"Argh...", I cried out, my hand bleeding as the shards of the broken glass pricked my skin.
"You better finish cleaning that up..", my mistress loomed above me cradling her signature whip.
'Yeah right.. ', I rolled my eyes.
The palace library was one of the biggest places in the entire palace, filled with luxury items one could only dream of buying.
Golden chandeliers hung from the ceilings, artistic chairs and tables, and high shelves that reached for the roof far above.
I hunched down at a spot swiftly sweeping the shards of clear glass with a white towel, watched like a hawk by the mistress.
She looked down at me, her wrinkles furrowed as her ruby eyes watched my every step.
"A-all done ma'am" my voice cracked, as I stood up, shaky.
My mistress squirted her eyes at the spot I'd been ordered to clean.
I gulped.
One misstep could potentially lead to my downfall.
'Ahh.. why'd the mistress have to come inspect the cleaning herself ' I murmured inwardly.
I sighed.
'This is such a pain in the butt'.
Fortunately she didn't find anything wrong with the spot, the white bronze tiles seemed spotless.
She just threw a wave at me and told me to finish up the cleaning and walked out.
'Thank god '.
Some other slaves polishing the shelves near me as of there lives depended on it sighed..
If I had done anything to annoy the mistress, by now we'd be telling a whole different story, a gruesome one.
I continued the cleaning, as I always did.
I can't remember life outside the palace anymore, I was sold to work here ever since I was six, constant morning routines, cleaning the stables, moving heavy objects and working not even caring if my back broke.
' At least there's free food, I heard my parents sold me to improve their financial situation'.
'Those bastards ' I cursed inwardly.
I stretched my wary bones.
In summary.. life was hell living as a slave in the Persian estate.
In no time, the library was spotless, shelves were fully dusted, books were arranged, chairs and tables were alined properly. Even the chandeliers had retained they're pristine glow.
Few of the slaves, all wearing cleaning aprons groaned as they left the library premises, totally exhausted.
I couldn't blame them though, guess 6 hours of nonstop manual labor had really ruined their day.
" Levi aren't you coming.." one of the maids called out to me, standing at the huge gold entrance of the library.
"I-I'm coming " I responded.
"I just have to take out the pieces the mistress asked to dispose.."
Miss Lauren,the middle aged woman, just a slave as myself looked at me with warm eyes, then tossed an object with a silver glint at me.
In reflect I caught it. It jiggled, filled with bunks of little metal stakes.
' The key '
"Lock up and give the key to the library keeper okay" she walked away, waving at me.
I sighed, walking towards a shelve at the corner.
I picked up the glass I previously wrapped in a white towel, stained with some of my blood.
I cautiously stuck my hands into my pants pulling out a daky grey book, giving it a sniff.
On the surface of the book it read " basic lessons to swordsmanship".
Honestly I'm just glad the mistress didn't catch me with this, if not I wasn't even sure I'd survive.
' One down..'
I looked around again, putting the booked perfectly in a hole in the shelf that fit perfectly with the book.
'Two more to go..'
As I'd done before I carefully removed another book.
'how to perform a perfect slash.. perfect ' I rejoiced internally.
I looked to the corner, a book stuck out of the pile, a bit dusty.
' These maids..' I rolled my eyes, sticking my hand to clean the pile.
As my hands pushed on it, a clicking sound was heard.
'What ?..'
A mechanical sound echoed was heard, a seemingly large painting by the corner of the room, hidden in the shades by one of the shelfs, creaked.
My bewildered eyes watched as the painting slid open with a mechanical hiss, revealing a hidden stairway that descended into darkness.
Holding the book I just illegal borrowed from the library, I peeked.
The stariway was adorable by gravel, the narrow path was illuminated by gemstones that casted a blue hue around the eerie passage.
My heart beat raced..
' A secret passage ?. Is it safe?. What if I go down there..?'.
My mind raced with possibilities.
In the end, curiosity got the better of me as I took a step closer.
Taking a closer look, the narrow walls were adorned with ecthed carvings of dragons.
'These are the same as the walls of the grand hall ', I thought.
My heartbeat got louder, my hands trembled but this dammed curiosity It pushed me further.
My sippers crunched beneath me as I began my decent, slow, steady.
Never in my 10 years of living in the palace have I tried to do something like this.
There wasn't a direct rule that you can't explore hidden passageways in the palace, but I felt threading this eerie path broke some rule.
'Hidden passageways were hidden for a reason..' I gulped.
As I got deeper, my movement became more fluid, I was getting bolder.
I've already began, might as well finished it.
The space widened slowly until I found myself in a room—No not a room, more like an underground cemetery.
Tombstones neatly arranged, lined in front of me all bearing names of people I didn't recognize.
The room was lit by glowing or s on each end, casting a bright blue glow, the walls and coffins looked dusted, showing that it had just been cleaned recently.
'who has been maintaining this place..?' I thought.
I have been with the cleaning staff for over ten year now and never in my days of cleaning have the mistress mentioned anything about cleaning an underground cemetery.
Some random words were engraved on each of the coffins.
"Geralt the Twelvth, Eliot the eleventh..", I read.
These were not random names, they were names of each king That ruled the empire,
There was an elevated slab for every four coffins, going upwards to form a sort of hierarchy.
My eyes scanned through..
"Centurion the seventh... Aragoth the fifth" I continued reading..
The tip of my fingers caressed the coffin.
My breathing grew hoarse as I climbed the empire's history.
"Michelin the third... Eden the second..".
I paused...
The largest coffin, in the most elevated platform in front of me.
I nearly collapsed, other coffins were made with concrete.. but this.
My mouth drooled..
It was made with gold..
Not the processed kind that the empire uses as currency No.
Real gold...
My shaky hands slowly caressed the gold exterior.
An aura radiated from inside the coffin—pulsating as if it was alive.
My breathing completely crumbled as I utterly the name written on the gold pavement.
"L-Leonard..the frist"
Atop the stone pavement, a black stone shimmered.
Whilst caressing the golden coffin My hand touched the black glemming stone.
[Existence stone.. absorbed..]
[Awakening Innate ability]
[Ability discovered]
My hand jolted off the stone slab.. Heart beating, my heart nearly jumped out off my mouth.
'What just happened.'
For a moment, some word flashed past my retina.