I Became the Maid of the Lout Prince

As soon as we entered Seriste’s dormitory room, which served as our temporary meeting place, a strangely awkward atmosphere permeated the entire space. Seriste jumped in surprise when our eyes met, and Agnes was quietly looking into the distance for some reason, proving this.

As for Ethan, well, he’d been blushing whenever our eyes met these days, so it didn’t feel much different from usual.

Wondering if I was the only one feeling strange, I glanced at Gyeongmwajogyegigwat’s expression; he seemed to have noticed this odd atmosphere too.

“Did something happen? Why is everyone so awkward…”

“…Rather than small talk, we have more pressing matters. How did the truth verification of Lilith’s words go?”

“Oh, that? It was all true. Both that Prince Machart attacked Lilith and that he’s actually connected to demons.”

“I see…”

“…So it really was true.”

Seriste and Agnes, who still had some doubts, nodded as if they could now be certain after hearing the Hero’s statement.

Although it might seem natural since he had confidently taken me out earlier, claiming he’d verify the truth with the Holy Sword, the fact that neither Seriste nor Agnes saw through the lie about the Holy Sword showed how incredibly naive they were.

Otherwise, the very thought of lying to a sword imbued with divine power was too sacrilegious for them to consider. Of course, the Hero didn’t seem to feel any guilt about such things from the moment he called me to talk with that nonsense. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

“To be honest, I didn’t think she looked like someone who would lie from the start. But I still checked just in case there was that one-in-a-million chance. Miss Lilith doesn’t really have the look of someone who would lie.”

“…If you’re trying to win Lilith’s favor with such obvious expressions, why don’t you stop? It’s ridiculous to say you believed her from the start after verifying with the Holy Sword. I never even thought Lilith would lie in the first place.”

“Young Master Ethan?”

“…Ahem.”

I’m not sure, but Ethan’s reaction seemed to show increased wariness compared to earlier.

“So, what are we going to do now?”

“What else? There’s only one conclusion.”

“Indeed, we’ll have to fight Prince Machart…”

While Seriste had no reservations about facing monsters or demons, she showed a rather unpleasant expression when it came to dealing with humans.

After all, most of the enemies appearing in the main story so far were either monsters or demons, and there were probably only one or two people who could be called villains.

It’s natural for someone with a gentle personality like Seriste to react this way when told she needs to kill a human, and a prince at that.

Even so, the battle against Machart would probably require mobilizing all available forces in our current state, so we couldn’t really exclude Seriste. We’d have to put out the urgent fire first and then tell Gyeongmwajogyegigwat to comfort her later.

“From now on, we need to make specific plans, so everyone here must absolutely not, and in no circumstances, disclose today’s conversation outside this room.”

“Of course.”

“…Okay.”

“I know.”

“Y-Yes!”

“Even if you think someone might be able to help, it must never be revealed to outsiders. Please keep this in mind.”

It might be different if we were dealing with someone else, but what we were planning was an assassination plot against a member of the Royal Family.

If discovered, not only would everyone here be charged with treason, but there was a high possibility that even their families’ safety would be at risk.

We had to make sure to keep silent even to people like Seraphine, who was royalty, and Natalie or Luke, who were currently the protagonist’s allies.

After all, Natalie and Seraphine were the protagonist’s allies, not Lilith’s. We didn’t want them getting paranoid ideas about the protagonist being used by me and messing things up.

For now, the only people we could trust completely and those who could be valuable assets were Agnes, Ethan, and the Hero.

“First, the most important thing we need to do is lure Prince Machart.”

“True, we can’t exactly start a sword fight in the middle of the academy or the Imperial Palace.”

“Also, thinking back to when I was attacked by Prince Machart, his demon magic didn’t seem very well-suited for dealing with multiple people.”

“…What kind of magic was it?”

“He suddenly approached me, grabbed my wrist, and took me to an incomprehensible black space. Only a very small circle of ground around Prince Machart was faintly visible in the darkness, and the shadows surrounding us blocked my escape route and grabbed my ankles.”

In truth, I was itching to just explain all of Machart’s abilities, their countermeasures, and how to break them, rather than explaining it all piece by piece like this.

