Appendix — The Lord and Maids’ Turnover
Appendix — The Lord and Maids’ Turnover
About a week had passed since the lord of the inner palace, Zenjirou, had left for the Gaziel march when two of his maids were summoned to the head maid’s office.
If the maids had been the three problem maids, otherwise known as Faye, Dolores, and Letti, they would have been trembling and trying to figure out what had been discovered and how to best apologize.
However, these two maids had no guilty conscience and simply knocked calmly on the office door.
“Ma’am, it’s Conchita. I have arrived.”
“Sabrina also reporting.”
“Enter.”
The two maids in question said “Excuse us” as they opened the door and entered the room.
The head maid’s role included summoning maids in this fashion and giving them specific training or instruction. Therefore, while her office was small, it had a parlor attached to it. The two maids—Conchita and Sabrina—had taken up positions in that parlor as they spoke with Amanda.
Amanda was sitting on a simple wooden chair across from the two. She held their gazes evenly before shifting straight to the main topic.
“You both share a room with Kisha, so I imagine you expected this. I have called you here today for much the same reason. Your families have both petitioned for your return. As your lord, Sir Zenjirou has accepted the requests, and you will therefore soon be leaving the inner palace and returning to your families.”
As Amanda had expected, the two maids didn’t show any surprise at her explanation, merely nodding in acceptance with even expressions. They had assumed as much upon being summoned.
Conchita and Sabrina were roommates and teammates with Kisha. They’d heard from her about half a month prior that she would be marrying and was therefore resigning. They had obviously been surprised at first but had soon accepted it. The three of them were the same age, each of them having turned twenty at the beginning of the year. In Capuan society, it was considered the final year where one was of a reasonable age to marry and was commonly called the Year of Truth.
Kisha was an exception, being a maid in the inner palace, and she therefore had a few years’ leeway, but it was still a good time to start thinking about those decisions. Conchita and Sabrina were the same age, so this went for them as well.
While their families might not be able to catch the interest of a man like the next head of the Márquez family, they would still be moving to cement their daughters’ engagements. Conchita and Sabrina, therefore, knew that such a request was far from unexpected. Their time here was simply over.
“I understand,” Conchita said with a dip of her head, sending her luscious black locks swaying.
“Thank you for your instruction until now, ma’am,” Sabrina added, her own pretty red hair swishing as she followed suit.
Amanda couldn’t stop her expression from softening just a little at their responses. They worked well and had answered similarly. They had made an extremely reliable team with Kisha, though the latter had already departed. They were not lacking as maids in any way, mentally mature and courageous, with little in the way of bashfulness.
As far as courage went, the problem maids were well above the others, but comparing the two trios was rather impolite. It would be like entering a polar bear into a competition to see who dealt with the cold the best.
At any rate, these three had struck a balance between personality and competence, enabling Amanda to take a relatively hands-off approach. However, she subverted their expectations, as the pair had assumed they would be leaving very soon.
“You will both be leaving the inner palace and returning to your families. That much is certain, but it will not be immediately. This is due to the current lack of personnel in the inner palace. Calling it fortunate may be rather rude to the both of you, but you will not be marrying as quickly as Kisha is. Therefore, we will be prioritizing the acquisition of additional maids. Once they are trained to a sufficient standard where they will not be a hindrance, you will both be allowed to resign. Is that acceptable?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I understand.”
The two of them answered the head maid’s request placidly. Amanda nodded in satisfaction while letting out an internal sigh.
Why is it that the most manageable girls are leaving first and I am left with the problem maids? This is the inner palace; normally we would have nothing but the best here.
Her position meant that she could not voice her complaints, though. Maintaining her strict expression, Amanda gave a short nod with “Very well,” leaving her lips before beginning a more detailed explanation to the two who would be leaving.
“A few days from now we will have three new maids. You will each be grouped with one of them and another current maid for training purposes.”
In other words, the groups would be trios consisting of a maid who was leaving, a new maid, and a current maid. The only two who would be leaving this time were Conchita and Sabrina, so the third maid would simply make a group with two who were staying.
Things had been planned this way due to the risk of isolating the new maids once the pair had left if Conchita and Sabrina were the only two giving them instruction. The inner palace was already cut off from society, so isolating the new maids even further was something to avoid.
“Fortunately,” Amanda continued, “Sir Zenjirou is currently away from the capital so there is a lighter workload here. We can use the opportunity to instruct the new hires.”
The fundamental issue with replacing people was that unless those replacements were already up to snuff, it would lead to a temporary reduction in the overall workforce. New hires were generally not up to snuff, and the veterans training them would also suffer from decreased efficiency. Therefore, times like this where the overall workload was lighter were the best for increasing the number of people you had to call on.
“We will be keeping it to only three new maids initially to avoid an excessive burden. Once things look good with them, we will bring the next three in. We will therefore have at least six new maids, but we will plan for between ten and twelve, if possible, so you need to act in accordance with that. Am I understood?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Of course, ma’am.”
The problem maids would undoubtedly have shown their displeasure in either their expressions or behaviors, but Conchita and Sabrina both comported themselves far better, and their faces didn’t falter.
Despite that, when they were with Vanessa—the maid in charge of the kitchen who had a friendly disposition—they allowed themselves to be more open, so they likely excelled in adapting to whatever environment they were in.
“Very well. Sir Zenjirou wished to grant you a token of appreciation for the work you have done thus far. Ordinarily, he would have preferred to hand it to you in person as he did with Kisha, but you may leave before he returns, depending on the circumstances. Therefore, I will be an intermediary, but if he returns before you leave then you must thank him yourselves. Understood?”
