Risou no Himo Seikatsu - Volume 13 - Chapter Aft

Appendix — The Lord and Maids’ Staff Reassignment

Zenjirou and Freya were married on the Northern Continent.

The maids of the inner palace were overjoyed at the news. Zenjirou was a good lord to them, and none of them would fail to celebrate such an auspicious event for him. However, that joy was only momentary. It was soon replaced with welling sorrow.

The reason was simple: their marriage meant that Freya was now officially part of the inner palace. It was roughly a month before she would arrive.

Of course, there had been preparations taking place before now, but there were things that could not be seen to until an official date was in place. Those things included the extra food, the final bedding checks, and orders for clothes. There was also the final cleaning of the annex that Freya would have. The inner palace as a whole was the site of a storm whipping through it to clean everything.

“I brought the bedding!”

“The bedroom is done, so come in.”

“Are the rooms for the maids on duty here ready?”

“We don’t know the exact numbers yet, so there are ten ready just in case.”

“For certain there will be Lady Victoria. She is Princess Freya’s confidante and bodyguard. She needs a room close to Her Highness. As close as isn’t rude.”

“Lady Victoria will be allowed her weapons even in the inner palace, so make sure there is somewhere to store them.”

Under Amanda—and the other senior maids’ instruction—the young maids rushed around working. Amanda let out a slight sigh as she watched the situation unfold with the younger women working in the blazing heat.

“While this is doable for now, it cannot continue into the long term,” she commented.

“Do you have an idea?”

The middle-aged woman frowned slightly as someone had replied to her musing to herself.

“Vanessa, can you afford to be here?”

The other woman—a well-built lady of middle age—smiled broadly.

“It will be fine. Her Majesty isn’t here for lunch. Feeding us is easy enough.”

The lack of manpower meant that Vanessa would be working on her own in the kitchen today. While she only had to provide food for the maids since neither of the masters of the palace was present, it was still quite the undertaking when alone.

“So, do you have any ideas to change things? I agree that we cannot continue like this.”

As the cook stood next to Amanda, her expression morphed into a deadly serious look. A concubine meant the amount of things the inner palace used would increase, which also meant that the number of people needed to maintain it would too.

Of course, Aura was no fool and had been hiring new maids for a while. There were limits to the increase in manpower, though. After all, this was the inner palace. It was where the royal family lived, where they were at their most relaxed and vulnerable. That meant that the personnel selection had to be extremely rigorous. You couldn’t simply instantly hire more because there weren’t enough.

“I will propose taking on maidservants for the cleaning, gardening, and bathroom positions.”

“What? Are you sure?” Vanessa asked in shock. Even she was shaken by the suggestion.

A maidservant was a woman who worked for the palace as a laborer. The equivalent position for a man was called a manservant. The inner palace already made use of both maid and manservants.

The most obvious example would be in the washing. The maids gathered the dirty laundry in the morning and then the maidservants would take it to wash it. Then the maids would take the laundry that had been washed the previous day back to the inner palace.

They also cleaned the vegetables and such and brought them into the inner palace. The manservants would do things like chop the firewood to be used in the baths.

However, Amanda’s suggestion was fundamentally different. To wash—either laundry or food—or to cut firewood did not require them to enter the inner palace. However, tending to the rooms, baths, and garden would be impossible without doing so. Using maidservants for those jobs would mean them being within the inner palace.

“We will be extremely selective about who we pick. Additionally, anyone assigned to the inner palace will need to live within the royal palace until they are released from their duties. They will also only be allowed to enter at specific times to carry out those duties.”

Amanda’s plan seemed to be rather fleshed out since she smoothly outlined the precautions they would take. Unlike the maids—who were mostly nobles—maidservants were all commoners. However, there was a great degree of variance in what constituted a “commoner.” Sometimes the first sons and daughters of lower nobility fell to being commoners, but others had been commoners for generations. The former would be selected in this case.

One of the problems with allowing the untrusted into the inner palace was the spread of information. To prevent some of that spread, any of the maidservants who took on the role would be required to stay within the royal palace for at least a year until they were no longer needed. Additionally, they would only be in the inner palace for a limited time to carry out their jobs and would only gain the bare minimum of information there. Of course, these inconveniences meant that their wages would be quite a bit more than a normal maidservant’s, but it was far cheaper than increasing the number of full maids by the same amount.

Vanessa folded her bulky arms at the head maid’s words to think before eventually replying. “Hmm, then I suppose that should be fine?” she half asked. “Just make sure they stay away from the kitchen.”

