Theresia paid Yuri no mind. She sighed theatrically. “If only we had you, Nacht, this war would be over in an instant. I’d be able to go wherever I wanted. It would be so good...!” It was as if Nacht were a delightful toy she had been told she wasn’t allowed to play with. “Very well. I suppose we will just have to start out as friends. Call me Theresia, please! It’s a pleasure to meet you, Nacht, Aisha.”
“Y-Your Highness!” Yuri exclaimed. “That’s—”
“Oh? What’s wrong?” said Theresia. “Jealous? You don’t need to worry. I’ll be sure to call you to my bedchamber tonight.”
“You can call me, but I won’t come...” Yuri grumbled.
“I don’t want my friends to call me ‘Princess’ or ‘Your Highness,’” Theresia said. “You can call me Theresia if you’d like too, Yuri.”
It seemed to be out of the question. Yuri clutched her head, shaking it rapidly. There was no way she could break conventions like that around royalty. It was simply too much.
“Lady Nacht, Miss Aisha,” Yuri said, turning to address the pair. “I would ask you to please at least use Her Highness’s proper title when other people might hear.”
“O-Of course!” said Aisha.
“Ha ha ha... I’ll try, at least,” said Nacht. It was an intelligent suggestion, but whether Nacht would follow it was another question altogether.
“Well then,” Theresia said, “let’s move on to the main topic. Nacht, my bestie, would you mind helping out with this war of ours?” She spoke as if she was asking for a simple favor like picking up some ice cream from the convenience store. Nacht leaned in, seeming interested and prompting her to continue. “I don’t think it would take much for you to bring Estoll to its knees. If you’ll do it, I’ll give you a thousand platinum when you return. Or are you not satisfied with that number? I can make it two thousand if you wish.”
“Your Highness, I must object,” Yuri said.
Theresia cocked her head, puzzled. “You object? Why? With my bestie Nacht on the field, our army will suffer far fewer casualties. Besides, the strange way this whole thing started has me on edge. If she is there, I will be much less worried about us claiming victory. This is a girl who can vanquish ancient demons and stand up to dragons. She was even able to stop your sword without looking! She would be a preposterously useful ally. If I choose to spend our war funds recruiting her, I don’t see what cause anyone has to complain, save for a few corrupt nobles.”
It would also mean even greater acclaim for Nacht. And allied with her, the kingdom would be invincible. As far as Theresia was concerned, Nacht would be worth every last coin.
“Sorry to disappoint you,” Nacht said, “but we already made plans just yesterday. Besides, I have no interest in human wars. Sounds like a real bummer.”
Theresia pursed up her lips again, clearly upset to have been shot down so directly. “All right, all right,” she said. “Then might I ask you to stay in our kingdom until the end of the war? Come to the castle with me and I’ll treat you with the finest tea and sweets in all the land.”
“I told you, we already have plans. But thanks for the invitation. I’ll make sure to pay a visit one of these days. You’ll just have to wait until then.”
“Bleh! You’re so mean sometimes, Nacht! I’ll have you recall that I’m the princess. Would it kill you to listen to at least one of my requests?” Theresia screwed her lovely face up into a pout, crossing her arms in displeasure and puffing out her cheeks until they looked like round fruits. She looked kind of cute like that, Nacht thought.
“Mistress?” Aisha chided Nacht, interrupting her train of thought. She hadn’t meant to stare. Aisha’s senses were getting more and more acute, as evidenced by her awareness of where Nacht was looking. Nacht had started to wonder if it was some kind of supernatural ability.
“Are you suuuuure there’s no way I can change your mind?” Theresia said, whining like a spoiled child. “I’ll let you take Yuri’s place in my bed tonight if you’d like.”
Aisha hissed like an angry cat.
“Hah,” Nacht said. “If you’re so insistent, how about we settle this with a game?”
Back when Nacht was with her guild, they would often settle disagreements with contests, the winner’s desires taking precedence. If many people had an opinion on a matter, they would settle it with a vote, but if it was just two or four of them, they might do a mock battle or a quiz, or even battles of wits or board games. Quarrels between guildmates were also settled through duels.
Nacht didn’t want the connection she’d made with this princess from a fantasy world to amount to nothing. If they were going to part ways, she wanted it to be in a way both parties could agree to. Moreover, this was a perfect chance to give her hardworking Aisha some combat experience. She didn’t want it to slip through her fingers.
“Fight my Aisha,” Nacht said. “If you win, I’ll accept your invitation to tea.”
