Intermission 1: Amanda gives Advice
A certain day during the “Rainy Season” in the Carpa Kingdom.
Marquis Miguel Guzzle was meeting with Supervisory Maid Amanda in a room of the Royal Palace.
“It has been a while, Amanda.”
“Yes. You seem to be doing well, Master Miguel.”
Sitting across from each other, the elderly feudal lord and the middle-aged supervisory maid exchanged a friendly greeting.
In the first place, Amanda was a blood relative of Marquis Guzzle.
To be precise, she was the daughter of the little brother of the previous Marquis, which made her a cousin to Miguel, the current Marquis.
“Sorry for calling you out today. I know how busy you are as the Supervisory Maid and how difficult it is for you to come here to the Royal Palace.”
When the Marquis apologized briefly, Supervisory Maid Amanda softened her usual stern expression and shook her head a bit.
“Not quite. Fortunately enough, I enjoy quite a bit of trust from Her Majesty Aura, so leaving the Inner Palace is actually not all that difficult for me. Besides, it is a valuable opportunity to meet with you, Master Miguel.
By the way, is he doing well?”
When a married woman like Amanda was casually inquiring about a man like that, she was obviously referring to her husband.
“Yes, quite well. But the recent ‘Roll of Name’ incident had taken a bit of a toll on Joseph.
He is all better now, though, and was complaining how he did not lose any weight, even though he could not eat well during the incident.”
“Fufu, I can just picture it.”
Off-duty here, Amanda laughed happily while listening to the activities of the husband she married over twenty years ago.
All her children had long since came of age and she had taken on the important duty as the Supervisory Maid of the Inner Palace, so Amanda was certainly missing her family after not seeing him for over a year.
“Well, when he is doing well, I guess that means the matter with Miss Nilda caused no further problems.”
Marquis Guzzle nodded affirmative to the smiling Amanda.
“Yes. I was taken aback quite a bit, when I came to know about it, but fortunately enough, it went off without a hitch. All thanks to Master Zenjirou.”
“Glad to hear that. Speaking of Miss Nilda, is she in the Capital right now as well?”
“Indeed. She is running high all around our residence, because everything is new to her. I know I should be stopping her, but I just cannot bring myself to reprimand her…
I would not think twice about scolding my subordinates, though.”
With that, Marquis Guzzle scratched his head.
“You only realize what you have until it is gone. Lady Lucinda has left a large void.”
Supervisory Maid Amanda said teasingly, whereupon Marquis Guzzle screw up his nose poutingly.
“I always knew what I had with her. The problem is, she went away so suddenly. I had no time to make preparations.”
“She basically did everything from managing the domain to taking care of her siblings to their education, on her own after all.”
“Yes and the education is actually the problem. As you know, Nilda was raised in a village until she was nine. So her education is far from perfect. Of course she knows her basics, seeing as she safely got through the audience with Her Majesty in the Palace, but I am still worried. But now that Lucinda married into another family, I have no one suited to teach Nilda anymore.”
“I see. That is the most pressing matter right now, is it not?”
Amanda deeply bowed her in approval.
“It is. I feel bad for relying on others already, but I am afraid I do not have all that many connections. So, do you know of anyone suitable in your set of acquaintances, Amanda?”
The request from the head of the main family prompted the capable woman in charge of the waiting maids in the Inner Palace to look up at the ceiling and ponder for a moment.
“Just to be sure: You want to educate Miss Nilda as a proper Lady of the Guzzle Main Family, correct? That narrows the possibilities down quite a bit, even here in the Capital.”
“Yes…”
The Guzzle Household was one of the ten most prominent nobles in the current Carpa Kingdom. It goes without saying that very few people were qualified to teach the daughter of such a family.
Nevertheless, Supervisory Maid Amanda mentioned the name of one of these rare candidates.
“The first that comes to mind would be Lady Octavia, the wife of Count Márguez. Even more so than her beauty, the main reason they call her the flower of higher society is because of her conduct and character, so she makes the perfect teacher.
Even Master Zenjirou, the Prince Consort, is being taught by her in manners, etiquette and even basic magic. Hence I can recommend her competence by all means.”
The wife of Count Márguez: Lady Octavia.
Hearing that name, Marquis Guzzle wore a scowl on his face.
“Lady Octavia certainly is a sensible choice… but if possible, I would like to avoid to be indebted to Count Márguez. Whenever you sit at the negotiation table with him, you will end up owing him in the end, even if he was the one asking for a favour.
And I would be asking a favour this time. To be honest, I am too scared to think about how that would turn out.”
Marquis Guzzle and Count Márguez were equals as influential nobles, but there methods were the exact opposite of each other.
