Juliette hesitated. “Are you sure you aren’t crazy?” she said, furrowing her eyebrows.
You’re the last person I want to ask me that, Cesia thought, her head still bowed. Then, she said, “Rosary is an Emeroadian lady’s maid. Rather than make you go to the trouble of doing so, ma’am, I judged I ought to deliver a punishment quickly.”
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. And, an absurdity for an absurdity.
By splashing water on Rosary before Juliette and her lady’s maids could punish her, Cesia showed that she was even more erratic than they were. Water soaked the luxury carpet of the noble guest room and drenched Rosary. Next to Cesia, several more basins were filled with water, and Juliette must have judged that it would be even more troublesome if the room was flooded any further. She must have also thought that reasoning wouldn’t work on a crazy woman like Cesia.
“Very well. Rosary, if you regret your actions, then never harm me again. Next time, you’ll pay with your life.”
“Y-Yes, Your Highness, my deepest apologies…” Rosary bowed, shivering from fear and the cold.
Though it was the beginning of spring, it was still a cold season to be soaked. Satisfied by Rosary’s unsightly appearance, Juliette hurried to the bath, escaping the now chilly room.
“Cesia! Expect your punishment for your heedless action later. Right now, return this room to how it was before I’m done with my bath!”
Finally, of course, she would punish Cesia.
Juliette, her lady’s maids, and the maids who would care for her while bathing exited the room, leaving only the bowing Cesia behind with Rosary.
“Cesia Kathrin,” a miserable voice escaped the shaking Rosary’s throat. “What do you think you’re doing…?”
“What? I helped you. Would you rather get whipped?” Cesia replied, quickly lifting her head. Then, she placed the empty basin on the floor and cast drying magic on Rosary, whose eyes widened in surprise. The water filled the basin again as it quickly and visibly disappeared off of her. Thanks to Cesia’s significant improvement in magical control over the past year, she only transferred the necessary water to the basin without drying out Rosary’s skin. As a finishing touch, she cast warming magic on Rosary. Marcus had cast it on Cesia before, and it had seemed useful, so she had taken the time to practice and master the spell.
“You’re back to normal now, right? Ah, and your skin looked a bit dry, so I did you the favor of leaving behind the moisture there,” Cesia said to the dumbfounded Rosary. Then, she grinned. “Consider it payback.”
“You! I knew it… The Dianes…!” Rosary said, her mouth open in shock.
Cesia purposely ignored her and began her next task, transferring the water on the floor back to the basin. She could easily see herself being blamed for it, for some reason, so she made sure the floor was cleaner than it was before, fluffing up the carpet while she was at it.
She would probably still be punished, but it was better than seeing Rosary whipped. If she was fired, she wouldn’t be able to accomplish her duty of keeping a close watch on Juliette as a maid, but all she would have to do is secretly monitor her from afar. If she was being honest, this was perfect; she had been wondering lately whether it would be easier to do just that.
Bubbles of water continuously floated up from the carpet and floor and, as if being guided, went back into the basin. A splendid performance, if I do say so myself.
Rosary commented, “You’re quite skilled.”
“Well, it’s common practice for ladies to splash water on people. You get used to it.”
Perhaps because she picked up on Cesia’s implication that she had been frequently splashed with water, Rosary made an uncomfortable expression.
“You’re right; it is better than getting whipped. I’ll say my thanks to you.”
Cesia paused, then grinned, saying, “That means you’re saying you’re going to thank me; it doesn’t mean you’re actually thanking me.”
She was no saint; this didn’t mean that she had generously forgiven Rosary for her past actions. She couldn’t bear to watch her punishment, but forgiveness was a separate story.
“Thanks,” Rosary said after a pause.
“You’re welcome.”
Nothing could be done about the beaming smile Cesia inadvertently made as if to say, “I won!” as Rosary frustratedly thanked her.
And so, finally, the long day was over.
Except for one final thing.
Juliette, not one to do things halfway when it came to punishment, already had something in mind for Cesia. Though the princess didn’t administer the punishment herself, as she had already bathed and was getting ready to go to bed, she had ordered Cesia to do something incredibly tiresome—washing the kitchen’s dishes.
“How did a princess come up with something so suited to a maid? She’s unexpectedly proletarian,” Cesia muttered as she looked at the pile of tableware in the sink outside the kitchen.
The kitchen was by no means free of the effects of the surge of visitors to the castle. While the kitchen staff behaved sympathetically toward Cesia, they simultaneously thanked her for saving them the trouble when they received Juliette’s unauthorized order that Cesia do all the dishes herself. Well, if it helps the busy servants, then it’s fine, I guess, Cesia thought as she grabbed some dishes.
All the tableware provided to visitors was expensive—in other words, it was fragile. It would probably break when exposed to normal cleaning magic. When Cesia worked as a low-ranking maid at the Diane residence, she wasn’t allowed to use magic to wash the dishes for that reason. However, thanks to the excellent magical control she had just demonstrated, she could now wash plates, cups, and glasses all at once.
“This is simpler than I thought. I haven’t washed dishes in a while, but I’ll be done in no time.”
The job was intended as a punishment, but seeing the results of her progress put Cesia in a good mood. Whether it was drying magic or cleaning magic, she felt happy knowing that, after coming to the castle, she had mastered everything she hadn’t been able to do before.
“If I lose my job as an enforcer, maybe I can work at a large restaurant somewhere,” she mused.
Her magical power wasn’t especially high, so her skill at squeezing the best possible results out of the minimum amount of energy suited her as a plain, unassuming commoner.
Meanwhile, after ordering everyone to leave her bedroom, Juliette looked over a scrap of paper with information that her spy had passed to her.
As Marcus had suspected, Juliette was the ringleader of multiple criminal organizations that had been active in Emeroade. She had placed someone at the head of each, but she was the one who provided the financial support and decided the general direction of their activities. For her, the organizations were simply businesses set in other countries—their methods were illegal and criminal, but that was all.
She couldn’t harm the citizens of her own country, after all. Besides, as a princess of Gwyllt, she couldn’t be tried under another country’s laws. She targeted Emeroade because, as a neighboring country, if she weakened it to a certain degree, it would make achieving her primary goal easier.