A few days have passed since my sister started teaching me to read and write, and I can proudly say I am improving quickly.
I've learned to write and read many words, including my name, those of my family and acquaintances, those of Yuliana and her family, and a few others. Being diligent and having great motivation help me to learn better, though I guess being a child helps improve that learning rate. I feel that the fact that Zenya is so clear with her explanations is part of why I'm progressing better with each lesson.
Lan has been accompanying me every day as well. There hasn't been a single moment when I haven't taken her with me everywhere I go. Well, maybe not to the bathroom or the garden on my morning walks, I don't want her to get dirty after all.
At first, it was a little embarrassing, but the more I did it, the more I got used to it and the better I felt about it. Besides, I really loved having her, more for what she represented to me than for the fact that she was the first “toy” I'd ever been given in my entire existence.
Today, like most of my days, I was in Kila's office, finishing up the day's lesson. It seems Mom had told her about Lan, since, the day after she handed it to me, Kila made a special place for her when I arrived to receive my lessons.
Anyway, since Zenya was busy for the rest of the afternoon, Kila told me I would have the rest of the day off. I wouldn't complain if I got more time to rest and play, but there was a problem. I didn't have the slightest idea what I should do.
Normally my day off was at the end of the week, the day I spent the afternoon with my mother, and we were only on the second day, so I was a little lost as to what I should do next. There were a few options, but only a couple caught my attention.
After thinking about it for a while, I decided that taking a tour of places I didn't normally venture to might be a good option. I was not yet familiar with the servants' quarters, and the kitchens, nor did I know the inside of the library, and a walk through these places might well be the perfect excuse to see it. Besides, it would take me a good part of the day to do that tour, and if I had time left, I could take a walk around the stables. It's been a while since I've gone to visit the chicks.
With my goal set, I headed for the library as my first destination. Now that I was learning to read, it would be a good idea to familiarize myself with that place from now on, as I would surely spend reading a lot of books whenever I got the chance.
Funny enough, all three of us sisters ended up in one way or another orbiting towards the library.
When we arrived, I could see that the place was not as I expected it to be.
You know, it's just... That thing about consuming too many fantasy stories can become a bit conditioning in the expectations you have about certain things if you ever actually end up in a fantasy world. It's partly my fault for creating those expectations, but that doesn't stop me from feeling a little disappointed.
However, to say I was disappointed would be a bit of an understatement. Sure, if I was honest, those huge fantasy libraries where there were an almost infinite number of shelves filled with books of all kinds can be... a bit exaggerated.
This is a family library, yes, but for heaven's sake my family is a Duchy family, one of the richest and most powerful families in this empire... how the hell is it that our library is so... I don't know, so small?
The place was maybe the same size as the room where I had my two birthday parties.
…
Ok fine, it's not that small, but come on, it should be much bigger to be a fantasy world... or at least have a second floor. I would feel scammed if it wasn't for the fact that the number of books on those high shelves was pretty impressive. Though it was still far below what I expected.
I sighed to myself and began to scan the place with my eyes. The illumination was something that pleased me. The light was not so intense as to hurt my eyesight, but not so dim that I couldn't read well either. It was just the right intensity to enjoy your stay. You could even take a nap here and not be bothered by the brightness. All thanks to those magic stones. Truly magical and convenient.
Just at the entrance, at the right-hand side, there was a counter with a... uh... person?
Could that be called a person? No, stupid question, of course it was. In different worlds, with different intelligent races, you have to learn not to be racist... or rather speciesist, with every non-humanoid-looking being you meet.
I watched it for a while, trying to clear my thoughts on the matter, but the only thing I had in my head was a single question. What the fuck is that thing? If you could see it, you'd think the same way I do.
Have you ever heard of the game Half Life? Ok, stupid question #2. Of course, you have. There wasn't anyone in the world, before I died, who didn't know that game.
The point is, remember that nasty bug that would stick to the ceiling and leave some sort of slime hanging down to catch its prey? Yeah... that... well... can you blame me for doubting whether I should consider THAT a person?
It was there, still, so still that I thought it might not be a living thing but some kind of sinister, disgusting decoration that the librarian thought would look cool. Or maybe it was a really bad prankster, I don't know. It even had something like that dangling slime that came up near the height of my head, only this one looked like it was made of yarn or something white that I didn't want to know about.
I looked up at Ameli, extremely confused about what I should do, or think. I started tugging at her skirt, begging for help. The girl, who seemed very distracted, took quite a while to notice my actions, which surprised me, considering how attentive she'd been so far.
I looked at her in distress, then at the thing on the ceiling, and back at Ameli. She did the same action; me, the ceiling monster, and back to me. She tilted her head as if she didn't know what I was asking until finally, she seemed to realize. She coughed a couple of times and brought her hand towards the strand of slime.
