Argrey Kingdom was a country in the middle of the continent, and its capital held an academy for magic. At the beginning of their fifth and final school year, noble students and those with good academic results would be performing a summoning in order to call upon intelligent beings from other worlds to become their lifetime Partners.

The number of the summoned did not necessarily correlate to the number of the summoners, and neither was there any guarantee that all of the summoned would agreed to become Partners. It was why the students would have to win over the Partner candidates by themselves. Upon being chosen, the student would then be recognized as an official magus, and their Partner would bring them prestige as a noble.

The students of this year had succeeded in summoning human boys and girls just like them, an achievement that hadn’t been seen in centuries.

They had a year, only a year, until their graduation to earn the summoned humans’ trust. And yet on the very first day, a marquis’ daughter infamous for her poor academic skills had already gained her Partner.

The human girl named Fleurety had slid into the role of being a maid to Sharon, the marquis’ daughter, with such ease that left everyone flabbergasted. Like a whirlwind, the maid rapidly brought chaos to the status quo around Sharon.

And so, let us have a look into a day of this rather… eccentric… maid.

 

A maid’s day began when the sky was still dark.

Her mistress lived in the dorm of the boarding academy, and her room was connected to a servant’s room. This room was where the maid of our story resided.

The room was bare and empty, looking as though nobody had been living in it. The maid woke up, not on the cleanly-made bed, but on a spiderweb woven in a corner of the ceiling.

She did not have anything against beds. She simply felt safer in the nest that she had made herself.

And she did not need to sleep, either, but she was prudent enough to know that inhuman behavior would be frowned upon.

 

“Geez, Letty. Do you even know what ‘prudence’ mean?”

“I do, milady. It’s tasty and goes well with rice.”

“Wait, you actually don’t?!!”

 

But let us return to our story. A maid’s day began when the sky was still dark.

After her morning ablutions, the maid headed for the Dark Woods to prepare her mistress’ breakfast. She was picking up fresh eggs from a cockatrice’s nest when a griffon passed her by, and it immediately prostrated itself before her and gave her the prey it had just hunted as an offering.

The endearing sight was one commonly seen ever since the maid began to frequent the forest. Truly, nature itself favored her. She would not need to worry about finding meat ever again.

The sun rose as the maid prepared breakfast. She left to get the newspaper for her mistress, and a horse came to pester her for food.

“Good boy, good boy. No leftovers, alright?”

“Gggrrr…”

The maid kindly watched over the horse as he munched on a whole, still-living goblin.

After their journey together, the horse had become very attached to the maid. He liked her even more than he liked his owner, the dorm mother. The fresh food the maid continued to give him had been very good for him, and he had recently grown another four legs to make a total of eight.

“You’re just like me now, aren’t you? Good boy…”

“Gggrrrrah!”

Now, the dorm mother would faint every time she looked at the horse. The maid wondered if the woman was jealous that the horse didn’t show the same friendliness for her.

The dorm mother was still young, still just in her forties, and it was no surprise that she might feel… insecure at times. The maid understood, and she would not tell anyone that the dorm mother sometimes went downtown to pay underage boys to help her ‘destress’.

And breakfast was done. The menu for today was mixed salad and bacon quiche.

 

“Hey, Letty… The dorm mother seems kinda strange these days. Have you noticed?”

“She is happy that her horse had returned healthy, milady.”

“Ah, I see, it is a very energetic horse. I’m happy for her.”

Once more, the maid felt the joy of serving under a mistress who loved animals so much that she would call a horse that could kill a charging boar with a single kick ‘energetic’.

 

The maid also accompanied her mistress to class.

Karl, her mistress’ childhood friend, began to talk to the young noble lady. But the maid would not allow him to touch her.

“Wait, hold on, I haven’t done anything!”

As the maid quietly took out a spiked club, Karl turned pale, his hips pulled so far back he looked like a shrimp in an attempt to protect his irreplaceable treasures.

 

After school, the maid often spent her time frolicking with her mistress, but sometimes she also went shopping alone. Her mistress loved sweet things, so the pantry must always be stocked with sugar and honey.

“…shit, it’s you again.”

The store that the maid favored was located near the salt dungeon. The owner was a strange man. Despite having such a cute customer visiting his store, he always grimaced whenever he saw her.

“What do you have for me today, mister?”

“Dammit girl, I’m not a treasure vault for you. I only had that cursed stone because somebody foisted it on me after it accidentally got out of a noble’s storage, you should know.”

“Oh, but you sold it in the end. All’s well that ends well.”

“…maybe, if I hadn’t been forced to sell it for peanuts.”

The cursed stone was, indeed, the heavy ore that had been used to coat the end of Orc Killer.

“So I don’t have anything for you today, alright?”

“I have heard that you have just imported some good rum from the neighboring country.”

“…hey, maid girl.”

“What is it?”

“Are you spying on my shop? Why the fuck do you know that?! The rum’s for selling to a trading firm, leave it alone!”

“Such a scandalous accusation, mister. I’m not telling you to give me everything, just a few bottles. Milady loves the sweets I make from them.”

“…just one bottle, alright? One gold coin.”

“Three bottles for one gold coin, please.”

“You fucking wot, maid?! That’s below cost!!!”

“My? Didn’t you get them by trading the monster materials that I sold you the other day? How much would a bottle be, then, calculating from that?”

“…here, three bottles for one gold.”

“As well as some of those rock candies, please. In return, here…”

The maid glanced at the shopkeeper’s head and covertly handed him a bag of dried seaweed. He took a quick look inside, then took it just as sneakily.

“…I’ll deliver them to your place.”

“Thank you, mister.”

There was now a faint covering on the shopkeeper’s head. But it wasn’t hair. It was actually the seaweed that had infested him.

 

Gathering information was also one of the important duties of a maid. So went the teachings of the kind Maid Chief. The maid understood that she could not rely on just the Seaweed Spirits, so she went to work herself.

As had become custom, the maid called for a gathering of snot-nosed urchins and gave them rock candies in exchange for information. Indeed, not many watched their words around children.

“…I heard that the viscount’s son was buying the same thing again, in the northern forest.”

“My, my.”

“An independent Explorer named Bob found some strange magic tool. He’s hiding it.”

“Details?”

“…it’s for assassinations.”

“I see.”

The maid gave some more rock candies. “Thank you, miss!” they said, waving their hands as they departed.

Indeed, the smiles of children could warm anyone’s heart.

 

The maid returned to the dorm and prepared her mistress’ dinner.

Today’s dinner would be beef stew. Beef-ish. The maid did get a lot of meat from something cow-like the other day.

And after the dinner came homework.

 

“Ah, so milady truly is bad at math.”

“N-No! No, that’s not it!”

 

It was to be expected. After all, the young lady’s bosom had grown even larger thanks to her maid’s efforts.

After homework was done, it was bathtime. With a washcloth that the maid had made herself, she scrubbed her mistress pristine and spotless, turning the noble young lady’s skin into the envy of silk and satin.

 

“Good night, Letty.”

“Yes. I wish you a good night as well, milady.”

 

But even after her mistress had fallen asleep, the maid’s day was still not over. She still had the laundering and ironing of clothes to do, budgets to manage, pharmaceutical substance to process, underwear thieves to exterminate, so on and so forth. She only slept when dawn of the next day neared.

The duties of a maid were daunting indeed. However…

 

“It’s still so much easier than helping the Maid Chief.”

 

The maid sounded rather traumatized.

---

A/N: The Maid Chief seemed like quite the strict person.

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Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter

Gidel was born as the first child to the count of Balla.

Theirs was not a particularly wealthy noble family. They had land, but their land had neither any dungeons nor industries of noteworthy value.

The Balla count wasn’t content with his lot. He made ventures into multiple lines of business only to end in failures after failures, and his debt to other noble houses grew and grew.

It was at that time that the Michel marquis of the previous generation decided to grant him a loan. In return, the marquis wanted Gidel to be the second wife for his heir, a young man who had just gotten engaged.

 

The Michel heir’s engagement was with a young woman who was close to the queen. While the lady had been adopted by a viscount, originally, she was born as nothing more than a simple daughter of a knight. Even if the couple themselves did not mind, it was still enough justification for the noble world to look down on them. So the Michel marquis had thought that by bringing Gidel, the daughter of a count, into their family, then they would be able to maintain their status. On the surface at least, if nothing else.

The fact of the matter was, having the eldest daughter of a count as a second wife wasn’t generally done. It meant that instead of being a union of equals, it was a declaration that the Balla house would be subservient to the Michel house.

Gidel’s pride as a noble was dealt a grievous blow.

Still, Gidel believed that if she could give birth to a child before the main wife could, she would gain more influence within the Michel house than her. But the Michel heir had consummated his long-awaited marriage with his sweetheart, and the two had had a child together before his second marriage with Gidel.

 

With the second blow to her pride — as a woman, this time — Gidel had the Balla house’s magus to make her some aphrodisiac. She used it to force the Michel heir into bed, despite the fact that they hadn’t yet entered wedlock.

