Arcadia's Ignoble Knight: Dark Elf Arc

Chapter 71

The days had turned into weeks and the weeks into months. The people who had traveled with Elincia had grown used to living in Fas Sheras. While they still weren't allowed to leave the palace and its surrounding grounds, everyone except Dranor was granted the freedom to travel almost anywhere within the palace.

That morning, like most mornings, Cassidy was outside by a small stream, washing clothes alongside several attendants. She dunked her hands and the clothes in them into the cool water and gently scrubbed the stains out. Her work was not as skilled as the attendants, who had been washing clothes like this for centuries, but she did her best.

Dress after dress was washed. Shirt after shirt became clean. Whenever Cassidy was done cleaning one article of clothing, she lightly wrung out the water and placed it in a basket. She did this until the basket was full.

The attendants around her finished before she did. As they began walking off with full baskets, Cassidy tried her best to hurry up, picking up the basket and rushing to catch up with the others. However, just as she was about to catch up to them, her foot caught on a root.

"WAAA!!!"

With a loud cry, she began to fall, but just before she had a terrible meeting with the ground, a hand wrapped around her from the front.

"Careful," a gentle voice said. Cassidy looked up to find a woman who looked young but whose eyes contained infinite wisdom staring down at her with a kind smile. This woman's eyes were a silvery blue, and her hair was a light blonde. Her name was Laneusmedela, and she was one of the many attendants within the palace.

"T-thank you for catching me," Cassidy said as she straightened up. The woman handed her the basket she had been carrying, which apparently Laneusmedela had caught before it could spill. "Oh. Thank you."

"You have to pay more attention to where you are going." Laneusmedela admonished her lightly as they began walking again, traveling into another courtyard where several clotheslines were located. The others were already hanging the clothes they had washed out to dry. "There are many roots sticking out of the ground, and you do not have the ability to commune with nature like we elves do. You'll trip like you just did if you aren't careful."

"No, I'm afraid I trip even when there's nothing to trip over," Cassidy admitted with a blush.

"So you are just clumsy?" Laneusmedela asked.

Cassidy's cheeks became even hotter. "I-I guess so..."

"That is... awfully cute," Laneusmedela admitted.

"Uwaaa..."

While Cassidy was ashamed of her own clumsiness and this woman's words made her embarrassed, she did her best not to let it affect her as she worked alongside Laneusmedela to hang up the laundry. They did not speak while doing this particular task. Cassidy focused solely on doing a good job. Fortunately, while she was indeed a klutz, she had hung up enough laundry that she could do her job without assistance.

When they were done, Laneusmedela and Cassidy wandered through an arched entrance that led into the palace and climbed a set of stairs.

"Do you mind if I ask why you are doing such menial labor?" asked Laneusmedela as they emerged from the staircase and into a long hallway. No one else was present. "As a guest of our palace, there is really no need for you to do anything. You could live a life free of worry if you wanted."

Cassidy was quiet for a moment as they walked through the hall, which curved around the tree and led to a ramp that traveled higher up.

"When I was traveling with Lady Erica, Lady Elincia, and Lord Caspian, I could not do anything to help them," she began in a soft, slow voice. "I'm useless in combat, don't know the first thing about traveling, and have no real skills or abilities that can help them. I was... just a liability to them, and I hated that. I can't stand the fact that I don't have any way to help them." A sad smile appeared on her lips. "I'm just a maid. All I can do is clean and wash laundry, and I'm not even very good at that. Even so, I want to do something for them, even if it's just cleaning their room and washing their clothes."