Chapter 20: Mira is outfitted?

Real t.i.tle: The Elite Maids

The sun ascended and the castle began to hum with life. Mira who was sleeping in underwear woke up. It was the outcome of ignoring the nightwear — a rabbit kigurumi that was prepared for her with a note.

Last night the refining stand and materials were delivered shortly after the maid showed her the bedroom. As she promised before, Mira made all the refined and sealed gems that Solomon wanted. It took her a little over 20 minutes. It could be enough to make the royal refiners pa.s.s out if they saw that.

Still sleepy, Mira went to the toilet and then collapsed on top of the bed again. When she did it, the forgotten rabbit pajamas leaped up and covered her hand.

“What’s that&h.e.l.lip;”

Shaking away the foreign substance touching her hand, Mira recognized bouncing rabbit ears reflecting in her slightly opened eyes and jumped out of bed. A sheet of paper that fell at her feet caught her attention.

The words ‘We prepared the nightwear for you. Please don’t hesitate to wear it. From all the maids’ a.s.saulted Mira with uncharted fear.

The words she heard from Solomon yesterday about maids who were engrossed into making an outfit for her pa.s.sed through the mind. And it was the teaser. Maids were too fast at that pointless work.

In a mad rush, Mira opened the menu to check the time. It displayed 8:45 AM.

It was way too late for the departure.

Without noticing the tiredness from the carriage trip, she made a mistake of turning loose in this high-cla.s.s bed.

Nothing but warning bells sprang to Mira’s alarmed mind when it started to grope for the next step. And a silent knock in the door forcibly put an end to it.

“Good morning, Miss Mira. I brought your attire.”

A bit eager female voice called her through the door. For Mira, it became the death sentence.

(She certainly brought it!)

In a rush, Mira looked around the room but there was nothing to wear instead bar the rabbit pajama and her cute dress. She was desperately looking for a breakthrough solution, but her time was over.

“There is no answer. Is she still sleeping? The breakfast will get cold so I must come to wake her up and bring her the attire now. Yes, I must.”

After a short act recited in a monotone voice, the bedroom door opened.

And the first thing that caught maid’s eyes was the small bottom of Mira.

In a light panic, Mira for some reason thrust her head into the bed. That was all. She like an ostrich stuck her head under the covers and left her body exposed.

“M-i-s-s M-i-r-a. Good morning.”

The maid trotted to Mira and gently rolled up the high-quality dawn blanket and with a grin made another greeting to the wryly smiling Mira.

“Y&h.e.l.lip;yea. Morning.”

“I am a maid appointed to take care of you. My name is Lily. I am looking forward to working with you.”

“A.. ah, so.”

A real, not phony magical girl costume that Lily held in her hands made Mira ,who was ashamed of her own ridiculous actions, to grab her head in a deep anguish.

The Gothic Lolita costume was based around white and black colors and used a moderate amount of cloth. A short black flared skirt in a set with a sleeveless dress and a coat in the form of an opened in front robe completed the outfit. Without much respect to her will, magical girl Mira was being dressed up to a very, very lovely attire. The number frills and ribbons increased even further.

As her only granted wish, she was spared with plain panties she already had instead of frilly lace ones. Her request for trunks was instantly rejected.

After that, Mira was forcibly brought to a room in the only place in the castle where men trespa.s.sing was forbidden — the maids area — and surrounded by countless maids.

“Here, Miss Mira. Lift your arms.”

Obeying to a holding tape measure Lily, Mira raised her hands. Her eyes already lost their l.u.s.ter. She became a blindly following orders marionette.

Right now they measured her chest. While it was fine for panties to be loose a bit, wearing a wrong-sized bra could bring numerous problems. After Lily brought up such reasoning, Mira resigned with “Do whatever thou want” and still kept standing still like that.

Still, even if this problem hasn’t touched Mira since she hasn’t had any intense exercises yet, she already felt rubbing from the robe several times. And after Lily and the rest maids half-threatened her that if she leaves it alone, any touch would become extremely painful, Mira completely gave up.

“Such a good form, I’m jealous&h.e.l.lip;”

“I see&h.e.l.lip;”

After completing the rough measurements Lily got behind Mira and gently wrapped up her two bulges with her hands to find the precise size.

(How long will this torture last&h.e.l.lip;)

Contrary to the will of the absent-minded Mira, Lily after grasping the details of her breast size made instructions and the rest of the maids promptly brought an exact-fit bra.

