"Ah pardon, I've failed to introduce myself-..." Lorica fixed some of the stray documents on her table as she got up from her seat, a few loose strands of hair from her tight bun hung over her eyes.
"I am the Head Maid of this proud, ancestral home of the Saleos family." She curtsied as she stood next to her table.
"Lorica Esd, you may call me Miss Lorica." She smiled.
"Now, as for what Miss Maev over here had brought you here for, is an errand I need done."
"An errand? Well, I don't mind if it isn't too troublesome- but is it fine for an outsider like me to come and get involved with your affairs?"
"Hah, smart- you're right about the oddity of asking a visitor to run our errands, so much so as this directly involves the Saleos estate." Lorica sifted through a stack of documents in her hand.
"But, as you're a servant to the Royal Assistant, it has quite a lot more to do with your affairs than ours- as luck may have it."
"Here- let me explain. Miss Maev, have you informed the other girls to move the guest's luggage to their respective rooms yet?" Lorica asked Maev with a sweet smile, but her tone was rigid and cold.
"A-Ah! Right on it!" Maev said as she scurried out of the room, she gave me an apologetic look as she half-jogged her way out.
"So, tell me what's this about then?" I asked as I took the seat that Lorica offered.
"We had received the notice of your arrival as of two weeks ago."
"That the Royal Assistant would be visiting for a report on Lord Saleos' crop yield and given divinations from the capital-instated oracle."
The oracle what now?
"Oracles? Forgive me, I'm not from the capital so I'm not aware of what an 'oracle' is." I gave my best impression of a fresh newbie coming on board for his first office meeting as I could.
"Hm? As you must not be Carmilla's assistant then, I suppose you really are just a manservant as you claim."
"Well I suppose I should give you the full breadth of it then, as you WILL be responsible for this, no?" She asked, I don't think this errand isn't just a favor anymore now...
"Y-Yes, I'll be responsible for it."
"Delightful, then I won't have to waste my breath for the explanation then!" She clasped her hands joyfully.
"Oracles are sorcerers officially instated by the kingdom and it's co-operative magic academy to act as a specialist for certain schools of magic throughout the realm."
"Oracles are then instated to specific points of the land, where they act as that land's specialist- largely when it comes to nature and disaster prevention."
"I see, so from what I'm getting, does Rezabel have its own oracle?"
"Yes and no, it isn't 'our' own oracle."
"As oracles are valuable, they're expected to travel between noble's domains at specific intervals to prevent any friction."
"As of now, we share our oracle with Lord Vorlunda, and Lady Delfala-"
"O-Oh my, I'm getting a little sidetracked- it's good hearing questions other than how to sew a blouse's button for once." She chuckled as she grabbed a sheet of paper from the table.
"As I said earlier before, the divinations report of the oracle and the crop yield."
"For Lord Saleos', as he acts as the kingdom's major grower of wheat- the Oracle has been tasked by him to divine the weather of the year for crop success as their role." She gave me the sheet.
But as I looked at the sheet, I noticed that it was blank.
"What's this?"
"The report from the oracle, of course."
"?" I couldn't help but give a confused look at her.
"I do not jest, it's what she gave us."
"Or, what she hasn't." She frowned.
...
"I was expected to have my two reports given to me yesterday, a moon-cycle shy this morning."
"My crop yield report, and the divination given by the oracle." She leaned against her table as she looked at me, she was a head above eye-level with me.
"I had received the crop yield report, but when I received it-" She took out another sheet of paper, but this time I could see from her hand it had writing on it.
"I did get 'something'." She handed it to me, and I looked at it clearly for myself.
"This-... this doesn't make any sense?"
On the document, it had a ledger of four distinguishable quarters. But within each quarter's lines, it was a mess of arithmetic that didn't add up at the end.
It was as if someone made this to get it past the messenger, but not for the recipient; that being Lorica.
"Finally, someone who can read it- I thought I was going mad." Lorica adjusted her glasses.
"As I am responsible for this, I have not informed Lord Saleos of these strange happenings."
"As, well, I cannot fail him." She clenched her fist.
"Is that why you haven't asked him to take a look at it?"
"Yes-... and for another reason as well."
"But I think that's beyond needing you to know- personal matters aside."
"Okay, so I get the gist of your problem- but what do you want me to do about it?"
Lorica rose from her table and went back to sitting in her chair.