As a result, their wedding was delayed, and she almost had her newly-born Yohanne taken away from her, but the Balla family had then brought the boy who carried the blood of Michel into their protection. They didn’t return him until the next year, after the Michel marquis passed away in a sudden accident.

Several years after, when the Michel heir was now the official head, tragedy struck once again as his main wife died due to a sudden illness. It was then that the current Michel marquis, a man now poor in spirit, officially took Gidel as his second wife.

 

Everything went smoothly. As convenient as they had been for the Ballas, the successive deaths had given rise to rumors among the nobles for a time, but in the end, for a noble caste of a country that had lasted for a thousand years, it wasn’t anything they hadn’t seen before.

But a single concern remained: Sharon, the child of the main wife. The girl must have been carrying a grudge against her stepmother and brother, considering how they had spurned her so.

In the noble world, the son generally inherited the house, but according to the law, the first child also had inheritance rights. In another noble family, an older sister who wouldn’t relinquish the house to her younger brother could be safely dealt with by marrying her into another house, but Gidel could no longer do that to Sharon when she was now a fiancee candidate to the second prince.

Then what should Gidel do? The solution was simple.

 

“Aah… finally. Finally…”

Gidel sighed as she looked down upon one of the boss rooms of the Agate Dungeon. Everything she had done was for this day.

To Gidel, the girl summoned from another world, Akiru, was nothing more than a convenient pawn.

She could gain some amount of fame if Yohanne could take Akiru as his wife, but she would also earn the ire of some other nobles. So she decided that the girl would become a victim of Sharon’s, and the two would die together in an accident. Yohanne would then gain sympathy from the other nobles as a boy who had lost his beloved.

Gidel truly thought that having Akiru as a daughter would be fine too, if that Dario hadn’t failed. Still, dealing with Sharon took precedence.

And if the maids attached to Akiru — innocent commoner girls — happened to die as well, public hatred would further concentrate into Sharon. The Michel house would gain even more sympathy, and their bad rumors would dissipate as well.

 

So it was very fortunate for Gidel that the monster that had appeared in the boss room was a minotaur — and not only that, its black horns marked it as a higher-ranked minotaur as well, one unique to this dungeon. Its bones had been transformed into magic iron through its consumption of minerals and ores.

Gidel did find it rather regrettable that she would lose the knowledge of the maid that Sharon had brought, the impudent girl who possessed bizarre skills. On the other hand, seeing her tears, her cries as she begged for life would be much, much more fun, Gidel thought.

She turned her eyes to the maid. The black-haired girl returned an unblinking stare.

 

Gidel looked at that silent stare, that unfeeling smile, those dark eyes, and an unsettling discomfort began to churn deep inside her chest, seeping through her as it grew and grew.

 

“GRAAAAGHH!!!”

 

Upon having its axe deflected, the minotaur released a roar of fury. It charged at the maid.

“Letty!!”

“AAAH!”

As the screams of Sharon and Akiru echoed in the chamber, the minotaur once more swung its battleaxe at the black-haired maid to cleave her in half. But before the weapon could hit its target, the girl spoke, her voice quiet and lilting.

 

“…I call the Darkness…”

 

And all was instantly suffused in black, the darkness surging to cover even where Gidel was standing.

“What happened?!”

It took a moment for her to realize that it was her who had shouted. No voices answered. Not from the maids or the soldiers under her command, nor even Sharon or anyone else below. Even her sight extended no more than her immediate surroundings.

“Is anyone there?! Answer me!”

She shouted once more, in confusion and in fear, but she couldn’t even feel the presence of her servants. They were supposed to be right behind her.

“…what—”

 

“Grlfp…”

 

“Eek?!”

Suddenly, in front of Gidel was the minotaur. Both its horns were broken, its whole body covered with blood, and it collapsed after a final cry of agony.

What had happened? What could have done something so horrible?

Gidel staggered several steps backwards, shaken by a sight so nightmarish she didn’t dare to even think of it. Her back hit something.

She turned in trepidation. She screamed.

Standing behind Gidel was her maid, a servant of the Balla house who had come with her. The maid’s face was deathly pale, her eyes were rolled up, her limbs hanging loose. Only her head jerked to turn toward Gidel, and inside her mouth…

…were crawling, squirming, arachnid legs.

Gidel’s face lost all colors. She tried to run, but a hand caught her legs.

“…ma…dam…”

“L-Let go!”

The maid had served Gidel for a long time, but now, feeling cadaverous skin and ice-cold fingers on her own body, there wasn’t a single moment of hesitation before Gidel reflexively kicked at her.

And Gidel screamed hoarsely in fear as she witnessed the maid visibly shriveling, crumbling into dust.

“…’T-Teleport!’”

The jewel on Gidel’s ring lost its colors and broke, the fragments evaporating into thin air. The woman vanished.

 

*

 

What Gidel used was a Ring of Teleportation, a magic item that could rarely be found in the lower levels of a dungeon. By speaking the keyword, the user would be transported to the location where they believed to be the safest place for them.

Each Ring cost 150 gold coins, and it worked only once. Still, it was a cheap price to pay if it could save one’s life.

 

“This place is…”

Gidel looked around and realized that she wasn’t at the Michel marquis’ house. She was at her parents’ home, in the territory of the Balla count.

“Gidel is here! Somebody, answer me!”

The sun had already set, yet it wasn’t so late that all the people of the mansion had gone to sleep.

Gidel saw light coming from several windows, but there was no sign anyone was here otherwise. She shivered, remembering her previous fear, and she ran through the mansion in a desperate attempt to forget her terror.

 

“Answer me, anyone! Father!”

She had already previously contacted her father, the Balla count. He should have been here today. It was supposed to be the day of Sharon’s disappearance, of the fall of the Michel house by the hands of the Ballas.

Had her father and retainers been impatient for the good news? Had they celebrated in advance and drunken themselves into sleep? In order for them to carry out the takeover at a moment’s notice, they had kept only the servants who knew of their plans at the mansion, so Gidel had expected that there would be fewer people than normal today.

But she didn’t expect this desolation.

 

“…what… what is this?”

Her realization came late due to the darkness. Only now did she noticed that here and there, in corners and on the ceiling of the hallway, there were masses of tangled spiderwebs.

The housekeeper would never have allowed this to happen.

Since when had the mansion deteriorated so? What had happened…?

 

“Wha…”

She reached the ballroom. It was no longer the glorious chamber used for dinner parties that she remembered, but instead a dilapidated hall wreathed in darkness and enormous spiderwebs. She looked at the cocoons hung on the web, and there was one face she immediately recognized.

“F-Father?!”

After noticing the Balla count, Gidel also realized familiar faces of her retainers in the other cocoons. They were hung upside-down, their faces pallid.

She wanted to scream, but her voice died in her throat, frozen by a coldness that seemed to seep into her bones.

Gidel stood paralyzed. Silently appearing from the darkness in front of her eyes was the black-haired maid. The girl was floating in the air.

 

“…Y…ou…”

She noticed that the girl wasn’t actually flying, but was keeping herself in the middle of the spiderweb. All the same, the realization brought the woman no comfort.

Why was she here? How was she here? Questions after questions flashed through Gidel’s mind, questions she couldn’t ask when her voice wasn’t cooperating. The black-haired maid’s lips tore to her ears in a dollish smile.

“I bid you farewell.”

The black-haired maid said, and the nightmare began.

 

The girl’s pinkish-white skin blackened and gained a tint of bronze. Her high-quality set of maid clothes turned frayed and ragged in a blink of an eye, as though the garment had been left to the mercy of the rain and wind for thousands of years.

Miasma surged from her to cover the whole ballroom, rotting the walls and the ceiling in seconds. Bursting out from her back were eight spindly black limbs that resembled the legs of spiders, each about ten meters in length.

Gidel screamed silently, blood trickling from her mouth.

 

In her research for ways to dispose of Sharon, Gidel had looked into curses and poisons. And at their roots, all curses had a connection to demons.

But demons were but myths. Fairy-tales for children. This world had no demons, and the Church also denied their existence. And yet according to the knowledge of some of the people who had been summoned through the ritual, many among them demihumans, demons did exist.

Demons. Rulers of fear. Enemies of gods. Existences with power equivalent to elemental spirits.

And among them, there existed a certain class of high-ranking demons with such might as to rival Arch Elementals, spirits so powerful they could shatter the earth and sunder the seas.

Legends had it that when they manifested themselves in the mortal world, they would take the form of a human clad in old and weathered noble clothing.

 

“…an Archdemon…”

 

Gidel whispered and collapsed. The spider legs of the black-haired maid soundlessly carried her closer, and her lips slowly parted.

The sight of the innumerable, skittering things inside the maid’s mouth drove Gidel to a mad scream. The dark maw moved close to Gidel’s ear, and the maid whispered.

