Chapter 28.

~ Messy meetings! ~

Narrator POV:

The next day after making all of the ice sculptures.

The ice Queen of Arendelle is peacefully sleeping in her ginormous queen-sized bed, the early morning sun rays are trying to shine through the room's windows, but the curtains covering the window prevent it from succeeding in their supposed job.

Elsa slowly wakes up, yawning a little and somehow pulling it off elegantly, unfortunately, there was nobody in the room to lay their eyes upon such a view... Some specific maid would've loved to see it.

Elsa, however, is confused. Before her coronation, her 'alone' life was less packed with stuff to do, thus she could sleep till she woke up every day, thus she was stuck in that not-so-good sleep schedule.

Her private maid fixed that, with some difficulty, of course, over the few weeks as she woke up Elsa at the same time every morning. It took some effort on Elsa's part to not throw Diana out of the room and go back to sleep on the first days, but eventually, her internal clock was done anew, which is why she woke up now at the right time without any help.

She's yet to check the actual time from the stand-clock, maybe she woke up even earlier than it seems and her maid is yet to arrive? So she does just that by craning her head to the side. She sees that it's twenty-one minutes past her waking time, her suspicion was proven right.

And now Elsa's confused even more. Her waking up by herself isn't the reason why the Queen is confused though, she's confused because she woke up without any 'help' as her maid should've been here in her room some time ago.

She is snapped out of her confused daze by several light knocks on the door of her room. For a split moment, she thought that it was her maid, but that thought quickly dissipated as she remembered that Diana doesn't knock in the morning and enters the room with the key that she herself gave to her when it was made.

It also couldn't be Anna, as her knocks tend to be more 'aggressive' than the soft ones that she just heard.

It could be Kai, but he normally knocks twice every time, as he's quite punctual about certain things he does. So that doesn't seem the case either.

"Queen Elsa?"

While Elsa was lost in her thoughts, she heard a feminine and quiet, almost shy-like, voice. This is definitely somebody she doesn't know.

"Ye-" Elsa starts but hearing how hoarse her voice is, she coughs out into her hand, she would really like to go for a glass of water, but there's nobody to serve her this time "Yes?" Elsa answers back after clearing out her throat.

After an awkward moment of silence, the Queen hears back from the stranger behind the door.

"I am one of the maid trainees, taught by Diana, I am here to serve you for this morning instead of her, by her request... Could I come inside?"

"Huh?" Elsa lets out puzzled, but realizing that she couldn't possibly be heard, shakes her head slightly to reset herself, and then says "Yes, let me just unlock the door"

"Thank you, Queen Elsa" She hears back, she's slightly confused why the maid in training chose those words in this situation, but she's used to weird things, she hangs out with the strangest individual out there after all.

Elsa finally gets out of her bed, standing on the floor with her bare feet, which is slightly uncomfortable... Yet another thing Diana got her used to, always putting on slippers or heels, if she needs to get somewhere quick, before she was allowed to leave the bed... Yes, her maid would literally force her to stay in bed before she got to put footwear on her legs.

She sees the few ready pairs of slippers and heels, she uses her magic to start moving the slippers to herself, but stopped midway and changed her mind to heels.

She sat down on the bed again, her legs hovering above the floor allowing her magic to carry the heels and put them on.

Elsa stands back up, she creates her usual dress with her powers and as she starts to move, she pauses... As only now her mind caught up to the fact that she stopped herself from wearing the slippers for the new maid to see...

Why did she do that? It can't possibly be because Diana randomly and jokingly mentioned that only she should ever get to see her in them. No, no way that's the reason. It has to be that she's just not feeling it, yes, definitely that's the case.

Elsa, yet again, shakes her head to reset herself and with a nod to herself in view of her mirror, she's ready to meet the new maid now.

The Queen finally makes it to the door, pulling the handle and opening the door for the maid trainee, she slightly steps to the side making way for the woman.

