Risou no Himo Seikatsu

Extra Stories about the Waiting Maids and their Master: Changes in the Staff

Ten days had passed since Zenjirou, the master of the Inner Palace, had left for his journey to the March of Guzzle.

Two waiting maids were called by Supervisory Maid Amanda, the woman in charge of the Inner Palace, and thus visited her office.

If Fay, Dolores and Rethe, also known under the nickname “Three Troublemakers”, were to be called into her office, they would start to tremble in fear from just that and desperately try to come up with an apology for whatever mischief they had been associated with this time.

But the two waiting maids, who had been send for now, had a clean slate and knocked on the door of the office with composure without pressing the panic button.

“I, Conchita, have come to answer your summon, Mrs. Amanda.”

“So have I, Sabrina.”

“Come in.”

With the prompt of the supervisory maid, the two waiting maids pushed the door to her office open with a polite “excuse us” and entered.

The duties of the supervisory maid also entailed the task to call upon a waiting maid for an individual lecture like this time. Because of that, the private room of the supervisory maid came with an extra office room, albeit a small one.

Within that small office, the two young waiting maids Conchita and Sabrina faced Supervisory Maid Amanda.

Supervisory Maid Amanda sat on a simple wooden chair behind a small round table and looked the two maids sitting across from her into the eyes as she came straight down to business.

“You two share a room with Keyshia, so I am sure you can already guess what this is about, but I called you here today to inform you about it.

Conchita, Sabrina, your families have put in a request to send you back home. Your Master Zenjirou has granted that request.

Hence you two will soon retire as waiting maids of the Inner Palace and return to your families.”

Like she had expected, Conchita and Sabrina showed no surprise to her explanation and simply nodded in acknowledgment.

In fact, they had guessed what this was about as soon as they had been called for.

As a fellow of the same work group and their roommate, Keyshia had told Conchita and Sabrina half a month ago that she was retiring as a waiting maid, because her marriage had been arranged.

Of course the two had been surprised at first, when they heard about it, but immediately got their heads around it.

Keyshia turned twenty this year, the same age as Conchita and Sabrina.

As a general rule, that age was considered the last year of the marriageable age and hence called the “crunch year”. Keyshia and the other girls were “waiting maids of the Inner Palace”, so that period could be prolonged for another two or three years, but the earlier the matter was settled, the better.

And considering they were the same age as Keyshia, the same applied to Conchita and Sabrina, too.

Even if it was impossible to have them marry into a richer family such as the Márguez Family like Keyshia did, the families of Conchita and Sabrina were naturally working towards their marriage.

Considering that they were aware of these circumstances, it definitely came to no surprise to them that their parents requested their return now. If anything, they bowed to the inevitable.

“Yes, very well.”

Conchita lowered her head so that her thick black hair dangled in the air.

“Thank you very much for your guidance up till today, Mrs. Amanda.”

Sabrina, too, lowered her head so that her beautiful red hair slid away smoothly.

Supervisory Maid Amanda unconsciously frowned a bit in light of their answers.

Be it their work habits or general attitude, the two of them, along with Keyshia, who had already left the Inner Palace, had been the most reliable maids.

They were quite capable of chores, had a mature mindset and backbone, making them self-assured in appearance and manner.

The younger “Three Troublemakers” did surpassed them in the audacity category, but it would be unfair to Keyshia and the others to compare them with each other, just like having a polar bear contest for cold endurance.

Anyway, the three senior waiting maids had been excellent subordinates in terms of capability as well as personality and never caused any trouble.

But Supervisory Maid Amanda threw cold water on the hopes of the these two maids to retire immediately.

“You two will leave the Inner Palace and go home. That much has already been decided, but it will not be any time soon, because we would end up being short-handed in the Inner Palace otherwise.

Fortunately for us, if not necessarily for you, you two are not in a hurry to retire for a marriage like Keyshia.

Hence we will admit new maids into the Inner Palace first. Once the newcomers have been trained enough to be part of the effective workforce, you will be allowed to retire. Any objections?”

“None, Mrs. Amanda.”

“Not at all.”

Confronted like that, the two waiting maids both answered in a calm manner.

Supervisory Maid Amanda nodded satisfied in light of the replies from the talented waiting maids while heaving a sigh at heart.

(Why do the good ones have to leave early while the troublemakers stay? I am supposed to be in the Inner Palace, where only the best of the best gather.)

Her position as the supervisory maid did not allow her to voice these complaints, though.

“Good.”

Keeping her expression under control, Supervisory Maid Amanda then nodded briefly and further explained the circumstances to the prospectively retiring waiting maids.

“Three new girls will be coming here in a few days. Each of them will be paired with you and the other waiting maids in a group of three to learn the ropes.”

In other words, she was saying that they would be working in a team consisting of one “new waiting maid”, one “retiring waiting maid” and one “remaining waiting maid”.

Because Conchita and Sabrina were currently the only retiring maids for now, the last group was going to have two remaining waiting maids.

This allocation was made to prevent a falling-out after Conchita and Sabrina retired, which could happen if they were to teach the newcomers all by themselves.

The Inner Palace was a secluded space. They could not afford to let the new waiting maids become isolated.

“Master Zenjirou is currently away, so this is a good time. There is less work to do in the Inner Palace now, so we are going to take the opportunity and teach the new girls everything they need to know.”

A training period of new staff usually meant less manpower for a while, unless the new staff was extremely quick on the uptake.

After all, the newcomers would generally be of no help at first and the senior maids would get less work done, because they spent time on teaching the newcomers.

So now it was the perfect time to admit new staff, since there was overall less work to do.

“We are going to admit only three new girls for now to keep things in moderation, but as soon as they conclude their training, we will admit another three girls. And I plan to have at least six or, better still, ten to twelve girls trained, so consider yourself busy until then. Understood?”

“Yes, Mrs. Amanda.”

“Loud and clear.”

If it had applied to the Three Troublemakers, they might not have said it out loud, but their expression or attitude would have surely revealed their displeasure. Not the well-mannered Conchita and Sabrina, however. They did not even bat an eye.

It proved how adept they were at reading the mood, because they usually assumed an appropriate lax attitude, when dealing with the cooking department head Vanessa, since she preferred that despite her strict appearance.

“Very well. Now then, I have a little something from Master Zenjirou for you in recognition of your efforts till now.

Master Zenjirou actually wanted to give it you directly, like with Keyshia, but depending on the circumstances, you two might end up leaving the Inner Palace before he returns.

