Chapter 37: A Maid Behind the Scenes

Now, let us rewind the clock a little.

"Anne, hold out your hand," said Mia.

She'd just finished changing her dress. As she prepared to leave for the party, she turned to Anne and pressed a coin of Bellugian gold into her palm.

"Use it however you want," she said.

In general, Mia was pretty thrifty, prefering to save whenever possible. After all, extravagance could quickly spell her headless doom. On top of that, once it occurred to her that anything she bought might very well end up in the hands of the revolutionary army anyway, she felt a significantly decreased desire to purchase things. Her one exception was the money she gave her right hand and confidante, Anne. Her actions in the previous timeline stood for themselves, but even now, she'd left her family to follow Mia here. It was Mia's intention to repay her loyal maid in every way she could.

"Consider yourself on leave while I'm at the party. You can head out to town, or stay in the dorm. Feel free to do whatever you wish."

It had only been three days since they'd arrived here in Saint-Noel, but it was certainly possible that Anne was starting to feel tired from adjusting to the new environment. There was almost a frantic energy to the way she just went about dressing Mia up. Though it would be only a short break, it was still a chance for her to relax and refresh herself. So, she said to Anne what she thought would allow her devoted maid to unwind.

"Understood, Princess Mia. Your wish is my command. I shall make sure it gets done."

Instead, she received an enthusiastic promise of commitment, leaving her scratching her head.

Ever since becoming Mia's personal maid-in-waiting, Anne's life had taken a drastic turn. Though she'd been sending almost all of her pay back home, she was now free of monetary concerns. Furthermore, with her sister Elise being employed as the princess's court author, their whole family was now able to afford a much more comfortable lifestyle. For these reasons, it never occurred to her that the money Mia handed her was meant to be spent for personal leisure.

She'd left it to me to decide on its use. I need to make sure it's spent well!

From her perspective, she'd been entrusted with coin and time, as well as a mission to accomplish something with them.

What can I do to help Princess Mia?

She pondered the question, trying to figure out what was expected of her. The conclusion she reached in the end was, through the strangest coincidence, the exact same thing Mia was trying to do — make connections.

Of course, Anne had no way of acquainting herself with the students of the nobility. However, she could certainly get to know the people who worked at the academy. From cooks and gardeners to dormitory supervisors, the staff were all commoners with whom she could easily establish rapport. The days she'd spent working at the castle had taught her an important fact: a castle didn't work on its own. It required an army of staff to support its day-to-day operations. Their power, when put together, was not to be underestimated.

Whether it's to help Princess Mia find love, or to make sure she has a comfortable time at school, we'll need all kinds of connections...

She tightened her grip on the Bellugian gold and headed into town. For those working near the flames of the kitchen, she brought premium horse oil for their parched hands. For those laboring in the gardens, she brought nutritious foods to maintain their stamina. From place to place, she observed people's work and delivered the kinds of things they'd most appreciate. Unlike nobles, who generally had a surplus of personal possessions, commoners rejoiced at even the smallest of gifts. With so many people so easily pleased, it was an opportunity ripe for the taking, and she seized upon it. By the time she was done, she was down to half of the gold she'd started with.

"I think that'll do it for now..."

As she strolled through town, she found herself stopping in front of a clothing store.

"Wow... It's so pretty."

Her eyes were drawn to a dress on display. With light blue as its base tone, it had a lovely sense of innocence further adorned with a pattern that evoked a field of spring flowers.

"Hmm, it's a wonderful dress, but I think it's a little too big for Princess Mia."

She glanced at the price and found it was exactly the amount she had left. After a brief period of contemplation, she ultimately chose to leave it be.

Upon returning to the academy, Anne let out a short sigh.

"Okay, I've got about two hours until the party ends."

She considered heading back to her room for a short break, but when she passed by the courtyard, the sight of a girl there gave her pause.

"Huh?"

The girl kept looking this way and that, as though she was frantically searching for something. Her breaths were uneven, and she seemed to be on the verge of tears. Her silver hair reached down to her waist, and her light-brown skin glowed with health. These were characteristics of an ethnic minority of the Empire, the Lulu Tribe.

Also, she recognized the girl.

"Weren't you... with Miss Tiona?"

She was the maid-in-waiting to Tiona, daughter of the Rudolvons. On the day of Mia's arrival at Saint-Noel, she and Mia had run into the pair being bullied by a group of noble girls.

"Is something wrong?" she asked.

The girl turned toward her with a face full of concern and nodded her head.

"Please... Miss Tiona... Is in trouble... Help her... Please..." she said in broken Continenta.