A warrior through and through to the point that others called him unsuited for nobility, Marquis Guzzle would definitely be at a disadvantage, when negotiating with Count Márguez, who was the role model noble excelling at rhetoric and manipulating things behind the scenes.
Although somewhat pathetic, his reason had an undeniable truth to it.
Supervisory Maid Amanda gave a wry smile to his words and mentioned the next candidate.
“Then how about the wife of Count Albéniz? She may be a bit strict, but is well known for her teaching of girls.”
“No, a strict teacher would be bad. Lucinda might have taught her well, but Nilda still comes from a small village. Even now, she sometimes does things that ‘give away her origin’ on unexpected occasions.
So it has to be someone, who can turn a blind eye to some extent.”
“What about Marquis Ralah’s wife then? She is not staying in the Capital, but in their own domain, so it might be a little bit worrying that you would have to send Miss Nilda there, but she is generous and strict in equal measure. There is nothing to complain about her skills, either.
After all, Her Majesty Aura chose her as her wet nurse.”
“No. The Marquis and his wife are known to be perfectionists. They would not return Nilda until she perfectly internalized the etiquette. Besides, Nilda would get lonely so far away from home.”
“…Sheesh. Then you might as well send her over to the Guillén Family? Lady Lucinda could finish her education while Miss Nilda works as her chambermaid.”
“I can’t really impose on her any further. I mean, she almost missed out on getting married, because I had her look after the house. And her standing in the new family would suffer, if I were to make her work for me just the same.”
“…..”
Seeing as Marquis Guzzle kept rejecting all of her suggestions, Supervisory Maid Amanda fell silent with a blank expression.
“Sorry for being so selfish, when I’m asking a favour of you.”
While her older cousin slumped down ashamed, Amanda was still dealing with him earnestly.
“Let us take one thing at a time. First off, what kind of conditions must the teacher fulfill at all costs? Please tell me all of them.”
Prompted by her, Marquis Guzzle slowly answered while sorting out his thoughts.
“Let’s see. This is kind of obvious, but it needs to be someone with an appropriate background worthy of teaching the daughter of a Marquis.
On top of that, the person must be lenient to some extent towards any problems Nilda will cause due to her upbringing in the village.
Moreover, I want it to happen in the Capital, if possible, so I can rush over and apologize in the case Nilda causes some serious trouble.
And if I may have my way, I want an affable person, who doesn’t scowl Nilda into silence.”
The conditions he gave were not all that unreasonable taken by themselves, but bundled together, it turned into quite the tall order.
You could find a noble, who was worthy to teach high nobility. You could also find a noble, who was lenient enough to turn a blind eye to problematic behaviour to some extent. A lot of nobles were living in the Capital, too. And you could surely find an affable noble amongst them as well.
But it was quite difficult to find a person, who met these criteria all at once.
In fact, the first suggestion from Supervisory Maid Amanda, Count Márguez’s wife Lady Octavia was the closet to that ideal, but if he were to chose her, he would owe the cunning old bird Count Márguez one. Just thinking about that made him shiver.
“Guess I’m asking too much.”
It seemed like he had to bite the bullet for the sake of his cute daughter and negotiate with his nemesis.
Marquis Guzzle was just about to make his resolve, when
“No, I still have one person, or rather a place in mind.”
Supervisory Maid Amanda unexpectedly answered like that.
“Wh- Who is it!?”
The Marquis raised his head in surprise, whereas Amanda declared businesslike.
“Yours truly. Or maybe are you dissatisfied with me?”
Supervisory Maid Amanda give him a little smile, but Marquis Guzzle was taken by complete surprise and could not hide the bewilderment in his words.
“No… Wait… Do you mean you will quit working as the Supervisory Maid in the Inner Palace? I definitely cannot ask you to go that far for me.”
But Amanda denied his words with a shake of the head.
“Not quite, Master Miguel. I mean the opposite. My suggestion is to send Miss Nilda into the Inner Palace as a Waiting Maid.”
“Nilda as a Waiting Maid!? But that’s…”
“Yes, I know. We can merely recommend Miss Nilda. It is up to Her Majesty Aura to accept her or not.
Fortunately enough, the Inner Palace is currently looking for more Waiting Maids, so I believe she has a good chance.”
“Well, it certainly would be reassuring to have you teach her personally, but to be honest, I can’t help but worry about Nilda doing something inappropriate in front of Her Majesty Aura or Master Zenjirou.”
His worry was obviously justified.
Originally, only the best ended up being a Waiting Maid of the Inner Palace. They were hired for their already acquired competences and proper etiquette, not for actually teaching it to them.
