Chapter 205: Stevie’s Recollection 1

The day I was summoned by the Eleventh Prince of the Marie Kingdom, Lord Robin, came completely out of the blue. There was no reason for someone like me, who worked in the Garden Maintenance Section, to be called by Lord Robin. Being summoned by any of the other princes would have been one thing, but being called by that Prince Robin of all people was something I absolutely did not want.

Prince Robin was famous for being an idiot. Even though he had turned ten, everything he did was still childish; he had no composure. Five years old? No — from around the age of three his body had grown larger than average, and by the time he was around ten he had grown enough that one could easily have said he was twelve or thirteen. Yet in everything he did, there had been no growth at all. The child of Lady Doreen should have been a cute, gentle child, yet for some reason his actions made it seem as if one, no, two or even three screws had come loose inside his head.

One day, while I was doing my usual maintenance of the inner courtyard of the Royal Palace — it was the changing of the seasons and I was replanting flowers — Lord Robin came running toward me.

"Gyahahahaha—!!"

He charged straight at me while raising a nonsensical, bizarre cry.

"Th-there!?"

Right in Lord Robin’s path stood the flowers I had only just planted. Paying no attention to path or flowerbed, he ran straight through. The flowers were trampled underfoot, and footprints remained in the flowerbed.

"Haaa—"

This was the umpteenth time, and I had grown used to it, so I could not even bring myself to get angry. Even so, my involvement with Lord Robin had, at worst, only gone as far as having the flowerbeds trampled, and I had considered myself lucky for that. I do not know how many times the maids of the Rear Palace had been reduced to tears by Lord Robin’s mischief. There had even been maids who quit because the pranks and rough behavior went too far. Every time Lord Robin caused some incident, Lady Doreen was said to go around apologizing. The king’s consort going around apologizing for her child’s misdeeds — such a thing that would normally be unthinkable had become everyday occurrence inside the Rear Palace, so extreme was Lord Robin’s reputation as a little terror.

Then one day I heard the rumor that that same Lord Robin had suddenly developed a fever and taken to his bed. Every maid in the Rear Palace thought, "It would be fine if Lord Robin never woke up." Of course no one said it out loud, but I believe everyone except Lady Doreen and Lady Catherine thought the same.

While Lord Robin was confined to bed, the Rear Palace was quiet. No one raised bizarre cries, and neither the screams nor the weeping of maids could be heard. This must be the true form of the Rear Palace, I thought while weeding the garden. And I, a tender sixteen-year-old maiden, resented the circumstances that had me playing in the dirt of the inner courtyard.

There were several reasons I could not become a proper maid. First, my appearance was poor. Compared to other girls of the same age I was a little tall. I was not a cute girl; people said I lacked "flower." That in itself was not such a serious problem (I think), but having no chest and no hips was fatal. On top of that I was unfriendly and could not speak skillfully to people. Even when spoken to I could not answer well and sometimes became awkward. My eyes also had a bad look; people said I seemed to be glaring. Huh? Writing it out like this, it is nothing but bad points — strange. Also, I was careless in whatever I did and broke more cups and plates than other people. Even when I did not break them I would bang plates together and make noise. From the outside my maid work looked extremely precarious. There were other things too: I walked with a duck-footed, large stride; I was always expressionless and never smiled; and so on. Strange... why is it that I can list so many shortcomings so smoothly?

Ahem, ahem. Well, for those reasons I was assigned to the Garden Maintenance Section. There I found Lily Page, who also served as a maid. She was in her mid-forties and the age difference between us was about that of parent and child. One could almost call her "auntie," but that would have been too rude no matter what, so I sometimes called her "Sister Lily." When I did, Sister Lily would look happy and say "Call me ’Onee-san.’"

Meeting this person was a major turning point for me. I had thought there was no way someone who had effectively been dismissed as a maid could manage playing in the dirt, yet on rainy days Sister Lily began to practice swordsmanship with me. When I asked why she was teaching me the sword she said, "Because you have the ability."

The sword she taught me was strict and harsh, but truly enjoyable. As I came to understand my own progress I became absorbed in practice before I knew it.

My older brother was eight years older than I and served as a close aide to the Crown Prince. He had been in the knight order when, for some reason, he caught the Crown Prince’s eye and was selected as an aide. Thanks to that, my brother and I were allowed to live in official housing in one corner of the Royal Palace. Normally a brother and sister without parents would not even be permitted to live in the Noble District; renting a room in the Commoner District would have been more appropriate. But because my brother was a close aide to the Crown Prince, we were allowed to live in a corner of the Royal Palace so that he could answer the Crown Prince’s summons at any time, day or night. That brother of mine also had a lover. Because our family was of knightly rank, the appropriate partners for him would originally have been daughters of knightly houses or merchant houses, yet perhaps because of the future prospects of being a close aide to the Crown Prince, he was allowed to keep company with the daughter of a baronial house.

Everything had seemed to be going smoothly. And then, suddenly, I was called to serve as Prince Robin’s escort.