Chapter 57
All-Seeing Maid
As she turned away to run, Mary consoled herself; in truth, she was not afraid to admit – if only to herself and the much-too-talkative voices in her head – that she had immediately fled from the training yard after being discovered. The currently fleeing princess would even confess, if pushed, that her retreat was with what would likely have been considered unseemly haste.
Fortunately for the princess’s ego and general state of mind, nobody was likely to ever know, let alone ask. So long as Sylvia never gossiped about it anyway.
Mary restrained herself from spinning off an entirely new second mind dedicated to hoping that Sylvia had no one she trusted to gossip with, if only for the sake of the princesses' faltering pride.
Of course, Mary noted internally, her current course of action wasn’t to show that she was truly running away, because she wasn’t. No matter what her much too independent internal monologue might have said, she definitely wasn’t fleeing from the smug—and apparently extremely scary—maid who had caught her snooping red-handed.
Instead, what was actually happening was that she had simply realised that her stealth had been compromised, temporarily at that, and upon discovering this terrible breach of secrecy, she had correctly concluded that the wisest course of action available to her was to return to her room before anyone had the bright idea of checking on her.
And for no other reason than that.
She absolutely was not running away because Sylvia had casually demonstrated the intimidating ability to not only suppress so many knights simultaneously, every single one of them having recently revealed themselves to be far beyond the current princess’s capability to even begin to fight.
However, it was even worse for Mary, as this incident occurred while the princess was in hiding.
In some ways, the princess was amazed by what she had witnessed. Of all the potential attacks that Sylvia might have had access to, Mary had not expected any type of omnidirectional suppression field… an aura thing?
But that was apparently exactly what the maid was capable of when she was trying. Assuming, Mary thought derisively, that she was trying at all.
The princess, in her mind, replayed what she had witnessed again and couldn’t help but notice how incredibly casual the maid had been. The dramatic stance she had taken, the violent exhalation.
All of it had stunk of unnecessary theatre, and Mary couldn’t shake the feeling that she had been the audience.
Knowing that she had been discovered, perhaps that she had always been discovered, only caused Mary to dash away even faster. With undue haste, she quickly opened the hidden doorway that she had so recently snuck through.
In the distance, Mary could hear what she would later realise was a merrily chuckling Sylvia; this was not the happy giggling that she had heard from other maids, nor the exaggerated and potentially fake amusement she had heard from Sylvia.
Instead, Mary realised it was Sylvia who was genuinely belly laughing. Perhaps it was the first time the princess had ever heard what she could only assume was genuine amusement from the maid.
Somewhat distantly, the young princess swore to herself that at some point in her life, this situation would be reversed, and the currently amused maid would get to learn what it had felt like for the princess to have the security blanket that was the stealth spell suite ripped away from her.
It was a promise that Mary would endeavour to live up to, but one that she acknowledged would be incredibly difficult to fulfil.
Nonetheless, it was with all of this in mind that the princess hastily retraced her steps through the hidden passageways. She quickly traversed the zero-gravity shaft to the appropriate floor, the floor that her bedroom and safety were located on, and distantly recognised that her journey through the strange environment of the weightless ladder shaft was much easier this time than the last.
Perhaps a person was supposed to traverse zero-gravity by not thinking about it so much?
Quickly enough, she had returned to where she had been living these last years and what Mary unconsciously considered a relative safe space in the dangerous world that she now lived in.
The princess sighed in relief as she stumbled back into the empty room, disbelief thick in her every step. What she had just witnessed was not among the things she had expected to see during the so-called training session she had learned about from eavesdropping.
The raw physicality demonstrated by the knights had been surprising. She admitted that it was difficult to truly judge such things, but the knights didn’t seem to be at all inferior to the greatest heights that science could achieve on Earth.
And even they had been totally suppressed by the lightly built maid. Sylvia had demonstrated capabilities that were far beyond what the gene-clinics of Earth could achieve, and that was before she had simply crushed the entire field with her… aura?
Mary shook her head, dismissing the thoughts for now; the princess dropped her stealth spells as she quietly closed the door behind her. As she turned around toward her bed, she felt herself jerking backwards in something that was not quite shock.
In truth, there was a part of Mary that was not surprised at what she saw; she had even somewhat expected to see her maid standing in what was definitely a previously empty room. Internally, she sends a small thought towards her second minds, and they confirm the memory; the room had definitely been empty when she had opened the door.
Either Sylvia had used a stealth spell of her own to hide her presence, something that was not impossible. Or she had once again used her tremendous speed advantage to enter the room in the short seconds that Mary had her back turned.
Both options were possible, and something told the princess that Sylvia would avoid confirming which was the truth, if only for her own amusement.
Truly, Mary had to a large degree come to expect that the mischievous maid would simply randomly appear when it would garner the greatest reaction and would consequently hide exactly how she had done it for much the same reason.
Of course, while part of the princess had expected exactly this outcome, especially among the second minds, who were generally much calmer than the physical princess. There was, however, a much larger part of the princess, the part that was still frail and a little bit scared after witnessing what could only be called a massacre.
