Risou no Himo Seikatsu - Volume 9 - Chapter Aft

Appendix — The Lord and Maids’ Spread of Contamination

The lord and lady of the inner palace of Capua were Prince Consort Zenjirou and Queen Aura.

The person in charge of its running was, of course, Head Maid Amanda. She was trusted by both of the royals and was in command of not only the people working there but also the movements of goods and such.

Even the older maids in charge of each division would follow Amanda’s commands if it came down to it. The younger maids would reflexively straighten if she so much as called their names. All of this was simply a matter of course. Amanda was an exceptionally talented maid and administrator in addition to being a harsh taskmaster.

One night, she called an urgent meeting for the division heads.

“We are in dire straits,” she declared, slamming an open palm down on the table.

The younger maids would have hunched over at that point. Fortunately, the only people present had distinctly more spine at this point, as they each commanded a division of their own.

“Please explain in detail, Head Maid,” Emilia—the maid in charge of the gardens—requested calmly.

Amanda complied, her tone calming considerably. “Very well. As I said, we are in dire straits. I imagine that you are all aware, but contamination is spreading through the inner palace. The spread is at a prodigious rate as well.”

“Contamination? Do you mean dirt? That would fall under Ines’s purview, then. Unfortunately, she is away at the moment.”

There were four maids in charge of the various divisions, but only three of them were currently present. The single absentee was—as had just been said—Ines, the head of cleaning. She was currently in the Twin Kingdoms in order to take care of Zenjirou. Her absence leading to dirt being missed was feasible, but that was unfortunately not what Amanda wanted to say.

“I do not. I am taking care of Ines’s duties, so there is no problem there. The issue is the contamination spreading among the young maids. Have none of you noticed the current situation?”

The other three exchanged looks before turning back to her in question.

“A contamination of the young maids?” Oraja asked.

“Ah, I feel like I know what you are trying to say,” Vanessa—the head of cooking—said with a reluctant smile. “The maids are being contaminated, but the source is separate, is it not?”

Amanda nodded firmly at Vanessa hitting the nail on the head. “Precisely. Emilia, Oraja, you should be warier. There were originally nine maids assigned to the inner palace and Sir Zenjirou.”

As time passed, the oldest three had left to get married. On top of that, three more maids were currently in the Twin Kingdoms with Zenjirou. In other words, only three members from the initial lineup were still in the inner palace. The rest were the new hires who had been brought on board that year.

Amanda let out a deep sigh. “It is hardly a surprise, but when the new maids do not understand something, they ask their seniors. They could ask me or any of you, but they will default to their seniors unless it is something extreme.”

“Well, that’s only natural. Whatever we may say, we are their superiors more than their colleagues. The younger maids won’t speak to us so lightly,” Vanessa commented.

She was correct, but that was precisely why Amanda had called their current situation dire and held this meeting.

“Indeed. The new girls are at no fault. However, this is an awful situation. The senior maids still within the palace are Faye, Dolores, and Letti!”

Faye, Dolores, and Letti...otherwise known as the three problem maids. The three barely cleared the minimum requirements to be seen as maids of the inner palace and could be viewed as champions in a certain light. Those three problem maids were currently the new girls’ only seniors and examples.

“The situation is dire indeed.”

“‘Contamination’ is certainly a good way of putting it.”

“Truly? We can simply dismiss the new girls if they fall.”

Amanda’s voice rose slightly once her three colleagues voiced their opinions. “The signs are already apparent with the toy of Sir Zenjirou’s called a handheld game. He allows the maids to take it if they wish. None other than those three would originally take it, but the new girls are all willing to do so.”

Only the problem maids would have had such an influence.

“Ah. Sir Zenjirou allows it, though, so surely it is not a problem?” Vanessa asked. She was relatively soft on the young maids. However, Amanda wouldn’t let herself be diverted so easily.

“Of course it is. Those girls will one day return to the outer world as ‘former maids of the inner palace.’ If we mass-produce these problem maids and send them out into the world, the title will hold so much less weight than it currently does. We need to keep the number of them as low as possible,” she said with a clenched fist.

“If you are concerned about the influence they have, why not dismiss the three of them?” Oraja suggested coldly. “Tackling the problem at its root is the norm.”

Amanda shook her head at the simplest and—in a certain light—most correct solution, though. “We can’t. While they have many small problems, they are just this side of acceptable. Sir Zenjirou is fondest of those three as well, so we cannot.”