 

“I wonder if you can die…”

 

***

 

Here and there, hung across branches of green, spiderwebs glimmer with droplets of dew. What a wonderful morning.

Greetings, Fleurety here. I wish everyone a Nice Shot on this fine day.

 

At the castle, Yohanne hangs his head, whimpering in despair.

He has returned before us, and in his hands is a letter that has been delivered first thing in the morning by an express messenger.

Wooow, I just wonder what it could have been about.

On the ground next to him are some small agates, so it looks like he hasn’t been able to find anything good in the dungeon.

I take a peek at the letter. It says everyone of the Balla house has gone missing, and only Gidel was found at the scene, the woman gibbering mad. She has been apprehended by the guards.

How unfortunate. I wish she would recover someday.

 

“Yohanne…”

“…sister.”

Milady Sharon calls at him. Yohanne wipes his face with his sleeves. He picks up one of the fallen agates and glare at milady.

“This is all I could find… Mother and Father are gone now. I’ve lost. Now that I no longer have any backing, the country would never accept me as the next marquis with just these tiny pieces of rocks…”

There are quite a few inconveniences involved in inheriting a noble house, aren’t there?

“Yohanne… take these.”

“…eh?”

Milady gives him two large horns.

“These are…”

“The horns of a magic-iron minotaur. Letty got it for me. If you need them to succeed the house, take them.”

Yohanne’s eyes open wide.

“…w-why?! Mother has always told me that you didn’t want to leave the house to me, that you considered me an eyesore…”

“No, Yohanne. The head of the family should be a man. You’ve shown me the courage to go into the dungeon yourself for miss Akiru. Your life has only just begun, Yohanne, stand tall and face it!”

“Y-Yes!”

With milady’s lecture, Yohanne instantly shoots to his feet, back ramrod straight.

“And besides… I never wanted us to fight.”

“…S-sister…”

The dam breaks, and Yohanne starts bawling his eyes out. Milady gently holds his head to her chest… why do I see his ears turning bright red? Does he want me to tear them off?

 

“…how wonderful.”

Akiru says, moved by the heartwarming scene, her eyes wet. I gently place a hand on her shoulder from behind and give her a beaming smile.

“Well then, I think it’s time the two of us have a talk in the office.”

“…eh?”

That is that, and this is this. I’ve already prepared the medicine. It won’t take long.

 

…I must say, why does everyone keep calling me a ‘demon’? Such slander.

 

***

 

The capital held the church to the Goddess of Time.

It was said that the Goddess held domain over the bonds between people and fateful encounters, and that She had brought prosperity to this country through the Oracles that She had granted to people, such as the queen of the first king and the saint.

In the church, a young man was praying in earnest. The solemn sight had invited many a passionate gaze and breathy sigh of infatuation, all coming from the younger sisters and women who had come to worship.

Anyone who was seeing him for the first time would never have thought that this handsome, blond-haired man was, in fact, none other than the Holy Knight, the one considered to be the most powerful person of the country.

 

His long eyelashes rippled. His eyes opened wide to reveal verdant-green orbs, and he stared at the statue of the Goddess.

 

“…there’s an Irregularity in this world…?”

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A/N: Unbelievable. The maid does not actually know what she is.

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Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter

Alone in the guest room, Akiru paced.

“What do I do…”

She hadn’t made any wrong choice. Compared to the other targets, Yohanne’s route was relatively simple.

By nature of being an online game, the interference of other players could cause certain alterations to the story. Nevertheless, a constant still remained: the player with the highest affection stats would be given evidence of Sharon’s crimes from her mother, Gidel. During the prosecution of Sharon, by admonishing her while still advocating for leniency, the player character would then receive Yohanne’s profession of love.

If the player answered his proposal, the flag for Yohanne would be established. Afterward, as long as the player kept his affection high enough, they could do whatever until the graduation event, be it spending the days all lovey-dovey with him or even ignoring him to go seduce another target.

Yet before Akiru could give her answer, she got in her way again.

 

As it was still rather early on in the game’s timeline, Sharon’s misdeeds were still light. In the game, the crimes that the villainess was guilty of could vary depending on when her tribunal happened. If she was prosecuted during the graduation event, she might even be executed for treason.

Akiru wasn’t the kind of person that could knowingly consign the villainess to execution without guilt. Even as early on in the timeline as they were, she had full confidence she could establish Yohanne’s flag before the other players interfered. She had cleared his route so, so many times, after all.

So she had acted. She made her moves with such assertiveness that it surprised even her, and she had succeeded in acquiring the affection of Yohanne as she stayed hidden from the eyes of the other girls who could be player characters, as well as the viscount young lady that was the main heroine of the game.

 

“…’Status’.”

Akiru whispered. A panel, translucent as though made of acrylic, appeared in front of her.

This was a kind of magic that no one else in this world, other than those who were aware they were player characters, could use. The first time Akiru tried out the chant, she had done it thinking that if she could see her Status in the game, she could do it now, too. And to her surprise, the spell had worked.

[Name: Akiru] [Female — 14 Years Old] [Status: Good]

Skill List (skills with ☆ are hidden):
[Water Magic Aptitude] [Noble Blood] [Alchemy Aptitude] [Foreign Tongue]
[Charm (Weak) ☆] [Goddess’ Blessing ☆ ]

She hadn’t much interest in the skills that were public. To her, they were only convenient skills to have in this world. Akiru’s attention was on the hidden skills instead.

She suspected that both were skills that only player characters could have. She didn’t know what ‘Goddess’ Blessing’ was, but ‘Charm’ was what had helped her to gain Yohanne’s affection. It was what had made him hear her lines, even sounding as wooden as they were due to her nervousness, as a heartfelt speech full of passion.

Yet right at the end, Akiru was thwarted once again.

Was she a player character too? Then perhaps she might be the kind of troll player that played not to capture any target, but only to mess with other people.

“…I won’t let you spoil my game.”

Akiru had already forgotten what she had done to the girl in the past. To Akiru, she was just an enemy now.

 

Two knocks came from the door.

“…yes, I am here.”

Upon Akiru’s reply, a maid opened the door to reveal the madam of the house.

“My, madam Gidel.”

“Akiru. Can I have some of your time?”

Gidel was smiling, and in the woman’s hands were some documents that were presumably the proof of Sharon’s crimes. Seeing them, Akiru smiled as well.

 

Akiru had still not yet realized that this world was reality.

 

***

 

With Yohanne’s official declaration, the competition becomes a duel between siblings to determine the next successor.

Gidel and the servants had tried to get Yohanne to stand down at first. So I gave him just a liiiitle bit of a push.

“Aww, so the little-widdle ****less boy can’t do anything without his mama?”

And he suddenly found his motivation. A lot of it too, in fact. Even madam Gidel seemed to have changed her mind.

 

“Hey Letty, what did you say to Yohanne?”

“Simply some encouragement, milady.”

She didn’t hear because I was blocking her ears. I simply could not let her innocence be spoiled by such bad words.

“But… I didn’t want to have to fight my own brother…”

Milady’s expression somewhat darkens. Such a kind girl, she is.

“Helping a younger brother gain strength through a trial is also an older sister’s duty, milady.”

“…really?”

Yes, it really is. It’s also an excuse, but she doesn’t need to know that.

 

The all-important details of the duel are as follows: until the next morning, milady and Yohanne must bring a valuable dungeon item back from the dungeon that lies in the western region of the Michel territory.

This dungeon is medium-sized, with about forty floors. It used to be famed for its high-quality agates until over a century ago, when its yield of the gemstones dwindled down to almost nothing. The dungeon had since turned into a lair for monsters.

Both parties are allowed up to ten servants to accompany them. This rule is mainly for Yohanne’s benefit, of course.

 

“Milady, I shall accompany you.”

“Franz… I truly appreciate the thought, but you shouldn’t. What if something happens to Father when you’re not here?”

“Milady… I…”

“Besides, I also need you to protect Mother’s grave. I fear her resting place may be disturbed if you get injured, Franz.”

“…understood.”

Franz kneels, his voice full of reluctance. Milady tenderly places her hand on his shoulder to console him.

“I will be fine. Letty is with me… look, Franz, over there. Something is shining in the evening sun. Is it not beautiful?”

“…it is. If only lady Kyria could witness this with us…”

“Indeed, if only Mother was here…”

 

The gleaming thing is, in fact, lady Kyria’s grave.

 

Franz accompanies us all the way to the dungeon in a horse carriage. He says his goodbye as he prepares to return to the marquis castle.

“Then I wish you good fortune, milady. Miss Fleurety, please keep her safe.”

He looks at me with eyes full of trust.

“Of course.”

Then I must prove myself worthy of his trust, too.

By the way, the horse carriage we used was the one I borrowed from the dorm mother. The horse that pulled it is now rampaging in the forest and devouring all the monsters it comes across, even with the carriage still attached to it. It must have been the monster blood I gave it.

This is great. Saves on fodder, too.

 

“Milady, it seems young master Yohanne had already entered the dungeon.”