Liora Lulu was born in the forested region of the Empire where the Lulu Tribe lived. She was still learning the common tongue, Continenta. Normally, that alone would disqualify her from being brought to a place such as Saint-Noel, no matter how good a maid she might be. Nevertheless, she was selected. The reason, unfortunately, was nothing inspiring. It was due to sheer lack of competition. The Rudolvons were far from rich, and just sending their daughter to Saint-Noel was already stretching their meager finances. Under a policy introduced by Rafina, the daughter of the Bellugian Duke, the academy opened its doors not only to the highest echelons of nobility but also to the poorer and smaller noble families. Enrollment itself was, therefore, a possibility, but they could expect no monetary support. As a result, the Rudolvons simply couldn't afford to pay the expensive wages required for a veteran maid to accompany Tiona.

There was, however, one more reason she had been chosen.

"Liora, please be careful. Don't hurt yourself."

Liora looked up to find that Tiona had poked her head out the window.

"Miss Tiona... It's... Dangerous. Please don't... Lean out too much," she said before glancing at the hard ground. It was a long way down. If she fell... She probably wouldn't be getting back up.

The two of them had been locked up in a place known as the Stargazing Room, which was on the top floor of the tower that rose from the north side of the school building. Being the highest location within the academy grounds, once its only door was barred, getting out was next to impossible. Though there were windows, their abductors had likely figured that they couldn't possibly be insane enough to attempt escape by way of free fall. What their abductors had overlooked, however, was the presence of Liora.

Born and raised in the forest, the Lulu were a tribe of extremely athletic people. They began hunting at a young age, and with skills such as tree climbing being second nature for them, they had no fear of heights. She quickly slid down the wall and, before long, had her feet firmly on the ground. After making her escape, she sought help from the first person she ran into.

"Miss Tiona... Is locked up," she said to Anne, who could barely believe what she was hearing.

"Locked up...? What do you mean? By who?"

And, she wondered, for what?

"I don't know... I got away... But only me," she said, frustration evident on her face. Then, she looked up at Anne, the gaze of her watery eyes desperate and pleading. "Please! Help Miss Tiona... Save her... Please!"

"All right. I'll do what I can to help."

To Anne's great surprise, she immediately heard the sound of her own voice. She'd meant to hesitate, but the words had left her first.

Wow, I okayed her without even a second thought...

Such a statement would have been unthinkable for the Anne of old, and she knew exactly what had caused her to change.

Princess Mia has trusted me to exercise my judgment. In return, I need to act in a manner that will uphold her good name.

She thought of her petite master: her overflowing kindness and her strong sense of justice. In doing so, she felt a growing conviction that if Mia were here, she would undoubtedly have done the same. The princess would tolerate no doubt and allow no hesitation.

For the record, her assumption was actually correct. Had Mia been there in place of Anne, she would certainly have committed to helping Tiona. Overflowing kindness and strong sense of justice — in addition to being figments of Anne's imagination — were of course completely irrelevant. Mia's real motive was simple: she was a chicken. That's all there is to it.

Fearing the ever-looming threat of the guillotine, she couldn't possibly ignore such a plea. Furthermore, the thought of betraying her loyal maid's expectations would weigh too heavily on even her feeble conscience. So, she would have no choice but to swallow her reservations, grit her teeth, and curse the sardonic whims of fate as she went to help her mortal nemesis. In that moment, the minds of master and servant truly became one. Their hearts, though, couldn't be further apart.

Led by Liora, Anne made her way to the school building. Under the veil of nightfall, the inside of the academy was a quiet place, vast and empty. In the absence of lectures, few students chose to remain in the halls. Tonight, it was especially deserted, as the students were all at the party, and their attendants were either waiting in their rooms or, like Anne, granted leave to roam around town. The abandoned premises of the school building became the perfect location to carry out a nefarious plot.

Up and up they climbed the spiralling staircase of the northern tower, eventually arriving at a narrow hallway. It was dim, and Anne could just barely make out the shadow of something moving at the other end.

"What's—"

"Shush! Be... Wary. They're... Guards."

"Guards...?"

As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she saw them clearly. Two men were standing in front of the entrance to the Stargazing Room. They were too far away for her to see their faces, but their large frames suggested direct confrontation would be unwise. She'd heard that some attendants were expert fighters trained to protect their masters, and she might have just run into two of them.

"What should we do..."

Unfortunately, Anne was no martial artist. Punching and kicking her way through the two men was definitely unadvisable. Even if they weren't trained fighters, she'd still have no chance. With violence out of the question, that left diplomacy, which under the circumstances seemed like a very shaky option as well.

"What should we do... What should we do..." murmured Anne, her tone growing increasingly anxious with each passing moment. Then, all of a sudden, a voice rose from behind her.

"Well oh well, what do we have here? Can I help you ladies?"

Both Liora and Anne jumped and spun on their feet to find a man standing over them.

"Trouble, I presume?" he asked, glancing over their shoulders.

"You're..."

"I saw you with... Prince Sion."