As the woman walks past her while wheeling a cart of various goods, Elsa takes in the woman's appearance.

A beautiful and well-shaped face, with silky brown and probably long hair, otherwise there would be no need for the bun. Slightly smaller than her, but only in height, the width is a bit chubbier, at least that's what she thinks, the maid uniforms are quite big and spacy.

"Why did you thank me earlier?" This question slips out of Elsa's mouth before she could stop herself, she asked it so casually that the maid got stunned for a moment. Elsa asked the question as if she were asking Diana something, which is not how she speaks with everybody else, besides Anna, Olaf, and recently Kristoff, who has been visiting frequently.

"T-that would be because the Queen allowed me inside her room and even opened the door for me" Nevertheless, the maid answers after her initial shock, she chooses not to comment on what happened, due to fear of making mistakes.

Of course, the woman's fear is nonsensical, if she did comment on it, Elsa wouldn't punish or even think of doing that.

But the maid has heard so many things from her 'teacher' when it comes to how a maid should deal with the Queen, that she doesn't want to risk anything... She's really scared of both the Queen and Diana for different reasons.

Elsa smiles kindly, returning to her 'normal' behavior that she shows her subjects.

"There's no need to do that, it's just basic decency and besides, if I didn't do either of those things, then I would still be sitting in my bed without anybody to serve me"

"T-that's true, I suppose, but Diana told the maids to always show utmost respect to the great Queen, thank her for everything, no matter how little the thing turns out to be and if needed, which if I understood correctly was actually 'when we get the chane', praise and worship the Queen of Arendelle by telling how great, amazing and awesome she is. Thank you Queen for the question and allowing me to answer" The woman, says with her head down, looking at the Queen's feet, which was where Diana told them to look when addressing her.

At first, all of the maid trainees, even her, thought that it was excessive and too much, but Diana told many things, some things sounded like threats, warnings, and other things sounded like praise and compliments for the Queen only of course... But now she thinks Diana was right, at least with one thing... The Queen really does have the most beautiful legs in all of Arendelle just as Diana told them ten dozen times. So she's glad to actually keep her head down, at least the Queen doesn't see her gazing so passionately at her feet.

While the woman was lost in her mind over how amazing the Queen's legs were, The Queen's right hand moved up by instinct, but she managed to stop it with her left hand... She almost made a fool out of herself by face-palming in front of the poor woman who got tricked by Diana.

"What was she thinking...?" Elsa mutters to herself tired, she already wishes it was night so she could go back to sleep and rest away the tired feeling.

The Queen moves past the maid, walking to her bed to at least sit-down.

The maid seeing Elsa's legs get out of her peripherals finally breaks out of her daze, and right after the biggest feeling of shame washes over her... What was she just doing? She got the chance to serve the Queen from Diana by working hard, yet she was the one being served the great scenery instead.

She's an embarrassment to maids all over the world. She bites her bottom lip and finally starts moving and doing her job. She pulls the cart closer to the Queen's bed on which Elsa is sitting.

And she starts serving the Queen. First, she pours water for her, then, after handing the glass of water she moves on to the still warm breakfast by lifting the lid up and then putting the knife and fork on opposite sides of the dish already prepared in portions that the Queen is comfortable with eating and finishing.

The portions, 'servings fit for Royalty' is what the teacher Diana calls them, were taught to all of the maids as one of the first things for their training, way before any cleaning lessons... Serving the Queen is all of the stuff they've been taught so far, precisely for situations such as these when Diana herself can't be here to serve Elsa.

After Elsa finally got herself some hydration, she asks the maid a question while waiting for her to serve everything.

"What's your name? I would like to know the person that serves me as it's somewhat awkward to be served by a nameless person... That and I don't know how to refer to you as to not hurt your feelings accidentally"

The maid's hand, which was in the middle of putting down handkerchiefs for the Queen to use to clean herself while eating, trembles, and subconsciously her mouth opens and lets out "So kind"

Just like their teacher said over and over, the Queen is the fairest and kindest in all of the land.

