Chapter 3: 3

Volume 1 Chapter 3: The Girl Awakened as a Maid

“…Mom, who was that beautiful person?”

“Beautiful person? Oh, that’s a maid.”

“…a maid? Ah..!”

At that moment, information ran through Celesti’s mind like an electric current.

(– I… maid… airplane… name… my name is… Mizunami Ritsuko!)

Celesti suddenly regained memories of a past life. In that life, she adored maids, and, before she died, had been on a plane for a study abroad in England. Unfortunately, turbulence had caused the plane to be lost at sea.

Thus Mizunami Ritsuko had passed on, unable to even say goodbye to her beloved parents…

“Celesti? What’s wrong? Does something hurt?”

“– Eh? Oh…”

Celesti was crying, but she quickly wiped away her tears.

“No, it’s nothing. I just got some dust in my eye.”

“I see. Well then, let us return home.”

“Yea!”

After a silent apology to the parents of her previous life, Celesti took hold of her new mother’s hand, and the two continued home.

“Celesti McMurden” is the name Ritsuko goes by in her new life. Currently only six years old, Celesti’s family consists of two people, herself and her mother Celena, while her father is nowhere to be found. The one clue Celesti had of her absent father was her hair; while she had inherited Celena’s lapis lazuli eyes, Celesti’s unique silver hair was unlike her mother’s brown.

In any case, it would seem Mizunami Ritsuko had been reborn as Celesti… in another world.

There were several reasons to believe so. For one, the name of where Celesti lives, the small town of Anavares, located in the Margravate of Avarenton and west of the Kingdom of Theolas, is not a place that existed in Ritsuko’s memories.

The next reason was because of the town: while Anvares had the feel of Medieval Europe in the Middle Ages, the toilets were… advanced enough to flush.

With the pull of a lever, flowing water would wash away waste and excrement. Thanks to that, the streets of Anavares remained clean.

Speaking of Europe in the Middle Ages, it was common to dispose of refuse in the alleys… ugh!

As the city lacked a sewage system and still used drinking wells, the existence of flushable toilets created a mysterious technological imbalance.

The explanation for that was also the most convincing reason why Celesti believed this was a different world: magic.

“Illuminate with care, LamplightLuce.”

Celena’s fingertip began glowing softly, and she brought her finger to the candleholder . The glow appeared to transfer over, and light bloomed from the tip of the candle.

At first, Celesti thought it had been a trick, but she later realized the truth: magic exists in this world.

The flushing toilets were also a byproduct of magic; magicians from long before the founding of the nation had introduced the technology, and such toilets became the norm for people in this world.

The church checks for magical aptitude in children at the age of five, but it seems Celesti had no talent for magic.

“I can feel the presence of magical energy, but you seem to be missing “something” to properly invoke it.”

Celesti had felt disappointment when they informed her so, but she moved on from the feeling rather quickly.

(Since I’m going to be a maid anyway, not being able to use magic isn’t a problem!)

After all, maids were actually commonplace in this world and had no need for magic; this was not be an opportunity Celesti would pass up.

For the first time in a long while, Celesti’s heart beat in anticipation, and her world began to fill with color.

“Oh my, Celesti, you seem to be in a good mood today. Did something good happen?”

“Yeah! But it’s a secret! I’ll tell you when the time comes!”

“Oh dear, then I’ll be looking forward to it.”

“Yeah!”

Right now, Celesti was probably following the whims of her body; her spirit seemed to match her age as she genuinely enjoyed the feeling of keeping a secret.

In any case, even if she wanted to, Celesti could not be a maid when she was only six. In this world, adulthood began at the age of fifteen, and it would be around that age when Celesti would begin working.

That’s when I can tell mom — was what Celesti had thought at the time.

But she should have remembered from her previous life that farewells could come without warning…

“Mom! Mom!”

“Celesti… I’m sorry. There is… a letter. Please… read it…”

“Mooommmm!!”

When Celesti was 14, a disease causing high fevers spread throughout the town, and her mother Celena had fallen ill.

As the sorrowful funeral drew to a quiet close, Celesti’s solitary life began.

The experience of losing her parents twice – first in her previous life and now in her current life – left a deep scar in Celesti’s heart.

She could recall neither her mother’s letter nor her dream of becoming a maid…

It was only by chance that she remembered. Half a year after Celena’s passing, Celesti happened see the mailman outside.

Celesti had rushed to her mother’s room and found the piece of paper in the bedside chest.

“To my beloved Celesti,” the letter began.

Please forgive me for leaving you alone.

