Chapter 16: Head Maid Hilda

As always Giliath demands your power stones!

*

Cassius Bright left our group, leaving me with my father, and Estelle with her mother, Lena Bright, behind. Giliath did a curt nod of his head as a sign of politeness at Lena, before he too, departed the lobby.

Once it was just us three, Lena placed Estelle down and immediately latched on to me, and yanked my arm as a motion to follow after her.

My voice trailed off, quite literally.

Tugging on my arm, Estelle entered a mad dash. We're not even two years old yet. Where in Aidios's name does she get this energy from? I'd try to argue that, but her father is THE Cassius Bright. So bet he's at fault here, haha! Lena's almost his polar opposite.

Still, I warned Estelle not to immediately wander into the nearest hallways. The left side led into offices and drawing rooms meant for military officials, and it also included the kitchen that maids use daily. Cassius didn't wander off in that direction, as the Head Maid rarely went there. She was likely somewhere in Her Majesty's private quarters inside the tower, which was beyond the castle's exterior. And to the right were rooms for soldiers. We could hear faint laughter further inside.

Hearing this, Estelle came to a sudden halt. It was so abrupt I ended up crashing into her back. It was the kind that you could hear skidding marks from her shoes.

"Oof...", I uttered, not expecting to get suddenly slammed like that. It didn't hurt, but I squared myself to make sure Estelle didn't topple over. "You really are going too fast you know. You're going to trip over like this.", I retorted, seeing Estelle now standing still right in front of me. She turned around and smiled.

"But this is fun!", Estelle happily responded. She was acting as if this was natural to her. She really is an explorer, isn't she? One of her favorite activities to do while growing up was to go bug-catching. As much as I wanted to berate her for showcasing this high amount of energy, I didn't. I'm not her mother. That role falls onto Lena, haha!

I'm a child now too, you know. What's wrong with having some fun like this? Instead, I warned Estelle not to wander into the hallway before us.

"Don't go into this hallway alright, Estelle? Soldiers are resting there. We shouldn't disturb them.", I said to her.

"Okie-dokie!", Estelle responded. I could tell she wanted to go down that hallway too. Thankfully she listened. I saw her enter a conundrum of sorts, trying to figure out where she should go next.

In the end, I saw Estelle look at the right staircase, only to point her finger at it.

"I choose you!", Estelle declared. Before I could react, I saw Estelle latch onto my arm again, realizing what she was doing. My body was pulled once again into her tempo.

Not again...!

She entered a mad dash a second time, and sprinted up the staircase. Surprisingly, she did not trip over herself in the process. I didn't get bumped into the corners either. It was actually a smooth climb.

But I continued to let Estelle do what she wanted. Seriously, she's just a bundle of energy. We're not even two years old yet for Aidios's sake. I won't lie though. I haven't had this much fun in ages, even if we were just running around the lobby and up the stairs. I knew we could do this too. After reaching the second floor, I saw Lena out of the corner of my eyes. She smiled, sensing my gaze. She definitely knew we were within sight. That's good, at least. I don't have to worry about this any longer.

My eyes returned to Estelle, who was pondering her next move.

"These are where the guest rooms are, Estelle. Going this way should be fine.", I said to her.

"Okay!", Estelle said, grabbing onto my arm again. Here we go again...

I should be used to this by now, so I just let Estelle do whatever she wanted to do. We arrived inside the hallway on the right side. If we went through the center further behind us, we would reach the open terrace. This terrace held high significance to part of Trails in the Sky's story. An important scene takes place there, one that I will omit. After all, it involves one of the endings of the games.

And well, with me situated here now. Who knows if or when that will happen? My existence alone is already causing a deviation of the story. I'm pretty sure Gilaith and Cassius are not supposed to be rivals right now. They should barely know each other. And now...they brought me here as a supposedly lost prince of the Auslese family. I don't think I took anyone's spot in that regard, and I vaguely do recall that Her Majesty the Queen does have a direct sibling. But Liberl's royal blood runs through me all the same.

I know this event is only for two days and I'll return to Erebonia, but I'm pretty sure me being here is going to cause implications...

As I thought that, I saw Estelle finally decide on one of the guest rooms.

"Come on, Naoto!", Estelle said, urging me to follow her.

Do keep in mind the two of us are tiny, it was a blessing one of the doors was wide open. Otherwise we wouldn't even be able to head into one of them. Estelle quickly ran to the nearest bed. I saw her struggle trying to jump up onto it.

"Help me up!", Estelle said, calling for me.

"I got you."

I hoisted Estelle upward, allowing her to climb onto the bed. I saw her reach her hand down, and she pulled me up onto it. This room was pretty bare. Only a couple chairs around a low-rising table. One large dresser completed the image. It's a guest room, after all. It was meant to satisfy guests, allowing them to relax. I saw Estelle's body bounce one or two times, making the bed rather fluffy. I expected just a single plop, but it didn't happen.

