Zaria as The Maid - Chapter 02 - The Chaos After Summoning a Maid

Zaria woke, she was feeling off, she was familiar enough with herself to know that she had gotten stronger, for some weird reason she couldn't immediately pinpoint.

What she did not know was why?

When in doubt, check the character sheet.

"What the actual fuck?"

Zaria did not curse often.

But seeing the hundreds of titles she had gathered over the eons suddenly all give her boosts and effects?

She basically doubled her abilities with titles, tripled her skills with titles, and finally managed to get some really insane effects from some of them.

That one looked amusing, she had to find a cat to test it.

Then she found a title that made her remember the eight girls on the bed.

She rose and placed a finger on an arm that was hanging off the bed.

"Status Open; Status Show: Show Full Status" She ordered, then checked her slave and found things that gave her a headache.
-) 'Apex's Slave': +15 to all Abilities, +10 to all Skills, +10 to all Magic, +100 Health, +100 Mana, +10 Defence, +10 Magic Resistance, +10 Attack, +10 Damage, +10 Minimum Damage, +10 Final Damage, +10 Crit Rate
-) 'Zaria's Slave': +10 to all Abilities, +10 to Dexterity, +10 Agility, +10 Charm, +10 to all Skills, +10 to all Magic, +100 Health, +100 Mana, +10 Defence, +10 Magic Resistance, +10 Attack, +10 Damage, +10 Minimum Damage, +10 Final Damage, +10 Crit Rate, after calculation everything gets increased by XX%, where XX is the number of Tails Zaria has (current 10%)
-) 'The Maid's Slave': +5 to all Abilities, +5 to Charm, +5 to Dexterity, +5 to Constitution, Stamina doubles, +50 to Mana, +10 all Basic Maid Skills (Basic Maid Skills: Cleaning Skills, Food Preparation Skills, Service Skills), +10 to all Maid Magical Skills (Life Magic, Cleaning Magic, Defensive Magic, Healing Magic)

Her little slaves got from their new titles at least 33 Ability points. Charisma on the one she was checking had been a nice 11. Charisma now however was an insane 61. Didn't that herald say that anything above 10 was high and knight level at least?

Zaria peered at the girls. They looked livelier, radiating beauty, they looked healthier.

The world was set up like a game world Zaria figured.

She could 'read' the world to understand it's rules, but she decided not to. She was here to relax and play, and most importantly she was here to troll. She wasn't going to bother adjusting to their common sense anyway. And how desperate were the gods here anyway if they offered a title for every little thing and all of them had effects.

She did not care actually.

But her eight new toys? She was going to use them to check if the skill levels offered the knowledge, or just allowed them to use all they knew perfectly. Depending on the results she already had a maid squad ready, or she was going to have to show them everything bit by bit so they could learn it.

The title system was clearly not created with someone like her in mind.

Now she had to fetch breakfast and then it was time to mess with the Princess.

Breakfast was chaotic, her eight cuties were not used to having many times their strength. She had to reinforce everything so things stopped breaking.

"Yes, it is fine, see the cup is fixed and the spilled tea was wiped up." Zaria calmed one of them, she would have to figure out their names later, once they stopped being so freaked out.

"Now I want each of you to finish eating, you all are too thin, so eat slowly and I expect everything on the table to be finished soon." Zaria pulled the stack of crepes out of Yuki's reach. "Make sure Yuki, my fox, doesn't eat too many sweet things, too much sugar makes her hyper."

Breakfast finished with eight confused slaves.

"Now, while I go work a bit, I want you all to stay here and practice, first is how much strength you need to bend or stop bending the knives, don't worry about breaking them, if you do I will simply fix them." Zaria took a knife and waddled it into a ball that was glowing red from the strain and squeezing. Then she tapped it with her finger and it stretched out again into a knife. "See? No problems, now I am off to attend to the Princess, and bother her while at it."

The eight confused slaves got even more confused.

"Take care of them Yuki, girls, listen to Yuki, unless it concerns sweets."

"Kon"

Eight girls looked as their owner left them behind, then looked at the white fox with black ear tips and a black tail tip. That was the substitute?

"Kon kon" Yuki finished eating, then went to the bathroom. "Kon!" She called out when nobody moved.

"I think she means we need to wash up?"

"But we already had a bath yesterday?"

"I guess we need to obey?"

"Bath~"

Slowly the girls followed, and found the large bathtub steaming and waiting for them, and Yuki floating in it.

------

Zaria meanwhile after asking several maids, found the Princess room, and slipped past the two guards at her door, and through the door while at it.

Inside she found a young maid already at work, and the Princess still asleep.

Becoming physical and visible again Zaria simply settled next to the maid and helped with the preparations.

It took the maid a few moments to realize she had a fluffy helper.

A hand on the mouth kept her from screaming.

"I am Zaria, a maid in search of a Mistress, I was summoned yesterday." Zaria removed the hand. "Now no need to scream, the Princess is already familiar with me. Will she be eating here or in the dining hall?"

"Uhm, here?"

Zaria went to the bed and looked at the Princess, figuring the beauty would sleep for at least another hour if left alone, she returned to the confused and wary personal maid. "She will sleep about another hour; does she have anything urgent for the morning?"

The maid perked up at that, she decided to treat the trespasser as a fellow servant. "She has paperwork, and at noon a meeting with the heroes, after that lunch, introducing the heroes to their tutors, and then meetings with the delegates from the other counties." The maid reported.

Zaria went to the desk and checked the paperwork over. It was a mess. The reports were not sorted in any way. She decided to give a hand. Tomoki got his own pile, she put the reports on herself into another, it seemed that someone had found the statues and reported it.

She pulled out an additional sheet and wrote down her experiences with the idiot, and some of the not so nice rumours she had heard about him. It fit with him picking a big breasted slave and a small loli to attend to him during the night.

Idly, she placed a note on top to organize a healer for his slaves, knowing the rumours they would probably need it.

"Uhm" The maid was concerned that the fluffy one was working through official paperwork.

"Just sorting it, and adding to the information about the hero."

The maid did not understand.

"I was familiar with him even before the summoning, unfortunately." She checked the maid out. "You look cute and you have a nicely sized chest, if I were you, I'd stay away from him, you fall into his type. From rumours I have heard he is not a gentle lover."

The girl shuddered.

"There, done with the notes." Zaria put her sheet on top of the Tomoki file, and looked around. Seeing the clothes prepared, she checked the bathroom, the bath was ready, even if it was cooling down. A little magic heated it up again. She waved the other maid over. "Does the princess use bathing salts or anything? If not, I possess a selection. How does a refreshing one sound? It is good for the skin too."

The maid pondered.

"Why don't you try it first?" Zaria offered. "Besides, with magic she will never know."

It was tempting, the nobles all got hot bathing, and from what she saw the summoned maid was very magical. It was like the demon gods’ seductive whispers.

The distracted maid did not realize Zaria was gently stripping her until she was naked and standing before the sweetly and lemony smelling bathtub.

"Here you go, I'll fetch breakfast, then you get dressed and we get it ready for your Mistress. It is just testing if I put anything suspicious inside." Zaria's soft and gentle voice convinced the maid.

"If I weren't busy, I'd join you, we could have so much fun together."

Now the maid found herself aroused from the promises in the voice.

"Have fun~"

The maid found herself relaxing into the hot water, without a clue how she got there, but it felt so soothing and refreshing.

------

Zaria meanwhile left by opening the door, walking past the guards, opening a servant passage, and heading for the kitchen.

The two guards took too long to react. First a person they had not seen enter had left, then that person was the white albino beast that had been summoned yesterday. The rumours about her were extremely diverse. Finally, they peered inside, found the maid missing, and their Princess still asleep.

Confused, the two guards stepped back outside and decided to inform their Princess afterwards.

At least that had been the plan and the albino returned from the servant’s passage, holding a tray with what was clearly the Princess breakfast, and somehow slipped past them and inside before they managed to react.

On one hand it was for their Princess, on the other hand it was the summoned beast.

In the end they drew lots and one ran off to ask their commander.

------

Inside Zaria realized that the Princess was starting to wake.

Reminding the maid, she helped her dry and dress. Drawing a few squeaks when she rubbed the chest.

The personal maid went to wake her Princess, while Zaria cleaned the bathtub and prepared it for the next occupant.

Then she helped the maid drag the sleepy Princess to the bath.

It was only after soaking for a bit that the Princess managed to process Zaria's presence, probably because the albino was giving her a foot rub.

"Nnnhh, what are you doing here?" The Princess demanded.

"Giving you a foot massage, and enjoying the view."

The Princess blushed, the maid blushed, and Zaria continued her ministrations without a hesitation.

"Pervert."

"Thank you, I do night duties for my Mistress after all."

There was more blushing.

Celestia felt happy that the albino found her beautiful, she was not happy however that the same albino had seen her completely naked, and was now doing unspeakable things to her feet that made her relax and lose her tension. Such nefarious maid techniques should be forbidden, she couldn't even get angry since she felt too good. She was sure that the pleasant scent and the somehow different water were that floof's fault as well.

It was comfortable and refreshing however.

After the two maids had deemed her clean, she found herself dried, she almost complained about the albino drying her, but the beast was faster with the soft towel than she was with her words.

Now dressed in her bathrobe she was eating breakfast, a breakfast that somehow tasted better than usual. "Who cooked this?"

"I did." The dimensionally displaced maid replied.

Somehow the answer was not as surprising as it should have been.

"We have a royal cook." The Princess informed, even if the food was far better than it should be, she was supposed to eat from the carefully vetted cook. Then again, if that beast had wanted her dead, she would be.

"I am better than he will ever be."

It was a statement that spoke volumes, the Princess admitted. That title also confirmed it. "What brings you here?"

"Work? And a hint."

"What hint?"

"Titles, in this world, have powers, I mean all of them do something, right?"

"Yes, naturally, why else would the world give you a title?"

"There is a hint, why did our titles yesterday not show anything granted, but when I checked today, suddenly my titles give bonuses that I can clearly feel. Where we come from, titles are granted, but have no real effects."

The Princess froze. It had been such a simple thing that had been overlooked. Even that title only described the why, but no what. "I need to check; may I ask you to join me later?"

"Status Open; Status View: Display Title: 'Cooking Maid', Display Effects; Display Openly" Zaria commanded.

"Title: Cooking Maid: +5 Dexterity, +5 Agility, +5 to all Cooking Tree skills, +5 to Harvesting Food, +5 to all Life Magic"

The Princess blinked. Those bonuses made no sense, they were insane.

The maid however was plain jealous.

"Actually, what is the skill cap in this world?" Zaria wondered.

The Princess swallowed. Somehow, she had the feeling that this was a very loaded question. "It depends on the skill, probably, however aside from the gifted, the blessed, or the supernatural, there are no skills above level 10."

"Ten?" Zaria asked, confused.

"Yes, level 10 seems to be the cap for normal humans." The Princess confirmed.

"Oops"

"What did you do?"

"Nothing, it is your fault!"

"How is it my fault?"

"You people summoned me, not my fault I come from places not bound by a skill cap or magic cap of 10." Zaria defended herself.

"What are your skill levels?" The Princess dreaded the answer.

"Like so far above it, that a single title like that doesn't make any difference to me?" Zaria pointed at the food. "I simply grabbed some food from the servants pile and made your breakfast with it."

The Princess looked at the food that she had eaten, if it was made with the lower quality ingredients in a hurry, what would then a properly prepared meal with high class ingredients taste like?

Zaria went over and wiped the drool off the Princess mouth, the Princess had clearly imagined a properly cooked meal.

The damp napkin wiping her chin and the mouth brought Celestia back to reality. The main issue was however, a +5 increase meant nothing to that beast. The other thing was, titles that did not give anything before, were now capable of giving bonuses. And Zaria had a lot of them, and probably many more hidden behind that contract.
"How did you do that?"

"Did what?"

"Display your Status without a Status Orb and Plate?"

"I used the Status magic commands."

The answer was so simple, yet so complicated.

"I'll write you a list later."

"Thank you, I need to get dressed now, then I have reports to look through."

"I expanded on the report on the idiot, and the people I statued, they will be fine in a month."

"What?"

"Tomoki's file, I extended it with things from the former world, rumours and observations. I did not add anything to my file, because honestly, it only matters to my chosen Mistress once I find her. Finally, I sorted your paperwork by urgency."

"You looked through my paperwork?" The Princess felt indignation.

"A proper maid is also a secretary, I skimmed it all, and promptly forgot it aside from what I told you before." Zaria shrugged. "It's not like any of it matters to me."

"You have no interest in the matters of the kingdom?"

"Not really, unless my Mistress will be one of your nobles, I couldn't care less if your whole kingdom burned down."

That was brutal, and spoked with total honesty and conviction.

"And if your Mistress wanted to burn this kingdom?"

"I'd help her look for the best spots to start a fire."

Celestia heard it and knew she could not let the albino pick a rival as a Mistress. Like the visiting Princesses from the other human kingdoms. That would be disastrous.

She needed to speak to her father, the sooner the better.

"Why are you actually informing me of this? I would have expected you to not mention anything, since I am not your Mistress."

"The eight girls are my slaves, being who and what I am, that bestows them titles, titles that mean that anyone attacking them, will die."

Celestia had trouble believing that.

"Even if they are lacking experience to use their skills properly, their abilities, skills, and magical values simply top your knights, and I will be teaching them so they can make use of it all."

"Slaves stronger than the knights?"

"I guess knights have their combat related abilities somewhere between 10 and 20?"

"Yes, commanders and specialists have higher ones."

"The poor knights."

"What?"

"I must tell my slaves not to bully your knights."

"Are you joking?"

"No, I hope nobody tried to do anything stupid, I mean Yuki is really smart, but she is primarily an animal, so her main reaction to threats is kill, and if the little ones decide to pitch in, I left them to train controlling their strength by not bending knives after all."

Celestia knew the moment reality had stopped making sense, it had sounded like a great idea, 'summon a hero who is easy to manipulate', and a 'heroine to show off'.

The hero was probably easy to manipulate, if the description of him Zaria left for her held any truth. Zaria herself however, the sooner they found her a 'proper' Mistress, the better.

She stopped the paperwork as she saw the two maids whisper over at her make-up table, and the albino was clearly explaining several things she had taken from that storage skill of hers.

"Time to get dressed."

The bathrobe was removed, and she was being clothed, it was faster than with just a single maid, but tradition demanded that she was not to be seen naked aside from her maid or her husband.

Something the beast clearly ignored, and used to feast on her body with the eyes.

Then came the make-up, instead of the normal foundation she only got lip colour, that was a nice red, and tasted sweetish, a little fine blush, some eyeliner that honestly made her worry she'd get her eye poked, and her eyelashes and eyebrows got dabbed with something that gave them a slight sheen.

She looked younger, fresher, and somehow more open than usual Celestia realized upon looking in the mirror.

"There done, here are the recipes, it can all be made without alchemy, but the alchemical formulas make it easier." Zaria handed her personal maid a list that made the maid squeal in delight. "I also added the facemask recipe, it should help get the facial skin back to top shape, you can feel the difference between that and her belly." Zaria bowed to the pair, flustering the maid. "I shall take my leave and settle my slaves down, please send a runner for me once it is time to leave."

Celestia just waved. She had her father and the cabinet to inform, and it was better if the distracting beast was not present during that, however she expected that the albino wouldn't have cared anyway.

"Have someone check the cosmetics. I doubt she did anything, but make sure. And have the alchemists prepare a batch, if they are as good as she says they are, it might be a good way to put the nobles and other royalty in our debt."

It was time to get to work, and ignore the white maid.

Zaria nodded at the other maid and left.

------

The Princess had to admit the additional notes would help a lot, and the paperwork was sorted perfectly.

She wondered if should do anything about the albino having seen state secrets.

In the end she decided against it, she had the feeling the beast didn't care either way, and just saw it as part of the job.

Now she was making excuses for that maid.

She was going to dump it on her father, it had been his idea to make it a public summoning.

------

When Zaria arrived at her assigned room, she found a few of her girls trying to straighten knives and other cutlery. Several were bent beyond recognition, a few were snapped.

One maid was gently instructing the youngest on bending a spoon and a guard was being tended to by another maid, he was lying under an imprint in the wall.

"Now, who is the stupid one over there?" Zaria asked aloud.

Maids even in a racist country were maids, so when the one tending to the victim replied it was with honesty. "We were sent to attend to you and your slaves, he barged in, and demanded that your slaves follow him. When one replied that you told them to train he tried to pull her away, and then he hit the wall."

"Who did it?" Zaria asked.

A redhead shrunk but raised her hand. She looked about thirteen.

Zaria went over and patted her head. "Good girl." she praised the confused redhead.

A handwave later, everything on the table and in the hands of the various girls was back to pristine shape.

"Stop for now, it is time for your uniforms." She pulled out a notebook, pencil, and measuring tape. "Now who wants to go first? I'll remove the trash meanwhile."

Zaria went to the other maid, and grabbed the guard by a foot. Then she dragged him to the secret, or not so secret any more, door and knocked.

It took a few moments, but the door opened. "Yes?"

"Here, he tried to drag off what is mine, and paid for it. I hope nothing else like that happens in the future." Zaria smiled ferally. "I can't promise the next one will only be unconscious."

"Understood." The guard opened the door further and found the dead to the world guard pushed inside. "Can you do something about the surveillance? We are supposed to watch you."

"Not now, I will be measuring my girls, which means they will be naked for it."

The maids blushed at the frank answer while the girls looked restless.

"But I can remove it later while I will be sewing."

"That would be perfect." He was a guard, and worked for the Kingdom, but that did not mean he was stupid. He knew perfectly well that the Maid could have simply opened the door and stuffed the unconscious guard inside while turning all of them into statues. Taking the risk to ask had paid off.

------

After the door was closed again his colleague from intelligence chided him. "We are supposed to be secret and watch her."

The guard waved at the peeping holes and at the crystals tied to the listening spells in the other room. "She seems like a professional from rumours, so I thought I'd be polite and ask, after all we know we can't force her, the mages can't pierce her barrier or whatever she used. I basically asked her to let us do our jobs. And it worked partially."

"It should work full time."

"You just want to see the girls naked."

"I don't."

"Yes, you do."

"No!"

"Yes."

------

Zaria measured her girls. They were all too thin, she had to make allowances for feeding them.

The other maids were watching when Zaria pulled out cloth from a ripple in the air and started cutting (with her nails), a sewing kit appeared, and scraps started piling up.

"That is not normal, right?" one maid asked the other.

"No, it isn't, do you think she'd make one for me?"

"What?"

"It's cute and frilly unlike ours."

