Prologue: Et tu, Blanc?

CPUs have been known for occasionally making impulsive decisions and foolish life choices. Thankfully for Financier, Chamberlain of Lowee and self-proclaimed queen of the ordered workspace, Lady White Heart has always been above such foolish impulsiveness.
At least until she decided a young adventurer who'd helped her get her sisters out of trouble was now going to live with her.

The fateful day started out like any other for Financier. Her alarm clock woke her up at 6:45, at great risk to it's own health. After deciding to spare the little thing's life, she dragged herself out of bed and over to her bathroom, where she started the arduous task of making her tired self perfectly presentable.

Once her hair was straightened out, her makeup applied and she had carefully attached her mother's hairclips, her next stop was the Holy Coffee Machine.

It fully deserved the title and the capital letters. After all, she had paid a lot of money for it, and it has enabled the Chamberlain of Lowee to function in the morning for more than four years with delicious coffee.

So, once the first mug of black lifeblood had been consumed, Financier left the machine to refill the mug, while she walked over to her closet and opened the left side, which was almost entirely filled with near-identical red maid uniforms. After getting dressed with care, woman and coffee finally left the little apartment in the Basilicom's habitation wing.

At 7:30 she arrived in the foyer and got a report from the nightshift receptionist, and then made her way over to the CPU's quarters, where the first irregularity of the day manifested when she learned that Lady Blanc was already out, gone into town with the twins.

An irregularity however, that was allowed for in her morning routine, as the CPU and the Candidates were prone to operating to a different schedule than Financier, if they had one at all.

So the chamberlain merely used the opportunity to check both Blanc's and and the twin's rooms for any damages or messes that would require the attention of the maintenance staff, and, satisfied that her Lady had properly taken care of her habitat this time, spent the next two hours wandering the Basilicom and checking on all the staff.

At 9:30 she finally deemed the day's work suitably progressed that she allowed herself a late breakfast in the main kitchen, and then made her way over to her office to get a headstart on the day's paperwork.

After a few hours of in-house paperwork and a few cups of tea, a staffer dropped off the mail, and she spent another 3 hours sorting through letters ranging from fanmail for Lady White Heart to petitions to restart the Player Two series, to reports about increased monster activity around the Kriko plateau.

Into this calming atmosphere of orderly productivity came the call from her Lady.

"Financier, I need you to be at the entrance with a medical detail in half an hour. The twins got themselves into trouble. Again."

So far, so relatively ordinary, warranting no more than a simple "Of course, Lady Blanc, everything will be ready."

The true madness started with Blanc's next words.

"Oh, and have an apartment prepared. The girl who helped me get them back isn't entirely useless, so I'm hiring her."

"O-of course, Lady Blanc. I'll get to it."

Only when her CPU had concluded the phone call with a typically brusque "See you then." did Financier let herself react to the words she had just heard.

"What the hell? Don't just invite in strangers!"

And so it came that on that afternoon, Financier found herself greeting the new arrival in the Basilicom's foyer, and wishing her Lady had at least stuck around for the introductions, instead of immediately rushing off with Rom and Ram.

"Why have you abandoned me, Lady Blanc?!" the chamberlain mentally griped, before turning her attention to the reason she wasn't currently making headway with the resolution of a legal dispute between construction contractors.

The woman that was standing in front of Financier was young, her unruly white and purple hair a perfect match for her worn cloak. Her smile seemed just a little bit nervous as she introduced herself:

"My name is Blizzard, but just call me Snowy. Looks like I'll be staying here a while, so I hope we'll get along. Nice to meet you!"

Financier took the offered hand, smiles warmly and introduced herself in turn, but she could only think about how much this woman was going to complicate her life.

She couldn't yet fathom just how complicated it was really about to get. But the Lady wished for her to stay, and what Lady Blanc wants, her loyal Chamberlain provides.

A/N: Hey everyone, this is a little peak at what I've been working on while I am takimg a break from "I'm the Protagonist, of course I can have two!". It's sort of a lower-deck episode centred around the best side character and an OC (so be warned, everyone who wishes to keep the cast canon-pure: turn back, here be original characters), but there will be plenty of CPU shenanigans as well. More to come soon, feel free to feedback what you think.

2nd A/N: After massive rewrites, especially in this prologue, I present to you the new and improved version of "Yeah... Complicated."

Big shoutout to AO3 user SphinxLord for betareading, and to my dear friend Nijura for making some excellent suggestions for the rewrites.

Also, some good natured thumb-biting at some more accomplished writer's. You know who you are... and I hereby declare that I'm gonna own my decisions. Even if they're totally wrong.