With that warning, Amanda placed long polished boxes made of wood in front of each of the women.
“Open it and inspect it,” she told them.
The two maids exchanged glances and picked up the boxes in front of them, lifting the lids.
“It’s...” Conchita began before trailing off.
“A silver chain? No, a bracelet?”
As Sabrina had said, it was a bracelet made of silver. It was relatively simple, and despite clearly being of fine make, was not worth a fortune. However, a close look at the chains revealed glistening transparent grains shining within. They were Zenjirou’s beads.
The simple, colored glass would have made a simple silver chain much more valuable to a modern person, and they were nothing short of incredible by the aesthetic senses of this world. However, they had not been utilized for either their artistic or monetary value. It made such items extremely difficult to produce as a forgery in this world.
The two maids gingerly lifted the silver bracelets from the red cloth that padded the boxes’ interiors. As they did, Amanda spoke to them.
“They are now yours. Sir Zenjirou said that if you do not want or need them, you are to return them.”
“What?!”
“I could never!”
Ignoring the looks on their faces, Amanda continued. “However, you must return them personally to him. He will not accept any other method, and explicitly said that they would need to be returned by you no matter what the reason was.”
The two of them settled into confused contemplation at Amanda’s words. They were noble girls and neither of them were unintelligent, so it didn’t take either of the pair long to recognize the bracelets’ true value.
Conchita and Sabrina could henceforth use the pretext of returning the bracelet to gain a personal audience with Zenjirou on a single occasion. Kisha had likely been given the same thing as well, having left the inner palace before them. This was no mere accessory. It was a one-time ticket to meet the prince consort in the future.
Amanda could tell from their expressions that they had understood the gift’s true meaning properly and her tone turned cautionary. “I imagine you are aware of this, but Sir Zenjirou is less than fond of unfairness. Therefore, he will not treat your families, either biological or married, with any special favor due to your prior post. However, conversely, if they were to be involved in some issue and were clearly treated unjustly, he would likely help.”
The implication of her words was clear. Noble society was, frankly, a place where the rule of the jungle reigned supreme. Of course, the royal family technically kept the domestic nobles under control but it was hard to say they had eyes and ears everywhere in practice. It was therefore the norm that disputes between noble families were dealt with out of view of the royal family. It went without saying that in those cases, the final result was not the family that was correct, but the family that was stronger.
In such an environment, these bracelets held great significance. They were only usable once, so it would be difficult to do so, but the ability to skip all the formalities and take their grievances straight to the nucleus of the country was a strong deterrent.
“Thank you.”
“I will treasure it dearly.”
Conchita and Sabrina were both clearly overwhelmed as they tightly gripped the bracelets.
“I will repay as much of this kindness as I can with my time in the inner palace. That does make me wonder, though, ma’am. If Conchita and I will be aiding another of the maids to train the new maids, has it been decided what groups we will be in?” Sabrina’s eyes were covered in a thin film of tears at the gravity of the gift, and her voice was upbeat as the thought occurred to her. She was also very interested in the answer and waited with bated breath.
Despite their gazes feeling heavy, Amanda didn’t look away and weathered them, clearing her throat before giving a reply. “It has. Conchita, you will be with Faye. Sabrina, you will be helping Dolores.”
“Faye?”
“Dolores?”
It hardly needed mentioning, but those were the names of two of the three problem maids.
Hearing those names, Conchita’s and Sabrina’s expressions both slipped significantly.
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
Several days passed, and the early morning found the maids in a normal meeting within a room of the inner palace. Then, they noticed the three unfamiliar younger maids standing around Amanda.
The inner palace maids were well disciplined, so no one started up any whispers, but their curious gazes couldn’t stay off the new arrivals. With the entirety of their seniors’ attention on them, the new girls stiffened at Amanda’s side and began to shift uncomfortably.
Amanda gave them each a soft brush on their backs to calm them down before speaking in her usual strict tone to the gathered staff.
“There are several among your number who will be leaving the inner palace within the next year. One has already left, in fact, so you have likely heard the rumors. Due to this, we have assigned more maids to the inner palace. Girls, introduce yourselves.”
As she spoke, Amanda clapped the noticeably slight girl on the shoulder. The girl in question nearly jumped out of her skin before beginning her introduction in a shaking voice.
“M-My name is Manora Sal—I mean, call me Manora! I might not be good enough yet, but it’s nice to meet you.”
Nerves made the girl—Manora—nearly use her family name as she introduced herself, but she managed it in the end.
Maids—and not just in the inner palace—were service staff as a rule, so they didn’t use their family names. If they did, it would likely cause all kinds of issues. For example, if a maid came from a higher-ranking family than Amanda, it was quite easy to imagine it causing issues in the balance between the superior-subordinate relationship and the burden of their family names.
Of course, practically speaking, noble society was small enough that it didn’t matter whether you gave your name. Most people would know what family you hailed from, so it was mostly a facade.
Therefore, the head maid and most senior maids were chosen from families above a certain rank to avoid such troubles. Even among the divisional leaders in the inner palace, Ines was about the only exception.
Once Manora had finished her introduction, Amanda immediately clapped the girl to her left on the back. She was of average height and build.
“I will also be working with you from today. My name is Milagros. I am looking forward to your guidance and support.”
As nervous as the first girl had sounded, this girl was equally as composed, and her introduction was far calmer. Of course, her eyes were almost slits, so it was difficult to read her expression. She might, internally at least, have been just as nervous as Manora.
With the first two maids having introduced themselves, the final maid, who was out of Amanda’s reach, began.
“My name’s Monica. It is an honor to support Sir Zenjirou alongside all of you. I am very glad to meet you all.”
