Chapter 27

The incident with Prince Fren—a massive crisis that had nearly blown my entire life to smithereens—had thankfully been smoothed over safely thanks to Yul’s help.

However, it wasn’t as though I hadn’t been genuinely shocked that day, so I decided to immerse myself in a peaceful daily routine for the time being. The dizziness and stumbling I had experienced back then hadn’t been an act.

Because of that, I needed to steady my mind.

Swordplay, magic, swordplay, magic, swordplay, magic, blanket snail.

Refusing to wander outside and repeating that exact cycle every single day for a whole month, I lived chanting the mantra that the outside world was dangerous. I was currently relishing the peak of romance-fantasy peacefulness.

And like sweet rain during a drought, Miel had been visiting our house occasionally ever since that incident, making life feel worth living lately. I sometimes wondered if Miel was starting to develop feelings of interest toward me, but I knew deep down that it was just friendly interest.

What should I do? It was one of the grand dilemmas of my life. Since I was Armienne, winning Miel over with ordinary methods was simply impossible.

“Hah!”

As I was sweating away while diligently practicing one of my foundational training exercises, the vertical slash, I spotted a group of maids whispering among themselves in the distance.

Lately, though, the maids’ reactions had been rather strange.

I had thought I was just imagining things, but girls who would normally avoid my gaze and turn pale-faced just by making eye contact with me were now staring intently into my eyes as if they were about to dive right in, their faces flushed red rather than turning pale.

While plenty of maids still trembled in fear of me, the number of those who didn’t was steadily growing, little by little.

Something I wasn’t aware of seemed to be happening.

“Let’s wrap things up here for today. Good work.”

“Phew, good work, Teacher.”

After working up a refreshing sweat, I bid farewell to Carusien, who had been instructing me today, and slowly left the training ground. Strangely enough, I could feel Carusien’s gaze burning into my back.

That one seemed to have grown weird in a subtle way, too…

With the lingering sensation that everything around me had been spinning off in bizarre directions ever since the incident with Prince Fren, I tilted my head in confusion.

“Young Lady, here is a towel.”

Appearing silently like a shadow, Yul handed me a towel. To think I had failed to recognize such a competent maid—I truly was a fool and an idiot.

I lightly wiped away my sweat with the towel and stepped into the bathroom, where warm water was waiting for me.

Submerging my body in the water made all the energy instantly drain from my limbs in the best way possible, feeling wonderfully refreshing. My expression naturally melted into a puddle of goo.

After watching me for a moment, Yul bowed her head and slipped out of sight.

Lately, Yul always vanished whenever I took a bath. Where on earth she went, I had no idea, but since she was always waiting by the time my bath ended, I suppose it didn’t matter.

“This is heaven. Absolute heaven.”

Unconsciously letting out a middle-aged uncle’s groan, I buried my face in the water and savored the moment. Not bad at all.

Ever since that incident, Yul—the maid of Armienne whose stock had skyrocketed—had become a figure whom even the knights could no longer afford to ignore. After all, she had earned the sole recognition of the Duchess: the mother of “that” Armienne and a disaster-like existence within this kingdom.

Right then and there, she decided that the time had finally come to achieve what she had always plotted.

Just thinking about Lady Armienne, who had spent her entire life hiding her charm, was enough to give Yul strength. Right now, she felt like she could even pluck stars from the sky for the young lady.

And she had no intention of keeping such a true and genuine side of the young lady all to herself. She resolved to spread the greatness and beauty of the young lady’s appearance far and wide to the world.

It was something she had been preparing for a long time, but because the young lady’s reputation had been so abysmal, she had thought the time wasn’t right. Yet, as the saying goes, opportunities are seized by those who prepare. Thanks to the incident that occurred a short while ago, the rumors surrounding the young lady had shifted somewhat.

In contrast, the rumors about Prince Fren had changed drastically for the worse, but Yul couldn’t care less whether a man like that wandered around completely naked or got assassinated and died. Her focus revolved entirely around “Lady Armienne.”

