BXBX NOVEL Chapter 88 Joining Us?
"My quarters are indeed very comfortable. I felt right at home."
"That\'s great!" the governor boomed.
While the governor was still speaking, Adalia brought in the meal of the hour. She looked very professional and smart in her maid uniform. Holding up the first tray, she dropped it very carefully on the table. As she removed the lid, the fresh aroma of dairy based breakfast filled the whole space. Given the fact that this was a governor\'s abode, it was a relatively simple breakfast, Xzavier half expected a mini feast of turkeys, whole roasted pigs, jesters, music, basically anything that spelled opulence.
But instead, Xzavier was met with a moderately decent breakfast of homemade bread, well processed cheese, some carrots, cabbage, peas and green vegetables. Xzavier was impressed. This wasn\'t what he had been expecting at all, not by a long shot. The meal looked very simple, but it was high quality. The vegetables stood out the most. It was evident that they had been nurtured in a very fertile environment. The bread and looked divine. Xzavier found himself getting eager to dive right in.
As was their custom, the small family didn\'t start eating until the governor had taken the first bite. Then, as if on cue, Earlene reached out with the serving spoon to dish out her own portion of the simple but rich breakfast, Cadence followed suit, and then Xzavier. As they all began to eat in silence, Xzavier noticed how they all ate heartily, especially the kids. Since they were all privileged children and products of the top brass, a part of Xzavier thought that their attitude to food would be indifferent.
But it turned out that his suppositions were wrong. Xzavier learned an important lesson that day; he learned that no matter the class, food was food for just about everyone. They all ate with the vigor of bears. Except Earlene who toyed with her vegetables, but after receiving a stern look from her father, she braced up and forced the carrots and peas down her throat.
While the family and their guest began to eat, an embarrassing sound hit the ears of everyone. Xzavier froze. Then it came again, this time more aggressive and more pronounced than before.
Grrhhhhh
Xzavier recognized that sound immediately. It was a sound he was all too familiar with. During his days as a member of the Special Forces, on some missions that required going for days on end without having anything in the stomach, it was that sound that kept him company all through those long, bitter, cold nights. It was the sound of a hungry stomach.
The second time the aggressive sound from the growling stomach came, Xzavier\'s sharp perceptive ears picked it up very quickly and immediately got to working on tracing its roots. Because of the small number of suspects in the room, Xzavier didn\'t have to look very far. It turned out the culprit was none other than the beautiful blue eyed maid that was Adalia.
Xzavier was a bit puzzled at first. He didn\'t understand how Adalia could be hungry when she herself had been involved in the preparation process of the meal. The whole thing was comical to Xzavier, almost ironic. It was like a man allowing himself to thirst even when he was right at the bank of a stream of water. Thinking the others found it hilarious as well, Xzavier made the innocent mistake of cracking a joke about it;
"Adalia! It sounds like you have an entire monster growling in your stomach…"
The joke started out well. It was exactly the kind of thing that a bunch of elites would do at the table- look down and make mockery of the servant or lower class. But it wasn\'t the beginning of the joke that was the awkward part, it was what Xzavier said next that made it seem like he had just committed an unforgivable sin…
"…or do you want to have my breakfast to feed your monster?"
Xzavier only caught on to the severity of his mistake when the general atmosphere of the room changed. Opposite him, Earlene stopped with her fork halfway to her mouth and gazed at Xzavier in shock. She looked at him as if she couldn\'t believe he had opened his mouth to suggest something of that nature. With the way she was acting, one would have thought that Xzavier had invited a goat to the table instead of another human being.
Standing behind her was Adalia whose face also froze up in shock when Xzavier suggested that she eat with them. Xzavier noticed how she immediately looked at the governor in fear and with pleading eyes. Then shamefully, she lowered her gaze, and kept her head down, staring at the ground, afraid to speak a single word. Earlene and Cadence silently exchanged looks, not knowing what to say as well. This had never happened before.
Xzavier was a bit shocked that such a harmless joke could cause such a powerful reverberation in the room. He still didn\'t know what he had done wrong. He wondered if maybe it was against the household\'s rule to make jokes at breakfast. Or was it the fact that he wasn\'t to speak at all? He groaned mildly in exasperation. It was like walking on egg shells around this people. There was no way of knowing exactly what to do and shouldn\'t do.
So, Xzavier turned to face the man of the house in a bid to at least find out what exactly he had done wrong. The moment he set his eyes on the governor, Xzavier found that he was also looking at himself. Then, like a sudden bolt of lightning, the truth hit Xzavier like a jolt of electric shock. It was a truth that he had come to witness firsthand. It was a truth that Xzavier should have realized.
Of course, the rules of this isekai were much different. Though they appeared to have advanced as a civilization, they still retained the primitive habit of class segregation. Therein lay the foundation of the problem of the moment. When Xzavier had suggested that an ordinary maid dine with them at the same table, in the minds of everyone, he had just suggested something blasphemous. Servants had their place. And nobles had their own place. These two classes, much like parallel lines traveling opposite each other, could never meet. No matter how friendly, or casual their relationship was.
The ugly truth was that despite being close friends and an important part of the family, Adalia was still and would always just be the maid. Her place was with the servants. Hence, she could never deign to sup at the same table as the members of the upper class, which in this case was the governor and his family.
The full weight of his seemingly innocent joke dawned on him now. Xzavier began to feel really uncomfortable. This was in sharp contrast with his own personal creed. Xzavier wondered whether his failure to have picked up on this was as a result of his recent rise to stardom in the eyes of everyone here. As a person with values, his eyes had never been closed to oppression. That just wasn\'t who he was.
He glanced again at the poor girl and saw the shame of hunger written all over her. Even though she was obviously in need of sustenance, she still couldn\'t eat. Simply because it wasn\'t her place to dine with the elites. This was truly a sad reality.
Xzavier was now fully aware of the fact that in the sight of his hosts, he might have as well as slapped them in their face and spit on the opportunity they had given him to dine with them. Clearly, they thought he had just offended the established protocol of their time. Just as Xzavier fought to find a way out the mess he had put himself in, Governor Quaid stepped in with a charming smile and a follow up statement that diffused the whole tension, and at the same time, somehow added to it.
"Adalia…" he called out to the maid in a suave tone.
Upon hearing her name, Adalia cringed and recoiled inwardly at the thought of the fate that awaited her. She had already given up, and was prepared for the consequences of her growling tummy. But, the poor maid was completely unaware of just what the fates had in store for her.
"…would you mind joining us for breakfast?" he asked politely.
"You can sit next to Xzavier if you want."
Quaid\'s words at this point could have very well been a nuclear bomb. Across the table, cutlery dropped from the hands of the children in shock, and forks hit the plates with a clanging sound. Cadence and Earlene stared at their father, mouth open wide in disbelief. Utterly shocked by his words!
But no one was more shocked than Adalia. She was smitten to the bone by his words.