I Became a Tyrant’s Maid - Chapter 47

My eyes stung a bit.

I really thought the male lead was going to die. How often does one get the chance to encounter someone whose heart has stopped in their lifetime?

CPR, artificial respiration.

After all that drama, when the male lead finally coughed up water, tears flowed as if the tension had been released.

But now, I wanted to cry for a different reason.

‘Why on earth is he hugging me!’

To be fair, the male lead’s actions were correct.

The cave was cool, and I was wet. I was so out of it that I didn’t even realize my lips had turned blue.

At this rate, my body temperature would surely drop rapidly.

In fact, the male lead’s body was quite warm.

“Your Highness, I’m fine now……”

At my words, the male lead flinched and then spread his arms to release me.

He said something about mana raising body temperature, and sure enough, the male lead was red from his neck to the tips of his ears.

“Your Highness, I think we’ll need to stay here until our clothes dry.”

There’s no cell phone here, so we can’t contact Ruel’s side. This is driving me crazy.

“Your Highness, do you think Ruel will come straight to the Desart Empire…?”

“Do you think that’s possible?”

This is bad.

If our paths diverge, it will delay the schedule even more.

Surely he wouldn’t go as far as searching for the griffin’s nest to save the male lead, would he?

“Well, even if we don’t meet, we should be able to find at least one magician when we reach the Desart Empire. Even if two-way communication is impossible, one-way is possible, so we can use communication magic to let them know we’re alive.”

“But Your Highness, the book you gave me said that the Desart Empire looks down on magic. Would there be magicians there?”

At my words, the male lead clicked his tongue and spoke as if to say not to worry.

“You think there won’t be a single magician in such a large country? Even if they’re hiding, we just need to find them.”

He seemed quite confident.

“Of course, that’s assuming we safely arrive at the Desart Empire.”

The male lead’s expression hardened again. Is it that hopeless? I’m not a local, so I don’t know well.

Of course, that monster we saw earlier…

Just recalling that enormous monster sent chills down my spine.

It was terrifying.

“Your Highness.”

“Why do you keep calling me?”

I gently touched the maid uniform I was wearing.

I had worn it for convenience, but it was uncomfortable with all the frills.

Perhaps because of that, it had absorbed a lot of water.

“Could you perhaps turn your gaze away for a moment? I think I need to change my clothes as well.”

The male lead’s face became very rigid.

“Didn’t the contents of the bag get wet?”

“Fortunately, since it’s a leather bag, everything is fine, Your Highness.”

Though I said this, it was nonsense.

It must have been the power of the diary at work.

Whether the male lead understood my words or not, he nodded and turned his body around abruptly.

“Um, Your Highness.”

“What.”

“Unfortunately, since my formal clothes were packed in the carriage, my attire might be a bit simple, so I apologize for my impudence, but please understand.”

“Do as you please.”

Having obtained his answer, I hurriedly rummaged through the bag and pulled out my pajamas.

“Aaron, let me have some of your new clothes that you don’t wear. “

“Rose, what do you mean by new clothes I don’t wear? “

“You don’t have any? “

“No. I do have some, but… Rose, you’re kind of shameless. “

“Want me to show you what real shamelessness is? I’m good at that sort of thing. “

Since there’s nothing like pajamas in this world, I slept in a T-shirt and pants I had extorted from Aaron.

It’s uncomfortable to sleep in a dress, right? And they said they’d give me my own room in the Desart Empire anyway.

There was no reason not to bring them.

“Your Highness.”

I quickly changed my clothes and called out to the male lead.

“…Are you insane?”

“Pardon?”

When he turned around, the male lead’s face was contorted in a way I had never seen before.

“What, is this……”

The male lead pointed at my attire with a straight finger.

Well, anyone would see that this is sleepwear.

But I really had no choice.

Having come this far, I couldn’t keep wearing wet clothes just for the sake of manners.

“Ah, unfortunately, this sleepwear is all I have at the moment……”

“Sleepwear? You call that sleepwear?”

The male lead asked in a slightly agitated voice.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

When I answered as if I didn’t understand, he gaped blankly.

Then he turned his head abruptly.

“Where on earth did you get such sleepwear……”

“I got it from a servant I’m close with, Your Highness.”

At those words, the male lead’s head swiveled back towards me once again.

“……A servant you’re close with?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

The male lead’s brow furrowed.

“Don’t tell me it’s that one who works in the kitchen……”

“Oh? How did you know?”

To think the male lead knew about Aaron’s existence!

