Lucia: Chapter 2

A bright idea had popped into Lucia’s mind and she had fulfilled the task without complaint. She had decided not to file the complaint, and had returned home to organize her thoughts instead. If she pretended to be a maid long enough, she would gain the chance to go out of the royal palace.

Lucia’s last maid had left her at the age of 15, and what followed was her dual life as a princess and a maid. As a maid, she had to go request for daily necessities and do manual labor, but she had earned the freedom to leave the royal palace.

Lucia had been living alone in the palace for three years. It was probably still documented that Lucia was living together with five other maids.

No palace officials would bother to come and personally check whether the documentations were true or not. The complaints of the countless children of the king were enough to make the officials’ heads burst with pain. The officials had no time for Lucia who never expressed a word of complaint.

Lucia was returning home after she had requested for daily necessities this morning, while also receiving tips for a job well done. Whether it was the royal palace or the dirty back streets of the city, humans were all essentially the same. Money enticed people to to continue struggling forward.

There was a different door maids used to leave the palace. They were all standing in a long line waiting for their turn. The line gradually shortened until it was finally Lucia’s turn. She showed the guard her permission to leave pass. It was a pass issued by Princess Vivian. However, even if Lucia showed her face to the guard, he would not recognize her. He quickly confirmed the authenticity of the pass and nodded.

“Are you taking anything out of the palace?”

The guard had already confirmed Lucia was empty handed, but he still asked anyway.

“No.”

The guard nodded once again and let her out of the palace.

Lucia inhaled a deep breath of fresh air. She turned her head around and looked up at the giant palace walls that surrounded the place.

It was safe inside the palace walls. Outside the walls, it was hard for a young girl to safely walk around on her own.

The status of a low ranked princess worked in her favor to allow for a lot of freedom. The Lucia of her dreams had never realized that fact, but she had come to realize it now.

Still, the future made her unable to breathe. She wanted to escape that place as soon as possible.

‘It’s strange that there are so many people today.’

People were crowding the street in masses. Whenever she managed to squeeze through, the crowd of people would sweep her into another direction, making her run in circles.

After toiling through the crowd, she arrived to a small two story house, where a middle-aged woman opened the door. She had her eyebrows and eyes creased like she was mad, but that was actually her natural face.

“Welcome.”

“Hello, Ms. Phil. Is Madam Norman home?”

“She’s always home. She’s still sleeping sprawled on the floor after a long night of drinking. Hold on a second, let me go get some tea for you.”

“Thank you, Ms. Phil.”

The comforting fragrance of the tea filled the living room as Lucia sat patiently with a gentle expression, enjoying her tea. The sound of Ms. Phil clattering around drifted over from the kitchen, but this addition seemed like music to her ears. Lucia’s dream was to purchase a small house like this and enjoy her life. She would hire two people and let them do the minor chores, and she would enjoy life while peacefully drinking tea. She would do things like taking small walks or passing time while reading books. Though she didn’t know when that dream would come true.

A gentle smile could be seen on Lucia’s face. A skinny woman was clumsily stumbling down the stairs from the second floor, barely able to hold her own body up while her eyes looked glossed over in a haze. She let out a creaky voice.

“Ms. Phil, water\~!”

Norman sat on the sofa across from Lucia and leaned down on the armrest. She had a thin body and a face which gave off an unfriendly atmosphere. She looked well over her 30s, but was actually very young. Norman chugged down the glass of water Ms. Phil had brought, and sighed as if she wanted to die.

“Aaah, my inside hurts.”

“You should ease up on your drinking, tsk tsk.”

Ms. Phil muttered in her unique blunt tone and returned to the kitchen. Her speech and attitude was always brusque, but Lucia knew Ms. Phil’s kindness – she was going to the kitchen to prepare some food that would quell Norman’s hangover.

“Why did you drink so much?”

“I thought I would be able to write one more line if I drank, but I couldn’t control myself. I’m sorry. In this state, I can’t properly take care of my guest. Thank you for coming all this way.”

“What do you mean by guest? It’s no trouble coming to visit you at all. Even if I didn’t have to come here, I would have gone out for a walk anyway.”

“There is something in the table drawer there. Open it, my latest book is there.”

Madam Norman was a writer; she was a famous romance author. Norman’s books were all about love, but people considered these books classy and intelligent. They were fun but educational; her books that killed two birds with one stone, had caused a sensation. Due to the many books she had released these past years, she could live comfortably without needing to earn a cent more.

When Lucia took out the book, she gasped.

“It’s finally done! I’ve been waiting for a long time.”

Lucia hurried to the last page of the book.

“You’re already ending it? Why? This series is very popular.”

“It would get boring if I add too much filler, this length is just right. My editor was on my tail, ordering me to lengthen the series by two or three more books. Hehehe.”

“It’s such a pity. I feel like it would have been alright if you followed your editor’s advice.”

“Look inside the book as well.”

Lucia flipped through the pages and found an envelope hidden within the book. Inside, there was a receipt confirming that money had been deposited. Lucia’s eyes popped out when she saw the amount of money.

“Norman, this is too much….”

“Take it. You deserve it.”

“But I’ve already received a lot of money…”

“This is a bonus since I’ve completed my novel. If you still don’t feel right, you can consider it a fee for helping me contribute ideas for my novel. The ideas for this novel mostly came from you.”

In the past, Norman was not a popular writer. She was a poor author who had trouble buying her daily meals. Her usual topic was a romance between a female commoner and a noble man. It was impossible for it to happen in reality, but people could always daydream about it.

However, what the readers wanted was not a female commoner, but an elegant noble woman. Commoners wished to experience a noble’s life through these books, while nobles didn’t bother picking up books about commoners. Even so, Norman had no way to write about a noble woman, because she didn’t have the tiniest idea about how they lived.

Norman, a commoner with no money, would have no way to take part in a social event hosted by nobles. She would either need to extensively read other people’s books, or interview maids who have served nobles before. However, she hadn’t had any money, so she couldn’t do anything.

Her books wouldn’t sell, so she couldn’t even pay her rent. Although her only talent was writing, she couldn’t see a way to break through into the novel industry. While Norman had been sitting in the empty streets of the central plaza, Lucia had appeared out of nowhere and had given her a loaf of bread. Norman believed that meeting Lucia had changed her life around.

Norman had never known, but Lucia had been keeping an eye on her for a long time. Norman hadn’t seemed like a homeless beggar, but she had looked so hungry. She had been sitting by the roadside, but never begged for food. Lucia couldn’t help but go up and talk to her.

That was how the two of them had met.

“The reason I’m here today is all because of you, Lucia.”

Lucia had taught Norman everything she knew about high society. Lucia had attended many social parties inside her dream. Her words could not compare to the simple maids who simply served the nobles by their side. Norman could set up a strong foundation to her novels through Lucia’s extensive tales of the noble women in the high society.

“It’s because Norman’s novels are amazing.”

“If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have been able to write a single sentence, so it’s all thanks to you. I can continue earning more money now.”

Lucia visited Norman once a week. They talked for a few hours and through this, Lucia had earned quite a bit of money.

Norman had paid her a hefty sum. Of course in the beginning, Lucia had to go visit her with a basket full of bread, but as soon as her books started selling, Norman had not been shy in expressing her thanks through money.

The roles had changed now. Numerous people, including widows, were coming to visit her. She had stabilized her footing. Norman could now collect as much information as she needed even without Lucia. But Norman could not become an ungrateful human being toward the person who had helped her when she most needed it.

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