Yasmin stared at her plate for who knows how long, she kept telling herself that 'this is fine' or 'I can do this' but her hand remained firmly wrapped around her fark. Yasmin wasn't always a vegetarian, she once loved the taste of meat just like any other carnivore. In fact, she loved it so much that her parents took her to a steakhouse for her eighth birthday. Young Yasmin was so excited that she alone ate more than four plates of steak. The juicy and tender meat was so delicious that it had the eight year old Yasmin dancing in her seat with every bite she took. Yasmin was scarfing down the food so fast her mother worried that she'd end up choking or get sick, her mother's worry wasn't for naught because later that day when Yasmin got back home she caught a stomach bug. She vomited to the point she tasted bile and her parents had to take her to the hospital. Though this wasn't the result of her eating too much or too fast because they soon discovered that other people from that restaurant were also showing the same symptoms. After thorough investigation from the IRS, it was soon discovered that the restaurant was serving expired meat. Yasmin was so disgusted when she heard the news that she vomited some more, she swore an oath that day that she would swear off meat and become a vegetarian. No matter what her parents did they couldn't get their dear daughter to touch or even look at meat again. I guess you could say our dear Yasmin was traumatised.
"Is there a problem with the food?" Franklin asked to bring Yasmin out of her intense staring contest.
"Um…"
"It's just that you've been staring at your plate like it killed you in your past life or something. You got beef with the beef stew?"
Nitta snickered a little at Franklin's last comment before covering it with a small cough.
Yasmin didn't know how to respond. Should she tell the truth? She didn't even know if these people knew what a vegetarian was, but as she was about to speak someone else beat her to it.
"...Miss Yasmin doesn't like meat."
Yasmin was surprised to hear Isabelle speak up. Isabelle was naturally a quiet person and had barely said a word from when she sat at the table, if it weren't for her striking appearance everyone would have forgotten she was there. Not only that, but the fact that she was paying attention to Yasmin that she noticed her aversion to meat even though she hid it so well. Or so she thought.
"She doesn't like meat?" Franklin asked with raised eyebrows before turning back to Yasmin, "Are you a rabbit shifter?"
"She does look like the people from the south…" Nitta chipped in looking Yasmin up and down, especially paying attention to the colour of her skin.
Yasmin understood immediately what she meant. The people of the south, also known as the kingdom of Dahlia, was home to the beast people. The kingdom was named after the goddess Dahlia, as were all the five kingdoms though that's a story for another time. Dahlia's love for animals led to her nurturing them until they became intellectual beings. They were no longer just animals but they weren't men either. Hence, the term 'beastmen'. Over time the beast gene started to deplete as the beast people began reproducing with humans and now in present time only a small percent of full blooded beastmen remained making them extremely valuable and often the victims of beast trafficking. The people of the south are very easy to identify due to their special characteristics, whether it be their split pupils, sharp incisors, sharp fingernails and the most common… their dark coloured skin.
Telling everyone that she was from the south was the best option for Yasmin, at least one aspect of her fake backstory was covered. Speaking of backstory… Yasmin suddenly remembered about the narrator, it had just thrown her into this situation with little information and vanished without a trace.
'Narrator' she called in her mind.
'Narrator?' She called again.
Yasmin called out four more times but she still didn't get a response. She then proceeded to curse her out the narrator to high heaven and earth, phases like, 'you piece of shit', 'fucking asshole', 'worthless garden hose' and her most favourite, 'fucking fucktard'.
'That little shit abandoned me!' Yasmin seethed in her mind.
It was Franklin who once again brought her out her thoughts realising that she had gone silent without answering his previous question.
"Oi rabbit," he said, snapping his fingers in front of Yasmin, "You didn't answer the question."
Yasmin blinked rapidly, "Oh, right. I do come from the south but I don't have any beast gene in me, I'm completely human. I just don't like meat."
"So basically a rabbit"
"I'm not a–"
"Ignore him," I-da says, cutting Yasmin off, "I'll get you something else to eat."
"You don't have to–"
"It's fine– I don't mind. Besides, I'd feel guilty if I let you force yourself to eat something you don't like." She flashed Yasmin a smile before getting up while taking Yasmin's untouched food. Only to hear Nitta piped up saying,
"Hey, leave it. I'll eat it."
She had just finished her plate's contents and saw an opportunity to get more food, as a bonafide foodie ofcourse she couldn't let this opportunity slide.