“How does it feel, Miss Mira? Doesn’t it hurt? Do you feel tight anywhere?”

“No. Anyway I can’t calm down with it.”

“It should be fine. Everybody feel like that for the first time.”

After the tender dressing up, Mira, feeling slightly pressured, made a large sigh lamenting her looks.

The maids wholeheartedly entertained an unconcerned about the outfit important guest. Even when they were joyfully enjoying themselves, there was nothing to blame in their professionalism and their skillful coordinated work.

When the maids quickly finished measuring all the sizes of Mira, not just her breast, they became worked up about an even more perfect than the one they made by eye-measurements cosp&h.e.l.lip;outfit. Mira still had no idea that the main performance will await her at the next castle visit.

After the maids of this area saw her off, Mira was lead to the dining room by Lily and took a breakfast. Bread and soup, salad and fruit juice and similar light yet well-balanced foods brought her to her senses.

A magical girl was happily sipping fruit juice in a corner of the dining room. An auntie from the dining room delightfully watched over her; Lily broke out a smile. The outfit which suited her better than expected naturally gathered glances.

When Mira finished drinking the fruit juice, she finally lifted her face and noticed eyes focused on her.

(What’s.&h.e.l.lip; Is this the ‘being stared at’ feeling?)

She exposed her alertness, but her fl.u.s.tered, restlessly looking around figure only stirred up the women’s desire to protect. Actually, Lily was writhing while witnessing this small animal-like behavior. And men, who were used to seeing the quite st.u.r.dy castle maids, were completely fascinated by her, musing if girls were such cute creatures.

Anyway, for not used to attention Mira it was obtrusive and the persecution complex habitually told her mind that they certainly were laughing at her weirdness.

After leaving the dining table, Lily pacified Mira while leading her to the office. But words that it was only because she was cute served only as the finis.h.i.+ng blow.

“King Solomon, I brought Miss Mira here.”

With a knock in the door, Lily called him.

“Yea, get in.”

“Excuse me.”

Getting the permission of Solomon, Lily silently opened the door and with a bow got Mira into office, gently closed the door and went outside to stay on the alert.

“Hey, g’morning.”

“Yea, morning.”

Mira returned the greeting and, looking completely drained, threw her body into the sofa. After seeing her outfit, Solomon’s shoulders shook while he covered his mouth with his hands. Mira shot a glare at him.

“Have you slept well?”

“Yea, so well I couldn’t escape from the maids.”

“You look very pretty. Just as expected from my royal maids.”

“Even though I had no problems with a normal robe.”

Becoming sulky, Mira fluttered the edge of the skirt. Indeed, it was hard to believe that such masterpiece could be made in a night.

“By the way, it seems you did what I asked you to last night.”

“Yea. Ah, about that. I left it behind in the room.”

“A maid delivered it after you left the room. Now we can do our valuable experiments for a while. Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me for such little things.”

Turning her sight from Solomon, Mira answered with a blush. She surely was a bit eager at making it.

“Ah, by the way. While I haven’t forgotten to give it to you.”

“Hmm. What’s that?”

With that words, Solomon threw a pouch to her. Mira caught this pouch with something jingling inside.

“It’s money, money. Do you remember Graia? The officer of the magical knights order. I heard from him that you helped to suppress monsters. It’s the reward.”

“Ah, that’s what it is. But I already have so much money I can not worry about it.”

“Really? Do you have it somewhere in the warehouse of Tower or what?”

“What are thou saying? I have it with me&h.e.l.lip;”

Saying that, Mira halted while trying to retrieve the money. She had tried to retrieve about 100 leafs but it did not came out. By the way, leafs is the unit of currency in this world.

“Ah, have you noticed it? Now guess why.”

Solomon showed her a mischievous smile.

A s.h.i.+ver crossed the mind of Mira. In a hurry, she tried to check her balance but the number showing it that should be there disappeared without a trace.

“Where had my money gone?”

“Same as the floating island. It was probably swallowed by the waves of the digital world. A majority of players believe that money, unlike items, weren’t in the inventory. So it was a different thing. It was governed by the game system before but when it ceased to be a game, this system stopped working. That is quite believable.”

“What.&h.e.l.lip;My 200 million&h.e.l.lip;”

“You stashed quite a lot&h.e.l.lip; Well, I was the same at that time&h.e.l.lip;”

For the second time since the floating continent case, the two of them with hollowed out hearts for some time silently looked up at the sky.

