Chapter 52 – Forged in Steam

Fayette slowly peeled her layers of clothing off, freeing herself from the grime of travel. Despite her best efforts, she hadn’t quite managed to stay freshened up for the whole trip—during the latter part, she had felt like her [Maid Armour] was barely at half efficiency.

At first, she had been able to maintain a balance. Find enough time here and there and she could keep herself up to a passable standard, but then that balance had been broken. The culprits?

The bandits.

Oh, how simple the first half of the journey seemed in retrospect. She had even had time to run around, plotting different ways to utilize the [Lady] for her experience grinding, but throw a messy bunch of bandits into the mix? Disaster.

Suddenly there were six prisoners who demanded a round-the-clock guard of at least two people on them, and they had to be fed, watered, and… Fayette ended the train of thought before it got a proper start. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, imagining herself cutting the throats of each of the six bandits, personally.

“Relax, you’re here to relax, Fay.” She opened her eyes and tightened her fist. “I swear, I’m never going to transport bandits again.”

Then she continued undressing.

Yes, the bandits had finally been transported to their destination, and the handoff at the church had been handled a few hours earlier. Their caravan had been forced to make a slight detour, so they were still some days off from their destination. Fayette had slipped off at the earliest opportunity to relax, and where else would she go other than a sauna?

They had booked rooms at an inn for the night, and Fayette had made sure the place came equipped well. The sauna’s dressing room already was promising, wooden benches lined the walls, and the walls even had hooks drilled into the boards for towels and such. Fayette finished taking off her stockings, then stared at the pile of dirty clothes in despair.

I got a [Dry Laundry] skill, yes, but where’s my damn [Do Laundry] skill? Hello? Anybody listening?

She shook her head, then opened the door further inside. Hot air hit her face, and she smiled. Finally. She stepped in, quickly securing the door behind her so no more hot air escaped.

Fayette took one of the buckets of cold water she’d prepared from outside, lifted it above her head, and turned it bottoms up. Her whole body shivered as the icy water poured all over, wetting her completely from the top down. She took a smaller bucket and the wooden ladle, which was laying against the wall, then climbed up to the highest bench.

She took out a proper ladleful of water and threw it on the hot stove. Hot steam poured forth, and she leaned back against the wall, closing her eyes. The hot steam mixed with the cold water on her bare skin, and gradually started to heat her up. Her legs quivered. Perfection.

For a long moment, she just laid there, back against the wall, eyes closed. She listened to the drops of water dripping down from the stove, and the quiet bustle she heard through the wall. She didn’t have the energy to throw more water into the stove.

She thought of that slime she had once given some of her [All Purpose Cleaner] to, then let escape. I wonder how he’s doing. Right now, I want to become a slime too, just melt down right here…

Fayette's attempts to turn into a [Maid Slime] were interrupted as she heard the door open, and steps in the dressing room. She opened her eyes, fixed them on the door, then slowly threw another ladle of water at the stove. The hiss of steam filled the room, but still, she heard an unmistakable sound—rustling clothes. Someone else was coming.

Don’t the others still have to give statements to those officials for a while more? They can’t have finished already… It can’t be some other guest of the inn, can it? I booked this just for us.

She waited with mounting anticipation, until the rustling of clothing stopped, and the door opened. It was the [Lady]. Fayette sighed and leaned back. Of course. She would be able to escape some bureaucracy.

The woman with long blond hair flashed a quick smile. “Ah, hello Fayette. I heard you booked this for our party, so I came to partake.”

“Well, welcome in miss—” Fayette said, then paused for a moment. They hadn’t really brought up the subject while on the road, but maybe here… “—or, well, should I say my [Lady] now?”

The [Lady] froze in the doorway for a second, staring at Fayette, then slowly relaxed. She sighed, stepped inside, then closed the door. “I suppose it really is obvious by now. No point trying to hide it from you all anymore.”

Fayette watched her set down the buckets she was carrying inside, then begin wetting her hair. It was a lot longer than Fayette’s so the process was a bit more cumbersome. Fayette watched as the soft fingers twirled in the hair, unwinding any tangles.

True, you weren’t really supposed to stare in a sauna per se, but they were all girls here. And well, it felt a bit unfair.

Fayette hadn’t managed to give her S-level service on the latter parts of the journey, busy as she was with everything else, but the [Lady] didn’t look like it. Despite several rougher days on the road, her skin still had a healthy glow to it, and her hair was nearly pristine. Her body didn’t lack for any forms either, it really was close to the ideal. Skills, upbringing, or just birth? Maybe all three.

