บท 36: Chapter 31
Hi, hello.
Happy Christmas to those that celebrate it. And you know what? Happy Christmas to those that don't celebrate it either. Just be happy ya'll. Hope you liked all of the presents you received... If not, send them over to me, and I will keep them warm and toasty, hehe.
Three chapters today. Three chapters for Queen of Hogwarts tomorrow. And the day after tomorrow, Four chapters for Strong to Weak.
Bye!
~ Mystery uncovered ~
Narrator POV:
After Elsa had her luxurious bath finished, she went out to the streets of Arendelle for her goal of meeting with Rose. She still had to bring Kai with her, as her investigative maid chose to lead her off... She will just send Kai to do some chores or something when they will get some ground between the castle and the town.
With that Diana was left behind in the humongous castle. However, without Elsa inside it, she had nothing to do in its confines. So she decided to find something to do, starting with the Queen's sister, Princess Anna... Who had seemingly disappeared off of the face of the earth? These past several days.
Even so, it didn't take long for the proficient maid to find the Princess.
To her knowledge between the first and second movies of the Frozen franchise, there had to be a lot of time that Anna and Kristoff spent together, to upgrade their relationship status from friendly acquaintances to lovey-Dobey partners about to get married.
This is why Diana went to Kristoff's lodgings in the castle, where she found both him and Anna sitting on a bench, discussing amongst themselves.
Now, normally Diana wouldn't interrupt them, or anybody else for that matter when people have conversations. However... She is bored... And besides, it's not like one missed conversation will somehow make the two not be in love.
And so Diana makes her way towards the two individuals, being sensible enough to do a circle around so that she would be in front of them instead of her being behind them as it was before, giving the two plenty of time to see her and stop any 'private' talking.
Anna and Kristoff do see her coming... Well, Kristoff did, as Anna was too immersed in whatever her mouth was letting out to notice the maid. Anna only saw Diana because she noticed that Kristoff's attention wasn't on her anymore.
The maid stands in front of the two, saying the first words "Princess" With a small curt bow, and "Kristoff" Who doesn't receive a bow, but a nod instead.
"Hello, Diana" Anna answers with a smile.
Kristoff only nods back choosing to instead say "What? Has Elsa abandoned you?"
Diana immediately starts a sobbing act. Her clenched hands start scratching her eyes and with a low voice she stutters out "Sh-s-she doesn't w-w-want me anymo-more" And then she starts loudly bawling 'waaaaah'.
"W-what?" Comes out of the man's confused mouth.
"Look what you did, you buffoon, she's upset now. Ugh, you really don't understand women" The Princess berates the man. while slapping his big shoulders.
"What?! I did no such thing" Kristoff defends himself while rubbing his shoulder.
"Uh-huh. Look at her, she's cryi-" Anna stops mid-sentence as her eyes catch up to the direction she was pointing at... In her sight Diana is seen standing casually, smiling innocently at the two.
"Oh" Is the only thing to be let out when the confounded Princess resumes speaking.
"I 'don't understand women', she says" Kristoff comments, snidely, under his breath.
But to his surprise, the Princess of Arendelle heard it and shot him a glare of utmost darkness. It makes the big man shut up immediately.
That felt good, thinks Diana. It's been a while since she had gotten somebody with one of her little acting pranks. Elsa had completely adapted to anything she tries at this point, well mostly, but there was no way she will try the more advanced stuff on her again after she was openly told off by her.
"The Queen had to do something outside the castle, she took Kai with her and gave me a day off" Diana explains as if she had done nothing prior.
And before either of the two could say anything, either about her little act or Elsa being away, Diana throws a question to them to throw them off.
"So, what were you two talking about?"
The words came out of the maid's mouth quickly enough for the thoughts in the minds of the two individuals to jump from the topic of the act to whatever it is they were talking about.
And neither of the two seems to be in a 'hurry' to answer the maid's question, who's patiently waiting for them to speak.
Anna, especially, looks more guarded than such a simple question would demand.
The silence eventually gets a little awkward but before the awkwardness levels rise further, the Princess softly coughs into her hand and answers with a smile, a forced one.