I-da frowned, "You already ate, let someone else get it."
"I can be that someone besides, it's been out for a while now and surely must be cold."
"It can be reheated with fire crystals."
"It won't taste the same, you really wanna give someone else secondhand food?"
"Aren't you someone?"
"I don't mind."
"Then how do you know–" I-da sighed with frustration. She knew she could never win against this stubborn foodie once food was involved. Nitta was like a lawyer pleading her clients' case in court even if she had to bullshit her answers in order to win. With a resolent sigh, she handed her the plate of stew. "Here, just take it."
Nitta beamed brightly, "Love you!"
"Whatever." I-da huffed before walking away.
After I-da returned with bread and cheese for Yasmin, Yasmin thanked her and dinner proceeded with small chatter and Nitta finishing her second plate of food before everybody else once again. After dinner I-da took Yasmin and Isabelle to their shared room. It was policy that all servants share a room with someone else in case of any emergencies and whatnot. Marcellus implemented it when he first started to gather his household servants. There was an incident where a servant suffered from an allergic reaction after dinner but because they were by them self in their room no one knew about it and they almost died of suffocation. Luckily I-da was passing by and heard the sound of someone falling. She had called out to the servant but got no response. The door wasn't locked so she let herself in and gasped out once she saw the servant on the floor clawing at their throat. She immediately took action and called for help from the military medic. From that day onwards all servants had to share their rooms with someone else.
"I hope you guys don't mind sharing," she said, leading them into a room, "It's kinda a rule…"
Yasmin looked around the decent sized room, it had two twin beds pushed against opposite sides of the room. There was a desk centred between the beds and pushed up in front of a large window. It had a single lotus shaped lamp that was generated by a crystal, it shone a soft orange glow around the room. There were also two doors in the room, one leading to a little bathroom where they can relieve themselves or freshen up a little and the other, led to a little closet that was currently empty.
"We don't mind…" Yasmin said looking at Isabelle for confirmation and she gave a little nod of agreement.
"Great!" I-da clapped, "Well it's best I leave you to rest, I'm sure you guys are tired from your journey. Breakfast is at 7am but I'll come wake you if needed. Sorry for the lack of night robes, I'll make sure you guys get all the needed necessities tomorrow."
"That's okay, thank you I-da."
I-da smiled, "Goodnight."
"Night."
"Goodnight."
Both girls were left to themselves still standing by the door, Yasmin was the first to speak as usual.
"Um…," she trailed off and Isabelle turned to face her, "Which bed would you like?"
Isabelle looked around the room with an unreadable expression, "Anyone is fine..."
"Okay." Yasmin said, walking over the bed closest to the bathroom. She sat at the edge of the bed as she took off her boots and let go of her hair before putting it back up into a loose bun. She then proceeded to lay down on the bed spreading her limbs out like a starfish, she could already feel her eyelids drooping.
'I'm exhausted…' She glanced over at Isabelle and saw her slowly taking off her boots, her hair hanging beside her face as she bent over. The warm glow from the lotus lamp illuminating her hair gave the illusion that it was glowing, 'she was really beautiful'.
As if she heard Yasmin thoughts, she suddenly turned her head to look at her. Her chocolate brown eyes reflected the lamp's light as she stared without saying anything.
"Are you okay miss belle?" Yasmin's voice was low, her exhaustion clearing weighing on her.
Isabelle remained silent. Thinking she didn't want to answer, Yasmin closed her eyes letting her exhaustion consume her. As she was nearing sleep's door she heard a soft voice speak.
"...this, this wasn't what I was expecting."
"I can understand why you would say that," Yasmin said, voice still low and eyes still closed, "It feels more like we were hired to work as servants than slaves who had no will or right."
"Yes… it's rather unsettling."
Of Course she would feel that way, Yasmin would feel the same way if she didn't know the plot and unlike Yasmin who didn't even belong in this world, Isabelle who had experienced hardships and betrayals had developed a mindset that wouldn't allow her to trust things out of her expectations.
"I guess we'll just have to watch and see."
Isabelle hummed before turning to lay on her side, facing away from Yasmin. Yasmin opened her eyes to roll over and turn off the lamp, as she was about to disable the crystal she suddenly remembered a detail she wrote in her book. She looked over at Isabelle before laying back down with a soft sigh.
'It feels like a dream…'