"The head maid would have to agree."

"I'll go and ask." The second maid scampered off to get permission without waiting for a reply or asking the sewing maid.

It was a uniform for each of them later that Zaria took a break and the other maid managed to add her own request.

Zaria made her girls dress up, during which she realized that she had included garter for everyone but she had forgotten the underwear, and had a nicely looking maid squad ready, or at least would have once they learned to control their strength and the basic skills needed.

The less was being said about the one that had tried jumping high the better, magic had once again repaired any damages.

Currently she made them play catch with apples.

Seeing apples crack stone walls was funny.

The ones that got caught usually were splattered.

Strength training was clearly a work in progress.

Zaria was enjoying measuring the two blushing maids.

She even prepared underwear for them, frilly underwear with see through patches that made the two maids’ blush.

Her maid squad was blushing too.

"Can we have underwear too?" one of them asked.

"No." Zaria shot down the request. "A proper maid is always ready to be touched and explored by her Mistress."

The older girls started blushing, the younger girls didn't understand.

A few whispers later a few more were blushing.

There was a knock on the door.

"Yes?" One of the two maids approached the door.

"It is time for skill assessment." A voice came through the door.

"Very well." Zaria finished the last stitches on the dress, and handed the finished product to the eager maid. "Your new uniform is on the table." She told the maid that had answered the door.

"It's perfect." The maid was happy.

"Please look over my little ones meanwhile." Zaria asked the maid. "Girls, if someone comes to take you away, feel free to push, slap, or whatever. These people had no reason to do that since you are mine. However, if you need help or advice, please ask your two seniors."

The two maids felt flattered that their fellow maid trusted them, and worried because they had to watch over a group of superpowered girls.

"I should be back soon." With that Zaria left.

Behind her the slaves and maids faced off.

"Why don't we try again with the strength training? This time we will use cups, once you can hold them without breaking them, we will teach you about tea."

------

Zaria found herself led through the castle to the outside, then past several gardens, and finally towards a training ground.

It was a larger training ground that was clearly used for martial and magical training. Near a wall were several worn training dummies, two of them had arrows sticking out from them.

Off to the side was the princess, who was clearly nervous and having a feeling of impending doom.

That Zaria winked at her did not help the Princess mood. Zaria on the other hand was enjoying herself, teasing a pretty girl was always fun, especially when she was a racist bigot, that made teasing so much easier.

"Welcome Princess, it is an honour to meet you. Greetings Hero, and others." The almost insult was clearly audible in the voice.

Celestia wondered if she should have informed everybody to call her the maid. It was too late for that now. That floof was causing her endless headaches.

"We are going to be doing your assessment for magical powers and will be starting you on the basic training. I am the Master of the Tower of Magic, my title is Archmage. You may call me Archmage or Magister Archus." He gestured at several robed mages behind him. "These are my colleagues who will do the teaching, each is a specialist in their respective field."

A male mage with a staff that seemed metallic and topped with a yellow stone like a topaz stepped forward. "I am Zaqques, my speciality is the complex lightning magic." He raised his hand and chanted. "By the name of Outlet, Upon my command, Gather in my hand, Lightning strike my enemies." Lightning arched from his hand towards one of the training dummies, and the training dummy exploded with some of the straw being set on fire, wooden splinters flying around.

Tomoki was impressed, the other mages not so much. It seemed there was some rivalry between the factions.

"Now young Hero, I wish to start with some sparks. Imagine lightning arcing between your fingers. The aria for the spell is 'By the name of Outlet, Upon my command, Surround my hand, Lightning Sparks."

Tomoki obeyed. Though he stumbled over the name Outlet. For obvious reasons, it seems he only realized what he was saying when doing it. "'By the name of Outlet, Upon my command, Surround my hand, Lightning Sparks"

Zaria remembered static electricity with brighter sparks.

Everyone else however was mumbling so strong, so bright and seemed really impressed.

"Your turn." The mage ordered Zaria.

She raised her hand, and then it was clad in blue, yellow, and red lightning.

Mumbles of "so strong", "so bright", and "it was done silently" arose.

"Now check your Statuses, and see how much mana you used."

"Status" Tomoki happily called out. "I am down to 35 mana, so I used 7."

Zaria looked, then shrugged. "Not enough to offset my natural mana regeneration."

There was silence.

"Since you seem to be good with lightning, why don't you use your strongest lightning spell."

Zaria faced the mage. "I guess you must really hate this continent."

The Princess shuddered. She decided to intervene before everyone died by lightning, she had the feeling that floof would do it too. "He meant your strongest single target spell."

The mage nodded unhappily. "And use an aria this time."

"Everyone please step back further." Zaria ordered and started chanting.

"By my name Zaria/ApEx/MaId/YeS,"

The people shuddered upon hearing her name that took on a supernatural quality.

The Princess realized that this was very bad.

"By my command,"

Clouds appeared from nowhere.

The Princess started to run towards Zaria.

"Clouds gather,"

The sky was quickly darkening.

The Princess kicked off her shoes to run faster. Her guard started to follow.

"Sky's anger, Heaven's wrath, Nature's force,"

The Princess barrelled into Zaria who caught her gently, and pulled her close.

"True Lightning!"

The world turned white.

Deep under the castle a magical circle overloaded and burnt out, the mana crystals surrounding it exploding.

The noise was felt by everyone but Zaria and the Princess she was protecting, then the real thunder arrived and everyone's eardrums burst as the pure white lightning strike pierced the castle's magical barrier and struck the poor training dummy.

Then the heated shockwave blew everyone off their feet, destroyed the wall behind the training dummies, uprooted the other dummies, and rained melted earth all around.

The Princess was the only one to see the result as the cloud of vaporized earth and dummy settled. A large crater with melted rock and glassed earth surrounding it and crackling as it cooled.

Fulgurites surrounded the small crater in a large area.

Zaria placed the Princess back on her own feet, she quickly decided how to play that mess. Basically, dump it on the mages fault.

"This training ground is clearly not prepared for high level spellcasting, neither are those mages, I expected at least a few of them to create barriers for protection." Left unsaid and clear from Zaria's tone were the 'I am not impressed' and the 'are these really your best?'.

"Nobody expected The Maid." The Princess replied. "You are not what we expected at all."

"And I figure they didn't listen." The maid summoned the Princess's shoes. She bent down and told the Princess. "I'll put your shoes back on, and you dirtied your stockings, I'll remove those."

She pulled the stockings and underwear down. "Raise your left leg."

Out of reflex the Princess did that.

Zaria removed the clothes, pulled a wet towel from somewhere, wiped the foot, dried it with a dry towel, and put the shoe back on. "Now the right leg." There she repeated the procedure.

"Wait, you removed my underwear!" Celestia accused when she looked down.

"Being conscious about the lack of it will give someone like you a certain erotic aura, and your underwear is too plain for someone of your rank."

Zaria threw both underwear and stockings into a ripple in space.

Celestia once again wondered what to do, punishing that maid was impossible, threatening even less since she did not care for that summoned boy, and honestly annoying her would probably end badly. Maybe appealing to her maid code or honour could work. "Can you clean that up now and fix them?" She waved around them were passed out people were lying around and bleeding from their ears. She looked at her useless guard, princess knight, best of the best, and was passed out face down on the ground. At least some of the others were rolling around and holding their heads. But as the Princess she was supposed to have her maiden knights. "Since I am not wearing any, remove hers as well."

The Princess blushed and pushed down her fluttering dress.

"Her chest bindings as well? You use a corset, but I recommend not using that health hazard, it reduces growth, weakens the spine, crushes your inner organs, restrains your ribs, and causes long term bone weakening and the pressure on the organs weakens them, causes damage, and keeps them from growing and functioning properly."

Celestia paled. "Is that really true?"

"How many older noble ladies that use them do you know without health issues?" Zaria replied.

Celestia sorted through the reports on the various nobles mentally, and remembered an appalling number of issues on the side of the ladies. "I need to get rid of it!"

Zaria stepped closer, touched her sides, and pulled the offending garment through her and her dress. Then she tossed it into another ripple. "I'll teach your maid some massages later, and I'll teach you some exercises that should strengthen you and reverse the damage."

Celestia gave the floof, she realized she had stopped calling it a beast even in her mind, a suspicious look. Despite being hated, she was far too helpful.

It was with some satisfaction that she watched her guard being healed, woken, and then stripped of the chest wraps, stockings, and underwear while still confused. Like with her those got tossed into a ripple.

"You perverted beast!"

"Your Princess ordered it." Zaria once again deflected casually.

Celestia felt irritated, when her Princess Knight turned her way, she bounced. "It is punishment."

The Princess Knight now turned red from shame instead of anger, she pushed down her above knee long skirt.

"Is your chest actually bigger than mine?" Celestia wondered.

"Hers is a little larger, yours is firmer." Zaria reported.

"No more chest wraps or underwear for you." The Princess ordered, yes she was feeling vindictive, but she needed a way to vent, and the ashamed blushing knight before her was a good target.

"I'll clean up the mess now." The Maid pulled out an outdoor broom, and started sweeping the many people into a pile while ignoring the rare complaints.

The two upright and conscious girls stared in disbelief.

Once everyone was gathered in a single spot, Zaria clapped her hands three times.

The people woke and started untangling themselves.

Then the Maid started sweeping the debris from the explosion to the crater that was still glowing hot.

"Wait!" A mage called out. "That's lightning glass! Be gentle with it."

The mage stumbled towards Zaria who was sweeping some glassed earth towards the crater.

The Princess remembered something. "Lightning glass is a rare alchemical and enchanting material." Then she looked at the large amount of glass arcs leading away from the hole in the middle. "No, don't repair that, I'll have the alchemists and enchanters harvest it."

Zaria shrugged, and put her broom away. She snipped once, and the wall behind the training dummies repaired itself. "I think we should move aside in this case, maybe this row of dummies next? And Princess Knight, unless you want me to shorten your skirt and turn your top into something exposing shoulder and belly free, you should stop calling me a useless beastly maid under your breath."

Celestia did not look at her personal guard, she just hoped that the floof was not going to take it personally and she'd end up as collateral damage. "If you need to, feel free to discipline her." She gave the Maid her permission.

The Princess Knight paled.

Zaria smirked.

------

A lot of confusion and disbelief later, the group stood in front of another set of training dummies.

"I shall teach you the destructive force of fire." A mage with a staff topped by a red stone announced. "The God of Fire is Ofry. A proper spell is the fireball." The mage turned to the targets and pointed his palm at them. "By the name of Ofry, Upon my command, May the fire burn those standing against me, Ball of Fire." A ball or red fire appeared before his palm and flew at the targets. There it burst and incinerated the dummy and ignited the other two. The heat was felt even by the onlookers.

"Now for the beginning I want you to check your mana, and then after you cast. The starting spell is flame." The mage raised a finger. "By the name of Ofry, Upon my command, Appear warm fire, Flame come." On his fingertip a small flame appeared.

Tomoki followed suit. And a small sputtering flame appeared, that went out when he laughed happily.

The fire mage gave Zaria a suspicious look, then instructed her. "Use an aria, but only do a single target spell."

Zaria looked around, again nobody made a barrier.

The Princess stepped closer, already feeling the disaster coming.

"By my name Zaria/ApEx/MaId/YeS,"

She would never admit it, but Celestia hooked a finger into the ribbon on Zaria's back.

"By my command,"

Just in case she decided to close her eyes.

"Flame of the Sun,"

Wait, was that crazy floof calling upon the sun?

"Burning, Melting, Scorching,"

She opened her mouth to interrupt.

"Solar Ray, vaporise."

Again, the world turned white, then came the oppressive scorching heat.

"My beard is on fire!"

Someone started burning.

When Celestia opened her eyes she found chaos, The water mage was casting water spells that immediately became steam, and the Wind mage was trying to keep the heat off them.

Celestia looked at her sweating guard, then decided to stay close to the Maid that clearly did something so her surroundings were only barely warmer than before.

The dummy however was replaced by a molten hole with lava happily bubbling at its depth. The grass and surrounding dummies were turned into ashes.

It was clear they had to relocate again.

The fire mage was noting down the aria in the background.

A damp water mage introduced herself. "Water is mainly used for support magic, and the ice spells are used for combat." The water magician pointed her hand at a training dummy. "By the name of Alwety, Upon my command, Water frozen into ice, Sharp and firm, Pierce my enemy, Ice Lance"

A decently sized icicle manifested and shot at the training dummy and pierced into it, it was a clear through and through.

The testing spell was about creating a handful of water.

Tomoki was happily looking at his wet hand.

The water magician faced Zaria. "Please use several small spells and a moderate one."

Zaria smirked. They were capable of learning after all. "With Aria?"

"Please."

And this one was far more polite too.

"By my name Zaria/ApEx/MaId/YeS,"

Celestia stood right behind Zaria, just in case.

"By my command,"

The Princess wondered why the floof had the right to command the elements in her name, or whatever that was.

"Water that surrounds us,"

Maybe this magic was going to be simple? There was not much water around after all.

"Become my blade that cuts everything,"

Sharp water? That started to sound ominous.

"Forged by depths, Water Blade."

A thin arc of water, rushed out with high speed and cut through the training dummy, neatly cutting the top off.

It was not a forceful cut, like with a blade, no, it clearly went through the dummy, and into the sandbags behind it, and then the top slipped off.

The water mage pulled out a scroll and started to write.

"By my name Zaria/ApEx/MaId/YeS,"

Celestia remembered that the water mage had asked for several smaller spells.

"By my command,"
"Water that surrounds us,"

That was like before. So, she was not worried.

"Forged by depths, Heated by magma,"

And hope died painfully.

"Strike hard, Water Ball."

An orb of water hit the standing remains of the abused training dummy, shattered it with the force of a wrecking ball, and then exploded into steam, sending the shards flying at high speed as shrapnel.

The Princess watched in disbelief as several people cried out, luckily the distance made the impacts less than harmful, but the hand in front of her face worried her. The worry became worse when the hand opened and displayed a sharp wooden splinter that seemed wet.

"By my name Zaria/ApEx/MaId/YeS,"

And the damned floof still continued.

"By my command,"
"Stillness of the frozen,"
"Frozen in ice,"

Celestia inched closed and hooked her finger into the convenient back ribbon again.

"Cold that stops everything,"

It sounded very ominous again. And there was a whitish blue flicker dancing in the floof’s palm.

"Absolute Zero."

The last part was barely a whisper, yet everyone heard it, the barely visible flicker danced through the air and landed in the centre of the damp earth surrounding the former target.

Then the earth turned white, the air froze as snow started to fall, all around the temperature dropped as wind picked up and air rushed in to replace the frozen air at the centre.

Zaria walked into the snow and picked up a larger piece of frozen wood. Then she threw it towards the mages. It shattered into tiny pieces before their eyes.

"That is pretty much the epitome of cold spells." Zaria explained. "Naturally I downsized it a lot."

One of the mages who tried to pick a piece up managed to get frost burn on his fingers.

"So, what is next?"

The Princess wanted to strangle the floof with her own tail.

--- Zaria's Room ---

Meanwhile in another place a different type of overpowering was happening.

Sounds of shattering and metal being bent filled the bedroom.

The door was opened and a maid brought new supplies on a trolley. "I brought them, the ancient silver set you always have to polish, and the tea set I always have to dust."

"Perfect." The other maid happily turned towards Zaria's maid squad who finally stopped breaking normal cups like the servants used. "Girls, this is a noble set. The forks and spoons are pure silver, so they are softer, the cups and saucers are made from thin porcelain. This means both are more fragile. Both sets have 30 pieces, that means everyone has a few tries to get it right. Like before, take your time, slowly try to get a feeling for how much pressure you can use. Once we are done with that, you should have enough control to eat lunch without cutting plates or the table."

Zaria's maid squad nodded. Food sounded good and motivated them.

Another three cups shattered after being handed to the eager girls.

"Breathe slowly, relax, try to feel it gently, like we did before."

Seeing the spoons bend and the cups shatter was sweet medicine for the two maids, it soothed their minds. Seeing the pieces of torture shatter and break was wonderful. Naturally normally they would never dare using those expensive, overpriced, famous possessions for etiquette and strength training. However, their fellow maid was great at restoring things.

Inwardly the maids cheered with each bent cake fork and spoon, and almost jumped in jubilation each time one of those gaudy cups was shattered.

--- Training Grounds ---

At the training ground the group had reordered itself.

"I am an earth mage, along with a lot of spells for convenience and construction, our main focus is golems. Normal soldiers cannot defend or damage a large golem, making them great for sieges and to break enemy lines since they have to avoid the golems while still charging forward. It is also a good distraction against monsters, allowing you to pin the monster in place while you approach for the kill."

Tomoki seemed impressed.

"By the name of Pebble, Upon my command, Come Warrior of Stone, Shatterer of Armies, Rise under my Command, Stone Golem."

A three-story golem rose as the mage leaned heavily on his staff capped by a brownish stone.

"Wow, so large." Tomoki was impressed.

Zaria was not, the large golem was rough looking, it was made from rock, but there was no elegance, no magical reinforcement. It was dumb as a rock. That meant you either had to steer it, or give it simple commands, and simple meant really simple.

"The testing spell raises a small mound of sand or earth. The aria is: 'By the name of Pebble, Upon my command, rise ground beneath my feet.'"

Tomoki was starting to look a little pale from his mana usage. A small spot of earth rose under his feet, and almost knocked him over.

"Summon a golem." The earth mage ordered Zaria.

"Use an aria." The Princess reminded Zaria.

Zaria gave the Princess an amused look.

"By my name Zaria/ApEx/MaId/YeS,"

The Princess stayed close, but decided that golem creation should not have any major impacts.

"By my command,"
"Rise eternal Servant,"

The word eternal was mentioned, and that was probably bad.

"Stone instead of Flesh,"

That did not sound like a golem spell.

"Gems and the liquid earth in your body,"

Gems in a golem? Those were used for golem construction, and not for simple golems.

"Clothed in earth,"

The earth before them started moving.

"Body soft like the soft earth,"
"Body warm like the warm earth,"

The Princess was worried, this was a long aria.

"Awaken to the living and thinking,"

The earth started to rise as something seemed to move underneath.

"Await your Orders,"

Just in case, the Princess took a step closer and hooked her finger back into the very convenient ribbon.

"Rise Golem Maid."

A hand with long fingernails broke through the earth and another broke through on the other side. Then a head with a maid headband, two fluffy ears, brown hair, and almost white skin broke through. A shapely female followed.

Soon the golem maid stood before them, it honestly did not look like a golem. Dark red hair, and a brighter red uniform, and she was standing motionless staring at Zaria.