A moment passed as Amanda surveyed all of the younger maids before speaking again.
“Ultimately, the three of them will work as a team like you all do. However, they will be mixed in with you for the time being in order to learn the basics as quickly as possible. Those of you who are in groups with them will be their examples, so bear that in mind as you guide them, am I understood?”
It was a great surprise to everyone but Conchita and Sabrina, who had already heard the news, but none of them had any right to refuse.
“Yes, ma’am,” they all chorused.
The head maid’s stern expression didn’t falter as she announced the groups. “Now, Manora will be working with Sabrina and Faye. Milagros, you will be with Conchita and Dolores. Monica will be working with Carina and Crystal. Letti, Kate, it will be hard on you, but you will be working alone in the kitchen. You will all be training our new faces while fulfilling the roles you are given. Understood?”
It was the first reshuffle the maids had been subject to since joining the inner palace. Other than the two who had already known what was coming, none of them could hide their bewilderment.
Regardless, the only maid who had any say in assignments was the head maid, Amanda.
“We understand,” was the only answer the girls could give.
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
The new maid Milagros, along with Conchita (who would be leaving), and Dolores (who had already been assigned to cleaning) were heading towards the living room as the latter two struck up a conversation with the former.
“So, we should introduce ourselves before we get there. I’m Dolores. You’re fine with me just calling you Milagros, right?”
Dolores was 180 centimeters tall if you rounded up. Milagros was an average height, so to meet the older girl’s gaze, she would inevitably have to look up.
“That is fine, yes. As I said earlier, I am glad to meet you.”
Milagros was looking up and to the right, so her gaze went to meet Dolores’s, but the extreme narrowness of her eyes meant that it didn’t feel like it at all.
“I should give my name as well. I’m Conchita. I’ll be swapping out with you, essentially, so I doubt we’ll know each other long, but it’s nice to meet you,” Conchita greeted her with a smile.
Conchita wasn’t as tall as Dolores, but she was still of a fair height. With that said, though, she was only around 170 centimeters, so it wasn’t quite as difficult for Milagros to meet her eyes.
“The pleasure’s all mine. Oh, if you are going to be leaving, are you marrying?” As her age would suggest, Milagros seemed to have a fondness for tales of marriage and romance.
Smiling at the girl, Conchita answered. “I am. The official marriage will be some time in the future but my father is in something of a hurry. I assume he found a good partner. You will be in the same position at some point, so you might be well served by preparing yourself.”
Milagros didn’t seem to understand her warning in the slightest and a crease deepened between her narrow eyes as she tilted her head.
“Prepare myself, you say?”
“Yes, prepare yourself. Working as a maid here confers significant benefits in status. For better or worse, families beyond your imagining will request your hand in marriage. There are no royals who live outside of the inner palace now, so people with even the slightest connection here are in high demand,” Conchita explained with a delicate shrug.
Her family was low nobility and held no land or titles. Therefore, she would usually marry a lower noble. If she were to marry into a family with even the smallest amount of territory then it would be called gold digging. That was how lowly her family was within the nobility.
Even so, successors to feudal lords and other titled lords had made offers. Among them was even the famed Guillén family. Conchita’s father had been faced with a dilemma and knew it wasn’t something he could easily deal with. He had hurriedly asked an old knight friend of his to claim that when they had drunkenly promised their children to each other, they had made it official, thereby solidifying his daughter’s marriage.
Influential nobles and therefore relatives sounded good, but when the difference in standing was too large it was possible that the entire lesser family would be incorporated into the larger one.
“You needn’t worry about that for quite some time, though. You should prioritize learning the work here,” Conchita said, pasting a smile on her face.
“Right, I will do my best,” Milagros smiled back, her eyebrows arching.
As they were talking, the three reached the living room. Dolores stepped forward as their representative and put her hand to the door, glancing back at Milagros and giving a piece of advice.
“There are many things inside that you will have never seen before. We will explain how to handle them, but you should make sure not to touch them until then.”
“I understand,” she nodded.
Once Dolores had seen her nod, she slowly pushed the door open.
“What on...”
When Milagros entered the room, her narrow eyes opened as wide as they could as she took in the bizarre sight. The room was full of Zenjirou’s personal effects and was therefore mysterious to anyone the first time they saw it.
Several LED lamps surrounded the sofas facing each other. There was a five-door fridge in the corner emitting a low hum. Enshrined on a hip-high pedestal was a big LCD TV. There was a computer dominating the desk in another corner along with an all-in-one printer at its side.
For the people of this world, each and every one of those things was utterly alien. The lamps were similar at a glance to candle stands, so it was possible that someone would come to the conclusion they were for lighting. Without knowing that the fridge could chill things, you might be able to imagine it could store things. The TV, computer, and printer, though, would all be beyond understanding. At best, they might assume the TV and computer were poorly reflective mirrors.
“Lots of things you’ve never seen before, right? They can’t be cleaned with water in general and there are other things to be aware of, so I’ll do them for today. You should just learn by example for now,” Dolores told her.
“I understand,” Milagros answered obediently.
“In which case,” Conchita added in a soft, supportive tone, “perhaps you can clean the other things. Can you clean normally?”
“I can. Leave that to me. I was to serve in another place if I wasn’t accepted here, so I believe I know the bare minimum to act as a maid,” the newcomer said, her expression more confident than her words would imply.
Her comment let them infer that she was from a family of low nobility. While mid-tier nobles would serve the royal family, they would not act as service staff for other nobility. Of course, there were instances like the Guillén family sending the head’s younger sister to learn etiquette at another family’s estate, so it was not an absolute rule.
