Chapter 8: 8

Giggle!

Pleasant laughter rang out in the maid’s lounge.

Kim and Sarah, who I sat proudly in the middle of, held my hands on either side of me.

Oh, who are Kim and Sarah? They’re the scullery maids who almost broke my knee a while ago.

Now they’re my 19283rd friends.

Winning over two or three kids was not as difficult as it might sound.

I just worked as usual, and aimed for the moment when they fell one by one.

Wasn’t that what the crowd mentality of young people was all about? When there were many people rather than one, they were more likely to be carried away by the exciting atmosphere.

Kim and Sarah were also relatively timid alone. At first they were wary of me, but they quickly opened the door to their hearts.

Therefore, one important point can be guessed here.

‘The other one was the driving force.’

It was certain that she was the one to push them to approach me personally.

I think her name was Vivi?

Vivi, who has dark blonde hair and looks pretty, was still sitting alone while staring at me.

‘I don’t think she was close to Kim or Sarah in the first place.’

Rather, it seemed to be closer to a bad relationship.

Kim and Sarah had a good chemistry, but the abrasive Vivi was stuck between them the whole time.

‘Did she really approach me, and incite people she wasn’t close to just so she could bully me?’

How sincere. That’s just how much she hated me.

I fully understood that maids around my age may be dissatisfied with me, but Vivi’s attitude was somewhat excessive.

I looked at her eyes. You’d think I killed her parents.

‘…Shall I dig it out gently?’

Rule of Life 1: It’s a good idea to make people, who have something to hide, talk a lot.

So, what was a way to make someone talk a lot?

Well, it was important to get the floodgates opened in the right direction first.

Otherwise, she could pour out stories that I wasn’t very curious about.

Hmm, let’s see. The biggest concern of girls who were just hitting puberty…

“Oh, yeah! Aisha, I heard you went to the barracks earlier.”

“Then you must have seen the knights too.”

That’s right.

Just in time, I jumped into the flowing conversation.

“Yes, I saw them, but only a few people were there.”

“What a waste. I was hoping you got to see Sir Kyle!”

There were squeals of excitement for a little bit.

Oh, I guess Sir Kyle was considered a handsome knight. First of all, thank you for the good information.

“Sir Kyle was on patrol in the morning. You should’ve waited a little longer since you were there anyway.”

“I didn’t because I suddenly met Mr.Cooper.”

“Oh, really? What did you talk about with Mr.Cooper?”

Sarah, who’d been quiet compared to Kim, suddenly intervened aggressively.

What did I talk about with Benjamin?

The memory of fundamental old-fashioned jokes, laughter, and peer engagement passed by my mind, but I couldn’t give such an answer.

“Well, I didn’t say much.”

“Oh, okay. Still, I’m jealous…”

What? Sarah, are you into Benjamin?

When I peeked sideways, Sarah’s cheeks were red.

While Benjamin looked tired, he had a reasonably clean face.

‘I guess I shouldn’t be surprised there’s a fan club. He has a gentle and innocent scholar style.’

Still, she might want to reconsider. That guy wasn’t normal, and his head was a little…

Kim shook her head instead of me, who was questioning Sarah’s taste on the inside.

“He’s cool, but don’t you think he’s too weak? Rather, Sir Josh and Sir Bishop are much more…”

Unlike Sarah, who liked the scholarly type, Kim seemed to have a taste for more physically fit men. She began to list the names of other knights that she thought were cool.

It was time to listen intently, and jot down their names in my temporal lobe.

“Still, Sir Winston is the best! He’s so reliable and cool!”

At the name I had heard of, I remembered a man I had glanced at from afar.

Sir Winston must be the leader of the Knights Bastion, an old man with a big white beard.

Kim murmured quietly as she cupped her cheek in her palm.

“Oh, I want to make the face of that old knight… twist and cry.”

“Cough.”

Hey, Kim. You’re still young, but you have surprising tastes.

I would respect that as much as I could within the lines of that love affair not being realistically possible.

I was in a cold sweat over Kim’s ‘bombshell’, and casually changed the subject.

“Oh, but doesn’t the duke have a nice face? Aisha thinks he’s the handsomest person I’ve ever seen!”

“He is…”

The response was one of agreement, but not very convincing. Kim and Sara then looked at each other and said.

“The Master is scary.”

Aha.

I nodded my head calmly.

I wanted to follow Wolfgang Bastion around as an employee, and be recognized enough for them to be jealous of me, but I guess it couldn’t be helped if the Duke himself was too scary.

That’s true. Even I, a grown woman on the inside, choked up the first time I saw him. How frightening he must be to their young eyes.

Wolfgang wasn’t just the Duke of Bastion.

He was the Demon Duke of Bastion

It would be a miscalculation to think that the word ‘demon’ that always preceded his name whenever anyone talked about him, or the previous dukes of Bastion, was just a figurative expression.

Because the Dukes of Bastion were true demons.

At the beginning of time, the great heavenly god Lumiere had the great demon god Noir by his side.

It was the first verse of the bible that I heard in the temple.

Just as there was light, so was there darkness. Just as divine power and mana co-existed.

It was common knowledge to everyone in this world that the two conflicting, yet unavoidable together, gods created the universe together.

And the fact that the endings of the two gods were extremely different.

The great heavenly god Lumiere was still the great heavenly god Lumiere, but the great demon god Noir was no longer great, much less a god.

[Lord Noir came down to this land wearing the mask of a lowly human, because he was in love with the master of a barren and wintry land.]

The first landowner of the barren territory, or the northernmost Bastion territory.

