Oppresive silence is a frightening and disturbing concept. I never believed when others described it to me for how can the lack of speech create a feeling of physical discomfort?

Well, after walking for a few seconds behind the redhead that is my nominal boss I have become familiar with this strange concept. And thus I can say without a shadow of doubt, that it sucks and whoever invented it should have been drowned.

‘I think I’d prefer open hostility to this strange feeling, at least I’d know how to react!’ I thought grumbly.

I didn’t like not knowing what to do and this weird situation is just making me twitchy.

‘Perhaps breaking the ice might help?’ I wondered.

The idea did make sense, as ignoring a problem is not conductive to solving it but neither is throwing your head at it until the problem or your head breaks. I’m no braindead knight after all!

With the course of action now firmly placed in my mind I had spent a few more heartbeats thinking of just how to break the silence until an idea came to my mind.

“Head Maid, do you know why am I being called from my duties?” I asked, my voice meek and non-threatening lest my superior take undue offense.

Any scrap of information I gathered could be precious, especially now that my time table has been rushed so much and I’m lacking the information and the favor of the prince I expected to possess when he called me to his room for the first time. I also lacked the age, but hopefully the parts that needed it won’t be needed today. I’m not above employing that little contingency, but that’s quite literally the last of a very long list of options, after all I’m… well me!… But I’m no cradle robber.

‘Papa raised a better daughter than that!’

“The prince called for you, I thought I have already explained this to you.” Came the curt reply.

She didn’t even miss a step as she spoke, in fact as far as I saw it she wasn’t at all bothered by what I asked, but I felt the oppressive silence become heavier.

I didn’t let this dishearten me, the sun rose just after the night’s darkest hour after all, so I wasn’t going to just give up at the first sign of failure, not when success was ever closer!

“For what reason did he call me then, Head Maid?” I asked again, my voice the picture of perfect subservience.

“Your guess is as good as mine.” Was her response, just as rudely delivered as before.

‘Deflecting the answer are we now?’

As if hearing my thoughts or because of the tacit admission of defeat the oppressive feeling grew even more.

“I wouldn’t know, perhaps give me a clue to see if we’re in the same castle?” I teased back.

We both knew what her deflecting meant, and that wasn’t good for her position at all.

The Head Maid is supposed to be the most trusted maid in the castle, the woman whose ears catch the secrets of the Kingdom’s enemies, friends and subjects and ensures the proper administration of the castle. The fact that a royal, even if it was the disgraced Kar, refused to tell her something or simply didn’t share a reasoning for looking of a random maid might mean that she is losing the favor of the royal family. Well I doubted that was true, and so would anyone even remotely familiar with the castle’s politics, so all this knowledge was useless for achieving or learning anything that might help me.

“Maybe your soon to be former terms of employment” She continued with a smirk I couldn’t as much as see but feel, the oppressive silence now turning malicious for a split second before turning back to normal.

Only now it was about five times as heavy and I could feel my bones close to cracking.

‘No way this isn’t a magical effect but how?’ I thought in shock at this strange magic that was now trying to crush me.

“Perhaps.” I answered, trying desperately to hide my shallow breaths.

‘Ok message received ma’am, no more questions. You damn she-devil!’

I could feel the strange pressure her magic gave off, each of my steps taking several times more effort than normal but I pushed through silently. My own magic again proved to be a blessing, and not the waste the other kids who got to swing flame covered swords at each other said.

The she-bitch’s assault on my whole body relented as we left the room and headed towards the gardens but I hid my sigh of relief again, lest she take it as a challenge and so I followed her through the weird place the royals insisted was a garden.

The garden we were walking through specifically was The White Garden because only white plants with white flower and or leaves grew in it. There were many weeds in this strange place and I could help but wonder at the waste the royal palaces went through to maintain them.

Sure, some people might just accuse me of heresy for calling such a beautiful place a garden of weeds but as far as I’m concerned the plants here were little better than city weeds, no in fact they were even less useful than weeds. That’s because few of the plants had medicinal properties and even fewer actually provided fruits or edible roots, hell there wasn’t a single really poisonous plant in the entire garden for antidotes. All the plants in the garden were as far as I could see, small frail weeds, nice smelling ones for sure, but weeds nonetheless.