"You're... Keithwood, right?"

He flashed them a friendly smile.

"Honored to know that you remembered, Miss Anne. I hope Her Highness is well?" he said before turning his smile toward Liora. "And your friend there is from the Empire as well?"

"Ah, yes... Um... She's maid to the daughter of the Outland Count of Rudolvon. Her name is..."

"Liora Lulu. Please... Help Miss Tiona!"

After being apprised of the situation, Keithwood crossed his arms and said softly, "Two on the outside, huh. How many inside?"

"I don't know... But we were... Locked inside... By four people... Men and women."

"Which means they either realized you escaped and are guarding from the inside as well, or they kept two guys watching the door and the other two went somewhere else. In any case, milord will roast me alive if he hears I left two distressed damsels to fend for themselves. Count me in, ladies."

"Really? Thank God... And thank you!"

"But what are you going to do?" asked Anne, wondering if Keithwood had a plan in mind. Perhaps he was going to sneak up and then... do something sneaky and...

"What are we going to do? Simple. We're going to save the good lady from the clutches of evil. That's all," replied Keithwood. His tone was as casual as ever, but his grin now showed teeth.

The rest all happened in a blur, and only after everything was finished did Anne remember to put her hand over her wide-open mouth.

Keithwood dashed up to the guards, his footsteps eerily silent. Using that momentum, he drove his knee into one guard's gut. The man crumpled. Then, he grabbed the arm of the other guard, still frozen with shock, and slammed him to the ground. In the span of a breath, the battle was over.

"Um... Can all male attendants... do stuff like that?" asked an incredulous Anne.

"Hah! Let's just say I'm a bit of an exception," answered Keithwood with a wry grin before adding with a shrug, "It helps when your employer is a sense of justice that grew legs and started walking."

While the two of them bantered, Liora rushed past them and pushed open the door.

"Miss Tiona! Are you okay?!"

"Liora? Are you?!"

Fortunately, when Tiona came out of the room, they were glad to discover that she hadn't been hurt.

"Miss Rudolvon, it's good to see that you're unharmed."

"You're... Princess Mia's...?"

"When I went back to my room, my dress was gone."

According to Tiona, when she and Liora returned to their room, they found it ransacked. The perpetrators had left behind a message telling them to come to the north tower of the school building if they wanted the dress back.

"That's terrible... Who would do such a thing..."

"Odds are they're acquaintances of either yours or Her Highness's," Keithwood replied.

"Huh? How come?"

"Here, I found this on one of the guards outside. Take a look."

Keithwood held out a handkerchief embroidered with a pattern that was unmistakably the crest of the Tearmoon Empire.

"How could..."

"I'd wager they were servants of nobles from the Empire."

The discovery came as a shock to Anne. She'd thought for sure it was the doing of those noble girls who'd bullied Tiona the other day.

"They told me to stay away from the party... because I'd be a disgrace to the real nobles of the Empire."

Her voice was soft. There was no seething anger, no indignant rage. There was only a quiet sadness in her expression as she held out the bundle of cloth she'd been carrying close to her chest. It was her dress, now in tatters.

"...Unbelievable," breathed Anne.

"Still, this was one hell of a big risk you took. I know the dress is important, ladies, but coming here by yourselves? Not smart," Keithwood said, his eyes narrowingly reproachfully.

Tiona responded with a shake of her head and a wistful smile.

"The Rudolvons do not have the means to furnish me with multiple dresses."

Then, she let out a resigned sigh.

"That's why I told you not to, Liora, but you just hopped out the window... There was no need for you to be so upset," she said, glancing down at the remains of her dress. "There was no point in getting out quickly anymore."

"Miss Tiona..." Liora's eyes never left her master, but little by little, her lip began to quiver and she bit it to make it stop.

Anne's heart ached for the other maid. She knew what it was like. Had she been in the same spot... If the one locked in here had been Mia... The sheer anguish would be overwhelming. She opened her palm, which held the money Mia had trusted her with.

"Liora, please go to the store and buy a dress. Here's the money." Without a second thought, she pressed the coins into Liora's hand.

"This... is...?"

"Princess Mia entrusted me with it," she said, unwavering in her conviction that Mia would have done just the same. "In the meantime, Miss Tiona, let's get your makeup redone. Your eyeliner is starting to run from all the tears!"

Just as Anne was about to get to work, Keithwood spoke up.

"Hey, just a friendly reminder. As Her Highness's maid, are you sure you want to be helping?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Her Highness sits at the very top of Tearmoon and reigns over all the Empire's nobles. If the ones who locked Lady Tiona in here are also Tearmoon nobility... wouldn't that suggest the possibility that this could have all been Her Highness's doing to begin with?"

"...Huh?"

Anne scratched her head, baffled by Keithwood's proposition.

Let us jump to the other timeline for a moment.

