Story Hub: [link]
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Antherós 26th 758
New Celene’s underground was far
from a pleasant place. It wasn’t especially dangerous, but it wasn’t somewhere you wanted
to spend more time than needed. The crumbling asphalt and concrete of the old
city was an eyesore at best and a health hazard at worst. One of the few things
down there that could charitably be described as a point of interest was
Brando’s Bar. Not that anyone knew who Brando was. That was just the name on
the sign when the current “owner” took over the building. Nor was the bar
itself anything special, but rather its two most frequent (and at this point
only) patrons.
Serena knocked open the door to
Brando’s with none of her usual grace, not that such a low-brow establishment
required any, but Serena liked to be respectful. Alas, she was too exhausted to
even throw up a façade of respect. Thankfully, the bar’s only customer didn’t
care how anyone bothered to enter the establishment. The bartender did care,
but he had long ago given up on dealing with Serena or his patron’s antics.
“Someone had a bad day,” Caenia
looked up from her small fort of empty glasses that once contained alcoholic
beverages. It was only up to four at this point in the evening, meaning she was
in a good mood. “Did the brat finally push you over the edge?” Caenia looked as
good as ever; her disheveled black hair was in desperate need of a hairbrush,
and her white t-shirt had week-old beer stains. Yet, her deep blue eyes still
had this sharpness to them.
“If only,” Serena slumped into her
seat. “Bartender, give me what she’s having.” The bartender wordlessly passed
her a frothy glass of something resembling beer. He didn’t even bother to check
her for identification. Serena tried to chug the liquid that one could
charitably call a drink and immediately regretted it. Still, she had her pride,
so she made it a quarter of the way through before gagging as an excuse to
stop.
“Must be really bad if a goody two
shoes like you is chugging like that,” Caenia laughed.
“I’ve got a new boss,” Serena
coughed before taking another sip.
“Please tell me they finally canned
Aphros,” Caenia asked, “I know they didn’t, but even I have dreams.”
“No, Aphros didn’t do anything this
time. In fact, it’s sorta, kinda my own fault,” Serena huffed. “But if the
Regas and Diane didn’t have their heads so far up their own assholes, this
wouldn’t have happened.”
“Ha, if they were fucking up and you
still got punished, you must have screwed up big time,” Caenia smirked.
“I didn’t. I was trying to defend my
friend. Sure, I might have attacked a guy, but he deserved it,” Serena
declared.
“See, that was your first mistake,
standing up for someone,” Caenia replied, “I’m guessing your second was running
out half-cocked with no plan.”
“Shut up,” Serena muttered, her head
growing foggy from the alcohol.
“So, who’s the unfortunate soul they
pinned you to?” Caenia asked.
“Aré,” Serena answered, “of all the
people I got assigned to her. It was her idea, apparently. She said Aphros
screwed up my training, so she’s going to teach me how to be proper or
whatever. I guess this is how she gets back at me for that stupid pancake bakeoff.”
“Aré?” Caenia was taken aback. This
caused Serena to turn and face her predecessor. She’d never seen Caenia react
like this before. “Sucks to be you,” Caenia brushed it off.
“Is there a problem with Aré?
Besides her personality?” Serena pressed.
“Oh plenty,” Caenia chuckled, “but
in general, once a noble ‘claims’ you like that, there’s no getting away.”
“Unless you blow your top at the
number 2 noble in the kingdom?” Serena asked.
“Well, that is true,” Caenia glared
at Serena. “You could always quit. It worked wonders for me.”
‘Something tells me that’s not
true,’ Serena looked down at the mess of a woman before her. “You know I can’t
quit. That’d be abandoning my station, and I’d get in all sorts of legal
trouble. I’m pretty sure they own my ass until the day I die. I think they made
me sign something that said that when they brought me on. So, I wouldn’t pull a
you.”
“Oh, to be so fondly remembered,”
Caenia spat.
“I don’t get it. How did you get
out? Servants can’t quit, as far as I know. I certainly can’t. They won’t even
fire me,” Serena exclaimed. ‘More importantly, how did my mom quit? They let
her and Caenia out…’
“Because they owed me one,” Caenia
admitted. “Listen, kid, I worked for them for far longer than you realize.
You’re a servant for your whole life, including the early years. But I did a
little more for them than clean around the palace and help the cooks like all
the other little girls.”
This reveal gave Serena pause. She
had heard that Caenia was once the star of the Diane family, but back then, she
didn’t really know what that meant in context. Having seen what people like
Penth, Dusa, and Orpheo can do, does that mean Caenia was more capable than all
of them. Even in this state, could Caenia still…?
“I see that look in your eye. You’re
wondering if I still got it, don’t you?” Caenia leveled her gaze. “Come on, try
me, see what happens.”
Serena felt her breath leave her
lungs for a moment. The world slowed down as she imagined herself raising her
fist. She struck forward, aiming for Caenia’s cheek, but it never reached it.
Instead, she was stopped by Caenia’s hand, which immediately broke her wrist. A
blow to the side was dodged and resulted in Serena being kicked into the bar. A
strike aiming for the back of the head went wide and ended with Serena’s
getting flung into a nearby booth.
This had never happened before.
Serena’s danger sense had always shown her what was about to happen, but it had
never shown her so many possibilities at once. However, just as quickly as the
visions came, Serena snapped back to reality and took a deep breath of
much-needed air. The maid felt like she had held her breath for ten minutes,
but in truth, no more than a few seconds had to have passed.
“I think I’ll pass,” Serena replied,
now with a very healthy respect for her predecessor. ‘What did they make her
do? What are they going to make me do?’ Serena wondered.
May This Fantasy
Continue A Little Longer…
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It's often beneficial to connect with your predecessor and learn the fine details of your job and future career. But always remember to show respect, you rarely know everything they've been through to reach this point.
Author's Note: This was originally going to be the last section of the previous chapter, but it didn't fit and broke the flow (and punchline) of the ending. Thus it's here on its own as a sort of capstone to volume 2. There was also a little more to this, but I cut it even before editing because it jumped the gun story wise. I'll probably include it somewhere in the next volume though...
Speaking of which the next chapter will be out...eventually. I've know what is going to be in "Volume 3" for about a year now, but I only recently finished a real outline for the first few chapters (I'm about halfway through chapter 21). Volume 3 is going to be more of a funny volume with an eclectic collection of stories, building up to Volume 4 where...well you'll see...
Until next time, Read, Comment and Enjoy.