It looked like a brown skinned, red brown haired catgirl maid rather than a golem. The skin looked rather tanned actually.

"You know, breathe, even if you don't need it. Most people find not breathing creepy, and you need the air to talk." Zaria said after a short inspection.

"Nyahnderstood" came the completely monotone reply as the golem maid started breathing.

Zaria tapped her chin thoughtfully. "I am not sure where the nyah came from actually."

"Because nyah" the monotone continued.

"I blame Mrr'am, it is totally her fault that all cats are nyah to me."

The Princess looked from one maid to the other. "Is everything alright?"

Zaria nodded, pulled a brown outdoor broom from somewhere, and handed it to the golem. "Since all basic maid skills were installed, this is a test. When he says 'start'," Zaria pointed at the earth mage "you will wreck that golem, then sweep it off to the side." Zaria now pointed at the large golem.

"Nyanderstood"

Zaria looked at the Princess. "That is what happens when you lose a bit of focus during creation. First I wanted a maid, then I realized that a human golem was boring, then I decided that you need a catgirl for the rough tongue, that made me remember a dear friend, and that is the result."

The Princess asked about the name she heard. "That friend is named Miriam?"

"Close enough." Zaria confirmed.

"Start" The earth mage felt insulted.

Then the golem maid moved, the ground was gouged when she accelerated, lifted the broom above her head, and then ground scattered when she jumped up, and swung the broom down at where the head of the huge golem was. The broom shattered the head, punched through the torso, cracking the hard rock, and sending bits and pieces of the golem flying everywhere.

It was above the regenerative capabilities of the magical construct and it crumbled.

As ordered, the fake catgirl started sweeping the many tons of rock to the side of the training field.

"Winner, golem maid." The Princess announced in the following silence.

Zaria pondered her creation for a moment. It seemed like a waste to dispel her. She raised her hand and a stone pillar with a choker rose.

The Princess looked at the precious creation. Gold thread, rubies held in place by gold, and a rose diamond in the middle. It was something so finely woven and intricate that she couldn't help but want it.

Then it was put on her by the floof.

"Maid, this is your owner, you can recognize her by the choker until you remember her properly. When in doubt, ask her." Zaria ordered her creation.

"Nyanderstood."

The Princess froze, had she just been gifted a maid that was a golem that was capable of crushing siege class golems? "Why?" she choked out.

"I think it looks good on you. I had to dig very deep for the gold, the gems I simply made from earth." Zaria explained.

"Not that, the maid!" It seemed safer to refer to everything 'maid' as 'maid'.

"Oh, I have my maid squad to teach and I thought a rough tongue to help you relax would be good for you." Zaria told the Princess. "As for why, why not? The choker is so she gets used to you. Over time she will learn to recognize you properly even without it. She takes orders very literally, so if you tell it, for example to punch someone, it will, with most of its strength." The maid waved at the pile of golem being erected at the edge of the training grounds.

This was a little extreme, Celestia realized. Did she just get a weapon of war as a maid?

"Golem Maid, combat functions are restricted to protection, you are not to attack first, you are not to leave the close vicinity of your Mistress, you are not to listen to the orders of anybody but hers and mine. First response should be nonlethal unless there is risk of injury for your Mistress."

"Nyanderstood."

It seemed that plan was not viable. Something bothered her however.

"Wait, rough tongue?"

"Yes, catgirls have the most pleasant rough tongues, I made hers longer so she can reach deeper when needed."

The Princess, her Princess Knight, Tomoki, and a few others in hearing distance blushed or had perverted grins.

She really wanted to strangle that floof with its tail. She knew what was meant, she had read about it. Now she was going to have a hard time looking at its face.

"I made sure to include the full night service package that she is physically capable of." Zaria continued calmly. "She will require water and food from time to time to be fully functional, she might eat some minerals and rocks from time to time too." Zaria frowned. "Golem Maid, no eating the floors, doors, walls, tableware, or anything that looks like it has a function. When in doubt ask a maid or your Mistress."

"Nyanderstood." The newest maid gave the pile of stone golem wreckage a critical look over, then decided that any changes would probably make the balanced tower crash and have her restart. So, she walked over, and stepped silently behind the Princess,

The Princess Knight felt annoyed.

"Princess!" A loud call came from the path to the castle.

Everyone turned and saw several Princess Knights running towards them. They were all running with swords drawn.

"Nyantralizing targets. Distnyance is safe. Nyan-lethal strength." Then the golem maid moved, dust was left in the trail of her rush.

"What is going on?" The Princess wondered.

"Fully armoured, calling you, swords drawn, looking unhappy, running towards you." Zaria listed calmly. "I think your new maid decided that they are a danger, and moved to neutralize them. She mentioned nonlethal luckily."

The Princess assessed the situation. "Maybe a beatdown will motivate my knights to train more."

The knight behind the Princess paled, then cried out. "Incoming, defend yourselves!"

It did not help.

The maid was not a super-fast fighter, but she didn't need to be with her power, she didn't bother defending since the swords did not even manage to chip her clothes.

The Princess looked as her new maid knocked them out one by one. Then lined the eight girls up neatly side by side on the edge of the training ground on some grass out of the way.

"Somehow I feel much safer now."

The Princess Knight gnashed her teeth.

"Don't forget you will feel much more relaxed soon, after all the night service package is rather extensive." Zaria added.

"I am not going to use that."

"Your loss, a cat's tongue is great, especially when the cat knows how to lick properly. And don't worry, I managed to keep her weight down, she is only slightly heavier than a human that size would be." Zaria pointed at the unconscious group. "We should probably ask what had happened that made them hurry."

The Princess wanted to get it out of the way on one hand, on the other if they were in a hurry, it was either important, or someone blew things out of proportion again.

"Everyone stay here, I will check with the maid and a knight."

The Princess Knight had a bad feeling, was she being replaced with a floof and a golem?

Once they arrived at the lined-up girls, the golem turned and looked at Celestia for orders.

The Princess waved her hand dismissively. "Stand down and relax, I doubt they wanted to harm me." Seeing her passed out guards like that was really embarrassing, she was supposed to trust them with her life. "Wake that one, wait, actually strip them of their underwear first." The Princess ordered Zaria.

"Feeling vindictive, are we?" Zaria smiled amused, but complied anyway.

Bras, chest wraps, and an undershirt were removed. Then from the underwear that came in sexy, plain, none, and loincloth varieties.

The last two got surprised looks. And blushes from the Princess and the awake Princess Knight.

"I have to make sure everyone wears proper underwear." Celestia mumbled.

Zaria inspected the victims of her newest creation. "Why not make them all wear sexy things? Since they are all wearing armour, they should wear something, but you can mix practical with sexy."

"Are you volunteering to make them?"

"Why not?"

The Princess realized something. "You just want to see them naked."

"Actually no, I just want to tease them by having them wear the most erotic yet functional lingerie I can make. And considering that they have to listen to me while I measure and fit them, makes me all amused. Added bonus is that I am a lowly beast."

"You are evil, you know that?" Celestia decided to tell her true opinion.

Zaria just shrugged. "I am a maid, none but my chosen Mistress actually matter."

"Then why are you taking care of me and helping me?"

"You are fun to tease, and smart enough to realize that I am playing around, that makes you interesting since you clearly know that you can't stop me." Zaria gave the Princess a rather gentle smile. "You are clearly intelligent, shrewd, opinionated, and your upbringing shows. Why you need slaves and hate nonhumans I can't understand, then again, I don't get why wars and such are needed, unfortunately I am the best there is at combat, destruction, mayhem, and death. But that doesn't mean that I like doing it. Pampering the Mistress all day and making sure she feels good and teaching her how to give proper headpats is a much better use of time. So, until I can get that, I can simply let my sadist and teasing tendencies out."

The Princess felt a headache. That floof had just criticised the kingdom, criticised her teachings, and admitted to being a sadistic tease. That tease was interested in her for amusement reasons. It made her want to cry, they needed to quickly find her an appropriate Mistress so that damned floof was out of her hair by doing her maidly duties somewhere else, hopefully far away.

"Which one should I wake?"

The mentally abused Princess Knight found herself the target of the focus of the other two girls. She pointed at a smaller girl, one that did not have a bra, and if the armour was any indication, did not need one. "She is the sub commander, wake her."

Zaria flicked a handkerchief at the indicated girl.

"What?" The smaller girls quickly jumped to her feet and reached for a non-existing weapon upon seeing the golem maid.

"Calm down subcommander. Report." The Princess Knight ordered.

The girl snapped to attention. "The castle barrier has been broken. No alarm has been sounded. We are supposed to bring the Princess to a safe room."

Celestia thought about it for a moment, then she turned to Zaria. "It's your fault."

"Considering how weak it was, I thought nothing of it, I actually thought it was a detection barrier." Zaria waved at the mages. "They are the ones who wanted to see strong spells and arias." And shifted the blame on them. "Nobody told me to watch out for that useless thing."

"It was an old barrier that has been maintained for over a hundred years against attacks."

"Doubt that could have protected against any serious attacks."

"I don't mean attacks from an insanely overpowered maid, but attacks from normal beings."

"Like those useless mages?"

"Like those useless mages and knights." Celestia confirmed.

Zaria gave the Princess an amused look. "You know that if you ask me to fix it, that I will probably be tampering with state secrets, and use every moment to tease you about it?"

"Can you fix it?" Celestia stopped her surprise. "Of course, you can fix it, after all a good barrier is a must to protect the Mistress."

"Naturally." Zaria confirmed. "However, I won't make a proper barrier unless my Mistress will live at your castle." Zaria crouched down, pulled a transparent crystal from the ground. "A drop of blood will tie it to you, with your permissions, those that infuse their mana into it, will feel the alarm. It should be about the same strength as before, and won't overload as easily."

The large crystal was handed to Celestia who suddenly found herself the Mistress of the castle barrier.

She could use that, especially to get rid of that engagement talk. "One drop you say?"

Zaria simply made a small cut on one of Celestia's fingers, touched it to the crystal, which turned red in response, and healed the cut. "There, all done, have someone place it in the room the last barrier was in."

That was anticlimactic, the Princess decided. "Wake them, they can escort it to the barrier room."

"But Princess, our orders are to bring you to safety."

"I doubt there is any place safer than near the two maids." The Princess waited till everyone was awake. "This is my newest maid for protection." Celestia waved at the catgirl golem. "As you can see, none of you even managed to damage her clothes. Now escort this crystal to the barrier room and place it there, that should restore the barrier, I will handle the rest later. Your punishment for getting knocked out so easily and responding so late, is no underwear. You will find it in your pockets. Until I have you fitted for some proper underwear, you are not allowed any."

That caused a lot of blushes as the girls shifted and realized that they were missing particular pieces of clothing. All of them but one now cursed whoever had the idea to make short skirts part of their armour.

"Dismissed."

Celestia, returned to the assessment followed by Zaria, the golem maid, and the Princess knight. "What is next?"

"Princess, next is wind and air." The Archmage supplied, his mind already wondering what kind of unknown spells the maid was going to use.

"Greetings, as we are running late. I will cut things short. The main use of Wind and Air is flight magic." An older man greeted them. "Message spells for nearby fall into wind and air as well. It is also used on ships. Now my presentation. By the name of Perfume, Upon my command, Gather wind, Carry me to my Goal, Flight." The magician rose and levitated.

"The testing spell is: 'By the name of Perfume, Upon my command, Wind come to me, Gentle Breeze."

Tomoki made a small wind blow and mumbled "Skirt flipper" under his breath.

Zaria made a mental note to warn her fellow maids. Possibly the Princess too. Actually, that had teasing potential.

"Feel free to use any spells you wish, Heroine. Please use the Aria's." The old beard pulled out a parchment, a quill, and an ink pot, then sat down on the ground while preparing to write. When it came to those who copied spells, he was clearly the most blatant one yet.

"First of all, Air is all around us, Wind is just Air that moves." Zaria felt the need to lecture, she liked spells of the air family, with her far superior senses the 'Air Bubble' was one of her favourites. Muted noise, and could block smells or mute them. Also helped keep others alive on the bottom of the ocean, and in other places like the moon or space or even the Void. The Void needed more than just Air for others to survive, but without it they'd suffocate. "Then I would like to remind you that the air usually takes up a lot of space." Zaria pointed at the still frozen spot. "All that over there is frozen air. That means you can do a lot of things with air … and everyone should go further away because that will be destructive and larger than before."

The Princess did not hesitate this time and decided against pretending. If that floof said destructive, then she was going to believe her. She attached herself to Zaria's arm, for additional security.

Zaria led the group across half the field before waving her hand and a purple field shimmered into existence around the training ground. Then a slight wind picked up as she made an airwall before them.

"By my name Zaria/ApEx/MaId/YeS,"
"By my command,"

Why was she allowed to command magic anyway, the Princess wondered.

"Air filled with Sand,"
"Spin and Twirl,"
"Faster and Faster,"

One of those dust bunnies rose, filled with yellow earth and sand.

"Grind and Carve,"

Grind how? Everyone wondered.

"Minor Sand Twister."

The small twister moved towards the remnants of the rock golem and settled around it.

"By my name Zaria/ApEx/MaId/YeS,"
"By my command,"
"Air around us,"
"Come, Compact, Compress,"

Wind started blowing as a barely visible sphere in Zaria's hand started to grow, the distortion looking a bit like a ball.

The Princess then remembered the ball of steam, then compared how much air that transparent sphere in the hand had already sucked in. She clutched the arm she was holding tighter, and ignored the amused look the floof gave her chest when it pressed into the surprisingly slender arm.

"Wind Sphere."

The transparent sphere darted across the training field throwing up dust in its wake.

Then it hit one of the unfortunate dummies, and everything was blown away as earth and all in the centre were blown away.

Zaria's Wind Wall held strong, deflecting everything, and protecting everyone from being blown away.

The Air mage noted down everything with glee.

"Now however, did you know that not all heat comes from fire?" Zaria smirked evilly as she glanced at the chest pressing into her side again. "You might want to step behind me, and close your eyes, covering your eyes with your hands is a good idea too. If you want to look, do so but hide and cover your eyes in time."

"By my name Zaria/ApEx/MaId/YeS,"
"By my command,"
"Air around us,"
"Come, Compact, Compress,"

The wind picked up like before.

"Gather, Move, Collide,"

The wind became stronger as the suction increased.

"Ignite like the Sun,"

She closed her eyes in time, she could feel the brightness, she could see it through her hands, she buried her face in the floof’s back.

Screams and curses indicated that others had not done so in time.

"Plasma Ball."

The heat left.

Then there was a flash, a feeling of heat, and roar before everything cut off.

The Princess slowly uncovered her eyes, then slowly opened them, finally stepped out from behind that floof.

"Fuck"

Celestia did not curse often.

However, seeing everything between the wind wall and the barrier the maid had mage covered in fire made her question their sanity in summoning once again.

The very Air was glowing and on fire.

"I can't see." Several mages had clearly underestimated the warning. And were now looking around with whitened eyes, sunburns were an issue too it seemed.

"They never learn." Zaria said disappointed.

Celestia felt the urge to ask for forgiveness.

"We still need that training ground." She reminded the floof. "Them too actually."

"If you insist." Zaria confirmed and everything was gone, a glowing puddle of molten rock where the impact had been, a large area of glassed earth around it. And people

The small sand twister was still merrily working on the rock golem remains.

"What is next?" Zaria asked.

Celestia could hear the amusement in the voice, the urge to find out if she could strangle the floof with its tail was growing stronger.

A Priest stepped forward. "I present to you our God Dua, he who governs the Light and the Holy Light spells. The simple Light Spell is someone everyone can use." He gave Zaria a challenging look. "By the name of Dua, Upon my command, Shine on my hand, Light."
A small ball of light lit up in the priest's hand.

Tomoki managed something like a marble that went out quickly.

Zaria told the Princess just two words. "Challenge accepted."

Celestia wanted to move behind the maid, only to realize that she was already there and her finger was hooked in the ribbon.

"Cover your eyes." That voice whispered gently into her ears.

Celestia obeyed without question.

"By my name Zaria/ApEx/MaId/YeS,"
"By my command,"
"Gather light of the sun,"

Celestia gave up on dignity and buried her face in the maid's back.

"Shine and Scorch with your Brightness,"
"Solar Beam."

From the sky a ray of light came.

Screams came as freshly healed eyes got burned out again.

"Let me guess, heal them again?" Zaria asked calmly as if she hadn't just blinded most people present.

It cost the Princess a lot, but she managed to say that one word that needed to be said. "Yes"

More healing magic later, everyone stared at the deep hole in the ground that had glowing molten edges.

"This spell comes in anti-army and anti-city versions too." Zaria decided to mention.

There was a moment of silence that was interrupted by the archmage. "There is also Darkness, it is really weak now, you can try your luck at a Dark Ball. It is the main magic used by demons, devils, evil, and cultists." He made a disgusted look. "The Goddess in charge is Lity."

Zaria frowned. That seemed wrong, something tickled her memory. She used magic to replay everything backwards. "auD" was "Dua" and now "Lity".

"Duality."

It resonated.

It tasted female.

"Actually, that is wrong. Darkness, shadows, the void, death can fall into Darkness Magic. However, time, gravity, summoning, teleportation, and necromancy are often counted among Darkness Magic as well."

Zaria's shadow detached itself, then grew into a shadowy version of Zaria. Then Zaria waved her hand and everything turned dark.

"I forgot to mention curses or Mind Magic, those are often counted into Darkness as well. Personally, I am not that fond of either. I mean most people are already cursed with stupidity, and why curse them with impotence, when you can turn them into girls so they risk experiencing what they actually did to others. Simply killing is much cleaner too."

Celestia did not panic when everything turned dark. When her hand was held she wanted to sigh in relief, until she realized that she could see a certain distance again, and that it was the shadow version of the maid.

The real one seemed to be looking into the darkness amused by all the complaints from the assorted mages and the priest that was trying and failing to dispel the darkness.

Then there was light again, and Celestia's hand was empty.

"True Darkness does not fear the Light, since without Light there is no Darkness." She turned to the Princess. "We need to talk later."

Celestia had a bad feeling.

Louder Zaria mentioned "There, the sandstorm is done." The small twister dispersed to reveal smoothed and rounded stones instead of the sharp and edged rock golem pieces. "Now imagine sending a large one like this into an army, it grinds stones, what will it do to skin and flesh?"

More than one person turned green.

"What is next?"

An old man with a long beard that seemed a bit singed stepped forward. "I am a Summoner. I call creatures not of this world."

"Like us." Zaria interrupted.

