The room remained quiet for a long while.
It wasn’t until a few minutes later that Betty’s delicate exclamation suddenly rang out: "Wow!!"
She seemed startled, staring at the large golden egg before her, looking flustered. But clearly, she knew she should say something to break this awkward and bizarre situation. After holding back and pondering for a long time, she finally said in a small voice, "Hello, Lady Enya?"
"Hello, Miss Betty." The giant egg emitted a polite voice again, a slightly magnetic, low and soft female voice that sounded pleasant.
"You... can speak?!" Betty’s not-so-quick brain finally started reacting little by little. Perhaps it was because she was naturally slow, or maybe facing such a strange scene, she actually rather smoothly accepted the reality of a "talking egg" and even started conversing with the pale golden "egg," "So can you see me too?"
"Of course, but my ’seeing’ might not be what you understand ’seeing’ to mean," the "egg" that called itself Enya spoke with a hint of laughter, "I’ve been observing you, little girl, ever since a few days ago when you first started taking care of me here."
Betty listened, bewildered, and both amazed and puzzled: "Ah, is that so... Then why didn’t you speak before?"
"Because it was only today that I was able to speak," the golden giant egg replied warmly, "and it will probably take me even longer to do other things... I am slowly awakening from my slumber, it’s a gradual process."
Betty pondered and honestly shook her head: "I don’t quite understand."
"Ahaha, that’s normal because you don’t know who I am, and probably not my experiences either," the giant egg really laughed this time, and the laughter sounded very happy, "An interesting girl you are... you seem a bit scared?"
"It’s my first time seeing a talking egg..." Betty cautiously nodded, maintaining a safe distance from the giant egg. She was indeed a bit nervous, but didn’t quite know if that counted as fear—since the other party said it was, then it probably was, "And it’s so big, almost as tall as Mr. Rhett or the master... The master didn’t tell me you could talk when he asked me to care for you."
"Your master...?" The giant golden egg seemed to be pondering, or perhaps her thoughts were sluggish due to a lingering lethargy, her voice occasionally sounded a bit hazy and slow, "Who is your master? Where is this place?"
Betty thought for a moment, deciding that since the other party was a "distinguished guest," there was no need to hide anything, so she nodded and said, "My master is His Majesty Gawain Cecil, and this is his palace—I am Betty, the maidservant supervisor here."
"Gawain Cecil? So I have arrived in the human world? This is really..." The voice of the golden giant egg paused as if greatly surprised, then her tone carried a slightly helpless and dawning laughter, "They sent me here too... Unexpected, but perhaps a good decision."
Betty blinked, listening to a huge egg mumbling to itself, unable to grasp what’s happening, nor understand what the egg was murmuring about, but she at least understood that the egg arriving here seemed accidental, and she suddenly thought about what she should do: "Ah, I should inform Princess Heidi! Tell her that the egg in the Hatching Room has awakened!"
She turned to run out the door, but just as she was about to step out, the giant egg called out to her, "No, wait—let’s not tell others for now."
"Ah?" Betty paused, confused, "Not tell anyone?"
"No need to rush," the giant egg spoke softly, "I have not enjoyed such quiet time for a long, long time, so let’s keep my awakening quiet... I would like to stay quiet for a while longer."
"Then..." Betty cautiously looked at the pale golden eggshell, as if she could discern Lady Enya’s expression through it, "do you want me to leave? You could stay alone for a bit..."
"That won’t be necessary," came a more pronounced amused voice from inside the egg, "You aren’t noisy, and having someone to talk to isn’t bad. Just no need to inform others, that’s all."
"Oh," Betty nodded, attempting to understand. She couldn’t help but glance over the pale golden egg’s surface, wondering where the "voice organ" might be. After a while of scrutinizing, she couldn’t hold back her curiosity, "Um... Lady Enya, do you live inside this eggshell? Do you need to e out for fresh air?"