"What?"

The woman hears from her side, her head finally raises to lock eyes with the owner of the beautiful voice... She just realized what happened.

The maid's ear tips and cheeks get red almost instantaneously, she jumps back and shakes her head while saying "Nothing, it's nothing" But realizing, yet again, what she's doing, the maid's hands quickly go to her mouth to shut herself up.

But instead of feeling her hands, she feels a soft and 'clothy' feeling instead, her hands move back a little, and her eyes lower down to see what it was, and then her expression changes from embarrassment to fear as her face drains all color... She just put one of the Queen-ready handkerchiefs on her lips, even leaving a clearly seen damp imprint on it.

"Uh- uhm, u-uh, ah, I-, I'M SORRY!" The maid shouts out fearful, embarrassed, and ashamed of her performance. Her arms, still holding the handkerchiefs, go behind her back and her back goes straight as her head lowers down to look at the ground, she doesn't even look at the pretty legs anymore. She, just like all of the others, was literally only taught how to serve the Queen, and yet here, she's making a joke of herself.

The maid stands stiff, not hearing the Queen say anything and neither are there any movements from her. Which, her panicked mind interprets the wrong way. She thinks that the Queen must be judging her with disappointment and maybe even anger for screwing up her morning, breakfast, and her handkerchief. With all of these thoughts, the woman's eyes get red and tearful. She's about to cry.

If only she was looking at Elsa's face instead of gazing at the floor, she would see an entirely different sight.

Elsa is looking at the woman with only a large amount of pity, she herself knows just how much energy it requires to handle and keep up with Diana, so it must have been tough for her and the other maid trainees.

Maybe she should put a leash on her somehow? On the other hand, maybe that's not a good idea, she'd probably love it and wear this leash excitedly and proudly show it off to everybody while boasting about being her precious dog or something...

While Elsa's brain was coming up with some sort of 'plan', the maid was getting more and more panicky.

She, not wanting to be seen crying in front of the Queen, turns around and starts walking fast to the door. She doesn't want to lose this job, but she might as well already pack her bags, she screwed up that hard on her first opportunity, and she has no idea who would want a useless and foolish maid like her, especially after this, she's even leaving before finishing serving the Queen... Her life is over.

Elsa, seeing what's happening, quickly uses her ice powers to seal shut the door. Never in her wildest dreams did she ever think asking somebody's name would result in that person trying to escape from her in panic.

The maid having made it to the door and trying to touch the door handle backfires on her, as the sudden cold makes her hand snap back to her chest, but strangely it also helped her relax a little bit. The ice just cooled her off... Her teacher was even right about this, the Queen's powers will help anybody if one needs help.

Now she sees that Diana wasn't just talking nonsense, she can believe her teacher after all.

There's still only silence, but after a while, the maid breathes in and breathes out a few times, calming herself down.

She turns around and properly looks at the Queen, who is standing rather than sitting on the bed. she lowers her head and her back and clearly and calmly apologizes "I am sorry for my performance, Queen Elsa"

Elsa seeing that somehow everything has fixed herself without her actually doing anything, sits back down and with a patient smile answers the woman "It's okay, I must also apologize"

"W-what, no, the Queen did noth-"

Elsa, however, softly interrupts the woman with a shake of her head "No, I insist, I wasn't thinking when I asked you a question. I must still be sleepy and not fully awake. I should've seen clearly that you were agitated for one reason or another and also doing it while you were still working and not standing calmly away after preparing everything...That was poor judgment on my side, so I apologize"

"I- I-" The woman has no idea what to do in this situation, she neither was taught by her teacher who she now trusts what to do if something like this happens nor has she ever put herself in a situation where the Queen would apologize to her.

Elsa seeing the woman stuck again, pauses for a moment to inspect her expression, seeing no fear or similar emotions to before knows that this is different than before.

