The greatly delighted Prince left with Lotte, so Jin took a breather and began tidying up the disorderly workshop.
“Oh, let me help.”
The Royal Secret Maid Laila said and began to he…
“Hey, watch out!”
The remaining materials were scattered on the floor,
“Eek!”
She stumbled on a tool and knocked over a shelf,
“I-I’m so sorry!”
She accidentally kicked away all the ingredients Jin had already put in place.
…Everything returned to being as disorderly as it was before. Jin couldn’t let it pass,
“Please don’t help…”
He said and called for Reiko. She undid her [Stealth] and appeared, and before Jin said anything began cleaning up.
“Aww, I’m…useless, aren’t it?”
Laila said and felt down.
“Well, different people are cut for different things, so.”
Jin had nothing else he could say.
＊ ＊ ＊
“…Beana’s been avoiding me.”
Earl Kuzuma was whining at Reinhardt who was visiting his room.
“Last night, you proposed to her, right?”
“Mhm. …Since then, she hasn’t shown me her face.”
He said, gripped the wine bottle in front of him, and drank straight from the it.
“Whoa there, don’t overdo it.”
Reinhardt rebuked him, but the Earl didn’t listen and uncorked a second bottle.
“…He’s got a real problem.”
Reinhardt sighed and shook his head as if giving up,
“I’m going for a bit.”
He told Earl Kuzuma and left the room.
＊ ＊ ＊
“…Woah.”
“We’re finally about halfway done cleaning up, don’t you think?”
The hall where the golem party was held had become a mess of debris and broken golems.
In every direction maids, servants, and magi knights troops were cleaning it up. Several of the Royal Secret Maids were also helping.
The reason why the magi knight troops were participating was that they were securing the recyclable Magi Crystals and such from the broken golems.
Therefore the work was allotted so that the ones who put away the debris were the male servants, maids cleaned up after that, and finally the magi knights gathered everything that looked usable or expensive from among the debris.
“Ah, looks like this can be used.”
One of the Magi Knights picked up a red Magi Crystal.
“There’s one over here too.”
This time it was a green Magi Crystal.
The work was uninteresting, so without a treasure hunt like this it seemed the wouldn’t have been able to go on.
During it,
“Ooh, this one’s a fragment of a crystal golem.”
There was a Magi Crystal embedded in transparent crystal. It was no doubt a part of Ceres.
“Oh my, thank you for finding it.”
“Eh?”
Turning to look towards the voice, there stood Stearina.
“I’ll have that.”
With those words she left.
＊ ＊ ＊
“They were suppressed faster than I expected.”
“Yes, looks like there was an unexpectedly strong golem.”
“Nevertheless, we surely achieved our objective?”
“Yes. First of all, the amplification limit of Elradrite. It’s about 10,000 times. There’s no way to supply Magic Energy above that. In addition, the Elradrite that functioned as the final amplifier happened to overload and break apart.”
“Hmm, so that means for the second series 400-times amplification is adequate.”
“That is so.”
“And second?”
“Yes. We very clearly secured the detailed information of the golems of Egelia Kingdom and nations friendly to it. Analysis is underway.”
“Hmm, so this means that our noble goal is one step closer.”
“That is so. Let alone one step, I would say we’ve advanced two or three steps.”
“Most excellent.”
“Please leave the rest to me. Oh, and one more thing, there’s some interesting news.”
“What’s that?”
“There’s talk that the Magi Craftsman called Jin is rather good.”
“Oh, very interesting. And his affiliation?”
“The same as Shouro Empire’s Magi Craftsman Reinhart Randol’s, or something like that.”
“Reinhardt, huh. He’s also a talented person we want. Alright, keep on gathering information.
“Very well.”
＊ ＊ ＊
“…”
Beana was by herself, sitting next to a window gazing out. Although outside it was already dark, with the planted trees almost nothing could’ve been seen anyway.
“…Sigh.”
She then let out a single sigh. She was like that for a while until she suddenly looked over her shoulder, and,
“Hey, Lisa.”
She called out for the Royal Secret Maid, Lisa, who was behind her.
“Yes, what would you like?”
“I’d like someone to talk with for a bit, or rather maybe some consultation.”
In the end, the troubled Beana decided to consult with a girl of her age.
“Consultation, is it? Whenever you’re ready.”
“Thanks. …Look, what do you think about marriage between a commoner and an Earl?”
“Huh?”
