The Maid and Her Princess [On Hiatus]

Do Something About It! (Summer 4)

IV.

"HrAAAAGH!" Elise roared after what she called a deadlift. The staff of a spear was modified with large rocks conjured by Leopride at both ends of it. It was a gift. She breathed loudly after dropping the heavy thing to the ground, which matched her voice's volume as it clattered. The other maids present simply sighed. The princess, however, seemed oblivious to the commotion she was causing. "RAAAH! WOO!"

"Elise," Madoka closed her eyes. She did her training a while ago, but accompanied the princess because she was told to. She was knitting up a fragment for one of her torn dresses. Often when she looked after the princess trained or watched her study in the library she would knit or do her training quietly to avoid going into "idle mode," as the princess called it. Dissociation was another thing she called it, though Madoka thought nothing of it.

"Sorry, Madoka," Elise dropped the bar, making even more noise. "But this is something I gotta do to lift this guy."

She tugged at the weight beneath her feet. Madoka had never found anything more unladylike - the act of screaming like a savage. Even her doing manual labor like this was enough to hurt Madoka's head as she tried to get used to it. Elise grunted even louder as she lifted it once again.

Later, Madoka and the princess were outside. The weather was warm, so the princess would sit in the sun more. The tattoo was slithering around her right arm, but it did not seem to bother the princess anymore. She approached her maid with a new "good idea," one that Madoka as her slave could not refuse anyways. She was emboldened by Madoka's reminder that she is her maid and therefore cannot refuse, so the princess nearly dragged her out to the practice yard.

"Dodge this!" Elise charged her magic and conjured water up in a small stream. Madoka was not quick enough, so the water splashed harmlessly on her. Madoka understood why she came up with this. It was an excuse to train her magic and help Madoka train. It was still frustrating to get her outfits wet but the princess was adept at using water magic already.

Or Madoka would say, if she knew how magic worked.

"I'm just using mana to harness hydrogen atoms with oxygen and then.... Oh, I've lost you," Elise tried to explain how her magic worked. "I tried explaining it to one of Brother's mages the other day. He looked as confused as you."

"Brother? The Prince is here?" Madoka asked, almost dodging a water projectile from Elise. The water splashed on her shoulder.

"Yeah," Elise sighed, conjuring up more bubbles. "Or was. He left this morning. I tried to glean all the information on them. The mage said water magic isn't well known in whatever College he went to. I think it was Crosstella Magic College...? Whatever. If only Father sent me there instead!"

"It's still impressive that you're learning magic on your own..." Madoka mused. "Even if it is a little scary."

"It's taking too much time," the princess complained. Madoka was getting more accustomed to the incredible speeds of the water beams Elise shot from her fingers. "I needed to learn how mages of this world work... even if they are from my enemies..."

"Enemies?" Madoka remembered that Elise sees her brother as an enemy. She best not bring it up now.

"It's nothing," Elise said through an obvious forced smile. "Let's move on. Tomorrow I'll use two fingers to shoot water beams!"

"T-Two?" Madoka followed her, carrying Leopride's gift with both hands.

"Yeah. I have to catch up to you somehow!" Elise twirled. The way the sunlight and her misty water magic wrapped around her body made it difficult for Madoka to look away, a bewitching spirit basking in rainbow tinted mist from ocean waves and the emerging sun. She realized the princess was leading her to the stone formations.

"I think you have enough strength points in your stats— er I think you're strong enough to break these," the princess inspected Madoka's body. A little too closely, making the maid shift uncomfortably away. Elise giggled. "You just need a little... passion!"

"P-Passion!"?"

"Yeah," Elise pointed at her axe. "Can you strike it into the ground for me?"

Madoka raised her axe, admiring its plain blade glinting in the Summer sun before dropping it into the earth. The princess looked at it in thought.

"You're doing that without grunting, or anything," Elise remarked. "Wow."

"I just don't see how the loud roaring is helpful," Madoka complained. She nearly poked herself with the needle in her hand by being startled by her princess's intermittent yelling the last time.

"Passion, my dear Madoka," Elise repeated herself in a silly accent. "Need I remind you that you screamed for that extra bit of energy to defeat Lord Leopride the first time?"

"S-Stop, that's embarrassing..."

"Here," Elise sighed. She then marched up to Madoka's axe and roared as she lifted it. Was that not because of her training? Madoka was about to complain but then the princess did something incredible.

"Watch! RAAAH!" Elise raised the ax over her head and smashed one of the stone formations to pieces in one fell swing. The very same rocks Madoka was trying to break for a week now. Madoka's axe was not damaged in the slightest. She handed the weapon back to her with a satisfied look. "Simple as that, you got this! Sorry for blowing one of these up. They're probably for training..."

Eh?!