Appendix — The Lord and Maids’ Game Battle

There were maids with the dubious honor of the title “The Three Problem Maids” within the Capua Kingdom’s inner palace. Of course, despite their moniker, they were still servants of the inner palace and had undergone a rigorous selection process.

Overall, there were no issues with their loyalty to the royal family, their skills, or their appearances. But compared to the other maids, they were a little more upfront with their desires, would get caught up in things, and would slack off when they pretended not to hear their superior’s orders.

Amanda, the head maid, would frequently knit her brows disapprovingly, but they didn’t make any mistakes that were severe enough to see them dismissed, and their lord, Zenjirou, didn’t seem to mind, so their indiscretions were tacitly allowed. In a way, they may have been enjoying a stress-free life in the inner palace more than anyone else. They weren’t fools, though, just a bit denser than the other maids, and a little bolder too.

That denseness and boldness had now gotten them into a situation that had the blood draining from their faces.

“Ahh?! What do I do?! I’m done for!” cried a slight, black-haired girl.

It had happened just as they’d returned to their room for a break from the intense midday heat. The maids were generally housed in three-person quarters, and this trio shared a room. They were often together while they worked as well. Essentially, the three were roommates and close colleagues.

“Whoa, what’s wrong, Faye? Don’t shout like that.”

“What’s up, Faye?”

The other two stared at her as, with sweat beading on the slight maid’s brow, she pulled it from the pocket of her apron.

“What do I do?!” she wailed. “I accidentally... took this with me...”

The thing in her hands was a flat, black rectangle. Silence reigned in the small room. The first to break that silence was the taller of Faye’s roommates.

“W-Wait, that’s Sir Zenjirou’s, isn’t it? The thing he said not to get wet and to make sure not to drop. W-Why do you have it?”

It was only natural that they were panicking. Faye was holding a “handheld games console.” It went without saying that it belonged to the prince consort and none of them were foolish enough to be ignorant of the severity of bringing it to their own room.

“What do I do, Dolores?” Faye asked, clinging to the taller woman as tears welled up in her eyes. She was usually the most easygoing of the three, but she couldn’t hold back her tears.

Faye had excuses she could make if she were allowed to, though. Zenjirou’s lessons with Lady Octavia would normally continue into the afternoon, but were to end two hours earlier during the hotter months, during which time he would return to the living room. It seemed Octavia had decided that he wouldn’t be able to focus on the lecture in the excessive heat, but the maids weren’t sure of the specifics.

At any rate, it meant that there were two hours less for Faye and the others to get the room clean each day. Their despair over that was expected, but they had put in their best effort and managed to finish before he returned.

She had only noticed the device once they were back in their own room and had time to breathe. She remembered temporarily picking up the black rectangle while she was cleaning the table, and putting it into her pocket for safekeeping, but had forgotten to place it back where it belonged afterwards.

However much she clung to the taller maid, her friend didn’t have any idea how to fix the situation, either.

“If you ask me... Um, the only thing you can do is give it back before it gets serious,” Dolores answered hesitantly, bewilderment and uncertainty dancing in her eyes, which were oddly narrow for a Capuan.

That was certainly logical. Faye had mistakenly taken one of her lord’s possessions while cleaning. A normal lord would treat this as theft and level a harsh punishment on the offender. But Dolores was right; the longer she left it, the worse it would be.

Faye tearfully shook her head in response. “I can’t. Sir Zenjirou and Her Majesty are eating in their room now. I can’t interrupt them.”

Recently, Zenjirou had been spending his lunches with Octavia for his etiquette lessons, and it had been a while since he had shared a meal with the queen. It was an activity that Zenjirou, who rarely gave actual orders, had told them to not interrupt unless there was an emergency.

Interrupting the royals to apologize might invite further displeasure, and she couldn’t decide whether bringing the item back to him after mistakenly picking it up counted as “urgent” or not.

“Ah, right. That’s true. I guess there’s no choice, then.”

“Argh, what do I do?! If Sir Zenjirou notices that it’s missing during lunch...”

