Chapter I|II|III|IV|V|VI|VII|VIII|IX|X|XI|XII|Setting
~~~~
In a possible future, in a world not
unlike our own, one single kingdom rose as the dominant and only power. It was
an ethereal realm with castles made of gemstone and technology so great it was
indiscernible from magic. A land where humanity had advanced so far that to
live in comfort and excess was the standard, and a life of hard labor and
servitude was a rarity. It was known as the kingdom of Celene.
To be a worker or servant in this kingdom
was a special privilege. They were the 1% who slaved their lives away so others
may prosper. Alas, to be a worker was not a simple choice but a burden granted
at birth. As in our time, where to be noble meant to be part of a family
lineage, in this kingdom, a worker was a sort of birthright. Grand worker
families spread their branches across the domain. To be born in one meant a
life of hard work and labor, no matter your personal opinion.
However, their best and brightest
were chosen for the highest of honors. To be personal servants for the eternal
royal family that ruled this ethereal kingdom. Among those best and brightest
exists one family. For generations, that family has held the grandest honor of
being the only ones allowed to attend the Queen and her daughters. However,
such an exclusive honor can create odd results in exceptional circumstances.
Such abnormal results greatly influenced the life of the young woman Serena
Diane. Suddenly thrust from her life as an average girl into one as the
personal maid to the kingdom’s youngest princess. Such a life should be one of
poise, elegance, and formality. Alas, Serena is not so lucky, as the Queen,
princesses, and high nobles are anything but…
~--~
Previously on Maid in Fantasy: A
simple scientific demonstration held within the palace and headed by the
kingdom’s lead scientist, Lady Herme, showcasing the newly invented Graviton
Ray went horribly wrong. Thankfully, the subsequent violation of the laws of
physics was all fixed up in the last part. Princess Irene was retrieved from
her mischievous escapade, and the two rogue servants, Jace and Medy, were dealt
with. Alas, not all issues have been solved as Orion found evidence of sabotage
on the Graviton Ray.
What could have happened? Was this
whole incident planned by some malicious third party? Will Jace and Medy get
their comeuppance? Will the Queen actually do anything in this chapter? Most of
these questions will be answered today on Maid In Fantasy.
~--~
With gravity having returned to
normal, Lady Aphros and Princess Atlanta were dusting themselves off in the
palace hallway. The two nobles stretched to ensure they suffered no ill effects
from the intense gravity before checking on Herme to ensure she was okay. After
a few more moments, Serena returned with Irene in tow. The youngest princess
had fallen asleep in the maid’s arms.
“Oh, there you are, Serena,” Aphros
commented. “Took a little longer than I expected, but good on you for coping
with the weird gravity.”
“I’m about to throw up,” Serena
admitted. The young maid was positively green around the gills, but whatever
willpower allowed her to last this long still held strong. “If you’d excuse
me,” the young woman plopped the princess into Aphros’s arms before dashing
away.
“It can’t be that bad,” Aphros
cradled Irene in her arms. However, a most terrible sound filled the halls and
proved her wrong. Her stomach emptied, Serena returned a couple minutes later,
in proper form with no more signs of sickness.
“Apologies for my rudeness Lady
Aphros, but it simply couldn’t wait,” Serena curtsied before reclaiming Irene.
“Also, I’d like to bring to your attention that one of the Regas servants
attacked me while I was chasing Irene. I think his name was Jace?”
“Oh yeah, he’s kind of a pompous
dork. Just ignore him,” Aphros advised.
“That’s really hard when he’s
attacking me,” Serena replied.
“Then hit him back. He’ll learn not
to mess with you quickly,” Aphros explained.
“If you say so,” Serena rolled her
eyes but argued no further. ‘I’m fine, by the way, thanks for asking.’
“Is everything alright out here?”
Orion emerged from the entrance to the auditorium, Medy slung over his
shoulder.
“A little dusty in some places, but not altogether unpleasant. What took
you so long?” Atlanta said impatiently. However, her expression betrayed a
tinge of concern.
“Apologies, Princess, I lost the
communicator while dealing with this one,” Orion gestured to the unconscious
maid he carried.
“Should have known, if Jace was
acting up, she must have been behind it,” Aphros smirked.
