Rin bit her lip, trying not to curse and yell at the bedroom's owner, again. This daily wake-up call was often what ruined her day the most. Not the forced polite words or the need to act the responsible one to a needy gorilla, no. It was the reply and how lazy said reply was given that irked the twin-tailed brunette so much.
"Oh my, what a sight to see on what should've been a fine morning." Yawning and stretching an arm so high up it accentuated the massive rack she held aloft with her other arm, the future head of the Edelfelt clan stared mockingly at Rin's turquoise blues with her amber orbs. "You know, as my loyal maid, the least you could do is offer me a proper smile to brighten up my day."
Luviagelita Edelfelt awoke with the leer of a cougar eyeing its prey. And with such a dazzling yet smirking smile, beautiful yet piercing eyes, and bountiful assets that Rin wished she could smother their owner with, it was all enough to make one forget restraint in lieu of the bubbling frustration.
The Japanese girl currently dressed in a classical maid uniform promptly lifted the sides of her skirt to offer a most practised and gracious bow before she followed it up with, "With all due respect, go to hell, my lady."
"Hmph. Not before driving you to suicide first, my most abhorrent servant."
Both girls sent each other death glares before simultaneously breaking eye contact and moving on with their daily motions. After regular greetings came dressing the lady, and while most servants would eagerly and kindly serve their charge in doing so, this master-servant pair opted instead to do things… a little differently. Namely, the lady herself got off her bed and picked out her own dress from the nearby closet whilst the maid lazily plopped herself on the sofa and tried her damnedest to catch a few more z's from waking up at such an ungodly hour.
And why did Luvia allow such behavior? Because should they ever do the stereotypical thing and have the servant assist her lady, it would end with both attempting to kill the other over a corset that was too tight or combing drill hair so roughly a few strands snapped loose from the scalp. In short, neither wanted to escalate and there wasn't any need to push each other's buttons so early. Still, Rin could do without wearing the ridiculous outfit.
"How long do I have to wear this maid uniform?"
"Don't tell me you wish to back out of our deal so early, Rin. You either have to defeat me in the spar or wait until the end of this month." Luvia smirked when her friend/slave audibly whined. "Not my fault someone's head got too big for their own good and needed help paying for the damages."
"Not my fault that stupid gem exploded! I thought the Edelfelt would provide the best quality jewels!"
"Of course, we do. But we also get some questionable staff members." Luvia scoffed before sending her a flat stare. "You're lucky my father didn't hear about it or that it didn't start a fire this time around."
"Erk…" Rin remembered the accident two weeks ago. When she managed to convince Luvia to give her access to some of the more expensive jewellery for use in an experiment. As fellow students in Mineralogy, Luvia accepted on the condition that she would observe from the sidelines. Lucky her and not the head Edelfelt acted on the aftermath for the damage was beyond catastrophic. "How was I supposed to know it will explode if I add a little bit more mana than normal?"
"A deal's a deal. No sense in making a promise you can't keep if you back down now. Unless you'd rather we have a go later today?"
"I hate you so much…"
Luvia let the mumble slide with a smile. For all the insults they sent each other's way, theirs was not entirely hostile nor was it a truly servile relationship.
Rin was thankful that the blonde heiress was the only one who saw it. The Tohsaka heiress could already picture Lord Edelfelt adding the cost of that gem, as well as all the others that shattered and exploded next to it, to the long list of debt Rin accrued over the years. Obviously, he'd expect the girl to pay everything back plus the interest rate but with Luvia's intervention, most of the worst had been waived over the years. For that, Rin was profoundly grateful.
Only god knew how much she owed the damned Edelfelts when she burnt the house they gave her and her mother down all due to her first experiment on advanced topics without her father's guidance.
The Edelfelts simply shrugged and tacked it onto the list. Rather than limiting her, they actually supported her studying magecraft on her own terms. No micromanaging nor recruiting her for what point was there when both families had nearly identical techniques? No. It was better to provide her with a chance to bloom on her own, albeit under their keen watch.
Yes. She was still under surveillance. As were all their trusted servants and vassals, be it within the house or beyond. It was to be expected. She was the daughter of a former rival. Any funny business was frowned upon, but signs of dissent and/or sabotage of their clan's agenda and someone would have to hang.
