Ophelia didn't like crowds.
That's not to say crowds didn't like her. Crowds loved her. And why not? She was fun, bubbly and murdered things. She was the life of the party. Maybe not the party of the people she murdered, which sometimes happened. But even so, she could be relied on to only kill people and not the mood.
Yes, people could not get enough of her.
She was the famous Snow Dancer. The pride of Aquina. And because she was so popular, it meant she suffered popular people problems.
She couldn't walk about the streets without being mobbed.
That actually wasn't a problem. Maybe for other people it was, but it really didn't affect Ophelia that much. She simply never went out often enough for it to become an issue.
She did stuff, of course. She wasn't boring. Okay, so she spent a lot of time in her cottage. But that's because she was being productive with things that required her to be indoors.
Things like sewing.
She'd recently taken up the craft. It looked fun, and if she could sew her own clothes, then it meant even less time needing to be mobbed in town by people who just couldn't get enough of her. Fantastic.
To Ophelia's surprise, she realised very quickly that sewing entire sets of clothes was a challenge that even she couldn't quickly overcome.
She clearly had the finger dexterity. She could use a hairpin to unlock a 20 combination safe or murder someone via their eyeballs. But the act of weaving thread with a needle?
That troubled her more than breaking into the Frozen Palace, stealing a crown and then coming back in time for dinner.
And that was great.
For Ophelia the Snow Dancer, finding something she couldn't do was becoming increasingly difficult. The simple fact was that as an A-rank sword saint, she could solve most problems with her sword. And that sucked.
All that roguery and sneakery she did? Just a way to kill time. For someone whose sword skills were unmatched, she had to look for new challenges. A year ago, that had been lockpicking. Today, that was sewing.
A new hobby. A new challenge. A new dose of excitement.
And also an opportunity to meet like-minded individuals. Cosmos Monthly told her that romance couldn't be searched for. Only encountered. And so Ophelia opted to try her luck sewing her way out of the gossiping aunties at her back.
Maybe she'd meet someone nice at a wool sale or something. She certainly wouldn't at work. If her trip into the home of the Winter Court had taught her anything, it was that enemy strongholds was an inhospitable environment to find romance in.
So. Sewing.
The only problem was that sewing kits were finite. And that meant shopping. But shopping meant being mobbed.
So, when the Duke told her that a fancy tournament was taking place and she could prove herself the finest swordswoman in Aquina and beyond, her natural instinct was to jump in delight.
If everyone was at the tournament, then nobody was in town!
Ophelia was delighted.
Not only could she go shopping without being harassed, but she could also take her ducks with her for the trip. Or rather, just one of them. She couldn't watch over both.
Today was Duck A's turn.
Excursions out of the pond were rare. A point she took pride in. Her ducks liked her home as much as she did.
But even so, she wanted them to see the world a little.
Well, as long as that world didn't take them too far from Aquina.
The day her ducks flew south, she'd have to fly south with them. And the Snow Dancer took to the balmy, sunlit lowlands as well as her name would suggest.
That's why—
“Duck A?! Where are you?!”
She was filled with panic.
Leaping from rooftop to rooftop, Ophelia the Snow Dancer traversed Aquina Town from its canals to its streets.
Her first worry was that a blood turtle was now enjoying a particularly meaty dinner. And so she endeavoured to systematically murder every turtle she came across while searching for her missing duck.
She didn't know if that would help, but it didn't matter. Duck A needed all the help it could get. Much more than Duck B did.
Duck A was a little bit special.
She didn't quite know what was wrong with it. But not everything was right behind its beak.
Sometimes, she'd catch her duck staring at her with a gaze that bore into the depths of her soul, and only remember to quack after she turned her eyes towards it.
Ophelia thought it was something about her hair.
Silver hair was rare, even amongst elves. It made sense that like everyone else, a duck didn't quite know what to make of it. And so she chose not to think about the occasional staring, even if it did sometimes make her feel uneasy. After all, a duck didn't know what it was doing.
And weird or not, Duck A was definitely friendly.
