Lady Clara and Lady Hillaria led me to leave the room, followed by the guard behind me. Outside the room, Flavia was already in front of the room, waiting for me. She walked to me and asked me..

"May I know, where are you going, my lady??"

Clara and Hillaria were surprised. Clara said, "Is she your personal maid, Lady Aurelia?"

I answered them, "No…she is not my personal maid…she is one of the palace’s servants, who got ordered to be my maid, while I was here…." I turned my face to Flavia and said, "These ladies are leading me to tea time."

"Tea time, may I prepare that for you??"

"Thanks for that, but I don’t know the place; you may ask them.."

Flavia walked toward them, and I saw Clara say something to her…Flavia immediately excused herself and told me that everything would be prepared when we went there. As she walked away from us, Clara said to me,

"You are really a special one, Lady Aurelia…"

I asked, "What do you mean by that?"

"You have special treatment from the palace; they allowed you to have a guard behind you; now they gave you one of their servants to serve you…"

"Are people here allowed to bring their own servant?"

"Yes, we are allowed, but there is a restriction inside this hall; only servants from the palace are allowed to be in this building, so my personal maid can’t be here…"

"And now where is she?"

"She is in the garden with the others…usually she will prepare tea time…"

"Our tea time will be in the garden.."

"Yes…It is so spacio—"

Suddenly, I saw Hillaria lightly push Clara’s right arm with her elbow..

Clara said, "It seems Lady Hillaria is impatient to have tea time with you, Lady Aurelia…so may we continue to walk there?"

We continued to walk. Arriving at the garden, it was so spacious. There were some pavilions in the garden; under them were a table and some chairs. There were a lot of ladies nobles with their maids in here, some of the pavilions already occupied by them.

Clara said, "Now let’s search for our spot…" She was looking around and finally found it: "There it is…….." She pointed at it and said, "And my maid is in there too, with Lady Hillaria’s maid…"

I looked in the direction she pointed and noticed that everything was more lavish than the other pavilions. We walked toward it. While we were walking there, I felt a lot of staring from the ladies in here, but most of their stares focused on the guard behind me…

Arriving at the place, Flavia prepared my seat, and the other maids prepared their seats. We each took our seats. After we took a seat, for a few seconds, there was silence between us. Lady Clara had a small cough and looked at me…I didn’t know what her signal or her meaning was..More seconds of silence passed by, and Lady Clara said to me,

"Apologize, Lady Aurelia… But you need to start the tea time with a small bite or small drink, so we can enjoy it…"

"I am the one who started it? But are Lady Clara and Lady Hillaria the ones who invited me here?"

"Well, there are a number of rules, so Lady Aurelia needs to start them first.."

"Rules???"

"The lower peerage rank will not take a single bite or a single drop of the tea, unless the highest peerage rank in the table takes it first. In this table, Lady Aurelia is the highest one, so Lady Hillaria and I are waiting for you to take it first."

"I am not aware of those rules, and, if this offends both of you, I apologize, but what is your peerage rank?"

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

"Both of us are the daughters of a count, so we are pretty much low nobles... Did Lady Aurelia have tea time before with other nobles??"

Did having tea with Lady Octavi count? I answered, "I usually have tea time with my tutor…so I am not aware of this rule…"

"May I know this tutor’s name? The one who teaches Lady Aurelia should be an amazing tutor."

"Lady Octavi…"

Lady Clara was surprised, and then asked, "And what’s her family name?"

"Claudi…Octavi Claudi…"

Suddenly the atmosphere of the table was quiet for a moment, until Lady Clara put down her tea and burst her face in front of me, she said…

"LADY OCTAVI CALUDI, you said…"

Her maid was panicking, and said to her "My lady…my lady… please watch your manners to Lady Aurelia…"

Immediately, she pulled her body away from me, back at the seat, and said, "Forgive my burst behavior, Lady Aurelia…I am just surprised that Lady Octavi is your tutor.."

I knew Lady Octavi had a nickname in the academy; even the crown prince admired her so much.