"We were talking about Olaf and his whereabouts"
"Yeah, Olaf has ventured off somewhere yet again" Kristoff comes to Anna's defense rather quickly... As if it was suspiciously rehearsed prior.
It doesn't take a genius in the human emotional psyche to realize that what the Princess and the Ice Harvester just said was a bunch of baloney. But Diana spares her and Kristoff the embarrassment and just hmms softly while looking between the two.
"I see, so have you figured out where he could be?"
Upon the maid's new question, Anna heaves a quiet sigh of relief. All of her stiffness and defenses relax.
With a cheerful smile, she shakes her head a few times while letting out a "Nope" and popping the P extremely hard.
"Well, I wish you two good luck on finding him" The Maid simply says, realizing that the two won't provide her any more solid entertainment, so she's about to leave in search of it someplace elsewhere.
"Thank you!" Anna shouts out in the direction of Diana's leaving body... The body that just turned around, and seems to be walking back toward them, which makes Anna confusedly stare at the maid.
"Before I go, I wanted to ask you something, Princess, if that's not a problem"
Anna blinks a few times but nevertheless nods in affirmation. For some reason due to the serious tone of the maid, Anna couldn't open her mouth to answer. She doesn't quite understand what she's feeling, but she at least knows that it's not a good feeling.
Diana, while 'leaving' remembered something quite important. So she returned to ask Anna about it.
To her, the one that came from another world, a world that has given her a subpar knowledge of this one, it seemed very odd for Anna to be... seemingly ignoring the existence of Elsa after the 'show' of love between the sisters some time ago.
Diana thought that it would be difficult for her to get any alone time with Elsa, for quite a long while, perhaps a whole year even. Anna should be with her the whole time, recuperating their relationship. Yet there was none of that, hell, She hasn't even been in a room with the two sisters at the same time bar a few specific occasions.
So the maid decided to investigate what the reason might be for such a strange occurrence. Wooing the pants off of the husky of a man that is Kristoff isn't a solid enough reason to disregard Elsa by that much.
Elsa herself commented on it a few times to herself, while the Queen thought that Diana wouldn't hear her. One of those times was especially unique in its strangeness.
It was a normal day, the two were walking leisurely in the castle's huuuge corridors when they spotted a door in front of them, a barely open one, and then whoever was watching between that open space shut the door quickly when they had been spotted.
Now, of course, the eyesight of the two women catching this strange act isn't bad at all, thus they were able to clearly deduce the culprit of this situation. By the dress and the hair. It was Anna.
Diana doesn't know why the Princess is trying to be stealthy to not get noticed by Elsa and actively choosing to hide, but she knows one thing and that thing is that it makes her love interest sad. She won't forget the dejected, almost depressed, gaze that Elsa gave the closed door.
So with the determination not to allow this to go any further, Diana bluntly asks Anna about her behavior.
"Why is the Princess ignoring and hiding from the Queen's presence?"
Anna's body visibly jumps in place as she gets startled by the question.
Her eyes immediately leave the serious gaze of the maids, as they start jumping from side to side, up and down, and so on.
Her mouth opens and shuts itself multiple times, seemingly not knowing if its owner wants to speak or stay silent while releasing rapid breaths.
Her hands and legs can't stop fiddling, her whole body is simply like it's not Anna's anymore.
To Diana's, now, worried look, it's like she's witnessing a pseudo-panic attack. If she knew that her question would bring upon such a strong reaction from Anna, she would've never asked, or at least gone about it in a different way.
Before Diana could express her worry openly by trying to mediate Anna's emotions, Kristoff does it for her probably smoother and faster than she could.
All it took was a simple hand on the shoulder and a few words "Calm down, breathe"
And this did the trick, as not even five seconds longer did the Princess's mood stabilize.
Anna shoots a thankful glance towards Kristoff, who receives it with a goofy but at the same time knowing, grin. Which throws Diana for the loop. She feels as if there's some intense secret being shared around, with her being left out of it. It doesn't feel good.
