Prologue: The Super Maid Who Took On Every Menial Job Embarks on a Journey

“Leave here at once. I knew this house was no place for a plain-faced, uncouth maid like you.”

In other words, Nina was dismissed.

A vase, shattered all to pieces, lay between her and the housekeeper.

“But Housekeeper, it wasn’t me who broke the vase,” said Nina. “Why, it was in the treasure gallery, where I’d never even set foot until now.”

“Be silent. Several maids witnessed you flee the scene after you dropped it.”

“That can’t be!”

“Enough. My word is final. All I ask is that you remove yourself from the estate of the honorable Count Mirkwood, and I shall consider the matter closed.”

“B-But it truly wasn’t me...”

“Would you prefer to pay for the vase out of your meager salary? It was valued at three million gold.”

“I... I can’t afford that.”

“Then hurry up and gather your things. I want you gone today. And from this moment forth, I forbid you to speak with any of the other servants. Is that clear?” The housekeeper got to her feet as though to declare that the conversation was over. She opened the door out of the room, then stood imposingly to one side.

That was Nina’s cue to get out. Reeling from the shock, she rose heavily, then slowly made her way out into the corridor. Even so, she still bowed her head and said, “It was an honor to serve this household. I wish you all health and happine—”

SLAM.

The door shut. After regarding it silently, Nina walked back to her room, scarcely able to tell if her feet were moving at all.

Her room was located in a detached wing of Count Mirkwood’s estate that housed its various servants. Among them were all sorts of different maids, from ladies’ maids to kitchen and scullery maids to parlor and nursery maids—thirty of them, all told—not to mention the butler’s men, the footmen, the cook, and the boys. The sheer number of servants was a testament to Count Mirkwood’s wealth.

Nina reached her room at last. It was just large enough for a bed, a writing desk, and a wardrobe. Her own possessions were negligible, but for one: the travel bag she took out to pack with. Though scarcely used, it was well taken care of—this was the bag Nina had brought with her when she came to the house five years earlier.

I’d hoped to buy you a big travel bag for when you’re grown up, yet here you are, Nina, off to work before you could get any bigger. Well, there’s nothing else for it. Here, this was mine when I was young, but it’s got a lot of use in it yet. Take it with you.

The bag was a gift from Nina’s mentor, who had trained her to perfection in all a maid’s skills.

“I’m sorry, mistress...” Nina murmured. As she packed up her belongings, bitter tears spilled down her cheeks. “There... There was so much I could have done for this household. But now I have to leave...”

She had been three years old when she’d begun helping her mentor with housework, and five when her mentor had noted her gift for it and they’d begun to work together. When she was ten, Nina had received her mentor’s seal of approval and gone out on her own to the estate of Count Mirkwood.

Five years had passed since then, and Nina was now fifteen years old. Never had she imagined that she would be cast out like this—for a crime of which she had no recollection.

“Well, if leaving is to be my final duty,” she said to herself, “I’d better do it right.” She thought back on what her mentor had told her.

A maid completes every task to perfection. You must be inconspicuous. Standing out is the master’s job.

Nina checked her appearance in a little mirror. She quickly tucked loose strands of mousy brown hair back into her two braids. Behind her glasses, the eyelashes that framed her sky-blue eyes were wet with tears that she wiped away with a handkerchief, trying as best she could to return her face to normal.

She had no personal items of clothing. She could wear her maid’s uniform about town without anyone giving her a second glance, as maids hardly ever had time off. Some did take holidays, but never Nina, who couldn’t stand the idea of the house getting dirty or the other servants’ work falling behind because she’d taken a day off.

Nina put on a coat over her maid uniform, then she remembered.

“Oh! I need to hand over my duties—”

But the housekeeper’s words came back to her: I forbid you to speak with any of the other servants.

Of course. She couldn’t speak to anyone.

Nina fell silent. She would have to leave without seeing her duties properly handed over.

“But I can do this much at least.”

She took out a sheaf of notes in which she had recorded the names, descriptions, food preferences, and points of caution for each guest who called at the estate. It would surely be of use to someone.

Nina turned back to the room she had spent the past five years in and bowed. The bedsheets were pulled tight and there wasn’t a speck of dust anywhere. It was perfectly taken care of.

Nina had taken pleasure in keeping the whole house in the same way.

“Look, over there.”

“Ooh. Isn’t that Nina, the one they fired today?”

Nina stepped out into the corridor to the sound of maids’ voices.

“I never understood how such an average girl got a job working for a man of great consequence like Count Mirkwood.”

“Shhh. She’ll hear you.”

“So what? She isn’t a part of this household anymore.” The other maids giggled.

They wore maid uniforms, but their hair was carefully coiffed and adorned with small accessories, all in the hopes of winning the attentions of the master of the house. The mistress of a noble, after all, could have whatever her heart desired.

Of course, one could guess how good such women were at their jobs. It had been down to Nina to pick up every bit of work they neglected.

Even so, she now went up to one of them.

The other maid turned her nose up and demanded, “What do you want?”

Nina held out her notes.

“I-I’m not talking to anyone, just to myself. This is a list of notes about the guests who have visited this household. I’m sure it will be useful.”

The rest of the maids stared at her in silence.

Not one raised a hand to take the notes from her.

“I’ll just leave it here,” Nina said. She laid the book at her feet, then turned away from them.

Nina had come to the estate on the recommendation of her mentor to be a lady’s maid. Accomplished in languages and well-versed in the rules of etiquette, she had done well in that role, but couldn’t help but be bothered by other things. There were the grimy corridors, the haphazardly served meals, the patchy education of the master’s sons—all things with one, easy explanation: The count hired his maids primarily for their looks.

It was important for some, such as parlor maids, to be pleasing to look at, but he had used the same criteria to select maids who didn’t serve guests, and so duties all over the household went unfinished. The one who remedied this was of course Nina. Despite how large a house it was, she was the sole maid-of-all-work.

What will happen now...? For a moment, Nina imagined what might become of the household without her, then gave her head a vigorous shake. I’m sure the housekeeper will see to it that the household keeps running even after I’m gone. Besides, none of them would want Nina’s concern. The housekeeper would know what needed to be done.

Or so Nina thought. Sad to say, the housekeeper did not know. Nina, following her mentor’s command to “be inconspicuous,” had gone about all her work without attracting notice. She was a lady’s maid and yet a full year had passed after she started before the lady of the house realized she existed and asked for her name.

As she went along, worrying about the future, Nina used a cloth from her pocket to wipe at fogged patches she noticed on the windows, swept up dead leaves that had blown inside, and put away a mop that had been left out. She made each task look as effortless as though she had simply strolled down the corridor, leaving it spotless and sparkling in her wake.

It was in a way inevitable that the other maids would fail to notice Nina given her incredible level of accomplishment. They had no notion of how special Nina was, and Nina never boasted of it, and so unfortunately, they never realized their mutual misunderstanding.

“Oh...” Nina’s gaze fell on a corner of the corridor where there had been a mysterious stain when she first arrived at the house. She remembered the hours she spent getting it out. The window opposite was high up, so she had asked the gardener to lend her a ladder to wipe it. She had spoken to the cook about the servants’ meals, which, prepared in advance to be eaten in spare moments, were often eaten cold, to work out a menu that would still taste good.

That broom closet... That window at the end of the corridor... That ceiling... Even the servants’ wing had received Nina’s attention, although it was the main house where she pulled out the stops and cleaned until it sparkled.

Nina paused. The final place she passed was the kitchen in the servants’ wing. Roy was the cook for the main house, but he also put his culinary skills to work for the servants. At this hour of the morning, he was sure to be here. From inside, Nina could hear the chopping of a knife.

Roy is a genius cook, Nina thought. Even the count’s wife ordered the maids to knock once before entering when she needed something from the kitchen in the main house.

Nina knew his reputation as a cook with impeccable manners, and that he was very good at his job. You could see it in how exacting he was about ingredients. He insisted on the best, seasonal produce bought at precisely the right time...

Nina wondered if she ought to say a word of farewell. Then she shook her head and hurried on past the kitchen.

“Eh?” Roy glanced over his shoulder, but that was all.

“Where should I go...?”

Stepping out onto the front of the estate, Nina quickly found herself in the busy streets of the city of Sickle, a bustling center full of people in the Crecente Kingdom.

Amid it all, Nina was alone. She gazed blankly at the people coming and going. “Of course...” she murmured. “I never thought about anything other than my work for the household.”

She had started helping out with housework because she enjoyed being praised, then, when her mentor had uncovered her gift for maid work, she had absorbed knowledge like a sponge. It had been fun.

Along the way, Nina had sent most of her wages back to her family in the countryside but had never spent what little she kept for herself, so she’d been able to save half a million gold. That could keep her going for half a year if she were thrifty. A whole year, with a place to live.

“I wonder if I should go home,” she mused. “But I’d only be a burden.” Her parents were farmers and not especially wealthy. Nina could offer nothing more than help with the housework, so even if she moved back in, she wouldn’t bring in any more income. She’d just be another problem for her parents to deal with.

“Hmmm...”

Just then, Nina heard the clang of a handbell.

“All aboard! Coach bound for the city of Fulmoon, heart of trade of the kingdom! It’s pretty as a picture and full of rare curiosities from across the land! Perfect for a bit of sightseeing!”

It was a coachman looking for customers. Just like that, it hit Nina that the world beyond the house was almost entirely a mystery to her.

Sightseeing. Nina wanted to see new things.

It was on the spur of the moment. Like as not, she simply wanted to distract herself from her misery over her dismissal.

“E-Excuse me! I would like to come!”

Nina took a step toward the coach—and that was how one maid set off on a journey.

*

Around the same time, three figures had gathered in the household’s kitchen. One was Roy, the cook, a man with bushy eyebrows and an iron-willed stare who stood with his hairy arms folded. The old man with closely cropped salt-and-pepper hair was Tomus.

“How come Tomus is here?” demanded the third, a maid by the name of Sonya, with long blue hair tied back in a ponytail. She was slender and tall—taller even than most men—and it was she who had been put in charge of instructing Nina when the girl first joined the household. It was also Sonya who immediately realized that in Nina’s case, no “instruction” was necessary. Little Nina and tall, gangly Sonya had become fast friends, and over the last five years, they had often worked together.

“Why d’ya think I’m here?” Tomus shot back at her. “I heard the housekeeper called in li’l Nina, and I know that can’t mean anything good.”

“I didn’t like the sound of it either,” Sonya admitted. “I found a maid to tell me the whole story...” Her lips trembled with fury as she related how Nina had been framed for smashing a vase in the treasure gallery and dismissed, and how Nina, forbidden from speaking to the other servants, had left without saying goodbye, leaving Sonya herself to learn all this only just now.

When she finished, silence fell in the kitchen. Then—

Roy got to his feet, and Tomus grabbed his arm. “Whoa, there, Roy. Where d’ya think yer going with that knife?”

“Only one thing to do,” Roy growled. “I’m gonna slit that old hag’s throat.”

“Don’t talk nonsense! What’s got into you?”

“Huh,” said Sonya. “It’s actually one of Roy’s better ideas.”

“Oi! Don’t you start, Sonya. Let’s all settle down.”

But despite Tomus’s attempts, Roy was not placated. “Maybe it was the housekeeper, maybe it was another maid. Someone broke that vase and pinned the blame on Nina! The only cure for scum like that is death!”

“And what then?” Tomus demanded. “Killing the housekeeper won’t change anything. It’ll make sorrow for li’l Nina, and it won’t bring her home, will it? They’ll cart you off, put a noose round yer neck, and that’ll be the end of it.”

“Dammit...” Roy muttered, but he reluctantly put the knife down.

“So there’s nothing we can do...? I can’t stand it.” Sonya looked down, her eyes glistening with tears. “This shouldn’t have happened to Nina... She was more devoted and hardworking than anyone else in this house...”

“Don’t you cry now,” Tomus told her. “If anyone oughta shed tears, it’s li’l Nina. More to the point, what house d’ya reckon she’ll go to next? If they’re short a gardener, I’d put in my application.”

“Say what? Don’t think you’re getting out of here before me, old man.”

“What’s stopping you from applying to be a cook?”

“Oh, yeah...”

“AAAH!” Sonya cried out so loudly that Roy and Tomus clapped their hands over their ears. “N-N-Nina!” she exclaimed. “She won’t have a reference letter!”

“S-She what now?!” Tomus spluttered.

“That damn housekeeper!” Roy growled.

“It’s absolutely unforgivable. What do you think? Poison?” Sonya spun around to dash from the room, but Tomus grabbed her shoulder with his right hand then Roy’s shoulder with his left as the cook picked up his knife again.

The two of them had a reason for wanting to rush off in a fury. A maid’s job required her to live in her master’s house, which meant she had to be trustworthy, with a spotless background and credentials. The way one proved this was with a reference letter. So long as a maid had a reference letter, she’d never have to worry about finding her next job—especially when that reference letter came from the household of a count.

But the housekeeper would not have given one to Nina. The official story was that Nina had been fired for breaking a vase. It would be highly unusual to give such a person a reference.

“Tomus, let me go!”

“I’m gonna kill her.”

“Yer not listening! Violence now won’t do any good! Enough of this!”

For crying out loud, Tomus thought as he restrained the other two. Li’l Nina’s scarcely out the door and already this is what we’re reduced to.

Tomus was all too aware of how much they owed Nina.

The three of them—a gardener, a cook, and a maid—had entirely different jobs, and yet they worked together rather a lot. The gardener gathered firewood for the kitchen, the cook prepared the meals, and the maid set up the garden for tea parties. And the one who acted as coordinator for all these sundry tasks had been Nina. A word to her would see that all ran smoothly, and they could get their work done without difficulties.

She didn’t stand out. As a result, many took it for granted that their work went well.

“It ain’t easy for me either,” Tomus said. “What d’ya think’s gonna happen with half the jobs around the house? It was only Nina holdin’ it all together.”

“R-Right! This is a disaster...” agreed Sonya, her face turning pale. “What’re we gonna do? Who’s going to wait on those impossible-to-please mages without Nina?”

“Guess it’ll be up to you, Sonya.”

“No no no, no WAY! Remember when Nina caught a merchant trying to sell us a counterfeit painting? I can’t do that!”

A long silence followed this. Roy and Tomus shared a look.

“What I want to know is how she even learned to do all that...” Roy mused.

“Aye, as do I,” agreed Tomus. “But the important thing is what’s gonna happen now she’s gone. When all’s said and done, we’re just servants. I just wonder if the count and his wife realize how bad this is gonna be...”

A heavy silence fell in the kitchen.

*

“So, uh, what do we do with this?”

“Who cares? It’s not like we need it.”

“Right? I’ll tidy it up before it gets in the way.”

One of the maids picked up the notes Nina had left in the corridor, then proceeded to toss them into the waste incinerator.

“B-B-Broken?! My vase?!”

Count Mirkwood, master of the house, could not help the cry that escaped him when he was apprised of what had happened upon his return home. He was a plump man whose short stature made him appear fat. Although he was only in his late forties, his hair had grown rather thin, and in his agitation at the news of his broken vase, the wig perched on his head slipped out of place.

The butler and housekeeper cringed back. Incidentally, the housekeeper had apprised the butler of the truth of the situation.

“M-My lord, your hair is askew...”

“My hair be damned! What is the meaning of this?! Explain yourselves!” the count demanded as he hastily fixed his wig. Before him, plain as day, lay the shattered vase. Repair might have been possible had the pieces remained intact, but some had been reduced to dust as though they’d been trampled on, and others had scratched one another, perhaps when someone had gathered them up carelessly.

“W-Well, my lord,” the housekeeper began. “The truth is, a maid broke it while she was cleaning...”

“And where is this maid?!”

“F-Fear not, my lord! I dismissed her!”

“Fool!” he bellowed. “Bring her to me! I wish to punish her directly!”

“Eh?!” Panic gripped the housekeeper.

She had framed Nina and turned her out of the house but stopped short of demanding the girl pay for damages. This was less out of the goodness of her heart, and more because had Nina opposed her, it would have been inconvenient. She’d thought that something along the lines of “The culprit is sacked! Problem solved!” would convince the count. But apparently, it wasn’t enough.

“Find the maid!” the count declared. “Put a bounty on her head!”

Nina’s bounty was set at one million gold.

Chapter One: Forever-a-Rookie Emily Has the Aptitude of a Great Mage

The merchant city of Fulmoon felt enormous to Nina. With its vastness and the throngs of people coming and going, it might even rival the city of Sickle, but unlike Sickle, many of the roads were in poor repair and few buildings had more than one floor. Another difference was the other species like elves, dwarves, halflings, and beastfolk that she often spotted mingled in with the humans.

“Oof...” Nina groaned. “My poor back.”

The journey for this “bit of sightseeing” they’d been promised had certainly lasted them more than a bit. It had taken three days for the horse-drawn carriage to reach Fulmoon, though that did allow Nina time to befriend the other passengers. Among them was a merchant man who, impressed by her attentiveness, her meals whipped up from preserved foods, and her tea, had asked, “Won’t you come and work for my family?”

Nina had turned him down.

“I was only doing what any maid would...” she explained. “And besides, right now, I want to see the city.”

He was such a pleasant young man and looked so downcast at her refusal that Nina felt a little guilty. But just then, work was what she wanted to get away from. While the journey had been a spur-of-the-moment decision, to her surprise, as the miles had stretched away between her and the capital, she had been swept up by the joy of travel. She found herself longing to visit even more different places.

Everything in Fulmoon was new, from the different species of people, to the foreign goods on display in the street stalls, to the aromas that wafted out from the eateries.

I wonder what that device is for? Cleaning, perhaps?

What beautiful dried fruits! If they taste good, I could serve them to guests.

Even with all this dust, the washing on the lines is spotless. I wonder what keeps it clean?

With a grimace, Nina realized that all her thoughts were about being a maid.

“Even after they cast you out...” she said to herself, feeling a pang of loneliness as the reality of her situation hit her once more.

Nina spent five days wandering about Fulmoon and still didn’t make it to a tenth of the city’s sightseeing spots. But she did learn one thing.

On the outskirts of the city, there was a beautiful and secluded pool of water that welled up from the ground, around which grew a flower that bloomed only in the early days of spring.

“A flower that only blooms at this time of year? I would very much like to see that!” Nina said. The only problem was that monsters were known to appear outside the city. It was best, she was told, to take an adventurer with her for protection. So, Nina went to pay a visit to the adventurers’ guild.

*

“If it ain’t Forever-a-Rookie,” a man called out. “Finally realized you’re not cut out for adventuring? Here’s a silver. Spread your legs for me and I might give it to you.”

The girl he was talking to didn’t grace this with an answer; instead, she shot him a glare with her burning red eyes. She had thick red hair that cascaded down from beneath a mage’s wide-brimmed hat, and held a long staff that further served to mark her as a magic user. For sixteen-year-old Emily was registered at the adventurers’ guild as just that: a mage.

“Get out of my way,” she snapped. “I’m here to look for jobs, not waste my time on layabout adventurers.” Emily had a long, pointed nose that perfectly mirrored her strong personality, and although she was pretty, her frown and general aura made her hard to approach.

“Oooh, scary,” said the man, smirking as he stepped aside for her. In all the wide adventurers’ guild, not one person called him out. As an adventurer, you had to look out for yourself.

Emily scanned the job notices pinned to the wall.

Package Transport (Must be physically strong)

Bodyguard (Minimum 3 party members)

Medicinal Herb Delivery (Herb Collector License required)

Sword Instructor (at least 5 years experience required)

And so on.

The jobs anyone could have done were of course poorly compensated and didn’t require a mage. Then there were the jobs that did ask for a mage:

Introductory Magic Instructor (Third Degree Magic User or Above)

Additional Bodyguards (Third Degree Magic User or Above)

They all came with the proviso that one be able to use at least Third Degree magic. Third Degree had a reputation as real, practical magic—the level where you never again had to worry about where your next meal was coming from.

But the only magic Emily could use was First Degree. In other words, she was on the level of apprentices and beginners.

Anyone who wanted to know could find out straightaway if they had the makings of a mage. They would go to a town hall or church and be told, “You have the potential to wield up to Third Degree magic,” or otherwise, “I’m afraid First Degree is the best you can do.”

But not Emily.

“Y-You... You have the aptitude for Fifth Degree magic?!” The clergyman had been dumbfounded, as were the town functionary who’d been skeptical until he produced the same result, and the worker who measured her aptitude at the adventurers’ guild where she’d gone after the church.

For reference, an aptitude for Fifth Degree magic put her among only a few others in the entire country. Everyone wanted her in their party. But everyone also quickly learned about her problem.

“Awww, are all the jobs too hard for First Degree Emily?” taunted the same male adventurer from before. Emily gritted her teeth.

That was the thing—Emily had the aptitude for magic, but she couldn’t use it. First Degree spells were the best she could do. She could summon enough fire to light a cookfire, and that was it. If she tried to throw fire at a monster, it would just dodge, or at worst get slightly singed.

It was normal for people to be casting spells at the highest level they had aptitude for as early as ten years old, and certainly no later than fifteen. In the beginning, Emily’s fellow adventurers were encouraging—“You’ll get it in no time,” they’d tell her—but as time went by and she stayed stuck on First Degree, their patience ran out, and Emily was expelled from the party.

She’s useless...

She’s a fraud...

Once the rumors spread, no one would have her in their party. But she was still trying. She drilled her spells every day, spent money she didn’t have on expensive tonics, and sought advice from famous mages. Even after all that, she still couldn’t use her magic.

“You’re Forever-a-Rookie, remember? You’re never gonna use anything beyond First Degree magic. But hey, our party will take you. You’re pretty enough—you can do our chores and warm our beds.”

“Shut up,” Emily muttered. “If my stupid reincarnation power-up just worked properly...”

“Huh?”

“I said, shut up!” She turned her back on the man and tried to leave, but he grabbed her arm.

“I’m not gonna take cheek from some broad who can’t even use magic.”

“L-Lemme go!”

“You’re not even an adventurer. You’re nobody!”

“I am an adventurer!”

“Yeah? Then I’ve got a job for you. Gutter cleaning seems right up your alley.”

A few people around them laughed. The man himself was one of the guild’s washouts who had failed most of his jobs. He taunted Emily and called her “Forever-a-Rookie” to stroke his own ego.

There were also some who looked troubled by the confrontation, but no one went so far as to intervene. Adventurers looked out for themselves. Anyone who wasn’t up to snuff didn’t get to complain—and if you didn’t like it, you ought to give up on adventuring altogether.

“I... I am a mage...” Emily insisted. “A mage with aptitude.”

“There ain’t no mages who can only use First Degree magic. I mean, you can’t even do any of the jo—”

Just then, a small figure stepped forward. There, looking entirely out of place among the rough folk of the adventurers’ guild, was a maid.

“In that case,” Nina said with a smile, “I would be honored to employ the services of this mage.”

*

The moment Nina entered the adventurers’ guild, she saw trouble afoot. A man, taunting a girl in a mage’s outfit, saying there was not a single job she could take.

She wants to work, but she can’t, Nina thought. Just like me.

With that, she took action. She requested that the girl—Emily—serve as her bodyguard, and Emily accepted. Then, Nina led Emily, who still didn’t fully understand what had just happened, out of the guild.

“Sorry about that...” said Emily. “And thanks. I’ve cooled off now. So you came to my rescue, huh.”

“On the contrary, Miss Emily. I was hoping that you would rescue me.”

Nina and Emily had come to a park in town. It wasn’t the sort of park with a playground, just a patch of green with a few benches. They sat with enough space for a third person between them.

“You mean the bodyguard job...?” asked Emily. “Sorry, but I can’t do it. Were you listening? I might be a mage, but I can only use First Degree magic.”

“That’s fine! Or, erm, I think it is. I only want you to accompany me to the spring just outside the city.”

“Ohhh. Cray Spring, right? I guess it is the season for yellow peach blossoms...”

“The very same! Have you been there, Miss Emily?” Nina closed half the gap between them in her excitement. Emily drew back slightly.

“U-Um, yeah, I guess...”

“Wonderful! I was told the route is straightforward, but I’ve next to no experience walking outside the estate so I was worried I wouldn’t find it. That’s why I wanted protection.”

“Sounds more like you want a guide than protection. But if so, that’s fine with me,” Emily said, then added that more to the point, she’d already taken the job. She did as much when, amid the tension back at the adventurers’ guild, Nina had held out a lifeline to Emily in the form of this job offer. The guild did not look favorably on anyone who made trouble for clients, so the man had had no choice but to back down as Nina led her away.

“Then let’s be off!” Nina cried.

“Huh? Right now?”

“Why, yes. Is that a problem?”

“It’s already midday. If we leave now, we’ll have to rough it.”

“R-Rough it?!” Never in a million years would Nina have encountered those words when she worked at Count Mirkwood’s house. She grew even more excited. Emily stared back at her in disbelief that any woman would be happy at the idea of sleeping outside.

“You seriously want to go now?”

“Can’t we...?”

Seeing Nina deflate like a balloon, Emily felt strangely guilty.

“O-Okay, okay. If we camp around the forest near Cray Spring, it should be pretty safe.”

“Oh, Miss Emily! You are a true adventurer!”

A true adventurer. Emily didn’t mind the sound of that. In fact, she wanted Nina to keep on treating her as an adventurer.

“All right, we’ll gather supplies, then set off.”

“Very good, Miss Emily! I am at your disposal!”

“Uh...” Emily hesitated. “You know you hired me, right? And quit calling me ‘Miss Emily.’ When you do that, I feel like I have to call you ‘Miss Nina.’”

“O-Oh. Very good...Emily.”

“Hmmm. Well, I guess that’ll do. I’m not going to talk to you like a servant though, got it?”

“Whatever you like!”

Emily chuckled. “You are one weird client.”

“I am?”

“You betcha. Who ever heard of a maid hiring a bodyguard?”

*

A wall surrounded the city of Fulmoon. Beyond it were farms, shops selling travel supplies, and even houses, but for the most part, the city gave way to nearly untouched wilderness.

“Two girls? I know it’s Cray Spring, but you be careful, you hear?” The guard returned Emily’s adventurer license, adding, “No bandits around there, but lately, I’ve heard alarming rumors of a giant bird that’s been carrying off horses.”

“A giant bird? Cray Spring’s in the forest, so it should be fine, right?”

“Hmmm. Fair point. Still, I’d keep an eye out if I were you.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Emily waved off the guard, who moved on to checking the next traveler.

The two of them set off through the plains. The road was narrow but easy to walk on, and although they passed a number of people who appeared to be on their way back from Cray Spring, fewer than half had bodyguards with them. That seemed to indicate they wouldn’t run into thieves or monsters.

About three hours after they left the city, the forest came into view.

“We’ll go into the forest next, but I wouldn’t recommend we spend the night in there,” Emily said. “Let’s camp here.”

“All right.”

Emily looked at Nina. “Hey, you okay?”

“Oh, yes... I’m fine, really.”

It wasn’t surprising that Emily would ask. In preparation for this unnecessary camping trip, not only had they brought indispensable blankets and food, but Nina had come out and said, “I’d like to cook outside,” so they also had cooking equipment. Someone had to carry all of it. Normally, an adventuring party would have split the load, but Emily was on her own. Nina, without skipping a beat, had offered to help, so she too carried a significant amount of luggage.

At first, Emily couldn’t work out how such a tiny girl could possibly have the stamina to walk with such a big backpack for long. Yet here they were, three hours later, and Nina looked as fresh as ever.

“You’re pretty tough, aren’t you?” Emily commented.

“Any maid could do the same,” replied Nina. She clasped her hands together and bowed.

Any maid? I don’t know about that... Emily was skeptical, but she’d never been around maids before, so what did she know? That said, she seriously doubted the strength of a burly man was one of the job requirements.

“Right, let’s get a fire going...” said Emily. “I can do that much. Well, it’s actually the only thing I can do.”

“The only thing?”

“Don’t worry about it.” Emily neatly stacked the firewood, then held her hands over it.

“Spirits of flame, come to my hands.” Following her incantation, the fire burst into life.

“Oh my!” Nina exclaimed in amazement. The flames spread hungrily, burning through the dry branches.

“Have you...never seen magic before?”

“Not fire magic, no. It’s so curious, isn’t it? Not to mention wondrous and beautiful.”

“Huh...” For reasons that Nina did not understand, Emily gave a melancholy smile.

“Now, then! This is where I take over!” Nina rolled up her sleeves and began to pull ingredients out of the bags.

“Huh? You can cook? Oh right, what was it you said? Any maid can do it?”

“Just leave it to me,” said Nina. She laid a hand on her breast and bobbed her head courteously—every gesture graceful, Emily noted—then, she got to cooking.

“I’m gonna burst...” Emily could have happily died then and there. Well, that was going a bit far, but that was how blissful she felt.

She was in awe. Who could have imagined camp cooking could be so good?

“I’m so stuffed I could die...”

None of the ingredients were anything out of the ordinary; Emily had bought them at the store she always used.

Nina, however, took cooking seriously. She browned the meat before stewing it, added varieties of herbs that Emily would never have touched, and brought it all together with all sorts of seasonings. The resulting dish looked like a simple meat and tomato soup—but with a depth of flavor beyond anything Emily had tasted before. Before she knew it, she’d gone back for seconds—and taken the whole pot.

“I’m glad it was to your liking,” said Nina.

“You bet it was. You could be a pro. I sure didn’t expect to eat Italian out here...”

“Ita...li...? What is that?”

“Oh, um. Don’t worry about it.”

“Well, if you’re sure. Will you be retiring for the night, then?”

“Gah!” Emily, having been sprawled on the ground, sat bolt upright. “I’m the adventurer here—I keep watch! I can’t let you—”

“Come now, there’s no need to trouble yourself.” Nina sat beside her and pulled on her hand. To her confusion, Emily was unable to resist and found herself lying down. The back of her head rested on something soft. She realized it was Nina’s lap.

“Wha... Wha... What the?!”

“You are plainly exhausted. Now, if you’ll just relax for me...”

“Huh?”

Nina ran her fingers over Emily’s hair, then, finding the spot she was looking for, squeezed down hard. Emily felt a prickling like electricity and went limp. Nina was giving her a scalp massage.

“Mrmmm...” she sighed.

“You’ve had to be on guard to keep me safe. Thank you,” said Nina. “Right now, you can relax.”

“Mrm...mmmm...” Emily could feel the tension drain out of her in response to the pleasant pressure. Right next to her, the campfire crackled. Around them, the night was dark and still, and looking up, the sky was full of stars. For one, drowsy moment, Emily let her guard down, and fell asleep.

“Agh!” She sat bolt upright again. It was still nighttime.

“You’re awake? I’ll put on some tea.”

“What? No— Wait, was I asleep?!”

“Do lie down and relax.”

“No, no way! I told you I can’t do that! How come you’re the one looking after me?!”

“Drink your tea. It’ll wake you up.”

“Oh, um, thank... Wait, no!” An herbal aroma wafted up from the wooden cup of tea Nina held out to her. Emily could tell it would be soothing and refreshing. But she went on. “Look, I don’t know why I fell asleep like that, but—”

“Because you were tired.”

“But I never want you to do that again,” she finished firmly.

Perhaps because of her tone, Nina grew flustered. “I-I’m terribly sorry. It wasn’t my place,” she stammered, bowing deeply.

“N-No, it’s not like that! Ugh, I’m sorry. I really am. I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that,” Emily said. “Would you stop bowing?”

“But...”

“Look, you offered me a job and I took it. That makes you the client and me the adventurer you hired, and...when I don’t live up to that role, it makes me feel pathetic.”

“Emily, I am a maid without any clue what I’m doing. It is a great comfort to me that you are here at my side. Isn’t that enough?”

“It’s nice of you to say so, but if that’s what you want, there are plenty of adventurers with more experience and skill than me. I get it. You...felt sorry for me.”

“No, I...”

Emily knew she’d put Nina in a difficult spot. To wash the bitter regret from her mouth, she swallowed a mouthful of herbal tea.

“I should have told you from the start. You know why I got in that fight at the guild? Why he called me Forever-a-Rookie?”

Emily decided she would tell Nina, who knew next to nothing about adventurers or magic, her story.

*

All of it was new to Nina.

She had seen magic before—many mages who were apparently of “great renown” had been guests at the estate of Count Mirkwood—but the magic she witnessed on her first night of camping... It was marvelous. It made her truly feel like she was on a journey.

So when Emily not only made her realize that she’d been thinking only of her own enjoyment, but also revealed her own predicament, Nina was stricken. She’d gotten carried away. What must Emily think of her? When Nina thought about how hard Emily’s life had been, she only felt worse.

“...so I’ll take you to Cray Spring and back to Fulmoon tomorrow as promised, but the next time you need help, ask a real adventurer, okay?”

What a kindhearted person, Nina thought. By a twist of fate, Emily had been told she had the aptitude for magic, only to be unable to use it. But rather than give up, she had continued to show up at the adventurers’ guild. And then when some maid showed up with a job, she took it... She even told me her story when I’m sure she didn’t want to, and put my needs ahead of hers...

To Nina, Emily’s kindness seemed warmer than any soup or tea she could make.

“It’s you I’ll ask next time too,” she said.

“Um, I appreciate the sympathy and all, but—”

“This isn’t sympathy!” Nina burst out. “I only want you! You’re so strong, and conscientious, and kind! No one else will do!”

“Nina...?” Emily gaped at her. Then, the corner of her mouth twitched. “You’re even more stubborn than I am. You’re really happy with me?”

“I am.”

“And you don’t want anyone else.”

“No, no one but you.”

“Well, can’t argue with that.”

Nina’s eyes widened—Emily had given in! “That’s right! You can’t!” she cried happily. In that moment, the distance between them evaporated. It no longer mattered who the “client” or who the “adventurer” was.

“So what’re you gonna do when you get back to Fulmoon?” Emily asked. “Wait, first tell me why you’re running around in a maid uniform.”

“I was dismissed from my post at an estate...”

It was now Nina’s turn to tell her story. When Emily heard it, she got as angry as if she had been the one dismissed. That made Nina happy. She was sure that Sonya, her fellow maid back at the house, would have gotten angry on her behalf just like Emily. But then she felt sad as she remembered that she and Sonya hadn’t been able to say goodbye.

Still, it was only because she’d left the household that she’d met Emily.

“I decided to go on a journey to see the sights,” she finished.

“So you’ll be leaving Fulmoon soon?”

“I suppose so...” Nina’s spirits sank at the thought of saying goodbye to Emily when they had only just met.

Then, Emily said, “Maybe I’ll tag along too, then.”

“What?!”

“It’s not like I’ve got any special attachment to Fulmoon. Plus, you’d feel better with an experienced traveler along, right? How about it?”

“Th-That would be most welcome!”

It wasn’t goodbye after all. Emily would come with her. Nina bounced up and down in delight.

“That being said,” Emily went on, “coach journeys are one thing, but out-of-the-way places like this will be dangerous without some more muscle. What I mean is, I’m not much more help in a fight than you.”

“You...aren’t?”

“Nope. That’s how useless First Degree magic is. We’ll probably have to hire adventurers on the journey.” Nina was silent for a long moment. “Nina? What’s wrong?”

“Well... I may have an idea.” A memory had come back to Nina from her decade of service as a maid. “When I was a maid, I sometimes waited on renowned mages. There is...well, something I’d like to try on you. May I?”

“What sort of thing?” Emily asked.

*

This girl, Emily thought, was weird. It sounded like she wanted to do something for Emily and her inability to cast anything but First Degree magic, despite her supposed aptitude. Not that I don’t appreciate the thought, but...

Emily had tried expensive medicines and the advice of renowned mages, but none of it had worked. Nina might be an amazing cook, but she was still just a maid. There was no way she could help. Even with nothing to lose, Emily couldn’t muster the will to try.

But she was willing to go along with it if it would make Nina happy. They were going on a journey together, after all. That was the only reason.

“First, hold out your arm. Could you roll up your sleeves for me?”

“Uh-huh. Like this?”

“Oh, your skin is so fair,” Nina sighed. “How lovely.”

“H-Hey, stop looking at me like that.” Emily glanced down at Nina’s small hands. They were covered in tiny scars, and when she touched Emily’s arm, her fingertips were hard.

A worker’s hands... Nina must have done real work during her time as a maid.

“Here we go,” Nina said, and before Emily could object, she began to massage Emily’s arm with her small hands.

“Gah! Ahhh, ah! What’re you... Oh, wow!” Nina’s fingers worked smoothly, starting at Emily’s wrist and moving up. Emily felt like she might melt.

“O-Oh wow. Oh...ohhh. What’s...this feeling...?!”

“You’re doing well,” Nina said. Her fingers didn’t let up as, with incredible speed, she passed Emily’s elbow and pressed on. Once she was done with the upper arm, she moved to Emily’s shoulders.

“Mmmf?!” It was the same sensation as the scalp massage Nina had given her earlier, like little rivers of electricity were running down her back. This time, rather than relaxed and sleepy, she felt cozy and warm.

I-It can’t be... Emily thought. She’s...calling up my magic?!

Emily knew that the magic was there inside her; she’d just never been able to access it. It was like a permanently dammed river, but now, Nina was unlocking the gates. She wasn’t just releasing the tension in Emily’s muscles. She was releasing all the magical power that filled her body.

“Ah...ah...ah...aaaah!!!” Emily couldn’t help but cry out. She could see it: The dam had broken, releasing a deluge of magic that now spread through every corner of her body.

“Ah...hah...haaah...hah...haaah...”

“All done,” said Nina. “Would you like some water?” She held out the canteen. Emily took it and gulped straight from the bottle. When she’d drunk every drop, she let out a sigh of satisfaction, then stood up.

“Spirits of flame, come to my hand.” Fire flared to life in her palm like it had when she lit the campfire—but this time, it was far larger. The ball of flame was about the size of a volleyball.

