Volume 1 - CH 22

「……Combat maid?」

I unconsciously muttered the words that I had never heard before. Sera who said those words to me slowly nodded. She said maid……as I thought, she found out that was a girl. Viro also didn’t show any reaction to this, so he must have noticed too.

「Before I explain……tell me what is your name. Also how old are you right now?」

「Aria……seven years old.」

「Whatttt!?」

「Aria, you are still seven years old?」

Viro was surprised for some reason. It made Sera sent a cold glance at him.

「Why are you that surprised? I was also around seven years old when I began my apprenticeship as a maid. That’s the normal age when a child begin to help out with their parent’s work isn’t it? Viro……you were the one who brought her here and yet how is it possible that you didn’t know her age?」

「No no, as expected I wouldn’t do something like making her killed goblin by her lonesome or brought her to exterminate bandits if she is still seven years old. ……She is pretty gutsy for a kid, so I completely thought that she is a ten years old with a small body for her age……」

I see……. No wonder Viro didn’t really treat me like a small child.

「That’s what usually happened with a slum orphan who lived in malnutrition, but if you look at this child’s magic power capacity, you should be able to realize that her growth is quickening.」

「Certainly it’s just like what you said, but still……」

「What is the decision?」

I interrupted the conversation of the two adults. Sera returned her gaze at me in respond.

「We still haven’t finished talking haven’t we? If we are talking about you accepting the job or not, I won’t force you if you decide to refuse. We don’t need any half-baked personnel after all.」

Sera declared with a cold sentence that was slightly provoking. She displayed a thin smile and continued speaking.

「Are you satisfied with a strength that can just barely win against a hobgoblin?」

「…………」

I went along with Viro’s invitation and planned to accept the job here even knowing the danger of getting involved with noble in order to obtain “strength” that could overcome even that kind of danger. Training to become this combat maid would surely get me involved even deeper with nobles or important people. However, the strength of this Sera in front of me and the potential strength that I could obtain by this training felt close to the strength that I sought.

「I accept.」

「Very good. Then allow me to introduce myself. I am Sera Leyton. I am in charge of coordinating the maids in this mansion and the neighboring castle as well as the security from behind the scenes. Introduce yourself next.」

「Aria……just an adventurer without any relative.」

Sera who guessed the meaning of my self-introduction deepened slightly.

「I have high expectation for you. If it’s you, then perhaps one day you will be able to fulfill the role of 『combat handmaid』 like me.」

.

Since that day I started working in this mansion as a maid apprentice. I got separated again with my guardian Viro because of that, but either way that man was too hands off that there was no meaning in him being my guardian.

Originally the workplace of the maids was at the castle beside this mansion, but it seemed that a street urchin who hadn’t received any education and didn’t even know the way to do work couldn’t be allowed appear in front of a noble. A normal maid apprentice would accompany other maid and made to help with works that were outside of the public view, but I was a 『combat maid apprentice』, so I was acting under the direction of my direct superior Sera.

Sera Leyton. From her conduct and position, I guessed that she might also be a noble. Perhaps that question showed up in my face because she easily read the inside of my heart.

「I’m just a wife of an insignificant baronet who doesn’t even have a land of his own and only rule a provincial town at the countryside.」

「…………」

There was no way a mere wife of an insignificant baronet could have a combat power that was more than 1000…….

So this was combat handmaid……. She called herself a combat handmaid. Normally Sera’s comrades mainly did the work of security or gathering information as combat handmaid or combat maid who were assigned to guard important people. They would use their own body to shield important people from attack or poison, but Sera said that only a few of them had the skill to corner the attackers and deal with them in combat.

I didn’t think that I would be able to carry out such role, but Sera seemed to think that one day I would be able to become like that. Though before that, right now I didn’t even know whether I would be able to do the normal maid duty.

