yemalu

Lisa was tapping her foot impatiently while glaring at the staff that were scowling at us.

"Well? Is anyone coming to help us? Or are we meant to help ourselves?" Lisa growled impatiently.

I was quite surprised by how she was acting since I\'ve never seen her like this before. Then again, I suppose that\'s probably because we\'ve never been treated like this before either.

I peeked behind me to see Katsuki still standing behind me with her usual stoic face, showing no reaction to the Infrid\'s outburst.

One of the staff sighed before walking towards us, obviously feeling quite reluctant to do so.

The staff was a male Mahun dressed in a suit, wearing a very conspicuous monocle on his right eye.

"May I help you?" He asked condescendingly.

Lisa glared at him, "Of course! What kind of shop is this to keep us waiting?! Do you even know who we are?! How dare you keep my darling waiting?!"

I noticed a very, very faint inflection in her voice when she said the word \'darling\'. I\'m guessing that she\'s still gushing over the fact that we were kind of officially a couple now.

The store assistant adjusted his monocle casually, "I haven\'t the faintest idea, I\'m afraid."

"You don\'t know and you still act like this?! How dare you?!"

Seriously, I don\'t think I would ever see a day where Lisa would actually act out like this… I believe if this was the normal her, she would have just walked out of here without making a scene. What has gotten into her all of a sudden?

The staff furrowed his brows at her, "Young lady, I would request that you keep your attitude in check and please remove yourself from the premises. This is not the place for the likes of you."

"Oh really?" Lisa glanced at Katsuki who still maintained an expressionless look on her face.

My Inugami maid then reached into the vest of her maid uniform before pulling out a small token. Inscribed on the token was what I recognised to be the crest of the Nilm family.

I didn\'t even know that she had something like this on her… But what purpose does that serve?

My question was answered almost instantly as the monocle wearing Mahun quickly lost his attitude and even bowed his head to Lisa.

"I sincerely apologise for our rudeness!!"

Lisa crossed her arms and turned up her nose at him, "Hmph… Not knowing who you\'re talking to and still acting so important like that… Since we\'re not welcome here, let\'s go, darling!"

The man looked up with his eyes widened in fear but Lisa had already guided me towards the door while flicking her hair in his direction, leaving the store without looking back.

He looked like he was about to rush towards us but Katsuki raised her arm to block him, giving him a deathly stare that made him take a few steps back.

My Inugami maid then followed the two of us out of the shop which honestly just made me even more confused on what was going on.

"Err… What\'s happe--"

"Shhh… Let\'s get a little bit further first," Lisa whispered, shushing me.

I complied and followed Lisa who had her arm wrapped around me while Katsuki followed us a step behind.

Only after the shop was out of sight did Lisa start giggling uncontrollably to herself.

"Ahahaha! Did you see how quickly his face changed when he saw your crest, Aster?! Ahahaha!! I wished I had a way to preserve that sight!"

"Umm… Could you explain what happened?"

"Ahahaha! Of course, of course! Ehehehe~ You see, when I was still a nobody here, I ended up in front of that specific shop while it was raining one day to take shelter from it. You want to guess what happened next?"

"That man from before shooed you away?"

"Oh no, much worse. He came out of the store and beat me up with a stick, claiming that the place was not suitable for people like me. I really didn\'t think he would say the same line again today, though he definitely forgot about me already."

I stopped in my tracks, causing Lisa to stumble slightly but I managed to hold on to her and stopped her from hurting herself.

"Wait, wait… Does that mean that they know we are from the Nilm family?"

"Not at all Mistress," Katsuki answered me. "This only shows that I am a maid that was trained by the Nilm family. It does not reveal your identity as the young lady of the Nilm family, Mistress."

"Then why are they so afraid after that? They didn\'t seem that concerned when we showed up with you at first."

"That\'s because any noble can employ a maid if they have money, Mistress. But to have a maid trained by the Nilm family accompany them, only very select few families are able to claim such an honour and all of them are really influential or affluent families outside of the norm."

