Idle talk – Diary of a Maid’s Observation of Her Master (2)
Hi there. It’s your maid-guard Alicia.
Today, I will introduce you to another day in my life.
Firstly, the morning. I wake up two hours earlier than the time to wake up Princess. I prepare myself carefully to be worthy of serving Princess, and then I eat my meal. Then I check today’s schedule, receive a report from the night guards, and wake her up around the time I’m done processing it.
It’s Princess’ day off today. It’s summer vacation, so the busy Princess was given preferential time off. Well, the Prime Minister had invited Princess to do some paperwork since it was her day off, but she is the kind of person who takes her work with her on vacation, so her response was a teleportation. She ran away instantly. For security reasons, teleportation is considered a risk, but she never leaves the castle on her own, so I think she will be fine. There are perverted shado… ahem, excellent, overly-protective Knights patrolling around, who will find her no matter where she is right away. They have determined that there is no problem inside the castle. However, although the Knights say it’s safe, I’m more worried about the nobles who are trying to come in contact with her with bad thoughts in mind. Well, since Princess is clearly averse to power relations, she will disappear again if they try to bring up such a topic. Recently, it has become so common that people started calling it the “Princess appearance incidents” in the castle. Nowadays, people are not so surprised to see Princess out of nowhere, anywhere.
Today, due to a security-related meeting at her study abroad destination, I can only take care of Princess’ personal needs to the bare minimum. Normally, I would like to stay with her all day except when she sleeps, but I can’t neglect this because I don’t want to picture her being kidnapped and then having all sorts of nasty things done to her…
“Can I have a moment of your time?”
“Yes?”
I was walking around the castle’s premises in a bad mood after I had to compromise to increase the number of guards by 10, when a Beastfolk in a dress called out to me. I believe her name was Shar Keres, the daughter of Viscount Keres. I have been tangled up with her a few times, so I remember her name.
Her special traits were her unremarkable face, dog ears, and chestnut-colored hair. I would rather rack my brains as to why the Princess’s guards didn’t increase by 100 rather than talking to such a person. I was busy thinking.
“Aren’t you getting carried away lately? Don’t get all pretentious just because you are the Princess’s favorite.”
I don’t understand what I am pretentious about. Would she like to take over? Perhaps her mind will get broken in the process of waking up Princess? Well, I have no intention of quitting the Princess’s service, including that. My life span is long. I can get married even after Princess’ life is over. For now, I’m just going to do my best to be by her side. Ahem.
“I don’t understand your point.”
To be honest, I am very busy. I’m also busy with the establishment of the Viceroy family and the establishment of the SS, which I have to gather and manage because I became a Senior Knight before I knew it. In the meantime, I’m going to pull out the most affordable members of the Secret Service and dedicate an elite unit to Princess.
“Don’t think I’m not aware that you are enticing the Princess and keeping the benefits all for yourself!!”
I’m the one getting enticed, though. And benefits? Did those thoughts stored in the corner of my brains leak somewhere!? Impossible, did someone peek inside my brains!? My head is going to fly, my blissful life!!
“You are making an enemy of not only me, but all the Beastfolk by keeping the magic comb that Princess created all to yourself.”
“I don’t understand what you mean.”
What is this person trying to say? It’s not that I have a monopoly over it. It’s just that it’s not for sale because the princess is not satisfied with the workmanship.
In my opinion, it’s good enough, so good that the nobles would buy it for 300 gold coins if they saw my fur, but because the Princess is not satisfied with it, it is not on the market yet. She is a perfectionist… especially when it comes to the magic tools she makes. So, if there is even the slightest flaw in her work, she will not sell it, even if His Majesty asks her to do so.
Princess said, “I only sell completed items, I won’t give anyone half-baked goods.” The sword she gave to His Highness is not only dangerous, but it was complete as a magic weapon, so she gave it to him.
“Why are you the only one able to use the magic comb!? You’re just forcing Princess to abide by your selfishness.”
“Princess herself said that it’s not good enough for her.”
“But you got one anyway, right?”
“No, I don’t. I will agree to your point that I am the only one who gets a special treatment. I don’t know what it is that she likes about me, but this is not related.”
In fact, Princess offered to give it to me once. However, it was also on the premise that I had to submit a written report of my impressions of the use of the product, and I had predicted that this would happen, so I politely declined.
And after that, I cried a lot in my room. I was so happy that I would even take a piece of stone from the side of the road as an heirloom if Princess gifted it to me. I had given up the opportunity to acquire a family heirloom of my own accord. But if I kept it, it would affect not only me but also Princess’ reputation, so I cannot accept it until it goes on the market.
I don’t want others to think that she’s the kind of Princess who only cares about her favorites. Even now, people say she’s obsessed with me, but they mostly think that she’s like a little child following after the older sister from next door.
“When that comb is completed, Princess will sell it to the public. Until then, I believe you have no choice but to wait. I am simply accompanying Princess in her experiments with the comb she has made. In fact, although rare, sometimes the adjustments fail and things become terrible, so Princess can’t even use the comb herself.”
“Are you aware for how long you have been saying this…”
Well, she’s been trying to complete the comb for over a year, which is unusual for her.
She must be getting impatient. In fact, His Majesty, under pressure from the Beastfolk nobility, asked Princess to sell him about 10 pieces, even if they were unfinished. But the result was terrible.
Princess, who had gotten unusually angry, ignored us for more than a month and kept us out of her sight. In the end, His Majesty had to get down on his knees and beg for forgiveness. She probably will never let it go out in the public until she is satisfied with the results.
“I have to admit, she has done quite a bit of work on it, so I have no doubt that it will be wonderful when it’s finished. However, since Princess is spending so much time on it, it means that she has that many expectations for it. Unfortunately, I don’t know when Princess will be satisfied with her work, so I can’t tell you when it will go on sale, and I can’t ask her to make one for someone else.”
“So even you can’t…”
Oh my. She has lost her swagger, hasn’t she? Well, actually, there is no reason for me to monopolize the comb. I can’t lie using Princess’ name, as I am her retainer, and if I lied in this situation, I would be tarnishing her name, so she must have believed me.
However, I have one concern. I know that Princess is constantly upgrading the comb, but can it be mass-produced then? Once before, I was shown a projection of the formula, and it was constructed with many formulas overlapping each other. Something about stacking them because there was a limited space for formulas or something… I couldn’t understand a thing she said.
Well, I don’t have time to spend endless hours with a young lady who is in shock. I’m sure Princess is up to no good by now. My anti-mischief radar is on. She must be doing something absolutely bad right at this moment.
As I proceeded through the castle with this thought in mind, I noticed that there was a lot of noise around me.