By the goddess, don't tell me you're going to pull that thing to wake her up?
Yes... yes, she did.
Disgusting…
Ameli grabbed; gently I might add, the tongue thing and gave it a couple of firm tugs before releasing it and keeping her gaze on the ceiling. There was a sound... which I'm not able to process, but it sounded like a combination of slime kneading and a growl from a very large dog, which honestly made me flinch a little and quickly hide behind my maid. The girl for some reason seemed to be amused by my behavior, but I was unable to see the humor in it.
Suddenly, the mouth, or what I assumed was the mouth, opened wide and something started to come out from inside. It was disgusting, oh, you don't know how disturbing that sight was! It was as if the most terrifying vagina in the world was giving birth right then and there. A vagina out of hell and it had a row of teeth on its lips.
And here I thought nightmares would only haunt me during the night...
The head finally came out of the thing and then... a being came out of it. At least half a being. This... well, that's a new, and not ironic, definition of a bookworm.
The... person that came out of there was, just as I said, a huge worm, very unlike that kindly Physician who treated me at the Nazzik's house. This one was similar in size to my own body... only stretched out by several feet. Of course, it had a face easily recognizable as that of a humanoid, however, it did not have a single hair on its head, it had no nose and its eyes were a bit smaller and of a dark brown hue. It also had no ears, however, if you paid attention, you could see a very small pair of holes on either side of its head.
When it finally fully emerged, it appeared to be at least about 4 meters long. Its body was quite similar to that of a snake, though instead of scales, it had a kind of chitinous armor much like that of a millipede, and of the same color. Limbless, except for a pair of relatively short arms, which ended in small 3-fingered hands.
“Ameli?” the being asked in a feminine tone of voice, which was surprisingly normal, even pleasant. “I don't usually see you here, do you need anything from the archives?”
“No, no, not this time. I'm with the young lady today, she wanted to visit the library.” Ameli replied in a polite tone, placing her hand on my head, drawing the attention of the... thing. She smiled sweetly, something I had no idea how I was able to pick up on like that, though her look and the memory of everything I had just seen made me shrink back and hide a little more behind Ameli. I couldn't help but think about how rude I was, but it was hard not to feel that way after this whole disturbing situation.
“Young lady, you mustn't-”
“Oh, let her be, you know as well as I do that most kids will react the same way.” The... worm lady, abruptly interrupted Ameli, always keeping a gentle look and a kind smile.
She lowered a little more from her position until she was almost at my eye level, but keeping her distance. I guessed she didn't want to scare me anymore. “It's a pleasure to meet you, Young Miss, everyone here knows me as Myridelia. I am part of a race called Myriapondantes, native to the far south of the continent.”
Myridelia kept her smile as she introduced herself, not taking her eyes off me for an instant, while also standing at a safe distance from me, making just a few movements in a body-adapted version of a bow, clasping her strange hands together in front of her body and bowing her head.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Perhaps because of her pleasant tone and good manners, I felt less fearful and confident enough to step out of my maid's skirt, though still hesitant. I looked toward Ameli for a second, uncertain what should I do, but finally decided to act according to the manners I had come to learn.
I took a couple of unsteady steps to the side and in front of Ameli, then took the ends of my dress, and keeping my back as straight as possible bowed my head slightly and introduced myself, “I am Orincya Nita Belian, a plesha to meet you.”
“Oh my, what a sweet and polite Young Lady.” Myridelia smiled brightly, giving me an entertained look, as if she had seen the most adorable thing in the world. For some reason that made my face feel hot, and I immediately went back to hiding behind Ameli.
The laughter from both of them didn't help.
“I didn't know they taught them etiquette from such a young age.”
“They don't,” Ameli replied with a soft sigh. “Albeit, I must say I am very impressed that the Young Lady was able to perform such a graceful greeting without having received proper lessons.”
There was a silence between the two after Ameli said that as if they were both contemplating some sort of realization about it. The awkwardness continued for a while until Myridelia returned to her desk and, from one of the drawers took a small round thing wrapped in paper.
“Here, little one, this is one of my little treasures.” She said, placing the little ball in my hand. It was barely smaller than my hand, and if I squeezed it, it was very soft. I tilted my head as I tried to figure out what it was, unable to figure it out. When I moved my gaze to her expecting some sort of explanation, she gave me a smile and nothing more.
I shifted my attention to Ameli, and she just nodded once, as if she thought that was what I was looking for. I rolled my eyes internally and removed the paper wrapper, revealing something very similar to mochi. I had tried it once at an anime event back home. It was delicious. I assumed this would be some kind of similar sweet. I looked towards the 2, looking for some sort of reaction, and they both gave me an approving look. So, I took a bite of the soft ball and... HMMM!
