Extra Chapter: The Game Competition between the Waiting Maids and their Master
There were three waiting maids in the inner palace of the Carpa Kingdom, who were known by a slightly shameful nickname: “The three troublemakers”.
Of course they were proper maids of the inner palace, even when they were called troublemakers. It didn’t change the fact that they made it through a strict selection.
But compared to the other waiting maids, they were just a little bit more honest to their own desires, got just a little bit more ahead of themselves and were just a little bit more spaced out and missed their superior’s instructions.
In a way, the three waiting maids might be the ones, who enjoyed a stress-free life in the current inner palace most of all.
And even with their dauntlessness and wits, they now encountered a situation, where they couldn’t help but turn pale in the face.
“UWAAH!? What do I do? What do I do? I’ve gone and done it now!”
The present time was the long break issued only during the period of intense heat. Just when she had returned to her own room as to spend the break time there, she screamed that.
To make it easier to understand: These groups of three were roommates and close co-workers.
“What’s wrong, Fay-chan?”
The short waiting maid— Fay, breaking out a cold sweat on her dark brown face, slowly took out “that” from the pocket of her apron while her two roommates watched her.
“…What do I do with this? I ended taking it with me by mistake…”
Fay said. The thing she had taken out was a “flat, rectangle black object”.
“…..”
For a while, the small room of the waiting maids was ruled by silence.
The first to break the silence was the taller one of her two roommates.
It was understandable that the waiting maids were flurried.
“What now, Dolores…”
Even Fay, usually the most elated amongst the “three troublemakers”, couldn’t help but cry in this situation.
Zenjirou always took lessons in manners and common sense from Lady Octavia until past noon, but for some reason, the lesson ended two hours earlier today and he had returned to the living room.
Either way, for Fay and the other cleaning maids it meant that their time limit for their job was cut short by two hours.
Even so, they did everything in their might and somehow finished to clean the living room and bedroom before Zenjirou returned. With a sigh of relief, the waiting maids had then returned to their own rooms, where Fay had finally noticed it.
Nonetheless, the tall waiting maid— Dolores didn’t have a good idea either, no matter how much Fay beseeched her.
Dolores had almond eyes, which were relatively rare for someone in the Carpa Kingdom, and these eyes were coloured with bewilderment and agitation while she answered with a faltering tone.
During cleaning, Fay had taken a belonging of her Master to her room by mistake.
However, Fay remained teary and shook her head to that sound argument.
Since Zenjirou always took his lunch in the same room in which he received lessons from Lady Octavia, it had been a while since he shared lunch with Aura.
If she were to go to apologize now, she might actually anger her Master instead. To begin with, she couldn’t decide whether “returning her Master’s belonging that she had taken with her by mistake” was an urgent business or not.
“Aw, what should I do if Zenjirou-sama notices that it’s gone during the break…”
Fay vividly pictured herself getting punished for theft— having the tendon of her dominant hand cut— and getting thrown out of the inner palace.
The other roommate called out to Fay, who was struck by her own vivid fantasy, consoling.
“Eh? Ines-sama?”
Fay looked up and Dolores looked down to the owner of that somewhat slow-paced voice.
Compared to the short Fay or the tall Dolores, Rethe’s height didn’t stand out, but instead her chest stood out.
Fay was at a loss for words to the suggestion of the girl with these huge breasts and drooping eyes.
“Well, doing as Rethe suggested is your safest choice.”
They finally found a solution, but Fay’s expression didn’t brighten up.
“Well, you will get a lecture for sure.”
Fay trembled her short body, whereat Dolores shrugged the shoulders of her tall body and cold-heartedly pointed out the truth, whereas Rethe clenched her fist in front of her huge breasts and gave her encouraging words.
Both Dolores and Rethe averted her eyes from the pleading look of her co-worker.
In charge of the cleaning department, Ines was a strict superior faithful to her job, but she deeply cared for her subordinators as well.
However, Fay definitely needed to be prepared for a long sermon before that.
She must have realized that, too.
Making a brave, but tragic resolve, Fay wiped the tears that were about to spill out from her big, black eyes and trotted over to the door.
“…..”
