"What are your plans going forward?"

"I believe working to be an arcana is my best choice. Before that however, I need to find a way to make a living for myself"

Aiden sat opposite Prince Adrian on the terrace outside his living quarters.

Till now, he still had no idea what the seal on his seed was, but he could feel it weakening ever since he woke up. It was a thought that flashed across his mind every now and then.

Of course, he did not understand his element yet but it must be something worth training if he could beat a bunch of savages after it was forcefully activated by burning his primordial blood essence.

A library was meant to contain information and a myth was better than nothing when no one understood something. It would give him an idea of what it was he had awakened. He needed to find one.

"What element did you awaken?", Prince Adrian asked.

"I have no idea, Your Highness. The elders had checked and declared that it was the result of a failed awakening"

Obviously, they were wrong because a failed awakening would not allow someone to go berserk with enough strength to kill savages as he had done.

"My father has given the order that you are to stay in the confines of the palace until you have been certified to be risk-free"

"In the meantime, you have been assigned some duties which will help you earn gold coins for your use"

"Just like every other worker in the palace, you have been assigned a room and you will be provided with three meals a day"

"In three days, you are to report to the head supervisor who will brief you on your duties. I believe you want to know more about where you are now, the royal library is open to every person in the palace, although there are sections that are barred if you don't have the required clearance"

"Thank you, Your Highness"

Prince Adrian nodded, "You can go now. Make good use of the three days you have been given"

Aiden bowed his head slightly before leaving the room. 

Outside the Prince's living quarters, a worker was waiting for him. 

"His Highness, The Prince has asked that I lead you to the room assigned to you"

"Thank you", Aiden answered.

The two walked through the halls, one in front and the other following. 

As they walked, the servant introduced a few places in the palace to Aiden. Other workers walked past them as they hurried along to get their tasks done.

They wound down a few stairs before reaching the ground floor. The doors opened to a street. 

It was like they were in a small city. The two walked for a few more minutes before coming to a residential area.

There were quite a lot of houses there and each one was built in a long hallway format, a typical dormitory if you will.

There were many rooms in each of the houses. 

The houses were all labeled starting with an A-block. Aiden made a quick estimate and he believed that there were at least a thousand rooms in the residential area.

They passed by a few more houses before coming to the D-block. 

They stepped into the house and walked down the hall to a room that had no number on it.

"Your room", the servant said as he handed a bronze key to Aiden. Sam was first taken aback by the bronze key. Since when did dormitories have bronze keys for their doors? 

"You best be grateful to His Highness who requested this room for you. Many have tried to stay in a room like this one but they failed to get enough recognition"

Aiden quickly snapped out his thoughts. It seemed the Prince had done more than he thought.

He could guess a few reasons why the worker had mentioned it but he decided not to say anything.

He opened the door to the room after the worker left. He finally understood something, the room was simply heavenly in a dormitory-styled residence the workers were meant to stay in.

Unlike the normal rooms, he had his own bathroom. 

The room had a soft bed, a shelf, a closet for clothes, and some other intricacies.

He could already imagine how hard getting along with the other workers would be.

After looking through the room and making sure everything there was in order, he stepped out of the room and locked it. 

He tossed the bronze key into his pocket before he went down to the head supervisor's office.

The worker who had brought him to the residential area had pointed out where the office was.

The head supervisor's office was in a big building built right at the center of the residential area.

It had several floors and it seemed like a marketplace for the workers in the area.

Two guards were standing at the door and inside there was someone who came to receive those who entered.

Sam could see the lady standing near a desk but she did not make a move to welcome him

He looked around for a while before he saw a notice board that had different names written on it. It showed the names, the post held, the office number of each person in the building, and which floor the office was situated on.

This made him happy as he quickly found the head supervisor's office number. 

As one would expect, the office was on the top floor and it was numbered 001.

As he walked toward the stairs that would lead him to the top floor, he felt many eyes looking at him.

This formed a strange atmosphere that would normally make the person it was directed at lose composure but this had little effect on him.

As the son of a general that became a model for a good child to have in Nethilor, he was subjected to a lot of scrutiny in his daily life. 

At first, it had been a bit nerve-racking, but after a talk with his father about it, he got used to not being bothered by those who stared at him all day.

He walked up the stairs with an indifferent expression and steady footsteps that seemed to echo in the quiet lobby.