It tasted so delicious, indeed, just enough to make me smile with happiness. It was like a coffee candy with a slight hint of cinnamon and caramel. I finished it in a couple of bites, which elicited a wry smile from both of them. I couldn't blame them, nor did I expect to eat the candy so quickly.
After that Myridelia said goodbye to us, warning us to be careful with the shelves and books, immediately returning to her... uh... whatever that thing on the ceiling was. I didn't want to think about it anymore, so I just waved goodbye to her and started walking around the library.
The place was divided into different sections, ranging from history, which contained not only books on the history of the family, but also the empire, other families, and the races, and surprisingly there was a book on the history of the Nazzik. I guessed it was from the times when the two families used to get along, publicly of course.
A few books Ameli mentioned here caught my eye, Biography of Cassian Alaric Roitland the First, written by Sern Gambode, Imperial scribe. “Brief History of the Empire” in 2 parts, written by Bokjón Meldas, historian.
There were even two that had nothing to do with the empire. “Tales of a Journey to the East”, written by Ehokerante Bolses, the adventurer of Colander. It is a story about a young Magar's journey to the lands of the Miranis and his experiences there. Then there was “The Blacksmith of Merondar”, written by Anario Golaez, on his apprenticeship journey to the Altamira kingdom in Muntanyes Ferro Blanc.
Now, you may wonder why those books caught my attention. Well, for two simple reasons, the first one because it mentioned the Miranis, who are the elves of this world, and the second one because of the words “Altamira” and “Muntanyes Ferro Blanc”. Altamira comes from the old Spanish and translates as “high view” or “high glance” and Muntanyes sounds too familiar to me. I remember once, in one of my jobs having heard that word, but I am not completely sure if it was Portuguese, Italian, or some other language. But I was sure it was some Western European language. The important thing is, why then did those words exist here? It can't just be a coincidence, can it?
I decided to leave those thoughts for when I learned to read properly, then I could answer those questions... or even generate new ones.
We continued walking through the library, going from sections of something called “Essentia”, which was also divided into Prima, Physica, Natura, Anima, and Divina. No idea what it all meant, and Ameli didn't want to explain it to me.
The rest of the sections were about more mundane books, such as short stories, legends, romance novels, etc. And right at the end of the place was a sturdy door, with two locks that seemed to be made for a clearly magical purpose, as they were quite intricate and, like the door, sturdy.
I asked Ameli about that place, and she replied, “On no account should you go in there, young lady. That room is the archive, where there are many important books and documents. Only his Grace, Duke Halfred, her Grace, Duchess Irlana, or Madam Fiana may grant permission to enter that place.”
I must admit it left me curious, but given the stern look Ameli was giving me, I decided to nod obediently. Anyway, those kinds of places are almost always trouble in novels for sure, so I would stay as far away from that place as possible.
After a while and having familiarized myself a bit with its structure, we decided to leave. It turned out to be quite an interesting trip, as I now had a new reason to learn to read as soon as possible.
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Our next destination was the servants' quarters. It was a somewhat secluded wing on the west side of the mansion. There were about 200 rooms for the more permanent employees of the mansion, excluding, of course, the guards and knights of the family order, who lived in a different location. I would like to talk about them another day.
We wandered through the various corridors, encountering different employees who gave curious glances at my presence in their rooms. While most were curious looks, there was one party that I easily recognized. Losward's clowns. They didn't approach me, thankfully Ameli seemed to be enough to dissuade them, but that didn't stop them from looking at me with a glint of contempt in their eyes.
The strange thing about this situation is that usually, Ameli will say something. Sometimes she simply asks me to take another route or directly talks to them, scaring them enough to make them retreat themselves, but this time Ameli was so silent that I had to look behind me several times to make sure she was really still with me.
Is she that tired? I think I should really talk to Kila to give her some days off...
Feeling too uncomfortable because of the constant stares of those clowns, I decided to change direction and head towards the kitchens, this being one of the places I was looking forward to visiting the most. No, it's not because I'm a glutton... or even less because I want to steal candy... It's definitely not that! The reason I want to go is because I always wanted to learn how to cook properly, though I don't mean fancy foods, I always wanted to learn how to prepare sweets, desserts, and cakes. That was partly because of Nadia. We didn't always have the money to indulge in such luxuries, but at least a few times a year, especially on her birthday, I used to buy a proper, good-sized cake. I guess thanks to that we both got a taste for sweets.