The kitchen that Vanessa presided over was where the food and drink the queen and prince consort would consume was prepared. In one way it was the location that should be protected the most stringently, and Vanessa strove to uphold that.

“Of course,” Amanda answered with a serious nod.

The rumors about maidservants spread like wildfire through the inner palace, and the younger maids knew within the day. That night, once they were in their room and finished with work, the three problem maids—Faye, Dolores, and Letti—chattered about it under the glow of the oil lamp.

“Did you hear? Did you?” Faye exclaimed in a much louder voice than the hour warranted. “The cleaning and gardening groups are getting maidservants. Ah, we get some subordinates too now!”

The tall, long-haired woman opposite her sighed exasperatedly. “Keep it down, you idiot. Why are you even excited? It’s only temporary.”

The chill of Dolores’s voice did nothing to cool Faye’s enthusiasm.

“How could you even say that? We get subordinates! The first impression’s going to be the most important. I wonder what we should say. We’ll need to instruct them properly.”

She had acted similarly when they had gotten new maids as juniors, so it seemed that Faye just got excited when there were people she could see as being in a lower position than her. Perhaps part of it was due to her slight stature and childish features making people treat her as younger than she was. She perhaps just enjoyed being responsible for others.

“Still, it’s going to change what we do by a lot, isn’t it?” Letti asked easily. “I’m worried whether we’ll manage to do it properly.” Despite the relaxed tone of voice, her expression was rather solemn.

She was correct. Currently, many of the duties the maids undertook were manual labor that would usually not be the domain of nobility. It was simply the case because of the limited personnel in the inner palace. Adding the—albeit limited—maidservants would enable the distribution of work to return to what it should be. In other words, they would deal with the physical things while the maids would be supervisors.

Dolores spoke up in surprise at her comment. “Huh? You’re not good with that stuff? I figured you’d be way more used to it than I was, with your family’s position.”

Between the three of them, Faye’s family was placed highest, with Letti’s following, and Dolores’s coming in last. Even Dolores was used to using subordinates for that kind of work in her own home. It seemed odd to her that Letti would be less so despite being from a higher-ranked family.

Letti’s usually lidded eyes closed slightly further in conflict at that. “Hmm, well that happens at home, but I’m not good at it personally.”

It wasn’t a matter of her upbringing, it would seem, but of her general disposition. She mainly felt that employing someone to do work and supervising them were different things.

“Really? I’d have thought that just telling someone else what to do would be easier than doing it yourself,” Dolores commented, still not wholly on board.

If you were to speak well of her position, you could call it aristocratic. Conversely, you could also call it impudent.

“Right, we’re in the position where we give instruction,” Faye cheered. “That’s all we need to do.”

Dolores lowered her tone menacingly in response. “Strictly speaking, that’s not all we need to do. Just look at our superiors. If it comes to it, they work right alongside us. They’re also our supervisors. If the maidservants make a mistake, their supervisors will also be responsible.” Then she added, more quietly, “I don’t want to see you mess up and be let go.”

Faye smiled happily, but—for better or worse—the room was dark and Dolores didn’t notice.

“Either way, the inner palace is finally going to be home to someone other than Sir Zenjirou and Queen Aura,” Dolores murmured emotionally.

Faye nodded with a soft noise of agreement.

“It doesn’t feel real,” Letti added.

Strictly speaking, Carlos Zenkichi and Juana Yoshino also lived in the inner palace, but they didn’t feel like “people” in the same way. Zenjirou, Aura, and the maids. That made up the inner palace. It had only been a few years, but they had been rather comfortable. Freya was an external influence coming into their space.

Well, she was an official concubine, so she wasn’t an outsider, per se. The maids had simply found the inner palace comfortable enough that it felt like it. That was why everyone was concerned. Freya’s arrival would change the inner palace. After all, they had no real issues with how things were now, so any change was likely going to be a change for the worse.

The three problem maids were, naturally, the most relaxed out of all of them. Amanda had already told them they would be with Zenjirou. Saying that he liked their easy attitudes would be the nicer way to put it, but you could also take it as Amanda’s comments about not wanting another princess to assume that they were the standard of inner palace maids.

“Who’s going to be in the annex?” Dolores wondered.

“Well, they’re taking new maids on, so maybe mostly them?” Letti suggested.

“That might be for the best. It would be pretty tough for people used to the main building to get sent off to the annex.”

