In a private Tea room Eleonora sat in front of Drak. They silently watched each other and were awkwardly silent for a while. Breaking the silence Eleonora sighed and started the Discussion.
“The Imperial Castle gave me the order to mediate between us.”
‘Rather it is our Branch that is doing this, but whatever.’
“Yes, I heard from my Benefactor to be the negotiator for our work together.”
‘Well, the Benefactor is also me, but whatever.’
“For this I am approved of accepting the proposal of the Merchant. When can we ask for the first delivery and how much can we buy in bulk?”
“Seria?”
“Yes Master.”
Taking out a stack of paper Seria looked over the details of the Documents before explaining.
“Our Benefactor has established a small place for Business in the Imperial Capital for such occasions. While it has no way to store large quantities for a long time, it has possibilities to be used as an exchange place. The manufacturing of the specified ‘shape’, needs only the necessary sign from your side. The last part we can not understand, but were told to just deliver in those words, for you to understand. Also the manufacturing would start after the ‘sign’ is given to us and would take one week per four tons. I hope you can understand the words, as we seem to be not trusted enough to get an explanation of the true meaning of these phrases.”
“Seria, I trust my Benefactor, so it is fine. Right now I am too young to be working fully with him, it is understandable.”
“Yes, Master.”
While hearing the Dialogue between Drak and his Maid Eleonora’s corner of the eye twitches a slight bit.
‘Such a farce. You are your own Benefactor you dolt! Geez, he can play innocent rather good, I hope he does not fake his love for Raja, or the hidden marriage might not happen.’
“...~”
* pffft! cough cough *
Drak suddenly had a coughing fit right when he was drinking from the Tea in front of him. Celia got big eyes, while Raja was turning red like a tomato. Alice was grinning wide and Seria was shaking slightly, crumpling the papers in her hand by holding them too hard.
“Everything Okay? Did you burn your tongue?”
“No, all is fine” * cough cough *
‘Wait, Alice could…! What could Alice? …huh, can’t remember for now, must not be important’
As Eleonora was a second before a panic attack suddenly she calmed down and forgot something suddenly. Not being perturbed by suddenly forgetting something making her panic she continued.
“We have been informed. The… um, ‘sign’ needs a week to be made, as it is rather complex. I hope you can deliver it after I have it sent to me from the Palace.”
“Sure, I will make sure he gets it the fastest way.”
Both sides were eating their Cake in silence before excusing themselves to go their own ways. When Drak was finally alone with his Maids he slumped down.
“That was a rather deep blow, how could you just tell me what she was thinking that nonchalantly?”
“...~”
“Like Master I also were close to dying from embarrassment, Alice. You are not fair being so blunt.”
“My eyeballs nearly popped out of my head! What a shocker!”
“Master, it seems your relationship status might be in question right now. Could you please take more time with us, so Raja might not be seen as the only candidate for your wife?”
“What do you mean ‘only candidate’ Seria?”
“I misspoke, Master. I meant to say you should avoid any suspicions of favorites, so no one would speculate about you being in a relationship. …”
A silent ‘for now’ was uttered by Seria at the end, but Drak did not hear it. In Drak’s mind were still the words from Eleonora and made him a bit woozy.
“Master, maybe we can talk about it later? I want a chance too to tell you my feelings!”
“...~”
“While I already told you mine, could we talk about it again?”
“Please, I feel like I want to burrow through the earth right now, all of you!”
“Sisters, please do not pressure our Master too much. But when you are ready, I would like you to make a bit of time for me too, Master.”
“You too, Seria?!”
—
At home Seria was watching over Drak’s studies while pondering something. After a long while she got the courage to finally ask her doubts and broke the silence of her overseeing drak reading the massive empirical Law book in his hands.
“Master, why did you make Eleonora the contact person?”
“Partly on a whim, but partly because of the problems she would have if she were pulled from the Black Merchant Calamity mission.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“I do not understand. What do you mean, she would just be a schoolgirl and maybe make some more friends further away from you.”
“Further away from me? Are you that protective of me?”
“...Yes, I admit it would be nice if that girl would not flaunt herself in front of you so much, but I still do not understand why it would be problematic for her to be distant.”
“The Chessboard.”
“Pardon?”
“Her vision Alice shared with us. I remembered it and thought about it. She was not a player but a piece. Tell me, if you keep a dangerous enemy piece in check with a piece on your side, would you move it?”
“It would be situational and depends on the factor of how the Board is right now sitting, but you want a more simple answer, right? Then I would not move it.”
“...your heavy calculations can be scary if you say how you want to know a hundred moves in advance, but whatever. Now, if this piece is moving to another place, the piece is not needed on this place anymore, right?”
“...It is the… Ah, yes I understand your thoughts for now. What are you talking about?”
“If she can be moved, you would give her another goal and not let her just ‘have fun’. Although the Imperial Family makes rather strange moves as they rely too much on their Precognition abilities, they would not let something stand like that. She was set up to meet me last year and pulled back like that right after they noticed I did not enroll. They could as well take her out for ‘special reasons’ or set her up to analyze or even hook up with some other dangerous person in the School to get benefits.”
“So you want to protect her?”
“Kinda, but also not. We have already her understood, if she were pulled, we had to find out who is the next one surveying us again-”
“Master, be honest.”