"How about this, we both accept each other's apologies and we restart all of this?"

"I-... Okay, thank you, Queen"

Elsa rolls her eyes, she will need to fix that somehow, but for now, she will let it go.

"Now, I will ask again, what's your name?"

"Drusilla" The maid, now known as Drusilla answers calmly.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Drusilla, you can resume doing what you came here to do, and don't worry, take it slowly if you need to, we have time" Elsa kindly states.

"Yes, Queen Elsa, thank you" Drusilla thanks Elsa again and steadily walks back to the cart, resuming her work and as she does, she notices that her hand is still holding onto the sullied handkerchief.

"Uhm..." Drusilla lets out, not knowing what to do with it. This is the only one she carried here as it was included with the 'serving fit of Royalty' made by Diana. She can't just give it to the Queenan the other options of throwing it away, keeping it, and bringing another one don't seem like the right choices either.

Elsa seeing the woman's predicament helps her out "Don't worry, you can put it back on the cart. Then go to that shelf right there and open the third... No, wait... The second case and there should be more of those handkerchiefs in there. Diana always said 'just in case' when I asked her about them" The Queen states pointing with her hand to the shelf she's speaking about.

Drusilla nods silently, puts down the handkerchief as far away from the dish as possible, walks to the shelf, opens the second case, and sees it just filled to the brim with the handkerchief. She is quite shocked to see such a sight.

She then hears the Queen chuckle, the sound sounded so pleasant to her ears, yet another thing that her teacher... No, her master, was right about it. Hearing the Queen laugh in any way is like music to one's ears, she now wants to hear more of it.

"One day, Diana brought a box to my room and when I asked what was inside it, she let me open the box myself and I was just as shocked to see the same sight. And that was the first 'just in case' I heard when I asked what they were for, at the fifth one I stopped asking, but I don't think that question is necessary anymore"

Drusilla smiles, outside of Elsa's view, hearing the Queen's little story about her master, she then takes one handkerchief, making the very first 'dent' into the collection.

She walks back and finally finishes serving the Queen her breakfast, unfortunately, the food is colder than it was supposed to be by her master's teachings, it's still warm, but barely.

Drusilla wanted to apologize again for making the Queen wait so long for food, but she doesn't get the chance as she sees that she has already started eating, eating with a smile and not making any kind of 'unpleasant' face while doing so.

Again, her master was right again... The Queen will always stay elegant even when something inconveniences her. From now on, she will not question her master on the topic of the Queen and will full-heartedly believe that Queen Elsa is just the best.

With that, the maid steps back and silently waits for the Queen to finish eating.

Several minutes after, Elsa finished her breakfast, which wasn't the best meal she has had in the last few weeks, due to it having lost its warmness, but it was still enjoyable, so she won't complain about it.

While Drusilla got closer to the cart to start putting the dishes away for cleaning, Elsa asks her a question that swirled in her mind while she was eating.

"Where is Diana?"

And this time the maid doesn't panic because of the sudden question and answers the Queen calmly.

"I don't fully know the situation, but when she sent Gerda to send me here to serve the Queen, Gerda said that Diana was feeling sick"

"Sick? I see..." Elsa murmurs to herself then says to the maid "if you see her, wish her a speedy recovery"

"Okay, I will" Drusilla answers back, before throwing out a risky question herself "Should I also add that the Queen wishes her the same, I think that Diana would be happy to hear that"

Elsa looks at the maid in silence for a moment, before smiling pleasantly "You can do that"

"As the Queen says, I will do these things if I were to meet master"

Master? What? That's the thing that crosses Elsa's mind when she hears the maid speak.

"I will go prepare the Queen's bath now and while the Queen is bathing, I will clean the room after taking away the cart back to the kitchen, is that okay with the Queen?"

"Yes"

Sometime later.