Zenjirou was far gentler than the norm for lords in their world, and he was unlikely to mete out punishment without allowing her to explain herself, but her imagination would often spiral out of control regardless. She could see a clear image of being given the punishment for theft—the tendons of her dominant hand being severed—and being expelled from the palace.

She let out a fearful scream, then her second roommate spoke consolingly to her. “Hey, Faye, why not just talk to Madam Ines?”

“Huh? Madam Ines?” Faye parroted.

“Right, that could work,” the other replied slowly, prompting Faye to look up and Dolores to look down. As that phrasing would imply, the third girl, Letti, fell directly between the other two in height.

Her size wasn’t particularly noteworthy compared to Faye’s slight stature and Dolores’s height, but her chest was another matter. Her breasts were huge, and her cup size would be one size higher than even Aura’s.

Faye’s words caught in the back of her throat at the suggestion from the busty, sleepy-eyed girl. “Ugh, I...I...”

“Letti’s right, that’s the safest way,” Dolores agreed.

Despite the suggestion, her expression didn’t brighten. “But then, if I do that, she’ll...”

“Yup, you’re gonna get a lecture.”

“Good luck.”

Dolores gave a slight shrug of her tall shoulders to accompany her unaffected reply, while Letti clenched her fists in front of her as she offered her support.

“Dolores, Letti...” Faye implored, clinging to her two roommates. But they looked away.

It was a little unsympathetic, but this was indeed the best way. Ines was in charge of cleaning, and while certainly a strict superior who was fastidious about their work, she cared deeply for her staff. If Faye confessed and apologized at once, then even if Zenjirou took it as theft, Ines would defend her.

Faye knew, however, she would need to prepare herself for the reprimand of a lifetime. She let out a whine. “Fine. I’m going to see Madam Ines.” she sighed, on the verge of tears as she hardened her heart with heroic resolve and shuffled towards the exit.

The others watched her small back silently as she left, before looking at each other. A complete stranger’s failure wouldn’t matter to them, but their roommate and coworker did.

“Fiiine, I’ll come with you. Stand up straight,” Dolores said.

“You helped me when I screwed up,” added Letti with a giggle.

The two of them quickly jogged after their friend.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

In the end, Ines’s response was what they had predicted in every way. After nearly an hour of lecturing, Ines promised to mediate with Zenjirou and released them.

The trio returned to their room and collapsed in both exhaustion and relief.

“Ahh... that was scaaaary!” Faye let out, with a long sigh of relief.

“Well, aren’t you glad it went well? Now all you need to do is wait until the end of lunch and take it back to Sir Zenjirou and apologize. Madam Ines said she’d speak to him, so it should be fine,” Dolores said, sitting backwards on a simple wooden chair and rocking it impolitely with a creaking noise.

It was something she could only do thanks to her height and the length of her legs. If Faye sat the same way, her feet wouldn’t even reach the floor. Even so, it didn’t change the rudeness of her casual behavior.

“Yeah,” Faye replied, burying her face in her wheat-stuffed pillow, “it was scary, but I’m glad... now I can sleep in peace!”

“Honestly, she’s so...” Dolores stopped, slightly aghast at Faye’s prompt decision to settle down for an afternoon nap. “Well,” she allowed with a sigh, suddenly reconsidering, “maybe I should take a rest too. I’m a bit tired.”

The extra break wasn’t for show; it was because even staying completely still at this time of day would result in sweat pouring down one’s body. Taking an afternoon nap was the best way to keep up one’s stamina.

“What are you doing now, Letti? Going to sleep?” Dolores asked, looking towards the girl in question.

Unfamiliar music suddenly filled the room.

“Letti?! W-What are you doing?!” she demanded, her expression morphing into one of anger.

“Wha? What’s that sound?” Faye asked, jerking her head up at the strange noises after having quickly drifted off.

“Hey! What?”

The two girls’ eyes came to rest upon Letti, who was holding the open console in her hands with a puzzled look.