"I-I'm sorry for asking, are you okay Princess?" Diana finally gets to show her concern. But even so, she is even more curious than ever before. Anna's reaction was way too strong. Is there something wrong with some unexplainable universe stuff? For example, because the two Frozen movies were just simply set apart for three years, there's like no true 'backstory' for the sisters to actually be together with each other, and only after three years pass do they simply resume their sisterly relationship like some two strange magnets? Is Anna simply guilty for something she doesn't understand, thus being called out on it, which makes her react like that? Diana doesn't know, but she wants to know... She'll have to think about how to breach this topic, better, again to not get results like that twice. Because, honestly, it freaked even her out.
Anna breathes out one last time and with a weak, yet somehow strong, looking smile she answers "No, no, it's okay and I am also okay! Th-That was only an effect... Of my previous sickness. Yes, I had the flu and I simply didn't want my sister to catch it from me. That's what it was"
...
Silence is what meets Anna's funky response.
Diana has to say, to herself, the Princess is most likely the worst liar she has seen... Or at least in the top five.
But nonetheless, Diana not wanting to repeat her mistake smiles cordially "I see. That's very noble of you, my Princess. Staying out of reach of the Queen, so that she wouldn't even have a chance to suffer, must have been hard"
The Princess only smiles, half-heartedly, in response.
"I will be going now, I will also send a maid to check on you with some medication just in case. And my sincerest apologies again" Diana bows while she says it all.
"That's not necessary... But thank you" Anna answers softly.
With that Diana turns around and leaves the future lovebirds alone. But not before hearing something mysterious said by Kristoff to Anna.
"I'm also sorry, now that I know, I should have not told you to just talk to her about it"
Diana is left confused by these specific words. And she doesn't want to stay and risk getting caught eavesdropping, so she just leaves and decides to think about it harder later.
Sometime later, the maid stands in front of the Administration Department room, not having found anything else to do and with the ridiculous realization that besides being a near-perfect maid for her Queen, she seems to have no other 'hobby' to occupy herself with in times like these.
Because of her period, Diana had missed her weekly appearance at the AD room for the updates on everything surrounding Elsa.
The moment she steps inside the room Jorgen is there to meet her.
"Miss Scarlet, where have you been these past few days? I hope everything's okay"
Nobody in the AD knows that Diana is Diana, nor that she is a maid to the Queen even though she wears maid clothes, everybody in the AD theorized that it's just some fashion or something. The only way they know her is by the title 'Miss Scarlet'. She also wears a mask to hide her face. Unlike her previous customers when she worked for Rosa, these people that worked for her in the AD have never been to any of Rosa's establishments, at least when she worked there, simply because their past lives not being all that great. So technically Diana doesn't even need to hide her identity... She just figured it might be fun.
"I had something come up, nothing to concern yourself with" Diana acts all high and mighty, simply because she can.
"I understand, Miss" Jorgen lets out with a nod.
"Now, tell me everything that's been going on. Anything that I might have missed" Diana commands the man.
"Yes, Miss Scarlet. Besides two interesting occurrences, everything else has been the same. The envoy letters from other kingdoms are still showing up at a steady pace, and by our rough estimations that isn't going to change any soon. However, there has been a slight change in the general populace of Arendelle and their requests for the Queen to show them some of her magical powers. It seems that the efforts of your subtle plans, Miss Scarlet, have produced results"
"I see, good. Now, what of the Nobles?"
"Nothing major. Or even new from them. But the complaints about some apparently strange maid in the castle have increased yet again. She seems to keep overstepping her... Mhm... Powers is the word I would describe their disdain with, but I am not sure if that's what they mean with their ramblings. They are more or less begging the Queen to get rid of her at this point, at the start they were still somewhat graceful about it, but now it's just sad... For them, we here at the AD are getting quite a laugh about it" The man chuckles boisterously, and Diana also hears some other quiet chuckles from around them.
"I am gonna be honest, the crew here, myself included love, to speculate on what is that the maid had done to these nobles. The most popular explanation we settled on was that she had seduced the sons of the nobles, one after another and eventually she got found out, thus all of them hate her now. But because she is seemingly under the care of the Queen, the nobles can only do this"
Diana blinks behind her mask, amused. While inside she's quite cheerful and proud for multiple different reasons. On the outside, her voice sounds distant and uncaring of 'petty' rumors and gossip.
