I Became the Maid of the Lout Prince

T/N: This bonus chapter is sponsored by James B. (14/14) (numbering was messed up, my apologies). If you enjoy reading and are willing to help me catch up to the latest chapters faster by sponsoring bonus chapters, see my Ko-fi.

“Are you done talking?! Y-You lump of fat!!!“

“Eek?! A-Agnes?!”

“W-Wait, Agnes! What are you doing?!”

“Don’t lunge at Lilith, Lady Blaze!”

The operation to show others that Agnes and I had pretended to have fallen out was successfully concluded thanks to her acting.

Agnes rushed at me with an irritated voice as if truly angry, and Gyeongmwajogyegigwat and Ethan appeared from outside the plaza on cue to pretend to mediate between Agnes and me – it was perfect. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

Agnes was yelling at me with a red face flushed with excitement, putting her all into the acting.

“Let go! Let me go!! That Lilith! That, that girl!!”

“C-Calm down, Agnes! Why are you acting like this between friends?!”

“She’s no friend of mine!! Friends don’t say such things to each other!! You, you were always thinking such things deep down! That I’m flat-chested and short?! That I have no curves and a cold heart?! You horrible girl!!”

“……”

For a while, I just stared blankly, momentarily forgetting what I was supposed to say in the face of Agnes’ acting with all her might. 

Seeing Agnes in such a new light, as I realized for the first time that she had acting talent, she looked so different from the Agnes I had known until now.

‘Not just her acting skills, but I didn’t expect her to put in this much effort.’

When we rehearsed the argument acting beforehand, it was so awkward that we had no choice but to try to make it feel more realistic, but I never imagined she would put on such a convincing performance.

Who would think this was acting after seeing that display? To anyone watching, it would only look like she was venting her anger at me.

Even Gyeongmwajogyegigwat and Ethan, who were originally supposed to intervene only after our prearranged signal, rushed in urgently – they must have been momentarily fooled by Agnes’ acting as well.

I, too, was feeling overwhelmed with emotion at Agnes putting so much effort into the plan I had devised. I really hadn’t expected Agnes to work this hard for my sake.

“A-Agnes. D-Don’t get truly angry. We agreed that you two would just pretend to fight, remember?”

“B-But she… That Lilith…”

Gyeongmwajogyegigwat, who had pulled Agnes away as she tried to lunge at me, spoke to her in a quiet voice. I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but they were probably going over the plan one more time. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

Meanwhile, Ethan, who had rushed to my side as soon as Agnes and I started our pretend fight, put his arm around my shoulders and whispered cautiously:

“Are you alright, Lilith? Are you hurt anywhere?”

“I’m fine, Young Master Ethan. We were just pretending to fight from the start, it’s not like an actual fight broke out.”

“R-Really? It wasn’t a real fight?”

“A fight? How could that be? This was a plan Agnes and I came up with from the beginning. You were briefed on it beforehand too, weren’t you, Young Master Ethan?”

“Well, yes, but… This doesn’t seem like what we discussed earlier…”

That’s just how acting is. It’s natural to change course if better ad-libs come up on the spot.

Ethan was looking at Agnes with a strange expression, as if worried about something, but he was probably just overthinking things unnecessarily.

Even Agnes wouldn’t get truly angry just because I mentioned some physical shortcomings. After all, it was she who had brought up those characteristics in the first place, not me.

By the way, the fact that even Ethan, who already knew about our plan, was unsure, shows just how superb Agnes’ angry acting was. She had been so awkward during practice but turned out to be the type who shines in actual performance.

“You… You horrible… *sniff, sob*…”

Agnes was even tearing up now, as if determined to fool everyone completely. At this point, I was starting to wonder if we really needed to go this far.

Of course, I still felt grateful to Agnes for putting on such a passionate performance. Everyone here would undoubtedly believe that an irreparable rift had formed between Agnes and me.

This should be enough to fool Machart’s eyes, too. He would assume my connection with Agnes was completely severed and naturally try to take advantage of the next opportunity.

That’s when Agnes, Ethan, and I would all rush in together unexpectedly to stop him, with Gyeongmwajogyegigwat and Seriste joining to engage in full-scale battle – that was the plan behind this pretend falling-out operation.

I barely managed to hold back the smile that almost crept onto my lips at the thought of perfectly setting that first piece into place. Smiling now could disrupt the rest of the plan.

With the end of the semester, all classes in the Magic Department were over, so I wouldn’t need Agnes’ protection until next semester. The only remaining event was the evaluation duel a week from now.

As I was internally congratulating myself on the perfect timing of this operation, Agnes, still in her tearful acting, shouted at me one last time:

“You, you just wait and see!! I won’t let you off easy!! I-I’ll definitely make you kneel down and apologize to me!!”