The [Lady] finished getting her hair wet, then turned, meeting Fayette’s eyes. She blinked for a moment, then smirked. “What are you looking at?”

Fayette turned away, throwing more water onto the stove. “Sorry. Just didn’t know nobles partook in things like these. Only took baths back in my previous place.”

The [Lady] climbed up the benches, joining Fayette on the highest one. She sat down just a bit to her left, a few paces away. “You shouldn’t generalize like that. I’ve always liked these.”

Fayette shrugged, put her ladle down, then brought her legs up to the bench, hugging them against her chest. “You know, you really need to work on your secret identity more. It was pretty obvious from the start.”

“Wait, you knew it before? From how early on?”

Fayette turned her head, with a gentle look that had a dash of sympathy. “From the very start, miss. It wasn’t just me, we all knew right away. You made a lot of mistakes.”

Each sentence hammered at the not-so-undercover noble, until she slumped forward, dismayed. She turned to look at the glowing stones on the stove, still glowing with a hint of orange. “…was I really that bad?” She asked quietly.

“Yes,” Fayette answered, punctuating the word with more water on the stove. She was maybe overdoing it a little with the water, but she was harboring a small competitive streak right now. A little bit of her wanted to make the sauna hot enough to force the fancy [Lady] to step down to a lower bench.

Fayette began counting things out. “First of all, you rented out a suite in that inn. You were supposed to be a [Governess], maybe try to go for a [Merchant] next time, or stick to humbler abodes. Second, you were dressed much too fine. Mireille saw it right away, and she wouldn’t be the only one. Many professions pay a lot of attention to class. Third!”

She pointed a finger at the [Lady]. “You were utterly incapable of taking care of yourself! It was clear you were used to being waited on!”

The words finished off the miss until she was slumped against the wall opposite Fayette, the fight completely gone from her. “So, I really was that bad…”

The miss sounded genuinely upset, and Fayette felt a bit sympathetic. She gave a [Disarming Smile] “Hey, you got that far at least, so you had to be doing something right.”

The [Lady] turned to Fayette and frowned. “Don’t go using that skill smile on me, I’m only after the genuine article.”

Fayette let the smile fall from her face, returning her face to a cool normal, then turned forward. “So, which scenario is it for you? Can you tell? Mireille set up a betting pool for us.”

“Scenario? What do you mean?”

Fayette held up one finger. “Well, I think we pruned it down to two options. A: The run away from family because of a marriage scenario, or—” she raised a second finger. “—B: The run away from family because of a succession dispute scenario.”

She heard no answer, so she turned to the [Lady]. “Well? Which is it?”

The [Lady] had frozen solid as if she had become a statue then and there—it was almost impressive.  Slowly, she brought her hands up to her face, then slumped down. Her voice was a quiet whimper. “Am I really that predictable?”

Fayette felt her heart stir. “Did we get it right? My money’s on scenario A.”

The [Lady] slowly turned to look at the [Maid]. “…Yes. It’s the marriage scenario.”

Fayette threw a celebratory bit of water on the stove. Yes! That betting pool is mine.

The [Lady] slumped backward as the steam hit her, changing the wall she was laid against. “I can’t believe it was that predictable. You had it down to two options! Am I really that typical?”

“Hmm, don’t feel too bad about it, miss. It’s not like you’re alone.” Fayette said. “In a class system like this, I figure we’re all repeating patterns of sorts over and over.”

The [Lady] was silent for a moment, thinking. “Is that why you’re adventuring as a hunter, despite being a [Maid]?”

Fayette frowned and stared at the bucket by her legs. She was reminded of that conversation she had with Mireille, at the start of this journey. When she had decided on her path to becoming a truly great [Maid].

“It’s not the main reason, but I guess it is part of it. Well, if you’re running away from a marriage, what’s your big plan? Maybe you can hire us to help.”

“It’s really not much of a plan.”

“Have you talked it out? Mireille’s pretty smart, maybe she can think of something.”

The [Lady] sighed. “Well, I suppose there’s no harm in it. It’s a simple issue really, skills. And classes. In my family’s opinion, the skills I have point in a certain direction, so in that direction I should marry.”

“Aren’t you a spellcaster? I would’ve thought that type of class would go well.”