"I see. So nothing has changed"
"No, Miss Scarlet"
"You mentioned two interesting occurrences, what is that all about?" Diana questions Jorgen with a serious, fake serious, tone. On the inside, she's already thinking that it will be nothing actually important and just some more of the workforce's musings.
Oh, how wrong she was.
"A few envoys arrived at the port a few days ago, on Lady Rosa's behalf. They had documents and everything"
What? Goes through Diana's mind.
"And the Queen had paid us, the AD crew, an actual visit. Oh, how majestic she was... So beautiful... So elegant. Whoever gets her hand in marriage, will be one very lucky man" Jorgen swoons peacefully.
Double what? The maid's mind thinks again.
Since Jorgen hasn't heard an answer from Miss Scarlet yet, he assumes that she needs more details about it. So he adds on to both instances.
"The Queen came to in search of information about some foreign nobles. Which had to lead us to the fact that Lady Rosa had sent letters to us about their arrival. Then the Queen asked if we could arrange a meeting between the two, with another letter, one that we haven't seen yet, because it was directly shown to the people in the port, so we only had their word for it. The Queen must have it now, as we had to get it for her at her request. If I am not going senile yet, I think that Lady Rosa and the Queen should be in the middle of their meeting by now for which the Queen had to wait a few days as that's as fast as we could contact Lady Rosa about it"
Diana POV:
Is that where she went with Kai? But then... Why did she not tell me anything? Why not invite me with her? I could've just set up a meeting between the two of them way earlier and with fewer problems. And why did she even want Kai there with her in that meeting instead of me? I know Rosa, after all, I could help her with whatever she needed help with.
I don't understand.
I thought I had made some progress, at least in getting 'friendlier' with Elsa. was I wrong and I am just still a strange worker in her life? Was I not trying hard enough? I know that I have time and that I might've played around a little bit too much... But still...
Am I really that low in terms of affection for her? Is my existence that small in her life?
Why is Kai there instead of me right now? I just don't understand... Am I that untrustworthy?
Narrator POV:
The maid's mind crosses one particular moment in the first meeting between her and Elsa in her own room, the first day of her period.
The very end of that meeting... It seemed too cold, way too cold. Even for the Ice Queen Elsa. She may sometimes come across as 'uncaring' or 'cold', but inside she's as hot as lava as if her powers were not ice whatsoever.
Yet that specific moment, when Elsa had left her room and several dozen seconds before that... It had stayed in her mind to this day.
"Is that it...?" Comes out of Diana's mouth subconsciously.
"Y-yes, Miss Scarlet" Jorgen answers slightly panicked. Miss Scarlet stayed quiet for a while now, so this sudden question had startled him.
Of course, that question wasn't for him or for anybody else for that matter.
Diana had simply raised the levels of misunderstood and self-inflicted thoughts up to extreme levels. That 'question' was directed to her thoughts of the period meeting with the Queen and her subpar hospitality having destroyed most, if not all, of the goodwill, that she had accumulated, which Elsa had towards her.
So with that, Diana stupidly set herself back to level minus one hundred. In her mind, she is back at the very beginning. But, even so with all of her misunderstandings, Diana is even more determined to get back Elsa's little affection for her.
Elsa, who was leisurely picking up a teacup, which was served to her by one of Rosa's people, almost drops it as her back gets stiff from an unexplainable ominous feeling she just got.
"Okay, is the letter written by Rosa still here? Or was it rid of?" Diana, having reset herself, asks Jorgen.
"Yes, Miss Scarlet. The letter, indeed, is still here. The Queen didn't need it because she has the other document"
"Bring it here"
The man nods and goes away behind one of the tall shelves.
While in wait, Diana sits down and Jorgen's colleagues come and finally greet their boss. Diana, while in her act is a cold mistress, but even so, she replies softly to some of what the people say around her, to her, or just in general. She still likes these guys, they are the closest thing to friends in this world she has.