“My…”

At the dungeon entrance are corpses of what look like goblins, as well as the footprints of multiple people.

Expecting that we may have to stay awake all night, I had let milady take a nap. It was why we had arrived later in the evening, after Yohanne.

“W-Well then, let’s go.”

“Yes, milady.”

We hadn’t taken her leather armor with us on our homecoming trip — who would expect we’d need it? — so milady is now wearing a robe made from my threads. I have my usual maid uniform on, of course.

Our way has already been cleared, just as I planned. It won’t take much time for us to reach the depths.

 

“Yah!”

Milady shouts, smacking a skeleton on the head with her staff. It collapses.

She has relatively more magic power than most others, but also worse control. It is why her spells either burn her targets to ashes or simply fizzle out — there is no in-between.

One of these days, I shall have to devise a way for her to use her magic effectively.

“Letty, I did it!”

“Beautiful work, milady.”

We have descended to the twentieth floor underground, yet we still haven’t encountered any particularly tough enemy. I was thinking that if we can’t find any good items then we could substitute with monster materials, but at this rate…

“Maybe going to the bottom floor would be faster.”

“Then let us hurry. Yohanne should already be deeper in.”

 

…how strange.

I had let Yohanne go first so that he would clear the way for us, yet I have also found monster corpses in some rather unexpected locations, in paths that the younger brother did not take. Did they split into two teams?

 

We are now at the thirtieth floor.

“Excuse me, milady.”

“Wha-Letty?!”

I pick milady up and start running. Bare moments later, rocks fall from the ceiling where we used to be.

I have noticed traps there. I have also not triggered them.

“T-Traps?”

“Yes, milady, traps.”

I catch the sound of far-off running footsteps. As I expected, that was a human trap, one leveraging the dungeon’s own. I did think it was about time and indeed, they haven’t betrayed my expectations.

“Please continue to hold on, milady.”

“…eh?”

“We’re running through.”

“…aaaaAAAAHHH?!!”

With milady holding onto me for dear life, I run deeper into the dungeon. She… jiggles… quite a bit.

I hop to the side to dodge a sudden arrow flying toward us from the front. Before the second could be let loose, I silence the men hiding in the shadows with Maid Kicks.

 

*plort*

 

“Umm, Letty, what was that? It sounded like fruits being crushed…?”

“Something like that, milady. I think even their seeds are ruined now.”

The two men foaming at the mouth aren’t anyone I’ve seen at the castle. I wonder who they are? They don’t seem to be bandits.

I would have liked to interrogate them with my ‘truth serums’, but I don’t have the time at the moment. I continue running.

 

After that, we encounter a few more sporadic traps.

“Letty, there’s a boulder coming toward us!”

“Yes, milady.”

Hmm… it feels like we’re being led somewhere. The boulder chases us to a wide-open room without a floor, and we fall.

“EEEEEPP?!”

“Do not worry, milady.”

It’s less a pitfall and more like an atrium that connects two floors together. It has two doors. Both are closed.

After landing on my feet, I place milady down. She looks up in unease.

“…maybe…”

“This is also a trap.” I reply.

 

“Indeed.”

 

I turn to look at where the new voice came from. One of the doors open, and several people appear.

“Miss Akiru?! Why are you here?!”

“To judge your crimes, miss Sharon.”

Accompanying the lady Akiru is a gaggle of young maids, all armed and pointing their weapons at milady and me. They look fearful.

“You are accused of planning Yohanne’s assassination. How terrible, Sharon. I cannot believe you would do that to your own brother.”

“Wait, no! I would never do anything like that!”

“I have evidence provided by madam Gidel herself.”

Akiru takes out several sheets of paper, thrusting them to milady’s face.

“You have no excuses now, Sha—”

 

“Why did you not bring these to the town guards?” I interrupt, my head tilting in puzzlement. Milady shares the gesture.

Akiru stands in slack-jawed silence. It takes a while for her to respond.

“…huh?”

“If you already have all the evidence, why not take it to the palace? Or even the local town guards?”

“…b-but…” Akiru stammers, her eyes darting to and fro. The young maids begin to chatter in anxiety. “T-this is supposed to be a judgement scene…”

Akiru lowers her gaze as her voice shrinks into a whisper, having lost all of its former fervor. Really, wasn’t she supposed to have come from Earth? Did she forget about the existence of police?

“May I have a look?” I say.

“Ah, yes.”

Akiru absentmindedly allows me to look at the so-called evidence. It’s a sales receipt of the purchase of a rather special kind of poison, and on it is milady’s signature.

“This is not milady’s handwriting.”

“Eh?”

I suppose that with the power a marquis house has, they can make it work even with such a shoddy piece of ‘evidence’, but I would be surprised if it actually fools anyone.

 

“Miss Akiru, do not listen to her!”

The voice is of a man’s, and it comes from behind the group of maids who are currently confused by the unexpected development.

“Mister Dario!”

“Miss Akiru, that maid might as well be a demon with how easily she can lie to your face without blinking an eye. We haven’t given the evidence to the guards only because the madam wishes to grant lady Sharon a chance to redeem herself.”

“I-Is that so…?”

“Indeed. As long as we have the evidence, lady Sharon won’t be able to talk her way out of it. For the house of Michel, we will have her atone for her crimes here and now!”

“Eh, wha?”

“This is for young master Yohanne, lady Akiru! Everyone, ready your weapons!”

 

With an upward swing, my Orc Killer EX finds its target.

“Nice shot.”

Dario gurgles.

“Letty?!” Milady exclaims, shocked.

“It seems sir Dario is not being sound of mind. Is there a doctor around?”

Akiru and the maids furiously shake their heads. They look rather pale, for some reason.

As for Dario, despite his frothing bubbles and convulsions, he still lives, perhaps due to his armor. As I could not let milady’s eyes be tainted, I had been very careful with my strike. Still, I doubt he can continue to live as a man from tomorrow onward.

 

“…really, so useless.”

 

“Madam Gidel?!”

“””Madam!!!”””

Upon hearing the woman’s voice echoing from above, Akiru and the maids look up, exclaiming in surprise mixed with relief.

Gidel is standing not at the door where the two of us fell from, but on another protruding platform. Accompanying the woman is an elderly maid and some armed men. She looks down, her gaze frosty.

“Good work, Akiru. We can finally make Sharon atone for her crimes now.”

“B-but…”

Akiru stumble over her words. She stares at the ‘evidence’, her disarrayed thoughts apparent on her face.

“I had hoped that that butler and you working together would be able to deal with Sharon. How disappointing. A pity, too, I thought you could have made for a good daughter…”

“M-madam Gidel…?”

 

Akiru’s face pales, while a fearful uncertainty spread through the young maids. The door opposite to the one Akiru’s group used slowly creaks open.

“Eeek…”

Somebody squeaks. The thing that entered slowly scans its gaze around, and it roars.

 

“GRRRARAAAAHHH!!!”

 

It is a humanoid monster nearly three meters tall, with the head of a bull and a pair of enormous horns.

“…a minotaur.”

Milady whispers, her voice quivering.

 

“This is one of the boss rooms on the lower floors. Apparently this room leads to a shortcut if you can defeat the minotaur, so why don’t you try? Oh, yes, which reminds me, Yohanne had taken the safe route. Do not fear for him.”

Gidel says, laughing in genuine mirth. Milady glares at her.

“Madam Gidel, what are your intentions?! You would even involve lady Akiru, one of his Highness Joel’s Partner candidates?!”

“Aah, truly regrettable. Akiru was simply unfortunate to have been entangled in your crimes, that was all.”

“It can’t be…” Milady whispers in abject disbelief, while Akiru slumps to the ground upon hearing Gidel’s words, her expression one of sheer despair.

 

“GRAAAAHH!!”

 

The minotaur picks that exact moment to roar and charge toward Akiru.

I don’t plan on saving her. She’s probably immortal too, anyway.

What I didn’t expect, however, is for milady to shout a warning and jump toward Akiru in an attempt to save her.

“Watch out!”

Milady covers Akiru with her own body. Before the minotaur’s axe could reach its target, I smack the weapon away with my spiked club. I bring the two to safety.

“Milady!”

“I-I’m fine, Letty.”

A trickle of blood drips from her forehead, likely from a piece of flying debris. Despite that, she still gives me a brave smile. Akiru shivers, her teeth chattering, and her gaze is fixed on milady.

“Miss Akiru… may I leave milady in your care?”

“B-but… I…”

Akiru looks ready to cry. Out of guilt, perhaps. I look at her icily.

“If you harm her even a hair further…”

“I-I won’t! I swear I won’t!”

 

What a gaffe I’ve made, underestimating milady’s kindness.

So they really want to see me go all-out, then?

---

A/N: Our lady Sharon is an angel.

---

Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter

And so the first skirmish ends with lady Sharon’s sweeping victory. Even with all that the stepmother has done to her, taking away a marquis’ daughter’s maid — that’s me — is not one of the things that are in her authority. All Gidel could do is to stew in her anger as she leaves the dining hall in stomping footsteps.