“Excuse me, then,” Milagros said, taking her cleaning utensils in hand and setting about cleaning the room.
Even avoiding the appliances, she could dust shelves, wipe the upholstery and sweep the floor without issue. Her confident tone was not betrayed by the skill with which she went about her task. She was awfully fastidious, possibly due to this being her first day on the job. As far as getting the room clean was concerned, it was perfect. However, Dolores soon pointed out the flaw in the new maid’s dedicated cleaning.
“Milagros, that’s too slow. Sir Zenjirou isn’t here now, so we can clean more slowly, but it’s normally a race against time.”
Milagros paused in her wiping of the sofa and answered in confusion. “M-My apologies, but this is as fast as I can go.”
Her apology had hints of being more of an excuse, and Dolores nonchalantly gave her some rather lacking advice.
“Then you need to prioritize the visible dirt and stains and clean them. The main thing is that we finish in time, not that we do a perfect job.”
“Hold on, Dolores. Don’t teach her to slack off from the start,” Conchita scolded her, but there was still a rueful smile on her face. It wasn’t something that should be immediately taught to the new hires, but Dolores wasn’t wrong. The expression didn’t leave her face as she turned to explain that to the new hire. “Dolores isn’t entirely wrong, though. It is fairly common for Sir Zenjirou to spend his entire day outside bathing and eating in the living room. Therefore, we need to clean the living room as quickly as possible.”
“Will we not be reprimanded for an imperfect job, though?” Milagros asked, slight fear on her face. It would have been entirely applicable in society as a whole, but things were completely different with Zenjirou as their lord.
“Sir Zenjirou isn’t exactly one to reprimand you. I doubt you’ll understand without meeting him, but he dislikes people being on edge more than anything else. Being around people when they’re tense due to that also makes him uncomfortable, so you should relax a little more.”
Conchita’s advice was all true, but was unfathomable to someone who knew nothing of Zenjirou’s personality. Therefore Milagros extracted what she could understand from it and murmured it to herself.
“Um, so we have little time to clean the living room and therefore need to finish it quickly. Sir Zenjirou dislikes nervous people, though, so I need to avoid showing that tension... I’m sorry, I might not be suitable as a maid here.”
The woman hunched over in disappointment. Listening to that combination definitely seemed to be utterly ridiculous. It sounded like they would have to complete their work in very little time but not show the mental stress that doing so would place upon them.
Dolores seemed to find her pale face amusing as she laughed off the newcomer’s worries. “That’s not it at all,” she corrected her. “You don’t need to hide your nerves from him, you just don’t need to be nervous. If you honestly admit to the things you can’t do and apologize, Sir Zenjirou will forgive everything, so you don’t need to worry.”
“Honestly,” Conchita added softly, pressing a hand to her head to stave off the headache, “you could do with having a little more concern.”
Perhaps the person she’d been put here to train wasn’t the new hire but the problem maid? The thought passed her mind in a moment, but Dolores’s group was the most well-liked among the maids by Zenjirou, so it was rather hard to scold them.
That said, she couldn’t allow the problem maids to corrupt the brand new ones.
“You should listen to about half of what Dolores said. Aiming for perfection isn’t a bad thing, but she is right that if you cannot achieve it, Sir Zenjirou will not blame you, and you can relax a little. However, if you relax too much, Miss Amanda or Ines will lecture you, so take care.”
“R-Right, I understand?”
The rising inflection at the end of her sentence implied that Milagros didn’t quite understand it fully. In truth, the majority of the duties for the maids who were assigned to clean were not actually cleaning tasks. The majority of the cleaning was finished while their lord was away, and they were to wait in the next room once he returned just in case he had need of their services.
However, even if he was in the inner palace, Zenjirou very rarely called on the maids. He needed very little effort to serve, and their other master, Aura, was very busy and therefore rarely within the inner palace.
On top of that, Zenjirou was currently on a trip to the Gaziel march. Therefore, now that Dolores, Conchita, and Milagros had finished the cleaning, they could enjoy a refined afternoon tea during their time in the ready room.
“Conchita, I brought tea and a cherry tart from the kitchen,” Dolores said as she entered.
“Wonderful, let us begin.”
The problem maid was one thing, but even the older maid who held much of Amanda’s trust was relaxing as if it were a matter of course, pouring tea into a wooden cup from the copper teapot and using a silver knife to portion out the bittersweet-smelling tart.
Cutting the circular tart into thirds was difficult so she cut it into six and placed two pieces on each of the three wooden plates.
“We should eat it while it’s warm. You too, Milagros. You haven’t tried it before so it might be somewhat off-putting, but it’s actually very tasty,” Conchita explained with a smile, putting a plate with the tart in front of Milagros before offering her a cup of tea.
“Ah, right.”
Her confusion was clear at a glance, regardless of how hard her narrow eyes made reading her expression, but it wasn’t because of the cherry tart being something she’d never tried before.
“Did Ms. Vanessa cook this?” Conchita asked.
“No, she helped but most of it was Letti. Her Majesty won’t be returning until tonight.”
The other two didn’t hesitate to dig into their tarts as they chatted. Milagros didn’t understand the situation, though, so she felt exceedingly uneasy.
“U-Umm, should we be drinking tea like this rather than working?” she asked, still holding the fork stiffly in her hand.
“What?”
“Well, we’re relaxing without working, so I imagine that wouldn’t be solved with a simple reprimand, would it?”
Once Milagros reworded her question, Conchita finally understood what she wanted to ask. It was then that she realized she had grown just as used to their way of life here as Dolores had.
The sun was still high in the sky and yet the maids were sitting around a table eating snacks. Considering it, she could understand how thoughtless it looked. She smiled to try and put her new colleague at ease.