I wish I could have been with you more. I wanted to be there to congratulate you when you reached adulthood and became a maid.

Are you surprised? Mom knows all of your secrets, you know.

I knew you had been practicing your curtsy in secret, and it was becoming very graceful.

I’m sure you would have become a wonderful maid, and… the truth is, I used to be a maid.

But please be careful. Although the world of maids appears glamorous, there are still dangers to be aware of.

This is especially true when you work for nobles.

The name of your father is Cloud Reginbars. He was just the heir of a count household at the time, but perhaps he has fully inherited the title by now.

The two of us were truly in love, but there was nothing we could do about the differences between our social statuses.

So when his father, the head of the household at the time, discovered our relationship, I was dismissed.

It wasn’t until later that I found out I was pregnant with you.

And so your father doesn’t even know you exist. But please, don’t condemn him for not knowing.

Celesti, you will have two options:

First, you can go and meet your father.

Your silver hair comes from your father, and it will convince him of your claim. That hair color is very rare, after all.

But in doing so, you will become the daughter of a count, and you will have to give up on being a maid.

The other choice is to, of course, become a maid.

While I personally wish for you to meet your father, the final decision will be yours, Celesti.

I will respect your choice, so follow your heart.

But you know, if you choose to be a maid, make sure you become ‘the greatest maid in the world.’

I will always watch over you.

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I love you Celesti. I will see you again in heaven.

But only come after you’ve become an old lady. Otherwise I won’t forgive you. Absolutely not.

From your mother Celena.

As her tears spilled onto the letter and smudged the writing, Celesti swore a quiet oath to her mother.

“Thank you, mom. I will… become a maid. Its not that I don’t care about meeting my dad, but I wish to become a maid. It has been my dream for a very long time, since my previous life. Mom, I will become a maid! Just as you wished, I will become ‘the greatest maid in the world’! Number one in the world!”

These words of determination needed no listeners as they were for herself; the words were a silent pledge to her mother who loved her more than anything and to her fervent passion for maids.

“– I’ll aim to become ‘the greatest maid in the world’! No, I will become one!”

『…A great oath has been sworn to self and another. All conditions cleared. Granting the Blessing of Silver to the Holy Maiden.』

A strange voice suddenly echoed through her head. Celesti looked around in surprise but could not find the source of the voice.

By chance, a candleholder caught her eye, the very same one Celena used to always light with magic.

Celesti unconsciously reached for it and then —

“Illuminate with care, LamplightLuce… Kyaa?!”

A dazzling flash of light filled Celena’s room.

Despite an apparent lack of talent, Celesti had just used magic – with outrageous power, too.

After calming down, Celesti noticed a new kind of feeling blooming in her body. The strange sensation began spreading through her body, feeling much like the flow of blood vessels or like her nerves were expanding…. This must be..

“Is this… magical energy?”

Celesti instinctively recognized the vast amounts of magical energy surging throughout her body.

The Lamplight just now held about 100 times the magical energy the spell normally used, but the amount Celesti consumed seemed to be less than a thousandth of her capacity. For reference, Celena could only cast the spell once a day…

Magical energy was a powerful but volatile resource, so much that improper control or unskilled handling could endanger its user’s life.

It was said that even the country’s most powerful magicians struggled with learning magic in their youth.

However, the performance of those magicians’ magical energy was vastly inferior; Celesti’s power was at least five times, if not closer to ten times, greater than their own. Even so, since Celesti had no one to compare with, she had no way of knowing this.

In the worst case scenario, if Celesti were to lose control of her magical energy, the town of Anavares would return to dust.

This was clearly not the kind of power a mere 14-year-old girl could handle. Normally, children learned to control their powers as they grew, but Celesti did not have that kind of opportunity because of her sudden magical awakening.

If Celesti’s power broke loose now, it could overflow and cause explosive damage in its wild rampage.

By pure intuition, Celesti understood letting her magic run wild would have disastrous results. Thus —

“This is dangerous, so let’s put it away.”

Woosh! — With just one sentence, Celesti completely suppressed the magical energy rampaging within her body.

Demonstrating such nightmarishly high control over her magic would have caused the country’s best magicians to faint from the agony of the required effort. And that was without knowing that in a matter of moments, Celesti had gone from awakening her powers to maintaining complete hold.

…Even the proven geniuses in human history would call her a prodigy.

“Illuminate with care, LamplightLuce“

Celesti’s fingertip glowed with a faint light. It was an ordinary Luce. Somehow Celesti had flawless control over her magic.

She then tried other magic, from creating spheres of water in various sizes and conjuring countless wisps of fire to manipulating a breeze to collect the dust in the room… all at the same time.