Since none of them would fall afoul of that, they were all too happy to discuss it like it had nothing to do with them. That was perhaps the main reason they’d remained relaxed.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

Several days later, the announcement came out. The majority of new hires were—as Letti had guessed—from the new staff. There was one exception, though. One of the preexisting maids was being reassigned: Nilda.

The longer lunch break during the blazing season was guaranteed no matter how busy they were. Working in the direct sun at that time of year was literally lethal, so it was perhaps to be expected. It was fundamentally to allow one to relax and recharge for work after dinner, but the young maids didn’t take it so seriously. Even after the meal was finished, most of them stayed in their dining room to gossip. Amanda understood the importance of being able to unwind like that and kept her silence as long as it didn’t interfere with their work.

That afternoon, the problem maids were sharing a table with Nilda as they talked. The other two maids she usually worked with—Louisa and Mirella—were present too.

Dolores was the first to comment after they heard the details directly from Nilda. “So Her Majesty asked you about it a few days ago, right? You accepted it rather than being told?”

Even as she spoke, Dolores honestly felt like it was a difficult question to answer. A question directly from the queen was—whatever the technicalities involved—essentially an order. Because of that understanding, most influential people would usually sound someone out through rumors first. There wasn’t time on this occasion, so she had been directly asked.

Fortunately, the small girl known as Nilda wasn’t aware of those usual customs but hadn’t intended to refuse to begin with. She gave an innocent, open smile.

“Right. Apparently, Princess Freya asked for me personally. It was an honor, so I accepted it,” she said cheerily, as if she really was happy about it.

“That reminds me, you worked for her before, right?” Faye said, clapping her hands together in remembrance.

Nilda’s expression didn’t falter. “I did. When my big sis...ah, I mean, when my older sister was getting married, she attended as Sir Zenjirou’s partner and I got to know her.”

They had met again in the royal palace as well. They were fairly close in age and had eventually gotten quite close. When Freya had heard she was working as a maid here, it was perhaps to be expected that she would ask for her to be assigned to her.

Capua was providing six maids for the annex. The five other than Nilda were new hires. Three among them were already married and of a similar age to Amanda and the other seniors. Still, with their positions both personal and familial, Nilda was practically the representative of the maids assigned to Freya. Nilda, however, was the only one not to have realized that fact as of now.

“Well, if you decided then that’s fine, but are you sure? You won’t be able to come in the living room and bedroom here, then,” Letti said.

The living room was home to the fridge and fan, while the bedroom had the air conditioner. While working for Zenjirou, the maids benefited from them as well. Indeed, the iced fruit juice they were drinking right now was part of that. None of them wanted to lose the luxuries of the electrical appliances. That was shared to a greater or lesser extent among all of them.

Nilda’s adorable smile didn’t falter as she gave a surprising answer. “That’s a bit of a shame. Still, I can borrow the game console and bring it back for charging, so I might be able to take breaks in there.”

“You’re planning on taking that?” asked Dolores in shock. The other maids shared her expression.

Nilda nodded in agreement regardless of her senior and coworkers’ expressions. “I am. Sir Zenjirou gave me permission. Still, he said that others play with it, so I had to keep to the schedule. Oh! All of you play with it as well, right?”

While Zenjirou was flitting back and forth between the two countries, it seemed that Nilda had managed to get a moment of his time to ask directly about it. Faye, Dolores, and Letti exchanged glances at that and said no more. They remembered they were in no real position to comment. After all, they were habitual offenders when it came to taking the console to play with and had pulled her down that path.

Faye spoke quickly, trying to prevent the conversation from heading somewhere bad for them. “That means your team is getting split up, though. Louisa, Mirella, are both of you okay with that?”

The two roommates spoke in turn.

“There will be no problem. My duties remain unchanged,” Louisa said in her usual crisp tone.

“I might move there as well, but I’m remaining here for the time being,” Mirella said softly.

There were some implications to that statement. She had received word from her adoptive father, Count Márquez. Apparently, Freya’s twin brother had expressed interest in a Capuan concubine. It was all entirely unofficial at this point, but Aura seemed to be accepting of it.

Mirella was the count’s niece and his daughter by adoption, so she fulfilled the conditions of being a young unwed noble of high standing. If she was aiming for such a position, then being a maid for his sister would be a good choice for the future.

However, it was all hypothetical at this point, and doing so would lead to the rest of her life being abroad. Neither she nor her father would be bringing it up immediately.

If I go, then practically the only way back will be Sir Zenjirou. Which means I need to get closer to him.

