章 35: Chapter 30
Before we get to the chapter, I have one thing to say.
Some of you may have noticed the change in the cover of this story.
This is the link to a HQ version: https://imgur.com/a/zCM7SHq
This was drawn by this person right here, copy and paste in the search bar: https://www.instagram.com/rzep_art/
Now notably, some people might say that this piece isn't as good as the last one. And while it may seem to be rude to agree with that statement myself, I do agree with it. I of course like it a lot as it's not bad and far from the worst art I've seen... I mean have you seen modern art galleries? Those are a joke to be fair.
However, I'd still put this one as this story's cover any time of day and keep it that way. I'd rather have something that I could call 'mine' or at least 'ours' since the person that drew it also owns it than something of others, even if I did get permission to use it from said 'other' person.
Besides for the price that I paid, this is way better than what I should have gotten. So I am happy about it. The person was also a joy to work with, listening and trying to meet my 'ridiculous' expectations to the best of their ability.
Oh and, Diana hasn't received the 'red/white' variation of the maid outfit yet, that will be later in the story. But for some avid readers, their position might bring some specific thoughts. Elsa and Diana had done this position for their last Ice Sculpture in the 27th chapter.
Now back to the chapter. Have fun reading.
~ Bag of mysteries ~
Narrator POV:
Elsa, having left the room of her ill-afflicted maid, is making her way towards the Administration Department, or AD room for short. There she should find some sort of clue on how the two Nobles from Nawnegzistawnt Isles got the affirmation to arrive at the castle and meet her.
After some more walking through the big halls of her castle, she makes it to the door of the AD room. She enters inside and sees a dozen individuals sitting in chairs behind desks with papers of various sizes surrounding them. There are also plenty of bookshelves with even more documents in them. At this point it's a room of papers, it just so happens that those papers allow humans to reside within the room.
After several seconds of gazing at the interior of the room without being disturbed, a person comes up to Elsa and greets her.
"Good day, Queen. What could I help you with?"
This person is a friendly-looking man with a funky-looking beard on his face, funky because it's clearly uneven in several places, the Queen doesn't know if it's done like that on purpose or if was it just a bad morning for the man... However, that is his most notable feature as besides that he'd just like anybody else on the streets of Arendelle.
"Hello. I need to know if you still have some letters sent by a foreign kingdom" Elsa answers.
"Well, it depends. Are the letters that the Queen is looking for two years old and older? Because we just got rid of most of those"
"No, no, they should be from these past few weeks. After my coronation" The Queen of Arendelle answers, but she also gets curious which prompts her to ask "Why two years?"
"It's one of the guidelines that we got when we were selected for the job. Every week we get rid of letters, papers, parcels, documents of different varieties and everything in between. Well most of them. We have yet even more guidelines for that, some have to be kept for reasons. But basically, this system reduces strain and stress for the workforce, everything is done neatly and past nonsense doesn't affect us. Gotta say it's probably the best system in a job that I've had over my many years working"
"I see, that does seem efficient, but there have to be some negative aspects to it right? What if one day you would need a certain document that was rid of? Or something like that?" Elsa inquires.
"Well seeing as nothing is perfect, there will most likely be some faults in the future. But I don't see many happening. As the ones that are 'important' are kept and held in a separate room altogether. We mainly get rid of things that won't, more or less, affect us... Though if I gotta say a 'bad' thing about this system? That would be the boring routine of doing it weekly. A document may not be two years old yet now, but next week it might be... So, it takes a lot to get used to it and we also we need to check for certain keywords that let us know if one needs to be kept or not"
Elsa stays in thoughtful silence. That does seem to be a boring process, she definitely couldn't do such a job without falling asleep from boredom.
"Say, how do you not fall asleep while doing all of this?" The Queen asks just what she was thinking.
The man gets baffled by such a question asked by the Queen, before breaking and laughing to himself.
Elsa raises an eyebrow as her reaction. She didn't say anything funny, so why was this man laughing?
Eventually, he stops while clearing a tear from his eye with his fingers.
"Oh, believe me, Queen, some of us have done that... And still, do to this day. However, when we wake up, we resume doing it until we finish it even if it's way after our set work hours"
"Huh" Elsa lets out "Why do that? To avoid punishments?" The Ice Queen continues to ask, seemingly having had forgotten about her actual reason for coming here.
"There is that... Though none of us know what kind of punishment we would get, as none of us had the pleasure of experiencing any of them yet"
"So you just all work even when you aren't supposed to? I understand that you took a nap, but... Who wouldn't with such a job?"