 

The two of us try to visit milady’s father after the dinner, but a young butler stands in front of the room. We are not allowed in.

 

“Why can’t I meet with Father?!”

“My apologies, lady Sharon. By orders of his attending physician, the weary master is not to be disturbed.”

“But—”

“..milady.”

I touch her arm, asking her to relent.

 

Greetings, everyone. It is me, Fleurety, the maid who never misses a chance to savor milady’s soft and squishy arms.

“Let us retire for the day, milady. Perhaps your father will feel better in the morning.”

“…got it.”

Milady bites her lips and sulks like a kid. How cute.

 

Seeing that we won’t be pursuing the matter, the butler smirks. He is a decently handsome man who looks about in the middle of his twenties, with a head of black hair tinged blue, but his leering gaze pinned at milady’s bountiful melons and my own hips just ruins everything about him.

But, well, I can understand him. Milady’s recovery from her nutritional deficiency has made her already-huge cantaloupes even bigger, after all.

 

“…Letty, I have a feeling you’re thinking something weird again.”

“I was thinking that I like melons more than grapefruits, milady.”

“My, you do? So do I.”

“I shall prepare some for you later.”

My efforts will continue until her own become the envy of all melon farmers.

 

“Hey, you…”

Just as we are about to walk away, the young butler calls at me, lowering his voice so that only I hear him.

“I may tell you how the master is faring, but it’ll depend on you… get what I mean?”

The butler smiles suggestively, so I respond with the same expression.

“Then… perhaps midnight, sir. In front of the large tree in the garden.”

“Yeah, I’ll wait. Name’s Dario. Remember it.”

Then he nods and returns to the door. I smile.

I never said I would actually be there, after all.

 

“Letty, what were you talking about with that butler?”

“He seems rather idle, so I asked him to keep watch on the garden until morning.”

“R-Really…?”

Really, really.

We head to milady’s room to take our rest. Quite deep inside the castle, I must say. There hadn’t been much attention paid to this area, it seems, as I find dust still remaining on the window frames of the hallways here.

“This is my room.”

We arrive to a room to the north side. I open the door… and then quietly close it again.

“…Letty?”

“Please wait a moment, milady. I will air the room out first.”

“Y-yeah…”

I smile a saccharine sweet smile at her. She nods, looking uncomfortable.

As a maid, it goes against every fiber of my being to see that her room has not been cleaned at all, even if she rarely returns. Furthermore, I am quite sure milady does not have a hobby of collecting filthy bookcases and boxes of empty bottles.

“I suppose there is no other choice.”

I enter the dark room alone and unleash my Maid Cleaning Technique. Anything not needed is returned to where they belong. Like Mia’s room, for example.

“Milady, please enter.”

“Eh? You’re already done?”

If I took more than three minutes just to do this little bit of cleaning, that horror—ahem, the most kind Maid Chief would reprimand me.

Brrr. I still get nightmares sometimes.

“…wow.” Milady exclaims in amazement.

Everything unnecessary has been removed. All the sheets and curtains have been replaced with brand-new, adorably-patterned fabric. Mainly from Mia’s room.

They have been dyed as well. Nobody will ever find out.

 

“Well then, good night, milady.”

“…but where will you sleep?”

“I can find a place.”

Like on the ceiling, for example.

“You can’t just sleep anywhere! We can share a bed for today. It should be big enough for two, and, umm… you’re my friend anyway…”

“Milady…”

Milady is looking bashful like a little girl going to her first sleepover with friends. How cute.

“Don’t worry, milady, I will be certain to take responsibility.”

“What responsibility?!”

 

*

 

The night is peaceful, and I enjoy myself with milady’s squishy arms until morning comes.

That said, it is still dark outside. Milady and I walk, our steps carrying us through a garden still glistening with dewdrops.

“Over here.”

“Yes, milady.”

In a corner of the garden is the resting place for lady Kyria, birth mother to milady Sharon. The grave is a simple thing, just a stone slab carved with words, but well-tended to.

“May I give my prayers as well, milady?”

“I don’t mind.”

I place the flowers we’ve brought on the gravestone. As we mourn, I hear faint sounds of footsteps on grass behind us.

“…lady Sharon.”

“Franz…”

An old man wearing a gardener’s attire walks toward us and stops, kneeling in front of milady.

“My utmost apologies. This is all I could do for lady Kyria…”

“No, Franz, you’ve done more than enough. Thank you for protecting her grave.”

 

As milady tells me later, this old man used to be a butler working at this mansion. After he retired, he continued to protect lady Kyria’s resting place as a gardener.

 

“Young miss, might you be lady Sharon’s attendant?”

“Yes, sir Franz. Lady Sharon has allowed me to be in her service. My name is Fleurety.”

“Oh, I’m just an old man, don’t bother with the ‘sir’.”

“Letty is my friend, too.” Milady cheerfully interjects. Franz watches her with the kindly eyes of a grandfather.

But the peaceful air is then suddenly broken.

 

“You! Why didn’t you come?!”

“My, my, such dark shades around your eyes. Did you not sleep well?”

The intruder is, of course, that young butler Dario. I wonder what he has been doing here so early in the morning.

“Stop playing the fool, girl, I’ve been waiting all this time under the tree—”

“Indeed. Thank you for watching over the garden.”

“YOU—”

 

I truly appreciate it. His lack of commitment to his work to instead laze about in the garden had afforded me the opportunity to infiltrate the marquis’ room, after I confirmed that milady had fallen asleep.

From the ceiling, I saw that the marquis was a timid-looking man who showed no signs of waking up any time soon. I decided to check on him by injecting several types of medicine, and I confirmed the faint presence of poison.

My own medicine was much stronger and had subsequently sent him into a coma, but it didn’t matter. He didn’t seem like the kind of man who could stand against that woman anyway, even if he was awake.

 

“Hold it, Dario.”

“…Mia.”

The second intruder is Mia, the rotten maid. Dario stopped just as he was about to lose his composure.

I step in front of milady and smile at her.

“Miss Mia, how may I help you?”

“I have business with lady Sharon! Move!” She growls, her face haggard.

“My, you look quite tired. Did you stay up all night?”

“S-Shut up!”

 

All the garbage in milady’s room had been carried to Mia’s, but I thought just piling it up wouldn’t be interesting, so I set them up as an interlinked mass. Pulling one thing out would make an entirely different thing fall apart.

It would actually be rather simple to clean if she intentionally triggered all the traps to break it apart, but considering her fatigue, it was likely that Mia hadn’t done that. She probably took until morning to clean it up bit by bit.

 

“You did that, didn’t you?!”

“My, do you have evidence? I am also searching for evidence to find out where most of milady’s allowance had gone to.” I say, staring into her eyes. Mia flinches.

“…lady Sharon and you, go to the dining hall immediately. The madam is waiting.”

“Understood.”

I wave at her, smiling. Mia grinds her teeth, giving me a glare that is shared by Dario. She drags him away.

Milady is silent as she looks at me with open-mouthed dumbfoundedness, while Franz just nods at me, seemingly impressed.

 

By the way, before we leave, I also secretly decorate lady Kyria’s grave with some magitech neon lights and disco balls.

 

*

 

I follow milady as we enter the dining hall. Gidel, Yohanne, and miss Akiru are already seated, taking bites of what look like sausages and potatoes as their breakfast.

And since milady doesn’t have her portion — obviously — I give her a plate full of fluffy pancakes with judicious syrup and scoops of ice cream. Miss Akiru looks at me with obvious irritation.

My, does she want some? I don’t mind as long as she asks. No guarantees it wouldn’t earn her the ire of the harpy nearby though.

 

After the stepmother finishes her pickled greens, she glares at milady and opens her mouth.

“Sharon… I have something to say.”

“…what is it?”

Milady turns stony-faced again. It cannot be helped. She has the heart of a rabbit, after all.

After the stepmother spare me a glance as a warning, she airily waves Dario over. He brings to her some sort of document.

“I see that you haven’t had the best reputation at the academy. Are you aware that as a fiancee candidate to his Highness, you have brought disgrace to the house of Michel?”

“…his Highness Joel has permitted me to have Letty as an attendant.”

“The problem is how the other nobles see it. With all that has transpired, I’ve come to believe that you are not fit of the name Michel.”

“Madam Gidel?! What about Father?!”

“My husband agrees. He has woken up, though still bedridden due to fatigue, and I have asked for his thoughts this morning.”

“It cannot be… Father…”

 

My, how strange that Gidel could talk to him when he was supposed to be comatose due to my ‘medicine’.

Milady is a kind girl. She has always endured, tolerating everything that had been done to her because she does not wish for conflict. She still wishes for peace with her stepmother, even as wicked as the woman is, and her younger brother, even when he shares only half of her blood.

From my research, I understood that in this country, the family is generally inherited by the son. In case the daughter is the older sibling, then she would be relinquishing her claim to her younger brother in order to keep up the tradition. It is how things work according to the letter of the law, at least.