The maid wanted to get closer to her master, and the three women in front of her were the perfect examples of how to do it. The problem was that Mirella was the model of a noble girl, so learning from the three problem maids would be like a dolphin trying to imitate a pig.

“The annex is really close, so I look forward to still working with you.” Nilda grinned, completely unaware of her colleague’s calculations.

“Likewise, Nilda,” the other replied, doing her best to match the smile of the girl everyone seemed to like.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

About ten days had passed since then, and the first of those related to Freya had arrived. She was a warrior taller than any woman they’d ever seen before.

“My name is Victoria Kronkvist. I have also been given the name Skaji and would like you to call me by that name,” the tall warrior—Skaji—said in greeting. She was wearing a blue military uniform and had a sword hanging from her waist. There was an off-white spear in her right hand.

The maids were half-intrigued and half-afraid of the position of “female warrior,” something that didn’t exist in Capua.

Interest and fear aside, the maids here would not show any of that openly. However, Skaji had sharp eyes and they could not fool her.

“Lady Skaji is also Lady Freya’s bodyguard, so she is allowed her weapons within the inner palace,” Amanda explained. “Keep your manners in mind, everyone.”

No one in such a position had been in the inner palace before, so the young maids were unsure how to treat her. They were not coworkers, but she was also not a superior of theirs. Of course, she was not their liege either, so how were they supposed to act with her?

Skaji seemed to notice the general mood and smiled as softly as she could. “I—and Lady Freya when she arrives—are foreigners here. We intend to learn and follow the customs of this country, but I am certain there will be places we fall short. If any of you notice such a thing, I would appreciate you pointing it out. We will do our best to make the change.”

The bow she offered was—as if to underscore the point—the same one that a knight of Capua would use. Her expression and tone did more than her words to relax the maids.

Amanda was not going to let the chance pass and spoke up. “Lady Skaji, I am sure you are aware, but I will introduce you regardless. This is Nilda. She will be one of Lady Freya’s maids.”

“It is good to see you again, Lady Skaji,” Nilda replied, nerves clear in her dark eyes.

“It has been a while, Nilda. You were a great help,” she said calmly.

Amanda then introduced the other three. “Nilda is also relatively new, so I have some unease about having her introduce you to the inner palace. Therefore, these three will be accompanying you. Introduce yourselves.”

“I’m Faye.”

“Dolores. Thank you again for your help on the Glasir’s Leaf.”

“Letti.”

“It is good to meet you both. Dolores worked extremely hard on the trip. I look forward to working with you all,” Skaji replied politely.

Skaji, Nilda, and the three problem maids were walking through the gardens shortly thereafter. The combination of Skaji’s soft demeanor, Nilda’s friendliness, and the general brazenness of the other three had them speaking freely in moments.

“I’ve never met someone taller than Dolores before,” Faye commented.

“That’s rude,” Dolores scolded her.

Skaji laughed openly. “I do not mind. Being large is a compliment for a warrior. The people of our country are generally taller than those of Capua, but even I have never seen another woman taller than me,” she said, straightening proudly.

“They are?” Letti asked. “Then are people as tall as Dolores common?”

Skaji inspected Dolores for a moment before shaking her head. “No, she would be counted as tall even there. The general height of a woman in Uppasala would be around Her Majesty’s height.”

Faye let out an impressed noise.

“The people in the palace were around that tall,” Dolores commented.

“That’s tall,” Letti remarked.

Aura was around a hundred and seventy centimeters. She was tall by the standards of Capua. Dolores—being a hundred and eighty—was an exception. Skaji, incidentally, was over a hundred and eighty-five. Unlike Dolores’s slender frame, her muscled frame made her feel even taller.

It was around that point that they reached the annex.

“This will be Lady Freya’s room,” Nilda commented. “As you can see, the mist magic tool is set up in here, so please take care with anything that cannot withstand a higher humidity.”

The room they were in was essentially equivalent to the living room in the main building. It was set up for Freya to spend her day-to-day life there. The furniture was, of course, Capuan in make. If it absolutely had to be from Uppasala, then they would have to get Zenjirou to teleport it back. A chair would be one thing, but a sofa or bed would need the carpet to come along. Otherwise, the craftsmen on the Glasir’s Leaf would have to make it here.

Skaji inspected the room with an intense look before nodding briefly. “It is fine. I have no problems at present and you have my thanks for your efforts.”

Nilda smiled in relief.

“Still,” Skaji continued. “I must say these magic tools are wonderful. This room is like a whole other world.”