“M-Mistress?!” Aisha sprung to her feet, looking every which way in a panic. “What—”
“Really?” Theresia asked, bounding up eagerly. “Really really? Yuri, make sure you win, even if it kills you!”
“Your Highness...” Yuri said.
The two servants, both bound to the whims of their impulsive masters, hung their heads side by side.
~ ‡ ~
“I’m really sorry...” Aisha said. “My Mistress can be a bit...”
“No, no, it’s quite all right,” Yuri reassured her. “I’m the one who owes you an apology. Her Highness can be very stubborn sometimes.”
The two bowed their heads to each other.
“Don’t let your guard down, Yuri,” Theresia said. “We wouldn’t want to see you humiliate yourself like last time!”
“Ah ha ha!” Nacht laughed. “Fight with everything you’ve got. My Aisha will wipe the floor with you.”
“Oh?” asked Theresia. “But your servant doesn’t seem so confident, does she?”
“She’s just worked up,” Nacht replied. “Besides, Aisha isn’t like me. She’s a humble, modest girl. But I suppose that’s part of what makes her so charming.”
The mistresses were already taunting each other, seemingly ignoring their servants altogether. Theresia never gave up on something once she had made up her mind, and Yuri knew better than to object. Aisha, however, kept glancing plaintively at Nacht, hoping that she might change her mind. She found no such salvation.
“I’ll intervene if your lives are in danger,” Nacht said with a grin to toss some fuel on the fire. “Both of you, fight with everything you’ve got.”
Aisha sighed and slumped her shoulders. Yuri, an experienced knight, looked down apologetically at the much smaller girl. “I hardly ever lose in a duel, you know,” she said. “I’m prepared to go all out...but, well, will you be all right in that outfit?” Yuri had changed out of the maid outfit she had been using as a disguise and gladly donned her knight armor, forged of enchanted steel and holy silver. Aisha, on the other hand, was still wearing her frilly maid outfit and knee-length skirt. She didn’t look at all prepared for battle.
“Um, yes!” Aisha said. “It’s tougher than it looks; don’t worry.”
Yuri gave her a dubious look. Aisha’s skirt was fluttering around her legs, revealing inches of bare skin. Her outfit didn’t look tough in the slightest.
Nacht had set only one condition for the duel: the fighters would start the duel twenty-five meters apart. That was it. They were quite favorable terms for Yuri. In a battle between a knight and a mage, at that distance, the knight would win ninety percent of the time. Moreover, knights excelled in one-on-one fights while mages really shone when they could bring their destructive power to bear in battles between armies. A mage without a retinue of guards was like a knight without armor. They would need at least twice the starting distance to stand a chance against Yuri.
Yuri quietly took the measure of Champion Nacht’s servant. Her body was trembling with nervousness. That only stood to reason. Any ordinary human would be afraid to face off against a knight in armor. She must have felt the same way Yuri had when she’d just begun her training, the first time she had faced a knight.
She was swaying back and forth, holding her beat-up wooden staff in front of her like a sword. Some mages studied the art of staff fighting to increase their options for close-range combat, but that did not seem to be the case with Aisha.
“All right,” Nacht said. “You two ready? The fight starts when this coin hits the ground.”
They were a mere twenty-five meters apart. Yuri’s physical abilities had been honed to their absolute peak; she could close that distance in under two seconds. Even the mages at the palace would only be able to fire off a single spell in that time. Still, her opponent was the servant of Miss Nacht—the woman who had fended off her surprise attack without turning to look at her sword and thrown her like a rag doll. If she assumed Aisha was only as strong as a palace mage, she might end up getting taken off guard.
And who knows what Her Highness will do to me if I shame myself like that again... Yuri thought. She took in a deep breath and let it out, quieting her mind and focusing only on the battle at hand.
“And go!” Nacht declared, flipping the coin in her hand into the air. Yuri watched with focused senses as the coin fell slowly to the ground. She let the mana flow through her body. And the instant she heard the sound of metal striking the floor, she charged directly at her opponent.
She moved with explosive speed, leaving a distinct imprint of her foot in the ground. But she had only closed half of the distance to Aisha when she heard a sound—a mysterious rush of wind. “Gh!” Yuri brought up her shield. “Is this spirit magic?”
Yuri was not bereft of information about her opponent. She knew that during the Battle of the Dragon, this small girl had invoked the magic of the spirits to devastate an army of monsters. She was on guard enough to stop herself, but Aisha’s magic appeared much faster than the magic she was familiar with, and with very little warning.
“Incredible...” Yuri muttered.