"Yes, only you are permanently summoned, unlike those Summoners call from the beyond. Our God is the God of Contracts Jalos. Depending on the being called upon we our mana, our life force, gifts, or even sacrifices."

The man stepped forward, I will summon an elemental, they are not to be confused with elemental spirits. By the name of Jalos, Upon my command, Come to me, Heed the Ancient contract, Listen to my Call, Accept my Mana, Summon Fire Elemental."

The air shimmered as a flame appeared. Heat rolled over everyone.

Then suddenly the flame shrunk and the heat went away.

"It is looking at you." Celestia accused the floof despite the flame having no eyes, face, or any discernible marks. "What did you do?"

"There was a time when fire elementals went a bit too far in burning everything, I may have gone to their realm and flooded half of it."

"You what?"

"I overreacted? I was far younger then." The floof shrugged helplessly. "Actions like that leave a mark and a title, I think it senses that title, even if that happened in a different world."

The Princess looked at the flame, who now seemed to be hiding behind it's confused summoner.

"Do gods have angels in this world?" Zaria asked the Princess. She had no intention of asking the priest.

"Yes, but only Priests can summon those." Celestia replied.

"By my name Zaria/ApEx/MaId/YeS,"
"By my command,"
"I summon you,"
"Come and stand before me,"
"Angels of Duality."

Circles made of Light and Darkness appeared before her.

Celestia had a bad feeling, it was the familiar 'worldview being shattered' feeling.

Two angels appeared.

One with wings made of light, one with wings made of darkness.

""Upon your call we have come, Sisters of Light and Darkness."" The Angels soft and very melodic voices echoed.

The priest stammered. "Archangels, Dua's Archangel and Lity's archangel."

"Greetings. I am Zaria van Kairan, a Kitsune Maid. I have only called you for my Summoning Trial."

Both archangels froze. This being before them, was clearly more than a maid, maybe it was that kitsune bit that made it so different. They couldn't read this being. It was like running into an indestructible wall at full speed.

"None of that, young ones."

And the being knew they had tried to see through it.

"Please give my regards to your Lady. You may return."

They bowed, and dismissed their worldly shells. They needed to talk to their Lady, at once.

Celestia now had a feeling what it was about. Only, it went contrary to all teachings. Not only did it come from a floof, it also impacted the very structure of the Church of Light. It explained the unusual seriousness too.

Celestia wanted to cry. 'Lead the Heroes in our name' he had said. 'They will be easy to guide' he had assured her. 'They will be lost in our world without our guidance' he had proclaimed.

Reality was very different.

The Princess decided not to let it bother her, no matter what came next, she wouldn't allow it to bother her. "What is next?" she asked, barely managing to keep her voice firm and controlled.

"Nyah?"

She looked left, and found the unblinking cat maid golem, or was it golem cat maid, maybe it had been golem maid cat? Whatever it was, it was offering her a nice looking and transparent glass, filled with some liquid, ice cubes, fruit, and a straw.

"You suck on the straw." Zaria supplied.

She knew her Princess Knight wanted to complain about it being poisoned, but honestly, she doubted it. If the floof had wanted them dead, they would all be. Did they forget that the floof had used many insanely powerful spells in a short time without seeming to be bothered in the least? She took it, and tried sipping through the straw.

It was slightly sweet and sour, rather refreshing, and wonderfully cold. "It is good."

"Nyah!"

She ignored the happy sound. "Does the new maid have a name?"

"No, feel free to name her."

"Nyah?"

"A name, a designation, something that identifies you, something your Mistress can call you with."

"Nyah!"

The surprisingly intense look made Celestia wonder. She had no idea how naming worked, and even less how to name a cat golem maid thing. "I'll think about it." She wondered if she should bother asking or not. "How is your mana?" She pointed towards the pale and slightly wobbling Tomoki. "You clearly used more."

Zaria tilted her head feeling for her magical reserves. "I think I am full?" It was hard to check when you had so much, and she didn't want to open her status.

Somehow Celestia was not surprised, maybe there was really something true about that title.
"Next one." She wondered what kind of mayhem was going to be next. She really wanted to strangle the floof with her tail, and hit her father with all the paperwork that the summoning caused.

"Greetings, I am in charge of Nature Magic and Spirit Magic. If you can't see Spirits, you have no aptitude for Spirit Magic. Nature Magic mainly deals with plants, but also animals. We are not called magicians, but depending on the type we are often called druids or spiritualists." The woman smiled. "I will now call my most friendly spirits; spirits are beings of nature and dislike cities or many people. Come my Little Flame and appear my Butterfly."

A small flame appeared and shaped into a small girl that was about palm sized, then from somewhere a girl with blue hair and blue butterfly wings came and settled in the human woman's hair.

Zaria stared, and wondered about the many misconceptions this world's humans had. "You know, Butterfly is not a spirit, she is a fairy." She decided to correct her.

The two beings froze when they saw Zaria. Then the flame started bowing, while the fairy started flying in circles around the kitsune.

"Explain." The Princess demanded.

Zaria opened her mouth, then closed it pondering for a moment. "Actually, it is easier to show you." She poked Celestia between the eyes, flicked her ears, and drew a startled squeak from the Princess, who started blushing.

"What are you doing?" The offended girl demanded.

"Look."

Celestia looked and saw. "So, this is what spirits look like." Then she looked at Zaria properly. "What?"

"I forgot that, you are seeing the real me right now."

"So many?"

"Yes."

She had heard that some races changed in looks as they grew, but the maid turned from beautiful to unearthly beautiful, something seemed to ask her to kneel, and she saw a lot of tails. And there was a blue haired small girl with butterfly wings quickly circling the hair.

"You can grant the spirit sight?" The woman was already impressed.

"Yes, though I used something else, a higher rank of spell, and I only made it temporary."

"Butterfly is actually a fairy?"

"Yes, both spirits and fae are beings of nature, so they are sort of related, only fae are more magical since they are not born from one element."

Then the fairy realized Celestia was looking at her and waved.

The human hesitated, but then waved back.

And found the small female flying over to her, then stepping on her shoulder, and starting to play with her hair.

"What is she doing?" The Princess was a bit uncertain about her guest.

"She likes your hair." The maid explained.

"Can you try to call more of them?" The woman called as she set the fire spirit down. "And why are they doing that?"

"That is a racial thing. I count as both spirit and fey." Zaria explained. "Since I am rather high ranking in both, the spirit bows to my presence, and the fairy greets me politely." Zaria nodded at the Princess. "She felt my magic on her and saw that she could see, so she went over since they are closer in rank."

"Really? Tell me more about the hierarchy and such!" The spiritualist and feydala (fey friend), was clearly eager.

"Maybe later. As for calling more of them. <Come and visit little ones, I come to play on this land, I give my greetings to you young ones.>"

"You speak their language!" The spiritualist was ecstatic.

"It is a nature language." Zaria gave the awed woman a gentle smile. "Ask them to teach you, slowly."

"I heard it, I understood it?" Celestia was confused.

"One spell for the eyes, one spell for the ears, and I skipped the one for the mouth."

"Why did you skip it?" Celestia asked, then realized that she probably wouldn't like the answer.

Zaria replied, but did it in a different language, she could now tease the Princess, and nobody else could call her out on it. "<I doubted you'd want me to kiss you in public, especially since it would involve rubbing my tongue all over yours and going as far as your throat. The human throat is not suited to make all the sounds you need to speak it normally.>"

The Princess clearly took a moment to digest and understand. Then she turned a nice shade of red. She couldn't even berate the floof or she would have to explain, and there was no way she was going to repeat the tongues requirement.

Several spirits started appearing, upon seeing Zaria they all started to bow or surround Little Flame to ask questions. Then more fairies came and other fae. At first glance several kinds seemed a bit uncomfortable about being near each other, at least if the glares were any indication. But upon seeing Zaria, they all quieted down quickly,

"How is that fey?" Celestia demanded as she pointed at a sort of slightly transparent grey hound, that went up to her chest.

"That is a night hound, you call them when you need to hunt someone."

The Princess shuddered, then found herself swarmed as her golden hair seemed to gain a lot of interest and was being rebraided.

To the others the maid spoke a lot in something that was a mix of bells, animal noises, wind, water, and other things they couldn't recognise. The Spiritualist was clearly overwhelmed, the Princess was going red, now pale, and pointing at nothing, and her hair was rebraiding itself, and seemed to become shinier and more golden.

"<Only do her hair, if you want to play with her, do it later.>"

""""<<<<Awww>>>>""""

A few more adventurous ones flew down and up the Princess skirt, there was more hair down there that needed to be polished.

The Princess did not dare slap at her lower body, but she really wished for some underwear for protection now. She was not fine with whatever was going on down there, the touches were distracting, but she was not about to annoy a bunch of fairies or whatever. There were too many stories about how that ended badly. "Make them stop."

"I already gave permission." The maid replied. "Besides, I think you will like the effects."

The urge to strangle the floof grew yet stronger.

"As for Nature Magic itself." Zaria spun in a circle.

At the edges of the training ground grass grew back, along the path to the castle a few trees grew and offered some shade.

"That should do it, I prefer to work on gardens more." She admitted, as do they.

Celestia idly remembered that hair being once compared to a lawn. "That is not a garden."

"<It is often called a flower though?>"

"Help me!"

"<Girls, you can groom her later, especially down there, humans are weird about it.>"

"It's not us who are weird!"

"<You could always distract them.>"

"How?"

"Cookies? Sweets?"

Celestia turned towards her new maid. "Fetch me some sweets, cookies, chocolate, or whatever you can get."

"Nyanderstood" The cat golem maid turned, and then rushed off, towards the castle.

Zaria decided to warn the Princess about the consequences. "You should remember she is not familiar yet with the castle, not familiar with your rules here, the guards don't know her, and you never told her how much."

The Princess shifted from red to pale again. She even ignored the fairies that came from under her skirt. "Run after her, explain to everyone what she is, and try to steer her towards the kitchen." She ordered her Princess Knight. "Just go, I doubt my physical safety is in danger."

The Princess Knight dropped her shoulders and glared at the beast. It was all her fault, all the humiliation and now her place by her Princess' side replaced? The floof had to go.

The Princess wiped a something out of her face and into the top of her hair, where she felt her tiara being poked. "Next assessment, now."

"But we haven't tested the connection to the God of Spirits yet?"

"There is a god of spirits?"

"Yes, he is Spiorad, the human God of Spirits and Nature."

"Actually, that only means Spirit, so what you do is literally call a spirit, nothing human about it."

"But the old scrolls say otherwise."

"Doesn't make it true though. You saw how they act, and how they react. Fae do have factions who have kings and queens. However, I only obey my Mistress and my Goddess. There will be time for more explanations later."

The woman clearly wanted to disagree, however she had to admit it was already a far longer assessment than originally intended.

A Priestess stepped forward. "Greetings, I am Docmedicia, a Cleric of Lieha, the Goddess of Healing. I will show the Hero a basic Healing spell, the Heroine has already proven herself with healing and restoration magic."

That surprised even the Princess, sensible clergy was rare.

Tomoki managed to mostly heal a bruise after some instruction, making him rather happy.

"With this the magic assessment is over. The Hero has shown to be adept in all kinds of magic." The Archmage announced.

The Princess gave the Archmage a flat stare as he ignored the floof and the fact that Dark magic had not been tested nor had certain other restricted types.

At least now came the shorter, hopefully, physical part.

A part that she knew the floof would completely dominate, again. She pulled an adventurous fairy from her cleavage.

--- Meanwhile in the castle ---

The out of breath Princess Knight had finally caught up to that cat golem maid thing.

It had been easy. She had simply followed the running guards.

The cat golem maid thing had been in the middle of shoving guards aside, while ignoring anyone attacking her. Then she ripped open a door, breaking the door lock, looked inside, closed the door, and shoved her way through to the next door.

"Stop, you, maid golem, the sweets are in the kitchen, I will lead you there." She called out.

The golem maid glanced at her, then ripped open the next door.

The Princess Knight felt really underappreciated.

"What is going on here?" A voice asked.

The situation looked very weird from an outsider's standpoint. Guards hacking at a maid, causing sparks flying from the hits, and cracks in their weapons. The impact noises sounded a lot like hitting rocks with weapons not suited for it.

The Princess Knight turned towards the newcomer. It was a maid that somehow had something familiar about her despite never having seen her before.

Then the cat maid golem thing caught sight of the human maid.

Soldiers were flung aside as the maid golem cat approached the newcomer and stopped before her.

The two maids faced off, then seemed to come to an understanding.

"What do you need?" The human maid asked as she ignored the warhammer that slammed down on her cat counterpart.

"Nyeets, Nyookies"

"Nookies? Wait, do you mean cookies?"

"Nyah"

"Then the other one is sweets?"

"Nyah"

"The kitchen is that way, let me bring the food to the little ones, then I will lead you."

"Nyanderstood."

"Now everyone stops attacking her."

The guards did not listen.

Then one knocked over the food cart.

"Knock them out." The now very annoyed maid ordered.

"Nyanderstood"

Then the carnage began.

The Princess Knight cringed.

Moments later they were surrounded by knocked out guards, a circle where only two maids and a depressed Princess Knight were standing, and surrounded by many more guards.

The human maid rightened her trolley and started piling the spoiled food on it. "Seems we get to go to the kitchen early, stupid knights spoiled the food."

"Nyanderstood"

The maid was not sure what was understood, but the cat maid had started piling up the guards neatly along the wall.

"You are wearing the same uniform!" The Princess knight finally realized why the maid had seemed familiar.

"Yes, it is one our visiting maid made for me, her other maid, and her little maids."

That was a very maid sentence the Princess Knight decided, maybe she could delegate the cookie issue to the maid. "The Princess needs cookies and sweets for fairies, she sent her new maid golem cat thing to fetch them."

"That is a golem? I thought those were only those large rocky things?"

The Princess Knight did not admit that she had thought the same. "That maid made it."

"That makes sense."

The Princess Knight wanted to ask how that made sense, but did not, it was a question of dignity and being afraid that the answer was something with 'maid' in it. She ignored how the guards were whispering about "slaying the beast" and "killing the filth".

"This is a golem maid that only looks like one of the cat beasts." The Princess Knight announced. "It belongs to the Princess." She let the implications sink in for a moment. "Are you really trying to destroy the Princess' property?"

The guards shifted on their feet.

"Where is the beast?"

The Princess Knight wanted to cry, now the royal knights had arrived.

The maid seemed to realize that things were about to escalate again. "Follow me." She told her fellow maid and sped away from the approaching knights and around a corner with the cat golem maid following her.

The Princess Knight couldn't believe it, did the maids just escape from an official inquiry? Was she really left alone to explain the many knocked out guards? "Greetings knights, the situation is a misunderstanding. The guards overreacted to the maid golem of the Princess."

The Commander of the Royal Knights that had arrived looked around in disbelief. Several clearly forcibly opened doors, about ten knocked out guards, and a lot of chipped weapons. "Are you telling me they tried to attack the beast maid?" All things considered; the guards got off easily.

"No, Sir Knight, the maid made a golem maid in catgirl shape."

"She made a golem maid?"

"Yes."

Despite the severity of the situation, the two traded incredulous and resigned looks. "The new maid belongs to the Princess?"

"Yes, I saw her being made during magic assessment. She destroyed a war golem."

"They got off easy then." The Commander decided to push the situation on his superiors, in this case the Princess. "I'll write up a report, and then have the Princess deal with it."

"I will inform the Princess, and now I need to get to the kitchen before something else happens." The Princess Knight wondered when her job had changed from protecting the Princess to becoming an errand girl. It was all that beast's fault.

--- Meanwhile in a completely different place ---

"Welcome back, you two were summoned."

""Yes, My Goddess.""

"Stop being so formal."

""I can't do that My Goddess.""

"Tell me about the summoner that managed to call both of you. And speak only one at a time."

"It was a summon by the Heroine."

The Goddess felt hope rise.

"She is not human."

Hope died painfully.

"Their Princess was present however."

Hope resurrected weakly.

"The Princess seems to have understood the implication of our summon in your True Name."

Hope rose.

"There is a human now that knows your real name, My Goddess."

It was too soon to fully hope, but maybe after hundreds of years finally humans would learn of her true self again.

"Watch this Princess for me."

"My Goddess, the Heroine, she is powerful." "She sends her greetings." ""She called us 'young ones'. We couldn't read her.""

Calling two archangels young had a lot of implications, that the Heroine was not human meant that the summoning her fellow gods had demanded had gone wrong.

It did not bother her.

What bothered her was that the summon had called upon a being that easily called the twins and knew from the start it seemed that she was not two gods but one and had deciphered her true name.

It seemed that the world was going to change. "If she summons you again, give her my greetings and my invitation."

""Yes, My Goddess.""

Duality sent her twin Archangels away. It was a small hope, but maybe humanity would finally get a clue.

--- Back at the Training Ground ---

The Priestess of Lieha remained behind, the others all left or went to the respective training dummies that had been destroyed during their parts. Most of the fairies were fluttering around, sitting on Zaria, or rebraiding the Princess Hair in various styles. There had been a small fight when the multiple small braids faction had disagreed with the a few braids faction.

"If you would follow us, hand to hand combat is being trained closer to the barracks." A soldier asked the group to follow him.

When they arrived at the barracks, there were two neat rows of soldiers standing at attention, and four men were at the front. Three were wearing armour and standing next to where various practice weapons were laid out. They were probably the instructors.

"Greetings My Princess. Welcome summoned Hero." Their commander greeted them.

The Princess wondered if everyone but her was really stupid enough to antagonize the maid floof.

"You are here to test your physical skills." The Commander addressed Tomoki. "It will be a fair and proper fight. You will be tested for aptitude with various weapons, then we will create a training plan for you." The look he gave the beast was obvious when he mentioned fair. "This also includes handling magical weapons, and imbuing yourself, your weapon, and your armour with magic."

Tomoki perked up. "Buffs and the skills."

"First a strength test. Please try to bend these metal rods from the bottom up."

On a table were about fifteen metal rods.

Tomoki eagerly walked over, and managed to bend the first five.

"The Hero's strength is between 20 and 24. Probably closer to 20." A burly instructor assessed.

"Now you." The commander ordered Zaria.

She went, picked up the top rod, and casually snapped it.

There was a moment of silence.

"And?" The Princess asked sarcastically.

"Strength not measurable, that rod was enchanted to be near indestructible."

"Your opinion?" The Princess asked Zaria.

"If that was meant to be anywhere close to indestructible, I recommend replacing the enchanter."

The commander did not like where that was going.

"Next is Dexterity and Agility, run a circle on the Training ground, then come back."

Tomoki paled as he looked.

"Ready, Start!"

