One Step

The day after Serina first put Mirabilis to sleep with hypnosis magic, the Princess was in a rather good mood, perhaps because she had slept well, and her attitude towards Serina became somewhat milder.

In fact, Serina’s attempt to use hypnosis magic on Mirabilis was extremely dangerous. To cast magic on a member of the Imperial Family, the royal family member receiving the treatment had to consent, and another person had to be present. Only when the Emperor ordered it could the royal family member’s wishes be ignored.

Mirabilis didn’t know that what Serina was doing was magic, so even if the Princess had ordered it, she shouldn’t have performed it immediately. According to the rules, Serina should have first revealed that it was magic and then asked for permission again. Bingal’s hypnosis magic was cast solely with the voice, with the power of words, so it didn’t look like magic at all, and she simply got away with it unknowingly.

If the fact that it was magic became known, it would be a serious crime that wouldn’t end with simply being kicked out of the palace.

After that, whenever Mirabilis suffered from insomnia, she would call him to put her to sleep. Serina lulled the Princess to sleep with hypnosis magic several times.

“Every time I call you, it takes you time to come because you have to put on your maid uniform. It must be quite annoying to just put me to sleep, go back, change, and go to bed,” Mirabilis said.

Serina felt a creeping sensation down her spine, wondering if she had been caught doing something wrong. She didn’t answer immediately and chose her words carefully in her mind. It was a point where she had to be careful with her words.

“Not at all, Princess-nim. It is only natural for a maid to wear her maid uniform when appearing before the Princess-nim.”

But Mirabilis laughed. Her giggling sound was clear and high-pitched. It seemed to be the first time Serina had seen her laugh like this since becoming a maid at the Rose Palace.

“Why would it be comfortable to change clothes every time when you’re just calling someone to sleep? I permit you to wear a robe instead of your maid uniform when you’re trying to put me to sleep.”

“Thank you, Princess-nim,” Serina said.

Serina was relieved that Mirabilis wasn’t finding fault and bowed deeply.

****************

One day, after Serina was frequently called to Mirabilis in the middle of the night, Head Maid Mullaba called her separately. Even the court lady who came to deliver the message seemed a little surprised. Serina followed the court lady, and the Head Maid was sitting on a bench in the courtyard of the Rose Palace. The sound of the gardener clipping branches with pruning shears echoed like waves. Ttok, ttak.

As Serina approached, Mullaba tapped the seat next to her with her hand. When he sat down, the Head Maid asked directly.

“I hear you’ve been frequently called to the Princess-nim in the middle of the night?”

“That is correct, Head Maid-nim.”

It was a fact she already knew from hearing it, but Mullaba seemed a little surprised when she received confirmation from the person in question. Her eyebrows shot up.

“Aren’t you surprised that I know this fact?”

“Why would I be surprised when no one in the Rose Palace sees and hears as much as you do, Head Maid-nim, except for the Princess-nim?”

In fact, it was wrong. Anyone among the palace staff could be her eyes and ears, so Mullaba saw and heard more than Mirabilis, the Princess and owner of the Rose Palace, at least within the Rose Palace. However, expressing it directly could be understood as undermining the Princess’s authority, so she deliberately spoke indirectly. Mullaba’s eyes curved into a smile.

“After three years, you’ve become a true palace person, literally. In fact, there have been very few people who have lasted three years as the Princess’s personal maid. That alone makes you noteworthy to me. Moreover, there has never been anyone who has been called personally.”

“……I thought so.”

Mullaba turned her head and looked at the sky for a moment. White cumulus clouds decorated the blue sky, and wood-colored grasshoppers hopped among the green grass. A gentle breeze blew, washing away the sweat, and a few stray hairs fluttered.

“There are even rumors that the Princess-nim’s temperament has become softer than before, perhaps because she has been sleeping comfortably thanks to you. At least, she has become a little easier for the lower staff to serve. However, Serina of Lantalum.”

Mullaba hardened her expression and turned her face from the sky to look directly at Serina. The Head Maid, who had spent countless years in the Rose Palace, looked down at the still green palace maid with stern eyes.

