But just a few days ago, the day Sella turned twenty, the two had agreed to apply if a chance to get a job came up.

Saying they would each earn money quickly, and someday live together, just the two of them.

So they were doing things according to their plan right now, but……

A sudden feeling of unease caught in Sella’s heart as she stood there with her hand raised.

Seydan, Seydan…….

The name felt strangely familiar.

Where had she heard it?

“She will be employed as the dedicated maid of Miss Kesseleia, who has her debut ahead of her. The maid who was working before suddenly quit, so we need a maid who can start work immediately, today.”

The moment she heard the steward of the Count’s household add that explanation, Sella lowered her arm.

It was because, at the name “Kesseleia,” she realized which novel she had entered.

The Imprisoned Kesseleia, an adult-rated dark fantasy romance novel!

The villain male lead falls in love with Kesseleia. However, Kesseleia falls in love with the Crown Prince, and the villain male lead snaps and kills everyone around Kesseleia, including her “maid,” then kills the Crown Prince as well. In the end, the villain male lead, having seized the Empire, imprisons Kesseleia in a secret room in the imperial palace and does unspeakable things to her.

That was roughly the summary of the story.

On top of that, most of the story consisted of adult scenes between Kesseleia, imprisoned in the secret room, and the villain male lead. So even having read the original, it was a novel from which one could barely glean any information about this world.

She hadn’t even finished reading it…… Why did she have to end up in a novel like this of all things!

On top of that, the first ones the villain male lead killed were the female lead’s maids. So if she raised her hand right now, it would be no different from buying herself a one-way ticket straight to death with her own hands.

“Sella, what’s wrong? You said you were going to apply for the maid position here.”

Betty whispered to Sella from beside her.

“No, Sister! Not that household! Next time, a different household……”

She whispered back quietly to her sister, who was tilting her head in confusion.

“Sella will go. Please send her wages to the orphanage until the full cost of her care is paid off, and you only need to provide her with room and board!”

The director settled the deal with the Seydan Count’s household steward in a booming voice.

No, I’m not going! I already put my hand down! Why would I go somewhere I’m going to die!

“No! I’m not going.”

Sella denied it urgently.

But the moment her words ended, the director and the Seydan Count’s household steward both glared at Sella. Sella realized that in her panic and agitation, she had openly offended both of them.

If she got on the director’s bad side, the consequences would be no joke!

But even so, this situation was just impossible to……

“I, I’ll go!”

Good lord! Sister!

Before she knew it, her sister had her hand raised high beside her.

“Sella was giving up her spot for me. I was actually the one who wanted to work as a maid. That’s why she did that!”

Betty bowed her head and made excuses for Sella’s behavior.

She seemed to have judged that there was nothing to be gained from angering the ill-tempered director or a noble household’s steward.

“Sister! No! Put your hand……”

Sella tried to stop Betty, but before she knew it Betty’s hand was covering her mouth.

“Shh! Be quiet! I think Sella might be feeling a bit unwell today.”

Betty scolded Sella with a look, then made excuses to the director and steward as well.

“That household is absolutely not……. Mmph!”

The desperate Sella tried to cry out once more, but Betty covered her mouth again and her voice became a muffled murmur.

The steward looked at Sella as if she were pathetic, and the director glared at her with sharp eyes.

“She has a soft heart…… She must be acting like this because she doesn’t want to be separated from me. I’ll apply!”

When Betty, her face flushed red, bowed her head and made excuses, they finally nodded as if they would let it go this time, though with displeased expressions.

“Sister!”

“Sella, stop it!”

Sella, who had pulled away Betty’s hand that had been covering her mouth, tried once more to dissuade her sister, but in the end had to close her mouth at Betty’s sharp rebuke.

In the end, Betty left for the Seydan Count’s household right then and there, and Sella stamped her feet watching her sister leave.

But at the same time, she gathered herself by thinking that if she went to find her sister tomorrow and persuaded her, she could get her to leave that household.

