Promoted, and Already in Tears
"Garen. What did the two of you discuss?"
Count Garen had been fishing cookies from the refreshment basket set off to one side of the office. He swallowed what he'd been chewing and answered.
"We agreed to pay him a hundred gold a month."
"...An excessive arrangement."
"And a clause that lets him resign whenever he wishes."
A hollow, incredulous laugh escaped Cassian. That cold, razor-edged gaze swung squarely onto me, as if he meant to see straight through to the marrow.
"Is what he says true?"
"Y-yes. I tend to feel the weight of responsibility rather... acutely."
I put on the most pitiful, timid face I could manage.
"A peculiar young man. So. How long do you intend to serve?"
"Just as I discussed with the Count. I'd like to be able to leave whenever I choose."
Cassian was silent for a moment, then let out a long, deep sigh.
"And your reason? Becoming a palace attendant is a chance for a commoner's line to shed that status for generations. Yet you sound as if you mean to take a single bite and walk away."
Damn it. He'd hit the mark dead center.
Could I even tell him the truth? I could hardly say because I have to date pretty women. After a brief struggle, I decided to offer half of it.
"If the work doesn't suit me, I intend to quit. And frankly, I can make a living well enough without being a palace attendant."
"Remarkable confidence. Though I suppose you aren't wrong. With a face like that, you could latch onto some noble house's young lady and live in luxury for the rest of your life."
A cold sweat ran down my spine.
This was a test.
Agree here, and I'm out on my ear!
I waved my hands in a hurry and laughed like an idiot.
"Ahaha... a young lady? I know my place. The difference in station is heaven and earth. How could I ever dare harbor designs on such noble ladies?"
At that desperate answer, Cassian gave a single, satisfied nod.
"...An excellent answer."
So it was a test!
"With a mindset like that, you'll discharge your duties well enough. Wait a moment. I'll amend the terms."
Chancellor Cassian rose, crossed to the desk, and drew a clean sheet of parchment from a drawer. Then he took up a quill and wrote without a single pause. When he returned, he showed me the revised contract.
Oh... the terms went in exactly as agreed.
A hundred gold a month, and the right to resign at will. No poison clauses—nothing but terms that favored me. Except for one thing. A line added at the very bottom caught my eye.
Romance is forbidden within the Imperial Palace.
Well. It didn't matter. Getting tangled up with people above my station and drowning in trouble was the last thing I wanted. I could date outside the palace and be done with it.
I took the quill without hesitation and signed my name. Chancellor Cassian smiled faintly, satisfied, and rolled the parchment up. Then, at the last, he left me with a warning.
"Remember this. There must be absolutely no romance within the palace. Should such a thing occur, I cannot guarantee what will become of you."
"I haven't the slightest intention. My life is rather precious to me."
"Good. Then wait a moment. I'll summon the Chief Chamberlain."
With that, Chancellor Cassian struck the small bell on the table once. The instant its clear chime rang out, two precise knocks sounded from outside, and someone entered the Chancellor's office.
"You called, Your Excellency."
"Chief Chamberlain. See that this young man is properly trained. From today, he is a palace attendant."
At those words, the Chief Chamberlain's gaze turned to me. His eyes widened, ever so slightly.
"You've brought in a fine talent. Understood. I shall educate him thoroughly, in accordance with Your Excellency's will."
He jerked his chin at me.
"Follow."
"Yes, yes."
I nodded and fell in behind him.
"Your name?"
"Ethan."
An alias, of course. No need to hand over my real one.
"Ethan. No family name?"
"No. As you can see, I'm a commoner."
"Hm. By principle, a commoner cannot be taken on as a palace attendant. You, however, shall be the exception. With His Excellency the Chancellor's recommendation, you are accepted."
"Thank you..."
How many times was I supposed to hear that damned word accepted today?
"But what exactly will I be doing? Am I just supposed to clean my assigned area and run errands?"
At the question, the Chief Chamberlain stopped dead ahead of me.
"You came here without even knowing what your duties are?"
"Neither Count Garen nor His Excellency the Chancellor told me."
"Hah..."
He shook his head, genuinely at a loss.
"What on earth is the Chancellor thinking..."
He muttered it like a complaint, then stared straight at my face.
"No—perhaps this will turn out for the best. A commoner, after all. Nothing untoward is likely to happen."
What the hell is this old man even saying?
Commoner, commoner—he kept saying it, and my mood was starting to sour.
Say that one more time. I dare you.
I nearly scowled on the spot, but I managed my expression at the last second. Honestly, if I tallied it up, the rudeness I'd already committed wasn't small. Talking cheekily to a count. Haggling terms right to a chancellor's face. If the first impression had gone badly, I might already have been executed for insolence.
"From today we begin the basic training required of an attendant. Learn it diligently."
"Yes! I'll work hard!"
At my booming reply, the Chief Chamberlain's brow crumpled.
"Answer quietly."
"Ah. Yes..."
...Look at him, so strict. What a pain.
But on the outside I wore the purest smile in the world and followed the Chief Chamberlain. That's just how you survive at work.