「Continuing the explanation, in the case of normal maid, there are times when they have to add 『sama』 when addressing nobility, but in case that person is the leader of your workplace, you use 『san』 instead. If that person is your coworker, you call their name without any honorific regardless of their background. But, it’s fine for you to call my name without any honorific when in front of guest.」

「Roger.」

「You should say 『Yes』 or 『Certainly』 just now.」

「……Yes.」

「Also……Meena-. Are you here Meena-」

「Yeess」

When Sera called that name while she was walking through the mansion’s corridor, a slow sounding voice came from a room somewhere and a girl who was in the middle of her teenage appeared. Her eyes widened slightly seeing me together with Sera.

「Sera-san, could it be……she is that child?」

「That’s right. Meena, you can leave your work for today. Wash this child, choose a uniform that suit her size, then teach her the way to wear it and about this mansion. I’ll assign her room to be in the empty room near yours, so please show her the way.」

「Yeees, I understanddd」

「Aria. Your work will start from tomorrow. Please learn the minimum common sense before that. Come to the backyard when the sun rise tomorrow wearing your uniform.」

.

It seemed the girl called Meena was the maid who I saw in that forest. She was told that I was the one who saved her, so she taught me various things happily.

「Handmaids like Sera-san can use the warm bathtub, but common maids like us will wash ourselves using their leftover warm water. We have to wash ourselves every day no matter how tired we are or else Sera-san will scold us, so be careful.」

「Right.」

I didn’t really understand the difference between handmaid and maid but, maid’s role was like a housekeeper so to speak. Their role was fundamentally different from handmaid who was serving nobility.

Leftover water that was as warm as human skin was poured on my head, then I was washed all over with something like a soap. Due to the washing, my pink blond hair that had grown slightly longer regained its original shininess and clung on my cheeks.

「Yes, you are cleaned. Let’s choose a maid uniform next.」

The maid uniform that Sera was wearing was a long dress with only black color. I had extremely small exposure that covered even until her neck and wrist. But the maid uniform that Meena and I were wearing was a white blouse with long dress worn over it. It seemed that we would also wear apron dress and cuffs with them. Was there also a maid uniform for a child like me……I questioned that, but it seemed that due to the additional maids that were called to help out here, uniforms of various sizes from small for ten year old child until a big sized one had been prepared for them.

「Aria-chan, don’t wear the shoes directly. Wear these socks first before that.」

「……Right.」

Until now I had been barefooted or wearing leather sandal. This was my first time wearing socks in my life, but there were a lot of troubles when I dressed up. The maid uniform for ten years old child was slightly too big for me. Meena said it looked cute on me, but I wondered if the cuteness that she said was similar with making a pet wearing clothes.

After that we looked around inside the mansion. I was roughly told what kind of items there were and where they were placed, and what kind of works the maids were doing. The meals were cooked in the dining hall from early at the morning until late at night. The maids could go there freely to eat stew and bread when they had free time from work.

「I came from a commoner’s merchant house, but there are also relatives of nobles among the maids so be careful with them. Because there are also some of them who will get offended if a commoner enter the bath or eat first before them.」

「Hee……」

It seemed that it would be better to carry weapon with me.

After that Meena lightly taught me about the way to speak and behave. We basically mustn’t run or make noise. Even when walking our back had to be ramrod straight with our gaze looking straight to the front and not shaking our head needlessly. Maid must not talk to noble directly. You should go through a handmaid when you had business with noble, but if the noble or guest was the one ordering you then you had to prioritize that.

Everything that I was taught was something that I only knew for the first time, but that kind of information also existed in the “knowledge” so I felt like I would be able to manage somehow. To compare, it was like someone who had only ever used spoon until now, but because they had “knowledge”, they wouldn’t bewildered about the way to use knife and fork.

The maid’s work would end when night came and the sun had set completely. There were also maids that worked until later at night when the time zone shifted, but you wouldn’t make progress with your work without light at night so it inevitably became like that.

「Then, rest well Aria-chan. Let’s work hard from tomorrow.」

「Right. Thank you, Meena.」

My room was beside Meena’s. The room was around 4×3 meter with a bed and closet inside. There was also a small table and chair for writing.