“Wait, Letti, what are you doing?!”

“Lettiiii! We just got the lecture over with, don’t make it worse!”

Faye and Dolores’s screams echoed through the small room.

“Ah, ahahaha...” Letti herself seemed to not realize the depths of her mistake as she laughed relaxedly.

The displays on the top and bottom halves of the console were showing a colorful image and jarring, otherworldly music was issuing from it.

“Looks like it starts working if you just open it... hee hee.”

“W-What do we do?!”

“Ahh, he’s gonna be angry! He’ll definitely be angry this time!”

Dolores and Faye panicked noisily, but Letti hadn’t done much. She’d only opened the folded device. That particular type of console would automatically enter sleep mode even if you closed it while playing. Its owner had probably not bothered to turn it off.

But Faye and Dolores had none of that context and thought that Letti had intentionally set it off. Letti gave her panicking roommates a glance before she noticed a piece of paper within the console and looked questioningly at it.

“Huh? What’s this? Drake parchment?” she asked. It was a sheet of paper, folded into four.

“Letti, come on, you shouldn’t mess with it any—”

“I didn’t know, I didn’t know! Letti’s the criminal now; I’m just an accomplice!” Faye cried.

Letti paid no heed to the shouts behind her as she unfolded the paper and looked it over. She might have played dumb, but she worked in the inner palace, so she could read without a problem.

“This isn’t Her Highness’s writing. Maybe it’s Sir Zenjirou’s? Umm... User instructions... How to play?”

“What’s that?” asked Faye eagerly.

“How to play? Play what?” Dolores questioned, the two of them growing more curious than fearful as they looked over Letti’s shoulder.

“I don’t really know, but I guess it’s talking about this thing? I think it says how to use it.”

“Huh...”

“Maybe Sir Zenjirou wrote it? I suppose he can already read and write our language.”

In spite of their initial reactions, Faye and Dolores were considered two of the three “problem maids” by their superiors for a reason.

Before they knew it, the three of them were intently reading all about “how to play” with the console.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

One hour later...

“Faye, that one on the right, the red one, get rid of it!” Letti cried.

“No, if you do that, you won’t get a chain. Put that red one vertically and move it to the side,” Dolores argued.

“Ahhh, shut up, shut up! It’s my turn now, so don’t keep butting in!”

The three had become completely engrossed in the game. They were sitting in a line on a simple wooden bed. Faye was in the middle, holding the console, and the others were on either side cheering her on.

The game they were playing was a type of falling block game: relatively simple puzzle games where you controlled blocks, gems, or even slime creatures as they fell downwards from the top of the rectangular screen, and when you lined them up according to the rules, they vanished.

The game inside the console being one of those falling block puzzles was without a doubt a large part of why the girls had become so enamored. If it was an RPG (Role Playing Game) that they couldn’t read, or an SLG (Simulated Life Game), their experience would have stopped with simply enjoying the pretty pictures and strange music.

This was a string of coincidences, though. If Faye hadn’t picked it up by mistake... or if Letti hadn’t given in to her curiosity and opened it... or if the instructions Aura had asked Zenjirou for hadn’t been inside...

Any one of those “ifs” would have spelled the end of their adventure.

“Hurray, I beat the skeleton!”

“Yay, well done, Faye!” Letti celebrated.

“Oh, you beat the skeleton? I’ve already beaten it twice, haha.”

“Why are you being so smug?! Fine, just you watch, I’ll get past you right away!”

As a result of all of those coincidences, the three maids (quite fittingly given their moniker), were completely engrossed in the brand new pleasures of video games.

The next day, as the trio relaxed in their room, they were congregated around the black console again. The difference was that it now had a note with “Free to borrow” stuck on it. In addition, there was a list of how to read Arabic numerals, and the three maids’ names were written on the instructions in English.

Zenjirou also seemed to have played the game the night before and ‘zenjirou’ was listed in the high scores—a clear declaration of war.

“Heh heh heh, interesting. Sir Zenjirou, I shall accept your challenge!” Faye cried, waving her arms around as she smiled fiercely.