“Spirits of flame, go forth!” Emily raised her hand. About ten meters away, tendrils of steam rose from the ground, then—WHOOSH!—a pillar of fire erupted upward into the air.

“O-Oh my! How amazing!” Nina gasped. When Emily said nothing, she asked, “What sort of magic was that?! Emily— Oh!”

Emily, turning back to her, swept Nina up in her arms.

“That,” she said, “was Second Degree magic.”

“Oh?”

“I... I cast Second Degree magic!”

No matter how she’d struggled, she’d never been able to cast a spell above First Degree. Now, not only had she done it, but it had been easy.

Astonishment and joy surged up from inside her, and—

“Uwwwah, waaaaah!!!” Emily opened her mouth and bawled.

*

“Sorry you had to see that,” said Emily.

“Not at all. I’m just glad I could help.”

“You didn’t just help...” Emily wiped at her puffy, teary eyes with a handkerchief, then laughed. “You’re my savior.”

Nina was about to brush this off with another “Not at all!” but stopped herself. It must have meant a lot to Emily.

“Oh, Emily! It’s getting light!”

Emily chuckled. “Yep, that’s how night works. When it’s over, morning comes.” She grinned, back to her old self again.

Nina, however, had never seen dawn break outside before. In the east, the deep blue of the sky was gradually growing brighter.

“So, Nina...” said Emily. “What was it you just did?”

“Ah, yes. Have you heard of mana meridians?”

“Yeah, I have. But isn’t that just an unproven theory? At least I think that’s what the mage I talked to said.”

“The one I learned about them from said there was no question of their existence,” replied Nina.

Mana meridians were the pathways by which magic traveled through the body. It was like having a tank of water with a hole in the bottom. No matter how enormous the tank, if the hole was small, the water would only come out in a trickle.

“I also learned,” Nina went on, “that the best way to widen mana meridians is with massage.”

“Um... Isn’t that some incredibly secret technique?!”

“I... I don’t think so? It just came up in small talk after I served his tea. We were passing the time until the master of the house arrived.”

“O-Okay. That’s all right, then. At least, I think it is.” Emily looked dubious.

In fact, her instincts were right. The one to whom Nina had served tea was not merely an impossibly difficult-to-please guest, but one of the continent’s greatest mages whose talents had earned even the king’s recognition. It was because he was so fond of Nina’s tea that this great mage called at the Mirkwood estate. His next visit was still a little way off.

“Of course it’s all right,” Nina agreed. “I did what would please you. Any maid would do the same.”

Emily gave her a disbelieving look, but Nina’s attention was already elsewhere. “Oh! The sun is rising!” she exclaimed. As the first rays of the sun spilled over the horizon, golden light streaked over the grasslands, sweeping away the drifting mists. Nina would never have seen anything like this had she still been at the estate.

“Hey, so about the mage who taught you that massage. Who—?” Emily’s voice died mid-question. Nina was gazing straight at the dazzling sunrise.

Now isn’t the time, Emily decided.

*

While Nina caught up on sleep, Emily worked her way through more and more difficult spells. By the time Nina woke up and set about making breakfast, she could work Fifth Degree magic.

“My cheat skill is ready to go!” she hollered.

“Cheat?” Nina repeated. “Cheat at what?”

“Oh, um. Don’t worry about it! Ha ha ha ha ha!” Sleep deprivation had made Emily a little hyperactive. She went on, casting a wind spell that shredded the grass and then making a little hill with earth magic, but soon stopped. As they were both against destroying nature, Emily agreed that she should stop throwing magic around without thinking.

When Nina made it, even a simple breakfast of sandwiches with fried eggs and bacon was different. Emily let out a sigh of amazement. To think that a few little touches like sauce and lightly toasted bread could make it taste so good!

They didn’t run into any trouble the rest of the way to Cray Spring. It felt like a picnic. At one point along the way, Nina exclaimed, “What interesting plants!” and went to pick a few—though to Emily, they all just looked like weeds.

No one else had camped on the way to the spring, so they had the yellow peach blossoms all to themselves. The unusual flowers were pale pink like those of a peach, except that they had an outer ring of yellow petals. The sight of them clustered around the spring that bubbled up in the depths of the forest was enchanting, and fluttering petals formed swirls of pink and yellow on the water’s surface. Two deer that had been drinking from the spring started at the sight of Nina and Emily and melted away into the trees.

“Welcome to Cray Spring!” said Emily. “Whad’ya think?”

“It’s beautiful...” Nina replied. “I’m...so glad I came!” She clasped her hands at her breast as though in a dream, her eyes sparkling.

Not as glad as I am, Emily said to herself.

*

It was getting on to evening on their way back when they caught sight of the walls of Fulmoon. They had spent a long time at the spring.

“Is there a town you want to go to next?” Emily asked.

“Well, I was thinking about crossing the border.”

“Oh, right! I guess it’s not far from Fulmoon.”

“Exactly! I’ve lived my whole life in the Crecente Kingdom, so...um...” Nina trailed off. “Emily? What is that?”

“Huh?” While the evening light bathed everything in red, there was definitely some sort of commotion going on at Fulmoon’s gate. Those dark figures were all holding spears—they had to be city guards. And before them—

“What is that?!” exclaimed Emily. “It’s huge!”

“It...looks like a bird?!”

The creature spread its wings wide—fully outstretched, it was the size of a house—and with every beat, it generated gusts of wind that knocked people off their feet. Even at this distance, its size was staggering.

When Nina said “bird,” something clicked in Emily’s mind.

Lately, I’ve heard alarming rumors of a giant bird that’s been carrying off horses.

That was what the guard at the gate had said. This must be the giant bird.

“Nina, look after the packs.”

“Wait, Emily—!”

But Emily had already thrown down her pack and sprinted off. In her hand, she carried her mage’s staff.

Even from afar, she could hear the shouting and screaming from the battle ahead.

“Damn, I’m hit bad!”

“You guards are a pack of lily-livered cowards!”

“It’s you adventurers who’re in the way!”

“Help meee!”

It turned out it wasn’t only city guards fighting the bird, but adventurers too. They were totally disorganized, with all of them attacking at random.

It’s so big...! Emily thought. The muscles that supported the bird’s vast wings bulged, and it could have lifted a car with its massive talons. Its great head resembled an eagle, with a beak that could kill a man with one peck. Its feathers were gray, but in the light of the setting sun, they glowed like fire.

“KAAAAW!!!” With a flap of its wings, the bird generated a rush of raging wind that battered the guards and beat back both incoming arrows and Third Degree spells. After that, for but a moment, a hush fell over the battlefield—then the bird moved again. It darted forward, wrapping its talons around a horse that had fallen nearby.

That was its prey, Emily realized. It had come to get food.

“Gah! Ah, aaaaah?!” A boy, who had been calming the horses driven into a frenzy by the sudden chaos, had gotten his clothing caught alongside the bird’s prey. Now he was being carried aloft too. “M-M-Mommy! Mommy, help! Heeelp!!!” As he panicked and shouted, the giant bird floated ever upward.

“Fill it with arrows!”

“I-It won’t work! The wind! Nothing hits!”

“Magic’s no good either!”

The wind from the bird’s wings had immobilized everyone directly below it, guards and adventurers both. Emily was lucky that she wasn’t in the thick of it.

“Spirits of the raging winds! Heed my call and don thy welkin mantle!” She raised her staff, and from its tip golden light burst forth—Emily’s magic. Immediately afterward, winds rose up around her, twisting into a tornado that rushed toward the giant bird.

“KAAAW?!” Despite its massive wings and powerful muscles, the giant bird could only just bear the weight of the horse. When hit by a crosswind just as it left the ground, it couldn’t help but be thrown off-balance.

The boy shrieked as the bird released both him and the horse. As he hit the cloth roof of a horse-drawn cart and slid down, Emily skillfully manipulated her spell, sending a gust of wind to catch the boy gently before he hit the ground. A guard dashed over and scooped the boy up in his arms.

“KAAAAAAW!!!”

The giant bird was still alive. Correctly perceiving what had just happened, it turned a look of piercing hostility on Emily.

“O-Oy, isn’t that Forever-a-Rookie?!”

“It’s got her in its sights! She’s a goner!”

“While it’s distracted, we can regroup!”

Apparently, no one was about to rush to Emily’s rescue. Even the guards were busy gathering up their dropped gear.

“KAW!!!” The bird spread its wings and kicked off, rushing forward and gathering speed with each wingbeat.

It was coming for Emily.

“Emily?!” From far away, she heard Nina cry out. But Emily stayed calm.

Thank you, Nina. You made this happen.

She had already spoken her next incantation.

This is the life I always dreamed of. A life where Fifth Degree magic is mine to command—a life where I’m a hero!!!

Emily raised her mage’s staff. This time, what burst forth was fire.

It was a Fifth Degree spell called “Fire Bomb.” The flames spun and grew to about the size of a surfboard. Once it reached its apex, it rocketed toward the giant bird, and just before it hit the creature’s face—

BOOOOOOM.

Fire scattered in all directions. A tower of flame, easily three stories tall, rose up, whirling like a tornado and radiating fierce heat.

The giant bird didn’t even get out a dying screech. The surrounding grassland turned black, and even Emily shielded her face from the heat of her own spell lest it burn her skin.

A few moments later, however, the fire vanished as though it had never been. Only the grass to which the flames had spread continued to burn. And there, its whole body charred black, lay the fallen body of the bird.

“I’m just gettin’...warmed...up...” Emily planted her staff on the ground, stood tall—and toppled backward. She had used up all her mana.

As the guards got to work bringing the situation under control, the whispers started. Those who witnessed all this first mistook Emily for a famous mage, then the adventurers began to say excitedly that, “It’s another mage that just looks like Forever-a-Rookie!”

But it wasn’t long until everyone knew without a doubt that Emily had cast the spell. The next day, the adventurers’ guild was buzzing with rumors of how Emily had, at long last, gotten beyond First Degree magic.

*

“Are you feeling better, Emily?”

“Yep, never better! With mana drain, all you need is a good night’s sleep.”

Nina had employed the help of the guards to carry Emily back to her lodgings and put her to bed. Emily had slept through the night, then jumped out of bed, fully recovered, and declared she was hungry. After a very hearty breakfast, she announced she was going to the adventurers’ guild. She still had to report that she’d carried out Nina’s request for a bodyguard, then there was the application to fill out to travel to the neighboring country too.

“Speaking of which, what are you registered as, Nina?”

“Me? I have a local workers’ license from the city of Sickle.”

Emily brought this up as they walked to the guild. There was no “maids’ guild,” so all servants registered as local workers.

“Hmmm. In that case, what do you say to joining the adventurers’ guild?”

“What?! Me, an adventurer?! I-I could never!”

“Not like that, just for identification papers. Local workers have to pay a tax when you cross the border, right? But if you register as an adventurer, you can use those papers anywhere, and it’s valid for a year even if you don’t take any jobs. And if you’re with me, you could take some jobs too.”

“I... Well... That’s true. But I’d be completely dependent on you...”

“Oh, shush.” Emily put an arm around Nina and pulled her in. “Compared to what you’ve done for me, this is nothing. Do you know how much I dreamed of casting spells above First Degree?”

“But Emily...”

“Which is to say, I’m expecting some great food on the road!”

Nina stared at her. Then, she said happily, “Of course!”

The two of them arrived at the adventurers’ guild. It was always busy with adventurers from the morning, but today it was even noisier than usual. Nina and Emily could hear all the hubbub from the street.

But then, the moment they entered, it fell silent.

Whatever is going on? Nina wondered, but Emily was already steering her toward the reception desk.

“Hey, could you register her as an adventurer for me?”

“What? Oh, erm, yes...” The guild worker looked in alarm first at Emily, then at Nina. “Erm... She appears to be a maid...”

“That’s right. She’s a maid and an adventurer. We’ve got the registration fee, and she’ll take jobs with me. No problem with that, is there?”

“I, um, suppose not.”

Just then, someone called out to them. “Well, well, well! If it ain’t my girl Forever-a-Rookie!”

It was the male adventurer who had been hassling Emily two days earlier.

“No way, you’re turning your little friend you took to Cray Spring into an adventurer? That’s messed up. I get that no one wants you in their party, but this is a bit much.” When Emily didn’t reply, he went on. “Oh yeah, did you hear? There’s talk that a magician who looked like you killed a feral garuda. Looked so much like you, they’re all convinced it was you. What a load of hooey, right?”

“It was me,” Emily said shortly.

“Huh?”

“I killed it. I came here today to find out what happened to that giant chicken.”

“You... C’mon, no one’s laughing at that joke.”

“I don’t need them to. It actually happened. More to the point, it’s none of your business, so scram.” She turned away from him and back to the desk.

The man gaped. “You little—!”

“Aaah!” Emily shrieked as he seized her by the shoulder and shoved her to the ground.

“Emily!” Nina cried. She pushed between them and stood protectively over Emily. “How dare you attack a defenseless woman!”

“Excuse me? Forever-a-Rookie got above herself and told me a lie, so I’m teaching her a lesson!”

“It was Emily who slew that giant bird. She has mastered Fifth Degree magic!”

“Pfaw! Fifth Degree magic, is it?” The man roared with laughter, then said to the room, “You hear that? Forever-a-Rookie the First Degree mage has been telling this poor, ignorant maid some tall tales!”

A few of his friends laughed, but the rest of the adventurers seemed to be waiting to see what happened next. The rumor that a magic user who looked a lot like Emily had slain a giant bird—a feral garuda—had spread, and everyone knew that Emily had the aptitude for magic. She simply couldn’t use it.

“Nina, it’s fine...” said Emily. “This moron isn’t worth your breath. Let’s finish up the paperwork and get out of here.”

But the man wasn’t done. “Hey, Forever-a-Rookie, are you serious with this? You know the guild punishes anyone who lies about their abilities to get allies!”

“Ignore him. Just ignore him.”

“Get a guild worker over here! This girl’s breaking guild rules! Strip her of her guild license!”

Emily said nothing.

“And you better not take this pip-squeak’s registration!” the man yelled, going off even at the worker in front of them. “If we let the likes of her in, the whole guild’ll be a laughing stock!”

At that moment, Emily tensed. She drew herself up, brushed off her skirt, and glared at the man.

“Wh-What’re you looking at me like that for?” he demanded. “Looks to me like you want a fight! I’m right, aren’t I!”

Ignoring him, Emily turned to the flustered guild worker. “Excuse me. There’s a bounty for the feral garuda, right?”

“Huh? Oh! Yes, there is... I-It’s five million gold.”

“Well, I’m the one who slew it, and I’ll prove it,” said Emily. “Can I borrow the training ground in the back?” Emily radiated fury—but not only that. The air around her roiled with magic.

“You can mock me all you want,” she told the man, “but I won’t stand by and let you do it to Nina.”

*

It was called the “training ground,” but save for a few token training dummies that could maybe take a hit from a wooden sword, it was in reality no more than an empty lot. Today, however, it was packed with adventurers, and at its center, Emily and the man stood facing each other.

“You sure about this, Forever-a-Rookie? I’m gonna show your little friend that you’re a fraud who can only use First Degree magic.”

The guild worker had come along to act as an official observer but, at a loss on what to do next, all they’d done so far was fidget their feet and look on the verge of tears. “Just when the guildmaster is out, this happens...”

“I’m going to end this quickly,” said Emily.

“Whoa, there. We haven’t set the terms yet. If you lose, you’ll join my party and swear absolute obedience to me. Sound fair?”

“W-Wait!” Nina spoke up in alarm. “When did this turn into some sort of duel?!”

In single combat between a swordsman and a mage, the odds were overwhelmingly against the mage. This was because in order to cast a spell, a mage had to recite an incantation. If the swordsman got to them before the spell was complete, they lost.

The man’s cockiness showed he likely knew this.

“What’s that? You fought a monster but can’t handle an adventurer like me? Guess that means I’m tougher than that feral garuda you killed, so you won’t mind if I take the bounty!”

This was such an outrageous thing to say that it drew scowls from the adventurers who had come to see the show, but the man didn’t notice.

“Whatever, your terms sound fine. Though I’d make peace with your god if I were you. My magic burned that giant chicken to a crisp—if I use it on you, there won’t even be any bones left.”

“D-Damn rookie... You’ve got some nerve...” The man gritted his teeth, but his face had gone rigid. Perhaps he was having doubts—what if it really had been Emily who killed the feral garuda? If he could get close to her, she, as a magic user, would be helpless against him, but she was so confident that he began to wonder if she knew short casting.

Short casting was, as the name suggested, shortening the incantation of a spell. In return, one had to spend a large amount of mana for it.

“Tch...” the man gritted out.

After putting some distance between them, the two faced one another.

“U-Um...” stammered the guild worker. “All right, to decide the case of whether Adventurer Emily truly slew a feral garuda, this, um...magic test? Will now begin...”

“Yaaah!” The man immediately rushed forward. Even short casting still took time. What was more, it was far more difficult than ordinary casting, so if her attention was broken, she wouldn’t be able to complete the spell.

But the strange thing was, Emily stayed right where she was. She wasn’t casting anything, short or otherwise.

Before the man could wonder why, it was too late.

“Gwuh?!” The ground under his feet bulged, then in the next instant, he was hurled up into the sky.

No one present could comprehend what had just happened.

“Bet you thought I’d use short casting, huh? Moron.” Emily looked up at the sky and sighed, then raised her staff. “Try tacit casting.” With a WHOOSH, a blast of wind issued from the end of the staff, carrying the man even higher. He was already at least fifty meters up, and snatches of his screams could be heard from the ground. A fall from that height was certain to be fatal.

“Where’s he gonna fall?!”

“If it’s over here, we’ll get mixed up in it!”

As one, the adventurers who had come to watch turned tail and ran. The guild worker was already long gone.

“E-E-Emily...!” Nina ran up to her.

“Oh, don’t worry, Nina,” said Emily, raising her staff. “I’m not going to kill him. I mean, it’d be gross to get his blood everywhere.”

The man had already begun to fall.

“Spirits of the wind! With my staff as thy compass, send a current of air soaring skyward!”

An updraft materialized at the point toward which the man was falling. Before their eyes, his descent slowed—until the last moment, when he landed on his back with an “Oof!”

His face was a mess of tears, snot, and drool, and he was out cold. His trousers were damp, suggesting he had also wet himself, but Emily and Nina chose to ignore this.

“Tacit casting really is brutal. It chews through mana like crazy.”

“Emily...” Nina moved to support Emily, who staggered as she leaned on her staff. Nina didn’t know much about mages, but even she could tell that Emily had pulled off something extraordinary.

“I might’ve overreacted a bit,” Emily admitted.

“Well, it was still very gallant of you to get angry on my behalf.”

Leaning against one another, Emily and Nina went back into the guild.

*

“H-Here’s your five million gold. I filled out a guild certificate for it,” said the guild worker. It was a magical certificate, which was said to be impossible to forge, with “Adventurer Emily” written on it and a promise to pay out five million gold. So long as she had that piece of paper, Emily alone could withdraw her money at any adventurers’ guild.

The bounty for the feral garuda all went to Emily. She’d tried to insist that Nina should also get credit, but was told that as the date recorded for the kill was before Nina had registered as an adventurer, Nina had no claim.

I’m gonna use this money to treat us both, thought Emily, smirking. While at the guild, she’d also submitted the paperwork to leave the country, while Nina picked up the golden plate that was her shiny new adventurer license.

“All right! Let’s get outta here,” Emily said, turning to leave. But then—

“Emily, my girl! Come join our party! Safety first’s our motto, and we make good money—”

“You gotta join our party! Listen, we’re about to head to the capital to smash the living daylights outta some monsters, so we need a Fifth Degree mage on—”

“Oh my gosh, Emily! You’ve got to join our party! There’s ten of us but only three of us girls, so you’d be the fourth—”

“Join us!”

“Don’t listen to ’em, join us!”

All the adventurers who had seen what went down at the training ground descended on Emily en masse, pushing past one another to try and entice Emily to join them.

Oh... thought Nina. Of course. Emily belongs here now. She was taken aback, but also happy that Emily was getting her moment in the sun. Nina had been curious about the adventuring business, which was entirely new to her, but in the end, Emily’s world was different from hers. She and Emily would part ways here and—

“Guys. What are you even talking about? You can’t seriously expect me to join a party with any of you now.” Emily sounded like she couldn’t care less. “When he was hassling me, not one of you stepped in to help. But Nina here is different. This tiny little girl came to my rescue.”

Emily had so perfectly hit the nail on the head that most of the adventurers averted their eyes awkwardly.

But some were undeterred.

“C-C’mon, Emily. You know as well as us there’s safety in numbers for adventurers in Fulmoon.”

“Nina and I are leaving town.”

There was a general groan of disbelief.

“So if you’d all get out of the way—”

“What is all this commotion?!” A tall man with an air of importance had come into the guild.

His identity became clear when, at the sight of his bushily bearded face, the guild worker cried, “Guildmaster!”

“Eh? You...” The guildmaster noticed Emily at the center of the furor. “Aren’t you the one calling yourself a mage even though you can’t use magic?”

From behind the desk, the guild worker said, “A-Actually, her powers seem to have suddenly awakened. She says she can cast Fifth Degree magic now...”

“Fifth Degree magic? Don’t be a fool! Though it’s true some people’s powers do manifest suddenly... All right, you! Let’s see if you’re telling the truth. Cast something for me.”

This guildmaster had appeared out of nowhere and begun bossing everyone about. Nina opened her mouth to say he had no right to speak so, but Emily raised a hand to silence her. She looked at the guildmaster and smiled.

“You’re the one who sounds like a fool,” she said. “I’m not a Fulmoon adventurer anymore, so I don’t have to follow your orders. And that’s no way to make a request of someone. Come back when you’ve learned some basic manners.”

Despite her expression, her words were laced with venom. The guildmaster’s eyes bulged.

“H-How dare you! You are addressing the Fulmoon Guildmaster! I am second only to the guildmaster in the capital! Every guild in the land is connected—”

“Well, that’s convenient. We’re going across the border, you see.”

“You what?!”

“C’mon, Nina. Let’s go. Hanging around here is a waste of time.”

“Y-Yes, Emily...”

The towering guildmaster, seeing that Emily wasn’t intimidated in the slightest by his rank or even the power of the kingdom’s guild network, was left speechless. Without even acknowledging his existence, Emily took Nina’s hand and led the way out of the guild.

It was a beautiful day outside—perfect weather to set out on a journey. At just that moment, there was a coach about to leave. The two of them climbed aboard.

As they rolled through the city gates, one of the guards noticed Emily and let out a shout. When she and Nina smiled and waved, he called after them.

“Safe travels, o great mage! It’s thanks to you that we lost so few of our fellows to that monster!” He bowed deeply.

“Why is it that the guards know proper manners while the adventurers are such cretins?” Emily muttered as she waved at him. Nina laughed awkwardly.

Once they were past the gate, the breeze that swept the grasslands reached them even inside the coach. Hardly any of the passengers were going beyond the border.

Emily laced her fingers together and stretched. “Ahhh. This is the best feeling, isn’t it?”

“Erm...” Nina hesitated. “Emily, are you really sure about this?”

“About what?”

“Everyone finally respected you as an adventurer, but now...”

“Don’t be silly. It wasn’t me they respected, just my magic.”

“But...” Nina knew what Emily meant, but at the same time, Emily’s magic was still a part of her. She couldn’t help but think it was more important for Emily to be an adventurer in Fulmoon than to be here with her.

“Adventurer, be like the wind,” Emily suddenly recited softly. “Allow none to confine you.”

“Wh-What was that? Do you write poetry...?”

“What? No. It’s just a line from a story I like. It was this classic adventure story I read online. No cheats or anything, just good old-fashioned fantasy. Only the author stopped uploading chapters halfway through.”

Nina stared at her in confusion.

Emily laughed. “It’s fine; don’t worry about it. I just meant, that’s how I want to be—free to live how I want. No one can confine me—no one has the right.”

“Well, if this is what you want...”

“Of course it is!” For a time, Emily shut her eyes, apparently enjoying the breeze. Beside her, Nina’s gaze remained fixed on her face.

“Nina... Do you still not believe me?”

“Oh, no. It isn’t that...”

“Then what’s worrying you so badly?”

“I was just, erm...” Nina looked down. “I was wondering what to make for dinner.”

“You...what?”

“Well, you told me you were expecting good food.”

Emily stared at her. Then, she burst out laughing.

“Wh-What’s so funny?”

“Oh, nothing. Nothing fazes you, huh?”

Nina looked puzzled, but she seemed to have understood what Emily was trying to say in their earlier conversation. Now it was Emily who was worrying too much. After the commotion at the guild and the confrontation with the guildmaster, she’d been afraid that Nina might have had enough of her.

But no, what worried her was actually dinner. Nina tilted her head quizzically, bewildered by Emily’s laughter.

“Relax, you’ve got nothing to worry about.”

“Emily,” Nina said seriously. “This is a matter of grave importance. Not only do I have limited cooking gear and ingredients, there’s no telling whether I’ll have a kitchen, or even fire to cook with on our travels...”

“Knowing you, you’ll still blow my expectations out of the water.”

“Emily! Why would you put more pressure on me like that?!”

“Sorry, sorry. I’m kidding. I’ll help too.”

“You will?”

“Sure! It’ll be exciting to find out what they eat in different countries, don’t you think?”

“Oh yes! And I wonder what their maids are like...”

“Y-You— That’s what you care about...?”

Nina and Emily had no end of things to talk about. Fortunately, they had plenty of time as the horses pulling the coach slowly trundled along toward the town on the border.

*

“Look here! I only just had this dress made, and yet the sleeves are the wrong length! What is the meaning of this!”

The voice of the daughter of Count Mirkwood echoed through the Mirkwood estate in the city of Sickle. Just as she said, her dress for that night’s ball did not quite fit right.

It wasn’t a problem that any ordinary person would spot, but for a noble, a ball was a battlefield. If her peers were to notice, everyone would laugh at her behind her back. More to the point, the daughter of the eminent Count Mirkwood always mocked other young ladies whenever she found anything amiss in their dress, and she was fully convinced that any slipup on her part would make her a laughing stock.

“Fix it this instant!”

“B-But miss, it’s only three hours until the ball.”

“Don’t be ridiculous! It’s never taken longer than ten, maybe twenty minutes to fix my dresses! Get to it!” She flung away the contents of her teacup, then stormed from the room while the maids hung their heads.

Once she was gone, a conference ensued.

“Okay, like, what was that? What’s her problem?”

“No way can I fix this in ten minutes. I don’t even know how to fix it.”

“Oh man. What did she have to throw the tea for? Who does she think’s gonna clean it up?!”

“Just get Nina to do— Oh.”

“Nina’s gone.”

“Urgh, this is the worst. I bet she said ten minutes because that’s how fast Nina did it.”

“So what do we do?”

“I mean, it’s the housekeeper who fired her.”

“Yeah, and she broke the vase.”

“Wait, so it was the housekeeper?”

“I mean, duh. She was in the treasure gallery the most.”

“Let’s blame this on her, then.”

“Yeah, let’s.”

All of the maids went together to the housekeeper’s room.

“...and so without Nina, we can’t possibly carry out the young lady’s command,” they explained, then all bowed.

“Wh-Wh-What...?!” The housekeeper was flabbergasted. “Are you maids or not?! Any creditable maid should be ready to grant Miss Mirkwood’s every wish!”

“It’s because you fired Nina,” muttered one of the maids.

“I beg your pardon?! Are you blaming this on me?!”

“If you please, ma’am, I’m pointing out that this is an unfamiliar job we’ve never done before. Maybe we could do it if we had time, but right now I humbly suggest that it’s not gonna happen.”

“Oh, for...” the housekeeper muttered. In fact, the maids couldn’t have fixed the dress even with more time. “V-Very well. I shall speak to the count.”

The maids kept their heads bowed deferentially until the housekeeper was gone, then smirks spread over their faces.

The housekeeper, meanwhile, found the count just as he was about to leave and told him what had happened—but she did not tell him the truth.

Rather than admit that the maids could not fix his daughter’s dress because they were incompetent, she said that the maid who had recently been dismissed had taken the necessary tools with her when she left. What was more, she hadn’t even bothered to pass on her duties to other maids. As a result, the maids were still frantically trying to learn their new duties and thus, on this one occasion, could not do as the young lady had ordered.

In other words, she blamed it all on Nina yet again.

“Not that maid again! Have we still not tracked her down?!”

“I-I’m afraid not, my lord...” The housekeeper broke out in a cold sweat as she bowed. This was the third time she had drawn the count’s displeasure in ten days. He had always been a mild-mannered fellow, but since the broken vase, he’d developed a temper. At first, she’d thought he was just in a foul mood, but now, she sensed there was more to it.

What could it be...? Nothing had changed. Yet there were small but noticeable creases in the count’s clothing, and the whole house was faintly dusty. It had lost its sparkle. This seemed to the housekeeper like an omen of terrible things to come.

“Raise the bounty on her head, damn it!” shouted the count.

The only thing that had changed was the absence of a certain maid.

“V-Very good, my lord.” The housekeeper watched the irate count leave.

All she had done was incur his disfavor. The problem of the dress remained unsolved, and Miss Mirkwood was still out of temper. In the end, she paid a handsome sum to call in the dressmaker for emergency alterations.

The bounty on Nina’s head was increased to 1.5 million gold.

*

They were still in the Crecente Kingdom, but near the border, the atmosphere of the town changed dramatically. Although it was spring, the air was dry, and at night, the temperature plummeted to the point that they had to wear coats. Trade across the border flourished in these parts, and merchants in wagons accompanied by numerous guards rolled in and out of town.

A maid and a mage stood out somewhat in such a place, but as they had no shortage of gold, they were able to find a good inn to stay at.

Nina was already asleep in bed, her face faintly illuminated in the moonlight that filtered in through the window.

“What a weird girl...” Emily murmured to herself as she gazed at Nina. And a recipe for trouble.

She was thinking about mana meridians. Emily had encountered the theory herself when researching what was wrong with her, but it had been dismissed as a silly story without a shred of experimental proof. What was more, when Emily thought back, she remembered that supposedly only elves—specifically, the high elves who lived in the depths of the forest—could even see or understand mana meridians. It was all too hard to swallow.

But it had made Emily better. That had really happened.

With skill in massage that bordered on the superhuman, it wasn’t a high elf but Nina, an ordinary human, who had somehow sorted out her mana meridians.

What worries me is that she doesn’t think twice about sharing her knowledge, thought Emily. While she worked as a maid, someone had taught Nina both about mana meridians and how to do that massage. Such a person had to be either an incredibly famous mage or else a high elf from the fairy tales. And if that were true...

Emily felt her skin break out in goose bumps. She was still too afraid to ask Nina. Any knowledge entrusted to that important a mage was on the level of a national secret. It wasn’t information you could just go around telling people. The problem here wasn’t that Emily didn’t know the truth; it was Nina obliviously sharing what she knew.

I’ve got to keep her safe. Emily secretly swore to herself that if she saw Nina about to get into trouble, she would stop it.

Ah, man...I can’t believe I found a cheat-level maid. Emily had her own secret, but she still wasn’t sure if she should tell Nina. The truth was, she had been reincarnated from another world. She’d been so happy when her memories of her past life came back to her, and she’d actually pumped her fist as soon as she found out about her aptitude for Fifth Degree magic.

Here it is, she’d thought. My cheat skill.

But she hadn’t been able to use that magic. No one had understood what was wrong with her, with some mages even suggesting she wasn’t trying hard enough. Emily had her own suspicions—what if it was because she’d been reincarnated? Was she made slightly differently to people in this world?

At this point, however, Emily no longer cared if she’d been right or not. She had her magic. And it was all because she’d met Nina.

“Now that I’m with you, you’ve got nothing to worry about,” she said. “So long as we’re together, you’ll never get into trouble again.” She smiled—then froze. “W-Wait a minute...”

It sounded a lot like she’d just set up a giant flag.

“Time for bed,” she muttered. She snuggled up in bed and closed her eyes.

The next day, Emily and Nina crossed the border and entered the Freja Kingdom.

Chapter Two: The Trash Heap Freak Is an Inventor Who Will Change the World

The Freja Kingdom, situated at the center of the continent, was poor in everything. Its land was unproductive, and its water sources were scarce.

But long ago, a king had had an idea: What they lacked, they could make.

That king embarked on research into many different fields—agriculture, of course, but science and astronomy too. His few vassals distanced themselves from him, scoffing that if one could simply make what wasn’t there, all the world’s problems would be solved.

But the king was undeterred. He, along with a handful of citizens of the kingdom, did not know when to give up.

The Freja Kingdom was lucky—none of the neighboring countries wanted a land poor in everything, and so they were spared invasion.

Six hundred years had passed since then...

“—and it is our founding father, the third king of Freja, who made our country what it is today. As you are aware, the Freja Kingdom is also known as the Land of Invention. We have prospered as a result of our easy-to-use magical technology. Although we were unable to improve our barren soil, through exporting that technology, we were able to import foreign food supplies and thus successfully secure our independence.”

“Oooh...” Nina gazed starry-eyed at the well-dressed, elderly gentleman as he spoke. They were in the capital city of the Freja Kingdom—in fact, it was the only settlement resembling a town in the whole of that small nation—in front of a large fountain.

The fountain apparently drew water from two hundred meters below the ground. In comparison with the wasteland that surrounded the city, it stood as a symbol of plenty. It was pleasant enough near the fountain, but away from it, the breeze was arid and dust was everywhere. Nina enjoyed even that, however, when she thought of how different it was to the Crecente Kingdom.

The elderly gentleman explaining all this was one of the Freja Kingdom’s sightseeing guides, and many others besides Nina listened as he spoke.

Emily yawned. “Hey, Nina? I’m gonna go register at the adventurers’ guild. Give me those herbs you gathered and I’ll sell those while I’m there.”

“Very well!” Nina gave her whole pouch to Emily, who seemed unable to listen to any more of the long explanation. Inside it were the medicinal herbs she had picked the other day on the way to Cray Spring. They couldn’t sell it back at the adventurers’ guild in Fulmoon what with everything that went on, so they brought the herbs with them to Freja. Since Nina had prepared and dried them to ensure they wouldn’t go bad, this wasn’t a problem.

“Are you sure you don’t mind missing the tour?”

“Yep, I’m good. I’ll see you back at the inn.”

In truth, Emily was struggling to stay awake. When she spotted a sign for the adventurers’ guild, she’d leaped at the stroke of good luck. This world’s idea of “sightseeing” basically just meant learning history, which Emily wasn’t especially interested in.

“You there, Miss Maid! I’ll be talking about the construction methods used for Freja’s defensive walls next, so mind you listen carefully!”

“Oh! Yes, I will!” Nina turned to Emily. “Until later, then.”

“Uh-huh.” Waving, Emily left.

As he spoke, the old gentleman leading the tour was smiling like a kindly grandfather at the enthralled look on Nina’s face. The Freja Kingdom was known to be safe, so Emily figured Nina would be all right as she headed for the guild.

The town looked exotic to Emily. Perhaps in an effort to squeeze as much as possible into the capital’s narrow bounds, the gray-painted buildings were perfectly square and closely packed.

“They look like blocks of tofu...” Emily said, then added under her breath, “Or Minecraft.”

She arrived at the adventurers’ guild. At a glance, it was indistinguishable from the other buildings. The only way to tell the difference was by the sign hanging outside.

Incidentally, the motif that marked the adventurers’ guild’s signs was a handshake. The thumb was occasionally replaced by a feather to symbolize freedom, but the handshake image was common to all. Taverns had a cup or a goblet, money changers a scale, and inns a sun and moon. The employment agencies that found jobs for maids like Nina were marked by a simple triangle, representing the three parties involved: employer, laborer, and agent.

Emily looked up at the handshake sign. She might have missed that the guild was here at all if not for that. As efficient as they were, these gray buildings made the town look bleak.

When she went through the door, however, she was surprised to find that the inside felt like any other adventurers’ guild. The wooden floor creaked, and the job posters on the walls and the reception desk were the same as in other cities. Perhaps because there was no tavern attached, it was largely empty, but Emily was pleasantly surprised to find that as a result, it was also clean.

The few adventurers there weren’t the rough types who swung swords and axes; instead, they wore neat and tidy clothing akin to suits and looked for all the world like they were here for business meetings. Only the scars on their faces and their tightly guarded bearing marked them as seasoned adventurers. Holsters were tied around their hips, from which hung long metallic tubes.

“Are those pistols...?” she wondered to herself.

To Emily, they looked like it—and why not? If magic existed, so could firearms. In theory, guns would make swords irrelevant, but that wasn’t the case. A master sword fighter could cut through magic—they could probably cut through bullets too.

“I guess I really am in the Land of Invention,” Emily said. Not worrying too much about it, she headed for the reception desk.

*

Nina walked all around the city with the elderly gentleman leading the tour. By the time they returned to the square with the fountain where they began, it was getting on to evening.

“Miss Maid, you are the first person to ever listen to the whole tour...”

In order to make it through the whole of the gentleman’s guided tour, one needed not only the stamina to walk around the city all day, but also either untiring patience for his speeches or a passion for history. Only Nina, with the mysterious toughness she’d built as a maid, and to whom every sight was new and every story was interesting, could have pulled off this remarkable feat.

“Thank you very much. That was ever so educational.” Nina bowed deeply.

“Not at all...” The elderly gentleman was moved to tears. “If you are ever in need, I am at your service.”

“No, don’t be silly! If anything, I’m sorry that I have nothing to offer in return. Except, wait! Tomorrow, I shall bring you a packed lunch. I’d be much obliged if you’d do me the favor of eating it.”

“A packed lunch made by you? Now that’s something to look forward to.” With a wave of his hand, the elderly gentleman bid Nina farewell.