“...She reminds me of myself. Pulled and pushed where she needs to be and if not needed be put back in the dark cellar room and forgotten until needed again. For me it was their stress relief and showing magnanimity on diverse parties for caring about something like me. For her she only has worth working as she is on the bottom of the deepest moat to dig their damn channels through the sludge of society. If she is alive she can work, if she dies they can leverage this as a reason to be outraged and push slight unreasonableness through some hard walls in the Nobility scene. Sacrificial pawn, that is what she really is, like the whole Gracia family. They are the footmen to be in dangerous situations they can not ascertain through their magic balls and thrown chicken bones.”
“...You empathize with her so much?”
Drak clenches the book harder while trying to read.
“While I was already knowing I was just a pawn she does not even notice and is even proud of it. Her Uncle too, they are just mind controlled, not like the one in the Syndicate, who has some deep sitting mind control burrowed so deep it is near invisible, but mental manipulation to be proud to sacrifice themselves for a Family who does not care if they die as long as it makes them some profit.”
“To be honest, it sounds similar in your wording, Master. I understand, so long as you do not abandon us for a budding love, we will be always happy to be standing behind you even if someone else is at your side.”
“I have no feelings for her like… I mean I do not have some kind of love for her, I just feel… sorry. I would never abandon you. I would rather be tortured by my father for a whole year non stop than wanting to lose any one of you, as I know which of those two would hurt me way more.”
“I understand and thank you, Master.”
“...all of you give me some time. I am not understanding anything I feel right now. To be honest I feel scared about my own feelings.”
“If you want to talk about it we would always-”
“That is the problem.”
Drak began to shiver slightly.
“I cannot, as it matters to you four. I can not say anything without… without feeling scared like… like I never felt before. Please… I cannot…”
Seria quickly put him in a hug.
* shh * “You do not need to say anything. Do not think about it, when the time comes maybe you can understand. You are going through a lot right now. If you can not talk about it, just remember, we will always wait with open arms. Do not rush anything. Breath… breath…”
* hah… hah… *
Drak did not notice what was going on, but Seria noticed the symptoms and was maybe even more scared than Drak at the moment, but needed to be strong. Drak was on the brink of a panic attack. She could not see in his mind and even Alice was not able to get a single thought out of it, so the only thing she could do is give him what he always desired most. A hug.
The other Maids noticed the emergency signal rarely sent from Serias talisman and rushed into the Study from their work. Not understanding what was going on Alice started to inquire mentally and shared the results with the other two. Slowly they came closer and placed themselves close to Drak to make him realize he is not alone. As of right now Drak held still on the book but broke the cover with his fingers and his thumb ripped a hole into the paper by clenching too hard. He gave his all to do what Seria talked about. Breathing, stopping to think and relax, but it was harder than he had imagined to get back to normal.
Minutes passed and finally Drak let go of the book and fell in a quiet trance. He heard a soothing song in his dream. Something warm enveloped him. Delicate but strong hands rubbed carefully over his back up and down while the aroma of a strong tea is coming from somewhere close. He remembered, he was home and safe. Nothing to worry and nothing to fear. What he was thinking before is already forgotten and impossible to remember. Right now he would love to just enjoy and take a nap, but did he not need to study?
‘Yes, I was in the study, wasn’t I?’
Slowly opening his eyes again he noticed sitting in the sturdy chair of the Study.
“Huh? Did I just fall asleep? Seria, why are you hugging me? Celia and Alice are here too? Oh Raja is brewing new tea?”
“Master, are you all better?”
“Better? What happened?”
“...Nothing to think about. Just relax for now.”
“Um, if you say so? Huh?! What happened to the book?”
“We were duped and it was a rather poor quality one. I will purchase a new one tomorrow~”
“Poor quality? But this would not explain-”
“Master! Can you please move a bit forward from the chair? I can not reach the bottom part of your back to massage!”
“Of course Celia, but why are you even massaging me?”
“You worked hard! All cramped up already, so relax a bit. Shall I stomp a bit on your back later?”
“That would be nice, as I feel really sore somehow.”
“Tea, Master. Please drink it while it is hot, the last one had already gotten cold. A bit stronger this time as you seem a bit under the weather.”
“Thank you Raja. If I had you four not with me, I do not know what I would do. Thank all of you.”
“We are here to serve, Master.”
Relaxing with a strong hot tea and a massage, Drak relaxed while Alice sang an enchanting tune. Seria herself started to clean up the Table, starting with the mangled Law book first to remove it quickly out of sight.
“Don’t I need to study a bit more?”
“Not necessary today. You are already rather over your stress limit with us taking your rest days like that and multiple sale meetings. For this week the study will be halved, but you have to seriously pay attention in class as compensation. Do you agree with this, Master?”
“Oh, a bit more rest? Of course I agree. I will study hard in the School, as you wish Seria.”
Drak smiled and relaxed more, while the Maids also smiled but were a bit worried. This was the first time they had seen Drak so… vulnerable. He was often scared and talked about it with them. They knew his fragile heart but this panic attack was new for them. Also the sudden loss of memory about what happened was not normal, but for now a blessing in disguise. All four felt a sudden feeling they had discarded after meeting and living with Drak for such a long time: Helplessness.