This Villain Wants To Be The Empress
- 04 -

Right at noon all the prospective servants gathered in the open hall that had been provided. Hall that takes the theme of white and purple sweet alyssum flowers, this flower is always a sign of autumn has arrived. The color and shape make anyone feel calm when looking at it.

Here, all are collected and divided into several groups. Each group contains 9 people mixed women and men. It just so happened that Esther was in a group with Cessa, and 7 other people.

"Listen, all groups must answer the questions in the paper that has been provided, and make tea as well as snacks or cakes that are suitable to be served with the tea. Each group must have three kinds of tea and snacks each. Before five o'clock in the afternoon, all must regroup here. Now the time has shown at one o'clock in the afternoon. Do not waste more time, all enter the tent kitchen." said the Emperor's envoy as he waved the flag with the imperial family emblem, the sign of the next event open.

Estera and his group get tent 5. The tent is located right next to a lake filled with roses and cute green frogs!

Arriving there, the nine of them entered simultaneously and browsed through the equipment and materials. The equipment is complete along with the roasting place, and do not forget some ingredients; like some kinds of ready-to-cook tea, only they make their own type of tea that they will make. Cessa started the conversation by passing on all the members of her group.

"All right! I'll pass you all on! Let's work together!" he said while clenching his hands up. "Anindiea Vinde Ambrogio!"

The person who was called answered with his left ring finger raised to shoulder height. Cessa who saw him nodded, "Adnan Wrington!"

"I." said Adnan.

"I'm no stranger to that name. And... Secca Ye Virgilla.. oh brother! He must be in front of me." Secca rolled her lazy eyeballs, if not for her sister forcing herself to take this exam, she would definitely be a Lady who was active in socialite life.

"Mimia Aleen's".

"Yes" he replied. Ah, it seems that Mimia is a person who is always pouting and indifferent. But she still looks beautiful with those magenta eyes! Think Cessa.

"Arizette and Wiriten? Heh, do you like to write!?" ask Cessa to Arizette with excitement.

Meanwhile the owner of the name just sighed harshly, "Witten, I am from the Witten family not Wiriten. Can't you read?" said lazy.

Cessa shrugged both shoulders no matter, it was indeed suitable for this person like Cessa to be thrown into the abyss, thought the people beside Cessa as well including her brother.

"Jason Van Trier! I know you Jason! Tell friends!" Cessa saw Jason intending to give her right eye a blink.

"I'm sorry? I don't know you. Hurry up, we're wasting our time on you." Jason's cold answer did stab Cessa in the little heart. Yes, because only Cessa knew him when he debuted.

"You're so fierce. And Carrie De Gryfon?".

"Haha! Now it's-it's my turn! Hello everyone, I'm Carrie! Hope we can work together!" another person with full energy. Cessa who saw the spirit of Carrie was also excited. It looks like he has found the missing twin!

"Yo, I love your burning spirit, Carrie! Next time we have to be together! And the last is Afta Dervixon".

Now it was Esther's turn to answer, "i am here".

Afterwards they all chatted to get closer. Adnan, who Estera thought had soft bones, turned out to be able to be pushed aside with his bass voice. Mimia, Jason, and Secca don't seem to be social people. Anin looks beautiful and kind, she looks like she will match Afta's nature. While the little boy Cessa and Carrie look very extrovetous. Arizett? she's weird.

People here have different personalities. Cessa and Carrie are very active, Jason, Secca, and Mimia don't seem to be easy to be friends with, Arizet is weird, Adnan if persuaded a little seems to be easy to be friends with, he said, and Anin she's like Afta. I have to follow Anin's nature, it seems like she does resemble Afta. Inner Esther.

Cessa put the paper on the table and read some questions. There are 9 papers on personal questions, it seems like this should be filled out by each member. And there is one paper with general knowledge, like how to make a cake that has a fragrant rose! Yes, lately there are many pastries that have a distinctive fragrant rose, and the cake is often used up in stores. Therefore people are looking for their own recipes about this rose-smelling pastry.

Cessa gave each sheet to all the members. Esther who had a turn just read it in her heart.

And age? The name of the family head? Okay, then why am I following this? What do I have to answer, huh?

