Etiquette

The past two days might have bee the hardest of my life. While the chores that I did before were quite tedious and sometimes required a good deal of hard work, I was always finished within six hours. Now, I have had to study for over twelve hours each day. I almost couldn't take it, it was completely unbearable.

The first day Miss Elizabeth had given me brief lessons on various subjects from history and politics to mathematics and sciences. Although we never went in-depth into any of the topics, the amount I learnt that day was enough to fry my brain.

The next day was worse. The entire day she focused on my reading and writing skills as I could not do either before. While I didn't learn anywhere near enough to call myself fluent, I could at least now read a children's book and write some simple sentence. I was still full of gratitude for the fact that I could at least speak and understand the language when I transmigrated into this world.

At first, I had heard the study plan she had set out for me and scoffed. I didn't believe I could learn all that in two days but I was soon proven wrong. When Miss Elizabeth taught me I found myself learning much faster and with much more concentration than I normally should have, to the point where my learning speed increased by several magnitudes.

When I asked about this phenomenon out of curiosity, I found out that it was because of Miss Elizabeth's high-level [Teaching] skill. Although I could not feel anything different when she taught me, the results spoke for themselves as I was able to learn way more than I should have been able to.

Of course, even I did lose my concentration and began to daydream she would just—

*SLAP*

"Don't lose focus." The stern voice nagging me as always from behind.

I winced as I felt the ruler hit my butt, and resisted rubbing my sore behind.

I had lost count of the slaps that I had received over the past two days. My body was now covered all over in red marks, from my wrists to my thighs, to the point where my skin was more red than white. I also had a slight suspicion that she hit my butt more than anywhere else, but perhaps that was just my imagination.

Even though the past two days had been tough, they were trivial compared to today's lesson. After I ate breakfast, Miss Elizabeth had immediately began training me in servant's etiquette, so I wouldn't embarrass myself at the banquet in the evening.

I stood in the middle of the room, my hands clasped behind my back and my posture straight as a stick, with sweat dripping down my forehead and back as I tried to balance some heavy books on top of my head. Each hour she would add another book and the pressure would increase. It was now the third hour I had been in this position, with three books on top, and I could barely handle it. Every time I slightly relaxed a muscle I would be slapped painfully and sometimes ended up losing the books or, once, falling over.

While this boring task was already hard enough, it was made worse by the crushing pain around my waist from the corset and the constant discomfort in my feet due to the heels I was forced to wear. This was the first time I had had to wear a corset and such high heels, and I hoped it would be the last time for both.

One bonus though was that my outer clothing was much more conservative today compared to what I normally wore, the hem of my black and white maid dress going all the way down to my ankles. In the mirror, I could see I no longer looked like a childish girl but an actual adult woman, with the tight dress showing off my ever growing curves, and my pink hair flowing straight over my back, instead of tied into the usual childish pigtails.

The dress was gorgeous and a lot less humiliating, but also quite restrictive making it difficult to move around. It wasn't just the dress' fault though, most of the blame fell on my new footwear. They were shiny white high heels, four inches in height.

It took half the day already to learn how to walk properly in these shoes. Walking without tripping was already quite difficult, but I also had to walk with the right posture and correct movements as a maid. When I complained, I was reprimanded harshly and told these were just the beginner shoes. I would eventually have to work my way up to six inches!

But if the walking was bad, I now had to stand still in these shoes without moving at all, three heavy books pressing down on my head. I wanted to complain but I knew it would only anger her even more so I kept silent and persisted in my standing.

"Stand straighter."

She gave another slap, this time on my left thigh.

"A proper servant will never break her posture and embarrass her master. Wearing a the servant uniform means you are representing your master and every wrong move you make will only bring them criticism. Do you understand?"

"Y-yes Ma'am!" I squeaked. How could I not understand with your constant reminders?

As the day passed, I learnt everything a servant needed to represent their master, from how to stand properly, when to sit, the different ways I needed to serve, the rules I needed to follow as a servant and everything else required for the banquet. Normally, maids wouldn't need to follow everything to the teeth, but since I would be serving at a dinner hosted by a demon lord, the consequences of any mishap I caused would be magnified.

The long exhausting day passed and I soon lost count of the amount of times I'd been scolded or hit. The lessons continued without break, to the point where I almost gave in, where I was finally stopped.

"Alright, I suppose that's good enough. Go take a short break, then I will escort you to the mistress."

I quickly relaxed and sat down on the bed, my feet burning from pain. I resisted the urge to rub them a bit and kept my dignified bearing even though I was on break. I was still scared of being scolded and hit.

"Though I would have preferred if we had at least another day of etiquette training, your barely passable progress will have to do. Perhaps we should have started on etiquette yesterday after you learnt some basic reading skills and skipped your writing, but it is too late now. You are only fulfilling the absolute bare minimum standard of a personal servant, let alone the maid of a demon lord anyway. Honestly, I do not know why the mistress has asked you to serve her tonight despite having having no prior training, especially when the banquet is hosted by that woman." She sighed, her tone reluctant to let me go.

Couldn't she have a little more confidence in me?

But even I had no idea why I had to act as the mistress' personal servant tonight. She had a harem full of hundreds of other servants she could choose from, all better taught than me, but she still ended up bringing me along too.

"Do everything as I have taught you, never break your posture, follow any orders given to you by the mistress and never speak unless addressed. Remain as passive as possible and let the other personal servants do the more demanding or complicated tasks. Our mistress' reputation is on the line so any mistakes you make will be returned to you as punishment tenfold." she said, her eyes staring daggers into my body. "Do you understand?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Good. Then follow me, we will meet mistress at her carriage."

I walked behind Miss Elizabeth out the door, relieved that my training was over but also anxious that I would now have to serve as her personal maid for the evening. The day had already felt so long but my suffering was only just beginning.