They were out of the frying pan and into the fire.
After the members of Maid & Co. were bundled into the back of a carriage flying the imperial flag, all they could do was share a deep sigh.
“I’m so terribly sorry... This is all my fault,” Nina said.
“No, you’re not to blame for this,” Emily told her. “I mean, I’ve got no idea why the empress is interested in you.”
“That’s true! Perhaps this time it really is a case of mistaken identity,” Nina said hopefully.
There was a long silence from the other three.
“Wh-Why aren’t you saying anything?” she demanded. But the answer was written clearly on their faces—they thought it was a lot more likely that she’d done something while they weren’t looking.
“Setting that aside...”
“What? Hold on!”
“What do you think the empress wants with Nina?”
“Hmm...” Astrid said. “The mostly likely option is something to do with the Dark Frost Mercenaries.”
“Ohh, that makes sense. You think she doesn’t want such an important mercenary company to disband?”
“But there’s nothing I can do about that!” Nina protested.
“Hmm, true...”
“It could also be about Tien. Maybe she heard about a lupalune but didn’t know her name, so she summoned Nina on the chance that Tien would be with her.”
“Then wouldn’t that knight commander guy have asked about Tien?”
“True... He didn’t look on his guard either.”
There was just too much they didn’t know.
“On the bright side, at least we didn’t have to smash through the marquess’s wall or break the sewer line!” Emily said.
“That’s tru— Wait, what?! Is that what you were going to do?!”
“Hm? Didn’t I mention it? I mean, those were basically our only options to escape.”
“I was not keen for the sewer,” Astrid said lightly. “But I guess we had no choice. It wouldn’t have been easy to flee down the main street.”
In that moment, it finally hit Nina just how far Emily, Astrid, and Tien were willing to go for her sake. Back at the estate, Emily and Astrid hadn’t needed to say a word. Their minds were already made up.
“I’m so sorry,” she said.
“What’re you talking about?” Emily said. “Any party would do the same!”
“Yeah, it’s the marquess and all that lot who are really to blame here. I really didn’t think they’d be so quick to go back on their word. It’s made me see nobles in a different light.”
“It is nothing compared to everything you have done for Chi.”
“Emily, Astrid, Tien...” Nina’s heart swelled. In all the years she’d spent as a maid, had anyone been so willing to stand at her side? She’d seen how isolated Ciara was in Marquess Donquis’s household, but what about herself? Back at Count Mirkwood’s estate, she’d hardly interacted with the other maids. It had taken being framed for a crime she didn’t commit and meeting the irreplaceable friends she had now for her to realize that.
“Whatever Her Majesty the Empress has to say to me, so long as the four of us are together, I’m sure we’ll be all right!” she said. Emily, Astrid, and Tien all smiled back at her.
The carriage trundled over the moat and into the grounds of the imperial palace.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Your Majesty, Commander Grinch has the maid Nina in his custody.”
An elderly man addressed a woman standing at a window. Beyond the glass, the whole of Thundergard was spread out beneath her. In all the vastness of the city, no structure stood taller than this one, for this was its pinnacle—its crowning jewel.
“That was quick. Count Grinch doesn’t dawdle.”
The empress of the Yupiter Empire turned around with a smile. At sixty-one years old, she wore her long white hair pinned up loosely and was draped in a flowing gown. She was the picture of elegance—except that “elegance” scarcely did her justice. She radiated an innate grace and refinement paired with an air of absolute authority that showed she was not to be trifled with.
Together with the elderly man who’d brought the message, the empress strode from the room and set off down the palace halls. A retinue of attendants and palace guards followed in her wake. They strode through grand halls, with their tall ceilings and walls adorned with numerous paintings, lined with beautiful vases full of flowers in full bloom that filled the air with their fragrance.
“Do you not think it very fortunate that this Nina chanced to visit Thundergard again, Foreign Secretary?”
The elderly man—a politician and noble who held responsibility for the empire’s foreign affairs—nodded.
“It is surely heaven’s will,” he agreed.
“My goodness. To think I’d hear you saying such things!”
“How can I not? In this fiftieth year of your reign, the Five Sages—whose names none in the continent are ignorant of—are set to gather here in the imperial palace for the Council of the Sages. The very council that, this year, shall be presided over by Lord Tuyledo Fal Vilhelmscott, whom rumor has it is infatuated with the very maid, who just so happens to be in Thundergard. I cannot help but see the hand of providence in this, Your Majesty.”
“The eyes of the world shall be on this council. Our preparations may be complete, but that will not guarantee its success—and it must be a success. I suggest that we enlist the assistance of Nina the maid.”
“I wonder what sort of maid managed to steal Lord Tuyledo’s heart? My money’s on a young lady in the bloom of youth with a banging body—”
“Oh, Foreign Secretary,” the empress sighed. “Lord Tuyledo must be at least three hundred years old. In other words...she must be a withered old crone like me!”
“Not a chance! It doesn’t matter how old men get—they always go for young women.”
The empress’s expression abruptly hardened.
“Do you have that on record?” she said, turning to one of the attendants.
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
The foreign secretary went pale. “Y-Your Majesty, you shouldn’t jest so!”
The empress chuckled evilly. “You need a reminder every now and then not to let your mouth run away with you.”
“I swear, you nearly gave me a heart attack...” He turned to glower at the attendants. “My wife had better not hear about this!”
They answered with courteous bows.
The foreign secretary’s wife was the same age as the empress. Back in the day, they’d been known in high society as the empire’s twin roses.
“To think that we may win Lord Tuyledo’s approbation with just a single maid,” the empress mused. Even now, she was still laboring under a misapprehension—she had far underestimated what that single maid was worth.
The Five Sages each held enough influence to change the courses of whole nations. Their gathering in one place was by itself a monumental occasion. What was more, the vast stores of knowledge that they would bring to the discussions at the council would offer insight into the future of the continent.
The council would span politics, economics, war, and peace, but also new technological and magical innovations. The benefits to the empire of being first in line for this information were incalculable. Dignitaries from various nations were flocking to the city in the hopes of picking up whatever scraps they could.
And key to the success of the whole affair was one tiny maid. Though neither Nina, nor the empress who’d only picked her because of Tuyledo’s supposed affection for her, knew that yet.