I Possessed As A Childcare Extra – Chapter 26

Author: Asternkm

“Um… thanks to the young lady’s excessive kindness…”

“So common.”

“…Pardon?”

Freda, leaning against the sofa, tossed out her words.

“Nothing about you is impressive.”

I know.

“And you’re no fun to toy with, either.”

Then please let me go.

“So why you?”

It was something only I knew, but—because I was the transmigrator.

“Do you know?”

Freda’s violet eyes curved. My answer was already decided.

“I’m not sure what you mea—”

“Leoni. Come sit.”

Cutting me off, Freda jerked her chin toward the seat across from her.

When the hesitant Leoni sat down—

“It’s nothing difficult. I already showed our daughter how to do it. Just do the same.”

Even hearing that, I stood there blankly for quite a while.

Um, so… she wants me to feed Leoni one of each thing on the tray?

“Mother!”

Ignoring Leoni’s protest, Freda asked sweetly,

“Can’t you do it?”

Whether I could or couldn’t wasn’t the point—I was drowning in turmoil. The young lady normally eats by herself, you know…

Just imagining me feeding him made Leoni’s expression twist like he’d swallowed a handful of bugs.

“Why would Edel’s maid feed me…?!”

“How disappointing.”

Leoni’s objection was crushed without mercy.

Freda’s lips moved slowly.

“I thought we’d built quite a deep bond. Was I mistaken?”

No matter how you heard it, it sounded ominous.

Wasn’t that supposed to be our little secret? What if she spilled it?

Leoni’s gaze at me changed instantly. It’s not what you think, I swear!

Before I could deny anything, Freda asked:

“Was what I gave you not enough?”

“N-no, I… I didn’t—”

She did give me things, but Narkis took them all!!

“Trying to deny it? Unfortunately, many people have seen us building our relationship.”

Relationship?! Of course people would’ve seen—I went to her openly!

Leoni’s gaze burned against my cheek. I didn’t need to look to know it meant, ‘How dare you betray Edel—I’ll kill you.’ But it wasn’t true!

“I suppose there’s no helping it.”

With a sigh, Freda rose from the sofa and stood before me.

“You’re greedier than you look.”

A lavish piece of jewelry dropped at my feet.

This time, it was a necklace.

Then came a sharp sound.

Smack!

My ears rang.

My left cheek went numb.

As my vision tilted right, figures came into view.

Leoni, glaring at me with eyes that burned with thoughts of punishment—then suddenly looking startled.

Beyond him, in the arched hallway—the young lady with both hands covering her mouth. Cecil, horrified. Kyle, frozen and expressionless.

When had they returned? It really was like a scene from a novel.

My gaze last met Kyle’s. I shook my head.

Don’t come.

Kyle’s brows furrowed, as if protesting, Why shouldn’t I?

I shook my head again.

You can’t come.

I had prepared myself long ago—getting slapped by the villainess was standard etiquette for a supporting maid.

Even if it hurt, it was just a noblewoman’s hand. Not enough to make me stumble.

What mattered was what came next.

A “maid getting slapped” was a narrative device.

The slap was just a tool—the main event began when the young lady stepped in.

“Annie!”

The young lady screamed, but Freda replied coolly:

“You’re here. This child is being punished for her greed.”

So that’s how she wanted to play it.

Just as Leoni misunderstood, me receiving valuables and carrying out commands for Freda was an act of betrayal against my master.

If this was meant to be a test of loyalty…

I thought about whether that gave her enough justification to hit me—but it was pointless.

Freda would’ve hit me no matter what excuse she had.

If I were someone who’d grovel to the young lady and the Tricen family, I wouldn’t have come at all. She probably didn’t care what backlash she’d face.

Whether I answered the summons or not, whatever Narkis was plotting—she might have simply wanted to hurt the young lady.

Because she was the villain.

Freda was a character created to commit evil. To push the protagonist forward, and to be punished in the end.

If it all ended with me—

If I could stop that malice from reaching the young lady by taking it myself—then I’d gladly offer my cheek as many times as needed.

“That’s… th-that’s not… even… tr-r-true…”

Unlike the protagonist in the novel, the young lady stuttered.

Had she been born and raised in this world, perhaps she would have shown the dignity of a noblewoman.

But she carried the memories of someone weak.

She had learned, in her past life, what it meant to shrink away and watch others’ moods. Just like me.

I didn’t want to shove someone who feared Freda as much as I did into fighting for me.

I stared hard at Kyle.