Beana was honest and told her how she was wondering whether or not to accept the proposal from Earl Kuzuma.
“Let’s see, if it was me I would gladly accept the proposal.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Becoming a countess, isn’t that marrying up? It’s status I couldn’t dream of achieving otherwise!”
It seems that Lisa’s personality was like that.
“…Comparing that to a Magi Craftsman?”
“That’s not even worthy of comparison. I won’t say being a Magi Craftsman is bad, but it’ss completely different position. An Earl is a noble. A noble!”
“…I guess.”
It appears that I chose the wrong conversation partner, Beana realized and again turned her eyes towards the darkness outside the window.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Young lady, the most important thing is that this time too you were unhurt.”
The nanny Mine spoke earnestly while having Elsa change clothes.
“That’s why I told you before that going on a trip would have many dangers.”
But Elsa shook her head at Mine’s words,
“Mm-hm. There may be some dangerous things, but there’s many more fun things.”
“Young lady…”
“Hey, Mine, what is ‘marriage’ like?”
“Excuse me?”
Mine couldn’t understand the meaning of the question and was at loss for words.
“Earl Kuzuma proposed to Beana.”
But after Elsa continued Mine understood,
“Let’s see, if you want my personal opinion… it’s not a good thing.”
“Is, that so?”
Elsa turned around in surprise after the unexpected answer. Mine also turned around as Elsa had finished changing to her nightwear.
“…Yes. Or rather than that, men…can’t be trusted. You shouldn’t do that.”
“Eh?”
Mine’s bombshell statement again surprised Elsa.
“Young lady’s soon going to be 17 and a marriageable age for the general public, but men are still unknown to you. Would you like me to tell you a little about them?”
“…Mm.”
When Elsa nodded,
“The animals called men think of girls as child-bearing machines. If not that, then outlets for their lust.”
Elsa silently listened at the suddenly rushing harsh words.
“When I was… fifteen, I was serving as a maid ina certain noble’s estate. My parents were somewhat influential traders, but learning manners through working as a maid for several years was popular back then. ”
She stopped talking for a moment, then continued.
“…In that noble’s estate was a guest. A noble from outside a country, a military personnel.”
“Someone like father.”
Elsa muttered, as her father was a viscount and one of the army commanders of Shouro Empire’s garrisons outside the country.
When Mine heard that she frowned a little, but soon kept going as if nothing happened.
“…That person worked as the battallion commander of the nation’s armed forces even though he was young; me and another older maid had been arranged to assist him. He stayed for about three months. During that time, that person and me had an adult relationship.”
“An adult relationship?”
Elsa who didn’t understand the euphemistic expression parroted the words back at Mine as a question. Mine smiled,
“Acting like a married couple without being married, basically.”
Whether she understood that or not, Elsa still told her to continue.
“I was told that person had a wife back in his country. He also already had two sons. While knowing that, I ended up in such a relationship with him.”
Elsa listened quietly. It was the first time Mine had spoken of her past like this.
“You didn’t, get married?”
It wasn’t unusual for a noble to have a second wife or a mistress. Actually, Earl Guarana had told that to Elsa too.
“It wouldn’t have been appropriate for me to be anything more than a mistress to him. He didn’t talk about such a thing even once.”
She said and continued after a single sigh.
“Before long the length of his stay was over, and that person returned to his country. But at that time, inside me, a new life had begun. ”
“You mean…a baby?”
Elsa asked with a slightly blushing face.
“Yes. When the time came I gave birth to that baby. She was a lovely girl.”
“A girl…”
“I planned to raise her by myself. There was enough room for her in my parents’ house. But for some reason that man knew and came back and said he’ll adopt the child. For some reason, his wife had a weak constitution and could no longer bear children or something like that. And then, for that man the girl would only be a tool to marry into other influential nobles’ families.
“…”
“I refused. But a commoner is no match for a noble, and in the end the girl ended up being taken from me.”
“…That’s terrible.”
“Yes, it’s terrible. But these days I can serve young lady like this, so I’m not that unhappy.”
“What happened, to that girl?”
Elsa looked concerned.
“According to what I’ve heard, she wasn’t treated any different from the children his wife brought into the world, and they grew up healthy together.”
“…That’s good.”
“Yes, that’s my only consolation.”
“Aren’t you lonely?”
When she asked that Mine smiled gently at her,
“No, because now I’ve got young lady.”
She said and gently grasped Elsa’s hand. Elsa also tenderly squeezed her hand back.