“So, you can’t use any money that you don’t physically have in your hands anyway so here is 100 000 for the time at an occasion of reward. Use it sparingly. You’re good at that, right?”

There were several coins in the pouch. One gold coin, 3 mythril coins, 3 silver coins, 4 cobalt coins, 10 copper ones. A gold coin is equal to 50 000 leafs, mythril one is 10 000, silver is 5 000, cobalt is 1 000, copper is 100 leafs.

“100 000.&h.e.l.lip; Just 100 000&h.e.l.lip;”

“Forget it already. For you it’s easy to earn money in no time. I already managed to forget it too. I actually managed&h.e.l.lip;”

The game system did not allow to steal money and death penalty was limited to inventory items alone without affecting money. That’s why there was no reason to store money at the storeroom. This habit backfired now.

“Also I just remembered while telling that, have you tried to use the item box since you came here?”

Solomon recalled the changes since 30 years ago he had already started to forget.

“Several times. What’s wrong with it?”

“Looks like you haven’t noticed it yet.”

With that words, Solomon took a fountain pen from the table and threw it to Mira. She caught it and held  it before eyes.

It looked like a usual fountain pen. Well, since it was used by king, it was a fine-crafted expensive pen.

“And what’s that?”

“Try to put it in the item box.”

While thinking about why he said that, when Mira tried to open the inventory to put the fountain pen as he said, the pen fell onto the floor.

“What does it mean?”

Staring at the pen rolling on the floor, Mira glanced at the inventory. It wasn’t full and there was no visible problem with it. Not understanding the situation, she turned her look to Solomon.

“I already told you that money was managed by the game system, right? Actually, it looks like inventory items were managed by this system too.”

Picking the pen up, Solomon opened his own inventory.

“By the game era cla.s.sification, fountain and quill pens were misc items, swords and armor were equipment, gems and metal ingots were materials.

A long time ago players made a research facility to clarify the laws governing this world and they have done a lot of experiments since that time. Any way, they say that the items themselves were automatically cla.s.sified and sorted by the game system. And the item box, as the name suggests, can’t contain anything not cla.s.sified as an item.”

While saying that, Solomon took a book from the shelves and held it to show to Mira.

“Now, when the game system does not work, this fountain pen is not a misc item and this book is not a written item. It means you can’t put them in the item box. By the way, all the stuff that is already in the item box already possesses cla.s.sification so there is no issue.”

“That’s rather annoying. Do thou mean I can’t travel empty-handed?”

The revelation of this fact brought Mira to tears. She was going to look for problem children and the goods for this journey would grow unwieldy in size without a doubt.

“But, you know, half a year after the item box became useless, we found a ground-breaking method.”

“Eh? And what is that?”

“The point is, you just need to do the work of game system manually. The research found the【Abstract Skill: Itemization】. Using that skill on an item cla.s.sifies it to some category and prepares  it for the item box.”

“Do thou mean that with that skill I can use the item box like before?”

“Yes, like that. It’s simple so I’ll teach it now.”

“Yea, please.”

30 minutes later Mira smoothly learned the Itemization skill. Using it on the fountain pen, she confirmed that she can place it into the item box and nodded in satisfaction.

Abstract skills is a category for all the skills that don’t belong to any cla.s.s. There are a lot of convenience skills like the Itemization skill contained in it and anybody can use them as long as they have mana. The skill to illuminate a room also was an abstract skill although Mira used Creos instead.

After that, Mira quickly tested the Itemization and returned to the sofa for a rest.

“Well, about the underground graveyard then. Unlike before, now all the dungeons are managed by the a.s.sociated Adventurer Union.

Solomon moved to the discussion about the mission he entrusted to Mira.

“Adventurer Union? What’s that?”

“It’s an organization made to prevent the reckless deaths of ordinary people and novices when this world became real.”

“Oh&h.e.l.lip;stiff like this? And the real goal is to hog all the treasures in dungeons to themselves, right?”

“There was a little incident once. &h.e.l.lip;One child died.”

“Hmm. That explains it&h.e.l.lip;”

Mira somehow got it.

Dungeons are fields that spread indoors instead of open air. There are treasures lying inside but compared to open-air fields it’s full with rampant monsters and wild animals are much stronger than in open air so it’s dangerous places. Still, it is very appealing so people guided by various expectations often got themselves inside just to fall into darkness without seeing the daylight anymore.