"Yes, we indeed do that" The man answers with a cheery smile.
"Why?" Elsa can't help but ask again.
"Honestly, it's because we couldn't ask for better work... We get so many privileges here, so much outside help, food, shelter, and many other things, and most importantly friendly people to work with... I mean, just a few weeks ago I was shining the boots of nobles to make enough to feed my family. Here? I would be happy to work for free since I don't need to worry about my family as they were provided with everything they would ever need... And I can speak for everybody here, they would do the same. And yet, we don't do it for free. So thank you Queen for allowing us to work in the castle" The man expresses his gratitude with a full heart.
Elsa blinks in confusion... She didn't do anything and yet she was the one getting thanked. So her being her natural awkward self, tries to say exactly that.
"Don't thank me, I have done nothing to deserve such words. I wasn't the one to give any of you these works or hire you for it"
The man chuckles "That is true, but the Queen shouldn't be so humble. Without the Queen we wouldn't be here now, would we? The castle is yours, the kingdom of Arendelle is yours and the one that gave us this chance is an associate of yours... So in those terms, it was the Queen that gave us this opportunity"
Elsa yet again stays silent. What the man just said isn't technically incorrect... But it sure doesn't leave a good taste in the Disney Queen's mouth. She just feels awkward from all of this.
"Besides" The man continues "When we were trying out for the job, we were told that it's because the Queen needs help and it would be our main priority to provide that help to make her life easier"
And now Elsa wants to facepalm, because of today's events with her maid, she had forgotten that it was Diana that did everything for this... Who even knows what kind of information she told everybody to get them to be so loyal to their work?
With this regained knowledge the Queen has lost all interest in continuing this topic and decides to go back to what started it. The letters she wants.
"I see. Well, thank you for your work. Now could you help me with finding the letters that I am looking for?"
The man nods immediately "Of course my Queen, what kind of letter it is?"
"... What kind?" Elsa repeats lost because of the question.
"Yes. Is it entertainment related? Trade-related? Work-related? Provisions related? Treasury related? Food-related? Your subjects related? Do I continue telling more examples? Or has the Queen heard the one she needs already?"
Elsa for the third time looks at the man in silence, before snapping out of it "Ah, yes, Trade... And or Work-related" She might be a disappointment as a Queen as she honestly didn't know that there could be so many different kinds of letters.
"Okay. So I'll check both sections then. But before then, I will need some information to help me find what the Queen needs quicker"
"Yes, of course. I will provide as many details as I can. Ask away" The Arendellian Queen states pumped up. Now this is the thing she knows and only one other person does, so besides Kai, only she can answer whatever the man needs.
"If it's work-related, I will need the occupation/work that was talked about or that whoever sent it has. If it's trade-related, I will need the kingdom's name or at least part of it"
"...That's it?" The Queen blurts out with her pumped-up feelings deflating immediately. She thought she will have to go into an extensive conversation as if it were some fairy tale that one can read.
"Indeed it is" The man answers calmly, without any reaction to the Queen's changing mood... He's too simple of a person to understand such things... Especially since Elsa's face actually didn't change at all since she came inside the AD room.
"Nawnegzistawnt Isles" Elsa answers after a momentary pause, as she needed to reset her internal turmoil of being disappointed.
"So it starts with an N and then is followed by an A, okay. If the Queen would excuse me for a minute"
The Queen nods, and with approval, the man walks away leaving Elsa's view. He has walked behind one of the numerous shelves.
Elsa being too curious for her own good followed silently behind the man and out of the corner watched him do his work.
But she didn't get to snoop around for long as the man just slid a decent-sized box out of the shelf and started walking back.
It's a good thing that the box carried by him was blocking his view, as without that fact Elsa would've been seen by him.
That would have been an embarrassing moment for the Queen.
Elsa got back to where she was quickly and stood awkwardly trying to 'imitate' herself waiting.
The man plops down the box on one of the free and empty desks.
Elsa sees plenty of separated document compartments, now normally she'd think that it would take quite a while before what she wanted was found... But she has noticed that all of these documents start with the letter N and then seemingly are sorted alphabetically by the second letter.
And since Nawnegzistawnt Isles second letter is A... The man literally pulled the second letter out of the box and handed it to the Queen while asking "Is this it?"
Elsa takes the letter baffled by what just happened... And something clicks in her mind. She won't be getting random thoughts of being a useless Queen anymore as Diana has seemingly done everything for her...
No, now she will have thoughts of gratitude that this system exists because, before it, she can remember having to basically throw herself into a pile of papers just to find the one she was looking for.