“His challenge... that’s a bit of a crude way of putting it, don’t you think? Well, it sounds fun, so I’m in,” Dolores replied, smiling in agreement.

“Ahaha, sounds good, I’ll join too,” Letti added, clapping her hands in front of her huge chest, her unconcerned smile firmly in place.

And thus were the first three Capuan gamers born.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

Several days later...

The infamous trio’s competition had continued each day during their lunch time. They would carry out their duties in the morning and immediately pick up the console for their afternoon break and gather around it in their room. They would feast their eyes on the device for the duration of their free time, and would return it to the living room after lunch. The cycle was well established at this point.

“Yes! I did it, woo! I finally did it!” crowed Dolores, usually the most reserved of the three as she pumped her fists in victory.

“Nooo! You got there first!” Faye cried, kicking her feet and waving her arms.

“Wow, congratulations, you’re amazing,” Letti said, applauding her friend.

Their roommate puffed up her meager chest in pride at recording her score in front of her roommates, holding the console aloft. Given her stature and how high it was raised, Faye and Letti couldn’t see the screen, but Dolores was so excited that she forgot that fact.

“Hah hah, behold, I have finally done it!”

Shining at the top of the high score table was Dolores’s name in the spot where Zenjirou had previously been listed, unbeaten until then. His name was now beneath hers.

Surpassing the console owner’s high score in just a few days was impressively quick, but it felt like it was more than deserving of the word “finally” to Dolores.

“Come on, give it here! It’s my turn now!” Faye pouted, holding onto her roommate’s waist and shaking her as the taller girl held the console out of reach.

“Fine, fine already, let go of me. If you can beat me, go ahead and do it, I’ll take you all on,” she declared with a chuckle.

“Argh, you arrogant giant... I’ll teach you a lesson!” Faye cried, baring her pearly white teeth and half-glaring in challenge at Dolores, who was sitting cross-legged on the bed.

“Argh! I’m. So. Close!”

“Ahh, you nearly had it, Faye,” Letti said encouragingly.

“Well, it’s only natural, that’s the difference in our skill level.”

In spite of Faye’s best efforts, the only one to beat Zenjirou’s score that day was Dolores.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

Faye began the next day burning with enthusiasm.

“Hmph! Just you wait! Really! I’ll totally beat you today!”

She was filled with zeal, her small shoulders as square as she could make them and her short, dark hair almost seeming to bristle as she spun around like an excited hamster.

“Faye, I am glad you’re motivated, but it will come to naught if you allow it to interfere with your work. If you cut corners, you will spend your break re-training,” Ines warned her with a sigh.

“Right, I know!” Even that threat was ineffective on the exuberant maid.

“Truly, this girl...” Ines sighed again exaggeratedly as she paused her dusting.

Of course, she was aware that they had been taking the console and becoming engrossed in it. It had Zenjirou’s writing on it giving them permission to do so, so she had no intention of finding fault with their behavior, but she wouldn’t allow their “playing” to become an impediment to their work.

Their enthusiasm for the game had actually been somewhat beneficial. If they could finish their chores faster, it made their breaks that much longer as well. It was a slight reward considering this world had no precise clocks. A five- or ten-minute extension would usually not be noticeable, but that wasn’t the case for the three gamers. Five or ten minutes was enough for another round of falling blocks.

“I’m done cleaning the sofa! Next is the table!” Faye cheered, much like an elementary schooler whose mother had said, “You can play until dinner once you finish your homework.”

It was probably worth Zenjirou lending them the console if they were that into it. Faye washed the dirty cloth thoroughly in her pail of water, then searched for her beloved device before wiping off the table.

Since she had accidentally taken it, Zenjirou would set it on the desk as a clear invitation. In accordance with her hopes, the machine was still sitting there. But there was a slight difference that day... Next to it was an unfamiliar pouch.

“Hmm? What’s this?” she murmured.