After the Queen's bath, Kai came to Elsa's freshly cleaned room to tell her her duties for the day and also mentioned about an upcoming serious meeting with another country's advocate.

Now, her activities for the day are pretty much nonexistent since the hiring of the new people for all of the positions, when the previous ones were let go. Both of which were Diana's doing.

So, instead of having almost no rest time before, now 'rest' is most of her job. Only on important meetings like these does she get to do her job as the Queen.

Elsa would complain about it to Diana since she has nothing to do for the most part, if the job being done didn't have an obvious overall improvement when compared to the previous people who were either allowed to work here by her deceased parent or Kai.

Also, Elsa swears that having more free time was Diana's real plan rather than having better inner workings for Arendelle, as this allows more time to be spent together, though Elsa can't actually prove such a thought... Diana did do it because she was tired and stressed out after all.

While Elsa and Kai were walking toward the throne room, Kai was explaining the details about the envoy sent by a neighboring kingdom. The whole time Elsa felt that something was wrong, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

And this feeling intensified whence Kai stopped talking because he was finished and silence followed, all but shoe steps and heel-clicking was heard.

Elsa turned around "Di-" and stopped herself from continuing to say what she wanted because the person she was about to call out to wasn't there, only Drusilla the new maid was there, also further away than Diana would be, so they didn't collide... Now she knows why she felt that something was wrong, it was because when Diana is around her, there is no such thing as 'silence' unless Elsa asks for it. Or just in general, there's never a dull moment when she's here.

"Yes, Queen Elsa?" The woman asks somewhat confused.

Elsa resets rather quickly "Drusilla, I won't need you for the meeting, so you're free for the next hour, after the hour you can come back and be ready to serve me a cup of hot chocolate"

"Of course, my Queen, I'd be glad to" Drusilla answers with a smile and turns around to do just as the Queen said. While her mind wonders to her master, yet again, she was right, Queen Elsa loves her chocolate and if Diana was right about this, then the tip about bringing at least three cups should also be correct.

And now there were two.

"Elsa, you aren't getting rid of me as you did with the maid, I will be there for the meeting" Kai states simply, leaving no room for arguments.

"Wasn't planning on it, at rare times you're more stubborn than Anna and Diana combined. Even though as tasks go this one is pretty simple, so I don't understand why you're so adamant about staying"

"I'd be more convinced by what you're saying if it weren't for the fact that due to Diana's handiwork the Queen has her meetings and other work cut to a fourth of what it was previous... The last meeting was six days, six days! I need to make sure that the Queen makes no mistakes"

"Yes, yes..." Elsa rolls her eyes outside Kai's view "Well then, shall we go inside and wait for them to arrive?" She says while extending her palm towards the big door's handle.

"Yes we can go in, but the envoy is here already and they've been waiting for us" Kai states in a reprimanding sounding voice.

"...Oh" Is the only thing that Elsa can defend herself from this 'attack'.

So not only did she wake up later because there was no Diana to do it earlier, but she assumedly has overstayed her welcome in the great bath because there was no private maid to time how long she should be in there... Elsa knows that it's her fault, but she really wants to put blame on the Scarlet Angel instead, who told her to make her get used to the excellent servitude.

Elsa opens the door and casually walks over to her throne, Kai following her steadily but less calmly.

Disney's best woman's eyes throw a quick glance towards the envoy... Envoys, as there appear to be two for some reason. After this quick look, she instead does the same with Kai and she sees the quite well-hidden surprise behind his eyes. So, it seems he didn't know about this 'change-up' either.

Elsa, now sitting on her throne, faces the two individuals, calmly and at the same time cautiously. They already 'lied' in their sent message about sending only one person, so there could be more unwelcome news.

"My apologies for being late, I hope you can overlook this and we can continue on with our business" Elsa elegantly says to the two people which she has no clue about.

"No worries, it's okay, we know how busy royalty can be in their position" One of them says gracefully.

