Chapter 1

"Let me see. Considering the atmospheric conditions, terrain, and season... Felicia, we should focus on ships to keep the front supplied! We won't have any storms to worry about!"

"Understood, Tina. In that case, I'll pull the wagons that free up from the capital sieges and use them to support people asking for shelter. Ellie, check these papers!"

"Y-Yes'm! I'll give it my best!"

Fireday morning, the start of a new week, found the Ducal House of Leinster's great council hall in the southern capital resounding with the shouts of girls. Several days had passed since Tina Howard, Stella Howard, Ellie Walker, and I, Lynne Leinster, had come here from the east in pursuit of our tutor, Allen, and my elder sister, Lydia Leinster.

We believed that my dear brother was currently in the city of water, the core of the League of Principalities. But even on griffinback, it was impossible to travel there and back from the southern capital. So we had thrown our efforts into logistical support, hoping to speed the capture of the capital of Atlas, which lay to the southwest of our present location and nearer to the city of water. Since we had reached that decision, this hall had become our new battlefield, in a manner of speaking. However...

A sigh escaped me as I surveyed Tina, Ellie, and Felicia Fosse. My platinum-haired peer in a white military uniform was reading and dashing off papers at a superhuman rate. The blonde girl dressed as a maid and the buxom, bespectacled girl in military uniform were processing an endless stream of documents.

I couldn't help wondering if there was such a thing as going too far above and beyond. And I wasn't alone, if the murmurs of the logisticians were anything to go by.

"Is predicting the weather really as easy as she makes it look?"

"Miss Fosse looks so dashing. Be still, my heart."

"How do we handle the reallocation of ships and wagons?"

"The paperwork is already making the rounds!"

"So that's the young Miss Walker."

"O G-Great Moon..."

One odd comment aside, the representatives of all the southern houses were clearly rattled. My personal maid in training, Sida Stinton, had even started to pray.

Felicia was physically frail at the best of times, but she was wielding her pen at breakneck speed, making steady inroads into the paperwork. My dear grandfather, Duke Emeritus Leen Leinster, had appointed her acting inspector general of logistics, which made her the highest-ranking person present.

Tina touched the clip in the front of her hair as she immersed herself in thought, then slid a paper to one side. "Ellie, tell me if there's anything wrong with these calculations."

"Y-Yes'm! Um..." Tina's personal maid took the paper, ran her eyes over it, and nodded. "All correct!"

How could she possibly have checked them that quickly?

My best friends' and former upperclassman's performance was giving me a headache. "Never mind Felicia," I muttered under my breath, fiddling with a lock of my red hair, "but I never dreamed Tina and Ellie could do all this."

Tina was a duke's daughter, just like I was, and I got better grades than Ellie at the Royal Academy. I couldn't allow myself to become deadweight, especially not after the city of water had fallen silent the night before.

Suddenly, I felt a poke on my cheek, and a voice said, "That's quite the fearsome face you're making, Lynne. The two of them were like this in the northern capital too. As for the city of water, we ought to wait for a more detailed report."

"Lady Stella," I gasped, turning to the young woman in the seat beside me. Tina's elder sister, Stella Howard, wore an azure ribbon that matched the faint blue tinge of her lovely platinum hair. I thought she looked even more stunning now, dressed in her military uniform, than she had before the Algren rebellion.

"Don't overdo it," Lady Stella added, pressing her index finger to my forehead. "If you don't rest when you can, you won't have any strength left when you really need it. So let's take a break."

"All right," I mumbled, blushing because she had seen through to my desperation. The fact that her gesture reminded me just a little of my dear brother made it all the more embarrassing.

Ugh.

"You stop too, Tina, Felicia," Lady Stella commanded with dignity. "Everyone, take a break."

"Yes, Lady Stella!" came a chorus of replies, and a wave of relief spread through the hall. In the past few days, the future Duchess Howard had completely won over the maids and supply officers. It was plain to see that she had them well in hand.