“Magic is amazing. Doing all of this is so simple…”

…No, it was not merely ‘so simple’. Simultaneous control of multiple elements was in no way as trivial as Celesti made it out to be.

At that moment, the world’s most powerful magician was born.

With such power, it would not be difficult to seize control of the world — that was the kind of magic Celesti could wield.

“This is amazing… With this much power…”

Most people would become deliriously ecstatic if they suddenly acquired this kind of power, like military officers going berserk with newfound authority, or like reincarnators receiving a balance-breaking cheat skill, or like an immoral protagonist creating an invincible harem.

Anything was allowed — so whispered the devil aiming for moral disengagement and sociopathy.

In particular, the thought processes of a genius like Celesti were far too abnormal, so predicting her actions would be a fool’s errand.

For a girl like Celesti, the world —

“If I use this magic, becoming ‘the greatest maid in the world’ won’t just be a pipe dream!”

…F-for a girl like Celesti —

“I can’t just sit around like this. I must create a for-maids-by-maids kind of Maid Magic, for the sake of every maid, no, wait, I mean for the sake of all the masters out there!! Fufufu, I’m going to be very busy from hereon!”

…Well, it is what it is. The average person cannot comprehend the thought process of a genius, and the devil’s whispers cannot overcome Celesti’s overwhelming love for maids.

There is a fine line between brilliance and idiocy — no, let’s stop it there. In any case, Celesti regained her liveliness.

“Thank you everyone! For everything you’ve all done!”

A month later, Celesti bid her final farewells to the townspeople of Anavares.

Her destination: the neighboring country to the west. This solo trip was to help alleviate the grief of losing her mother.

Having watched her mourn over the past six months, the townspeople still worried for Celesti; nevertheless, they saw her off with smiles.

Naturally, her disclosed travel plans were completely false, and Celesti was actually not planning to go westward. Having thought it through her own way, Celesti eventually decided against telling the townspeople her true destination and purpose.

The maid-obssessed Celesti would not be seeking out and reuniting with her father; although he was unlikely to still be searching for Celena at this, there was no doubt he would not resist taking custody of his newfound daughter.

So Celesti was actually headed for the royal capital of Partesia, towards the east and in the opposite direction of the neighboring western country. She had not made this decision lightly; even Celesti hesitated to leave her hometown and country for a destination she lacked information of.

Thus her first stop was the town of Trendivars. At Trendivars, there would be the renowned ‘Regular Carriage Service’ that ferried passengers between the royal capital and neighboring countries.

After parting with the townspeople, Celesti ducked into the nearby forest and hid behind the bushes to change her clothes, donning a green dress she had made in secret.

“Give unto me a dye of black, Black DyeAnnelier.”

Celesti’s mystical silver hair and shining lapis eyes turned black in color as she chanted her incantation.

“Yep, no problems. I expect no less out of Maid Magic.”

The way an object reflects light determines how the human eye sees color; when light hits an object, that object absorbs some wavelengths of light but reflects others. To give an example, an apple appears red because it reflects red wavelengths of light while absorbing others.

Celesti applied this knowledge to change how her hair and eyes reflected light and appear black.

…An object’s color changes depending on its own material and the type of light shining on it, so how does Celesti account for that? It was a complete mystery.

Solving that issue would require calculations and magic control on a migraine-inducing level, but Celesti did so intuitively. This is why genii are annoying; the average person could not keep up.

After putting on a new dress and recoloring her hair and eyes, Celesti appeared to be a completely different person.

Her black hair and black eyes, dramatically different from her silver hair and lapis eyes, worked in combination with her green one-piece dress to give a completely different impression. The current Celesti shed her aura of mystery for a more cute and calming feel.

“Now no one will suspect that I’m Celesti!”

Having told them a false destination, Celesti did not want the townspeople to catch her riding a carriage to the capital; thus it became necessary for her to abandon her original appearance.

Print media, such as photographs and the like, did not exist in the world, so it would be easy for a person to become unrecognizable simply by altering their hair and eyes. Having confirmed that people with hair or eyes of the color were not uncommon, Celesti chose to dye her features black. Black was, after all, the color most familiar to her as a former Japanese.

“So if I’m not mistaken, the carriage headed for the capital will leave in two days. I have to make sure of this when I reach the town.”

Celesti picked up her bag and took off running — this time toward Trendivars.

Incidentally, while black hair and black eyes were fairly common, people having both characteristics were actually quite rare. Celesti, born and raised in a small town, had no way of knowing this.

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