Chapter 3: First day

"We're here."

One of the two guards said as he opened the door while his other hand was still holding the princess, who was trying her hardest to struggle out of their grasp. Once the door was fully opened, they threw her harshly onto the floor, making her let out a small yelp.

"Hey, can't you be gentler?!" She exclaimed.

Ignoring her, that same guard held the doorknob and was about to close the door before he stopped midway. "Rest and remember to wake up early tomorrow."

The other guard spoke up. "And don't try to run away or kill yourself. We'll make sure you won't be able to do that."

And with that said, they slammed the door shut. Groaning, Ellegaard collected herself from the ground and dusted her body and dress. She then took a look around her room. It was sure a room for a maid, so she couldn't really ask for much. The room was very small, only had enough space for one person to walk around comfortably. There were twin windows and white curtains attached to them. There was only a bed that was placed beside the window and only one person could sleep on, a cupboard that was opposite the bed, a bathroom, a nightstand beside the bed and a desk placed at the opposite wall to the wall where the bed was. Surprisingly enough, the room was very clean, not dusty like she expected.

"Those bastards…" She groaned again. "Oh well… guess that I have to stay here and… do god-knows whatever they tell me." She yawned and looked at the clock placed on the nightstand. It was nearly eleven at night and she sighed. "Time for bed, no-longer-princess Ellegaard…"

She couldn't wear her dress to sleep, so she opened the wardrobe and looked for something she could wear tonight. The first thing that caught her eyes was a knee-length long-sleeved dress that she supposed was the nightgown of the maids here, and she took it out without looking more into the wardrobe. She put it on and plopped onto her bed, setting the alarm. Since she had gone through days without sleeping because of her worries, she soon found herself drifting to sleep, letting her tired mind rest as well.

Ellegaard was still sleeping peacefully until something startled her, waking her up. Looking over the direction of the noise, she realized that it was the alarm clock that was ringing loudly. Groaning, she slammed a hand on top of it, turning the alarm sound off. She then yawned and look over the clock to see that it was 5:40 AM, the time she set last night.

"Morning…" Rubbing her eyes, she got off her bed and walked over the bathroom. "Time to get ready for my very first freaking day of work here…"

After getting ready in the bathroom, she opened the wardrobe to find some clothes to put on. She then found three maid uniforms and took one out. It consisted of a long-sleeved black dress blouse with white collar, a long black dress that reached the middle of her forelegs and pinafore apron with a pocket and frills at its shoulder straps and its lower part. She also found a pair of black heels with straps, a maid white lacey headpiece and black stockings.

Finishing putting them on, she looked at herself in the small mirror hung on the wall and spun around. "Hmm… it looks pretty nice, to be honest."

Something snapped in her mind after she just finished it. "W- what are you talking about, Ellegaard?! You're wearing a maid outfit, at your enemy's kingdom, not yours!"

Just when she finished it, there was suddenly a knock on the door. She walked toward it and turned the doorknob, annoyed. But just after when the door was opened, someone jumped onto her, bringing her into a tight hug.

"W- What…?" She said in surprise. "W- Who are you?! Get off me!"

"I'm so glad you're safe, Princess!"

That person said and Ellegaard recognized this voice. As they pulled away from each other, her eyes widened when she saw who that was. Standing in front of her was her once personal servant, Olivia, who had tan skin, short curly black hair that brushed over her shoulder blades and a pair of black eyes.

"O- Olivia?!" She exclaimed. "Is it really you?!"

"Yes, it's me, Your Highness!" Olivia said happily. "Thank god, you're okay! I was so worried for you! Last night, I heard your voice from my room and immediately ran out of my room to check on you. But the guards wouldn't let me come in, they said that I and you came from the same kingdom, so there might be a chance that I would help you escape."

"Those jerks…" Ellegaard mumbled and got surprised when she looked at the other girl. She was wearing the same maid outfit like her. "Why are you wearing this?"

"Oh, they let me live here as a maid, Your Highness." Olivia answered. "They asked me what I did at out kingdom and I told him that I worked as the princess's personal servant. He told me to do some cleanup things to test me and then after a while, he let me stay here…"

"Really…?"

