Chapter 4

"Thank you for calling me! I'm here, Koibito!"

She greeted loudly and energetically.

It was the morning of her first day demoted to a maid.

Koibito had come to the place where the palace ladies who summoned her resided.

Currently, there were twelve consorts favored by the emperor in the harem (one of whom was knocked out by Koibito yesterday, so technically, there were eleven).

This was the end of the palace where one of these consorts lived.

It was the quarters for the dedicated palace ladies.

"Oh, it's the errand princess."

Such a complaint was heard from among the gathered palace ladies.

Koibito, however, paid no mind and looked around the quarters curiously.

"Good to see you."

One of the palace ladies approached Koibito.

She was a tall palace lady with long hair tied up in a neat bun at the back of her head.

"I am the deputy head of this palace. Today, I have a job I want you to do."

She added, "But, it's not like I specifically chose you or anything."

Of course, it was natural.

There were several other maids.

Koibito just happened to be chosen from among them.

Though, it was said that some of the maids who performed well or were highly evaluated were sometimes assigned specific tasks.

"Follow me, come along."

The deputy head led Koibito to the workplace.

They walked through the palace for a while and arrived at a small room at the edge of the grounds, a place where no one seemed to be around.

"Whoa."

It was a warehouse.

Items were piled up, and dust had accumulated.

Even spider webs were visible, indicating that it had been neglected for a long time.

It looked like an animal shed.

It probably hadn't been cleaned in a while.

"I want you to clean this room."

The deputy head said.

"Here?"

"It's a long-unused workroom."

According to her, they wanted to use this as one of the palace ladies' workrooms, but they hadn't had the time to clean it.

"I'll give you until evening to clean it up."

"Until evening?"

Koibito couldn't help but ask.

"Don't worry. I didn't expect it to be completely clean. Just sweeping out the dust, soot, and dead insects will be fine."

"..."

Though she said it casually, it essentially meant Koibito had to work in this unhealthy environment all day.

The deputy head frowned at Koibito's silent attitude.

"What? Do you have any complaints—"

"I understand! I'll do my best!"

Thinking Koibito would complain, the deputy head was taken aback by her energetic response.

"…Don't slack off, okay?"

With that, she left Koibito to her task and departed.

"Well then."

Left alone, Koibito rolled up her sleeves and looked around the dirty room.

Accumulated dust, dead insects, heavy stacks of items, rotting floorboards, and pillars.

This looked like a challenging job.

"First, I'll start with ventilation."

She wrapped a cloth around her mouth, opened the windows, and muttered.

Now, where should I start cleaning—she thought.

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

—And by evening.

"..."

The deputy head and several other palace ladies, who had come to check on the progress, were stunned by the scene before them.

"Ah, good work!"

Koibito said, wiping the sweat from her forehead.

The room, which had been a pile of dirt and useless items, seemingly impossible to restore, was now neatly organized and clean.

"Th-this is..."

"Is this... a different room?"

"No, but it should be the right one..."

The accompanying palace ladies whispered to each other.

They had come to see the results, curious about the famous "errand princess" being assigned one of the palace's problem rooms.

But the result was beyond their expectations.

The dirt on the walls and ceiling had been wiped clean, and the damaged floorboards had been repaired.

The piles of items that had been haphazardly left, making it impossible to walk, had been sorted, with the useless items discarded and the useful ones organized.

"Did you do this all by yourself?"

"Yes."

Koibito answered the deputy head's question with a carefree smile.

The renovation skills she had developed while living alone in a mountain village in the countryside had been put to good use.

First, storage techniques.

She made simple shelves using wooden strips on the walls (the necessary tools were obtained from the palace's warehouse).

She prepared two vertical posts from the floor to the ceiling and placed horizontal boards between them, a simple but effective solution that could be easily disassembled if needed.

With the shelves, organizing became much easier.

Next, how did she clean the dirt and dead insects that most people would hesitate to touch?

Her hands were covered with gloves.

Gloves made by sewing together old rags.

In other words, all-purpose rags.

With these, she could clean even the smallest corners and crevices.

She also obtained water boiled with orange peels from the palace's dining hall and used it to wipe the wooden floors, making them shine.

Additionally, she obtained leftover walnuts and used them to polish the floorboards where the color had worn off, disguising the damage.

Thanks to her efforts, the junk room had been beautifully restored.

"Is today's work done?"

"Ah, yes, sure."

Still in shock, the palace ladies handed Koibito a piece of paper.

"Then, could you please stamp this to confirm the completion of the work?"

This was a document to prove that the maid or errand worker had completed the assigned task as requested.

The document would be stamped with the content of the work, comments from the requesting palace lady, an evaluation, and a completion stamp.

It had to be submitted.

"Ah, wait a moment..."

The deputy head took the report from Koibito, wrote the content on a nearby shelf, and stamped it.

"Here."

She returned it to Koibito.

Wow, the evaluation was on a five-star scale, and she had received five stars.

A perfect score.

"See you again, thank you!"

With a final greeting, Koibito left the scene.

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

It was evening.

Koibito, having finished her work for the day, headed back to the maids' quarters within the grounds.

"I should prepare for tomorrow in advance."

There was a warehouse in the palace where tools for errand work were stored.

She had obtained the materials for the shelves from there.

While returning the tools, she could also check if there were any other useful items.

"...Hmm?"

Then, she noticed.

A man was walking towards her from the end of the corridor.

From his light attire, he seemed to be a palace guard.

(…Is he on patrol?)

But it was unusual to see a male guard wandering around the harem in the evening.

"Hey."

The guard stopped in front of Koibito and called out to her.

He had black, curly hair, like Koibito, and his eyes, with their drooping corners, had a challenging look—truly a young man full of energy.

"Are you Koibito, the Exorcist girl?"

"Ah, yes."

When Koibito answered, the guard looked her up and down for a few seconds.

"I'm Wolf Bomb."

He introduced himself.

"Tonight, you have a job. Come to the designated place at the designated time."