“Hmm?” Serena raised an eyebrow. She
vaguely recognized Medy but hadn’t placed her face just yet.
“Oh yes, Serena, that’s Medy,
Jace’s…brain. Yes, let’s go with that,” the blonde noble explained. “She’s
feigning unconsciousness now to try and plead innocence later.”
“Eek,” Medy twitched before trying
to resume her charade.
“Come on, attacking your fellow
servants during a crisis? What’s wrong with you two?” Aphros shook her head as
she grabbed Medy and forced her to the ground. “I’ll have to punish you way
more than usual for this, you know?”
“This isn’t their first offense?”
Serena exclaimed.
“Ha, if only,” Aphros wrapped Medy
in her chains. “At this point, I’m waiting to see how long it’ll take before
they do something truly terrible.”
“Assault isn’t truly terrible?”
Serena inquired, her patience thinning.
“She did admit to wanting to maim
me,” Orion commented.
“Well, I was thinking attempted
murder or causing a city-wide power outage, but I guess that’s close enough,”
Aphros shrugged.
“Right,” Serena sighed.
“Retribution is all well and good,
Lady Aphros,” Orion interjected, “but I’ve found a more pressing concern for
the moment. I believe the Graviton Ray was sabotaged.”
“Ha…What?” Aphros’s tone became
deathly serious.
“Orion, what did you see?” Princess
Atlanta questioned.
“Impossible!” Lady Herme sprung from
unconsciousness before looking around the room and realizing everyone was
staring at her. “Oh, how embarrassing. I just had a horrible nightmare that the
Graviton Ray was sabotaged.”
“Well…It was,” Orion confirmed.
“Impossible!” Lady Herme fainted.
“Oh Lord, is this going to be a
thing,” Serena muttered.
“Not on my watch,” Aphros walked up
to the prone scientist. “Herme, oh Herme…Chrona is splitting atoms again.”
“Anything but that,” Herme sprung
back to life. “Oh, how embarrassing. I just…”
“Had a horrible nightmare, I know,”
Aphros interrupted. “First things first, are you okay? You took a nasty blow to
the head there.”
“Oh, how long was I out?” Herme
asked.
“At least several minutes, probably
more, I wasn’t really paying attention,” Aphros admitted. In actuality, it had
been far longer than several minutes.
“Besides a concussion and other
potentially traumatic brain injuries, I’m fine,” the scientist brushed it off.
“What else is happening?”
“The Graviton Ray was sabotaged,
apparently,” the blonde noble reminded.
“Impossi-!” Herme resumed her
shtick.
“Shh,” Aphros clamped her hand over
Herme’s mouth. “We’re not doing that again.”
“No, it really should be impossible.
I double-checked right before the demonstration,” Herme reminded.
“Then, what did I see?” Orion asked.
“Umm, let me have a look,” Herme
stood up.
~--~
The nobles and servants returned to
the auditorium, which was in a fair bit of mess after Orion and Medy’s clash.
The blonde butler sheepishly looked down as Aphros scanned the room, assessing
the damage. His fears were alleviated when the noble simply shrugged and
ignored most of it.
As they arrived at the stage, Lady
Herme hopped atop it and quickly dashed to the Graviton Ray’s side. After
flinching at the sight of the dents, her gaze traced the entire device,
searching for the tampering.
“Where did you see the sabotage?”
Herme turned to Orion.
“It was on the right side, lots of
small nicks and scratches,” Orion answered.
“Odd, I think those were already there before
I received the ray,” Herme revealed. “But I never paid them much mind until
now.” The scientist twiddled her thumbs in embarrassment.
“So, it was sabotaged before you got
it?” Princess Atlanta asked.
“Impossible!” Herme shouted before
realizing her outburst and blushing. “Sorry, force of habit. Ahem...it really
is impossible. There was no time for it to be meddled with. The device never
left my or Chrona’s sight while we were working on it. And it was closely
guarded during transport.”
“Now Herme,” Aphros sighed, “don’t
take offense to this, but was there a time when the device was only under
Chrona’s watch?”
“Several times, including before she
handed it off to me for transport,” Herme explained.
“So, you left it alone with Chrona,”
Aphros repeated.