The [Lady] sighed, then stretched out an arm. A green glow rose from the center of her back, and vines of green started spreading from there, eventually reaching the tip of her fingers. The sauna stones shifted about on the stove for a moment, putting the cooled-down stones further down, and pulling the more hot stones up. “It’s really about what kind of magic you can do. This stuff, it’s mostly useful for building things. You heard my boon skill, right? [Boon of the Stone Bastion]. That’s what it turned into with this magic I took on.”

She held the magic for a second longer, then let it go, and the vines began retreating. Now that Fayette followed them back, she noticed that there was a spot on the woman’s back where they never faded, a small green diagram near the center of her back. “Do you know where they send classes like that? Where the most desirable matches are gotten?”

Fayette thought for a moment. Where did one need building skills, and the ability to defend places well? It took her a moment to get it, she had to think about where the money was shifting. “The colonies,” she whispered.

The [Lady] nodded, face grim. “That’s what they gave me. I was to be sent far off, to help hold some fort with a colonial [Lord]. You know the sort, the new frontiers.”

Fayette whistled. “Well, I can understand running away now. No way would I go work in a place like that.”

“I’m not really running like that.” The [Lady] said. “Just trying to get a small bit of leverage. A hint of time.”

“Well, go on.”

The miss sighed. “Don’t laugh, I know it’s not great. Basically, they never really let me do anything concrete here, so I just wanted to prove I could be useful for other things too, not just what they decided. I heard there was trouble at one of our family’s mines, and we had no one to send there to handle the matter. Just angry letters. I just thought I could go there, handle things, and show that I could do things too.”

Fayette was silent for a moment. “That’s really not a great plan.”

“Look, I know! You promised you wouldn’t laugh!”

“I’m not laughing! I’m just—” Fayette threw some water on the stove. “—thinking. I don’t really know what to say, miss.”

The [Lady] pouted. “Well, whatever you say, don’t say that! I’m revealing a lot here, quite literally baring myself out, and you’re still doing that!”

Fayette turned and met her gaze. “Doing what?”

The [Lady] fumed. “Miss, miss miss! It’s always you or miss! I told you to call me Marie, didn’t I? Several times! The others do it. Don’t try to say it’s some etiquette thing! We both know it doesn’t work like that!”

Fayette fell silent for a moment. She turned and looked down, spinning her ladle in the bucket. She took a deep breath, feeling the hot air burn her lungs. “You’re right. I’m intentionally keeping a certain distance from you, even now.”

“Why? I don’t think I’ve offended you, and you’ve been doing this from the start.”

Fayette took her ladle out, and watched how the water kept spinning inside the bucket for a moment longer before stopping. The water wouldn’t spin around long without her using the Ladle. How long could she be a [Maid] with no master?

“My last master—I don’t think he was a good man. I don’t really have many good experiences with nobles.” Fayette paused for a moment. “Apart from you now, maybe.”

This time the [Lady’s] voice was softer. “Alright, I understand if it’s a tough issue, but I promise I’m the woman you see here. If you think I’m alright so far, that’s who I am.”

Fayette turned to look at her, and looked at the whole of the [Lady], lithe, graceful and beautiful. She shook her head. “It’s not about that. I can believe you’re a good person, but that doesn’t matter. Right now, I’m a [Maid] with no master, and my class feels something is missing. I manage to ignore it these days, but even now it's throbbing, most when I’m near you.”

The [Maid] paused for a moment, reminiscing, then continued. “When we were ambushed by those bandits, you asked me to act as your [Maid], temporarily. There weren’t many options, so I did it. There was meaning in that. Do you know what I felt back then, when I was acting as your [Maid]?”

Her gaze was growing more intense, now with some sort of yearning in it. The [Lady] flushed under it. “I felt good. So good. There was a completeness in that. A [Lady] and a [Maid]. No itch.”

Fayette turned away. “Later on, when I thought about it, it scared me. That bond has power. My last master used it to override my will. Never again.”

“I don’t have skills like that,” the [Lady] said after a moment. “I know of those, I don’t like them. I’ve never gotten them.”

“Can you promise you will never be offered one?”

The [Lady] fell silent for a long moment, then sighed. “You know, it’s all beside the point, really. I’m not asking for you to be my servant here. I just… want to be a bit more friendly at least.”

Fayette met her eyes, skeptical. “Can a friendship between [Lady] and [Maid] ever be equal? You already asked me to act as your [Maid] once.”

The miss pursed her lips. “You act as [Maid] for your other friends, don’t you? Can’t this be the same?”

Fayette frowned. “I… don’t know. There’s just this feeling I have with you. I don’t know.”