Milady intends to let Yohanne inherit the house. Yet it does nothing to curb Gidel’s fear of her, of the daughter of the Michel marquis’ first wife… though I would say that the real reason is because Gidel hadn’t exactly been on the right side of the law with her dealings, really.

 

“‘Lady Sharon, please admit your crime. I and Sir Yohanne will forgive you.’”

Miss Akiru says, suddenly and without even a hint of emotion in her voice, as though she is reading from a script.

“Miss Akiru… you are far too kind. Would you allow me to stay by your side forevermore?”

“My, sir Yohanne…”

 

What is this farce? They say love is blind, but does love also makes you deaf? I am astonished that Yohanne could say that after hearing Akiru’s bland delivery.

…or is something railroading him?

Well then, never let it be said that Fleurety the maid cannot read the mood.

 

“Then it would be wonderful if we can witness the proof of their love, wouldn’t it?”

I say. Surprisingly, everyone looks at me as though I just spoke another language.

“W-What are you…”

Miss Akiru stutters like an actress who has no idea how to ad-lib. I explain.

“Nobles have a duty to bring back dungeon items for the country. While asking servants to do it in one’s stead is all fine and good, I am sure that nobody wishes to be the target of rumors among nobles, saying that one is nothing more than a child of a concubine. And what better way to silence them than to enter the dungeon oneself and take back something worthy?”

 

“SOMEBODY SHUT THAT MAID UP!!!” Gidel screeches.

Her maids rush at me. I take out a few cupcakes, waving them in front of the maids’ eyes, and I throw them far away.

“They are anti-aging cupcakes.” I say.

“”AAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!””

 

As the ravenous wolves chase after their prey, I turn back to Yohanne.

“As lacking in achievements as you are, sir Yohanne, I believe it may be difficult to gain lady Akiru’s hand in marriage. If milady Sharon goes, she would certainly be able to gather a dungeon item fit for a true successor. Or… perhaps you do not have the confidence, sir?”

I tell him, filling my tone with provocation. His hackles rise as Yohanne shoots to his feet.

 

“Don’t underestimate me. I won’t lose to sister! I swear I’ll bring back a dungeon item!” He turns to milady. “Sister, this is a duel!”

 

…I did not think it would be this easy.

---

A/N: Here we see a maid who would pick a fight with the whole world for the sake of her mistress.

---

Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter

A/N: Warning: reading this chapter may cause high blood pressure. But don’t worry. The maid is here.

---

I put the spiked club back into my skirt and make way for milady. The noise of the gate has caused the house to be astir with panicked shouts of servants. Soldiers come pouring out from the guardhouse.

“Lady Sharon?!”

A call of surprise and recognition came from an older knight among them, yet the soldiers still raise their spears despite his words.

“Who do you think you’re pointing those to?” Milady answers them with dignity.

The aforementioned knight follows up with a shout. “What are you doing?! Lower your weapons, now!”

The soldiers hurriedly obey.

“Lady Sharon, what has happened here…?” The knight asks as he looks upon what remained of the gate. Milady gives him a cool glance.

“…Bardo. These soldiers have not had enough training. You are the security chief of our Michel house, and yet what have you been doing?”

“I have no excuses, lady Sharon!”

Bardo says, kneeling and bowing on the spot. Milady walks by him with poise and composure.

The servants, the soldiers, the knights — all attention is on milady, the target of their apprehension and their fear, their disdain and their scorn, their anger and hatred.

She still walks forward, undaunted.

 

Truly commendable, milady, although her heartbeats are quite elevated and her eyes are teary now. I’m aware that whenever she gets stressed, she would automatically turn stony-faced and her tone would get a lot colder.

She must have been very scared. I’ll give her a lap pillow and lots of headpats later.

Greetings, everyone. It is I, Fleurety, the maid who would be the happiest in the world if she is to be allowed to comfort her mistress so.

 

Anyway, things are worse than I thought. Most of them have eyes of hostility, and even the best of them are either only neutral or apathetic. The number of people with a favorable attitude to milady can be counted on one hand.

While that old knight named Bardo seems relatively decent, I don’t think I can expect much from him, considering the quality of the soldiers here.

 

“What is going on here? …Sister?! What have you done?!”

 

My, so the brother has also returned.

Yohanne immediately makes a face upon seeing milady. Behind him, that annoying harpy of an attending maid named Mia also shows herself.

“Lady Sharon, this is most disturbing. I would never have thought that a member of the Michel house could be so barbaric that she would vandalize the gates so.”

“T-That’s because these gate guards weren’t—”

“And now you blame it on others! Disgraceful! The repair cost shall be deducted from lady Sharon’s allowance, and—”

 

“My, miss Mia, might there have been a misunderstanding? Milady has done nothing.”

I say from behind milady as I break my concealment. All the servants jolt in shock upon hearing my voice.

 

“W-What, you again? Ill-mannered girl, has no one taught you to not interrupt others?!”

“Ah, my apologies. As I have just seen a servant doing the same to lady Sharon, daughter to a marquis, I have assumed that it is simply a family tradition. Was I mistaken?”

I smile, tilting my head in a display of puzzlement. Mia’s face goes through a gamut of colors.

“Y-You—”

“The gate guards there seemed to have been hard of hearing, so I knocked. I never thought the gates would fall apart so… it must have deteriorated quite a bit. Right?”

I turn to look at the gate guards who was playing their card game when we arrived. Their faces pale, their eyes pinned to the floor.

“That’s impossible! It—”

“Enough.”

Mia is stopped from launching into another tirade by Yohanne, who looks somewhat exasperated.

“It wouldn’t reflect well on our house to have a squabble here. Come in quick, sister. Father and mother are waiting. Follow me, Mia.”

“…tsk, understood. Soldiers, repair the gates!”

 

As Yohanne and Mia return back to the castle, the soldiers and servants get to work. Milady grasps my fingers with her own faintly-trembling hand.

“…Letty. Be careful, alright?”

“Yes, milady, I shall take proper care. Please do not worry.”

I give her a reassuring smile. Her shivering stops, and she moves an inch closer to me.

She’s like a puppy. So cute.

 

*

 

“Lady Sharon, please go to the dining hall. The master and madam are waiting.”

“Understood.”

The maid immediately walks away after she finished relaying her message, sparing not even a bow for milady.

 

“…has any maid in this house been trained, milady?”

“It’s fine, Letty, just let it be… it’s always been like this.”

Milady replies to my complaint with a wry smile of resignation. She truly doesn’t have any allies in this house, does she?

“Then let us depart, milady. I will be with you.”

“Yes, we shall.”

 

We seemed to have returned to the marquis’ castle at just the right time for dinner. A call came before we could even leave milady’s luggage in her room. Fortunately, all of it is inside the Bag of Holding that she entrusted me, so there was no problem.

How deplorable the servants of this house are.

 

Upon entering the dining hall, glares of daggers immediately make us their targets.

“My, Sharon. I never thought you could be so shameless as to show your face here again, after all that.”

The voice is of a caked-faced old hag… ahem, I mean, a lady with a generous application of makeup. The blonde-haired woman is sitting at the head of the table.

How strange. Why is she in that seat?

“…madam Gidel, why are you sitting there? It should be Father’s seat.”

“My dear husband suddenly fell ill and is taking a rest. How terrible he must feel, to have such a dreadful girl as a daughter. Did you know? Just hearing that you’re back was already enough to make him faint.”

“I…”

Milady bites her lips and says no more.

“Father has been most kind! He has allowed Mother to take charge of the house’s affairs, as well as letting her have the seat!” Says Yohanne as he sits next to Gidel, sounding as though it was all his achievements.

“Take your seat, Sharon. We will leave the admonishment for later. The chef has had to make your own portion, seeing as you’ve returned much too late in the day. You’d best be grateful.” Gidel says.

“…I’m sorry. I give my thanks to the chef.” Milady quietly replies.

 

The maid in the room guides milady to the lowest seat, despite the fact that she should be sitting higher up than Yohanne.

A glare prickles my sense, and I turn to look. My, is that not miss Akiru sitting next to Yohanne? Milady notices her too, and she gives voice to her question.

“Excuse me, I would ask about lady Akiru…”

“Miss Akiru has accompanied Yohanne home as his friend, and I must say, she is such a wonderful young lady. Aah, if only I can have a daughter like her… Akiru, getting used to an entirely new world must have been hard on you. Feel free to think of our house as your new family, and I your mother.” Gidel says, smiling kindly at her.

“My, madam Gidel! I would be most happy to!”

Miss Akiru replies with a beaming smile. Yohanne and the servants look upon the scene in joy and contentment.

 

“Lady Sharon, dinner is here.”

The maid before slams a dish of food down in front of milady.

Honestly, calling it ‘food’ would be an offense to cooks everywhere. The plate is full of worm-eaten greens that, on a closer look, still have the live insects inside, as well as dirt and even pieces of gravel. I see Mia standing behind Yohanne and sneering.