But if I, who had only been attacked once, started blabbing about things I couldn’t have known beyond what I saw, it would naturally arouse suspicion. It might even make the recent allegations about nearly being assassinated by Prince Machart seem dubious.

Therefore, the most ideal method was to explain in as much detail as possible, but let the others come up with the identity of the magic and its countermeasures themselves. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

This way, I could explain about Machart’s magic and its countermeasures without arousing suspicion. Besides, Agnes, a magic genius, was here, so she could interpret it on her own.

“The fact that you were pulled into a black space the moment he grabbed your hand suggests it’s definitely demon magic.”

“How can you tell just from that, Lady Blaze?”

“Demons use mysterious powers. It’s a strange kind of magic that operates on completely different principles from ordinary magic. It’s probably a method of storing pre-prepared magic in the body. I’ve heard that demons’ bodies can store magic and activate it under certain conditions.”

“T-The Snow Witch we fought in the north used similar abilities! I-I heard she was ranked third among the subordinates of one of the seven elite soldiers led by one of the Four Knights under the Demon King…”

…Isn’t that position not really worth introducing yourself for?

I almost burst out laughing as I imagined a demon, whose realistic position would be equivalent to a mid-level government official, introducing themselves. It was amazing that Seriste remembered that, too.

“Anyway, because demon magic has special powers unlike ordinary magic, it comes with activation conditions. The magic Machart used probably had ‘grabbing the wrist’ as its activation condition.”

“What’s certain is that it’s an activation condition that’s difficult to use during combat. Offering your wrist to an opponent during a fight is essentially admitting defeat.”

“Right. But it’s undoubtedly dangerous magic when used in assassination or one-on-one situations. It’s magic that can take you to his space just by grabbing your wrist, regardless of the location.”

“Normally, it would be a condition that’s not easy to use, but I guess someone like him could use it easily because of his status and appearance.”

The conversation flowed quite smoothly thanks to Agnes enthusiastically expounding her expert knowledge as soon as the topic of magic came up, and Gyeongmwajogyegigwat chimed in at appropriate times to keep the conversation going smoothly.

By the way, the Hero obviously knew about Machart’s abilities and how to counter them, so he was now pretending to have just realized it while giving hints to the others.

If he really was PureHeroShipper as he claimed earlier, he would have already passed the Machart Battle Strategy part of my walkthrough.

“The problem is how to reveal that Prince Machart is using demon powers. Even if we succeed in dealing with him somehow, if we can’t prove his connection to demons, we’ll end up being charged with treason.”

“…I heard there’s a way to prove evidence that someone is a demon from a demon’s corpse, wouldn’t that work?”

“It seems he’s only using demon power for now, but he has not fully become a demon yet. They say demon power resonates differently with each person’s body. We have two options. One is to wait until the demon power fully resonates with his body, and the other is…”

The meeting about the operation to deal with Machart and prove he was a demon continued for quite a while, and during the long meeting that lasted over three hours, Ethan unconsciously looked at me and muttered quietly.

“Come to think of it… maybe the recently missing young ladies might be related to him too.”

“…You’re right. Perhaps after we deal with Prince Machart, we might be able to find their whereabouts.”

“……”

“…Young Master Ethan?”

Ethan suddenly looked at me with sorrowful eyes while talking about the missing young ladies. Then, as if overcome with emotion, he tightly grasped my hand and quietly sobbed.

“I’m so glad you’re safe, Lilith.”

“Y-Yes…” [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

“I’ll tear that Machart apart and kill him somehow. And I’ll reveal all the evidence of his connection to demons and bring down his honor.”

“Ah, I understand, but could you please let go of my hand…? T-The others are watching…”

…Especially that Gyeongmwajogyegigwat is watching.

While Ethan was grasping both my hands tightly and even shedding tears as if genuinely worried about me, that guy was flashing a sly smile as if enjoying an interesting spectacle.

…If only he wasn’t the Hero, I’d smack that mouth of his.

T/N

Hello! Axiomatic here.

See you in a bit for the bonus chapter!