Chapter 6: Magic Department
Adelaide leaves the dinning room along with the other servants having no idea that the conversation that will happen behind those doors will change her life forever.
.....
Adelaide stands with her back straight and her hands placed in front of her, maintaining an expressionless face despite the throbbing pain in her head or the heated glare being shot at her by the middle aged man seated in front of her.
He's seated upright in the chair watching Adelaide warily like she's an enemy rather than a simple maid. "What business do you have in the magic department?"
Swallows multiple times to wet her dry throat, "The princess asked me to request for a new cooling device."
His brows shoot up. "She's destroyed another device?!"
Bang!
He brings his palm down on the table with such force that the tea in front of him spills a little and the table is left rattling along with Adelaide's aching head.
His anger is justified, after all, this is fourth time Adelaide has come to request for a new magic device this month.
"How did she destroy it in just a few days?! Is it a toy?!" his face has gone red from anger and his large chest is heaves with each breath he draws.
Adelaide bows, "You've misunderstood Lord Welro." she fights back the bile rising up the back of her throat and the haze clouding her vision. "It was broken by accident while the maids where cleaning the room."
"Ha!"
Do they think he's a fool?
A maid dared to break the princess' magic device and there's been no talk of a commotion within her palace? Everyone knows of Princess Josephine's habit of harming anything and anyone around her once she gets upset.
His eyes land on Adelaide who's still bowed looking paler than usual.
'I don't know how she's been able to serve by her side for so long.'
Looking at Adelaide, Lord Welro feels his anger starting to wane. What was the point of venting his anger on someone who's not only blameless but pitiful?
Among all the members of the royal family, Princess Josephine is the most difficult to serve. The only way they can increase the staff working in her palace is by sending new servants who have no idea what awaits them because no servant who has been in the palace long enough will agree to serve there willingly.
'Yet this child has been by her side for years.'
Lord Welro can't even begin to imagine how she's been living all these years.
He leans back on his chair with a sigh, he doesn't get any satisfaction making trouble for such a young child but he can't help the anger that boils within him at the thought of yet another precious magic device being destroyed for no reason, especially when they aren't easy to craft.
It pains him even more because he's one of the thousands of people who are unable to feel mana.
Mana is the essence of all life.
A gift from nature itself present all around us, from the air we breath to the tiniest blade of grass that grows on the field. Whether it's a dying man or a baby still growing in their mother's womb.
They all possess mana.
Mana can't be seen with the naked eye, it can't be heard or perceived with any of the sensory organs like other things can.
At most, mana can be felt or better yet sensed.
Mana is present both within and around us. The mana present within the body is called Inherent mana and the one present all around is called Nature's mana.
Mana can only be sensed by those who have either a mana vein or a mana artery, something a large portion of humans are born without.
Among the few who are able to sense mana, the majority of them can only sense the mana within their bodies, inherent mana. These people are called dwellers.
As for the minority who are able to sense nature's mana using mana veins, they are the ones who possess the ability to become mages. Humans gifted with the ability to both sense nature's mana and manipulate it to create the mind-blowing phenomena called magic.
Mages have always been rare since the dawn of their existence but now they are practically extinct after nearly all the mages across the Solork Continent perished during the age of war.
Since then, magic devices and potions are all that remain for humans to perform any form of magic.
Crafting magic devices and potions requires one to pour in a large amount of mana into the crafted device to create mana circuits.
This was easy for mages since they could use nature's mana, but it's a little difficult for dwellers since a person can die if they drain all the mana within their bodies.
While mana stones can help to supplement as a mana source, they're very expensive and the lower grade ones don't contain much mana.
That's why each and every successfully crafted mana device and potion is so valuable and cherished whether it's a magic device of the highest grade or one of the lowest.
Yet, Princess Josephine destroys them without care.
Lord Welro sighs deeply. 'How irritating.'
Adelaide hears his sigh and sighs inwardly as well.
Everyone knows of Lord Uvil Welro's fascination and love for magical devices despite him lacking the ability to make one himself. He left behind the legacy of swordsmanship passed down in his family and worked hard to become the head of the magical department in the royal treasury just so he could have access to more magical devices.
How could he stand seeing the magic devices he cherishes so much being broken without any regard for its value each time it's given to the princess?
With his position, he's aware each time the princess requests for a new one and since he doesn't have the power to reject her request, he has to give her a new one each time, despite knowing the fate that awaits it or how reluctant he is.
Lord Welro runs a hand through his short blonde hair with a sigh. He opens one of the drawers of the table, pulls out a small white box and places it gently on the table.
Isn't it ironic that he has a cooling device ready in case the princess requests for a new one despite getting angry each time she does?
He pushes it forward. "Take it."
Adelaide straightens up, perhaps too quickly because she's hit by a sudden wave of dizziness. It takes a few seconds for her vision to clear up and for her eyes to focus on the box.