Eventually, Jorgen returns with an envelope in hand, and the colleagues make themselves scarce. But they don't go too far away, most of them will be easily able to hear their boss speak with their mini-boss.
Diana opens the envelope once her hands acquire it from her henchman.
She takes out the document from inside it.
And reads through it to herself.
But as she reads, she notices that there's something wrong with the contents of the letter.
If there was no mask hiding the face of their boss, the workforce would see a tense gaze on Miss Scarlet's face.
"Who approved of this document the very first time?" After some peaceful silence inside the AD room, comes the storm in terms of a question.
Nobody answers their boss, as even they get scared by Miss Scarlet's almost deadly tone.
Normally, their boss is somewhat cold, but never too serious. She never shouts at them, never admonishes them, nor even complains about their mistakes. No, their boss is the best. If there is a problem, she'll help fix it, if there are mistakes, she'll show how to avoid the same ones next time.
They have never heard such a tone spoken to them by their mysterious boss. So instinctively, just like in their pasts, they hide and don't answer. Either in the hope for all of it to just end quicker or because they feel that whoever opens their mouth might lose more than just some blood... They might lose their livelihood and none of them want that, at least not this time.
"Who was it?"
A question was thrown into the wilderness of silence yet again.
The workforce looks between themselves in silence, but one after another eventually nod at each other to encourage each other's confidence.
Unlike in the past, when their bosses were cruel, uncaring, and outright criminals if not for their riches and external powers. This boss is different, they don't have to be scared, there is no need to. So they steel their wills.
"It was, Flynn, Miss Scarlet" One says.
The other one adds "He's out today, he took his vacation days"
"Yeah, to be with his family, it's his daughter's birthday" A third one comments.
"I-is something wrong, Miss Scarlet?" One, a tad bit less courageous than his peers, asks finally.
"Yes... Immeasurably so" Diana's tone finally calms down as she takes a few breaths.
To the ears of the collective, it almost sounds sad now.
"Please, Miss Scarlet. Forgive Flynn for making a mistake. Don't fire him"
"Yes, please. He needs this job just as much as we do"
"Please!"
The collective personnel of the AD, plead their comrade's case.
Diana sighs, quite pleased with their cohesion and alliance.
"Don't worry, nothing will happen to him, nor to any of you. Just like in the past, I will teach you to recognize mistakes and not make them for the future... Besides, this one's completely on me. I never expected something like this to happen. Poor judgment by me"
The people look between themselves again. Their boss is definitely the best in the world and they wouldn't change her for anybody else. There's nobody else that would take such responsibility for their employee's mistakes, they'd just put blame on somebody and get rid of them.
"Can I ask what's the... Uhm... Mistake that Flynn did?" Jorgen, as the leader of the AD when Diana isn't around, finally asks the maid.
Diana cranes her head to the letter once more and then simply answers.
"This letter is forged"
"Forged?!" Elsa lets out, almost like a scream but at the same time not when she hears Rosa finally speak after reading the letter she received from the Port-master.
Rosa sighs tiredly "I'm afraid so. This wasn't written by me, even if that may seem impossible" Rosa's fingers softly glides over the ink on the paper "This is definitely my writing, I am sure of it... But, it's not me"
"How can that be?" Elsa asks, puzzled. She didn't expect this development whatsoever.
Here she is, having waltzed into Rosa's office, more or less ready to battle and demand answers... But this was not the answer she was looking for.
Rosa sighs again, deeply this time. The sigh sounds sad to Elsa, somehow.
"This is unfortunate. The one that did this... The person has great talents, talents that I could greatly put to great use. It would be of huge help to me and I would pay them handsomely... Yet here they are, doing shady business, forging business deals between me and the Queen, making troubles for the Queen, and also endangering their own life by branding themselves as a criminal" Rosa can't help herself from stopping to sigh for a third time "It's so sad..."
"May I ask, how do you know that it's forged, to begin with?" The Queen asks, the dejected Knight.
"Well, besides the obvious of me not writing such a document... I am old, but my memory still hasn't lost its edge yet. There's something quite unique about my business letters... Or any letters that I write to begin with" Rosa pauses.