Roxanne Bastion.

Noir, the demon god, had fallen in love with her at first sight.

To the point where he decided to abandon his godhood to live and die as a mere human being.

From the day Noir descended from heaven and set foot on the land of Bastion, he was no longer called a god.

‘That’s why they were explicitly called the demon’s seed.’

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The fallen god was even vilified by his followers.

He would not have been welcomed at all, because shortly after he descended, monsters popped up like bamboo shoots all over the land.

Many blamed Noir for the numerous humans who were hurt and killed.

Then one day, for reasons unknown, the first master of the Bastion family suddenly died…

But what happened to Noir after that?

I didn’t know. No one really knew. He just magically disappeared.

It wasn’t even known whether he was alive or dead.

Some bibles say he’s locked up in Lumiere’s cloud prison, while others say he’s still roaming around as a wanderer, spreading plagues.

‘The most likely theory was that he was buried together in his wife’s grave.’

It was said that his magic worked to this day, and that was why the only place where monsters now occurred was the Forest of Shadows.

Of course, there was no way to properly confirm these plausible hypotheses.

Even if the Bastion Knights were to fight every winter, they would only be able to push to the ‘jet-black wall’, the entrance to the Forest of Shadows to be more precise.

They wouldn’t dare penetrate into the center of the forest.

‘It’s considered the most foolish form of suicide in the world.’

It was said that no one in history had returned alive after entering the Forest of Shadows.

Anyway, thanks to this colorful background story, the Dukes of Bastion never had a day of rest.

Ever since the half-blooded child was born to Roxanne and Noir, and after the child had inherited the title of master of the house, the buzz of the people had always been the same.

Even if they called themselves Monster Dam for the old-fashioned reason of unraveling their ties, their blood could never be overturned.

All the people, for instinctive or cerebral reasons, were afraid of the Dukes of Bastion and found it difficult to deal with them.

That didn’t mean that they were rejected completely.

Like I told you, they were real demons, but at the same time they were descendants of a god.

So, although it was a rare occurrence, there was a group of people that deified the Dukes of Bastion.

“Hey, don’t be disrespectful to our Master.”

Just as I expected.

Vivi finally took the bait I threw, and opened her mouth.

As if she was familiar with her reaction, Kim responded immediately.

“Here we go again. Can you say you aren’t scared?”

“I can’t, but who are you to say those things about the Master?”

“Who are you to say that?”

“Hmph, you’re all flirting with men who are incomparable to our Master.”

“This is really…!”

The atmosphere was brutal. As expected, a storm was brewing between the girls.

I wanted to eat some popcorn, but I really shouldn’t let them create a scene.

I was still in a position to control the room.

“Oh, sisters… Please don’t fight in front of Aisha…”

Kim and Sarah comforted me with embarrassed faces as I curled up and pretended to sniffle.

“Aisha, don’t cry.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“Yes! It’s all her fault!”

Oh, is that so? Was it also my fault that the earth was round?

Vivi jumped up and stood with her arms crossed, taunting Kim and Sarah.

“You guys really make me laugh. Do you always pretend to be friendly with the person you’ve picked on?”

“That was because you…!”

Kim and Sarah, who must have been instigated by Vivi, looked as if they had a lot to say.

But no matter what they said, it would be an excuse, so they tried to let go of my hands with gloomy faces.

I grabbed their hands tightly again, and stared at Vivi.

“Kim and Sarah have already apologized several times. Sincerely.”

“…What?”

“Vivi is the only one who hasn’t apologized to me yet.”

So, apologize when I’ve asked nicely.

Vivi flinched at my gaze, then turned around and left the lounge.

I sighed as the door closed behind her.

‘I would’ve accepted it, even if you pretended to apologize.’

I was by no means taking the situation lightly.

However, like a fool, I just wanted to move on from this childish jealousy and grudges of an immature girl.

‘I guess the reason for her overreaction was because of her twisted admiration for Wolfgang.’

Because of that she was giving me hateful looks…

I nodded my head, having guessed Vivi’s mindset a while ago.

Somehow, that alone wasn’t enough.

Well, what should I say? It’s not conclusive. Was there another complaint?

At that time, Kim and Sarah called out my name while sounding distressed.

“I was really sorry earlier. We misunderstood you for no reason.”

“We foolishly believe Vivi’s mean statements…”

Kim and Sarah repeatedly apologized in depressed voices.

They’d apologized even before we’d gone to the lounge together, so I’d already heard it more than twenty times.

Kim even put a bandage on my slightly skinned knee, and Sarah even hand washed my dirty apron.

If they apologized more than this, I would start to feel bad.

I decided I would do my best to support the two of them. That was when Sarah murmured as she wrinkled her nose.

“But I think Vivi is jealous of you.”

“What?”

“Aisha is so beautiful.”

Then Kim continued about her suspicions.

“She was the one who used to always say that she was the prettiest girl in the house, so it’s not surprising.”

“Oh, no way.”

That’s the reason why you suddenly attacked me on the first day?

I couldn’t believe it, but Kim and Sarah said clearly.

“Face it. She feels threatened by you.”

“Yeah, because it’ll be spring soon.”

“What does it have to do with it being spring soon?”

“Why? Because the academy will be on vacation.”

“Then he’ll be coming home…”

Spring. Academy. Him. Coming home. All the puzzle pieces were put together.

No way, Vivi! You Punk!

Kim and Sarah whispered in my ear as if to confirm my enlightenment.

“Vivi likes the oldest young master.”

You’ve instinctively spotted your love rival!

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