Remember, Kyle. This is work.

This wasn’t a decision I came to alone.

This was part of Narkis’s grand plan. Whatever it was, rising to their provocation would do us no good.

Stop the young lady.

Kyle grimaced in pain. Did he understand?

“Mother shouldn’t be the one punishing her!”

The little troublemaker didn’t seem inclined to follow my intention.

“Is that so?”

Freda’s lip curled as she lifted her right hand again.

Hmm, alright. Same spot as before. I might as well trust the regeneration of a teenager, even if I didn’t train for this.

Freda struck without hesitation.

“She came because I called her.”

Once.

“St-stop! Please stop!”

Kyle grabbed the struggling young lady. Thank goodness—he understood.

“She should accept what I give her.”

Twice. I felt the scratch of her sharp nails.

“Mother!”

Leoni shot to his feet as if springing up. Freda spoke flatly:

“She should obey when she’s told. Isn’t that right?”

Her hand rose for the third time. Realizing noblewomen’s slaps were harsher than expected, I closed my eyes.

No pain came.

“If even your fingertips touch her…”

A low voice broke through the tense air.

“I’ll break it.”

I slowly opened my eyes.

Maybe because I’d been hit, my vision was blurry with moisture.

Even so, Narkis’s features were painfully clear.

Tears streamed down my face.

It was just a physical reaction. Anyone would cry after getting slapped repeatedly.

It absolutely was not because I was moved that Narkis appeared. Absolutely not.

“So I finally get to see that precious face.”

As if she hadn’t avoided him all this time, Freda smiled.

“Have you been well, my son?”

Freda’s wrist, held firmly in Narkis’s grasp, didn’t budge at all.

“You send such affectionate letters telling me to shut myself away as if dead, and now you show up in person.”

So he threatened her by letter.

“Did the past come to mind?”

Freda asked calmly. A creepy sensation crawled down my neck.

The past.

While slapping me.

Sometimes in life, the mood, the pacing, or one insignificant word would fall into place like puzzle pieces.

“The only reason I left you alone… is because you’re Leoni’s birth mother.”

Narkis, who had once trembled in that dark, cramped cleaning closet, spoke without a quiver now.

“Do not mistake that for permission to do whatever you please.”

“You mean you were tolerating me? How touching.”

Freda replied sweetly, and continued.

“I’m awfully curious about why you couldn’t tolerate it this time.”

Looking down at me, she smiled beautifully.

“Do you know? Hmm?”

Repeating the question from earlier, she cupped my cheek with her free left hand.

“I said I’d break it.”

His voice pressed each syllable into my ears.

“Did you already forget?”

Freda’s smile didn’t change.

“No!”

Leoni shouted, but Narkis didn’t even twitch.

“You know very well what it means to lay a hand on Edel’s maid.”

It was nothing like the night he’d threatened to kill me if I revealed his secret.

His face, stripped of all emotion, was calm.

But his eyes were wrong. Those bright-red pupils looked like lava on the verge of eruption.

I didn’t know the “Ma” of “Master of the Sword”—but he looked like he was about to burst out with sword aura. Had he already? At least the “sword” part of sword aura?

Why are you so mad? Because hitting me is basically the same as hitting the young lady?

In stories, whenever the master gets dragged into trouble, the maid is the one who pays for it.

Besides, in romance-fantasy settings, it’s practically a rule. I know you don’t, but still—you don’t break someone’s wrist over it!

Even if she was the former Archduchess who got cast out, she was still from a vassal family—no, the daughter of a marquis. Meting out punishment without any legal procedure?!

Was he trying to set an example for the other vassals? Like, “touch my sister and your wrists are next”? You’ll get called a tyrant! Well, you are a tyrant’s son…

I’d momentarily forgotten that in the original he was gentle only toward Serphine, and took care of all sorts of things behind the scenes.

But weren’t you the one saying you mustn’t act threatening? What about the big plan? What about my reward?

Does the episode still start if the protagonist’s older brother intervenes? What about the peaceful days between the young lady and me?

I have to stop this!

For the first time in my life, I glared right at Narkis. Yes. I glared at Narkis!

Get a hold of yourself, you idiot!

At the end of my desperate stare, I thought Narkis’s eyes flicked toward me.

Then why did he get angrier?

His gaze, now heavier, was filled with murderous hostility. Like he’d tear Freda apart on the spot. Why?!

“That might not be so bad.”

No! Please be quiet, Lady Freda!

“Go on then. Could he bear the consequences with him?”