While she hadn’t shown it on her face, she had been struck dumb by the heat of the blazing season. Although her tone was placid, you could feel the truth of her words.

“There is another similar tool in the next room.”

“I would like to see that as well.”

“Of course. This way.”

Nilda had prepared properly ahead of time. There was no hesitation in her responses. However, her short stature and young voice made it sound like a child trying her best to be helpful, so it inevitably ended up being adorable.

The bedroom and living room were separated by a single door, like in the main building. As Nilda had explained, there was another mist generator set up there. The room was cooler due to it, but more humid as well. The sheets, and indeed the other bedding, would need to be replaced daily. Of course, without them, the bed’s occupant sweating through the night would probably lead to the same result.

“Hmm. So Lady Freya’s room and my own are not connected, are they?”

“No,” Nilda replied shortly to the guard’s question.

Skaji would prefer otherwise, but that would not happen in the inner palace. Freya’s bedroom was not only hers. Annex or not, this was part of the inner palace, so Zenjirou was favored over Freya. Skaji understood that, of course, so she said nothing more of it. Instead, her expression turned awkward as she spoke.

“So, Nilda, I apologize for asking, but are there only two of these cooling tools?”

“There are, yes.”

The warrior’s expression became conflicted at that. “I see. Would it be possible to acquire another two, or preferably three?”

Only the Sharou family of the Twin Kingdoms could make magic tools, so they were exceedingly valuable. They commanded such a value that merely being able to pay was not necessarily enough to obtain one.

Nilda said as much, apologetically. Skaji had a reason to not give up so easily, though.

“I see. If it is impossible, then that will be the end of it, but if money is the only concern, then I would like to arrange it even if it is a significant sum. There will be three maids from our country accompanying Lady Freya. While I may be able to cope, they will not be able to deal with the heat of this country in the blazing season.”

If anything, Freya would be more resilient considering her adventures on the Glasir’s Leaf. Dolores had been to Uppasala, so she was able to understand all too well.

“Right, our heat would essentially be torture to someone that grew up there.”

Dolores had known nothing but Capua’s temperatures, so she had called the spring in Uppasala “cold” and even the summer days and nights had felt chilly to her. The three maids being sent with Freya would, naturally, be nobility and probably have at least courtesy titles in their homeland. They would never be able to live normally if they were suddenly thrust into temperatures over forty degrees in the day and over thirty-five even at night.

“Uh, what do I do?” Nilda asked, turning to the three seniors behind her as she realized it was more than she could deal with.

Dolores replied to her. “We’ll put in a request right away. With it being a magic tool, the request will need to go through either Queen Aura or Sir Zenjirou rather than Head Maid Amanda. I’ll explain to them, but if you get a chance, Lady Skaji, I think it would be worthwhile for you to explain personally as well.”

“Very well. Thank you,” Skaji replied firmly.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

Once another ten days had passed, there were far more people in the inner palace. There were the five new maids from Capua who would be working in the annex. While they might be “new,” three of them were veterans like Amanda, and the other two had acted as maids at high-nobles’ estates in the past.

They would not skimp on staff for a foreign princess. Said princess was bringing maids from her homeland as well, so there was the risk of the foreign maids running the annex if they were not careful. Due to that, the veterans were skilled enough to take Amanda’s place if need be.

Additionally, the three maids from Uppasala had also arrived. One of them was also a veteran. She was probably the leader of the maids from Uppasala. She was Svean, so she had cream-colored hair, gray eyes, and pale skin. While they shouldn’t look alike in any way, her unusual height and bearing made her oddly similar to Amanda. She was imposing enough that the worries of the annex falling under foreign control seemed completely founded.

“My name is Ragnhild,” she said. “I look forward to working with you.”

The maids all shuddered when she spoke, as if Amanda was addressing them. Amusingly enough, the maids from Uppasala seemed to feel the same. When they had met Amanda, they had jolted when she addressed them. In that way, it seemed rather likely the younger maids from both nations would get along well.

That night, after returning to their room, the three problem maids discussed their new colleagues from the north.

“Lady Skaji was right,” Faye commented in the dark, swinging her legs in the air. “They’re all tall. They didn’t select them specially like they did when we were hired, did they?”

The maids had initially been chosen for their similarities to Aura, with the expectation that Zenjirou might make a move on them. In other words, they had chosen women who were tall, well-endowed, or both.

Indeed, among the three of them, Dolores was tall and Letti was well-endowed. Faye was an exception with her slight stature in both respects.

