Knock knock.
After about 30 minutes, there was a knock on the door.
"Who is it?"
"Meal delivery from the kitchen. Open the door." A rude, female voice sounded out through the door.
"It's unlocked," Caellum calmly called from his seat in the corner of the darkened room.
He hadn't been able to find a lantern, candle, or anything to illuminate the space, so he had no choice but to sit in the dark while waiting.
When the door finally creaked open, letting the bright light of the hallway leak in, Caellum saw it quickly blocked by the shadowed figure of a woman in a dress holding a tray.
"This is outside of your allotted meals, and I'm not your personal servant, so where's my payment. It stinks in here. And why is it so dark in here?" the servant asked derisively as her head moved from side to side before spotting Caellum getting up from the chair in the corner.
For some reason, seeing the purple eyes reflect the hallway light like a cat's, she was a bit frightened and wanted to curse.
He was like a ghost!
She backed up briefly before remembering that this was the pathetic 13th prince who looked even weaker than her, a girl, and that there was a guard in the hall.
If he dared to try anything, she would beat him, then report to the guard, and finally cry to the household manager.
Standing straight, she glared at Caellum before holding a hand out.
"Well!?"
"Maybe you can help me with that. Here's the payment." Caellum flipped a gold coin onto the tray, and the servant immediately balanced the tray on one hand before snatching it up and biting it.
"…this is gold?"
Even though Caellum couldn't see her face, he thought the servant sounded incredulous.
And greedy.
Perfect.
"Correct. If you do a couple of things for me, it's all yours."
There was a pause before the servant spoke in a calmer, less rude tone, full of suspicion.
"What do you want? I don't do those….things at night."
Even though she had never experienced it, she had heard stories from other servants about the men of the royal family and other noble families forcing female servants to do...things and then attempting to pay them off.
While she was open to such an opportunity, she certainly wouldn't be giving her precious self up to the loser 13th prince.
"Of course not. I have no doubt that you're a respectable lady comparable to any of the princesses in the palace. I just would like you to do me a few simple favors." Caellum said in a cajoling manner.
"Hmph. It's good that you know. Then what do you want?"
"Just a few things to make life more comfortable, like some light, proper sheets, clean towels, and things to clean up this room. You're right that it smells. Starting tomorrow, I'll be stuck in the library all day, so I'd appreciate it if you could come by in the evenings and tell me about the interesting things that happened during the day. You can bring extra snacks from the kitchen for yourself as well. I'll pay." Caellum quickly reassured her.
"You'll give me a gold coin every day just for that?" the servant asked greedily, causing Caellum to laugh at the absurdity.
"Of course not. That gold coin is payment for the week. If you don't want to, you can give it back, and I'll ask someone else."
"Tsk."
Although the servant sounded disappointed, if he hadn't known better, Caellum would have thought he was shorting her instead of paying her three months' salary as a tip for doing work she was already paid to do.
Greedy little thing.
"But of course, if you bring me any good information, then I'll add a little more. Only true things, of course. I'll verify it with other means. What did you say your name was again? If your information is good, I can give you a referral. You saw how close I am with the 9th prince, right? He informed me that he was looking for additional servants for his palace."
The servant named Masha recalled that the 9th prince had scoured every inch of the palace with the 13th prince today, along with all the rumors flying about, before nodding and speaking in a much more polite tone.
If this was all she had to do to move up and get a position in the 9th prince's palace, she was willing to do so.
"Yes. My name is Masha."
"Good. Pleasure to meet you, Masha. May I please have the things I requested?"
The servant immediately passed the tray to the 13th prince and stood there for a while just staring at Caellum.
Glancing down at the tray in his hand and the maid whose head was tilted toward it, Caellum spoke once more.
"Did you need something, Masha?"
"You're not eating? It's better when it's hot."
"I like to see what I'm eating, so could you go bring the stuff I asked for?"
Masha hesitated for a moment.
She was instructed to make sure the 13th prince ate everything, and she didn't want to leave just in case he 'accidentally' threw it all away.
"If not, please give me back the gold coin, and I'll give you a silver one instead. That should more than cover the payment to the kitchens."