Luckily, she was seen more as an investment waiting to be harvested. She was a talent, after all. It would be more profitable if she could 'independently' donate her findings and resources to them as they needn't even lift a finger to convince her to do so. Merely tightening the grip around her mother's position would be enough of a motivator. It was also seen more favourably as a friendly donation was considered more of a freebie than extorted research by someone held hostage. Even if the latter was the closest to the truth.
In due time, they'd get their returns for their investments. All she had to do was study well for it.
However, setting aside being allowed to study magecraft 'freely', supplying her with materials was limited to those of subpar quality. She had to make do, lest she runs the risk of inflating her debt even more than necessary. Due to this, Rin's best chance to get her hands on some of the good stuff was through Luvia providing them for her. Naturally, this meant requesting (read begging) the blonde heiress for more materials soon after she lost them in trial and error.
But making deals with the devil was never fair. Unlike the wench's father who pretended to offer simple terms, Luvia's was more… blatant as well as draconian in nature.
For example, would be what she required in exchange for precious gems. Rin had to take on an added responsibility as Luvia's sparring partner in martial arts training. Initially, Rin thought it a good trade. Self-defence combat practice alongside a steady stream of materials to further along her studies. A win-win, right?
Wrong! She was very, very wrong! She got access to expensive and highly-attuned stones for her studies, yes. But the drawback was that becoming a punching bag because a certain graceful blonde heiress was actually a drill-haired gorilla in disguise who was far too into pro-wrestling for even a normal girl, much less a self-proclaimed noblewoman!
'I mean seriously?! Where the hell does she get the energy and momentum to forcefully swing me around like I'm a fan blade? Don't tell me her tits store all that energy!' Honestly, someone could tell Rin that and she'd huff in surrender, only seething in blind envy and agonized rage under the veneer of a calm, defeated pout. She did so now as well. "I'm getting tired of wearing this ridiculous dress, Luvia. You and your weird tastes…"
"Hush, maid! As if I dressed you to get a giggle at your expense!"
"Didn't you?" Rin eyed the woman who didn't refute it with disdain before scowling even harder.
"Relax. It's not out of perverted reasons anyways. Honestly, your rotten personality mixed with the context of such a subservient attire, throw in the lack of muscles in the abs area, meat or even curve in your hips, not to mention the meagre absence of an actual chest, why do you think I gave you such a slim-fitting attire if not to outright humiliate you—Oh, dear!" Luvia dodged the pillow Rin threw her way with a cheeky smile. "How uncouth! See, this is the reason why I chose this dress specifically. And frankly, I got exactly what I wanted. A picture-perfect image of the usually gracious and polite Tohsaka Rin clad in a servant's dress, making a face as horrid and ugly as yours at the moment. Ohohohoho—MMPH!"
Rin couldn't even take a win out of stuffing the witch's face with a second and third pillow. "If you want a fight, then just ask for it, my lady. I'll stuff your face into the dirt as you please!"
"Ahem, like you could even beat me with your flimsy excuse of an arm right now." Luvia dodged a fourth pillow, one from the couch this time, before adding. "Then again, if you preferred I'd done it with such twisted intentions in mind, I could've invited a few distant cousins to watch as I dress you up like a doll—"
"Please, don't even joke about it." Rin visibly looked sick from the thought and Luvia was quick to pick up on that, shutting up immediately. Despite their teasing, she was far from the worst this family could offer, and Rin hated the fact that she preferred the blonde's company to pretty much everyone else in this family. She couldn't help from uttering under her breath, "God, I hate this so much…"
"Then stop complaining and keep working as hard as you have been. Maybe then, you'd climb out of the massive hole you fell into."
Luvia said it as though she supported Rin in her plight. Though, considering their circumstances, the blonde knew could only do so much without it coming off as shaming the feeble or betraying her family. Even Rin could tell. This was as much as Luvia could act considerate without making herself or her betters look weak. In the same vein, she didn't dare hurt Rin's pride via pitiful sympathy. Armed with this knowledge, it was why Rin could continue on with her day-to-day life for the past nine years.
"Now, what do we have today?"
Marching after her lady, Rin was quick to enumerate the details as though she was reading off a note. "Breakfast with both your parents today. It's my mom's turn in the kitchen, so as requested, she cooked miso soup for you."
Luvia visibly licked her lips. "Mrs Tohsaka's food always makes me appreciate your homeland, Rin. While it is unfortunate a vile creature as you were born there, it makes up for it with its delicious food."