After humming for a moment in thought, the [Lady] started nodding her head slowly. “So, you need me to show decisively that I’m not a master here.”

“Well, basically yes. Kind of difficult when you’ve hired us.”

The [Lady] smiled and stood up. “A customer is not a master. No, I’ve got an idea now.”

She stepped down the benches, going down all the way to the stone floor. She walked to the dressing room’s door and went in. Fayette found herself following the small magical diagram on her back with her eyes. Now that she saw it, it felt like she couldn’t stop focusing on it. Was I really missing that the whole time? Should I have seen it before?

After a moment, the [Lady] returned, carrying a small bag. She beckoned Fayette down. “Get down here.”

Fayette slowly stood up. “What are you planning?”

The [Lady] grinned. “You’re worried about how you seem like a servant, and I like a master. Like it’s a fundamental truth. Well—” she opened the pouch and took out a bar of soap, “—would a master wash their servant’s hair?”

Fayette blinked blankly. “—Um—”

“Wouldn’t you say—” The [Lady] continued, “—that servants washing their master’s hair is a fundamental truth? You talked of patterns, right? It doesn’t go the other way around, does it?”

Fayette could follow the logic. She started nodding slowly. “I suppose that makes sense.”

The [Lady] winked, then pointed the soap at Fayette. “So, get down here, and let me wash your hair!”

Well, I guess there’s no harm in trying this out. The [Maid] carefully stepped down the benches, finally sitting down at the bottommost one. She sat at the very edge, so she could turn around and let the [Lady] have easy access to her hair. Fayette closed her eyes and leaned back. Her heartbeat was accelerating. Why is this making me nervous?

Then she felt soft fingers touch her scalp, and she relaxed. The [Lady] was good. Fayette hadn’t ever really had her hair handled by others like this—she even cut it herself. It was a strange feeling, oddly intimate.

The [Lady] gathered Fayette’s hair into bundles, wet them with water, then worked the cleansing agents in. She let them sit a bit while she worked on other areas, then she cleaned the agents away, leaving a clean result. She rubbed some ointment into Fayette’s scalp, and the [Maid] had to fight to keep herself from squirming under it.

As she worked, the [Lady] got into a rhythm and started humming a tune. Fayette found herself nodding with it, strangely familiar. She froze for a second. It was a tune she remembered, something almost forgotten, from back in the orphanage. No, of course, she hadn’t always handled her hair herself, but that song…

Before she could complete the thought, the humming stopped, and the [Lady] stepped away. Over already? Fayette felt a bit disappointed.

“Well, do you feel any better now? Do you think it worked?” The [Lady] asked.

Fayette did feel better, that had been a really nice experience, and she almost answered so, before she remembered. Right, there was a point to this. She focused on her class for a moment, searching for that distinct itch, and found it relaxed. It was still there, but it just wasn’t as intense right now, as it sometimes was. Like when she had first met the [Lady]. No, not the [Lady]…

Fayette slowly opened her eyes. “You know, I think that really did help, it feels better. Thanks… Marie.”

Marie smiled. She held up her soap again, a twinkle of mischief in her eye. “Should I do your body too? Just in case?”

Fayette covered her bosom with her arms and turned away. “…I think this was enough. I’ll do the rest myself.” She turned to look back. “I don’t want you to be my servant either, alright?”

A chuckle left Marie’s lips. “Alright, fine. I get it.”

Fayette frowned in suspicion. “By the way, that song you hummed… I don’t think it’s one a noble should be singing. A servant’s song.”

The [Lady] winked. “A girl’s got to keep some secrets, right?”

“Hmph. Marie. Ma-rie,” she tasted the name against her lips, feeling it out. “Feels strange to change it suddenly. Can’t I keep calling you miss?”

Marie threw the soap at her, and Fayette dodged.

Fayette picked up the soap, then began washing herself off. Marie had already prepared a bucket of lukewarm water for her, so it was quick enough. She had really overdone it with throwing water—the sauna was feeling really hot right now. If she wasn’t fast with washing, she would just get sweaty all over again.

She finished, then stepped through to the dressing room. She looked behind, one more time, and saw that Marie had actually stepped back to the upper benches and claimed the ladle and bucket. Fayette felt like she had lost somehow.

“By the way, Marie—”

“Hm, what is it?”

“—sorry for using you to farm experience.”

“Wait, wh—”

Fayette slammed the door closed behind her.

A/N You WILL go inside the character development sauna, and you WILL enjoy it. Finally done with this arc.