since yesterday. She promptly put on a cheerful smile on her face and then said to Anastasia, “Princess, I will give you a warm bath, and then I will give you an amazing body massage. Your body must have turned sore after that long carriage ride.”

Anastasia curved the corner of her lips downwards and gave a puppy-eyed look to Tilla, “Yes, my body has become so stiff,” she gave a demonstration by moving her arms around and winced, “I cannot even move my arms properly.”

Tilla gave a sorry look to the Princess. She angrily stomped towards the suitcases while mumbling very angrily, “I would have given you a body massage yesterday itself if that brat who led me to my room hadn’t locked me up like a criminal!”

Tilla was about to carry the suitcase to bring it to the bedroom but just then, a few of the pale-looking maids lined up outside the main door while carrying several items in their hands.

Noticing their porcelain-like faces, Tilla sprinted to where the Princess was and stood in front of her like she was her shield.

The maids politely bowed their heads to the Princess and then asked her, “Your Highness, we have brought some warm water for your bath and we have also brought some food. Would you like us to prepare the bath and the breakfast for you?”

.....

“Yes, please. Thank you!” Anastasia gave a sweet smile to the maids.

Tilla, on the other hand, was judging the maids in her mind. ‘Tsk! They are going to prepare the bath and the breakfast at the same time? Don’t they know that the food will get cold if they do that? Ugh! Are they all new or what?’

Tilla and Anastasia kept on standing right where they were as the maids ran here and there, making sure that everything was in order.

After all of them left, Tilla closed the main door. And she suggested to the Princess, “Your Highness, I think you should eat first. The food will get cold by the time you finish taking a bath.”

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“Yes, I think so too. I’m famished,” Anastasia agreed and turned around to glance at the table that the maids had set at one corner of the living room.

She glanced at Tilla and said, “You must be hungry as well. I don’t think the vampires are going to serve you any food at the servants’ quarter. So you better eat with me from now on. They have brought plenty, it will be more than enough for both of us.”

“Sure,” Tilla gladly accepted because she too was very hungry. And she had also already speculated that she was not going to get any food in a place that was full of vampires.

Both Anastasia and Tilla sat down in front of the table.

However, Anastasia had a disappointed look on her face when she saw the food. There were several food items there but everything looked... weird. She had never seen even one of the dishes before.

And she was not even sure if she was hungry anymore.

Anastasia looked to her side and saw that Tilla was already digging in. “Is it good?” she asked with some hesitance.

Tilla mumbled with a mouthful of food, “Oh, it’s so good. I don’t know if it’s my hunger or if it’s the food but everything is unexpectedly delicious.”

Anastasia reluctantly picked up a spoon and looked at a bowl of stew. She couldn’t tell what was in the stew but she knew that there were a lot of things in there. She scooped out whatever came to her spoon and put it in her mouth.

She slowly chewed it to realize that it was a piece of very tender and juicy meat. Her eyes twinkled. “Oh, it’s delicious.” She scooped out another piece from the stew and this time, she found a piece of potato.

“I told you it is good,” Tilla mumbled as she emptied a bowl.

Anastasia nodded happily, “Yes, it’s like a bowl of surprise. You don’t know what you will get. I like it.”

Outside the main door, Zenon was carefully listening in to the conversation of the Princess and her handmaid. He let out a sigh of relief and thought, ‘I am glad that she likes it. I had to run all the way to the human settlement and steal their food.’

‘Aaahh! Stealing food is no fun. I will have to hire some human cooks... and maybe a few human maids as well,’ he spoke under his breath as he walked away from there.

After the Princess and Tilla had their fill, Tilla went to check the water in the bathroom. Thankfully, the water was still lukewarm. Tilla took out a comfortable gown for the Princess to wear after the bath so that she wouldn’t have to restrain her breathing for the whole day.

‘I will have her change into the ball gown at dusk,’ she thought to herself and went to call the Princess for the bath.

Tilla helped Anastasia to get out of her gown and take a nice bath. The two of them caught up with each other. Tilla didn’t have much to share. So it was the Princess who was doing the talking most of the time. She couldn’t keep any secret from Tilla so she ended up sharing all the conversations that she had with the King.

“Since when did you learn how to talk like that with a man? What were you even thinking leading him on like that?” Tilla scolded the Princess for provoking the King into a bet like that. She gave a long lecture to the Princess for taking that monster that lightly and inviting her own death.

Anastasia had a hard time convincing Tilla saying that she was going to be careful when dealing with the King.

After the bath, Tilla made the Princess lay down on the bed and gave a relaxing body massage to her.

“Ah! This feels so great. Your hands have magic, Tilla,” Anastasia muttered in a sleepy voice. “The King has said that I can bring you along in the ball tonight. So, you should also get ready. I think I will take a nap till then,” her drowsy eyelids finally shut close and she floated to her dreamland.

Tilla covered the Princess with a thin blanket and slowly and carefully got down from the bed. She smelled her hair and twitched, ‘Yup, I better clean myself up while the Princess is asleep.’ She gently closed the door behind, carried her suitcase, and left for her own room.

Right after Tilla left the Princess’ room, someone pushed open the door and walked right in without even knocking.