Chapter 27: 2

 Volume 2 Chapter 2: A New Maid has Joined the Household

On a beautiful spring day… Well, perhaps “spring” was a bit of a stretch when the season had already given way to early summer.

“Have you finished packing, Luciana? We don’t want you to be forgetting anything now.”

“Everything will be fine, mother. There is no need to worry.”

Within the Luthorburg estate in the Royal Capital of Partesia, the daughter, Luciana, was casually reassuring her mother Marianna. Her words, however, did little to assuage Marianna’s concerns.

“So you say, but I remember a certain someone forgetting their Letter of Admission during their entrance ceremony. Don’t you?”

Marianna gave her daughter a playful smirk. Luciana winced while making quite an unladylike noise.

“Me-Melody? You told mother?! A good maid shouldn’t have bothered her with something as trivial as that!”

The flustered Luciana turned to voice her complaint at the maid standing beside her, but she simply gave an unperturbed smile before answering.

“I do apologize, my lady, but as your maid, it is also my duty to report your daily activities to the madam.”

“How could you be so proud of something that has put the lady you’re supposed to be serving in a crisis?!”

This was Melody Wave, a fifteen-year-old girl that worked for House Luthorburg as an all-works maid.

Unbeknownst to her employers though, Melody actually had memories of a past life in Japan, but she had reincarnated as the heroine of the otome game “The Silver Saint and the Five Oaths.” However, Melody was completely unaware this was such a world and instead chose to pursue her unfulfiled dream: to become a maid. Unfortunately (albeit unknown to her), this divergence of character had irreparably broken the original storyline.

The biggest change so far involved a certain Luciana Luthorburg. In the game, a series of unfortunate events would result in jealousy consuming Luciana and transforming her into a midgame boss, but things were different in this reality. Instead, Melody’s extraordinary maid skills and maid (?) magic had preemptively extinguished Luciana’s negative characteristics, and their current relationship was as close as it could be. Suffice to say, Melody had defeated the midgame boss even before the prologue had started.

If there was some godly entity in charge of this world, they had surely made a terrible mistake somewhere; why else would they have chosen to reincarnate this black-haired, maid-obssessed anomaly of a girl to be the heroine?!

“Calling it ‘a crisis’ is quite the exaggeration.”

Meanwhile, Hughes, the head of House Luthorburg, was stood beside his wife as he exasperatedly watched the girls go back-and-forth.

Today was the day the Luthorburg couple would be seeing off their daughter to the Royal Academy, where she would begin boarding in.

About two months prior, a mysterious assailant launched an attack during the Spring Ball, an annual event held the night of the Royal Academy’s Entrance Ceremony. While no serious injuries had resulted, the king, sensing danger still amiss, ordered a temporary closure of the Academy. This closure would lift tomorrow.

The Academy’s closure was to facilitate construction of new student dormitories, as the existing dormitories were only enough to accomodate the commoner students; the King had decreed that going forward, all students would be boarding at the Academy. Luciana, who originally had planned to commute, was no exception to this new rule.

Of course, this was part of an effort to keep watch on the students so as to reduce the chances of an unwanted intruder breaking in a second time.

That aside, while the Academy offered free housing to its commoner students, it would be charging boarding fees to the noble students. For House Luthorburg, though Hughes was recently promoted to a position within the Office of the Prime Minister, the boarding fee was still a huge expenditure for the family, who were often scorned as “House Luthorbroke”. In the end, while they were able to afford Luciana’s room and board, the fees still left the family with precarious finances.

“Be sure to enjoy every last thing at the dorm, as much as you can, Luciana!”

(Read: since it costs so much, get our money’s worth!)

“E-enjoy every last thing? Um, sure? I don’t know what you mean, father, but I’ll try my best.”

Hughes’s eyes seemed to come alight with fervor, so much that Luciana shrunk back intimidated.

“Hughes, dearest, please calm yourself. Melody, I shall be entrusting Luciana to your care.”

“Understood, madam.”

Melody gave a curtsy as she answered; after all, she would be staying with Luciana and attending to her lady’s needs.

“I have already checked over my lady’s luggage to make sure she has not left anything behind… unless she took everything out again to repack?”

“Ahh! Even Melody is making fun of me now! Please stop bringing up something that happened two months ago!”

