A month had passed.
Nil Astoria had become a professional maid and was ready to show her skills to the royal palace. She was in the kitchen, looking happy while making tea for Prince Aeren. She had worked hard for a month and finally learned everything that made her a professional maid.
Nil was praised by others, and she felt this place was like home. She communicated with everyone around her, and everyone liked her. So she felt happy about being here. But she had been told by others that Aeren was too dangerous, so she should be on guard.
Nil had heard many things about Aeren. She heard that he lived alone most of the time, and if he met someone, he did weird things. Sometimes he played with monsters.
Monsters were common here and lived like pets, so playing with them wasn't surprising. But they were still dangerous for a child like Aeren.
Today, Nil would start her work from this day onward. She had been given the task of bringing tea to Aeren in the morning. He still had an hour before waking time.
So she was taking her time to make the best tea she could with her talent and magic.
"I need to prove myself to Prince Aeren and show the world that I'm not worthless."
Nil started making her best tea for Prince Aeren, using her magic. She used many types of elements, and after working for an hour, she finally made the tea.
Nil sighed in relief, exhaled her breath, and smiled. She still had perfect timing to reach Prince Aeren's room. She took the teacup with her and left the kitchen.
Nil had forgotten about Aeren's slap and thought of him as just a normal human being. She was expecting something from Aeren like a child would.
Nil walked slowly, taking a few minutes to reach Aeren's room, and exhaled her breath.
Knock...
Knock...
"Come in."
Nil heard the answer from inside, opened the door, and saw Aeren sitting on a chair. His single room was like her mansion. Everything was available in his room, and she felt awe just seeing it, almost forgetting about her work.
Aeren watched her with cold eyes and didn't say anything, letting her do whatever she was doing. He continued watching her.
Aeren had seen her somewhere and didn't remember her. He stood up from his chair and came close to her. "Hmm, who are you?"
Nil almost shook at Aeren's question. Her eyes went to his eye again, and she felt like she was losing herself once more. But Nil wanted to look into Aeren's eyes and wanted to lose herself in them.
Aeren twitched slightly and slapped her again.
SLAP
Nil was on the ground the next moment, and all her hard work spilled onto the floor. Nil remembered their first encounter—she had been slapped again. She always forgot her name when she saw Aeren's eyes.
Nil saw her tea that she had made for the prince, then turned her head and saw Prince Aeren looking at her with cold eyes.
Nil stood up and cleaned the floor with her magic. "I'm sorry, Your Highness."
Aeren ignored her and went to his chair, sitting down. "Tell me about yourself. If I don't like it, I will beat you."
Nil was shocked by Aeren's words because she wasn't being punished for spilling the tea. She never thought she would be punished if her introduction didn't feel right.
She bowed elegantly, put her hand to her maid outfit, and showed her best elegance:
"I'm Nil Astoria. I came here to serve you, Your Highness."
Aeren studied her and saw her elegance. He started staring at her blue eyes, like loneliness, and her face somehow matched loneliness from his memory, but she was different.
Aeren watched her eyes for a while, then ignored her and thought about his past life with others.
"Hmm, you have a good name and eyes."
Nil was shocked by Aeren's compliment about her name and eyes. She had thought she was going to be punished by Prince Aeren, but this surprised her. Because whenever she had said her name, everyone had thought of her as a boy. Some had even made fun of her, telling her she was an abandoned child and that's why her parents gave her this name.
But Prince Aeren hadn't made fun of her—he had even complimented her name, and she felt happy inside. She had always liked her name and never thought much about what others said.
She bowed again. "Thank you, Your Highness."
Aeren watched her smile and didn't think much about her. "I will give you a riddle, and you have to answer me, or you will be beaten by me."
Nil was shocked by Aeren's statement. How did the riddle come out of nowhere? Does he want to beat me so much that he's getting an excuse to beat me?
She didn't understand Aeren at all. A few moments ago he had complimented her, and now he was going to beat her.
"Yes, Your Highness."
Nil had no choice but to follow Prince Aeren's lead.
Aeren nodded and didn't react much.
"When I was in the world of Pearl, I met Truth, Hope, Deceit, Knowledge, and System.
Truth was blind, and the world gave her direction about itself, but when Truth met me, she tried to escape, but I captured her and learned about the world from Truth, and I gave her eyes.
Hope had tried to find me everywhere to learn about Truth, but I didn't show myself to him. When I let Hope see me, his desire changed, and he wanted to kill me, but Hope wasn't able to achieve this.
Deceit came to me and told me about her power and wanted me to join her, but I captured her and gave her a lesson of life and death. There she met Truth, and Truth wasn't able to see her clearly, thinking of her as innocent.
I learned about Knowledge through Deceit, and I wanted to learn about Knowledge, so I went to knowledge. But Knowledge tried to capture me, though he wasn't able to, and now Knowledge is within me.
When System came from Hope and saw me, System erased me without speaking a single word. But when I reached System, she broke and shattered everything—nothing escaped except me.
Tell me: who am I?"
Aeren finished his riddle and studied Nil, who was thinking about it.
Aeren didn't disturb her and let her think about the riddle. He started thinking about this world: "A world where more than one like me lived here and gave others more freedom than the last world. There is magic like elemental, divine, dark, and more. Swords have mana, aura, and broken physical limits. All spirits exist here."
"About people: there are elves, demons, dwarfs, and humans, all known as people. Because they don't have age differences between them, but they still differentiate themselves—though few people care about those idiotic things."
"Because of magic, sword, and spirit, all living beings can live to age 950, and some live to 1000 years old."
"Magic circulation makes them age slower and look young for their whole lives, but they die in the end. Mana does the same thing. And spirits have a different concept—owner and spirit circulate their life and death with each other."
"Most people awaken at age 16, go to academy at age 20, and become adults at age 30."
Aeren thought about all the things he had learned about this world through his position as a prince. He still hadn't finished learning everything and had to understand this world completely.
"Time's up," Aeren said.
Aeren stood up from his chair and went to Nil, who was still thinking about the riddle. He punched her face, and she started protecting herself.
"AHAHAHAHHHH! Wait! I know the answer! Please, it hurts!"
Aeren didn't listen to her and beat her until she was unconscious. It took him an hour to knock her unconscious. After that, Aeren left her there and sat in his chair again.