She looks at the envelope, particularly the part where there should be a seal of identification... She sees two of them, she recognizes one of them while she doesn't with the second one. The one she recognized was the one she needed. She also looked at the written words on the back of it to make sure. And then answers the man "Yes, I think it is"
"Sweet, but just in case I will check for more. There's still the work-related letters" The man tells the Queen cheerfully.
"Okay, thank you"
with that, the man starts walking away to a different shelf where the work-related documents reside... Before stopping and turning around.
"Um... Could the Queen tell me what I am looking for?"
Elsa who was in the middle of pulling out the letter outside from the envelope pauses in thought. Then after a few seconds, she gets what the man wants.
"Foreign Noble or a Foreign Envoy"
The man nods and resumes his walking.
The Queen now left alone in peace, unfolds the letter and starts reading it.
As she reads the contents of the letter, she gets a feeling that something is wrong... But she can't deduce what it is as everything in the letter is fine. Or it was at least at the beginning.
The last paragraph of the letter contained flat-out lies. There were two people who had met with her not one as the letter tells. The deal that they wanted wasn't for fish since Arendelle is surrounded by water, it was for her powers of ice.
"How did they slip past when arriving at the docks? While Diana's system might have failed at realizing that the 'fish' part of it was a lie, this very letter blatantly says there should be only one envoy, yet two arrived..." Elsa wonders to herself out loud.
Did the man oversell his colleagues about everybody being enthusiastic about their work? And in truth, some of them are taking advantage of it and are just lazing around. Is that how such an obvious error was missed?
"Or were they bribed...?" The Queen says to herself.
"Who was bribed?" She gets startled when a question comes her way from the side.
Elsa looks to see who asked her the question and it was the man which procured the letters. He now had yet another box with him.
"Nobody" Elsa answers at first, before thinking for a moment and then changing her mind.
"Actually, could you read this letter and tell me if there's something wrong with it?" She says while looking at the man.
The man's head cranes to the side, but he nevertheless nods and then takes the letter when the Queen hands it to him.
He then reads it quickly as he's used to looking through documents at this point. He does it two extra times just to make sure he doesn't miss anything.
Eventually, he honestly tells the Queen "I must apologize, my Queen, I don't see anything wrong with it"
"Don't worry about not noticing anything incorrect. Inherently the letter is impeccable and there's nothing wrong with it. No, the 'wrong' part is what came after it. You see the details of the letter say that there should only be one person arriving. Yet... Just today I came out of the meeting with two people instead"
"But how can that be?" The man gasps out loud "These things go through multiple people before being approved. One of our guidelines is that if the ones that sent documents turned out to be lying about them would be more or less prohibited from any further dealings and association with Arendelle for some time"
"Could they perhaps bribe their way in?"
"I'm sorry but I would have to dispel such a notion, my Queen. We get so much that nothing would manage to entice any of us"
The Queen would like to argue with that as every person is different after all. But the man's conviction made her pause. So instead she said another thought altogether.
"Maybe they are being threatened instead then? Thus being forced to do what is being told to them?"
The man's eyes get serious when he hears the Queen's words.
"Does the Queen mean that their family members might have been kidnapped?"
"Well, that isn't the specific thing I had in mind, but yes, something like that" Elsa states. She immediately understood that the man might have imagined his own family being in such a situation which is why he mentioned it specifically.
"I hope not... I myself don't know if I would tell somebody if something like that happened. Yes, I would be helped but who knows what would happen to my family" The man can only add this.
Elsa looks at the man sympathetically. However, the Queen can't bring herself to believe such a scenario to be the real reason why the two got past Diana's system.
Simply because how would they manage to do such a thing? If they have to first arrive here and then be allowed to access setting afoot on Arendelle's territory? Them somehow managing to kidnap somebody is just not plausible.
So at best all they could have done is send their guards on the workers thus getting in by force. But that also has a low chance as there would've been plenty of witnesses to see it all and then report it back.
While the Arendellian Queen was busy mulling over different situations in her mind. The man was re-reading the letter over and over, trying to see if anything could give him a hint to what is going on here.
And then something clicked in his mind when he saw something out of the corner of his eye on the desk. He knew that he had seen that envelope before when he took it out of the box and handed it to the Queen.
He snatches it rather quickly, the big arms appearing in Elsa's vision so suddenly startled her slightly. He stares at it for a while, not noticing the Queen looking at him.
And after a while, the man finally breathes out as he gets relaxed. Elsa of course witnesses all of this and just as she was about to ask what happened, the man started talking to her.
"Now I know what happened. This was a rather special occasion"
"Special? How so?" Elsa asks.