Two months ago, on the day of the Entrance Ceremony, Luciana had taken everything out of her bag to make sure she had everything ready, and the problem had occurred afterward, when she forgot to repack her Letter of Admission. For her, it was a terribly embarrassing memory, but the others saw it simply as a cute mistake. Those three sure did love teasing Luciana about it…

This time around, Marianna nodded to indicate everything was accounted for, then gave a disappointed sigh.

“Luciana aside, we were still unable to find another servant to work here…”

“Indeed. I had hoped we could find even one person, but I suppose not.”

In solidarity with his wife, Hughes let out a sigh of his own. As it currently stood, Melody was the only servant House Luthorburg employed, but because she be following Luciana to the Academy dormitory, the Luthorburg couple needed to hire another servant for their needs at home. Their search so far, however, has been unsuccessful.

This was due to their unfortunate epithet; the previous generations saddled Hughes and his family with the unflattering “House Luthorbroke”. Even now, despite the improvements Melody had brought forth, most people still looked down on them as a shabby and disgraceful noble family that any potential employees should avoid.

And without any new employees, once Melody departed with Luciana, that would leave the House Luthorburg and the estate without any servants… or so it should have been.

“My lady, the carriage has been prepared.”

“Thank you, Melody. Well then, father, mother, I shall be off to the Academy now. Selena, please take care of things here.”

“Please allow me to do so, Lady Luciana.”

Standing away from the family was a lone girl with chest-length brown hair and a mature aura about her; this was Selena.

Selena wore the same maid uniform as Melody, but atop her head was not the usual cap but a lacey alice band. Around her neck was a silver heart-shaped accessory that gave her a more glamorous appearance compared to Melody’s subdued style. Overall, her appearance was well-suited to the role of a parlor maid; that is a maid whose duties focused more on hospitality.

So did that mean there were more maids in the household than just Melody? Then what had Hughes and Marianna meant by their words just now?

…Marianna’s next words should answer that question.

“Her mannerisms are truly elegant. It is quite hard to believe that she is simply a ‘Marionette’.”

“Receiving your approval is most welcome, madam.”

The smile on Selena’s face appeared so genuine that it would be hard to convince anyone that she was actually not human.

Of course the Luthorburgs took that fact to heart; after all, they had been present when Selena came into existence.

And the one responsible for creating Selena was none other than…

“Selena, while I am away, you shall be in charge of taking care of the mansion.”

“Understood, my dear sister. I shall work hard so as to not bring shame upon my creator.”

…Melody, of course.

Her full designation was Magical Marionette Maid “Selena”.

It had happened about one month ago, just before the Royal Academy would reopen, when Melody had chanced upon the idea.

On that day, Luciana told Melody to take a break and rest; Melody declined, citing the lack of other servants, but Luciana refused to accept the reasoning. The conversation continued back and forth until eventually, Luciana forced her maid out the door, as though saying “This is NOT an exploitive work environment!” and thus Melody found herself with a free day.

In the end, Melody had quite an enjoyable day off exploring the capital with a certain other girl, but that would be a story for another day.

Regardless, sometime along the way, when Melody was perusing the marketplace, something had caught her eye: a cloth doll with brown hair and indigo eyes. A sudden idea struck Melody as she examined the doll.

— If nobody comes in looking for work, couldn’t we use something like this doll?

The convenience of magic had long since enraptured Melody, and now she found herself plotting a new, fantastical idea with her powers. In fact, at this moment, she looked rather similar to a certain Blue Fairy in the story about a certain puppet.

And so the day following her break, Melody began her plan to create a maid from a doll.

“I can use the doll as the body, but what I need now is a brain. Well, that shouldn’t be a problem, but…”

Melody mumbled quietly to herself as she stared down the doll sitting on the table in her room.

Although the process itself involved magic, the issue was more on the robotics. After all, even if the hardware was capable of it, it could do nothing without the appropriate software. Melody, however, had already planned for this scenario.

With the her Clone SelfAlterrego spell, Melody could create a copy of herself identical in every thing but magical power and with all of her memories, knowledge, and skills intact.

But while it seemed to be a truly convenient spell to use, there were actually quite a few drawbacks and limitations.

The primary concern was about its very existence: the clone would only exist for as long as Melody was awake and conscious. In other words, they could only work up until Melody went to sleep.

And if that were to happen, Melody would then have to wake up earlier while at the Academy, re-conjure new clones, and send them back over to the mansion. Such a routine would be extremely troublesome and highly inefficient (though well within the realm of possibility for her).