“Don’t worry; our job itself is to stay within this room. As long as we are, we can do whatever we wish.”
Their role once they finished cleaning was to fulfill whatever orders their masters had for them. Therefore, they waited in this room next to the living room until they were summoned. The fact that Zenjirou and Aura were both out of the inner palace made no difference.
Unlike Zenjirou, who was away from the city, Aura was working in the palace. If plans changed, she could return to the inner palace. Therefore, the maids had to remain in the ready room. In exchange, they could do whatever they liked as long as they were there. They could even fetch things from the kitchen and have a tea party like Dolores had done today or indulge in hobbies like sewing or knitting.
That didn’t change the fact that they were required to wait within a small room, so impatient people like Faye hated it while more laid-back personalities like Dolores enjoyed the cleaning duties more than any other.
The explanations from the other two didn’t solve Milagros’s confusion, but she did seem to understand. “I see, so because we do not know when we may be called upon, we wait here.”
As she spoke, she finally moved her hand towards the plate. She imitated the others and used her fork to break a piece of the unfamiliar cherry tart from the rest and bring it to her mouth.
Cherries in this world were much smaller than those sold on Earth and had much bigger stones along with being far more bitter. Following the cherry tart recipe to the letter made something decidedly unpleasant, but Vanessa knew how to deal with her ingredients and had modified it into something delicious.
The crispy tart was topped with a blanket of crimson cherries. There was a slight bitterness that remained through the sweet seasoning, and the moderating savoriness of the pastry all blended together in the mouth. The cherries looked whole but had actually been cut on the bottom and had the stones removed so there was no need to remove them as they ate.
“I-It’s delicious... Am I really allowed to eat this?”
A single bite was enough to allow Milagros to gauge the time and effort required, as well as the ingredients. Using that to judge the monetary cost gave a not-insignificant sum, so she couldn’t help but voice her doubts.
At the same time, her fork was already moving back towards the tart, so she most definitely liked the flavor.
Dolores, for some reason, puffed up in pride at the question. “It’s fine; when both Sir Zenjirou and Her Majesty are away from the inner palace, the younger maids practice their cooking in the kitchen. They aren’t as good as what Ms. Vanessa makes, so we can’t serve them to Sir Zenjirou, but it would be a waste to just throw them away. That’s why we can eat them. It’s a privilege of working here,” Dolores explained with a laugh.
For her part, the younger girl just gave a confused noise. The younger maids had to cook to improve their skills. Such food couldn’t be served to their masters, though, so the maids disposed of it themselves. Brewing tea was another of the maids’ jobs, so brewing it for themselves was also a necessary duty to improve their skills.
She could understand the logic, but spending her time partaking of such luxurious snacks and tea that was of very high quality based on its aroma alone made her feel somewhat foolish for being so worried about bringing shame upon her family.
When the new maids had been selected, Amanda had told them they would simply be worked to the bone within the inner palace and to discard all arrogance, but such good treatment seemed far from that threat.
Despite what Ms. Vanessa said, perhaps we really are here as potential mistresses?
She knew that more highly ranked girls with greater mana reserves and better looks than her had been rejected, so she had originally accepted that, but this treatment gave her doubts. Her surprise was only increased once they finished the tart when Conchita made a suggestion.
“Incidentally, you look like you could sleep. If you feel like it, you should lie down on the sofa and rest.”
“Lie down? As in taking a nap? But we’re in the active season.”
During the hottest part of the year, an afternoon nap was a matter of course in Capua, so the suggestion itself wasn’t such a shock, but it was rare to hear it recommended at this time of year.
The other two seemed to have expected the response and exchanged looks and smiles.
“We’re both used to it, so we’ll be fine, but you might struggle for a while,” Conchita explained. “The maids on cleaning duty need to wait here until both Sir Zenjirou and Her Majesty retire for the night.”
“Right, we do.”
She didn’t seem to have understood the implication and just tilted her head at her senior.
“Well, this will be a lesson itself. Don’t worry, we’ll get you back to your room if you fall asleep.”
The combination of the lamps and Zenjirou’s familiarity with only heading home once midnight had passed meant that the queen had a much later bedtime than was the norm in Capua.
“What do you mean?” Milagros asked, but she would have to wait until night to understand.
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
Meanwhile, the three caring for the gardens were washing off the sweat they had worked up in the baths.
At night they would borrow the lamp from Zenjirou and it would be the only light they had to rely on, but the sun was still in the sky now.
The multiple high windows in the room were wide open, and the light streaming in illuminated the entire stone-floored bathroom.
“Whoo! That’s great!” Faye cheered childishly as she poured a bucket of cold water over her head.
The temperature itself wasn’t so high at this time of year, but spending hours under the sun weeding the grass would inevitably warm you up.
“Gah, cold?!” the slight maid at her side cried out as the water caught her.
“Ah, sorry, Manora. Did I splash you?” Faye apologized and asked.
“Oh, no, it’s fine,” the smaller girl said faintly in answer to her senior’s unconcerned apology.
“All right, I’ll help you wash in apology. Come on, sit down here.” Faye was as energetic as ever, patting the chair in front of her.
“Huh? N-No, you...you don’t need to, I’m...”
“Don’t worry about it!” Faye exclaimed, pulling her smaller compatriot as the latter tried to use a small towel to cover herself.
“N-No, really, it’s fine...” Manora said. “Um, th-thank you...”
The conversation ended up with Manora sitting in front of Faye. The forceful senior maid was combined with a timid junior, so the latter would never manage to push her own preferences through. Of course, Faye wasn’t being malicious in the slightest; she just wanted to show off for her first subordinate.