Thus, she leaped, swinging from chimneys and sliding down lines of laundry until she'd searched every nook and cranny of Aquina Town's centre.
Despair filled her heart as she began ascending the rooftops of the manors and estates.
Soon, she'd have to go over the castle. And if that failed, she'd have to start breaking into property. That meant showing her face to some of the neighbourhood aunties. She couldn't do that. Not until they'd died from old age or disease first.
However, just as she resigned herself to the awkward conversations ahead—
“Duck A!”
She spied him … her … it. Ophelia never really checked.
White as a fresh pillow, with a bright red scarf and a yellow beak that shone with an unnaturally reflective property, Ophelia found her duck waddling in the hidden garden path behind the castle.
Rapidly descending the stone walls, Ophelia silently dropped amongst the shadows.
Whatever Duck A was doing here, she didn't want to spook it.
This was definitely not the type of place for either fright or curiosity to get the better of a duck. Or really, anything which couldn't read the sign.
Because at the end of this garden path was the troll door guard hired to protect the postern entry. He was polite, sure, and amiable, even if Ophelia never bothered to learn his name or socialise outside of work. But he was also a professional.
A professional from Ouzelia.
And that meant dropping pianos on intruders.
Ophelia had no doubt that even a duck wouldn't be spared from the troll's adherence to his contractual obligations.
Anybody or anything which wandered here without prior written permission, even herself, would have to deal with a falling 1000 pound musical instrument.
And while that was merely a hassle for Ophelia, for anyone else, it was nothing short of a death sen—
“O … Ohohohoho! B-Behold my will to best even a piano! Why, a hundred fruit slimes have been punted away to perform this feat!”
Ophelia's jaw dropped.
Because before her ... a human girl was laughing maniacally as she effortlessly held a St. Liane piano over her head.
Using a wind technique originating from her sword, this human girl was not only causing a large instrument trying very hard to fall to actually not fall, but was even causing it to rise ever so slightly.
Ophelia the Snow Dancer, A-rank elven sword saint and hobbyist sewer, felt like she'd just been smacked in the face by a wet salmon.
For a moment, all she could do was shake her head, close her eyes, open her eyes, and then repeat the gesture several times until her head started becoming dizzy from the effort of making sure she hadn't gone insane.
Only when the initial shock wore off did she do what she should've done immediately.
“.”
Ophelia wiped all traces of her presence away.
There was no fancy fading into the shadows about it. It was a technique unique to her kind. The moment she wished it, she ceased to exist. On her best days, Ophelia could sing in falsetto and remain undetected.
Her was, as far as she knew, unmatched amongst the elves of Aquina or Tirea. Especially for someone whose strength wasn't strictly related to stealth.
Useful, then, to hide against a clockwork doll whose senses were keener than a fruit slime after a watermelon rind.
The human girl was not alone.
For a moment, Ophelia only stared as she took in the sight of the odd pair. One a human girl holding a piano over her head. And one a clockwork doll, a rarity among rarities.
Ophelia had met a few herself, but only when traversing Ouzelia. They were marvels of magic, alchemy, engineering and excess coffee consumption all rolled into one mad package. Ordinarily, any clockwork doll in Aquina would demand her full attention as she rushed out to offer an arm wrestle.
And yet, it wasn't the clockwork doll that was causing Ophelia's mind to blank.
“That's amazing! I knew your [Ball Of Doom] could, you know, do wanton destruction, but to sustain an object in the air is something else. You should join the circus … or even better, make one yourself!”
“I … well, yes, while I have no doubt that I could form a stranglehold on the entertainment industry, I already have a profession I'm quite satisfied with.”
“Being an E-ranked adventurer?”
If it was possible for Ophelia's jaw to drop further, it would've, there and then.
This human girl was an E-rank adventurer?!
Or rather, only an E-rank adventurer?!
That was insane. And Ophelia knew insane. After all, she was definitely a bit nuts.
But Ophelia also knew adventurers. She knew the ranking system. And she knew that whatever they said about the value of saving lost cats and public endearment, the Adventurer's Guild was a meritocracy of strength.
