An Invitation To The Royal Palace (2)

This was strange. Things were not supposed to turn out like this.

After all, from the very day I entered the royal palace, what awaited me was torture disguised as etiquette training under Lady Claire… No, under the demon head maid.

Day after day and night after night, she drilled into me the proper behavior expected of a maid, the customs of the royal palace, and even household chores like cleaning and laundry.

And whenever I deviated from those standards even slightly, the head maid’s literal teaching cane came flying at me with terrifying speed.

This harsh life had already left my mind in tatters!

“This isn’t what you told me! You said all I had to do was make sweets, didn’t you!? Do I really need all this!?”

“Of course you do. You may be cooking, but you are still a maid. We cannot allow someone with no manners whatsoever near His Highness the Prince. …Still, I must say, your fundamentals are astonishingly poor.”

As she said that, the demon named Claire, whose attitude toward me had changed completely the moment I became her subordinate, deliberately heaved an exaggerated sigh.

“You must have lived an exceedingly lazy life at home. You are the first person I have ever had this much difficulty educating. …There, your posture has slipped ever so slightly!”

“Waaah! Demon! Devil! Head maaaaid!”

She forcibly corrected my posture, making me cry out involuntarily.

Even when standing, I was forced to maintain the “proper” posture, and if I deviated by even the slightest amount, this was what happened.

She had drilled everything into me, from how I walked onward, to the point that I wondered whether she intended to remodel me into some kind of artificial human.

“Waaaaah! When am I finally going to be allowed to coooook!? This is nothing but torture!”

Yes, more painful than anything else was the fact that I had not been allowed to cook even once during this entire training period.

Whenever I had free time, I was told to spend it learning proper conduct instead. I woke up and was drilled relentlessly, collapsed exhausted onto my bed at night, then woke the next morning only to repeat the same thing.

This was just like being a corporate slave in Japan. A sweatshop!

Working at the royal palace was one gigantic sweatshop!

“Please, just a little… Let me cook… Please let me coooook…”

When I tearfully begged her, the old demon woman muttered in exasperation before speaking.

“…If I had my way, I would train you a little longer… but very well. We shall end your etiquette instruction here for now.”

“R-really!?”

My face lit up instantly. But the devil glared at me and continued.

“However. If you disgrace yourself in front of others, you will immediately undergo remedial training. Remember that.”

“Y-yeees…”

Ah, terrifying.

Still, this was incredibly good news. At long last, I would finally be able to cook!

Apparently, there was a kitchen inside the royal palace specifically for the maids.

Since the rooms surrounding mine were occupied by other maids, I had often seen them cheerfully heading in that direction.

Until now, I had only watched their backs with envy, but finally, I would be able to conduct culinary research using someone else’s money…!

During this past month, I had considered running away in the middle of the night countless times, but I was truly glad I endured it!

“Come now, Head Maid, let’s hurry to the kitchen! I can’t wait any longer!”

I urged her excitedly.

But the head maid immediately shut me down.

“Wait. Before that, we shall go see the person to whom you will be serving snacks—Prince William.”

“Really? Is it all right for a commoner like me to see him directly?”

“Of course. We maids are permitted to serve close to His Highness. Now, this way.”

As I followed the head maid, who led the way, my heart began pounding.

A prince. The sort of person every girl dreamed of at least once.

And on top of that, he was the person I would be serving from now on. What kind of person could he be?

Before long, we arrived in front of a large room.

If I remembered correctly, this was the audience chamber, used when members of the royal family met with visitors.

Following the head maid, I entered the audience chamber, which was filled with a solemn atmosphere.

Then, from the far end of the room, from a magnificent throne set atop a raised platform, a voice rang out.

“Lord Miles, I understand your reasoning in requesting permission to raise taxes. However, I cannot approve it. This would place too great a burden upon the people’s livelihoods.”

That intelligent-sounding voice belonged to a young boy seated upon the throne.

He had smooth golden hair and beautifully shaped features. An elegant nose and charming lips.

And in his jewel-like blue eyes, intelligence sparkled brilliantly.

Yes. Seated there was a dazzlingly beautiful boy who looked as though God himself had carefully crafted every detail.

“Woooow…”

A sound escaped my lips before I could stop it.

What? No way. How could someone be this adorable?

He was born a prince, he was a prodigy, and he was beautiful too? Wasn’t that unfair?

“That is Prince William. See that you do not commit any blunders.”

“Woooow…”

The head maid sounded faintly proud as she said it, but all I could manage in response was another dazed noise.

Then the bald middle-aged man who was prostrating himself before the prince spoke with a troubled expression.

“B-but Your Highness William, if you show the common folk too much leniency, they will grow insolent! And while our nation is peaceful now, our position means we never know when invasion might come. Accumulating wealth and preparing for the movements of other countries is—”

“We already possess sufficient wealth. If we needlessly exhaust the people, the nation itself will be exhausted as well, Lord Miles.”

The bald man seemed to be desperately trying to persuade the prince.

But the prince answered him firmly.

“The people are the nation itself. They must not be made to suffer beyond what is necessary. That is all, Lord Miles.”

“Y-yes… Yes, Your Highness!”

Once the prince brought the discussion to an end, the bald man bowed deeply and withdrew.

What dignity! What commanding words and bearing!

He did not seem ten years old in the slightest.

“You should consider it an honor to serve that gentleman, Shirley. Now then, I shall show you to the kitchen.”

At the head maid’s words, I followed after her in a daze.

My goodness, I truly was astonished. So there really were people that incredible in the world…

As I walked through the palace corridors thinking that, I began to hear bustling noises from deeper inside, accompanied by a wonderful smell.

This was… probably the smell of cake baking.

My guess proved correct. When I followed the head maid through a door, I found myself in a dreamland… or rather, a dreamlike kitchen.