"Yes, indeed. But we do have to wonder, what could be more important than us" The other one also adds... Gracefully.

Elsa sees immediately how it is, they are unhappy because she was late, yet keeping up false pretenses.

"There aren't, gentlemen, I just had to make sure I look the part for this meeting, Wouldn't want to disgrace you by showing up not ready" The Queen states with a warm, but deeply practiced smile.

The expressions of the two individuals snapped back into 'decent' almost instantaneously when Elsa said that.

"Now, how about you introduce yourself?" Elsa throws a valid question, as she has no idea who they are, but she is 'supposed' to, which is why she planted a trap-like question.

There were visible eye twitches from both of the men in front of the Queen.

"Surely, the Queen jests? How could one holding such a high title not know about such important guests as us?"

And it worked just like the Queen wanted to.

"Well, sir, I know one of you... But I can't tell with my good heart that I know the second person who wasn't brought up to my attention... Don't worry, I will find which one of my servants made the mistake and punish them accordingly" Elsa states this with the same warm smile again.

Which slightly creeped out the two people, yes they are used to false faces and noble meetings, but both of them can't tell if the Queen is serious about this or if she's just saying this to scare them because they broke their written agreement. Either way, both situations are bad for them, especially if the word were to get out, and with how loose the noble tongue is when it comes to these matters, their reputation might tank big time.

So with forced smiles, they 'gracefully' say together "There's no need for such drastic measures, Your Majesty"

"*ahem*, let me introduce myself" The one that Elsa now knows was not supposed to be here directs himself to her.

"I am Sir Knobb Ouh. Gddy III of Nawnegzistawnt Isles, the pleasure is all mine"

"Well, since my friend introduced himself and even though the Queen already knows me, it would be awkward now to not introduce myself too. So, I am Sir Nothinguh Buutah. Joekk IV of Nawneggziztawnt Isles and the pleasure is also all mine"

"Likewise, Queen Elsa Anne Martin of Arendelle. Now, what business do you have with Arendelle?"

"Is it true that you can use magic?"

Elsa POV:

I blink and then internally wish really badly that nobody was here to see me, as I want to eye roll... It's one of these again. Before Diana replaced the people working in the castle, ninety-nine percent of meetings of the day, and there were almost hundreds of them per day, were about this very subject.

Can you use magic? Can you show us your magic? How useful is your magic? How powerful is it? How efficient are you with it? How these? How that? How this? How? Why? What?

Always the same, answering the same thing over and over. The question I got the most bored with though, was 'This power could really work great for all of us in a deal, don't you say?

Yeah, sure, I give you magic and do whatever it is you want from me to help you achieve what you want from this so-called 'deal' and what do I get?

Riches? I am a Queen just like you so I already have enough, but if I were as greedy as you and take from my people more than give to them, I'd have more riches than most of your small kingdoms combined.

Alliance? If you only want alliance from me because of my powers and not from Arendelle itself, then that's not what you want now, is it? You just want to brag to others in noble parties that you have me as a 'partner' and show off your all-so-great 'status'.

Trades? There are only two kinds that they want. The first is the Ice trade... Like we don't already have ice harvesters to produce our ice so we could trade it with others, the reason you want mine is to probably try to research it if I were to believe Diana's wonderings and... Even how over the top she seems to be, I'd still believe her rather than any of you 'important' people. But even if that isn't the reason, we have ice already, so why do you want mine specifically?

The other trade is people, a strange kind of emissary. The ones they would send would try to pry any kind of information about any secrets of Arendelle and gain access to information for my power. The ones we would send would be stuck there with them and over time they'd probably cave in and be tricked into talking.

So when Diana changed the people working in the castle, she got very strict with the part of the meetings especially. If any of them even got the remote feeling or word that would indicate that it was purely because they wanted to hear about my powers, they would be dealt with others or just declined.

