Aalis began to tell her story about what had happened to her.
It began with her family. Her family was a long one that served the royal family in the palace. Her father was the gardener. The queen, Isabeu, saw her father as hard working and resilient and took an interest in him. One day she summoned him to her room, where all the servants in the palace thought he would become the queen's man, but it was different.
The Queen ordered her father to take care of her residence in Chambery as Laird. Her father was unsure how to answer it, but under pressure from the Queen in front of him, he gladly accepted the honour to take care of her residence. The Queen happily heard that, but he had a favour. He said to the queen that he fell in love with one of the maids of the palace and wanted to bring her to the residence. The Queen accepted the favour with the condition that he needed to not force the maid.
He immediately rushed to the servant's quarter, especially the maid quarter, to find her. After finding her, he immediately proposed to her and told her everything about his new job. She gladly accepted. In a few days, they went off to the Chambery with some guards and some servants from the Queen, under his command.
When they arrived at the residence in Chambery, they immediately cleaned and tidied up everything. Therefore, they were Laird, not Baron; the people of Chambery knew them as new Barons, even though they refused to be called Barons. The count gladly accepted the new laird in his county.
Years passed, the count passed away, and the title was inherited by his son Regis. Regis saw an opportunity for fame in Chambery. Therefore, he tried to scheme and fabricate towards her family; he wanted one of his men to take full control of Chambery and the estate. First, he tried to sway the Queen with a report that showed the capability of one of his men for Chambery. The Queen didn't buy the report from Regis.
A few years later, the Queen didn't take an interest in the Chambery estate anymore. There was no overseer from the Queen anymore, so Regis took action. He didn't try to sway the Queen anymore, but the nobles. He with his noble faction seized the estate by force. Her father had been accused of something that he didn't do. At that time, Aalis and Ame were "Still Room Maid", so they didn't know anything about their home.
They knew the news about the seizure of Chambery, when they were already Chamber Maid, where it was 5 years later. They heard it from the wind of rumor that circulated in Servant's Quarter. A ton of letters had been written by them, but there was no single reply from the estate. One day, they received a package and two letters from someone. The package contained a pendant, and a hairpin. The first letter was from their parents for the package, it contained congratulations for their birthday, but it was the birthday of 7 years ago. The other letter contained the information about their parents, where it had written, their parents were gone missing. They immediately replied to the two letters, but days changed to months, months changed to years, there was no single replied from the estate.
….
Silence fulfilled the room when Aalis ended her story. No single words came out from each of our mouths. But I saw Aldea's mouth seemed want to say something.
"So he killed your parents, I will avenge it."
Hearing what she had said, we turned our faces to her immediately.
"Huh? What? Why? all of you suddenly stared at me like that."
Immediately Darryl beside her smacked her head, until her head was lying down on the table, she kept lying down on the table.
"You may go to the room, Aalis and Ame, to calm and clear up your mind…" I said.
Aalis and Ame, without saying a word from their mouths, stood up and walked towards the stairs. After they were really gone from our sight, I looked at Aldea with her head lying down on the table..
"Raise your head, Aldea.."
"Yss..yrrr highness.." she said with her head lying down on the table, and she raised her head.
"I admit your curiosity for something is higher than that of everyone in here, but you need to restrain some of it. What you said to them was not inappropriate ... .They didn't say their parents were deceased, but they were missing, so to say it like that crushed some hopes for them."
"It's alright, your highness; let me educate this dullard." Elpis said.
"Well, I just thought what I had said would cheer them up; I didn't know if it was so bad for them."
Louis suddenly asked me about Aalis's story "What will you do about her story, your highness? If the story is true, this count committed treason against the royal family. Or you can report it to her Majesty Queen."
"No, I will not report this to my mother."
"Why?"
"If I report this to my mother, it shows me that I am weak for the royal family. Especially, I committed treason to the royal family or even worse, the kingdom too, remember.."
"Your highness committed treason? When?" Aldea asked.
I said, "You are here beside me; it is treason for the royal family; not just you, but all of you, are treason for the kingdoms."
"How did we become a treason for your highness?" Aldea asked..
"Forget this dullard…" Elpis said.
"I just asked something that I want to know.."
"Because you asked something that the answer had you heard."
"When?"
"*sigh* Cail, explain it again to this dullard, why is her existence a treason for her highness?"
Cail said, "*sigh* why every time I had to explain something to her…You are a knight of her highness; that does not come from the noble, so it was treason for the kingdoms, simple.."
"But before you said your highness acted about knighted Louis offended the nobles, not a treason…wait wait wait…How about Aalis and Ame? Their parents are not from noble families, but they became nobles."
"Have you heard my explanation before? Laird is a courtesy title but has no formal status in law or noble court, so in the noble court, Laird is not a noble, so the title doesn't have any meaning."
"Ohhhhhh, that's why she said the title itself doesn't mean anything; I get it now…"
"Now let's forget about this dullard and continue something that is meaningful. So, your highness, what will you do if you don't want to report this to the Queen?" Elpis said.
"Just waiting…I don't want to prioritise this count, but I want to prioritise this village.."
"~My~ that's great thinking, but your highness has been surrounded by them; are you really sure not to focus on them?"
"I have been surrounded by them."
"Yes…" She turned to Cail again "Cail, what will you do if you are this crap?"
"I will report it to the Queen.."
"That should be her highness's move; why does this crap count need to report it to the Queen?' Aldea asked.
"Because the credibility and accountability of this count are higher than her highness, surely he could not report it when no one governed the village, but when her highness became a baron of this village, it was an opportunity for him to wash his hands and to seize the village. The report will tell about the missing family of the estate, Chambery. When this report was already in the hands of the Queen, her highness would be the main perpetrator, and the chance of her highness escaping from punishment was small, even with Aalis and Ame's testimony. But.."
"But?"
"He needs time and nobles around him; he can't report this immediately right now because it will be contradictory with the time when her highness came to the village. If he reports it right now, the Queen will find it amusing and false how the family was missing the same as her highness came to the village. The Queen may love to side with the nobles, but the Queen is a smart queen and loves her servants the most, especially the one who got responsibility from her. She will immediately know something fishy and not right from his report. so he will wait before reporting it to the Queen."
"How long will he wait?"
"It depends on how her highness is doing; her highness thinking about focusing on the village first can make a detain on his movement to report it. It could be 2-3 months for him..not just him, but them—to report it to the Queen."
I asked him, "What will you do to keep them from reporting it?"
"Oversee every movement in this village, especially the movement of this Rudyard family; don't let a single paper out of that estate, even out of this village. Communication between the estate and the count will be crucial, so your highness just needs to interfere with this communication."
"That will be good thinking, but it will be hard to do with our resources now...Later I will try to think about it more…But now, I want to prioritise the village; 2-3 months before he reports it, I think it's enough for me…" I turned my face to Elpis and said, "I think I still haven't heard your report, Elpis."
Elpis said, "Are you sure about it, your highness?"
"We can't just focus on this crap count at all times; we need to focus on something more important than this crap count, and that is the village. Maybe in the development of this village, we encounter something that is helpful for us, so what's your report?" It's like politics, where they focus so much on how they win or their rivals that they lose focus on the people.