Thanks to Agnes’ perfect acting as the bitter loser right up to the end, the attention of everyone around was completely focused on her and me. 

The somewhat precarious pretend break-up operation was brought to a perfect conclusion as she ran off towards the Magic Department dormitory.

…At least, that’s what I thought at the time.

And then, one week later…

Back in the present, I was sitting quietly lost in thought in the Preparation Room for the evaluation duel.

I still did not fully grasp why I had to take the Final Evaluation Duel against the monster ranked first in the Magic Department.

‘Why does Agnes want to end this semester by having an evaluation duel with me?’

The incident in front of the Student Council Building a week ago should have been enough to show our falling out.

Yet insisting on continuing that act through this evaluation duel just didn’t make sense no matter how I thought about it. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

At this rate, it seemed like what Agnes and I did back then wasn’t acting, but that she actually harbored deep resentment towards me. Otherwise, singling me out as her opponent for the evaluation duel made no sense at all.

Maybe, if what we did that day wasn’t acting but her showing such realistic acting because she was truly angry, then it’s not completely impossible, but…

“…Ah.”

Right, maybe I was thinking about this too narrowly.

No matter how I looked at it, something seemed a bit off. The acting Agnes showed me back then was so realistic it could hardly be called acting.

If the angry display Agnes showed me then wasn’t acting but sincere, and if I consider the meaning behind her final words about not letting me off easy, it wasn’t hard to decipher the intent behind those words.

‘…Agnes’ acting didn’t end that day.’

I had almost been completely fooled myself.

Agnes had predicted from the start how she would act if she was truly angry with me. One of those actions would be dragging me into the Final Evaluation Duel to use me as a test subject for all sorts of magic.

It would have been strange if she hadn’t called me out to a battlefield most advantageous to her after all that yelling and raging.

If she was going to act, she would do it thoroughly. If she wanted people to believe she was truly angry, she judged it necessary to follow through with the typical actions she would take when angry, right to the end.

In other words, Agnes had been looking much further ahead than me. She had prepared a perfect act that Machart would never find suspicious based on the circumstances.

‘She really got me there.’

To think she would lead me into such a natural situation without even telling me beforehand…

At first, I thought I would help fix Agnes’ awkward acting, but it turned out I was the one following Agnes’ lead.

It was fortunate I realized it now, at least. I had been worried that Agnes was really angry with me and was actually planning to end our friendship.

“The Magic Department’s 2nd Year First-Semester Final Evaluation Duel will now begin! The first match is between the Magic Department’s 2nd-year top student, Agnes Elizabeth…”

As I heard the voice calling for Agnes and me from outside the room, I walked towards the evaluation arena with somewhat lighter steps.

After all, the pretend falling out act between Agnes and me was now heading towards its final stage.

As I walked into the arena, I naturally caught sight of Agnes walking toward the center from the opposite room.

She had a solemn gaze as if she had resolved herself to something. 

It was an expression I hadn’t seen in a while, having grown used to her much softer looks recently from spending time together.

It was a similar expression to when Agnes had said those crazy things to me on the first day of the Communication with Spirits class. If anything, she seemed even more stern now than back then.

Seeing that she had even brought along Infernocilia, the fire spirit that I had handed to her just before that Communication with Spirits class ended, it seemed she had come fully prepared.

|Hey, you! Big boobs!|

“Yes?”

|You made my Agnes cry! Even if you’re Agnes’ friend, I won’t let you off easy this time!!|

“……”

To think she would even make her spirit act angry as she appeared…

As I quietly marveled at Agnes’ thorough preparation, provocations aimed at me soon followed from the spirit’s owner as well.

“…Lilith.”

“Yes, Agnes?”

“…I really won’t let you off easy this time.”

“What do you mean by not letting me off easy, Agnes?”

“…I’m going to show you the clear difference in our abilities and make you sincerely kneel and apologize before me.”

It was a rather cute provocation considering she was facing her opponent for the evaluation duel. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

Of course, even if this was a staged evaluation duel for our plan, I had absolutely no intention of just quietly facing Agnes’s magic, either.

If I lost too obviously, not only would my First Semester Evaluation Grade fly out of the Top 10, but it could also raise suspicions in Machart, who might be watching this match from somewhere.

Although this battle wasn’t part of the original plan, now that it had come to this, I intended to have a proper fight.

“I do hope your dream comes true, Agnes.”

“……”

Grip.

Agnes gripped her wand even tighter as she retreated to the arena boundary, and I too prepared for the evaluation battle after putting some distance between us.

It was the final stage of the temporary act we had started to deceive Machart.

T/N

Hello! Axiomatic here.

This is the last time I’ll be doing this but I’ll be shamelessly plugging my other novel, Genius Wizard Conceals His Origins, which I have just completed translating! 

Do check it out if you’re interested by clicking here.

Thanks for reading, see you tomorrow!