Which was a really big load off my shoulders. I thanked Diana a lot for that and she still deserves more praise. So even if her plan initially was so I'd have more time to be with her, it doesn't matter, I'd take that rather than how long I would have to endure all of this.

But how did these two get through all the way to a meeting with me? I will need to investigate this later... Alone.

I don't think that telling my maid is a good idea, she might blame herself for hiring incapable people or something ridiculous like that, just because she does a perfect job of being a maid, not counting her frivolousness with me, doesn't mean that everybody else should be perfect at their job.

Besides, it might not even be anybody's fault and these two just figured out a way to trick the system somehow. Anyway, Diana is to not hear any of this, that's for sure.

I feel a subtle poke on my shoulder from behind. I snap out of my daze and barely stop myself from turning my head to Kai. It's good that I have practiced my facial expressions all these years while waiting for the coronation, otherwise, I would've definitely lost the patient smile while I was lost in thought.

And by the way, the two men are still talking with arrogant expressions, they must be expressing their 'praises' towards me... My magic in hopes of showing that they are kind, honorable, and humble.

If either of you were any of those descriptions, you would shut up and actually give me time to answer at least one of the things you're spewing.

"I wish Diana was here"

I hear from behind me, now that's a surprise, Kai wishing something like that? My facial expression seemed to have broken into a shocked one because the two men got even more boisterous due to seemingly having gotten a reaction out of me.

... I do too, wish that my maid was here, with her here, she'd know how to deal with these two because of her experience with their like in Rosa's employment and because she knows what to say in any situation. So she'd make them go away without any problems occurring from it. She targets their self-worth if I caught on it correctly and because of that they don't seem to whine to their people back home about how 'bad' their treatment here was or if they do, as we couldn't possibly actually know, nobody takes them seriously because they must exaggerate it way too much.

Since I have more time because of Diana, why not use some of that extra time to obtain information on how she deals with people by watching her? Yes, that's a decent idea, I will try to do it sneakily too because she would definitely catch me if I did explicitly and she'd probably spew some nonsense about me finally liking her or something.

Ah, another poke, it seems I dazed off again but at least this time there's silence... The silence that's waiting for me to break it as the two men stopped talking. Finally. And now they await my answer.

If only I had any idea what they said... Time to lay another trap... Which has only a negative side for me and Kai.

"Interesting, interesting. A lot of what you two gentlemen have said intrigued me. But I will need a little bit more details about it all before I make my judgment and give you an answer. Would you please honor my request?"

"Oh, yes, of course, Your Highness"

At least stick to one title... Can't even show enough respect for that.

"So, as we were saying, Nawneggzistawnt Isles would really appreciate the Queen's help in making them better by..."

I'd rather be anywhere else than here at this moment.

Narrator POV:

An hour and a half later.

Drusilla is standing near the backdoor that leads to the throne room and it's where the Queen should show up eventually.

And Drusilla doesn't have to wait any longer than the thirty minutes after the hour, because the door opens and the ever elegant Queen Elsa walks calmly with Kai behind her, who unlike Elsa looks like he saw a murder happen in front of his eyes.

"Queen Elsa" The maid calls out with a slight bow "Here's your hot chocolate, hot and ready to be taken in, I thought that one cup would be too little, so I brought three of them"

Elsa breathes in and breathes out and then smiles toward the maid "I would totally go for four cups, but three is enough. Thank you, Drusilla"

The woman gets ecstatic as she gets gratitude from the Queen, she will have to brag about this with the other maids and even to her master.

"Oh and, Mr. Kai here's some water for you... You look like you need it"

"Haha... Thank you" He chuckles tiredly and takes the glass of water that the maid brought to him.

"Well, Elsa, you're free for the day, I will go continue with the documents, have a nice day. And don't worry about the soon-to-be empty glass, I will bring it to the kitchen as it's on my way" He says the first part with a bow towards Elsa and then directs the second part to Drusilla.

