I Possessed As A Childcare Extra Chapter 31

“Welcome, Miss Annie.”

Without even checking who it was, the butler Oliver opened the door and smiled brightly. With his soft wheat-colored hair, round drooping amber eyes, a cute, neatly formed face, and a small build, he was the vitamin of the mansion.

It couldn’t be helped. His quitting time was guaranteed to the minute.

“Yes, have a safe trip home…….”

I replied with the smile of an office worker worn down by overtime.

“Hehe. Hang in there too, Miss Annie!”

I brushed past Oliver as he walked off with light steps and went into the room.

The sun was setting beyond the window hung like a large picture frame.

A man sitting on the window frame raised his gaze, his back to the dark blue sky still tinged with pink. I lowered my head, as if avoiding his eyes, darker than the sunset.

“Did you like the dress?”

Even at twenty, the heir of the northern duke received daily reports about his youngest sister. His voice, deepened by puberty, was still beautiful—and still just as irritating.

“Yes. She looked like an angel.”

“Anything to alter?”

“No.”

I can’t believe I’ve been doing this all along.

Five years of overtime had stopped being “extra” and become normal work. When I said I no longer had excuses to slip away during the day, it turned into after-work reports instead.

“Did you try yours on too?”

“No.”

I thought it was a pointless question.

“Why?”

I didn’t expect him to ask for a reason.

“Do I really have to try it on?”

“It might not fit.”

“Then I’ll just wear something else.”

Tomorrow I’d be standing all day serving anyway. Comfortable clothes were better than struggling into a new dress. Plus, I could eat lots of good food—if I even had time for that.

Maids didn’t have a fixed uniform. There were only conditions, like calm colors and modest decorations.

I rotated through ready-made clothes that roughly fit the rules, so the young lady bought me a few dresses. Custom-made ones I could never afford on my salary. Dresses luxurious enough to greet guests.

Maybe it was just me, but Narkis stayed quiet. Was he going to scold me for lowering the standard?

“You must be quite disappointed.”

Another voice cut in. The man standing beside the desk let out a soft laugh.

Brienne. With striking long red hair and kind golden eyes, he was Narkis’s aide.

Hearing that, I realized it.

Of course. It was a gift from the young lady. If I didn’t wear a dress she had specially made, she’d be disappointed. Imagining her slender shoulders drooping made my chest ache.

“There’s no way it won’t fit, so don’t worry. Miss Rosaline knows my measurements exactly.”

Before I knew it, my tone had turned blunt. A polite reply came back, as if he didn’t mind.

“That’s good to hear.”

I was always a little uncomfortable around that man who only ever smiled so pleasantly.

In truth, very much so.

 

 

****

 

 

Adult Narkis settled down in the North.

In the original story, it said he stayed at the duke’s residence in the capital. He only showed his face at Moonmist Castle once in a while, then started appearing properly around the time Seraphine entered the academy.

His role changed from “the guardian of a half-sibling who appeared after 12 years” to “the oldest brother who only cares about his sibling,” so it made sense.

The problem was the person who came back with him.

“Hello, Miss Annie.”

Two winters ago. I greeted Narkis and Brienne, who had returned home after graduating from the academy and then the institute, at the front entrance.

A graceful beauty with long straight red hair smiled softly with her eyes. For the first time in a long while, I felt my heart race.

“Um…… do you know me?”

When my voice shook, failing to keep a maid’s composure, I heard a scoffing laugh. I deliberately ignored Narkis, who didn’t bother hiding his scornful expression.

Brienne answered kindly.

“There’s no way I wouldn’t know the young lady’s maid.”

“Ah, I see…….”

Of course he wouldn’t. Brienne was a mage sponsored by Tricen. A family mage had taken in the orphaned Brienne, and he entered the academy the same year as Narkis.

No one would have expected the two to become friends. If this weren’t a world inside a novel, I wouldn’t have believed it either.

I thought they were friends created by the original story. Like the only friend of the cold-blooded future Duke of the North.

“I’ve seen you from afar, and I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“I see…….”

“Brienne.”

Narkis suddenly called his name, looking extremely displeased. Brienne continued calmly.

“The young lady likes you very much, Miss Annie.”

“That’s right. I love Annie.”

The young lady beside us lifted her chin gracefully.

She had known Brienne for a long time too, just like Narkis. They often spent time together during vacations.

But she and I rarely crossed paths.

‘Annie, I want you to take it easy.’

Just like when she once held my hand tightly and said that, the young lady only called for me when it was absolutely necessary. Truly “taking it easy” wasn’t possible, but it was freer than my days as a maid crushed by nonstop work.

So when I finally met Brienne face to face that day, I felt deeply betrayed.

My type! Even if I saw him from an imperial carriage, still my type! Gentle, warm, and proper—completely my taste. And then I got dumped instantly.

