Side Story 2 Viv's and Noire's Struggles

It's been three years since I started working at the Valentine household. It was enjoyable when all I had to do was spend time training with the lady of the house and accompanying her on her errands. But lately, her mood swings have made her extremely capricious, and the only person that can control her lets her do as she pleases. No one has gotten hurt from her precipitated rampages, but she has destroyed the house multiple times over insignificant things.

Just this morning, she lost her temper because her favorite character in the book she was reading died and she blew up the book along with the living room wall. Noire tried to calm her down, but we ended up having to pay another large sum of money to get the house fixed. My liege, her wife, Cera Valentine, is unbelievably wealthy and spoils her way too much. I often try to tell her that her wife, lady Zara, is needlessly wasting money, but she doesn't listen. Being a year older than lady Zara, I understand that she is going through her growing phase, but my mood swings are nonexistent compared to hers, and my liege never loses her composure even though she's going through the same thing as us; she's way too amazing.

From the day I met her, she has always been very calm and reliable, her only flaw is that she spoils her wife way too much. I hope that eventually she'll realize that her wife only acts out because she lets her, but until then, we just have to put up with lady Zara's volatile mood swings.

"Noire, I'm mentally exhausted. Do you think my liege will let us take a small vacation?" I asked Noire, who was droopily sitting on the couch next to me.

"No, I already asked." Noire, who suffers with me every day, being my liege's personal maid and in charge of taking care of lady Zara's every need, is just as burned out as I am.

Even though we'd like to complain, my liege is way too scary when she's angry, so we just refrain. Even just being around her when she's angry is dangerous. Unlike lady Zara, who doesn't hurt anyone when she has her destructive bouts of violence, my liege has no qualms over killing anyone when she's in a bad mood.

Three years ago, after lady Zara fainted from overusing her power at the tournament; my liege killed the gardener for simply getting in her way of going to their bedroom. She also blew up the carriage we were on and we couldn't even breathe properly under her terrifying aura. Noire and I experienced first hand how frightening she can be when she's angry and we have tried our best to avoid that from happening again. But since she only gets angry when we don't attend to her wife's every need, we struggle every day to keep her happy.

We used to be able to appease our lady with sweet snacks and pastries, but my liege recently banned her from eating sweets because she got a cavity, and it has grown exceedingly difficult to keep her at bay.

"How are we supposed to make her feel better today? She's never happy about going to those tea parties." At the moment, they are attending the queen's tea party to discuss some secret topics, but my lady always comes back in a bad mood. Now that she cannot indulge in eating sweets, she'll probably be even more tumultuous than normal when she gets home.

"I don't know. Should we try begging to lady Cera to keep her company today?" Noire's defeated voice and our emergency method of keeping her under control made me feel even more depressed.

"That's our trump card. Do you really want to use it up for this?" We have begged my liege to calm her down multiple times in the past, but every time we begged her to help us, she made us run errands around the kingdom, which is exhausting in its own way.

"If not now, then when?" I don't want to deal with my lady's extra horrible mood today. I have to convince Noire to beg my liege for mercy.

"What if we secretly give her snacks?" Noire and I looked at each other for a moment and sighed at the same time.

"We'd die if we get caught sneaking our lady some sweets." Even though I'm sure that my liege would punish her falling into temptation, we would most certainly die for doing that.

I looked up at the ceiling and then back down at my sword. I used to be her bodyguard, but now I'm Noire's bodyguard. Ever since lady Zara learned how to properly use her malicious looking scythe, she has been running wild in the kingdom. Many noble houses have sent challenge letters over the years and every single one, has lost their life. They saw my lady as a threat and decided to challenger her, only to lose their lives. With queen Celest supporting her, she has been able to go around the kingdom weakening the other factions without any resistance. Queen Celest's faction has grown exponentially since she started killing off her rivals. My liege and my lady are basically queen Celest's unofficial princesses.

While my liege isn't as powerful as my lady, she is still able to perform similar feats of brutality. I've seen her kill without looking at her opponent, and it's frightening to know that she can kill me from anywhere in the house. I've never trained with her, and I've never seen her spar with my lady, but I know that her Alm range is tremendous.

"I guess we just have to try out best." Noire stood up and patted down her maid outfit.

"First we have to bring in all the clothes she ordered and arrange them accordingly in her closet. After that, we need to prepare their bath and dinner. I don't know how long the tea party will last this time, but I'd like to at least get the dresses organized before they come home." As always, Noire's impeccable work ethic motivates me.

"Let's get started then." I stood up and picked up one of the many boxes filled with my lady's dresses, shoes, and ornaments and took it to their room.

Every time I do this, I realize how bad my lady's shopping problem is. She buys a lot of dresses and makes my liege wear a different one every day along with a unique hair style that matches the dress. While my liege and my lady always look very pretty, I do not condone how much money she has spent over the years on just clothes, shoes, and hair accessories. The house was remodeled three years ago to make a bigger closet in their room. Three fourths of the second floor was turned into a massive closet for her personal use and she also added expensive flowery fixtures to decorate the interior. However, as an ex-princess of the empire, I truly admire her collection and dedication to my liege, my lady is a very devoted wife.

On the other hand, my liege is a very protective wife. She has final say on everything involved around the house and if she believes something can be harmful to my lady, she keeps her by her side. With as much freedom as she gives my lady, there's an equal amount of restriction. Well, I believe my lady genuinely enjoys all the attention she receives from liege because of all those restrictions, but that's why I think that my lady acts out and does whatever she wants. Of course, if I ever say this out loud, I'd probably get beat up or worse, so I keep it to myself. I've been living with them for over three years and I still don't know everything about them, there are so many mysteries surrounding my lady and even more around my liege.

Something I've always been curious about is my lady's parents. Ever since I started working here, I've never heard her say anything about them. When I asked Noire about them, she told me they were very caring parents, but would truly caring parents leave their daughter alone for three years without contacting her? My lady doesn't seem like she cares about her parents as she's always overly attached to my liege, but I can only hope that she isn't hiding her emotions. As troublesome as my lady is, I don't want to see her feeling sad or hurt.

"Please place these on their bed." Noire handed me a pair of matching sleeping pajamas with red and blue berry designs.

"Okay." I neatly folded and placed their pajamas on their bed. I think at this point, I'm more of a maid than a bodyguard.

I've never fought against the queen's most powerful bodyguard, Stark, but I think I can defeat him if I prepare enough. Training with my lady has helped me surpass my limits and I believe I can properly protect Noire from even the strongest of fighters for at least a few minutes. Looking at the cute matching pajamas made me wonder if one day I'll be able to protect my liege's children. With as much as she has done for me, protecting me from the empire and the kingdom, allowing me to live this peaceful, fulfilling life, and helping me become as strong as I am now, I would love to serve her for the rest of my life, along with her children. I would lay down my life for them at a moment's notice.