Two dry knocks rippled into the unconsciousness, causing consciousness to shift into motion.

“Nine more minutes...” Aloe weakly mumbled, more a reflex than a coherent thought.

“Venerable Scribe, the two hours have already passed.” The voice sent a clear message through the air, though she decided to ignore it.

Instants later an explosion woke her up. Aloe jumped out of her sheets in alert, turning her head from side to side expecting destruction, but instead only found a maid at her bedside.

“What in the hells was that?” Aloe shouted.

“Just a snap,” Lulu responded as she snapped her finger in a swift bang.

“It sounded way louder than that.” The scribe refuted, but the maid didn’t elaborate further.

“Noon has already passed, you should depart to the baths if you wish to keep your original planning, Aloe,” Lulu explained with composure ignoring the scribe’s claim, however, a smile on her visage betrayed her professionalism indicating that she was enjoying herself.

Aloe groaned as she stood up from the bed.

“You’ve gone to sleep with your clothes on?” The maid added with a slight shock, her brows raised.

“I kinda collapsed...” Aloe responded shyly.

Lulu sighed in response. “There are pajamas in the wardrobe if you were to need them.”

“Noted.” The petite woman stood up and stretched her arms, a yawn escaping her mouth.

“Will you need assistance dressing yourself?” Lulu asked in a manner that revealed it was more of a practiced line rather than an actual question.

“Shouldn’t be first taking a bath?”

“You will need to get dressed at some point.”

“True.” Aloe shrugged. “But no, I can dress myself.”

“Understood.” Lulu half-nodded, half-bowed. “Let us then pick an attire before going to the baths, shall we?”

Aloe walked behind Lulu as the maid opened the wardrobe. Whilst not as big as her bedroom on the oasis, it was certainly equally as long.

“What would be of your liking?” Lulu asked as she stepped aside to let Aloe see the contents inside.

Now that she was a woman, Aloe had thought that she had experienced most emotions that life had to show to her, but as she looked into the endless – it was barely three meters wide – wardrobe, she found a feeling she had never felt before.

Decision paralysis.

The sheer number of dresses, attires, and footwear left her mind blank. And that was without mentioning the accessories. Never in her life, she had been presented with this many possibilities.

“Uhm...” A braindead mumble filtered out of her lips. Newborns had more coherence than that. And they didn’t drool as much. “What... why don’t choose for me, Lulu?”

“I wouldn’t be able to make a decision worthy of a scribe, Aloe.” The maid responded with perfect composure.

She’s enjoying this. Aloe wasn’t a maid, but she could understand how one like Lulu could get a giggle out of toying with a fellow commoner out of their expertise and comfort. I mean, I would also do that. That’s hilarious. Of course, only when it happened to other people.

“I insist, chose for me.”

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“I do not believe that I-“

“Consider it an order.” Aloe was still too sleepy to play this game now.

And two hours of sleep didn’t compensate for more than thirty of wakefulness. At least her head was no longer throbbing. It was simply rocking.

“Understood, Aloe.” Lulu knew better than to press on the issue after her superior’s outburst.

The maid looked at Aloe from head to toe, taking seriously her task of choosing an attire for her. After a solid minute, she selected a set of clothes from the wardrobe and a pair of sandals. Aloe almost rebutted that she needed no footwear but after gazing at her sandals, she noticed they were a tad too dusty. As for the clothes, they were conservative as things went on in this palace. Conservative being a one-piece pistachio dress with a knee-length skirt, and exposed shoulders, but a cream shawl that could allow her to keep some modesty.

On top of that, Lulu threw some accessories from a drawer.

“Are... are those emeralds?” Aloe almost fainted as she saw the necklace on Lulu’s hands. “I-I can’t wear that.”

“Of course, you can.” The maid added softly understanding the scribe’s refusal. “It is but the duty of a scribe to not embarrass their liege. Aloe, you are the scribe of commoners of Sadina, you are expected to look wealthy. Otherwise, you may reflect incorrectly the fortune of Sadina.”

