Argrey Kingdom was a country in the middle of the continent, and its capital held an academy for magic. At the beginning of their fifth and final school year, n.o.ble students and those with good academic results would be performing a summoning in order to call upon intelligent beings from other worlds to become their lifetime Partners.
The number of the summoned did not necessarily correlate to the number of the summoners, and neither was there any guarantee that all of the summoned would agreed to become Partners. It was why the students would have to win over the Partner candidates by themselves. Upon being chosen, the student would then be recognized as an official magus, and their Partner would bring them prestige as a n.o.ble.
The students of this year had succeeded in summoning human boys and girls just like them, an achievement that hadn"t been seen in centuries.
They had a year, only a year, until their graduation to earn the summoned humans" trust. And yet on the very first day, a marquis" daughter infamous for her poor academic skills had already gained her Partner.
The human girl named Fleurety had slid into the role of being a maid to Sharon, the marquis" daughter, with such ease that left everyone flabbergasted. Like a whirlwind, the maid rapidly brought chaos to the status quo around Sharon.
And so, let us have a look into a day of this rather… eccentric… maid.
A maid"s day began when the sky was still dark.
Her mistress lived in the dorm of the boarding academy, and her room was connected to a servant"s room. This room was where the maid of our story resided.
The room was bare and empty, looking as though n.o.body had been living in it. The maid woke up, not on the cleanly-made bed, but on a spiderweb woven in a corner of the ceiling.
She did not have anything against beds. She simply felt safer in the nest that she had made herself.
And she did not need to sleep, either, but she was prudent enough to know that inhuman behavior would be frowned upon.
"Geez, Letty. Do you even know what "prudence" mean?"
"I do, milady. It"s tasty and goes well with rice."
"Wait, you actually don"t?!!"
But let us return to our story. A maid"s day began when the sky was still dark.
After her morning ablutions, the maid headed for the Dark Woods to prepare her mistress" breakfast. She was picking up fresh eggs from a c.o.c.katrice"s nest when a griffon pa.s.sed her by, and it immediately prostrated itself before her and gave her the prey it had just hunted as an offering.
The endearing sight was one commonly seen ever since the maid began to frequent the forest. Truly, nature itself favored her. She would not need to worry about finding meat ever again.
The sun rose as the maid prepared breakfast. She left to get the newspaper for her mistress, and a horse came to pester her for food.
"Good boy, good boy. No leftovers, alright?"
"Gggrrr…"
The maid kindly watched over the horse as he munched on a whole, still-living goblin.
After their journey together, the horse had become very attached to the maid. He liked her even more than he liked his owner, the dorm mother. The fresh food the maid continued to give him had been very good for him, and he had recently grown another four legs to make a total of eight.
"You"re just like me now, aren"t you? Good boy…"
"Gggrrrrah!"
Now, the dorm mother would faint every time she looked at the horse. The maid wondered if the woman was jealous that the horse didn"t show the same friendliness for her.
The dorm mother was still young, still just in her forties, and it was no surprise that she might feel… insecure at times. The maid understood, and she would not tell anyone that the dorm mother sometimes went downtown to pay underage boys to help her "destress".
And breakfast was done. The menu for today was mixed salad and bacon quiche.
"Hey, Letty… The dorm mother seems kinda strange these days. Have you noticed?"
"She is happy that her horse had returned healthy, milady."
"Ah, I see, it is a very energetic horse. I"m happy for her."
Once more, the maid felt the joy of serving under a mistress who loved animals so much that she would call a horse that could kill a charging boar with a single kick "energetic".
The maid also accompanied her mistress to cla.s.s.
Karl, her mistress" childhood friend, began to talk to the young n.o.ble lady. But the maid would not allow him to touch her.
"Wait, hold on, I haven"t done anything!"
As the maid quietly took out a spiked club, Karl turned pale, his hips pulled so far back he looked like a shrimp in an attempt to protect his irreplaceable treasures.
After school, the maid often spent her time frolicking with her mistress, but sometimes she also went shopping alone. Her mistress loved sweet things, so the pantry must always be stocked with sugar and honey.
"…s.h.i.t, it"s you again."
The store that the maid favored was located near the salt dungeon. The owner was a strange man. Despite having such a cute customer visiting his store, he always grimaced whenever he saw her.
"What do you have for me today, mister?"
"Dammit girl, I"m not a treasure vault for you. I only had that cursed stone because somebody foisted it on me after it accidentally got out of a n.o.ble"s storage, you should know."
"Oh, but you sold it in the end. All"s well that ends well."
"…maybe, if I hadn"t been forced to sell it for peanuts."
The cursed stone was, indeed, the heavy ore that had been used to coat the end of Orc Killer.
"So I don"t have anything for you today, alright?"
"I have heard that you have just imported some good rum from the neighboring country."
"…hey, maid girl."
"What is it?"
"Are you spying on my shop? Why the f.u.c.k do you know that?! The rum"s for selling to a trading firm, leave it alone!"
"Such a scandalous accusation, mister. I"m not telling you to give me everything, just a few bottles. Milady loves the sweets I make from them."
"…just one bottle, alright? One gold coin."
"Three bottles for one gold coin, please."
"You f.u.c.king wot, maid?! That"s below cost!!!"
"My? Didn"t you get them by trading the monster materials that I sold you the other day? How much would a bottle be, then, calculating from that?"
"…here, three bottles for one gold."
"As well as some of those rock candies, please. In return, here…"
The maid glanced at the shopkeeper"s head and covertly handed him a bag of dried seaweed. He took a quick look inside, then took it just as sneakily.
"…I"ll deliver them to your place."
"Thank you, mister."
There was now a faint covering on the shopkeeper"s head. But it wasn"t hair. It was actually the seaweed that had infested him.
Gathering information was also one of the important duties of a maid. So went the teachings of the kind Maid Chief. The maid understood that she could not rely on just the Seaweed Spirits, so she went to work herself.
As had become custom, the maid called for a gathering of snot-nosed urchins and gave them rock candies in exchange for information. Indeed, not many watched their words around children.
"…I heard that the viscount"s son was buying the same thing again, in the northern forest."
"My, my."
"An independent Explorer named Bob found some strange magic tool. He"s hiding it."
"Details?"
"…it"s for a.s.sa.s.sinations."
"I see."
The maid gave some more rock candies. "Thank you, miss!" they said, waving their hands as they departed.
Indeed, the smiles of children could warm anyone"s heart.
The maid returned to the dorm and prepared her mistress" dinner.
Today"s dinner would be beef stew. Beef-ish. The maid did get a lot of meat from something cow-like the other day.
And after the dinner came homework.
"Ah, so milady truly is bad at math."
"N-No! No, that"s not it!"
It was to be expected. After all, the young lady"s bosom had grown even larger thanks to her maid"s efforts.
After homework was done, it was bathtime. With a washcloth that the maid had made herself, she scrubbed her mistress pristine and spotless, turning the n.o.ble young lady"s skin into the envy of silk and satin.
"Good night, Letty."
"Yes. I wish you a good night as well, milady."
But even after her mistress had fallen asleep, the maid"s day was still not over. She still had the laundering and ironing of clothes to do, budgets to manage, pharmaceutical substance to process, underwear thieves to exterminate, so on and so forth. She only slept when dawn of the next day neared.
The duties of a maid were daunting indeed. However…
"It"s still so much easier than helping the Maid Chief."
The maid sounded rather traumatized.
A/N: The Maid Chief seemed like quite the strict person.