“Catherine, where were you? Your afternoon work is about to begin. I thought you might have run away because you disliked your work.”
Catherine had been in the Queen’s office until the very last moment of her break, so she returned to the servants’ waiting room just before her afternoon work was scheduled to start. Yuria approached Catherine with a worried look.
“I ended up cutting it close because I made a slight detour. I’m sorry for worrying you.”
“It’s okay, it’s okay. You weren’t late, after all. Well then, let’s do our best in the afternoon work too.”
“Yes. Please take care of me.”
It was time for the afternoon work, and Yuria led Catherine to their workplace.
“Alright, our first job this afternoon is to clean the bathhouse. You probably know this since you use it too, but this is the bathhouse for the servants. We clean it on a rotation. This time, our team is in charge. Catherine, after your training period is over, you’ll likely be assigned to a team, so remember today when your turn comes and do your best.”
Inside the bathhouse, there was a changing room, a washing area, and bathtubs. It wasn’t exactly spacious or clean, with stained walls and narrow tubs. Catherine realized that it would be quite difficult to use for a large number of people simultaneously. For the record, Catherine had never used this bathhouse because her assigned private room in the castle had a bathroom.
“First, we use the water remaining in the bathtub for cleaning. Oh, and we also draw hot water from the bathtub to wash ourselves, so when you use it later, there isn’t much hot water left in the tub.”
Using the leftover water from the bathtub, Yuria and Catherine proceeded to clean the bathhouse.
“You really need to scrub hard here to get the dirt off. And then, remove the hair accumulated in the drain…”
With practiced movements, Yuria explained the cleaning process to Catherine as she worked. Catherine also did her best to clean according to Yuria’s instructions.
“After this, we just need to draw water from the well and fill the bathtub, and we’re done. Another team boils the water, so our work ends here.”
Working together with the other members of their team, Catherine and her colleagues drew water from the well and filled the bathtub.
(Unlike at home, where the bath fills automatically, or my room, where the water is prepared in advance, this is quite a lot of work.)
Catherine wiped the sweat beading on her forehead as she carried the water.
“May I ask a question?”
“Hm? Is there something you don’t understand?”
Catherine had a question about preparing the bath and asked Yuria.
“You have private rooms with baths, right? How are those prepared?”
“Private rooms with baths… you mean the rooms for aristocrats, right? Those are prepared by the personal servants assigned to those aristocrats. We lower-ranking maids like us are not involved. You need to work your way up the ranks and try to catch a noble’s eye to get promoted to a personal servant. By the way, I’ve never even done it during training, so I can’t answer your question.”
It seemed that personal servants were responsible for preparing baths in the private rooms. Catherine wondered who prepared the bath in her own room every night, which was always ready for her.
“The bath preparation is finished. This work was quite strenuous, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, I now understand how difficult it is to carry water.”
The bathtub and the well were a considerable distance apart, and the amount of water that could be carried at once was limited, requiring many trips back and forth. That alone was considerable heavy labor.
“Alright, next we’re going to the Royal Guard’s training grounds.”
“Y-yes.”
Without any rest, Yuria and Catherine, having finished cleaning the bathhouse, headed to their next workplace, the training grounds.
“Catherine, have you been here before?”
“Yes, I have.”
“Oh, in that case, you know the procedure, right?”
“Eh?”
Yuria and Catherine arrived at the Royal Guard’s training grounds, located in the castle’s courtyard. This area was normally used by the Royal Guard, who protected the castle, for their training. It was spacious enough for about one platoon to move around comfortably. For training with more personnel, they apparently used areas outside the castle or large-scale training grounds located far away. Upon arrival, Catherine answered Yuria’s question, but the reason she had been here before was to practice magic with Margaret. At that time, attendants were dismissed, and they practiced alone, but that was irrelevant to the current situation. What Yuria was referring to was the work they, as maids, had to perform in this location. Naturally, Catherine had no idea, and when Yuria moved to start the work, Catherine let out a surprised exclamation.