I widened my eyes in genuine surprise. He was looking at me with an incredulous expression.

“Despite how it looks, it’s actually very comfortable to wear, Your Highness.”

Does he care about dignity just because he’s royalty? The male lead’s mood seemed to be not so good.

Of course, as an extreme pragmatist, this way of thinking was incomprehensible to me.

I opened my mouth to expound on how comfortable these cloth clothes I had extorted from Aaron were.

“I don’t want to hear about the convenience of those clothes, so could you just keep your mouth shut for now?”

“Ah, how did you know?”

But unfortunately, I was cut off by the male lead.

Anyway, changing into comfortable clothes made me feel like I could survive.

It’s a bit cold, but I can wear the cardigan once it dries out.

I brought the cardigan to block the sunlight, and I’m glad I kept wearing it even though it was hot.

“Your Highness, the water seems to have cooled down. How about wetting your throat a bit?”

As I held out the boiled water, blowing on it gently, the male lead still frowned and sharply averted his gaze from me.

‘What’s with him? Why is he acting like that?’

For a moment, seeing the male lead’s furrowed brow, I pondered. Should I say it or not? There was something adults always used to say whenever I frowned.

“Your Highness.”

“What.”

I said, frowning just like him.

“If you keep frowning like that, you’ll get wrinkles between your eyebrows when you get older.”

***

We decided not to hurry.

There were about 3 weeks left until the festival started.

Moreover, we had the map found from the adventurer’s remains, so we had secured a route to follow.

That is if we can safely get out of this cave.

While the male lead was asleep, I opened the diary.

I still felt uneasy about writing in the diary, but I had no choice.

‘But it seems like situations where I have no choice but to write in the diary keep happening.’

It seemed I needed to find a magician as soon as possible.

Whether an elf or a magician the male lead would find in the Desart Empire.

There was a need to figure out the true nature of the diary first.

“Tell me how to safely take Calix to the Desart Empire.”

I whispered softly in Korean.

Then, just like before, the diary began to glow.

When I opened the diary, this time dozens of pages of sentences appeared.

I read through the sentences as if engraving them on my retina.

[Mr. Mellory, who hadn’t been seen for a while, appeared. I asked Mr. Mellory.

‘Why haven’t you been around for a while?’

Then Mr. Mellory said.

‘I went to the Desart Empire.’

Mellory said he had been to the Cave of Death under the Kilbern Desert, known as the Desert of Dryness and Thirst, which is the gateway to the Desart Empire.

It was to find a new medicinal herb called the ‘Big Horn Mushroom’.

The ‘Big Horn Mushroom’ is a blue mushroom shaped like a lampshade that grows as if blooming near the Leviathan’s lake, the innermost part of the Cave of Death, when night falls.]

I looked around.

And I uttered out loud.

“Crazy.”

The blue lamp-shade-shaped mushrooms, small drawings of which were in the diary, were blooming in every corner of the cave.

‘Wait, if those damn mushrooms are here, then that lake is……’

I swallowed hard. No way, this can’t be right.

Back then, the diary clearly said to be careful of the dragon, could it be that the dragon is the Leviathan?

I continued to read through the diary.

It said that the time when the blue Big Horn Mushrooms grow is the Leviathan’s deep sleep period.

However, when the mushroom’s cap turns red, it’s the Leviathan’s active period, so harvesting becomes difficult.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

But I couldn’t help but drop the book when I saw the following content.

However, it said to be careful because the Leviathan’s sleep period is the breeding season for crystal ants outside the lake cave.

These ants, the Leviathan’s main food source, can’t enter the inner part of the cave, but during the Leviathan’s sleep period, tens of thousands of them increase in number and roam freely even to the inner parts, so one must be careful.

[Mr. Mellory said.

‘If you’re not careful, you could become ant food, so if you encounter them, wake up the Leviathan.’]

Mellory recommended waking it up, saying that while ants can’t communicate, the Leviathan is a high-grade monster, so communication is possible.

Of course, he said safety couldn’t be guaranteed.

[‘The Leviathan is sensitive to the juice of the Big Horn Mushroom, so to summon it, squeeze 10 Big Horn Mushrooms and throw them into the lake.’]

I don’t understand why it keeps telling me these things when I’m not even going to that desert.

With trembling hands, I picked up the diary that had fallen to the floor, put it in my bag, and glanced at the passage leading out of the lake cave.

So, according to the diary, there are tens of thousands of ants out there, right?

I felt dizzy.

I absolutely despised insects.