"This seal right here" The man shows the second seal which the Queen didn't know the origins of "It's the seal of Rosa Knight, our boss"
Elsa POV:
Sorry, what?
Did he just say, Rosa?
"Are... Are you sure?"
The man smiles cheerfully at me and with full confidence says "Yes"
Okay... So now I know that there is nothing wrong with any of this...
But now I am also even more lost than before.
How did those two appeal to Rosa?
How did they get through with lying to her?
Diana told me that Rosa doesn't do business with people that lie to her as she wants to work with honest people. Then how did they get away with lying to her?
Was it all arranged just through letters? Or did they meet beforehand somehow to discuss it?
Shouldn't she have experience with such things and be able to tell?
And most importantly... I thought that Diana was their boss, not Rosa. How did I not know that fact? And why didn't Diana mention it something like that?
"Rosa shouldn't like when somebody lies to her, so how did she allow two of them to arrive when the letter only mentions one person coming?"
The man ponders my questions for a bit, before answering.
"It happened four days ago. A Freia-type ship arrived at the port, we were told by the dockworkers that it was the scheduled arrival of the Nawnegzistawnt Isles representative. But then we found out that there were two of them and at first nobody wanted to let them in and we were trying to get them to leave peacefully... But then they showed us yet another letter which had the seal of lady Rosa. It stated that the two of them were to be let into Arendelle. That's about it. None of us of the Administration Department have actually seen the contents of the letter, the dockworkers that were there only said that everything was okay. That's about it"
So they were even more prepared... What did they promise Rosa so she would let them in like that?
"Tell me, what is your name?"
"Jorgen, my Queen" The man answers me.
"Jorgen, could you somehow get me a meeting with Lady Rosa?"
"Hmm... While I am not the main person she contacts in the castle to get the news on how everything is going... To be honest none of us here even know who that person is, or at least nobody is revealing themselves as they were probably told not to"
Most likely that person is Diana, who right now can't even get out of bed due to some internal problems.
"But, yes my Queen, I think I would be able to manage that. I would just need a few days"
A few days... Is that enough before Diana gets well enough to come back to me?
Well, it's not like I can influence the time of which it takes to get into contact with Rosa, so this is the best that I can get.
Obviously, with Diana, I'd probably be able to see Rosa today even... But then I would have to make something up on why I want to speak with her.
"Okay, that will be fine. Well, then I will be leaving now as I have some more... Work to do"
"Of course my Queen. It was a pleasure to be able to help you" Jorgen replies to me with a court bow.
"One last thing. Not a single word of this to Diana. That's an order"
Narrator POV:
With that Elsa stands up and walks away not waiting for an audible answer from the man, as she doesn't want to elaborate more on that order.
Jorgen blinks several times while being frozen in his position.
"Hey! Njord?" He shouts.
A few seconds a man shows himself from behind a random shelf.
"Yeah-a, my Friend?" The new individual shouts back, even if he didn't have to as he's now close to Jorgen.
"Do you know anybody by the name of Diana?"
Njord puts his head onto his palm and thinks for a bit and then answers his friend "Can't say that I do, Jorgen"
The two look at each other in silence.
"Well" Jorgen lets out with a shrug.
A few days later.
Outside the Queen's room in the early morning stands a feminine figure with a maid outfit on.
That person is Diana, as she is back to work after a few days of paid 'vacation'.
But there's something different about her.
She enters Elsa's room to wake her up for the day.
The Arendellian Queen who was sleeping peacefully wakes up quite easily as she feels her body being shaken.
Elsa opens her eyes sleepily, but the sleep part dissipates immediately as she jumps to her feet, on the bed, with various forms of ice forming around her as a defense mechanism.
For the first thing she had seen after waking up was something she hasn't seen before and it startled her... Or so the Queen thought, as with another glance she sees the figure is wearing a maid outfit.
So she calms down slightly, thinking that for the fourth day in a row, there is yet another new maid that showed up... But then she realized that only Diana can enter this room without Elsa having to unlock it from the inside.
"Diana?" Elsa lets out the first words between the two.
"Good morning, my Queen" Diana? Says back.
"What's that on your head?" The Queen asks when the voice of the person had confirmed that it was Diana. Her question was also warranted as her maid seemingly had some sort of bag over her head.
"What does the Queen mean? I have nothing on my head" The maid says casually... With a paper bag over her head with cut-out eyes and mouth.
Elsa's mouth opens and stays open without being able to say anything back to Diana. She thinks that she's dreaming right now as without that explanation she has no idea what is going on.