Having said this, that was nothing but the general image. In reality, traits like character, lineage, reliability and connections were far more important than skills and etiquette, so young waiting maids were not really expected to have mastered all the skills and etiquette, but Marquis Guzzle was somewhat badly informed about that, because he kept away from the political bustle in the Capital.
“You do have a point, but please rest assured.
As far as I know, Master Zenjirou is the most tolerant person amongst Royalty and Higher Nobility on the South Continent, when it comes to sociability and generosity of forgiving unintentional blunders.”
“Hmm…. Is that so.”
Zenjirou once again rose in Marquis Guzzle’s esteem.
Since Marquis Guzzle deemed strictness only necessary in the military, he actually preferred it, when his superiors aka. Royalty valued lenience over discipline.
Of course that was only his personal preference and others would surely frown upon such a meek ruler.
Anyway, the Inner Palace seemed not to be such a bad idea, if Supervisory Maid Amanda could be trusted.
“Okay. Then I shall write Her Majesty Aura a letter of recommendation for Nilda soon.”
As if everything had been resolved now, Marquis Guzzle displayed a bright expression, but Amanda did not forget to remind him.
“It goes without saying that it is up to Her Majesty Aura to accept Miss Nilda into the Inner Palace or not. Please keep in mind that she might get rejected by her, so you should feel Lady Octavia out as the next best choice, just in case.”
“I, I know that.”
The elderly Feudal Lord replied sour-faced.
* * *
A dragon carriage drawn by two Raptorial Dragons was running along the street of the Capital amidst the heavy rain.
The stone-flagged street might not be affected by the “Rainy Season”, but there was less traffic for sure.
Wealthy nobles like Marquis Guzzle were travelling in a solid closed carriage, so it was relatively irrelevant whether it was raining or not, but these people were a minority based on the total population.
With a lot of nobles, the Capital had a lot of dragon carriage running on its streets, so there was a business specializing in removing the feces left behind by these dragons, but the daily wages during the “Rainy Season” were twice as much as during the “Vibrant Season”.
It was quite a fortune for a day labourer, but even then, it was difficult to find enough people to clean up the dragon feces during the “Rainy Season”.
Well, considering they had to run around the large Capital in the pouring rain and pick up muddy dragon feces from the side of the road, it might belong to human nature to stop short of it, even if the pay was good.
Needless to say, a high noble like Marquis Guzzle could not fathom that kind of anguish of the commoners.
The dragon carriage with the Marquis inside returned from the Royal Palace to his personal residence in the Capital with heavy clattering.
“I’m back.”
“Welcome back, Milord.”
Returning home, Marquis Guzzle was welcomed at the entrance by Joseph, who was in charge of the residence in the Capital.
With his chubby physique and helmet-like bowl haircut, Joseph was always giving off a droll aura that soothed the atmosphere, just by standing there.
“Yeah, thanks. Amanda was doing fine, Joseph. And she was worrying about you.”
Hearing the present condition of his beloved wife from his lord, Joseph showed a big smile on his round face.
“Glad to hear. So, what did you tell her?”
“I told her how you were complaining about not losing any weight, of course.”
“Milord… Why take the trouble to especially tell my wife about my bad points?”
Marquis Guzzle slightly shrugged his shoulders, when his retainer glared at him with a miserable face.
“Well, she asked for it. In fact, Amanda was quite happy to hear about it.”
“Geez, you need to be more considerate of your subordinates, Milord.”
Joseph rebuked his lord with a wry face, but it lacked authenticity due to his well-rounded facial traits.
“Hahaha, okay, I will keep it in mind.”
“Knowing your memory, it surely will not be there for long, Milord.”
Even while adhering to the right tone, their bantering was quite casual. The Marquis and Joseph seemed to share an intimate friendship.
While the two of them larked around politely like that, the pitter-patter of light footsteps could be heard from inside the residence.
“Welcome back, Father!”
With a bright smile on her face, the second daughter of Marquis Guzzle, Nilda Guzzle appeared before them.
She looked younger than her actual age, because of her small stature and baby-face, but she was fifteen years old, which made her an adult in the Carpa Kingdom.
“Yes, I’m back, Nilda.”
Even the fierce expression of Marquis Guzzle softened, when he saw the innocent smile of his daughter.
Born and raised in a rural village, Nilda had been thrown into the world of nobility all of a sudden, but probably thanks to a kind environment, she still had not lost her affable and innocent smile that flustered its beholder.
Her lack of wariness was a cause of worry to Marquis Guzzle, but at the same time, he was healed by it, so it did have its merits.