As I expected, even milady is shocked into silence. Gidel sees her and speaks, sounding absolutely delighted.

“It is all that the chef could make on such short notice. Eat, Sharon. I will not hear of any selfishness.”

“…yes.”

Milady whispers as she takes utensils in hand.

 

“Milady, please refrain.”

I gently stop her before she could reach for the food, and I take the plate.

“L-Letty?”

“Who are you?! I have never seen a maid such as you! Know your place!” Gidel shrieks. Apparently she hasn’t heard of me through Yohanne.

With the plate on my hand, I guilelessly smile at her.

“My apologies. I am Fleurety, exclusive maid of lady Sharon. As I do not work for the Michel family, I am not required to follow your order.”

“Wha-?! Sharon, what did you do this time?!”

“My, my, I would have thought a noble lady would be more graceful. Now, I shall take the liberty to have a taste of this dish.”

“Impudent girl! Are you accusing us of poisoning the food?!”

“I have only said that I would ‘have a taste’, madam, not ‘testing it for poison’. It seems the people of this mansion shares the same hearing impairment.”

 

I borrow the utensils from milady’s lithe hands. With a single mouthful, I clean the plate.

Hmm, quite crunchy, these pebbles. Aside from the sounds of my eating, the room is absolutely silent. Everyone’s faces pale.

 

“Freshness, ingredients, cooking method, all are not to milady’s taste.” I turn to her. “May I prepare your dinner, milady?”

It takes a few moments for her to start speaking. “…yes.”

“Then, please enjoy.”

I place in front of her the food that I have prepared beforehand as insurance.

“It is milady’s favorite: omelette rice with the fluffiest eggs.”

I slice apart the omelette, releasing a flow of creamy gold to cover the rice and a mellow fragrance of butter. As the aroma of chicken rice, egg, and butter spread across the room, I hear somebody gulping.

“Instead of demi-glace sauce, today the topping will be the veeery sweet kind of ketchup that milady likes so much.”

With the ketchup, I draw a huge heart symbol on the dish. I make the same symbol with my fingers near my chest, and I look to lady Sharon.

“Together with me, milady: ‘Tasty, tasty, moe moe kyun!’”

“Umm, ‘tasty, tasty’?”

“‘I’m a lucky man. I’m thankful for everything that led me to this point… that led me to you!!’”

“‘I’m a lucky man’… wait, what?!”

 

My? How strange. This was what the Maid Chief had taught me to do whenever a maid makes omelette rice. Have I made a mistake somewhere?

 

“Open up, milady. Aaaa—”

“Eh? …aaaa—”

Milady reflexively follows my lead, her brain not having rebooted yet, and I feed her with a spoonful of omelette rice. She chews like a little baby bird being fed her first meal.

“So good…!”

“I am glad, milady.”

 

As I continue my happy feeding time with milady, miss Akiru is the first to regain her senses. She asks.

“…Kamishiro… what is that?”

“This wonderful dish has been made from the meat and eggs of birds-of-paradise, as well as tomatoes that I have harvested from the forest of spirits.”

“Letty?! You used monster ingredients again!” Milady says, sounding scandalized.

“They are ingredients that I am certain milady would not be opposed to. Besides, milady’s every meal until now have always been made from some form of monster ingredients.”

“What?!”

 

“Monster meats?! They’re almost poisonous, aren’t they?!”

Hearing the word ‘monster’, Yohanne immediately jumps up and shouts. I chuckle and take out an ancient-looking journal.

“It is, in fact, not so. An elf summoned several centuries ago had left behind this journal, which has since been stored in the academy’s library.”

 

Humans, or living beings in general, would become more powerful by absorbing mana.

Overconsumption of mana would cause flora and fauna, lifeforms lacking in willpower, to be ‘monsterized’. The human body, however, would only find monster meat rich in mana to have an overwhelming taste and would respond with a gastric response as a way to prevent itself from absorbing too much mana.

But an elf has done research into the phenomenon, and they have written as follows.

If the taste and density of mana inside monster ingredients can be reduced down to a level that the human palate can find enjoyable, and if a person continues to consume such ingredients, then over time, his or her body would slowly gain the physical characteristics of elves.

It seemed the elf’s endeavor had been to help their Partner live longer.

 

“The results of the research had led to some success in the removal of mana from certain monster ingredients, which was the origin of several delicacies we know of today. However, the food is still expensive, and the taste remains rather difficult to enjoy.”

“But what about this…?”

Milady says, staring at the omelette rice I made that she has tasted.

“Indeed. I have succeeded in improving the taste. Lady Sharon, I expect you will find yourself quite slow to age, as well as living relatively longer than most other people.”

“Eeeh?!”

Milady begins to pull at her cheeks in her surprise. Recently, her skin has begun to be as smooth and bouncy as that of a baby’s.

 

“Y-You, maid girl! Make me that dish!”

Gidel screeches with bloodshot eyes. And not just her, those among the female servants who are over a certain age are also looking over here with eyes full of desire.

As I pinch my long skirt and drop into a graceful bow, I give them a beaming smile.

 

“My apologies. I work for lady Sharon and her only.”

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Akiru was born into a family that had been running a brewery for generations. Their sake was famous as a local specialty, so Akiru had wanted for nothing as she grew up. She knew it, too.

Then her life took a turn once she entered middle school.

Her earlier education had been a private primary school in a large city. She had spent her time as carefree as could be, playing with friends from affluent families and taking lessons in the arts. She had thought that her life would continue like this, that she would coast along through middle to high school to enter an affiliated university, but her grandfather, the chief brewer and president of the company at the time, had decided that she should move back to their hometown for her education.

 

While it was only a thirty-minutes car ride from the city, to Akiru, the town might as well be in the middle of nowhere. No nearby trendy cafes, nor shopping malls that she could visit on the way home from school with her friends. Furthermore, the public middle school she would be attending didn’t even have enough students to fill a single class for each of its years. Coming from an academy that expected actual decorum out of its students, it was quite a shock to Akiru.

 

Still, it didn’t mean everything was terrible.

The class had only seventeen students, yet so many of them were good-looking people that it almost felt like they had been hand-picked.

And of particular note were Sei and Hao, two male students who looked more than handsome enough to be models. The first time she saw them, even her own heart began to race despite herself.

It was no romantic love. It was the kind of love a fan had for her idol. Regardless, it didn’t change the fact to Akiru, she might as well have found an oasis in the middle of a desert.

With the social skills that she had gained in her earlier years of living among aristocrats, she smoothly put on her sheep’s clothing and mingled with the class as though she had always belonged.

Sei was the so-called ‘honor student’ type, the kind Akiru had often seen in her private primary school, but Hao, a sporty and roguish boy, was exotic to her. She began to act the part of an elegant princess to try to attract his attention. She had been certain, had been convinced that no country boy could resist a lady such as her.

Yet Akiru’s plan had fallen through just because of one particular girl.

 

It was a half-Japanese girl who was conscious of her height, of her unusually-colored eyes, of all the things that made her different from others, and so she always hung her head low, hid her eyes, and talked to nobody else in the class.

And then, the two male idols of the class began to pay attention to her.

Perhaps they hadn’t been interested in her in that way; perhaps they were just being kind. Still, it rubbed Akiru the wrong way. She hated that they had ignored her in favor of the other girl.

So she began her subtle arrangements in order to incite the three overt bullies that also shared her displeasure. She nudged their thoughts and guided their hands to do the dirty deeds, while her own stayed clean.

She hadn’t done it because of any grand reason.

If there was one to speak of, then perhaps she had simply wanted an outlet for her stress, for the frustrations that she had been enduring ever since she came to this town.

 

The new status quo continued for more than a year. Then one day, all of the class, including Akiru, was summoned into another world.

While some of the more delusional boys were exhilarated, thinking it was a Hero Summoning, Akiru immediately realized what the world around her was.

 

It was the world of the online otome game: Light, Darkness, and Love Online 2 – The Millefeuille of Love.

The country’s name, the people’s names, the situation, they were all extremely similar to the game’s.

 

Akiru’s father had thought his daughter unfortunate when she was made to go to a public middle school, so he spoiled her. He gave her everything she wanted. Among them, she found this game.

When asked, her father had said that he never remembered buying the game. They soon put it out of their minds, however.

In the game, other than the main heroine, the playable characters also included the middle-school students who had been summoned from Earth. Believing that this truly was the world of Light, Darkness, and Love Online 2 – The Millefeuille of Love, Akiru was delighted.

Especially when she thought there was a chance she could meet a certain ‘capture’ character from the game.

 

Yohanne de Michel, fourteen years old. Son of a marquis. A fourth-year student at the magic academy. Brother of a different mother to Sharon, one of the villainesses, as well as the character to fill the ‘cute little boy’ spot of the game’s casting.

Yohanne was born from a union of true love between the marquis and a lady of a count’s family. Fearing that the boy might be harmed by the marquis’ legal wife and Sharon, the marquis had hidden him away.

