Girls Kingdom: Volume 1

1. Auflage 2020
ISBN: 978-1-7183-0250-1
Verlag: J-Novel Club
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 283 Seiten

Reihe: Girls Kingdom

All Misaki wanted was a free education. Instead, she accidentally lands an exclusive contract with the most prestigious girl in school... to serve as her personal maid! Misaki soon discovers that Amanotsuka Academy for Girls is no ordinary school-her classes are all about how to be a maid, too! Students who impress the school's elite young ladies with their domestic service skills might be lucky enough to become a 'Seraph,' guaranteeing them a job with an upper-class household after they graduate.
But Misaki doesn't want to be a maid; she just wants to study hard, go to college, and work for a good company. So why did Himeko make her into her Seraph out of nowhere? What kind of rich girl hires a maid who wants nothing to do with the job?! If she wants to get through high school, Misaki has a lot to get used to!

Autoren/Hrsg.

Nayo

Weitere Mitwirkende

Sakura, Shio

Reuben, Philip

Leseproben

“Why? Well, because it doesn’t cost anything, of course.”

Surprisingly enough, tuition at Amanotsuka Academy was free of charge. On top of that, the uniform and textbooks were free, as were the costs of room and board. For everyday life, you didn’t need to spend a thing. It was a dream come true for a financially challenged student like myself.

“That was the reason you applied here?” said Kirara.

“Um, yes.”

I nodded earnestly, and Kirara let out an ostentatiously large sigh. “You can’t have expected it to be that simple, can you? That it was a totally free ride and you didn’t have to do anything in return?”

“Huh? Are they going to demand I pay them back afterward or something? Or make me do forced labor?”

“The second one’s... of accurate. Try thinking about why we’re Domestic Arts students and Lady Himeko and the others are Societal Arts students.”

“However long I think about it, I don’t think I’ll figure it out.”

After a pause, she said, “True. You wouldn’t, knowing you. Now, listen up. Really listen carefully. The Domestic Arts students are all here to become maids.”

“Maids?” I blurted.

“You must at least know what those are.”

“I mean, yes.”

Maids took care of a household’s cleaning, laundry, and cooking, or otherwise took care of their masters’ needs.

Some time ago, it had become common practice for normal households to employ maids, just like in the Victorian era. By now it was widely accepted. It was possible that this stemmed from women who were already doing a lot of housework deciding that if they were doing so anyway, they might as well be maids and earn a little money for it.

“I see,” I said thoughtfully. “So why the program is called ‘Domestic Arts.’”

“Exactly. And we’re not aiming to be just any old maids. Our goal is to be the best of the best—maids who can serve in upper-class households. The young ladies in the Societal Arts program are exactly the kinds of people we want to serve. We’ll be studying hard every day to learn how to take care of those ladies.”

“Aah, I get it!” No wonder the Societal Arts students had all come across as so polished and refined.

“So, you know why we’re here, and you know that it’s free of charge. Maybe you can figure out it’s all free.”

I put two and two together. “Is it because of the Societal Arts students?”

“That’s right. Our tuition and living costs are all covered by donations from the Societal Arts students’ families. That’s why we have to treat those ladies with the utmost respect and gratitude.”

“Oh, I see.”

“Now that you’re at this school, you need to accept that with every fiber of your being, right down to your last drop of blood. We belong to the young ladies!” She spoke those last words as a proud declaration, as if her excitement had reached its zenith.

“We belong to them?”

“Of course! All the students here feel that way aside from you.”

I looked at our other two roommates. They put on forced smiles and looked slightly awkward.

Admittedly, though, it seemed I needed to be grateful to those girls—err, those young ladies—from the Societal Arts course.

“Anyway,” Kirara continued, “now that you know why we’re here, I’ll tell you about one of the most crucial points of all: the Seraphs.”

“Yes, please do!”

“A Seraph is someone who has an exclusive contract, known as the Golden Contract, with one of the Social Arts students.”

“Uh-huh.”

Kirara eyed me dubiously. “Clearly you don’t understand how significant that is.”

Indeed, I had no idea. I shook my head firmly.