“Yes, why?” The navy-haired
scientist’s expression turned to confusion.
“You left it alone…with CHRONA,” the
blonde noble emphasized.
“Hmm…” Herme pondered her fellow’s
words for a moment before it hit her. “Oh…oooh…oh dear,” the scientist shrank.
She traced her hand over the right side of the device, discovering a hidden
panel whose existence was hinted at by all the scratches. Inside was an oddly
shaped device clung to the interior wall, with a small note wedged beneath it.
The device itself was spider-like in shape and had a red blinking light on the
top, indicating that it was doing…something.
“Ahem,” Herme pulled out the note
and began to read it. “Dear Herme, you found my little joke. All those times
the ray randomly readjusted itself must have driven you crazy. I wonder if you
noticed it haphazardly scrolling through the different gravity types or how
sensitive the controls have been. If it’s still giving you trouble, give it a
few good whacks. I call it the ‘percussion maintenance system.’ I’m sure you’ll
find it useful…maybe…”
As Herme continued to read the note,
Serena and Atlanta’s expression grew more exasperated. Orion became confused,
and Aphros failed to suppress a giggle fit. As the gathered group’s emotions
became more disparate, Herme finished reading the note.
“It’s a good thing you found this
before the demonstration. Who knows what kind of disaster would have resulted?”
Herme read. “Do whatever you want with the spidery device thing…I didn’t give
it a name…just keep it far away from the ray. I’m sorry I couldn’t go to the
demonstration with you, so I’ll make it up next month. Yours truly, General
Chrona. P.S. Are you going to eat the sandwich you left at my lab, or can I have
it? P.P.S. Never mind, I ate it anyway.”
“Well, that’s certainly a thing,”
Lady Aphros made the understatement of the century.
“I…I was making last-minute
adjustments,” Herme sweated. “I…I thought I fixed those problems, but it looks
like Chrona got the last laugh…haha…oh.” The scientist slumped down.
“Lady Aphros, permission to scream
to the heavens,” Serena asked.
“Hold it for ten more minutes. Let
it fester a bit,” Aphros answered. “As for you, Herme, can you fix the Graviton
Ray?”
“Yes, with this removed easily,”
Herme nodded before she punted the spidery device away and spun around to
fiddle with the ray again. Within eleven seconds, the device was back at
whatever proper settings it should have been before.
“Well, good then, that’s all fixed,
and we can write this whole day off as a little accident,” Aphros declared.
“Can we really?” Serena looked at
her superior in disbelief.
“Of course not,” Aphros laughed.
“Just let me live in denial a little longer.”
“Right,” Serena turned away,
wondering if she should just take Irene back to her room. ‘Why is everyone in
the palace just so…so…’ The maid searched for the right word, to sum up all the
day’s craziness, but none could quite capture the feeling she had. ‘Oh Lord, I
can only imagine the Queen’s reaction to all this.’
~--~
Lady Ze burst into the throne room
with a squad of guards in tow. When she heard that something strange was
afflicting the palace, she rushed back from her patrol as quickly as possible.
However, by the time she returned, whatever was happening had already passed.
Despite this, the Queen’s safety was her first priority, and her majesty’s
health had yet to be confirmed. The captain of the guard was greeted by the
most relieving sight, the Queen gingerly sipping a cup of tea on her throne.
“My Queen, it’s good to see you’re
well,” Lady Ze breathed a sigh of relief.
“Oh Ze, what brings you and the
guards here so suddenly?” Queen Celene smiled softly.
“Some sort of calamity was
afflicting the palace. It’s over now, but we needed to assure your safety,” Ze
explained as she struggled to look the Queen in the eye.
“Something happened? It seems to
have escaped my notice,” the Queen admitted. “Whatever occurred, I’m sure it’s
fine.”
“Of course, my Queen,” Lady Ze
bowed. Despite nothing being especially wrong, she couldn’t entirely ignore the
elephant in the room. “Are you certain you’re completely fine?” Lady Ze asked
once again.
“Your worries are flattering, but I
assure you, I’m unharmed,” the Queen affirmed.
“If that is your belief, then I have
no argument,” Lady Ze conceded. The captain of the guard didn’t have the heart
to point out the Queen was currently sitting on the ceiling. How the entire
throne got up there was another matter entirely.
