Winning vote from before:
The servants know much [0] – They are everywhere, and they are all but invisible to the average noble. They would make acceptable pawns.
Year 1, Update 2a
Your classes this year are challenging in a way you are not used to. Not that your previous teachers ever intended for their studies to be easy, but you do not think it is boastful to say that you are simply… smarter than many people. You are used to learning even supposedly difficult subjects easily, and that this is not the case now is frustrating.
Your schedule is quite full, as well. You'll reach for the low-hanging fruit first you think, and even that is cutting into your already reduced relaxation time.
Lacking time for more elaborate plans, you seek out the most convenient option; reaching out to those you see in your everyday life but have never really invested effort in. The ones who sew your garments and cook your meals and generally undertake the maintenance of both nobles and the castle itself; the invisible yet omnipresent army of servants the royal family maintains. It's never taken much for you to charm the people around you, least of all the common folk. Sometimes it seems like all they need is acknowledgement of the good work they do, and they will fall over themselves to thank you and love you. It's not really worth remarking on, simply a fact of life; the little people are easily led as long as you put in just a little effort. Where nobles would demand guarantees and favors to align themselves, the common folk need only to be loved to adore you in return.
The cook is the first. How easy would it be for a disgruntled cook to slip something into your food? Alice serves as your food taster, of course, but it would be a waste to lose an excellent – if quiet – maid to something as foolish as that. She knows exactly how you like your tea, how you like your books placed just so when tidying, when to bring you delightful snacks when you are distracted by other concerns … yes, it would be a shame to lose Alice.
Personally – and effusively – praising his cooking is all it takes, really. Having Alice usher him into your private sitting room and watching the heavyset salt and pepper haired man squirm from nerves is somewhat funny. The way his eyes glisten with tears as you tell him how much you enjoy his delicacies – he has a particular artistry with pastry that belies his thick-knuckled, burn-scarred hands – is less funny. Has no one ever sent their compliments to the chef? You suppose you never have. Food has simply always been available whenever you desire it
His own gratitude for your simple thanks has him bowing nearly horizontally. But when you think about it, isn't that natural? To be good enough to serve royalty, he must have dedicated his entire life to his craft. To receive praise from royal lips is an honor. You talk for a short time with him, but you know absolutely nothing about cooking – you've never so much as boiled an egg – and you're beginning to suspect there's no room in his head for anything else. You send him on his way after a handful of minutes of his rambling.
His name is Bolf. You'll remember.
The lion's share of your new, hmm… conquests? That sounds bad.
Your new
friends are the castle maids. A princess needs a lot of attendants beyond the constant company of your Alice, for cleaning and dressing and primping and bathing and delivering meals and so on. It isn't hard to reach out to them just a little. You are cute, after all. Devastatingly so, actually; a fact which, while convenient, is mostly just another fact of life to you like the sun rising each day. Like a perfect, living doll, you've heard it said. Which sounds a touch creepy to you, but you're sure they mean well.
To the more motherly ones, usually the ones of a proper age that they could
be your mother but not always, you only have to show just a touch of helplessness. They fall over themselves to provide for you and look out for you. To the younger ones, the teenagers and young adults who have romance in their soul, you simply play the part of the royal. Greeting them with kindness, but being a little distant, as though affairs of state have weighed you down. It makes them feel special, part of the elite, to be the confidant of such a person.
The ones who see their position as a job and nothing more are a little harder for you to charm. But they are exactly the sort that might be paid to move against you, so you feel it necessary to put in the effort. Taking an interest, showing you remember them, asking after their families and little lives. Proving you care, at least a little.
You cannot afford to win them with coin; no matter how much you are hypothetically worth, all your purchases and funds are looked over and signed off on by the Regent. But you take notes. Which have family that could be threatened, which have obvious vices to use as a handle. Not to use them yourself, of course! But making it quietly known to each that you remember your friends, and that can be a great blessing.
Overall, there is quite a bumper crop of sympathetic ears among the maids.
A trip to the stables leads to another rather fortuitous outcome. Though the convenience of automated carriage or the physically impressive domesticated magic beasts are the popular conveyances for nobles in Caelis Valera, the castle does keep a small stable of riding beasts for couriers and retainer knights not wealthy enough to afford their own mounts. One of a couple boys who care for the beasts is receptive to small kindnesses. You send him stationary to send letters home which he has a hard time affording on his pay. He has the most ridiculously country accent you've ever heard, and you sometimes wonder under what rock or living in which cave they found him, but he seems to know his trade and he is somewhat charming in a provincial bumpkin way. Surprisingly good muscular definition as well, from pitching hay or wrangling horses or whatever it is he does all day.
The last sphere of peasants within your reach are the gardeners of the castle. They, you conclude, are a peculiar bunch. You realize this when the first one you ask to join you completely forgets your appointment. It is further reinforced when you later find him carefully monitoring an extremely localized raincloud over several patches of pink, purple and red flowers planted to resemble pinwheels. Nature or Evocation magic, presumably; there's some overlap depending on whether he created the rain himself or is harnessing a natural phenomena.
The flowers are peonies and amaryllis, as well as more magical plants like kingsblood and mageroyal. You did not actually know all the names, but the commoner mage was happy to inform you. You suppose that would be a good metaphor for this whole project. Looking at the pretty little pieces that make up the elegant whole you have always taken for granted.. And realizing that even if you don't really understand them, you can still admire the tiny individual flowers working to prop up the whole.
He was apologetic when you reminded him, so thankfully he wasn't being intentionally insolent, just… dedicated, and forgetful.
Simply trying to talk to these people leads to a wealth of knowledge on the grounds and the often magical means by which they keep the place lush and beautiful. You try to steal a few moments here and there to admire the flowers and show an interest as they go about their business, but gardening is a surprisingly dense subject. There are specialized tools; techniques, both magical and not; literature; some kind of guild and certification is involved as well. You suspect it's a little beyond you without putting much more work in than a stolen hour here and there.
The end result is even better than you planned. Not just a cook, a gaggle of maids, a stable worker or two, and some of the groundskeepers; rather, most of the servants seem to have developed a certain warm regard for you. Word seems to have spread among the sculleries and back ways of the castle, about the princess being an ally of the common folk.
Who have you spent the most effort pursuing?
[X] Bolf Baxter, a renowned chef and baker. You are not entirely sure to what use he can be put, but your association is already proving delicious.
[X] Roddey Forester, a stableboy who is a deft hand with bird or beast. Steady and stolid rather than clever, but he takes direction well.
[X] Lily Turner, a quiet and somewhat mousy maid not much older than you, who is quite a fan of yours – and a conveniently unobtrusive member of the cleaning staff.
[X] Jill Chaser, the groundskeeper's daughter. She's helps with the gardening and taking care of the falcon mews. She is more than a bit willful and nosy as well, but she is kind and loyal to her friends, and daring in the face of danger.
[X] Tom Chaser, the head groundskeeper and gamekeeper. A powerful man among the staff hierarchy, Tom is kept busy with the demands of his position. He is also unlikely to follow your lead unequivocally the way those your own age might. But he is a master ranger and knows most of the ins and outs of the area around the castle.
Obviously, some Companions are more difficult to acquire than others. The tale will now turn back to the previous event, for which Sophia Hill is three votes ahead. That vote's still open, by the way, because I'm lazy about closing things up.