"The Queen's breakfast is right here, let me serve it" Diana states without taking Elsa's silent reaction into her mind.
Elsa sits back down, having fully calmed down. But she is still perplexed on why Diana has a bag over her head and is saying that she doesn't.
The Queen continues looking at the maid's head, the maid herself is busy serving the plates for her Queen.
Neither says a word, thus leaving the spacious room in complete silence, except for the clinking of plates and the slight wooshing of the maid's working hands.
Diana finishes putting everything in place and steps away from it to allow Elsa enough space to eat.
Except that Elsa didn't move from her spot and continued to stare at the maid's hidden head.
While the maid stared at a random corner of the room, not looking straight at the Queen.
And so the two are at a standstill, neither speaking nor doing anything but looking in their respective directions.
"Is there something wrong with your face that you're hiding it?" Elsa finally asks seeing that her intense stare isn't getting anything done. Which was a surprise for the Ice Queen as that's the first time that Diana didn't break when she did it.
"What does the Queen mean? My face is clearly visible and completely fine. It's not hidden whatsoever"
Diana's answer only gets a blank stare from the Queen.
"Take it off" Elsa orders.
"Take what off?" Diana counters with an innocent question.
Elsa has had enough of whatever this ridiculous word exchange is, and uses her powers to create ice hands near Diana's head, which try to pull the bag off of her head.
However, to yet another surprise of the Queen, Diana was ready for it this time and she was holding onto the bag for dear life.
So Elsa changed her offense tactic and instead of trying to pull it off, she just ripped it in half. For the first time revealing Diana's face since she had entered the Queen's room.
"So there's indeed nothing wrong with it" The Queen comments after investigating Diana's face for a bit.
"I did say so" Diana pulls off a comment herself.
"Ok... Then why were you hiding your head behind that bag?"
"Is the Queen okay? Perhaps she hadn't gotten enough sleep? I never hid my face from her. I wouldn't mind looking at her sleep if she decided to take more time to rest" Diana continues dodging the question with a calm smile.
Elsa stares at her baffling maid with a look that transcribes only one notion and that is 'really?'. She doesn't understand why Diana is acting this way, yes she can act like nobody else ever would at certain times, but this is beyond even her, at least in the Queen's honest opinion.
But then one small thought jumps into the Queen's mind and she says it out loud immediately.
"Are... You embarrassed?"
Diana's calm smile cracks instantly the moment she hears Elsa's question.
But she quickly fixes it or at least she thought that she had done that, but it wasn't near fast enough as Elsa had witnessed the sudden change back and forth.
"This can't be... Diana... A maid who speaks of things that nobody else could ever say and doing it with a straight face... That Diana is embarrassed?" Elsa comments shocked.
"What? Embarrassed? Me? Naaah, I don't know the meaning of the word" Diana tries to reject such a notion.
But Elsa has already figured it out, not to mention Diana's last attempt was pathetic compared to the other ones, just goes to sit down and starts eating now in silence.
The Queen doesn't know why her maid would be embarrassed, but since she is trying so hard to hide it, she won't mention it again. She has read everything on what Diana called 'periods' since Kai had it brought to her. And to her, it seems to be an inevitable thing so there shouldn't be a reason to be embarrassed.
Elsa of course doesn't think of other reasons why her maid could be embarrassed.
Diana decided to go with a bag over her head because she had felt ashamed of how Elsa had witnessed her at her lowest.
Normally she wouldn't be embarrassed about something like this, the problem is that all of it could have been avoided if she took it into consideration before it was brought to light.
Her 'messy' room, her emotional outbursts, the fact that Elsa had to read about the subject because of her... Basically, this week wasn't in favor of her, so she chose to hide from it.
Sometime later, after Elsa had finished her breakfast. She directs an order to the maid.
"Diana, you will be free for several hours later today. I have something to do and I am bringing Kai with me"
Diana is surprised to hear that and her mind can't help but start assuming the worst. She wants to question what the reason is on why she can't go with her instead of Kai. But she chooses to stay silent on it and just said "I understand"
And now is Elsa's turn to be internally surprised. She didn't expect Diana to just take it like that, she expected some sort of a 'battle', be it witty, jokey, or just honest... But this is way out of the normal.
However, just as her maid did before her, the Queen chose to stay silent about it and not say anything. It all plays into her favor anyway, the less she has to say about what she wants to do the better it is. Besides yesterday she had gotten the news that today she can meet with Rosa. The only reason she is even bringing Kai was to make a case for Diana not needing to come, but apparently, there was no need for that.
~ End of Chapter 30 ~
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