“Um, excuse me. I have been here before, but… it was for a different reason, so I haven’t done any work here.”
“Oh, is that so? I seem to have jumped to conclusions. In that case, I’ll explain the work here.”
Catherine honestly admitted her lack of experience, and Yuria, without scolding her, brought out the necessary tools from the equipment storage area in the back.
“That said, when the Royal Guard finishes their training, they often do the ground preparation themselves as part of their training, so we servants don’t have much to do. Sometimes, when others have used it, the ground is quite wet or bumpy afterward. We check the condition of the training grounds and do some ground preparation if necessary.”
(Ah, that might be us… I’m sorry for creating more work.)
Catherine apologized inwardly, but her thoughts were not heard. Yuria held a rake for ground leveling that she had brought and began to explain the process.
“Actually, we don’t really need to level the ground today, but we’ll do a little bit for practice.”
Under Yuria’s guidance, Catherine began practicing ground leveling.
“Oh my, there are no training exercises scheduled for today, yet several fully armed members of the Royal Guard have entered the training grounds.”
“What? What should we do?”
“All members of the Royal Guard are aristocrats, so we must be careful not to make any mistakes.”
While they were doing ground leveling, several individuals clad in armor, presumably from the Royal Guard, entered the training grounds. Yuria and Catherine hastily began to pack away their tools to clear the area.
“Hey, look. There are some low-ranking maids over there.”
” thật. Hey, you all are disturbing our training. Hurry up and put your equipment away and leave. We won’t be responsible if an arrow hits you.”
With that, the Royal Guard members began their training without paying any mind to Catherine and Yuria’s presence.
“Damn it, I missed! Hey, maid over there, be careful!”
One of the knights practicing archery lost control of his arrow. It flew in a bizarre arc in an unintended direction. However, Yuria was in the path of the arrow as she was packing up her tools.
“Huh! Kyaaa!!”
Yuria turned around at the knight’s shout and saw the arrow flying towards her. She screamed and ducked.
“A-are you alright? Are you hurt?”
“Y-yes. Fortunately, I seem to be unharmed.”
Catherine rushed to Yuria’s side, sweat beading on her forehead. The arrow had veered off course and stuck into the ground.
“Hey, are you alright? We’ll clean this up, so please leave; it’s dangerous. Understood?”
“Y-yes. Then, excuse us.”
“Excuse us.”
The knight who had missed the shot rushed over, checked if Yuria was injured, and then told them to leave the area. Catherine supported the trembling Yuria as they left the training grounds.
“Hey, didn’t that arrow move strangely before it hit the ground?”
After Yuria and Catherine had left, another knight approached the knight who had missed the shot and spoke to him.
“It looked that way to me too. What’s with the way this arrow is bent? It wouldn’t curve like this unless a large force hit it from the side.”
The knight who had missed himself was relieved that it hadn’t hit by chance, as he was convinced it would hit the maid. However, upon hearing his colleague’s words, he pulled out the greatly bent arrow sticking in the ground and examined it. He was again puzzled by the arrow’s strange movement.
“Magic… another maid used magic to deflect the arrow. I think it was wind magic.”
Another knight said.
“You can use magic too, right? Is that why you can tell?”
“Yeah. It wasn’t some parlor trick like mine; they seemed to have significantly weakened the power, but I believe it was strong enough for practical use, on the level of a magician. The amount of magic power released for a moment was incredible.”
This knight could use magic to a small extent, so he was able to sense the flow of magic power. Therefore, he was convinced that magic was the cause of the arrow’s changed trajectory.
“Who exactly is that maid?”
“I don’t know. Why is someone who could potentially become a court mage working as a low-ranking maid here?”
In this country, the number of people who can use magic is very limited. Even among those who can, it is said that only a handful can use it at a practical combat level. This incident was etched into their memories as the mystery of the maid.