“But my mother didn’t wear such accessories!” She exclaimed in disbelief.

“Scribe Shahrazad was a special case,” Lulu said. “I didn’t work at the palace at the time, but I heard from the snake tongues that the previous scribe of commoners did use to wear jewelry, though that stopped once her husband died.”

“I...” Did she? Aloe’s expression palled in confusion. I... I can’t remember...

The voices of her subconscious started screaming and berating her, revealing how she was an awful daughter who couldn’t even remember how her own mother dressed barely a few weeks after her death. No... She almost sobbed, holding herself by a string before the maid.

“We should be getting to the baths if you want to continue with your job.” Whether by chance or because she had read the room, Lulu cut through Aloe’s thoughts. “Please follow me, venerable Scribe.”

Wordlessly, she nodded, not even bothering to protest at the maid’s usage of the title.

Sadina’s palace was big, that wasn’t anything new, but it became painfully obvious when it took them five minutes to walk straight from her office to the palace’s baths. Lulu guided her into a hall decorated with marble everywhere, steam filtering through the curtains leading to the actual bath.

“Umm... are there not more private baths? Like a tub, for example?” Aloe asked shyly, her shoulders shrinking into her body in embarrassment, as she stepped on the marble floor.

“Private?” Lulu blinked as if she had been asked a stupid question. “These baths are only for the highest-ranking members of the palace: personal scribes, hosted diplomats, and the emir herself. You can’t get more private than that.”

“I... see...” Whilst the chance of encountering someone on the bath was minuscule by what Lulu had just said, far lower than even the fajat course at the public baths, the idea still terrified Aloe.

Not only was she not comfortable with the idea of someone seeing her, but more with the idea of who might see her. The fact that only the people who could access the bath were currently women didn’t reassure her in the slightest.

Her fears were cut as she heard the sound of clothing rustling. Aloe turned to face Lulu.

“Huh?” Only to find her removing her maid outfit, her breasts spilling out of the clothing. “What are you doing?”

“Undressing myself?” Lulu stated matter-of-factly.

“I can see that. I mean why.”

“To service you in the bath, of course.” Aloe didn’t linger much in the possible interpretations of those words. Much.

“I thought maids weren’t allowed in the bath.”

“They aren’t allowed to bathe themselves," She nodded. "But we need to accompany the bathgoers to wash them.” It was worth studying how composed Lulu was with her upper torso discovered. Aloe could never.

“I do not require your assistance in the bath,” Aloe ordered half-annoyed, half-embarrassed. “You are to either wait here or return to your tasks.”

Once again, Lulu did not make a fuss out of it, the maid simply did as commanded.

“Understood, venerable Scribe.” She calmly put her dress back up, her visage that of indifference as she covered her breasts. Unfortunately for the maid, that was a mask Aloe was too acquainted with. She couldn’t fool her. “I’ll leave your fresh clothes in this basket.”

Aloe nodded at the servant’s words and Lulu proceeded to walk away.

“Wait.” The scribe commanded and the maid replied in kind. “What did I tell you about titles, Lulu?” She sent her a weak smile at her.

The maid turned to face her. “My apologies. Aloe.” Then she returned one of her one, far brighter and more beautiful than Aloe’s.

“Good.” Aloe nodded, trying to make the most authoritative and scribe-like act she could do. “You may depart now.”

As she was left alone in the changing room, Aloe undressed herself, leaving her used clothes on another basket. Even if it was a private bath, it looked eerily similar to the changing rooms of the paying courses of the public baths. In a fit of wisdom, Aloe picked up and wrapped a towel around her body as a precaution. The pearly white of the fabric contrasted greatly against the coffee black of her skin.

Calmly, Aloe made her way to the bath, the cold stone brushing her naked feet. When she crossed the curtains though, that calmness turned into turbulence.

There was a person in the bath pool. Aloe’s face petrified; her heartbeat stopped.

“Who goes there~?” She chanted sweetly.

It was the emir.