“You must not think that the Princess-nim cherishes you. You must not try to sit above her. The Imperial Family is the nobility above the nobility, and if you act presumptuously…”

Mullaba opened her eyes wide and raised her right hand, striking her own neck with a thwack.

“Many will be looking at coffins.”

Serina swallowed hard. The maid of the Rose Palace firmly resolved not to even mention the ‘hypno’ of hypnosis magic.

****************

That night, Serina was called to Mirabilis again. She had received permission not to change into her maid uniform, but she was a little annoyed that she was called whenever she was about to go to sleep.

If it took an hour or two to put her to sleep with hypnosis magic, Serina, not Mirabilis, might have been so tired that she would have dozed off during the day. But she couldn’t dare to complain to the Princess. Perhaps because she had cast hypnosis magic several times, Mirabilis was falling asleep faster and faster, and Serina was able to return to her room and sleep sooner.

Except for the Grand Empress Dowager or the Empress, only unmarried direct descendants of the Imperial Family can reside as owners in separate palaces like this. Although the Emperor takes the form of ‘bestowing’ it upon the Imperial Family, the true owner of all palaces is the current Emperor, so in reality, it is a ‘lease.’ However, once ‘bestowed,’ it is natural to call oneself the ‘owner’ until the Emperor issues an eviction order.

If the Emperor had many children and there were not enough buildings to allocate, the Emperor would arbitrarily choose some of his children to stay in mansions outside the palace or live in other palaces. No matter how much of an Emperor he was, he could not simply build a building with the formalities to be called a palace(宮) without permission.

Fortunately, the current Emperor had few children, so there was no shortage of palaces. Therefore, Mirabilis, despite her status, beauty, and fame, had not yet received the title of Princess(Regina), but she was able to be bestowed the Rose Palace and become its owner. And for the past three years, Serina had been serving Mirabilis by her side, and she had been able to see the Princess’s Main Chamber to the point of boredom.

The Princess-nim of the Ninefold Palace(九重宮闕).

Soldiers holding swords and spears and wearing bows guarded the palace walls, and knights escorting the Imperial Family came and went like ants. Court ladies and maids were as numerous as if they were being raked up with a rake to attend to the precious bodies, and officials in colorful uniforms entered the palace gate every morning and repeated their departure in the evening. The Rose Palace was also a part of the ‘Ninefold Palace.’ Whenever Serina stood before the palace’s immense majesty, she felt as if beans were being ground as the millstone turned.

The Princess-nim, who was as beautiful as her appearance.

Serina felt a little listless. Would she not have felt this way if she had been a maid serving the First Princess Padrentia? Serina shook her head at the sudden thought. If Mirabilis had been like Padrentia, she wouldn’t have even been given the opportunity to become a maid in the first place.

Mirabilis lay in bed with her eyes closed. Her soft breathing melted into the flickering light of the candle in the dark Main Chamber. Perhaps it was thanks to having cast hypnosis magic on the Princess all along, Serina took a step that she would not have dared to take before.

“Princess-nim… Can you hear me, little one?”

Until recently, Serina would turn off the lights and leave as soon as she thought the Princess had fallen asleep. But this time, she spoke to her. Her heart pounded at the thought that the Princess might get angry and wake up, but the words had already left Serina’s mouth. At first, there was no response, but after a while, her lips slowly opened while her eyes remained closed.

“Yes… I can hear you…”

With a sigh of relief and a joy as if she had achieved her goal, Serina’s face lit up.

‘So this is… what Bingal said, a state that looks like sleep at first glance… huh.’

Hypnosis(催眠), a technique to induce sleep, a name Bingal made up to disguise the essence of her magic. Bingal said that the hypnotic state looks like sleep, but it is not real sleep. Mirabilis was falling into a light hypnotic state with hypnosis magic and then falling into real sleep.

‘What should I say?’

Bingal said that you can give someone under hypnosis a simple instruction. If the action she was doing was discovered, she could be punished not only herself but also her family for attempting to cast magic on the Imperial Family without permission. But Serina told herself that it was okay, that it was still okay, and racked her brain.

“Princess-nim… Would you mind slightly raising your right hand?”

