arrival

"So... they gave me up?" The small living being in the shipment which was being taken away thought. Although not able to understand the local language, it was fairly easy for him to understand him being taken away right after birth and being transported away.

"But they really bring me away on a crane, are they worried it's not cliché enough?" thought the little baby aloud, though it came out as mumbles from his mouth. As he was awake, he tried to understand his situation.

Fairly obvious, since Ji Li even saw himself entering the River of Reincarnation, although not fully understanding, he knew that this was not his world and that he was reborn, as a baby. Trying to look a bit around was hard as his body was wrapped with a towel and below him was a blanket. It seemed pretty warm in this situation.

"What am I supposed to eat? I was just born yeah- how can they drop me so fast... woah I am not gonna be one of those searching their bio parents! There wasn't even a male figure present to be my father. I think they wrote me a letter, well maybe when I have a difficulty someday, I might ask them for help."

As Ji Li had a lot to think about, like his past life, his current situation and his unknown future, he barely noticed the passage of time. Especially his past. He questioned himself and wanted to know his own emotional situation and whether he missed his home or anything from Earth.

"Well, my parents will wonder where I have been in at the next holidays... maybe, maybe they'll forget it and just assume I didn't want to attend. They've been like that since forever. Well, the first to know will probably my Boss, but I'm sure that before he's even gonna suspect anything, he'll just cut the contract and not pay my last payment, be happy with it and forget me. I don't think I have any large attachments to my past life. Maybe I would miss a large bathtub and the internet, this here seemed to be a kinda old-ish place to be honest."

...

Ji Li kept waking up and thinking about this and that in the following 9 days, till he didn't have much to think about and just slept longer, especially since he started to feel hungry, which came to a surprise to him because it took so long even though he didn't even take enough food excrete.

As he thought about a food list he'd be missing and stopped just at nice backed goods like chocolate croissant, which might not be the best list considering his hunger...

'Swish' like the wind, the crane landed in the Imperial Capital City a day earlier than expected because the weather was surprisingly well all the way from north to the central laying city.

As it entered the Couriers Guild's flight beast door atop the building, it swiftly took the Iron Box towards a desk and tapped twice on it with its beak before leaving and standing atop the building complex, a bit deeper into it was a large tree with many other cranes and other birds of various sizes, probably used for all the sizes of boxes.

'Oh', that's what Ji Li thought when he felt a small shock coming towards him. "This seems to be the 9th day. At least it's the 9th break... or maybe we finally arrived? I thought that the last 9 times already... it's getting boring in here. At least give me a phone or something!"

As though to answer him, the box was taken away but this time it was a bit shaky until the box was placed on a small carriage which went into the imperial palace inner city, as the imperial capital was fairly large and there were a lot of important palaces placed all around the inner city. There were even separate courier stations in the capital, this one being a rather small one taking in messages from only military outposts.

The carriage shook and crooked as it carried quite a few boxes to their destination, coming from a military outpost, most of these boxes were taken to the ministry of war, but a few were also taken to the ministry of households for when someone send back a few things to their family members when they also worked inside the imperial palace inner city.

All ministries had smaller yards designated for acceptance, storage and distribution of packages inside the inner city. As the carriage stopped at the courier's yard in the palace complex of the ministry of households, Ji Li again felt the box moving. 

Although the box seemed very heavy and is soundproof and defensive beyond everything, apparently, it's in the end still just a box and not something too special. 

Having delivered everything, the courier took his leave and several younger men in blue outer garments entered the yard and began to sort things out, while several other strong-looking people came out of a building at the side. 

"Haaaah! Why do they always come so early! If only I could sleep a little longer and not have to sort through all these out!"

"Don't complain, I've been on courier's duty for over a month already! You think I get any good sleep in all that time?"

"Yeah, yeah!" While saying that, one of the couriers pressed on the corner on all the boxes made of various materials. There was a small sigil and upon pressing with their ministries identities, some parchment came out in roll form from the sides of the sigil.

Reading the destination on every parchment, they signalised for one of strong men to take the box on their back, on which was a small bag-like wooden construct meant to help them carry heavier things, supporting their back.

"This is for the Servitude Palace..."

"This is for the Personal Maids of... that's in the Palace of..."

"This is for the Servitude Palace too, but this one for the training yard..."

"Oh! Look at this, it's for the Eunuch Palace Training Yard! It's so surprising that these new Eunuchs have connections to anyone! Aren't they alone... WAIT! This is a living Shipment!"

"What? No way! Actually, someone send their child here. Look, they send it from so far away, for it to survive all the way here... they surely paid a lot! Haha, probably some rich family that wanted to get rid of an unwanted child!"

"Hahaha, you're right. Okay you there, you're the strongest right? Come take this to the training yard of the Eunuch palace. Here take this and show it to them, or they'll think you are joking with them"

The tallest man among the group of porters, who surprisingly looked young, came out of their place and took a look at the iron box before putting it on their back. As he looked at the parchment describing the content of the box, he himself gave a low chuckle and run outwards.

These porters all had to personally run around the large inner city, luckily most palaces weren't far away from their respective ministry to ensure the communication was always swift.

Although the training yard of the Eunuch Palace was at the side entrance, this made it a bit easier to enter. But the name of "Palace" was truly irritating, it's more like a large compound of several yards and buildings. There was indeed a small palace as tall as over 100 meters, but unfortunately that was only for the high members of the Eunuch palace. 

Actually, there were not many people here, as the Eunuch Palace only hosted temporary unassigned eunuchs, new eunuchs in training and some administrator eunuchs. Most of the eunuchs lived in a special building assigned to them in every palace or yard.