“Here’s how it is. All of us have the ambition of one day serving people like them, but obviously not everyone will be able to. Not only do your skills have to be good enough, but the ladies have to take a liking to you or they won’t employ you. Does that make sense so far?”

“Yeah.”

“The good news is that we get to live and study in the same place as the Societal Arts students, which naturally gives us plenty of opportunities to serve them. If you’re lucky, one of them might come to like you, and then say, ‘I want you to work for me after graduation.’ That’s why we have to spend three years working our fingers to the bone. Think about it—just because they’re from the upper crust doesn’t mean everything is easy for them. Employing good servants can be quite an ordeal. If they hire someone who does a bad job, it puts their own reputations in jeopardy, so they have to be careful.”

“Yes, that makes sense.”

“That’s what makes it such an honor to be promised a job while you’re still at the academy. Some people are that lucky, but it’s not in the cards for everyone. And yet... , Misaki! You got handed the prize on the day of the entrance ceremony, when everyone else was barely getting started!”

“So being a Seraph’s a pretty big deal, huh?”

“Yes! If a young lady makes you her Seraph, that’s the proof of your guaranteed employment. It’s an exclusive contract, meaning that you serve them as their personal maid while you’re at the academy, and they will definitely hire you after you graduate. To show everyone that you’re in that enviable position, they give you a golden school badge to wear.”

“Oh, so that’s what the badge is for.” I’d never have guessed that I’d been given something so significant. No wonder everyone’s eyes had practically bulged out of their sockets.

But it still left some questions. Why had Himeko made me her Seraph without knowing a single thing about me? I had known nothing about the academy, and I had even expressed that I had no intention of becoming a maid. Why would she want someone like that to be her Seraph? Wasn’t that kind of weird? I couldn’t imagine what Himeko had been thinking.

“So,” said Kirara, “by this point, you more or less understand what the academy is for and what a Seraph is, right?”

“Right,” I replied hesitantly.

“Great. Now you have to answer questions. How, why, when, where, and with whom did you enter into a contract to become a Seraph?! Was it really with Lady Himeko? Spit it out! All of it! Right now!”

She drew her face close to mine and wore a bloodcurdling expression. If at this point I’d said something like, “It’s a secret! Teehee!” she would have certainly murdered me.

Thus, I decided to tell the full story of how I met Lady Himeko and how she made me her Seraph. “Um, well, the truth is...”

?

“But that’s INSANE!”

When I finished my explanation, Kirara reacted a little exaggeratedly, putting a hand on her forehead and tilting her head back to look at the ceiling.

“Let me get this straight. You were going to be late, so you climbed over the fence, and Lady Himeko was there. You said you didn’t want to be a maid, and she made you her Seraph anyway?! I don’t understand!”

“Now you know how I feel,” I muttered.

Kirara leaned forward and gripped the front of my uniform roughly. “Are you cruising for a bruising?”

“No, I’m not! I’m not!” I frantically shook my head.

She released me and let out a weary sigh. “It really is insane, though. How can that happen when you haven’t even met her before? She hasn’t made anyone else into her Seraph so far either. In fact, she hasn’t even made anyone into an Exousia!”

Another word I’d never heard before. This time I decided to just stay quiet and let Kirara carry on ranting. It felt like a common sense approach that I’d thank myself for later.

“How the two of you met for the first time... Well, that just about makes sense. But why would she enter into the Golden Contract with someone who doesn’t even know what a Seraph is? I could understand if your family had served Lady Himeko’s for generations, so it was decided before you even came here that you’d be her Seraph. That would also have explained why she didn’t have a Seraph until now. But why would she decide based on pure happenstance like that?”

By now, Kirara had now gone from looking at the ceiling to hanging her head with her hands and knees planted on the floor. She appeared to have undergone quite a shock.

“You know,” she continued, “before coming to this school, I did all kinds of things to prepare to be a first-rate maid. I researched everything I could about the academy and the young ladies. I was determined to show everyone up and to become a Seraph before anyone else. Then crazy nonsense happens and tears all my dreams to shreds.”

“Oh, um...”

I thought I’d try saying something to soothe her, but nothing came to mind. Besides, I was worried that whatever I said right now, Kirara would take it as some kind of jab at her.

“So, when are you going to have...