In the old timeline, the incident of Tiona's brief imprisonment also occurred. On the day of the party, the captive Tiona was rescued and arrived late to the ballroom. She would then go on to receive a request from Prince Sion to dance, perform brilliantly on the floor, and earn the respect and admiration of many of her peers. A significant difference between the two timelines was that in the old one, Anne was not present during the rescue.

Previously, the maid Mia had brought with her was a third daughter of one of the central noble houses. While obedient, she was far from a hard worker, and she was off enjoying a tea party with her friends during the dance. Tiona's rescue was, therefore, carried out by only Liora and Keithwood. Then, faced with the problem of the shredded dress, they sought help from the most authoritative figure in the academy, Rafina Belluga. It was this critical moment when their paths crossed, leading to the formation of a strong coalition between Tearmoon's future revolutionary leader, Tiona; her collaborator, Prince Sion; and finally, their powerful backer, Saint Rafina. Suspecting the Empire was behind it all, they looked to the top of its noble hierarchy. There, they found their most probable enemy — the reigning princess of Tearmoon: Mia.

Though Mia would later learn of the accusations against her, she never bothered to clear her name. Suspicions arising from the mistreatment of a mere Outland noble's daughter seemed too trifling a matter to deserve her attention. It was normal for nobles to oppress commoners. Surely, she figured, central nobility oppressing a nameless noble from some backwater county was equally unworthy of mention.

It's hard to say when exactly the fire of the revolution first sparked to life. Some claimed the famine to be the cause, while others blamed the tyranny of high nobility and the incompetence of the Emperor. However, if there were a sequence of events that permanently sealed Mia's bloody fate, this incident was undoubtedly the first in the chain.

History was already sweeping Mia up in its powerful currents, pushing her steadily toward the guillotine. Faced with a mighty torrent that was surging toward the cliffs of oblivion, Anne stood boldly in its path.

"You think Princess Mia... is the culprit?"

She blinked once.

"What are you even talking about? That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard."

Anne broke out into laughter. The comment should have been insulting, but its sheer absurdity pushed it into the realm of comedy.

"Please, Keithwood, you can't possibly be serious."

Well oh well, not a shred of doubt, huh... Keithwood found himself impressed by Anne's reaction. I see the princess has a firm grip on the hearts of her attendants.

In truth, Keithwood didn't think Mia was the culprit, either. As a precaution, however, he decided to test Anne's reaction, just in case.

"U-Um, Keithwood, personally, I don't think Her Highness would do something like this, either," added Tiona as well.

"Duly noted. If the victim herself believes as much, then let it be so."

He shrugged, then noticed that Anne was fidgeting as if she had something to say. Eventually, with great hesitance, she said, "Um, Keithwood, I was thinking... I'm not sure how it works in your kingdom, but if the people there believe that those who rule should also be accountable for the actions of their subjects, then in that sense, I guess you could say Princess Mia is responsible for what these Tearmoon nobles did."

This line of reasoning was, by the strangest coincidence, the exact same logic that led to Rafina's disdain for Mia in the previous timeline. Back then, Rafina also did not believe Mia to be directly responsible for the incident. However, she was gravely disappointed to see that Mia, whose position should have obligated her to denounce such injustice toward the weak, chose the tacit permission of silence. In Rafina's eyes, Mia had, there and then, shown herself to be unfit to rule. This stain on her name followed Mia throughout her time at the academy, ultimately robbing her of the chance to befriend Rafina.

"That's why — at the risk of overstepping — I'd like to take responsibility for this incident on behalf of Princess Mia. As her aide and assistant, my duty is to do as she wills. I must act as though I were her arms and legs. Therefore, to redress this situation, I promise to deliver Miss Tiona to the ballroom if it's the last thing I do!"

In this passionate speech, Anne proudly declared herself to be Mia's proxy — her "arms and legs." Which, from Mia's perspective, would have been nothing short of horrifying, considering her limbs had apparently grown a will of their own and were now in the process of helping her mortal nemesis.

"Miss Tiona, take a seat over there. I'm going to redo your makeup."

Anne was incredibly fast in her work, her hands moving with the confident deftness of experience. After all, she'd just finished doing the exact same thing for Mia, twice. It occurred to her that, arguably, she'd ended up using her master as practice.

Oh wow... Princess Mia... Did she see this coming? Is that why she had me practice on her beforehand? She paused for a second. Eh... On second thought, that can't be true.

Of course it wasn't. Even Anne, who was suffering from late stage Mia-itis, managed to figure out that much. The fact that it took a second thought, though... did not bode well for her prognosis.

Princess Mia placed her trust in me. That means I need to do my very best...

Thus, Mia's "arms and legs" — of their own eager volition — took the bull of fate by the horns and wrestled it onto a different path, forever changing the course of history.