That part of the princess was unfortunately always in physical control of Mary's physical body and thus her reactions.
{Remain calm!} The seconds' minds shouted.
But they were a moment too late and had no real control of her reaction. As a result, as she came to understand what, or rather who, she was seeing so casually standing in her bedroom, the still shocked princess visibly flinched backwards, her body slamming into the now closed door.
Due to the internal shouts for calm, she barely but successfully restrains the scream of terror that had been growing in her breast for the last few minutes.
The princess exhales deeply in an attempt to calm herself, and Mary quickly moves to tell herself that she had successfully suppressed her immediate reaction. It was a fragile lie, however, and internally, she, along with her second mind, knew the truth: that she had barely swallowed a terrified scream.
Distantly, Mary knew that, given the capability that Sylvia had so recently demonstrated, the maid had no doubt caught her princess's surprise and got whatever twisted enjoyment she was aiming for. That was what the physical princess told herself, although the much calmer second minds quickly disagreed.
For the physical princess, the surprises of the day would keep coming, as Sylvia frowned in dismay and immediately moved to apologise.
"Sorry, my princess, I didn’t think that you’d take it so poorly.”
Said the maid.
Mary blinked in surprise at the apology, not entirely certain if the maid was being genuinely sincere. Unfortunately, Mary was still much too scared by the maids' recent actions to try to scrutinise the often-opaque woman.
Bitterly, Mary knew that even if she had attempted to divine the true feelings of the maid, she would likely fail.
The maid stared at the still nearly panicking princess with a hurt expression on her face and once again attempted to reassure Mary of her sincerity.
“I knew that you were there watching and thought that I would show off a bit. I’m sorry, my princess; I really didn’t think that it would scare you so much.”
Sylvia explained again.
The princess, despite the potentially reasonable explanation that was offered, still looked doubtful; perhaps if the maid had destroyed the knights with raw physicality, she would be more inclined to accept the explanation. Mary could not see such a thing being true if the maid had demonstrated how much Mary had misunderstood the strength of this world like that.
But then why had Mary been involved in the finale?
She could still clearly remember the overwhelming and unseen force that had suppressed her. The raw physical presence that Sylvia had exerted to press her to the ground and disperse her stealth spells.
‘It was the last part that scared me.’
Mary consoled herself privately, hearing hums of what she knew was only half agreement from her inner dialogues.
{Well, the way she can apparently move fast enough to disappear is also intimidating.}
{Don’t forget the pressure waves. Those were pure force too.}
I want to understand how her movements did not consistently break the sound barrier. Sylvia was moving fast.}
Mary ground her still-growing teeth at the lackadaisical voices in her head; they were as usual far less impacted by the happenings of the physical world that had affected her. Never before had she been so frustrated by their nonchalance.
“… How long did you know I was there for?”
The princess hesitantly asked, privately, Mary already suspected that she knew the answer, but she was nonetheless dreading its confirmation.
The worried and apologetic look that Sylvia had been wearing slightly faded as she attempted to suppress what Mary took to be an amused grin.
“I knew you were there from the start.”
Said the maid.
Mary briefly closed her eyes at the answer and then dived face-first into her bed's pillows for comfort; she had been slowly walking towards them for just such an eventuality.
After a short time of being soothed by the supernaturally soft pillows, the princess lifted her head and continued the conversation with the still-standing maid.
“How? You said that my stealth spells were exceptional, that a B-ranked warrior wouldn’t be able to detect me.”
Mary asked with a mix of lightly hidden desperation and accusation.
“That would be because of my detection net. Something most warriors do not have.”
Said the maid nonchalantly, using another term that Mary had never heard before.
{I think we can guess what a detection net might be.}
{Yes, but why didn’t she tell us about it before?}
{It is important information.}
Mary shook her head, dismissing the intrusive thoughts.
“And a detection net would be…?”
“Usually, a detection net is something that is used only by high-level scouts or mages; it’s a very complicated bit of magic that takes either great skill or high mana reserves to use successfully.” The maid answered firmly and then continued sheepishly, “In Midgard, my family might be the only people who can reliably create a truly competent detection net, now that Elizabeth is like that.”
Mary frowned at the answer.
“But why didn’t you tell me about it sooner?” Mary asked, her voice thick with a knowing suspicion.
As the princess had expected, she adopted a shifty look, which she interpreted as a sign that it was meant to prepare for exactly this scenario.
“It’s part of the Iyazoi families training scheme.” The maid said apologetically, “The idea is that members of the family are supposed to innovate new ways to do things, instead of being told how to do them.”
Mary blinked at the explanation and couldn’t help but admit that it did make some degree of sense.
That didn’t make it any less annoying for the princess.
“My speed is a great example of something that I innovated; it’s entirely different from how most others move.” Sylvia finished smugly.
Mary looks at the once again smug maid considerately and requests something that she really should have asked years ago.
“Can you teach me how to fight like you did?”
Sylvia's beaming smile lit up the room in answer.