[Vol 4] Side Story 1: Angie's Past

Night time, at the servant’s quarters; Angie was standing in the middle of the grassy field all by herself, looking at the starry sky as she was recalling events from the distant past:

“Waaah… W-We’re really going to be living here from now on?” Angie cast a quick glance at the people around her, and finally, her glance was fixed on Sheena.

Sheena nodded her head excitedly and said, “Mhm! Papa said this will be our new home!”

The two of them slowly turned their head around to look at their “new home” in awe, then they shouted “IT’S A CASTLE!!!” at the same time as they ran towards their new home excitedly.

This was a memory from ten years ago, when both the young Sheena and Angie visited Halkeginia for the first time. Back then, they were only six years old. The relationship between Sheena and Angie was closer to that of sisters rather than friends. They lived in the same house, eat on the same table, went to the same elementary school, and they even slept on the same bed.

However, that all changed after they started living in the castle. On a certain day, when Sheena and Angie were playing in the garden, some aristocrats came to visit upon receiving the news that the Hero King had returned. Naturally, they brought their sons along in hope of betrothing the Hero King’s daughter to their sons.

When the aristocrats saw Sheena and Angie in the garden, they ordered their sons to go play with girls while they were meeting with the Hero King. The boys were raised in castles and were always pampered by the servants. Naturally, they took everything for granted and looked down on the commoners. Seeing that Angie was wearing a maid costume, they ignored her directly and pushed her to the side.

The boys were crowding around Sheena. On the other hand, Angie was being pushed out of the circle and lost her balance. As a result, she tripped on the ground. Seeing that, Sheena was furious. She immediately shouted, “Get out of my way!” as she pushed her way out of the crowd. Then she knelt beside Angie and asked with a concerned voice, “Are you okay?”

Angie just nodded her head timidly and accepted Sheena’s outstretched hand. Sheena proceeded to pull Angie up from the ground and directly dragged her back into their room, ignoring the boys, who were shocked by Sheena’s wild nature.

After that day, whenever Angie was caught alone, she’d be bullied by the child of the aristocrats. Whenever Sheena caught them bullying Angie, she’s try to help, which only worsen the situation. Sheena didn’t know the reason Angie was being bullied. Whenever she asked Angie, she’d only tell her that it was nothing. However, Sheena could tell that it was not really “nothing”. She could feel that Angie has been ignoring her a lot lately.

About a few months later, Sheena caught Angie being bullied again. When she wanted to go and help her, Saito tapped her shoulder twice and made a shush gesture, then he said, “Let’s wait and see.”

“What?! But papa… Angie is being bullied, I need to help her!” Sheena immediately retorted in a low voice.

Saito just said calmly, “You wanted to know the reason she is being bullied right? Maybe we can find out the reason if we wait for a little while. If it gets out of hand, we’ll go and put a stop to it immediately.”

Hearing Saito’s explanation, Sheena puffed her cheeks for a while, but she was as curious as to the reason Angie was being bullied, so she nodded her head in consent soon after.

On the other side of the wall, Angie was being surrounded by a few young ladies. They were all barking at her in succession;

“Who do you think you are?! You’re just a maid!”

“That’s right! A maid like you shouldn’t stay too close to Sheena!”

“You’re only giving bad influence to Princess Sheena!”

“Because of you, Princess Sheena won’t even talk to us! Hmph!”

Angie just listened to them quietly, then she bowed to the young ladies and said in a low voice, “I will take your advice to heart and keep my distance from the princess.”

“Hmph!” The young ladies just let out a humph, and one of them even splashed the glass of water in her hand towards Angie’s lowered head. After that, all of them let out a typical noblewoman’s laugh ⌈¹⌋.

Just as they were about to leave, Sheena suddenly jumped out from the corner of the wall and shouted, “That’s going too far!”

“Sh— I mean, princess, this is not what you think it is. It’s just an accident. Right girls?” One of the young ladies came up with an excuse, the others went along with the flow and came up with an excuse of their own.

“Don’t try to—” Sheena wanted to reprimand them, but just at this time, Saito walked out from behind her and said, “This is enough! Miss Helena, Miss Kylie, Miss Vivien, I will talk to your parents later regarding your re-education, you girls may leave!”

Hearing Saito’s words, the faces of the young ladies immediately turned pale. They uttered, “Y-Yes… your majesty,” as they ran towards a distant location.

Saito walked towards Angie and knelt in front of her, then he pulled her into his embrace and said, “I’m sorry… It seems like this environment is not suited for young children from the former world like you. Let’s all go back to the old world and live a peaceful life there.”

Angie tried to stay strong to hold back her tears, she said with cracked voice, “N-No sir… I… I am fine… really…”

Saito patted her head and said with a soothing voice, “You don’t need to hold it back anymore. Just let it all out. You can call me papa like you used to…” With that, the wall in Angie’s heart finally crashed and she cried for the first time since coming to Halkeginia. That was also the last time she called Saito as “papa”.

A few days later, they decided to go back to the old world. However, the damage had already been done, Sheena and Angie’s relationship would never be the same again. Even after going back to the old world, Angie devoted herself to learn all the necessary skills to become a qualified maid that wouldn’t bring embarrassment to her master.

Back at present time:

“And that’s how it is… can you please forgive Angie?” Sheena was telling me about Angie’s past and the reason she was treating me like this. It was not because she hated me or anything, she just didn’t want me to go through the same experience as her.

“W-Well… It’s not like I hate her or anything… what’s not to forgive?” I answered bashfully and continued, “And it’s not like I don’t understand how she feel… we’re both from the old world, so the concept of aristocrats and commoners are quite fresh to us… moreover, she was still a child back then…”