A Capable Maid

Chapter 1

'I am useless'.

I have never been good at anything since I was a child. 

'It is expected of her bloodline' [female noble]

 'how is she this bad?' [male noble]

These were the rumors that surrounded me like a cocoon of darkness. That was my reputation. When my mother died, my father the king of Clowan kingdom, found me and made me a princess. However I was still useless.

'She is kind, but how is she so useless?' [maid 1]

'She is not good at anything' [maid 2]

Then when the empire took over the kingdom I hid myself as a maid but remained the same useless person.

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"Marie!",  I hear the head-maid calling my name. I run over quickly so as not to get into more trouble than I probably already am.

"Yes?"

"Did you actually clean? What is with all this dust?!"

 Shoot. I did clean it though? Ugh, great this is what I get for not being able to do anything I remind myself glumly.

The empire did not leave any Royale families alive so I had to hide my identity to survive.

"Do it properly," the head-maid scolds me.

"Y-yes! I'm sorry, I'll do it right away", I managed to squeak out. I am now a maid of the imperial palace and does all the chores. The one good thing about my is probably my optimistic personality. 'Let's go! we can do this', I encourage myself. I quickly redo all my chores again and then find myself with a new task assigned from the head maid.

"A sick prisoner....I need to care for?" I question.

"Who else will do it if not you? You don't want to?" The head-maid asks.

"N-no, I'll do it", I stutter clutching my hands together like they'll give me strength. 'I will only be feeding and washing I have nothing to fear!' I reassure myself. 

"This way", the guard leads me down the intertwining passages of the dungeon. We pass several cells with prisoners who look all but dead, 'this could've been me if I didn't hide myself' I think quietly. 'Rotting away for the rest of my life, if it wasn't decided that I would be killed on the spot', I shiver to myself. The sound of the unlocked cell door snaps me out of my thoughts. I almost gag. 'No, this...is the same smell as mother', I peer inside the cell seeing an old bed with a lump on it covered in soiled blankets.

"He's going to die either way and he isn't anyone important, so don't work to hard" the guard tells me nonchalantly.

' "Don't work to hard" he tells me.' I can see a unkept head of wavy shoulder length gray hair laying on the pillow of the bed. He has a kind face with a beard to frame his mouth, and looks to be sleeping peacefully. 'Because he's a prisoner....but!' I feel my heart throb as painful memories flood my mind with the death of my mother.

~flashback~

I feel a warm hand on my cheek comforting the 7 year old tears that are threatening to fall.

"My baby...it does not matter what you become in the future, but I want you to be a kind person" my mother speaks to me softly, you can see that every word causes her pain. She is deathly pale and very thin, laying on her bed calling out to me through her sickness. These were the last words before my mothers death.