Hence, I will give it to you now, but if Master Zenjirou does return in time, make sure to thank him for it in person. Are we clear?”

While pointing that out to them, Supervisory Maid Amanda placed a rectangle wooden box each in front of Conchita and Sabrina.

“Go ahead and open it.”

Urged like that, the two waiting maids looked at each other, then took their wooden boxes from the table into their hands and opened the lid.

“This is…?”

“A silver chain? No, a bracelet?

Like Sabrina had said, it was a silver bracelet. It had a relative plain design, but of high quality. Nevertheless, one of them was not really worth a fortune.

A closer look, however, revealed one sparkling transparent sphere worked into the silver chain: A glass bead from Zenjirou’s private collection.

It was made out of simple coloured glass, so a person from Modern Earth would attach more value to the silver chain itself. And to be honest, not even the aesthetic sense of this world gave it much credit.

But Zenjirou did not chose the beads for their beautiful or ugly appearance, nor for its monetary value.

He chose it for its aspect of being extremely hard to counterfeit right now.

The two waiting maids carefully took the silver chain bracelet out of the red padded box and touched it with their fingers, whereupon Supervisory Maid Amanda spoke up.

“This belongs to you now. Master Zenjirou asked to have it back in case you do not like it, though.”

“Unthinkable!”

“We could never do something that disrespectful!”

Supervisory Maid Amanda ignored them as they turned pale and continued.

“The only condition is that you return it in person then. He will not accept any other method. His exact words were: ‘If they want to give it back, they have to return it to me in person, no matter what.’”

Conchita and Sabrina pondered for a while, bewildered by the relayed message from Zenjirou.

As noble daughters, they were not stupid by nature, so it did not take them all that long to realize the “real value” of the bracelet.

In other words, that bracelet allowed them to receive one audience with Zenjirou in the future under the pretext of returning it. Keyshia, who had left the Inner Palace before them, surely had gotten the same thing.

This went beyond a simple accessory. It was a once-in-a-lifetime ticket to meet the Prince Consort Zenjirou.

Supervisory Maid Amanda read in their faces that they had correctly understood the true value of the bracelet, so she said with an instructive tone.

“As you may know, Master Zenjirou is not an advocate of iniquity. Therefore he will not give your family or family-in-law any special treatment, just because you have been a maid of the Inner Palace.

On the contrary however, I am sure that he will lend you a hand, if your family or family-in-law gets involved with some kind of trouble or suffers from obvious injustice.”

The meaning behind her words was deep.

To put it briefly, Higher Society abided by survival of the fittest.

Of course all nobility fundamentally obeyed the Carpa Royal Family, the driving force of that system, but in reality, its influence did not reach every nook and corner.

Accordingly, the majority of quarrels and disputes between nobility were settled without ever getting the attention of the royal family.

Needless to say, these disputes were often not settled through “rightful arguments”, but rather through “superior influence”.

A bracelet like this was extremely valuable in this kind of Higher Society.

It could only be utilized once, so it proved difficult to actually use it, but it still worked as a deterrent towards opposing nobility, when you had a “trump card to skip all the formalities and appeal directly to royalty anytime“ in petto.

“Thank you very much.”

“I will treasure it.”

Deeply moved, Conchita and Sabrina tightly squeezed the bracelets.

“I will work my hardest to repay at least a share of this favour before I leave the Inner Palace.

Speaking of, Mrs. Amanda, you said Conchita and I would be paired with another waiting maid to train the new girl, but have you already decided on whom I will work with?”

With her brown eyes wet from emotions, Sabrina asked the supervisory maid what she suddenly thought of, with a cheerful voice.

She curiously waited for her answer and Conchita followed suit.

Although she felt a bit pressured by their gazes, Supervisory Maid Amanda did not avert her eyes, faced the pressure and replied after she cleared her throat with a cough.

“Yes, I have. Conchita, you will work with Fay, Sabrina, you will work with Dolores to train the new girls.”

“With Fay?”

“With Dolores?”

It goes without saying that she meant Fay and Dolores from the Three Troublemakers group.

Upon hearing these names, Conchita and Sabrina screwed up their faces beyond recognition.

* * *

An early morning several days later.

The waiting maids gathered in a certain room of the Inner Palace like always and noticed three unfamiliar young waiting maids standing near Supervisory Maid Amanda.

None of them were so undisciplined to start whispering secretly about them now, but they did give the young maids a curious look.

Sitting ducks for the looks of their seniors, the three newcomers slightly shuddered from nervousness next to Supervisory Maid Amanda.

In order to relieve them of their nervousness, Supervisory Maid Amanda softly patted them on the back and started to address the assembled maids of the Inner Palace with her usual strict tone.

“It has been decided that some of us will leave the Inner Palace in the course of the year. You might have already heard rumours about it, since one of them has already left.

Accordingly, we are welcoming new waiting maids into the Inner Palace today. Girls, introduce yourselves.”

With these words, Supervisory Maid Amanda lightly slapped the back of the petite waiting maid standing on her right.

The slapped waiting maid practically jumped up with a jerk and started her self-introduction with a faltering voice.

“M- My name is Manola Sa… Oops. I mean, I am Manola! I know that I have much to learn, but please treat me kindly.”

Due to her nervousness, the girl named Manola almost mentioned her family name, but stopped at the last moment and somehow finished her self-introduction without a hitch, never minding her stuttering.

Those working as waiting maids were essentially servants, so they did not use their family name. Otherwise it would cause all kind of trouble. And this was not limited to the Inner Palace.

For example, if a young waiting maid came from a more well-off family than Supervisory Maid Amanda, it hardly needed mentioning that the chain of command would be compromised, when both of them were aware of each other’s family name.

In practice, though, Higher Society was rather close-knit. Even if you did not especially mention your family, people knew what family you were from most of the times, so this was nothing but a false front.

Consequently, the high-ranking waiting maids like the supervisory maid were usually picked from relatively renowned family to avoid problems later on.

Even amongst the department heads of the Inner Palace, Ines was the only exception as the cleaning department head.

As soon as Manola duly finished her self-introduction, Supervisory Maid slapped the back of the waiting maid of average height and build with her left hand next.

“I am a waiting maid of the Inner Palace from today on as well. My name is Milagros. I look forward to your guidance and support.”

Maybe she was more positive about if after hearing the tense greeting from her fellow newcomer, but her self-introduction went a lot smoother.