"I could say the same about Finland, had I not been forced to serve the queen of the gorillas." Rin actually preferred some of the Finish cuisines, lihapullat to name one, from time to time. "Anyway, after the meal, you have your usual training and then lessons from a—Er… I forgot the name of a new tutor."
"Don't bother remembering it. That wench will leave like the rest of them did before her." Forgiving her for missing the beat, Luvia shrugged indifferently, not even bothering to hide her disgust. "All these relics will have an easier time teaching school children in the museum as exhibits. Honestly, no matter how many times I tell my father, he keeps finding me the most boring and trivial of tutors."
"I'm surprised your father is willing to keep up with your shenanigans."
"Our shenanigans, Rin. Ours."
The brunette didn't like agreeing with the pretentious bimbo, but she got her there. As much as she would want to roll her eyes at the notion, it still was true that neither of the girls were innocent when it came to what drove out Luvia's past tutors. Some either quit or even go insane before offering up their resignations.
All of them were from the Clock Tower, of course. People who failed to get a job as professors but had good enough credentials to be recommended as personal tutors for first-rate families. Luvia was adept with her family's craft, taught by her father himself and praised to be the golden child of their clan's new generation. She'd even brought it upon herself to provide tutoring to Rin at times as they shared the field of study. Certainly, it wasn't always a good thing in her father's eyes, but the willfulness of the Edelfelt heiress was beyond the current head's control. Within some reason, of course.
Be it through family or the one friend she could show her true face to, she spared no effort to grow and expand her horizons. But she still needed to learn much about the moonlit world and it was easier to rely on Clock Tower graduates to do so. Only…
"Be that as it may, my lady, my point still stands. Sooner or later no one will agree to teach you, Luvia."
The blonde waved it away. "Hmph. It is fine. I was looking forward to getting into the class of the youngest professor in Clock Tower anyways."
The maid's pace slowed down as she remembered that name. "Ah. Waver Velvet, is it?"
"These days, he goes by the name of Lord El-Melloi II, but yes, that's him." Luvia's eyebrow raised slightly as she noted the shift in Rin's expression. "You've never met the man, but already dislike him, do you?"
"Hard not to feel animosity towards the only survivor of the war that claimed a parent's life, is it?" She replied with indifference, but the bile was there. Subtle but also politely suppressed enough that Luvia didn't call her out on it.
Rin knew it was unfair to dislike or even hate a Clock Tower Lord when all he did was somehow manage to survive. He didn't even win, as far as she was aware, barely saving his own skin before disaster struck the ritual. An official investigation from Clock Tower concluded and ruled out Waver Velvet being responsible for anything, be it the great fire that sent a part of the hidden community into turmoil at being exposed to the death of one Tohsaka Tokiomi. He was also absolved of killing any of the Church officials or his former teacher, the late Kayneth El Melloi Archibald, that became his fellow Master. In fact, the investigation dictated that he merely got by laying low throughout the war, minding his own business until the very last.
Yet, despite what official records show, Rin couldn't accept it. She just couldn't brush it all aside and move on. Especially when everything about the investigation had been severely restricted and no one bar the upper echelon of the organization, that of a Lord or higher, could get much info.
'They tell us he simply dug a hole for himself and waited out the entire thing but don't give me a thorough explanation as to how father died… Bullshit.'
She wanted to know. Gods, she wanted to know. But she couldn't do much right now. More so with her current standing.
"I will not fault you for it is within your right to feel as you do. But," Luvia snapped her fingers before Rin's face, calling the girl back to reality. "Since we are both enrolling in the Clock Tower within two years' time, you'd better come to terms with it or, better yet, learn to manage your feelings behind a mask. Then again, with that face, the latter seems too much to ask of you."
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Rin snapped back at the snide comment.
"Exactly that! That!" Poking a finger against Rin's cheek, Luvia avoided losing her fingers when Rin reflexively bit down. "Quite the precocious little pet I have… Dear me, I can't have my assistant acting so rudely before a lord of his standing." Luvia sighed in shame. "Small timer and young upstart as he may be, a lord is still a lord. His achievements alone carry far more weight than the Edelfelt name that's only skirted by through history. What do you think would happen if said family employed unruly pups that seem to haven't been taught any discipline?"