The guided tour did not in fact include time for lunch. Nina was a hardened(?) maid so it didn’t bother her, but it wasn’t good for the elderly gentleman to skip lunch, to say nothing of the participants who, one by one, gave in to hunger and dropped out of the tour. In Nina’s opinion, what the tour needed was a lunch break.

It reminded her of the guests she had served back at the Mirkwood house. She remembered how irritability had given way to looks of relief when she offered tea and cakes, and the smiles as they ate the meals she’d gone to Roy, the cook, to arrange.

“You can’t go wrong with good food!” concluded Nina. With that, she raced off to the evening street market, where she stocked up on condiments, vegetables, and meat before returning to the inn.

*

“Th-That...was the worst day...” It was some time after sundown when Emily arrived back at the inn, dead on her feet. It was a cozy establishment, run by a kindly couple and their children, with only four tables in its common room.

“You’re back!” said the innkeepers’ son.

“Sorry I’m so late. Is my companion—” Emily stopped short as she took in the sight of the innkeepers and their children eating dinner at the common room tables. And then there was Nina, waiting the tables.

“Oh, Emily! Welcome back!”

“Why are you serving dinner?!” Emily demanded. Exhausted as she was, she wasn’t about to let that go by without comment.

“Oh dear, this is all rather embarrassing. The truth is...” The innkeeper, deeply apologetic, explained that Nina had requested to borrow the inn’s kitchen. With Nina and Emily as their only guests, they hadn’t prepared much in the way of food, so the innkeeper’s wife had readily agreed.

“So long as you cook something good, it’s all yours,” she had said. “We’ll have what we made for tomorrow’s breakfast.”

And so Nina had briskly set about preparing dinner.

“After a meal this good, consider your board for tonight on the house!” the innkeeper’s wife said happily.

“For crying out loud...” Emily sighed. “Why are you like this, Nina?”

“Do sit down, Emily,” said Nina.

Emily seated herself at the table next to the innkeeper’s family. When Nina, beaming, handed her a cup of tea, even Emily couldn’t help but be pleased. The tea had been deliberately allowed to cool, so it wasn’t piping hot. The faint warmth was a balm to Emily in her exhausted state, and before she knew it, she drained her cup.

“Aaahhh!” She sighed with satisfaction. “This tea doesn’t lose any of its flavor when it cools, huh?”

Nina chuckled. “I’m glad you like it.” She clasped her hands in front of her and bowed her head, then promptly went to bring the food. It was a leg of wild boar, simmered until the meat was tender and the skin was soft and silky. It fell apart easily when Emily speared it with her fork, then practically melted in her mouth.

“Mmm...!” Maybe it was the herbs, or how Nina had prepared the meat, but the boar meat wasn’t gamey in the slightest. There was also an orange soup of stewed vegetables flavored with spices that aroused her appetite. She dipped a piece of bread in it and took a bite, and found they paired perfectly.

“Nina, this is incredible!” she said.

“You’re very kind. You know, I see why they call the Freja Kingdom the Land of Invention. I’d never used a pressure cooker before. Who would have thought you could cook things so quickly!”

“So the inventions have even found their way into the kitchen... Huh? Is that water?” Nina poured chilled water into a metal cup for her. When Emily took a sip, she immediately understood why. After all the rich food, the water refreshed her taste buds.

“That’s the stuff...” Emily sighed. “Sparkling water would be good too.”

“Sparkling water? Whatever might that be?” Nina immediately latched on to the unfamiliar word.

“Oh, uh... I-I’ve never seen it in this world...”

“This world?”

“Um. I mean, uh... Lemme try and explain...” Somewhat bemused, Emily somehow managed to muddle through an explanation of sparkling water.

*

Her stomach full, Emily went back to their room and dove onto the bed.

“That was pure bliss. Thanks, Nina!”

“I’m glad you enjoyed it.” Nina giggled, feeling warmth blossom in the depths of her chest. It was very nice to receive thanks. She’d also gotten to hear about “sparkling water,” which was water that fizzed like ale. Nina was sure that learning new things would make her a better maid.

I’m glad I came on this journey, she thought. She’d lost track of how many times she’d come to the realization.

“Say, Emily. You were rather late getting back today.”

“Oh, yeah! I was! I forgot!” Emily sat up sharply. “Those herbs you picked—what are they?!”

“Evening primrose buds, long-life vine berries, thousand-year wort flowers...” Nina listed them off. “I’d heard they were rare. Weren’t they worth anything?”

“Oh, they’re rare all right! Everyone freaked out!”

Emily recounted what had happened.

The guildmaster had emerged, announced that he wanted to confirm the authenticity of the herbs, and summoned an inspector from the physicians’ guild. Once it was confirmed that the herbs were the real thing, next they wanted to confirm if they were stolen property. Emily had been hauled off to the city guardhouse to see if anyone had filed a report of theft.

Under the suspicious gazes of the guards, Emily had answered their questions on anything and everything without so much as a quick break for lunch. They even repeated the same questions over and over—presumably to try and catch her in a lie.

“Right from the get-go, they assumed I was a criminal!”

“Th-That’s awful...” said Nina. “Those herbs were rare, but not as much as all that, I shouldn’t think.”

“About that... It seems Fulmoon sent word to them.”

Nina gasped.

“Yeah, I messed up. I shouldn’t have blabbed that we were leaving the country. Still, it’s not like I could have known they’d keep harassing me across the border!”

“I-I’m sorry, Emily. If I hadn’t given you the herbs...”

“Shush. You’ve got nothing to be sorry for. It’s the Fulmoon Adventurers’ Guild who’re in the wrong. Them, and the guild here who believed them. And so—here.”

Emily held out Nina’s pouch. The herbs were still inside. She passed it to Nina, then flopped back down on the bed.

“They didn’t sell, then?” Nina inquired.

“No, I didn’t sell them. Once the guild worked out I’d done nothing wrong, they tried to haggle me down and offered ten thousand gold for the lot. Well, I was sure those herbs were worth a lot more, so I told them I’d changed my mind and walked out. My whole day went to waste.”

“I couldn’t say for sure, but I’d guess they’re worth at least one hundred thousand gold.”

“Right?” Emily groaned. “I’m so mad. No way am I selling anything to those jerks...” And with that, she fell fast asleep. She must have been very tired.

“Emily...” Nina gently pulled the sheets over her. Then, she thought about her funds. “Even with the bounty that Emily won for slaying the feral garuda, we ought to earn money when we can...” Her gaze fell to her pouch. “Only, we won’t get any work from the adventurers’ guild with things as they are...”

Nina made up her mind. “Then that’s that! Tomorrow, I shall go out and make some money!”

Nina rose and left the inn early the next morning. She headed for the maid recruitment agency, a building with a sign outside marked with a triangle.

“Hmmm...” The bespectacled woman at reception sounded apprehensive. “We don’t really get short-term jobs that you can finish in a day or two. On top of which, your papers say you’re an adventurer, not a worker.”

Nina was dismayed to discover that her adventurers’ license could work against her. She could have a city workers’ license issued here, but that would take time and money. A maid’s job required her to go into the home of her employer, so only those with proper credentials were hired. If asked, “Would you like an adventurer to tidy your house and clean your dishes?” anyone in their right mind would say, “No.”

Nina knew the receptionist was right.

“Are those files not client requests, then...?” she asked.

“Ah, those. Those are requests from inventors.”

“There are that many just from inventors?”

The two stacks of files were almost the same size. Of course the Land of Invention would have as many requests from inventors as all the ordinary requests put together.

“The thing is,” the receptionist said, “requests from inventors are only available to workers with a referral letter.”

“Oh...” The Mirkwood estate had not given Nina one when she left.

“I assume you don’t have one?”

“No... I don’t.”

“Then I’m afraid we can’t offer you any wo—”

“I’ll vouch for her!”

Out of the blue, a man came into the agency office. Nina recognized him—it was the young merchant who had traveled with her on the coach to Fulmoon. He had asked her to come and work for his family, but Nina had refused, saying she was there to see the sights. Having just been thrown out of the Mirkwood house, she hadn’t been eager to take another position right away.

“Oh, from the other day...”

“It’s Nina, right? Fancy running into you here in the Freja Kingdom!”

When the receptionist laid eyes on the charming young man, she scrambled to her feet. “M-Master Firth of the Vick Merchant House?!”

Apparently, he was a man of some reputation. Nina took another look at him. He was tall and slim, with blue hair trimmed short and the look of an intellectual, but Nina knew from their short journey together that he was quick to laugh and very much at ease joking around with rougher sorts. He was unexpectedly expressive, with a face that was always changing from one moment to the next.

“I’ve seen how she works,” said Firth, “so if it’s a referral letter you want, I’ll write it.”

“But Master Firth, is that really proper? The only papers this girl has are from the adventurers’ guild...” The suspicious look she turned on Nina was tinged with jealousy. How did this girl dressed like a maid befriend Master Firth? Do they really know each other? I don’t buy it. For that matter, why can’t Master Firth befriend me?

Firth turned to Nina. “If I’m honest, I’d really like you to come and work for the Vick Merchant House...”

“I’m afraid I must decline,” Nina said reluctantly. “My journey is not yet over.”

“I thought as much. That’s too bad. And we don’t have any short-term work either.” He looked genuinely sorry, like a sad puppy. Nina could have sworn she saw his ears droop—not that he had dog ears.

Next, he rounded on the receptionist, eyes flashing. “Well? Do you still have nothing to offer her?”

“O-Of course not! If the Vick Merchant House vouches for her, we’re happy to pass her requests from inventors.” The receptionist quickly began to pull out files.

“I’ll be off, then,” said Firth. “Bye, Nina.”

“Oh! Thank you! But how can I ever repay you...?”

“On the contrary, consider this me repaying you. I haven’t forgotten the tea you served us on the journey from the capital to Fulmoon.” Firth grinned at her, then added, “Although if you insist, I only ask that you call on the Vick Merchant House should you ever hear that we’re in town.”

“But of course!” Nina replied. Firth smiled with evident satisfaction, then strode away with a spring in his step.

He left... Nina mused. They say, “It is relationships, not profits, that make a great merchant.” I suppose this is what they meant...

“Hey.” The receptionist’s voice cut through her thoughts. “How is it you know Master Firth, anyway? Could you introduce me?”

“Pardon?”

“Master Firth!” The receptionist’s eyes were glazed over. “The scion and the son of the president of the Vick Merchant House! And their ace! It’s with him that they’ve found meteoric success trading in rare magical goods. No end of women want him as a husband...but he never stays in one place long enough for anyone to so much as call on him...”

So, meeting Firth was such a rare encounter. That was news to Nina.

“So, erm... You still recognized him even though you hardly ever see him?”

“Obviously!” From beneath her desk, the receptionist produced a small print of Firth’s face. It was made with magical printing, with precision on the same level as photography. For some reason, the Firth in the picture was steely gazed and dressed up like a noble.

“Oh, those eyes... So intellectual and ice-cold... He was so much better in real life...!”

He has a lot more expressions than just that... Nina shook her head. There was no point staying here any longer.

“I don’t suppose I could trouble you to find me a job now...?”

*

Around the same time, Emily woke up at the inn. She immediately saw Nina wasn’t in their room, nor did she find her in the common room. As Emily got her breakfast, she asked the innkeeper’s wife about it.

“Ah, she left at the crack of dawn! Said she was going to do maid work today, and so you’re to rest up and not worry about her.”

Emily gaped. The bread roll in her hand fell to the ground.

Agggh... Is she all right? What if she’s gone and gotten into trouble...?!

With that, she buried her head in her hands.

*

“I-Incredible. This is beyond anything I expected...”

“It was nothing. Sign here, please.”

“R-Right, of course...”

It was around midday, and Nina was back after finishing her third job. The first job had asked for someone to “prepare preserved foods,” the second to “reorganize a library (must adhere to Helgaard Classification),” and the third to “locate a lost magical catalyst.”

The first job had taken the longest, followed by the second. The third was over in seconds. In her time at the Mirkwood estate, Nina had built up extensive experience tracking down the lost property of her master and her fellow maids. She knew exactly the sorts of things people tended to lose, and where they tended to lose them. She could track down a trinket in a hoarder’s house in no time.

When Nina returned promptly after taking care of these three jobs, the agency receptionist stared at her in wide-eyed amazement.

“Um... Will that be all for today, then?” she asked.

“Certainly not. I’ve got plenty of work in me yet!”

“I-I see.”

“What’s this one?”

“Oh, that...” One of the request forms laid out on the desk was noticeably plain and dog-eared.

Client: Astrid Mahogany.

Request: Household cleaning.

Compensation: 3,000 Gold.

That was all it said.

“The Mahogany Merchant House is an inventor family, but since the last president died, their business has been suffering...” the receptionist explained. “That’s why the pay is so abysmal, even though it’s from an inventor.”

The three jobs Nina had completed that morning had netted her around five hundred thousand gold. She got lucky, of course—luck was always involved when it came to finding lost items, and earlier, she had gotten quite lucky indeed—but the fact remained that she had earned more than enough for one day. It must have been very lucrative to be an inventor, yet here was one who could only offer three thousand gold.

“I’ll take the job,” said Nina.

“I didn’t think so, not when it pays— Wait. Y-You will?!”

“Yes. Please tell me the details.”

“Are you serious?”

“I am.”

“Will you introduce me to Master Firth?”

“D-Definitely not.”

The receptionist pouted.

Don’t look at me like that, Nina wanted to say. I can’t do anything about it.

For starters, she didn’t even know Firth’s contact details.

Nina’s client, the Mahogany Merchant House, was based right in the center of the city. It was another of the square, two-story houses that Emily had dubbed “tofu buildings,” but it had a garden, and a wall enclosed the property. They must have been prosperous—past tense.

Now, the garden had run wild. Weeds grew unrestrained up and around rusted equipment of unknown purpose. One might wonder how weeds could grow in a land where water was so scarce, but on the contrary, it was their ability to flourish even in such an environment that made them weeds. The stone wall was coated in dust and didn’t seem to have been cleaned in years.

Nina folded her arms. “This shall be very...rewarding to clean up,” she said. With a determined nod, she went inside.

Astrid, the president of the Mahogany Merchant House and the client, was not home. In fact, that week was the assembly of the inventors’ society, in which all inventors in attendance presented their latest inventions and hobnobbed with colleagues. During Nina’s jobs that morning, the inventors themselves had largely been absent; instead, the servants had checked her work. At the Mahogany house, however, there weren’t even any servants.

“I’ll do the inside first,” Nina decided. “Once this house is clean, it’ll be less gloomy.” With the key the agency had given her, she let herself in.

“O-Oh my...” The interior was in such a state that it left Nina speechless. There were a few clear patches in the corridor like stepping stones, but everything else was buried in garbage. Insects scuttled about.

“It’s a good thing the client isn’t home. Imagine if they’d seen the shock on your face,” Nina chided herself. “I’ve still got lots of room to improve.”

With that, she pulled herself together and got to work.

*

The Inventors’ Society Assembly included a large conference in a grand hall. A social function followed it at a smaller venue next door. There, refreshments were laid out buffet style, with sofas and tables placed along the walls. The inventors were chatting among themselves.

“Whew...”

Sitting alone on one of the sofas was a tall, slim woman. Her blonde hair was cropped short and she wore no makeup, but her purple, catlike eyes were striking, and it was easy to see that she would be stunning in a gown. Right now, however, she wore a pencil skirt and gave off the air of a competent businesswoman.

“Haaah...” The woman, whose name was Astrid, sighed heavily. Why do I have to attend these things...?

The Royal Freja Inventors’ Society made it compulsory for anyone in the city who called themselves an inventor to present at an assembly at least once per year. Assemblies were held every quarter, and one could present at whichever one liked. It just so happened that Astrid had come to this one. She was there to fulfill her obligation.

The presentations were a waste of time...

The Freja Kingdom deserved its title of the Land of Invention, and none could deny that it was leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the continent with its heavy-capacity, magic-driven locomotive. The great iron engine propelled by magic had astonished the other countries.

But that was ten years ago. Lately, things had been...boring.

Puffed-up inventors gave presentations on familiar-sounding technology or marginal efficiency improvements for magical circuitry—some even engaged in wholesale plagiarism of foreign technology—and were met by gushing praise from their peers.

The fact was that all the merchant houses made their living off of fees for patents on inventions from generations earlier.

Not that I’m any different, when you put it like that... Even if Astrid’s house was dilapidated, it was still right at the center of the city. The only reason she could keep it was because of the patents she had inherited from her father and grandfather, but the terms on those patents would soon be up, at which point Astrid would have to support herself.

I just want to get out of here and back to my research. I’m so close. Just one step away from an incredible discovery.

Around her, inventors stood around the tables chatting and eating.

“The rights to the Belfat Mine...”

“Did you buy those Werther Duchy bonds?”

“The art trade is where the money is these days...”

All the conversations were about making money. These people, who had grown rich off inherited capital, might call themselves inventors, but in reality, they were investors.

And it got worse.

“My, my! If it isn’t Astrid of the Mahogany Merchant House.”

Here we go. Astrid turned around wearily.

Three women in glittering gowns stood before her. They were at least in their late forties, possibly even already in their sixties, but they wore low-cut gowns that exposed their cleavage and had a group of young men trailing behind them. Astrid had a private nickname for them: “the witches.” She wasn’t the only one either—about fifty others at the assembly called them the same—but that wasn’t important right now.

“It’s, ah... Good day,” said Astrid.

The women’s makeup was so thick she doubted she would have recognized them on the street.

“Have you still not come around to selling off your business, dear? I’ve told you a thousand times that if you’d only surrender your land, we’ll keep the Mahogany Merchant House going.”

“Perhaps her memory is failing her?”

“Tee hee! Now, now, it’s cruel to tease her so!”

The witches owned the land surrounding the Mahogany Merchant House where Astrid lived. They wanted her home out of the way, all so they could combine their holdings and build a grand mansion.

Although they were here at the Inventors’ Society Assembly, the witches did no inventing themselves. If truth be told, all they did was dress up extravagantly and use their wealth to surround themselves with young men. And yet, in this country, they were still allowed to call themselves inventors—all by making other people do their research, then presenting it under their own names. These witches were also some of the wealthiest people in the kingdom.

All the more troubling, then, that they had set their sights on Astrid’s land.

“I believe I already rejected that kind offer...” said Astrid.

“Did you hear that? ‘Offer,’ she says!”

“She makes it sound as if we were asking.”

“The very idea!”

Astrid already had a headache, but it rapidly worsened as the witches broke out in tittering laughter.

“It was an order, dear. We’ve been telling you to hurry up and clear off. Besides, you haven’t even discovered anything worth presenting.”

“One may defer presenting,” Astrid gritted out, “when one is conducting long-term research. I have approval from the society.”

“Hah! And I suppose you got the old man’s approval when you invited him into your bed? My, my. I didn’t think you had it in you.”

“Wha?!” Astrid was too shocked to form words. The witches turned from her, and, as they walked away, she heard them laughing, “Oh, how awful!”

“Oh, I forgot!” All of a sudden, one of them turned back. “Do you know what you’re known as among the inventor families? ‘The trash heap freak’! You know, I thought I smelled something—and lo and behold, here you were!” She cackled with laughter.

Astrid knew she couldn’t complain if people made fun of her, not when she kept saying she was on the cusp of a great discovery and still had nothing to show for it. To hear her home called a “trash heap,” however, was mortifying. She very nearly threw herself at the woman in a fury, but one thing stopped her—the fact that she had no one to blame for letting the house fall into ruin other than herself.

“Ugh...” Long after the women had left, Astrid remained there, her jaw rigid, unable to bring herself to move.

*

“Presentations were rather lackluster this year, weren’t they?” said one of the board members of the inventors’ society.

“Indeed. If this keeps up, the reputation of the Freja Kingdom will be ruined. I hear that our neighbors in Werther have been making a lot of discoveries as of late...”

“What about a preliminary review for presentations?”

“They’ll just kick up a stink about potential leaks of proprietary information...”

“I wonder if we’ve been a bit soft on the inventors.”

“Well, if you put it like that, we’re no exception. Ought we to come out of retirement, then?”

“Perish the thought. Our task is the education of the next generation. It’s high time we brought our pupils into line.”

“That’ll be a long undertaking. I doubt we’ll live to see the kingdom of inventors return to its former glory.”

“Oh, please. With that shameless smirk, I doubt anyone could kill you if they tried.”

“What does my face have to do with anything?”

The old grayheads sat around the table throwing barbs at one another until the society president spoke up.

“How are things with the Mahogany Merchant House?”

“Ah, the Mahogany girl... She attended this time, but it seems she didn’t present.”

“Her father and grandfather before her did such excellent work.”

“Ah, that’s right. Her grandfather and grandmother were both inventors.”

“Those were the days. Every presentation was more astonishing than the last. The four assemblies each year were a chance for exciting inspiration...”

“Now, four feels like too many.”

A gloomy silence fell.

“Well, I still haven’t given up on the Mahogany girl,” the president said at last.

“We can only pray that she doesn’t succumb to the allure of gold like the others have...”

Such an appeal to a higher power was no fit way for an inventor—a scientist—to speak.

*

Despite the lengthening days, the nights were still chilly.

And yet—

“Stupid witches, don’t you ‘Tee hee hee’ me...” slurred Astrid. “The worst bit’s you think you’re sooo classy...”

—if anything, she felt too hot as she lurched down the street. After getting into a temper at the assembly, she’d made ample use of the open bar.

Now, she was well and truly drunk.

Perhaps humans had something akin to a dog’s homing instincts, because Astrid headed straight back home.

“I’m hooome,” she announced. “Not that anyone’s here...” Mumbling to herself, she was about to go through the gate, then stopped.

“Hooold on... This is the neighbor’s house! Whew, close call.” She’d noticed the pristine stone wall, and the perfectly manicured, weed-free garden—in other words, she’d noticed that this wasn’t her house.

Astrid did an about turn, humming to herself as she began to take a step toward the house next door. Then she froze.

“Wait.”

She turned around. This was her house, wasn’t it? The Mahogany Merchant House?

“Wha...”

Where once had been grimy walls surrounded by overgrown weeds...

“Whaaaaaat?!”

Now, even in the dark of night, the house gleamed. It was sparklier than sparkling clean. What had happened that day? Had time turned back to when the house was newly built? Or had she herself been sent back in time? Astrid was bewildered.

“Welcome home, ma’am.” The front door opened, and light spilled out. Standing in the entrance was a tiny maid. “I’ve been expecting you. My name is Nina. I was sent by the agency to fulfill the task of cleaning your house.” She clasped her hands in front of her and bowed.

Astrid said nothing. She couldn’t find her voice.

“Y-You are Miss Astrid, are you not?!”

“Y-Yes, but... You said cleaning?”

“That’s right. You put in a request for cleaning, didn’t you? I was given a key...”

“I, um... Yes, that’s right.” For some reason, Astrid found herself speaking more properly. She hadn’t honestly believed that anyone would take the job. The pay she’d offered had been low, and anyone with any familiarity with the city’s inventors knew that the Mahogany Merchant House had gone to the dogs. Astrid had thought about going in the next day to cancel the request and ask for her key back.

“H-How many people did you bring? Cleaning the front must have taken forever. Only, I hate to say this, but I only asked for one person...”

What if it turned out there were ten workers who all wanted payment? It wasn’t that Astrid didn’t have the money, but it would be a blow to her finances.

“Yes, ma’am. I did it all by myself, of course.”

“Ah, so it was just you— Wait, it was just you?!”

“Yes, m’am. But I must apologize. It got dark earlier than I expected, so I didn’t quite finish cleaning the front.”

“A-A-Are you kidding?! You’ve done more than enough! I didn’t recognize the place!”

“As a maid, I can’t help but be bothered by leaving while it’s anything less than perfect...”

Astrid blinked at her. What was this maid on about? Her client had just told her she’d done “more than enough” and yet she wasn’t satisfied “as a maid.”

Professional pride...? With that, Astrid felt herself relax. Her nerves had been on edge after spending all day at the assembly with people who didn’t know the first thing about professional pride. It was thoughtful of fate to line up an encounter with such a consummate professional for her.

“I see...” said Astrid. “In that case, if it’s all right with you, could I ask you to come back tomorrow?” She had sobered up completely and now stood in her usual pose with her back straight and her hands on her elbows in front of her. Although it was the interior she’d asked to have cleaned, she was happy to see the exterior so tidy. Once that was done, she’d ask Nina to do the inside.

“A-Are you sure?” Nina asked. “It was my fault for not pacing myself properly...”

“Even a pro slips up sometimes. I do it constantly.”

“Yes, I thought I could do it all in an afternoon, but it took longer than I anticipated.” Nina smiled ruefully, then added that she still had a lot to learn.

“Just the afternoon?” Astrid had assumed Nina had been here since morning. Half a day! Half a day to get the outside of her house looking this tidy? Astrid was impressed. “You’re a lot more capable than you look.”

“I-I’m nothing special,” replied Nina. “Any maid could have done it.”

Astrid did not buy that “any maid” could have gotten the outside of her house and the garden sparkling clean in half a day. She let out a hollow laugh—Nina had a funny way of showing humility.

“The truth is,” she said, “I really wanted the interior of the house cleaned. That’s why I’d like you to come back tomorrow.”

Nina looked puzzled.

“Did I say something weird...?”

“O-Oh, no, not at all... It’s just...” Nina stammered. “Well, I already finished cleaning inside.”

Astrid stared at her in disbelief. Then she charged forward into the house.

“Wh-Wh-Wha...” Whereas before there hadn’t been space to walk, the floor was not only visible but gleamed like a mirror. Even the walls—Astrid had forgotten they’d ever been that color.

Naturally, she had assumed that the outside alone had taken Nina half a day, and even that had been unbelievable. Even a full day shouldn’t have been enough to get it looking that good. Yet now it turned out that she’d cleaned the inside first, and somehow, she still hadn’t paced herself properly?!

“Shall I bring some tea?” said Nina.

Astrid was silent.

“Miss Astrid...?”

“Um, y-yes, please. That’s very kind of you.” She’d fallen into proper speech again.

Nina had taken the cleaning job a little after midday. She’d tidied the inside of the house, then gotten to work on the outside, only to run out of time.

It was simple enough, put like that, but it took two cups of tea before Astrid properly understood and believed her.

“Um...” said Astrid. “Is it all right if I go over your work first?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“The pay for this job was three thousand gold, right? I didn’t mess up and write three million gold, right?”

“That’s correct, ma’am.”

“Then...why did you go to all this effort?” Astrid held up her empty teacup. “You even made this lovely tea for me!” When she had been using it, the teacup had been stained yellow. Now, it was sparkling white and seemed to proclaim for all to hear that this was its true color!

“I’m glad that you enjoyed the tea. But I only did what any maid would.”

“You must know some very different maids to the ones I do...”

“That reminds me!” Nina exclaimed. “Miss Astrid, I don’t know the first thing about magical inventions and so I left most of the back room as it is. If I came back tomorrow, could I trouble you to instruct me directly on how to proceed?”

“I-It’s fine, really. If it gets any cleaner in here, I won’t be able to relax.”

“That won’t do. I really barely cleaned your workshop at all.”

“Do you really mean ‘barely’...?” Astrid asked suspiciously.

“Yes.”

For some reason, Astrid felt a little relieved that some of the house remained uncleaned.

“You barely cleaned it.”

“I’m very sorry, Miss Astrid.”

“I’m not angry, but you do mean ‘barely,’ right?”

“W-Well, yes...”

“Hmmm. In that case, I’ll just go take a look...” Astrid stood up, went up to the back room that served as her workshop, and went inside.

“Oh, come on! I knew it! It’s spotless!” The floor had been polished until it shone, and her workbench looked like new.

“It’s not! These devices here...!”

Astrid had to admit that although her experimental equipment had been tidied, the devices with catalysts were untouched. All the same, they were the only thing that wasn’t clean. The rest of the room looked brand-new.

“How did you do this?! How?!”

“Any maid could do it.”

“No they could not!!!” Astrid, who was usually cool and collected, found herself shouting.

“Erm... I’d never actually seen the inside of an inventor’s workshop before, and I was curious about what sorts of devices are used...”

“H-Huh? You’re interested in this sort of thing?” Astrid relaxed a little as the conversation moved to something she understood. She held up a chisel-like tool. It was inlaid with a mana-imbued stone, and the edge of the blade glowed blue. Only an inventor or someone who worked with magic would ever have seen or used such a thing.

“A maid ought to know such things. I’m quite ashamed...”

Nina could have come back the next day to get Astrid to sign off on her work. Apparently, the reason she had hung around until this hour was that she was curious about Astrid’s workshop.

“You’ve got a human side to you after all.”

“Y-Yes, ma’am. I still have a long way to go as a maid.”

As a maid, Nina was practically godlike, but Astrid kept that to herself. Waking up the next morning to find her house a trash heap once more would have been easier to believe than all this.

“As much as I’d love to show you my work...”

“Oh! Of course, it must be very secret. Do forgive me, ma’am. I ought not to have asked.”

“What? No, that’s not it.”

Nina looked at Astrid questioningly. She’d thought she’d said that so as not to reveal the secrets of her trade, but apparently not.

“The truth is,” Astrid said reluctantly, “my work—that is to say, my research—is a little different from that of other inventors.”

“In what way...?”

“The inventions we use today, especially those on a grand scale like the magical locomotive and the magical streetlights around the city, all use mana. You know that, right?”

“Yes.”

“That mana is extracted from mana crystals like this one. You know that too?”

Nina nodded. Nearly all magical inventions were powered by mana crystals. They were used like batteries, then disposed of.

“Magical technology might seem like a straight copy of magic spells, but the truth is, it’s far more limited in scope. Spells can be activated by all sorts of things. Take summoning, where you use a catalyst to summon a being from another world. Or holy magic, which uses a person’s mana to heal wounds. Magical technology can’t reproduce those effects.”

“There’s also fairy magic,” Nina supplied. “That borrows power from the fairies to cast spells, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, exactly! That right there is what I’m researching—fairy magic.”

There were beings out there that, while said to exist, could not be seen or touched by ordinary people. They were called fairies. It was said that only the forest-dwelling elves could commune with them. The elves, whose knowledge of magic, mana, and magical technology were unmatched.

“We’re close to the limit of what can be achieved with magical technology powered by mana crystals, and it’s been more than a decade since any discoveries that could truly be called groundbreaking. That’s why I’ve got my eye on fairy magic. If I can achieve new magical technology without mana crystals, it’ll mark the beginning of a new era of invention...”

“How wonderful!” Nina couldn’t help but exclaim at the thought of Astrid working toward a better future. Seeing the tiny maid’s excitement, Astrid smiled faintly—but then, her expression quickly grew sad. She set the chisel down on her workbench with a metallic CLUNK.

“Except it won’t work...”

“What? Wh-Why do you say that?”

“I don’t have the genius to work it out. Look at me—I’m an inventor, and I can’t shell out more than three thousand gold to clean my house. I’ll have to give it up before long.” Astrid sank to the ground where she stood. “I wish I could do work that helps people like you do... I’ll probably be remembered as an inventor who never achieved anything. This house was my parents’, and my grandparents’ before them. Once I lose it, I’ll have nothing...”

“Miss Astrid...”

Nina crouched down beside her and laid a hand on Astrid’s back. “You won’t have nothing.”

“I don’t get it. My research is a failure. The theory is perfect—it satisfies all the activation conditions for fairy magic that my investigations turned up—but the technology doesn’t work. I’ve been stuck looking for a solution for nearly a year. Any way you look at it, I’ve run out of ideas. I’m not cut out to be an inventor. But if I’m not an inventor, I’ll be nothing...”

Her voice grew thick with tears. Perhaps she hadn’t fully sobered up after all, or it was the sting of the insults from the assembly that day, or it was something about this tiny maid that made Astrid feel she could tell her anything. She found herself revealing the whole of her innermost thoughts.

“The idea that you’ll be nothing...” Nina said. “It just isn’t true. Just one day—no, half a day—in your home was enough to show me that you’re a very kind person.”

“Kind? Me...?”

“Yes. You’ve taken care not to damage the bones of the house by doing small, regular repairs, and you’ve been gentle with all the furniture. Many of these pieces are old enough to be antiques, but they’re all still in good working order.”

Although, Nina added with an apologetic smile, there had been a little garbage lying around.

“While I was cleaning, I wondered what sort of person you might be. I thought you must be kind, but disorganised, so that when you got caught up in your work, you let things get away from you... Now, I think I was right.”

Astrid was quiet. She wiped at her eyes with her sleeve, smearing it with her light dusting of makeup.

“I hear ‘freak’ and ‘eccentric’ from lots of people, but you’re the first to ever call me ‘kind’... Well, not quite. The first after my parents and my grandparents.” Astrid stood up. Her eyes were still wet with tears, but she seemed to have gotten control of herself again. “All this time, I’ve wondered if I ought to leave this house. I thought that if I didn’t, I’d never learn to stand on my own two feet,” she said. “Thank you, Miss Maid. You’ve helped me make up my mind. I’m going to sell the house and start afresh.”

“Call me Nina, please.” Nina clasped her hands in front of her and bowed. “But Miss Astrid, while I’m happy you reached a decision...I would ask that you hold off a little longer before giving up your home.”

“Huh? Why’s that?”

“I believe that memories live on not only in one’s heart, but also in things. If you let those things go, you’ll never get them back.”

“But my research is at a standstill...” Astrid said helplessly. “Another month of effort isn’t going to change that.”

“Fairy magic...” Nina said thoughtfully. “Miss Astrid, if you believe your theory is perfect, then might I trouble you to test it once more for me here?”

“It’s no trouble... But why one more time? What’ll be different this time?”

Nina smiled at her. “The truth is,” she said, “I have an idea.”

*

Emily spent the whole day in a state of mental anguish. The first place she thought Nina might have gone to was the adventurers’ guild, followed by the apothecary guild—after all, Nina had spoken the previous day about her unsold herbs. But she wasn’t at either of them.

To make matters worse, Emily only got irritated as both guilds tried to ingratiate themselves with her.

“It seems we got off on the wrong foot yesterday. If you’re still selling, we could be willing to pay a decent sum.”

“Would you consider registering with the apothecary guild and selling to us instead? We’ll pay twice what the adventurers’ guild offered. Twice as much, you hear? That’s twenty thousand gold! It’s a good offer!”

They offered her twenty thousand gold. A measly twenty thousand gold for herbs that were worth at least one hundred thousand gold.

Then when Emily said she wasn’t interested in doing business, the guilds had the nerve to get angry at her. “You think you can make it in Freja going on like that?” and “We’ll see that the other guilds hear about this,” they had said. The way they repeated exactly the same phrases made Emily’s irritation mount even higher. It was enough to make her wonder if they’d rehearsed together in advance.

After that, she wandered aimlessly about the town in search of Nina until just after midday, when it occurred to her that maybe she had gone to find maid work. Lo and behold, at the employment agency, she was told that Nina had indeed been there. Unfortunately, they couldn’t reveal the details of a client’s request to an outsider. Emily couldn’t argue with that.

Strangely, the woman at the reception, her eyes oddly distant, had said, “Just wait a little and stop by again. She’ll be back in no time.”

Apparently, Nina was already getting into trouble. Emily lingered restlessly in the vicinity of the agency until evening, but although she waited and waited, Nina did not return.

Maybe she’s gone back to the inn. With that in mind, she went back to their inn, ate the dinner the innkeeper’s wife offered, then went up to their room. She restlessly paced around as she once again waited for Nina to show up.

“Could she have gotten mixed up in something...? No, this is Nina—what if she went and stuck her nose right into it instead?! I’ve gotta go find her!”

No sooner had she reached this conclusion than the door opened. And there, at long last, was a tiny maid.

“I’m back!”

“N-Nina! Where were y—?!”

“Sorry to intrude,” came a voice behind Nina, from a tall woman whose height was only accentuated in comparison to the maid. It was Astrid.

Emily blinked, confused at the appearance of this stranger.

“Emily, this is Miss Astrid,” said Nina. “She’s an inventor. Miss Astrid, this is my companion, Emily.”

“Pleased to meet you.” When Astrid held out her hand, Emily took it.

“Y-You too...?” she sputtered out. Nina beamed at them then went into the adjoining room, saying she was going to organize her things.

“You’re Emily, are you?” said Astrid. “Sorry to barge in so late at night, but I wanted to talk to you.” She lowered her voice. “I’ll cut to the chase. Just who is that girl? She says she’s just like any other maid, then breezes through tasks that any other maid obviously couldn’t do. Not only that...” Astrid hesitated. “She knows incredibly secret things that she revealed to me just after we met. That strikes me as extremely risky.”

Emily said nothing. She looked up at the ceiling and covered her eyes with her hands.

Nina had really gone and done it this time.

*

The building was no different from any of the others—that is, it was unadorned and square. It was, however, conspicuously larger. If Emily had seen it, she’d probably have called it “the boss tofu.” In fact, this building was where they handled the best inventions the Freja Kingdom had to offer: the patent office.

Astrid stepped out of it with a sunny look on her face. She had just applied for a patent:

Preliminary Research and Practical Methodology for Magical Technology via Fairy-Powered Mana Conversion.

As she hurried home, she thought back on what she and Nina had spoken about. It was her conversation with the maid that had allowed her to break through the towering barrier that had seen her fail to make progress for a full year.

“Are you aware, Miss Astrid, that fairies have a deep disdain for humans?”

Nina had first said that she had an idea. What followed, Astrid couldn’t have forgotten if she tried.

“Fairies love untouched nature and hate the humans who destroy it. You can imagine what they think of the orderly streets and manicured greenery of the Freja Kingdom.”

Astrid had never heard of this before, but it did remind her of something.

Some humans claimed to be able to see fairies. When Astrid had studied their accounts, she found that around half of them had at one point lived out in the wilderness or had been forced to survive alone in harsh conditions in nature. The other half, meanwhile, were probably lying, likely to fleece others out of their money.