Dolores shook her head in answer. “I doubt it. The younger two aside, Lady Ragnhild is tall as well. They wouldn’t expect something like that of her.”

“You added ‘lady’ there, Dolores. She’s a normal maid, so she’s actually on the same level as us,” Letti pointed out.

Dolores jumped slightly. “I’ll make sure to just use her name while we’re working,” she said awkwardly.

Faye poked fun at her. “What are you playing at,” she laughed. “Are you an idiot? Why would you call Lady Ragnhild ‘lady?’”

“What, like you just did?” Dolores asked, glaring.

Faye hurriedly covered her mouth.

“Ack! W-Well...I can’t help it.”

“Then don’t make fun of me.”

“Sorry.”

While they were called “the problem maids” in the inner palace, all three of them were nobles of good upbringing. They all instinctively paid strict-looking nobles like Ragnhild proper respect in their speech.

“Nilda said that even Lady Ragnhild was flagging after work in the morning. The other two looked awful.” Although Letti had been the first to point it out, even she used the honorific.

“Lady Skaji was right, the blazing season is a real struggle for people from the Northern Continent.”

“I’m glad the magic tools were done in time.”

“Yeah, they’re going to spend most of their breaks in their room for now.”

The request from Skaji was taken seriously enough that the extras were finished in record time. Three of them, in fact. They were placed in Skaji’s room, Ragnhild’s room, and the maids’ room. That was in addition to the two in Freya’s room and the living room.

Of course, the Twin Kingdoms would not have been able to provide them so quickly. The three extras had been made by Francesco. They had been made so quickly due to the limited number of marbles. It was fortunate indeed for the new maids.

“That’s so nice, though,” Faye mused enviously. “They get their room cooled as well, so they have a cool space even now, not just in the day.”

It was hardly a surprise she would be jealous. The nights in the blazing season were sweltering almost without exception. Even now it was no exception. While she and the other two were from Capua by birth and therefore used to it, that didn’t mean they enjoyed it.

Thinking of the new maids—and only the new maids—getting to sleep in the cool would obviously make them jealous.

“Well, it’s not like there’s much choice,” Letti added. “It’s life and death for them.”

“I know that,” she protested. While Faye understood that, she still wasn’t happy about it.

“Well, we have to welcome them properly. You’ve heard the rumors as well, right? The prince in Uppasala wants to take a concubine from us as well. I don’t know who’s going to go, but they’ll be taking as many maids as Lady Freya brought but this time from us. We need to be considerate of Lady Ragnhild and the other two, so that whoever goes from us is treated right as well,” Dolores said, the only one of them who had experienced the Northern Continent.

Uppasala had a season called “winter,” and even a tub of water inside would be frozen by morning. It was honestly unimaginable for a Capuan. Without a lot of help from the Uppasalans, she didn’t think a Capuan would survive the winter in Uppasala.

“A prince from the north, hmm? I wonder who it’ll be?” Faye wondered.

“It sounds nice, but it’s scary too,” Letti said. “I’m not brave enough.”

“Brave or not, you’re not even planning on leaving the inner palace, are you?” Dolores retorted. “Lady Vanessa is training you up as her replacement.”

Letti giggled. Even the unconfirmed rumors—no, especially unconfirmed rumors—made discussing romance and marriage all the more exciting. Faye, Dolores, and Letti gossiped in the dim light of the oil lamp.

“I wouldn’t want to get married and spend the rest of my life there, but I’m interested in the Northern Continent,” Faye said. “That lace was really cute.”

As she spoke, she reached out for the hairpiece by her pillow. Dolores had given her the lace item as a souvenir, and it was her favorite accessory at the moment.

“Right? That maple syrup was delicious as well. It wasn’t as sweet as sugar, but it had a sort of smooth taste. It could be fun to make into snacks,” Letti smiled, remembering the syrup Dolores had bought her.

“Oh, well you might get the chance,” Dolores suggested. “Capua already has an embassy in Uppasala, so we can teleport there. It would have to be when Sir Zenjirou is staying there like now, but Lady Ines said we’d send some maids from the inner palace if that happened.”

“Really?!” Faye exclaimed.

“Really, Dolores?!” added Letti.

Dolores sighed at how loud they were despite the late hour before replying.

“Really. Well, there’s no guarantee you’ll be chosen, though, so you might be getting your hopes up for nothing.”

Dolores didn’t breathe a word of the fact that she’d recommended the two of them to Ines to be mean.