Evan decided to meet Hana in the afternoon. For now, he was returning to his room. As always servants greeted him and he only nodded to reply. There were too many servants, if he stopped to return everyone's greeting, he would never reach destination.
Evan returned to his room and found out that his bedsheet and pillow covers were changed. His room also went through the regular clean up.
'It's nice to be rich,' Evan thought.
He couldn't even dream of this type of lifestyle before. In his previous life, when he was five years old, he could be found vending snacks on the street. Although his country had strict policy against child labour, it was not implemented heavily. His father had taught him never to beg to anyone even if it meant dying from starvation.
Aside from strolling around the castle, Evan liked to read books to pass his time. He was not allowed to leave the castle yet. But Evan was rarely bored as the massive castle had many areas to explore.
He took a geography book from the bookshelf and sat down at the desk to read it. His mother prepared a few books for him before leaving.
The world Evan lived in was named Arcana. There were four major races: Human,Fairy,Dwarf and Demon. There were other minor races such as spirit race, monster race, beastmen race and others. But they were either too few in numbers or not powerful enough to be considered as a major race. Humans were a minor race too, but they gained power gradually and emerged as a major race.
Among the races demon race was the most diverse as it was a combination of many different species of demons. Evan didn't know how the classification system for species worked in this word.
The world was in the era of exploration and conquest. There were still many unknown land waiting to be discovered. There were rarely any interracial war as most of the territory related conflict could be easily resolved through diplomacy.But when a conflict emerged inside a race, diplomacy rarely solved it.
The human territory categorized it's nations into tiers. There were 4 tiers, tier 1 being the strongest and tier 4 being the weakest. Tier 1 nations called themselves empires. They had dozens of saint level beings looking after them. While tier 2 nations had at least one saint level warrior. Tier 3 and tier 4 nations didn't have any saints.
Evan was from Dawnsveil country which was a tier 2 nation with 2 saints. They were currently at war with Stromwatch country, another tier 2 nation. Although both of them were tier 2 nations, great power disparity existed between them. Originally, Stormwatch weren't any match for them but they got support from an empire.
The war started over the mining rights of a huge rare mineral mine. The mine was expanding over three countries. The third country which was also a tier 2 nation, had the most amount of mining area. But they were even weaker than Stormwatch country. Their ruler was wise enough to predict this conflict between the two nations. So he had already sold most of the area containing the mine to other two nations through auction, even before the war started. The resource of the mine was so valuable that even a tier 1 nation got involved in the conflict.
Evan noticed that it was already noon when he stopped reading the book. His family didn't do lunch together as they were busy with their own respective works. So he went outside of his room and instructed a servant to deliver his lunch to his room.
After some time, Maria arrived at his room and asked for his permission to enter.
"I have bought your lunch young master. May I enter?"
"Yes. Place them on the table."
Evan answered without looking at her. He was currently reading a book.
"It's done young master."
Evan closed the book and placed it in the bookshelf.
When Evan reached the table,he found out there was something wrong with Maria. She had finger marks on her face. He didn't see them in the morning today.
"Did someone hit you, Maria?"
After talking with her in the past, Evan found out that she was brainwashed thoroughly. As a result, she became very obedient. Although Evan didn't like it, he couldn't just kick her out. She will be just handed over another master.
"Yes, young master."
She replied, almost emotionlessly.
"Who was it? And why did they hit you?"
"It was Vera. She is responsible for our watching over our living quarters. She told me I was being lazy by not doing any work."
"Were you given any task?" Evan asked calmly.
"No."
'What type of people hit children like this?' Although Evan looked calm from outside,he was furious from inside.
'Well, they use children as slaves so it's not an unexpected behaviour. All I can do is make a complaint to grandmother,' Evan thought.
Maria would do something only if someone orders her to do it. She has never done something out of her own free will. So, Evan could imagine her not doing anything and someone mistaking it for idling around.
Now that Evan thought about it, does she need someone to tell her to eat?
"Have you eaten your breakfast?"
"No, young master."
Evan thought someone might have forgotten to tell her to eat. But he still asked for the reason.
"Why?"
"I was punished by Vera."
Evan frowned.
"Are you often get this type of punishment?"
"I was prohibited from eating lunch and supper yesterday."
This time Evan was truly outraged but he quickly calmed himself down. He opened one of the drawer in his desk and fished out an ointment.
"Here, take this and apply it around the finger marks on your face."
She received the ointment and started applying it. Strangely enough, despite not using a mirror, she perfectly applied the ointment around finger marks.
Evan thought it was from the pain that she could pinpoint the place.
"Come, join me in lunch today."
Poor girl starved for a whole day yesterday and wasn't allowed to have breakfast today. Evan felt very bad for her. So he decided to share his lunch with her.
But she didn't come forward to join him. She said,
"I am not allowed to eat master's food."
"But, you just used my ointment, why can't you eat my food?"
"This ointment was given to me by young master."
"Oh I see. That's how it works. Alright, Maria. I am giving you a portion of my food.... Actually, forget it. Bring another tray of food for me."
"Yes, young master."
Maria left the room. Soon, she returned with the food.
"Okay, now I am giving you this food. So eat it."
Evan was annoyed.
"Yes, young master."
She started to eat while standing. Evan was speechless.
"Sit down at the table and before you tell me you are not allowed to sit at your master's place, I am giving you permission to sit there."
Evan didn't wait for her to answer, he took a chair and started eating. Meanwhile, Maria took another chair and started to eat alongside him.
After finishing the food, Evan instructed her to visit him at the afternoon.
Evan lazily passed the noon without doing anything. He fell asleep out of boredom and only woke up hearing Maria's call.
"I have arrived following your instruction, young master."
Evan freshened up a little. He wanted Maria to accompany him to his grandmother's place so he called her. Before visiting his grandmother, he arrived at the garden.
He selected few flowers which looked pretty to him and told the caretaker of the garden to pluck them up for him.
Taking the flowers, he along with Maria arrived at his grandmother's residence. After asking a servant, he found out she was currently at the potion brewing room. So he followed the path to get there.