The golden egg fell silent momentarily, and though no expression could be seen on the shell, a strong "I’m puzzled, you’re strange" emotion seemed to seep through the fine lines on the eggshell’s surface. After a few seconds of awkward silence, she finally spoke, "e out? No, I can’t e out, little girl, this is what I look like now, you might see it as an egg, but it is actually a collective of human nature, a symbolized material vessel I need to use this form to solidify and gradually transform my humanity to achieve ... no, you probably wouldn’t understand. In short, this is how I look now."
Betty listened dumbfounded as an egg explained these inprehensible concepts. After considerable efforts trying to piece the information together, she finally formed her understanding, "I get it, you haven’t hatched yet."
"..."
Seeing the egg stay silent for a while, Betty grew nervous, cautiously asking, "Lady Enya?"
"Nothing, just didn’t know how to respond. Perhaps, from a certain perspective, your summary isn’t wrong, but... never mind," the golden egg said helplessly, the faint golden light on its surface gradually returning to normal, "By the way, where is your master now? I haven’t sensed his presence at all."
"The King went out," Betty answered, "to do something important—to discuss the world’s future with some notable figures."
"Discuss the world’s future?" the golden egg’s voice sounded reminiscent, "It seems this world finally has a future... that’s a good thing."
While speaking, she seemed to recall something and curiously asked, "Little girl, I wanted to ask earlier, what are those glowing magic symbols around here for? They seem to maintain a stable energy field, is this a kind of seal? But I don’t seem to feel its sealing effect."
Betty looked at the twinkling magic symbols around her, with a slightly pleased expression on her face, "These are for incubation!"
"Incubation... wait, you mentioned earlier that this is a Hatching Room?" the golden giant egg seemed to finally realize something, her voice rising with surprise and a touch of incredulous laughter, "Are you trying to ’hatch’ me?"
"Yes," Betty nodded emphatically, ’We’ve been incubating for several days! And it’s effective, isn’t it? You can talk now...’
The room suddenly fell into an eerie silence again, the golden giant egg sank into an exceptionally bizarre silence, until even a slow girl like Betty began to feel uneasy, a burst of sudden, seemingly extreme, joyous laughter erupted from the egg: "Haha... haha... hahahaha!!"
The laughter went on for a long time, and since an egg obviously doesn’t need to breathe, the laughter didn’t pause at all. It wasn’t until a few minutes later that it finally subsided, and the slightly frightened Betty finally had a chance to speak cautiously, "Lady Enya, are you alright?"
"No, I’m fine, I just couldn’t imagine your line of thought... Listen, little girl, my talking doesn’t mean I’m about to hatch, and you can’t hatch me by doing this, I don’t actually need incubation, I just need to transform by myself, you... never mind," the golden egg said in a voice half filled with laughter and half a sigh. If she had hands, she might have pressed them to her forehead—but she didn’t have hands now, nor a forehead, so she could only express her exasperation, "I feel like I can’t explain this to you. Ah, you’re actually trying to hatch me, this is really..."
She seemed about to laugh again but managed to suppress it. Betty by the side couldn’t help but pat her chest lightly, relieved, "You scared me just now, Lady Enya, you laughed so much, I was worried you’d burst.."
The golden egg: "...??"
The next second, uncontrollable laughter echoed in the room once again...
But fortunately, this time the laughter didn’t last as long. Enya stopped within a minute; she seemed to have gained unimaginable joy, or perhaps for the first time in her long life, she felt joy through her own free will. Then she focused her attention on the slightly dazed maid again, only to find her looking nervous once more—she was clutching the sides of her maid’s dress, looking flustered: "Lady Enya, did I say something wrong? I always say things wrong..."
"No, you didn’t say anything wrong. I should watch my emotions, after all, now they are no longer constrained by thoughts... although this has nothing to do with ’runniness,’" Enya said with a lingering smile, "You are really interesting, child. No one has ever dared to speak to me this way, but it’s truly amusing... Is this strange way of thinking influenced by your equally interesting master?"
"I’m not quite sure what you mean," Betty scratched her head, "but the master has indeed taught me many things."
"What has he taught you?" Enya asked with great interest.
