"Letter from a Herdial praetor …. The cultist stronghold has been conquered… thanks to the immense contribution by the RazenHeir champion …. On top of contributions on the battlefield … Her presence was a boost to morale …. Desertion rates fell to zero … "
Ria stretched her arms. The quill had been in her hand for the entire day. All the paperwork, the logistics of a campaign, compensation negotiations, death and injury benefits for the troops.
"Hikari will be back tomorrow. "
She stood up and started walking around her room, stretching her numb arms and legs. She jumped onto her soft bed and rolled around. Doing paper was somehow more tiring than drilling with a wooden sword.
She opened her bedside drawer and took out a poster. It was a recruitment poster centered on Hikari in shiny full steel plate armor. It was quite the poetic license that the artist took. In reality, Hikari had explained to her why she avoids this kind of armour since it weighs her down, doesn't block anything that she couldn't already block, constantly makes an annoying clanking sound and makes her more visible.
Her fame as an exceptional combatant was expanding. Requests were flowing in, some on a scale that Ria wouldn't consider. The RazenHeir house had been specialized in relatively low key requests, hunting down swamp trolls, clearing out towns of low level undead, escorting merchant convoys, occasionally playing a supporting role in a major campaign. But now it seems a proper raiding party centered on Hikari is a strong possibility.
Ria kept staring at the poster. She couldn't get enough of the image.
"She's so perfect. Strength and beauty. She has both and more. Wealth? She doesn't need any. If she does, it would be trivial to make with her abilities. My noble birth means nothing before her. She's just so superior to me. The way she makes me crawl at her feet, it's not humiliating at all. It's just so… natural. "
It was just after dinner time which she skipped out on and just asked her maid to leave a sandwich in her room.
She rolled to the side of the bed, placed the poster in front of her and ate while continuing to admire it.
"Oh! Time to do that." She checked the time, there was still about four hours before midnight. She kept the poster back in her drawer. Putting on a black blouse and a hat, she hoisted her backpack, went out the balcony and then climbed down the vines on the wall of her mansion.
The sun had gone down. But the estate grounds were quite brightly lit with oil lanterns and bustling with sentries patrolling with their own lanterns.
Ria had gotten pretty good at avoiding the patrolling sentries. There was no fixed patrol route since the drill master had quite casually asked them to patrol in whatever direction they wanted. But she could use her hearing to avoid them. She was difficult to spot due to her modest stature. And as a RazenHeir, she could sense the location of every trap. In any case, if she was caught, she could just explain that she was on a night walk.
She slid down the hill side where her mansion stood. Then she crawled in the bushes until she reached the sidewalk where she waited. The weakness of letting the sentries pick their own route is that there is a chance that a section might be unguarded for a brief moment.
She saw her chance and dashed to the door to Hikari's chambers. She budged the heavy curtain just enough to wriggle through it. It was pitch black inside. As it always is whenever she visits Hikari at night since she could see in the dark.
Ria switches on her oil lantern. Ordinary flames, if she uses her RazenHeir mana, the sentries would notice. It was able to illuminate about several metres around her leaving much of the vast open chamber still covered in darkness to her.
But it wasn't difficult to find what she was looking for.
Hikari's rugged wyvern skin boots. Towering over her. She wears these out on missions crushing countless foes beneath them. They were a symbol of her power and dominance on the battlefield.
Ria offloaded her backpack, removed her cloak and placed her lantern on the ground.
Ba dum! Ba dum! Her heart pounded against her chest as she approached the boot. She dropped to her knees and prostrated herself at Hikari's boots. Her head was at the level of the outsoles of the boot.
"Ohh… Hikari's shoes. This is the closest I'll ever get to her. I can't believe I'm prostrating before a pair of boots. But she's just so superior to me. So above me. No matter what I do, I will never be fit to be anything to her other than kissing the bottom of her boots. " Ria thought aloud.
She has all the privacy here. Neither the sentries nor maids nor thieves would check in Hikari's chamber as there's nothing particularly valuable here. Nothing they could easily carry away anyway.
She crawled up to the boot, bringing her lantern and examined the top of the toe section.
"The maids did a decent job of chiseling away the mud. But I guess it's a bit much for them to polish them since we can't hire more maids due to the budget. So …! " She crawled back to her backpack and dragged it back to the boot.
"The honor is all mine." She took out a clean cloth and wiped the tips clean. Then she planted a kiss on the wyvern skin. She pulled out a can of black boot polish and a paint brush. Setting her lantern at a good angle, she got to work on the right side of the right boot.
"I did a layer on the left boot yesterday. Hope the color is more even now that it has dried."
It took her a whole half an hour to finish painting the whole side of the boot. She placed the paint brush in its pan and wiped her sweat. "Phew, that was hard work!" She took out her handkerchief and wiped her sweat off.
"Oh goodness me. I was supposed to use that on her boot." She squeezed the handkerchief a bit before taking out a clean shoe rag to wipe off her sweat instead.
Then she crawled to Hikari's left boot. She used her fingers to feel the surface. "It's dry now." She crawled back to pick up her lantern, allowing her to check the boot. "Oh? The color is dreadful! It's as though it just came back from a war. I could have sworn I polished it yesterday. Perhaps the boot polish wasn't strong enough. Anyway, I should hire boot polishers to help me at some point. After all, her boots are what many people would see as a first impression and probably remember about her. But who deserves the honor but me? "
She took out her handkerchief and gave the boot some light dusting. Then she planted several kisses on the sides of the boot. "Oh Hikari, your pathetic Lady carelessly got some of her sweat onto your boot. It's nothing short of disgraceful. "
Ria stuck out her tongue and licked the wyvern skin. "Here. Let this pathetic lady make it up to you by cleaning her disgusting sweat off of your boot using her unworthy tongue." She ended up licking up a bit of leftover dirt. Wyvern skin doesn't actually taste like anything since nothing sticks to her tongue.
She gave the boot another wipe of her handkerchief before pressing her lips against the surface for a deep long kiss.
Finishing up her boot cleaning ritual, Ria crawled back to in front of both boots and bowed her head to the ground before them.
"Hikari will reach the estate tomorrow. She will be walking through the gate wearing a pair of wyvern skin boots. Well not this pair, I got her a new pair for the campaign. I'll be standing at the gate to welcome her. "
Ria turned and crawled to the curtain doorway.
"Ohh…! How unworthy of me. I should be here, at her door step. When those boots of hers appear through the curtain, I want to be here, and I want to welcome her back with a kiss on her boots if she allows. Hehe!"
Ria squeaked with a high pitched giggle.
"I know it won't happen, but hypothetically, if I appeared here on my knees at the door, perhaps she would like it? Maybe she will make me polish them with my tongue. Maybe she'll wipe the bottoms of her boots on my back? And then will she remove her boots at the door or walk to her couch with them to make her boot socks even more sweaty when she takes them off. Ohhh.. " She kissed the ground at Hikari's door steps.
"I wonder how many times the bottom of her shoe touched this spot. kiss* kiss*. Oh! Or perhaps even her barefoot has touched this spot. Sometimes she does run barefooted when her flats are broken or when there's no more clean socks. Ahhh..!"
She let out a loud moan as her hand moved under her skirt.
"No! I must focus on the task. I have my dignity as a noble after all." Ria slaps her cheeks with both hands.
She packs up the boot polish set and proceeds to Hikari's flats. "Now, let's continue."