Chapter 21 – Secret
06-21 Secret
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Surely there’s been some kind of a misunderstanding.”
The maids responsible for Reinhardt, Elsa, and Beana calmly replied, but,
“Whawhawhawhawhawhawhawhawhawhawhat do yoyoyouoyou mean!?”
There was one easy to read girl.
“…”
Everyone looked at the girl with pitying eyes. She was, of course, the maid responsible for Jin.
096
“Huh!?”
Finally she realized it, and belatedly pretended to be calm.
“Laila, you…”
“Wa,”
It seemed like her name was Laila. Laila’s eyes were downcast, and her shoulders shook. Immediately afterwards,
“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!”
She burst into tears.
“Ca- calm down, you.”
“I’m sorryyyyyyyyyyy!”
Seeing Laila cry in front of people without hesitation made Jin and the others feel as if they were in the wrong.
Elsa couldn’t simply stand back and watch and patted Laila on the shoulder,
“No need to cry. No one said that you in particular were in on it.”
In spite of that while Laila still sniffled, she had nearly stopped crying.
“*Sniffle*…Abe yuu sube…?”
“Ah, yes, that’s true.”
Reinhardt replied, seemingly a little drawn back by her face smeared with tears and snot.
＊ ＊ ＊
“In the first place, last time I stayed here we didn’t have any maids like you around.”
Since Laila had calmed down, Reinhardt explained his reasoning.
“And now when it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say nobles from all around the country have gathere here, anyone could guess that the security has become more strict.”
Then taking a glimpse at the maid assigned to him who seemed to be in her late teens and had a sharp air aorund her, he said,
“You’ve got too few wasted movements for a maid. Those are the movements of a person trained in martial arts, most likely a martial art utilizing a short sword.”
He brought the explanation to an end.
After a brief silence, clapclapclap, the sound of applause resounded. The source was again a maid assigned to Reinhardt, this time the glamorous beauty in her 20s.
“Bravo, Reinhardt-sama. Indeed, we are a part of the Royal Secret Maids.”
No one knows whether or not Jin thought what kind of a chuunibyou name is that when he heard it.
＊ ＊ ＊
“The Royal Secret Maids are as name implies, a covert force borrowing the appearance of maids. I am Rianna, this is Kate. She is Mary, and finally there’s Lisa. We are the squad two of the Royal Secret Maids.”
After having their true character reavealed, the squad leader of the Royal Secret Maids’ squad two, the glamorous beauty in her 20s, Rianna, began to talk.
“Our mission is to maintain security in the royal palace. We remove even the slightest bit suspicious people to keep order in the royal palace.”
She said, then shaked her head,
“But being seen through by Reinhardt-sama means we’ve failed.”
After that, she began to set off.
“Oi, you’re just going to leave?”
“Yes, since we’ve failed in our duties we will withdraw.”
Rianna dropped her shoulders and replied. But reinhardt said,
“You fool, surely it’s not like you’ve completely failed?”
“Excuse me?”
Rianna was perplexed and raised her voice, as if she couldn’t understand what Reinhardt was talking about.
“Surely it’s possible to accomplish your mission even if your identities have been exposed?”
“…”
“If you let go of the people who know the royal palace’s grounds well, it wouldn’t end with just reprimands from your superiors, right?”
“That’s right but…”
Then that’s settled, Reinhardt said and clapped his hands together,
“I don’t really have any problem with you monitoring us. It’s your job after all. But getting sneakily and secretly watched is just unpleasant.”
Jin admired Reinhardt’s generosity, but also got a strange sense of discomfort.
Jin’s attention was then drawn by by someone tugging his sleeve. It was Elsa. With a whisper,
“Rai-nii has always been soft with women who have large breasts.”,
She informed Jin.
＊ ＊ ＊
“…”
Currently, Jin was back in his room. In front of him was Laila.
For some reason or another, Jin recalled a young girl from the orphanage. She was unexpectedly chosen as the class representative on her second year of junior high school, and her unfamiliar duties made her a nervous wreck every day.
“Hey, Laila.”
“Y-yes! How can I help!”
Jin was exasperated by how overly nervous she was. He thought that maybe she wasn’t suited for the job. Then,
“Why did you join something like the Royal Secret Maids?”,
He asked. Laila hanged her head in shame,
“Aww… So you think i’m not cut out for it after all?”,
She asked and looked at him with upturned eyes. A normal man would’ve likely felt something after such a gesture, but Jin was a hardcore blockhead and a dullard who’s tone-deaf to emotions.
“Yeah, I think so.”
He gave an honest reply, and Laila’s shoulders drooped with disappointment,
“That’s right, isn’t it… Why would my older sister put me up for this job…”
＊ ＊ ＊
Elsa didn’t have any guilty feelings whatsoever, and didn’t change her behavior at all in front of the Royal Secret Maid assigned for her, Kate.
Bathing, eating, changing clothes. Seeing Elsa behave as if Kate didn’t exist, she sighed and thought in her heart that she was no match for Elsa.
＊ ＊ ＊
Reinhardt was silently keeping his diary. Since he was still a diplomat, he was required to submit a report after returning to his country, and so he made documents for that purpose.
Aside him Rianna and Mary were standing around looking bored.
They waited until Reinhardt was done keeping his diary.
“Excuse me, Reinhardt-sama…”
“Hm? What is it?”
“Why did you stick up for us?”
Reinhardt smiled and replied to Rianna’s question,
“Hmm, why indeed. I don’t like being monitored. But I also don’t like having women like you get scolded, you see.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? Are you perhaps trying to seduce me?”
Rianna laughed, covering her mouth with her hand and wiggling her hips. It was fairly coquettish, but Reinhardt wasn’t perturbed.
“Ha ha, even though it may not look like it, but I spent six years apprenticing for a diplomat. I’m plenty experienced with seduction techniques.”
“Oh, how unpleasant.”
Rianna said and once more straightened herself.
“Monitoring, when done behind the scenes and in secret is disagreeable, but if it’s done openly it’s surprisingly easy to tolerate.”
“Ah, it turned out to have a rather subtle answer.”
“Because if I were to send you away, they’d send a more capable person and this time we might get monitored without noticing them, no? And I’m saying I don’t like that.”
Reinhardt said and gave an eloquent smile.