“Master Ethan, are you okay?!”

“……Yes.”

“Thankfully, your injuries don’t appear to be life-threatening. I’m guessing you were just so startled that you blacked out.”

“Thank goodness, master. If something had happened to you, I’m sure you would have been….”

 

Waking from a brief, cozy sleep, Ethan opened his eyes and immediately took in his surroundings.

A familiar room, and a bunch of maids gathered around him.

Realizing that he’d been carried to the bedroom after his collapse, Ethan quickly grasped the situation despite his young age.

The maids were giving him worried glances; not the excited ones he was used to.

He didn’t know why, but their gazes had suddenly changed.

Ethan quickly realized that the emotions that had suddenly flooded him had changed.

There was only one thing that was different from his usual self.

He had lost his footing on the grand staircase, near the ground floor, and fell down.

It’s amazing how such a small accident can change the way people look at you.

At such a young age, Ethan naturally began to form a false sense of self-worth.

His assumption became a fact when his father walked into his room shortly afterward.

 

“Ethan! Ethan!”

 

The urgency in his voice and the distorted expression on his face that he never normally shows.

Ethan wasn’t stupid enough not to realize that it was his father’s concern for him.

From a young age, Ethan had already felt the gazes, conveying a myriad of emotions, towards him.

In the way his father hugged him tightly, Ethan could feel every single one of those raw emotions.

 

“Ethan! I’m so glad you’re okay…. If you’d be gone too, I…!”

 

A father’s love he never thought he’d felt before.

He never thought he could feel it just because he was hurt and fell.

It happened just once, just one fall down the stairs.

At such a young age, Ethan realized in the strangest of ways how to be loved by others.

For the next two years, he tried to gain the love of others.

 

“Master Ethan, are you okay?!”

“Master Ethan, if you skip your morning training, my master will be worried.”

“Did you skip your etiquette training today as well….? Please don’t forget to attend tomorrow, master.”

“Master Ethan. If you come out of your bedroom in the middle of the night like this….”

“Young master….”

 

Every time he gets hurt, messes up, or makes a mistake, the expectant glances he used to get from them quickly fade, replaced by concern and pity.

With each passing day, people stop expecting perfection from him.

Over time, Ethan had come to recognize these people’s changing feelings as love.

Some had said that he had become dumber after falling down the stairs that day, but that was not the case at all.

On the contrary, he had only become more clever.

Once he realized that no one could criticize him, Ethan practically had the manor at his disposal.

No one stopped him from sleeping until the sun was high in the sky, no one stopped him from eating whenever he felt hungry, even when it wasn’t mealtime, and no one stopped him from training in swordsmanship and magic.

No one could control his behavior or reprimand him for it, even as his body regressed into a terrible state. He lacked even the most minimal refinement found in a nobleman of his age.

For everyone knew that Harold loved Ethan dearly, the final remnant of his family, his flesh and blood.

If you offended Ethan in the wrong way, you could be sent to some other harsh duty station away from the manor, or even disqualified and cast out.

He could only silently hope that one day he would come to his senses and become more like his father, Harold.

No matter what he did, no one in the manor could restrain him.

That is, except for one person in the sprawling mansion, a new maid.

 

“I apologize, Master Ethan. I allowed my fear to overcome my ignorance and made a grave mistake.”

 

“……?”

 

A cold stare, not a hint of expectations in her eyes, even though she knew he was Ethan Richard Blackwood.

Ethan had gotten used to reading other people’s eyes, so it was easy for him to read the look in his new maid’s eyes.

It was common for maids who met him for the first time to have some expectations toward him, only to lose them over time.

The maid in front of him was clearly meeting him for the first time, but she didn’t look at him with any expectations at all.

Ethan was intrigued by her difference from the others.

 

“If you’re afraid of the dark and the silent hallways, I’ll be happy to accompany you.”

 

“It’s not strange, master. You’re still growing up, so you might be hungry at this time of night.”

 

“…Just leave it there and I’ll clean it up later.”

 

A calm emotion that doesn’t change no matter how disappointing your behavior is.

Somehow, the look in her eyes, the one that said she’d never had any expectations to begin with, reminded Ethan of someone he missed.

Someone who was gone, someone he’d missed for a very long time.

 

“You don’t have to live up to anyone’s expectations, Ethan. Mommy loves you no matter who you are.”

 

“…….”

 

After leaving the kitchen he’d snuck into at dawn, Ethan had a thought as he walked back to his bedroom.

