Author: Asternkm
“You don’t have to! Do that for me!”
“Huung, so you really don’t like me……”
“You don’t have to try so hard to be loved by me!”
“…….”
“…….”
An eternity-like silence passed.
The young lady’s noble face filled with shock.
“Try…… hard?”
At this point, it really didn’t matter whether this was a romance-fantasy world or not.
If it was the former, then I had interfered with someone who might be the heroine, and if it was the latter, then a maid had dared to talk back to a young lady.
If heaven had mercy, I’d just get fired. If not……
No! I can’t die like this!
“I mean, you’re also a Tricen, but compared to the young masters who run wild, you’re just too……”
Ugh.
“No, I didn’t mean the young masters run wild. It’s just… why are you the only one trying so hard to get the whole family’s approval……”
Aagh.
“I mean, I don’t know why you’re trying—no, making an effort—to be loved by everyone……”
My last desperate struggle smoothly marched toward a death flag.
All expression drained from the young lady’s face.
Thud. I fell to my knees much too late.
“I’m sorry, my lady. I shouldn’t have overstepped……”
“Is…… that? Hicc, is that right?”
“Please show mercy…… pardon? What?”
“I also, h-heuuuk, don’t want to try anymore……”
Whether the young lady admitted it or not wasn’t the issue—those big eyes welling up, and the teardrop rolling down like a bead, that wasn’t supposed to be a tear.
“Huweeeng! I don’t wanna try anymore!”
“Ah……”
“It’s too hard for meee! Huweeeng!”
“I see. Poor young lady……”
While patting the sobbing young lady’s back, I foretold the future.
It’ll be hard to make it through tonight.
****
“Lady Edel!”
The nanny, Cecil, pulled the young lady from my arms.
“Annie! Follow me at once!”
The head maid, Ines, ordered sharply.
“You made the young lady cry?”
“Goodness. Are you insane?”
All sorts of accusing looks from the servants.
“They say she made Edel cry.”
For the first time in both Annie’s memory and mine, I stepped into Aeon’s office.
What were the odds for a duke’s maid to have a private audience with the head of the house?
And what were the odds of surviving afterwards?
****
2. The Men of Childcare Stories
I was obediently taken away.
There were no shackles or knights restraining my arms, but it was basically the same as being dragged off.
I didn’t feel the slightest urge to run.
Saying ‘I couldn’t ignore the lady crying her heart out!’ would prick my conscience… and besides, the Tricens would never let a maid who made their precious youngest daughter cry go free.
Even while looking only at the floor, I could feel a presence looming above the top of my head.
Aeon Tricen. The cruel Northern Grand Duke. The Sword Master who could send sword aura with just a glance.
I wanted to bow my head to the floor, but I couldn’t move at all.
An aching sound slipped out through my barely parted lips.
“M-my deepest, d-deadliest sin……”
“A deadly sin indeed.”
The moment that smooth low voice reached my ears, my knees trembled just like they had seven years ago.
‘I mean, what deadly sin? Cut your own neck for trying to kill the young lady! And you’re the ones who made her cry, not me!’—I wanted to say, but I also wanted to live.
“S-spare… me……”
“Spare you?”
An emotionless question followed.
“Why should I?”
Fair enough. If he tried to kill a newborn who might have been his own child, why would a maid’s life matter?
If I was going to die anyway, why was I holding in my pee?
Just as I was about to abandon the now-useless thing called dignity—
“Noo! Annie did nuffin wrong!”
A tiny blue dress flew into view.
“Annie cheered Edel up! She didn’t make me cry!”
Instead of pee, tears came out. And with them, another keyword.
This is a redemption arc.
Lady Edel rescued me.
“A-Annie? Crying? Don’t cry……”
“M-my lady… sniff……”
“Poor Annie……”
Her small arms wrapped tightly around my head.
I quickly ducked my face down. I couldn’t smear snot on a dress worth eight years of my wages.
“If Annie cwies, Edel gets sad. Daddy’s not a bad person, y’know.”
The childcare-story heroine’s unique skill activated.
‘Saving an innocent servant from the tyrant dad!’
Aeon, the worst of them all, grumbled.
“I can’t just ignore a maid who made you cry.”
“Nuh uh! Annie didn’t do it!”
“Then why were you crying?”
“T-that’s……”
“That’s?”
“That’s… um……”
While the young lady struggled to produce a lie, Aeon gestured with an expression that clearly meant: You annoy me. Get lost.
I quickly stepped away.
I’m sorry, my lady. Maid 82 has no way to withstand any more of this. I’ll treasure this life you saved. I’ll make sure to stay as far out of your sight as possible!
The moment I stepped out of the office, Ines grabbed me.
“What on earth did you do to the young lady!”