Having said this, the waiting maid called Milagros had rather narrow eyes, so it was difficult to read her expression. She might as well be as nervous as Manola at heart for all we knew.

With two self-introduction out of the way, the last waiting maid could grasp the timing for hers, even without a cue.

Standing next to Milagros, the only waiting maid out of the reach for Supervisory Maid Amanda ,started her self-introduction.

“My name is Mónica. I have been given the honour to serve Master Zenjirou with you from today on. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

After a short pause, Supervisory Maid Amanda looked at all the young waiting maids and began to speak.

“The three of them will ultimately work together in a team of three, like everyone else, but for now, I will have each of them form a temporary group with you, so that they can learn their job as quickly as possible.

When you are paired with them, remember that you are their seniors and properly teach them the ropes. Am I understood?”

The announcement came as a surprise to everyone but Conchita and Sabrina, since they had heard about it beforehand, but the waiting maids had no right to defy Supervisory Maid Amanda anyway.

“Yes, Mrs. Amanda.”

The young waiting maids answered in unison, whereupon the supervisory maid nodded with her stern expression and pronounced the group allocation.

“I will announce the groups now.

Manola is paired with Sabrina and Fay.

Milagros is paired with Conchita and Dolores.

Mónica is paired with Karina and Christel.

Rethe and Kate will be on their own, but you two will be in charge of the kitchen.

Regardless of your assignment, everyone is to lead the newcomers properly. Are we clear?”

This was the first time the teams changed, ever since the young waiting maids had entered the Inner Palace, so except the informed duo, everyone showed bewilderment.

Nevertheless, Amanda had the absolute power of decision over the personnel as the supervisory maid.

“Yes, Ma’am.”

In the end, the waiting maids had no choice but to reply like that.

* * *

Together with the newbie Milagros and the soon-to-be retiring Conchita, Dolores was assigned to cleaning duty today, so she headed down the hallway towards the living room while calling out to the new waiting maid walking next to her.

“Let me introduce myself, too. I’m Dolores. Can I call you Milagros?”

In order to face Dolores, who was about one hundred and eighty centimetre tall, Milagros had to look up, because she only had an average height.

“Yes, Milagros is fine, Miss Dolores. Please take care of me today.”

Milagros looked obliquely upward to her right in order to face Dolores, but since she had extremely narrow eyes, it did not really feel like eye contact to Dolores.

“Then me, too. I am Conchita. You are here to replace me, so we will not be working together for long, but nice to meet you, Milagros.”

Walking on her left, Conchita also named herself with a warm smile.

Although not as tall as Dolores, Conchita, too, was one of the taller girls. Her height measured around one hundred and seventy centimetre, so Milagros did not have as much trouble to face her as before.

“Likewise, pleased to meet you, Miss Conchita. Oh, are you going to get married, considering that you will be retiring?”

As expected, young girls loved to talk about love and marriage. Milagros looked obvious interested, whereupon Conchita fessed up with a faint smile.

“Yes. The marriage itself will probably not be any time soon, but my father was getting a bit impatient. It seems he found a good match for me.

You are in the same position as me now, so you better resign yourself to that fate, too.”

Not quite understanding the meaning of Conchita’s advice, Milagros wrinkled the brows of her narrow eyes and cocked her head puzzled.

“Resign, you say?”

“Indeed. Working as a waiting maid in the Inner Palace gives you a lot of status. For better or worse, families you never even dreamed of will propose a marriage to you.

You see, we currently have no royalty outside the Inner Palace, so any person with a connection to the Inner Palace seems to has far better chances now.”

Conchita said with a shrug of her shoulders.

Her family was low-ranking nobility without a title or territory.

Normally she would marry into the family of another low-ranking nobility. It would already be a “Cinderella Story” if she managed to marry into the family of a simple feudal lord. Her family was that low-ranking.

But despite that, Conchita had gotten several proposals from successors of feudal lords and titled nobility. The biggest surprise was that amongst them was one from the famous and prominent Guillén Family.

Her father figured that it would be too much for their family, so he quickly asked his old friend, a knight, to claim that it had been an official engagement, when they had “promised their children to each other” drunken in the past, nipping the other offers for his daughter in the bud early.

Marrying into a powerful family sounded all good, but when their statuses were too different, it was quite likely that the inferior family would be swallowed whole by the superior family in the not so distant future.

“Well, you still do not have to worry about that for now. Coping with your duties in the Inner Palace comes first.”

“Yes. I will do my best.”

Conchita smiled reassuringly, whereat Milagros gave her a big smile back so that her narrow eyes looked like an arc now.

While they were talking like that, the three of them reached the living room.

As the vanguard, Dolores grasped the doorknob and looked over her shoulder at Milagros.

“There will be many unfamiliar things inside. We’ll explain how you have to handle them, so please don’t touch anything before that.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Only after Milagros signalized her understanding with a nod, Dolores slowly opened the door to the living room.

“Oh, wow…”

Inside the living room, Milagros widened her narrow eyes at the strange sight.

With all the personal stuff from Zenjirou in it, the living room certainly was a wondrous sight to behold.

Several LED floor lamps stood around two couches facing each other.

The five-door refrigerator stood in one corner, emitting a faint weird noise.

A large liquid-crystal TV throned on a waist-high pedestal.

The computer stood conspicuously on the desk in another corner of the room with the multifunction printer set up next to it.

All of these were things an average person of this world had never seen before.

With a closer look, the LED floor lamp could get identified as a kind of light source, since its build was similar to a candle holder, and the refrigerator could be taken for a cupboard or something, even if you did not know about its “cooling” function.

But the TV, computer and printer completely went beyond her imaginative power. If anything, she might mistake the TV and computer for an “opaque mirror”.

“You never saw anything like this before, right? We’re generally forbidden to wipe them with a wet cloth. There is a lot to consider, so I’ll show an example today. Just learn by watching for now, Milagros.”

“Okay, I will.”

The new waiting maid obediently assented to the instructions from Dolores.

Conchita then added further instructions with a soft tone.

“How about we let you do the cleaning of anything else? Milagros, you know how to do normal cleaning, right?”

“Yes, I can do that. If I had not made it into the Inner Palace, I would have served elsewhere, so I had memorized the standard tasks for a waiting maid already.”

The newbie with the narrow eyes displayed even more confidence in her expression than in her utterance.