You could not even cook the few edible plants, the medicinal plants remained unharvested and nobody even made anything out of the few plants that could be used for other purposes. Honestly this entire thing was just a huge nice smelling waste of resources, but if it’s anything I’ve learned of nobles, royals specifically, is that they’ll happily waste money and resources for any frivolities as long as it either smells nice or looks pretty enough.

The path we walked was made of squares made of white stone, all linked together seamlessly, the kingdom’s coat of arms painted in vivid red on one in five stones.

The coat of arms was a simple thing, with two great swords clashing. The sword on the left was pristine and was held by an armored fist, while the one on the right was chipped all across and was held by a skeletal hand. I heard it meant to symbolize something about a great war or something but I’ve never heard the full story.

Minutes of walking through the weed infested garden had us finally reach another building, this one white as well. I was starting to develop a pronounced distaste for this color the more I looked at it, gold as well if for different reasons.

We entered the building without a word, nobody even bothering to stop or even ask us who we were. In fact, the more I looked at it I couldn’t see anyone here. No guard, no other maids, not even one of the first prince’s little birds. It’s as if the whole place was abandoned which was a shame, the place was big and seemingly beautiful. It also felt wrong in a way I couldn’t describe.

A sudden feeling of unease suddenly hit me as I tried to make sense of why this felt so wrong. On a whim I decided to put my right hand on the wall, tracing my index finger for five steps as I continued moving. What met me upon inspecting the finger in question was the thickest blanket of dust I’ve seen while in this palace. It was thick enough that it left a dark imprint on my finger. I immediately scrubbed it off with the dark parts of my uniform as my mind went into overdrive.

‘Something is wrong here, there’s no way that a royal lives here!’ My mind raced.

‘The servant’s toilets are cleaner than this! Hells I’ve seen less dust in the knight’s training yard!’

This whole thing stank more and more by each heartbeat and so I decided to start taking precautions. I started discreetly reaching for my needle but in my haste I dropped it on the floor and I couldn’t go and pick it up from the dusty floor without letting myself become open to an attack from the front and make the woman in front of me suspicious that I was unto her.

‘Shit, shit, shit! Why now of all times?’ I mentally admonished myself, my inner voice growing more and more desperate for a solution to my current predicament.

I didn’t strictly need a needle to break the skin but it was both convenient and left a smaller wound to cover. In the past I used to use my nails too but the stupid damn dress code mandated that we keep our nails trimmed to avoid injuring others.

All what was left was for me to break my skin with my magic and hope that I wasn’t noticed and so I did. I broke through my own left hand’s index finger skin with my magic and pushed the blood forwards, leading it through my clothes down into my shadow, using my control of blood magic to prevent it from staining my dress or skin.

I looked in front of me but the Head Maid didn’t seem to notice or care for the magic I’ve casted.

I let the blood flow to where it was needed, a small part of it now glued to the soles of my shoes, while the rest settled on my body beneath my clothes to serve as armor, my own control preventing any stains on the delicate material.

Amidst my preparations and a growing light faintness we reached in the front of a dark door. The door itself lacked any and all distinguishing features except its dark color but that made it all the more foreboding.

Black is a color associated with the Dark God of legends, a creature of such strength and hunger that his rampage split the world of man in two. Painting things black is also considered a dark omen.

This only reinforced my theory that wherever the crafty she-bitch was taking me, it wasn’t to see any prince.

We didn’t even break stride as the Head Maid opened the door, not even requesting for permission to enter or introducing herself before entering. In fact, she didn’t even knock.

I prepared myself to strike, mentally imagining how the blood spikes will form to attack the front and sides while the blood on my feet started turning semi-solid and coiled itself, ready to give me a boost of speed backwards, where I had already planned for a blood spike to shoot to kill any possible ambusher in the back.

“This lowly one greets his Highness, the sixth prince, Kar Goldstar” The red headed woman’s words echoed in the room and the hallway.

‘As if I’d get tricked!’ I thought before I took noted of the sight in front of me to asses just who I’d have to deal with.

What greeted me was no ambush party, but the sixth prince himself. I immediately bowed on reflex.

‘Wha-what? It’s really the prince?’ I thought in shock

‘What’s going on?’