The princess and the "maid"

Sincerest apologies

The princess stared at a stain on the wall, while the duchess stared at nothing in particular. The butler seemed unaffected by this, perhaps it was common for him to be mistaken as a maid. He was wearing the maids uniform after all. Why was he wearing the maids uniform? Perhaps that was a question that shouldn't be spoken for it is quite rude to just ask about something as peculiar as cross-dressing. A man wearing womens clothes or a woman wearing mens clothes was taboo and almost completely unheard of. It only seemed to happen in the wooded part of Utaia, where Queen Teto had less control over her subjects. But even so, the princess felt guilty.

"Um, Duchess, I'm sorry."

The princess stared dejectedly at the ground. She was genuinely sorry but wasn't quite sure how to convey it to the duchess and butler. 

"I can be quite quick to assume and blurt out whatever wanders through my mind. I.."

"princess, of all the royals we've  met you've been the first to actually apologize. That alone is much better then we expected. Most simply gawk and ridicule us."

"Still though, I wish to fix my mistake. Please correct me, Sir, if I ever make that mistake again."

"Very well ma'am. I will"  replied the butler.

The princess smiled and so did the butler. The duchess didn't but it seemed she never smiled so the princess didn't take it personally. The princess called her servant Oliver to her and they chatted about a wide range of topics for a long while. They talked about what happens after death, to cabbages, to how lazy people should be called lazy without feeling insulted, as it wasn't an insult but rather a fact. There were many more topics but none are important, so I'll spare you the bore  of reading them all.

Soon enough a green-haired maid came upstairs to inform them that Queen IA and Duchess Flower would be staying the night. "They shall depart at sunrise tomorrow". It seemed that was all the information they would get. Fortunately Flowers duchy wasn't too far away so princess Rin would be able to visit fairly regularly considering her packed schedule. Oliver opted to join in for these visits, "out of friendliness" he insisted. In reality he only agreed to coming after finding out Duke Fukase would also be there.

The green haired maid, whose name turned out to be Gumi, led the duchess to her guest room. It was right next to the princesses room and across the hall from the portrait wall. While entering her room the duchess noticed something in one of the paintings of the royal family. 

"Princess, do you happen to have any siblings?"

"I do! Prince Len Kagamine. He stays in his room all day though, or at least if he ever does leave it's while I'm not around. We had a big fight a while ago and he's avoided me ever since. His rooms down there."

Princess Rin pointed to a doorway far far far down the hall, it's hinges were slightly lose and it was obviously well used. 

"Mother told me he requested a different room after the fight! One further from mine! Can you believe that?"

While this clever lie may have fooled the princess it did not fool me, as I am the narrator of this story and my job is to know everything. So I will tell you what the princess is unaware of. The room did indeed have a man living in it, however it was a lowly servant whose job was to deliver food to the queens room. The queen had decided the only way to make her lie believable was to have the food delivered, and empty dishes leave the same room. Thus she created the servant hall, and told Princess Rin it was prince Lens room, and that he wished to be left alone. In truth nobody had seen nor heard from the prince in two years, some assumed him dead, others held out hope, most forgot him completely. It had been two years since his last public appearance after all, and frankly most of the townspeople had other things on their minds like how they would feed themselves, or what to do about the thieves that kept ransacking the village.

Either way, whatever the truth about her brother was didn't matter to the princess at the moment. She trusted her mother and was honestly quite tired from all the chatting and hosting. She said goodnight to the Duchess and they went to their separate chambers to begin their nightly slumber.

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761 words! I had a lot of fun writing this one and I'm already getting started on chapter 3! I'll try to update sooner now that my schedules cleared up a bit

Thanks for reading <3