Mirabilis twitched for a moment and then slightly raised her right hand as Serina said. As her hand was raised, the hem of her robe fell to her elbow. From her fingertips to her elbow, her skin was white and slender without a single blemish. As her fair, glossy hands were illuminated by the candlelight, Serina held her breath and couldn’t take her eyes off her, as it reminded her of the red sunset light at dusk.

Originally, Mirabilis was not the type of person to be told what to do by a mere maid without any explanation. Rather, she might inflict corporal punishment for giving instructions to her superior without explanation.

It was a really trivial action, but Mirabilis’s appearance of quietly following without complaint entered Serina’s eyes like a scene from a painting. Suddenly, the thought of being flogged in the past came to mind, and her buttocks seemed to throb for no reason.

“Please lower your hand.”

It was a truly meaningless action for Mirabilis, but she still obeyed obediently. Having come this far, it was a shame to just put her to sleep.

“Princess-nim, what do you think of me?”

“I think you are… useful because you put me to sleep well whenever I can’t sleep…”

Serina tilted her head. She didn’t want this answer. Except for the secret that she couldn’t tell even if her mouth was torn, that she used hypnosis ‘magic,’ Serina was useful to Mirabilis right now in anyone’s eyes. It was an answer that she could know without having to ask with the power of hypnosis magic. Serina thought that she had asked the wrong question.

“Before I first put you to sleep, what did you think of me back then?”

“She’s my maid… She’s been here for quite a while… That’s all…”

Serina pondered what to ask, and then one thing suddenly came to mind. Serina herself was the maid whom Mirabilis encountered most often around her. Then, to what extent did the Princess recognize her?

“Princess-nim… Do you know my first and last name?”

Mirabilis seemed to ponder for a moment and then moved her lips quietly.

“Your name is… Serina… I don’t know your family name…”

The strength drained from Serina’s body. Maids who directly served the Princess separately from the court ladies. The maids who had left in disgust because they couldn’t stand Mirabilis’s temper, leaving only a few. She had also sobbed in a place where there was no one without being able to leave the palace, but she had no ill will towards the Princess.

If she had answered that she was annoyed or hated her, she would have been less hurt, even if she was dumbfounded and asked why she hated her. However, Mirabilis had no feelings for the maids. She didn’t even know Serina’s family name, so it must have been even worse for the other maids.

‘We… the maids… are just that.’

Serina knew well how Mirabilis acted in places where she had to maintain her dignity. And she could guess that the Princess saw them as similar to fixtures placed in the palace. You could like some fixtures, but you couldn’t hate them. If there was any sign of falling out of favor, you could just throw them away.

Three years, it had already been three years since Serina had entered the palace, but to Mirabilis, she was still just ‘a mere maid’ whose name she barely remembered. The thought that she had entered the palace and endured for this alone washed over her like sorrow, and even the Princess’s beautiful and lovely appearance lying before her seemed inexplicably hateful.

‘Then… I’d rather engrave myself in her mind.’

A strange light flickered in Serina’s eyes. In a way, it was a goal that could be called Serina’s desire or ambition. She wanted to engrave her name indelibly on the soft flesh deep within the Princess’s heart. She realized that Bingal’s warning that ‘you could be sentenced to death’ meant exactly this.

‘There’s no need to overdo it. Little by little…’

With the power of hypnosis magic, Mirabilis was gradually regaining her original sleep cycle without any medication, so if this continued, she would no longer call him. But Serina knew a way to make her keep calling her. Bingal explained the detailed method in the book. Now, she needed to improvise to use it in the current situation. Once again, she put the power of words, trained in eloquence, into her tongue.

“Princess-nim… You were able to fall asleep easily after meeting Serina… Isn’t that right?”

“Yes…”

“So you want to keep calling Serina… You can continue to sleep comfortably if Serina is there… And you want to keep Serina by your side even during the day…”

“Comfortably… Continue…”

Mirabilis echoed Serina’s words intermittently. Serina changed the designation referring to herself here. Until now, she had called herself ‘little one(小女)’ according to palace etiquette, but here, she called her own name ‘Serina’ as it was. It was the first trick to engrave the name ‘Serina’ in the back of her mind.

Across the bed, the dignified leather chair where Mirabilis used to sit during the day was draped in the black fabric of the late night and seemed to be looking at her. Serina turned her face and looked into the darkness flickering between the candles.