Judging by that, Milagros must have been from a low-ranking noble family.

The daughters of middle-ranking noble families or above could serve royalty as waiting maids in the Royal Palace or Inner Palace, but they would not serve in the mansion of another nobility.

Of course there were exceptions even amongst high-ranking nobility, like the Guillén Family sending its little sister to another family for learning etiquette, so it was hardly an universal rule.

“Then allow me to start.”

Saying this, Milagros immediately reached out for the cleaning tools and began to clean the living room.

Even if the electronic appliances were off-limits, she could brush the dust off the shelves, wipe the couches or mop the floor.

In accordance with her self-confident assertion, she was working quite dexterously.

Considering that it was her first day in the Inner Palace, she concentrated quite a bit on cleaning extra thoroughly. It was done perfectly from a neatness point of view.

But seeing her clean that carefully, Dolores intervened right away.

“Milagros, you’re taking too long. Right now, we can take our time, because Master Zenjirou is absent, but usually, we’re fighting a battle against the clock.”

Cautioned liked that, Milagros stopped her hand from wiping the couch and answered confused.

“M- My apologies. But I am already working at my fastest.”

A part of her apology was also an excuse, so Dolores gave her a bad advice with a nonchalant look.

“Then focus on the dust or stains within sight alone. The goal is to finish on time, not doing it perfectly.”

“Hold it, Dolores. Why are you suddenly teaching the rookie to skimp the work!?”

Conchita glared at the member of the Three Troublemakers less than thrilled, but also smiled wryly, because Dolores was technically right about it, even if it was not something she ought to teach the newcomers right away.

Keeping her wry smile, Conchita explained it to the new waiting maid with slitted eyes.

“Well, Dolores does have a point, though. Master Zenjirou usually spends all his time in the living room, except for meals and baths, so we have to clean the living room as fast as possible above all.”

“But we get scolded, if we are negligent in our work, or not?”

Milagros expressed her concern a bit anxious. Her argument would hold true if applied to the common sense of this world, but with Zenjirou as their Master here, it was completely invalid.

“Principally, Master Zenjirou does not scold us, because he loathes a tense situation above all. Well, you probably will only understand it once you have met him yourself.

Anyway, Master Zenjirou does get uncomfortable, when he is near people, who work that high-strung, so try to relax a bit more.”

The advice from Conchita was actually spot-on, but it made no sense to anyone, who did not know about Zenjirou’s personality.

So Milagros only took the part of the advice she understood to heart and muttered it to herself to commit it to memory.

“Ehm, I need to hurry, because there is not much time allocated to cleaning the living room, but Master Zenjirou dislikes to be around uptight people, so I can not let my tension show.

…Sorry, I might not be able to measure up to a waiting maid of the Inner Palace.”

The slit eyed waiting maid looked down disheartened.

It certainly was asking for the impossible with just these conditions.

It basically sounded like this: Quickly finish your job in a short time. But do not display the mental pressure you suffer from it.

As the pale newcomer behaved strange, Dolores spoke up and laughed her worries off with a small voice.

“Not quite, Milagros. You don’t hide your tension from Master Zenjirou. Instead you don’t be tense to begin with.

If you can’t do that, just honestly apologize and he’ll be sure to forgive you, so there’s no reason to get tense at all.”

“You ought to pull yourself a bit more together, though, Dolores.”

When Dolores proudly declared to indulge in the lenience of their master, Conchita pressed her right hand against her forehead as if suppressing a headache, and warned her with a low voice.

Maybe she was not meant to teach the newcomer, but this member of the “Three Troublemakers” instead?

Conchita harboured that thought for a moment, but as a matter of fact, these three had made themselves pleasant to Zenjirou the most amongst the waiting maids of the Inner Palace, so it was difficult for her to reprimand her.

Having said this, she could not afford to let the newcomers be affected by the “Three Troublemakers” right at the beginning.

“Take her advice with a pinch of salt. Of course it is right to conduct your task perfectly. But just like Dolores has said, Master Zenjirou will not scold you, if it is not brought to perfection, so take it a easy. Okay?

Nevertheless, you will earn a scolding from Mrs. Amanda or Mrs. Ines instead of Master Zenjirou, when you take it too easy, so be careful.”

“Y- Yes, I will keep it in mind?”

As her sentence ended with a question mark, Milagros surely had not really comprehended all of it.

The majority of the tasks for the waiting maids on cleaning duty were in fact not actual cleaning.

Most of the time, they finished the cleaning while Zenjirou was away and when he got back, they were put on standby in the next room for spontaneous orders.

But Zenjirou rarely called the maids, if ever, and was rather unassuming, whereas their other master, Queen Aura, was too busy and not even in the Inner Palace during the day.

On top of that, Zenjirou was currently gone, on his way to the far-off March of Guzzle.

As a result, Dolores, Conchita and Milagros could enjoy some comfy tea-time in the ready room after they finished the cleaning.

“Conchita, I brought some cherry tart along with the tea from the kitchen.”

“Oh, well done, Dolores. Let us have some then.”

It was nothing unusual for Dolores, considering she was one of the Three Troublemakers, but even the reliable and older Conchita made herself at home quite naturally. She poured the tea from its silver pot into their wooden cups and cut the sweet smelling cheery tart with a silver knife.

Because it was too hard cutting the round tart into three equal portions, she cut it into six pieces instead and put two pieces on each of the three wooden plates.

“We do not get the chance often, so let us eat it while it is still warm. Here, Milagros, eat up. You might be reluctant to eat something you have never seen before, but it is really good.”

With a smile, Conchita placed the wooden plate with two slices of cherry tart and the wooden cup with tea in front of Milagros.

“Ah, yes.”

Although her expression was usually hard to read because of her narrow eyes, Milagros now revealed an obvious bewilderment. It was not attributed to the fact that she had never seen a cherry tart before, though.

“Did Mrs. Vanessa bake this?”

“Not quite. She certainly helped, but Rethe baked it for the most part. Her Majesty Aura won’t be back until tonight after all.”

Conchita and Dolores stuffed their cheeks with the cherry tart without hesitation at all while they were having a casual conversation like that.

Unaware of the circumstances, Milagros seemed to feel rather uncomfortable right now, though.

“M- Miss Conchita, is it really alright for us to enjoy some tea here without doing any work?”

The question prompted Conchita to freeze up with her wooden fork in hand.

“Huh?”

