Jote soon showed for his weekly meeting with the girls.  Thanks to a combination of his "great" intelligence and the foresight ability of his time magic, he had graduated early after spending all of his time learning the harp so he could play the etherial music that would leak to him from the time streams.

Today, however, he had prepared a multitude of water and earth talismans for the impending meeting.  He had sent the talisman stash into his childhood where he could safely store and recall them without worry.  The trouble with time magic was that any information coming back from the future was only probable and not absolute.  This fact made him nervous as the probabilistic information became as close to absolute about this particular meeting as it could be.

Esther clearly was in a foul mood, and it was only a week after the earliest predictions.  As a fire ring began to contract about Jote, he summoned a water shield talisman and activated it inside the offensive spell.  "Esther, we can play this game or talk.  I know you're upset, I expected it in fact.  But everything I've done is for your protection."

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"Yes," Jote said after noting her expression.  "There are reasons.  Two types of people attend or work at this academy: those who will respect you and those who believe they have the right to own you.  Didn't your maids explain this to you?"

"Maids?  Why would we need others?  We've been fine on our own all this time.  When our parents died and we tried to hire a maid to help around the house until my sisters were old enough to handle the chores, we were taught what it means to be a woman without men around.  Why would we want to make others feel even worse than that?"  Esther was oblivious to the Academy's policies or its services that were provided to nobles and royals in attendance.  She also did not know, or perhaps want to know, about the sister school for servants that was just on the other side of the well-manicured lawns and gardens; although, the four of them often would watch the third school in the area that trained the knights and warriors of both kingdoms.

Relieved he did not need the remaining talismans, Jote then explained that each of them should have a head maid, or personal assistant if they preferred, and two additional maids.  "These maids would have kept you informed of the politics of both the students and teachers while also quashing any rumors about you.  Those are the simpler duties they have."