Manora in particular stimulated that desire because she was even shorter than Faye, who had been by far the shortest in the inner palace until then. The new girl was around two finger-widths shorter, so Faye found her easy to treat this way.
If Zenjirou had seen the development, he’d have said, “We had someone like that back in the soccer club. He tried to be reliable for them and overdid it.” The newly minted second year had needed to be reigned in by his senior, a newly minted third year.
“Faye, you can’t do that. Look at her face. It’s good that you want to teach someone new to the inner palace how bathing works here, but you need to calm down a little.”
The chiding voice, laced with soft amusement, came from Sabrina. They had joined the palace at the same time, but Sabrina was two or three years older than Faye, so the latter couldn’t speak up to her.
“Hmph...” she pouted.
“Come on, you can teach her how things work here,” Sabrina said soothingly. “She won’t know how to use the soap, so you need to teach her.”
Faye was purehearted to begin with, so the comment from Sabrina had Faye’s smile soon filling her face once again.
“Right. Okay, listen up, Manora. The maids working in the inner palace all use soap to wash themselves. Days like today, where we bathe twice, we can go without soap for one bath, but we may as well teach you now.” As she spoke, Faye pulled over a small container of soap and scooped up a handful.
“Umm, what is that?” the smaller maid asked, timidly stretching to watch as Faye rubbed the white liquid into a towel. She was timid and wary, but she was even more curious. She was like a wild animal whose interest had been piqued.
“This is something called soap that Sir Zenjirou made for us to wash ourselves with. Go on, use some too.”
“Ah, right. I understand. like this?” she asked, letting out a gasp as she scooped some up in imitation before letting out a cry at the refreshing scent. “It smells so nice. Is it some kind of perfumed oil?”
“It’s not. It’s soap. It has some in it, though. Peppermint in this one.”
Once he’d had a rough method to create the soap, Zenjirou had revealed it to the merchant who served the inner palace and left mass production to him. Now, they just stocked up on the finished product. As would be expected of a purveyor of goods to royalty, the merchant had improved the recipe into something beyond what Zenjirou had made in quality. People wouldn’t pay for samples that still smelled of oil. The liquid soap they’d made gave less of a lather than the soap Zenjirou had brought with him, but it was good enough to use.
“Yup, rub it into the towel so it foams up, and then use it like this to wash your body.”
“Okay, like this?”
“Soap hurts a lot if it goes in your eyes, so take care. If it happens, make sure you rinse them immediately,” Sabrina added.
“I will.”
Whether they’d ever used soap or not, noble girls would have had baths before.
Following that, Manora washed herself without much issue and rinsed the suds off using hot water before shaking herself off like a puppy. Eventually, both she and Sabrina had finished washing and were soaking in the bath, but Faye was still in the washing area using the contents of a small silver bottle to wash her hair.
“Oh, what’s that, Faye?” Sabrina asked as she relaxed, letting the water take the weight of her large chest.
Faye puffed out her own smaller chest proudly as she answered. “These are soaps for the hair that Sir Zenjirou gave me. They’re called shampoo and conditioner. You’re not allowed to use them, Manora. Actually, no one but me is. They’re still being tested so we don’t know what would happen.”
Despite her pride, the statement was nothing to be so proud of, as she was being used as a guinea pig.
“Is that all right?” Sabrina asked with slight concern.
“Hmm, Sir Zenjirou told me to stop right away if my head starts to hurt or my hair goes brittle. I’ll get a gold coin if that happens as an apology, though. Even if nothing happens, I’ll get a silver coin—one of the post-war ones, obviously.”
They didn’t know what kind of side effects handmade shampoo and conditioner might have. Ordinarily, Zenjirou would have tested it himself, but he couldn’t expose himself to danger as royalty so he was unable to. Therefore, in much the same way as the soap, he had to ask the maids to test it.
The experiment this time was being carried out by Faye because she had the shortest hair. That meant that even if it wasn’t kind to her hair, at worst they could just cut it off and it would grow back within a year or two. The other maids had hair that reached their waists, so it would affect Faye for the least amount of time, which eased Zenjirou’s guilt.
“Oh, this looks good. It’s kinda nice and my hair feels super clean.”
Faye scrubbed the handmade shampoo through her hair as her junior and older companions watched from the bath.
“Right, I think that once I’m done I need to rinse it all out and then cover my hair with the conditioner...”
The duty warranted an extra bonus from Zenjirou, so Faye was treating it seriously and making sure she had memorized his instructions correctly as she tested it.
“Then rinse again with hot water. Right, that should do it.”
After splashing the hot water through her hair several times and fully rinsing the conditioner out, she used a towel to rub through her curly hair.
“Okay, I guess a hot soak isn’t so bad at this time of year,” she decided, stepping into the bath with Manora and Sabrina and letting out a sigh of satisfaction. She usually preferred a cooling rinse, but at this time of year, she didn’t mind soaking in the hot water.
“Good work, Faye. So, how were the shampoo and conditioner?” Sabrina asked with a soft smile.
Faye grabbed at her hair and felt it. “Hmm, I think it’s pretty good? It’s made my head feel really refreshed, and my hair hasn’t gone thin or overly dry like Sir Zenjirou was worried about. Although I guess I won’t know for sure until it’s dried off.”
“Oh, that sounds nice. Will he have the merchant make this eventually as well, I wonder? I might be able to splurge for some for special occasions.”
Even if the merchant in question mass-produced it, liquid soap was still a high-class item. If things went similarly for the shampoo and conditioner, the masses wouldn’t be able to get hold of it for some time. Even for nobles. Sabrina was from a relatively well-off lower noble family, and she wouldn’t be able to easily get hold of it after she left the inner palace.
