Silence hung heavy over the room. Everyone was lost for words.
“It’s...a draw,” the older maid managed to stammer.
The various dishes sat polished and gleaming on the table. There wasn’t a single drop of water in sight.
“Wh-What was that...?”
“That’s what a Lorsted maid can do? I never saw anything like it.”
“Forget that, how’d that other maid keep up with her?!”
The maids were all aflutter.
Nina and Ciara had been a blur. So quickly had they scrubbed their way through the stacks of dishes, yet somehow, neither of them splashed so much as a drop, and the water in the buckets had hardly decreased at all. When they finished, the two of them said at exactly the same time, “Finished!” They weren’t even out of breath.
“Astonishing, Nina!” Donquis exclaimed. “The more I see, the more I love you!”
“Ugh...”
While Ciara gritted her teeth, the marquess was practically jumping for joy. He seemed to have forgotten that if Nina won, she’d be leaving.
“What the heck?” Emily said under her breath. “There’s another maid on Nina’s level?”
“You happened to have a lot of experience in scullery work, I suppose,” Ciara said, sounding a little shaken. “Let’s move on to the next round.”
She strode away from her sink, but Nina paused to glance once more at the drain.
“Nina, I think we’re moving,” Emily said.
“O-Oh, yes! I’m coming!” she said, hurrying over.
“That girl’s really something, huh?”
“Yes,” Nina agreed. “She lives up to the reputation of the Lorsted maids.”
“Nina,” Emily said, peering at her, “are you enjoying this?”
“Wh-Why do you ask...?”
“You know, like the stories where the hero’s happy to find a real rival! It’s a classic!”
“Is she my rival...?”
“Sure she is. I saw the way she sped through those dishes without making the tiniest bit of mess.”
Nina cocked her head. “But any maid could do that...”
Emily opened her mouth to reply.
Then she closed it again.
The next dueling ground Ciara selected was the laundry.
“Let the laundry duel begin!”
This time, they raced to wash towering piles of sheets. It ended—once again—in a draw.
“Ugh... To the next round!” Ciara declared.
The crowd made its way through the mansion.
“Let the room tidying duel begin!”
Once again, the result was a draw.
“N-Next round!”
The crowd got moving again.
“Let the entrance hall floor polishing duel begin!”
Another draw.
Ciara ground her teeth in vexation. “This is getting us nowhere! The next duel shall test your ability to utilize not one, but multiple skills.”
The two maids and their audience stood gathered in the entrance hall. Thanks to the earlier duel, the floor gleamed beneath their feet.
“This will be a shopping duel. Bring me the household shopping list for today.”
“R-Right away, ma’am.”
“Hurry up!”
“My apologies, ma’am...”
The young manservant who’d come to the inn handed over a long paper list. His displeasure at being bossed around by Ciara, who was visibly younger than him, was evident.
Ciara then rounded on the butler. “Why is this man still employed here? I told you he ought to be dismissed.”
“What?!” the young man burst out, alarmed.
“I’m afraid it’s not as simple as that,” the butler replied. “He is a distant relation of Baron Hitbalt.”
“Did I not make it clear that he is unfit to work here?”
“Just as the selection of maids is your domain, Housekeeper, the selection of manservants is mine.”
“Hmph.” Ciara clearly wasn’t happy at all with his answer, but she didn’t press the point.
Nina felt a strange sense of solidarity with the other maid. She herself had noted how the arrogant young man didn’t seem to realize how his behavior reflected on his master’s reputation.
“What?” Ciara snapped, turning to glare at her.
Nina waved her hands. “N-Nothing!”
In the meantime, a broad-chested manservant strode up. “Off you go,” he told the young man, dismissing him.
The young man looked on the verge of making a retort, but settled for stalking off in disgust.
That’s the sort of behavior I mean, Nina wanted to tell him.
“In the next round, we will go out and purchase the items on this list,” Ciara said.
The list was extremely long, and all of it was to be purchased in town. Usually, such items would be delivered directly to the estate by a merchant purveyor, so the quantities given were considerable. Ciara instructed the other maids to add notes so that Nina would know which shops to visit, and even gave her directions.
Finally, there was Marquess Donquis’s seal. This would allow her to make all her purchases without impediment, without any cash changing hands—it was essentially a line of credit.
“Mm-hmm, mm-hmm... Hm?” As Nina went down the list, one item made her stop short. She stared at the slip of paper, then whispered something in the ear of the broad-chested manservant. He nodded, then said something back to her.
“What are you up to? Are you ready or not?” Ciara demanded.
“Oh, yes! Whenever you like.”
The two maids stood before the front door, each clutching an identical list.
The same old maid from all the previous duels cleared her throat, then said, “Let the shopping duel begin!”
At the signal, they both set off. They didn’t run; rather, they walked at a speed that didn’t seem physically possible. In the blink of an eye, they covered the not-insignificant distance to the gate and disappeared out into the streets of the capital.
“Uh... They weren’t running, right?” Emily said.
“No, Nina was definitely walking,” Astrid replied.
“Chi did not hear a single footstep.”
There was a dazed look in the eyes of the remaining three members of Maid & Co.
All they could do now was wait for Nina and Ciara to return.