The Oldest Ladder could only be climbed by those who did things that couldn't be ignored.
Things like holding a piano over one's head.
Ophelia instantly evaluated the level of the girl's sword technique as at least B-rank. That alone put her ahead of almost every swordsman and swordswoman in the kingdom. But what also stunned her was the sword being wielded, shining like moonlight against the evening glare.
It bristled with the finest enchantments dead mages could imbue on it.
Ophelia was no slouch with swords. Hers was a masterwork even amongst elven swordsmiths. It was written on the plaque when she'd stolen it. A blade capable of matching fae swords without bending or breaking.
That sword holding the piano aloft could doubtless do the same.
Ophelia blinked as she carefully took in the girl's slender frame.
Time went by slowly for elves. It went slower for Ophelia. She'd become accustomed to the ebb and flow of boredom as she sought one new hobby from the next.
But now?
Now this girl had not only caught her interest, but practically suplexed her without warning. She could see nothing else.
An E-rank adventurer out of nowhere, whose ease of controlling a floating piano meant she qualified as B-rank in at least one technique.
The sudden discovery of a new prospect caused Ophelia to momentarily break her , such was the shock of the find.
She recovered in a flash, pressing herself deeper into the shadow of the castle before realising she was unlikely to be the one to give herself away.
She bent down to scoop up Duck A before either the human girl or the clockwork doll could notice. The troll had already seen her, but professional courtesy meant he didn't give her away, nor try to bring down the cello above her head … yet.
Even so—
Ophelia's hands paused just shy of Duck A's fluffy white sides.
The duck was unmoving, its eyes staring at the girl now fearlessly arguing with the troll. It was the same unrelenting gaze that it'd so often given the elven woman.
The sounds of a human girl ineffectually stamping her foot and an extremely tortured trumpet filled the air. Yet for a moment, even Ophelia forgot where she was.
Because for the first time, Ophelia noticed as she stared at the duck she'd rescued from a tree bough not dissimilar to those wielding instruments over her head, that she was not the only one concealing her presence.
kayenano
Author's Note:
Salutations! It's very rare that I make an author's note, but I have a number of announcements to make that may be missed if I make this as a comment.
Firstly, if you enjoy my writing, then you may wish to consider my other writing work. I'm the author of the Lily Clairet light novel series (yuri, cosy, high school, slice of life), which is about the daily life of a not so normal high school girl in Japan. It's a coming of age story with bits of mystery, comedy and lots of ... Lily being Lily!
If you enjoy Bocchi the Rock, Hyouka or the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, then you may enjoy reading it. It's currently seven books long and ends on a very satisfying point, so now is a perfect time to pick it up if you're interested!
You can read it on Kindle, KU and Paperback. It's also available as an audiobook.
I'm also happy to announce that after 100 chapters (including Patreon), I have successfully uploaded daily chapters for two months straight, including completing an unplanned Writathon. This has by far been the most challenging and fun writing experience I've completed, and one which has now been rewarded with the audiobooks for the series being picked up.
That's right! You'll be able to hear Juliette's ohohohohos. I'll update with more information when production has begun in earnest.
I am also happy to announce that a full length standalone Ouzelia novel, featuring an official heroine as the protagonist, has been fully written. The story takes place concurrently with Juliette's story, so if you'd like to know what's happening in the land of falling pianos while our princess is on her noble quest to preserve her quality of life, you soon can!
Suffice to say, I now have a massive stockpile of work I need to complete, including providing finished manuscripts for Juliette's story to be produced as an audiobook, editing and publishing my Ouzelia novel, writing Lily Clairet 8, and completing my other unannounced standalone novel (also set in Juliette's cinematic universe).
Most importantly, I need to build up my backlog for this story. It is not feasible to maintain the writing standards you as readers deserve while I have not written sufficiently far ahead to make changes with the power of hindsight.
As a result, Juliette's story will now have a new publishing schedule of twice a week (Tuesdays, Saturdays).
Thank you for reading so far! If you'd like to skip ahead and read what happens in the rest of this arc, then you can do so by visiting my Patreon.