"Hehe, this bed is really fluffy!", Estelle happily said. She then started jumping up and down, enjoying it to her hearts' content.

"These beds are meant to have guests attending the castle enjoy a good night's sleep, so of course it'd be fluffy. Good sleep does wonders. Seriously, though. Where are you getting all this energy from?", I said, still seeing a very hyper Estelle.

"Energy?", Estelle questioned, pausing her jumping for a moment. She tilted her head in confusion.

"I guess you wouldn't know what stamina is yet...", I uttered back, realizing this. "Energy is basically what you use to move your body around.", I tried to explain in simple terms.

"How I move...? Oh!", Estelle responded, nodding at me. She probably didn't know what I meant by that. Maybe she understood some. I'm not sure how many people are out there who are kids like me who know more than what their age suggests. That remains to be seen. Is this what being a genius feels like?

"Daddy's said the same thing to me before too.", Estelle continued to say. Well that made sense. With Estelle being a bundle of energy, I'm sure Cassius has seen her behave like this many times by now. She's definitely more hyper than other kids.

"Heh. You don't want to tire too quickly, do you? We've got a full place to explore after all.", I decided to ask.

"No!", Estelle immediately replied. "I want to see more things here!", Estelle continued. All of a sudden, she ceased her bouncing altogether, and looked back at me. "But first, I have a question."

"Oh?", I replied, gaining interest. "And what that might be?"

Seeing me show interest, Estelle smiled back at me. "Why is your daddy going to fight my daddy?"

So it's going back to what my father proposed earlier, huh? Seems she has an interest in this after all. I do too for that matter. This duel later is going to be a spectacle to watch, regardless of which side you're cheering for. Still, I decided to answer Estelle's question, seeing as she was the one to answer it.

"Simple, really. My dad and your dad are what's considered, "Rivals". They challenge each other, regardless of what the outcome is. Sometimes my dad wins, sometimes yours does. Rivals are meant to motivate one another to grow stronger. It makes fighting that much more fun.", I answered.

"Fighting is fun?", Estelle asked, causing me to pause my thoughts. I didn't immediately answer her, which only confused her again.

"About that...", I began to say, going into my thoughts for a moment. "Fighting can be fun, yes. But you can also get hurt from it too. Unless Mister Bright allows you to fight, don't do it alright?", I said, becoming more serious this time. Estelle saw this, and nodded.

"I'm not too sure what you mean by that, but alright, Naoto!"

"Good. It's fine if you don't understand now, but as long as you understand where I'm getting at.", I replied, nodding my head in response. I sighed. I hope I didn't just speed up the training Estelle will receive by saying this. She'll follow in Cassius's shadow for a while, learning his pole arts. She'll continue doing that until she decides to become a Bracer in the future, alongside Joshua.

For now, I decided to shift topics. I too will undergo combat training with my father taking the helm. I won't dive too much into it until that happens.

"Apart from that, it won't be long until Mister Bright finds the Head Maid. If she catches us, our exploring will be over. Didn't you say you wanted to explore around more?", I asked.

"I do!", Estelle answered. "There's a whole lot left right?"

"Of course there is. Beyond the second floor is an outside terrace. There's a bunch of plants and grass there. We could head there if you want.", I suggested. I got a pretty good layout of this castle. As long as we don't intrude on the throne room, the basement where the treasury is, or Her Majesty's private quarters, we should be fine. And besides, this castle may get passed down to me in the future. It's good to get a layout of the land beforehand, right? I haven't seen it all myself. And while we're on that matter, did Her Majesty notice who I really was at a glance when we crossed paths earlier? It's possible she might have figured me out even before arriving at Grancel Castle...

As I suggested that, Estelle stopped her movements. Instead, she approached the bed again, and reached her hand out to me. Seeing this, I smiled. She struggled getting on top of here, so now she wants me to help her down. We have much to explore still, so I abided by her wishes, and allowed her to climb down the bed. She helped me get down after.

I had a sinking feeling the moment I did that. Sure enough, she tugged on my arm again, and began to yank it. Dashing out of the room, I followed suit. Oh boy...

Unfortunately, it would seem our fun came to an end once we spent some time in that guest room. Still in the eastern wing, Estelle suddenly collided into a rather tall figure. A loud thud struck my ears, seeing Estelle now halted.

"Oof...", Estelle replied. The force was strong enough to send her rolling back my way, but I managed to catch her so she wouldn't roll around. Estelle quickly covered thanks to that. But looking upward, we saw a stern figure staring right at us.

"Scary lady...", Estelle uttered, only to retreat a couple steps, and hid behind me.