“But this house isn’t like the rest of the Freja Kingdom. Its grounds are at a distance from other buildings, and one could see the way your garden ran wild when you neglected it as nature recovering its strength.”

Nina had called it a happy accident.

“However, the...” she paused. “Superfluous materials inside your house were a problem. That’s why the fairies wouldn’t come near.”

Astrid found it weird that Nina had gone out of her way to say “superfluous materials” rather than just saying “trash.”

“But I removed all of that. This building and your workbench are made of wood, you’ve used them with great care, and there are no strange artificial additions. I think those will all work in your favor.”

Astrid then began to say that she’d just never had the money to replace any of it, then stopped. That wasn’t true. She loved her workbench and her magical tools—they had originally belonged to her grandparents. Easy as it was to shut away her true feelings in favor of bland modesty, she felt that in doing so, she would be betraying Nina, who had seen and affirmed that tiny scrap of love inside her.

“Try and ask the fairies for help now. I’ll open the windows and let some fresh air in... Even if it doesn’t work this time, what about going out into the forest and trying there?”

This information was all new to Astrid. She’d never seen or heard of magical technology that worked in some environments but not others. Magical technology was science. She’d believed that an experiment had to produce the same results no matter the conditions. Nina’s idea—that the conditions themselves were part of the magic—was a revelation.

Perhaps it had been excitement, or the lingering effects of alcohol, or a premonition of her imminent success, but Astrid felt buoyant. She got out her magic circle apparatus and began the test...

“I’ll never forget what I saw then for as long as I live...”

Astrid closed her eyes, reliving the moment.

When the wind blew in through the open window, Astrid sensed that this time was different. She felt a mild warmth—a sense that someone was there.

Then her magic circle, which up until now hadn’t responded at all, blazed with rainbow-colored light that a moment later filled the whole room. It was blinding, but also warm and comforting.

“What the?! Something weird’s going on...!”

Astrid heard whispering voices. It was possible she’d imagined it, as she would later run additional tests with her magic circle without hearing anything. But she believed that those had been the voices of fairies.

“Well done, Miss Astrid! It, erm...did work, didn’t it?”

Even after the light faded, Astrid was too stunned to notice as Nina hovered uncertainly, saying, “Should I ask yet? Should I wait?”

I can’t believe this maid... It was plain from Nina’s face that she had no idea what her suggestion had done or what it was worth. Like Astrid had said earlier, this marked “the beginning of a new era of invention.” Even she didn’t know what that truly meant—for it would be shaped by a new generation of inventors. Perhaps she might even be among them.

Before Astrid could tell Nina that the experiment had worked, something else occurred to her. That information about fairies that Nina had so blithely revealed... It hadn’t been in any books.

Without thinking, she asked, “Who told you that about fairies?”

Nina looked puzzled. “Erm... It was a guest at the estate where I was previously employed.”

After hearing Nina’s description of the guest, one name rose up in Astrid’s mind.

“Could it be...? No, it has to be... It was him.”

Nina said the one who told her about fairies was fair of face with pointed ears, meaning he had to be an elf—but this wouldn’t just be any elf.

Elves were, as a rule, a secretive folk who never emerged from the isolated reaches of the elf forest. Given that, this particular elf was special—so special that he was even spoken of as an ambassador between elves and humans. Astrid had heard of him. Indeed, he was so famous that no one with a half-decent education hadn’t heard of him.

“Lord Tuyledo Fal Vilhelmscott...” she murmured. He was one of the Five Sages and the greatest of all mages, which made him one of the most eminent individuals in the world, higher even than the king of Freja.

As this was sinking in, Astrid also realized something else.

This maid is trouble.

The trouble in question—Nina—stood there with her head tilted in puzzlement, having no idea what the knowledge she possessed was worth. Nina had said that she was traveling with a companion, and it occurred to Astrid that this person might be using Nina for nefarious purposes. She decided she had to meet them as soon as possible.

However, when Nina told her about her companion on the way back to the inn, Astrid understood just what sort of person this “Emily” was, and the moment she saw Emily in person, she knew she was right.

Emily was just like her. Nina had saved her too.

“I’ve got my pack... Right, I’m ready to go.” Astrid went back to her house and picked up the travel bag she’d packed the day before. She’d paid the employment agency what remained of her fortune to have her house looked after for the next two years.

For those two years, Astrid had made other plans.

“Nina! Emily! How’s it going?” Astrid arrived at the inn where Emily and Nina were staying. After hearing that the two of them were leaving the city that day, she’d hurried to pack for a journey then submit her patent application.

“You were serious...?” said Emily. “You really want to come with us?”

“B-But Miss Astrid, are...are you sure? You have your house here...”

The two of them reacted the same way they had when she first told them she was coming.

“I’m sure. My house will still be here, and I can do my research anywhere. This feels like the right move for me.”

Astrid was determined to go with Nina. Even if she tried to give Nina money as thanks for helping with her research, she knew she wouldn’t accept it. She was well aware by now that the tiny maid was a professional through and through. She wouldn’t accept compensation for anything she considered outside of her job. So instead, Astrid would join her on her journey and, little by little, repay the enormous favor that Nina had done her. She also thought she ought not to let Nina out of her sight.

Besides, she didn’t have any friends among the city’s inventors, and most importantly, she had a hunch that being with Nina would provide her with ideas for new inventions.

A hunch... How unscientific. Astrid smiled to herself. Nina looked puzzled.

“Well, if Nina says you can come, that’s good enough for me,” said Emily. “You don’t seem like a bad person.”

“Thanks,” said Astrid. “Glad to be on board, Emily.”

“Mm-hmm.” As Emily returned Astrid’s proffered handshake, their eyes met.

We’ve got to stop Nina whenever she’s about to get herself in trouble.

Yes, I know. Why do you think I came along?

In that instant, they understood one another perfectly.

Nina looked at them questioningly. “Emily? Miss Astrid? All of a sudden, you seem like old friends...”

“Oh yeah!” Astrid said abruptly. “Nina, now that we’re travel companions, you can stop calling me ‘Miss Astrid.’ Just call me Astrid, like you do with Emily.”

“Oh, v-very well, erm...Astrid.”

“There you go. I’m looking forward to traveling with you.”

“So am I!” Nina accepted Astrid’s handshake too.

Her hands are so small, Astrid thought. How strange that such hands can work such miracles.

To Astrid, at least, cleaning up her house and most of the garden in half a day was nothing short of a miracle. The following day, Nina had actually come back, cleaned every inch of the house and finished off the garden.

“Right, time to go, you guys,” said Emily. “The coach is about to leave. Wait, Nina? Didn’t you say you had an errand to run?”

“Oh, I took care of it!”

“Cool!”

At Emily’s prompting, Astrid moved off with Nina behind her.

To a lone inventor, the capital of the Freja Kingdom seemed vast. But after living here all her life, Astrid also found it stifling.

“Off on a journey...” she murmured and felt her heart leap.

*

That day, the guildmasters of the adventurers’ guild and the apothecary guild were summoned by the inventors’ society. The building that housed the society’s head office was larger than any other in the city, and for some reason, it alone had a magnificent exterior. The two guildmasters, each trailed by a string of underlings, ran into each other at the entrance.

“Why, if it isn’t the apothecary guildmaster. Were you summoned too?”

“I was indeed. Whatever could be behind it...? Unlike you and your brood of troublemakers, I can’t possibly imagine why I would be summoned.”

“Oh, don’t give me that rubbish. They probably caught on to you limiting the import of antipyretics to inflate prices.”

“One ought not to spread groundless rumors.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.”

The two guildmasters were not on especially good terms. With a noise of irritation, they each straightened their lapels, then went into the inventors’ society office.

Every guildmaster was a prominent figure in the city. Not just anyone could demand their presence, but in the Freja Kingdom, the inventors’ society was supreme. The guildmasters paled in comparison. Despite their bluster, the adventurers’ and apothecary guildmasters both looked tense as they entered the grand building.

They were shown to the office of the society president.

“You may enter. But only the two guildmasters, if you please.”

Both guildmasters swallowed nervously, then stepped inside. What could this be about that they were forbidden to even bring their attendants with them? Not knowing made them afraid.

Inside the room were two old men. One was of course the society president. The other was a well-dressed—and very tanned—elderly gentleman. The adventurers’ guildmaster had no idea who this gentleman was, but the apothecary guildmaster let out a groan at the sight of him.

“Well, sit down, then,” said the society president. The guildmasters seated themselves on the guests’ sofa, facing the two old men. Their mouths were so dry that they gulped down the tea they were served but barely registered the flavor.

“So, um, to what do we owe the honor of this invitation...?” the adventurers’ guildmaster asked timidly. Gone was the swagger that he had shown outside.

It wasn’t the president but the elderly gentleman beside him who replied.

“I’d like you to look at this,” he said, taking out a box.

“Eh? What is that?”

The box swung open. It was packed with a variety of sandwiches.

“Oops! Wrong box. Terribly sorry.”

The president sighed. “What are you doing, sir?”

“Don’t they look delectable? But don’t think you’re getting any.” The elderly gentleman chuckled.

The president spoke as though the older man was his superior. It hit the adventurers’ guildmaster then: That man had to be the former president of the inventors’ society. He was supposedly working as a tour guide these days, of all things. The guildmaster, when he had heard, could only conclude that anyone who rose to be president of the inventors’ society had to be a bit eccentric.

“This is why I called you here.” The elderly gentleman pulled out another box. The lid opened, and inside was an assortment of dried medicinal herbs.

“Oh!”

“I-Is that...?”

The elderly gentleman observed the two guildmasters’ reactions. “I’m glad you seem to remember these. These are the rare herbs that the two of you attempted to buy cheaply through taking advantage of the one selling them. Do you dispute that?”

“Y-You can’t be serious!”

“That’s not true! There’s been some misunderstanding!”

“No, I think I understand. My sources inform me that you attempted to buy them for a tenth of their market value, then, when you were refused, resorted to tactics bordering on intimidation.”

Both guildmasters gaped at the old man—he’d already built a case against them. No one could survive in this city after incurring the displeasure of the inventors’ society. Some guild worker must have blabbed.

“Dear, dear.” Seeing both guildmasters fell silent, the elderly gentleman sighed.

A certain maid had delivered him the box of sandwiches. She’d brought him a packed lunch the day after her first tour, and every day since as well. Today, however, she had told him she was leaving town, and so they had chatted for a little longer than usual.

That was when she’d told him she was disappointed not to have sold her herbs. When he asked her for the full story, he’d been in for a shock. Nina, who was so interested in their country that she had hung on his every word on the tour, had been betrayed by people in this very town.

Although it made his blood boil, the elderly gentleman didn’t let on. Instead, he lied, saying, “My son would be delighted to sell them at his store,” and bought the herbs—naturally paying slightly more than a fair price. Nina was deeply embarrassed to accept such a kingly sum, but the elderly gentleman felt he owed her an apology.

Afterward, there was only one thing to do: Expose the truth and see that punishment was meted out accordingly, even if it meant using his influence as the former president of the inventors’ society.

“The guilds are public institutions,” said the elderly gentleman. “You have abused their power and abused the trust placed in you by the people. Do you understand how serious a transgression this is?”

He spoke softly, but his fury was palpable. The two guildmasters went pale. Even the society president sitting off to the side broke out in a cold sweat.

*

Once the guildmasters were gone, the tension in the room finally subsided.

“Good grief, sir... You quite alarmed me, getting angry like that.”

“Well, it was somewhat personal for me.”

“I’m impressed those two didn’t pass out on the spot.”

In the end, the two guildmasters had agreed to three months of reduced salaries and community service in exchange for not reporting their error to the kingdom. The president could have had them dismissed and replaced, but what was the point if their successors were just as corrupt?

A stern warning that made them mend their ways was more worthwhile. Under the elderly gentleman’s supervision, they would perform the noble community service of telling sightseers about the history of the Freja Kingdom. Soon, it would be summer. Leading tours in the sweltering heat was no easy task, but if the elderly gentleman could do it day in and day out, so could the guildmasters. That ought to straighten them out.

If nothing else, I want to show that maid a better side of our city if she ever returns... thought the elderly gentleman, then smiled to himself. I suppose I’ll have to stay alive until then.

“That reminds me, President,” he said. “You seem to have a lot on your plate.”

“Yes, it’s quite doing my head in. It’s this research paper...” The president took out a sheaf of papers that bore the title: Preliminary Research and Practical Methodology for Magical Technology via Fairy-Powered Mana Conversion.

“If this is experimentally verified, it will entirely upturn the field of magical technology. It might not work in the city, but out in nature, there’ll be no limit to what we can do. Until now, the cost of catalysts has made an intercity rail unrealistic, but fairy magic will bring it into the realm of possibility.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself.”

“This paper is from the Mahogany Merchant House, sir. I can’t help but be excited.”

“Oho. Mahogany, you say?” The former president was naturally familiar with the Mahogany Merchant House. Astrid had thrown a stone, and the ripples were spreading. If only the former president knew that Astrid was at that moment on her way out of the city—and she was accompanied by the maid he was so concerned by.

“This will be a sore blow to the merchants who trade heavily in catalysts.”

“They haven’t changed, I suppose?”

“No. Those merchant houses are all led by women and, well... Business must be good, because they always seem to be surrounded by young men.”

By a strange twist of fate, these were the same women who had tried to make Astrid sell her house.

“So they won’t be able to afford to keep their beaus. I think it’ll be good for them.”

“They’ve also been buying up land all over the city. We could have them surrender it then offer it to the kingdom for development.”

“One might call that an act of community service too.” Chuckling, the elderly gentleman got to his feet. “I’ll be off.”

“Very good, sir. What did you want to do with the herbs? If you don’t need them, the society will purchase them.”

“I plan to leave them with a good apothecary I know who will sell them cheaply to doctors who want to do good.”

“Another act of community service?”

“Just so.” The elderly gentleman picked up his two boxes, then, with a wink to the president, he left.

Once he was gone, the president muttered to himself, “Those sandwiches did look very good...”

*

Meanwhile, back at the city of Sickle...

Since first thing that morning, the estate of Count Mirkwood, whose reputation had risen rapidly over the past few years, was in an uproar.

“Hands off! I had it first!”

“You? As if you know how to make tea!”

“Leave this to me. You amateurs don’t have the experience.”

Around ten of the parlormaids who saw to the guest rooms were gathered in the pantry next to the kitchens. The air thrummed with tension.

“For crying out loud... What now?” Roy the cook muttered in disgust just as Sonya the maid came in.

“There’s a guest coming. Didn’t you hear? Oh, but I suppose you wouldn’t have. He doesn’t dine here, so the kitchens don’t need to know.”

“Look at them, fighting tooth and nail over a teapot. You’re telling me a guest somehow has something to do with that?”

“Huh? Well yeah, whoever serves the tea gets to meet the guest. They all secretly hope that he’ll take them into his bed.”

Roy was already disgusted, but at this, his mouth fell open. He was speechless.

“Waiting on this guest was always Nina’s job,” Sonya explained. “Those maids have been spreading malicious rumors and telling tales to the housekeeper to try and win the job for themselves. They don’t understand why the job was Nina’s—why only she could do it. The housekeeper only ever thinks about covering her own backside, so even she knew it was better to have Nina do it... One mistake from one of her maids would cost her her job.”

“This guest is that big a deal?” Roy sighed. “Those maids care more about snaring a good husband than doing their jobs properly. What’ll happen when one of them serves him tea?”

“I just hope they don’t do anything to offend him...”

Just then, Tomus the gardener came in. “Mornin’ you two. I hear it’s been mighty hard on the maids since li’l Nina left us. How’s it for you?”

“So long as I do my own job properly, it doesn’t affect me...” said Sonya. “But the ones who wait on the count and his wife and children have been absolutely furious. I hear them yelling—why isn’t this here, where is that, you’ve done this wrong...”

“That so...” said Tomus. “Rumor has it the count’s been embarrassing himself more often outside the estate.”

At that point, Roy found his voice again. He knew many of the cooks in other noble households. According to him, people were saying that the gilt was peeling off to reveal the count’s faults.

For the past few years, the Mirkwoods had been on the rise among the nobility, but now, the count’s blunders were multiplying rapidly. He’d offered absurd opinions on policy, fallen for art forgeries, and his wife’s dress had frayed while she was out in society. It wasn’t just within the household where things were going poorly.

“But I mean... The count’s mistakes outside the house can’t be related to Nina,” said Roy.

Sonya and Tomus responded with stony silence.

“H-Hey. Sonya, Tomus. Say something.”

“The thing is,” said Sonya, “with Nina, they could be. That girl was really something else.”

The three of them didn’t know all the jobs that Nina had performed. It was Nina who had left relevant historical texts and reports on the count’s desk. Many art dealers knew the count’s penchant for vases, and it was Nina who had made sure any forgeries were sent away before the count saw them. It was also, of course, Nina who had done adjustments to dresses—hence the recent fiasco—mended frays, and subtly removed any motifs that had fallen out of fashion.

The butler was a good accountant, but he knew little of art or politics, so he didn’t appreciate what Nina had done. The housekeeper was good at bullying the dressmaker into doing her bidding, but sometimes there wasn’t time, and she had no idea how to mend a gown well, nor did she keep up with fashion trends. With no one in the house to train them, the maids and footmen were only able to do a single job, and naturally Nina had not been given leave to teach them.

“A-All right, so the count will want to impress this guest with his hospitality and smooth things over—”

Roy was interrupted by a loud CRASH. The teapot had fallen and shattered.

“This is your fault!”

“Me?! You were holding it last!”

“That makeup looks terrible on you!”

Rather than tidy up the broken teapot, the maids just went on quarreling.

“Sonya?” said Roy.

“Yeah...?”

“Are you sure you can keep working here?”

“I’ve...got my doubts...” Although Sonya found the whole situation intolerable, a maid in a noble household earned good wages. It was a job she’d hoped to keep for a long time.

“Well, hang in there.” Roy clapped her on the shoulder then strode off.

“Huh? Wait, Roy?! Roy, don’t tell me you’re quitting too!” Sonya called after him, but Roy did not answer her.

Count Mirkwood grinned from ear to ear as he welcomed his guest.

“I cannot begin to express what an honor it is to receive a great mage from the Five Sages into—”

“Please, let us dispense with empty formalities. This isn’t my first visit, after all.”

The guest looked like a human man in his late twenties, but he had lived almost three centuries, and his manner of speaking reflected his years. His flowing golden hair was tied back and he had long, pointed ears—the mark of a true-blooded elf. His green eyes were rimmed by long eyelashes, and there was not a single blemish on his pale skin. He wore a mage’s robe of white and leaf green, woven from material that an expert eye would have recognized as very rare. A mage could store mana in it to help with their work, and it would deflect all but the sharpest of blades.

“O-Of course!” said the count. “Lord Tuyledo Fal Vilhelmscott, it’s a true pleasure to welcome you to my humble home again this year.”

Down from the carriage stepped Tuyledo the elf. There were more people inside, but none accompanied him. As one of the most important individuals in the land, he was accompanied by a retinue of nobles. They glowered resentfully at Count Mirkwood, for they were not permitted to accompany Lord Tuyledo any further.

Seeing the hatred in their eyes put the count in a cheery mood. The nobles weren’t confined to the carriage because this was his estate, but at the wish of Lord Tuyledo himself—he wanted to be left alone to relax. It was a mark of how much he enjoyed his visits to the Mirkwood estate.

“My journey was long and I am weary. I trust you still have the garden terrace?”

“Naturally! I know how fond of it you are, so you’ll find the gardens well tended.”

“Excellent. I expect the gold rakta lotuses are blooming.” Looking pleased, Lord Tuyledo accompanied Count Mirkwood into the estate. He was then shown to the terrace. It was unchanged from the previous year—or was it?

Hmm... The furnishings have grown rather tawdry, Tuyledo thought as his eyes landed on a gaudy golden vase on a shelf. It showed a total lack of aesthetic sense. I don’t recall there being such a tasteless vase in Count Mirkwood’s house... He felt a tinge of unease but brushed it off. Places where he could snatch a moment’s peace in between his travels around the world were few and far between. This house was one of them. He didn’t want to waste his attention on trivialities.

“Ah! The flowers are as beautiful as ever!” Tuyledo was delighted at the sight of the garden. It was as well tended as ever, and the gold rakta lotuses were blooming just as he had hoped. The glorious golden blossoms seemed like they should be too large for their slender stems to support them. There were also flowers in a profusion of colors and rich greenery that served to further accentuate the beauty of the lotuses.

“They are, aren’t they?” agreed the count. “If only I’d known you were partial to the lotuses! I’d have told the gardener to plant more!”

Count Mirkwood chortled, but Tuyledo said nothing.

I should have known the count wouldn’t understand. He suppressed a sigh. He was of the belief that beautiful things were not beautiful on their own. Rather, their beauty arose out of harmony with everything around them. His elvish love for nature only strengthened this conviction.

He didn’t find peace in this place merely because it had a nice garden. There were other important elements—from the excellent hospitality to the tea.

“If you don’t mind, Count Mirkwood... I would like a moment alone.”

“Of course, of course! Whatever you wish!” Count Mirkwood simpered, then he turned to a servant. “You there! Lord Tuyledo wishes to relax! Fetch the tea!”

As Tuyledo sat down, he observed that the good thing about Count Mirkwood was that he didn’t make unnecessary small talk. The other nobles, in an effort to win his favor, were always coming to him with insignificant tidbits of information, or trying to get him to comment on the affairs of other countries. Some even sought the wisdom of the elves. From time to time, he wished to be free of all that tiresome political maneuvering. At nearly three hundred years old, sometimes Tuyledo just wanted to be left alone.

This really is a wonderful garden. He could tell that the gardener had made it as green as possible to suit his elven taste. The trees had been pruned just the right amount and careful thought had been put into the layout so that all the plants could flourish. There was a boldness to it that a less discerning observer might have mistaken for the garden running a little wild.

This house has an excellent gardener, and an excellent maid—

Just then, he heard a loud clattering as a cart bearing a tea service was pushed onto the terrace.

“I’ve brought your tea, Lord Tuyledo.”

Tuyledo stared in confusion. He didn’t recognize this maid. Her makeup was painstakingly applied, but rather than looking sophisticated, she could have passed for a tavern wench if she only changed her clothes.

“You are not the usual maid,” said Tuyledo.

“That’s right! I’m gonna make you my very best tea!” The maid beamed at him. Tuyledo only grew more confused.

The usual maid... Nina would have brought the cart in without a sound... he thought wistfully. Two things in this house never failed to impress him—the garden and the maids. Both were world-class. He had always assumed that the count took pride in them as well, but as he watched this maid’s dubious attempt to brew a pot of tea, he grew less and less sure.

“Your tea, my lord!” the maid said in a syrupy voice as she handed him his tea. Tuyledo took it without a word.

Whatever she looks like, and however clumsy she is, there can be no fault with the tea itself. It might even taste good...

He took a sip—

“Blegh?!”

—and immediately spat it out again, coughing and spluttering.

“H-Huh? Huh?” the maid stammered anxiously.

“Y-You call this tea?!” Tuyledo demanded.

“My lord, I brought the tea you like...”

“All the subtlety of the aroma is gone!”

Tuyledo favored a unique variety of tea that required extremely careful attention to temperature and humidity. The leaves had to be checked every day and moved to a higher or lower shelf in order to preserve their quality—which Nina had, of course, included in her notes for the maids. The neglected tea leaves now gave off an unpleasant stench.

“B-B-But...”

The maid didn’t understand what he was so worked up about. She’d won this job after a bitter competition among the maids—in the end, the housekeeper had come and made them draw lots. As far as she was concerned, any idiot could make tea, and she’d even chosen the leaves the elf liked. In short, she had done nothing wrong.

“Ohhh.” Suddenly, she understood. He only said the tea was disgusting because he wanted an excuse. “Oh, Lord Tuyledo... If you want me, you need only say the word and I’m yours...”

She had understood, in other words, that he wanted her badly—or rather, misunderstood.

When the maid suddenly lifted up her skirt, Tuyledo was thunderstruck. What could he possibly have said that prompted her to do it? All the wisdom of Tuyledo, ambassador between elves and humans, greatest mage on the continent, and one of the Five Sages, was insufficient to comprehend it.

For a moment, he was stunned. Then, when he realized that she was trying to seduce him, the wise, sagacious Tuyledo grew furious.

“You disgust me!” he cried. “Such an insult is not to be borne!” He leaped to his feet and stormed from the terrace, leaving the maid staring blankly after him.

When the butler emerged to see what was going on, Tuyledo demanded to see Count Mirkwood.

“Wh-Whatever is the matter...?!” The count, who was in his study, looked up in bewilderment.

“Count Mirkwood!” Tuyledo launched into an eloquent, rapid-fire tirade. He began with how much he had cherished his visits here; how wonderful he found the harmony of the garden, the soothing tea, and the immaculate hospitality.

Thinking he was being complimented, Count Mirkwood smiled in relief. But when Tuyledo went on to the disgusting tea he had been served and the maid who had tried to seduce him, he went pale.

“M-My most sincere apologies! I’ll have the maid fired at—”

“There is no need for that.”

“But...”

“I came here expecting to find a moment of peace. You will call Nina here at once. Once I have had a cup of tea prepared by her, I shall be happy to forget all about this.”

It was only the fact that if he lost his temper he would lose the peaceful sanctuary that Count Mirkwood’s estate offered him that allowed Tuyledo to regain his composure. Places where he could experience such peace were vanishingly few. Indeed, it was only the garden and Nina that had kept Tuyledo coming back.

“Nina?” Count Mirkwood looked at him, puzzled. An ominous cloud settled in Tuyledo’s heart. “Butler!” the count bellowed. “Bring this ‘Nina’ here at once!”

“B-But master...” the butler stammered, sweat beading on his brow. “Nina was dismissed and sent away...”

“Eh? Wait. Not that maid?!” Even the count could put two and two together. It was the maid who had broken his vase and interfered with mending his daughter’s dress.

“One moment, please.” Tuyledo’s voice was like ice. “Did I just hear you say what I think you did?” The count broke out in a cold sweat as Tuyledo went on. “Count Mirkwood, you will tell me exactly what happened.”

After hearing the full story, Tuyledo announced that he would not call at the Mirkwood estate again until Nina had returned, then left before the day was out.

The other nobles were delighted by the news. “Count Mirkwood is finished,” they said, all smirks.

“I want that maid back here now!!!” Count Mirkwood bellowed. With that, Nina’s bounty jumped to ten million gold.

*

“I’m glad you’re someone I can have a drink with,” said Emily.

Come nighttime, Emily and Astrid were out on the balcony of the inn they had stopped at along the road.

They’d sent Nina off to bed, saying they were going to stay up and have a drink, then gone outside. Incidentally, Emily was sixteen and Astrid was eighteen, but there were no laws regarding the age at which one could drink alcohol, and just about anyone could ask for it.

“Well, I don’t usually stop at one,” said Astrid.

“A-Are you for real?” Emily was shocked.

Astrid only laughed and flashed her an enigmatic smile.

“No, come on. You’re joking, right? Shouldn’t you be more responsible at your age?”

Was it a joke? Or was Astrid actually telling the truth? Emily gave her a searching look, but couldn’t find any evidence one way or the other. She really didn’t want to deal with it if Astrid got blackout drunk, but if they were going to drink, at least the beds were here on the second floor.

They clinked their goblets full of fruit wine, then each took a sip. It was weak and had probably been watered down, but that was what the common folk usually drank. It was still alcoholic, of course, and Emily sighed as she breathed in the scent of it.

“Right...” she said. “Astrid, there’s something I want to talk to you about.”

“You want to talk about Nina.”

“You get it. That’ll make this easy.” Emily had gone to the trouble of sending Nina to bed and inviting Astrid to drink with her for a reason. She wanted to discuss Nina without her being there to hear them.

As for why, she and Astrid both spoke at the same time:

“That girl is a recipe for disaster.”

They were perfectly in sync.

“The existence of mana meridians is seen as a wild, unproven theory, but not only did she show me they exist, she used them to unlock my magical powers! After I spent years trying to fix myself without any success!”

“It was the same with me! I’d bet the likes and dislikes of fairies is a closely guarded elvish secret, but she just blurted it out to me! And just like that, she finished my invention! After I spent years banging my head against a wall!”

“What’s even more incomprehensible is how she does it all with that look on her face like it’s no big deal!”

“And how is she so good at being a maid?! I know the Freja Kingdom’s not a big place, but I’ve never heard of a maid as good as her, let alone met one!”

With that, Emily and Astrid both broke off, gasping for air.

Emily took a deep breath. “Not only is she an incredible maid, but she doesn’t understand how valuable her knowledge is.”

“I have a hunch,” Astrid said, exhaling too, “that the one who taught her all that is Lord Tuyledo Fal Vilhelmscott, one of the Five Sages.”

Emily’s eyes went wide. “Of course...” she said. “That would explain why she knew about mana meridians. That’s knowledge from high elves who live in the depths of the forest.”

Tuyledo did not say much about himself, but he had never denied that he was a high elf.

“The trouble is,” said Astrid, “without knowing any of this, Nina seems to have waited on lots of guests, not just Lord Tuyledo, and they liked her.”

Emily listened in silence.

“If she keeps blurting out what she’s learned from them without realizing what she’s doing, that could be very dangerous.”

“And when you throw her skills as a maid into the mix...”

“Exactly. Surely an aristocrat or even royalty would pay her mountains of gold. Why is she on this journey, anyway?”

Emily responded by telling Astrid about Nina’s former job at the estate of Count Mirkwood in the Crecente Kingdom.

“Huh. It never occurred to me that there might be nobles who didn’t appreciate her skills...” said Astrid. “I bet his family’s reputation took a hit the moment he let Nina go. On the other hand, anyone who gets their hands on her would probably move up in the world.”

Astrid had grown up as the daughter of an eminent inventor family in the Freja Kingdom, so she was far more knowledgeable about the ways of nobles than Emily. She seemed to be speaking from real experience.

Emily frowned. “Do you think Nina would be happy working in a place like that?”

“I don’t know. What do you think? You’ve known her a little longer than I have.”

“I don’t think Nina is eager to go and work for some bigwig. I mean, she doesn’t really like to talk about the Mirkwood estate where she worked. I guess it’s because they framed her and sent her away.”

“I can’t blame her,” said Astrid. “It must have been a shock for someone who works as hard as she does to be betrayed by the household. I feel sorry for her just thinking about it.”

“I hope sending Nina away ruins him,” said Emily.

“Well, I doubt just losing Nina would be enough to ruin a whole noble house.”

“Yeah? I wouldn’t be so sure. That moron didn’t notice that Nina’s a savant. His household is probably falling apart without her.”

Astrid silently took a swig of her drink, but her face said that she thought what Emily said was likely.

“W-Well, either way. Let’s just say we’re lucky to have met Nina and leave it at that.”

“Agreed. She’s saved both of us.”

They both sipped their drinks again. Astrid decided not to think about it—that is, what had happened to the Mirkwood house without Nina.

At that very moment, Count Mirkwood stood admiring his recently purchased vases, more than half of which were forgeries. He had already become a mark for art dealers who knew he would pay good money even for fakes. But that was nothing to do with Nina, much less Emily and Astrid.

“Right now,” Emily went on, “I just want to help Nina with whatever she wants to do. I’m in her debt, and I want to repay her... I mean, I think she’ll want to find a noble estate to work for in the end, but I don’t mind filling in the gap until then. It might worry Nina if she knew we were talking about her, so I want to keep this conversation on the down-low.”

“I agree,” said Astrid. “We’ll protect her in secret. Besides, there’s something in this for me too. I have a feeling being around her will inspire my inventions.”

“I suppose we’re comrades with a shared goal, then, huh?”

“Sounds good to me.”

The pair clinked their goblets once more.

Thus an alliance between the two was formed, with but one goal:

“Here’s to keeping Nina from doing anything weird and getting into trouble!”

“Cheers!”

Chapter Three: “Ghost Dog” Is a Proud Lupalune

Traveling to the mountainous Werther Duchy across the border from Freja involved, as one might guess, crossing a lot of mountains. Yet, if her sparkling eyes were anything to go by, Nina still somehow managed to be amazed by all of them.

“Oh! What an enchanting forest!” she murmured as she gazed out from the coach. “I wonder if Lord Tu—erm, if Count Mirkwood’s guest lives in a place like this?”

She corrected herself because, in the time that had passed since they set off from Freja, Emily and Astrid had persuaded her not to say Lord Tuyledo’s name. He was very important, far more so than Nina had imagined, and so it wasn’t a good idea to throw his name around casually. Emily and Astrid would have liked to know if Nina was acquainted with any other important people, but after they talked to her about Tuyledo, Nina looked crestfallen.

“Lord Tuyledo was such a wonderful guest,” she said. “I never imagined that I ought not to say his name...”

After that, they couldn’t bring themselves to question her further. They didn’t want to make Nina sad, after all. Luckily, no one would ever guess that a maid like Nina could be acquainted with anyone as important as Tuyledo, so they were sure she wasn’t in danger of being attacked or kidnapped. Now, they just had to make sure she didn’t accidentally reveal any of what she knew.

Emily sighed. In the end, all we can do is keep an eye on her.

“H-Hey, mage girl!” It was the driver calling her. “Need you out here; we got a pack of wild dogs!”

“Coming.” Emily picked up her staff and jumped down from the coach.

She’d cut a deal with the coach driver to waive the fee in exchange for using magic to chase off wild dogs. Sometimes he actually paid them, like when Nina whipped up meals on the nights when they had to camp. On top of that, Astrid had repaired the coach when it broke, then used magical technology to reinforce it, adding to their earnings. In short, they’d been traveling without spending a single coin.

“We’re like a perpetual travel machine,” Emily had joked. “It feels like the three of us met so we could go on this journey.”

Back in the present, she scattered the wild dogs with a quick blast of magical wind, then headed back to the coach.

“Thank you, Emily! I’ll make you a nice cup of tea when we stop next.”

“You really are something else. The elegance with which you called up that spell! I wonder if I could work it into an invention...”

Nina and Astrid welcomed her back smiling. The other passengers were full of enthusiastic praise for her too.

“A-Any mage could have done it...” she muttered. Nina was rubbing off on Emily.

When they’d been pitched a tour of an iron mine, Emily could only give a blank stare. “Who’d want to do that...?” she’d wondered aloud—and then a certain maid spoke up.

“I’d love to see an iron mine!” Nina had exclaimed. She was sold.

Apparently, Izumi Mine was the only mine in Werther Duchy that offered tours. But when options for sightseeing included hot springs, secluded waterfalls, botanical gardens, museums, and more, an iron mine was not an appealing option to most. By the time the coach was heading for the mine, Nina and the others were the only passengers left aboard.

“You’re all right with this, Emily?” asked Astrid. “You’re not interested in mining, are you? You could’ve waited for us back in the capital city.”

“I’m not, but I’ve got to keep an eye on Nina, don’t I? What if I left you and her alone and you came back to the city with a new person in tow? I had to come.”

Astrid laughed. “Is that your way of saying I’m a third wheel? You want Nina all to yourself? That hurts, you know. I thought we were comrades!”

“Oh, shut up. I just mean the less people who know about Nina, the safer she is.”

Emily said this last part in a whisper so that Nina wouldn’t hear from where she sat next to the driver. She was listening closely as he filled her in on the mine.

Several days after leaving the city, they arrived at Izumi Mine. It was about as far from a picturesque sightseeing spot as it was possible to be. The mountain was brown, with almost no vegetation. The town itself was large and bustling, but the people there made their living working down in the mine, so there was nothing a visitor might want to go look at.

“I’ve put in a good word for you at the mining office, Miss Maid!” said the coach driver. “You can go in as soon as tomorrow if you’re ready.”

“Thank you very much.”

“Aw, it’s nothing. Cheerio!” With a grin, the coach driver left. He’d even given them an itinerary for the tour.

“Nina’s got a nose for these things, huh...”

“First things first,” said Astrid, “let’s find a good inn. That said, I don’t think we’ll be spoiled for choice...”

“I don’t care so long as it’s clean,” Emily replied. “We can buy our own food...except Nina will probably volunteer to cook either way. Right, Nina?”

Emily turned around, but the tiny maid was nowhere to be seen.

For a while, she just stood there staring up at the sky with her hands on her temples. Astrid put a hand on her shoulder.

“I feel your pain, Emily.”

“Thanks. Now let’s go find her.” The two of them sprang into action.

*

“What’re you doin’ dawdlin’? Don’t think you’ll get special treatment just ’cause you’re a kid! You’re paid the same as everyone else!”

The site foreman’s bellows echoed throughout the large dig site. Although there was magical machinery in operation, the miners still had to dig by hand in narrower shafts. They used baskets on their backs and handcarts to transport the ore.

Among them was a young girl. She swayed unsteadily as she walked, and her arms and legs were thin as withered branches beneath her poor-fitting work uniform. She looked ready to collapse. Also, from beneath her scuffed leather helmet, there protruded two wolflike ears.

“Ugh!” She put a hand on the wall to steady herself as her basket, which was obviously far too large for her, wobbled.

“Whoa, there! You all right?”

Another miner stopped, concerned, but the foreman spotted him. “Hey, you concentrate on your own work!” he shouted. The miner gritted his teeth.

“Do not worry. It is nothing.” The girl slung the basket onto her back once more, then walked away. When she finally made it to the ore processing station, they handed her a wooden chip with a number on it reflecting the weight of her basket. Outside, it was already dusk. If she went back down the shaft again now, she wouldn’t get out until dawn.

“Time to go home...” She took her chip and set off.

Inside the foreman’s office at the entrance to the mine, there was a queue of burly men and women. They all held wood chips too, but the numbers on theirs were many times the one on the girl’s. But that was hardly surprising. They were all older and bigger than her.

“Here. Your wages for the day.”