Zaria blurred. Then solidified. "Done."

It was clear nobody believed it, well almost nobody.

"Why don't you bring me one of those pieces of lightning glass as proof?" The Princess decided to curb any reactions that could cause her a headache right now.

Zaria blurred again, then seemed to solidify again. "Here, I picked a nice clear one for you."

The Princess accepted the large and very clear piece. "I would call that immeasurable again."

Tomoki arrived a little later, clearly surprised at how fast he had gone.

"Next is dodging. The cadets here will throw balls at you and you will dodge Hero."

It started with one, then more and more of the cadets were throwing at Tomoki, who was doing a rather good job at dodging.

After the boy was hit five times the instructor stopped the exercise. "Good work Hero." The instructor praised Tomoki. "Now you."

In Zaria's case the balls were thrown sooner, faster, and far more.

To the Princess however it looked like the maid barely moved, a step this way, a step that way, a spin, a twist, bending, jumping, and all the while there was no sense of urgency or quick movement. It made no sense, again. Then luckily most of the fae left her and joined in. The small invisible creatures were picking up balls and shooting them at the albino, who kept on dodging.

Their thrown balls counted less as thrown and more as shot, more than one was clearly imbued with magic. It caused casualties on the cadet side, who were clearly not ready to become the target of fae crossfire.

All too soon they ran out of cadets, with the last ones standing hiding behind overturned tables or shields from the training weapon stands.

"<That is enough.>“ Zaria told them. "<They are clearly all down, your side won.>"

The fae cheered, and then the Princess found herself beset by highly spirited fae.

"Next is stamina, your stomachs are empty, pick up those weights and hold them up."

Just hearing it, the Princess knew what was going to happen. And she was right, even after doubling the weight the floof was standing there without any reaction. It was obvious that holding a few weights was useless on someone who had simply snapped a near indestructible rod. "Why don't we go to the next thing instead?"

The sarcasm was heavy enough that the impatience went through to the most obstinate people present as well.

"Hand to hand is next." This instructor looked strong, yet was not overly muscular.

During his test it was clear that Tomoki was neither used to his improvements, nor was he used to fighting. The priestess had to heal him afterwards.

"Now you." It was clear that he did not expect too much. He quickly approached and tried for a grapple, something he had not with Tomoki, only to find a palm strike on his solar plexus. The instructor went down gasping for air.

The fae cheered and settled down to watch.

After he got back up, he led with a fist to Zaria's shoulder, which the maid simply sidestepped, then he found himself twisting through the air as the albino caught the arm, and used it to flip him over.

The crowd on the Princess cheered again.

The third time he tried for a tackle, and got a knee to the groin.

This time the cheer was amused and louder than before. Luckily for the Princess it was not too loud.

"Touching is a lover or Mistress privilege." The maid lectured. "You are neither."

The Princess could only wish she could facepalm in public. She was going to rant at the floof later, she even suspected that the floof would be amused about it. But she wanted to vent, badly. And to strangle the floof with her tail.

"I will be doing weapons." This was a large burly and strong man. "Now pick a weapon Hero."

"Sword." Tomoki was clearly a swordsman, so only swords were an option.

He still got trounced. He made a rather decent showing however compared to everything before.

The martial instructor beat down Tomoki and belittled the boys' experience. Even if he did a decent showing, as an instructor it was his job to point out the bad parts.

The Princess found flowers being woven into her hair, she was not sure where they had come from, She was pretty sure normal flowers did not come in rainbow colour.

Now it was time for Zaria's assessment.

"Like before, if you knock me out, disarm me, or kill me, you get a pass. But a simple bed warming beast like you will never be able to do that. After all you are just a simple little pet playing maid."

The Princess felt the doom approaching rapidly.

Zaria stared at the large instructor, the two of them had been offered real weapons to get used to them, so she picked up a bastardsword. It was not magical, it wasn't even of masterwork quality, it was however a fully functional weapon.

"Put that back, you will only hurt yourself swinging that."

The Princess knew Zaria was rather gentle in her reaction most of the time, at least to attacks, but this idiot was clearly challenging her. She had to speak up to save the instructor, and maybe make sure that he only taught veterans who knew not to take it personally. Going by the rather emotionless face, the Princess suspected that the instructor had just insulted her maid pride. "Don't kill him, if you do, you will have to teach Tomoki."

Zaria stared into the Princess' eyes. The Princess meant business.

"And if you knock him out, be gentle, he needs to train Tomoki." After the disasters that had been the magic evaluations, Celestia was not taking any chances.

Now the instructor felt insulted, his own Princess had less faith in him than in a pet.

Zaria put the bastardsword back, and plucked a long stalk of grass from the side of the training field.

"Don't blame me if you die." The instructor bellowed and rushed towards the white floof.

The albino maid simply took two steps forward and then suddenly she was inside his guard. The stalk of grass flicked up on the left and down on the right side of the attacking human.

To everyone else, there were blurs and then suddenly two arms plopped to the ground, blood sprayed from the shoulders.

"Aaaaaahhhh! My arms!" The instructor screamed.

"There, I disarmed him."

The fae clearly approved.

The Princess screamed internally. The instructor had baited the Apex, the Apex had not killed him or knocked him out, no she had literally disarmed him. It was probably only the maid pride that had kept him alive.

"Please reattach his arms, it is your win due to disarming him." The sentence had hurt Celestia mentally, but someone had to say it.

Zaria kneed the screaming man in the groin, causing his screaming to change in pitch. When he fell to his knees, she placed the left arm that floated towards her at the left shoulder, tapped it with the grass stalk, and the arm was reattached. Then she repeated the same with the second.

The man used the restored functionality to grab his groin.

"Don't be such a baby, after all I was really gentle, a good healer should be able to restore your functionality down there."

Celestia wondered if the royal doctor had something for maid induced headaches. She did not want to ask the maid who could do something for sure and the priestess was looking the other way, clearly not impressed with the instructor. "Did you have to do that?"

"He insulted the maid profession, and he was rude."

Like Celestia had suspected, the maid comment had been the trigger, she would have to spread a warning to never insult or disrespect maids in the floof’s presence or belittle her maid skills, or any skills.

"Should we switch to archery and ranged combat?" The commander offered, while looking both pale and green at once.

"Go ahead." The Princess felt resigned. No matter what, she just knew that they were in for another surprise.

"The weapons we have are the bow, the crossbow, and throwing weapons." An instructor with well-defined muscular arms presented a nearby table.

"Shortbow, composite shortbow, light crossbow, a heavy crossbow, throwing darts, throwing daggers, and throwing axes. No longbows, shuriken, throwing hammers, handkerchiefs, dishrags, or pillows." Zaria listed the items off.

"Pillows?" The Princess wondered aloud before she could stop herself.

"Have you ever gotten nailed by a pillow at high speed before? Not so much a deadly weapon, but it is a good weapon when you want to knock someone off their feet."

It made sense, in a weird maid way.

"Rags and pillows are not weapons."

Zaria flicked her wrist and launched a fully unfolded dishrag at a training dummy, the target got cut in half.

The crowd busy rebraiding the princess hair again cheered.

"It's a maid thing probably." The Princess guessed.

Everyone else was looking from the maid to the target, something made from cloth should not be able to fly that far, and it should never cut a training dummy in half.

"Maybe show off some more traditional weapons?" Celestia tried to convince the floof.

"Very well, my main weapons from the traditional ones are the fan and the longbow."

The Princess did not ask how a fan was a traditional ranged weapon. "Use a longbow then."

Zaria raised her hand and a simple black longbow appeared in her hand, from somewhere she pulled five arrows and placed them on the bow at once. Then she fired.

The arrows pierced through the air, through the dummies, practically shredding them, then went through the sandbags behind the dummies, finally pierced through the stone wall surrounding the training ground.

"Oops." Zaria raised a hand, and the five arrows appeared in it. "I put a bit too much power into that."

Nobody wanted to comment.

"Let's proceed." The Princess really wanted things to be over with. "Test the Hero on his capabilities."

"Nyah!" The cat maid golem something was back, with a tray of cookies.

The Princess picked one up, looked at the size of it, then at the fae on her shoulders. She broke it into halves and handed it the little annoyances that kept on disturbing her.

Tomoki rushed forward eagerly, and only showed some affinity for the crossbow and the throwing daggers.

Instead of getting her hair rebraided to the nth time, the Princess now had to deal with her shoulders, her head, and her chest becoming seats as the little ones were happily munching their halved cookies and watching Tomoki fail at looking impressive.

It was nothing really impressive even from a normal human standpoint, and comparing him to the maid made him actually look rather insignificant. It was clear that he was a sword Hero with a little magic.

"Finally time to eat." The Princess said happily.

"If you are hungry, say something. We can easily provide you with snacks, tea, a table to sit, and other things."

The Princess nodded at the floof maid, then stopped. "We?"

"I offloaded some of my spares on her naturally." The floof explained.

"Does that include cookies."

"Naturally."

"Then why did she go to the castle?"

"You told her to fetch, not to give, organise, or anything like that. Even a simple 'I need cookies' would have made her give you some from her stash."

The Princess was not amused. "I am going to eat now. Tonight, we are going to have a long talk!"

Zaria felt amused. The Princess was such an interesting character, actually she was the only person really worth paying attention to aside from her little maids. She needed to check up on them and see if they had been fed properly. And probably fix a large pile of things.

"The work never ends." Zaria whispered to herself with a small smile on her lips. It was a phrase entangled with endless memories.

She watched with approval as the cat maid followed the Princess, amused she realized that the former blonde hair of the Princess was a real golden shade now. It fit the Princess very well.

She teleported mid step.

------

Upon arrival at her room Zaria found a warzone.

A lot of broken things, soup on the ceiling, forks and knives embedded in various places, and several girls lamenting over broken plates and escaped dishes.

"I am back."

With a wave of her hand, just for effect, everything was fixed and cleaned. The spilled food was removed however.

"There, I reinforced everything. Now I am going to get you more lunch. You are all too thin." Zaria looked at the two maids who had been taking care of her little ones. "You two are welcome to eat with us."

The two human maids shared looks.

"I will be cooking, and I am a good cook." Zaria baited them.

""Yes.""

Food wins people over.

"I will be back in a bit. Meanwhile, why don't you put everything back into its boxes so we have more space?"

Everyone nodded, and went about packing things up.

Zaria left her room, and went to the next servant access, where she used the shortest route to the kitchen.

It was time to cook something healthy and filling for her little ones. Proper maids were not thin and starved unless their Mistress was.

------

In her room Celestia sank into her couch.

That had been horrifying.

That floof had far too much power.

If that floof had any interest in ruling or overthrowing the nation, nobody would be able to stop her, or at least not without a lot more casualties than made sense.

How could someone like that simply want a Mistress to serve? It made no sense.

The mentally exhausted human corrected herself. It made no sense from a human perspective. Kitsune Maid was a weird race.

And she somehow had the most powerful one of that race causing her troubles.

"My Princess?" Her personal maid spoke up.

"Yes?"

"Why is your hair golden?"

Celestia pulled a braid forward and inspected it.

Then she compared the colour to her bracelet.

Gold, her maid was right, her hair was now golden.

The Princess looked around and stared at the fae exploring her room.

Why did they have to follow her?

She felt a few under her dress, grooming that hair down there. She blushed. "Fairies and such. There were some complications during the assessments."

"And the cat maid?"

"Was made by the maid during the Earth Magic assessment, she is actually a golem and now belongs to me." She addressed the cat golem maid. "Cat maid, this is Rylli, she is my personal maid, she is your superior and senior, if you have questions ask her, she will teach you."

"Nyanderstood."

Rylli found herself facing the new maid, who was clearly inspecting her. "Hello, I am Rylli, I have been the Princess' Personal Maid for four years now." She gave the newcomer a polite bow. "What is your name?"

"Nyo Nyame"

"Oh, you need a name."

Both maids looked at their Lady.

Celestia waved her hand. "I am thinking about it."

Rylli decided to put that bit off for later, and to test the newcomer. "Can you brew tea?"

"Nyes" The golem went to the tea set, the small stove was lit, and the water was reheated. Sniffing the dry tea she remembered the required temperature for perfect taste, while taking the porcelain type and thickness into account. Best brewing times were three minutes for a light taste, five and a half minutes for a stronger one, and ten minutes for a bitter one.

"Nyah, nyich taste?"

"Light and refreshing." The superior ordered. "To relax, and so it does not overshadow lunch that will be coming in a moment."

"Nyanderstood."

Celestia meanwhile pondered her newest problem. A name, in her family was given royal names and names with meanings. However, what would be a meaningful name for a cat golem maid that was strong enough to crush war golems, took orders literally, and was now adept at brewing tea it seemed?

"Give me that large book about mythical figures, the one with the blue cover on the third shelf."

"Nyanderstood."

She needed some inspiration, maybe some golem in the past had been named, or maybe one of the automatons.

Seeing the cat maid carry the heavy book effortlessly was not surprising. Like her creator she did not look muscular, her creator actually looked pretty slender. Celestia looked at her own chest. In one point she was clearly far ahead of the albino floof. Even that floof had called her pretty after all.

"Titan? No, too large." The Princess war going through the ancient wars. "Behemoth? That is a monster race now." A lot of names, but nothing seemed to fit, especially since a lot were male names. "Yzyxe … how do you even pronounce that?" Some names were plainly impossible. "Dominar. No, it does not feel right."

"Why not Camai? Made from Cat Maid?" Rylli tried to help her lady.

Celestia pondered for a moment. "Cat Maid Golem. Lemca, Gomai, Goeid, Meileim, Calem, Maica … Maica sounds good."

"I agree."

"Maid?"

"Nyah?"

"From now on you are Maica."

"Nyanderstood, designation Maica set by primary owner. Registration complete. Nyaiting Nyordersh."

The two humans were surprised by Maica. Did she just speak completely coherently and understandable for a moment?

"Why don't you go fetch lunch for our Lady?" Rylli gently coerced Maica.

"Nyanderstood." The Cat maid left; orders given.

The two humans looked at each other and relaxed more now that they were alone.

"That maid, she is weird."

"I know." Celestia sighed. "Knocked out my knights over a misunderstanding, then made cookies despite having some, but she is harmless compared to that floof."

"My Lady, why is your hair releasing its braids, lengthening, and twisting in beautiful waves?"

"Fae, the colour change was done by them too."

"Really?" The maid looked around, but did not see anything, aside from impressions appearing and disappearing on the pillow on the bed. "Are they playing with your pillow?"

"Yes, they seem to be jumping up and down on it, and laughing while doing it."

"How do you appease them if needed?"

"Feed cookies, ask the floof."

"Why her?"

"Seems she is a high ranking one, and a spirit, and naturally a maid." Celestia replied.

Her maid tilted her head thoughtfully. "Isn't it a bit much?"

"Luckily all she wants is a Mistress." Celestia punched a pillow. "I am happy that she does not want power, to rule or such, but what if her future Mistress does? Then we will all be doomed. Even if we somehow manage to put her down, the damage will be endless."

"She seems to like you, my Lady."

"And she told me that I can't be her Mistress. Luckily the reasons I can't be, exclude almost any royal family and almost all nobles. The main churches too." Celestia was not happy.

"The reasons are?"

The Princess took a moment to remember. "She called me a 'scheming cold-hearted bitch'."

Rylli froze in shock, that nice maid had called her Mistress a what?

"She is sort of right, before that she praised my looks. She also called me Intelligent, opinionated, blamed my upbringing, and called me shrewd. She is against slavery and that nonhuman hate."

"I understand that." The maid allowed. "She is not human after all. Would make sense to seek someone who likes non-humans."

"Which means that those of the peace faction will appeal to her. Luckily, she dislikes war, even if her combat potential scares me." Celestia swallowed nervously. "When she was asked to show her strongest spell, she declined on grounds of destroying the continent."

The maid tried to imagine that, and failed. To her magic on such a scale was something beyond her understanding.

"She said at the feast that she wants someone true and pleasant."

"Doesn't that exclude all nobles?" Rylli wondered.

Celestia wanted to reprimand her maid, but even the peace faction was scheming and trying to undermine the war efforts.

The maid frowned. "Does that mean she wants a commoner Mistress?"

The Princess frowned. It seemed logical, in a weird way. "I don't think so, or she would have left already."

"Maids are not something commoners have, unless someone rich like those merchants that want concessions all the time."

"They probably have even less of a chance." Celestia replied. "After all, pushing war forward, making a profit, dealing with everything, including slaves. No, I doubt she would pick a merchant."

They got interrupted by Maica returning, who then pulled the food trolley from somewhere to push it to the table.

"If that is a maid skill, I want it." Rylli admitted.

"You can always ask her to teach you, as a fellow maid."

"I will!"

The Princess was not sure if she wanted her maid corrupted, but it looked really useful.

"Nyinner is steamed vegetable, a small roast, mashed potatoes, white wine, and for dessert a fruit tart. No poisons are present, the seasoning is acceptable, and the tart is too sweet. Nyah nyeeds a nyetter nyook."

"I think she says the important things properly and nyahs everything else?" Celestia wondered.

"It is cute." Rylli didn't mind.

"Nyah?"

--- the castle kitchen ---

Meanwhile in the kitchen the cooks were irritated. A beast was working in their kitchen. It was even using their ingredients, along with some others it had pulled from somewhere.

It was bad enough that that weird cat had baked cookies before, but now a beast dressed as a maid was going to cook a meal.

"You can't take the meat!" The head cook decided to put things right.

"I am not using your meat. I brought my own." The beast denied everything.

"Lies, as if a lowly beast could …" The cook never finished his accusation when that beast pulled a huge pile of meat from somewhere. The shape reminded him of a chicken leg, only the size was one meter.

Zaria ignored the nuisance and cut a nice large sized piece of white meat from the oversized chicken leg. To quickly make a decent lunch meant to make chicken in a pan and steam some vegetables, she pulled out her seasonings. The small chest though.

Salt, pepper, curcuma, cinnamon, ginger, a splash of soy sauce, peanut oil, and the chicken was happily sizzling in the pan. The vegetables were just made with butter, salt and pepper.

The cook seemed to be distracted by the large floating pans and the blue hovering flames underneath. Luckily such cooking was quick.

Plates appeared from ripples in reality, floated past the pans and portions seemed to jump on the plates. The portions were in various sizes, depending on the age and size of the one it was meant for.

Cooking for eleven people would have taken much longer if it weren't for magic.

Then she placed the plates back, and dumped the remaining portion into a bowl for Yuki.

She stepped past the frozen cook and left the kitchen.

Finally, after she was gone, the cook managed to unfreeze. "Silent magic, magic for cooking?" How could anyone waste magic for cooking? Clearly it had made things easier, if a beast could do it, so could he!