“I mean, we are making ourselves comfortable here instead of doing our work. This will not end with a simple scolding, will it?”

Asked the same stuff again, Conchita finally figured out what Milagros was getting at.

And at the same time, she realized how unbelievably acclimated Dolores and she had gotten to the abnormality of the Inner Palace.

Three waiting maids sat at a table and had some cake with tea during the day.

Strictly speaking, it was an incredible absurd sight.

Conchita smiled at the anxious newcomer to appease her.

“Rest assured. Our job right now is simply to be in this room. We can do whatever we want to, as long as we are here.”

After finishing the cleaning, the waiting maids on cleaning duty had to answer the miscellaneous wishes of Zenjirou and Aura.

Due to that, they went into the room next to the living room after the cleaning, and simply waited to be called for.

And days like today, where neither Zenjirou, nor Aura were in the Inner Palace, were no exception to the rule.

Unlike Zenjirou, who had left the capital altogether, Queen Aura could unexpectedly came back to the Inner Palace, when her schedule changed while she worked in the Royal Palace.

In light of that probability, the waiting maids had to stay in the ready room. In exchange, they were given free rein inside.

So they were allowed to have a teatime with stuff from the kitchen, like the three of them were doing right now, or they could engage in some hobbies like knitting or embroidery.

Nonetheless, they still had to stay in the small ready room the whole time, so people with low patience like Fay hated this duty. Lazy people like Dolores on the other hand, absolutely loved the cleaning duty.

The slit eye rookie still could not help but be confused after hearing the whole explanation from Dolores and Conchita, but accepted it for now.

“I see. So we are to remain here on stand-by, because we could be called for at any time.”

Answering like that, Milagros finally reached out for her own plate.

She portioned the unfamiliar cherry tart with her fork as she had seen it done by the other two, and carried it to her mouth.

The cherries of this world were smaller than the ones sold in Modern Japan and had relatively big stones. On top of that, they were pretty sour, so the cherry tart did not taste all that good, when it was baked according to the recipe Zenjirou had bought along, but Vanessa had improved the recipe to something delicious with her abundant knowledge of ingredients.

The tart base was baked firm and crispy and then arranged thoroughly with bright red cherries, so that the sweet, yet still somewhat sour flavour of the cherries melted together with the flavour of the dough, its sweetness was kept relatively down, in your mouth.

On a glance, the cherries looked whole, but they had actually been cut on the bottom to remove the stones, so you did not need to worry about eating them.

“W- Wow, so good… Can I really eat all of this?”

After just one mouthful, Milagros could already guess that the tart would cost quite a fortune, if you were to translate the used ingredients and effort into money, so she asked that before she knew it.

But at the same time, she already moved her hand with the fork towards the tart again, so it was beyond all question that she was smitten with its taste.

Dolores proudly replied to the question of the rookie as though she had baked it herself.

“No worries. The maids in the kitchen practice their cooking on days like today, where Master Zenjirou and Her Majesty Aura aren’t in the Inner Palace during the day.

Of course the stuff isn’t as good as when Mrs. Vanessa makes it, so we can’t serve it to Master Zenjirou, but it would be a waste to just throw it away, too. Hence we ‘dispose’ of it ourselves.”

With a smile, Dolores named it their special privilege as waiting maids of the Inner Palace, but Milagros only replied with a vague “okay” as she did not quite get it.

The young waiting maids had no choice but to cook actual dishes to improve their cooking skills. But these imperfect dishes could not be served to their masters Zenjirou and Aura, so the young waiting maids dealt with it amongst themselves.

Preparing tea was also a task of a waiting maid, so it was inevitable that they were practicing their skills by preparing tea for themselves as well.

The logic behind that made sense, but Milagros felt a bit stupid for trying her hardest to not embarrass her family with her behaviour, when she sat here now leisurely, enjoying some elaborate sweets and an aromatic top-class tea.

At the morning assembly, Supervisory Maid Amanda had emphasised that they were here in the Inner Palace as a mere workforce and that they should not presume too far, but when they were being entertained like this, it made that statement seem dubious.

(Mrs. Ines denied it, but I guess we are expected to become concubines after all?)

Milagros was aware that girls with better status, magical power and appearance than her had failed the selection, so she had accepted the assertion that they were a “mere workforce”, but she started to get her hopes a bit up now that she was getting such a treatment.

Moreover, Conchita made another surprising proposal, when they had finished eating the cherry tart.

“Hey, Milagros, are you tired by chance? If so, you may lay down on that couch for a while.”

“Lay down? You mean to take a midday nap? We are in the middle of the Vibrant Season, though?”

In the Carpa Kingdom it was only natural that workers would take a midday nap during the Hottest Season, so the proposal itself was not all that surprising, but it was contrary to expectation to recommend one during the Vibrant Season.

As she had foreseen her reaction, Conchita looked at Dolores and smiled a bit.

“We are already used to it, but it might be a bit tough on you in the beginning. You see, the girls on cleaning duty have to stay here the whole time until Master Zenjirou and Her Majesty Aura go to bed.”

“Yes, that makes sense.”

The explanation from Conchita by itself only sounded like common sense for a waiting maid, so Milagros could not help but cock her head puzzled.

“Well, you will learn soon enough. We will carry you back to your room, if you fall asleep at some point, so do not worry about that.”

Influenced by Zenjirou, who had been used to get back home only after midnight, and his LED floor lamps, Queen Aura was now going to bed rather late according to the standards of the Carpa Kingdom as well.

“…Okay?”

The confused Milagros would have to wait until night to find out about its meaning.

* * *

Around the same time, the three waiting maids on gardening duty were washing off their sweat in the bath after they had finished their morning workload.

At night, they only had the white light of Zenjirou’s LED lamp to rely on, but the sun was still out right now.

The numerous windows high up in the bath were opened and let the sunlight in so that it illuminated the whole stony bathroom.

“Yahoo, feels great!”

Pouring the cold water from the wooden bucket over her head, Fay exclaimed merrily like a child.

The temperatures during the Vibrant Season were not all that high during the day, but your body still ended up working up a sweat, when you spent plucking weeds in the midday sun for hours.

“Kyah! Cold!!”

Apparently some of the water Fay showered herself with had splashed on her, so the petite girl sitting next to Fay raised a scream in reaction to it.

“Oh, sorry, Manola. Did I hit you?”

“Ah, well, it is okay.”

The petite waiting maid Manola replied to the casual apology of her senior with a weak voice.

