I Became the Maid of the Lout Prince - Chapter 48 [The Sword Carries the Will (7)]

 

‘Alright!’

 

Lilith Rosewood was quietly cheering in her mind after getting Ethan’s permission to participate in the mock training.

 

“……”

“……”

 

Just as there is darkness where there is light, there were two people who were not pleased with this situation.

Ethan Richard Blackwood and Emilia Reinhardt.

Among the three men and women, excluding Lilith, the two were unhappy with the current situation.

Especially Ethan, Lilith’s master, whose heart was burning black with worry that she might get hurt.

No matter how he thought about it, he was not at all pleased with the fact that her participation in this training was established.

 

‘Mock battles with soldiers… No matter how I think about it, it’s dangerous….’

 

Even when he heard the story of her subjugating the Hooked Tusk in the carriage today, he thought his heart would sink.

He never expected her to recklessly volunteer to have mock battles with soldiers.

Of course, if he only cared about risk, the incident a year ago when she faced the Hooked Tusk one-on-one was definitely more dangerous and reckless.

…But just because she had that experience didn’t mean Ethan could completely put aside his concerns about Lilith.

The battle she fought a year ago was, after all, just an ‘experience’ of subjugating the Hooked Tusk, not necessarily proof of her ‘skills’ to overwhelm new recruits.

 

‘The maid doesn’t seem like someone who would lie, and the story of her subjugating the Hooked Tusk is probably true, but….’

 

Even if she didn’t lose in the match, there was always a possibility of her getting injured. To begin with, dealing with people and monsters are two completely different things, so there were several variables at play.

In other words, just by letting her participate in this mock battle, there was a high chance she’d return with a scratch somewhere on her body.

That is why Ethan, who was genuinely worried about Lilith, tried to somehow stop her from participating in the mock battle, but…

 

<As I thought, even you didn’t believe it, young master. You still don’t believe the record of me subjugating the Hooked Tusk.>

<Just a moment ago, I thought you said I was your most trusted servant, but I guess I misunderstood.>

 

Seeing Lilith say that to him with cold eyes, Ethan had no choice but to allow her request for a match.

He didn’t want to see Lilith get hurt, but he hated being disliked by Lilith even more.

Ethan clearly understood that his past immature actions had left indelible wounds on her heart.

That’s why he was grateful to Lilith for awakening his immature self, and at the same time, he made up his mind not to hurt her in the future.

…But he couldn’t understand why she voluntarily jumped into a dangerous situation like this.

Of course, as she said, finding out how the mock training works and gauging the skills of new recruits would help with his patrol of the territory.

Just doing that much would ensure that there would be no rumors later saying he only pretended to patrol the territory.

However, from the moment he brought Lilith here, Ethan’s purpose for coming wasn’t actually to patrol the territory.

He just brought Lilith out of the mansion in the easiest and most convenient way he could think of because she expressed a desire to visit the estate guards.

Plus, he wanted to meet Sir Blacksong, whom Lilith said she wanted to meet, because he was curious about what kind of man he was.

So naturally, for Ethan, it was more important for Lilith not to get hurt than successfully completing the territorial patrol.

But her attitude remained firm until the end, and Ethan had no choice but to accept Lilith’s proposal under pressure.

 

“…Make sure to provide proper equipment and protective gear so the maid can participate in mock battles with new recruits.”

 

He had already done plenty to make Lilith dislike him, and he had even been rated by her as <[t]he worst of all men in the world.>

So, he wanted to avoid anything that could make Lilith dislike him even a little bit.

 

On the other hand…

 

Emilia Reinhart, the mastermind behind this situation, was also burning up inside, but in a different sense than Ethan.

 

‘I should have followed Sir Blacksong’s words, after all, making such a mistake…’

 

Emilia was agonizing over the situation she had created, her insides burning up.

At first, she thought that the always soft-hearted captain had given his own accomplishments again, so she started this, but…

As she opened the lid, even she didn’t expect the political movements that she hadn’t anticipated.

 

‘I never thought the maid who I wanted to yield the merit to the captain was Young Master Blackwood’s concubine…’

 

It was just a simple suspicion that a pretty-faced, big-breasted maid seduced the captain and stole the credit.

She never imagined that the maid was Young Master Blackwood’s concubine and that Captain Blacksong yielded the credit with political intentions.

Of course, Lilith was neither Ethan’s concubine nor had she ever seduced Sir Blacksong to steal credit, but no matter how you looked at it, that’s how it appeared in Emilia’s eyes.

There’s the young master who glared at her with murderous intent the moment she spoke insulting words about the maid named Lilith…

…and that maid who nonchalantly asked to participate in the mock battle with an ignorant expression.

Seeing all those circumstances, the suspicion in Emilia’s mind was already enough to turn into conviction.

She concluded that currently, the only person who could handle the Young Master of the Blackwoods was his concubine, Lilith.

 

‘I heard rumors that Young Master Ethan had changed these days; I guess he just changed because he wanted to look good for his concubine…’

 

After directly confirming the reality of the rumor with her own eyes, she felt somewhat empty.

The problem was that her situation was getting worse to the point where she couldn’t even properly feel that emptiness.

First of all, the moment the mock battle started, the defeat of that maid named Lilith was as good as confirmed.

No matter how new the soldiers were, they were adult males who had passed basic strength and stamina tests and were selected because of them.