If some stranger committed a mistake it was “somebody else’s problem”, but a friend they shared a room with and worked with, wasn’t “somebody else”.
“Ehehe, Fay-chan, cover for me as well when I ever make a mistake.”
Dolores and Rethe went after Fay, who was advancing by herself in a her tragic resolve, with quick steps.
As it turned out, their speculation about Ines’ reaction was spot on, right down to the last detail.
“Fuhiii…! That was so scary~!”
“Well, you had a close shave. Now all you have to do is to return it to Zenjirou-sama once the break is over and apologize.
Sitting on a simple wooden chair the wrong way round, Dolores held the back of the chair between her long legs and was rocking back and forth.
Well, even when Dolores’ legs reached the floor, it didn’t change the fact that sitting like that was bad manners.
“Yeah. It was scary, but I’m glad…! Now I can sleep in peace.”
As Fray was already getting ready to take a midday nap on the bed, Dolores raised a slightly weary voice.
But then she said that as she suddenly thought of it and threw a glance at her own bed.
Taking a nap like Fray was the best method to preserve their physical strength.
“Rethe, what about you? Will you take a nap, too?”
An unfamiliar sound suddenly resounded loudly in the room.
Dolores shouted angrily and red-faced.
Fay woke up from the unknown and strange noise and only lifted her face from the bed.
Both of them looked at Rethe, who tilted her head puzzled as she held the collapsible portable game console opened in her hands.
“H- He- Hey, Rethe! What’re you doing there!”
The screams of Dolores and Fay resounded in the small shared room of the three waiting maids.
On the other hand, the person in question, Rethe, laughed kind of easygoing, as she didn’t realize the severeness of her action.
“Somehow, it seems to have started working when I opened it… Ehe~”
“Hiii, we’re done for! There’ll be no mercy this time!”
She had merely opened the collapsible game console.
Most likely, its owner, Zenjirou, hadn’t bothered to turn it off and merely put it into that sleep mode.
Giving her two panicking roommates a sidelong glance, Rethe, the cause for their panic, noticed that a paper had been plucked inside the game console and tilted her head.
It was a copy paper that had been folded four times.
“I know nothing! I’m no longer responsible! I’m shifting the blame to Rethe! I’m just in the wrong place at the wrong time! Just a henchman!”
Even if she made a blank facial expression, Rethe was still a waiting maid of the inner palace, so she had no trouble with reading and writing.
“Eh, what?”
As their curiosity temporarily prevailed over their dismay, Fay and Dolores peeked onto the paper in Rethe’s hand from at an angle behind her.
“…Oho.”
To begin with, they had a “lax” personality, labelled as the “three troublemakers” by their superior.
Shortly after, the three waiting maids were reading the “gameplay” for the portable game console in silence.
One hour later.
“Don’t do it, Fay. You won’t get a chain that way. Put that red one on the top at the side!”
The three maids were totally hooked on the game console.
The three of them sat next to each other on the simple wooden bed while Dolores and Rethe noisily called upon Fay, who sat in the middle with the game console, from the left and right.
Currently they were playing a game of the so-called “drop down” style.
One of the reasons Fay and the others got “hooked”, too, was that the game console contained this “drop down” game.
If it had been a RPG (Role-playing game) or SLG (Simulation game), where they couldn’t read the displayed words, their game adventure would have ended with just enjoying some pretty pictures and strange music.
Either way, this was an incredible synergy of coincidences.
If Rethe hadn’t been so curious to open the game console.
The current situation wouldn’t have occurred when one of these “ifs” had not been applicable.
“Kyaah, you’re good, Fay-chan.”
“Ah, what’re you boasting for, Dolores!? Fine, just watch. I’ll surpass you in no time!”
The three waiting maids, who had gotten their hands on the game console and instruction manual in a series of coincidences, completely immersed themselves in the unknown pleasure of games, true to their nickname “the three troublemakers”.
The midday break of the following day.
One difference to yesterday, though, was that there was a tag saying “free to borrow” stuck on top of that portable game console.
Lastly, the high score listed the name “Zenjirou”, as he apparently played it himself last night. It was an obvious “challenge” towards the troublemaker group.