The point is that I always wanted to learn how to do it, and if there was any way in this life I could try, even if I couldn't see my little sister enjoy my creations, I could at least feel the satisfaction of having tried. Who knows, maybe sharing my creations with my new family would make them happy too.
Finally, after walking around for a while, we arrived at the door to the kitchens, just as they seemed to be on break. Fortunately, there was no problem with letting us in to watch, which I had not the slightest hesitation in doing.
There were several people inside, at least 15, who watched me with smiles as I went through every nook and cranny of the kitchen. In its entirety, it was so large and spacious that it could house an entire family. The ceiling was very high, perhaps 6 or 7 meters high (19-22 ft), and in the center of the place, there was what looked like a large fireplace very similar to a sink at ground level, something that surprised and fascinated me when I saw it. I am going to explain this a little bit to give you a better idea.
As I said, it is similar to a ground-level sink, about 4 or 5 meters long (13-16 ft), placed in the center of the kitchen. On the floor, there was a kind of pit underneath, in which there was a fire burning, fed by a large amount of firewood. Given its shape, several cauldrons, pots and even frying pans and something like a wok were placed along and on both sides of this central fireplace, where various types of food were cooked simultaneously. There were some holes in certain parts, from what I imagined were vents to allow air to flow and better fuel the fire. This brick structure was, as far as I could tell, hollow, allowing smoke to collect inside and rise through the chimney in the middle, which rose to the ceiling and outward.
I don't know how good it will look, or if you guys will be able to see it just as I see it in my head, but it's the best I can do with my artistic paint skills xd
image [https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GbzYwOAW8AMxGes?format=png&name=900x900]
Seeing this blew my mind. It was an incredibly cool and efficient idea, something I had never seen in my previous world. It even had individual wooden plates, held on hinges attached to the brick structure, which you could lower, serving as tables, to prepare the ingredients while the pots and pans were heating, and raise again so that they would not get in the way when moving the contents of the containers.
I kept admiring this incredible invention for a long time, until I noticed the rest of the things, somewhat more normal, but no less fascinating. There was the bread oven, which seemed to be made of clay, giving a very rustic touch to the kitchen. There were also some tables where most of the utensils such as plates, ladles, a variety of knives, trays, etc. were placed. Specific tables for preparing meat and a large number of barrels and jars filled with different types of fruits, vegetables, grains, and other things. There was a huge sink where dishes and utensils seemed to be washed, and it even seemed to have some sort of drain leading to the outside! I noticed it because one of the cooks helped me see it by lifting me in his arms. He was a very kind guy.
Aside from all that, there were also those classic rolls of plants, like seasonings and such, hanging from different places throughout the kitchen. Garlic-like stuff, parsley, coriander, etc.
On one of the farthest walls from where I was, there was a metal door, from which something similar to steam seemed to be coming out, but it wasn't steam. I was sure it was some kind of cold chamber, but I wouldn't go near it to check it out no matter how much I wanted to. As soon as I noticed it, out of the corner of my eye I saw some worried and tense expressions among the cooks. I sensed that they didn't want me to go there, so, in order not to give them any trouble, I decided not to give in to my curiosity. If I wanted them to teach me in the future, I had to be obedient and earn their trust, and this kind of thing does wonders for that goal.
Thanks to that decision, I could see them smile in relief, which also earned me some “rewards” for being a good girl. What were they? More candy. Ameli didn't say anything, so I wasn't going to say no either.
After enjoying those delicious snacks, we decided that we should continue with our walk, plus it was time for the kitchen staff to start preparing lunch. The 2 head cooks promised me a delicious but light lunch, taking into account that I had eaten several sweets, they didn't want my stomach to hurt.
They were certainly a very nice couple, something that has earned them 100 points on my good people scale.
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As I mentioned, lunch came quickly. We lingered in some of the nearby rooms, touring them and admiring various paintings and other art around until we were told we could go to eat. As promised, a light lunch was served, a delicious soup, with a mild but very appetizing flavor. It was very easy to eat and left me pleasantly satisfied. I told one of the maids who served us the meal to give my thanks to the chefs, as well as to herself. The girl smiled happily and walked with that expression to the kitchen where I managed to hear later that my words were the joy of the cooks.
For some reason that put me in a much better mood.
After resting for a bit, we went out into the garden, on our way to the guards' training grounds. The knights of our order were training elsewhere, it seemed.
Normally I'm not that interested in coming here, especially at this time in the afternoon, as it's not usually very interesting, but I heard about something interesting. The Ekus stable was very close to the training camp. I didn't notice it the first time I visited, but considering Ameli seemed to be distracted... maybe I could sneak away to play with the chicks.
I'm a good girl, but, even good girls can be tempted to get into certain mischief.
Mwahahahaha!