------

Back in her room, Zaria found everyone waiting at the table, including the two senior maids.

For effect, since such young ones seemed to like flashy stuff, she waved her hand, and plates appeared before everyone. "Fried chicken, with steamed vegetables, yes, this is all for you, try your best to eat everything, if you can't, leave it."

"Now eat, don't worry if you make a mess." With that the feast started.

Surprisingly, everyone agreed that it was the best they ever ate, at least those that took a moment to talk said so.

Zaria was worried, if that was the best, then what was the palace feeding their maids, how bad was it for commoners? She would have to do some research.

Zaria caught a pea that was flying at supersonic speeds. It was not a deadly projectile since it was a pea, but painful, humiliating, and could do damage to a soft part.

It sounded like something she'd do, and probably had done before. Zaria doubted it had been a pea, maybe a bean? She knew she had done headshots with eggs and tomatoes before.

------

After eating, Celestia just wanted to sleep and forget today had existed. She just wished it had all been a dream.

The various fey that had followed her had taken some of her meal, they had clearly prefered vegetables over meat.

Rylli had watched fascinated as parts of the salad had simply disappeared into nothingness.

Celestia had even gotten them to wipe their mouths and hands in the wet towel she had been handed after eating.

When she rose to visit her father several of her new entourage followed her while others decided to take an after-lunch nap.

Celestia feared she was going to be stalked by fae now. Now it was fine, but what about when she lost her sight and couldn't see what they were doing any more?

She knocked on the large office door.

"Come in."

A guard opened the door and let Celestia in.

"You are late." The King accused her.

"The assessment ran late due to unforeseen consequences." Celestia sat in a seat at the large table that had two popes, several generals, nobles, and representatives from other countries. "A few of those consequences you all probably already know about."

"That beast destroyed the barrier! That was clearly an attack!" A Noble shouted his opinion.

The Princess saw several of her fae passengers glare at the man, then look at her. She simply nodded. Then realized that she had sicked a bunch of fae on an extremist without hesitation. Then again, he deserved to be taken down a peg. "That maid accidentally broke it when the Archmage insisted on her using her most powerful spell, I talked her down to using single target spells."

"Tell us about the magic used to destroy the barrier."

Celestia wondered for a moment, there were several spells that could have taken out that barrier. "I am not sure, there were at least three spells used that could have done that."

There was a moment of silent disbelief.

"That is impossible, that simple beast can't do that." "Impossible!" "It is an attack!"

"Are you saying that I am lying?" Celestia was annoyed. "That there is no hole burned deep into the ground, that there is no largest collection of lightning glass ever recorded, that she did not clear any test with never seen before results?"

"She must have used mind magics!" A general slammed his fist into the table, and a pixie helped the shaking teacup tilt over and spill on his pants. "Hot!"

That drew several amused snickers, until another cup spilled on the loud one.

"That beast is dangerous. She must be removed."

"And all our efforts resulted in a card and a lot of statues." Celestia added, rubbing the lost soldiers’ issue into their faces.

The King waved his hand, causing everyone to fall silent. "Your opinion?"

"Don't annoy her, call her a maid, be respectful to maids, and help her find a Mistress."

"Are you saying we should let that beast simply roam around?"

There went another teacup.

"Do you think you can stop her?" The Princess asked sarcastically.

"Then we find her the right Master." The crown prince said.

"Mistress, she insists on a Mistress of her own choosing." Celestia corrected.

"That does not matter, we will find someone right for her."

It was clear they were not listening.

"The reports from that boy, they say she is friendly but aloof? It seems there were many rumours about her at their school. Most seem to be contradicting each other."

A parchment was passed around.

Celestia just knew that nothing on it was going to be helpful.

Looking though things she was right. "Rich, poor, a slut, a virgin maiden, vicious, friendly, popular, a loner, social, a liar, honest … they are rather useless."

"Agreed" the King confirmed. "What are the chances she played around in that world?"

"Her race is unknown, however considering what the Hero has said, magic and such beings did not exist." The Archmage sounded worried.

"It is clear that her race is not human, and that she is proud of being a maid." The Princess mused. "What if magic and nonhuman races were secret? If she was hiding, playing a normal human, while waiting for someone who could accept all of her." Something felt off. "A world where she is not bound to pretend, she is not a magical human." She felt like she was almost there, what if … "She intercepted our summoning."

"What?" "How could that be?" "It was done with the gods?" "Impossible!"

The King called to order. "Be quiet!" Once everyone calmed down, he faced his daughter. "Explain."

"She has summoned archangels without any preparations; she has shown herself to be capable of war magic alone, she knows spells that we have never known about. She admitted to being both fey and spirit, and the form we normally see, is only part of her."

"What do you mean by 'only part of her'?" The Archmage demanded.

The Princess hesitated for a moment. "She granted me an advanced version of spirit sight. Her real self? She has more tails, more presence, and is much more beautiful."

The Princess felt a tug on her sleeve. Looking down she found several of the fae looking up at her. """"Cake?""""

Celestia looked at the untouched cake and desserts on a side table. "You can have them, but don't eat them all, in case someone wants some later."

The fae migrated tables, drawing an amused smile from the princess when an argument erupted. It seemed that they couldn't agree on which ones to eat.

"Princess?"

"Oh, just a few of the fae followed, and are now arguing over which cakes to eat."

Everyone looked at the table, and saw nothing. While the Princess had said that she had been granted the spirit sight, it was hard to believe, they had never managed to do that in all their research.

Then suddenly a fruit tart and a chocolate cake started disappearing.

"Seems they settled it, and before anyone asks, my golden hair is their doing as well." The Princess explained.

Everyone focused on the golden locks now which had several small braids.

"They are dangerous, they shouldn't be in this room, they could be spies."

Only the Princess saw the glares the little ones gave the general who insulted them.

"And they seem to take offense to insults against them and their kind." She gave the victims of the teacup incidents pointed looks.

"And are you sure you want to pick a fight with a race that you can't even see?" She had tried hard, but the Princess had not managed to keep the sarcasm out of her voice. She walked over to the dessert table, gathering the attention of the fae. She cut the cakes into more manageable pieces and placed a few of the wet hand towels nearby so they could wipe themselves. A few were pretty messy.

The Princess hesitated, should she just wipe them? Was it rude? It was beneath her, but that sticky cream smeared face really needed help. She should do it, if they didn't wipe themselves properly, then she'd get it all over her clothes and hair when they returned to her. Yes it was better to resolve the issue now.

The brown hand towel started changing colours after the third one she cleaned.

The reactions from the fae were very varied, some seemed to love it, others got mobbed and held down as she forcefully wiped them.

Meanwhile everyone else was watching the Princess wiping air with one of those prepared small towels used for wiping hands. Originally, they were all brown, a measure to not embarrass people if they had dirty hands, now they were turning in all sorts of colours.

Being able to see spirits would be a huge benefit.

--- Meanwhile in the Princess' Room ---

"Before waking the Princess, you prepare the bath." Rylli explained.

"Nyanderstood."

"Then while she soaks, send for breakfast and prepare her tea, unless she wants milk. If she doesn't say anything, a light tea is usually good, she prefers fruity ones."

"Nyanderstood."

"During the times she is not present or we are not needed to follow her, we check her clothes, polish her jewellery, clean the room, check her schedule, and prepare for everything that is planned."

"Nyah?" The confusion was plainly visible.

"Like if she has an event or meeting, we prepare clothes and accessories, either as she wished for them, or to the best of our knowledge and assessment."

"Nyah?"

"If she meets someone important in her position as Princess, it is dresses and jewellery from over here. Also remember to order new ones in a while."

"Nyanderstood, nyake nyew nyith nyewing?"

"You can sew dresses like this?"

"Nyes!"

"Let me get some fabric, let's start with you making a maid dress like you have for me."

"Nyanderstood"

--- Back at the Meeting ---

"In conclusion, I doubt we can do anything about the Maid, we can only try to make sure she meets potential Mistresses from the right circles first." Celestia declared, though a lot of the serious effect was lost as her hair was currently being changed to wavy curls.

It worked however at creeping most people in the room out, being in a room with invisible nonhumans was something none of them liked, especially since they were talking about things that concerned national and human security.

Celestia placed a pixie that had been flying in front her face and placed it on her chest. "Not now, I need to talk to them." She told the little one, that then made itself comfortable in her cleavage with some wriggling much to her discomfort, but she managed not to blush.

"At least the Hero is easy to control. Fame and women, possibly riches even. He seems to respond to compliments and flattery." A priest reported.

"Can we do anything about the beast?" A general wondered.

"Settle her with a proper Master." The Crown Prince mentioned. "She seems to like you, so why don't you become her Master, little sister?"

They were clearly not listening, so caught up in their schemes.

Celestia screamed internally, maybe this was why they had to summon, because everyone was so useless. "We will see, currently it seems improbable."

"Who gave you that golden choker actually?" The Prince asked.

"She did."

The way everyone focused on the golden choker was fine, the way their eyes kept slipping lower, was not. It seemed to irritate the fae on her chest.

"Next is invitations." The King decided there had been enough staring. "Our factions and the neutral one should be enough. The moderate ones will be forgotten or delivered late. All Saints must be present to give their blessings."

Everyone was in agreement.

Celestia just wanted to curl up on her comfy couch, but no, dinner with the heroes and the guests was needed.

At least they were mostly done. Now they were talking about more remunerations from other nations for summoning the Hero for the war efforts.

--- back in Celestia’s room after the meeting ---

Celestia had forgone all elegance and simply dropped onto the couch, ignoring the protests from the small fae. Several had then migrated to the bed, while the others had decided to lie down all over the Princess' body.

"That was a total waste of time." Celestia whined. "They just don't understand her."

Rylli nodded while starting to brew a relaying tea. "Even as a fellow maid, I admit she is on a whole different level."

"You should have heard the rumours about her in her world. They were all very contradictory."

"Really? What was she like according to rumours?" Rylli was rather curious about her fellow maid.

"That is just it, there is everything, from being a slut, being rich, being poor, selling her body, stealing boyfriends, and the only thing that is something they all agree on, is that she is pretty."

"You know, my Lady, she seems to be a lady’s maid." The maid was blushing.

"Ladies maid?" Celestia was not familiar with that term.

Rylli fidgeted a bit. "With how she looks at you, and how she wants a Mistress, she might be one of those maids who do skinship and more with their Mistresses."

It took the Princess a moment to understand, then she started blushing. "She saw me." The naked part was left unspoken.

"And she seemed to like it, or she wouldn't be caring for you, probably."

The Princess thought about all their interactions. "Is she courting me?"

"No, probably flirting."

The Princess had trouble imagining it, playful flirting that is, usually everyone tried to court her, and here she was sure that the floof liked her but clearly said that she did not want her. It was both insulting and honestly a little refreshing.

She absently prodded a fairy that was getting a bit too comfortable on her chest and got a giggle in return.

"I don't know what to do." Celestia admitted.

"Whatever you want to do?" Rylli offered helpfully.

Celestia opened her status absently, she needed to look at some normality. And then froze.

Titles were hard to get usually anyway.

She had new titles.
'Feydala' Fae Friend: grants feysight, +2 to Charisma, +5 to Charisma with Fairies, Fae are less likely to hurt you, and are more likely to play with you. Makes understanding and learning their language easier.
'Zaria's Favourite Toy': Title granted to the poor soul who awakes Zaria's interest, +5 to all Stats, Skills, and Magic; if female +10 to Charisma (stacking); if female: +5 to sensitivity during female only play (stacking); if female: +5 to all female only sex skills (stacking); if male: you are more likely to change gender; if female: you are more likely to change race and often something with a fluffy tail
'Cat Maid Golem Owner': The Cat Maid listens to your commands unless they are unreasonable or dangerous; +1 Earth Magic; +5 to Sensitivity during Mistress and Maid Play(stacking); +5 to Sensitivity while worked over by the 'Rough Tongue' (Stacking); +3 to sex skills during Maid and Mistress Play

She read them again.

The gain she got from the titles was extreme, only the second title was less than pleasing. What was that about growing a tail, why would her sex skill grow so much? The title was as ominous as it was weird.

Zaria being a Ladies Maid now seemed pretty much confirmed, Celestia realized.

Now she had even more reason to hand the floof to someone else, she was not ready to lose her chastity, even if the increased sensitivity seemed rather promising. And what was that 'Rough Tongue'? She gave the cat maid a suspicious glance.

Maica however seemed busy folding her things and helping Rylli prepare a new dress for dinner.

Celestia knew exactly when her life had taken a strange turn, and it was all after that summoning.

"Rylli?"

"My Lady?"

"Any idea how to take that gold choker off?"

Rylli moved over and checked. "No."

"I'll strangle that floof with her tail."

--- Zaria's Room ---

There was a knock on the door and one of the two senior maids approached.

She was handed a letter that was handed to Zaria, who then read it.

"Alright girls. Time for a special lesson" Zaria announced afterwards. "First stop is the kitchen, cooks usually do the cooking, but as maids we need to be able to cook, and it is our responsibility to check if the food is as it should be. Then we serve our Mistress unless it is a buffet style or a public event where there is public serving. In that case we mingle with the other servants, watch our Mistress in case she needs anything and we help everything run smoothly." Zaria turned to her maid squad. "Now let me check if everything is as it should be with your uniforms, then we go over to help prepare. During the banquet we will be standing at the wall behind the Princess, if anyone complains, send them my way or tell the Princess. The cat maid you will see is a golem I made. If you ask her to help with something concerning the Princess, she will do it." Zaria pondered for a moment. "I forgot to tell you, the one we will be serving primarily tonight is Princess Celestia."

That got everyone's attention, mostly by becoming nervous and turning pale.

"Stop worrying, she is actually smart, nice, and pretty." Zaria fixed a few wrinkles here and there. "Now follow me, first stop, the kitchen."

The two senior maids shrugged and followed the group. Zaria led them in a nice orderly way to the next servants' access door, then through the halls down the stairs to the kitchen.

In the kitchen the cooks started to glare as yet more maids appeared.

"How is the progress on the meals for the banquet? Is there anything you require?" Zaria asked without a care.

"We have everything." A cook replied. "Everything also seems to be on time."

Zaria nodded at the wary cook. "Girls this is the kitchen, the place you ask for snacks for you Mistress, or borrow a corner if you want to make something personally. It is also the best place to stock supplies and hide things if your Mistress snacks too much or you need to manage her sweets intake. Hiding the cookie jar behind flour and such is a good way, otherwise keep a cabinet well stocked with favourite teas, dried fruits and such. If something runs low, inform the head cook or whoever is responsible for supplies. If you need more of something, ask the head cook."

The girls nodded, slightly confused but they understood that the cook needed to be informed.

"Next stop is the banquet hall, where we will probably meet the head maid or someone in charge of setting it up." Zaria turned and went to another exit from the kitchen. "Follow me."

The girls followed in pairs.

Upstairs the head maid watched the procession with a frown.

"Trainees, they are strong, but still a bit clumsy, anything fitting left to do?" Zaria introduced.

"You can fetch the flowers again, the pots with the ones from yesterday need to be brought back, I'll use the carriers for something else then."

Zaria nodded and addressed her little ones. "Everyone take two flowerpots, be careful not to break them, while at it check the flowers, those that are still pretty can be used again somewhere, those that wilt or got ripped off, will be repotted and probably regrown or thrown away." Zaria pointed out several flowers. "Now everyone picks two, I'll take the remaining ones."

Everyone, including the two seniors, picked two flowerpots, then with a handwave for flavour the rest disappeared aside from another two pots that Zaria picked up. "Follow me."

Zaria led them through the gardens to the greenery, it was time to revisit the gardener.

There they deposited their loads, with just a few casualties when a few pots were put down too quickly or squeezed too tightly.

It was nothing a little repair magic couldn't fix, but Zaria wondered when the last time she had repaired so much in a day had been.

The giant glasshouse and the large flower beds drew some awe from the girls. They clearly liked the smells, so Zaria started debating which flowers would suit which one of them the best. A maid needed to smell nice, in Zaria's case it was the flaw that did that. In worlds with monsters the 'taste good' and 'smell nice' were something that begged to be killed or worse. In Zaria's case that just meant the prey came to her instead of having to look for it.

"Everyone picked today's flower pots?" the maid asked her trainees.

Various noises of agreement came.

"The right answer is a simple yes or a nod, we will cover proper speech later, for now when someone speaks to you try to be polite, and tell them you are only in training, and send them my way." Zaria explained. "Now, everyone follow me!"

After returning and placing the flowerpots, the head maid was surprised to see the rather thin girls lift heavy tables easily.

"They have power, but no control yet." Zaria smiled when a table was accidentally broken. "It is a slow thing, but considering they started today, I think they are doing well."

The head maid saw one of the girls carefully prepare a plate and the cutlery with her tongue peeking out. Another accidentally shredded a napkin while trying to fold it. A finger flick from Zaria fixed that napkin and folded it properly.

Zaria had to fix various things since her little ones still had issues with controlling their strength.

--- In Zaria's room ---

The princess knight wanted to cry. Not only was she downgraded to an errand girl, now even her target was mocking her by not being where it should.

"Kon" Yuki was lazily looking from her pillow at the Princess Knight. Finally, it was time for some peace and quiet. Now only had to get rid of the unwanted guest, and she could go back to napping and relaxing.

That beast was a pain and should be removed, even its pet was mocking her.

With an exhausted sigh, she went to search for her target.

--- Back at the Main Banquet Hall ---

Soon it was time for the banquet.

She left the little ones in the care of their two seniors and went to look for the Princess.

"You!" Celestia greeted in an accusing manner.

"Me?" Zaria decided to ask.

"How do you remove this?" The Princess demanded while pointing at her choker.

"Will it away." The floof replied to Celestia's annoyance.

"What do you mean by 'Will it away'?"

"Focus, imagine putting it away. Imagine it disappearing from your neck."

The Princess did it, and the elaborate choker faded away. "It's enchanted?"

"Just the basics, a +4 to Charisma, a little armour on the level of an enchanted full plate like that one guy had, good health, feel if someone is lying, and a bit more presence, protection from mind control and brainwashing, protection from smaller curses."

"That is not basic!"

"Really?" Zaria found it very basic for royalty standards. "It is to me; I mean it is the least royalty should wear. The enchants only apply when you are wearing it around your neck."

Celestia once again found herself faced with the very different worldview that the floof had. "You can't just give out items on the level of national treasures casually like that." She willed the choker back.

"I am planning on giving my little maids more than that, and if you think that is too much, you better not ask what my Mistress will own."