Narkis’s mage friend. And handsome, too. The kind of character who could never escape being a supporting role, whether this was the original story or a childcare novel.

Couldn’t the two of us run away together from the fate of side characters? I dreamed foolishly for about three seconds, then came to my senses. Who did I think I was?

Still, when only the young lady and I were left, my lingering feelings spilled out.

“If he’s Narkis’s friend, he must’ve had quite a role, right?”

“Huh? Brienne? What role?”

“In the original story.”

“Ah!”

The young lady nodded as if she understood, her eyes lighting up.

“Why? Do you like him?”

“N-no, it’s not like that!”

“Let’s see. Brienne’s two years older than Narkis, so he’s only two years older than you. Younger guys are nice, right?”

“It’s not like that!”

“Oh, sure. You acted like you fell in love at first sight.”

“I d-did not!”

So it really showed?!

“I find those kinds of…… side-character-level people burdensome.”

“Side-character-level?”

The young lady blinked her round eyes and asked.

“You’re saying Brienne is a side character even though he’s handsome and capable?”

“Well…… I guess so.”

She blinked a few more times, then her expression turned serious.

“Then are you never going to date handsome, capable men?”

“What kind of world-ending thing are you saying?!”

The young lady laughed brightly and clapped her hands.

“Anyway, no need to worry. Brienne isn’t a side character!”

“……Is he a main character?”

Don’t tell me he was a male lead candidate despite the ten-year age gap.

“N-no!”

Shaking her head, the young lady answered cheerfully.

“He doesn’t appear in the original story!”

“What?”

“He doesn’t appear. Brienne.”

She said it so casually I almost believed it.

“But he’s Narkis’s friend.”

“In the original, he didn’t have any friends besides subordinates. Or maybe he did, but they weren’t shown?”

“You said he’d become his aide.”

“I think that was originally Oliver?”

I paused for a moment, then reached a conclusion.

“So you’re saying someone who doesn’t even appear in the original story pushed Oliver out?”

“Ah, I guess so. Poor Oliver. But compared to the original, his job satisfaction looks higher, so maybe it’s better?”

Being a butler would be less stressful than being an aide, after all.

“Then…….”

With chills running down my spine, I opened my mouth.

“Who is Brienne……?”

“Who do you think? He’s Brienne.”

“You can’t just brush it off like that!”

“Huh? Why?”

The young lady tilted her head innocently. Someone who claimed to have read every romance fantasy novel didn’t know this? Sure, it had been over ten years since she last read one, but still!

“When someone who isn’t in the original story suddenly appears as a side character, they’re usually the ‘mastermind’!”

Or the male lead! But I couldn’t call a twenty-year-old the male lead to a ten-year-old girl.

“Mastermind…….”

Only then did I realize she was repeating a Korean word. She reacted like she was surprised she still remembered it. Even I was amazed I remembered, and there wasn’t really an equivalent for “mastermind” in the empire’s language.

Suddenly lowering her brows, the young lady said sadly,

“But you’re not a mastermind.”

“That’s different for me!”

I was nothing like a normal nobody who turned out to be Maid No. 82.

“Brienne’s a mage! What if he turns evil and ‘darkens’?”

“Darken…….”

Repeating the Korean word again, the young lady smiled widely.

“That might be fun to watch. Would black aura spread everywhere?”

“Please don’t joke around—take this seriously!”

I almost shouted, “Are you kidding me?” Instead of pointing that out, the young lady smiled calmly.

“What can we do now? Brienne’s lived as part of our family for ten years.”

When the family mage brought him in, Brienne was ten years old. He’d been supported for as long as the young lady, who was registered into the family that same year, had lived as a Tricen.

“I was worried at first too…… but after living together, I stopped thinking about it.”

She said she first met Brienne when she was four. The same year Narkis returned to Moonmist Castle and tossed aside my laundry basket.

That meant Brienne entered the family the year the young lady was registered, and appeared around the time Narkis returned.

Suspicious! Way too suspicious! My romance-fantasy radar was sharper than ever. All the evidence pointed to Brienne being the mastermind, yet the young lady alone remained relaxed.

“Well, whatever. If he looks like he’s going to turn evil, I’ll just ask Dad to catch him.”

Ah…… right. No wonder she was calm. The strongest being in the world was on her side. After spending ten years as Aeon’s daughter, the young lady finally seemed to have adapted to life as Edel.

I hoped she could soon escape obsessions like “I have to survive” or “I have to be a lovable child.”

“He might be a possessor or a reincarnator.”

When I added that out of worry, the young lady waved her hands.

“I tested him, but he didn’t know. Korea University.”

“……What about ‘Hey, you too’?”

“He didn’t know that either.”

Hmm. As expected of the protagonist.

I admired her and let it go, but even now, two years later, I still couldn’t trust Brienne.