"Spelling, math, history, some mon societal operations... although I don’t quite understand that part, oh, and mysticism and ’logical thinking’—everyone needs logical thinking, that’s what the master said."
"...It seems this is indeed very interesting," Enya’s tone seemed to change slightly, "Could you tell me about it? About the things your master usually teaches you. Of course, if you have enough free time, I also hope you can tell me about the current state of the world, and what you perceive of everything’s appearance."
"Of course, I’d be happy to. I’ve finished my work for today and was wondering what to do with my leisure time tonight!" Betty said cheerfully, then suddenly remembered something and hurriedly headed towards the door, "Ah, if we’re going to chat, we need to prepare some refreshments—please hold on a moment!"
This time, Enya couldn’t stop the spirited and somewhat single-minded girl. Betty dashed away before her words fell to the ground, leaving the "Hatching Room" and leaving only the golden giant egg silently on the pedestal in the center of the room.
"...Truly interesting."
The sound of a self-muttering voice echoed in the room.
Fortunately, being a skilled maidservant supervisor, Betty didn’t take too long.
She dashed out of the room, prepared refreshments with zeal, and quickly returned with a large tray. The two soldiers standing guard outside the room watched the maidservant supervisor’s inexplicable series of actions with confusion, wanting to inquire but finding no opportunity to speak—by the time they realized it, Betty had already run back into the room inside the heavy door with the tray and remembered to shut the door behind her.
Outside the door, the two soldiers exchanged glances, while inside, Betty and Enya stood facing each other.
The Hatching Room didn’t have the usual household arrangements; Betty placed the large tray directly on the nearby ground. She picked up her favorite large teapot, blinked at the golden giant egg before her, and suddenly felt a bit lost.
...Similar confusion seemed to have been encountered before.
No mouth.
Enya also found herself in much the same confusion as Betty, although as the one involved, her confusion carried a mix of many awkward and bemused emotions—yet these feelings didn’t make her unfortable; on the contrary, this string of absurd and exasperating situations brought her immense joy and delight.
"You seem unable to drink tea..." Betty tilted her head, not knowing what Enya was thinking, "Just like Mr. Nicholas Egg..."
"Oh? Is there another ’person’ here like me?" Enya said with some surprise, then a bit of regret, "Anyway, it seems your good intentions might go to waste."
"Mr. Nicholas Egg is also an ’egg,’ but he’s made of metal and can float around," Betty said, trying hard to think, then hesitantly offered a suggestion, "How about I pour some for you to try?"
Enya often felt she couldn’t keep up with this human girl’s thoughts: "Pour some?"
"Just pour it directly on your eggshell..." Betty seemed to also consider her idea a bit unreliable; she stuck out her tongue, "Ah, just take it as a joke, you’re not a potted plant..."
"No, you can try."
"Ah?"
"You can try," Enya’s tone carried a thick interest, "It sounds intriguing—I’m currently very eager to try everything I’ve never tried before."
Betty listened intently, picked up the heavy teapot, stepped forward, looked down at the pot, then at the giant egg: "Then... shall I really give it a try?"
"Try it, I’m also curious about how I’m perceiving the world now."
...
Outside the brass magic symbol-embedded heavy door, two elite guards stood watching the room’s activity, but layers of enchantments and the door’s soundproofing blocked all probing; they couldn’t hear any sound ing from inside.
Thus, time passed as silence stretched, and finally, a royal guard couldn’t resist breaking the silence: "What do you think Miss Betty went in there with tea and snacks for?"
Another guard casually replied: "Perhaps she was just hungry and wanted a midnight snack inside."
"I don’t think that’s it—Miss Betty is very disciplined at night. Even if she occasionally wanted to eat something, she’d go to the kitchen."
"Then I don’t know. She’s the maidservant supervisor, the inner court’s highest female official, and doesn’t need to report such things to us," the guard shrugged, "Can’t be that she’s watering the giant egg, can it?"
"...I suppose so."
Silence descended outside the door.
Half a minute later, both guards suddenly muttered in unison: "Why do I feel it’s not necessarily so?"
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