"You see this question? Reasons to take this exam? Are you going to write along because of the money so much has to offer?" ask Carrie to the others.

Other members were shaking and some were nodding. Cessa is among the nodding ones, it turns out she's a money lover too, huh. While her brother Secca shook his head, the sisters were sometimes not in one way.

"Everyone has their own reasons. If I say it, can't you imitate me? Moreover, we can't write excuses just for money, right? It's the same as we have no intention and painstaking to become a devotee of the imperial family, we could have been eliminated because of that. So it's best not to expose, huh?" estera said with a sincere smile.

Everyone nodded in agreement, including Carrie. It seems he chose the wrong topic. At least now Estera had to think about what reason she should write. How could he have written about taking Cassius from Brigitta, right? Or even kill Brigitta's son. It was a cursory thought for Esther to write with formal language and classical reason because she intended to become an imperial servant, but if she wrote it her chance to escape was minimal. Because only people have no broad thoughts that just write like that.

If I write because Baron Dervixon told me to be a servant, doesn't that sound lowly, huh? Baron Dervixon is rich, there's no way I should write because I need money. There's no way around it other than because I'm a fan of Brigitta, but that sounds weird, anyway. Or am I writing because I'm looking for a job in the capital and this is the one recommended by Duke Rigvsen? inner Estera.

Estera focused cornered with his paper then he realized that from then on Cessa glanced at him.

Does Cessa suspect me? ask Esther in heart.

Estera waved at Cessa, Cessa smiled and went back to writing. It seems he realized that he was caught glancing at Esther continuously. Adnan who had been silent from earlier also took a glance at Cessa and Estera alternately and smiled wryly. What is he thinking now? Staring at people then expressing such, is he envious or likes one of the people he looks at?

One of the members raised the first voice after 5 minutes. "If we've already solved the individual question, we'd better also solve that group. Let's split it into two more groups. Some will answer the question and some will make the tea. I happened to bring a nice tea recipe paper along with the snacks".

Others looked at Adnan with a happy smile, even Cessa had time to clap her hands proudly with Adnan. "Well! Adnan you're great, you think about bringing a recipe or is there someone inside?" ask Cessa to Adnan.

Adnan was confused about what to answer, because this is indeed an item that was forced to be brought by his mother. "My mother told me to take her, she knew this because she also worked as a waiter here".

Jason, who was only focused on the paper, now he turned to focus on Adnan with a sly smile. "It's nice to have members with insider abilities. Don't waste it, cheating's a little okay".

Carrie also chimed in. "Rubber! I'm confused about this perteh’an. So let's cheat, let's sin ourselves".

The mimia who had been silent from earlier immediately raised a voice as well. "I'm not a person who believes in god or gods. So can you tell me to sin?"

"You think I'm a repository of sins??"

Everyone chuckled at Carrie's shocked expression. Esther laughed, then she set her eyes on Anin. Anin was silent. Why her?

"Anin, are you okay?" ask Esther to Anin. Anin looked at Esther and nodded.

"I'm fine. I only think about sin, my family is religious. Can I cheat like this?" ask Anin back to Esther.

My mother is also an Augur. But I love to kill people, the inner Esther.

"Anin, if you hope to serve the Emperor's family wholeheartedly, I'm sure the gods won't be angry. I'm not justifying a lie like this, but Anin, can you be a little selfish about how you feel? You don't want to let the other members down and fail because you exposed this to the Emperor's emissary, do you?" esther's advice made Anin's head storm herself.

Afta's right, am I a little selfish, huh? My mother doesn't know either. This time, god please forgive me, I promise this will never happen again. Afta opened my social mind a little. Inner Anin.

Anin nodded her mark she agreed. Estera felt calm again, at least thanks to Adnan he and others got ease for this. It seems he misjudged Adnan's mushy bones. It turns out he is cool to also get leaks from insiders directly! I hope Duke Rigvsen helps Estera in the next exam.

...***...

"Secca! Please give me that chocolate!"

"Cessa! Can you be a little polite and use the word 'brother' on me!? I'm older than you!"

Shouts of brothers who are fussing about unimportant things. Even though their distance was only one meter, were they unable to get along at a time like this? One does not know himself and one is easily offended, very typical indeed.

