The Servant Queen

Officer Raine, the Swordwoman

Ani

Walter left early in the morning to track down the man last night. I was left alone eating breakfast at the longest table I've ever sat at in an uncomfortable dress.

"What's up with the way you eat?" said a woman.

I turned around and saw the most beautiful person I've ever seen. She wore a black, plain dress that reached to her ankle. She walked to me, hips swaying back and forth. I noticed a small servant girl walking behind her, holding a large pack behind her back.

"What's wrong with it?" I said, looking down at my plate. I paused and looked back at the woman. "Do you authority to be in here, ma'am?"

"More than anyone else. Walter asked me to come here."

"Why?" I asked.

"To give you a crash course how to be a proper noble woman," she said. "You looked at your masters eat all your life, yet the way you're eating is worse than a toddler."

She tore out the fork from my hand and replaced it with a slightly different fork that was beside my plate.

"You are to address me as Officer Raine," she said. "Hold your utensils like this, not like a piece of chicken drumsticks that those peasants eat."

Officer Raine fixed my hands. She turned to look at the staring butlers.

"Leave."

"Yes, Officer Raine." They left.

She sat on the chair near to me.

"Straight back, keep your napkin on your knees. Constantly dap around your mouth. No! Not wipe. Dab! You don't want to be an embarrassment, do you now?"

"What are you an officer of?" I asked.

"Knights," she said. "I train them—Close your mouth!"

"Yes."

For the rest of the time, she continued to tell me all the rules of table etiquette. After I was done, she taught me how to walk in my heels, how to treat and talk to other people of all class, other etiquette, and the current news. One of them being that one of the knights captured a demi-human alive and keeping it in one of the castle's dungeons which I thought was interesting.

We walked into a clear area in the garden. We faced each other a few meters apart.

"Last lesson of today," she said. "Self-defense."

"Fighting?"

"Walter told me that you help fought off some Border Watchers with ridiculous waving of the sword," Officer Raine said, "like a little child. Though he didn't ask for me to do this, consider this a gift..."

The servant girl pulled out two sword covered in black cloth from her pack and handed it to her. And Officer Raine threw one at me and I caught it, clumsily.

"I'm not doing anything that requires sword-fighting. I don't need this," I said.

I held it up.

"I can talk my way out of things," I said. "No one needs to get hurt."

Officer Raine spun her sword at her side and widen her stance.

"Tell Walter that I'm sorry that your pretty, little dress got ruined," she said.

I looked down. "It's not ripped."

"It will."

Officer Raine ran towards me, full speed. Her black hair fell out of her carefully made bun, and flew behind her freely.

I jumped aside, forgetting that there was a rosebush beside me. My healing skin was scratched all over again. I crawled out and pulled my dress out the bush, tearing it. She swung the sword down at me, and I fell backwards on my bottom. The sword lying on the ground was within reach.

"You're going to kill me, Officer Raine!"

"Yes, I most definitely will. That's why you're going to pick up that sword, and you're going to fight me, Ani!" she yelled.

Officer Raine's eyes were like fire. She trained knights.

I'm not a knight.

"I am your enemy. You have to protect yourself. You have to kill your enemy before they kill you!" she yelled as she towered in front of me.

"I'll never kill!" I yelled out.

She swung her sword down again.

I heard a single clash as if two swords hit each other.

In front of me stood the small servant girl. She held up my heavy sword, protecting me. She glared at Officer Raine without looking away. Officer Raine froze there for awhile, her eyes widening.

"Master Raine, you doing it again. You're going too far," the servant said.

Officer Raine dropped her sword. Her breathing started to get heavier, and her knees started to quiver.

"Officer Raine," I said, quietly. "Are you okay?"

Officer Raine didn't say anything. She was like a statue. Her servant dropped her sword too and held onto Officer Raine's hand. She started to lead blank-minded Officer Raine away. She turned to me and bowed.

"As a fellow servant," the servant said, with an northern region accent. "I deeply ask you to forget this scene. She just wanted to help. Her scars of the past are not healed yet."

The servant led Officer Raine away. I couldn't help but feel guilty for causing her to act like that. I went back to my room, avoiding all the maids and butlers.

There was a cloak hanging from my chair when I entered my dark room. It was the one Oliver gave me. Ms. Weatherbottom had placed it there when I woke up today. I took off my tattered dress and wore the thin cloak. It was purely for entertainment. It was more comfortable than the dress. I laid, curling up in my bed with the hood on.

I took out the same note earlier.

I flipped it over and looked at the drawing. It was a circle made out of eight dots and a single dot in the center. The constellation of the servant mask. Walter didn't notice it since it was just dots, but I could recognize it anywhere.

I traced it with my finger.

"I want to go home, Mother," I said. "I want to sit near the stream again with Kei and catch fireflies."

"I want freedom without a deal."

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A/N: Sorry for zero updates for the past two weeks. I was grounded. Lol. :,)