In the game era, n.o.body cared about it. But in the reality you can’t overlook incidents like that.

A child entered the dungeon. He was trying to get a special material for the medicine to save his ill mother. When he haven’t still returned at the morning, adults went to look for him. As a result, a bit further in the dungeon they found the scattered parts of a barely recognizable half-eaten body of a boy which was holding a single flower in a hand. Shortly after his mother heard of this, she pa.s.sed away following him.

The world was one that became a reality. NPCs, the native inhabitants who already lived here, held human hearts with all the accompanying feelings about death. A player who heard about that case made an organization managing dungeons to prevent the same things from occurring anymore. It became the “a.s.sociated Adventurer Union..”

And now, after requiring a permission for entering dungeons and hearing requests when somebody needed ingredients from inside and couldn’t it be worked around, the union also started pa.s.sing various requests to skilled people.

Gradually becoming larger, helping to suppress monsters that became a national problem, it got the right to place offices in each country.

“Well, that’s what we have to deal with now. Of course, you are going to be in the Magician Union. Here is a recommendation letter.”

Solomon walked to Mira with an envelope in hands and gave it to her with a smile.

“So, I can enter with that?”

Accepting the recommendation letter, Mira briefly looked at the envelope and quickly itemized it to throw into the item box. The recommendation letter was cla.s.sified as a written item.

“No, it’s just a recommendation. Only adventurers that belong to the union can enter dungeons. Also, there is a ranking based on the difficulty of the dungeon. The underground graveyard is rated as C or higher.

There are a lot of different requests at the union now and doing them proves your strength for the rank promotion. That’s a simple model of how the union works. Now it seems strange that there was no similar system back in the game era.”

“Surely it makes sense. Raising the rank to accept more difficult missions. Such games were fun too.”

The tension of Mira began to rise due to that somewhat game-like reference.

“This recommendation letter proves your ident.i.ty and strength. Freshly registered adventurers are originally starting with the rank G, but it should be enough for an abrupt promotion to the rank C.

By the way, the union will not grant you more even at my request.”

“Understood. Well, it should be enough. I should simply register with it, right?”

“Yeah. By the way, there are two windows in the union, warrior and magician guilds. Like the names say, it’s divided by cla.s.ses they are working with.”

“There should be a department in this city too, right? I will register right now.”

“Yea, there is one. Rather, the union has offices in most of the cities. There is one in a city close to the underground graveyard where I’m going to send you by the carriage too. Are you really sure? It takes almost a day to issue the adventurer’s ID.

His smile implied something. Mira felt a hint of anxiety from it.

“Ah, only a day? Then I’m staying here for anoth&h.e.l.lip;”

Suddenly Mira recalled the disaster that happened this morning. Given them a whole another day, who knows what masterpiece those maids would create. Understanding what Solomon implied, Mira began to plan what to do from now.

Spending a night at the inn here. But there is a large probability she will be captured at visiting the castle to get the carriage. Even if the carriage will wait outside of the city, a maid could also wait together with it so it’s no good too.

After worrying about that, Mira concluded that a single day of postponement is fatal anyway so she firmly decided to leave immediately.

“Please prepare a carriage right now.”

“Ha ha ha. All arrangements are already done. You can leave at any time.”

Mira eagerly stood up and left the office with Solomon.

Accompanied with Lily they arrived at a stable inside of the castle. There were two horses and a carriage a size larger than the previous time. Next to it a stableman, a maid holding a large basket and a bag and Garett who served as a coachman the previous time waited there.

“Oh, Garett? What, are thou serving as my coachman again?

“Good morning. If you don’t mind, let me serve you again.”

For a moment charmed by the even more polished appearance of Mira, Garett made a bow with a smile to hide it.

“Well, fine. I’m feeling at ease with thou too so I’m counting on you.”

Mira returned a smile with that words. Garett with a blush happily answered “I look forward to working with you.”

“Then, take care.”

“Yea.”

Having exchanged a short goodbye with Solomon, after a tight embrace with Lily Mira got into the carriage. Then another maid brought a basket and a bag inside.

“Take care of yourself and have a good day, Mira. There is a meal inside of the basket and spare clothes inside of this bag.”

“Ye.&h.e.l.lip;yea. Well, thanks.”

With a bow, the maid got off from the carriage. Mira hasn’t thought about the content yet&h.e.l.lip; no, without even the intention to even think about it, she was staring at the bag and made just another sigh.