“Okay, I’ll wash your back as an apology! C’mon, sit down here.”

Energetic as always, Fay said this and tapped on the wooden stool before her.

“Huh? N- No, you do not need to. I can…”

“Don’t be shy!”

As her junior was fidgeting around while hiding her naked body with a small towel, Fay grasped her left hand with her own right hand and pulled her over.

“Ah, no, you really do not need to… Uhm, p- please do then…”

After some back and forth, Manola was made to sit down before Fay at last.

A pushy senior against a weak-willed junior. There was no way that the weak-willed junior could hold her ground in such a situation.

Needless to say, Fay meant no harm.

She was just too eager to show off in front of her first junior.

All the more because Manola was even shorter than Fay, who had been the shortest maid in the Inner Palace up till now, so she was truly easy prey for Fay.

If he had seen this, Zenjirou would probably say this: “Oh, we had a guy like that in the soccer club, too. He really went nuts in trying to show off once we got new members.”

Anyway, the now second-generation senior was scolded by her even older first-generation senior.

“Stop it, Fay. You are bothering Manola. I appreciate that you want to teach the newcomer the unfamiliar bathing custom of the Inner Palace, but pace yourself, will you?”

Sabrina reprimanded Fay with a smile and soft tone.

Although they had been admitted into the Inner Palace at the same time, Sabrina was a couple of years older, so Fay could not talk back to her.

“Muh…”

Puckering her lips, Fay fell silent, whereat Sabrina pressed her on.

“Come on. You were going to teach her, right? She has no idea about the soap, so show her how to properly use it.”

A simpleton by nature, Fay immediately regained her bright smile, when Sabrina told her that.

“Right. Listen, Manola, all the maids working in the Inner Palace use this soap to wash themselves. Well, you can skip it once, when you take a bath twice like today, but I’m going to show you how to do it now.”

With these words, Fay pulled the small bottle with the fluid soap closer and tipped a bit into her right hand.

“Uhm, what exactly is that?”

Peeking at Fay, who rubbed the sticky white fluid into the hand towel, the short new waiting maid timidly leaned forward from across to get a better look.

Her curiosity prevailed against her weak-willed and cautious nature. She conducted herself like a cute little animal about to be fed.

“This is called soap. Master Zenjirou made it and we wash our bodies with it. Here, try it, too.”

“Ah, yes, I will. Like this? …Uwah, it smells really nice.”

Mimicking her, the petite newcomer put some of the fluid soap into her hand, too, and rejoiced at the sweet smell of it.

“Is this perfumed oil?”

“Nope, it’s soap. But it contains perfumed oil. Peppermint in this case.”

Once Zenjirou had worked out the procedure, he revealed the recipe to the purveyor to the court and left the production to him.

By now, they were just periodically stocking up on the finished product. As expected of the purveyor to the court, the quality was a lot better than when Zenjirou had made it himself, and the goods on sale no longer had a lingering smell of oil.

The fluid soap made in this world certainly foamed less than the one Zenjirou had brought along from Earth, but it still met the standards sufficiently.

“Yes, you foam it up in the towel like this and then wash your body.”

“Oh, I understand.”

“But be careful. It really stings, when the soap gets in your eyes, so wash it out immediately, if that happens.”

“Yes, of course, Miss Sabrina.”

Any daughter of a noble had experiences with bathes, if not necessarily with the soap.

Manola then washed her body without much trouble, rinsed the foam off with hot water and shook her body like a small wet animal.

Before long, she had finished washing her body, so Manola sat down in the hot bath with Sabrina. Left alone, Fay took out a silver vial and started to wash her hair with its contents.

“Oh my. What do you have there, Fay?”

Sabrina had made herself comfortable in the bath so that her huge breasts were floating on the water, when she noticed the substance in Fay’s hands for the first time and looked at it.

Fay threw out her chest and proclaimed proudly.

“Ehe~ Master Zenjirou gave me special soap for my hair. It’s called ‘shampoo’ and ‘rinse’. Ah, but you can’t have any, Manola. Actually, no one else but me’s allowed to use it. It’s apparently still in the test phase and who knows what it will do.”

What she said was nothing to be proud of, though. In other words: she was used as a guinea pig.

“Will you be fine?”

Sabrina frowned worried, whereupon Fay answered nonchalantly.

“Hmm, Master Zenjirou said to stop as soon as it prickles or my hair becomes brittle. But I get a cold coin, when that happens, and even if it doesn’t, I get a silver coin. And I mean one of the new post-war silver coins.”

It was unknown what kind of effects the handmade shampoo or rinse would have after their application. Normally, Zenjirou would try it out on himself, but he was not allowed put himself at risk as a vital member of the Royal Family.

As a result, the waiting maids had to serve as a guinea pig once again.

The reason why Fay had been chosen as the only test subject this time around was that she was the only waiting maid in the Inner Palace with short hair.

Just because it was short did not mean that you could trifle with it, but in the worst case, if Fay were to have to shave it off completely, it would only take one or two years to grow back to its former length.

So Zenjirou felt less guilty, since she would only be affected for a short time, quite contrary to the other waiting maids, whose hair extended down to their waists.

“Oh, cool. It’s not all that bad. Feels refreshing.”

Watched over by her senior and junior from the bath, Fay washed her hair hearty with the handmade shampoo.

“Ehm, I think I’m supposed to wash it off properly before I apply the rinse…”

Apparently she took her task with the special bonus from Zenjirou quite seriously. Fay recalled his instructions and faithfully put them into practice.

“Lastly, wash it off again with hot water. Okay, all done.”

After she had completely washed off the rinse with several buckets of hot water from the bath, Fay took a wrung out towel and wiped her frisky short hair dry with it.

“Now I’m ready to go, too. A hot bath isn’t all that bad at this season.”

With these words, Fay stepped into the bathtub, where Sabrina and Manola were already sitting. She usually preferred a cold bath over a hot one, but right now, in the latter half the Vibrant Season, she was fine with soaking in a hot bath as well.

“Phew.”

“You have earned it, Fay. Now tell us, how was that so-called shampoo and rinse?”

Sabrina smiled softly, whereat Fay felt her hair with her right hand as she answered.

“Hmm, quite nice? And really refreshing. So far, it doesn’t feel brittle or dry like Master Zenjirou had feared, but well, I won’t know for sure until later.”

“Oh, interesting. You think the merchant will sell this later on as well? If so, I might be able to allow myself to get at least one for my ’special day’.”

