They woke up the next day and as usual, they attended to their little lot of land; that they hoped from the depths of their hearts would soon bloom with the fruits of their hard labor. On this, for the very first time since she had been reborn into this new world and given a second shot at life, Hazia was very excited. She was humming a random and happy tune from early in the morning with a smile on her face and a pep in her step.
For Kazu, this was the first time he had ever seen his big sister so happy, she looked like she was gliding on her feet. He was used to seeing her sad, hurt and silently enduring pain, protective, optimistic, and recently a little devious. This new side of her shocked him; he wanted to ask her what was making her so giddy so early in the morning but feared that if he even breathed too loud the beautiful sight before his eyes would crumble apart like a beautiful stained-glass portrait. So, he stayed silent, watching, and etching every bit of it into his memory. In his heart, he believed his sister was the most beautiful, even in the palace where there was no shortage of women clad in the softest of silks and grandest of garments; he only found his big sister to be the most beautiful of them all. However, that was the first day he found that his big sister was beautiful when she smiled. He was lost in his revelry until he heard a voice. It was the happy little girl dressed in a potato sack and with matted hair calling out for him.
"Kazu!" she called again, shocking him back to reality. "Kazu, it's time for us to go or we'll be late," Hazia continued. Kazu nodded and went to draw some water to freshen up as much as he could before leaving the little hut with Hazia.
They arrived and it was the same routine as the day before. Kazu lit a fire as Hazia prepped the ingredients she was allotted in the box for cooking lunch for that day. Hazia still didn't mind the servants watching her as she cooked, cause from what she knew all kinds of poisons were very much rampant in the palace; they went unchecked for the most part, so no amount of security and precautions were too much.
Hazia had decided that the lunch menu for the day would be a vegetable soup and stir-fried meat, along with coarse grain. She was very surprised to see the huge cut of lamb meat, she didn't think that servants would be allowed to eat so well, that is until she smelled the meat; it wasn't spoilt, but it wasn't all good and fresh either. She assumed that it may have been for that very reason that the servants got to have it, of course the masters of the palace who were of noble breed couldn't be fed with that meat as it wasn't completely fresh.
She started on the soup as she wanted everything to simmer and all the flavors to boil together; then she cleaned the meat and cut it into cubed sizes with the help of one of the servants watching her cook, as it was almost impossible for her to do it alone with her current size; After she finished cooking the meat, she rinsed and cooked the rice. She finished everything just moments before the servants returned. Hazia didn't manage to get a moment's rest, before she had to dive back into work; she shared out all the food she had prepared and had other servants shared for the others to eat, while she and Kazu worked on prepping ingredients for the dinner's menu. She finally got a break once everyone had finished eating their fill, and it was her and Kazu's turn to eat what was left. Though she would much prefer to share their portions before anyone else's she knew that that was not at all possible as that was not the agreement she had made, and also beggars couldn't exactly be choosers; not to mention that it was a proven fact that this was actually the best they had eaten in a very long time, Hazia may be a lot of things but she definitely wasn't an ungrateful person. She knew that the servants were also taking a huge risk for them.
As she and Kazu finished eating, and most of the servants had left to continue their own work, a familiar face approached them. Seeing the cloth bag swung over their shoulder, Hazia could hardly contain her excitement.
"Hello again, little ones." The servant, who had tried to bribe Hazia out of her recipes the day before, greeted. Hazia respectfully greeted her in return, her eyes still trained on the bag trying to get a hint of its contents, while Kazu silently greeted back with his eyes not leaving Hazia as he had quickly picked up on the return of her good mood.
The servant placed the cloth bag on the table in front of Hazia, "I brought what you had requested," she said calmly. Hazia nodded her head in acknowledgement, dusted her hands on what she was wearing before reaching to untie the bag. She pulled out all the contents and counted out all the clothes, that were actually matching and made sure to count them as she laid them out. It was exactly ten outfits, as she had requested, though they were made of rough cloth they were a beauty in the eyes of Hazia, who had to wear the same potato sac for days without even being able to properly clean it, lucky for her that the smoke from cooking in the kitchen helped to mask their stench. There were even simple hair accessories, two ribbons and two clips.
She nodded and hummed in satisfaction. At her reaction, the female servant genuinely wondered if she was a child as even in the palace she had never seen such mature reactions from the royal children.