He grew up being told by his mother about his sister, Sharon, and her unbecoming conduct as a noble. And once he heard that that very same sister was now a fiancee candidate to prince Joel, he was troubled.

The player character would lend him an ear and listen to his worries, as well as his wishes to prevent his sister from committing any more misdeeds. They would be given the evidence by his mother, and upon bringing Sharon’s crimes to light, they would fulfill the condition to have Yohanne as their boyfriend.

Yohanne was Akiru’s absolute favorite character. Time after time, she won against her rivals in the online game to capture his heart.

Perhaps her interest in Hao had been nothing more than a way to live out her fantasy in real life. She saw innocent Yohanne in him, and she wanted to have for herself the mischievous smile that Yohanne made whenever he was alone with the player character.

 

She was sure that some of her classmates were also aware of the game. There was even a possibility that the main heroine, the viscount’s daughter, would become her enemy.

So Akiru was careful. She wasn’t such an idiot that she would reveal what she knew. In the end, her meticulous scheme to gain Yohanne’s affection was successful: she had been invited to meet his family.

And yet…

 

“…is she going to be in my way again?”

 

***

 

What a beautiful day today. Warm sun, cool wind, and even a bit of chilling malice off in the distance. So nice.

Greetings, everyone. It is me, Fleurety, the eternal guardian of milady’s blessed bosom.

 

“Milady, there are several letters addressed to you in the dorm’s mailbox.”

It is while milady is taking happy nibbles of her snack (kouign-amann and a cup of extra-sweet milk tea) that I brought her the news.

“…eh?” She blinks her doe-eyes in surprise.

While important correspondence between nobles are normally handed directly to the receiver, even noble students would have to follow the rules as long as they live in the dorm.

It is always impressive to see that milady continues to be the uncontested Queen of Loners whenever I check her mailbox. It still looks brand-new even now, since even her family don’t write to her.

 

“Letty… I know you just had another unflattering thought.”

“I was just thinking that your arms these days have gotten somewhat plump, milady.”

“T-That’s because you feed me sweet stuff all the time!”

Milady says that, yet she still continues to munch on the pastry like a little hamster. So cute.

“Do not worry, milady, it is necessary nutrition. You’re still perfectly slim.” I reply, smiling sweetly to her.

“Umm, yes, of course I am!”

She radiates relief. She then takes another sip of the cup of milk tea that has so much sugar in it, the liquid is almost molasses now.

I don’t drink that stuff. I’ll get fat.

“Alright, Letty, give me the summary.”

“Then I shall begin with your right arm’s plumpiness—”

“I’m talking about the letters!”

I shall have to check them out later in the bath.

 

That aside, the reason why such a loner as milady got letters is because of the reveal of her true beauty yesterday. As a result, there has been a deluge of invitations from delusional buffoons who thought they had a chance with milady.

 

“Let’s see… then I believe the most important among them is his Highness Joel’s invitation to a meal.”

“His Highness…?”

Milady’s eyes bulge in surprise. It seems that whatever the prince tried to say yesterday, it wasn’t simply a moment’s fancy.

Such a wretched man, he is. He used to pay not a hint of attention to milady Sharon, despite the fact that she was supposed to be one of his fiancee candidates. And now that she has gotten just a bit prettier, he shows his true colors.

“All the same, his is not an invitation milady can ignore. I shall arrange your schedule.”

“That’s fine. Anything else important?”

I sort through the letters. Rabbles and riffraffs… I’ll investigate their names later… my, what is this?

“There is an invitation to a tea party from the young lady of a viscount. Are you acquainted with her, milady?”

The invitation is from lady Clarice, one of the people in my class group. It seems I am also invited.

“…we haven’t really talked, but I also don’t remember her ever be rude to me. Why did she send an invitation?”

“Then shall I propose that milady accepts, with the condition that I am also allowed to attend?”

“Yeah, that’s fine… thanks.”

Milady seems to be relieved that I will be with her. I see her hands fidgeting in apparent bashfulness.

 

“Well then, next is…”

I come to one particular letter. The moment I see it, I twist my body in a perfect half-circle and hurl the letter with all my strength, sending it into the trash can in a corner of the room.

“There is nothing else notable, milady.”

“No no no hold on I saw that! That was a letter from my family, wasn’t it?!”

Tsk. So she noticed.

I reluctantly, begrudgingly pick up the letter that has the insignia of the Michel marquis family, pinching it with two of my fingers and holding it as far away from me as possible, and I give it to milady. She wryly smiles.

“I understand how you feel, I really do. But moderate yourself.”

“My sincere apologies.”

What a blunder. As a maid to milady, I have made a grave mistake.

I bow in sincere remorse. Milady lightly pats my head and opens the envelope.

Upon giving the contents a glance, her mood visibly sours. See, this is why I didn’t want her to see it…

 

The vermins that have been ignoring her for years now suddenly sent a letter.

A little over four years, to be precise, as milady entered this magic academy when she was ten years old. In all that time, she only returned home twice. Understandable — while this academy isn’t exactly the best environment, it is still far more desirable than the compost bin that is her home.

They never even gave her the support that they should have, much less a letter. What do they want now?

 

“What was the contents, milady?”

Normally it wouldn’t be a question a simple maid should ever ask, but this is an exception.

“…they told me they’ve heard of my ‘wrongdoings’ from Yohanne, and they want me to return right away to explain myself.”

“The younger brother again?”

And I suppose the ‘wrongdoing’ is that I’d become milady’s Partner? Such small ***** they have.

“Just as well that his Highness Joel’s invitation has arrived at the same time. Let us refuse, milady.”

“…no, Letty. I can’t run away forever. Besides, they might just let loose some unsavory rumors if I continue to ignore them.”

Milady sounds like she’s speaking from experience.

“I understand. May I just say that it doesn’t make it any less aggravating, however.”

Hearing my frank admission, milady snorts.

“But this may be a good chance, too. I… umm… I have you with me now…”

She says, smiling bashfully. Precious! Too precious!

“Milady…”

Overcome with emotion, I instantly kneel in front of her and speak my vows once more.

“I, Fleurety, hereby solemnly swear that with my Dynamite Punch, the rivers will run red with the blood of all who wishes to bring harm upon milady!”

“I never asked for that!”

 

*

 

The next morning, after we have sent in our notice of absent to the academy, we leave for milady’s home.

“I never thought that strict dorm mother would actually lend us her personal horse carriage…”

“She was very glad to help us, milady.”

 

The dorm mother is an unmarried lady in her forties who is very harsh with the dorm’s girls, but I’m sure she’s a kind woman deep down. She was grumbling about milady under her breath when she first heard we would be absent, but once she noticed my kind gaze, she paled and finished doing our formalities in no time at all.

See, isn’t she such a considerate person? She should rest assured, I won’t tell anyone about her sneaking into town and buying young boys to accompany her.

 

“Then I shall take the liberty to be the driver.”

“Can you handle horses, Letty?”

The horse looked strangely scared of me when we first got on the carriage, but it soon turned obedient after some persuasion.

To reach the territory of the Michel marquis, it generally takes a day and a half in a carriage. But as we left early in the morning and the horse has been very enthusiastic, we arrive during the evening of the same day.

The energy drink made from monster blood that I gave it along the way has worked well, it seemed.

 

“…here we are, Letty.”

“I see…”

The Michel marquis’ mansion looks less a mansion and more like a small castle. Painted by the light of the setting sun, the stone almost seems like it’s been drenched in blood.

It looks amazing.

I stop the carriage in front of the gate. Despite calling us here, there isn’t anyone there to welcome us. Not even the gate guards.

“I am Sharon, and I have returned. Open the gates!”

She calls out, her clear voice reverberating through the air. On the other side of the gate, I can see some people who look like the security staff playing cards. They look up in surprise upon hearing her voice… and then return to their game.

“You, open the gates now! I am—”

“Milady, allow me.”

We can just return home, but that would mean milady’s determination would go to waste. I decide to take things into my own hands.

“Milady, whenever we visit someone, we should first knock.”

“…eh?”

Milady’s eyes bulge as she sees me taking out Orc Killer EX.

 

Orc Killer EX is simply Orc Killer with its ball end coated in a kind of metal that is as heavy as depleted uranium.

The metal had been thought as a cursed item that brought its owner toward a gradual and inevitable death. It had been languishing in a corner, and it was why I got it at a fraction of the price.

I can still hear some ghastly moaning coming from the weapon in my hand even now. The coating took really well, if I do say so myself.

 

“Hello, and excuse us.”

I say, at the same time swinging the spiked club. The gates made out of magic iron crumple like wet paper.

Dust billows around us. Cards fall from the stupefied gate guards’ hands. I give them a smile then turn to milady, who looks at me in open-mouth shock.

“The gate must have deteriorated quite a bit. Come, milady.”

“…yeah… yeah.”

 

And so it is that we return to milady’s home without any problems.

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