Nayo Girls Kingdom: Volume 3

1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7183-0254-9
Verlag: J-Novel Club
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 1 Seiten

Reihe: Girls Kingdom

There's never a dull moment in Misaki's life as a maid at Amanotsuka Academy for Girls. Her first paycheck is a cause for celebration, but when she has to find the perfect thank-you present for Himeko, she just can't decide! Then a spooky mystery haunts the school, with students claiming to have seen a ghost in the woods. It's up to Misaki to brave the danger and find out if there really is a spirit among them!

If all that wasn't hubbub enough, there's a new lady on campus, and she's an exchange student. In fact, she's the former mistress of Misaki's British classmate. The Sky Salon wants to recruit her, but it seems like she's in high demand-even from an unexpected party. Surprises and revelations are afoot!

Autoren/Hrsg.

Nayo

Weitere Mitwirkende

Sakura, Shio

Reuben, Philip

Leseproben

“What? Ack!” Hurriedly, I scrubbed at my face. Not that it helped, of course. It wasn’t as though it were literally written on there.

“I get why you’re happy, but let me ask you something: what we?”

“Huh? Uh, well...” If she was putting it like that, I had one solid guess. “We’re Seraphs?”

“Bingo.”

“Now, did you actually take a proper look at that breakdown of your paycheck?”

“Well, yeah. I guess.”

The pay covered my time spent cleaning, serving food and tidying up afterward, and taking care of my mistress’s needs. It wasn’t that much compared to what you’d get from a full-time job, but I was sure it was more than the allowance any normal student might get. To me, it was a large sum of money.

Kirara sighed as if my answer exposed me as terminally boneheaded. “I can tell you have no idea whatsoever. Again.” She pulled my head under the desk and came in even closer. “Listen. You might think the total at the bottom there is normal, but you and I have been given way more than all the other girls in this room.”

“Really?”

“Not only that, but yours is probably a lot bigger than mine.”

“Huh? What makes me so special?”

Then it suddenly came back to me. Himeko had told me about this before. She’d said something about a “special allowance” that only Seraphs received.

I rushed to pull it out again and take another look. There it was, plain as day. Listed among all the other items was “Special Allowance.”

“You mean this?” I asked Kirara, showing it to her with trembling hands.

“Exactly. You know, it’s better not to go around showing other people how much you’re earning, but I was right. Yours is way bigger. No real surprise there, since you’ve been a Seraph for longer. You’ve also gone to Lady Himeko’s room a lot more than I’ve gone to Lady Kagura’s. That’ll be counted as overtime.”

“But that means...”

I swallowed hard. I didn’t know exactly how it worked out, but thanks to my special Seraph allowance and the time I’d spent serving Himeko privately in her room, it looked like my overall total was close to double what it would have been otherwise.

“I guess I should have picked up on this sooner, but being a Seraph is something special.”

“You can’t seriously be just realizing that now, can you?! There are a ton of students here who wish they could be Seraphs but never will be. It takes luck, hard work, and plenty more. It’s special, all right.”

I gulped again. As someone who’d come here without any thoughts of becoming a Seraph, I wasn’t especially conscious of it, but being a Seraph was like having your future all laid out for you. If you could get a Societal Arts student to like you enough that she gave you an exclusive Seraph contract, you’d be able to carry on working for her after graduation. It was more than just a guaranteed job, though. The ladies at the academy pretty much came from the country’s wealthiest and most famous families. The benefits of working there would be immense compared to a normal housemaid position.

“Now that that’s clear, I’ll get to the point.”

She came up from under the desk, so I followed.

“Hmm?”

“You remember what Ms. Hiyori said at the end, right?”

“Uh...”

I tried to think back. It was something about how to use the money, but I couldn’t remember the last part.

Instead I admitted, “Nope. I’ve totally forgotten.”

“What is up with you?” She heaved a small sigh. “Listen, she said that those of us who have exclusive contracts might want to find a way to express our gratitude toward our mistresses.”

“Oh yeah, she did say that. I’d definitely better say thank you to Lady Himeko so she knows just how grateful I am.”

Lately, I’d started giving Himeko the title of “Lady” whenever we weren’t alone together, but whenever I said it, it made me keenly aware that she was my mistress, which made me slightly tense. Not only that, but it had even started giving me a sort of competitive feeling. It was like the meaning of “Lady Himeko” was slightly different when I said it than when other people said it. I felt as though I was holding up a sign saying that Himeko was mistress and nobody else’s.

That was why I felt it would be plenty if I proudly went up to her and thanked her from the bottom of my heart! However, Kirara had other ideas.

“That’s what she meant. Sure, thanking her with words is important, but this is the kind of situation where a gift is what really counts.”

“I should buy her a gift?”

“Absolutely. You don’t have to use up the money, but it’s customary to use some of it to return the favor.”

“Oh, I see.” Since I’d been given more cash than I’d ever hoped for, that sounded totally reasonable. Still, that left one big question. “What do I buy her, though?”

“Yeah. That’s the tough part,” she said, frowning as she considered this. “Even if we have more money than our classmates, it’s a pittance compared to what Lady Kagura and Lady Himeko have. We can’t buy much with it, and even if we could, they can already buy whatever they want themselves. What could we get them that would actually matter?”

“I see the dilemma,” I replied nervously. “It doesn’t have to be anything big, though, does it? I think even something as small as a handkerchief would be enough as long as it’s a thoughtful gift presented with love.”

“You really think that would be enough? We’re not just serving mistresses. These are supposed to be gifts for elite figures known as celestials. I don’t know if they’d really be satisfied with that. They’d be happy, sure, but not happy deep in their souls. I’m sure both of them are well aware of this custom and expecting something more special.”

I could imagine that Himeko really did have great expectations. Before she had a Seraph, she’d been eyeing all the other mistresses with envy, wishing she had someone to serve her like that. Though I still didn’t know the story behind it all, one thing was clear, and that was that Himeko had been dreaming about life with a Seraph. Waiting a whole year before choosing one could only have built up her anticipation even more.

“Plus, if we give them something too average, people will start to talk. They’ll say their Seraphs are average maids who aren’t capable of doing anything beyond that. As representatives of Lady Kagura and Lady Himeko, we can’t let any of our reputations be damaged like that. That’s why we have to give them special presents that no one else would be able to give them.”

“I’m not convinced rumors are going to spread over something so private and personal, but I guess I agree that we need to give something special. If possible, I really want to exceed Lady Himeko’s expectations.” I wanted to see her expression if I managed that.

“I’m glad you’re on board. That’s what makes it such a struggle, though. What in the world is going to fit the bill?”

“Hmm.”

Both of us fell silent. As eager as I was to give Himeko something she wouldn’t expect, I was drawing a blank as to what that might be.

“It’s not easy.”

“Right?”

too

Trying to think of what she might like was a real head-scratcher. I just didn’t know what would make her happy. The more I pondered it, the more I sank into the depths.

Just as I was running out of steam, Kirara expressed the same thing. “It’s no use. I can’t think of any good ideas at all.”

I tried to picture Lady Kagura...