It was a small bag that was made out of something other than cloth or leather, a shiny material. The color was mainly white, with colorful spots drawn on it, and was without a doubt one of the prince consort’s possessions. Really, anything that was made from unfamiliar materials was doubtless something that Zenjirou had brought over from his world.

The pouch was small enough that even Faye’s small hand could fit neatly around it, and it clacked as she picked it up. It felt like there were lots of hard, dried beans packed inside it.

Of course, if that was all, she would have placed it neatly back where it belonged. But there was a yellow slip of paper attached to it.

“A prize for the new high-scorer,” declared the tag in neat yet faltering handwriting.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

“So, you brought this back too,” Dolores said during their lunch break.

“Yeah, here you go, ‘Miss High-Scorer.’ I’ve handed it over.”

“Hmm, must have been difficult, good work.”

“Wah... You’re still being arrogant, you giant...”

Faye had retrieved the mysterious prize and had now given it, in spite of the sour look on her face, to its rightful recipient.

“Hm, I wonder what it is. Come on, come on, open it.”

“All right, get off, Letti. Come on, get out of the way and I’ll see.”

Dolores sat down on the bed and tried to open the strange pouch with careful movements. Inhabitants of this world couldn’t tell at a glance how to undo the perfectly sealed container.

“Um, huh? I wonder where it’s supposed to open from?”

“What, you can’t do it? Give it here.”

“You can’t get it open? Shall I go get a knife?”

“Ngh... no, it’s okay, looks like you can get it from here.”

With cautious movements, she tore a vertical opening into it and spread the contents out onto a handkerchief.

Colorful “panned chocolates” covered the fabric in red, blue, yellow, and green.

“Hm, what are these?”

“Food, right? They smell kinda sweet.”

“Hard and sweet food... are they candies?”

The three drew together and looked at the treats curiously. One of the main products of Capua was unrefined sugar, so candies were a relatively common luxury. As far as their knowledge went, the chocolates had a similar look.

Dolores glared at them thoughtfully. They had been given to her as a prize from her lord. Eating them was unlikely to harm her, but she still didn’t want to put something completely new into her mouth.

“Well, they are mine, but it would be childish to hoard them, so here,” she said, passing three apiece to her friends.

“Hmhmm, you’re so kind, Dolores,” Faye cheered.

“Whoa, thanks!” Letti exclaimed, both of them unquestioningly accepting her act of “kindness.”

“Well, we should all eat our first one together. All right, on three, okay? One, two... three!”

“Yup!”

“Mm.”

Right, it looks okay, Faye thought as she watched the others from the edge of her vision. Seeing that their faces didn’t twist horribly, she quickly ate her own.

There was a brief silence.

“Mm, it’s sweet.”

“Yeah, I guess they are some kind of candy.”

Under the assumption that they were similar to traditional “candies,” the three girls were rolling the chocolates around in their mouths without chewing. Even so, there were some people who would suck on a candy until it was gone, and others who would simply crunch them apart. Dolores and Letti were in the former category, but Faye was certainly in the latter.

“Mmm....mmm! Mghmm?!”

“What’s wrong?”

“Faye?”

Faye’s already-wide eyes suddenly seemed ready to pop out of her head as she spoke to the others. “It’s... not a candy! They break really easily and there’s something completely different inside! It’s sweet and... it’s so delicious!”

Faye had finished eating first and swung her tiny hands around as she put that tastiness into words.

“Oh, it’s not candy? Let’s... see?”

“She’s right! It’s tasty.”

Dolores and Letti quickly followed the other’s example and bit into the chocolates. Coated candies weren’t uncommon, so they were familiar with chewier options, but chocolate didn’t exist in Capua.

“It’s... slightly bitter, but that makes it taste even better somehow.”

The other two looked askance at Dolores’s impressions.

“Really, but it’s sweet?”

“Yeah, it is, is your tongue weird?”

“Ugh, I was a fool to try and discuss anything refined with you guys.”

Their excited opinions didn’t match, but they all shared some enjoyment of the unfamiliar sweets. Faye in particular, having finished her helping in moments, looked up with wide eyes at Dolores and spoke wheedlingly.