I asked her, "Is she really that amazing??"

"Does Lady Aurelia not know it? She is popular in the capital, especially among the ladies nobles. Her elegance, her swordship, her cool, and she is the best of the best in the academy of the palace."

"Well her appearance is similar to Lady Hillaria…" I pointed at Lady Hillaria and said, "Surely, Lady Hillaria is popular too.."

Lady Clara’s face became frowning, she pointed at Lady Hillaria without looking at her, and she said to me, "Look closely again, Lady Aurelia…"

I looked closer to Lady Hillaria…I found some crumbs in her face and dress; even her mouth was still full of snacks.

"She may look the same as Lady Octavi with her manly dress like that, but she is so obsessed with treats, and that makes her like that.."

Lady Hillaria said to Clara with her mouth full, "You *munch* shut up *munch*...Sugar is *munch* important, you know.."

I said to Clara, "I see, if Lady Hillaria is quiet, she is like Lady Octavi, but... in front of snacks, she is changed."

"Usually she doesn’t act like this, because we are the ones who prepare the table, so everything on the table is limited…but this time, the palace servant who prepared it, on Lady Aurelia's behalf, surely everything is more than usual for us."

"So that makes Lady Hillaria like that."

Lady Clara turned her face to the guard behind me, and said, "Talking about Lady Octavi, I remember the rumor that she is the senior of the crown prince and the leader of you, Mr. Guard."

Huh? The leader of him, I was confused. I looked at him; he seemed to try to avoid Lady Clara's eyes and mine. I said to him, "Ah! I still don’t know your name."

"Lady Aurelia doesn’t know his name?"

"Yes. May Lady Clara know him?"

"Everyone here knows his name and him…He is the lieutenant of the blue order, Milo…"

MILO!! Found it!! I didn’t need to search for him. From the beginning, he was right in front of me. He had short, curly brown hair.

"Blue order??" I asked.

Lady Hillaria put everything down—the tea and the treat—and explained, "There are orders scattered among the kingdom. The blue order is the regiments of the royals; I believe Lady Aurelia’s family has it too; I think it’s the white order."

"My family has it too??" Around me, no one ever told me about it.

"Yes…I am curious: does Lady Aurelia bring this order here as your escort?? Or maybe Lady Octavi, your tutor, is the one who escorts you?"

Lady Clara immediately asked me, with her face closer to mine, "Does Lady Octavi come to this capital?" Again, her maid tried to make her behave properly..

I answered it, "I was not aware of this order until Lady Hillaria told me; there was no one from the family who escorted me; it was my personal maid………and surely, Lady Octavi will come to the capital in the next couple of days, after my arrival here."

Lady Clara said, "Really, she will come to the capital; you need to introduce me to her, Lady Aurelia." She was so thrilled after hearing that..

Lady Hillaria was surprised and said, "Is it really just you and your maid, Lady Aurelia??"

"On the trip, I hired two mercenaries to become my escort, and right now they are my own personal guards, and I brought them in here. They are on the training ground."I turned my face to Milo, and said, "With my maid for some reason."

"It makes me curious, what type of person you hired…May we go there?"

Hearing that, Lady Clara showed some rejection: "Heeeee... why do we need to go to the training ground??"

I said, "Can we go there???"

"Surely we can; how about we go there, right now??"

"Sure…I want to check them too…"

"Come on, why do we need to go there? Look at the table; there is plenty of everything…" Lady Clara tried to find a reason to stay.

Lady Hillaria and I got up…Seeing us get up, Lady Clara had no choice, so she got up…

We left the garden, and they led me to the training ground, followed by Milo and Flavia behind me. Behind them, I could hear what Lady Clara and Lady Hillaria talked about.

"You need to control yourself this time…" Lady Clara said.

Lady Hillaria answered, "I know, I know. Just don’t tell me again about this.."

"You said that every time, I told you about it…and every time you were out of your boundary, and made a mess.."

Lady Hillaria just ignored her..and we kept walking toward the training ground.