"Yes, Your Highness. That was very strange, if you ask me."

A short silence went between them before Ellegaard spoke up, breaking it. "Aren't you surprised that I'm wearing this outfit?"

"Well…" Olivia said. "The guards led you here, so I guess the king let you stay here as a maid here too, didn't him?"

"I'm a servant, but not just any servant…" Ellegaard gripped her dress. "I'm the king's personal servant."

Hearing this, Olivia gasped out loud. "Is that true, Your Highness?! You're kidding, aren't you?!"

"I'm serious, Olivia…" Ellegaard bit her lips. "And you don't have to call me 'Your Highness' anymore, since we're in the same place now."

Olivia didn't say anything for a while. "Princess…"

Ellegaard stayed silent.

"Alright, it's your first day here, so I'll take you around the castle Your Hig- I mean, E- Ellegaard!"

Sighing heavily, Ellegaard walked alongside Olivia outside. "Lead the way."

"This is the kitchen, Ellegaard."

Olivia said as she pushed open the white twin doors. Walking inside, Ellegaard took a quick look around. The kitchen was kind of familiar from the one at her kingdom and it was full of people. It was early in the morning, so she supposed they were busy preparing for breakfast.

"Oh, you said that you're the king's personal servant, right?"

Ellegaard nodded and Olivia looked kind of nervous suddenly. She said a little quieter while twiddling her thumb. "Uh… um… you know what to do now, d- do you?"

Ellegaard raised an eyebrow.

"G- God, how do I say this…?" Olivia said nervously. "Um… Well, do you remember that every morning when I was still your personal servant, I used to bring breakfast to you while you're still in bed, r- right?"

Ellegaard thought for a while before the idea clicked in her head.

"God no…" She face-palmed and groaned.

Olivia sighed. "I don't want this either, but… I guess you'll have to do this on your own, Ellegaard…"

"I hate this already…"

Ellegaard mumbled just loud enough just for herself to hear. With Olivia pointing the direction for her, she was walking toward the king's room with a silver tray held by her hands. On the tray was a very fancy breakfast, which consisted of a stack of pancakes with maple syrup and butter, two fried eggs, some crispy fried bacon strips, some slices of strawberries, some blueberries and a cup of orange juice. Just by looking at it made her mouth water, but she tried to hold it back.

She soon saw two big twin doors and immediately knew that she reached Magnus's room. Inhaling, she thought. 'Here goes nothing…'

She knocked on the doors three times with her shaking hands and waited for a respond. Shortly after, she heard someone spoke up from inside.

"Come in."

She gulped and slowly pushed the door open using one hand while the other held the tray. Walking inside, she saw a man sitting on his bed in his white kurta pajama, looking at her with that same unreadable expression.

"G- Good morning. I- I came to bring you y- your breakfast…" Her voice was stuck for a while as she tried to force the two last words out. "… Your M- Majesty."

'Goddamnit, why are you stuttering, Ellegaard?!' She thought.

Walking toward his king-sized bed, she felt extremely uncomfortable with him keeping his stare on her. She felt... disgusted, and offended in a way, as she put the tray on his bed as gently as she could, trying to avoid his stare.

"Thank you. You may go now."

"Yes, Your Majesty. E- Enjoy your meal!"

She walked out as quickly as she could. Right after she closed the door behind her, she was finally able to let out her heavy breath as sweated, feeling relieved that she didn't screw up anything. While she was attempting to walk out of the room fast, she could feel his stare on her the whole time, and she was very uncomfortable with it. His stare… It was definitely scary, but it held… something…

"Why me…?" She mumbled quietly.

Lunch was over. Ellegaard was walking alone at the hallway, heading to her room to get some rest. While she was doing so, she bumped into someone and quickly bowed down, mumbling out an apology.

"I- I'm so sorry!"

"It's okay."