“Ah, true. In that respect, learning from the three of them is not exactly wrong for the inner palace as it currently is,” Vanessa added with a rueful smile.

With the lord of the palace preferring such casual behavior, having more maids who acted in that way made sense. The problem was that the young maids would only work there for a short period, while they would carry the reputation of the palace for far longer.

“I have a duty,” Amanda declared firmly. “A duty to train those girls well so that they do not bring shame on the name of the profession.” Her aim was actually for the young maids’ benefit as well.

“I feel like the inner palace is where the talented work rather than where the workers become talented,” Oraja commented sharply. She knew that Amanda was the one who decided the overall direction of the inner palace, though, so she wouldn’t say anything further about it.

“I need your aid. We need to investigate how much the influence has spread and deal with it while we can. We can still make it. We can!”

“Ah, right. So, how do you want us to help?”

“Very well, then.”

“If that is your decision, then we will of course follow it.”

The three division heads all worded it differently, but all showed their agreement.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

The next day, a tall girl—Dolores—felt an indescribable sense of unease as she carried out her work.

“I wonder what it is?” she asked the others as she used a soft cloth to dust the electronics. “Things feel slightly different, almost tense. Or like I’m being watched...”

“Are you sure you’re not imagining it?” asked the smaller girl, Faye.

“Right, nothing’s different,” the sleepy-eyed and big-chested final member, Letti, agreed.

Idle chatter while they worked would usually get them scolded. But Ines was normally their supervisor here, and she was with Zenjirou in the Twin Kingdoms. Amanda—who was supervising in her stead—had said she had business to attend to and left. The three of them were therefore left to freely chat.

Dolores sighed at the answers from her two companions. “I shouldn’t have asked the two of you.”

Faye was just a fool and Letti was generally air-headed. Neither of them would notice extra attention around them.

Faye pouted and protested. “You always jump to mocking people like that. This is the inner palace. We don’t need to be that wary about things, do we?”

There was a long pause before Dolores answered. “I doubt there’s a single inner palace on the continent where you don’t need to be wary. In more ways than one,” she said eventually, ignoring her own shortcomings to poke at Faye for getting so comfortable with things.

There was no doubt that an inner palace was a place that required constant tension from the maids who worked within it, both in the sense of succeeding at their work and in avoiding possible feuds between the concubines who would call it home.

The husband and wife being the only two residents was a distinctly unique state of affairs. One of their lieges—Zenjirou—was even more distinctly unique as well. You could very well say that literally none of the norms of Capua’s inner palace were the case in any other.

“Right, I heard that normally the inner palace would be really sordid. I’m glad Sir Zenjirou is so dedicated to our queen.”

As Faye breathed a sigh of relief, letting her flat chest relax, Letti perked up and sent her own more generous chest bouncing.

“Oh? I heard Princess Freya was going to be a concubine, though. It’s not public yet, but it’s officially decided, right?”

The phrasing sounded at odds with itself but was a common saying when you were in the inner circle. Essentially, the information had yet to be announced, but everyone involved had made the necessary decisions, so preparations were underway.

“She’s from the Northern Continent, right?” Faye asked.

“Right. Princess Freya Uppasala is her full name. I’ve heard that we’re getting more maids because we’ll be attending to her needs as well.”

Faye considered Dolores’s explanation briefly before paling. “That means we might have to serve her rather than Sir Zenjirou? No way! She’s going to live in an annex, right?!”

Her gaze landed on the various appliances around the room. It went without saying that any annex she lived in would not have electrical appliances. They wouldn’t be able to drink chilled water whenever it got too hot, and it would be much harder to borrow the game console on their holidays.

In the midst of their—somewhat selfish for their station—concerns, a maid trotted into the room.

“My apologies for disturbing your work. I would like to ask you something.”

The girl had a smooth gait and a trained body. This was one of the new maids, Louisa. She was carrying the LED lantern in both hands but her balance was almost unusually even.

Faye was overjoyed at one of her juniors asking for help and stood in front of her while puffing up her chest. “What is it? I’ll teach you whatever I can. I’m your senior, after all.”

Her small stature and baby face meant that she looked like a child playing around. Still, Louisa’s serious expression didn’t falter as she bowed.

“Thank you. I told Lady Oraja that this el-ee-dee lantern was dimmer than before and she instructed me to bring it here and change the batteries. Please show me how to do so.”

