I Possessed As A Childcare Extra Chapter 17

Kyle apparently earned his Sword Master qualification last year. As an ordinary human, I hadn’t sensed anything at all.

Maybe it was that day. The day Kyle asked me if anything about him seemed different.

I’d just said, “Hmm, did you get a haircut? Look a bit nicer today?” and left it at that. He looked strangely disappointed.

Well, how was I supposed to know?! He should’ve spread both arms wide and shouted, “I, Kyle, have ascended to Sword☆Master!” I would’ve applauded like a seal! You idiot!

If he guarded Seraphine, he must’ve appeared as often as a lady-in-waiting. Feels like… everyone except me is a famous supporting character, right?

I was happily daydreaming until a chill hit me.

Wait. Don’t tell me he was a male lead candidate.

There was a thirteen-year age gap between him and the Young Lady.

If Kyle—who was more than a zodiac cycle older—dared to harbor feelings for the Young Lady, I’d have to reconsider our friendship.

Swallowing dryly, I asked the question as if opening Pandora’s box.

“By any chance… was Kyle one of the male lead candidates?”

The Young Lady blinked her big green eyes and tilted her head.

“No! Even if Kyle ish super handsome, the age gap ish too big!”

“Phew.”

Good. Friendship saved!

“But Kyle was soooo loyal to Seraphine! I think he even said he’d give his life for Seraphine!”

“…What?”

Kyle would risk his life?

“So does he… die?”

I didn’t mean to ask, but my lips moved on their own. This time I really might be opening Pandora’s box.

The Young Lady shook her head.

“Nooo! Sword Masters don’t die that eashily!”

She spoke of Kyle’s potential death with a bright, innocent expression. Of course—she already knew the future.

Would everyone I knew survive?

Holly? The Carters? The other servants?

People like me—neither Sword Masters nor gifted—could we really survive in this world?

But I couldn’t bring myself to ask about the Carter family.

As soon as I impulsively asked about Kyle’s future, the weight of it hit me.

If the Carter family’s deaths were written in the original…

Could I stop it?

How?

Could I convince a family who had served the Grand Duchy their entire lives to leave everything behind?

And even if they left—would it truly save them?

The Young Lady must fight this kind of fear every single day. And not for someone else’s life— for her own.

As someone in a vaguely similar position, I thought I understood her hardship just a little.

But maybe… I don’t know anything about her at all.

“Wanna eat this? Daddy said I can share it wiff you!”

The Young Lady held out a cherry muffin from the table.

“Thank you……”

I smiled as I took a bite. I hoped it looked natural.

 

 

****

 

 

 

“Hicc… Our Annie became a lady’s maid… It’s the honor of our familyyy…”

I met Holly only at bedtime, and her eyes were puffy and swollen with tears.

“Mom and Dad said to come to the cabin on our day off… We hafta have a partyyy…!”

“A party sounds nice…”

I patted Holly’s shoulder as she cycled between crying and laughing.

I knew we couldn’t be purely happy about this. A little bit—no, much more than I’d expected—my feelings were tangled.

A low-ranking maid becoming a lady’s maid wasn’t some small promotion. It was an elite leap.

It took Ines forty years to become Head Maid. But Annie, who had started at eight years old, had become a senior servant like the Head Maid in just eleven years.

“What is this. Why aren’t you happier?”

Holly stopped crying, as if she’d sensed my true feelings. Where should I even begin?

“Holly, um… well…”

“If you’re about to say you’re sorry, don’t! You don’t have anything to be sorry for!”

“Mm…”

Holly blew a sharp puff through her nose and hugged me tight.

“And this is probably the last night I get to sleep with you, huh?”

The wording was a bit weird, but yes—starting tomorrow, I had to move to new quarters.

“Even without you… I’ll, sniff, I’ll be… just fine… so don’t worry…”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“I have lots of other friends too!”

I slowly stroked Holly’s trembling back.

“But I’m your only sister, right?”

“’Course you are, my little sister… hueeeng…!”

We curled up together on my bed and spent our last night like that. Holly finally calmed down only deep into the night.

“Holly, you know what?”

Just before falling asleep, in that hazy drifting moment, I whispered as if sharing a secret.

“Kyle is actually… a Sword Master.”

“…Woooow. Really?”

What?? That reaction??

“So you already knew?”

“Me? Huh? No? It’s my first time hearing this very surprising fact!”

Far too honest pronunciation for me to believe.

“I’m disappointed in you, Holly.”

“Sorry. Kyle told me not to tell.”

“Why on earth? Why was I the only one he hid it from?”

“Good question. What a bad guy!”

“How could you hide that from me all this time?”

“I had no choice because of our financial agreement…”

“You even had a monetary deal?!”

“That’s what I’m saying. He’s such a bad guy!”

“You’re just as bad! Go back to your own bed!”

“Nooo! I don’t want to!”

Holly clung to me with her whole body and whispered:

“We’re sisters. No getting upset over something like this.”

“You’re too much!”

“If you wanna work tomorrow, you should sleep early. Hush now, hush.”

The way she patted me—like a trained animal handler—made me feel powerless as her warm body closed in on me.

They both ganged up to hide it from me! Why was I the only one left out?!

Was it because I badmouthed Tricen every time we met? If he’d told me from the start he was a knight, I wouldn’t have said any of that!

…And we wouldn’t have become friends, either.

Maybe Kyle hid his identity because he wanted to protect our friendship.

…but he got along perfectly fine with Holly while being honest with her!!

The more I squirmed, the more firmly Holly held me. We were equally conditioned from physical labor, yet I still couldn’t escape.

“Holly, you…”

“Hush now, hush.”

“Kyle, he’s…”

“Yes, a bad guy. Hush now, hush.”

I couldn’t even properly complain before sleep crashed over me.

No time to hope that tomorrow wouldn’t come.

 

 

****

 

 

 

“Miss Annie has, as of yesterday, become Lady Edel’s maid.”

Morning assembly felt different. At the very top of the announcements, Ines declared my promotion.

“You will move your quarters to the room beside the Lady’s and report to Madam Seymour.”

Senior servants must address each other with honorifics. Hearing Ines speak politely to me felt strange— but no one gave me time to adjust.

“How unfair…”

“How did she get the Lady’s favor like that?”

“How could a low-ranking maid…”

“Silence!”

Even Ines stepping in didn’t fully quiet the murmurs.

I heard Holly snapping at the maids in the main building.

“You promised you wouldn’t say anything!”

“But it is unfair.”

“Did we make up anything?”

Holly’s back trembled like an angry poodle.

I reached out to calm her, but then a cool voice sliced through the noise.

“This is excessively irregular.”

It was Reina, an upstairs maid.

Reina was born a noble, yet she had worked her way up from the bottom to become a senior maid.

And she was the maid of the original protagonist, Seraphine— very, very capable and loyal. If not for me, she would have been chosen as the lady’s maid.

“A low-ranking maid surpassing senior maids and becoming a lady’s maid without even serving as a designated attendant first?”

Her formal objection froze the central hall into absolute silence.

Even the male servants on the other side, listening to Butler Rupert’s announcements, quieted down.

“Are you truly all right with this, Madam Miller?”

A fair question. The person who would feel this most keenly was probably Ines.

“What a useless question. A colleague’s promotion is something to celebrate, isn’t it?”

Ines clicked her tongue and addressed everyone.

“This is the Lady’s decision.”

Meaning: keep your complaints to yourself. Including herself.

“Hurry along now, Miss Annie.”

Then Ines added:

“You do not need to attend morning assembly starting tomorrow.”