Celestia was speechless. That was going to put the Mistress in danger.

"And it is exactly so that she is well protected." Zaria denied.

The Princess now worried that the floof was reading her mind.

"No, I have not read your mind."

The Princess was not convinced.

"You just stopped breathing for a moment, that means surprise, shock, then your muscles stiffened, that means being wary, danger, now you are looking at me and your pupils widened a little while you are looking a bit through me, that is disbelief." Zaria smirked foxily. "Yes, I can hold a full conversation with you, without you saying anything."

The Princess found this scary.

"Don't worry. I actually have to focus to not read minds."

That was even more worrying.

"Relax, reading minds and thoughts is less interesting than you think."

She wondered if that was really true.

"You won't be able to read mine, but here you go." Zaria nodded at the Princess. "For convenience, and so you don't go insane, it is only of those you are focussing on for a bit."

The Princess looked at Zaria, and felt some sort of amusement. Looking at Maica was weirder. "Awaiting Orders, Awaiting Orders, Awaiting Orders, Awaiting Orders, Awaiting Orders, Awaiting Orders, Awaiting Orders, Awaiting Orders, Awaiting Orders, Awaiting Orders, Awaiting Orders, Awaiting Orders, Awaiting Orders, Awaiting Orders, Awaiting Orders, Awaiting Orders, …"

The Princess rubbed her forehead, that had been weird.

"Greetings Princess, I bring the Hero." A herald announced.

The Princess looked at him <At least the Hero has a simple name, not like those nobles who always insist on being called by as long names as possible.> She blinked, the herald had weird troubles.

"My greetings Princess, you are as beautiful as ever." Tomoki, who was now wearing a noble's garb, appeared and smiled. <And that chest, I can't wait to enjoy that chest. The hero gets the princess, soon I will have her in my harem.>

Celestia suppressed a shudder, that she did not need to know, the hero having delusions and aiming for her chastity? Where did those delusions come from?

"My condolences." Zaria patted her arm.

Once more she wondered if the floof really did not read minds.

"<I heard enough rumours about him. And he hit on me before, that stench of lust is plain annoying, be glad you don't have nose like my kind does.>" Zaria spoke in the fae language.

"Wait here, you will be announced as guests, and yes, that means you too." The Princess looked sternly at Zaria. She decided to try something else, she tried speaking in Ancient. "{I am so sorry for you.}" It was heavy on sarcasm.

"Technically I am a guest only until I find a Mistress. {Oh please, I am pretty sure that whatever he thinks right now is not the worst he does, he is clearly not deeply fantasizing. Besides you have read the reports and my notes.}"

"What are you saying? Is the language spell failing?" Tomoki sounded worried.

"That is Ancient, a lost language only scholars, high priests, nobles, and master mages like great enchanters speak." The Princess explained to the Hero.

<They are keeping secrets? Why does she speak it when I don't? Once they are mine, I will teach them not to keep secrets.>

The Princess took all her willpower to not react to those thoughts. "{Are there many like him on your world?}"

"{Luckily no, most only think it, and don't act on their perverted impulses.}" Zaria admitted. "{Though, yes, we were in a peaceful society that was pretty wealthy on average, so more time to play around.}"

"{Is that why you don't mind being summoned? A world a war, a place you can protect your Mistress?}"

"{Being able to use magic freely is nice too, magic is so convenient after all.}"

Celestia made the mistake of looking at the boy. <Instead of talking they should put their mouths to better use, take it in and keep it there until they choke and beg for air. I wonder if they have gag reflexes?>

"{What is a gag reflex?}" The Princess asked Zaria.

"{That is the reflex when something is stuck into your throat, He probably imagines you or us taking his genital deeply into our mouths and thrusting so far that it is in our throats.}"

Celestia frowned in disgust.

"You asked." Zaria commented, it felt good to share the pain of knowing too much about such things.

"{I now understand why you switch that ability off}" The Princess made a guess from the reports she had gotten. "{Especially when surrounded by boys like that every day.}"

"{You have no idea how nice it is to share the pain.}"

Celestia wanted to glare at the floof, but a pitying look seemed more fitting. At least it was only temporary in her case.

"I can make it permanent."

Now the floof was back to reading her mind even if she supposedly wasn't. Like hell she would want to keep that skill.

"Your satisfaction and relief were far too obvious."

That floof was far too good at it, or actually reading her mind.

"Years of experience, and on beings far higher level than yours too." Zaria imagined the headaches of reading and interpreting her Tamas. Especially when she did not want to since they were scheming something again.

"Announce me." Celestia ordered the herald.

<Finally, at least when announcing everyone is paying attention to me in the beginning.>

"Everyone Rise!" The Herald ordered. "Now arriving: Her Lady the Princess Celestia van Temmaste of the Holy Kingdom of Poivyl, 2nd in line to the throne of the Holy Kingdom of Poivyl."

The Princess nodded and entered the hall.

A different Herald announced the Prince, then the King and the Queen.

The lower nobles were all forced to stand as the royals sat down. Next the other royals from other countries were announced, forcing the nobles to remain standing.

Finally, everyone was allowed to sit.

"Now announcing: The Summoned Heroes. Enter." The herald had to improvise, not really supposed to introduce the beast. "Hero Tomoki of the Sword. Our summoned saviour against the beasts. Heroes kneel before our King and our Gods."

Tomoki did, having received emergency lessons in etiquette.

Zaria did not kneel as actually required. She did however make a perfect curtsy.

"Kneel beast before your King." The Crown Prince ordered.

Zaria ignored him.

<So rude.> <That beast is disrespecting the King.> <The beast should die.> The Princess could hear the dissatisfaction from everyone she looked at. "Why aren't you kneeling?" She asked plainly, she was sure the reply would be a maid thing.

"There are only three beings I'll kneel before. My Mistress, my lover, and my Goddess. None of you fall into any of those categories. To kneel means not only to show respect, but also submission, and I will only submit to the aforementioned three."

"Very well." The Princess ignored the dissatisfaction. "Continue everyone."

The King gave a speech during which Zaria tuned out almost everything since she had no interest in listening to how terrible the beasts were, how great the humans were, and how they would defeat their enemies.

<Soon everyone will be kneeling to me, once I marry the Princess I will be King.>

Celestia really wanted to throw the goblet she was drinking from at the hero.

<The Princess looks so good, she would be such a delightful bride for my son.> <I should hook up my daughter with that beast, I am sure my daughter would lend her to me for night duties.> Celestia was more and more convinced that the floof really suppressed that ability. The amount of actually useful information was minimal at best, all it did was increase her urge to kill and confirm her opinions about everyone.

"Be seated Hero." The King finally ordered.

Zaria moved over to the servant's place and intercepted the things for the Princess. The single items were handed to her little ones and Maica, then she performed a perfect serving using the Princess as her object.

<Why is she letting that beast serve her?> <Is the beast choosing her as a Mistress? That's bad for my faction.> Celestia took a mental note since that noble was actually supposed to be aligned to them. The castle maids quickly found out that that maid's little maids were strong, so they were used to hold the heavy serving platters, while the normal maids were distributing the food and drink.

Maica and Zaria however only doted on the Princess.

A noble found his wrist grabbed when he tried to molest one of Zaria's younger maids. "No touching, they are reserved for my Mistress."

"Know your place, beast." The noble started getting loud.

<If I cause a scene, then the beast will have to submit, or the King will lose face and will have to do something.> Celestia heard, couldn't the idiots at least take a break from scheming during a banquet like that. She had an idea. "{Deal with that.}" She gave permission with a whisper, somebody else had just offered to take her place when facing that floof.

Zaria's ear flicked; she gave the Princess an amused smile. "Now dear somebody that was probably introduced, but is not important enough to actually matter or to be remembered." Zaria spoke normally, but something about her suddenly seemed threatening.

The noble turned red at the impertinence of that beast. He opened his mouth to put the beast in its place, only to choke when the pressure on his wrist suddenly increased and he could feel the ever-increasing crushing force. He suddenly remembered the show of strength from the day before.

"Now you have clearly drunk enough, it is bad manners to drink so much when you can't handle it."

The ridicule was heavy and the tone was soft but threatening, but the short squeeze on his wrist told the noble that the beast was not going to take a no for an answer. She seemed perfectly willing to harm him, and the royals were watching without interfering. He was on his own.

"From now on only juice for this one, give him some fatty meat and a lot to drink to sober up." The situation was resolved, and all the maids clearly acknowledged the order.

Zaria smiled at her little maid; this one was thirteen if she remembered it correctly. "Good work not hitting him."

The little maid nodded, relieved while the man looked at the young girl in disbelief.

"Now be a dear, and squeeze this knife into a ball." Zaria handed a clean knife to the girl.

The girl did as ordered. She squeezed the knife into a ball that she then dropped with a "hot" when the stress from the quick forced deformation turned it into a glowing red ball.

Zaria caught it and showed it to the pale noble who felt the heat radiating from the deformed ball. "See, be more careful in the future."

The man quickly nodded.

The former knife straightened in Zaria's hand and the red glow faded. She placed it back on the table, but everyone moved a bit away from it.

Celestia smirked, she had never liked nobles who simply used the servants as they wished, that was what their own slaves were for after all. And finally, someone else got a taste of the incredible strength and mind-boggling reality twists that the floof caused.

The rest of the banquet went pretty well aside from many hostile and calculating looks at Zaria.

Unless you were the Princess who was getting a headache from her temporary mind reading.

<I want more duck.> <I need to talk to the stupid one about the engagement between our families later, if they weren't so rich I'd look for someone else.> <I will invite that maid to my room later.> <Oh sweet Lizzy, we are going to have such a fun night.> <The beast clearly does not obey, but it's power according to our spies is real. I need to invite my sister, if she becomes the Mistress, we can subdue the neighbouring countries easily.> <Celestia's chest looks as nice as ever, and that gold choker she has must have been an expensive present, I need to find something to top that.> <How can she handle being waited on by two filthy beasts? No matter how nice they look, they are beasts.> <I don't believe it, the only place for beasts is on all fours.> <I want more cake.> <I hate these meetings.> <The Princess has good taste, it makes me want to go home to my sweet kitten.>

Celestia looked at her mother. <I like the maid; I wonder if she is courting little Cele. The children would be so cute, golden hair, golden fluffy ears, and golden fluffy tails.> Celestia choked on her wine causing both Maica and Zaria to quickly help her.

She stared at her daydreaming mother in utter confusion.

<I wonder which one of the two is the dominant one? Or is it three? She has that cat now, oh and her personal maid. A foursome sounds wonderful, I am so jealous.>

Celestia looked at the person. It looked like her mother. It sounded like her mother. Why were the things she was hearing so utterly alien?

"I have no idea what you just heard." Celestia heard the amused voice. "But whatever your mother is thinking, must have been very different from what you were expecting."

Celestia decided to ignore the nosy floof. Instead, she looked back at her mother.

<The two maids fawning over little Cele. I want grandchildren.>

The Princess decided to ignore her mother. Maybe the day was getting to her and she was imagining things.

"So, your mother has an amusing side to her, she seems really happy off in her own world."

Now the floof was reading minds too.

"No, still no reading minds, but she is clearly daydreaming, and you are clearly shocked."

Celestia looked at her mother, there was no sign to her that her mother was daydreaming.

"It is the slightly unfocussed eyes, and the mechanical way she is eating."

With the help Celestia found the signs, and got a few more thoughts she could have done without. <That maid is so bold, whispering sweet things into my daughter’s ears. She is clearly embarrassed. Seems my little Cele is the bottom. Then again that is a fun place too.>

<Oh, she is looking my way. She finally remembered she has a mother.>

That really stabbed Celestia deeply. She tried to remember when she had last spent time with her mother, and then realized it had all been at tea parties, feasts, banquets, and other official events. Celestia felt a warm hand rub a circle on her back.

"Truth hurts."

It did.

--- Evening after the banquet in Celestia's room ---

Finally, the torture was over. Celestia felt mentally exhausted. Hearing others thoughts was not as great as everyone imagined. The amounts of rubbish, perversion, useless information, and endless scheming.

She looked down at her chest, where several of the fae she had bribed to stay behind had made themselves comfortable. Then to the floof and her slaves. The slaves were all watching her chest in fascination.

"You can see them." It was a statement.

The slaves flinched.

"Don't worry, she is far nicer than her reputation and her demeanour would make you expect. Naturally, she deserves your respect since she is currently your Princess. But being polite and helpful is enough." Zaria calmed her little ones. "As to the little ones you can see, probably some title you got from me affected you. The ones with the butterfly wings are fairies, the ones with the dragonfly wings are pixies. Now wave."

The girls waved hesitantly and immediately got swarmed by curious fae.

"Just let them do their thing, they love playing around." Zaria calmed the now swarmed. "There is nothing they can do that I can't undo, and they will keep from doing too weird things since they can feel you are mine."

"Why do I have a fey friend title?" Celestia demanded.

Zaria smiled. "That went quicker than I expected."

"You knew?"

"No, but since you are interesting, I suspected that they might take a liking to you."

"Right, now explain 'Zaria's Favourite Toy' to me."

"What do you mean?"

"It is a title."

Zaria snickered. "Really, I did not think that something like that could become a title in this world. Then again I am a being of power and I like playing with you."

"Playing?" The Princess glared at the annoying floof.

"Teasing, surprising, explaining, teaching, pampering, debating, and such. You make such wonderful reactions to having your reality stripped from you and getting the truth shoved in your face."

The Princess stared at the being that showed absolutely no remorse in shattering her worldview. Then she looked at her maid.

<While a bit much, maybe my Lady will finally relax a bit.>

There was no help from her maid.

<A nice relaxing tea, a hot bath, and hiding all work sounds right, I will have to talk Maica in helping me hide her work.>

Celestia froze, her maid was hiding her work.

<Also, the hot bath with those relaxing bathing salts Zaria gave me. Should make my Lady all nice and relaxed.>

Even her maid was conspiring against her. "And why does Maica merit her own title?"

"Maica? Is it 'My Cat' or 'Maid Cat'?"

Celestia twitched at being found out so easily.

"Maid Cat then." The albino smirked. "And as for why she merits a title. She is a gift from me and she is probably stronger than anyone you know. You can always check her Status as her Mistress."

"Are all your titles like those?"

"Yes." Zaria confirmed. "Theirs too." She waved at her little maids. "Now back to work. Watch as we prepare the Princess for a quiet relaxing evening. Everyone has a routine, so here I pass the leading role to the Princess' personal maid."

"Hello, I am Rylli. I have been serving the Princess for the last four years. The normal way she spends her evening goes like this. Tea and maybe a book while I prepare the bath. Also, as a late-night snack often something light and some milk. Sometimes a nice long bath, then some light reading after I leave. The romance novels are hidden in her desk under the notes on the current political situation."

"Rylli!"

"It is also my job to make sure they get replaced regularly."

Celestia blushed, much to the enjoyment of the fae who appreciated the nice red on her cheeks.

"First however, change her clothes into something comfortable." Rylli declared.

Everyone turned towards the Princess who suddenly felt anything but safe.

Under the experienced hand of Rylli and Zaria, with the help of the knowledgeable Maica, Celestia found herself stripped, exposed to the now blushing maid squad, and wrapped in a soft bathrobe. Resistance had been futile.

Now Rylli was making tea while explaining to Maica how their Lady liked it.

Zaria had left to prepare the bath.

The future maid squad was fidgeting nervously while watching the two adult maids, peeking at Celestia, and having their hair redone by fae.

Somehow, Celestia decided, the way they were staring at her bust in awe was rather satisfying. She quickly crushed the urge to pull the bathrobe apart to tease them. That was not dignified.

<The Princess is big, will I be big like that too?> <Her golden hair is so fluffy, I am so jealous.> <Will I look like that when I grow up?> <That tickles, why is it rubbing my ear?> <Most of them already have hair down there, when will I grow some?> <I never wanted this, why am I a slave when they are rich and powerful, why was I born like that.> <I heard how slaves are treated, did I get lucky or am going to be a sex toy for the Princess?>

Celestia wondered how the last one, one of the older ones, had gotten that idea.

"After a long day, relaxing and letting your mind rest is important. Nobody can work forever without breaks." Zaria emerged from the bathroom.

Maica served the tea, perfectly as her knowledge guided her.

Celestia decided to stop caring and relaxed. The soothing tea felt nice, the sweet-smelling fragrance attracted the curiosity of several fae. "Wait a bit, it's hot." She warned them. Then filled a bit into a spoon blew at it before holding setting it on the table so everyone could have a taste.

"Actually, I think I have something you might find useful … somewhere." Zaria stuck her arm into the air, which then rippled, the arm partially blurring out of reality. "Where is it?"

Celestia decided to ignore the floof and shifted a bit to be more comfortable.

<Celes bathrobe is opening a bit now, but she is comfy. What do I do?> Rylli on the other hand was not relaxed, her Lady was about to expose herself if she sunk any lower on the couch.

Celestia however did not care, she was now very comfy, the fae were curiously fluttering around that floof and the slaves, she was taking a break. Besides now that she was relaxing those many tails the floof had looked rather soothing and hypnotic. It was weird somehow seeing which one was the real one when you can see that they are all real. Oh yes, she wanted to try to strangle the floof with her tail. It was not going to work, Celestia knew that, but it would release some of the frustration. And it was time for some serious talk too.

"Alright, I found it." Zaria pulled her arm from the blur and held a chest in her hand. She placed it on the floor next to Celestia who lazily turned her head to watch. Inside the chest were smaller boxes. "This one is a tea set."

It was a small fae sized tea set. "Here, a nice tea set. The right size for any fae gathering. This is the ten settings version." Zaria waved Rylli closer. "This is the one for I guess nobles, higher ranking ones, each of them has several equivalent human sized ones. The casual sets, the breakfast set, actually let me translate." Zaria held out her hand and a scroll appeared in it that she handed to Rylli. "Here is a small explanation of the what is what, check if it is correct, if it isn't tell me and we go through it later."

"Yes, Maica, help me set the cups on the table, I suspect they are clean."

"Reminds me, I have a furniture set too, somewhere." Everyone again watched as Zaria seemed to search through that distortion. After yet more searching a yet larger chest got pulled out. "Found it, small fae sized furniture. Yes, it looks like it is for dolls, but there are differences.

"Maica, help me find a table and chairs, we are going to set it up on the table. You young ones help us set it all up.

The Princess wondered how her relaxing evening had turned into a tea party with fae.

<The Princess hair looks so fluffy and nice; I want to touch it.> <I hope my chest will grow like that.>

And she should remind Zaria to remove that mind reading, it was annoying.

Soon, with minimal mishaps the fae were having tea as well.

