I Became the Maid of the Lout Prince

Seraphine’s sudden appearance was not part of my plan. 

Since this was a secret operation to kill Machart, a member of the Royal Family, I hadn’t mentioned a word about it to Seraphine, who was also part of the Royal Family.

It wasn’t that I couldn’t trust her, but it was impossible to “secretly” convey information to someone of her status as a princess. Moreover, when the content of my message was regicide, I’d be lucky if I wasn’t ambushed before even carrying out the plan if I misspoke.

However, Seraphine’s appearance at this place was obviously not in the original game (in the original, Seraphine was a virgin in all routes), so I could roughly guess that her appearance was related to either me, Machart, or Gyeongmwajogyegigwat. [Only on DarkStar Translations! / Axiomatic]

I’m not sure how she found out. Still, since she’s Seraphine, she probably had many means, whether she discovered it through the intelligence available to royalty or saw today’s scene in a vision of the future.

“From now on, I will only allow those who can take responsibility for their words to speak. I will remember anyone who disrupts this process of determining right and wrong with unnecessary words. I have a good memory, you know.”

Thanks to Seraphine’s appearance, the noisy crowd was quickly subdued. It was a feat that neither I nor Ethan could have accomplished with just a word or two, so we were inadvertently indebted to her this time.

“Se-Seraphine! Quickly get this madman off me! This guy is shamelessly…”

Meanwhile, Machart, pinned under Ethan’s foot, was clinging to Seraphine’s appearance as if it were his lifeline. Of course, since both his arms were severed below the elbow, he wouldn’t have been able to grab an actual lifeline if one had been lowered.

Seraphine clicked her tongue softly with a displeased expression upon seeing Machart’s face. It was clear that she disliked Machart, just as in the original.

Fortunately, since she frowned while facing away from the crowd, her expression was only visible to Ethan and me.

“Haven’t I always told you, Brother Machart? If you indiscriminately seduce other men’s women, someday, someone might swing a sword at you regardless of your royal status.”

“N-no… I, I didn’t particularly…”

“I’ve seen with my own eyes some of the times you’ve made advances on Miss Lilith, so even if you deny it now, I won’t believe you.”

“…A-anyway, save me quickly! Your brother is about to be killed by this madman!”

“…Young Master Ethan, would you please lower your sword? While I understand your feelings, he is still my brother, after all.”

Seraphine was saying, in the most polite way possible, ‘I understand why you’re angry, but he’s still my blood relative, so I can’t let you kill him without causing problems.’

Of course, Ethan, being a nobleman himself, would have understood what she meant without any special interpretation, but he still didn’t lower his sword despite Seraphine’s words.

“Even if it’s Your Highness’s request, I cannot do that. This prince threatened and tried to take away my fiancée, Lilith. Moreover, I’ve witnessed him wielding demonic power to fulfill his ugly desires. For the future of the Argentian Empire and the Valtorian Royal Family, it would be beneficial for this man to end his life here.”

…Now he’s openly declaring me as his fiancée. [Only on DarkStar Translations! / Axiomatic]

Of course, in this situation, it would be impossible to explain the complex relationship between us in detail, but hearing Ethan refer to me as his fiancée from his own mouth was always embarrassing to hear.

I wasn’t the only one whose face was burning at Ethan’s words. Although in their case, it seemed their faces had reddened for a slightly different reason.

“P-Prince Machart, a demon?! That’s slander!”

“You’re lying to avoid the situation after swinging a sword at the prince!”

“Let go of the prince! You murderer!!”

Machart’s followers mixed in the crowd hurled various criticisms at Ethan, and some of the young ladies were so excited that they threw objects they were holding.

Fans and handkerchiefs didn’t fly properly anyway, but among them, I noticed one object flying towards Ethan’s side of the head with a peculiar speed.

I urgently reached out to catch it and confirmed that the thrown object was an empty champagne glass. If it had flown as it did, it would have undoubtedly hit Ethan’s head and shattered on impact.

Grab!

“……”

“……”

As soon as I shifted my gaze toward the crowd to identify who had thrown such an object that was obviously out of line, several young ladies blatantly avoided my eyes.

Seeing their ridiculous attempt to avoid responsibility after causing trouble, my hand holding the champagne glass naturally tightened.

Crack!

“Eek!”

“…!”

…Unfortunately, I couldn’t identify the culprit, but at least nothing else came flying after the champagne glass. I’m not sure why the young ladies who were noisy after Ethan’s statement suddenly fell silent.

“Thank you for quieting them down for me, Miss Lilith.”

“Pardon?”

Seraphine, who had spoken these puzzling words to me, turned her gaze back to continue her conversation with Ethan. She added a question about whether he could take responsibility for what he had just said.