It looked like we would be supplied with candle if we asked, but it was unnecessary for me. I took off the maid uniform and changed into plain clothes, then I rolled the blanket on the bed into something that resembled a human shape. Then I sat at the corner of the room while holding my black knife. There I suppressed my presence and fell asleep. With that the day was over.

.

The next day, the air that was characteristic of the time before the sunset woke me up.

「……Light.」

I used daily life magic to lit up a light in order to wear the maid uniform that I was still unfamiliar with. I took off my night wear and wore the white blouse. It was also my first time buttoning a shirt, but perhaps this way would be faster than wearing a belt on my waist if I got used to it.

The blouse was white, but it was easy for collar and cuffs to get dirty, so they were made to be detachable. The chest part was baggy with empty space. Meena said that this was so that the chest 『wouldn’t get grazed』, but it felt like a chest protector would be necessary for large chest like hers. After that I wore the socks and shoes and a black dress that reached until near my ankle. With that my appearance became like a maid.

……But where would I hide my weapons. The throwing knives were fine but, my body was still small so they were too big to be hidden in my sleeves. I tried hiding them on my chest but I had nothing to fasten them there. They would also be too conspicuous if I hid them in the apron.

「……There is only this place.」

I used my knife to take the leather cords from the sandal that I used before. I tied the black knife and throwing knives there. Because of that, the I couldn’t wear the baggy 『drawers』 that was given to me yesterday anymore and I threw it to a corner of the bed.

After I changed into maid uniform, I sneaked out from the second floor’s window and used stealth while heading to the temporary base that I hid in the forest. I only had few baggage but the money and wild grasses book were important. I could still hide the other things there, but I took the wild grasses book and potions. Just in case I smoked my things with bug repellent grass before heading to the backyard that Sera mentioned.

.

The backyard that I arrived at was in a position that was invisible from the mansion. It was easy to detect anybody coming there so it looked like a good place for training to hide.

「…………」

Even though I arrived at the backyard 『at the same time when the sun rose』 just like instructed, Sera still wasn’t there. I thought that I was a bit early, but I recalled that I wouldn’t be able to detect Sera if she used stealth. Perhaps this was also a part of training. When I used Search and carefully searched my surrounding, I found a small “presence” inside the forest.

「……Hee. So you sense me.」

I heard a voice when I turned my gaze to there. Then a silhouette that was smaller than me showed itself from inside the forest.

「Looks like you’re quite good. Are you the rumored “newcomer”?」

「……Who?」

Light brown skin and black hair. ……This boy was also a Cruz person? The boy’s face was outstandingly handsome. His bluish gray eyes were sparkling in curiosity as he stared scrutinizingly at my whole body. He didn’t answer my question and approached with a smile of mischief.

「Don’t get full of yourself just because you get recognized by the adults okay? After all even I surely can defeat something like goblin. There are also attacks that you don’t know about in this world.」

「……For example?」

「Let’s see……」

Was he a staff here? I didn’t feel killing intent from the boy who mentioned something about attacks. The boy was grinning while approaching with a casual stroll, then he suddenly vanished from my sight.

「Something like this perhaps─」

*Basaa!*

An unexpected movement and an unexpected attack. I thought that I would be able to react if my life was in danger, but that attack that wasn’t an attack where the boy instantly crouched down flipped up my skirt completely.

「Tsu!?」

The boy’s eyes opened wide in shock. Most likely it was because he had seen the throwing knives and black knife that I attached on my thigh and calf.

The boy’s movement stopped in confusion. I fully activated my body strengthening in that instant. I instantly stepped forward and kicked the boy’s jaw. I bent over the boy who fell face up and pointed the black knife that I pulled from my calf on his throat.

「……im sorry, please forgive me. that wasnt my intention at all. ill take responsibility really……」

「…………」

I wouldn’t kill him if he wasn’t an enemy though…….

The boy was prattling for some reason when I stared at him glaringly. His light brown skin was also dyed bright red for some reason as he averted his gaze from me and covered his face with both hands.