Then Zaria took an apple from the fruit bowl and took a few seeds. A large pot, some earth, she planted the seeds and grew three small interwoven apple trees. Small as in only as tall as a person.

The Princess ignored the renovation. Instead, she was wondering what to do about that one fidgeting maid.

<I need to pee, but I was not given permission, what do I do?>

I was something she was very familiar with, during events you were not allowed to simply disappear, no first all the welcoming speech, greetings, the toast, first dance, and a little small talk needed to be done. She would have the floof deal with it.

"Floof, over there."

Zaria smirked amused. "Actually, I was waiting for her to say something. And do you know what you just called me?"

"What?"

"Floof."

"I did not."

"You did."

"No, impossible."

"To think that all that matters about me to you is the fluffy parts. I feel so downgraded. Am I just tails and ears to you?"

"You are a headache, an evil floof that insists on destroying my worldview, my patience, and turning my days into pure chaos."

"Sounds about right." Zaria admitted shamelessly. "Now lessons for such cases. First you find an excuse, as soon as you feel the first urge." She addressed the maids. "Either needing to fetch something, stepping out for a moment, remembering an errand, if there are several of you, like now, tell another you need to step out, and ask if you need to bring or deliver something. In this case, I wanted to show you how to help wash your Mistress. Rarely, your Mistress might want to watch.

Celestia choked on her tea.

The maid squad looked mortified.

Rylli squeaked.

"But since it became a tea party, we will put it off, I need to have a serious talk with her as well. Class dismissed, have your seniors show you how to prepare a bath, then take turns washing each other. Use the bathing salts in the bathroom."

<Finally, we can go, if we had done something we would have gotten killed.> <I wish we could have washed the Princess, I wanted to touch the hair.> <Toilet, where is the next toilet?> <Do maids really bathe so much?> <Bath~ another warm bath, so much better than wiping yourself or a cold stream.>

Celestia wondered what kind of life slaves had. Bathing in a cold stream? Being afraid of being killed?

"That is why I think any society that uses or needs slaves, is rather backwards and primitive. You have servants, you have maids, why slaves?? Because slaves are cheaper and don't need to be paid." Zaria lifted the Princess' feet, sat down, and placed them in her lap. "That means that society is not ready to treat everyone well and pay everyone enough to survive. And that you still have a need to order people around unconditionally."

The Princess frowned. It sounded true, and she could see the point, but slaves were present everywhere. Replacing every slave with a paid worker? What about the jobs nobody wanted to do? Why was the floof acting so intimately with her and massaging her feet?

<Should I fix the bathrobe or not? It is parting more and more, and if it continues, Zaria will see that.>

"Now, you finished your tea. It is bath time. Maica, open the door. Rylli, the nightgown is not needed, but put a fluffy towel on the bed, afterwards we will give her a massage while we talk."

The Princess marvelled at the irony of being princess carried as Zaria took her to the bathroom.

"Maica, in case the Mistress is about to fall asleep, it is fine to strip and join her in the tub." Zaria explained, Rylli seemed to blush in return. "That is something you only do with lovers, or your Mistress if you or her are the touchy type."

Celestia wanted to mention that she was not the touchy type, but the fae following and many sitting and lying on her were kind of distracting.

She was stripped and placed in the bathtub. Her body being at full display to that floof and Maica.

"So now you are golden below too."

She decided it was as good at time as ever. The floof had changed into a sleeveless shorter maid uniform. She grabbed the tail.

"Ahh, be gentle." Zaria blushed at the direct touch. She gave the Princess a passionate look. "What are you trying to do?"

"I wanted to try to strangle you with your tail." The Princess admitted shamelessly.

"The tail is lovers and Mistress only. Since you are not my Mistress, does that mean you are my lover?"

Celestia remembered something, it had been during the assessment. Something about not touching. She released the soft and fluffy tail as if it had burned her and blushed deeply.

"So sad, you just want my tail."

She splashed the annoying floof.

In return the floof turned naked and cupped her cheek gently. "Is that an invitation?"

"No!" The Princess denied vehemently and with a burning face.

"Such a pity." The passionate gaze the albino gave felt like tongues licking all over her body.

Zaria lifted a leg and started gently and sensually washing it.

Then Maica took the second leg and emulated Zaria.

The Princess looked at Rylli for help, however her maid was covering her eyes.

<So shameless, should I join? Should I help? I mean I was always prepared in case my Lady asked, but seeing it like this is so lewd.> The maid peeked through the fingers to where the two other maids were washing her Mistress. <The legs, they are spreading the legs, they can see everything if they look down.>

That made Celestia realise the position, and how the hands on her legs were moving closer and closer to that part.

"Why don't we chat about a certain goddess meanwhile." Zaria changed the mood. She could smell the arousal, but the Princess was not yet completely willing. The conservative and racist upbringing was in the way.

"How did you know?"

"It felt off. Both the names Dua and Lity, and the magic."

"The magic?" Celestia wondered while definitely not focusing on how the hands were caressing her thighs.

"Magic has a feeling to it, you are all using divinely charged magic with your system. You invoke the gods and their elements to shape the spells. That taints the magic. And that magic felt wrong, weak, and female." Zaria skipped that place during washing and switched to the arm, Maica followed.

Celestia wondered why she felt disappointed, and felt embarrassed that she actually felt aroused, and some small part of her had wanted that touch. "So, you put them together, Dua and Lity became Duality Goddess of Light and Darkness." The name she declared resonated.

--- In the Realm Outside of Mortal Reach ---

"A human?"

"My Goddess?"

"A human has declared my name."

"Finally, I am so happy for you, my Goddess!"

"I think it is the Princess near that summoned one."

"It makes sense, after all she heard the visitor call us and say your name, my Goddess."

"Let us wait and see what she does with that knowledge."

--- Back in the Princess Bathroom ---

"What was that?" The Princess looked around confused as she sat up.

"That was invoking a divine name and title correctly." Zaria explained. Then switched to washing the back since the Princess had already sat up.

The Princess felt watched somehow. That something had clearly worried her.

"Don't worry, it is normal. You just gained the attention of a Goddess."

Now Celestia was really worried. Having the attention of a god or goddess rarely ended well unless you were their saint. Heroes, Sages, Saints, Rulers, and great artisans were often blessed. And Blessings meant power. Power meant becoming important. Being important meant much more focus on whatever you were doing. She already had a lot of eyes on her as the Princess who was the second in line to the throne. If something happened to her brother, her husband was going to become the king. She was the spare.

"This is amusing." Zaria snickered and pushed the young woman back into a half lying position. "Especially considering you are my toy by title."

Zaria took the resulting splash with an amused smirk.

Cat and Fox finished washing her arms and hands now.

Celestia knew that the way they laced fingers during the handwashing was to rile her up. It felt nice, for a golem Maica had soft hands, and Zaria's skin was smooth and soft even if the hand was small and slender.

Celestia had to force herself to stay calm as the four hands descended onto her two breasts.

The soft yet firm touches made her blush yet again. All too soon the chest was finished and she was lifted a bit to get the stomach washed.

Then some oil was applied to her face and covered with a wet warm face towel. "To fix the damage you did to your face with all that makeup." Zaria explained.

"Is it really that bad?"

"Touch your face, then your stomach."

The Princess did that, even accounting for the oil, it felt differently.

"We won't rinse you; the bathing salt is meant to stimulate the skin, you shouldn't keep it on too long, but washing it off tomorrow is fine." Zaria repositioned her hand under Celestia's back and raised her to wash the golden currently curly hair.

The warm towel and the scalp massage as her hair was washed made Celestia really sleepy.

She found herself being lower back into the warm water. She was sleepy.

Then her lower body was raised.

She snapped wide awake when her butt was rubbed and she was even washed between the two cheeks. The face towel was ripped off as she felt fingers shampoo her down there as her legs were parted.

"You are now golden down here too." Zaria informed. "It is maybe a beast thing, but all fur must be washed properly."

The Princess saw Rylli stand at the bottom of the tub and peek through her fingers at that part.

<So bold, they simply touch and wash her. I want to help too.> Then the touch changed. <She spread my Lady; My Lady is pink inside!>

Celestia tried to snap her legs closed, but failed.

It was humiliating.

Finally, she was lowered back, the face towel was replaced, and she was ordered to relax.

Something her tingling body made difficult.

"Relax, I'll prepare the bed, and call in the little ones." Zaria explained as she released her captive and opened the door. "<Bath is ready if you want to join her for a bit.>"

Celesta did not have to look to understand what the small splashes meant.

It seemed that the fae had joined her.

Suddenly the small fae seemed far less dangerous than that floof.

If that was the revenge for touching the tail, she was not going to touch tails without clearly asking if there were any implications, actually to make sure she was going to ask for any additional body parts. In addition, it reminded her that a kingdom far to the north had that weird custom where showing your face to a male meant that you were proposing.

Now the biggest question was. Had she proposed to become a mate or casual sex. Celestia was not sure which one was worse. She was still pure, she barely even touched herself since it was embarrassing. And now that floof had taken advantage of her after she had taken advantage of the tail.

It wasn't her fault; she had not known.

It was all the floof's fault!

Even that she now knew that Rylli had been ready for 'skinship' and 'serving' her was the floof’s fault.

She couldn't even strangle the floof with her tail for fear of getting carried off to bed and getting ravished like in those novels.

She felt herself get lifted gently from the tub under the protesting noises from the fae.

She should have felt cold, but she did not.

She did not remove the face towel because she did not want to look at the floof's amused face.

Then she found herself laid down on a soft and fluffy towel and rolled over so that she rested on her front.

"Now Maica, in cases like this, even if the Mistress says no, ignore it, she needs it. Massages of any kind can be painful when done too strongly, so you need to adjust your strength a lot. It should be just almost painful like those knots in her shoulders. If she has stiff muscles keep the pain to a minimum, but without it is impossible. And yes, the next part will be uncomfortable, but deal with it, you need it." Zaria smacked Celestia's nicely round and firm ass playfully.

Celestia who had been getting more and more worried, made a very un-princess-like squeak.

She felt her foot being lifted, then came a slight twist, and an awful snapping noise she felt and heard through her body.

Rylli paled.

"Now please move your foot."

Celestia did that carefully. She couldn't pinpoint it, but something felt different.

"Yep, it worked." Zaria commented happily. "Now for the rest of the body."

More than once Celestia called for Zaria to stop and for someone to help.

Rylli had passed out on the couch from the shocking noises.

Maica was watching intently.

The worst and scariest part had been when Zaria had realigned her neck. For a moment it had felt as if her spine was about to snap. Then a crunch, and some sort of pressure she never knew was gone.

The teary Princess found herself patted as Zaria complimented her. "You did well, now comes the good part, soft tissue massage. I think a nice gentle flowery oil with a hint of vanilla would suit you best."

All too soon all worries were gone and no matter how annoying the floof was, the four hands on her body made her far too relaxed.

Celestia sunk into deep darkness.

"Maica, we are done, strip and then hold her through the night." Zaria ordered after they were done.

She then turned to look at the awake Rylli who was peeking at her Lady's bare body again. "Don't worry, soon we will have her ready to have you join her in bed, just like you wish to."

"Are you courting her?"

"No, but I do like her and think that once she lets go of so many of her stupid notions, we can be lovers. She is smart, polite, and beautiful." Zaria plainly admitted. "However, the long-term racism, agreement and acceptance of slavery, and rank prevent anything more than a lover relationship."

"That is sad."

"That is reality." Zaria shrugged, then stretched. Causing her neck, spine, ribs, and tail to make popping noises all at once.

Rylli paled and turned green.

"Good night."

"Uhh"

"Nyah~" Maica let the uniform merge into her body as she curled around her Mistress.

------

It had been a long day, but it had been amusing.

She had seen the many looks the Princess had given her tail.

That she was supposed to get strangled with her tail was a surprise however.

Maybe the Princess had something that attracted non-humans? She was interested in the Princess, the fae were interested, and it seemed a certain Goddess was as well. Even Maica had taken rather well to the Princess.

That actually merited further testing. She would have to introduce her to some real rough tongues, maybe a herd of moos, couldn't forget the ears, and finally succubae. Zaria wondered why she tended to meet so many yuri harem protagonists.

Then again, she was one herself.

Now all that teasing had left her aroused.

Where were willing girls when you needed them?

First, she needed to settle down her little ones, then she was going to visit the maid quarters for some downtime and gossip.

Plans made, Zaria teleported to her room, and found a warzone. Clothes everywhere, naked girls sitting around barely trying to cover themselves with towels and the two senior maids soaked and dripping.

"I guess, I'll have to sew more clothes and uniforms tomorrow." Zaria announced herself and snipped her fingers to dry everyone.

"Welcome back." Everyone chorused.

Zaria looked at the two seniors. "That was your doing, right?"

The two maids just smiled.

"How about I get us all some nice dinner? Then you young ones are still healing from your mistreatment, you need to sleep early, while we seniors retreat to the maid quarters for some downtime."

Several of them nodded in agreement.

Zaria straight out teleported to the kitchen, scaring several cooks and their assistants. "Don't mind me, just about to make dinner for my little ones and me."

Zaria ignored any offended and hostile looks and started pulling out a large pan, steaks, her spice chest, potatoes, and tomatoes.

She decided to use one of her favourites this time. Lemon pepper on the steak was just so nice, a little curry powder, a hint of cinnamon, a little ginger, curcuma, salt, and finally ground sweet rose bell peppers. The potatoes peeled themselves, cut into small pieces and jumped into the pots and started cooking on a hot flame. The tomatoes were sliced, a splash of aceto balsamico, some pumpkin seed oil, salt and pepper. The steaks were dumped on the heated pan and finally once ready the potatoes were mashed with a splash of cardamon and moo milk.

Steaks after steaks were prepared. Plates were filled with equally sized portions, if they were still hungry the older ones could finish the leftovers of the little ones.

Finally, twelve plates were ready. Zaria used magic to clean the large pot and the pan, and the board she had used for the tomatoes. Everything stashed away, she teleported back.

"I am back." Zaria was not surprised that everyone was already eagerly waiting at the table.

The plates appeared.

"That's real steak." One of the senior maids mumbled. "I have seen it served at banquets."

Everyone looked at the large slabs of meat with a generous helping of mashed potatoes and a full tomato cut up and prepared next to it.

It honestly looked delicious.

Forks and knives appeared.

"Tuck in."

Everyone did.

It was delicious, a little spiciness, a rich flavour, and filling.

Zaria's steak got weird looks.

"Yes, it is rare compared to yours, but consider my race. Besides Yuki's is blue, the only reason mine isn't is because I wanted the flavour to soak in a little and I didn't have time to marinate them long ago."

It went over the heads of pretty much everyone but Yuki.

Afterwards Zaria was surprised that even the normal maids had finished off their steaks. It was clear however that the two had forced themselves to finish the treat they had never eaten before.

Yet more magic was used and any hurting stomachs were soothed.

After making everyone brush their teeth, she made them strip again and pile in the bed.

"I need more beds." Zaria looked around. The room was large enough actually.

The two similar large beds that appeared took up a lot of space, but still left enough for everyone to be comfortable. "Pair up as you like, and sweet dreams."

The slaves settled down. In the end one slept alone while the four youngest went into one bed, and the other three lied down in the other one.

"Night."

Zaria and the two seniors however had something else to do first. It was time for a nice hot bath.

------

For the two senior maids the chance to take a relaxing hot bath was something they couldn't say no to, they already suspected that the albino was a lady’s maid from the way she had acted when measuring them, but the polite yet appreciative looks were oddly pleasing.

"You know, with all that has been happening, we forgot introductions. I am Zaria van Kairan, Kitsune Maid and in search of a Mistress. I like pretty girls, fluffy tails, meat, and amusing myself. As for my age, I have no idea, the one person I asked that had a chance of knowing started cursing me. This is Yuki, she is pretty much my eternal partner."

That was an odd answer. The fluffy fox floating in the tub seemed relaxed and just flicked an ear in response.

"I am Cecilia, I started training when I was twelve, I am now 22. I like sweets, I love it when there are leftovers after tea parties. I wish my breasts were bigger."

"I am Sahra, I also started training when I was twelve. I liked being a personal maid. However, my Lady sent me away after her husband started taking an interest in me. Honestly, I am glad she did, I did not wish to impact their relationship."

"No lovers?" Zaria queried.

"I had a thing with a guard, but I found out he was popular with several maids, so we all stopped. He is single now since we didn't appreciate being played." Cecilia mentioned with a frown.

Sahra started blushing.

"Oh?" The amount of innuendo in Zaria's voice made the maid blush even more.

"There is this junior who likes me." Sahra confessed.

"Skinship, mutual washing, and more?"

The burning red maid nodded without a word.

"Wow." Cecilia seemed surprised. "What is it like?"

"You mean with a girl?" Zaria asked. "Gentler usually, it depends on the partner but I think the touches and skinship are more." Zaria remembered her many lovers over time. "Sometimes they bite and are needy, sometimes they just want to feel your body against theirs. I think that the missing dick means they are often less needy. But yes, they really loved my tongue deep inside them. It helps that I can grow a dick when one really wants it and my tongue is long and can be even longer with a little magic."

Both maids were now blushing and an amusing mix of scandalized and curious.

"It is a spell that actually falls into the maid category. Well, both are. Sometimes the Mistress might want to get penetrated deeply, it is our job to make sure she gets pleasured properly and doesn't go to some random stable boy."

"I don't believe it."

Zaria just opened her mouth and her long tongue slipped out, then it started elongating until she touched one of her ear tips with it.

"That will never fit." Cecilia covered her pussy under water.

Zaria pulled her tongue back. "It fits, and it allows me to lick all those spots my lover never knew she had."

"They really let you do that?"

"Not all, most like fingers and my normal tongue more." Zaria gave a foxy smirk. "My normal tongue is longer and rougher than a human."

Sahra seemed rather curious.

Zaria took Sahra's hand and felt for magic. "You have enough magic to make it work. If you want an aria, it should go like this: 'As a Maid, Pleasure given, Deep Passion, Tongue Lengthen'. As for the image, think about your tongue lengthening."

Sahra immediately tried it and ended with a tongue that was long enough to lick her own nipples and not enough control as evidenced when she managed to lick her own face.

"It takes some getting used to." Zaria allowed herself to giggle and undid the change.

Cecilia clearly seemed intrigued but also rather disturbed.

The bath ended soon after and Zaria fished Yuki from the tub.

Wishing the other two maids a good night she pulled out her pillow and shrunk into her fox form to curl up and rest.

Yuki pondered for a moment, then decided another night's sleep seemed right and returned to her slumber as well.