"No chances that they might claim you were carrying a fake?"

"We have a reputation of hunting down anyone who tries to even masquerade themselves as a person from the Nilm family Mistress. It is to the point that trying to pretend to be someone affiliated with the Nilm family is worse than a death sentence."

I\'m actually not even surprised to learn that at this point… Mother\'s influence seemed to reach everywhere within the Lecharouc Kingdom…

My brows creased slightly, "Just how influential are these families that we are talking about?"

"Any of these families could effectively shut down the store, enslave every single staff in said store and even their entire families if they wanted to, then send them to the mines or anywhere they wished without anyone being able to raise a word of complaint."

I frowned, "They do things like that?"

"It\'s not a common occurrence if that\'s what you are asking Mistress. But things like this have certainly happened before so it isn\'t unheard of."

"And these families won\'t use this power against ours?"

Katsuki smiled slightly, "Mistress… If we wanted to, we could kill off their entire family in less than a few days if we wanted to. Those who have thought of trying… They aren\'t around anymore."

Right… They did say that our maids were loyal to our family first and not the family that employs them and all of them would turn against them for us if given the order to.

"But those families know this right? Why would they still employ our maids?" I pointed out.

"That\'s because the quality of our service far surpasses what anyone else is able to give and we have become a status symbol within the noble circles."

So if you were able to claim that you have a maid from the Nilm family in your employ, you\'d be a person worthy of envy huh… I suppose I shouldn\'t be surprised that nobles like to show off.

I turned back to Lisa, "So that was your revenge against him? Making him think that he\'s going to lose some business because of us?".

"Eh? Ahh… Umm… Sorry for not telling you before that Aster… I should have told you before I used your family\'s name like that…"

"Yes, you should have told me before you did something like that!" I cried out, feeling quite upset at her.

She looked a little shamefaced and tried to say something but I raised up my hand to stop her so that I could ask Katsuki, "How much are their clothes? What is their price range?"

"Their most expensive products range from a hundred Creas to two hundred Creas, Mistress."

What the heck, that\'s hella cheap. My current dress already cost eighteen thousand Creas which means this dress is worth nine of theirs.

It might not look as fancy or impressive, but that\'s because the price comes from the materials used to make this dress which was not just some simple cloth and embroidery the previous shop had.

I turned back to Lisa, "You should have told me beforehand! How can you be satisfied with just doing that?! That\'s not nearly enough at all! We\'re going back to make him regret ever coming to work today and pissing us off!! Let\'s go!!"

I pulled the confused Lisa by the hand and went directly back to the store, shoving open the door so hard that it slammed against the wall and making everyone in the store jump in surprise.

When the same male Mahun saw us, he was quick to appear by my side with his head bowed low.

"W… Welcome to our humble store, my ladies! We are honoured  that you would choose to visit our store!"

So it seems like he wants to try and pretend that the previous event had not happened at all huh? I can work with that.

I quickly settled into the persona of those arrogant nobles that I would use in my writing, making sure I avoided even looking at him as I inspected my nails.

"I\'m here to look for clothes suitable for my darling here. Do not waste my time."

"Yes! Right away! Please, right this way!"

He ushered us into the store and I escorted Lisa in with Katsuki following behind me.

I noticed that several of the customers in the store quickly bid a hasty retreat out of the store, either knowing that I was most definitely not there with benevolent intentions or because they were afraid of my assumed status.

Either way, it didn\'t matter to me because I wasn\'t there for them.

While everyone else was distracted, Lisa got close to whisper to me, "As… Aster… What are you doing?"

"Helping you get the treatment you deserve of course," I answered her back easily.

"E… Eh? What… What do you mean?"

"Oh relax, my dear~ Just follow my lead this time~" I giggled.

Ehehehe~ I get to tease Lisa and watch her being all flustered while also getting back at some idiots who think too highly of themselves. I see this as an absolute win!