The girl looked down in silence at the three silver coins—a measly three thousand gold. When she put the leather helmet back in the returns box, her ears twitched as they were released from their confinement. They were black, with a fleck of white at the tips.

“Hey, Ghost Dog!” Just then, the dig site foreman who had yelled at her returned. “If you don’t wanna work, quit already! We ain’t short on labor!”

The girl glanced at him, but said nothing. Then, she turned and walked away.

“I’m sick and tired of you and that attitude o’ yours! You really are nuthin’ but a ghost dog!”

The girl didn’t reply. He was right, and besides, she didn’t have the strength to argue.

A GRRROWWWL rumbled her stomach. She was so hungry it sounded like she had a ravening beast in her belly.

“Blegh...” When she reached the mining town, the smell of food wafted toward her from all directions.

“How about a drink after a hard day in the mine!”

“We’ve got freshwater snowfish, carried over five mountains to get here! A real treat!”

Tavernkeepers called out to the hungry mine workers as they returned, but the girl pinched her nose, looking ill. She hurried past them all with her face cast down. A few times other passersby nearly collided with her, but she twisted and slipped by them.

“Oh, it’s Ghost Dog.”

“Who?”

“Y’know, the one— Huh? Where’d she go?”

A small girl working in a mine was obviously a rarity, so she often got other miners pointing at her. Their pointing fingers were always accompanied by that name: “Ghost Dog.”

Stop saying “dog”...! Frustration twisted her face. Looking more miserable than ever, she left the busy street to go and sit in a corner of the central square. There, she let out a sigh of exhaustion.

“Excuse me, but...are you all right? Would you like some water?”

In front of her, scarcely taller than herself and holding out a bottle of water, stood a maid.

*

Drawn by the wafting aromas of unusual cuisine, Nina was wandering around the taverns when she overheard the name “Ghost Dog.” At the same time, she realized that she’d been separated from Emily and Astrid, but her attention was caught by a girl with long, dark hair slipping through the passersby. Once she was beyond the crowds, she slumped down on a bench.

So, Nina went up and offered her some water. That was when she saw the two ears poking up from the girl’s head and realized she was beastfolk.

“No...thank you,” said the girl.

“Please don’t think of it as charity. I only thought some water might make you feel better,” said Nina. It wasn’t charity, she added for emphasis, but kindness. She guessed that the girl in her miner’s uniform was particularly determined to look after herself.

“In that case...yes.”

“Drink as much as you like.” Nina handed her the bottle, and in the blink of an eye, the girl had drunk it dry.

“That was good... Not like ordinary water.”

“No, I filled that bottle at a spring on the way here. I only just arrived. We’re here to see the sights.”

“Sights? There is nothing worth seeing here.”

“Oh, but there is! I want to see the mine!”

The girl blinked at her with a face that said she’d never heard anyone say they wanted to see a mine.

“You are very strange,” she said.

“Do you think so? My name is Nina, by the way.”

“Chi is Chi.”

“Chi...? Is that your name?”

“It is what Chi calls Chi. Chi’s name is Tien.”

Just then, the girl’s stomach gave an almighty growl.

For a moment, the two of them stared at each other.

“I see,” said Nina at last. “Erm, I don’t suppose I could trouble you to tell me about the town? And I’d be grateful to know where one might find a good meal.” Realizing that the girl was hungry, she thought they could go and eat together. But Tien stood up, shaking her head.

“The food here is all bad,” she said flatly. There was no uncertainty or snobbery in her tone, nor any trace of forced bravado. It was as though she were simply stating a fact.

“A-All of it?”

“Chi has to go. Thank you for the water.”

“Oh...” Nina watched Tien walk unsteadily away. Could it really be that there was no good food in town? Did everyone simply hold their noses and choke it down?

As Nina stood lost in thought, she heard Emily’s voice from behind her.

“There she is! And look, she’s already at it again...”

“Try as we might, I think watching Nina might be more than we can handle.” She heard Astrid too.

“Oh!” Nina turned around. “I was looking for you two!”

“That’s our line,” Emily pointed out. “Anyway, who’s the girl? How are you trying to fix whatever problem she has?”

“Wh-What? I don’t... What do you mean?”

“So you aren’t going to do anything?”

Nina was silent. She’d heard the others calling the girl “Ghost Dog.” It was an awful nickname for her, with her pointed ears and sweet, golden eyes. Yes, she was too thin, but Nina was sure she’d be cute as a button after a few solid meals.

“Erm... I may do something, then...?” Nina wasn’t sure what she could do, but she did know that she wanted to help if she could.

Emily folded her arms and exhaled. “Well, you asked first. That’s great progress.”

“You haven’t forgotten what Emily taught you after all!”

The pair of them sounded like proud parents.

“All right, Nina. Where do we start?”

“Let’s have dinner!” Nina replied. “At the best restaurant in town!”

*

Morning came, and Tien awoke in her small room. She took a bite of a withered fruit on the table beside her bed and made a face. It was extremely sour. Still, she made herself chew on it and eventually thought she tasted a hint of sweetness. Her stomach growled. Next to the fruit was a strip of dried meat. She picked it up, swallowed nervously, then, steeling herself, bit into it.

“Blergh!” At once, she spat it out again, gagging. “Disgusting... Absolutely disgusting. How can they all eat this?” She stared at the dried meat longingly, not quite able to let go of it, but then the memory of how revolting it had been returned. With a shiver, Tien put the dried meat back on the table.

Swaying on her feet, she went out the door. She lived in one of a row of similar houses no bigger than sheds that were rented cheaply to workers in the mine. Tien liked it because the miners didn’t cook for themselves, and so she never had to smell food.

Her stomach still rumbling, Tien made her way to the monastery on the outskirts of the town. Attached to the monastery was an orphanage with a garden at the back. A small tree grew there, with fruit the same as the one Tien had just eaten hanging from its branches.

Tien stared up at it, reached out to pick a fruit, then stopped herself. There were around fifteen. It couldn’t hurt if she ate a few. Still, she hesitated—what if she took too many?

“I told you that all the fruit here are for you to eat, Tien.” An older man in a monk’s habit approached her.

“Father...” Tien pulled the silver coins from her pocket. “Here.”

The man—the priest—accepted them. “Tien, I am of course grateful for your donations. It is expensive to run the orphanage...but I cannot bear to see you suffer so. You must be starving.”

“Yes. But the food here is no good.”

The priest sighed. “I don’t understand it. Why is it that magic can’t fix this?”

“It does not matter. Chi can eat these fruits.”

“The children know that you eat these fruits. They’ve been working very hard to look after the tree.”

Tien pictured the children around the tree and laughed softly. “Chi will be back later,” she said. Then, she set off for work.

The priest watched her go, worry creasing his brow. Even just walking, she looked like she might collapse at any moment, but he knew from experience that he could say nothing to talk her out of going. He went back to the monastery, where preparations for the morning were underway. A nun looked up as he came in.

“Father? What’s the matter?” she asked. “Oh... Tien?”

“Yes.” They all knew Tien—she had once lived in the orphanage. They knew that she now worked in the mine, and that she saved her wages to bring to the orphanage every few days. And they knew that even though she was weak with hunger, she refused to eat, saying that the food was “no good.” Not out of restraint, or deception, but because she was genuinely revolted by it.

“I never knew a child with such a rigid sense of duty. We took care of her for such a short time...”

Tien had arrived at Izumi Mine alone. No one knew where from. Children who showed up in town without parents either died on the street or were brought to the monastery by well-meaning adults distressed by their suffering.

She called herself a “lupalune.” With her excellent sense of smell, she was able to sniff out odors the priest and the nuns couldn’t even detect. Finding lost items was as easy as breathing for her, and even as a child, she was as strong as a grown man—yet she could hardly keep down any food. She held her breath and gagged down every mouthful, sometimes coughing it up again. To her, it was just too revolting. The priest had asked her how she had survived and what her life had been like before, but Tien wouldn’t speak of it.

She must have eaten with her parents, but Tien didn’t seem to want to talk about them. The priest could only conclude that they had abandoned her, and her unwillingness to discuss them stemmed from her denial.

After arriving at the monastery at ten and living at the orphanage for two years, Tien then went to work in the mine. She’d been bringing them what she earned, saying it was for the kindness they’d shown her. The priest felt bad for accepting her money, but the fact was that, with the number of children increasing every year, the orphanage struggled to keep afloat.

The children were awake. They ran by, shouting excitedly as they made for the garden.

“Father, I’m going to water Tien’s tree!”

“Hey, it’s my turn today!”

“Race you there!”

“W-Wait up!”

Tien hadn’t known how to relate to the other children so she hadn’t played with them, but it was clear they adored her all the same. They must have known that even if she didn’t say much, and even if she kept her distance, she had a good heart.

“O, Lord...” murmured the priest. “Why did you curse such a good child with such a tongue? At this rate, she will waste away and die...” His hand tightened around the silver coins as he stared off into the distance. A curse was the only way he could describe it. He wondered if the shock of being abandoned by her parents had distorted her sense of taste. But even if that were so, there was nothing he could do. Tien—brave, hardworking Tien—was beyond his help.

“Father? Father!” One of the nuns had come up to him.

“O-Oh, I beg your pardon...” he said. “I should get to my morning duties.”

“That you should, father, but I came to tell you that we have a visitor. I think you ought to see her.”

Who would visit the monastery at this hour of the morning?

“Who is this visitor?” he asked curiously.

“Well, father...she’s a maid.”

*

This could be bad, Tien thought. Her vision had gone white, and the next thing she knew, she was looking at the ground. She was able to throw a hand out and catch herself thanks to her natural reflexes, but for a moment, she’d blacked out.

“Oy, lass. You’re in the way. Move it.” A big man with red hair came up to her. He wore a miner’s uniform and carried a pickaxe. As he passed, he muttered, “Foreman’s on his lunch break.”

Tien said nothing. She watched the miner go, then slumped down behind a nearby rock. The meaning behind his words was that right now, she could rest. The site foreman was hard on her, but some of the others were kind. Tien knew she couldn’t rely on that kindness forever, but today, she allowed herself a moment of respite.

She’d been a miner for two years now. Not only had her wages not improved, but the work grew harder every day. It was probably because as her body grew, it needed more sustenance, but the tree didn’t produce any more fruit.

What should Chi do...? This will only get worse... Tien hung her head. She couldn’t go on like this. She had thought about going to another town, but there was no guarantee that the food there would taste good, and she had no means of earning a living. In the first place, she didn’t even know how to leave this town.

Chi cannot think straight. Her hunger made her head spin. Just then, Tien’s sharp nose twitched. Water...?

Some joked that mining was a war against water. Sometimes, when digging through layers of rock, they hit upon veins of groundwater that erupted. This water had to be removed or it would accumulate, and there were miners whose job it was to pump it out. There was work in the mines for magic users too, as magic could be used for drainage.

Is it normal to smell water...? Tien was too drowsy. She couldn’t think.

If she’d been more alert, she would have realized that the smell was unlike any water she’d ever smelled before.

“Ghost Dog, you stupid mutt! A full day in the tunnels and this is all you’ve got to show for it? No silver for you!”

Tien had ended up sleeping until evening, incurring the wrath of the site foreman. She earned nothing that day. She couldn’t help that she’d fallen asleep. What was hardest was that she didn’t feel recovered at all.

This might be the end for Chi...

She headed home through the darkening streets. It was one day until the new moon, so there was almost no light. At times like these she always remembered her parents, who had left her and vanished.

We lupalunes wax and wane along with the moon. There will be full moons where nights feel light as day, and new moons so bleak that you wish the darkness would take you.

Even when things are hard, joy is only ever half a moon away. And so, Tien...

Tien gave her head a shake. The parents who had loved and cared for her were not here. One day, they had gone away without leaving so much as a note. It was only luck that had brought her to this town where the orphanage had taken her in.

Mother, father... Chi does not know if Chi misses you or not...

If she wanted to find them, she shouldn’t be giving money to the orphanage. She owed the orphanage a debt for saving her, but it was high time she started saving her money in earnest. So why did she continue to give it all away? Perhaps she wasn’t ready to face her parents. Perhaps she didn’t have the courage to admit to herself that she had been abandoned—

“Chi smells water...” She looked up at the mountain beneath which lay the mine. Dark clouds hung over it. It must be raining up there, and by the look of the clouds, very heavily.

Did Chi not smell water somewhere else today...? Her mind was so foggy that she couldn’t remember.

Before she knew it, she was home. And who should be waiting for her there, but the priest from the monastery.

“What brings you here tonight, father?” she asked.

“You have done so much for the orphanage,” he said. “We are very grateful.”

“Chi is sorry. Chi did not earn anything today.”

“I’m not surprised. You look half wasted away.” Even through the gloom, Tien could see the pain in the priest’s eyes. She hugged herself tight. She never wanted anyone to worry about her.

“Chi is not wasting away.”

The priest only looked more stricken at this show of bravery. “Tien...” he said. “I did not only come here today to thank you. I also need you for something.”

“You...need Chi?”

“Yes, I want to invite you to dinner at the monastery.”

Tien stared at him, baffled. They served the same food at the monastery as they did at the orphanage—the same food that Tien found so revolting she could barely eat it. The priest knew that.

“But father, Chi...”

“I know, Tien. I know you very well. But won’t you come regardless? God knows it’s worth a try.”

“That does not sound like something a priest should say,” Tien pointed out.

“Oh!” The priest, realizing she had him there, slapped himself on the forehead. Tien grinned despite herself.

“Very well. Chi can eat the fruit at least. Let us go.”

“O-Oh, good. Yes, let’s be off, then.”

Tien and the priest set off for the monastery. The moon in the night sky above was barely a sliver. On the night of the new moon tomorrow, she knew she would feel even worse. Her spirits sank.

But as they approached the monastery, Tien smelled something.

“Huh...?” There were few houses here on the outskirts of town. The smell—the smell of cooking—could only be coming from the monastery. It was a smell that usually made her dizzy with nausea, but this time, she didn’t feel sick at all.

On the contrary—

GRRROOOWL.

—it made her even hungrier. Her throat was parched, but she felt herself salivating.

“F-Father...? What is going on here?” She grabbed his arm. The priest looked surprised; he’d never seen Tien so agitated before. She’d always had an air of aloofness that made her seem far older than her years, but the smell from the kitchens had shaken her.

“To tell you the truth, I was skeptical myself. But now, I know I was right to bring you. It’s plain from your face...and your reaction.”

Tien realized with a start that she was drooling. She hastily wiped it away.

“I’m back,” the priest announced when they walked into the orphanage behind the monastery. “And I’ve brought Tien.” The children’s voices had been audible even from outside, but once inside, the babble grew even louder.

“Golly! I never ate nuthin’ this good before!”

“Hey, I was about to eat that!”

“I had it first!”

“Enough! Don’t quarrel, there’s plenty for all of you!”

They arrived at the dining hall. The frenzy within could have rivaled a battlefield, and the nuns were at their wit’s end trying to make the children behave. An enormous table sat in the middle, but the sheer number of children made it look small. It was laden with great platters of food. There was soup with meat and vegetables, and a veritable mountain of freshly baked bread. Children spooned jam from the jar and piled bite-sized pieces of meat onto their plates. All their faces were alight with joy and delight.

Wh-Why...

Of course, this extravagant banquet meant the children were more excited than usual. But they always enjoyed their meals. Only Tien had always been gloomy.

Why does it smell good?

The smell didn’t make her want to be sick. Not even a tiny bit. Tien hesitantly approached the table and picked up a bread roll. It smelled rich, buttery, and wonderful. But even the bread here had always been disgusting...

Slowly, nervously, Tien took a bite.

“Mm?! Mmmm?!!!”

Her eyes went wide. She took another bite, then another, and another. Someone passed her a bowl of soup, so she sipped it. Her eyes grew wider still. Next came a chunk of meat speared on a fork. When she bit into it, she thought her eyes would burst out of her head.

Tien wolfed it all down at ferocious speed. After a while, everyone in the dining hall stopped to stare. It wasn’t until Tien had cleared her plate for the tenth time that she noticed.

“Oh...”

“I see you like it, Tien,” said the priest. “You have a little on your face.” He took out a handkerchief and wiped her mouth. The children all broke out in happy chatter.

“I knew Tien’d like it! I knew it!”

“Me too! It’s so good, how couldn’t she?”

“After a meal this good, I dunno if I’ll be happy with normal food ever again!”

Their laughter rang through the hall.

Tien didn’t understand what was going on. Yes, it was a meal fit for a king, but she had tried similar kinds of food before, and it had made her nauseous too. Looking at it, she couldn’t work out what made it different from other food in this town.

“I’m so glad you liked it!” came a voice. Not from any of the nuns who always prepared the meals, but from a tiny maid who emerged from the kitchen.

“You are...that maid...” Tien recognized her at once. It was Nina, the girl who had given her water the other day. But she couldn’t work out what she had to do with the meal.

Nina smiled mischievously. “You enjoy your food while it’s still hot. When you’re done, then we can talk.”

*

Before they had the chance to talk, Tien, her belly full for the first time in years, had fallen fast asleep. She was laid down on a few chairs with a blanket placed over her. The children had gone to bed, leaving the hall quiet. It was hard to believe it had been a riot of noise until just earlier.

Nina and the priest were finally able to relax over a cup of tea.

“This tea is delicious too,” the priest said. “Are you quite sure these are our tea leaves?”

“Thank you. You’re too kind.”

“N-Not at all. It is I who ought to thank you.”

It hardly needed to be said that Nina had made the tea. She knew how to adjust her brewing method for the condition and variety of the tea leaves, so obviously it was delicious.

The nuns were tidying up. Nina had volunteered, but they wouldn’t hear of it, saying they were already much obliged to her. The only others in the hall were Emily and Astrid. After helping Nina in the kitchen, they were now enjoying a late dinner and working their way through a bottle of wine they’d bought.

“You caught me quite off guard when you asked for use of our kitchen,” said the priest.

“Everyone in this town knows of Tien, don’t they? The little girl who works as hard as a grown man in the mines...”

“Yes, it’s apparently a lupalune trait. Even when she lived at the orphanage, she was stronger than me. It was a great help—she moved furniture, chopped firewood, even helped with repairs on the roof...”

“I thought she’d be less wary of the food if I served it here at the monastery.”

“You went to so much trouble.” The priest bowed low to Nina.

“P-Please, you needn’t do that,” she said, flustered.

“Right now, this is the only way I have to thank you.”

Nina could see that the priest loved the children at the orphanage very much—even Tien, who had left.

“But on that note,” the priest went on, “how is it that Tien was able to eat? She always insisted that the food here was no good. Won’t you reveal your secret?”

Tien’s rejection of all food had been a constant burden on the priest’s mind until today, when it had been dispelled before his very eyes. He was beside himself to know what had really happened. He had speculated Tien’s separation from her parents was somehow at the root of it, but that did not seem to be the case at all. He was at a total loss.

“Of course,” said Nina. “When I first met Tien, she told me that all the food in this town tasted bad. So I went and tried the food at several of the restaurants.”

She listed off the restaurants’ names. They were all famous establishments—much to the priest’s confusion. Beneath her maid’s uniform, could it be that this girl was actually extremely wealthy?

“Izumi Mine is quite far away from any major city, isn’t it?” Nina went on.

“What? O-Oh, yes. That’s right.” The priest blinked, thrown off by the sudden change in subject.

“And yet the food served at your restaurants is more or less the same as in other cities.”

“Yes, we have to bring in our food from elsewhere, but the duke recognizes the great importance of the mine, so he sees to it that we always have enough.”

“Did you know that they treat the food to stop it from going bad on the way here?”

“They do...? But now that you mention it, it makes sense. The vegetables are never wilted and the meat is always largely fresh, even after days of travel. Though the fish is all dried, of course.”

“That’s because they use preservatives.”

“They use what?” The priest was unfamiliar with the word.

“There is a plant called the purple bell lotus. It’s a weed, really, and the climate of the Werther Duchy seems to suit it. In some areas, it’s harvested in large quantities. But what makes it special is the pollen. When sprinkled on food, it slows deterioration so that ingredients can be stored for long periods.”

“I never knew such a plant existed.”

“It has nothing but upsides; it is inexpensive, flavorless, and it barely smells of anything. Apparently almost all the ingredients brought into town are treated with it. Even the wheat with which you make bread.”

The priest’s eyes widened. “Don’t tell me Tien could smell it? I’ve been to other cities, but I’ve never noticed any difference in how the food smelled. If anything, I thought the food here tasted better.”

“Just as you say, the pollen wouldn’t impact any ordinary person’s enjoyment of their food. At most, they might detect a hint of its aroma. However...” Nina paused. “In the wild, wolves do not go near places where purple bell lotuses bloom. Supposedly, they dislike the smell; I’ve heard of mountain villages that plant them to ward off wolves. I did consider bringing actual flowers, but I didn’t think Tien would like that.”

The priest could only stare.

Until this moment, he had never had any inkling of any unusual smell.

“Like I said, we went to a few different restaurants. I could smell purple bell lotus at all of them—except one. According to the chef there, they make an effort to use ingredients produced as locally as possible. But in not using ingredients preserved with lotus pollen, they are very much the exception.”

“I...had no idea. That explains why Tien could eat the fruit that grows in the garden here. We obviously don’t use preservatives.”

“I couldn’t smell it either,” Emily chimed in, “and even after she told me, I didn’t taste a difference at all.”

“Same here,” agreed Astrid. “You’d have to be a serious gourmet to sniff it out. It’s remarkable that Nina managed it.”

“In any case,” Nina went on, “I’ll give you the name of that restaurant to pass on to Tien when she wakes up. Then she won’t have to go hungry any more.”

“Truly I cannot thank you enough... But why not tell her yourself now?”

“N-Now? But Tien is asleep...”

The priest looked over at where Tien lay a little way off. “Tien? You’re awake, aren’t you?”

“Yes...” Tien slowly sat up. The color had returned to her cheeks, and she already looked brighter and healthier. She no longer seemed like she might drop dead at any moment. If it was surprising that just one meal could work such a change, it just went to show how awful her diet had been before.

Tien walked over, now steady on her feet, and bowed to Nina. “Thank you,” she said. “You saved Chi’s life. Chi will never forget this.”

“O-Oh, no...” Nina flapped her hands, flustered by this weighty declaration. “It wasn’t anything special.”

“I am taken aback to hear you say she saved your life, Tien,” the priest said, looking stricken. It was a good thing, of course, but his happiness for her was complicated.

“As things were, Chi would have died in a few days.”

“Wh-What?!” Nina exclaimed.

“You truly saved Chi. Chi wants to repay you.”

“Quite right,” the priest said. “We at the monastery wish to show our gratitude as well. Tien may no longer be in our care, but she is still one of our children.”

“Father...” Tien looked at the priest, then turned her gaze to Nina. “Ask for anything.”

“Well,” Nina said slowly, “there is one thing...”

“What is it?”

“I wouldn’t want to presume. Perhaps I ought not even ask this of you...”

Tien braced herself, wondering what in the world the little maid might want.

At last, Nina said, “W-Would you give me a tour of the mine?”

There was a long pause. Then—

“What?”

“N-Never mind! I’d only be in the way. Of course you don’t want me blundering around while you’re working...”

Tien and the priest both gaped at her. Emily and Astrid took one look at them and burst out laughing.

“That’s our Nina for you,” said Emily.

“She’s been dying to go see the mine,” Astrid added. “It really is just innocent curiosity.”

Nina only grew more flustered. “D-Do forgive me. It’s just that I’ve never seen a mine before, so I wanted to look around, that’s all...” she said, shrinking before them. She was the only one who didn’t realize that Tien was confused that she had asked for so little.

But once Tien understood that Nina genuinely just wanted a tour of the mine, she agreed readily. “That is no trouble at all. As an acquaintance of a mine worker, you may tour the mine without prior application. When do you want to go? Tomorrow? The day after?”

“T-Tomorrow!” Nina replied. “I’d like to go tomorrow!”

At this, the priest cut in. “In that case, Tien, you ought to stay here tonight.”

“But why, father?”

“Nina is a special guest, don’t you think? It would be disrespectful for her guide to look disheveled. Not to mention, don’t you want to eat the leftovers from tonight’s meal for breakfast tomorrow?”

GROWWWL.

Tien’s stomach rumbled, but far more quietly than before. It almost sounded apologetic.

*

The next day dawned cloudy and cool, ideal for going out. It was the perfect weather to go and tour a mine—except that the mine, being underground, didn’t have weather.

They met the next morning at the town square. When Nina saw Tien, her eyes went wide.

“Good morning, T... Tien?!”

Tien looked so hale and hearty that Nina could hardly believe only one night had passed. Presumably she had followed the priest’s suggestion to take a bath, since she was squeaky-clean and her hair was glossy. Her clothes were the same as yesterday, but thanks to the nuns, who had worked at top speed to get them washed, they too were clean.

With these few changes, Tien now looked very pretty. It was such a transformation that Nina blinked a few times in spite of herself.

“Good morning, Nina,” Tien said uncertainly. “Is there something wrong with Chi? The priest and the others were all acting strangely. They kept grinning. Making fun of Chi.”

“N-N-N-Not at all!” Nina spluttered. “You look very sweet! Truly! She does, doesn’t she? Emily?! Astrid?!”

“Whew, what a transformation,” said Emily.

“It’s astonishing,” Astrid agreed.

Faced with this heartfelt praise, Tien looked at her feet. She wanted to retort that they were only saying that, but all three of them were looking at her so fondly. Her cheeks burned as she realized that they meant it.

“L-Let us go, then. Follow Chi.” She strode off so they wouldn’t see her blushing.

The town was not large, but Nina, Emily, and Astrid were yet to explore the area around the mine. Tien told them about each place they passed.

“That is where records about the mine are archived. It smells like old paper. The woman at the front desk wears too much makeup and smells funny.”

“Mine trolleys run along the street one block back. They run on a set timetable, so you will not see any now.”

“The processing station is this way. We will go there later.”

It was all information that only someone familiar with the mine would know. Nina responded to all of it with gasps of amazement and questions like, “What do they do at the processing plant?”

Tien was the sort to take any task seriously, so she answered every question and even offered to check later when she didn’t know something.

“That is the mine office. Chi will apply for the tour there.”

“M-May I come...?” Nina asked.

“You may...but it stinks.”

For Tien, everything seemed to come down to smell.

“I’ll pass, in that case,” said Emily.

“We’ll go buy some drinks,” agreed Astrid.

The other two opted out (or rather, successfully escaped), leaving Tien and Nina to brave the mine office. In the evening, it bustled with miners come to receive their pay, but first thing in the morning, it was quiet. At the front desk, a sour-faced clerk was arguing back and forth with the foreman, who was complaining about his “quotas” and wanting to “improve operations.”

The clerk looked up in surprise as Tien approached. “How may I help you this morning?”

“Good morning. Chi would like a tour pass for three visitors.”

“Not a prob— Huh? Just a minute. Who are you? Why are you wearing a miner’s uniform?” The clerk peered at Tien’s face. She’d changed so much that he didn’t recognize her.

“Chi is Chi,” said Tien.

“Hold on. Those black ears...” The foreman’s eyes went wide. “Ghost Dog?!”

“Wha...?” The clerk recognized her too. His mouth fell open.

“Chi has come to get a tour pass.”

“Oh, um, yes. Just a minute.” But before he could issue the pass, the foreman cut in.

“Hold on a minute,” he growled. “You didn’t earn nothin’ yesterday. Just what’d you get up to?”

“Chi does not need to tell you that.”

“The hell you don’t! I’m in charge of the site. What am I gonna do if there’s an accident ’cause I let in some ne’er-do-well? You left with no pay last night and now you’re all prettied up. Seems to me you got up to no good. What’d you steal?”

“What?” Tien was too stunned by this absurd accusation to speak, but from beside her came a carefully controlled voice.

“That’s quite enough,” said Nina. “Yesterday, Tien ate a good meal, took a bath, and went to bed. That’s all. She is the same sweet, strong girl she’s always been. The fact that you didn’t recognize her—that you would accuse her of being a ne’er-do-well! Quite frankly, it’s your powers of observation that are lacking!”

“You watch your—”

“How can you claim to be foreman when you don’t know anything about the people who work for you?”

The foreman couldn’t argue with that. He simply gaped at Nina.

She turned to the clerk. “We would like to tour the mine. Please issue us a pass.”

“Y-You brats ain’t getting no—!”

“Mine administration regulations, article 35,” Nina announced, cutting him off. “In the clause describing the opening of the mine, it is stated that, ‘A person may tour the mine at any time provided they are accompanied by a regular employee who has received approved training in basic labor practices.’ Officially speaking, a tour permit is not required.”

This sudden rush of difficult words left even Tien stunned. She had no idea that Nina had been so excited to visit the mine that she’d read up on the regulations in advance.

The foreman quailed before Nina. “What the...” He turned to the clerk. “Hey, say something.”

“Well... She’s right.”

“She’s what?!”

“A pass isn’t actually necessary. We just issue them anyway. Of course, you do have to show it if anyone asks to see it.”

The foreman snarled in frustration.

“I should also add,” Nina went on, “that I have a reference.” When she described the coach driver who had brought them here, the clerk let out a gasp of recognition. It turned out that the coach driver had helped him out in the past.

He hurriedly pulled out three armbands that read “VISITOR” and laid them on the counter.

“Let’s go, Tien.” Nina scooped up the bands, took Tien by the arm, and marched out of the office.

*

“Wow, that’s crazy,” said Emily when Nina told her what had happened.

Seeing Nina and Tien emerge, grim-faced, from the office, she’d known something had happened. Further questioning revealed that the foreman had always had it in for Tien.

“He sounds like a real jerk,” she said.

“I know!” Nina cried. “What’s more, he called her Ghost Dog! Our sweet little Tien!”

“There, there, Nina. Drink this.” Astrid held out a bottle that she’d filled with water from a well. There’d been fruit juice for sale too, but she hadn’t been sure if Tien could drink it.

Nina gulped down the water. Shortly afterward, her uncharacteristic fit of outrage subsided, and her face fell.

“I-I’m sorry, Tien. I said all that without thinking that you work here and that he’s your foreman... You have to come back and work with him tomorrow...”

Now that she was thinking clearly, she realized she’d really put her foot in it.

But Tien only said, “Why...did you do that for Chi?”

“What?”

“You did not need to do all that if all you wanted to do was tour the mine. How can Chi ever repay you?”

“I, erm...” Nina looked hopelessly at Emily.

“Believe me, Tien, I understand how confused you are,” Emily said with a knowing nod. “But Nina doesn’t want anything from you other than a tour of the mine. Seriously.”

“But that is—”

“It’s weird, right? I’ve only just met her myself, and she’s constantly surprising me. But as far as I can tell, she really doesn’t see herself as anything special.”

“Noticing the pollen took the skill of a master chef,” Tien pointed out. “If that is not special, I do not know what is.”

At this, Nina burst out, “But any maid could have done that!”

“No they couldn’t.”

“No they could not.”

Emily, Astrid, and Tien all spoke up in perfect unison.

“B-But...!”

“Don’t worry.” Emily spoke over Nina. “She doesn’t have ulterior motives—she’s just a genius maid who can’t get enough of helping people.”

“Chi was not worried... But Chi has nothing to thank you with.”

“So? That doesn’t matter, does it?” Emily took a gulp of water. “I heard about how you gave your wages to the monastery. You paid them way more than what taking care of you had cost them. Do you want anything from them?”

“Chi does not need anything in return.”

“There you are, then.”

“But Chi was raised at the orphanage. It is different to do it for a total stranger.”

“Okay, when you put it like that I don’t get it either,” Emily admitted. “I guess some people are just like that. Plus, you saw it, didn’t you? Nina took a liking to you, then decided to help you out.”

Tien said nothing.

“Come on, there’s no point worrying. Focus on being the best possible tour guide—then you’ll feel better,” Emily said encouragingly.

When she added that it was a mistake to judge Nina by the standards of ordinary people, Nina made a startled noise and stared at her in genuine shock. But Emily just patted her on the head.

*

Tien pondered to herself as they made their way along the road to the mine.

Some people can be kind to total strangers. Other people, like the foreman, are always angry at Chi or someone else.

She felt amazing. It was the best she’d felt in years.

Some parents even abandon their children...

Now that her mind was clear, thoughts flitted in and out faster than she could keep track of them.

What she wanted to know was whether she could be like Nina. What if she could? Would that be a happier life?

Meanwhile, Nina was preoccupied with her own thoughts.

Is the way I behave really so out of the ordinary? Even Tien agreed, which must mean Emily was right... Could it be that I’m unusually softhearted and eager to please?!

She didn’t know the answer. Nina had been taught to put herself at the disposal of others. She saw it as only natural and proper.

All of a sudden, a thought hit her. I thought I would always be a maid, but what if I set aside my maid’s uniform? Who would I be then?

She had set off on this journey on a whim, only thinking of seeing the sights. Before she knew it, she’d been joined by a skillful mage and an extraordinarily brilliant inventor.

Right now, she wanted to see the inside of a mine. Then she wanted to travel to more new lands.

But what about after that? she wondered. What lay at the end of her journey...?

Emily and Astrid watched fondly as all this played out in Nina’s mind. They didn’t say a word.

*

When they reached the mine, they were met by the sound of rushing water. It rushed in a torrent along the drainage channel next to the entrance.

“What a lot of water,” Nina remarked. “Does it come from a spring?”

Tien did not reply.

“Tien?”

“There is no spring. This water is pumped out of the mine...”

“Goodness. I didn’t realize there would be so much.”

“There should not be so much.”

“Oh?” Nina looked at Tien in surprise.

Tien went up to a nearby miner. He recognized her at once but seemed taken aback by the dramatic change in her appearance.

“There is too much water coming from the mine,” said Tien. “Why?”

“Oh, uh... Seems there was heavy rain in the mountains last night. It reached the tunnels.”

Tien thought back to the previous day. She had smelled water where water ought not to be.

“Water is dangerous,” she said. “Are you sure the mine is safe?”

“Yeah, um, the thing is, there’s a big dig quota today,” the miner said. “With the foreman breathing down our necks, I don’t think we’ve got that sorta time.”

“But—!” Tien tried to protest, but the miner put his large hand on her head.

“Look, we’re all pros here,” he said reassuringly. “We know what danger looks like. I hear you’ve got visitors today, so mind you don’t go in too deep!” With that he set off for the mine entrance. Tien watched him go in silence.

Other miners passing by called out to her.

“If it isn’t Tien! Aren’t you lookin’ spry!”

“Aye, healthy like a little lass oughta be!”

“Here I thought you were ill! I was right worried.”

Tien said nothing. She’d had no idea that the other miners had cared so much about her. Or had she? She realized that they had reached out to her before now; she had simply been too caught up in her own troubles to notice. Bluff and coarse as they sounded, deep down, they had good hearts.

And now, they were headed down into the abnormally waterlogged tunnels of the mine.

Is it not too dangerous...? Tien wondered. The thought struck her that now that she had her strength back, she could help with the quota. Moreover, if she’d been doing her job properly, today’s quota might have been the same as any other.

“Tien? What’s wrong?” asked Nina. “Should we leave the tour for today?”

Instead of replying, Tien went up to a mine cart that had come off the tracks nearby. It was made of steel and was large enough to comfortably accommodate five grown men.

Tien gripped it then let out a small grunt of effort. With strength that should have been impossible for such a slender girl, she lifted up the cart and put it back on its tracks.

“The tour is on,” she said. “But we should not stay down too long.”

Tien decided that she would help the miners achieve their quota.

As they made their way into the mine, many of the miners called out to Tien. There were women as well as men, and not only humans but also dwarves and lizardfolk. Although mining was a lucrative job, no one stayed in it if they had the means to live comfortably otherwise. Everyone here was here for a reason, whether a debt they had to pay, or some other large expense. It stood to reason that none of them wanted to fall behind.

And even though the only thing they had to look forward to was a drink at the end of a day’s labor, they still found it in their hearts to care about Tien.

“What an extraordinarily large mine shaft.” Nina’s eyes shone with curiosity as they darted this way and that. “Do you go down those narrow ones too? Oh, I see—they’re checking for veins of minerals.”

Visitors to the mine were not unusual, but most were not young women—and they definitely didn’t wear maid uniforms. The miners smiled as they watched the tiny maid in her helmet scurry around the dig site.

“Oh my! What an incredible machine!” Nina exclaimed, catching sight of an enormous magical excavation machine. Beside her, Astrid stared at it with interest.

“You’re looking much better than yesterday.” The burly, redheaded miner who had told Tien to rest came up to them.

“Y-Yes. Chi is better now,” mumbled Tien.

“Yeah? Glad to hear it. Well, stay out of sector four today. The foreman just went over there. Something’s put him in a foul mood today, though I couldn’t say what. He’s been frothing at the mouth all morning.”

Tien gasped, but not because she was surprised to hear the foreman was in a rage. The fourth sector always had trouble with water—and that was exactly where the red-haired miner was heading now.

“Chi heard there is a lot of water today,” she said.

“Yeah, we know. The plan is to fill the quota and get out quickly. Take care, now.”

Tien only watched as the man trudged away.

*

After another hour, they had seen more or less all there was to see. At the end of the tour, visitors got to try their hand at mining on the tunnel wall near the entrance.

Emily gripped a pickaxe, but she couldn’t get it off the ground. “What the?! I can’t lift that! It weighs a ton!”

“You’re such a weakling,” Astrid said. She reached for the pickaxe next. There was a long pause as she stared at it, then—

“Well, I always had more brains than brawn.”

“Astrid! Just admit that you can’t lift it!”

“Oh! Let me! I want to try!”

“Nina, there’s no way a tiny thing like you could—”

Before Astrid could finish, Nina grabbed the pickaxe and—

“Mmf!” She lifted it.

“No way!” Emily gasped.

“Wow, Nina. You’re stronger than you look.”