Looks of understanding made their way onto all three of the problem maids’ faces at her request.

“Yeah, that’s something you need to be shown.”

“If you tried to open it without knowing how, you might break it.”

“Right, I’ll show you how. Let’s see...”

It was actually surprisingly different for someone who had no experience with electronics at all to change the batteries without even an instruction booklet.

“See, you spin this bit and you can take the back off, right? Then you can take these cylinders out. Those are the batteries. There are eight of them. I doubt you’d make the mistake, but make sure they’re all there. The little batteries inside the batteries have run out, so you replace them with ones that are charged.”

“These, right?”

“Thanks, Dolores.”

Zenjirou had shown Faye personally, so she changed the batteries with practiced movements.

“Once you’ve done that, you spin the thing from earlier the other way and you’re done. You can get it misaligned, so watch out for that. Then you need to charge the empty batteries.”

“Here, Faye.”

“Right, thanks, Letti.”

Faye then put the flat batteries into the charger and took them to the courtyard side of the room, to plug it into one of the sockets lined up there.

“Can you see? You put these in like that. It takes four at a time, so once the first four are in, you put these two metal pieces into these holes. You need to make sure they go all the way in. See how that orange light lit up when I did? They’re done when that light goes out. You put the second set of four in this bag. When the light goes out, do the same with these four. When they’re all done, put them in this bag and then into this drawer. Got it?”

“Indeed. Thank you for the instruction.”

Louisa straightened almost audibly after the explanation and bowed crisply. She then excused herself and left the room. Amanda was waiting quietly outside for her. Louisa showed no shock at the ambush, simply bowing.

“Give me your report. What did they tell you?”

“Very well, ma’am. Faye led the explanation and...”

Once Amanda had finished listening to the detailed and easily understandable—like a trained spy’s—report, she found herself surprised in a good way, with slightly widened eyes.

“Very well. It would appear there are no issues. You may head back. Thank you, Louisa.”

“Excuse me, ma’am.”

Amanda put her hand to her chin as she watched the girl practically glide away.

“It was a fine, easily understandable explanation. At least on that front, they seem more together than Kate’s group. Perhaps even these problem maids truly feel the burden now that they have juniors relying on them?”

Despite her wishful thinking, that was unfortunately far from the case. The quality of Faye’s explanation was because it had to do with the electric appliances. The three were far more au fait than the others since they had no hesitation about taking advantage of Zenjirou’s kindness due to their curiosity.

Ordinarily, a maid would hesitate to touch these literally unique—and in some ways even more valuable than magic tools—items, however open-minded their master might be.

With the other maids being hamstrung by that psychological wall, it was perhaps inevitable that they would be far less familiar with it.

On top of that, Faye wanted to show off to her new junior, so she was in full “good senior mode.”

The combination of those two factors meant that this was an exception. Amanda would eventually become well aware of just how unusual it was.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

Once the three of them were done with the living room, they started cleaning the bedroom.

While they were spending the most amount of time possible doing so, Mirella turned up.

“Excuse me, I have the fresh sheets,” she said, holding the thick bundle in both hands.

She had joined the staff at the same time as Louisa. Her language and behavior were both exceedingly refined. So much so that she seemed more like a noble girl wearing a maid outfit than an actual maid. Then again, it was far from abnormal for noble girls from major families to end up working in the inner palace.

Dolores quickly spoke to the girl as she stood with the armful of bedding in the doorway. “Thanks, Mirella. Leave them over there and we’ll deal with them. You can head back.”

The maid gave an elegant blink of surprise.

“Are you certain? Lady Oraja said that my job was not over until the sheets were in place.”

Dolores looked regretfully up at the ceiling. “Guess there’s no getting around it when she put it that clearly. Go ahead, then,” she said with a deep sigh.

“Very well,” Mirella replied, even as her senior’s actions confused her. While she called it “her job,” it really just involved putting the linens in the drawer. However unfamiliar she was with the task due to her upbringing, it didn’t take long to complete. Having finished in a mere moment, she couldn’t help but grow confused by the speed her three seniors were working at.

“Um, everyone, I can see you are making sure everything is perfectly clean, but should you?”

Dolores rose from her position on the floor, where she was gathering all the red hair and answered proudly, “Of course. Her Majesty is currently pregnant. Other than her official duties in the royal palace, she spends most of her time here. That’s why we’re spending the most time on it.”