“I wonder what Atlanta is doing
right now?” The Queen idly wondered as she took another sip of tea.
~--~
Some days following the “Gravity
Incident,” Serena and Orion found themselves in the palace warehouse again.
Instead of retrieving items, this time, they were storing the princesses’
winter clothes. It was almost a perfect mirror to that day, down to Jace and
Medy standing off in the corner and giving the Diane servants dirty looks.
“Just ignore them, just ignore
them,” Serena repeated to herself as she hefted the heavy crate through the
warehouse.
“Serena,” Orion passed by his friend
while struggling with a pair of the heavy crates, “I thought you’d be more
upset with those two. They did attack us after all.”
“I try to rise above such things. It
is only proper of such a high-class maid,” Serena’s statement seemed earnest
but was clearly rehearsed.
“That sounds like something Lady
Aphros would say,” Orion pointed out.
“Yep, she helped put this whole
thing in perspective,” Serena explained with a hint of bitterness as she
glanced back at the two Regas servants. The duo was sweaty from their fifth
emergency training drill with Lady Ze. Rumor has it they were forced to mop
rain the previous day. But that was small potatoes compared to the pitying
stares they received from every other servant.
Serena felt the tiniest pang of pity for
the duo. Everyone regarded the pair with no end of contempt for their actions
and sympathy for the stupidity. Then she remembered Jace tried to attack her
for the most inane of reasons, and her pity vanished.
“We’ll have our revenge, you hear
me!” Jace exclaimed.
“Ignore him, ignore him,” Serena
advised Orion as the two sped walked away.
“Don’t you ignore me!” Jace shouted.
His raised voice drew a lot of attention, unnerving Medy.
“Jace, shut up,” Medy urged.
“We’re not just going to let them
walk away after the humiliation we’ve been through,” Jace increased his volume
but didn’t even bother to look back at Medy.
“Seriously, keep it down,” Medy pleaded.
“Not until they acknowledge my-” The
words died in the young butler’s throat as he felt an armored hand wrap around
his shoulder. Jace’s blood ran cold as he turned his head to see Lady Ze
towering over himself and Medy. The captain of the guard’s visor was raised up
just enough to see her mouth. Her smile was warm and friendly, yet it filled
Jace with an unspeakable fear.
“Hello, maggots,” Lady Ze pulled the
two servants closer to her as though she were palling around with close
friends. “You sound energetic enough for another run. How about 10 kilometers?”
“I…um, we were just, uh,” Jace
babbled until she felt Ze’s grip tighten. “Yes, ma’am, right away, ma’am.”
“Idiot,” Medy muttered as Lady Ze
began to drag them away.
“Curse you, Orion, and…uh,
whatshername, I’ll have my revenge, then you’ll be sorry,” Jace proclaimed.
“I like your spirit. We’re adding 2
more kilometers for the last remark,” Ze remarked, much to Jace and Medy’s
continued anguish. Serena and Orion watched this display from afar before the
former turned her head away and sighed.
“I’d like to say I feel sorry for
them, but I don’t,” Serena resumed walking.
“I mean, it is a punishment, but
that isn’t too different from what Lady Ze regularly puts us through,” Orion
commented.
“Since when has Lady Ze ever called
us maggots?” Serena pointed out.
“Oh,” Orion nodded and thought for a
moment. “Oh…Oh my goodness,” his eyes went wide.
“Yeah, like I said, I’ll rise above
their…transgression and find my own peace,” Serena stated. ‘And pray I never
screw up as bad as them,’ the maid privately thought, ‘er…half as bad. No way I
could screw the pooch that badly, even if I tried. Which is ironic since they
basically did try to screw up and…oh forgot it.’ Serena discarded that line of
thought and continued with her work.
May This Fantasy Continue A Little Longer…
Next
Time: Chapter XIII, Homeward Rebound
~~~~
Disciplining employees is a difficult prospect, you want to be firm enough to appease those harmed by misbehavior or incompetence, but you also want to be fair to those you're punishing. It is best to approach the situation with an even hand, only being truly harsh in extreme situations.
Until next time, Read, Comment and Enjoy