She looked up to see a young woman that was about her age. She had long black hair that reached the middle of her back with a yellow hairclip at her bang and a pair of green eyes. She was wearing a knee-length blue pregnancy dress with short white sleeves and in her hands was a small box tied up with red ribbons.

"Oh, you don't look familiar to me." The woman said. "Are you new here?"

"Y- yeah…" Ellegaard said. "I'm Ellegaard."

"Ellegaard? So you're the king's personal servant?"

"Yes…" She didn't want to hear the words 'personal servant', yet everyone had to say them at least once.

"Oh, nice to meet you then." The woman smiled. "My name is Jesse."

"Hello Jesse." She said. She kind of trusted this woman, although she didn't know why. Maybe because she was nice to her, even though she knew Ellegaard was from the other kingdom? "Sorry for bumping into you again."

"I told you, it's okay. It's very nice to meet the king's servant."

"Yeah… haha." Ellegaard chuckled, feeling ashamed and embarrassed at the same time. "A- anyway, where are you going?"

"I'm going to my husband's practice place." Jesse said. "He's a guard here, and I'm going there to give him some snacks."

"C- can I come? I'm new here, and I kind of need to, you know, go around here to get used to it."

"Sure." Jesse smiled as they walked alongside each other. "Follow me."

While walking, there was a rather uncomfortable silence between. There was still a very long way before they could even reach the end of the hallways that led outside, so Ellegaard had an urge to break it, or else it would become too much to bear.

"So… what's your job here?"

"Oh, I was a cook. So His Majesty gave me a temporary dish-washing job, since a cook needs speed which I couldn't have since I'm having a child. It was very considerate of him to do that, really."

"I see."

'Considerate, you said...'

Ellegaard kept that thought to herself as they continued their conversation.

Jesse and Ellegaard soon reached the guard's training field. Clanking sound of the spears was heard, some guards were giving all they'd got and some were resting with sweats on their face. Jesse looked around for a while and shouted while waving one hand.

"Lukas dear!"

Ellegaard looked to the direction Jesse was looking at and saw a man with blond hair and blue eyes in his armor standing from afar. He was holding his helmet in his hands and she guessed that he just took it off, judging by the amount of sweats on his face.

Seemed to spot Jesse, he quickly walked to her. "Jesse? What are you doing here?"

"I came to give you some snacks, honey." She gave him the box and he took it.

"You know you don't have to make these for you, since you need rest more."

"I know, but practicing can be very tiring so I want to make something for you."

"Thanks a lot, Jesse." He smiled.

Turning over Ellegaard, he looked at her for a while before turning back to Jesse. "Who's this?"

"Oh, almost forgot to introduce. Ellegaard, this is my husband, Lukas. Lukas, this is Ellegaard, the king's new personal servant."

"Oh, Ellegaard?" Lukas said, looking at Ellegaard. "I've heard a little about you moving in here to work."

"Yes, nice to meet y-"

"JESSE!"

She was cut off when someone suddenly shouted. Then, a man ran to them from nowhere. He was wearing his armor like Lukas and had short brown hair and green eyes. He was huffing heavily.

"Jesse, WHY ARE YOU HERE?!" He yelled. "You're supposed to rest!"

"Calm down Jess." Jesse said. "I just came here to give Lukas his snack-"

"Snack? SNACK?!" Jess yelled at Lukas. "Lukas, you made her make snacks for you, regardless of her pregnancy, DIDN'T YOU?!"

"Jess!" Jesse exclaimed. "I care for him, so I made some for him WITHOUT anyone forcing me, alright?"

"Alright…" Jess towered over Lukas. "Lukas, I'm not going to repeat this, but if something terrible happens to her then you're dead, got it?"

"G- got it!"

Jess then walked away when someone called him to get back to practice. "Who was that?" Ellegaard asked.

"That's Jesse's twin brother, and also my brother-in-law." Lukas said. "He can be very scary sometimes, as you can tell…"

"Oh, don't worry about it." Jesse gave him a peck on the cheek. "He's not gonna hurt you with me here."

"Haha… thanks sweetie."

Ellegaard sighed lightly.

At least her first day wasn't as bad as she thought.