Even though I am only 10 years old, I am not exempted from work around the mansion and have to help around just like the other servants. Aside from the so called training sessions with Reigs I don't have any set work schedule or job that I am assigned to me so I merely help out wherever we are short staffed so work can be done on time.
Today I was supposed to help my mom with her job as a chef and make dinner for Alfred and his family. Normally my mom and the other chef's wouldn' make dinner so early considering that it was only noon but tomorrow is the Awakening Ceremony for Sarah and me so Sarah's family decided to have a small banquet in order to celebrate the occasion. They invited several well known officials and merchants from town to attend the banquet making the servants work overtime to make the banquet a success
**********
Naturally I am too young to do actual work in the kitchen instead I do the more mediocre tasks such as setting the table, and grabbing extra ingredients from storage when needed.
When I got to the kitchen a invigorating aroma entered my nose. This aroma is difficult to describe into words, the best way to describe it is multitude of delicious foods coming together to make an inviting aroma that lures in anyone that smells it.
As I walked into the kitchen I looked around until I found my mom stirring a pot in the center of the room. I walked over to her and before I said anything she noticed me coming and stopped stirring.
Mom was a apron over wearing her maids outfit and  had her hair tied in a ponytail. She looked at me with her large black eyes and crouched to meet me at eye level.
"Ren, where were you?" (mom)
"Sorry for being late, I lost track of time when I was playing with Sarah." (me)
Seeing me apologize my mom smiled and ruffled my hair a bit.
"Stop acting so polite already. I am your mother you don't have to act so polite in front of me, loosen up a bit." (Mom)
"Okay I'll try" (Me)
Seeing me accept her request mom smiled a bit and sent me to go grab some ingredients that she was lacking. When I got back I saw another figure in the kitchen besides mom. He was rather tall with a slim build and sharp features. I remember correctly he is the head chef and mom's boss, I think his name ran... Randy? No, Randolf?..... I don't know his real name mainly because he prefers being called chief for some reason.
"There you are boy, I just got back from looking for you!" (Chief)
When he saw me enter the room he turned gave me a slight scolding. I was about to apologize but mom spoke before I could say anything.
"Chief, don't blame Ren he was just playing with the young miss and lost track of time." (mom)
Hearing mom's explanation chiefs relaxed a bit.
"Alright, considering he was with the missy I'll let him off this time." (Chief)
"Thank you very much." (me)
Hearing my reply chiefs face turned ugly.
"Don't do that polite shit in front of me. I can't stand it." (chief)
Without waiting for me to reply chief pointed to a table with a lot of food on it.
"Go grab a knife and cut up some carrots for the soup." (chief)
"Eh? But chief I'm not-" (me)
"You're not what? Old enough? Starting tomorrow you're not going to just be a little helper but a real servant so what if you get started a day early. Just do what i say and get to work." (chief)
I nodded my head and went over to the table and began to cut while hiding the excitement building up in my body. Not because of the fact I am cooking but because of the fact that tomorrow I finally get to awaken my affinity with the elements tomorrow. That is exactly what the Awakening Ceremony is, the process of awakening one's affinity towards mana in order to cast the power known as magic.
In this world mana is an existence that resides in all living things from the birds in the sky to the worms in the ground. However, just because every creature has mana doesn't mean that everybody has the same abilities with it. For most people can't use their mana for anything useful, instead it merely rests within their body without any particular use. But, there are a rare few people they can use their mana and use it to manipulate the world around them in a form known as magic. These people are referred to as magicians.
Under normal circumstances a person would have to wait til they were 16 to find out if they have the ability to use magic, however with the Awakening Ceremony it is different. With the Awakening Ceremony people can find out if they have talent for magic much sooner than without.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Just the thought of being able being able to cast magic made me so excited I began to tremble. However, I couldn' be help but be a bit nervous at the aspect as well. After all, only about 2-3% of people have the ability to cast magic, the chances of me having the ability to cast magic is slim to none. The thought of this made my original excitement to into despair.
So I worked in the kitchen while submerged in my own pool of despair. Naturally both Mom and Chief both noticed my despair and tried to cheer me up in their own unique way (one of which involved getting a knock on the head) but to no avail. The two could only watch me work with concerned looks on their faces.
***********(For those that don't remember this means time skip)
After I finished in the kitchen I went back to my house to get ready for the banquet. My home was a small 1 floor, 4 room, wooden house that wasn't very pleasing to the eye. I walked to my room and opened the small closet next to my bed and grabbed a special set of clothes we were supposed to wear for the banquet.
Under normal circumstances I would have worn my usual servant clothing for the event but tonight was different. For the people of this world the night before the Awakening Ceremony could be considered one of the most important days in their lives. It symbolizes their first step into adulthood from being a child. As such for the event Sarah's family invited all the well known figures in the city and have their servants wear specially made uniforms for the occasion.
These clothes looked similar to my regular ones but were of much higher quality, compared to my regular ones these were much more comfortable and pleasing to the eye. I put on the nice clothes and left my room to see a macho man with arms as thick as my thighs standing in the doorway. The man was very tall, just shy of 2 meters and was wearing gray armor with a sword by his side. He stared at me with his unkempt blond hair covering his blue eyes giving him a 'wild' kind of atmosphere. Staring at this behemoth of a man I said the only thing I could think of.
"Hey dad." (Me)
"Evnin son." (Dad)
His voice was deep and rough matching his large body, he walked over to the nearest chair and sat down causing the chair to creak.