Although the purveyor to the court had started to mass-produce it, the soap was still a luxury article. Considering that, the shampoo and rinse would be unaffordable to commoners for a while longer, too.

Sabrina admittedly came from a noble family, but it was a lower ranking one with no financial leeway, so the articles would pretty much out of her reach once she left the Inner Palace.

Listening to their conversation, the petite newcomer was once again reminded of the extraordinary circumstances here, so she timidly rose to speak.

“Say… Are we really allowed to do this? We will not get scolded for it later on?”

She unexpectedly harboured the same doubt as Milagros during the tea party in the ready room. It proved how unusual the lifestyle of the waiting maids in the Inner Palace was to outsiders.

But Fay and Sabrina allayed her fears with a smile after they exchanges glances.

“No worries. You also heard what Mrs. Emilia said: ‘Refresh yourselves in the bath.’”

“You might be worried, since you do not know about the bathing customs here, but if anything, taking a bath is actually part of our duties. You see, Master Zenjirou takes the view that everyone working in the Inner Palace has to keep themselves as clean as possible.”

Sabrina was stating a fact.

Of course Zenjirou had never said it out aloud, nor demanded it from them, but Supervisory Maid Amanda had noticed that he felt uneasy towards people, who wore dirty clothes, were too sweaty or applied too much perfumed oil, so she had imposed the obligation on the waiting maids to properly take care of baths and a change of clothes.

But the explanation from Sabrina was a bit lacking. At the very least so much so that Manola misunderstood yet again.

“Part of our duty. Master Zenjirou wills it. I see. So it is like that after all. Mrs. Amanda might have denied it, but I guess it is true after all.

Have you two gone through it already? D- Do you think I will be called in, too?”

Sabrina blankly batted an eye in reaction to the surprised and worried, but also somewhat hopeful utterance from Manola, before she realized that the girl was misunderstanding something.

The waiting maids had to take a bath as part of their duties and Zenjirou wanted them to be clean at all times.

Considering just that, one would naturally think that Zenjirou was a horny master, who played around with the maids at any time.

“No, Manola. You are misunderstanding. Like Mrs. Amanda had said, you do not need to be worried about being called to his bedroom. At the very least, no one of us has ever been called for so far.”

“R- Really? Maybe they are just ordered to hold their tongues?”

Her doubtful reaction could be considered as only natural.

As a matter of fact, it was not all that unusual to keep a relationship secret, since it often caused unrest amongst the waiting maids, if one or more received the favour of their master.

But Sabrina shook her head, still smiling.

“Not possible. We all share rooms in groups of three. We would know for sure if someone were to be summoned.”

“Besides, Master Zenjirou sleeps together with Her Majesty Aura every night. He has no time to call in other women.”

Fay stopped her with a wave of her hand, laughing cackling, which prompted Manola to cock her head even more puzzled.

“Huh? But Her Majesty Aura has already given birth before, right? I assume the childbearing period was rather long.”

“Yep, but even then, they slept together. Master Zenjirou went out of his way to get a separate bed in their bedroom to sleep in. He wanted to sleep at least in the same room, even if he wasn’t allowed to sleep in the same bed.”

“Wow, how romantic.”

Manola spontaneously put her hands together above the water with a dreamful look in her eyes.

Like any other girl her age, she also seemed to have a weakness for love stories.

Fay continued the story.

“To begin with, Sabrina would be the first to be called in, if at all. So as long as she hasn’t been send for, we others have no chance.”

“I hear that a lot, but I think it is not that simple. Admittedly, Master Zenjirou is head over heels for Her Majesty Aura, but that does not guarantee me his favour.”

A troubled Sabrina revealed a bitter smile in light of Fay’s appraisal.

“Eh? Oh, right! Now I know whom you reminded me of, Miss Sabrina!”

Looking at Sabrina, who had immersed herself into the bath up till her shoulders, Manola exclaimed surprised, when she figured out what Fay was hinting at.

Long, red hair and a height of about one-hundred and seventy centimetre coupled with a distinctive chest and waist. Amongst the waiting maids of the Inner Palace, Sabrina was the one, whose appearance resembled the one of Queen Aura the most.

Unlike Aura, who had trained her body as a soldier, Sabrina was well-rounded, had sloping shoulders and a meek aura due to her drooping eyes, so it was a bit of an overstatement to say that she resembled Aura.

And like Sabrina had said, Zenjirou had not fallen for Aura’s outward appearance alone anyway, so he did not treat Sabrina any differently from the other maids.

“Well, I cannot deny the fact that I did get my hopes a bit, too, seeing as everyone said so.”

The red-haired maid stuck out her tongue a bit and looked out of the window at the blue sky so that her expression could not be seen.

* * *

At night of the same day.

For the first time, since they had entered the Inner Palace, the Three Troublemakers had worked in completely different teams over the day and were finally seeing each other again in their room at night.

“Man, what a day.”

“Yeah, working with the rookie was more tiring than I thought. Our girl suddenly starting dozing off in the ready room. She was quite a handful.”

“Good job, Fay-chan, Dolores-chan. I did not have to look after a rookie, but I was all alone with Kate-chan, so we had our hands full, too~”

Fay, Dolores and Rethe each sat down on their own bed and talked about their respective experiences of the day with a tired voice.

Despite their differences, the three of them were a well attuned team, so when they were separated and had to work with a rookie and a less acquainted older maid for a day, it became so much more exhausting already.

“Well, the girl in our group is diligent, so I doubt she’ll be a handful for long.”

Dolores praised the rookie in her group like this, so Fay offered her own praise in reply to her.

“Boah, what a pompous praise. Our Manola-chan is really cute, too. She’s small, timid and always trembling from nervousness. It’s really cute!”

“That’s bad, isn’t it? You can’t have a nervous wreck like her be around Master Zenjirou.”

“Nah, she’s just not used to her new home yet. Once she meets Master Zenjirou and spends a few days here, her nervousness will be all gone.”

“Hmm, guess so.”

Dolores easily acknowledged her rowdy argument.

The newly admitted girls had not yet met their Master, so they were anxious about the mysterious existence that literally had control over their life or death.

As soon as they learned about the person behind the title, they would loose their tension. Dolores and the other two could claim that from their own experience.

“Still, first Keyshia’s getting married and now even Conchita and Sabrina. We’re losing quite a bit of people all of a sudden.”