“I-It’s heavy...but...” Nina swung the pickaxe. It struck with a CLINK, sending sparks flying as rock crumbled away from part of the wall.

“Phew!” she said. “That’s the best I can do.”

Tien applauded. “Amazing, Nina. This pickaxe was specially made. Only the strongest of the miners can use it.” Having said this, she hoisted up the pickaxe and rested it on her shoulder.

“T-Tien, that’s incredible!”

“With one hand?!” Emily yelped. “How?!”

“Fascinating...” said Astrid.

“Stand back.” Tien waited until the others had moved away, then—

“Hmf!”

There was an almighty CLANG as she swung the pickaxe at the wall. Its tip was buried deep in the rock. A few miners passing by on their break dropped the gloves and handkerchiefs in their hands and gaped at Tien. This was the true power of a lupalune.

With the tour over, they went back to the office to hand in their armbands. Nina was extremely pleased. She’d had an extraordinary experience that she never could have imagined when she worked in the Mirkwood household.

I wonder if Lord Tuyledo would enjoy hearing about it? she wondered. Oh, and the others too... But they’re all so learned that I expect they already know all about it.

Even now, her mind went to how a maid could use the experience to entertain guests.

It was noticeably darker when they left the office again, and droplets of rain had begun to fall.

“Oh! It’s raining.”

“You will not get too wet if you go back to your inn now,” said Tien. “Chi is going back to the mine.”

“What...?” Nina turned to her. “You’re going back?”

“Chi will help so that the others can finish quickly.”

“Oh... What a shame. I suppose you won’t be able to eat the lunch I packed...”

Tien’s eyebrows shot up. “Lunch...?”

“Yes. I made sure only to use ingredients without preservatives, of course.” As Nina opened her basket to show her, Tien’s resolve wavered.

“C’mon, it’s lunchtime!” Emily followed up with her own attack. “You can go after you eat.”

Astrid struck the final blow. “That’s right,” she said. “You have to eat to keep your strength up—as you well know!”

Despite eating heartily the night before and that morning, just showing the others around the mine had made Tien hungry. It felt like her body was trying to make up for what it had missed out on.

“All this food has spoiled Chi...” she muttered.

“Well, Tien? How about it?”

“If...it is no trouble, I would like to have lunch.”

“Of course!”

The four of them walked from the mine office until they came to a shady spot beneath a tree. There were no houses around here, only the rusted hulks of discarded mining machinery. They chose this deserted spot because if they ate near other eateries, the smell would make Tien lose her appetite.

“Here you are. Eat up!” Nina opened the basket to reveal a colorful array of sandwiches. Even though hours had passed since Nina made them, the meat and vegetables of the fillings still glistened like jewels.

Tien let out a gasp of amazement.

Emily, who had already grabbed a sandwich, said, “Would you believe it? Nina got up before dawn to bake the bread from scratch.”

“All for Chi...? Chi is sorry.”

“No, don’t be like that! I told you I don’t want to hear you apologizing.” Emily sighed. “Oh, forget it. Just try one. Then you’ll get it. If anything, I should be thanking you.”

“Thanking Chi?” Tien was puzzled, but she chose a sandwich and took a bite.

Her eyes went wide. Immediately, she shoved the rest of it into her mouth.

“See?” said Emily. “You can’t beat sandwiches made with Nina’s home-baked bread! I figure that makes today my lucky day. And that’s why I’m thanking you.”

“I could make them every day if you like them so much,” Nina offered.

But Emily wagged a finger at her and said, “That’s not what I meant. I’d just feel bad for making you go to the trouble. Only getting to eat them on special occasions is part of what makes them so good. Right, Astrid?”

“Agreed. These sandwiches are a culinary marvel. If word were to get out, you’d have the chefs of the world’s best restaurants queuing up to beg for the recipe.”

“Don’t be silly. Any maid could...” Nina trailed off.

“Nina?” said Emily. “What’s wrong?”

“I learned how to make these sandwiches from the cook at the estate where I used to work. He taught me specially. Roy was always so good to me, but I left without even saying goodbye...” Nina added, “Considering what a good cook Roy was, I don’t doubt that others would be eager to learn his secrets.”

With a sad smile, Nina remembered Roy, her fellow maid, Sonya, and the gardener, Tomus.

“Now I’ve gone and made myself miss them. I wonder how they are...” she said.

“Oh, Nina. I’m sure they think of you too,” said Emily. “They’ll be hoping you’re doing well.”

“I wonder...”

“Trust me, no one could forget a maid like you.” Emily grinned at her.

Just then, there was a loud rumbling in the distance. It sounded like an earthquake.

Astrid started. “What was that?”

Tien jumped to her feet, staring off in the direction of the noise. It had come from the mine—specifically, from sector four.

“Mrmm mm mmmhm!”

“Come again?!”

“Hey!” Emily cut in. “Tien ate all the sandwiches!”

“T-Tien! Do you know what that noise was?”

Nodding, Tien forced herself to swallow.

“Something has happened in the mine,” she said.

*

The entrance to the mine was in an uproar when Nina and the others returned.

“Carry the wounded over here!”

“Miners! Get outside! Just get away from the tunnels!”

“Bloody hell, the ground just shook like crazy!”

“Whoa, whoa! What was that noise?!”

Miners came pouring out of the tunnel. It was clear from the fact that nearly all of them were empty-handed that they had fled in a hurry.

“Someone call the garrison! It’s sector four! There was a cave-in!”

Cave-in. The word rippled through the crowd as quick as lightning.

“Just get out! Get everyone out! Other sectors might collapse!”

“What’s the holdup in the front? Hurry up!”

“What about the iron we mined today, eh?”

“Are you outta your mind? D’you value it more than your life?!”

The crush of miners pushed, shoved, and even fought one another in their efforts to get out of the mine.

The clerks emerged from the mining office. “Hey!” one called out. “What’s the damage like? Do any of you know?!” They dashed over to the man shouting about the cave-in—the big, red-haired miner. He had sustained some injuries, but when Tien saw him there, alive, she felt a little of her anxiety subside.

“There’s a lot of wounded folk...” he said. “We knew it was bad soon as water started to come outta the ceiling, so we hightailed it outta there. But then the tunnel caved in. That caused most of the injuries. One broke his leg, so we’ve got a team carrying him out. If nothing else, no one’s dead.”

“Thank goodness... There’s a bright spot in this disaster at least.”

“Don’t count on it. Someone got trapped on the other side when the tunnel collapsed, and I’m pretty sure the rocks didn’t get him.”

The clerks froze in horror. In a rockfall, both the impact and the crushing weight were fatal, but if the rocks didn’t get you, then getting trapped in a tunnel would. Death came as soon as the oxygen ran out.

“I’m pretty sure it’s the foreman,” the red-haired miner said with a sigh. “When the rest of us ran, I could hear him yelling after us that we still hadn’t met our quota...”

Mining was life-threatening work. When danger struck, all miners knew to evacuate immediately. It was basic common sense. Even the clerks looked stunned to hear that the foreman had put the quota first.

“A-All right, so the foreman is trapped in there alone?”

“Yeah, I think so. It was a pretty big cavern, so he should have plenty of air at least.”

There was a general sigh of relief. The clerks began to discuss the situation.

“In that case, I don’t see any issue with waiting for the garrison to arrive.”

“Let’s get to seeing to the wounded. They’ll have to be compensated too.”

“There’ll be hell to pay when the mining falls behind schedule...”

But then another voice broke in.

“We should go to his rescue now.”

It was the lupalune girl. She alone disagreed.

“Tien? What do you mean?” asked one of the clerks. “This man said just now that it’s only the foreman cut off by the cave-in, and he’s got to have enough air. We ought to leave it to the garrison rather than go rushing in ourselves.”

“If there was one cave-in, there may be another.”

Tien’s words were met with silence. All the clerks had been trying hard to ignore that possibility. The cave-in had already given them enough to deal with—they didn’t want to take on a rescue mission on top of that, so instead they tried to shift the responsibility to the garrison.

The garrison, however, was only responsible for maintaining the peace in the town. Its members were not trained in rescue operations, and the clerks knew that.

“Th-The thing is, though,” one clerk stammered, “the foreman was in charge here, so without him, I don’t see what we can do...”

“Agreed. We’re just the clerks, after all.”

“Oh, here they come! Is that the fellow you said broke his leg?”

A group bearing a miner on a makeshift stretcher emerged from the mine. The clerks hurried over, leaving the red-haired miner alone with Tien, Nina, and the others.

“Look, kid, you’re right,” he said to Tien. “But that lot isn’t wrong either. None of the miners are gonna take orders from them.”

“What about the mine boss?”

“Him? He’s just a stooge who likes to play dress-up as a noble. All he does is breathe down the foreman’s neck and shriek about quotas. It’s thanks to him that we’re always fighting not to fall behind. But you know how it is. The foreman vented his frustrations at all of us, like whenever he called you ‘Ghost Dog.’ If he doesn’t make it out of the tunnels, everyone here will say good ridd— Ow!” The red-haired man broke off, wincing.

“Y-Your hand!” Tien gasped. His fingers were bent at an unnatural angle.

“Oh, yeah. A stupid mistake. But it’s just a few broken fingers. Nothing serious.”

“You should get them looked at quickly.”

“I know that, but there’ll be more wounded folk here soon who need treatment. I’ll have to wa—”

“May I take a look?” Nina, slipping up beside him, took his hand in hers.

“Hey! What d’you think you’re doing?”

“This will sting a little.”

“Wha— AAARGH?!” He cried out as Nina yanked on his broken fingers. The pain was bad enough to bring tears to his eyes. “What the hell was that?!”

“I realigned the broken bones to set them.” As she spoke, Nina applied a salve to the man’s fingers, then whipped out a bandage to keep them in place. “Make sure you get them looked at later by a doctor, all right?” She worked so quickly that the man could only blink in stunned amazement.

Once she was done, Nina turned to the lupalune girl. “Well, Tien?” she said.

“Wh-What...?”

“You want to go and help him, don’t you?”

The bold question startled Tien—but then she nodded firmly.

“Yes. We ought to help him.”

“May I ask why...?” said Nina. “I heard the way he talked to you. The way he called you ‘Ghost Dog.’ I wouldn’t blame you for being angry with him.”

Nina’s question was not unlike the one Tien had asked her earlier. Tien, however, already had her answer.

“Tonight is the new moon,” she said.

“Erm...?” Nina looked confused, clearly not having expected this response.

“The night of the new moon is dark. Sometimes one cannot even see a step ahead. Trapped in the depths of the mine with only the magical lamps for light... It must be even darker and more terrifying. At the new moon, there is nothing to do but wait patiently for the moon to wax again. But this was an accident. We may be able to help.”

Tien remembered her parents’ words.

We lupalunes wax and wane along with the moon. There will be full moons where nights feel light as day, and new moons so bleak that you wish the darkness would take you.

Even when things are hard, joy is only ever half a moon away. And so, Tien...

What came next? Her memory of the rest had always been hazy, and she had been so hungry that she hadn’t tried to remember. But now, with her strength restored, Tien thought she knew.

On those nights, remember the full moon. Let it give you the strength to carry on.

She repeated this to Nina, but what the moon represented was something only Tien herself could fully understand. What Nina did understand was how strongly Tien felt about darkness—to the extent that she didn’t want to leave even a man she hated trapped in it.

“All right,” said Nina. “I’m glad to know that about you, Tien.”

“You...are?”

“We’ll help too.” Nina must have known how dangerous the tunnels were now, but she didn’t hesitate for a second.

“You must not,” Tien protested. “There is no telling when the tunnels might cave in again. Chi cannot allow you to come.”

“Oh, I know I would only get in the way,” Nina agreed. “But we have friends we can turn to.” She turned around with total confidence to her two trusty companions on her journey.

“You betcha,” said Emily. “It’s this mage’s time to shine.”

“If there’s a drill in there, I think I can make myself useful,” Astrid added. Their minds were already made up—they were going into the mine.

*

“Outta the way! There’s a crack in the tunnel roof!”

Miners who had been dragging their feet jumped out of the way when they heard Emily.

“Slumbering spirits of the earth, rouse thy strength and mend the rock!” She cast a second degree spell, and a ball of magic issued forth from her hand. With a crunching sound, the crack closed up, leaving only smooth rock.

“Capricious spirits of wind, whisper to thy earthy kin and find where the rock hath grown frail.” A wind rose around Emily, then gusted out into the depths of the cavern.

“I can hear the rock,” she said. “About thirty meters from here, the layers shifted and collided. I’ll need to work fast.”

“A-All right...” Tien said, amazed. Once inside the mine, Emily set about locating and reinforcing all the points that were at risk of collapse. Tien had known that Emily was a mage, but her total command of magic and ability to cast spell after spell without tiring was beyond anything she’d imagined.

But there were more surprises in store.

VRMRMRMRMRMRM. The ground beneath their feet shook as an enormous machine rolled up behind them.

“Emily, Tien!” Astrid shouted. “I borrowed an excavation drill!”

Tien recognized it. The contraption was powered by magical technology, with the drill at the front able to punch through rock at the pull of a lever. Except...it was a little different from how she remembered.

“W-Wait a minute! What is that?!”

She was sure the excavation drill had not had wheels, let alone the ability to move under its own power.

“Huh?” Astrid looked down at the drill. “Oh, I just lifted these from some other magical gizmos.”

Upon closer inspection, Tien saw that the wheels were from the magical mine car used to transport iron ore and pull the excavation drill around. Could Astrid really have transplanted them onto the drill in such a short space of time?

“Coming aboard, Tien?”

“O-Oh. Yes...” She was as stunned as she had been by Emily’s magic.

Emily, meanwhile, hopped up on the drill like she did this sort of thing every day. She whistled appreciatively. “Not a bad way to travel,” she said, then winced. “These seats hurt!”

“Yeah, no cushions here,” said Astrid. “If you don’t like it, you can stand.”

“I guess...”

Of course, Tien thought, realization dawning as she watched them. Nina is exceptional...

Nina had unraveled the mystery of why Tien couldn’t eat, then cooked up a dinner that she could. She’d made those incredible sandwiches too. Nina was an exceptional person, which meant...

It only makes sense that her companions are exceptional as well!

They went deeper into the mine, with Astrid deftly operating the drill as Emily used her magic to reinforce the tunnel ahead of them. All the while, Tien watched the both of them in wonder.

*

Nina saw off the other three at the entrance to the mine.

“And off they go...” she said to herself. “Emily, Astrid, thank you.”

Those three together would have no difficulty overcoming any minor trouble they ran into.

“Ugh, that hurts...”

“They say the infirmary’s full.”

“Where’d the clerks go?”

“That lot? They panicked when they saw how many of us are wounded and scarpered.”

“They did what?!”

“C’mon, I’m sure they just went to get a doctor...”

It began to drizzle. The clearing outside the mine was packed with injured miners sitting on the ground.

“I can help in my own way!” Nina declared, and with terrifying speed, she jumped into action. She wasn’t running, exactly. It wasn’t proper for a maid to run. She simply moved as fast as a grown adult running at full pelt.

Her first stop was to tidy up the first floor of the mine office and the mine canteen next door. With none of the clerks around, she didn’t bother to ask before she cleared the floor of the office, but she had to persuade the kitchen staff to let her do the same at the canteen. They had heard about the accident but had never considered turning the canteen into a makeshift infirmary. All the same, they readily agreed to take in anyone in need of treatment.

They were not prepared for what happened next.

The canteen, as was to be expected from the place that the miners ate at every day, was far too dirty to perform any medical treatment in—until Nina got to work. In the blink of an eye, she’d pushed aside the tables and mopped the floor so clean that one could make out the grain of the wood.

“Please remove your shoes at the entrance. We mustn’t let dirt get into any wounds.”

“R-Right... Yes, ma’am...” The kitchen staff were so stunned that they unthinkingly followed Nina’s orders.

Nina strode outside. “May I have your attention!” she cried. “The mine office and canteen are ready to receive any wounded for first aid!”

Nina was very small, and a maid never raised her voice in the course of her duties. But now, she called out in a voice so loud that even through the rain, no one in the vicinity of the mine entrance could fail to catch her every word. Emily might have demanded to know how it was a maid knew how to throw her voice so well, to which Nina would no doubt have replied, “Any maid could do the same.”

Nina went back to the kitchen staff and, taking charge, began to issue instructions for tending to the miners.

“I hate to ask,” she said, “but could you go and fetch some water? We’ll also need all the bandages and disinfectant we can acquire. For now, we can cut sheets from the office into strips to use as makeshift bandages. And for the more severe wounds, get them disinfected as soon as possible. We can use strong alcohol if we have to.”

“Miss,” said one of the cooks, “we’re happy to help, but we can’t get bandages or medicine without cash. As for strong alcohol... There’s hard liquor, but that’s not cheap either.”

Nina immediately pulled out her purse. “Use this,” she said. “It’s my money. Use it all if you need to, just get as many supplies as you can.”

“What...?!” The cook stared in disbelief at the shining gold coins that filled the purse. Nina, however, was already moving again. There was plenty she could do with what she had on hand.

As the wounded filed in, they seemed relieved just to be out of the rain. Nina examined the most serious injuries first.

“This needs immediate stitches. But I’ll have to disinfect it...”

“I heard you say liquor would do the trick.”

Nina looked up in surprise and saw the red-haired miner standing and holding out a bottle to her.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“What d’you think? I’m not just gonna stand here while a girl like you turns over all her money for our sakes.” Next, he turned to face the miners and bellowed, “Oy, you lot! Any of you that can still walk, follow me!”

One man who was almost unscathed called back, “Follow you? Where?”

“Where d’you think? The mine, of course.”

The other man gaped. “You’ve gotta be joking. We just got outta there!”

“The foreman’s still inside.”

“Now I know you’re joking. Who’d risk their life for that mean bastard?”

There was a general murmur of agreement. He was obviously deeply disliked, for not one person voiced any sympathy for him.

“Tien went back in,” said the red-haired miner, shocking all the others. This was news to them.

“Huh?! Why?! He bullied her worst of all of us!”

“I told her not to go myself, but she didn’t listen. Aren’t you ashamed? Those girls gave us their money and are risking their lives to try and save us, and to save the mine! Meanwhile, we’re sitting here twiddling our thumbs! Can you live with that?”

Silence fell over the room.

“Well, I may have a few broken fingers, but I can still walk. I’m going to do what I can to help them.” With that, the red-haired miner strode out into the rain.

In the silence that followed, miners began to speak up.

“I’m going too.”

“Yeah, now’s the time for real men to step up.”

“Excuse me?” said a woman. “Some real women are going too—like me.”

Around a dozen miners got to their feet.

“Sorry, miss,” one said to Nina, “but we’d be grateful if you could look after this lot for us. I’m sure the clerks have gone for a doctor, but there’s not many in this town so it may be a while before they find one.”

“Not at all,” replied Nina. “All of you stay safe.”

“Blimey, I never thought I’d have a maid bow to see me off. Makes me feel like a real moneybags.”

“You haven’t got a penny to your name, you dolt. Now get moving!”

The miners left in a gale of laughter. The gloom that had hung over them dissipated, along with their anger at the foreman. They all had good hearts, Nina realized—and with it came a small glow of relief.

The miners knew their trade. Emily and the others would be even safer with them to help.

“I’d better get to work too!” she said to herself.

Tien and the miners would fight their battle inside the mine, and Nina would fight hers out here.

*

The mine shaft cavern in sector four was so vast that the top faded into the darkness. When Tien, Emily, and Astrid arrived, they were left speechless.

“It’s even worse than I thought...” said Astrid.

A sign hung above the entrance to the great tunnel, illuminated by the magical lamps. It read SECTOR 4. The way forward sloped gently downward, but it was blocked where the tunnel had caved in. What was more, the floor was flooded knee-deep in water, and as the tunnel sloped downward, it would only get deeper farther in. It was impossible to guess what conditions would be like wherever the foreman was.

“There was a lot of rain in the mountains...” Tien said. “Chi knew that. And then there was that watery smell that Chi had never smelled before.”

“A watery smell?”

“If Chi had been thinking clearly, Chi would have realized it meant a flood was coming.”

Seeing Tien’s shoulders sag, Astrid thought, Ah, so that’s it. Why did Tien want to rescue the foreman? Part of it was that she was a good person, of course, but she also felt responsible—she thought she ought to have predicted the accident. It must have been that anxiety that drove her to this.

“This was an unlucky accident,” Astrid said. “But it’s not too late to overcome it. That’s why we’re here.”

Tien was silent.

“Right?” Astrid prompted her.

“Yes... You are right,” Tien said slowly. “Thank you.”

Astrid smiled. “All right, let’s see what we can do. Emily? How goes it with you?”

Emily, who was over by the cave-in, had just finished probing it with her magic.

“Looks like it’s blocked up for another ten meters. The rock won’t be hard to clear, but the problem is the water.”

“Right, we need to drain it... Could you use magic to move just the water?”

“I guess I could, but it wouldn’t be easy. Plus, even if I move it, more will just seep in. And I’ve used up half my mana.”

“Half? You’ve still got that much left?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Hmmm...” Astrid folded her arms with a look of intense concentration on her face, nothing at all like the kind smile she’d given Tien.

Tien couldn’t begin to guess what was going through her mind.

“We can clear the rock,” Astrid said, thinking aloud. “We didn’t actually need the drill at all. The magic lamps are the sort that break when submerged in water, so there’s a high probability that the tunnel ahead is dark. Our best course of action is therefore to clear the rock, then remove the minimum amount of water necessary in order to begin the rescue...”

“If you can move the rock, Chi will go and look for him.”

“But Tien... You’d have to swim through pitch darkness. We don’t know what’s down there in the water.”

“Yes. But Chi knows the layout of the sector four tunnels and is strong enough to push aside any leftover rocks. Also, once there is air again, Chi can smell in the dark.”

Astrid groaned. Everything Tien said was true. She knew the girl was tremendously strong and had an exceptionally keen nose. In fact, she had just been thinking that Tien’s suggestion was their only option. But swimming through the dark? With no idea what lay ahead? It was far too dangerous—

From somewhere, they heard rumbling and the crashing of falling rocks. Emily looked up above them, her face grim.

“Astrid, we don’t have time to be indecisive. This place isn’t exactly safe either.”

“I know that,” Astrid snapped. “It’s just...”

“Chi will go,” Tien said, then bowed to Emily. “Please cast your magic and clear the rocks.”

Why? Why would she go so far for a man who was horrible to her? Astrid wondered, looking at Tien with something like pity—until Emily spoke up.

“Tien knows that if she doesn’t take this next step, she’ll always regret it,” she said with a crooked smile. “Both of us understand that feeling, don’t we?”

Astrid’s eyes went wide.

Being physically unable to access her magical talent had made Emily miserable. She’d refused to accept that she would never be able to cast fifth degree spells. Astrid’s research into technological applications for fairy magic had gone nowhere, even though her theory was perfect. She would have kept striving to make it work till her last breath.

Yes, Astrid knew how it felt to want to take that next step, no matter what the cost might be.

Tien isn’t one to back down, she thought. Emily is right. If she doesn’t do this, she’ll regret it. I can sense her determination.

Whatever fueled that determination, Astrid didn’t know, but she knew that stopping Tien was the best way to keep her out of danger. She knew—yet she found herself wanting to urge her on anyway.

Astrid’s eyes drifted to Emily. She was already gearing up to cast her spell.

“All right, Tien,” Astrid said at last. “You win. Take care...not that that means anything, but at least be on your guard.”

“I will!”

“I’m casting the spell now!” Emily called. She pointed her staff at the entrance to sector four. With a loud rumbling, the mass of rocks moved out of the water toward her like a swarm of living creatures. She deposited them in a corner of the cavern.

“Now to strengthen it!” Blue light blossomed forth from her and moved down the tunnel, reinforcing the walls with a cracking sound.

While they waited, Astrid turned to Tien. “How big is sector four?”

“It is about six hundred meters from end to end.”

“That’s a pretty long way...”

“But the foreman must be somewhere with air where it is not flooded. About fifty meters from here, the tunnel widens before branching off. The roof of the tunnel is high there.”

“So if he’s in here, that’s where he’ll be.”

Tien nodded.

Put another way, if he wasn’t there, then it was hopeless.

“You sure you can hold your breath for fifty meters? Actually, looking at the water level, it’s probably more like thirty.”

“Chi will be fine.”

“It’ll be pitch-dark and the water’s murky. You won’t be able to see anything.”

“Chi knows the way.”

“All right. Then let’s get you roped up.”

“What?”

“There’s a rope on board the drill. I’ll tie it around your waist. It might be awkward to swim with, but you’ll be grateful for it on the way back.”

“Oh...”

Tien might be able to swim thirty meters without coming up for air, but there was no guarantee that the foreman could do the same. In fact, Astrid decided, it was better to assume he couldn’t.

“When you’re ready to come back, we’ll reel you in. That way you’ll get back much faster.”

“All right,” said Tien. “Please tie it on.”

“The signal is two tugs on the rope.”

Just then, Emily called over. “I’m done over here!”

The tunnel mouth gaped open before them, inundated with murky water. The earth rumbled again.

“Better get a move on,” Emily said.

Tien quickly removed her helmet, jacket, trousers, and boots until she stood there in a singlet and bloomers. They were shabby and not at all like what a young girl would wear. Astrid remembered how Tien had picked up the minecart and wielded the pickaxe, then marveled that this skinny little girl could perform such feats of strength.

She wrapped the rope around Tien’s waist. She didn’t think it was fifty meters long, but it ought to extend thirty meters at least.

“Okay, you’re tied in,” she said.

“Chi will be back.”

Tien turned around and strode directly into the tunnel. She waded through the water until it reached her waist, then began to swim breaststroke. When her head was almost touching the ceiling, she took a deep breath and dove in.

“Wow. She didn’t hesitate for a second,” said Emily.

“She’s certainly something— Emily?!” Astrid looked toward Emily just in time to see her slump to the ground. “I knew it... Your mana was already close to used up, wasn’t it?”

All that about “half” her mana had been a lie.

“Well, y’know... I didn’t want to distract Tien from the rescue.”

“Do you have to be so stubborn?”

“Have you met me?”

Astrid grinned. “Well, let’s just hope our other stubborn friend comes back safe.”

“Yeah...”

The rope slithered smoothly away from them into the darkness.

*

“Haa...aah... Haa, haa, haa.”

The foreman, the top dog at Izumi Mine, the one who oversaw the whole operation, was getting desperate.

Between ensuring that one of the duchy’s most important iron mines kept to its production schedule, meeting his boss’s expectations, and safeguarding his own position, it was all he could do to stay afloat. Advances in magical technology had seen an increase in demand for iron from all over the world, and as the price of iron ore had risen, so had the mining quotas. Izumi Mine had to be generating eye-watering profits, but neither the miners nor the foreman ever saw an extra penny. All that increased for them was pressure.

“Haa...hah... This can’t...be happening...” The water was already lapping at his neck. He clung to the wall with one hand and in the other held a magic lamp, his only source of light, up above the water. Everyone else had gone. The foreman was completely alone. Every now and then, the ground rumbled and the water rose further, reminding him that he was running out of time.

“I don’t deserve to die like this! This sorta accident should never have happened!” Tears and snot streamed down his face. The thought of his wife and son waiting for him to come home was like a knife in his heart. How would they survive? The question terrified him so much that his legs stopped kicking as though he’d been paralyzed from the waist down.

“I’ve gotta live...gotta live...”

But how?

“They’ll come for me... Once the water drops, someone will...”

With the light from the magic lamp, he could now see the rock above him. It was perhaps five meters away. At this rate, the whole cavern would be submerged in less than an hour. The air might run out even sooner.

“No... Please no... Not like this...”

Sector four always had trouble with water, but it was also rich in ore deposits. In order to meet their quotas, they had no choice but to dig here. He’d known there were risks, but up until now, everything had gone smoothly. He’d plugged up flash floods and even managed to set the miners working to meet his quotas, for all that they railed against him. But nothing like this sudden cave-in had ever happened before, to say nothing of the predicament he found himself in now, left behind with death drawing closer every second.

“Gah!” His hand slipped. For a moment, he floated, then he slowly began to sink.

“A-Aagh!” In his panicked flailing, the magic lamp went underwater. The light went out, plunging him into darkness. He spun his arms desperately, then—

Something grabbed his foot.

“B-B-Bluh?! Buwah! Aaaugh!”

Could this be the ghost that was said to haunt the mine?!

“Haa...” A voice came from right by his ear. The foreman shrieked.

“Too loud!” the voice said.

“Wha— Ow?!” The foreman yelped as something whacked him on the head. Even with his helmet, the force of the blow had him seeing stars.

It also brought him back to his senses. Someone was there next to him, panting hard.

“What’re you doing here?!” he demanded.

“Chi...is here...to rescue you...” the figure said between breaths.

“You are?! Then the heavens haven’t forsaken me!” But his rush of joy was short-lived. “H-Hold on. That voice... Ghost Dog?! You weren’t trapped down here too, were you...?” he said doubtfully. It was too dark to make out her expression.

“If you do not want to be rescued, Chi will leave. Goodbye.”

“Wait! Wait!” he cried. “I didn’t say that! But how’d you get here?”

“A mage repaired the cave-in. Then Chi swam.”

There was a long silence. Tien wondered what the foreman was thinking. Maybe he thought she was lying. Or maybe—

“You came down here knowing it was me you’d be rescuing?” he asked.

“Yes.”

Another brief silence followed, then the foreman said, “Thank you... Thank you so much! I’ve got a wife and son, y’know... If I died, I dunno what they’d—”

“This can wait until you are rescued.”

“R-Right. So how do we get back?”

Now it was Tien’s turn to fall silent.

“Hey, say something. I know, you’ve got a rope! You swam in here with a rope, right? Right?”

“Yes. But the rope is gone now.”

“What d’you mean, ‘gone’?”

Tien lifted up the rope tied to her waist—not that the foreman could see it in the dark.

“It was not long enough.”

“Huh...?”

A thirty meter journey over flat ground would have been one thing, but the rising water level changed the equation. The rope wasn’t long enough to compensate for the added elevation. Tien had made it here anyway. When Astrid and Emily had pulled on the rope to tell her it was at its limit, she’d ignored them and plowed forward. She had to strain against the rope at first, but it soon went slack.

In other words, the other end of the rope was no longer in Astrid’s and Emily’s hands, but submerged somewhere in the tunnel.

“S-So no one’s gonna pull us back, huh...?” said the foreman. “But that’s all right. I’ll just swim like you did.”

“Yes. But you will have to hold your breath the whole way.”

The foreman fell quiet. He knew, of course, how far away the tunnel entrance was—farther than he could swim under normal circumstances. Not only that, but they would have to dive down into complete darkness. If he couldn’t swim the full distance, he would drown.

The foreman gulped. “I-If I stayed...and waited for help...”

Tien’s silence spoke for itself.

“Yeah, I know... Waiting will just make things worse...” He couldn’t delude himself. “Do or die, eh?”

“Yes. Let us go.”

“W-Wait a minute.” The foreman’s voice quavered. “If I...don’t make it, you go. Leave me behind.”

Tien said nothing.

“There’s no point in both of us dying, Tien.”

“All right.”

“Wait, one more thing! If I die, would you tell my wife and son that I love them...?”

“No,” Tien said flatly.

“Why not?!”

“If Chi does that, you will have nothing to stay alive for. Go and tell them yourself.”

“Well, that’s... I mean, you ain’t wrong, but you coulda said it a bit nicer.”

“Come or Chi will leave you behind.”

“Okay, okay! I’m coming!”

For one moment, even though it was dark, their eyes met.

Then, they both breathed in deeply and plunged together into the water.

*

“Hey! She’s pulling on the rope!” said Emily. “I’m holding on for now, but she’s trying to keep going!”

It was a little after Tien had dove underwater and before she reached the foreman. The rope had turned out to be closer to forty meters long, but it had still run out.

“The cavern must be too deeply flooded for her to reach the surface...” Astrid said thoughtfully.

“Astrid! This isn’t the time for levelheaded analysis!” Emily shouted.

“We have to let go.”

“Excuse me?!”

“Well, Tien wants to keep going. Either she thinks she can make it, or she doesn’t have enough air left to make it back.”

“B-But...”

“Let go. I’ll try and see how far the end of the rope goes.” Astrid began to wade into the water.

“Astrid!”

“I’m taller, so it’s better if I do this. I’ll go in as deep as I can.” Holding the end of the rope, Astrid kept going until just her head protruded above the water’s surface, but to no avail. The rope remained taut, and finally, she was forced to let it go.

“Astrid!” Emily called to her again.

“I’m going to look under the water.” She paused for a moment, then ducked beneath the surface and felt along the ground. There was no trace of the end of the rope.

It’s gone. Totally gone! Just how far did she swim?! Astrid wondered, but she couldn’t stay underwater any longer.

“Anything?” Emily asked when Astrid emerged, sopping wet. She only shook her head.

“With the water level rising,” she said, “I don’t know if Tien will be able to make it back.”

“No!”

The two of them hurriedly ran through their options—magic? The excavator drill? Was there anything else they could put to use?

“There’s nothing,” Astrid concluded. None of the options were any good. Emily wrung out the last drops of her mana to scoop out some of the water, but it made no real difference.

“We’re helpless.”

She looked up at the roof of the cavern high above them. There was no more that they could do. Everything now depended on Tien’s will to stay alive.

“There must be something we can do,” Astrid muttered. “But what...?”

Just then, Astrid heard a noise. It wasn’t from the tunnel down which Tien had gone, but from the direction the three of them had come—the direction of the entrance to the mine.

It wasn’t silent underwater. If anything, sounds traveled better, and the darkness only made it easier to pick up all of them.

THA THUNK... GRGLGRGLGRGL... WHOOSSSH.

The change in pressure after diving two meters under the water caused intense pain in the ears. For anyone unaccustomed to diving, even if they could equalize the pressure, it’d be bad enough to make them give up on going any deeper.

Yet the foreman kept going, following in Tien’s wake. He knew she was ahead of him because he could feel the change in the movement of the water she passed through. That subtle sign of her presence was all he had to guide him.

Worse than the pain in his ears was his aching head. It felt like his skull might split open. His body screamed at him to return to the surface immediately, but to turn back now would mean certain death. Instead, he thought of his family. They were the only bright spot that could stave off his despair. But his thoughts were growing dim...

Just then, someone grabbed his arm.

“Glub?!” At the time, his hand made contact with a wall. They must have reached the tunnel. That meant there were only thirty meters to go.

The foreman stopped. Another thirty meters...

It was impossible.

He couldn’t hold his breath any longer. If he’d been out in the air, his face would have been streaked with tears. He couldn’t hold out more than another few seconds...but he could go a little farther. If he was going to die, he wanted to die moving toward the entrance.

The foreman screwed up the last of his strength.

Tien was also nearing her limit. The water had grown deeper since she’d set off, and now she had to wait for the foreman. Reaching the tunnel meant they didn’t have to dive any farther and could just go straight, but with another thirty meters to go, even if she did make it, it would be by the skin of her teeth.

Tien set off through the darkness. She didn’t have to wait for the foreman now that it was all straight ahead.

She had to get back alive. Then she would tell the priest at the monastery that she was leaving this town. She was going to search for her parents.

She’d made up her mind.

Maybe she had wanted to come back for the foreman because the idea of him left alone down here reminded Tien of herself, after her parents had abandoned her. For her, rescuing him was a kind of closure. Once it was done, she’d be able to leave Izumi Mine. She’d save her money, then go. It had made a massive difference to know that she’d be able to eat the food in other places.

And it was all thanks to Nina. Tien had to thank her. Not to mention Emily and Astrid, who had come into the mine with her. The three of them shared a special bond, and she was happier than anything to have been able to join them, even if only briefly. Without meeting them, she couldn’t have made up her mind to leave.

Just then, Tien felt something was wrong. She turned around—

There was no one there. The foreman wasn’t behind her. That could only mean one thing: He’d run out of air. They weren’t even halfway down the tunnel, which meant he would drown. Tien didn’t have the strength left to save him, and he was in no condition to make it the rest of the way on his own.

But Tien didn’t hesitate. She turned and swam back down the tunnel. If she abandoned him now, her newfound resolve would all be for nothing.

“Ah!” She found him about five meters away. But when she tried to grab him, he weakly pushed her away.

If I...don’t make it, you go. Leave me behind.

Bubbles came from his mouth. He was telling her that he couldn’t go on, that she should leave him.

But Tien reached for him again. She pulled him to her, then grabbed the wall with her other hand and kicked to propel them both through the water.

The foreman beat feebly against her. She knew he was telling her to leave him behind. Why was she doing this? She’d just end up dead too.

Chi will not abandon you, she thought. Earlier, he’d said something else too.

There’s no point in both of us dying, Tien.

He’d used her name. Despite calling her “Ghost Dog,” he’d known her name the whole time. The foreman, Tien realized, actually had taken his job seriously.

He was mean, he forced them to work to unreasonable quotas, and he’d treated Tien with outright hostility—but he kept the mine running. He’d put all his efforts into fulfilling the quotas to the exclusion of all else. When she really thought about it, he’d been mean but never unjust. He called her names, but he always saw she was paid for the work she did and never barred her from entering the mine. If it was a question of whether she liked him, she didn’t. But that didn’t mean she could leave him to die.

Chi’s chest hurts... How much farther is it? Chi still cannot see the end...cannot go on any longer...

With the foreman in tow, even Tien couldn’t make it the rest of the way.

Her vision wasn’t black, but red. Every cell in her body was screaming for air. Her muscles felt like they were tearing apart.

Father, Nina, Emily, Astrid... Everyone... Chi is sorry...

Tien knew she was about to lose consciousness.

Then, she felt a tug.

Someone was pulling on the rope.

Huh...? She wondered if she was hallucinating. Emily and Astrid had let go of the other end of the rope. It should have been lost under the water. She had to be delusional. She was just imagining what she wished would happen.