Ophelia didn't like crowds.
That's not to say crowds didn't like her. Crowds loved her. And why not? She was fun, bubbly and murdered things. She was the life of the party. Maybe not the party of the people she murdered, which sometimes happened. But even so, she could be relied on to only kill people and not the mood.
Yes, people could not get enough of her.
She was the famous Snow Dancer. The pride of Aquina. And because she was so popular, it meant she suffered popular people problems.
She couldn't walk about the streets without being mobbed.
That actually wasn't a problem. Maybe for other people it was, but it really didn't affect Ophelia that much. She simply never went out often enough for it to become an issue.
She did stuff, of course. She wasn't boring. Okay, so she spent a lot of time in her cottage. But that's because she was being productive with things that required her to be indoors.
Things like sewing.
She'd recently taken up the craft. It looked fun, and if she could sew her own clothes, then it meant even less time needing to be mobbed in town by people who just couldn't get enough of her. Fantastic.
To Ophelia's surprise, she realised very quickly that sewing entire sets of clothes was a challenge that even she couldn't quickly overcome.
She clearly had the finger dexterity. She could use a hairpin to unlock a 20 combination safe or murder someone via their eyeballs. But the act of weaving thread with a needle?
That troubled her more than breaking into the Frozen Palace, stealing a crown and then coming back in time for dinner.
And that was great.
For Ophelia the Snow Dancer, finding something she couldn't do was becoming increasingly difficult. The simple fact was that as an A-rank sword saint, she could solve most problems with her sword. And that sucked.
All that roguery and sneakery she did? Just a way to kill time. For someone whose sword skills were unmatched, she had to look for new challenges. A year ago, that had been lockpicking. Today, that was sewing.
A new hobby. A new challenge. A new dose of excitement.
And also an opportunity to meet like-minded individuals. Cosmos Monthly told her that romance couldn't be searched for. Only encountered. And so Ophelia opted to try her luck sewing her way out of the gossiping aunties at her back.
Maybe she'd meet someone nice at a wool sale or something. She certainly wouldn't at work. If her trip into the home of the Winter Court had taught her anything, it was that enemy strongholds was an inhospitable environment to find romance in.
So. Sewing.
The only problem was that sewing kits were finite. And that meant shopping. But shopping meant being mobbed.
So, when the Duke told her that a fancy tournament was taking place and she could prove herself the finest swordswoman in Aquina and beyond, her natural instinct was to jump in delight.
If everyone was at the tournament, then nobody was in town!
Ophelia was delighted.
Not only could she go shopping without being harassed, but she could also take her ducks with her for the trip. Or rather, just one of them. She couldn't watch over both.
Today was Duck A's turn.
Excursions out of the pond were rare. A point she took pride in. Her ducks liked her home as much as she did.
But even so, she wanted them to see the world a little.
Well, as long as that world didn't take them too far from Aquina.
The day her ducks flew south, she'd have to fly south with them. And the Snow Dancer took to the balmy, sunlit lowlands as well as her name would suggest.
That's why—
“Duck A?! Where are you?!”
She was filled with panic.
Leaping from rooftop to rooftop, Ophelia the Snow Dancer traversed Aquina Town from its canals to its streets.
Her first worry was that a blood turtle was now enjoying a particularly meaty dinner. And so she endeavoured to systematically murder every turtle she came across while searching for her missing duck.
She didn't know if that would help, but it didn't matter. Duck A needed all the help it could get. Much more than Duck B did.
Duck A was a little bit special.
She didn't quite know what was wrong with it. But not everything was right behind its beak.
Sometimes, she'd catch her duck staring at her with a gaze that bore into the depths of her soul, and only remember to quack after she turned her eyes towards it.
Ophelia thought it was something about her hair.
Silver hair was rare, even amongst elves. It made sense that like everyone else, a duck didn't quite know what to make of it. And so she chose not to think about the occasional staring, even if it did sometimes make her feel uneasy. After all, a duck didn't know what it was doing.
And weird or not, Duck A was definitely friendly.