"Geez, your writing is so ugly, Adnan. Here let me just write." this time the speech of an emotional Jason saw Adnan's writing on the group question paper. The writing is a little out of bounds and there is a slight scribble because Adnan wrote wrongly

Adnan who was offended immediately took the paper he was working on. "Heh, it's so good to talk like that. Don't you know I'm a graduate of Cexillion? Although I write like this, at least I'm smart." he said back.

Mimia who heard Adnan's words was a little confused. "What is the correlation between bad writing and school at Cexillion?"

"Well, you saw Mimia. You feel like this guy's weird, don't you?" timpal Jason's.

Adnan who did not accept just stomped his feet. Emotions with Mimia and Jason who always mocked him from the beginning he wrote. While Anin can only shake her head while heating water for tea. Then Carrie and Arizet? Carrie was stirring the cake batter and helped Arizet who read the ingredients that had to be mixed into the dough. While Estera? He waited in front of the burning roasting, confused what to do.

You could say now tent 5 is quite noisy. To the extent that there were bodyguards warning them from the outside to be quiet, and those who were noisy ended up silent and blaming each other.

Estera who had focused on roasting immediately realized that the first cake being baked was ripe. "Hey! This cake seems to be ripe!"

"Eh, huh? Is this thirty minutes? Try to taste first, Afta." said Anin while measuring the tea he would pour on the cup.

Estera opens the grill lid with a cloth that Arizet gives. He opened it slowly while letting the smoke still collected inside the grill out. The sweet fragrance of honey and beautiful cakes made everything there look at the baking pan that Estera brought.

"How fragrant! It was not in vain that I stirred it with a deep energy" Carrie said moved.

Estera put the baking sheet on the table and took a knife and cut one of the cakes. He blew it and waited for the cake to cool. When cut, the cake looks perfect. But when he ate it, "tasty, but even better if this cake is used tomato sauce to neutralize the salty taste".

"Eh!?" everyone was a little surprised. It's not that Esther ate the cake while it was still a little hot. But the cake was supposed to be sweet because of the honey but why did Estera say it was better to add tomato sauce to the cake?

All of them except Carrie and Arizet stared intently at the two people who were indeed in charge of the cakes.

Carrie just pointed at Arizet. "I don't know! But it's in line with what Arizet said!"

"Why blame me? You're the one who told me to read it in a hurry until my eyes were confused which part to read".

Mimia massaged her dizzy forehead. "Can you shut up? Adnan, you read that recipe and watch Carrie, surely you can teach a careless person because you're a graduate of Cexillion, right? Arizet you help Anin with your weird eyes and you're Afta, rather than just being quiet like a fool, wouldn't it be better to write here? I hear you're good at making novels, so your writing should be good? If your writing is a mess, it's weird that the capital's library can keep your handwritten novels, right?"

All speechless, Mimia's words were a bit outrageous it seemed. Moreover, from the sentence implied like denigrating Adnan and Afta. But they seemed to be a bit understanding, since the Mimia from the Knight family as well, must have been harshly educated. Why is Adnan different?

Estera walked to the table and wrote every word that Mimia and Jason said. While Arizet focused on looking at the hands of Anin who was concocting the tea. Carrie was busy stirring up the material that Adnan spoke. Cessa and Secca were busy decorating their snacks.

Teng!

4 Hours later the bell rang, a sign that all groups must hand over the paper and tea they made.

Estera came out carrying a tray containing fruit cakes accompanying Rose Congou tea, tea made from roses into one of their preferred tea, the cake was made from the best fruits. It looks like it will be a really good mix, as long as no other group chooses this tea and cake either.

"Look at that, the cake of the group of three is gorgeous. Like birthday cakes, are they the wrong theme?" Cessa.

Carrie. "People who are too intentional or we who are lazy?"

"It looks like we're the lazy ones." - timpal Cessa.

Mimia sighed lazily, she simply flipped through the individual and group answer papers, times if there were any questions they missed could be immediately hastily resolved before collection.

But that was not the focus of Esther, but the Emperor. The imperial family was in front of him, on the stage. Brigitta, Cassius, and the Queen Mother Estera saw it for themselves with their eyes. A sense of tightness once again enveloped his heart, would he be able to face Cassius later?

...TBC...