As soon as he was out of sight, he let out a deep breath. Even though he wouldn't lose his mind, the feeling that came with many people staring was still uncomfortable, especially when they stared like he had stolen something dear to them, which he seemed to have done.

As walked from floor to floor, he noticed something. Each floor was a market where different things were sold, and the higher one went, the rarer the things one could buy became.

On the top floor, he was presented with three doors. One at the end of the hall and two that stood on the left and right sides of the hall.

The door at the end of the hall had a number plate attached to the door that read '001'.

He walked up to it and knocked. 

"Come in", a female voice came from behind the door.

With a small click, Aiden opened the door and walked in. Sitting behind a massive wooden desk was a slender woman with dark skin. 

Her face seemed to be permanently frozen in a state of anger. Her face looked mean enough to make Aiden pause for a moment before recollecting his thoughts.

He bowed slightly, greeting the woman who seemed to be the head supervisor.

"Good day Ma'am. My name is Aiden Tarren. His Highness, Prince Adrian told me to report to you for information on my assignment"

The woman had a monocle on her left eye. She dropped the pieces of paper in her hands and took a few seconds to look at Aiden from head to toe.

"That skin color needs to be darkened", she muttered to herself.

The office was too quiet. Quiet enough that Aiden heard what she had just said. At that moment, he wore a wry smile in his thoughts. He had been shocked to see his face when he woke up. 

Who was at the other end of the spell he had chanted that thought it was a good idea to give him a makeover?

The head supervisor stretched out her arm to pick up a piece of paper which she quickly looked through.

"Looks like you will be having a tough time. Many of the workers here dislike you and I believe you know why. If you don't, then you are dumber than a rat taunting a cat"

"His Majesty has allowed half of your first three month's pay to be given to you now. That adds up to 15 gold coins. Way too much if you ask me, but that is what you have been given. Spend it wisely because I will kick you away if you come crying to me"

"Your assignments start in three days. You will report to the training grounds in the morning and the later in the evening. You have the afternoon to yourself"

"Work hours start at six in the morning and end at nine o'clock in the evening. You will be fined half a day's pay for every day you are late. You get a grace of three days every month and there must be a reasonable reason for it"

"Take this to the Tailoring section for your set of working clothes. There are three of them. Two normal ones for everyday use at work and one ceremonial attire for when you have to work in one of the ceremonies the palace holds"

"If anyone of them is spoilt, you replace it yourself. The tailoring section will give you the price required to replace it when you ask"

"Trust me, you don't want to do something like that often"

"This slip you will take to the finance section. Make sure not to lose it. If you do, then that's all your pay gone. I will not replace it"

"Remember to report to the warden you are assigned to in the next three days"

"If you have any other questions, don't come to me. Goodbye", then she returned to reading whatever was on the piles of paper she had on her desk.

Aiden took the two slips from her and turned to leave. He had listened with rapt attention as she spoke, careful to not miss any details.

As for the other things she did not talk about like feeding and weekend breaks, he believed he would find out and there was no need to trouble the woman, besides she had said not to ask her for anything.

Aiden opened the door and walked out of the office, closing the door again with a soft click. He did not know that the head supervisor had raised her head once more to look at him as he left the office.

With a small smile on her lips, she muttered to herself, "Feels different. This should be fun".

Aiden found things quite easy as he made his way to the tailoring section. As it turned out, every floor of the building had a notice board that detailed the offices and sections found in the building.

The tailoring section was on the third floor while the finance section was on the second floor. This was one choice he did not understand but he quickly found out why. Most of the workers in the area shopped on the first and second floors most of the time, so the finance section was placed on the second floor.

Except for the occasional glances he got, things went smoothly. 

He walked out of the building with a small token in his hand as well as a small bag containing a few clothes in addition to the three standard-issue clothes he received from the tailoring section.

He walked into the D-block building, locking the door after he entered his room. 

He unpacked the clothes he had received and arranged them in the closet before he fell onto the bed.

He slept for some time before he suddenly woke up. It was like he had been jolted awake by something.

Aiden who just woke up rubbed the sides of his head as he grimaced. He seemed to have gotten a headache from being jolted awake.

In his daze, he felt like he was forgetting something important. 

He stood up and walked to the window. Opening it, he saw that the sky was dark already. Then a word popped into his head as his stomach rumbled, 'dinner'.