9 Crown Prince's Room (1)

"Anna, Edith is calling you," Ella said as she entered their bedroom. Ella had just finished her job raking some falling leaves before returning back. She worked together with Anna, but Anna was superbly fast when doing everything.

Maybe that was why Edith asked her to call Anna.

Anna tilted her head in confusion. "Edith is calling me? Did I do something wrong?"

"I don't think so. Maybe she just wants to give you a bonus?" Ella said.

"A BONUS?!" Anna could feel the ka-chink as her eyes turned green. She hurriedly left the room and went to the Head Maid's office. Edith was currently working on assigning the maids and other servants before the banquet tomorrow.

Anna knocked on the door and entered. "Ma'am, Ella said that you called me."

"Ah yes," Edith fixed her glasses to look at Anna, who stood nervously, "Relax, young lady, I just want to give you extra work. I see that you have been working hard these days, and you are the fastest and the tidiest with your work. So I will assign you to work in Crown Prince Ignis' room."

"Don't worry, I will give you a bonus," Edith said.

"Prince Ignis' room? I just need to clean it, right?" Anna asked.

"Yes," Edith sighed as she took off her glasses, "To be honest, nobody wants to clean Prince Ignis' room because they are afraid they would break something inside. Prince Ignis is known to have a bloody temperament, last time he visited the palace, he got angry at a servant who accidentally destroyed a vase in his room. Prince Ignis then burned him to ashes."

"…"

"So, Anna, you should be very careful when cleaning the room, or you might lose your head…"

"…"

"But you are a neat maid. I'm sure you can handle it just fine," Edith's crooked smile didn't help to pacify Anna at all. She gulped and requested;

"Ma'am, I don't think I can—" Anna was about to refuse after knowing the risk, but then, Edith dropped her offer that Anna could not refuse.

"The bonus is three hundred Eyrs."

"YES, MA'AM!" Anna accepted immediately when she heard the bonus. Three hundred Eyrs in this kingdom should be worth about a hundred dollar in real life. That was an excellent earning for a cleaning job!

Edith snickered and said, "Go then, take your broom and clean the room."

***

Anna entered the room that had been brightly lit by a magic chandelier. Anna looked at the chandelier hanging on the ceiling. It was lit by many fire stones that made this room warm and somewhat… cosy.

"Hm… from what I heard, Prince Ignis is a powerful fire magic user and can manipulate fire at will. I guess he personally lit up that fire stones because I never see such bright and warm fire stones in the palace," Anna commented.

The way how lighting worked in this world was unique. They would something called fire stones and infuse them with magic every day to light up the rooms. If someone didn't have fire magic, you could just dry it under the sun, and it would charge, like a solar panel.

Anna saw the fire stones in many beautiful colours to light the palace, but this room… was the brightest and warmest!

"Ah, at least, this room is not as scary as what I thought," Anna said. She looked around and saw nothing dangerous inside, but there were indeed some unique vases from Prince Ignis' travel to other countries.

And there was also a big portrait of three children hanging on the wall.

Anna stared at the portrait for a moment to see who were those kids.

"Hm… I guess the red-haired one is Prince Ignis," Anna observed the handsome teenager, probably thirteen years old. "Wow, he is already a handsome teenager! I wonder what he looks like now."

Anna then saw the little girl with auburn hair, similar to Queen Seria's hair. She wore a white dress and pink ribbon, and she had an innocent smile of a little girl. "And that is the late Princess Serena…"

Anna grieved over Princess Serena, five years old cute princess who got killed by her own brother. "She was such a beautiful little princess..."

And then, Anna checked the last one standing on the right. He wore the same attire as Prince Ignis and was around the same height, but…

"Prince Corvus… I thought I may see his face now, but it seems even Prince Ignis doesn't want to keep his face in the painting."

The face of Prince Corvus in the portrait had been ripped apart, just like the rest of the paintings in the palace. In every royal family portrait, Prince Corvus' face had been ripped apart or covered with black ink.

"There is also no solo painting of Prince Corvus either…" Anna sighed. She asked Ella about this once, and she said that there was a rumour that Prince Corvus is very ugly, and to whoever stares at his eyes in a painting, they would be cursed forever. That's why they ripped his face in the royal family portrait.

"I mean, from what I heard, Prince Corvus accidentally killed his father and little sister because of his uncontrollable power. I'm pretty sure he didn't mean it," Anna said to herself.

"I wonder if Prince Corvus knows that he has no portrait in the royal family, I bet he will be very sad…"

Truthfully, Anna had never met Prince Corvus since he was chained inside the tower for ten years already. But somehow, Anna pitied the chained prince.

Because Prince Corvus must have been tormented by his sin of killing his family and to make it even worse, he was locked in the tower probably for the rest of his life.

Anna lowered his head and thought of something, something that was similar to a promise, 'If I ever see Prince Corvus, I want to give him a big hug and pat his back.'

Anna felt that her heart was heavy. Thus, she shook her head and patted her cheeks. "Okay, Anna! This is a hundred dollar cleaning service! Let's do this and get that money!"