It Is Hard Being a Maid to the Greedy Princess

Zashuria Weltin is the eldest daughter and practical owner-driver of the Viscount Weltin family’s merchant guild, the only entity in the country legally permitted to trade magic stones from the Jarijuur territory in the distant Merdianne Empire. Her father Daniel is a kind but completely incompetent figurehead who approves final settlements and does minimal socializing. Zashuria handles every detail of the guild’s operations, from paperwork to logistics to finance, sleeping only four hours a night. The Weltin family is trapped in a precarious position. The magic stone trade made them indispensable, but their lowly Viscount rank makes them a target for ambitious nobles. The King himself issued an decree forbidding forced engagements or takeovers, but even that protection cannot save them if the guild falters. Zashuria believes her only future if the guild collapses is to become a Royal Court Maid, since she possesses excellent administrative skills but absolutely no practical ability in farming or housework.

Princess Julianne, universally called the Greedy Princess for her habit of seizing anything she covets, summons Zashuria to the Royal Palace. From the first audience, Zashuria is overwhelmed by the efficiency of the palace. The maids move with flawless elegance, the cleaning is immaculate, and every detail of her preferences—her usual tea with one sugar and milk, her favorite cookies, the specific cakes she admired from a patisserie she never had time to visit—has been discovered and prepared for her. The Chief Maid of the Princess’s Palace, Emilia Disgabal, from the powerful Marquis family, is initially intimidating with her expressionless face and silver-rimmed glasses. Zashuria’s inadequate noble manners are exposed immediately.

Over several summons, the Princess steadily learns about Zashuria’s workload, her skills, her family’s situation, and even her secret aspiration to be a Royal Court Maid. Zashuria’s best friend Meisia, daughter of Count Schnau and trapped in a terrible forced engagement, warns her to be careful but insists that the Princess is not as malicious as rumor suggests. Meisia is right. The Princess reveals she wants Zashuria—not the guild, initially—as her personal maid. Zashuria attempts to refuse, citing her lack of culture and the guild’s impossible workload. The Princess simply smiles and announces that she will take over the Weltin Merchant Guild and manage it herself, allowing Zashuria to work for her full-time.

Zashuria scrambles for an escape. She argues that the King would never approve. But the King has already given permission. She argues that the Jarijuur family would never consent to a change in management. But the Princess has already contacted them through her mysterious means and received their agreement. She even tries to convince herself that the maid uniform is uncomfortable, but before she knows it, she has been fitted for it, enrolled in maid training, and told to consider her academy studies completed. The process is seamless, swift, and utterly inescapable.

Zashuria has no choice but to accept. Her first day as a trainee maid is spent in shock. She discovers that becoming a Royal Court Maid requires far more than administrative skills. The palace’s standards are terrifyingly high, and Chief Maid Disgabal is a boss who sees through every lapse. Zashuria realizes that she never truly understood what the Princess wanted or how thoroughly she had been analyzed. The Greedy Princess had already made her decision long before the first summons. Zashuria’s new life as a maid under the Princess begins, with the entire Weltin Merchant Guild now under the Princess’s control and Zashuria herself without any way to return to her former independent existence. She returns home in the carriage, exhausted and resigned, knowing that from tomorrow onward, everything she knew is gone.