“How is it going, Nilda? Have you written the letter?”
Before he left, Marquis Guzzle had given his daughter some homework, so he asked about it now.
The letter was referring to nothing else but a letter addressed to Zenjirou.
When Nilda had taken care of Zenjirou during his stay in the March of Guzzle, he had promised her to “show her around the Capital, if she ever came over”.
She was going to confirm whether that verbal promise had just been a pleasantry or a genuine offer, through an official letter.
The daughter smiled proudly in light of her father’s question
“Yes, I have written one! Will you look it over?”
and looked up to him with her large black eyes.
“Yeah, bring it over.”
“Yes!”
Thereat the little girl quickly toddled back to her own room.
She was going a tad too fast, but she was still the keeping dignity of a lady with her pace, holding the hem of the skirt in place.
“Hmm, seeing that, it might be safe to present her in public after all.”
But when Marquis Guzzle mumbled that, Joseph denied it with a sigh next to him.
“And where exactly are you looking, Milord?”
“Mh? What do you mean? She looked like a fine lady to me. Are you thinking otherwise?”
Marquis Guzzle was aware that he himself knew little about etiquette, so he became concerned with the negative answer from his retainer, asking him again.
Joseph kneaded his temples with the thumb and middle finger of his right hand as if it was a “lost case”, and answered without hiding his disapproval.
“Her conduct might get a passing grade, but that is not even the problem here. Why does a Lady of the Guzzle Family need to fetch a letter ‘by herself’?
What does she think the servants are here for?”
“Oh…?”
When his lord exclaimed dumbfounded, Joseph continued his lecture.
“Miss Nilda is taking too much after you, Milord.”
“U, Ugh…”
Hit home, Marquis Guzzle averted his eyes.
Just like Joseph had pointed out, Marquis Guzzle was too carefree, considering his position.
It was too troublesome to get other people do every little thing for him, so he ended up doing it himself instead.
To begin with, Nilda had been raised in a village, where it was only natural to do things yourself, and with the bad influence from Marquis Guzzle on top of it, it was only understandable she would forget to make use of the servants.
“Hmm, then it could actually have the opposite effect, if I let her work as a waiting maid in the Inner Palace with that kind of mindset.”
“Milord?”
Since Marquis Guzzle muttered it to himself in a very quiet voice, not even Joseph standing right next to him seemed to have heard it well and truly.
“I’ll explain later. I want to hear your opinion, too.”
“Yes, I understand.”
While the lord and his retainer were having this conversation, Nilda came back with pitter-pattering again. She was holding a dragon leather parchment as big as a post card.
“Here it is, Father.”
“Let me see.”
Taking the dragon leather parchment from Nilda, Marquis Guzzle read through the small letter.
Postcard-sized, the letter did not contain all that much words.
After formally addressing Zenjirou, she started with a seasonal greeting, then asked him if she may take him up on his verbal promise and ended it with an apology for writing him all of the sudden, signing it with her name.
Although Marquis Guzzle was not all that good with education, he did know the basics as a high-ranking noble.
So he could at least judge if the letter was written politely and neatly enough.
“Hmm, seems to be alright.”
Saying so, Marquis Guzzle handed the dragon leather parchment back to his daughter.
“Really!?”
Having looked at him anxiously up till now, Nilda now showed a bright smile on her face.
“Yeah. I could point out a few things, but it will not cause any problems for now, if you send it to Master Zenjirou like that. You did well, Nilda.”
“Yes!”
Praised by her father, the daughter replied happily from the bottom of her heart.
Seeing her like that, the Marquis remembered what Lucinda, the daughter he married off not long ago, said before.
‘Please remember to praise Nilda for her success, no matter how trivial it may be. She was raised as a commoner for some time, so she is always worried if she is acting appropriate for a noble.’
Nilda had been raised by Lucinda, and definitely not by him.
Becoming painfully aware again of the hole the eldest daughter left behind, Marquis Guzzle spoke to his other daughter.
“I know how much you dislike studying, so you must have worked really hard for this. Have you been looking forward to it that much?”
“Yes! The garden in the Royal Palace seems to have all kind of things like a beautiful fountain or a pond with a lot of goldfishes! I really want to see that!”
“I see.
Marquis Guzzle showed a wry smile in light of her answer.
Seeing as she was trying to get closer to Prince Consort Zenjirou, the father had suspected she might harbour the ambition to get involved with the Royal Family, but the moral values of his daughter were apparently much more youthful than he had thought.
“That’s definitely something to look forward to.”
“Yes!”
It would be distasteful to question her any further, so Marquis Guzzle just looked at the dazzling smile of his daughter for a while.