Marie the Maid's morning was started early.
She woke up before the sun even showed up. Her first activity in the morning was to tidy her bed before taking a bath and brushing her teeth.
After changing her attire back to her usual maid uniform, she began to sweep the palace with other Maids.
There's no order between them, only habitual sense. Even the Maid Head, their direct superior, is cleaning the palace beside them.
"Good morning."
"Morning."
"You well?"
"I am fine."
"Sweep~... Swoop~... Oh, dear dust, go away~."
The maids work with utmost efficiency: They do their respective jobs with flash—there's no dust left in the hallways and rooms in which they have stepped.
"Oh~ Marie, what's wrong~?"
A certain maid notices that one of her coworkers is in conflict today.
"Sana..."
Marie's hands come to half while she wipes the window after the certain maid asks her.
She turned around to face Sana, the most cheerful maid who works here in the Scarlet Palace.
Marie bit her lips and pondered for a while before deciding to tell her.
"Actually..."
Marie tells her about how her Master gave her one of the skill books he got after slaying the Goblin King. She always positioned herself behind him, so normally, she would become unsure whether she should learn the Skill or not after being asked to learn the Skill which should be her Master's.
The two of them sat at the nearby fountain. Sana thought off her worries for a while before saying. "I see... So Marie is unsure whether it's okay for you to learn the skill, which is a very expensive thing, or not, aren't you?"
Marie nodded and clutched her skirt in dilemma.
"The answer was simple, Marie."
Marie raised her head and looked at the smiling Sana.
"Your Master has already ordered. What's else we Maids could do but obey?"
Obey. Obey everything her master says.
Step.
Marie looked up to her Master's face, who was walking beside his fiancée, Lady Glamoria.
"What's wrong, Glamoria?" Her master asked Lady Glamoria, questioning why she kept staring at his face.
"Hmm... Couldn't push you in a wheelchair anymore makes me feel lonely..." Lady Glamoria answered, still with her usual smile.
"A-ahaha..."
Marie stared at her master's face.
His spotless, beautifully featured face.
—Why? Isn't it natural for you to receive one, too?
When Marie remembered how casually her Master handed her one of the two skill books they'd got after defeating the Goblin King, she couldn't help but bring her mind to the past, to the first time she met her master.
"Marie, this is your Master you would serve from then on, Young Master Loryarc."
What Marie expected when her father said she would meet her master tomorrow was to be met with a handsome, noble young man.
But when she first saw him, he was covered in dirt and mud, playing with the town children in the rain.
"Ah, are you Marie?"
The young man looked at her with his mud-covered face and smiled widely.
"Come on, let's go!"
He then grabbed Marie and dragged her out of her father's umbrella toward the rainy field where the town children play.
On that day, Marie, who is from a very young age and had been taught about the manner of a maid and how to be as clean and grace as possible for serving her master at his side, is being drenched by the rains and dirty with mud while playing with the children she doesn't even knows what's their names is.
After being recovered from his illness, her Master changed. He even said he had lost his memories, which worried her much.
But her Master is... Still her 'master', right?
At least.
Marie was sure that her Master indeed wouldn't mind giving her one of his Skill Books if he ever had his hands at those expensive and rare things.
So... It's okay, right? For me to use it?
Marie opened the drawer of the table inside her room and took a book with burning blood being drawn at its cover.
Marie's breasts moved down and up as she exhaled and inhaled the air.
Encouraging herself once more, Marie put her hand above the cover of the book.
She closes her eyes.
Then, she opened her mouth to utter the prayer of the skill books.
"My name's Marie. The daughter of Hanbrand and Joseline. Oh God of trial and disaster, the ruler of the Dungeons, the one who seals the ancient calamities. In thy front, I am begging for thee bless. Please, receive this little girl's wish and allow I am to learn thy blessing. I am humbly begging, oh your Holiness."
Responded to her prayer, the book shimmering with red light. The burning blood at its cover started to move like a living object.
The red light then covered the entire book like a real flame and even began to slowly engulf Marie as well.
When the red light has covered Marie's entire body, the red light quickly disappears and subsides in a way akin to being sucked by Marie's body.
Marie took a breath before opening her eyes again and looking at the table. The skill book she put her hand before has now disappeared.
"It really is. Would disappear after someone learned the skill...!" Marie exclaimed.
She looked at her palms, feeling the newly added power inside her body.
She's learned it. The skill: Blood Boil!