She walks to the table to pick up the box but Lord Welro picks it up before she's able to. Adelaide lifts her eyes giving him a questioning glance which he ignores as he starts stroking the box tenderly.
"Forgive me, my precious."
After a few minutes of stretching out the box and pulling it back, he reluctantly hands it to her.
"Thank you, Lord Welro." Adelaide bows as she swiftly pulls the box close to her chest before he can snatch it back.
With a pained look he waves her off. "Leave quickly." He falls back on his chair with an exasperated sigh looking much older than his age.
'It's never easy.'
Adelaide bows once again before she turns to leave. "Even for a princess this too much. Does she think these things grow on trees?" he grumbles.
Adelaide walks out of the royal treasury listening to his hushed laments.
As pitiful as Lord Welro is, Adelaide doesn't have time to feel sorry for him and battle the lightheadedness and knots twisting her stomach at the same time.
Her mouth is dry, and Adelaide can't tell if it's because of the glaring sun or the hunger coursing through her veins.
No matter how much she swallows or how many times her tongue slides across her lips it ends up drying again.
Her hands holding the magic device are shaking slightly which only makes her hold on to it tighter.
A cooling device despite being one of the most common magic devices is something even some nobles are unable to afford. If she were to drop it and it gets damaged, even all the money she's saved over the years won't be enough to repair it.
She sucks in a hot ragged breath as trails of sweat slide down her face and back from the sweltering heat.
'So hot.'
The hot liquids bubbling in the pit of her empty stomach threatens to make an appearance and after taking at the distance left for her to walk, Adelaide stops walking and stumbles her way over to a nearby tree and throws up.
She flops against the sturdy bark of the tree weakly and wipes her lips with the back of her hand. A throbbing pain cuts through her head like a knife with such force that she can barely keep her eyes open, so she just closes them.
'I need a break.' Adelaide thinks as she massages her throbbing temples.
All she wants to do right now is eat and go to sleep but even such mundane things are out of her control.
She can't sleep before the princess does which is still hours from now and she can't eat because Princess Josephine forbade her to, as punishment for making her wait for her food.
She barely waited for five minutes, but Adelaide was forbidden to eat for two days. It's only been a day and a half yet she's already in this state.
"I guess I've become pampered." she chuckles dryly.
Adelaide lived on the streets before she was brought to the palace by Paula. Having no shelter and going hungry for days was normal back then, now she can barely handle the symptoms.
A pale girl seated on the grass leaning weakly against a tree while looking disheveled.
Who would believe her if she said she's the personal maid of Obelle's only princess?
A wry smile curls her lips. 'It's just an empty title.'
Some servants though seem to think that she's living the dream life serving as the princess' personal maid. Some even have the ridiculous thought that she's someone valued by the princess but Adelaide knows her place very well.
In Princess Josephine's eyes she's merely someone who has served her for a long time and knows her needs well, rather than being cherished, she's just like any other servant treading lightly so she won't be punished, the only difference is she has more room to make mistake.
She's seen it before when delegates visit Obelle, the close relationship between the princess of other kingdoms and their personal maids. She doesn't wish for them to be that close but is it too much to ask for her to remember she's a human being as well?
On top being by Princess Josephine's side most of the time, Adelaide still has to do the work assigned to her by the head maid as well as the things the princess orders her to do.
Like today for example, she woke up at the crack of dawn to do all her chores, minutes after she finished Vik came to tell her to prepare the princess for the breakfast with the king.
After being dismissed from the dinning hall, she rushed back to the Maple palace to write a letter to Lady Rose about the tea party, she also read through and reply to all the other letters the princess had asked her to which took hours and the moment she was done with that, she came straight to the royal treasury to get the cooling device without having a single second to stop and rest.
Her days are usually like this, sometimes she's so busy that she barely has time to eat, maybe that's why she's so weak. Princess Josephine might've asked her not to eat for two days but she'd barely eaten anything in the days prior to that.
The moment she returns to the palace, she'll have to start getting the princess ready for her tea party and possibly accompany her as well.
Her stomach gurgles again almost as if it's protesting, Adelaide chuckles slightly despite herself. She glances at the box with the magic device next to her.
'I can't wait to leave this life behind.'
She might not know what awaits her in the future but as someone who can feel mana, she'll definitely be able to survive somehow.
Adelaide she uses the tree to support herself as she climbs up to her feet, she picks up the magic device and starts walking again.
'Just a little longer.'
.....
Adelaide isn't sure how many minutes pass before the princess' palace comes into view or how many more minutes pass before she finally walks in, but it felt like days to her.
The moment she sets foot in the palace, Adelaide can tell something is wrong.
It's not something she can explain, it's just a feeling, a hunch that grows with each step she takes that leads her deeper into the palace and right when she approaches the stairs, she hears the faint sound of things breaking accompanied by muffled screams. That's all she needs to know that Princess Josephine is back and she's once again wreaking havoc.
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