I Became The Extra King With Seven Wives-Chapter 41: Late Dinner with Eleanor and Sigor Reus

That night, after I had rigorously studied the books about the Pyris Affinity for several hours, I finally chose to take a much-needed pause or rather a calculated pause, since I had a planned dinner.

I casually wandered through the sprawling, shadowed corridors. It was already quite late into the night.

Everyone was diligently continuing with their final occupations of the day. Countless servants were quietly scurrying about, meticulously cleaning the castle’s vast corridors and scrubbing the floors of every empty room.

These workers were different from the formal maids, who were explicitly employed to directly serve the immediate royal family and the high-ranking nobles residing within the castle, such as myself, my wives, their immediate families, and our esteemed guests.

The servants in the truest sense of the word, on the other hand, performed what I considered to be the most arduous, backbreaking jobs; their sole purpose was to simply keep the massive royal castle impeccably clean.

And since it was the late end of the day, this was the specific time I would frequently see most of their exhausted faces. They were mostly young girls, though there was a fair share of boys mixed among them. As expected, nearly all of them were incredibly young.

Youth possessed fresh blood and boundless energy, making them inherently better at moving quickly and working continuously for hours. Well, I was young myself, but many of these workers seemed to be around my exact age or perhaps slightly older, while a tragic amount of them appeared to be vastly younger. They were essentially scullery maids and lowly hallboys, the lowest-ranked servants in the entire castle hierarchy, whose only true job was to keep their mouths completely shut and work until their hands bled. They were hardly educated at all, but specifically because they were desperate enough to do anything just to earn a single, meager penny, they were exceptionally good at their demanding jobs.

As I slowly walked down the dimly lit hallway, a young girl who was busily scrubbing the hard stone floor with a bristled brush suddenly stopped and raised her tired gaze.

The exact moment she saw my face, panic seized her, and she nearly fell completely backward onto her rear.

"Y—Your Majesty!"

"That is indeed me," I offered a gentle smile, generously reaching out my hand to help her up.

"I—I cannot..." She stammered, staring down in horror at her filthy, soapy hands.

Well, that was certainly a valid problem.

I slowly withdrew my offered hand and simply stared down at her trembling form.

She looked to be perhaps eleven or twelve years old, if even that.

"Lyria!"

At that exact moment, a panicked boy, perhaps a year older than the girl, possessing messy dark brown hair and similar facial features, arrived in hurry. He immediately threw himself onto his knees, forcefully dragging the terrified girl down onto her knees right beside him.

"I—I deeply apologize for my sister’s terrible inconvenience, Your Majesty! Please, I beg you, forgive us!" He pleaded desperately, reacting exactly as if I were about to draw Hyperion and violently swing it down to sever their heads.

I simply stepped closer, slowly reaching out my hand toward his messy hair.

He raised his head in surprise, and I immediately grasped his dirt-smudged cheeks between my fingers.

"Hm..."

"Y—Your Machesty..." He mumbled, his words heavily slurred as I firmly cupped his face.

My golden eyes twitched slightly in suppressed displeasure as I critically examined his heavily bruised face; he clearly seemed to have deep, purple bruises blooming across his thin arms as well. The young girl possessed similar marks, though hers did not appear nearly as severe as his.

Well, I was certainly not some sort of naive, shining hero who felt overly self-righteous or revulsed by the concept of hard labor, because child labor was unfortunately a reality happening within every single kingdom across the world. However, the vile practice of actively beating defenseless children was thoroughly repulsing to me. Such abuse could be incredibly traumatizing, especially for developing children, ensuring they would violently grow up carrying deep scars they would never recover from.

"Your name?" I asked softly.

"Sh—Shedrik..."

"Shedrik? What a strange name," I raised a brow.

"N—No... Shedrik!" He tried again, his squished cheeks mangling the pronunciation.

"I already heard you the first time," I sighed.

"I—It is Cedrik, Your Majesty..." The terrified girl, whom he had previously called Lyria, stuttered out, keeping her head bowed against the stone floor.

"Oh. Cedrik," I corrected myself, finally letting go of the boy’s bruised cheeks.

Cedrik immediately slammed his forehead back down toward the floor.

I raised my gaze briefly, sweeping the long corridor.

I could clearly spot a few other young servants who had completely paused their work to nervously watch what was happening. However, the exact second they felt my gaze land upon them, they immediately, frantically resumed their scrubbing.

"Tell me, Cedrik, how many of you are currently working around here? Around your exact age, I mean," I asked him softly.

"I—I could not say exactly, Your Majesty. Perhaps fifty or sixty of us..." He stuttered nervously. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Well, I honestly should not have been surprised by that number.

It likely took at least sixty exhausted people to constantly scrub down the entirety of this massive castle; they obviously had to work in small, coordinated groups just to cover every sprawling corridor.

"And exactly who is the one directly overseeing you?" I asked.

It was certainly not the Head Butler, nor the Head Maid; they possessed far more high-level duties to take care of.

"T—The Lord Steward! Lord Pettler!" He sputtered out the name in panic.

"The Steward. Right, there is one of those," I mumbled, resting my hand thoughtfully against my chin.

I honestly could not perfectly remember the name of every single minor official working within this massive castle.

But that specific name... that specific Noble House...

"Pettler? Does he belong to the Viscount House of Pettler?" I asked, my eyes widening slightly as some pieces clicked together. "In that case, that man must definitely be..." I trailed off, a slow, dark smirk curving my lips.