The stern figure didn't budge an inch. She just stood there. To our surprise, we weren't immediately reprimanded. And I was shocked a second time, as this woman spoke out to me, over berating the actions Estelle just did.

"You really are the spitting image of Crown Prince Judis when he was little...", The woman said. She appeared rather aged. Definitely middle-aged, or maybe even older? She was in a maid's uniform from top to bottom. She had purple eyes and brown hair which was in the process of greying. She hid a green blouse and a red skirt behind the maid's uniform.

I could recognize this figure right away.

It was Grancel Castle's Head Maid, Hilda!

I did a cordial bow at Hilda, and greeted her.

"It looks like Mister Bright was able to find you after all, Miss Head Maid. I do not recall my birth mother much, but I did figure out she is related to Her Majesty in some way. Her Majesty was that person on the balcony earlier right?", I asked. I knew, but I still decided to ask that. We hadn't officially introduced each other yet after all. We will probably do this once I meet with her in the throne room later.

"Indeed. The regal person you saw on the balcony is Her Majesty, the current Queen of Liberl. It brings me great joy to see another member of her family here. Your Highness, your stay might be short, but I shall introduce myself to you nonetheless. I am the Head Maid here, Hilda.", Hilda said, doing a curtsy as she introduced herself.

"It is nice to meet you too, Hilda. Are you here to pick us up?", I asked.

"Does that mean we can't play anymore?", Estelle also asked, pouting. Seeing her do this caused me to chuckle. Hilda spotted her behind me, and she raised her eyes. Estelle's retreat must have been too quick for Hilda to spot Estelle before this. She was moving quite fast.

"And you must be Colonel Bright's daughter, Estelle.", Hilda said, greeting her.

"I am! It's nice to meetcha, scary lady!", Estelle responded. Anger appeared on Hilda's face hearing that, but it quickly subsided knowing Estell was just a child.

"Hmph. You even behave like Colonel Bright. You definitely are his daughter. But you aren't the reason why I'm here.", Hilda said, only to shift her eyes back to me. "Your family was granted an audience alongside Colonel Bright, Your Highness. I have come to inform you that you will meet Her Majesty in one hour. You better show up on time. I don't mind dragging you there myself.", Hilda said, revealing a playful smile.

Now that's the Hilda I know. She was a very stern woman who held the responsibility of keeping the entirety of both the royal family and Grancel Castle here in check. I'm sure she had a very strong sense of duty. She wasn't wet behind the ears either. I'm sure Hilda's held onto this position for years.

"Thank you, Hilda. Does that mean we can continue what we've been doing, at least for the next hour?", I asked.

"You can. Colonel Bright's wife is watching after you two, but I'm doing my job as well to ensure your safety. You can continue roaming around the castle, but only up to the end of the outside terrace. Any further will intrude on Her Majesty.", Hilda answered. Hearing that, Estelle's eyes beamed in joy.

"Really!?", Estelle happily replied and looked my way. "We can continue playing, Naoto!"

"That does seem to be the case.", I replied, nodding my head.

"Oh, and Her Highness the Princess's private quarters are also off limits. She too resides in the tower beyond the terrace.", Hilda said.

"Her Highness the Princess?", I asked. I'll keep saying it, but this is information I already know, but I still like confirming it with my own eyes. She must be referring to Princess Klaudia. To my surprise, Hilda didn't answer me, and instead, simply smiled back. I guess she isn't going to reveal anything right now. But this should be the late Crown Prince Judis's daughter. She wasn't present during the maritime accident at sea, so she's still alive. Perhaps we'll get a chance to meet her once the audience with Her Majesty begins?

So I turned my head toward Estelle instead, and spoke to her.

"It looks like we have permission to continue exploring. Hilda will be around watching us now, but we can still have some fun.", I said to Estelle.

"Okay!", Estelle happily responded. Parting ways for now, Hilda remained stationary as Estelle grabbed me again. We began searching the second floor to our hearts' content once more.

Before I knew it, an hour passed while I had fun. I didn't have to worry about heading to work or anything. I was just running around, and taking in all the sights I could, and with one of the main characters of the Trails series, Estelle Bright!

There was just one thing I couldn't talk about for the time being with Estelle, and that was the situation with Elie. I probably won't either. I don't know if these two will meet each other during this event, but it'd be a nice surprise if I didn't tell her about Elie beforehand. And if it does happen, this might just be the first encounter to happen that didn't take place in the games! Elie shouldn't even be here in Liberl right now. But because of me, she came along with her Grandfather to pay respects to the late Crown Prince.

Before the funeral is going to take place and afterward, the duel between my father and Cassius Bright, we will be holding an audience with Her Majesty the Queen!

It just makes me wonder, how much will Queen Alicia II tell me about my late mother?

For now, it was time to meet Her Majesty in person.