“I really didn’t do anything……”
“You’ll be cleaning the servants’ restroom for a whole week! Alone!”
“Yes……”
No point insisting, ‘It wasn’t me! It was the Tricens who made her cry!’
Except for the Carter family—maybe even including them—everyone would treat me as the monstrous villain who made the young lady cry.
Still, I survived. I would smell like filth for a while, but—
I relaxed, thinking it was a small price to pay for keeping my life.
“My sister cried because of you, I hear.”
Childcare stories never only have a crazy dad.
“Seems His Grace showed mercy.”
Meaning: being alive with all four limbs intact was unusually generous, considering I made their precious youngest cry.
I bowed deeply, pretending not to understand.
Leaning back on the sofa in his private lounge, the boy with sister complex smiled languidly.
He looked like the kind of kid whose every action would be described as languid. The heir of the Tricen Grand Duchy.
A fifteen-year-old boy with a name that seemed steeped in narcissism.
Narkis Tricen looked like a beautiful boy straight out of a myth.
A hollowed eye shape carved from the brow bone. Long, dense lashes. A line that flowed perfectly from forehead to nose to lips to chin. Perfect symmetry.
Every feature looked meticulously crafted by a master artisan.
His delicate, pale features seemed to resemble his mother, a foreign princess.
His eerily red eyes were identical to Aeon’s.
Would he resemble Aeon if his hair were black? But Narkis had white hair.
It had apparently been black originally, but in Annie’s memories, it had already turned white.
They said it happened as he reached the realm of swordsmanship. The son of a Sword Master would surely become a Sword Master.
Holly treated Narkis like a ‘god of beauty,’ honored just to breathe the same air. I couldn’t muster such awe for a fifteen-year-old.
“I remember you. The careless, foolish maid.”
Sharing the same air as this psycho was awful enough.
****
The first Grand Duchess, Princess Iope, left for her homeland Ritsa immediately after giving birth to Narkis.
Even after the mistress changed, Narkis remained the only heir of the Grand Duke.
Then, when he turned seven, he followed his mother.
Rumors spread that even though he had fallen far down the line of succession, he might become the crown prince of Ritsa.
The rumors remained just rumors. The Grand Duke’s heir returned to Moonmist Castle three years ago and met his youngest sister.
And within only a month, he became a fool boy who’s crazy over his sister. Blood is way too thick in this family.
Anyway, a lowly maid should have had no reason to interact with him. A maid only worked, and the sister complex only hovered around the young lady.
We could have easily lived without acknowledging each other.
If only he weren’t a psycho.
Three summers ago. A warm, sunny day by Northern standards.
As a low-rank maid of the main building, I often filled in for other work.
When I was sent to help in the laundry, of course the pump broke on my shift.
The magic-powered pump that poured out hot water took forever to repair. The family mages gathered and muttered about circuits and diagrams, none of which I understood.
The conclusion: we had to do laundry the medieval way—at the river’s washing spot.
The quickest route between the washing spot and the laundry was a small path by the garden hedge.
As I walked in a hurry, I heard voices beyond the hedge.
“Narkis oppa’s hair wooks like edelweiss. So white and shiny.”
“Edel’s hair looks as sweet as honey.”
“Reawwy? Then can I call oppa Edel’s Edel?”
“Of course, little honeybee.”
I didn’t see any edelweiss-like white hair or honey-sweet gold hair.
I hurried my steps as if I hadn’t heard anything. I had more work waiting.
“Hah.”
The sigh came out as I wondered when the mages would finally invent a washing machine.
It wasn’t because I thought, ‘Ugh, they’re so cringe.’
“You there.”
“Yes?”
A chillingly clear voice.
The Tricen siblings appeared at the arched opening of the hedge, looking at me.
I quickly bowed. I never expected siblings lost in their own world to call a passing maid.
“You must be tired. To walk past without noticing the young lady you serve.”
If he were calling me to give orders, he wouldn’t sound this obviously confrontational.
“N-no, I’m aw wight……”
The young lady was more flustered than I was. It seemed she hadn’t noticed me passing, either.
Everything was annoying—the broken pump, the heavy bundle of blankets, and this sister-crazy boy picking a fight.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t see……”
I broke the rule: a maid must only apologize, never make excuses.
“I see. You didn’t see.”
Narkis slowly rolled my words around in his mouth.
Tap.
He kicked my laundry basket.
“See it now?”
The freshly washed blankets fell onto the dirt.
“E-Edel hewp!”
Before her hand could reach the blankets, I picked them up. I didn’t want anything worse to happen.
“I’m sorry.”
I bowed and waited. I couldn’t afford another mistake.
Narkis’s voice floated on the breeze.
“You’ll need to take the forest route on your way back.”
Damn Tricens. May your house collapse.
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