Utilizing the brief thirty-minute window while the young lady was bathing, Yul walked briskly toward the maids’ living quarters.

Slam!—

The moment she opened the door and stepped inside, she spotted a woman dressed in the exact same maid uniform as her sitting demurely, prompting Yul to call out to her.

“Lien.”

It was Lien, the young lady’s second maid.

Her heart had ached when a second maid was hired while she was already there, but she hadn’t let it show. It had been the young lady’s wish, and besides, she hadn’t even been able to accompany the young lady on her journey due to falling ill.

Such a thing must never happen again. If she ever caught a cold again, she would hunt down the cold viruses inside her body and kill them before ever letting herself get sick and leaving the young lady behind.

Startled by Yul’s call, Lien nevertheless quietly went about the task assigned to her.

“N-No problems at all.”

“…”

At Lien’s words, Yul nodded without a word, slowly walked past Lien, and pressed down on a protruding spot behind a bed that would be entirely impossible to spot without a meticulous inspection.

Click!—

Accompanied by the sound of a mechanical apparatus engaging, a secret space materialized behind the maids’ room as if by magic.

It was a secret sanctuary she had prepared ever since her days as a junior maid, anticipating that a situation like this might one day arise. Created bit by bit by finishing her chores earlier than the other maids, the space boasted a surprisingly large size.

Inside that space were maids who ideally should have been busy working their shifts at this hour. They were moving about even more frantically than they would have outside, stirring with such intensity that anyone walking past might have mistaken them for preparing for war.

Among them, the one working with the greatest fervor was Maya, the woman who had been scolded by the young lady on a rainy day.

“Ah, right there. The photo is crooked. Are you trying to ruin the young lady’s charm?”

“What do you take the young lady for?! This level of storytelling isn’t enough to capture her radiance. Rewrite it!”

“The young lady’s glorious birth is recorded as January 12th, and the young lady who descended upon us then was already more radiant than anyone else.”

Feeling like she was witnessing the inner workings of a bizarre cult, Lien trembled and turned away, but Yul merely nodded in satisfaction as she revealed herself.

“Ah, Madame President.”

“You’ve arrived, President.”

Noticing her presence, all the maids halted what they were doing to greet Yul, and seeing them, Yul gave a stoic, emotionless nod in return.

These were the maids who had approached her first in the wake of that incident, forming the core executives of the newly established organization.

Personnel were still short, so the executives had to work this hard themselves, churning out everything from serialized fiction and photo books to carved wooden figurines bearing the young lady’s likeness. In the future, however, they would likely be commanding people with a mere flick of their fingers.

…Or so she imagined.

And she was the founder of the young lady’s most zealous fan club, as well as its singular, peerless president.

That person was none other than Yul.

She had no precise idea when these merchandise items would finally see the light of day, but Yul fully intended to use them to broadcast the young lady’s allure far and wide.

“Keep up the hard work. I must take my leave.”

“Yes, Madame President!”

After casting a rough glance around and offering a few subtle tweaks to the sticking points, Yul stepped back out of the secret space and walked swiftly toward the bathroom where the young lady was waiting.

Lady Armienne was finishing rinsing off her body with water.

Seeing her humming a tune out of sheer enjoyment warmed Yul’s heart instantly—though her own facial expression remained completely unchanged.

“Mm-hm-hm~.”

As the young lady emerged from her bath, Yul handed over the prepared towel. Taking it naturally, the young lady began drying herself off while Yul gently dried her hair.

“Oh, right, Yul. There’s something I’m curious about.”

Yul replied to the young lady’s words. She was more than willing to answer anything at all—even if it meant revealing her own measurements or something deeply embarrassing.

“Yes.”

“Where on earth do you go every time I take a bath lately?”

To the young lady’s question, Yul answered without a single ounce of hesitation. She had no intention of telling a lie.

“I briefly visited the maids’ quarters.”

“Is that so? It wasn’t anything major, then.”

“Yes.”

Today, too, the young lady was more beautiful than anyone else in the entire world. She would gladly do anything for this person.

So thought Yul.