Taming the Dragon Prince

I: Aerith Dallaeris

The palace is spiteful.

For a royal, the palace is a haven, a paradise, everything you've ever wanted and needed would be instantly served in just a clap of a hand. But for a lowly servant like me, as I mentioned before, it is deeply, absolutely, without a doubt, spiteful. 

"Aerith! It is already 5 in the morning, the princess might wake soon!" I felt numerous tappings on my cheeks and I answered back by shoving the hand that kept slapping my face. It was my roommate, Angela, she was already in her worn-out maid uniform and is preparing to leave the cramped room that we both share. "You shouldn't stay up so late if you can't even wake up on time." 

She made sure to add a scowl at the end of her sentence before exiting through the door, she is not exactly fond of being assigned to be my roommate so she kept treating me like a pest even though I am older than her by 2 years and has been working in the palace for as long as I could remember so basically I am her senior, but I don't receive the respect that I deserve.

With a muffled groan I sat up, I don't even need a mirror to tell that I look positively horrendous after pulling an all-nighter in helping clean the kitchen. If I would guess, I only had 4 hours of sleep, not that I could complain since I am only a servant here.

I stood up from my solid-like bed and went ahead to prepare for another busy day. 

"Ah!" I let out a small yelp as I caught a slight glimpse at the mirror and later grunting as I realized that I had only seen my reflection. I was right, I look horrendous. 

My deep black hair was sticking everywhere it would take an hour to fix such a disheveled hair so I just promptly pulled it all back into a bun. I washed my face, making sure I removed the gound on my eyes and drools on my mouth as it would be horrible to reveal myself to the princess looking like a bedraggled servant.

"All right, all done." I hurriedly went and wore my uniform that still has stains from last night of cleaning the kitchen, I don't usually wear the same clothes but since I had no time to wash my uniform last night, I would have to bear with this drenched clothes.

"Aerith! The princess is looking for you! You might want to hurry up." I heard Angela's loud voice from outside and I spare no time to check if my white apron is affixed, I grabbed my boots and socks and ran out of the room attempting to wear it while struggling to speed walk.

"Have a great day serving the princess, Aerith!" The head maid, miss Vasatti, an elderly and kind woman, commented before I went out of the maid's quarters and into the grandiose palace hallways.

"Thanks! You too, miss Vasatti." I happily greeted before closing the door behind me. Although the other maids look at me like a plague, the head maid treats me kindly as she is basically the one who raised me after my mother passed away when I was young.

I stretched my arms skyward as I waltz through the deserted hallway since it is only 5 in the morning and the other servants are still asleep. I only have to wake up so early unlike the rest is because the princess has a weird hobby of waltzing in the garden every 5 am so she could witness the sunrise glimmer at the dewy roses and as her personal maid, I am forced to accompany her every day

.

I looked out of the window to see the kingdom's capital since the palace was built on top of a hill overlooking the town and sometimes the princess would visit the capital and come home telling fun stories, not that I know since I have never seen another castle and have never left the palace gates.

My father was a war prisoner and my mother was the maid assigned to serve the prisoners their rations. Apparently, my mother was a sucker for black haired men and fell in love, giving birth to me, a weird-looking baby that everyone mistook as a naked mole-rat.

It's a good thing that puberty made some changes to my appearance but I still can't hide the fact that I still look the same as I was before.

"Aerith!" someone called that snapped me out of my trance.

All these thoughts clouding my mind made me not realize that I had already arrived in the princess's chamber to escort her to the garden.

She was sitting at the edge of her bed, still wearing her glimmering nightgown. It seemed that she overslept today but looking closely, the gods above do have their favorites. It was apparent that she had just woken up but her appearance, her image, her presence, screams 'Hah! I am the most beautiful creature in the kingdom even after only waking up'

"Err, good morning princess Thalia," I averted my gaze since continuing to look and gaze at her out of the world beauty would only hurt my heart and soul. "Are we not going to have a walk in the garden today?"