Hearing the implied threat that her newly gained funds would be taken away, Masha immediately backed up.
"I'll go get it. Stay right there."
"Wait."
As Masha turned to walk out, Caellum flipped another coin at her, which was easily snatched out of the air and bitten.
"Give this to the guard outside."
"Silver?!"
"Yes."
"You want me to give him the whole thing?" Masha asked, the greedy voice coming back.
"Yes."
Seeing that her body language seemed reluctant, Caellum stepped forward and made to follow her out the door.
"Tsk."
Under his direct supervision, the servant handed the silver to the guard, who was enthusiastically munching on a sandwich before stomping away.
"Enjoy your meal. Actually, take one or two pastries. I ate well at the 9th prince's place."
Once the maid was gone, Caellum offered the guard some pastries, and he immediately took them and threw them in his mouth before thanking him through a mouthful of food.
"Thank you, your highness, for being so generous."
"Of course. If you guard me again, let me know what you liked, and I'll order it for you. And of course, the tip is included for your hard work."
"Okay!"
"Also, do you mind agreeing with me no matter what I ask you later?"
"Sure thing, your highness!"
"Thank you."
Waving at the guard, Caellum quickly examined the tray's contents in the hallway light, then came back to the room and began sniffing each pastry after hiding some in the bathroom.
They all had a general sweetness and butteriness to them, but the undertone smelled faintly of garlic and something acrid
...curious.
Even if he was in a different world, pastries, at least sweet ones, generally tasted and smelled sweet.
In his original world, this scent profile correlated with arsenic, a poison he was very familiar with.
While this was a different world with different rules, if cinnamon existed, why couldn't arsenic?
Tonight, that information would be verified one way or another.
In much less time than it took to deliver the food, another knock sounded at the door.
Knock knock
"Come in."
The door opened up, showing a servant holding a pile of white linens in one hand and a lantern in the other.
Caellum examined her face in the flickering light, noting her plain features and frizzy, mousy-brown hair, before looking at the lantern, old and rusty, with a flickering flame.
Not saying anything, he took both items from her and placed them on the table, before sitting and holding the tray on his lap.
As Masha continued to stand there staring at him, Caellum spoke up as if he suddenly remembered.
"Ah, feel free to tell other servants the same deal that I gave you. If they bring me good information or fun stories to help alleviate my boredom and help me run errands, I pay well. I'm just looking for entertainment since I'm going to be forced to study all day. Sigh. Anyway, you may leave."
"Are you not going to eat more?" Masha asked again, staring at the missing pastries on the plate.
"Ah, I realized that I wasn't really that hungry anymore. I'll eat it later." Caellum lied while smiling softly.
"I need to take the tray back, so you need to eat it the rest now or give it to me." Masha insisted once more.
"Well, I don't like wasting food, so why don't you help me finish it off. Judging by your clothing, I'm sure that you don't get pastries like this often. As you know, the chef is pretty good."
Caellum waved a pastry with plums and powdered sugar on top, filling the room with its sweet aroma.
Masha gazed at the pastry, almost hypnotized, before shaking herself out of it.
No matter how good it looked, she knew what was on the inside.
"No- I'm good. It's just for you to eat! Special order from the kitchen, and if you're not eating, then I have to take it back."
"Then, I'll share the remaining with the guard. I'm sure he'd enjoy it."
"No!" as Masha screamed, Caellum arched his eyebrow at her, causing her tone to soften as she avoided eye contact.
"I meant no, you can't do that."
Seeing that she was sweating while blinking nervously, Caellum sat back down, crossed his legs, and began speaking softly, as if talking to a child.
"There are suddenly so many rules to things I can't do with the food I ordered. I can't save it for later, I can't share it with the guard, the maid refuses to eat it, and insists on taking the tray away. If I didn't know any better, I would assume it was poisoned."
"It's not poisoned!" Masha yelled out.
"Is that so? Then here. Prove it. Eat it." Caellum picked up a pastry with the napkin on the tray and held it out.
As she met Caellum's purple eyes as he smiled gently at her, Masha felt a chill down her spine.