If he came to the kitchen at this time tomorrow, just maybe, he would see the maid again.

My third day in the kitchen.

I woke up at 4 a.m. with eyes that floated open on their own.

I need to move carefully, slowly, so as not to wake Isabel….

 

“Going to work, Lilith?”

 

…Oh, no.

 

“Sorry, did I wake you again?”

“No…. My eyes were just opened….”

 

I was actually going to sneak out without waking her today.

I felt bad for Isabel, who had been up for days because of me. It’s the time of year when she’s most sleep-deprived, and I feel like I’m keeping her from getting any sleep.

Of course, working in the kitchen wasn’t exactly a position I wanted, and getting up at 4 a.m. wasn’t always my choice.

 

“If the bed upstairs is uncomfortable, you can come sleep in my spot. I have to go to work now, anyway.”

“Yeahhhh….”

 

Apparently, the top bunk is uncomfortable, so Isabel comes down and takes my spot at the bottom.

It was strangely cute to see her squirming and burrowing into the blanket I had just covered her with.

Well, she was a high school girl who hadn’t even started college yet, so it was only natural for her to look that way.

 

“If you’re not comfortable on the second floor, why don’t you just sleep in my place starting tomorrow and I’ll sleep on the second floor.”

“It’s okay…. It doesn’t really matter….”

“Huh?”

“Hmm…. It’s warm….”

 

Isabel mumbled something unintelligible, burrowed back into the blanket I was covering her with, and returned to sleep.

When I saw that she had fallen asleep again shortly afterward, I carefully opened the door and stepped out into the mansion’s hallway.

The hallways of Blackwood Manor at dawn are now completely familiar.

Walking around like this reminds me of my time in the army *1, when I was on watch.

However, the fatal flaw of being on call now was that you couldn’t change shifts when the weather changed.

Rustle.

 

 

“Huh?”

 

 

“…….”

 

 

What was that?

I think I just heard something behind me.

I turned my head to see if Isabel had inadvertently followed me out, but there was no sign of anyone following me.

Shrugging it off as my bad mood, I trudged to my destination, the kitchen.

 

‘Hah…. I really don’t wanna be chewing on garlic right now….’

 

It was an inevitable sentiment after spending over an hour chewing garlic and chopping vegetables after Ethan finally went to bed yesterday.

Unfortunately, the results of all that hard work were lost on the second day.

 

『Current Mana: 245 / 245』

 

I was somewhat prepared for the drop in efficiency, but I didn’t expect it to be this bad.

I did a quick calculation and found that the amount of mana consumed was almost exactly the same compared to the first day. It’s just that I’m not as efficient as I used to be as my maximum mana has grown.

Still, it was undeniable that my mana cap was growing.

In the first place, I had already come too far to stop now.

The senior maids were expecting me to finish all the work as if this situation were completely natural.

 

“Lilith, thank you for your work today. Please do a good job tomorrow.”

“We really do need you here in the kitchen, Lilith. Do you want to continue working with us in the future?”

“…….”

 

Are you crazy?!

I’m losing my mind by working with you guys either way.

What kind of junior maid would want to work with a bunch of bitches who are only in their second year and are slapping their juniors around?

I’m only putting up with it because it’s a good environment for my magical training, but after this shift, I’m done working with the damned senior maids.

In another five days or so, I’ll be able to work with Isabelle again, so I’ll just have to suck it up until then.

 

Creak.

 

With that thought in mind, I sighed as soon as I opened the kitchen door and stepped inside.

The mountain of vegetables was refilled again as soon as the day was over. That was also the moment I realized that what I had to do today hadn’t changed.

…I just hadn’t considered the possibility that there was someone else in the kitchen I wasn’t expecting.

 

“Haaaaa….”

“Maid, are you sighing?”

 

“……Huh?”

 

Just now, for some reason, I thought I heard an unpleasant voice nearby.

I looked around cautiously, hoping I had misheard, but alas, my guess was wrong this time.

An expletive nearly escaped my lips as I caught sight of a short silhouette on the kitchen floor.

…but I had to hold back what was about to spill out, knowing who I was dealing with.

 

“The maid was sighing because she didn’t want to work~. Shall I tell my father?”

“…….”

“Maid, I’m hungry. So please cook for me again today.”

 

…Ha, really.

You’re really pissing me off right before work.

T/N

1. 1. This most likely refers to the military enlistment that young South Korean men are required by law to comply with. This applies to physically fit men aged between 18 and 35.

That’s all for now, thanks for reading, and see you in the next one!