But she wasn’t.

Huh?! Something yanked on the rope with tremendous force, dragging Tien forward through the water. She hastily grabbed hold of the rope while holding on as hard as she could to the foreman. There was no air left in her lungs. She was going to black out—

SPLASH. Tien burst out into the air. She took a great, gulping breath, then slumped, coughing, into the shallow water.

“She’s alive!”

“I don’t believe it! That’s the foreman!”

“How did she do it?!”

Even in her barely conscious state, Tien realized that the voices did not belong to Emily or Astrid.

“Let’s get them outta here! Gimme a hand!” That voice was the big, red-haired miner. He’d escaped the mine but came back for her.

“Oh my gosh, you’re alive...!” Emily wailed, running over as Tien was lifted onto a stretcher. Tien’s vision was blurry, but she seemed to be crying. “When you took off with the rope after I tried to stop you...!”

“These boys dove into the water and found the end of the rope,” Astrid explained. “Honestly, Tien. You’re stubborn to a fault.” She tried to sound cool and collected, but there was a quaver in her voice. Both of them were soaking wet.

Oh... Tien thought in the moments before her consciousness fled. Everyone came to rescue Chi...

*

When they emerged from the mine with Tien on the stretcher, the rain was falling harder than ever. They headed to the makeshift infirmary in the mine office and canteen and discovered that the town doctor had arrived and was treating the wounded.

“Wh-What is all this...?” The spectacle that greeted them inside rendered Emily speechless.

“Hey! Can I get seconds?”

“I’m first, you thief! Hey, Miss Maid! Over here!”

“This is the best thing I’ve ever tasted!”

“That maid is an angel!”

“Don’t be daft, she’s flesh and blood like us.”

“A saint, then. A maid and a saint.”

All the miners sat around cheerfully eating dinner. Everyone was smiling.

“Everyone! The next pot is ready!” A familiar figure in a maid’s uniform emerged from the kitchen carrying an enormous cooking pot together with one of the cooks. She went around ladling it into the miners’ wooden bowls.

“Shove off!”

“I’m next in line!”

“Hey, I’m still on my first bowl!”

The miners crowded around her like malnourished children—while the only actual malnourished child lay unconscious on a stretcher.

The big, red-haired miner standing behind Tien took a deep breath.

“What is all this noise?!” he bellowed. “You call this a first aid station?!”

The miners spun around guiltily, their smiles freezing on their faces.

“I-It’s just, the maid made us such a good meal...”

“Right, yeah. She said those of us that aren’t badly hurt should eat as much as we can and heal up quick.”

“Here, why don’t you have a bowl?”

Then they noticed the stretchers.

“H-Hey, isn’t that the foreman?!”

“And that’s Tien!”

Realizing who had arrived, the crowd of miners parted to allow the stretchers to enter.

“Emily! Astrid!” Nina rushed over to them. “Is Tien...?” She looked down with horror at the stretcher where Tien lay with her eyes closed.

“Tien’s okay,” Emily reassured her. “She’s just unconscious.”

“I bet she’ll be asking for your cooking when she wakes up,” added Astrid.

“Thank goodness...” Nina felt like sinking to the ground then and there, but she pulled herself together and said, “In that case, I’d better go and buy some ingredients that she can eat!”

“What?!” Emily sounded outraged. “N-Nina, you must be exhausted! Don’t overdo it!”

“I’ll be fine. Besides, this is nothing compared to what Tien did.” With that, she hurried out into the rain.

Emily and Astrid exchanged a look.

“I guess we can’t use being tired as an excuse either.”

“No, I suppose not. You couldn’t use some magic to dry us off, could you?”

“I’m clean out of mana. Just go get changed.”

The two of them immediately got to work helping where Nina had left off.

All of the miners watched them in silence. They looked down at the empty bowls in their hands then around at one another.

“How about we give the doc a hand?”

“I’ll help in the kitchen. I can handle peeling some veg.”

“I’ll wipe things down over here.”

And so the miners got to work too.

The mine office and canteen had looked like a hospital in a war zone, but by nightfall, things were settling down. The priests and nuns from the monastery had rushed to the scene when they heard about the accident, as had the families of the miners. Those with minor injuries went off to their own beds.

The doctor got ready to head home after finishing treating everyone, remarking, “I say, what a surprise this was! I hardly had to do anything for the minor injuries. It made my job a great deal easier.”

Given the scale of the accident, there had been miraculously little damage. The day at last came to an end.

*

Tien opened her eyes.

The first thing she noticed was the sharp smell of disinfectant, followed by another that was familiar and reassuring.

“Father...?” she said. The bed she found herself in was unfamiliar. She guessed that this was some sort of hospital. But why was the priest here?

He sat in a chair with his hands on his knees and his head nodding sleepily, but now he looked up with a start.

“Tien, you’re awake... Thank the Lord...” He stood up and gently laid a hand on Tien’s brow. Tien thought she saw tears in his eyes, but it was too dark to see clearly. The only source of light in the room was one magic lamp, illuminating several other beds occupied by sleeping figures. Still, Tien recognized this room and the outline of the desk in the front.

“This is...the mine office...?”

“Yes, that’s right,” the priest said. “Nina had it repurposed as a temporary first aid station.”

“Nina...?” The tiny maid floated up in her mind’s eye. She’d given Tien water and made food for her. Thanks to her, Tien had finally recalled what it felt like to be full, yet all she had asked for in exchange was a tour of the mine. It was true that she had stayed behind after the accident...

Then, Tien understood. It wasn’t only Emily and Astrid who had helped. Nina had helped the miners in her own way out here. She had fought for them.

“Father...” When Tien thought of Nina, Emily, and Astrid, her chest filled with a mix of warmth, yearning, and helplessness that made it easy to say what she said next.

“Chi is going to leave this town. With Nina, if possible.” Tien didn’t think she had anything to offer compared to the other three, but she knew she wanted to be with them. More than anything.

The smile the priest gave her said he wasn’t at all surprised. He nodded slowly.

“And one day,” Tien went on, “Chi wants to see Chi’s parents again. Chi is scared, but Chi wants to ask them...why they left.”

The priest nodded once more. “Near or far, you will be in my prayers. I will ask God to keep Tien, the proud lupalune, safe on her travels.”

Tien knew he was sincere. The priest prayed every day, especially when any of the children left the orphanage. He never stopped praying that somewhere, they were healthy and safe.

“The rain stopped...” she said. She could smell it. The priest went to open a wooden window, and humid air flowed in from outside. The rain had indeed stopped, and from the east, day was breaking.

*

Why is she like this? thought Emily.

“Oh, Emily! Astrid! Rise and shine!”

It was about eight o’clock in the morning. Despite the hard beds of the inn, Emily had slept like a log. She might even have overslept a little. She’d used too much magic the previous day, and getting in and out of the mine had meant a lot of walking.

Astrid had managed to get out of bed but was staggering around, still half asleep. It was no wonder. Even Emily, an experienced adventurer, was bone-tired.

Nina ought to have been just as tired as them. Apparently, when setting up the first aid station, the tiny maid had hauled around heavy objects that usually took two grown adults to lift. Needless to say, when anyone asked how it was that she was so strong, she simply said that “Any maid could do the same.”

“Hey, stop that,” Emily called over to her.

“What?”

A hundred different retorts rose up in Emily’s mind, but she restrained herself and instead asked, “Did you sleep? You were up working even later than us! What’re you doing getting up early to do laundry?!”

“Any maid would do the same.”

Those words never failed to make Emily’s head spin. Whereas before she’d always been disbelieving, lately she caught herself thinking that yes, of course this was normal for a maid.

It’s not normal. Definitely not normal, Emily told herself. Where’s my common sense got to?

She went to crouch down beside Nina, who was scrubbing their clothes in a tub.

“I’ll wash my own clothes,” she said.

“B-But...”

“You’re not my maid, are you?”

“Well, no, but...” Nina hung her head glumly.

Yeesh... Emily thought. It might be time for what Astrid and I discussed.

A while back, she and Astrid had come up with a scheme. As far as Emily was concerned, Nina was not a servant; she was a friend. The scheme was a way to ensure the three of them would be on equal footing. And the time had come to put it into action.

Right, Astrid? Emily looked over to where her coconspirator—

“Zzz...”

Astrid had fallen asleep standing up.

Shock at the news of the mining accident spread through the town. Nina, Emily, and Astrid ate a late breakfast, then went out into the streets that were still damp from the rain. The accident was the only thing anyone was talking about.

“They say repairs will take three months.”

“I heard six.”

“Don’t talk nonsense. After six months, there’d be no town left!”

“The miners will all leave...”

“Well, the mine boss said...”

No one knew anything firsthand, and most of it was groundless rumor, but it was more than enough to make the townsfolk uneasy.

After listening for a while, Nina said, “Emily?”

“Huh? What’s up?”

“I, erm... That is...” she began, then shook her head and changed the subject. “Never mind. It’s nothing. Oh, isn’t the market full of people today!”

They’d come to the market to stock up on food and supplies for their journey. They’d toured the mine, which was the whole reason they’d come here, and helped to minimize the damage from the accident for good measure.

Emily, if she were honest, had had enough of mines for a while. She wanted to go to a pretty seaside town. She had an image of a “resort” that mostly involved gazing at the ocean and sipping tropical drinks. And yet...

“How about we stay here a bit longer, Nina?”

Emily didn’t have to ask to know that Nina wanted to help the mining town to get back on its feet. Emily also knew perfectly well that Nina knew she couldn’t do it alone and wanted Emily, with her magic, and Astrid, with her expertise, to help—but she’d just feel bad asking them directly, which was why she couldn’t get the words out just now and then clumsily changed the subject instead.

It was so very Nina. Emily thought it was absolutely adorable.

“What...?” said Nina, her eyes wide.

“Well, we know the town can’t survive without the mine. It doesn’t feel great to just say, ‘Okay, bye!’ when we might be able to help.”

“Emily...”

“Luckily enough, Astrid and I have just the sorta skills you need in situations like this.”

“Oh, Emily!”

“Gah?!”

Nina flung herself on Emily and hugged her tight. Emily, caught off guard, blinked in confusion.

“N-Nina, what’s up with you?”

“Oh, Emily, you’re just too wonderful...!”

“Hey! A-Astrid, help!”

“I think I’ll enjoy this a little longer. It’s not every day I get to see you blush.”

“Quit messing around!”

“I think this is nice. Weren’t you just telling me last night that Nina couldn’t ask us without feeling guilty, so you’d have to suggest it for her?”

“Hey! You weren’t supposed to tell her!”

“Emilyyy!” Nina wailed.

“I yield! Nina, I yield! How’s a tiny thing like you get so strong, anyway?!”

Emily shoved Nina off her, but privately, she was happy. It wasn’t just that Nina was grateful to her.

Just now, she let us see her. Not just Nina the maid.

For better or for worse, Nina’s role as a maid was deeply ingrained in her. What made Emily happier than anything was that she had shown her feelings.

“All right, Nina,” said Astrid. “Let the woman breathe. Emily and I have to head back to the inn to get some gear. Also, to extend our stay.”

“Th-Then I’ll come—”

“I have something else I’d like you to do Nina. Could you go and check on Tien for us?”

Nina gasped. The doctor had declared that there was no danger to Tien’s life, and the priest had been there to watch her, so they had left her at the mine office. Nina wanted to know how she was too.

“Let’s meet up at the mine later,” Astrid suggested.

“A-All right!” With a wave, Nina set off toward the mine office.

The other two watched her go, then Astrid turned to Emily, whose cheeks were still a little pink.

“Right, Emily. Are we really doing this?”

It was time for the scheme they’d been brewing.

“Yeah,” said Emily. “I think this is as good a chance as ever. Did you see Nina’s face just now? She’s not just worrying about us now, but all the miners too. Probably thinking that if we help too much we’ll take their jobs or something.”

“I imagine so. Kindness is one thing, but that much consideration is more like a curse.”

“Also, I was thinking about Tien...”

“Ah, yes. She’ll want to come with Nina, I’ll wager.”

Emily and Astrid exchanged helpless smiles.

“Honestly... Just how many companions is that girl going to pick up?” Emily wondered.

“Personally, I’m excited to find out.”

“You’re not serious.”

“No, sorry. That was a joke.”

“It’d better be.”

Emily let out a small sigh, then said, “Let’s go. The adventurers’ guild awaits.”

The two of them set off.

Epilogue: We and the Maid

Werther Duchy was ruled by, as one would expect, Duke Werther. He was a man of ample girth and sported a handlebar mustache with high curling points that he had a habit of twirling as he spoke. As the ultimate authority in the land, he had naturally heard all about the accident at Izumi Mine.

“Eh? This is most irregular. Did you not tell me yourself that the severity of the accident at Izumi Mine meant that it would be anywhere from half to a full year before it returned to operation? Or does my memory fail me?”

“Your memory is perfect, my lord,” replied a wizened old woman with a solemn expression. “Indeed, when you heard, you bellowed at the minister for mines that he would get it done in three months or else every extra day would come out of his salary.”

The old woman had once been the duke’s governess, and she was the only person in the land who could criticize him.

“I would never bellow,” he said.

“Is that so? I recall you shouted so loudly that you said you were going to bed to cool off, then proceeded to nap for three hours.”

The duke knew he couldn’t win against the old woman and her formidable memory, so he moved on.

“About the mine. In the end, the recovery only took a single month. Most irregular, I say. The minister for mines said three months was impossible—he got down on his knees and begged to be allowed to step down as minister!”

The duke had an impressive memory himself.

“My investigations suggest that they had some very devoted support.”

“Oh?”

“Apparently, one used fifth degree magic to reinforce the rock of the mine, while another drained the tunnels with a hitherto unseen magical device.”

“What, did some fairy-tale heroes leap off the page to help? One doesn’t simply continuously cast fifth degree spells.”

“One more thing. They weren’t great heroes, but young women—barely more than girls.”

“Eh?”

“What’s more—”

“Hold on, didn’t you just say one more thing?”

The old woman ignored this interruption. “Standing behind them—directing them, even—was a maid.”

“A what?”

“The miners have taken to calling her a ‘saint’ after all she did to tend to them after the accident.”

“Speak plainly, woman. Is she a maid or a saint?”

“A maid, my lord.”

“Well then who is her master? One of the duchy’s wealthy lords?”

“I am told that she has no master.”

“That makes no sense. No master? What is she, a stray maid?”

“A stray maid indeed. Very droll, my lord.”

“Y-You think so?” the duke said, instantly pleased by this rare praise from the old woman. “Then that’s what we’ll call her. If this maid is as interesting as you say, I should like to employ her—and the fifth degree mage and the one with the mysterious magical devices too.”

“I am somewhat concerned about Count Mirkwood of the Crecente Kingdom.”

“Don’t just change the subject!”

“The matters are related, my lord.”

“Count Mirkwood... I’ve heard that name once or twice.”

“Yes, my lord. He has risen remarkably among the nobility of the Crecente Kingdom. Recently, however, he has offered a bounty for a certain maid who used to work in his household.”

“A bounty? Did she flee judgment for some crime?”

“The exact circumstances have not been made public, but something like running off with some jewels seems plausible. But I would note that he increased the bounty. It now stands at ten million gold, in Crecente currency.”

“Now that is interesting...” the duke said thoughtfully. “That’s about one hundred thousand tellus in our money.”

Duke Werther, as the ruler of an entire nation, was no fool. He immediately noted the unusualness of increasing the value of the bounty after posting it, and that offering ten million gold meant that this maid was worth more to Count Mirkwood than merely finding a criminal.

A mysterious maid had shown up at Izumi Mine. A mysterious maid had vanished from the Crecente Kingdom. Perhaps he was seeing what he wanted to see, but wasn’t it plausible that these were the same person?

“One hundred thousand tellus isn’t enough to hire a fifth degree mage for a year.”

“One would have to pay twice as much,” agreed the old woman.

“I only wish the development of magical technology were that cheap.”

“That would be quite the bargain.”

“How much does Izumi Mine make a month? One hundred thousand tellus?”

“Don’t be absurd, my lord. It makes at least five hundred thousand tellus.”

“Well, that settles it, then.” Duke Werther smiled. “Make the maid an offer. Say the Werther Duchy wishes to employ her.”

“Very good, my lord. What is the value of this offer?”

The duke slammed his fist down on the table. “One million tellus a year.”

And so, unbeknownst to Nina herself and to those in the Mirkwood household who had cast her out, Duke Werther decided that Nina—one maid—was worth an annual salary equivalent to one hundred million Crecente Gold.

*

Although not unheard of, it was extremely rare for the ruler of any nation to contact Count Mirkwood directly. So when an envoy from Duke Werther arrived at his estate, even as he told his butler, “Hmph, I suppose I’ll see him,” he was privately elated. Lately, he’d been made the laughingstock of noble society, but with this, he thought the wind must finally be blowing in his favor again.

He never could have guessed the reason for the envoy’s visit.

“I... I b-beg your pardon?! The Werther Duchy wants to hire my maid?!”

They were offering one hundred million gold—and that was an annual salary. She would be paid that much every year. The middle-aged envoy made no show of deference to the count. He was, after all, there as the duke’s representative.

“That is correct, sir. That being so, he also requests that you withdraw the unjust bounty that you have posted, as though this maid—Miss Nina—were a criminal.”

“Bah!” Count Mirkwood cried. “You wouldn’t say that if you knew what she’d done! Her offense was far worse than any crime!” He shot a glance at the butler and housekeeper, who stood in a corner of the room. Both kept their eyes fixed on the opposite wall, avoiding his gaze.

Back me up here, the count thought irritably as he looked back at the envoy.

“Then I ask you this,” said the envoy. “Is it your assertion that Miss Nina violated royal law and is now living as a fugitive?”

“W-Well, yes, I suppose.”

“Is it not the case that under royal law, crimes other than certain serious offenses, such as murder or direct harm to a noble, are punishable with a fine?”

“That’s, erm...”

Was that right? Unsure, Count Mirkwood looked over at the butler, who this time answered with a nod. “Yes,” he conceded.

“Duke Werther offers to pay whatever the fine is. If you would tell me what her crime was, we can work out the figure.”

“I beg your pardon?!”

The envoy gestured to the subordinate beside him, who pushed forward a trolley upon which something sat covered by a cloth on a silver tray. The subordinate removed the cloth to reveal a blinding flash of gold. The tray was piled high with Werther Duchy coins.

Wh-What in the world?! What could possibly have made Duke Werther so interested in that blasted maid?!

Count Mirkwood didn’t know what Nina and the others had done at Izumi Mine. In fact, he didn’t know that the mine had had an accident at all, and as a result, he had not offered any condolences when he first welcomed the envoy to his estate. Assuming the oversight had not been intentional, it exposed the gaps in his knowledge and his lack of effort to learn, and so Duke Werther’s envoy already viewed him with contempt.

I know! It must be Lord Tuyledo!

In his ignorance, Count Mirkwood’s mind went to Tuyledo of the Five Sages. Nina had waited on him, and he had said that he would not be returning to the Mirkwood Estate so long as Nina wasn’t there. The flip side of this was that if Duke Werther got his hands on Nina, Tuyledo would visit him every year instead.

And he sees that as worth one hundred million gold. Even Count Mirkwood was capable of that calculation. He couldn’t have survived in noble society this long if not—no matter how talented his maid was.

But why? Why would he value Tuyledo’s visits so highly? Am I missing something? Not knowing the answer, he thus decided that he couldn’t make any deal then and there. He’d look into the matter more closely later.

“I’m afraid,” he said, “that as the master of the maid in question, it would be a mark against my honor to sell her off for a pile of gold.”

The envoy regarded Count Mirkwood intently.

Wh-Why is he looking at me like that? It’s like he’s appraising me. How infuriating!

At last, the envoy said, “In other words, you disdain the duke’s generosity.”

“It’s not a question of generosity! As the master of this house, I have a duty to manage my staff, that’s all.”

“Am I to understand correctly, then, that you refuse to withdraw the bounty on Miss Nina, and you reject the duke’s generous offer to pay whatever fine she owes?”

“Didn’t I just say that?” Count Mirkwood snapped.

The envoy took an ornately decorated letter from his coat. “This is a letter from His Majesty the King of Crecente.”

“Eh?!” Count Mirkwood was thrown by this sudden mention of the king, the sovereign ruler of Crecente, to whom he owed absolute obedience.

The duke’s envoy began to read the letter aloud.

“We recognize as fact that Count Mirkwood dismissed his maid, then posted a bounty on her head in the name of bringing her back to answer for some unspecified crime. This, in our view, constitutes intolerably scandalous behavior. If the count persists in casting aspersions on this maid, all rights relating to her and her employment shall thereby be transferred to Duke Werther.”

“Wh-What...?!”

“I probably don’t need to tell you,” the envoy said, “that the gold you deposited for the bounty will be forfeited to the national treasury. Still, compared to one hundred million gold, I suppose it’s a bargain.”

Count Mirkwood just gaped.

When a bounty was posted for a large-scale manhunt, in order to ensure that the money to pay it existed, the Crecente Kingdom required that it be temporarily entrusted to the crown in the form of a deposit. Count Mirkwood had deposited ten million gold. Now the king had declared that he wouldn’t get it back. The count had relinquished all rights to both Nina and his money.

That explained why the envoy had asked him so carefully and repeatedly about it. The count had totally rejected the offer—because he didn’t know what he was being asked. Unfortunately, nobles did not live in a world where one could merely plead ignorance. Ignorance was a matter of personal responsibility. When Count Mirkwood got word that Duke Werther’s envoy wanted to see him, it was his responsibility to investigate and find out the purpose of the visit, and that the envoy had met with the king the previous day.

The envoy stood up, ignoring Count Mirkwood, who sat paralyzed with horror at his mistake. His subordinates had covered up the pile of coins once more. The count only stared blankly even when the envoy bid him farewell. It wasn’t until they’d departed the estate that he finally snapped back to his senses.

“Butler! Housekeeper!” he shouted.

“Y-Yes, my lord?”

“M-My lord?”

“Just what is going on here?!” the count demanded, slamming his fist down on the table. Neither of them had any idea what he meant.

“You, Butler! Get out there this instant and find out what this maid, Nina, did! And this business with the Werther Duchy too! Go! Hurry up!”

“Y-Yes, my lord!”

“M-M-My lord?!”

“And I want my deposit back! No matter what it takes!”

“But my lord, that’s impossible!”

“Off with you!!!”

The butler left the room in such a rush that he forgot even to bow. The housekeeper fled too. She couldn’t help with the investigation, but if she stuck around, she’d get caught by the count’s fury.

*

A month had passed since the count’s fit of wrath.

Three people gathered in the kitchen.

“Blimey, Sonya,” said Tomus. “You look like a proper city lass dressed up like that.”

“Huh? What is that, a compliment? An insult? Which is it?”

Sonya, one of the maids in the Mirkwood household, had exchanged her maid’s uniform for her own clothes. This was uncommon enough for the gardener, Tomus, to comment on it as he sipped his tea.

Roy came out of the kitchen, accompanied by the smell of delicious baking. He handed Sonya a bag that contained none other than freshly baked—

“Cookies?! Oh, you shouldn’t have! My brothers and sisters are gonna be so exci— Hold on a minute. I haven’t quit, you know.”

Sonya had taken a long vacation to go home and visit her family. It would probably be her only vacation that year. Roy had started making her cookies after his friendship with Nina had led to him befriending Sonya as well.

“Make sure you keep them hidden when you leave the estate. I swiped some of the household supplies to make them.”

Sonya grinned. “Don’t you worry. I’ve got a knack for that sorta thing.”

“That’s not something to be proud of!”

“I’m touched that you baked cookies for me, Roy. You probably wanted to bake them for Nina, but I’m happy to eat them either way!”

Roy grunted.

Sonya promptly opened the bag and popped a cookie into her mouth. Roy, noting the envious look in Tomus’s eyes, said warningly, “I’m not baking them for you, old man.”

“Aye, I know,” grumbled the old man. “Hey, Sonya. Are you sure it’s all right for you to leave with all the chaos around here?”

“Huh? That’s not my problem.”

“There you go, dodging responsibility.”

“Who, me? I’m naught but a common maid.”

“Even so...” said Tomus. “Things are getting out of hand.”

Tomus lived in a cottage in an out-of-the-way corner of the gardens he tended, so it was rare that he set foot in the house. Despite that, the household’s disarray was affecting even him, whether it was the fertilizer he’d asked for not being ordered, or servants in the throes of young love sneaking into the garden while he was doing the pruning.

“Nothing to do with me. Blame the one who fired her,” said Sonya.

“I can’t believe it’s been a month since the envoy came from the Werther Duchy. The uproar after he left was something else.”

Yes, it had been a full month since Count Mirkwood had sent the butler off to investigate. Naturally, all sorts of news had reached the count’s ears by this point without him having to go looking for it. When he learned about the efforts of his maid and her companions after the accident at Izumi Mine, he was so furious that he demoted the butler to a mere footman for dismissing such an excellent maid.

“So even I didn’t know this,” said Sonya, “but apparently, Nina went out of her way to write down the details of all her duties, even though she’d been fired. And this maid said she burned it. How stupid can you get? She even sounded pleased with herself when she told the count.”

“Ah, that was a sight to behold,” said Roy. “I happened to need to see the count, but on my way to his office, I heard him shouting from down the corridor. I couldn’t believe how angry he got. He bellowed like a wounded bull and threw his wig on the ground.”

“Th-That’s nuts...”

After that incident, the count fired the housekeeper and several other maids on the spot. He did not write any of them letters of reference.

“What about you, Roy?” said Sonya. “I thought you’d be the first to quit after Nina left.”

“Me? What about you?”

“I don’t have it in me to walk out on a paying job.”

“Well, truth be told, a friend did get in touch, one who runs a restaurant in the Yupiter Empire. Offered me a job as chef...”

“No way! That’s amazing! Chef means you’d be the top guy in the restaurant, right?”

“Something like that...” Roy turned to the old gardener. “What about you, Tomus? This household’s a sinking ship. No point following it to the bottom.”

Tomus put down his cup of tea. “Aye, that’s true... I’ll be sorry to leave the gardens, but maybe it’s time to call it quits. I’ve been talking with my son and his wife about moving in with them for a while now.”

“Yeah? That’s a shame. The garden won’t be the same without you.”

“But you’re leaving too, aren’t you?” Sonya pointed out. “If anyone should be disappointed, it’s me. I doubt we’ll find another gardener like Tomus in a hurry.”

Sonya and Roy didn’t know much about gardens, but they knew Tomus was an excellent gardener. Tuyledo, who had visited the gardens of great estates the world over, had been unequivocal in his praise of his work.

“None of that. Flattery won’t get you anywhere with an old codger like me,” said Tomus. “How’s this, Roy? Once I retire, I’ll come for a bite at your restaurant.”

“Whoa there, grandpa. You’re past the age for long journeys.”

“My son’s wife’s from Yupiter—that’s where they live.”

“They are? Then maybe I will see you again!”

The cook and the gardener grinned at each other.

“Lucky for some...” Sonya said wistfully. “After I go see my family out in the sticks, I’ll be coming straight back here. Ooh, Roy! You wouldn’t have a job for me at that restaurant, would you?”

“I couldn’t pay you as much as a maid in a noble household earns. Besides, if you went abroad, you couldn’t send money back to your folks.”

“Ugh, yeah...”

“It’s just how the dice fell this time... But hey, Sonya,” Roy said abruptly. “Shouldn’t you get a move on? You’ll miss the coach.”

“Oh, drat! You’re right! Hey, will you two be gone by the time I get back...?”

Roy and Tomus exchanged a look.

“It’s possible,” Roy admitted.

“Aye, I’m afraid so.”

“Whaaat? But that means we’ll never see each other again!” Sonya, her cookies still clasped in her hand, went up to Roy and hugged him tight. “I thought you were scary at first, but you’re a good man, Roy.”

“You look after yourself,” he said.

Next, Sonya turned to Tomus. “And I hope you live a long, long life, Tomus.”

“You let me know when you get married,” said the old gardener. “I’ll send flowers.”

“Oooh. Flowers from Tomus? That’ll be a wedding fit for a queen.” Sonya laughed, but tears glistened in the corners of her eyes as she stepped back from them. “Well, I’ll be off, then!”

“Aye.”

“Safe travels.”

And with that, Sonya departed. Sunlight streamed in from the back door into the kitchen.

“I wonder if it wasn’t Nina who brought us together,” said Roy.

Tomus chuckled. “Funny you should say so. I was just thinking the same.”

The two of them imagined the little maid, always popping in and out of the kitchen. For Roy, Tomus, and Sonya, Nina had been their center. Now, the circle was broken, and the four of them would go their separate ways. With their departure from the estate looming, Roy and Tomus were both thinking the same thing—they would never meet a maid like Nina again.

*

It was a few days before Duke Werther’s envoy called at the Mirkwood Estate.

The restoration of Izumi Mine following the accident was complete. The work had proceeded swiftly thanks to magical reinforcement of the rock, the use of magical technology to drain the water, and most important of all, the keen nose of a lupalune that could immediately pinpoint veins of underground water.

A big crowd of miners thronged the area in front of the mine entrance. From atop a raised platform, the foreman addressed them.

“Tomorrow, Izumi Mine will resume normal operations. You’ve all done great work. I’m sure you’ll continue to do me proud.”

He now had a scar on his forehead after a blow sustained during the accident, but had otherwise emerged unscathed and was now in good health. The biggest change was the expression on his face—the other miners whispered that his bright, open smile made him look like a different person. Everyone knew that the accident had been the catalyst for his transformation.

“I don’t need to tell you that the reason we got back on our feet so quickly is all thanks to these girls!”

The crowd cheered. Before, no one had made a peep in response to the foreman’s speeches. He drew on their enthusiasm and went on in an even louder voice.

“I present to you Emily the mage!”

Emily mounted the platform. The invitation to attend a gathering celebrating the end of the recovery work and the reopening of the mine had come the previous day. She hadn’t expected to be called up in front of everyone, but she came forward with an air of nonchalance.

“Emilyyy!”

“You’re so cuuute!”

“Thanks for always making us smile!”

“Ohhh! Scold me more!”

She was met by cheers from the dedicated fans she’d picked up in the past month of work. As they were all miners, they weren’t the most refined.

Some of these seem inappropriate... Emily was afraid that a reaction from her was just what they wanted, though, so she decided to do her best to ignore it. If she let it get to her, that meant they won.

“Mmmph... I love it when you ignore me!”

Even ignoring them seemed to get some of the weirder ones going.

“Next, Astrid the inventor!”

When Astrid appeared, a different set of cheers broke out.

“Miss Astrid...!”

“I love your intellectual look!”

“And she’s got a great figure!”

“Marry me!”

“You think you can sneak in a proposal while everyone’s yelling? You’ve got another think coming!”

“Go jump in a lake!”

Things got heated among Astrid’s hardcore fans.

“And Nina the maid!”

When Nina joined them on the platform, the cheering died away like an ebbing tide. Many of the miners got down on their knees and clasped their hands together.

“Saint Nina...”

“We were blessed to have you here...”

“I’ll never forget the meals you bestowed upon us...”

Nina was taken aback by the change in the mood.

“Wh-What? What’s going on...?”

“It’s better if you don’t worry about it,” Emily advised her, taking her hand and pulling her forward to stand beside them.

The truth was, it was Nina who had left the deepest impression on the miners. No one who’d seen Emily and Astrid in action had to be told how extraordinary they were, but it was hard to grasp for everyone else.

Nina, on the other hand, was in her element providing behind-the-line support like preparing meals and tending to minor injuries. Therefore, she’d connected with almost everyone. The sight of the tiny girl taking care of all these tasks in the twinkling of an eye was nothing short of miraculous. Not only that, but she had a kind word for everyone she met. In the minds of the miners, she was firmly established as “Saint Nina.”

“These three travelers took time outta their journey to work tirelessly on behalf of Izumi Mine,” said the foreman. “As a token of gratitude on behalf of all of us who work here, I’d like to present them with these medals!”

The medals were each large enough to fit in the palm of a hand and engraved with the words, A MARK OF GRATITUDE AND RESPECT FOR DEVOTED SERVICE TO IZUMI MINE. They were also all gleaming pink.

“They’re...pink?” Emily said.

“Yeah, it’s an alloy,” explained the foreman. “Nice color, don’t you think? If you keep ’em polished, they’ll stay shiny and rust-free forever...” He made a face and added, “Though I woulda gone with gold myself.”

“No girl would be caught dead with a tacky gold medal!” called out one of the female miners. There was a rumble of agreement from the other women. Presumably they’d chosen the pink.

“I think they’re cute,” Emily said. She and Astrid promptly accepted their medals and turned them over, examining both sides.

“Indeed. And such interesting metal! I’d love to get the mix ratio for the alloy.”

The foreman turned to Nina. “Not a fan of pink? Maybe we oughta have gone with gold after all...”

“N-No, it’s not that! I like them very much!” Nina replied quickly. She’d hardly ever been thanked before, let alone been shown this level of regard. All she’d ever done was do what any maid ought to. Tuyledo had expressed deep gratitude to her before, but Nina had thought he was just particularly kind.

Never in her life had she been thanked in such a grand way. She didn’t know what to do with herself as a result, but when she felt the weight of the medal in her hands and saw its soft pink sheen, a pleased smile came unbidden to her face.

“Now, there’s one more person I’d like to call on,” said the foreman. “Would you come up here, Tien?”

Although she was right at the front, Tien had felt like just another miner as she watched the other three up on the platform. At the sound of her name, her ears pricked up.

“Go on.” With the miners’ encouragement, Tien hesitantly mounted the platform.

There, the foreman presented her with a fourth medal.

“Your efforts to locate the veins of water that broke into the tunnels were vital. On top of that, you contributed greatly to the restoration work with strength that’d put any man here to shame. I’m sure everyone here would agree that you deserve this.”

“We were so busy trying to keep up with the work that I never got the chance to give you a formal apology,” he went on. “I wanna apologize for insulting you. For calling you names like ‘Ghost Dog.’ There’s no excuse for it. You showed your noble character when you didn’t let that stop you from coming into the depths of the mine to rescue me. I can’t thank you enough.”

The foreman bowed low to Tien. The crowd fell silent as all eyes turned toward her. In the front row, the big red-haired miner, loud enough for everyone to hear, called out: “No one’d blame you if you can’t forgive him!”

Tien shook her head. “Chi has nothing to forgive you for. Not anymore. Nina brought Chi back to life. Emily and Astrid went into danger to help Chi after the accident. When Chi thinks about what they did, everything else seems small in comparison.”

There was a cheer from the miners.

“Tien’s such a good lass!”

“The foreman does seem small compared to those three.”

“T-T-Tien, you’ve grown up so much...! Hic...”

“Knock it off, you ain’t her mother.”

Scattered clapping broke out, then grew into a thunder of applause and cheering.

The foreman stood there on the platform in a daze.

“Hey, knucklehead!” someone called out. “Didn’t you hear? She forgave you!”

The heckling seemed to bring him back to his senses, and he bowed deeply once more.

That day marked a new beginning for Izumi Mine. It would continue to produce the iron ore that fueled not only the Werther Duchy but the development of magical technology all over the world.

*

After the ceremony at the mine ended, Nina and the others headed back to the monastery. They had checked out of their original inn and stayed the rest of the month there. Their room had four beds, one of which Tien had taken. Since Nina was the only one who could prepare food that Tien could eat, life was easier that way.

“Nina, Emily, Astrid.” The three of them were preparing to depart. “Chi...wants to talk.”

Tien hadn’t told them yet that she wanted to join them on their journey. She’d been worried that if they refused, it would make their work at the mine uncomfortable, and besides, the more she thought about what she could possibly offer to a group with such extraordinary skills, the more her confidence dwindled.

Tien wanted to find her parents, but she didn’t know where to begin. Surely it wasn’t so unreasonable for her to travel with them at least until she found a clue.

They were leaving today. She wouldn’t get another chance.

“Hm?” Emily looked over at her. Nina had finished packing and moved on to straightening the bedsheets, while Astrid, whose things were still strewn everywhere, stopped what she was doing.

“Erm... Well...” The words were so simple: Chi wants to go with you. But she couldn’t get them out. She couldn’t pay for her own food. And she had no special talents. Wouldn’t they think she was being presumptuous? Shameless, even? All three of them were so talented. What if they started looking at her like a pathetic hanger-on who just wanted a piece of their glory?

The more unpleasant thoughts that popped into her mind, the less Tien felt able to speak.

“Hey, Tien,” Emily said after a while. “Is this gonna take long?” She sounded impatient.

Tien started. Of course—they had to hurry and get ready or they’d miss the coach. Now she’d gone and annoyed Emily. Tien’s resolve faltered.

She’d never realized before that she could be so weak.

Of course... Chi is scared. Chi was never scared of dying in the mine, but the idea of letting down Nina, Emily, and Astrid, of disappointing them, of being rejected by them—that is scary.

That was how important the other three had become to her.

“Chi wants...”

But in that case, she would have to overcome the fear. Because she was a lupalune.

In that instant, her body and mouth moved on their own.

“Chi wants to go with you!”

She wanted to leave town with them as much as the food Nina had put in front of her back when she was on the verge of starvation. No, she wanted this even more.

“Huh...?” Emily gaped at her. The reaction pierced Tien’s heart like a knife.

Oh no... Of course, they don’t want Chi... She’d screwed up every scrap of courage she had to ask. Now, darkness filled her heart.

“We already knew that, you know?” said Emily.

“Huh?”

“We bought four tickets and everything.” Emily pulled the wooden chits that served as tickets for the coach to the next town. There were indeed four.

Tien blinked at them, uncomprehending.

“You are coming, right? Here, this one’s yours.” Emily pushed one of the chits into Tien’s hand. Apparently she considered the matter settled, because she next turned to Astrid and sighed.

