It was a dress with white and black colors mixed in.
It was a dress with loose frills decorating its skirt.
From today on, Nainiae was officially going to work as a maid in Iphelleta House.
She looked around at her maid uniform here and there, and she turned to look at Sera who was standing in front of her.
‘Do I look all right?’
With her mouth tightly closed, Nainiae asked Sera with her gaze.
“Hmm…”
With her arm resting on her waist, Sera thoroughly checked Nainiae’s appearance from top to bottom. Looking satisfied, Sera nodded and said,
“Fortunately, there was one that fits you perfectly.”
“…”
It looked like Nainiae was not used to the dress’s lace decoration. Not knowing what to do, Nainiae fiddled with its thin and soft fabric.
Looking at Nainiae in panic, Sera mumbled inside,
‘If we could do something about her face, that would be nice…’
For now, she had it roughly hidden with her long hair. However, one side of her face was burned and peeled off red due to experiments at the Magic Tower.
Her scars could invoke either sympathy or disgust. Regardless, it looked like it was going to make anyone cringe if they laid their eyes on her scars.
‘I really think just her hair is not going to be enough.’
Sera developed a pretty good immunity to Nainiae’s disfigurement.
Now, she was able to maintain her facial expression when she looked at Nainiae’s face.
Sera breathed out lightly and fixed Nainiae’s clothing.
As for Nainiae’s face, it seemed like she had to think about it some more.
“Although our young master said he picked it up from… I mean he wants to take you in because he wants to learn magic, still, you should do your job, right?”
Because Sera’s face came right up to her face, Nainiae flinched and turned her head away.
The pleasant smell of Sera’s shampoo was tickling her nose. Somehow, it was making Nainiae feel embarrassed.
“The rules for being a maid in Iphelleta House are pretty strict, so prepare your mind for it. Do you understand?”
At first, the maid thing was Iris’s idea.
The idea was that, if Nainiae was going to support Riley from the back anyway, instead of just sticking to Riley’s side and only teaching him magic, Iris thought Nainiae working in the mansion with Sera might be a good idea.
“I’m saying this because you might misunderstand me. This part was also approved by Young Master Riley, so, from now on, listen carefully to me, your ‘Big Sis Sera,’ and…”
Tighten
Sera tightened Nainiae’s clothing around the neck area and looked at her.
Perhaps it was to show her who is boss. Unlike her usual self, the look in Sera’s eyes was violent.
“…let’s work well…well together, do you understand?”
Inside, Sera resented Iris for putting her in charge of educating Nainiae.
At the same time, Sera showed a refreshing smile toward Nainiae.
“…Yes.”
Nainiae felt something bad would happen if she did anything that wasn’t to Sera’s liking. Nainiae gulped and responded in a quiet voice.
***
It was in the main garden of Iphelleta mansion.
By the trunk of the apple tree, the one designated as his sanctuary, Riley had leisurely taken the place and was lying down, but he turned his gaze toward the direction where a loud voice was coming from.
“No. I’m telling you that’s not how it is done!”
“In that case… Like this?”
“No! No! The other way!”
“If I just use magic…”
“Uh uh? Who said you can use tricks? Please don’t! Magic is forbidden!”
There were Sera and Nainiae.
By the Iris’s proposition, Nainiae was receiving maid lessons from Sera. Riley cracked a smile as if he found it amusing to watch.
“Are you going to keep on thinking about ways to use tricks instead?”
“Ah, No… It is not like that.”
Riley didn’t hate passing the time by just lying down idly, but it was not a bad thing for him to watch something entertaining while lying down in his designated sanctuary.
“How should I put it…”
She was still not used to the work. Also, Nainiae’s crass language was popping out once in a while.
Frustrated, Sera was pounding on her chest as she admonished Nainiae.
Watching this, Riley mumbled with a vacant stare,
“…It’s like watching a new recruit and a senior in the army.”
This scene felt familiar as if he saw it somewhere in the past.
With intrigued eyes, Riley watched the two girls struggling as he thought the situation felt similar to how things were in army in his past life where senior soldiers gave new recruits a hard time just for the sake of it.
“Are you going to keep talking back to me?”
“No. No, I’m not. I’m not trying to talk back to you, it is just…”
“Uh uh? Again?”