Fay spun her arm around and laughed belligerent.
Even while Dolores retorted to Fay with an astonished tone, her face showed the same kind of smile like Fay’s.
And then, Rethe clapped her hands together excitedly and threw out her huge chest while keeping a easygoing smile on her face.
Thus, three novice gamers emerged in the different world.
A few days later.
The game tournament of the three troublemakers had continued during each break without fail.
During the break then, they went crazy on the game and after the break, they returned the game console to the living room.
A certain day after numerous such cycles.
“Yay! I did it! I finally did it!”
Usually, Dolores was the calmest amongst the three, but she now lifted up her tightly clenched fist numerous times and shouted triumphant.
“Wah, congrats. You’re great, Dolores-chan.”
Dolores showy pointed the game console, where she had just set a new high score, at her different reacting roommates, puffed up a bit with pride.
As tall as Dolores was, Fay and Rethe had no way to see the screen when she held it up like that, but she seemed so excited that she forgot such a simple fact.
“Fufu, look. I’ve done it. I finally did it!”
The name “Zenjirou”, which they hadn’t been able to overtake so far, had dropped below it.
“Hand it over, Dolores! I’m next!”
“I get it, I get it, so get off me, Fay. Just do your best if you think you can overtake me, fufu. I’ll take on anyone, anytime.”
Fay glared at Dolores, who sat on the edge of the bed and crossed her legs affected, with half-closed eyes and challenged the game belligerent while exposing her healthy, pure-white teeth.
“Ugg! This.can’t.be!”
“Well, as expected, I guess. That’s just the difference between you and me.”
In the end however, Dolores was the only one, who managed to overtake Zenjirou’s score on that day.
The following day.
Fay had been fired up since morning.
She moved around restlessly like a waltzing mouse and emitted a fighting spirit that gave you the illusion that her short, black hair bristled up, squaring her small shoulders to the limit.
The head of the cleaning department, Ines, warned her subordinator for her abnormal high spirit with a sigh.
But even these threatening words couldn’t affect the motivated, short girl
Ines stopped her hands from working and made an exaggerated sigh.
Since Zenjirou had personally given his consent for borrowing it, Ines had no intention to criticize them, but she would show no mercy if that “game” were to interfere with their duties.
If they could finish their work faster, their break time would get accordingly longer. It was a trivial merit as this world lacked an accurate measuring of time.
Five or ten minutes were enough to play one more round of the drop down game.
Fay’s motivation was the same as the one from a grad schooler, who was told “You can play games until dinner once you’ve finished your homework” by their mother.
Fay washed the dirty dust cloth in the water bucket and searched for the so beloved “portable game console” that should be on the table before wiping it.
And just as she had hoped, the black console lay on top of the thick table today as well.
But it was a bit different today.
“Mhh? What’s this?”
This small case with colourful polka dots on a white background, undoubtedly belonged to Zenjirou.
The case was so small that it perfectly fit into Fay’s small hands and when she picked it up, it made clattering sounds.
Needless to say, she simply would have put it back into place with care as it was the private property of Zenjirou, placed there by pure chance.
The problem was that the case had the same yellow tag as the game console.
“Prize for setting a new high score”
That was written on the tag with a neat, yet somewhat awkward handwriting.
“So, you brought this along, too.”
“Mm, good job. You have my thanks.”
Midday break of the same day.
“Oho, I wonder what is it? Hey, Dolores-chan, open it!”
Dolores sat down on the edge of the bed and tried to open the unknown case in a cautious manner while Rethe and Fay watched her.
“Ehm, huh? How do I open this?”
“It won’t open, Dolores-chan? Should I go fetch a knife?”
The cased opened by vertically detaching a part on one end from Dolores careful handling. She then slowly poured the contents onto a handkerchief.
Red, blue, yellow, green. “Smarties” in all kind of colours rolled over the white handkerchief.
“Food, I think? It smells kind of sweet.”
The three waiting maids put their heads together and speculated.
From what they knew, the smarties looked like candies to them.
The “prize” was given to her by her Master. There was no way that eating them would harm her. However, she certainly was a bit hesitant to put something completely unknown into her mouth unwarily.