Their conversation made the smallest of the trio realize just how unusual the situation she was in actually was, and she timidly broached the topic.
“Um...should we really be doing this? It won’t get us scolded later, will it?”
Unexpectedly, it was the exact same question Milagros had asked in the ready room. That was how strange life in the inner palace was to outsiders. However, the other two exchanged smiles and tried to put her worries to rest.
“It’s okay. You heard Ms. Emilia as well. She’s in charge of the gardens and she told us to wash ourselves off in the baths,” Dolores replied soothingly.
“I understand how confusing it is being new here, but if anything, we’re obliged to bathe like this. Sir Zenjirou’s preferences mean that everyone who works in the inner palace needs to keep themselves as clean as possible.”
What Sabrina had said was true, but it naturally wasn’t something Zenjirou had verbalized and demanded. Amanda had seen his reactions and unhappiness when he was around people with dirtied clothes, sweaty people, or even people wearing excessive perfumed oils, and had therefore instructed them to wear clean clothes and bathe more frequently.
However, her explanation wasn’t in-depth enough, and it made Manora, at least, think something was different.
“If bathing is our duty and it’s for Sir Zenjirou’s preferences, then surely that means it happens? Madam Amanda said that it did not, but apparently, it does. Has it already happened to the two of you? W-Will I be, um, s-summoned?”
Her voice was filled with surprise, unease, and just the slightest touch of excitement. Sabrina looked blankly at her for a moment before she realized the misunderstanding that had taken place. Hearing simply that bathing was part of their duties in accordance with Zenjirou’s preferences made him sound lustful and wanting to be able to have his fill whenever he wished.
“You’re misunderstanding, Manora,” Sabrina told her. “Ms. Amanda is right. You don’t need to worry about being called to his chambers. At the very least, none of us have had that happen.”
“A-Are you sure? Maybe he just swears whoever he calls to secrecy?”
Her concerns were a natural reaction. A maid receiving her patron’s “favor” could often lead to friction between her and the others, so it was common to keep the truth of the matter secret. However, Sabrina’s smile remained on her face as she shook her head.
“That’s impossible. All of us share rooms with two others. He couldn’t call someone without it being revealed.”
“Besides,” Faye interrupted with a cackle as she waved her hand, “Sir Zenjirou sleeps with Her Majesty every night. He wouldn’t have the time for anyone else.”
“What? But Her Majesty has already had her first child, right? Wouldn’t she have been pregnant for quite a while?”
“They were still together even then. He had another bed moved into their room so they could sleep in the same room at least, even if not in the same bed.”
“That’s wonderful!” Manora exclaimed, her eyes sparkling as she brought her hands together above the water. As with most girls of her age, she had a weakness for conversations about romance.
Faye continued, “Besides, if he was going to, Sabrina would have been the first. Seeing as he hasn’t, he wouldn’t have summoned anyone else to his bed.”
“Everyone says that,” Sabrina commented with a troubled smile, “but I think that’s looking at it too simply. However much he loves Her Majesty, that wouldn’t have anything to do with him directing such feelings towards me.”
“Huh? Oh! I wondered who you reminded me of!” Manora exclaimed, looking at Sabrina as she lounged with the water up to her shoulders, understanding what Faye was implying.
Sabrina had long red hair, was around 170 centimeters tall, and had plenty of chest and hips on her frame. She looked the closest to Aura from among the maids. Of course, Aura was a trained warrior, so she had a much leaner frame, and Sabrina had more sloped shoulders and an almost soft face in comparison, so calling her the queen’s doppelgänger would be a little excessive.
Besides, Sabrina was correct, Zenjirou didn’t just have feelings for Aura based on her appearance, and he treated Sabrina the same as any of the other maids.
“Well I can’t say the assumptions people made on that front didn’t also shape my own,” the red-headed maid said, sticking her small tongue out before turning to look at the blue sky visible through the windows so that her expression couldn’t be read.
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
That night, the three problem maids met up in their room after spending their first day ever on separate teams.
“You both look tired!” Dolores exclaimed.
“Ahh, it was more tiring than I expected working with one of the new girls. She nodded off in the ready room, so it was a lot of work.”
“You both look tired,” Letti said. “I didn’t have one of the new girls, but that meant it was just Kate and me, so it was pretty tough for us too.”
The three of them sat down on their beds and exchanged tired greetings and appreciations for each other’s efforts during the day. They had suddenly been placed in a situation where they were working with someone they had only met that day along with someone they usually didn’t interact much with, and that had increased the burden on them rather significantly.
“The new girl with us is pretty diligent, though, so she’ll probably need less oversight fairly soon,” Dolores commented in support of the new maid in her group.
Faye leaped on the comment almost antagonistically. “My, what pompous praise. Our Manora is a great girl too. She’s tiny and timid. She’s constantly shaking. It’s so cute.”
“Isn’t that a bad thing?” Dolores asked. “You can’t put someone like that so close to Sir Zenjirou.”
“It’ll be fine. I’m sure she’s just uneasy because she’s in a new environment. Give her a few days and she’ll be all right.”
“Probably, yes,” Dolores agreed easily.
The new girls still hadn’t met their lord, and he literally held their lives in his hands, so they were scared of him. Once they understood the kind of person he was, they’d relax. This trio knew that from experience.
“Still, Conchita and Sabrina are following Kisha in getting married. It feels like we’re losing people like crazy,” Faye commented, her voice slightly solemn for once.