"I brought paper and pen," she said as she brought out a piece of brown paper, a thick brush and a small container of ink.
Hazia neatly packed up back all of the clothing and handed the bag to Kazu who had been sitting silently beside her watching everything occur before his eyes. She sat back down and pointed at the empty seat in front of her to invite the female servant to also sit with her, then she slowly dictated the recipe of the vegetable soup she had cooked on both that day and the day before. When she was finished, the servant left with a satisfied reaction to get back to her own work.
After resting some more, Hazia and Kazu went on to make dinner quickly. Hazia planned to return to their hut early to try on the new clothes. But she found that she couldn't wait, she built up the courage and asked Inae, after she had eaten her dinner and everyone else had left to return to their own quarters, if she could allow them to bathe in the servants quarters.
"Hmm," she sipped her tea in thought. "You can, but you can't bathe together as the males and females are separated, even if they are mostly half-men. You also have to have your own things for bath, and you can only go after dinner time around dusk or before dawn, any time after that the bathrooms will be occupied by servants for their own use."
Hazia nodded her head in understanding and agreed to the terms layed out. She also realized that the term "half-man" was not really being used as an insult from Inae, but was in fact the term used to refer to men who had had their p*nis removed and sent to work in the harem.
She pulled out a pair of matching clothes from the cloth bag she had received earlier, then handed the male set to Kazu who was going to be led to the male servants' quarters by a low ranked male servant to have a bath along with other bath essentials like a rag and a small towel she had found back in their hut for to dry himself with. She was also then led to the female servants' quarters to have her very first, long awaited bath since entering this new world with a female set of clothes to match with Kazu.
Maybe an hour or more had passed before Hazia came out of the bath area, servants would usually use a full bucket of water to shower with, but with her small frame she was able to fit into the bucket and soak for a bit while washing her matted hair a few times before showering. When she came out, and went back to the servants' kitchen area according to the path she had been led on before she saw that Kazu was waiting patiently for her tor return. By this time, the sky had already darkened, and the only source of light were oil lamps. But even under the dim lights, she could see Kazu. His skin was no longer dark from layers of dirt and sweat and his hair no longer seemed lifeless and flat. His tanned skin was clean and his hair was almost dry from the night's breeze and formed loose waves and went down to his shoulders, and the forest green undergarment; a round neck shirt and matching ankle length shorts secured with a tied waist string; matched the dark blue of his overcoat which was secured with a blue and green belt.
The fashion of the Jurantel Kingdom was quite old fashioned and conservatively modest compared to the modern clothing she was used to. Her set had undergarments which were a green short and chest band set; a long forest green skirt with a simple curve design around the hem; and matched with a dark blue overcoat also secured with a belt of the same color as Kazu's but smaller. From the memories of the original she knew that clothes like these were usually for middle class families, as the poorer families couldn't afford such brightly colored clothes despite the fabric being rough cloth, and would also wear less layers of clothing with barely any designs.
Hazia was very thankful that that female servant had went through so much trouble, though she knew that she probably only did this because she knew that no matter how unfavored they were it wasn't their place as servants to add insult to injury; she was pretty much just taking precautions, which could be explained if she has managed to live for so long in the palace.
Kazu looked up and faced her, he too seemed to be momentarily shocked by her clean appearance. Her skin, though naturally dark, was now a pristine brown with the little light from the oil lamps making it shimmer and shine; her thick curly hair, no longer weighed down by all kinds of gunk, was no frizzy and seemed somewhat out of control while still dripping small drops of water from the ends.
"Kazu! You look great! So handsome!" she gushed. Even under the dim lights she could see his bashful reaction.
With his head hung low he mumbled, "You too, big sister."
She walked up and rubbed his head full of hair, "I told you! You can call me Hazia. That's the name I have chosen. I'll call you Kazu, too."
He simply hummed in response with his head still hung low while enjoying her head rubs.
"I guess we should return now." They packed up their things and any leftover foods and snuck back to their little hut, while making sure to cover their tracks well.
A few days passed just like that, they continued bathing in the servants' quarters after dinner at dusk and rotate between the five sets of clothes they each had before going back to their hut and they had managed to stay out of trouble for the time.
Until one day after dinner, when all the other servants had left and they were about to go for their bath Inae informed them that she would be bringing them to see her friend the very next morning.