“Wooooow…!”

I could not help cheering.

The kitchen was several times larger than the home economics classroom I remembered from school in my previous life.

Shining cooking tools were arranged everywhere, while large numbers of women dressed in maid uniforms like mine hurried busily around the room.

And what were they baking? Cakes, just as I thought.

The entire room was filled with that sweet, delicious aroma!

“A-amazing! So this is the royal palace kitchen!”

I cried out in amazement and practically bounced around the kitchen.

Every cooking utensil there was beautiful, and all of them appeared to be of excellent quality.

Everything was well-maintained, and I even spotted several tools I had never seen in town.

But what shocked me most of all was that they were not using only wood-burning hearths. There was something that looked almost exactly like a Japanese stove!

“N-no way. Is that really a stove!? It even has knobs…!”

A metal platform had a trivet on top—the thing you placed frying pans and such on—and there was an opening in the center.

When I peered inside, I saw some sort of round sphere.

Unable to contain my curiosity about how it worked, I turned the knob… and astonishingly, flames burst forcefully out of the opening!

“Whoa! It really is a stove…! Amazing, amazing!”

Turning the knob even allowed me to adjust the strength of the flame.

When I peered inside again, I saw flames emerging from the round sphere, growing larger and smaller accordingly.

Controlling heat when cooking with firewood was extremely difficult, and when I was still inexperienced, I often burned my food. But with this, that would not be a concern.

I had absolutely no idea how it worked, but it was incredible!

Then I glanced to the side and noticed some large, box-shaped object in the corner of the room.

“Huh? No way, no way… Could it be…!?”

It was a huge metal box, much taller than I was.

When I pulled its handle, the door swung open, revealing large quantities of ingredients inside—and astonishingly, cold air drifted out from within.

Which meant this was—

“They even have a refrigerator!? How!?”

I had heard that the kitchen was exceptionally well equipped, but this exceeded anything I had imagined.

More importantly, there was no way technology in this world should have been capable of producing devices like these.

As I stood there baffled, the head maid spoke with a surprised expression.

“Shirley, do you know how to use these tools? You are the first person I have ever seen understand their functions at a glance.”

“Ahhh!”

Crap. I’d done it again…!

There was no way anyone in this world should have known what a stove or refrigerator was.

Yet I had gotten so excited that I had revealed myself without thinking.

I hurriedly tried to come up with an excuse, and this was the best thing my brain managed to produce.

“I-I always imagined how wonderful it would be if tools like these existed, and they looked so similar to what I’d pictured that I just thought, m-maybe this is how they work…!”

Weak. That was an incredibly weak excuse.

But now that I had said it, I had no choice but to commit to it.

“B-but wow, they’re incredible…! I-I can’t believe my dreams have come true! Who made these things?”

“…These were created by a court witch who serves at the royal palace.”

A court witch!

So that was it. A court witch, huh?

As I had mentioned before, I had heard about their existence.

Apparently, only a handful of witches possessing mysterious powers were born in each country.

Witches could manipulate strange powers and create magical tools.

However, apparently they could not use flashy offensive magic like the kind wielded by characters in role-playing games from my previous world.

So they did not team up with warriors to go adventuring, nor did they rampage across battlefields.

For the most part, they could not do anything terribly dramatic. They were usually kept close by powerful people to perform divinations or present unusual artifacts.

Since I had never personally seen one before, I had honestly suspected it might all be nonsense.

“So they really do exist… Then do these devices produce fire and cold through magic?”

“So I am told. I do not understand it in the slightest myself. …If you can immediately understand how such devices work, perhaps you are a witch yourself and simply do not realize it.”

The expression on the head maid’s face practically said, That would explain why I always thought you were such a strange woman.

Come to think of it, people had called me a witch before. Maybe I could use that as my excuse in the future whenever I needed one.

“Very well. For now, let us introduce you to the other maids. …Everyone, stop what you are doing and gather here!”

At the head maid’s call, all of the maids immediately stopped working and turned toward us.

After carefully extinguishing the stove flames and such, they moved swiftly and formed neat rows in front of Lady Claire.

“Everyone, we have a new recruit joining us from today onward. Shirley, introduce yourself.”

“Ah! U-um, my name is Shirley Albrella! Seniors, I look forward to working with you!”

Prompted by the head maid, I hurriedly introduced myself and bowed.

That said, there was no way they could have been completely unaware of my existence.

After all, I had already spent a full month living in the maids’ residential quarters.

I had passed several of them in the hallways before.

Besides, whenever a newcomer arrived, people naturally became curious. I was sure they knew about me already. Even so, the looks they were giving me were exactly the sort one would direct at some exotic animal.

“…I was aware that the head maid had been personally training someone, but I see she was a new maid.”

The one who spoke was a tall, slender beauty standing in the center of the assembled maids.

She had long, beautiful hair, slightly drooping eyes, and elegant features, but there was a visibly displeased expression on her face.

…Wait. Am I not being welcomed?

“Yes, Christina. Do try to get along with her.”

“…With all due respect, Head Maid.”

After Lady Claire said that, the beautiful maid named Christina looked around at the others and continued.

“We already have more than enough hands. Every team has sufficient members. I believe adding anyone else would only get in the way.”

Teams. So they worked in teams.

Now that she mentioned it, the maids did seem to be standing in several separate groups.

One, two, three… probably four teams. Each consisted of three or four members.

Presumably, they prepared food in those teams.

And… apparently, my presence would only be a nuisance.

(Well, I suppose that’s understandable when everyone already has established groups and some random newcomer suddenly barges in.)

While I was thinking about it as though it were someone else’s problem, the head maid casually dropped a bombshell.

“Do not worry. This girl will have a team of her own.”

…Excuse me?