Moreover, they were soldiers who had already been with the guards for half a year, so they had also received basic training from the guards.

Does it even make sense for that big-breasted, dull-looking maid to fight against such soldiers?

Looking at her breasts, which seemed to make it difficult to even properly swing a sword, Emilia cursed her in every possible way in her mind.

Surely, those breasts played a major role when she seduced Young Master Ethan.

She must have also seduced the captain with those obscene lumps of fat when she stole the credit.

She has breasts that seem to only interfere with swinging a sword, yet she wants to participate in a mock battle.

Thinking that those parts would be much more useful for handling men’s “swords” rather than wooden swords, Emilia inwardly spat out all kinds of criticism about what she “could not have.”

Of course, even if she criticized Lilith’s breasts now, it wouldn’t really improve her situation.

The moment Lilith said she would participate in the training with Young Master Ethan’s permission, only a terrible future likely awaited Emilia.

There was no way that the maid could win against new recruits, and since they were new, it would be impossible to control their strength while going easy.

In the end, it was already a confirmed fact that Lilith would get injured during the match.

The problem was that the moment that maid’s body got hurt, it seemed Young Master Ethan would not leave her alone.

It didn’t take long for that uneasy premonition of hers to become reality.

 

“Emilia.”

“…Yes, young master.”

“Because of the nonsense that flew out of your mouth, you put my maid in danger, so be prepared to take responsibility if something goes wrong.”

“…I understand.”

“If the maid gets even a tiny scratch anywhere, I’ll make sure to carve an unhealing scar in the same place on your body.”

“…Yes.”

 

Ethan quietly conveyed the irresistible threat to her from a short distance away from Lilith in a voice only she could hear.

Hearing his threat that she could not resist, Emilia quietly prayed in her heart.

She made a presumptuous wish that even if Lilith lost, she hoped Lilith would lose without getting hurt.

Right after Ethan granted his permission and the match with the new recruits was established…

Thanks to Ethan’s order to provide proper equipment and protective gear, I first moved to the Battle Preparation Room next to the Mock Battle Arena with Emilia.

It was a small warehouse-like place where armor and protective gear with traces of age, as well as weapons like swords and spears, were gathered.

The armor was clearly divided into male and female forms, and the weapons were all made with blunt ends to prevent casualties.

A blunt part touching the body would probably determine the winner of the match.

If they actually cut, it would clearly lead to an accident, so even if hit, the blades were made dull to only cause pain and nothing more.

 

“The mock battle experience will be conducted with complete upper and lower body armor, a helmet, gloves, and shoes. This is to prevent injury to Miss Lilith, so please understand this measure.”

“Ah, yes…”

 

Emilia bowed her head with a somewhat tired expression, perhaps because of my unreasonable request. 

I wanted to tell her to just reduce any unnecessary equipment, but I felt like the conversation would inevitably get longer if I said that.

So, I had no choice but to nod and accept Emilia’s suggestion.

 

‘…Well, even if I lose the match, I’ll still get experience points anyway.’

 

Of course, I strongly wanted to win if possible since I would get more experience points, but the fact that I could gain XP even if I lost wasn’t bad for me.

Rather, if the armor was sturdy, I could continue the match until the end, even if I accidentally took one or two hits.

…Or, even if I lost, I could end up with a minor injury and get back up, which could be used as a justification to request the next match.

 

‘I need to reach level 6. Nothing more, just gotta reach level 6…’

 

I don’t know how many low-level soldiers I’ll have to face to reach level 6 since their levels aren’t fixed.

…But if I put my mind to it, I could probably level up by one level within three or four mock battles this time.

With that thought, I changed into the armor and equipment Emilia handed to me one by one to prepare for the training.

 

“…Ah.”

 

The moment I tried to put on the upper body armor, I felt a large lump of fat getting stuck around my chest area.

 

“Um, Miss Emilia?”

“Yes.”

“This chestplate…is a bit small, so could you change it for me?”

“What? I’m sure I gave you the size that fits your height, Miss Lilith.”

“The height is fine, but… It’s getting stuck on my chest…”

 

“……”

 

Emilia alternately looked at my chest and upper body armor with a cold gaze at my answer.

Then, without a word, she took out another chestplate and held it out to me.

 

“…This is one size bigger, so you can wear this.”

“Yes, thank you.”

“…..̈”

…For some reason, I felt emotions like jealousy or hatred in her last gaze looking at me.

Well, it’s probably just my imagination.

T/N

Hello! Axiomatic here.

Looks like someone’s jealous of Lilith’s *ahem* “assets” *ahem*.

Anyway, I’d like to announce that this novel is getting 14 bonus chapters, including this one, as sponsored by Kaden K. on my Ko-fi! I’ve already thanked him there, but thank you again, Kaden, for your generous $40 donation. I’ll continue to translate this series with the same quality I’ve had since the beginning, and I thank you for your continued support by commenting on several chapters.

For a preview of when the next few chapters will be released, I’ve compiled them in the table below. 

Since I have announced that daily chapters (except Sunday) will start on May 27, Monday, another bonus chapter will be released tomorrow.

If you enjoy my work and are willing to sponsor more bonus chapters, you can donate to my Ko-fi page; the link is located at the announcement at the start of every chapter.

That’s all for now, thanks for reading, and see you tomorrow for Bonus Chapter 2!