"Okay, good work... Hanging in there Kai, try to get some rest later"

"Thank you for your concern" And with that Kai leaves the two women alone.

"Let's go sit down somewhere, even if I just sat on the throne, I feel more tired than I've been in a while"

"Of course, Queen Elsa"

The two find a nice spot in the garden and sit down on a bench, well only Elsa does, the maid stays standing as she was taught by her master.

"Drusilla, please sit down, there's no need to stand"

"I am sorry, Queen Elsa, but that would be inappropriate"

Elsa shakes her head but leaves it like that, Diana's teachings at their finest again.

The maid hands one of the cups to the Queen. Before taking a sip to relax, she says something to the woman.

"You drink one cup too"

"No, no, there's no need for that, it's the Queen's hot chocolate" Drusilla answers with a criss-cross shake of her hands in refusal.

"Come on, just take one and drink it. Two are enough for me"

"I-..." Drusilla was about to reject the request again, but then she remembered her master's words.

When the Queen says something twice in quick succession, it means it was important enough to be worth a repeat from her luscious lips. Thus do it no matter what it is. If it happened only once and you managed to change her mind about something, then that's fine.

This is exactly the situation her master was teaching her for. When she was asked to sit down and refused, the Queen didn't mention it, but now she wants her to drink a cup of hot chocolate, even repeating it twice. That means she must accept it.

"Okay, thank you, Queen Elsa" With that, Drusilla takes one of the two remaining cups, but she doesn't drink it first, she still has enough manners to wait for the Queen to start.

Elsa who is happy that somebody is enjoying chocolate with her doesn't pay attention to the maid and starts drinking her chocolate, which immediately helps her relax from all the stress from that so-called 'meeting'.

Few dozen minutes later.

"I love chocolate" Elsa comments with a happy sigh after having finished her second cup.

Elsa stands up from the bench and turns her attention to the maid who has been silent the whole time, even while she was sipping on the hot chocolate.

Elsa doesn't want to do this, but she needs to get rid of her for now and preferably for a while.

"Drusilla, thank you for the chocolate it really helped out, but I want to be left alone for the moment, so you're free to go and do what you want for a few hours"

"Wha- But I can't do that, Diana said that we must be in near proximity with the Queen because she mind need something at any point"

"I understand and yes that is a valid point, but right now what I need is, me time, some alone time. I don't know, maybe I will go back to my room to read something, maybe find Anna and see what she and Olaf are up to, I will decide as I go. But, I need to be alone for that, so, go do what you want for a few hours, and then you can come back to serve me again. And don't worry, Diana won't know about this"

Drusilla understands what the Queen wants, but can she really just leave like this? And none of her master's teachings come to mind on how to deal with this scenario. The only thing that's popping up in her mind is the previously used lesson about doing whatever it is when the Queen repeats it twice. And Queen Elsa did say this twice...

"... Okay, have a good time, Queen Elsa" This Is what the maid chooses to do, she takes the little cart on which the empty cups are placed and she wheels it out as she walks away.

When the maid makes out of her eye's view, Elsa turns to leave to investigate what happened and what let the two men get into a meeting with her.

As Elsa quickly walks in the halls, passing tens of different doors, she stops at a four-way.

Her goal is on the right... But there's something else on the left hallway.

And that is Diana's private room...

Elsa looks at the left for a hot minute, before shaking her head and stepping to the right.

But only a few steps in, she stops and turns around... Then walks to the midsection again, stopping yet again.

Turning around again, she resumes walking to where she needs to go, and about twenty meters in, she turns back... Again.

And this time she walks all the way to Diana's room... She doesn't really know why she's here, but she is.

Now what? This is what goes through Elsa's mind while staring at her maid's room door.

Then something pops up in her mind. The new maid Dursilla mentioned something about Diana being happy if she were to wish her a speedy recovery... With a nod to herself, Elsa knocks on the door.

~ End of Chapter 28 ~