There was Nainiae breaking in cold sweat and not knowing what to do.
There was also Sera on the verge of exploding from frustration.
Regardless of which one he watched, the situation was entertaining for Riley.
“And here, we even have an officer too.”
Riley turned his head as he murmured.
Next to Riley was an old butler with a stern face standing with his arms folded behind his back.
It was Ian.
“…”
Becoming of an ‘officer,’ the title that Riley mentioned, Ian was glaring at Sera and Nainiae with a serious and disciplined eyes.
It looked like he was going to take action on the first sign of a mistake that wasn’t to his liking.
“Hu… In that case, am I the most senior officer who is in his last year of the army service?”
Entertained by the current situation. Riley cracked a smile and murmured.
Having heard what Riley just said, Ian, who was looking at Sera and Nainiae, turned his head toward Riley and asked,
“Young master, did you just say something?”
“Um? No, it is nothing.”
It was a culture that didn’t exist in this world. It was something Riley knew from his past life.
Because there was no need for Riley to exert his brain in attempt to explain it all to Ian, Riley chose not to talk about it anymore, so he closed his mouth.
“Anyway, young master…”
“Um?”
Having finished their business at the garden, Sera and Nainiae went back into the mansion. As he watched this, Ian slowly turned his head toward three pouches that were laying next to Riley.
“Those items. What are you going to do with them?”
The three pouches.
They contained items that the people from the Holy Temple delivered to Riley. They said the items were spoils for defeating Astroa.
Ian was asking what Riley was going to do with them.
“I don’t know?”
A purple colored cape.
A silver ring.
A leather bracelet.
The pouches contained those three things.
They were items that used to belong to Astroa, the grand mage, the one Riley defeated.
Riley chose to take them since the Holy Temple said they will give the items to him for free.
However, Riley didn’t know exactly how to use these items.
“I guess it would be a little odd to sell these things, right?”
After all, the items were something a grand mage used.
On the other hand, Riley was from Iphelleta, a House that was renowned for sword. There was a chance that a rumor could spread about Iphelleta selling items at high prices that used to belong to a grand mage when he was alive. Therefore, it was hard to pick that as the option.
“Ah, that would be indeed.”
“Hmm.”
Riley opened a pouch, brought out the cape from inside, and narrowed his eyes.
Because of the blade that Riley threw and Nainiae’s magic during the Lower Solia incident, the cape had a hole in it, but the rest of it looked fine.
“By chance, like that cape from that wizard school movie, is this going to make me invisible if I cover my body with it? Is it something like that?”
“A wizard school, sir?”
‘What, what? A wizard school movie?’
Ian was not able to understand what Riley was mumbling about.
As Ian tilted his head to the side and asked, Riley shook his head and corrected himself,
“No. It’s nothing. I was just talking to myself.”
After he shook his head, Riley judged that the cape couldn’t be like that. He fiddled with the cape and felt the quality of the fabric.
‘There is no way it could.’
If this cape could really do that, Astroa would not have been defeated so easily during the battle in Lower Solia.
“These things, how are they used?”
***
“Look at that one’s face.”
“Iphelleta House has a standard and class. That scar is a little…”
“What’s wrong with her fingers? With that, could she even do her work properly?”
Inside the mansion, other maids or butlers in the hallway glanced at Nainiae, who was tying the curtain, and clicked their tongues as they passed by.
“I should do it like this, right?”
“…”
“Miss Sera?”
Just like how Sera was a few days ago when she was introduced to Nainiae for the first time, her colleagues were passing by while saying bad things about Nainiae. Hearing their voices, Sera stared at their backs with an expression on her face that protested against their behavior. Eventually, Sera turned her head toward Nainiae and responded,
“Pardon?”
Nainiae, after tying the curtain in the way Sera taught her, asked Sera,
“This, tying it like this is correct, right?”
“Ah, yes. That’s correct. At least you are pretty good at this.”
They were currently standing in the hallway that was in front of Riley’s room.
To be precise, it was the cleaning area that Nainiae will be in charge of from now on.
“Now, the next thing to do on the list is…”
If it had been like her normal routine, Sera would have been walking around Iris’s room or the corridors nearby to organize things. However, currently, she was sticking by Nainiae for the sake of her adjustment to the work inside the mansion. Sera was teaching her things Nainiae was going to be doing.
