Chapter 28: Chapter 27 – Interior VI

A tub of cold water, ready for bathing and washing, awaits Percibell as she scurries towards the middle of the bathroom in her soiled clothes. Rosaria and Xal always have this tub prepared, she notices, most likely for her sake. Carefully, she tries to remove the stains from her panties with a bar of soft herbal soap, and proceeds to wash and dry her stockings and part of her skirt. She empties out the tub, double-checking with a flushed face to make sure no signs of pee remain and hurries onward.

The rest of her workday passes as if in a dream, until she turns an unfortunate corner. Bumping into Rosaria suddenly disturbs her daze. When questioned about her progress in finding the requested sigil, the elf maid responds with her typical mixture of shyness and reserved politeness — the Princess, already expecting her to underperform pays no attention to the twitch in the ears and the flush on the cheeks.

「I-I-I couldn't find it, but I swear I will... !」she promises to the rhythmical, patronizing patting on the head.

She continues cleaning the ground floor, wiping, dusting and polishing, conjuring up gusts to remove dust and cobwebs, attempting to stay focused on the missing item. But her mind is completely absent, re-living the moment when her and Xal's mouths touched. She catches herself repeating the same motions with her lips when seeing her reflection in a well-polished chestplate, and makes a tiny jump of surprise.

When passing the downstairs corridor, she takes care to avoid Xal, stepping aside when she spots him walking towards the common room. Peeking in around the entrance, she sees him talking with Rosaria. Compelled by curiosity and worried of what he might reveal, Percibell bends and twists her body to get a little bit closer, but still be able to quickly retreat — all the while her ears home in on the conversation.

「I already told you it's going to be alright!」 Xal exclaims with an annoyed look.

「You should have known how I would feel about it!」 Rosaria whispers in a harsh tone with her arms crossed.

Xal and Rosaria move away a bit, making it harder to hear what each is saying. Looking at the two, she can see Rosaria's expression worsening, going from looking concerned to angry to mad. She almost turns around to face her — and Percibell instantly hides — but Rosaria's voice reaches her.

「... Can't believe it... of all people, why her...?!」

The elf starts feeling weak, her knees turning steadily into cotton once again. She should get ready to bid farewell to her life now that the encounter with Xal has been revealed. Peeking around the entrance once more, she freezes still with fear as her eyes unexpectedly meet Rosaria's, looking directly back. With a soft thump, the little elf drops helplessly to the floor, watching Rosaria strut toward her.

「Percibell,」 Rosaria calls out.

Too afraid to look her in the eyes, Percibell breathes frantically, tracing the princess' feet closing in on her.

「Ah…! No… S-sorry!」 she yells before doing her best to flee upstairs, the sudden, panicking spur of wind magic changing the clacking into almost soundless steps.

§

Days of slow and peaceful weather, of cumulus clouds lazily passing over the landscape and rays of evening sun gracing the household, making the Wilderness autumn seem unusually welcoming. One particularly cold morning, however, brings with it another series of gusts of wind, which tear the last few leaves off the old great oak, leaving it completely bare, looming outside the bedroom window. The cold is upon the land. In a hurry, overwintering birds fly here and there, searching either for a place to hide or for a scrap of food. The now low-hanging clouds again menace the land with possible torrents of rain.

Unaware of all of this, Rosaria stands in the reading room adjacent to the living room, staring into the distance and tapping her foot on a part of the floor which resonates differently from the rest.

Percibell is walking back and forth around the room's entrance with brisk steps. With a worried look on her face, she occasionally stops to peek inside, watching how Rosaria has her gaze glued to a book that she picked up from the nearest shelf.

Her gait appears unusually rigid — the maid has already learned to recognize this as a sign of great upset in the Princess. For the past days, she hadn't talked to her at all about Xal, nor revealed in any way that she knew what had transpired between the two. This does little to soothe the elf's fears. On the contrary, the lack of knowledge and the anticipation of a fit of rage, even if over something unrelated — and the ensuing magical violence — makes Percibell's chest thump with anxiety.

The tapping of Rosaria's foot continues, with a rhythm that sometimes goes off-beat. The sounds off the gusts of wind hitting the windows only work to complement the misses, giving each subsequent tap an eerie edge.

Another peek from the elf, and the sound gets louder and quicker. On the next look, when it suddenly stops, a muted shriek escapes the maid's mouth as she watches Rosaria shuffle her weight onto the other foot.

「Do you require anything?」 a sharp and stinging voice but filled with noble candor pierces the air, making Percibell's shoulders twitch.

「Hiiii~」 she squeals, 「n-no... well.」

「Are you going to stand there all day then? Was there a book you wanted to read or, what, no, can you even read?」 Rosaria asks with slight, trained scorn in her voice, her eyes never leaving the book she is holding.

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Percibell enters the room with careful steps and puts her index fingers together. Bearing a sorry expression, she mutters with a quiet voice, 「N..no... I-I can't...」

Finally, Rosaria takes her eyes off the book and turns to the elf maid with unfeigned annoyance in her eyes,「Then what are you doing here?」

「Iiiiihh~」 Percibell's body twitches. She is just about to turn on her heel and run away, but decides against it — instead, she gazes down and clutches onto her black skirt.

「I was... I was... just wondering...」 she utters meekly.

「Will you speak clearly?」 Rosaria's voice sounds impatient.

「Uwaa....! I'm sorry!」

Tears gather in her eyes while she tries her best to speak up.

「I was just wondering what was wrong, since Miss Melan seems to be in a bad mood. Maybe I did s-something... I'm sorry...」

Rosaria sighs and puts the book back on the shelf. She walks toward the exit, passing right by Percibell, who closes her eyes, wincing.

「It's nothing the likes of you need to concern yourself with,」 she says in a harsh tone, exiting the room.

Percibell could swear she heard the princess muttering something under her breath when passing by, hinting at things bothering her and about to unfold, but the words were too indistinct.

A sigh of relief washes over the elf. With silent steps, she trots over to the bookshelf to inspect the tome Rosaria was reading with curiosity. Looking at the title, she tries to read it out loud.

「Divi....nity... no, divi... naaate... divinaaaa... tion? An... swer? No... anci.. ents? Divination Ancients!」

Later that day, while cleaning, Percibell witnesses the two arguing again. For the past few days since her incident with Xal, their usual, passionate private time has been replaced with frequent arguing and spiteful remarks from both parties. The elf, who has been on the sidelines the whole time, has to bear the shouting, then the silence, sideways looks and awkwardness that comes with watching two people fight without being able to do anything.

What she did manage to figure out is that something or someone related to Xal has been irking the Princess in a bad way. And the way the Princess is complaining about it, sometimes even resorting to threats such as running away, or not relenting on the barrier, shutting them off from the world, is making Xal show sides of himself Percibell hadn't seen before.

The way he sometimes glares menacingly at Rosaria for a split second, or cuts her off mid-sentence, the way he stomps out of the room after an argument, make the elf feel like he's become a different man — different than the one who she felt pity for, the one she kissed that day. His ability to regain composure afterwards is the only thing that reassures her.

On a particularly windy day, as the evening was drawing to a close, and as if everything was fated to culminate, the two's bickering reaches a high point.

Percibell is shivering while tip-toeing around the room. When she's on her way out, she sees little sparks of light float about, turning to see Rosaria's eyes glow with magical fury.

「You're such a-」

Her high-pitched voice stops abruptly when a loud knocking sound echoes through the corridor.

All three of them immediately turn to the sound. The wind howling outside momentarily calms down. Rosaria, Xal, and the shuffling, awkwardly-positioned Percibell all begin eyeing the entranceway leading to the main door.

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