I Became the Maid of the Lout Prince

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As the cold night air brushed past my head, what followed was a chillingly cool feeling entering my mind.

Just recalling the content of the conversation I had with Ethan in the banquet hall until a moment ago made my heart sink.

I don’t know what I was thinking to blurt out such words in front of Ethan. Especially with the second statement, I wasn’t just a fiancée doubting her partner’s fidelity, but a crazy woman whining about why he doesn’t love me.

‘Fuck me. How embarrassing. Why did such words suddenly come out?’

As my head cooled down thanks to time and the cool temperature of the night, now, my face heated up. Not because the summer night was actually hot, but simply due to the embarrassment from the conversation we just had.

“Haaa, how embarrassing….”

I should have just acted as the vicious, hysterical young lady as originally planned. Whether Ethan intended to avoid kissing that young lady or not, why did that even matter?

No, if I had to say, it was important. If Ethan’s lips had touched that woman’s at that moment, it would have been awkward every time I kissed Ethan in the future, as I’d be reminded of the white wine bitch’s face. [Only on Dark Star Translations! / Axiomatic]

Thinking about that, I should have stopped it, and in that sense, Ethan’s action was somewhat strange…

‘No, no, no, no, no.’

Why am I assuming I’ll kiss Ethan again in the future as if it’s natural?

Due to the unnecessarily high frequency of my kissing Ethan lately, my way of thinking seemed to have loosened along with it.

Before I knew it, I had come to recognize kissing as a relatively acceptable form of skinship. There shouldn’t be any acceptable skinship to begin with, strictly speaking, since we’re a man and a woman.

This way of thinking shouldn’t become familiar. If it did, I might end up coming to strange conclusions like thinking anything is fine as long as it doesn’t involve taking my virginity.

‘…Well, I’m glad it ended well in the end, though.’

In the end, I was somehow able to successfully convey to Machart that my relationship with Ethan had soured.

Although Ethan seemed flustered at first, he soon regained his composure and played along with my act, so it was ultimately successful. Thanks to that, we were able to create an atmosphere of Ethan and me separating much more naturally than originally planned.

Now, when Machart approaches to target me who’s left alone, I just need to call the rest of them at once and take him down in one go. No matter what demonic powers he has, there’s no defense against a group attack.

‘I’ve already distributed the signaling devices; the preparations are perfect.’

Good devices are expensive, and although all I got for our operation were just one-time use, one-way pagers, it wasn’t bad. Of course, it wasn’t expensive just because it was disposable, but it was much cheaper compared to the value of my life.

When Machart tries to pounce on me, if I send some mana to the pager, the others in the Banquet Hall will come to help. Ethan, the Hero, Agnes, and Seriste. With this much manpower, we could instantly eliminate one Machart who hadn’t even been demonized yet.

Finally, by using the Saint’s authority I possess, I will prove in front of everyone that Machart received demon power. 

I will then disguise it as if Seriste was the one who used that power. 

This will mark the end of the operation. 

Since it was a plan built over the course of a month, once it concludes, everything should proceed smoothly.

‘It will go well. It has to go well.’

If it doesn’t go well, I’ll have no choice but to give up and rely on the Hero’s party.

No matter how much I played Luminor Academy for 2,000 hours in my previous life and had the future developments ingrained in my mind, that wasn’t knowledge I gained because I was particularly smart.

If the plan I came up with at my level doesn’t work well, I’d have no choice but to switch to the strategy of killing Machart in the Hero’s party, which would definitely work. In that process, running around aimlessly for a few years after graduation would ultimately become my karma for getting unnecessarily entangled with Machart.

With such thoughts, as I quietly waited for Machart to appear, suddenly, the conversation I had with Ethan in the hall earlier came to mind.

I recalled the somewhat painful truth Ethan had told me towards the end of our pretend argument.

…Well, he’s not wrong.

It was a fact I had momentarily forgotten, being too immersed in academy life lately. Ethan is the young master of the powerful Blackwood Ducal family, and I’m just a young lady from its branch family, the Rosewood Baroness family, or rather, a commoner disguised with a fake identity.

Knowing this, I had been deliberately using extremely honorific language with Ethan, focusing only on being his ‘exclusive maid’, but with various recent events, my relationship with Ethan had become unnecessarily loose. [Only on Dark Star Translations! / Axiomatic]

It might be because the status of the people around me was generally too high. I had become too friendly with important people (real ones) like the future Archmage of the Crimson Tower, the Hero, and the Saint.