“Young Master Ethan, the statement you just made could, depending on the circumstances, even be interpreted as insulting me, who shares the same bloodline as Brother Machart. Can you take responsibility for that?”

“I don’t mean to insult you, Your Highness. I’m merely stating that this man used demonic power to harm my fiancée, so it’s just Machart’s personal deviation. I haven’t for a moment harbored any suspicion that the Valtoria Royal Family is associated with demons.”

“I see. So you’re saying that because there’s a possibility that Brother Machart is associated with demons, you want to kill him to prevent future problems?”

“Th-that kind of talk is obviously a l-lie! Anyone can see he’s lying because he doesn’t want to be charged with regicide!”

“…Alright. It seems we need to hear more from both of you, so let’s start with treating my brother’s wounds. We’ll continue immediately after Brother Machart receives proper treatment.”

“I clearly stated that Machart used demonic power, yet you still insist on treating him. Does this mean that you, Princess Seraphine, have no intention of believing my words?”

“For now, it’s just your one-sided claim, Young Master Ethan. Can you present evidence right now that Brother Machart is a demon?” [Only on DarkStar Translations! / Axiomatic]

“…If we use the ‘Mirror of Truth’ with the Saint’s authority…”

“Yes. But until we use that ‘Mirror of Truth’ to reveal the truth, we can’t be certain whether Brother Machart is truly associated with demons, or you, Young Master Ethan, are lying to me.”

“……”

“Even if Brother Machart has indeed committed a crime, if he dies before that crime is revealed, you won’t be able to escape punishment either, Young Master Ethan.”

Seraphine was right. If Machart died before we could prove whether he was associated with demons or not, it would be troublesome for me and Ethan.

His death had to occur only after it was revealed that he was connected to demons. That’s why I had given Ethan a final warning not to kill him.

Seraphine whispered in a quiet voice to Ethan, who was still hesitating to lower his sword.

“Lower your sword now, Young Master Ethan. Even if it’s just to allow me to help you.”

Although her voice was so quiet that I could barely hear it, even I, standing behind Ethan, could notice his grip on the sword loosening slightly.

“If it’s clearly proven that Prince Machart is associated with demons, what do you intend to do, Princess Seraphine?”

“I don’t want to believe it, but… if he is associated with demons, then even if he’s royalty, he should receive appropriate punishment.”

“…I understand.”

Swoosh.

Hearing Seraphine’s final words, Ethan lowered his sword and stepped off Machart’s body. It seemed he would follow Seraphine’s suggestion to determine right and wrong before Machart’s punishment.

‘It’s not exactly the picture I had anticipated, but at least we’ve avoided the worst.’

At the very least, if Machart were to die (or be killed) like this, even Ethan wouldn’t be able to easily escape the consequences.

That’s why, in the original plan, Machart’s demon nature was supposed to be naturally revealed by a third party. According to the original plan, the Hero, Seriste, and Agnes were to gather and subjugate Machart, and just before he died, I was to use the ‘Mirror of Truth’ to extract traces of his demonization.

And after finishing him off in that state, the plan was to leave his corpse in the annex’s backyard to be discovered around the next morning. With the blessing of concealment, even if an object remained in a specific place, it could go unnoticed for a few days.

The original plan was to have Machart’s corpse discovered by a third party, revealing the fact that Machart was associated with demons, while Ethan and I would pretend to have no connection to the incident and calmly return to our daily lives. …Of course, that was no longer possible now. [Only on DarkStar Translations! / Axiomatic]

At the very least, we had to reveal evidence that Machart was a demon in front of everyone. Even if there were now more eyes watching than planned, we couldn’t let Ethan be falsely accused of regicide.

“Miss Seriste.”

“……”

“Miss Seriste. Could you come out for a moment?”

When the name of the Saint came out of Seraphine’s mouth, a small murmur arose from the crowd, but Seriste still didn’t reveal herself from among the people.

Murmur, murmur.

Rumble.

“……”

Instead, the crowd moved to reveal Seriste’s figure.

People formed a large circle around her, who was conspicuously wearing an eye mask alone among the crowd.

“U-um…”

“……”

“There seems to be some misunderstanding… I-I’m not Saint Seriste, I just happened to be passing by and attended the exchange meeting…”

“Miss Seriste, we don’t have time for jokes.”

“It really is the Saint. I thought she looked familiar.”

“Did you really think no one would notice?”

“……”

Seriste stepped forward with a reddened face among the murmuring people and quietly removed her eye mask.

I told her that wearing something like that in a place like this would only draw more attention, really.

T/N 

Hello! Axiomatic here.

See you in a bit for the bonus chapter!