"How was work?" (Me)
"Fine, there were a lot of guests I had to check in but other than that it was pretty peaceful." (Dad)
"Oh, That's good." (Me)
He placed his sword next to him causing it to lean on the wall and he slowly took of his armour revealing a thin undershirt and pants. Unlike mom who worked in the manor, dad worked as a gatekeeper at the edge of the property keeping people out of the manor. He looked at my clothing and smiled.
"Headed to the banquet?" (Dad)
"*nod* Yep." (Me)
"Then you better hurry up, it wouldn't be good if you showed up later than the guests." (Dad)
"Okay." (Me)
********** (I'm going to gloss over parts of the banquet because I want to start writing the interesting parts as soon as I can)
At the banquet, nearly all of the servants were there standing by the walls watching the guests arrive from the doors. Agni directed the guests to the dining room where several tables filled with food greeted them. As the guests continued to flood in I stood with the other servants next to the wall. Even if I wasn't supposed to be working that day it doesn't change the fact that I am still a servant so there is no way that I could mingle with the guests so I stood with the rest of the servants to avoid seeming out of place. The guests chatted with one another waiting for Alfred and his family to arrive not daring to touch the delicious food in front of them until they arrive. Most of the guests were middle aged men and women, few of which brought their children with them who were staying close to their parents or were greeting other kids in their age groups.
After 10 minutes of waiting the large doors opened and Agni came into the dining room. Giving a polite bow he stepped to the side leaving the doors opened. *click**click* The sound of footsteps could be heard from the dark hallway.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my apologies for the wait. I am pleased to announce the arrival of the Fallcure family!" (Agni)
*Clap**Clap**Clap* Instantly the entire room was filled with resounding claps from both the guests and the servants. Alfred walked in first wearing an old fashion black suit with a white undershirt. He was holding hands with a woman similar to his own age, her facial features made her appear to be an older version of Sarah. She was wearing a light green dress and had a small amulet resting above her chest. Her eyes carried a warm and gentle gaze that was flickering with joy as she gazed at the crowd ahead of her. She was Alfred wife and the mother of both Regis and Sarah, Elyse.
Following behind them was Regis wearing a white suit with his hands behind his back carrying an air of arrogance which made me want to hurl. It appeared that the rest of the guests noticed the air he was carrying because when Regis appeared the expression on their faces were uncomfortable to look at.
"We thank you all for attending this small banquet for our daughter Sarah. I am sure you all are hungry so I won't keep you waiting any longer. Allow me to introduce you to my daughter Sarah!" (Alfred)
*Clap**Clap**Clap* Another round of applause enveloped the room as Sarah appeared from the doorway. She was wearing a bright yellow dress that complemented her platinum blond hair. Her face was bright red like a tomato, when she saw all of the people looking at her and clapping her face grew a shade redder that made it look like she was about burst into flames. If one look closely enough you can see steam coming from the top of her head. Seeing her tomato like face Alfred smiled and looked at the crowd.
"Now, now, to avoid my daughter passing out from embarrassment I think it's time to get this party on the way!" (Alfred)
Alfred's little joke earned a few laughs from the crowd, those that didn't laugh smiled at him and Sarah which caused Sarah to feel even more embarrassment to the point she ran to her chair and sat down. If the whole night is going to be like this I think Sarah might actually burst into flames.
Following her Alfred, Elyse, and Regis also sat down along with the guests and dinner went under way. One by one me and the other servants passed out the food and various drinks to everybody and when they were done a servant came and picked up the empty plate. Needless to say the banquet went without a hitch.
Later on, after the banquet was done, all of the guests said their goodbyes and left. All of the servants were busy cleaning everything up I heard mom calling for me. I turned around to see mom beckoning me over to her. I walked over to her but before I could say anything she grabbed my arm and took me to another room and closed the door behind her.
The room was locked tight with all the doors and windows were locked shut, the only light was from the light fireplace. Next to the fire place 3 figures could be seen. Mom went over to them still dragging me by my arm and sat me down on the nearby couch.
"Ren?" (???)
I heared a familiar voice call my name, I turned to see Sarah looking at me with wide eyes. I looked over and saw that the other two figures were Alfred and his wife Elyse. They were all still wearing the clothes they had worn for the banquet and were talking to each other in a hushed voice.
"Lady Elyse, Lord Alfred, pardon for my tardiness but I have brought Ren just as you have asked." (mom)
"No need to apologize, it was our fault for you bring your son over at such short notice. Now Sarah, Ren I am sure you both are curious why you both are here. It has to with a *ahem* certain topic that you two talked about earlier today." (Elyse)
OH GOD, please no.
"During this topic Sarah asked Alfred about some information about a certain *Ahem* body part that we all believed needs some clarifications." (Elyse)
Kill me now, I already went through this my last life I am NOT going through it again. But, before I could say anything Sarah did.
"Are you talking about the penis thing?" (Sarah)
*Bang* Alfred who has been silent this whole time collapsed on the floor like bunch of rocks. Elyse and mom's faces turned a shade of red, while I was speechless and could only look at Sarah in a shock. The causer of this ruckus just looked at everyone with a confused expression on her face. Ignorance is truly a bliss.
"Y-yes the p-p-pe- that thing. You see you two that thing isn't something you should converse to other people about. You see a p-penis is a part that is very important to a man, what is does is-" (Elyse)
And so began the worse event to ever occur since I came to this world. Not only did they talk about, they even had little hand gestures along with them. It was one thing to be told about it by your parents, but having the talk with another family at the same time and the other kid was a girl brought to a whole new world of embarrassment. Half way through Sarah finally understood what a penis was and ran to her room and locked the door behind her. Let's just hope tomorrow isn't as hectic as today was.