Double Room, One Bed
The royal capital, Prache.
One of the continent's five great cities, the City of Beauty—it went by many names, yet none of them ever quite landed for me.
To me, Prache was simply home.
No matter how many people heaped praise upon the place, none of those stories ever resonated with someone who had been born and raised here.
The Prache I had known all my life was a city that stood at a considerable distance from anything resembling beauty.
The buildings glittered with noble excess, and for every gilded facade the lives of ordinary citizens grew that much more grinding. A city of luxury.
I was not about to defend the First Prince's atrocities that had sparked the civil war, but the reason he had been able to whip that chaos into existence at all was because he knew exactly how to prod a citizenry already simmering with resentment over that same extravagance.
Even after the Second Prince successfully claimed the throne in the war's aftermath and the nobles' excesses were reined in, the history of discrimination and oppression against commoners did not simply vanish.
So while some of the capital's residents might swell with pride at the compliments showered on their city, the epithet "City of Beauty" had never been something I could feel particularly proud of.
Still, it was my hometown. I was not ashamed of it, nor did I hate it—but pride never entered the picture either.
I never imagined I'd be back this soon…
It had already been a full month since I started living in Lyceum, home to Aegis Academy.
In that month I had thought of home from time to time, but the idea that I would return after only thirty days had never once crossed my mind.
What would Mom and Dad think when their daughter walked through the door after a single month?
Knowing how they fretted, they would probably jump straight to the conclusion that I had already been expelled.
I was looking forward to seeing their faces.
"I hope this proves a valuable experience for all of you from Aegis."
The knight who had set us down in the square—Belga—was still grinding through a long and interminable welcome speech that showed no sign of ever ending.
People were actually yawning in the middle of it. That was how stale and tedious the whole thing was.
I glanced around at the rest of our class.
Most of the students were letting the speech go in one ear and out the other.
Marx was dozing on his feet.
Not everyone was completely checked out, though.
Leonhart and Blanc at least looked as if they were making an effort to listen.
And Fel… well…
Was she listening?
She seemed focused, yet every so often her gaze drifted toward Leonhart and Blanc…
"Hah!"
"Tsk!"
While I was surveying the crowd, my eyes met his.
The first thing he did upon locking eyes with another human being was sigh. What an utterly infuriating creature.
This was exactly why you should never associate with those high-and-mighty noble young masters.
At least the other nobles in our class—Leonhart and Gross among them—were nothing like him, which was a mercy.
Leonhart especially was the sort of model aristocrat you only ever read about in books. So why was this guy…
This is exactly why people say the kingdom is lagging behind the empire.
Same title of "noble," and yet the difference was night and day.
As a fellow citizen of the kingdom, I found the whole thing mortifying.
"Hiiiiiink!"
"Huh? Siesta! What is it this time?!"
Apparently even the pegasus had reached her limit with the endless speech.
Siesta suddenly started thrashing about with terror-stricken eyes.
She settled down quickly enough, but watching that self-important knight scramble in panic was genuinely entertaining.
At long last the interminable welcome speech came to an end.
I had forced myself to focus on it because otherwise my eyes kept sliding toward Blanc with a dangerously hungry look. Even so, it had been more boring than any of the academy's history lectures.
The only reason I managed to stay alert was the sheer number of people watching. If no one else had been around I almost certainly would have been yawning and nodding off.
But I was trying to become a young lady worthy of Blanc, and a noble more confident than anyone else. Yawning in front of an audience simply was not an option.
Especially not in front of Blanc. I had no desire whatsoever to show her anything so pathetic.
I was carefully maintaining a cool, haughty image. If I suddenly revealed something disgraceful, what would she think of me?
"Hmm… I never imagined my lady would be this sort of person… No, it's all right. I am still your maid, after all…"
Just picturing Blanc wearing that troubled, awkward expression was enough to make me suffer.
If she ever looked at me like that, I was fairly certain I would burst into tears on the spot.
So that sort of thing simply could not be allowed to happen.
Kind, pure-hearted Blanc would never leave my side just because she was disappointed in me—but I still refused to give her any reason for disappointment.
"Owl Class, gather up."
While I was steeling my resolve once more, the instructor called our class together.
"First, the leaders of Team A and Team B—confirm that everyone is present."
Team leaders…?
"I'll announce the teams. Team A: Leonhart, Blanc, Oblia, Herson, Hari. Team B: Lia, Gross, Arca, Lucoda, Macadia. Team leaders will be Leonhart and Macadia respectively. That is all."