Of course, there wasn’t much time. It had been said that Kesseleia had her debut coming up, and in the original story, it was through the debut dress that she happened to cross paths with the villain male lead.

If she didn’t hurry, the original story could begin before she got her sister out, with the villain falling for the female lead, the female lead falling for the Crown Prince, and the villain killing everyone around the female lead.

So before that happened, she had to get Betty out of Kesseleia’s household as quickly as possible, even one day sooner.

***

Two days after Betty left, Sella, who had taken over all of Betty’s work on top of her own, was doing her chores while watching for any chance to go to the Count’s household to see her sister.

“Patrick. The wood ordering that Betty used to do, you do it starting today.”

While Sella was lost in thought cleaning the director’s office, the director called over Patrick, an orphan employee the same age as Sella, and gave him instructions.

Since it was for the entire orphanage, the order quantity was larger than a typical household. So rather than ordering from a woodcutter who sold wood at the market, they would go directly to the woodcutter to do business.

It would have made more sense to set a period and place a regular delivery order for a fixed amount, but the director would factor in the weather and vary the order quantity differently every week. It was a scheme to save even a single coin more.

“Yes, if you just tell me where the woodcutter’s lodging is, I’ll go right away.”

Patrick answered cheerfully.

“At the entrance to Mount Tolto…… I don’t know the exact location myself. Go stop by Betty’s place for a moment. Betty will tell you.”

‘Betty?’

Sella stopped mopping and straightened up abruptly.

A chance to see her sister had come!

“I’ll go to the woodcutter!”

The wood order was, of course, nothing more than a pretext to see her sister. It would make things a bit busier, but going to see a woodcutter wasn’t such a big deal.

“You?”

One of the director’s eyebrows rose at Sella’s words.

“Yes! I’ve taken over almost all of the work Betty used to do anyway. So I should do that too!”

“You’d have to go all the way to Mount Tolto in person to place the order. If you’re going to use the wood order as an excuse and neglect your other work, don’t even bring it up.”

It was true she was busy, with Betty’s duties added on top of her original work.

“No! I can really go and come back quickly. I can come back and get all the other work done neatly, too!”

“Then don’t cause any trouble for the Count’s household and just meet her briefly. Order the same as last week, 50 bundles of wood. Ah! It is 50 gallops, but just in case, pretend you don’t know anything and ask if it’s 40 gallops first.”

The director said something shameless.

The orphanage had always paid 50 gallops, yet just because the person placing the order had changed, the director was telling her to try knocking 10 gallops off.

“Yes!”

But well, just asking wasn’t that hard. This was a chance to see her sister, so she had no room to talk back to the director.

Patrick, who was standing nearby, worried about her, saying there were rumors that bears had been spotted on Mount Tolto lately.

But Sella, excited at the thought of seeing her sister, and the director, who must have figured Patrick could just be assigned some other work, both let his words go in one ear and out the other. Sella, in particular, turned around without looking back and ran straight to the Count’s household, lest the director change the decision.

Last time she hadn’t been able to properly persuade her sister with everyone watching, but this time she had to bring her back, even if she had to cling to her.

When she arrived at the Count’s household, Betty happened to be coming outside just then.

“Miss, my younger sister has come to see me. May I have a brief word with her?”

When Sella waved, Betty carefully asked the woman standing in front of her.

So that woman is Kesseleia, the female lead of the original story.

Sella looked at Kesseleia and felt a pang of pity.

She would soon get caught by the villain male lead and be imprisoned, suffering all sorts of terrible things.

And she’s so pretty too……

But this was not the time to be worrying about the original female lead. It wasn’t as though she, who didn’t even get a single line in the original story, could have any influence on the main characters.

She had enough problems of her own; she had to save her sister first.

“…… Can’t you see I’m busy? Hurry up and come back.”

The female lead glanced at Sella and said with a frown. Sella was a little surprised that the original female lead’s personality seemed unexpectedly prickly.

But thinking about it again, it was a situation where a maid who had barely started working had a family member show up and was making the mistress wait while she was on her way out, so it made sense she would react that way.