‘He probably didn’t mean it when he said “just a baroness’s daughter”, but hmm….’

Still, the fact that words like me being “just a baroness’s daughter” came out in that situation… Doesn’t it mean he occasionally had such thoughts in his mind? Isn’t that why he could naturally spit out such words in that situation? 

It was inevitable that such thoughts kept stirring in my mind.

Being alone, my thoughts keep flying in negative directions. If only I could end this quickly and throw away these headache-inducing worries, too…

With such thoughts, as I was acting out the ‘young lady abandoned by her fiancé’ in the garden outside the back door of the annex, the main character of today finally showed his face.

…Actually, I half didn’t want to meet him, but it was an unavoidable necessity now that I had come this far.

“My, you look lonely from behind, young lady.”

“……”

The one who appeared, uttering nauseating lines from the start along with his footsteps, was none other than today’s prey, Prince Machart.

He must have followed me from the moment I left the Banquet Hall. Otherwise, he couldn’t have found me this quickly.

While everyone else was looking for someone to bang in bed tonight inside the banquet hall, I was alone in the back garden being melancholic.

Also, that damned Machart had been showing me his unpleasant obsession for nearly two months now, so he had no choice but to appear in this trap.

‘First, I need to buy time.’

I sent mana to the pager in my pocket to call the other members in the Banquet Hall to the annex’s back door.

It takes about 20 seconds for the mana to flow and transmit the signal. Considering the time it would take for the other members of the subjugation party to come here from the hall without being noticed by others, it would take about 1 to 2 minutes.

It would take time for them to appear with concealment magic or blessings of invisibility, as bringing others unnecessarily would turn this into a crime scene of multiple people trying to kill a perfectly fine prince.

During that time, what I had to do was somehow not get pulled into a ‘private’ space with Machart.

“Well, did you contribute anything to make my back view lonely or not?”

“I wonder. I haven’t contributed anything, but I could make your back view not lonely from now on, young lady.”

“Cut the crap, fucker. Just when I was about to forget you, you show up again…”

While trying to calm my trembling heart, I continued acting as nonchalantly as possible.

I’m not getting scared unnecessarily, and I’m not letting him notice that I’m hiding some kind of plan; just acting exactly the same way I’ve been dealing with him until now.

If I responded differently from usual, he might notice and run away, so I had to wait until he was firmly in the trap.

“So. Have you been well, Lilith?”

“Don’t call me by my name. It makes me want to vomit.”

“Then should I call you by a pet name? Lili?”

“You fucking bastard!”

When the nickname “Lili” came out of Machart’s mouth, I momentarily lost control of my emotions.

Calm down, calm down. I can’t get caught up in his pace.

“I’ve been too lonely all this time. I usually need to bring a woman I like to my bed within a week to feel satisfied, but Lili, your guard is too tight.”

“Oh, really?” [Only on Dark Star Translations! / Axiomatic]

“You’re being protected like a young lady 24 hours a day, aren’t you? By that young master you serve and the young lady from the Blaze family.”

“……”

“The power I possess isn’t particularly good for dealing with multiple people at once…. Anyway, it’s difficult to handle in many ways, this demonic power.”

Machart was now openly mentioning that he deals with demonic power in front of me, as if he no longer had any intention of hiding it.

He probably thinks there’s no need to hide it anymore since I’ve already found out. It was a brazen attitude coming from his confidence in being able to silence me for sure.

To begin with, there were only a handful of people who would listen to what a baroness’s daughter had to say. That’s why he was still fine even though it had been almost two months since the day Machart attacked me.

In the end, I had no choice but to somehow resolve this by gathering only the people who would believe me. By now, everyone should have received the magic signal I sent, so from now on, I had to buy time while waiting for my comrades to arrive.

“By the way, you were being well protected, so why are you alone now? Can I misunderstand that you’re finally opening your heart to me?”

“…Do as you please. You’re free to misunderstand.”

Shing.

“Of course, thanks to that blockhead, this ridiculous misunderstanding of yours will probably end today.”

The dagger with the Blackwood crest that I took out from under my dress skirt glinted coldly.

It was the start of the slightly early 4th Miniboss battle, the subjugation of Machart.

T/N

Hello! Axiomatic here. 

Well, now that we’ve rebranded to Dark Star Translations, I guess my watermark will have to reflect that now.

Thanks for reading, see you tomorrow!