Which was how Melody now found herself here: making a maid out of an ordinary doll.

“Let this empty vessel by heart be filled, Artificial IntelligenceNuovocuore“

Melody held her hand towards the doll, which began to faintly glow. Through this, Melody selectively erased memories from the clone and began randomly changing up its personality in such a way that even she could not predict the result.

Her aim was not to make some obedient, mindless tool; what Melody wanted was a fellow coworker, one that could independently make choices and act on its own decisions. To this end, Melody had left the personality to develop without interference.

She did have some safety measures in place; the doll would understand basic social, moral, and ethical standards, and it went without saying that it would always prioritize its maid duties. After all, although Melody left many details to chance, she would never risk the possibility of accidentally creating a doll that lacked the proper motivation or temperament to be a respectable maid.

“…Ah.”

The doll had stopped glowing. From the frustrated frown on her face, it would seem that Melody has failed in some way.

“Hmm, is it because the doll can’t hold the magic? Maybe if I make a kind of ‘core’ for it…”

As her resewing magic demonstrated, Melody could imbue inanimate objects with her magic, to a certain extent. However, there was a catch to this: the object may not necessarily be able to hold all of the magic Melody wanted to impart.

And in this case, the amount of magic Melody needed to artifically recreate a human ego vastly exceeded what the doll was capable of holding.

To put it simply, cloth was not an ideal medium for magic. Although there was the case of Luciana and her family having clothes with powerful defensive spells, this was an exception because protection magic directly altered and enchanted the material itself whereas other types of magic were simply stored without affecting the material. It was for this reason that cloth and fabrics were inferior magical mediums, but gems, metals, and other such minerals were much more effective.

By that logic, Melody had believed the indigo-colored stones the doll used as “eyes” could function as a suitable medium, but it seemed they were inadequate.

“I suppose it won’t work unless I can find a suitable core, but will I have enough time.. ah! That reminds me, its about time to go gather in the forest. Open, O gates of service, Side EntranceOvunqueporta.”

A plain door manifested before Melody. When she turned its knob, it opened to reveal a familiar lush forest (better known to others as the Great Forest of Vanargand, the most dangerous of all Demonized Zones), and she casually strolled through, looking to gather the foodstuffs she had in mind.

And by total coincidence, it was on this gathering trip that Melody would easily find a solution to her problem.

“Oh? What is this?”

While harvesting the usual wild plants and mushrooms, Melody chanced upon a strange object: a rather ancient-looking pedestal of darkened silver.

“Is this part of some kind of ruins? It looks like this has been abandoned here for decades or centuries even…”

The pedestal’s condition was indicative of its disrepair; dark discolorations mottled its surface and left only faint traces of the shining silver underneath, obscuring the elegant design and intricate details that should have been visible.

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And at the center of the pedestal’s base was a curiously empty slot. Perhaps there was once a sword occupying the slot, but Melody found no trace of it nearby. Had the sword been stolen?

“Let’s see… this black stuff shouldn’t be rust, so it should probably be from sulfuration?”

Silver was not a metal that rusted, but it would react with sulfur (such as from car exhaust or from the hydrogen sulfide found in hot springs) and blacken through a process called sulfuration.

And that reaction was the very reason why silver was a popular material for cutlery: it would undergo sulfuration and blacken if it came into contact with sulfuric or arsenic poisons mixed into a noble’s meal. Even House Luthorburg… well, it went without saying.

“I’ve never seen anyone else in this forest, but maybe there was once some kind of ritual or ceremony held here?”

As Melody mumbled to herself while looking over the pedestal, an idea came to her mind.

“It wouldn’t be a bad idea to clean this thing up, as a way of thanking the forest for everything it provides. O world microsopic, heed my command, Chemical AuthorityEledominio.”

A hexagonal pattern began enveloping the pedestal before emitting a brilliant light. After the pattern finished covering the pedestal, there was an audible cracking noise; one of the hexagonal shapes had shattered, and its shards appeared to absorb bits of blackness before fading into the air.

That seemed to be the starting signal, and more and more of the hexagons began to shatter and melt away the blemishes on the pedestal. Before long, no trace of grime remained, and all that was left was a pedestal gleaming in glorious silver.

This was, once again, the work of Melody’s almighty maid magic: the “Chemical Authority” spell.