“I see. Pardon me for my doubts, then,” Mirella apologized with an incline of her head, convinced by Dolores. She was still worried, though. “But do you have enough time? However important it is, will you not run out of time if you spend too much of it on the bedroom?”

Dolores wasn’t the one to answer; this time, it was Faye, who had been constantly adjusting the position of the pillows.

“It’s fine. We just cut the corners we can on the living room to finish it quickly.”

“Pardon?”

“Faye!” Dolores panicked. “It’s not like that, Mirella. We’re not doing it to spend as much time in the air conditioning as possible. We’re doing this all for Her Majesty while she’s pregnan—”

“I will take my leave here, then,” Mirella said, apparently concerned that she’d end up an accomplice if she was there any longer. She bowed politely and then left.

“I can understand wanting to stay in here during the blazing season, though,” she murmured to herself on the way out.

Naturally, Amanda was waiting for her outside the living room.

“Report,” she commanded.

“Yes, ma’am. The three of them...”

When Mirella finished, Amanda covered her face with a palm and looked up at the ceiling. “Those girls... Once a problem maid, always a problem maid, it seems.”

“Um, Lady Amanda...”

“Don’t worry, Mirella. Return to your duties,” Amanda said, her usual severe look returning as Mirella looked at her with concern.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

Night fell. Ordinarily, the maids on cleaning duty waited in the room next to the living room in case they were needed. However, with her pregnancy, Aura didn’t spend her time in the big living room. Instead, she stayed in the smaller but air-conditioned bedroom. Therefore, the maids were waiting in the living room instead, so there was only one door between them and the queen if they needed to answer a summons.

“Phew, the day’s finally over,” Dolores commented.

“It’s so hot too. I wonder if Her Majesty will summon us into the room soon.”

“Right. Let’s cope with something cold until then. Here.”

They kept their voices down as much as they could, but the three still made themselves very much at home on the sofa as Letti poured the mix of fruit juice, sugar, and iced water into wooden cups that were there for them.

Zenjirou had granted them permission to use the sofa and have food and drinks while they waited. The three of them were the only ones to take advantage of it so boldly, though.

“Excuse me,” came a voice after an unknown period of waiting. The voice belonged to a small girl with her black hair tied up in a short ponytail.

“Oh, Nilda, what’s wrong?” asked Letti in her usual relaxed voice when she noticed her.

Nilda approached much like a cautious hamster, with an utterly innocent smile on her face. “Today is the day I can borrow the game, so I came to collect it,” she said, clenching her fists in happiness in front of her chest. Anyone watching her do that would have been charmed.

“Oh, right. You got caught up in it too? It’s fun, right?” Faye asked her.

Nilda nodded several times. “It really is! If my roommates didn’t stop me, I might even stay up all night playing.”

Faye laughed. “Ah, you’ve not done that yet, then.”

“If you want to, then the days you’re on garden duty during the rainy season are the ones to go for,” Dolores told her. “The work finishes quickly, so you can manage to see out the day.”

“I see.” Nilda was so pure that she’d take even the bad advice from her seniors on board. She honestly admired them, listened to what they said, and smiled at them.

Having such a cute junior made even the three problem maids sweet on her.

“I know, Nilda,” Letti said with a clap. “Since you’re here, would you like to try something new?” She didn’t even wait for a reply before heading to the fridge.

“Food?” Nilda asked.

“That’s right. Sir Zenjirou asked me to give it to anyone willing to eat it to get their opinions.”

Letti’s usual listlessness had vanished into the ether as she began pulling various things from the fridge. The most eye-catching was a lump of dark foam inside a metal bowl.

“What is that?” Nilda asked.

“Cream from goat milk,” Letti replied. “I whipped it this afternoon.”

The only sugar they had was brown sugar so the appearance suffered somewhat. Still, the characteristic goat’s milk stench had abated and people other than Zenjirou and Margarette could try tasting it now.

Letti then moved from the fridge to the freezer, pulling out frozen strawberries.

“What are you going to do with those?” Nilda asked in wonder, having sat down on the sofa.

“This,” Letti giggled. “Take that!”

She put the fruit in with the cream and then used a wooden pole like a pestle to carefully crush them.

Once they were paste, she mixed them into the cream. Before long, the impromptu strawberry ice cream was done.