Dolores handed Fay and Rethe each three smarties under such a pretext.
“Yay, thanks, Dolores-chan!”
“Well then, let’s eat the first one together on the count of three. 1… 2… 3!”
“Mm”
Dolores confirmed with a side-glance to Fay and Rethe as they threw the smarties into their mouths that they weren’t screwing up their faces pained, then quickly ate her own smartie.
“…Mm, it’s sweet.”
As they were under the prejudice that it was “candy”, the three of them were fiddling with the smarties in their mouths without scrunching them. But even with candies, some people sucked them until the very end, whereas others quickly scrunched them.
“Mm… Mm! Mh!?”
“Fay-chan?”
“…These aren’t candies! It breaks so easily and inside is a completely different sweet! It’s so sweet… Yeah, so good!”
“Oh, not? Let’s see… Mm?”
After Fay, Dolores and Rethe scrunched the smarties in their mouths, too.
“It… tastes a bit bitter. But it gives it an highlight all the more.”
“Eh, it’s sweet!”
“Aw, geez. It was foolish of me to try to discuss fine flavours with you.”
Fay in particular sparkled her big, black eyes after she ate up her three pieces in no time, and directed a poor coaxing voice at her tall roommate.
“I’m not giving you any more.”
“Dolorees~ Don’t be a meanie, okay?”
“Pretty.please.with.sugar.on.top.”
“…Argh, what a pain! Then I’ll take them by force!”
“Laughable! You think I would flinch from someone like you!”
Fay lost her temper as her begging didn’t work at all and she attacked with her agile and cat-like body, but Dolores countered by giving her a front kick while remaining seated on the bed.
Receiving a good kick to the chin, Fay tumbled to the floor.
As they were wearing miniskirts, the scuffle between them slipped their clothes out of position, not fit to show it to any man.
Fay straightened herself on the floor and raised a hissing voice like a cat while she was still on all fours. Dolores, too, got into a battle position by dangling her legs from the bed, ready to launch a kick at any time.
“Have a go at it!”
But luckily enough, the situation didn’t escalate any further.
“Fay-chan, Dolores-chan, Ines-sama will hear you if you make too much ruckus here.”
Rethe’s words extinguished their fighting spirit as if pouring cold water over them.
The present time was the midday break. Fay and her roommates weren’t the only ones taking a rest in their room. The head of the cleaning department, Ines, should be napping in her own room, too.
Although they were in their own room, their superior would give them a good old sermon with furious eyes if they were to make a ruckus so loud that it could be heard in the hallway.
“O- Okay, fine. Since you stubbornly insist on it, I’ll be so kind as to let you have it out of consideration for Rethe.”
Dolores expressed her justified anger from atop the bed, but Fay was lost in greed, so it didn’t get through to her at all.
Zenjirou hadn’t said anything about “giving a prize every time a new high score was set”, but Fay interpreted in her own favour and her target apparently shifted from the “smarties in Dolores’ hands” to the “stock of smarties near Zenjirou”.
Snatching away the game console right away, Fay sat down on her bed and turned the console on with a serious expression she never showed during work.
“Oh, right. So far, you always deleted the dropping ones right away.”
“Pft, who said something so stupid? I’ll do everything in my might to win! That’s my justice!”
“Fay-chan, Dolores-chan, you’re being too loud. Ine-sama will get angry!”
Sometimes clamorous, sometimes harmonic. Amidst this noisy, but heart-warming tumult, Fay declared the end of her first game round.
“Great, a new personal record! That’s a good omen.”
However, her smile froze as soon as the high score ranking was shown.
Yesterday, Dolores had definitely beaten Zenjirou’s record, albeit by just a bit.
Needless to say, she wasn’t seeing an illusion. As proof of it, Dolores’ record from yesterday was listed on the second row, with another “Zenjirou” below it.
“Wow, it’s more than twice the score from Dolores…”
“Seems that way…yeah.”
“So mean of Zenjirou-sama! How could he! So childish!”
“Well, if you think about it, it IS his game. He must have held back on the previous score.”
“Phew, now that‘s a mind-blowing score…”
The room soon was overflowing with clamour that even drove out the intense heat of this season.