This was a spell that allowed Melody to freely manipulate molecular bonds at the atomic level, enabling her to do things like shift liquid water between gaseous or solid states without manipulating temperature or like splitting water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen atoms.

In this case, the pedestal, made of pure silver, had sulfurized due to coming in contact with hydrogen sulfide, resulting in the dark-colored silver sulfide. Melody had split the sulfur molecules from this compound, restoring the pedestal to pure silver… This was magic on an entirely different level; in extreme cases, it would be possible to commit senseless genocide or other atrocities .

Furthermore, if Melody could break atomic bonds, then she could just as easily form them. For example, if she were to bond oxygen molecules to forcefully induce oxidation in a person, it would result in accelerated aging and imminent bodily failure.

And that was only a basic application; depending on how she manipulated base elements, it would be possible to assassinate any target on a mere whim with zero chance of anyone learning the truth… But, this was Melody, so…

“Fufufu, it’s become so clean and beautiful! If only I had more time, then I could give it a more detailed cleaning with a toothbrush and some paste. Oh well, I should be returning soon, so this will have to do.”

…it would not be an issue whatsoever.

If only the people of this world could appreciate how peaceful their lives are thanks to Melody’s ceaseless devotion to the Way of the Maid…

To be fair, the magic Melody used this time involved concepts the heroine had nothing to do with, so…

In any case, while completely in the dark about the dangerous possibilities about her spell, Melody noticed a peculiar detail in the pedestal.

“Hm? Is magic power leaking from the pedestal? It’s a little weak, but… oh?”

This may have been the site of some magical ceremony after all, as she had guessed, but going by the faint traces of power remaining in the pedestal, its functions were quite limited now. More importantly, however, closer examination revealed that the magic in the pedestal was actually quite similar to Melody’s own.

“Hmm, I see… It was hard to tell before, but this pedestal is quite compatible with my magic. If I used this…”

Melody placed her hands on the pedestal and began channeling her magic, directing its flow to a corner of the base. It did not take much before a small corner broke off, but it was not until Melody had the piece in hand that she had another realization.

“Wait, why did I do that on the spot?! Something could have gone very badly…”

For example, this could have been sealing some dangerous entity, or maybe it was maintaining some spell about the forest. Melody looked around in panic, trying to see if her tampering had affected the surroundings.

“W-well, since there was barely any magic in the first place, s-surely nothing happened, right? Surely whatever it was doing ended a long time ago, r-right?”

Melody muttered to herself in nervous panic, trying to cope with the realization that in her hasty recklessness she had become a bona fide grave robber and scavenger. But though she felt guilt for having done so, she could not deny her need for the piece she would take.

Looking back at the pedestal, it appeared to have lost its previous radiance; it was possible the remnant magic had gathered in the piece Melody held. She gave the pedestal a quiet apology before quickly escaping and returning to the Luthorburg estate.

And then, later that evening and after dinner, Melody was ready to present her plan to the members of House Luthorburg.

“So what is it you wanted to show us, Melody?”

Hughes spoke up on behalf of his family as they watched their maid with curiosity.

“Master, I would like to present my solution to our current employee shortage problem.”

“Oh, is this what you were talking about the other day, Melody?”

Luciana was the first to react, and Melody nodded in affirmation to the question.

“I see. So you found someone who was willing to work here?”

“No, I did not, master. But I did find a doll.”

” ” “A doll?” ” “

Melody placed a female doll on the dining table. Around its neck was a rather adorable choker with a beautiful heart of silver at its center; the piece of pedestal Melody took earlier had become the choker’s centerpiece.

“I am… not sure what you are trying to say, Melody. What does this doll have to do with hiring another servant?”

“My apologies, madam. Please allow me to demonstrate.”

Melody held both hands toward the doll and once agan began channeling magic.

“Let this empty vessel by heart be filled, Artificial IntelligenceNuovocuore!”

The doll, no, the choker’s silver heart began to shine with brilliant light. Melody’s powerful Artificial Intelligence spell seemed to fill the silver trinket before spreading over the rest of the doll.

Because it was a variant of Melody’s Clone spell, the Artificial Intelligence spell could also transmit information about the human body. It seemed the doll was changing to adhere to the spell’s composition, and soon it had taken a more human-like form.

“Father, you can’t look!”

“Dear, please excuse me!”

“Wh-what are the two of you doing? I can’t see anything like this!”

Consider this: if a doll were to suddenly morph into a real human… what would it be wearing?