“Hey, Dolooooores? I’ve got something to ask youuuu.”

“I’m not giving you any more,” she replied, immediately guessing what Faye was after and scooping the sweets up in the handkerchief before hiding them behind her back.

“Don’t be so meaaaan.”

“No.”

“Puh-leaaase.”

“I said no, so no.”

“Fine! Then I shall have to use force!”

“Don’t make me laugh! Do you really think you can overpower me?!”

Faye had lost her temper now that the pleading had proved ineffective and pounced on Dolores like a cat, but the latter countered her attack with a kick from her long legs.

“Ugh?!” Faye exclaimed, rolling around after taking the blow to her chin. She had rather good reflexes and agility, but there was a fundamental difference in their reaches. As the scuffle unfolded between the mini-skirted maids, their clothing ended up in a state that would never be shown to a gentleman.

That was nothing to them at the moment, though. Faye had recovered on the floor and growled like a cat as she rose up on all fours. Dolores remained seated on the bed, but had her feet off the floor, ready to kick out again at any moment.

Faye hissed at her, and Dolores got ready to block a second attack.

“Come get some!”

Fortunately, the violence didn’t go any further thanks to Letti’s interruption dousing their aggression in cold water.

“Faye, Dolores, if you get too noisy, Madam Ines will hear us.” Her tone was as easy as ever, but there was a sharp dose of reality in her words.

It was their afternoon break, and it wasn’t only they who were resting—Ines would be dozing in her own room. She was fond of her subordinates despite her pickiness, but her tolerance had its limits. This might be their own chamber, but if the noise was audible in the corridor, they’d be stuck with another strict lecture from an angry superior. Faye wanted to avoid that, so she reluctantly withdrew.

“F-fine then. If you’re going to go that far then I’ll let you have them for Letti.”

“You’ll let me have them?! They’re mine, mine! Why are you playing at being generous?!” Dolores cried in legitimate anger, but it didn’t penetrate Faye’s greed.

“Mhmmm, it’s fine. If you’re going to be stingy, I’ll just set a new top score and get some for myself.”

Zenjirou had never said that he’d give them sweets every time one of them reached a new high score, but Faye had taken it as such and moved her sights from Dolores to Zenjirou’s chocolate stash.

Faye quickly retrieved the console and sat on her own bed as she turned it on with a seriousness that she seldom showed during work.

“Hahah, just you watch, I’m a new woman now!” she declared.

“You really are; you used to just get rid of them straight away,” Letti observed.

“Wait, Faye? You’re going right for chains?! I thought you said you’d never stoop to such cheap tricks!”

“Who’d say something that stupid? I will do all I can for victory; that is my creed!”

“You did say that! With your own lips! You turn on the spot when things are on the line!”

“Faye, Dolores, you’re being too loud, Madam Ines will——”

Faye’s first turn ended amongst the clamor (or maybe harmony) of cheerful noise.

“Yes! A new personal best! That’s a good sign,” she said, rather satisfied even with that as she smiled widely. But that smile froze on her face when she saw the scoreboard.

“What?”

Dolores had taken the top spot yesterday, even if just barely. And yet, the name at the top of the screen was now Zenjirou’s again.

It was no mistake, and as proof, Dolores’s score from yesterday was still below, with another from Zenjirou beneath that. It meant that Zenjirou had played last night and taken the lead again.

And...

“Wow, it’s more than double Dolores’s score,” Letti marveled.

“Wait, so we won’t get another prize unless we beat Sir Zenjirou’s new high score?”

“It... looks that way.”

Silence fell as the three digested the situation, but the quiet didn’t last for long.

“No fair, Sir Zenjirou, no fair! That’s so childish!” Faye whined.

“Well, it is his game. I guess he really held back on his last playthrough,” Dolores mused with a soft sigh.

“Ugh, that score’s too muuuch...” was Letti’s fading moan.

Soon, the room was filled with enough noise to push out the overwhelming heat of the day.