Ah! Right! That had happened!
I had been so busy daydreaming about touring the capital with Blanc that I had completely forgotten something this important!
"Team B, all present."
"Ahem. Team A is also all present."
No. I had just finished gathering myself and already I was making mistakes.
Focus. Maintain the image of a cool, capable young lady who never slips up.
From this moment on, I was the competent leader of Team A.
I glanced sideways at Blanc. She was watching me with her usual faint smile.
Watch carefully, Blanc.
See just how capable your lady is!
Sir Belga, who had guided us this far, mounted Sir Pegasus and flew off into the distance.
What a shame.
I had wanted to chat about all sorts of things.
That aloof yet utterly self-assured bearing had caught my interest, and then we parted almost immediately…
Sir Pegasus had clearly been a talent who could have made a splendid maid…
I simply cannot resist a flying maid.
While Sir Belga was mangling his welcome speech, I had carefully observed Sir Pegasus proudly flapping those wings behind him.
I had never sewn a maid uniform for a horse before, but after all that diligent observation I had managed to gauge Sir Pegasus's overall measurements.
I hoped we would have another wonderful meeting someday.
When that day came, I would arrive with a maid uniform tailored exactly to Sir Pegasus's size, and we would discuss the nobility of the maid's calling at length.
"This is the lodging where you'll be staying."
While I was still mourning the departure of Sir Pegasus, we arrived at a rather imposing hotel.
I had wondered whether field practice would begin immediately, but with the students carrying so much luggage we were told to settle in first and then move out.
My lady and I kept everything inside Bokja, so there was no real need for us to unpack, but still.
"Hmm, not bad."
True to the reputation of Prache, the City of Beauty, a lavish garden greeted us the moment we stepped through the entrance.
An ornate garden dotted with pure-white marble ornaments.
It looked as though a considerable amount of money had gone into it, yet the students' reactions were lukewarm at best.
My lady and I, of course, were familiar with the gardens of House Leonhart and therefore hard to impress, but even Jerry, who came from a commoner background, showed little interest.
"It's nothing compared to Hearth."
The reason for the muted response was Aegis's own student dormitory, Hearth.
No matter how elaborate a few white marble decorations might be, Hearth was an entire building constructed of the stuff.
Students who looked every day upon a dormitory so extravagant it was hard to believe it was meant for students were never going to be impressed by a hotel of this caliber.
"Everyone, head to your rooms and unpack first. Twenty minutes should be enough, yes?"
At my lady's words everyone nodded and filed off toward their assigned rooms.
Team A had been given three rooms in total.
Two double rooms and one single.
As the sole male, Desan would take the single, while the girls shared the doubles.
That still left us needing to divide the girls into pairs, yet somehow it was decided without anyone saying a word that my lady and I would share a room.
I had not spoken a single word, and yet it was settled that I would room with my lady.
A maid sharing a room with her young lady—how terribly presumptuous of me.
The academy was hardly short of funds for private rooms, so why only three rooms in the first place?
When I asked the instructor, the answer I received was truly something else.
"Huh? Why aren't there enough rooms? I forgot to book them and only made the reservation late. You got a problem with that?"
Every student in Owl Class let out a collective sigh upon hearing that.
First that fun-cool-sexy pest Dante, and now this person too—why were all the so-called powerhouses of this world like this?
I knew that those who had reached the heights tended to have strong egos, but these two were especially severe cases.
I would have loved to attempt some physical-therapy-style maid correction, but both of them ranked among the top ten strongest in the world, so I could not even try.
My lot in life, forced to deal with such eccentrics, was truly pitiful.
"This must be our room."
Guided by a staff member, we arrived at a room that was remarkably spacious even for a double.
Unlike Hearth, which pursued practicality on the inside despite its glamorous exterior, this hotel was lavish within as well. The room possessed a considerable amount of atmosphere.
"Then I shall unpack our things."
"Mm, please do."
I perched on the edge of the sofa and tried to calm my racing heart while watching Blanc put the luggage in order.
Hoo. Calm down.
It's nothing special.
I'm just sharing a room with Blanc.
There's no reason to get this worked up.
To me, Blanc was not merely a maid; she was a precious friend, practically family.
Friends or family sharing a room—there was nothing strange about that, right?
So calm down.
"Haa…"
Good. I'm calm now.
"Oh? It's a double room, but there's only one bed?"
"Uweh?"