And so my hellish attendant training began.
And so a month passed.
For that month I was half confined, drilled in etiquette. Well—call it education, but there was nothing especially grand about it. Simple manners, like how deeply to bow before which noble. Basic knowledge of imperial history and the major houses. And a bit of corrective work to scrape the flippancy out of my speech. Compared to the hell of cramming for the college entrance exam, it was child's play.
And more than anything, I had no real complaints.
Why?
"Heh heh... how much is all of this?"
Every time I opened the heavy leather pouch on the desk and poured out the gold coins inside, a laugh slipped from my mouth. The clink of coins stamped with the founding emperor's profile, tumbling into a little mountain, was more beautiful than any music.
Grind like this for just one year... and open the capital's finest pretty-boy café?
Didn't seem like it'd fail. If anything, it'd be a smash hit.
I was still fiddling with the coins, lost in that happy future, when it came—knock, knock. Two knocks, exactly. Brief, and perfectly polite.
"Ethan, are you in?"
"Yes, I am."
"Pardon me."
The one who opened the door was a maid I'd passed a few times in the corridor days ago. Rachel. In truth she was the daughter of a ruined viscount house, so even as a maid she wasn't someone I could treat carelessly. The moment she stepped in, she stared at my face, then cleared her throat.
"...The Chief Chamberlain summons you."
"Understood. I'll go at once."
"Y-you'd do well to come quickly."
With that, Rachel fled the room as if escaping.
And that was when a question occurred to me.
Do maids usually run errands for the Chief Chamberlain?
No. From what I'd learned over the month, maids answered to the Head Maid, and attendants answered to the Chief Chamberlain. Different chains of command. She was, in every sense, from someone else's department. Which meant she had volunteered to run his errand herself.
...Cute.
A laugh escaped me. Part of me wanted to chase after her that instant and ask, Miss Rachel, might you be free this evening?—but I barely held back.
Relax. Just relax.
Chancellor Cassian's cold warning flickered through my mind.
Get caught playing at love in here, and this handsome neck of mine might end up swinging from a gallows. Palace people were not to be touched.
I exhaled, swept the coins back into the pouch, and stood.
I'd better hurry. Show up late, and who knows what that old geezer will say.
The moment I opened the door and stepped into the corridor, the maids who'd been hovering nearby swarmed me as if they'd been waiting.
"Oh my, Mr. Ethan! Where are you off to?"
"Are you going to the Chief Chamberlain? Shall we show you the way?"
"What's your schedule today? Will you have time after dinner?"
I fought the smile trying to hook all the way to my ears and offered the softest, kindest one I could manage.
"The Chief Chamberlain has summoned me. I'll gratefully accept the thought alone, ladies."
I declined with perfect courtesy and slipped out from among them.
When I reached the place where the Chief Chamberlain worked, I knocked, entered, and offered him every scrap of proper respect.
"You called, Chief Chamberlain."
Buried in a mountain of documents, he looked up at me and nodded.
"Ethan. It's already been a month since you entered the Imperial Palace."
"Time does fly."
"I've been watching you this past month. Your conduct is proper, and you've carried out your duties faithfully. The opinions around you are excellent as well."
"Thank you."
Of course the opinions were good. I'd worked myself half to death managing my image for a month—especially turning down the flood of love letters and confessions. That alone had me sweating. Every maid here was a noble young lady by birth, so I couldn't exactly tell them to get lost. I'd refused each one as kindly and gently as I could, careful not to wound them... and instead they clung harder. Oh my, and he's gentle, too!
This damned medieval fantasy had far more man-eaters than I'd expected.
"May I ask why you called for me?"
"I'm thinking of promoting you to personal attendant."
Personal attendant? Wasn't that a post you only received after a year of seniority? A bad feeling crawled up my spine.
"...Whose personal attendant would I be?"
The Chief Chamberlain answered as if it were nothing.
"You will attend Her Highness the First Imperial Princess."
I froze where I stood, words gone.
The First Imperial Princess. The very tyrant the original novel called the Iron-Blooded Empress. A woman infamous for taking a noble's head over a single trivial mistake.
You want me to attend that lunatic?!
The world in front of me began to spin.
"C-Chief Chamberlain. Could I not be assigned to someone else? I'm still too green. Attending Her Highness would be... too much for me."
"No."
Even at my desperate refusal, he cut me off like a blade.
"This was settled with His Excellency the Chancellor a month ago. If you have a complaint, take it to him yourself."
Fuck.
How was some worthless commoner supposed to argue with the Chancellor of the Empire? No. Before that—
Garen... Cassian... those old bastards played me!
And here I'd thought we'd gotten rather close. I never imagined they'd club me over the back of the head this hard. A hundred gold a month and the right to quit whenever I liked? All of it bait, just to shove me into this pit of hell. Nobles really couldn't be trusted.
"Then follow me. I'll present you to Her Highness."
"...Yes."
I followed the Chief Chamberlain with all the spirit of a cow being led to slaughter.