“…cleaning up the footprints on carpets.”
With the hallway’s curtain arrangement now complete, Sera moved her eyes to check if there were any footprints or stains on the carpet.
One thing good about the assignment was that, compared to other places, the front of Riley’s room had relatively few people coming by. So it looked like it was not going to be too hard for Nainiae to maintain the place.
“Well, as for the carpets, it looks like it just needs to be dusted off a little. And…”
“Ah, Sera? You were here.”
Sera was organizing the day’s schedule in her head, but she turned her head because of the voice coming from the back.
The owner of the voice, which sounded pretentious somehow, was someone who was holding a pretty high position in the mansion, the second young master of the Iphelleta House.
“Young Master Lloyd.”
Having noticed him, Sera lowered her head.
‘Who was that again?’
Because Lloyd was walking this way, Nainiae, who momentarily tilted her head to the side, also followed Sera and lowered her head.
‘Ah, that young master from before. The one that makes me lose appetite for food.’
As Nainiae lowered her head, she realized that this young master with pretentious voice was someone she ran into in the past. Nainiae hardened her face.
It was definitely from when they just arrived at the mansion.
It was that man who insisted on trying to pick a fight with Riley, the one who she served. It was the young master on whom Nainiae used grease magic, which eliminates friction on the floor, in secret to make him plummet on his butt for pestering Riley.
“What’s this? What’s this? Are you in middle of educating a new family member of the household?”
“Yes. I’m showing her around the mansion, and I’m also explaining to her about her tasks.”
To Lloyd’s question, Sera replied politely, and then she did the reverse and asked him a question,
“By the way, what brings you here?”
The place was in front of Riley’s room.
It was pretty far from Lloyd’s room, so Sera asked wondering why he came all this way.
“Um. It’s nothing.”
‘Is he trying to harass Young Master Riley again? Or is he here to run his mouth in front of me? I rather have it be that he is here just to boast about himself again…’
Sera was agonizing about it in her mind. At that moment, Lloyd continued,
“I came to see you.”
It looked like, of all the scenarios she was thinking about, it was the one Sera hated the most.
Having heard what Lloyd said, Sera’s eyebrows twitched a little and she tried to divert the conversation,
“Young Master Lloyd, as I said earlier, because I’m currently in middle of training Nainiae, I cannot see you at the moment. Also, after this, I have to go tend to cleaning my lady’s room, so I can’t come to see you at your room eith-…”
“Come on. Why are you acting like that when it’s between us? I called for you like this, so isn’t it about time you came to me at least once? I think I asked you to come and hang out with me at my room a few dozen times by now. Isn’t that right?”
“…”
When Sera turned her head away showing that she was not interested, Lloyd didn’t miss the chance and took a quick glance below to take a good look at Sera’s cleavage. He smiled with his eyes and hid the lewdness that was revealed in his eyes.
“It’s not like I’m going to roast and eat someone. I’m only asking for a cup of tea together, so why? Ah, right! While at it, the new recruit, why don’t you come too?”
When Lloyd suddenly looked at Nainiae and continued, with a displeased, protesting look on her face, Nainiae tilted her head to the side.
“Are you talking about me?”
“That’s right. What’s your name?”
“…It’s Nainiae.”
“Um. Good. Nainiae! If you are in middle of training by Sera, I think it won’t be a bad idea to come by with Sera to have some tea with me at my room, have a conversation together and have the opportunity to get to know each other. Right?”
Lloyd suggested with his arms wide open.
“What do you think?”
Nainiae made a quick glance to check Sera’s face.
She did because it had been only a day since she started working here. It was still difficult for Nainiae to know what’s going on in these kinds of situations.
“…”
Although it looked like Sera was trying hard not to let it show, because Nainaie was also a woman, as Nainiae observed her face from that perspective, she noticed that Sera looked displeased.
As if she decided to do something, Nainiae turned her head toward Lloyd and looked at him. Nainaie responded to his proposition,
“…No. We are not going.”
“…?”
“I said we are not going.”
It appeared she still had the habit of her crude language from Lower Solia.
With her unique dry expression on her face, Nainiae glared at Lloyd as if she was going to burn a hole through his face.