The ladies had realized what would happen, and they immediately blocked the lone male’s vision. Meanwhile, Melody had frozen stiff in shock by this change, but the reason for that was…

“Mom..?”

The doll in front of her had become the spitting image of her mother Celena. To be more precise, the doll looked identical to Celena at Melody’s age.

It may have been an unnoticed desire hiding deep within the recesses of Melody’s heart.

The doll had come with brown hair and indigo eyes, and it was to fulfill the duties of a maid… By adding Melody’s subconscious wish to be with her mother once again, perhaps it was inevitable for the coincidences to have come together to create this outcome.

Melody continued to absentmindedly stare when the doll suddenly turned to look at Melody, a warm smile on its, no, her face.

“It is my pleasure to greet you, my esteemed creator and dear sister Melody. Would you do the honor of bestowing upon this one a name?”

And the only possible name Melody could give her… was Selena.

“Is something wrong, Melody? You seem distracted.”

Within a carriage headed for the Royal Academy, Melody had been thinking back on the events leading to Selena’s birth. Seeing as her maid was uncharacteristically absorbed in thought, Luciana could not help but call out.

“Oh. I am fine, no need to worry about me, my lady.”

“Really? Well, if you say so… But take a look at this!”

“Look at…? Oh, isn’t that…”

Luciana pulled a thin chain around her neck out from under her clothing. On it was a ring with a set indigo-colored stone, a rather cheap piece of jewelry noblewomen would usually avoid. This ring in particular was something Melody had gifted to her, something she had purchased on that forced day off.

“Hehe, I turned it into a necklace! Isn’t it cute?”

While it would have been acceptable for everyday wear at the mansion, it would be rather uncouth for Luciana keep it on while at the Royal Academy. Thus, Luciana had elected to turn it into a pendant, allowing her to have it on at all times without attracting attention.

“Oh, my lady… You shouldn’t have..”

Seeing Luciana’s thoughtful handicraft filled Melody with warm feelings, and she suddenly clapped her hands together, having come up with another great idea.

“My lady, if you will be wearing that pendant at all times, then please allow me to enchant it with my Artificial Sensitive SkinArtilsensitivospell. While I have already put protection enchantments on your uniform, it would not hurt to have extra insurance just in case.”

“Artificial Sensitive Skin” was another of Melody’s maid magicks; it was a protection spell she could enchant on clothing or accessories that would alert the wearer of any malicious intent directed at them. During the Spring Ball, it was this spell that detected the unknown assailant and helped to avert the worst case scenario, but…

“No, there’s no need.”

Luciana declined Melody’s suggestion.

“May I know why?”

“Melody’s magic is extremely helpful and convenient, but… I will be attending the Royal Academy to learn more about the world around me. And part of that is being able to form relationships with others, on my own. Therefore, I must at least become able to judge people for myself without always relying on your magic.”

“My lady… That is a splendid mindset to have!”

Melody’s heart overflowed with indescribable feelings; having watched over Luciana as a guardian, Melody was proud of how much Luciana has grown since their first meeting.

“I completely understand, my lady. However, I will not be removing the enchantments from your clothes. Please accept this one compromise.”

Luciana responded with a soft giggle.

“Fufufu, well, I suppose that wound be fine. Looks like I’ll still be relying on that as final safety precaution… Oh, and Melody?”

“What is it, my lady?”

“While we’re at the Academy, I want you to hold back from using your magic as much as possible.”

“‘Hold back’..? Oh, is this like before, you wanted to be more independent?”

“Uh, y-yeah, like I said before. Is that okay?”

“Of course, it will not be a problem at all. Fufufu… Doing work without the help of my maid magic will be fun in its own way.”

Melody’s smile shone like a sun, a truly adorable sight to behold. She seemed to become exceptionally motivated having heard that game of life would be changing from ‘Very Easy’ to ‘Hard’ mode.

On the other hand, Luciana let out a great internal sigh of relief as she outwardly smiled wryly at the excited Melody.

(It’s a good thing she agreed so easily… I can’t even imagine what might happen if Melody were to use use her magic without restraint while at the Academy…)

It would most likely become a terrible disaster… Thankfully, Luciana nipped that possibility before it had a chance to come to fruition.

(Well, I guess I also had the option of telling her exactly how outrageous her magic actually is, but it’s been getting harder and harder to tell her lately… I wonder why…)

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