Thus, she leaped, swinging from chimneys and sliding down lines of laundry until she'd searched every nook and cranny of Aquina Town's centre.
Despair filled her heart as she began ascending the rooftops of the manors and estates.
Soon, she'd have to go over the castle. And if that failed, she'd have to start breaking into property. That meant showing her face to some of the neighbourhood aunties. She couldn't do that. Not until they'd died from old age or disease first.
However, just as she resigned herself to the awkward conversations ahead—
“Duck A!”
She spied him … her … it. Ophelia never really checked.
White as a fresh pillow, with a bright red scarf and a yellow beak that shone with an unnaturally reflective property, Ophelia found her duck waddling in the hidden garden path behind the castle.
Rapidly descending the stone walls, Ophelia silently dropped amongst the shadows.
Whatever Duck A was doing here, she didn't want to spook it.
This was definitely not the type of place for either fright or curiosity to get the better of a duck. Or really, anything which couldn't read the sign.
Because at the end of this garden path was the troll door guard hired to protect the postern entry. He was polite, sure, and amiable, even if Ophelia never bothered to learn his name or socialise outside of work. But he was also a professional.
A professional from Ouzelia.
And that meant dropping pianos on intruders.
Ophelia had no doubt that even a duck wouldn't be spared from the troll's adherence to his contractual obligations.
Anybody or anything which wandered here without prior written permission, even herself, would have to deal with a falling 1000 pound musical instrument.
And while that was merely a hassle for Ophelia, for anyone else, it was nothing short of a death sen—
“O … Ohohohoho! B-Behold my will to best even a piano! Why, a hundred fruit slimes have been punted away to perform this feat!”
Ophelia's jaw dropped.
Because before her ... a human girl was laughing maniacally as she effortlessly held a St. Liane piano over her head.
Using a wind technique originating from her sword, this human girl was not only causing a large instrument trying very hard to fall to actually not fall, but was even causing it to rise ever so slightly.
Ophelia the Snow Dancer, A-rank elven sword saint and hobbyist sewer, felt like she'd just been smacked in the face by a wet salmon.
For a moment, all she could do was shake her head, close her eyes, open her eyes, and then repeat the gesture several times until her head started becoming dizzy from the effort of making sure she hadn't gone insane.
Only when the initial shock wore off did she do what she should've done immediately.
“.”
Ophelia wiped all traces of her presence away.
There was no fancy fading into the shadows about it. It was a technique unique to her kind. The moment she wished it, she ceased to exist. On her best days, Ophelia could sing in falsetto and remain undetected.
Her was, as far as she knew, unmatched amongst the elves of Aquina or Tirea. Especially for someone whose strength wasn't strictly related to stealth.
Useful, then, to hide against a clockwork doll whose senses were keener than a fruit slime after a watermelon rind.
The human girl was not alone.
For a moment, Ophelia only stared as she took in the sight of the odd pair. One a human girl holding a piano over her head. And one a clockwork doll, a rarity among rarities.
Ophelia had met a few herself, but only when traversing Ouzelia. They were marvels of magic, alchemy, engineering and excess coffee consumption all rolled into one mad package. Ordinarily, any clockwork doll in Aquina would demand her full attention as she rushed out to offer an arm wrestle.
And yet, it wasn't the clockwork doll that was causing Ophelia's mind to blank.
“That's amazing! I knew your [Ball Of Doom] could, you know, do wanton destruction, but to sustain an object in the air is something else. You should join the circus … or even better, make one yourself!”
“I … well, yes, while I have no doubt that I could form a stranglehold on the entertainment industry, I already have a profession I'm quite satisfied with.”
“Being an E-ranked adventurer?”
If it was possible for Ophelia's jaw to drop further, it would've, there and then.
This human girl was an E-rank adventurer?!
Or rather, only an E-rank adventurer?!
That was insane. And Ophelia knew insane. After all, she was definitely a bit nuts.
But Ophelia also knew adventurers. She knew the ranking system. And she knew that whatever they said about the value of saving lost cats and public endearment, the Adventurer's Guild was a meritocracy of strength.