Of course, the idea had come from Zenjirou. The brown sugar meant that the color was rather strange, but the mix of sweet, sour, and cold meant that the girls couldn’t get enough of it.

Letti portioned it out into bowls, and all four of them used wooden spoons to ferry the dessert to their mouths.

“Guhhh,” Dolores managed.

“This is...” Faye added.

“Yup, it turned out good,” Letti said with satisfaction.

“Wow, this is so good, Letti.”

All of them had blissful looks at the (almost) ice cream during the sweltering night.

“There’s plenty more, so eat up.”

“Thank you,” Nilda said, smiling happily as she was surrounded by her kind seniors. Once she’d eaten the ice cream and taken the game console, Nilda didn’t head back to her own room. Instead, she answered the summons to go to the head maid’s office.

“Nilda, report what happened in the living room,” Amanda instructed.

“Right, ma’am.”

The seniors had been so bold that Nilda didn’t see anything wrong with their behavior, smiling innocently as she explained.

“...and then Letti made ice cream. It was delicious.”

She’d gone to borrow her master’s things and had a midnight snack while she was at it. Seeing that there wasn’t an ounce of guilt on the girl’s face, Amanda looked like she’d bitten into a lemon.

“And so it seems that you’re the one most corrupted... I wonder how I should apologize to the margrave,” she murmured softly.

“Uh? Did you say something, ma’am?” Nilda asked, unable to hear it even from her position directly in front of the woman.

Amanda spent a while considering how she should warn her cousin’s daughter as the girl looked questioningly up at her.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

The next day dawned early. Faye, Dolores, and Letti had all been summoned to the head maid’s office.

Faye was on guard from the summons, while Letti was afraid. On the other hand, Dolores looked almost regretful already despite nothing having been said yet. Amanda considered a proper lecture might well be in order.

With those thoughts in mind, Amanda slowly began the discussion. “Do you girls have any idea why you have been summoned here?”

“No,” Faye answered.

“I apologize, but neither do I,” Dolores admitted.

“I don’t know,” Letti finished up.

The three all shook their heads as they spoke.

Whether it was because they truly had no idea or didn’t want to implicate themselves with a careless statement, none of them said a thing.

Having somewhat expected that, Amanda gave an exaggerated sigh.

“It is due to your behavior with the new maids,” she told them before fixing the trio with a glare.

They still seemed confused.

“How we’ve behaved with the new maids?”

“Did we do something wrong with them?”

“We were trying to be nice to them. Did we offend one of them?”

This time, the head maid let out a real sigh. They truly didn’t know why they were there. “Of course you’ve done something wrong. What senior teaches her juniors how to avoid work and what pleasantness there is within the inner palace?!”

The three immediately launched into apologies.

“Ah, right. I apologize.”

“We didn’t think deeply enough.”

“We are sorry.”

However, they were clearly apologizing for angering her, not because they understood that they had done wrong. Amanda couldn’t be too harsh on them either because of the cruel reality that Zenjirou would appreciate the maids acting this way.

She remained silent for a moment. A frontal attack would do nothing here. She had no choice but to accept that, so she switched to the carrot.

“Incidentally, have the three of you heard yet? There will be another person living here next year at the earliest. The year after, at the latest.”

“Yes.”

“We have heard the rumors.”

“Princess Freya, right?”

Amanda nodded. “Indeed. That will inevitably mean that the inner palace will see both an annex and the main area in use. We maids who care for Sir Zenjirou and Her Majesty will be split to also take care of Her Highness and the annex.”

She cleared her throat as the three of them watched her attentively before making things clear.

“When that happens, I intend to have you three remain here with Sir Zenjirou. I dislike it, but he is fond of the way you act.”

The three of them let out inarticulate noises of happiness. It was inevitable. The inner palace was heaven due to the appliances and attitude that Zenjirou brought to the table. They would happily avoid working in the annex.

Seeing right through them, Amanda continued. “However, if the new maids learn to act in the same way, that will no longer be necessary. Those three will be more than capable of taking over.”

Their reaction was dramatic.

“Our apologies. We shan’t teach them in that way again,” Faye said immediately.

“Please make sure to train them exactly how they should be maids of the inner palace,” Dolores added.

“We’ll take care of Sir Zenjirou,” said Letti, finishing up.

There was a long pause as Amanda sighed hard enough to completely empty her lungs.

“I will be expecting that from you,” she said after a moment.