The two trembling children below gave me a deeply fearful gaze, clearly seeing something far more terrifying hidden within my smirk, but I did not bother correcting their assumption.

Instead, I gently reached out and briefly patted both the boy’s and the girl’s messy heads.

"Keep working, but do not overdo it," I said, before turning on my heel and walking away.

I continued walking down the stone halls, feeling quite contented with my new discovery, until I finally reached the grand, carved doors of the royal dining hall.

I had purposefully not eaten supper with my sister, my mother, and Cynthia tonight, because I had a highly private dinner already planned with two others.

Upon reaching the dining hall, I waited briefly until the heavily armored guards pulled the heavy doors open. I stepped inside the expansive room to find Eleanor already waiting there alongside our other guest.

Sigor Reus.

They were both comfortably seated, but the exact moment I entered, they immediately stood up.

"Your Majesty."

"It is fine, take your seats," I said casually, heading directly toward the head of the long table.

Right after I sat down, a flurry of maids scrambled forward to efficiently serve all of us the late night supper. It was a perfectly roasted chicken, but uniquely marinated with glazed carrots and what undeniably smelled like rich caramel, an incredibly rare, expensive delicacy in this specific world, specially prepared just for me.

I immediately picked up my silver fork, smoothly cutting a piece of meat with my knife and taking the first bite. Only then did the two of them formally begin to eat as well.

Sigor was quite... let us say, overly eager. He immediately attacked the fine meal with crude, hurried movements.

"Lord Reus..." Eleanor spoke up, giving him a deeply unamused, reprimanding gaze.

"It is perfectly fine, Eleanor," I chuckled softly. "It honestly seems as though the poor man has not eaten a proper meal in over a month."

"Thank you, Your Majesshty!" He mumbled, his mouth entirely full, causing Eleanor to let out a long sigh and simply give up on enforcing proper etiquette.

Intertwining my fingers together and resting my chin upon my hands, I looked at him with a warm pleasant smile, thoroughly amused at the sight of a supposed nobleman eating a royal dish like a starving beggar.

"So, Sigor Reus. Tell me, exactly how vile and hopelessly rude had your arrogant attitude toward the high nobles of Gardenia been, ensuring that none of them wished to keep you around, and instead threw you out of their Kingdom? That rejection must certainly have something to do with your rare Affinity, am I wrong?"

"Pfffhhh!"

He violently choked, completely spitting out what he was desperately trying to chew.

Thankfully, Eleanor was seated directly across from him, but positioned a seat away and much closer to me, while he sat a seat away to my direct left.

Eleanor gracefully dodged the gross spray, tilting her upper body slightly away as she leveled a profoundly hardened, furious gaze directly at Sigor.

One of the attending maids immediately hurried forward in panic to begin cleaning the table right beside Eleanor.

"It is fine. Thank you..." Eleanor said, gently taking the white cloth from the trembling maid’s hands.

I kept my gaze entirely locked onto Sigor, who frantically wiped his greasy lips with a linen napkin and looked back at me with wide, highly apologetic eyes.

"My deepest apologies, Your Majesty, and... Lady Eleanor..." He said, his voice cracking awkwardly.

"It is perfectly fine. Here," I said, reaching over to personally fill his silver goblet with rich, dark wine. "Take a long drink."

"Thank you—"

"And then tell me exactly why they threw you away," I interrupted sharply, cutting him off before he could even take his first sip. "Honestly, and entirely without lies," I added, my golden-amber eyes suddenly glowing with a chilling light.

I clearly saw Sigor’s throat bob with a heavy gulp, and I was certain he did not manage to swallow a single drop of the wine.

After a tense, breathless moment, he managed to take a small, shaking sip before carefully setting the heavy goblet back down onto the table.

"I... I truly hail from a very minor baronial House, Your Majesty..." He started slowly.

"Does Diana personally know you?" I asked him directly.

"Yes. I did formally meet the Princess on several distinct occasions during certain high court events," he admitted.

"A lowly son originating from a minor baronial House actively invited to highly exclusive events where the Royal Princess frequently appears. That is quite an impressive political feat, Sigor. I am genuinely impressed," I said, causing him to offer an awkward, nervous chuckle. But I maintained my iron grip on his gaze and continued. "I honestly wonder why? Was it perhaps because of your remarkably sharp jawline? You certainly do not reach my level of looks, but you do not look entirely bad, either. Yet, was a handsome face truly enough to reach such lofty, impossible heights within the rigid courts of Gardenia?"

"I—I am very good with speaking..." He abruptly blurted out.

"You are simply good with ’speaking’?" I repeated, arching my brow.

He suddenly looked even more awkward.

"I was considered quite entertaining. I am adept at getting close to powerful people, carefully reading them, prying out their deepest secrets, and then... strategically speaking of them to others..." He trailed off weakly.

"A gossiper," I interrupted, a smile spreading across my face as he hastily averted his embarrassed gaze.

Eleanor, meanwhile, had gracefully resumed eating her meal, though she continued to shoot him a judging look.

"A blabbermouth," I added bluntly.

"Y—Yes..." He nodded in miserable defeat, nervously scratching the back of his messy hair.

"Highly impressive."

"Eh?" He whipped his head back toward me, looking bewildered by the unexpected praise.