The dog analogy wasn't particularly welcome, but she got the point. On another note, 'skirted by' was an understatement. The Edelfelts were at their prime. Wealthy, powerful, and ambitious. All the while secure, well-established, and even allied with various, more prestigious names. They could very well produce the next lord to be appointed in the near future. But, knowing full well she was merely stating it for the betterment of her friend's sake, however. Rin knew better than to argue.
While Luvia wasn't her family and would probably let things slide, the rest of the clan would have far worse to suggest as her punishment. It wouldn't matter under who she was working for, so long as Rin besmirched their reputation, those hyenas pretending to be wolves wouldn't stand for it.
"Hmph," instead, she just huffed at her master's tacit warning and stared off to the side. "Fine, I get it."
"Get what?"
"I said I get it!"
"I'm not so sure you do." Closing the gap between the two, Rin could see a teasing smirk forming on Luvia's face as she leaned in sideways and cup her ear her way. "For the sake of clarity, why not tell me what it is you get, my dear maid?"
'This bitch–!' Rin grit her teeth.
If there was one thing Luvia was good at, it would be pushing her buttons. Knowing full well that Rin's prideful nature would stop her from expressing open gratitude to a rival not older nor far more superior to her, Luvia took great enjoyment out of forcing the words out of her mouth. Yet, it's not like Rin had a choice unless she wanted the blonde to keep poking her for a response all throughout the day.
"I… I'm grateful for all that you've done… for my sake…"
"Mmm, that's what I'd like to hear more often! Ohohohoho!" Puffing her already bombastic chest forward, the bimbo's signature laugh irked Rin. But instead of slapping the witch in the face, she instead hid behind both her palms, red-faced and fuming.
"I hate you so much!"
"And yet you've so far failed to actually do anything close to resembling payback!"
Oh, she had no idea how many attempts Rin had already tried. She created a gem that randomly made small noises to try and ruin her beauty sleep via anxiety-induced stress. She tried to feed her laxatives in order to get an upper hand against the pro-wrestling gorilla during a spar. She attempted to sabotage her hairbrush to make the girl's drill hair slowly fall out. Nothing worked. Not a single one! It was as though she was bashing her head against a stubborn—, actually, no. Frankly speaking, with Luvia powering through all the bullshit Rin often threw in her mistress' way, it felt more like Rin was the wall being tackled by a drill-shaped, gorilla-driven, battering ram.
In short, she could hardly pull a win against the woman. And Luvia wasn't even trying!
"Oho? I quite like that expression you have on right now."
Rin brushed it off to continue their trek down the hall. She didn't bother to slow down and casually threw the following over her shoulder. "Luvia, if you could please jump out the nearest window, you'd do the world a favour."
"Ah, harsh words, but coming from someone blushing as red as a commoner schoolgirl, it only comes off as adorable! You know, Rin, you are very much a textbook example of a tsundere!"
Rin stopped walking. Hell, she nearly stumbled as she did. Feeling a jolt rush down her spine, a cold chill hung over her shoulders as she slowly, cringingly turned to stare at her worst enemy. "W—… Where…? Where did you hear that term?!"
"Hm? From one of those Japanese animations your home country makes." Luvia's smirk could get only so big as she watched Rin die inside. "Their take on art form was so unique, my interest was piqued. But I must admit, your reaction to the term is ten times far more entertaining."
Rin cared little for the art forms of her homeland. Hell, she couldn't care less about such things that it was so easy to part with her family's art collection when she was reading her father's will. But this… using words that shouldn't be used… normalizing cringe-inducing ideas… and for it all to come out of her mouth… This was hell.
It was bad enough that Rin would have to suffer the debt to the Edelfelts for many more years, but knowing that she of all people, someone whose presence Rin would have to endure for decades to come… it was the last straw.
However, with her current position and who she was dealing with, all Rin could do was bite her lip hard as she requested, "P-please. Please, never say that word again… my lady…"
"Hm… Shouldn't I?" Luvia teased, but seeing the tears almost escaping the corner of her eyes, the girl relented. "Very well. I won't bring it up again if you feel so disturbed by it."
Rin almost let out a relieved sigh. That is until Luvia added.
"In exchange, how about you instruct me on the noble speech from your country, Rin? I think it's time I took some effort in learning more about the place my dearest friend came from, wouldn't you agree, desu wa?"
A pained silent scream rang out through the entire castle. But knowing full well of the Edelfelt heiress' tendencies to push her servant's patience, nobody brought it up during breakfast.