So this is what the blood of the "god of war" can do!

Tina and Felicia were the only dissenting voices.

"Stella! I can still work!"

"Can't it wait until I finish with these papers?"

"Ellie, make a note of those remarks," Lady Stella said. "I'd like to report them to Mr. Allen."

"Y-Yes'm!"

The offending pair flapped their lips wordlessly, then hung their heads. Lady Stella had thwarted them with ease.

My dear brother is sure to have something quite mean to say if he hears of this.

The audience of maids oohed, aahed, and applauded. The performance must have struck close to home for them, since Felicia overworking herself had caused problems during the insurrection as well.

"That's better," Lady Stella said, with a nod. "I like my sister and my friends to do what they're told."

"Stella, you meanie," Tina grumbled, pouting.

Felicia removed her spectacles and added, "Are you sure you're not taking after Allen?"

Our student council president giggled. "Do you think so? Sally, Ellie, would you brew us tea?"

"Certainly, Lady Stella," replied the Howard Maid Corps's number four, Sally Walker. Ellie matched her with a "Y-Yes'm!" and the two of them began preparing to serve tea, moving with perfect, practiced efficiency.

"O Great Moon," Sida murmured, clasping her hands in prayer, "will I ever be able to make tea for Lady Lynne like that?"

Felicia put her spectacles back on and looked around. "Wait," she said. "Where's Caren?"

Caren was a member of the wolf clan and my dear brother's younger sister, although not by blood. She also served as the vice president of the Royal Academy's student council, which made her Tina's, Ellie's, and my upperclassman. And now that Felicia mentioned it, I hadn't seen her recently.

Tina moved to the chair next to mine and surveyed the hall. "Lily's not here either," she said. "Oh! D-Don't tell me they ran off to the city of water without us!"

"How rude," a calm voice responded from behind us. "Unlike you, Tina, I wouldn't dream of it."

We turned around, Tina fuming, "Just what do you mean by that, Ca- Huh?" My platinum-haired peer's eyes widened, and I shared her surprise.

Lady Stella, Felicia, and Ellie seemed equally taken aback.

"Oh?"

"Caren, that outfit..."

"Oh, wow!"

Silver-gray hair. Fluffy beast ears and a tail that I secretly longed to touch someday. A floral military beret gifted by the chieftain of the demisprites on her head and a dagger at her hip. All of that was Caren as usual. Her clothing, however, was a striking departure. She wore a foreign jacket with interlocking patterns in shades of violet, a long skirt, and leather boots.

It suits her to a T!

Under our gazes, the vice president crossed her arms and turned her head. "I didn't have a choice," she mumbled. "My school uniform didn't come back from the laundry in time. And then Lily..."

I caught the sound of someone running lightly through the hall. A long scarlet ponytail, tied with a black ribbon, fluttered as a beauty whose outfit matched Caren's in all but color seized the vice president in a hug from behind.

Lily, the Leinster Maid Corps's number three, let out a lilting laugh as she nuzzled my upperclassman's cheek. "Miss Caren, you've never looked better!"

"I... I'm... I'm only wearing this today," Caren protested bashfully as she tried to shake free.

"Honestly, Lily-"

"Lady Lynne, I've had a revelation," my cousin-who served as a maid even though she was the under-duke's eldest daughter-interrupted before I could begin admonishing her. Stepping away from Caren, she pressed her right hand to her ample chest with an uncommonly serious expression.

Wh-What can be the matter?

"I am number three in the Leinster Maid Corps," she continued, adding a mournful sigh. "And yet neither the head maid nor her second-in-command will agree to grant me a uniform."

I raised a hand to my forehead and closed my eyes. What was wrong with my cousin?

Lily clenched her right fist. The hair clip near the front of her head swayed as she declared, "But then, it hit me: 'I can't earn a maid uniform. Very well. In that case, I'll just make my outfit the standard!'"