"I need you to go visit the oracle and the man responsible for recording this season's crop yield."
"Originally, I was going to do it myself- but, now that that I must allocate the manor's funds for a 'surprise' hero's banquet..." She rubbed her temples as she marked something off of a document.
"I cannot afford to leave and do it myself anymore."
I think I've just saved myself the ire of a very important person in the manor.
"It's simple- you just have to go there, and be present as they give you their reports. And as you are literate, or at least you can read, you can verify the information that they give." She handed me a pen that looked a lot like Carmilla's, but a little simpler.
"Take this and some of these blank sheets, get them to write it down on the spot- you must witness them doing it, it is null if someone else writes it for them in their stead."
"But- first, I don't know where these people are, and second, I don't think they'll just give me the reports as I'm not employed by Lord Saleos." I rebutted.
Lorica began to untie her bun, her long pink hair fell down, it was wavy and long like Carmilla's- but she held something in her hand out to me.
"Take this, it's my insignia as the head maid of the manor; they will recognize it." It was a small, golden brooch that had an engraving of a bundle of wheat.
She tied back her hair up with some ribbon string she found in her pocket immediately after.
"And for their locations-... Hmmm..." Lorica pondered for a moment.
Just as she was about to say something, footsteps approached the doorway.
Maev popped her head in, she looked a little winded.
"F-Finished!" She uttered; her breath was heavy.
"Ah, she will take you to them." Lorica motioned to the confused Maev.
"Pardon?"
"Miss Maev, take the good man to the oracle, then Verdin." Lorica was writing away off on her documents as she asked this of Maev, who understandably, was still entirely too confused.
"W-Wha-"
"Now, Miss Maev- we're short on time." She said with the a few impatient taps of her pen, some of it's ink splotched the document below it.
"Y-Yes Miss Lorica!" She grabbed my wrist as she ushered me out of the room, leaving Lorica alone to her work.
...
"I see, so you now know the problem." After briefly explaining to Maev what Lorica had told me, we were walking outside of the manor and down it's easing hill.
Before we had left however, I tried to see if I could catch Ima or Carmilla in the atrium, but they weren't around- I guess they really were confined in their rooms until the banquet would be prepared.
Well Ima for certain should be in her quarters, but for Carmilla-
I don't really want to think about what she 'could' be doing, especially with Saleos.
Maev was playfully skipping down the hill at my pace as we walked down the cobbled path, it being the only bit of Rezabel that did have cobbling for its road.
"Yes, now I need to see these people... do you have any idea how long this'll take?" I asked.
"Mmm... not long, the oracle thankfully, has been stationed in Rezabel in the adventurer's guild- while Verdin, the liaison between Lord Saleos and the fieldworkers is likely at his homestead just half-aways out of Rezabel."
"If everything goes smoothly, we should be done before sundown- and in time for the banquet!"
"Ah okay, sounds- ADVENTURER'S GUILD!?"
Ahh!
Ahhh!
I can't believe it!!!
A real-life, honest to goodness, ADVENTURERS GUILD!?!
I'm going to see real-life HEROES!?! A BOARD FULL OF REQUESTS!?! RANKINGS!?!?!
"Ah!" Maev missed her skip from my sudden outburst and stumbled over, she fell onto the wayside into the wheatfield.
But I grabbed her hand just before she hit the ground.
"Sorry!" I said, as I lifted her back up.
"*Huff* Y-You startled me there *Huff*" She held her hand onto her chest.
"I didn't mean to err- uh, I've just never seen an adventurer's guild myself yet."
"Really? Well, they're not thaaat common." She rubbed her chin.
"But haven't you visited the capitals inner-city? That's where the kingdom's main guild house, the Aegis, is." She held out an arm and posed.
"It's where the kingdom's strongest heroes come to take requests- sometimes, even the Queen herself makes a request here and there! Hyah!" She swung her arm forward like a sword.
But she stopped to a slow, limp hand.
"Well, used to anyway."
"There's no money anymore, so most heroes have stopped working now."
"All because of-"
She stopped herself just short of saying who I knew she would mention, she averted her gaze from mine.
"L-Look we're here!" She said as we stood before a large stone building, it was situated in the middle of the city.
Its massive wooden door had a tacked-on sign that read the following.
"No capital guards allowed,
-Guildmaster Puell."
///