“If Astrid ever decides to pack, that is. Your stuff is still everywhere!”

“I’m not a seasoned traveler yet,” Astrid replied.

“Pretty sure this is a bigger problem than that... And Nina, don’t do it for her!”

“Not to worry, this is all part of a maid’s job.”

“You’re the best maid around,” said Astrid.

Emily groaned. “I keep telling you to stop maid-ing with us. Astrid will only get messier if you keep this up.”

Tien saw that the extra ticket hadn’t been solely Emily’s decision. Otherwise, Astrid or Nina would have said something. Astrid and Nina—who had finished making the beds and was now helping Astrid pack—had taken it for granted that Tien would come with them.

They said yes. They said that Chi can go with them.

It finally hit her. Even without her saying anything, the three of them had long since thought of Tien as one of them. Her chest felt like it would burst with warmth, and her vision grew blurry.

Emily turned back to her. “Hey, Tien. No time for crying!”

“Chi is not crying.” Tien wiped at the corners of her eyes with the back of her hand. She realized that Emily had seen through it all. She’d understood that Tien was still struggling to ask them about joining them on their travels, and that it was because she felt she wasn’t good enough. Emily had been deliberately offhand and casual about the ticket so that Tien would feel less inferior.

Emily, Tien thought, had a good heart.

“Go get packed,” Emily ordered her. “We’re on a tight schedule.”

Tien picked up a small bag—just a pouch, really—from the bed. “Chi has everything.”

“That’s all?!”

They went out back to the orphanage to say goodbye. The children had completely taken to Nina and the others over the course of their long stay, so the announcement that they were leaving town that day was met by tears.

“I don’t want you to gooo.”

“You made the best food, Miss Nina!”

“Emmy...!”

“But Miss Astrid, I wanted you to help me with my studies...”

It was no easy task to stem the tears, despite the priest’s and the nuns’ best efforts to comfort them.

“Tien, remember to listen to Nina and the others,” the priest said. “Don’t push yourself too hard, and stay safe while you’re away.”

“Chi will,” Tien replied. “Goodbye, father.” Her ears and tail drooped.

“No, Tien,” he said. “Not, ‘Goodbye.’”

“Huh...?”

“At times like this, say rather, ‘Until next time.’”

Tien’s ears and tail pricked up again, and she said happily, “Until next time, father! And everyone!”

The priest smiled fondly at her. “I’ll see you when you get back, Tien.”

“See you, Tien!”

“Be careful!”

“Bring presents! You gotta bring us back presents!”

“You dum-dum, we don’t even know when she’s coming back.”

“But you are coming back, right?” The child looked up innocently at Tien.

She would be. There was no doubt about it.

“Yes, Chi will come back. And bring you lots of presents.”

When they left the orphanage, everyone was smiling.

*

The party of four made their way toward the coach stop: a tiny maid, an even smaller lupalune girl, a Fifth Degree mage reincarnated from Japan, and a genius—albeit messy—inventor. All of them were born into different circumstances and had lived totally different lives, but now, through Nina, they were linked by a powerful bond. Over the month they had spent together restoring the mine, it had only grown stronger.

“Hey, Nina.” Just as the coach stop came into view, Emily came to a halt.

Nina turned back with her usual bright smile. “What is it?”

Her smile never faltered, no matter how hard she’d been working. The only time she ever looked upset was when someone else was suffering.

Why is that? Emily asked herself. It perplexed her. Nina was younger than she was. How was she so good at acting the perfect maid who never showed her own feelings? Was it the result of training? Was it natural talent?

I don’t think so. Nina was just an ordinary girl. Okay, wanting to go and tour a mine was a bit weird, but she was happy when she ate good food, and her eyes lit up when she saw something exciting.

At the same time, something about Nina was off.

She brushed off her mind-blowing maid skills by saying “Any maid could do the same.” Anyone could see that wasn’t true. If maids like Nina were normal, the world would be filled with people utterly helpless without a maid. Astrid was already getting messier with every passing day.

Astrid and I had put our heads together to work out how to get Nina. To let her real feelings show. And to tell us what she really thinks.

Emily had started off pondering the question alone, but then Astrid had joined her. Next, maybe Tien would too.

She and Astrid had ended up hatching a scheme.

“Here,” she said, holding out her hand to Nina. “This is from me and Astrid.”

Nina looked questioningly at the silver plate Emily held. It was a magical item, meaning it was impossible to forge or duplicate.

Written on it was REGISTERED ADVENTURER PARTY, with Nina’s, Emily’s, Astrid’s, and Tien’s names listed below.

“What is this...?”

“We registered ourselves as a party. Seeing as it looks like we’ll have Tien with us for a while, we assumed you two will consent retroactively.”

“B-But...erm... Why?” Nina looked baffled. That wasn’t surprising. She wasn’t an adventurer—in fact, Emily was the only proper adventurer among them, though Tien could probably hold her own in a fight. Nina had registered with the adventurers’ guild, but that was only for the paperwork. She wasn’t going to work as an adventurer.

So why make a party?

“We were thinking—how can we make it so that all of us could be together as proper equals? This is what we came up with. In a party, you’re all in it together. You respect and put your life on the line for one another. There’s no system like it except with the adventurers’ guild, so that’s where we registered.”

“B-But I have great respect for all of you even without being in a party—”

“There’s another reason too, Nina.” Astrid cut her off. “This certificate is proof that we’re a registered party, but some adventurers also see it as proof of a vow. Proof of being family.”

“F-Family...?”

“With just this plain old silver plate, we’re now a party. No matter where we go, this party will be our home, the place we can come back to. It’s your second home too, right, Tien?”

Tien nodded emphatically. From the way her tail stood up, she was pleased.

“Nina, we’re worried about you. You’re on this journey but you don’t have any destination. There’s nothing wrong with being a rolling stone, but it doesn’t seem right for a maid like you. With a party, though? Maybe one day you’ll find a wonderful new position. But until then, Emily and I... We hope this party can be your place.”

“We wanted to give you a home,” Emily said.

Nina was silent. She squeezed the silver plate, staring at Emily and Astrid in a daze. Then, a tear spilled down her cheek.

“Nina?!” Emily exclaimed.

“H-How strange...” Nina wiped at her eyes, flustered. “Why am I crying?”

She didn’t understand her own feelings.

“I’d say you’re crying because you’re happy,” Astrid said, grinning.

“Chi also thought that you are too selfless,” Tien chimed in. “Emily and Astrid are true to themselves. They do what they want.”

“Hey, what’re you implying?” Emily said, her eyes narrowing.

“She’s not wrong though,” Astrid admitted.

“Thank you,” said Nina. “Happy... Yes, I suppose I am. I must be happy...”

“That’s right,” Emily said. “And when you’re happy, it’s okay to cry. Be true to what you feel.”

“True to—” Tears began to pour down Nina’s cheeks. Emily handed her a handkerchief while Astrid patted her on the head. Tien shifted around uncertainly.

“Listen, Nina,” Emily said. “From today on, we’re a party. Wherever we go from here, we’ll stick together. We’ll talk about everything. Because we’re each other’s home now.”

“O-Okay!”

Emily felt a rush of relief. She’d wanted to give Nina a place where she could speak her mind, where she could show what she felt without having to hold anything back. Somewhere she felt safe.

“Emily, Astrid, Tien... I’m so happy to be on this journey with you.”

“Good ol’ Emily’s here for you whenever you need it.”

“I’m probably going to end up relying on you even more...”

“Chi is not worth much but will do Chi’s best.”

And so, in a little mining town, an adventuring party was born, but one that was more like a loose-knit family, or sisters.

“One thing, Emily...” Nina, who was closely examining the silver plate, stopped short. “Isn’t Maid & Co. a rather strange name for a party?!”

Emily was silent for a moment, then said, “I appreciate you telling me what you really think.”

“Well, then. Let’s all come up with a more suitable name toge—”

“The name stays.”

“What?!”

“Would you look at that, the coach is boarding!” Astrid exclaimed. “We’d better get going!”

“B-But...! Astrid?!”

“Chi likes Maid & Co. as well.”

“Not you too?!”

While Nina stood there, incredulous and bewildered, Emily, Astrid, and Tien set off running toward the coach.

It was time to head to the next town.

After all, their journey had only just begun.

Extra Story: The Day Two Maids Met

Sonya still remembered the day that a certain tiny maid had arrived at the Mirkwood Estate. Although, maybe it was more accurate to say that she couldn’t have forgotten it if she tried.

The girl came carrying a small travel bag and already dressed in a maid uniform, even though the household provided them. She was so tiny that Sonya couldn’t help but think, They can’t seriously plan on having her work, can they?

The housekeeper introduced her. This was Nina, and she was ten years old.

She really is tiny, Sonya thought when she heard her age. This was only getting stranger.

“Now, regarding her training...” The housekeeper’s gaze roved around the assembled maids until it alighted upon one who stood a head taller than the rest.

“Sonya, you’ll be responsible for her.”

“Aw, c’mon!”

“Please refrain from that sort of language. The rest of you may go.”

Sonya was thirteen, but she was as tall as a grown woman. Her height made her stand out like a sore thumb, so she was always being given the worst jobs.

Now here as well, tasked with training this tiny girl as a maid.

“Snerk.”

“Hey, beanpole. Since when do you know how to train anyone?”

“Go on, show us how it’s done.”

The other maids whispered taunts at Sonya as they went off to their posts. She scowled silently after them.

So if Nina doesn’t turn out well, it’ll be my fault?

Sonya didn’t much like that idea. What if the housekeeper got in a temper and docked her pay?

“A-Are you Sonya?” The tiny maid approached and gazed up at her.

Oh, right, Sonya thought as she looked at the girl who was even younger than she was. I bet she’s nervous, getting thrown into a place like this.

“Did you bring that maid uniform from home?” she asked.

“Y-Yes. Well, not from home, but I did bring it.”

“Huh. You’re not the daughter of a noble family or merchants or something, are you?”

If she could afford her own uniform, that suggested her family was wealthy.

“N-No, nothing like that! My parents are tenant farmers.”

Sonya looked at Nina’s hands and saw they were covered in innumerable tiny scars. She must have had a hard life, she thought, and felt a rush of sympathy.

She, of course, wasn’t to know that those scars were the result of Nina’s maid training with her mistress.

Well, here at least, I can look after her. Sonya decided she’d play the older sister.

“Okay, let’s take it one day at a time,” she said. “I’ll be here to keep an eye on you until you’re ready to work on your own!”

“Thank you very much.” Nina bowed eagerly, then added, “Our dormitory... It’s, erm, a little dirty, isn’t it?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah...” They were in the maid’s dormitory. About twenty maids slept here. Surprisingly for a group of young women, the windows were grimy and the floors hadn’t been swept in who-knew-how-long. It was, not to put too fine a point on it, dingy.

As far as Sonya was concerned, cleaning the dormitory was too much when she was already exhausted from cleaning the house all day.

“Actually, this might be a good place to get you started. Nina, I’d like you to clean up in here.”

“A-Are you sure it’s all right for me to clean the room where all the esteemed senior maids sleep?”

“U-Um, yeah.”

“I shall do my very best!” Nina’s eyes were sparkling—and she’d said esteemed.

Sonya’s job was to clean the house, and because she was tall, jobs that required reaching high places were left to her. But it also let her get out of the jobs the maids didn’t like, such as laundry or doing the dishes. Sometimes, being tall had its advantages.

However, the other maids whispered things behind her back, like, “So the beanpole got the easy job again,” or, “She’s not even a good maid—she’s just tall.” That was why they’d made those snide remarks earlier as well.

Truthfully, Sonya herself had always thought anyone could do her job. For that matter, washing the dishes and doing the laundry didn’t take any special skill either. They were entry-level maid duties, whereas waiting on the master’s wife and children would be the advanced level. Those advanced-level duties were handled by the housekeeper, who didn’t really understand what Sonya and the other maids’ duties entailed and so tended to assign them work without thinking about it, then go off and leave them to it.

In reality, Nina’s mistress’s recommendation meant she ought to have been assigned advanced-level duties, but upon seeing her, the housekeeper had decided at her own discretion to treat her as an ordinary maid. Not that Sonya knew that.

Because she thought so little of the work she did, Sonya was embarrassed to be called an “esteemed senior,” but also rather pleased.

“I’ll teach you what you need to do,” she said.

“Thank you! I’m looking forward to it!”

“That’s the spirit!”

“Thank you!”

At that moment, it never entered Sonya’s mind that rather than teaching Nina, she would end up learning from the tiny maid.

*

“Sonya...? Is something the matter?”

“Huh? Oh, I was just thinking back to the day you arrived here.”

Sonya and Nina were in the maids’ dormitory where they had first met. But unlike back then, the windows were spotless, the floor gleamed, and the beds were all clean. On that day—the day Nina arrived—the dormitory underwent a stunning transformation. The other maids were delighted by how clean it was.

But none of them thanked Nina. They were too proud to admit that a brand-new maid might be better at their job than they were. Sonya came from peasant stock, but some maids had distant relatives in the nobility and looked down on those of more humble origins.

With Nina working there, the estate grew so spick-and-span that it was like a different place. The other maids told themselves that they could easily do the same if they really tried, and when they reported back to the housekeeper, they took credit for Nina’s work. Because the housekeeper had no idea what was really going on in the household, she believed their lies.

“None of the maids here appreciate how amazing you are...” Sonya muttered, scowling.

“Oh, no. I only do what any maid would.”

“You do a lot more than that...”

“Well, you’re the only one of my seniors in the house who speaks so highly of me.”

Five years had passed since that day. Nina had grown a little taller, and Sonya taller still. Their breaks had just so happened to align, and they were the only ones in the dormitory’s common room.

“It’s not just me! Roy and Tomus would do anything for you.”

“I don’t know about ‘anything.’”

“Just look at those cookies!” The cookies on the table were something Roy had surreptitiously slipped to Nina earlier. There was a perfect amount for the two of them to share, and they were absolutely delicious—many times better than anything sold in town. It was no wonder, given they were baked by a cook to a noble family.

“Not only that,” Sonya went on, “but whenever one of us asks Roy for anything he’s all, ‘I won’t have any maids in my kitchen!’ You’re the only one he’s ever eased up around. And then there’s Tomus—”

“O-Oh, very well! I admit that Roy and Tomus are very kind to me.”

Nina was so flustered that Sonya couldn’t help but laugh.

“S-Sonya...?”

“Sorry, sorry. I was just thinking that Roy and Tomus have really changed. You’re the only one who never changes.”

“I don’t?”

“Not one bit.”

“Oh... I think I’ve changed rather a lot.”

“Really? How so?”

“Well, I always enjoy working now that I’m able to do my duties with you!”

Sonya blinked at Nina, who sat beside her. Then she prodded the little maid in the head. “Listen up, kid. Flattery won’t get you anywhere with me!”

“B-But I mean it,” Nina protested.

“Come to think of it, what did you do before you came here?”

Just like that, Nina’s face darkened. Sonya had hardly ever seen her look like that.

“I always worked with my mistress,” she said at last. “It was just the two of us... Other maids fled when they saw her.”

Fled? What does she mean by that? Sonya wondered, but Nina didn’t say any more. In those five years, she hadn’t spoken about her mistress, not even to Sonya. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to, but she thought that maybe there was no need to when she enjoyed working with Sonya. Besides, Sonya had never asked.

“Do you...really enjoy working with me?”

“Yes!”

“You do, huh?”

“Of course!”

Being with Nina made Sonya feel as warm as though she were dozing in the sun.

Even with all her incredible maid skills, Nina still needed a stool to reach as high as her. And when she still couldn’t reach, it was Sonya’s time to shine. Thinking back, she really enjoyed working with Nina too.

“Hey, um... Do you plan on working here long-term?”

“That was my plan, yes. Oh...! Don’t tell me you’re asking because you’re looking for another position?! B-But I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that another household would scout a maid as excellent as you...!”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Sonya said, prodding Nina again.

“Owww.”

Sonya wondered how anyone from outside the household was supposed to evaluate the work of a maid who spent her days shut up inside. Where would such a “scout” even come from? Also, she felt a little uncomfortable being called “excellent” by Nina.

“So long as you’re here, I’m happy,” she said. “I’m looking forward to working together for a long time.”

“Oh,” Nina said, relieved. “So am I!” She beamed at Sonya.

It made Sonya happy to think that the other girl was excited to be working with her too.

Just then, another maid came into the common room. “Nina? Are you in here?”

She was one of those distantly related to the nobility who sniffed at common-born maids.

“Oh, the beanpole is here too. I suppose the two of you are shirking your duties, are you?”

“We’re on our break,” Sonya said calmly.

The maid snorted. “Well, anyway. The housekeeper wants you, Nina.”

“The housekeeper? What for?” Sonya demanded.

“Like I know. And why are you asking?”

“I’ll go at once,” said Nina.

“Well, get a move on.” The other maid left.

As Sonya watched Nina stand up, she was struck by a sense of foreboding.

“I’d better go,” Nina said, turning to leave.

“N-Nina!”

“Yes?”

Nina turned back, surprised.

“I, um... Nothing! It’s nothing. See you in a bit.”

“All right. See you later on!” And with that, Nina left.

Sonya stared at the door as it closed behind her.

Despite Nina’s words, that was the last Sonya saw of her. Nina was dismissed by the housekeeper and made to leave the estate without saying goodbye to Sonya.

That day marked the beginning of this story. But for Sonya, another story came to an end.

Extra Story: A Tipple of Wine

“Stubborn jerk!”

“Me?! You’re the one who’s too pigheaded to accept a little diversity!”

The two women turned away from each other with their noses in the air.

“E-Erm...” Beside them, stammering nervously as she wondered what to say, was a maid.

If this had been a noble household and the maids were having a spat, or a sibling’s quarrel between the master’s children, her presence would have made sense. But they were outdoors in a clearing along a road that cut straight through open grasslands. This was the wilderness, brutal and barren. At night, wild dogs howled, and adventurers bit back yawns as they fought off ravening beasts.

The adventurers and merchants would have understood if the scene had also included a noble’s carriage, but here there were only merchant caravans and coaches. More than a few wondered about the maid, but after a few days, they grew used to her presence and no longer batted an eye when they saw her bustling around. On the contrary, they flocked to partake of her delicious and exotic cooking. Even so, these were still wild lands where even children feared to cry.

“Nina, go get some wine so I can make this woman see reason. Something rich and full-bodied, with elegance. Each sip should hit like a slap in the face!”

A slap in the face didn’t sound very elegant, but that was what Emily, the red-haired girl in a mage’s pointed hat, said.

“Nina, Emily here apparently needs some convincing. You don’t think you could bring me a bottle of something light—like spring arriving light-footed after a long winter.”

The other, Astrid, was tall and willowy and dressed like a man, but closer inspection revealed her to be a stunningly beautiful woman.

The pair were Nina’s traveling companions, and the three of them were on their way to the Werther Duchy. They were due to reach the capital at long last the next day. To Nina’s consternation, they both had strong opinions about alcohol—especially wine. It made them bump heads and even start talking strangely, as though some strange poetic spirit had possessed them.

“No way. Don’t tell me you drink light-bodied reds hot?”

“How about you tell me where you expect to get a bottle of full-bodied red out here in the wilderness? That stuff costs a fortune!”

“Forget the arrival of spring! It’s almost summer, and you’re talking about drinking wine hot? What a joke!”

“If you think anything with a strong flavor is good, then you’re no better than a red-faced drunk who’ll gulp down anything with alcohol in it!”

“Say that one more time!”

“Don’t mind if I do!”

“I-I-I-I-I’ll go find some wine!” Nina rushed away. Fortunately, there were several merchant caravans bound for the capital with dozens of members camping in the same clearing, so there was probably wine somewhere.

“I suspected we wouldn’t see eye to eye,” said Emily. “Even though we’re practically strangers.”

“What a coincidence. I thought the same about you,” Astrid replied. “Even though we’re practically strangers.”

The two had met just the other day in the Freja Kingdom. They shared a common goal. Having both been saved by Nina, they were now determined to protect her from those who might try and use her for nefarious ends.

The origins of their argument were simple. After dinner one night as they were about to open their customary bottle of wine, Emily had broached the subject of what wine tasted best. To Emily, it was full-bodied wine; to Astrid, it was hot wine.

Things escalated from there.

“Ha ha ha! Sounds like quite an interesting debate over there!”

Emily looked up with a start.

“Who’s that?” said Astrid.

They looked over and saw the leader of a merchant caravan they had met on the road that day, a man of moderately expensive dress, yet whose caravan carried only five people and hardly any goods. He was also going to the Werther Duchy tomorrow.

The brooch that fastened the scarf around his neck was inlaid with a scarlet gemstone that he stroked with white-gloved fingers.

“I overheard you ladies discussing what the best wine is. It just so happens that I have an excellent vintage right here, if you fancy it.” He produced a bottle from behind his back. Emily and Astrid leaned forward, intrigued.

The bottle was short and squat, with gold leaf embellishing and red wax sealing its mouth. It looked antique.

“What is it? I’ve never seen wine like that before,” Emily said. She’d lived in Japan until being reborn in this world, so she wasn’t familiar with its history.

“Is that seabed wine from the ocean kingdom of Mu that perished half a century ago?!”

“Ha ha ha. Well, I never. I should have known you’d recognize it at once.”

“Naturally. Any wine lover would know it.” Astrid shot a smirk at Emily. She scowled, which only encouraged Astrid to continue showing off her wine knowledge.

“Mu had several secret islands on which they grew the grapes. Once the wine was bottled, it was submerged in the ocean then retrieved again after ten years. After the kingdom fell, you couldn’t get it any more, so all the bottles on the market were bought up. Now you only get a few bottles a year sold in auctions.”

“What? Why’d they leave it in the ocean?”

“Apparently, it influenced the flavor of the wine. Not that I’ve ever tried it,” Astrid admitted. Emily grinned at her as if to say, So you’re no better than me, huh?

“That’s right,” the merchant said. “And this here is a bottle of that seabed wine.”

“No way! That’s the real deal?!”

“Not so loud, miss.”

“Oops.” Emily quickly shut her mouth. Astrid gave her a dark look.

“So how about it, ladies? If you say the word, I’m willing to part with this bottle...”

“S-Seriously? Isn’t it really valuable?”

“Oh, yes. As your companion mentioned, seabed wine is matured for at least ten years. As the years go by, the flavor develops...as does the price. Some are aged for ten, twenty, even a hundred years. This here is a twenty-year bottle.”

“T—?! Hold on, you surprised me. But how much is it, actually?”

“Don’t bother, Emily. There’s no way we can afford it.” Astrid had to restrain Emily who practically had her nose up against the bottle.

“Ha ha ha. Well, an old man like me would be happy to offer a reasonable price to young women with such a passion for wine... Though not at a loss, of course. I am still a merchant.”

“All right. So how much?” Emily pressed.

“I’d sell it to you...for fifty Freja gold coins.”

“Fifty?!”

That was as much as a well-to-do family spent in a year.

“Of course, at auction, the bidding would start at a thousand gold.”

“Wha...” Emily could only gape. This was a world she knew nothing about.

“So you’re saying you’re willing to sell this bottle of twenty-year seabed wine for fifty gold?” Astrid asked.

“Precisely, precisely. You are of course welcome to auction it off later, though I would be happier if you saved it for a special occasion...”

“Well, that’s too expensive.”

“Pardon me, miss. I assumed this was more than within your means, but I suppose my eye isn’t what it once was.”

“C’mon, Astrid, let’s buy it! How often does a chance like this come along?” Emily’s eyes sparkled. For once, it was Astrid’s turn to roll her eyes at her.

“Uh, Emily? Forgotten something?”

“For—? Oh.” The other shoe dropped. “Ah, heck. You’re right, I totally forgot. He was just so slick!”

“Mm, I thought it was a pretty bald-faced scam.”

“Scam?!” the merchant exclaimed. “Me, scam you? How could you say such a thing?”

Astrid let out a long sigh. “You’re a con man. As if anyone would sell a thousand-gold bottle of wine for fifty gold to someone you’d just met.”

“Y-You’re being ridiculous. I only overheard your passion for wine and— Oh, never mind! I won’t stand here and have my good intentions questioned. You’ll regret passing up this chance for the rest of your life, you know!”

“Just a minute.” Astrid grabbed the merchant by the arm.

“Well, well! Having second thoughts, are we?”

Astrid snorted. “I’m afraid not. Emily?”

“Uh-huh.” Emily raised her right hand, and a vortex of wind formed around it.

The merchant made a feeble noise of shock. What he was seeing was unbelievable. He’d never imagined that such a young girl could perform tacit casting.

A moment later, bloodred liquid spurted from the wine bottle as it was sliced in half.

“Aaaaagh!!!”

Astrid ignored the merchant’s cries and instead bent down to retrieve the bottom of the bottle. “Look, this tells you all you need to know. With old wine, sediment settles to the bottom, but there’s none here. This is just ordinary cheap stuff.”

“You’re right. It smells weak too.”

“Uh...”

“In other words, you’re a con man. The proof is in the pudding... So to speak.”

“D-Drat it all!” The merchant turned to flee, but found himself face-to-face with a group of burly adventurers who seized him. Over the course of the journey, these adventurers had gotten friendly with the three girls and had been keeping an eye on the situation.

“Hey, Emikins, I think I recognize this ugly mug,” said one of them. “He might be a well-known con man.”

“Huh. Well, drop him off at the guardhouse when we get to the capital,” Emily told him. “And don’t call me ‘Emikins.’”

The adventurer chortled. “So coldhearted,” he said, before he and his companions escorted the conman away.

“Emily, you’re the one who said he looked sketchy,” Astrid said. “I can’t believe you almost let him scam you.”

Emily smiled sheepishly. “Sorry.”

In fact, their whole fight had been an act from the beginning. They’d wanted to lure in the con man and get Nina out of the way in case things got dangerous. Practical strangers though they were, they made a perfect team.

“It’s a shame about the wine though. Even if it was cheap.”

“Emily, no way were you drinking that. Who knows what was in it?”

“Yeah, yeah. Hey, what was all that about spring’s footsteps after winter or whatever? I know we wanted to keep Nina busy, but next time, tone it down. You nearly made me laugh.”

“Me? What about you? Demanding full-bodied wine in a place like this, like you’re royalty? Oh, Nina’s back.”

Nina came up to them with two bottles. “I’m sorry to have kept you waiting!” Her nose twitched. “Hm? Have you drunk already?”

“No, not yet,” Astrid reassured her. “We were waiting for you.”

“Did you find anything good?” asked Emily.

“I did!” Smiling, Nina passed them the two bottles.

When they tasted the wine, both of them sighed with pleasure.

The first bottle was a full-bodied red that hit their taste buds like a slap in the face. The second was so light that they could almost hear the pitter-patter of spring approaching at the end of a long winter.

Nina had procured them both for a mere silver coin.

“Nina, you can scam me anytime,” Emily said.

“What a coincidence. I was thinking the same,” added Astrid.

“I-I would never try and scam either of you!” Nina said, then smiled. “But I’m glad to see you two are friends again.”

Emily and Astrid reached out and ruffled her hair.

Extra Story: Dressed for Battle!

At first, Astrid wrote off what Emily said as drunken rambling.

It was the night of their arrival in the capital of the Werther Duchy. Nina was ministering to Emily after they’d drowned themselves in wine at the inn.

“Nina, I wanna dress you up cute,” she’d slurred.

“Yes, yes, very good,” Nina said, not taking her seriously. “Now drink this water and let’s get you to bed.” Emily was so far gone that Nina had to put her to bed like a baby.

But when morning came, Emily hadn’t changed her mind.

“Let’s go look at some secondhand shops!”

This world didn’t have shops with racks of ready-to-wear clothing, so in that sense, going to look at shops selling used clothes was a good idea.

“What? B-But... What about Izumi Mine...?”

Nina, however, was set on going to tour a mine next, and she couldn’t do that here in the city. She’d already talked to the others about taking a coach from the capital to Izumi Mine, one of the duchy’s largest iron mines.

What three young women were doing going to tour a mine was a question for another time.

“Relaaax,” Emily told her. “The mine will still be there even if we take an extra day. Nina, finding the perfect outfit is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Think of all the outfits you’ll miss out on if we don’t go today!”

“I... I suppose...” Nina was overwhelmed by Emily’s intensity. It was just a shame that, perhaps because she’d drunk so much the night before, Emily still smelled rather strongly of alcohol. Nina wondered if she might still be drunk.

“I haven’t known Emily long,” said Astrid, “but she doesn’t strike me as the type to back down. Staying one more day in the capital won’t do any harm. Let’s just think of it as a stumbling block and indulge her.”

“What am I, a rock on the side of the road?” Emily said.

“More like a ditch I stuck my foot in.”

“Right, Nina. Astrid’s not coming, so let’s get out of here!”

Astrid laughed. “You’d leave me behind? How cruel! No, I’m coming too. I don’t want to miss this.”

“B-But this is silly. New clothes for me...?” Nina was still reluctant. Emily put her hands on her shoulders.

“This is for me,” she said. “I want to see you in a cute outfit!”

For all that she sounded like a charming boyfriend, Emily was only Nina’s travel companion. She mostly just wanted to see what Nina would look like in something other than a maid uniform.

The capital was a large city. They found not one shop, but a whole “Fashion Street” full of shops selling old clothes and jewelry. Emily positively buzzed with excitement when she saw it. The shops stood side by side and were connected so one could go between them, putting together an outfit right down to the accessories, before paying for everything together.

“Now presenting the first item of the Nina Fashion Show!”

“Yaaay.”

The only audience was Astrid, sitting on the sofa in front of the fitting room, so the applause was sparse. But Emily didn’t seem to mind (which, given the whole thing was for her own enjoyment, made sense). She opened the door to the fitting room.

And there was Nina.

“First up, we’ve got a classic country-girl look with a sunny yellow dress and wide-brimmed hat! With her neat and tidy looks and manners, you know she’ll catch the eye of the bad boys in the big city!”

Emily’s commentary painted an accurate picture—except that Nina’s face was bright red.

“I-I don’t know how I feel about these clothes...” she mumbled.

“Ooh, adorable!” said Astrid. “But what’s she going to do with those city boys once she catches them?”

“Next!”

Emily was on a roll. She bundled Nina back into the fitting room, then, when she was done changing, opened the door again.

“She’s got great legs, and these shorts show it! Get a load of that dazzling porcelain skin! But she won’t be mistaken for a tomboy in this adorable white blouse and newsboy cap—and some lace-up boots to keep things lively!”

“These boots are easy to walk in, but I don’t know about showing my legs...”

“Who’s this outfit supposed to appeal to?” Astrid inquired.

“Her childhood friend!”

There was a very long pause. “Huh.”

Emily seemed to have a very clear picture in mind, but Astrid, unable to read her thoughts, couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“Next!”

She sent Nina back into the fitting room to get changed.

“This miniskirt is frills on frills on frills—perfect for the galaxy’s number one idol! The sparkly beads represent the galaxy’s stars! She and I, we’re gonna take over the world!”

“Oh, dear, this is so embarrassing...” Nina crouched down, her face scarlet, She was dressed in something like an idol’s frilly stage costume.

“Hey, Emily. What exactly is an ‘idol’?”

“Next!” Emily ignored the question. There was no word that translated as “idol” in this world, so Emily had used the word as is. Without any explanation, no one had any idea what she meant.

After that, there was a mage outfit to match Emily’s, a cute café waitress outfit, and even an adventurer outfit complete with a sword at her waist.

By the end of it, both of them were out of breath. Not only was Emily exhausted from her commentary, but even Nina, who never looked tired no matter what grueling maid work she did, was completely worn out.

Only Astrid, sitting on the sofa and observing all the fuss, was her usual self.

“Astrid...”

“Yes, Emily?”

“Let’s...buy all of it!!!”

“Mm, definitely not.”

“How come?! Nina’s the perfect model! Everything looks good on her!”

“Shouldn’t you ask what she thinks?”

Emily started, then looked over at Nina. She’d changed back into her maid uniform and sprang to her feet. “Now I know. A maid uniform is what I feel best in.”

“B-But what will you wear when you’ve gotta step up and fight?!”

“Um, fight what, exactly...?” asked Astrid.

Emily of course ignored this question. “Nina, in a fight, you’ve gotta dress for success!”

“Well, I’m a maid,” Nina replied. “A maid ought to wear a maid uniform when she fights her battles!”

“Dammit, that’s a good argument...!” Emily groaned. “And you do look cute in your maid uniform...!”

For some reason, Emily looked crushed. As Astrid watched Nina try to comfort her, she thought, Now that’s a side of Nina I haven’t seen before.

Nina could keep her cool when faced with backbreaking work, but apparently, she didn’t like being dressed up and complimented for being cute.

There was a tightness to Nina’s face as she smiled.

“I didn’t know Nina could ever look like that,” Astrid murmured. “Maybe today was worthwhile after all.”

“Astrid? Did you say something?”

“It’s nothing. Say, you perked up fast, Emily.”

“You bet I did! I realized that in the end, a maid uniform is the best look for Nina!”

“I quite agree,” Nina said, smiling.

“And that’s why I’m going to design the cutest maid uniform ever for her!” Emily cried, raising her fist.

“Th-That’s, erm...” Nina’s smile froze again.

“Oh, Emily,” Astrid said.

“What?!”

“Never mind.”

“Hey, don’t just back down! I wanna know!”

“Forget it. I was just thinking that, so long as I’m alive, I want to help Nina to enjoy her travels in peace.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?! That’s what I want too! I’m just saying that her travels could be even better with cuter clothes. Right?”

“Oh, Emily.”

“What’s the big idea?!”

But Astrid only laughed.

In the end, they left without buying anything, much to the shopkeeper’s dismay.

Afterword

After somehow making it through a deadline, I used to take a trip somewhere far away—as far away from Tokyo, and my publishers (who are mostly around Jimbocho and Iidabashi) as I could get. In a way, I was running away. In this day and age, so long as you have reception you can call the other side of the planet without any time delay, but still, going physically far away was important for my peace of mind.

Once, I traveled solo to Iriomote Island. It was February, the offseason for tourists, and I was the only guest at the boarding house where I stayed. The owner looked like they were worried I’d come out here to kill myself, but seeing me gulp down O**on beer and stuff myself with bonito tuna at dinner seemed to put them at ease. As you’d expect, going to a southern island all by myself didn’t make for a very exciting trip, but between changing planes at Naha airport then boarding a boat from Ishigaki Island I got just what I wanted—the feeling of having traveled far, far away.

Basically, writing was really stressing me out. Becoming a writer was the natural choice. It was what I wanted to do. Of course, no one told me to write a novel. I wrote my story, submitted it, and debuted after being selected for a newcomers award all on my own. But once I got through a deadline, I’d want to go somewhere far away. I had a rule to at least go beyond the Kanto plains.

Now, if you look at history, maids have done all sorts of different jobs. Some washed dishes and did laundry, while others served meals or waited on the master’s wife. Because they were part of a clearly defined hierarchy, it wasn’t easy for them to move to an easier position. These maids always watched their employers’ mood. In winter, their fingers turned red and chapped, and they had next to no time off. It sounds like they should have been incredibly stressed. But when I researched maids in nineteenth-century England, I found that wasn’t the case.

In those days, there were limited jobs available to women. A maid could be sure of food, clothing, and shelter, and the pay was good. Some diaries written by maids remain. They talk about being taken shopping by the master’s wife or enjoying leftovers of sweets made for their master’s family. Of course there are also accounts of awful employers or fellow servants, but maids seemed to have quite enjoyed their lives. There were also lots of stories of romance with male servants or visiting workers.

That being said, work is never all fun. Nina, the protagonist of this story, wants to do her job as a maid perfectly. When she is dismissed from her position, she decides to go on a journey, but I wonder if deep down, it wasn’t a way for her to escape the pressure she’d unconsciously felt all that time.

You might point out that I’m the one writing this story, which is true of course, but just as not all human actions have a clear reason, there are times when I think, “I don’t know, but I’m sure this is what Nina would do.” Actually, it happens a lot.

On her journey, Nina encounters new people, places, and things. Those “things” include both dramatic happenings and everyday occurrences, and it isn’t that Nina attracts them—she throws herself in. No longer tied to one household, everywhere she travels offers a chance for her to shine. And like any maid, she can’t ignore people in need.

This book is a fantasy, but my research into real world history revealed that sometimes maids did go on journeys. But they were always accompanying their master or mistress, who probably needed a maid along to ensure their journey was comfortable. What about in a fantasy world, then? When the lands outside the city are crawling with monsters, only merchants, adventurers, soldiers, or people with no other options would be willing to leave. A maid’s ability to do her job depends a lot on her familiarity with the area around the household in which she works (the local shops, the weather, ingredients, and so on). It makes a lot of sense for them to stay put in the city.

But something impels Nina to set off on a journey. Once her destiny is set in motion, it gathers speed like a stone rolling down a hill.

Sometimes I think that maybe that’s what life is like. I speak from experience. I wrote alone on my computer and only ever shared with the people closest to me, but the moment it was published, suddenly it could be read by thousands, or even tens of thousands of people. My dream (little did I know it would become a nightmare) of racing to meet deadlines came true.

I’d travel somewhere far away from the Kanto plains, where I could refresh myself and feel ready to write again, then return to Tokyo and dive back into wrestling with my manuscript.

My journey is that of writing. It’s this journey that I return to after I’ve been on my travels outside of Kanto. There doesn’t seem to be any end to the slope I’m rolling down, so every year, I travel farther and farther.

Nina’s journey is a literal one, but I wonder if that’s how it will end? As she draws more and more people to her, it seems as though she might be on the verge of doing something extraordinary... The events in the mining town in this book were one thing, but I sense that she’s going to achieve something even greater.

In conclusion, I hope that you’ll join me on my journey. If you set off now, you’ll get a lovely maid as your companion.