She blinked a lot more before gazing her crystal blue eyes at me, it was evident that she's still drowsy. What could have made her miss her daily routine of taking a walk in the palace garden, did she stay up all night?

"Aeris, I think we should pass for today's walk. I still feel sleepy, I found a nice book yesterday and it kept me up until midnight." She yawned and stretched her hands upward. She fell back on her soft and gigantic bed and fallen promptly into a pleasant sleep afterward.

I just stood at the doorway, frozen. I just woke up so early for nothing since the princess decided to cancel, and now I have to stay here because the princess had slept before giving me an order. I controlled my face not to show a single hint of dismay and in a soft voice I said,

"Understood, have a nice and pleasant sleep, princess."

Even though I know that she had her eyes closed, I still bowed down to show respect. My gaze dropped on the marble floor that I spent 2 hours wiping and cleaning to make it as shiny as it is now while the princess was out learning embroidery. I mentioned before that the palace is spiteful, yes, because I am just a servant. My life is basically owned by the royal family, I am not allowed to show any emotions nor hint that I am tired of the workload.

Even before my mother died due to her illness, it was already set in stone that I would become a maid since my father was a war prisoner. Miss Vasatti raised me and taught me how to become a proper maid and I was assigned to be the princess's personal maid. I didn't even get the chance to explore the outside world nor learn to read or write.

But that's okay, I am only a maid, my fate is to scrub the floors until the day I die.

"Aerith," Princess Thalia's voice echoed which made me surprised since I thought she had already fallen asleep. I looked at her direction to see that she was watching me.

"Yes, princess?" I asked with a small smile on my face and tilting my head slightly on the side.

"I said I will pass for today's walk." She muttered and paused for a few seconds.

What is she implying? Should I leave her alone? 

"Ah yes, I'll wait for you outside." I bowed again but she just let out a small chuckle.

"What's with you? That means we get to sleep for a lot more hours before the day officially starts, come let's sleep." She scoots to the edge of the bed and tapped her bed, implying for me to sleep as well.

"Understood" I removed my boots and pulled out my white apron before jumping on to her fluffy bed.

"Well, you looked horrendous so I thought we should skip today's walk." She said as she snuggled under her thick velvet blanket. 

"I was just thinking the same thing." I sat up and looked at her, 

"That we should cancel today's walk?"

"No, that I look horrendous today."

She laughed, her soothing voice is enough to make flowers bloom and make the birds sing in melody. "Tell me about it," 

"Well..." I began, plopping down on her huge pillow and mentally comparing it to the ones I had in my small room. "They needed a hand in cleaning the kitchen so I helped them out, I didn't know that it would last until dawn but I'm alright, just a tad bit sleepy."

"I see, you shouldn't force yourself to work tirelessly every day. I'll make sure that you don't have to work too much." She closed her eyes, I didn't say anything after that since I believe she had already fallen asleep. I wanted to thank her but I should let her rest.

Princess Thalia Dione Amphitrite, she's the youngest out of her four siblings and is the only princess. When I was young, she met me and since then we became friends. The reason why she made me her personal maid is that she took an interest in me for having such a deep black hair. 

Indeed she is a kind-hearted person, too modest that sometimes she doesn't realize herself that she makes outrageous orders and I had no choice but to obey. I am not allowed to show any emotions when serving the royal family but if in front of princess Thalia, I could sneer or make silly faces. Why? Because it is what she wants. 

I only did those things because I was taught to follow whatever the princess orders, if she wants a funny and optimistic companion then I am obliged to become one. Troubling the princess is something we servants shouldn't do or even think about doing.

Even though I am lucky to be assigned as princess Thalia's maid, I am still bound by the shackles of portraying and doing whatever she wants. It is like I am just a doll, I only exist for them and they have the power and authority to customize me into whatever they deem as interesting.

Like I said before, this place is spiteful.