As she replied, Dolores’s voice was exaggeratedly calm. “Of course, they turned twenty this year. This would normally be their last chance to get married, and it’s the perfect time for a maid here as well.”
“Well, yeah, it just made me realize time’s still passing,” Faye answered in her pajamas, falling back onto the bed.
“How optimistic you are, Faye. This is when time starts to feel even faster. You must have heard the rumors about what Sir Zenjirou is doing right now. And with who, for that matter.”
At Dolores’s comment, Letti sat up from her bed and joined the conversation. “He is with Princess Freya, right? As his partner for the wedding.”
“So will she become his concubine? If she does, she’ll be living here, right?”
The first concubine might soon be joining the inner palace. For better or worse, that would inevitably cause a significant change. A more fundamental change than the simple substitution of manpower that was currently happening.
“Nothing is decided yet,” Dolores added, her face, lit by the oil lamp in the corner of the room, growing serious. “We don’t know what will actually happen, but if things go well, yes.”
If the maids were allowed to give their personal preferences, none of them wanted a concubine in the inner palace.
The inner palace was currently at peace. Their two masters were almost unfairly affectionate with each other, and they both had calm personalities, making them unlikely to rage at the maids. This was the absolute perfect workplace for a maid, and allowing an outsider into it was not something any of them wanted.
“Still, it can take years for marriages between royals and high-ranking nobles to be finalized, so it’s not going to be a problem anytime soon,” Dolores added, trying to convince herself just as much as the others.
Faye stuck her legs out from the bed and kicked them around, still lying down as she whined softly. “Argh, I just want it to stay like this for another three years. Then it won’t be our problem.”
“True, by that time we may well be returning for our own marriages. I understand what you want to say, but don’t do it outside,” Dolores answered her smaller roommate as the latter complained based only on the effects it would have for her, before crossing her own long legs with a reluctant smile.
“I knooowww, I’d only say it here.”
“Seeing you act like that makes it difficult to imagine you marrying in three years.”
“Yup, I can’t imagine it either,” Faye agreed easily rather than getting angry with her roommate’s cynicism.
Truly, seeing the way she was lollygagging made it hard to think of her as being old enough to be married, or that in three years she’d technically be “too old.”
They had joined the inner palace two years ago, but Faye hadn’t shown any real sign of growth. That said, marriage was unavoidable for a noble’s daughter.
“I think Letti would be more in demand than me,” Faye commented from her bed, sitting up to send a sidelong glance at the girl in question. She was the average height for a Capuan woman with soft, pale hair and a gentle-looking face. Her chest would also steal the gaze of 120% of the men she met for the first time (it would steal the gaze of every man at least once, while one in five would look again). She definitely seemed like she’d be more popular with men, and it was easy to imagine her snuggled up with someone.
However, her expression shifted into something more conflicted. “Hm, I might not get married, though,” she commented, voicing something shocking.
“What? Why?!”
“Did something happen with your family?!”
Letti waved her arms around to get the other two to quiet down as they forgot the late hour.
“N-No, nothing like that. It’s my choice. If my father gives me permission, I was thinking of just remaining in the inner palace.”
“You mean you want to be a concubine?” Faye asked.
“That’ll be a difficult road. Maids struggle enough with the difference in status normally, that’s even worse when you’re up against Her Majesty.”
“No, again, not like that. Ms. Vanessa mentioned today that I could replace her after three years of training, and I thought that sounded good.”
Once they listened to Letti’s frantic explanation, the other two lost much of their enthusiasm.
“Oh, that’s all.”
“Don’t scare me like that.”
“Sorry, I should have worded it better,” she apologized with a grin.
Finally understanding what she meant, Dolores regained her calm and furrowed her brow in thought. “That will be fairly difficult too, though. If you don’t leave the inner palace and take Ms. Vanessa’s place then that’ll mean you’re single for the rest of your life, right? I don’t think you should decide that so hastily.”
“Yeah, Even Miss Amanda and the other heads apart from Miss Ines are married. Maybe you should do the same and come back when you’re the same age as them? I don’t think Sir Zenjirou would have a problem with welcoming you back,” Faye added, also far more serious than usual as she advised her roommate.
Dolores and Faye were both correct; it wasn’t so simple for a noble girl to choose not to marry. It was a common view in the country that women had no value outside of marriage, and Letti herself had been brought up in that environment. She might regret her decision when she was too late to take it back.
Letti seemed somewhat impressed by their passionate advice and her own gaze fell to the floor. “Yeah, maybe. I was just so happy to have my cooking praised. I’ll think it over properly.”
Dolores let out a sigh of relief before replying. “That’s good. Either way, you’ve got at least another three years, so you’ve got plenty of time to change your mind.”
Even if after spending three years refining her cooking skills she decided to get married instead, it would be by no means wasted time. Therefore, she should just keep her life as it was for the moment, training herself in cooking.
Three years. The time the girls spent in the inner palace was almost like a postponement. They were cut off from the clamor of society and could spend the time peacefully and comfortably.
Faye muttered her own worries to try and lift the somewhat solemn mood that had settled over the group. “Still, if we do get married, we’ll have that family’s lifestyle waiting for us. I’m a bit worried about whether I’ll be able to deal with it. They won’t have midday baths, afternoon tea, or ice in the intense heat.”
“That...goes without saying, yes. However long we took to clean the bedroom, it wouldn’t have AC.”
There was a silent pause.
“I...I think I will just keep up my cooking and spend the rest of my life here,” Letti commented.
The three problem maids had adapted more than anyone else to serving Zenjirou.
Imagining a future without the blessings of modern civilization, the three of them started (albeit rather late, all things considered) harboring deep concerns about their futures.