Fay spoke with a pensively voice on a rare occasion, whereupon Dolores answered with a feigned cold-hearted tone.

“It goes without saying. They’re already twenty years old this year. Normally it would be their last chance to get married and even as a waiting maid of the Inner Palace, it’s the perfect point in time.”

“Yeah, well, how do I put it? It just came home to me that time doesn’t stand sill.”

Fay replied with that and let herself flop on her back in her casual clothes.

“Stop being so carefree, Fay. This is only the beginning. You, too, must have at least heard the rumours about what Master Zenjirou’s doing right now with whom.”

Her words were directed at Fay, of course, but even Rethe, who had silently listened to them so far, now leaned forward on her bed and joined the conversation.

“You mean Princess Freya? His partner for the marriage ceremony.”

“I guess she’ll become his concubine in the future? Then she’ll start living here, right?”

The first concubine might finally come into the Inner Palace.

The situation in the Inner Palace would greatly change then for better or worse. A fundamental change one size larger than the current change of staff.

“Nothing is set in stone yet, so we can only speculate, but if everything goes well, it will happen.”

Illuminated by the light of the oil pan burning in one corner of the room, Dolores’s profile revealed a hint of graveness.

If they were allowed to speak their mind, no waiting maid would be thrilled about welcoming a concubine.

The Inner Palace was tranquil right now. Their two masters, Zenjirou and Aura, were getting along extremely well, had both a composed personality and never vented their anger on the waiting maids.

From the waiting maids’ point of view, there could not be a better workplace, so they would obviously not endorse it, when a “foreign body” was implanted into it.

“Well, it takes years to negotiate marriages of royalty or higher nobility, so it won’t affect us any time soon.”

Dolores sounded like she wanted to convince herself, whereas Fay stretched out her legs from the bed, trashed about and shouted with a small voice.

“Then I hope they’ll take at least three years for it. It won’t have anything to do with me anymore in three years.”

“Yes, it’s quite likely that we’ll be retired for marriage, too, in three years. I can relate, but don’t you go blaring it out to others.”

As her little roommate complained just for her own convenience, the tall Dolores crossed her long legs anew and smiled wryly.

“I know, I know. It’s just between us.”

“Seeing you like this, I can’t really imagine you getting married in three years, though.”

“Ugh, me neither.”

Fay agreed to the sarcasm of her roommate without getting angry.

As a matter of fact, it was quite difficult to imagine that the girl trashing about on her bed like this, was actually at a marriageable age and would be past the commonly agreed prime of life in three years.

It had been more or less two years, since they entered the Inner Palace, but Fay showed no signs of having matured at all during that time.

Having said this, she could not avoid marriage, since she was the daughter of a noble.

“I bet Rethe gets lot of offers, though.”

Sitting up on her bed, Fay looked at her other roommate sitting diagonally across from her.

She had an average height for a woman of the Carpa Kingdom. Her hair was light-coloured and fluffy, her facial features smooth and gentle.

And her breasts were so voluminous that they bewitched well and truly every men (each of them would at least look once at them, whereas one out of five took a closer look) she met for the first time.

Rethe was definitely popular with the men. It was easy to imagine her as the wife of someone.

But she shook her head a bit troubled, when her roommate address her,

“Well, I might not get married at all.”

And dropped a bombshell.

“EH!? WHY!?”

“Did something happen in your family, Rethe!?”

In the middle of the night, Fay and Dolores raised loud voices, whereupon Rethe quickly stopped them with a wave of her hand.

“N- No~ Not like that. It is my personal wish. If my father allows it, I want to stay here in the Inner Palace.”

“Stay here? Are you aspiring to be concubine, Rethe?”

“That’s a rocky road. Waiting maids already have a hard time becoming concubines in normal households due to the difference in standings. And even more so, when you’re up against Her Majesty Aura, a legal wife.”

“I said it is not like that. Mrs. Vanessa told me today that I could succeed her if I train diligently for three more years. I think that such a life would not be bad, either.”

Hearing the desperate explanation from Rethe, Fay and Dolores lost all their momentum.

“Oh, just that.”

“Geez, stop startling me like that.”

“Sorry~ I phrased it a bit misleading.”

Rethe smiled softly as she apologized.

Dolores had calmed down after understanding her intention, but frowned a bit as she pondered.

“But that’s no easy path, either. Succeeding Mrs. Vanessa without leaving means you stay single for life, right? That decision shouldn’t be treated lightly.”

“Yeah. Mrs. Amanda and the other department heads are all married, except Mrs. Ines. You ought to leave, get married and come back here, when you’re older, Rethe.

I’m sure Master Zenjirou will be fine with that.”

Sitting upright, Fay assumed a stern expression for once and gave her roommate an advice about her future.

Just like Dolores and Fay had said, it was not that easy for noble daughters in this world to choose to remain “unmarried”.

It was generally accepted within the whole country that the happiness of a woman only consisted in marriage. Needless to say, Rethe was born and raised with these moral values as well.

Once she chose not to get married and reached a certain age, it was too late for regret.

Rethe was moved by the passionate advice from her roommates, so she dropped her gaze preoccupied.

“Yes, you are right. Cooking is my passion, so I might have gotten a bit carried away, when Mrs. Vanessa praised it. I will think about it carefully.”

Dolores heaved a sigh of relief in light of her answer.

“Good. Either way, you have three years left, so if you want to choose marriage instead by that time, it’s still not too late.”

Even if she were to chose to get married after devoting all of her time in the Inner Palace to improve her cooking skills, it would not have been in vain.

Therefore she should simply enjoy her life as a waiting maid while working on her cooking skills for now.

The days in the Inner Palace could be considered a kind of moratorium period for the young waiting maids.

Isolated from the hustle and bustle of the world, they comfortable spent a peaceful time here.

Fay then gave voice to her worries as though blowing the heavy atmosphere off.

“But when we get married, we’re going to live in our husband’s house, right? I’m worried if I can fit in. I mean, that house won’t have midday baths, snacks at noon or ice during the Hottest Season.”

“That… goes without saying. And you can’t take your time cleaning the bedroom anymore, since it won’t have any air conditioning.”

“…O- Okay, I will improve my cooking and stay in the Inner Palace after all~”

The Three Troublemakers had accommodated themselves to serving Zenjirou more than anyone.

Picturing a life without the advantages of Modern Earth, the three of them started to feel quite concerned about their future after all this time.

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