The Oldest Ladder could only be climbed by those who did things that couldn't be ignored.
Things like holding a piano over one's head.
Ophelia instantly evaluated the level of the girl's sword technique as at least B-rank. That alone put her ahead of almost every swordsman and swordswoman in the kingdom. But what also stunned her was the sword being wielded, shining like moonlight against the evening glare.
It bristled with the finest enchantments dead mages could imbue on it.
Ophelia was no slouch with swords. Hers was a masterwork even amongst elven swordsmiths. It was written on the plaque when she'd stolen it. A blade capable of matching fae swords without bending or breaking.
That sword holding the piano aloft could doubtless do the same.
Ophelia blinked as she carefully took in the girl's slender frame.
Time went by slowly for elves. It went slower for Ophelia. She'd become accustomed to the ebb and flow of boredom as she sought one new hobby from the next.
But now?
Now this girl had not only caught her interest, but practically suplexed her without warning. She could see nothing else.
An E-rank adventurer out of nowhere, whose ease of controlling a floating piano meant she qualified as B-rank in at least one technique.
The sudden discovery of a new prospect caused Ophelia to momentarily break her , such was the shock of the find.
She recovered in a flash, pressing herself deeper into the shadow of the castle before realising she was unlikely to be the one to give herself away.
She bent down to scoop up Duck A before either the human girl or the clockwork doll could notice. The troll had already seen her, but professional courtesy meant he didn't give her away, nor try to bring down the cello above her head … yet.
Even so—
Ophelia's hands paused just shy of Duck A's fluffy white sides.
The duck was unmoving, its eyes staring at the girl now fearlessly arguing with the troll. It was the same unrelenting gaze that it'd so often given the elven woman.
The sounds of a human girl ineffectually stamping her foot and an extremely tortured trumpet filled the air. Yet for a moment, even Ophelia forgot where she was.
Because for the first time, Ophelia noticed as she stared at the duck she'd rescued from a tree bough not dissimilar to those wielding instruments over her head, that she was not the only one concealing her presence.
kayenano
Author's Note:
Salutations! It's very rare that I make an author's note, but I have a number of announcements to make that may be missed if I make this as a comment.
Firstly, if you enjoy my writing, then you may wish to consider my other writing work. I'm the author of the Lily Clairet light novel series (yuri, cosy, high school, slice of life), which is about the daily life of a not so normal high school girl in Japan. It's a coming of age story with bits of mystery, comedy and lots of ... Lily being Lily!
If you enjoy Bocchi the Rock, Hyouka or the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, then you may enjoy reading it. It's currently seven books long and ends on a very satisfying point, so now is a perfect time to pick it up if you're interested!
You can read it on Kindle, KU and Paperback. It's also available as an audiobook.
I'm also happy to announce that after 100 chapters (including Patreon), I have successfully uploaded daily chapters for two months straight, including completing an unplanned Writathon. This has by far been the most challenging and fun writing experience I've completed, and one which has now been rewarded with the audiobooks for the series being picked up.
That's right! You'll be able to hear Juliette's ohohohohos. I'll update with more information when production has begun in earnest.
I am also happy to announce that a full length standalone Ouzelia novel, featuring an official heroine as the protagonist, has been fully written. The story takes place concurrently with Juliette's story, so if you'd like to know what's happening in the land of falling pianos while our princess is on her noble quest to preserve her quality of life, you soon can!
Suffice to say, I now have a massive stockpile of work I need to complete, including providing finished manuscripts for Juliette's story to be produced as an audiobook, editing and publishing my Ouzelia novel, writing Lily Clairet 8, and completing my other unannounced standalone novel (also set in Juliette's cinematic universe).
Most importantly, I need to build up my backlog for this story. It is not feasible to maintain the writing standards you as readers deserve while I have not written sufficiently far ahead to make changes with the power of hindsight.
As a result, Juliette's story will now have a new publishing schedule of twice a week (Tuesdays, Saturdays).
Thank you for reading so far! If you'd like to skip ahead and read what happens in the rest of this arc, then you can do so by visiting my Patreon.