"What would that be?" Jorgen asks.
Diana looks at the man, then takes something out of one of her pockets. It's a paper ball, she unrolls it, turning it into a crinkled sheet of paper.
She extends it to the man who takes it with some hesitation.
He reads it quickly, it doesn't take a long time. The information on the paper isn't that long. He raises his eyes to meet with the eyes of Miss Scarlet behind her mask. The man's expression was confused.
Then Diana gives the letter to Jorgen. Who takes it and reads it obediently again, this must be like the fifteenth time he reads this particuliar letter—the most times he had to read one document by far.
But yet again, he raises his head confused, even more so than before. The only thing he could understand from both letters is that the writing is definitely Lady Rosa's, it's completely identical. Even to the tiniest details.
"The unique thing about Rosa's writing is quite simple, but it's way too subtle if you aren't actively looking for that detail... Or if you don't have more than five of her different sent-out written papers" Diana pauses as everybody around her listen in with utmost curiosity.
"Can you read out loud, the very last lines of both papers?"
Jorgen nods and does as he was asked.
"With the biggest heart of love, Rosa Knight" He reads both of them, one after another. Identical yet again.
"And therein lies the problem. Rosa never writes the same ending line and when I say never, I literally mean never. Of the hundreds, if not thousands of papers she had to write, not one of them has an identical end. there's always some sort of change, sometimes it's minor, sometimes it's not. But you'll never see two of the same kind"
Silence follows Diana's explanation.
Except for yet another paper being uncrinkled by Diana, she gives another paper to Jorgen... Well, it's not even a paper, it's a dirty cloth at this point, with only three lines of words. It looks to be something quite personal if his judgment is right.
"With, love, that reaches the sky, your Knight" The man reads out loud.
And then after a thoughtful pause, he softly adds "Simple, but subtle"
Diana sighs "Exactly, whoever wrote this?" She says as she takes back the letter and the dirty cloth, but to Jorgen's confusion, he's left with the other much bigger crinkled paper in hand.
"They are good, but the thing that gives them out is their lack of information. They must've had only one source of available knowledge when it comes to Rosa. And it was a letter that had that end-line in it. So the forger examined the writing to an almost magical extent, but they simply had no idea that Rosa encrypts her documents with such a simple code"
Diana explains to the room full of people and then adds a comment "That paper, will be the start of your lessons to dodge these mistakes in the future. At some point I will bring the whole catalog of end-lines that Rosa has used, so no more problems like this happen"
Jorgen nods, and his colleagues do as well. His confusion also disappears now, since he knows why the paper was left in his hand.
"I will leave now, I have to meet with Rosa. Oh and, if any word comes out of this room and somebody besides me and all of you somehow gets the information that Rosa uses different end-lines... All of you will lose this job and perhaps even more"
All of the people go stiff when they hear this, this clear threat. A threat like no other before. A threat, that they don't want to see become true.
"I see you as my friends, great friends even" Diana starts, softer than before. She also takes off her mask, finally revealing herself to her friends. The workforce can finally put one of their ongoing theories to rest, as that theory now has a clear face. But none of them can rejoice right now as they continue to listen carefully and with warm feelings budding in their hearts.
"But... Rosa is more than that, Rosa is special. And I will never forgive anybody that dares try to hurt her. Understand me?" Diana finishes with her eyes, clearly staring at her employees.
Such a stare, with many feelings behind it. Worry, confidence, patience, warmth, coldness. All of those feelings seemingly dwell inside this one gaze at this very moment. But the one that triumphs over all, the one that every person from the AD can clearly sense. Trust, pure trust in them.
They are almost driven to tears from what they, themselves, are feeling right now.
And almost in tandem, they bow their heads and shout out "Yes, Miss Scarlet, we won't let you down"
Diana smiles at them "Good" She puts back her mask on and gets her act back together.
Coldly she lets out, with warmth hidden behind it.
"Now, get back to work!"
"Yes, Miss Scarlet"
With that Diana leaves, in search of her Knight and her lovely Queen.
~ End of Chapter ~
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