A Risky Upgrade in Social Status

We kept on walking until we reached the end of the walkway, at the corner, there was a small door. A room was behind it, it looked nice, though it was a bit dusty, it had a bed and some books on the side, and an old lamp on a desk.

"This will be your room, from now on, wait here until I bring you the clothes you will be wearing for the job," she said as she walked away.

I looked around the room and saw a closed window. I opened it to let the air circulation in, to remove the damp smell.

I then took liberty in cleaning it up, there was a broom near the door that I made and began removing the piled dust after cleaning the desk with an old cloth, it got a bit dusty, but the air sucked it out almost instantly.

"I see that you are rather initiative for having started cleaning your room even before I asked you to," said Melinda ash she came back holding a set of clothes.

"Yes, like you said this was to be my room for a while so this is the least I can do, I wouldn't want to rest in this place without at least cleaning it."

"Very good, once you finish, come to the kitchen you will find some food there. I think you should be starving by now. After you eat, we will start your real training."

"Yes, mam, I will make sure to get there, but where is the kitchen? I wouldn't want to wander off somewhere I am not allowed to"

"Just go back the hall and up to the second floor it is the first door on your right, and don't call me Mam, we are both servants for the same level, the only one you need to call Mam is the head maid, other than that, you call everyone by either Lord, or mistress, that includes Mistress Akari who we will be working for, for the next few months."

"Yes, Melinda," I said, and she left.

Before I would wear my new clothes, I decided to continue with cleaning the room, so that I wouldn't dirty the rest.

It took me about half an hour before the room was spotless.

I also discovered few old books that were laying here and there and had them organized by order. They were mostly about history and something about the royal family, I might give them a quick skim through the night.

I then wore the new clothes, they were a set of black pants and a black vest, with a white shirt underneath and a tie, the jacket was long on the back and ended with a twin tail cut, there were also two white gloves with them. Combined with black leather boots. They were cotton made and were really nice to wear.

Once I finished wearing them, I walked upstairs to the kitchen, Melinda was there waiting for me.

The kitchen was really huge, it must have taken the whole top floor, as it had several long foods preparing tables, there was a food storage inside and several other maids were busy doing their job, some was cutting vegetables, and some was busy preparing food, the smell of ingredients and food being prepared really made me feel hungry.

"Here, come," she said

"Sit," she said

"Wrong!" she said never sit on a table without your master's permission, I am not your master and if any asks you to do so then politely decline."

I didn't want to argue with her as she was the one to have asked me to sit. and so I said

"I will remember that," I said and stood back up.

"Let's pretend that I am the mistress," she said, "And that both of us have been invited to a table with a noble, what would you do before we start?"

"I will pull the mistress's chair for her?"

"Don't say anything you are not sure of," she said "But that is correct, now pull my chair," she said, and so I did.

I went to sit near her and she said

"What are you doing? When the master sits you are to stand behind them in wait for orders. A servant always eats after their master had finished."

"Yes, I will remember that," I said

"Good," she said, now sit," she asked.

I sat beside her like had told me earlier. She is the master now and I have to follow her orders.

Two other maids came and stood behind us, on the table, there were three empty plates one atop each other, and beside them, three forks a knife and two spoons, the spoons and forks were in different sizes.

The maids brought some sort of vegetable salad at first, and they served it to us, it was a small portion that would barely feed a bird, but I was hungry but had to wait for the mistress to eat first.

"Now, first thing first, there is a set of rules you need to learn, every fork and spoon you see here serves a different reason, this, for example, is a spoon for soup, while this is for dessert, this fork is for salad while this one is used with a knife to cut steaks, sometimes there might not be a soup in the menu but this spoon will still be here, but never use a soup's spoon to eat dessert or a salad fork for meat, everything needs to serve its purpose"

Holy shit. All of this just to eat a salad.

"Now begin," she asked and waited for me to start.

"Aren't you going to eat?" she asked.

"The mistress first," I said

"Good, you still remember, you are not hopeless after all, now follow my lead."

She then took the salad fork and began eating, though I say eating what she did was that she used her fingers with finesse to control the fork and eat. But she never finished the thing. She even left more than she ate.

"Never eat your fill," she said "Eating with other nobles is not about filling your belly, it is about showing dignity and well manners even doing something primal as eating"

Primal?

I followed her lead and ate just a bit. This only served to make me feel hungrier.

She then wiped her mouth gently with a napkin then waited for me to do the same.

"good, now to the next dish," she said

And we continued like that. The food consisted of several servings going from salad to soup to a piece of steak to roasted duck to some sort of ice cream dessert. In all my life I had never eaten something as luxurious as this and Melinda said that we will be doing this until I can perfectly manage myself, I honestly think that I should never improve so that these sessions will last forever, I rarely eat anything other than that horrid stew…

"Very well, not bad for a first day now you will be going back to the courtyard for your sword and magic training."

"Wait. What?"

"What did you expect that you will just sit here all day and do housework when you go to the royal school? You are needed to protect your mistress under all circumstances and lay your life on the line when it is needed, all servants are experts in combat and magic, though two months is not nearly enough to get you up to shape it should do if you give it your all, a private master swordsman will come here to teach you all you need about dueling."

"You said magic and sword training, who will be doing the magic training?"

The girl hesitated for a moment and said.

"It seems that your ability is rather…peculiar so the one that is going to train you will be no other than the master himself… try not to die," she said with a look of terror on her face.

…

I don't know if I should feel happy that the hero of flame will be training me or that I should fear for my life because I will be responsible for his daughter's safety…