Chapter 2

Ugh, these damned grasshoppers.

[It is almost time.]

Huh?

[Almost time now.]

She spotted a jet-black crow perched on a tree.

“…….”

The thing stared straight at her as if it really had been the one to speak.

“Could it be that you were the one talking?”

It was something she let slip without thinking, but it was an incredibly foolish thing to say.

The crow also looked at her as if she were pathetic, then soon scattered its feathers and flew off somewhere.

“…….”

She really had gone completely crazy. No matter how unrealistic the experience of transmigration had been, there was no way a crow could talk.

She needed to stop worrying about trivial things right now and hurry to meet Daemon. 

It was later than she had expected, so after roughly dusting off her clothes and passing through the front entrance, a maid her own age appeared and blocked her way.

“Where are you going, Rike Stafen?”

Right, it would be disappointing if you did not show up.

Crystal, the villainous extra who envied the heroine and always bullied her.

Her sharply raised eyes, much like her prim voice, directed displeasure toward Rike.

“You are not heading off first to see the Young Lord, are you?”

“I just ran out of paint and am going to buy some.”

“Were you asked to paint a portrait?”

There had been only one reason, both in the original work and now, why Crystal disliked her. Crystal had long had an unrequited love for Young Master Arthur, a handsome man with captivating black hair and blue eyes.

Unable to bear it any longer, Rike had once firmly told her, ‘I have absolutely no interest in Young Master Arthur,’ but Crystal had only become even angrier, saying it was deceit.

“Crystal, I told you before—”

“Shut up!”

“…….”

Seriously.

‘What exactly is she expecting me to do.’

Certainly, Arthur Dehill was a more attractive person than the novel had described.

He was of noble birth, with clear-cut features. He also had a good reputation, so when social season came, several letters had arrived for him from young ladies of somewhat well-known families.

The problem was that his gentle personality changed only when he was in front of Rike.

“I know your type. The annoying kind that flutters around Young Master, trusting only in your face. On the outside you act blunt and quiet, but inside you are sly!”

Crystal said.

‘There is no time for this.’

The Duke’s son who had gotten into the carriage accident was surely having a hard time right now.

“But even that is not enough, so now you are trying to seduce a son of the ducal house too?”

Crystal stepped one pace closer to her.

“What are you planning to use this time? Your beautiful face alone will not be enough for a son of the ducal house.”

With an obvious gaze, she slowly looked Rike’s body up and down.

What was actually wrong with this girl.

“Why are you not saying anything? Huh, Rike?”

“Hey.”

“……Wh, what, hey?”

Unable to hold back any longer, Rike grabbed Crystal by the shoulders. She had always suppressed her temper for fear the original story might get thrown off course, but this time was an exception.

Her male lead was waiting over there.

“You are the arrogant one.”

“What?”

“Do you think a maid and a young master can fall in love?”

Unless it was in a novel, it was impossible.

“What are you saying right now…….”

Crystal stiffened, apparently never expecting that the usually quiet Rike would talk back like this.

“And as if that were not enough, you are even worrying about someone else’s love life.”

“…….”

“What noble young master in the world would ever set his eyes on a worthless maid like us?”

“…….”

“At best, he would keep her around for amusement and only look for her when he needs her.”

Crystal’s face gradually twisted.

“But who would like being treated like that? Maybe you would, but I hate it.”

“Rike Stafen!”

“If it means becoming the mistress of any Young Lord just with this face and body you keep talking about, then I’d rather find some decent person willing to give me everything and marry him.”

Of course, she had no intention of becoming the Duke’s son’s mistress, nor of marrying some merely decent man.

“Y, you, so you really had been hiding it? This filthy true nature!”

Crystal shouted, her face red.

How ridiculous.

“It is not that I was hiding it. I was enduring it. Move, I am busy.”

“Poor Young Master Arthur! I am going to tell the Head Maid every last bit of your true nature!”

“Good luck.”

Who was she calling pitiful?

The truly pitiful one was Rike herself, stuck in this miserable situation, toiling away for a year on a measly weekly wage just because she wanted to meet the male lead.

When Rike gestured for her to move aside, Crystal struck her hard on the shoulder.

“Just you wait, someday that ugly side of yours will be revealed to everyone!”

Before going back into the mansion, Crystal shouted at her furiously.

‘Yes, yes. Go on inside already.’

Because of that, she ended up about ten minutes later than she had planned.

The carriage carrying the Duke’s son had surely broken down, and left in the middle of the road, he would be troubled without even knowing that he was about to meet his destined partner.

The heroine is coming now, Male Lead.

Just as she belatedly started moving her steps, a man standing right in front of the door came into view.

“…….”

The man, with silver hair and beauty stunning enough to leave one spellbound, looked like someone living alone in an entirely different dimension.

‘Daemon von Garsevan.’

No matter how she looked at it, that man was the male lead.

“Is this the Dehill Earldom?”

Daemon, who had been walking toward her, asked.

Even his low, subdued voice was perfect exactly as she had expected, but this was not a situation where she could simply stand there admiring him.

Why was the male lead here? He should still have been halfway down the road because of the carriage accident.

“I, I heard you were coming by carriage.”

At her question, the escort knight standing behind Daemon stepped one pace forward.

“The wheel of the carriage broke on the way here.”

I know that, know it very well…….

“We intended to wait until it was repaired, but there were too many insects around, so we could not.”

So that meant he had walked here on his own with only the escort he needed?

She just stood there foolishly, opening and closing her mouth like a goldfish.

She had endured working all this time for this one thing alone, and now the story was not unfolding as in the original?

‘No, wait a second.’

Although the first meeting was different from the original, the male lead’s arrogance had not changed, and it was also still the same that she was a maid of the Earldom.

“E, Earl Dehill is waiting for you, Young Lord.”

She hurriedly showed proper courtesy. Daemon’s gaze, directed sharply at the top of her head, landed hotly upon her.

“There is one thing I would like to correct.”

Daemon opened his mouth.

For some reason, his cold voice filled her with unease.

“I would never keep a girl like you even as a mistress.”

Her heart dropped with a thud.

“This is extremely unpleasant.”

Leaving behind those thunderous words, Daemon leisurely entered the mansion.

The escort knight following after him only glanced at her small head and sneered as if telling her to know her place.

“…….”

How had the romance between the male lead’s arrogance and the unshaken maid begun again?

The first words he had said to the heroine were, ‘What is your name?’

Which meant the current situation was very bad for her.

* * *

“Shall I punish that maid?”

The knight who had entered the mansion with Daemon asked.

“Or I will punish that maid myself.”

As he spoke, the knight observed his master.

A world-class bastard.

That was the phrase that could sum up Daemon von Garsevan in a single line. If one absolutely had to put it nicely, he was a perfectionist, but in any case, there was no way he would simply let things pass after merely scolding that maid.

“Just give the order.”

“That is enough.”

“But that maid disturbed your mood, Young Lord…….”

“Kal.”

At the sunken voice, the knight stopped speaking.

“If you keep arguing about this, I will punish you instead.”

“My apologies, Young Lord.”

Only then did the knight close his mouth.

When the surroundings grew quiet, Daemon also let out a short sigh.

‘You go to the Dehill Earldom.’

He recalled the words the Duke had said before he came here.

Daemon, who had always been his older brother’s shadow, had for the first time received his father’s order this time to handle a contract matter.

It had been an easy contract, but from the road leading to the Earldom, it had been one hardship after another.

The carriage broke down on the way, he had waged war against a swarm of insects, and then he had heard nonsense from a foolish maid about being someone’s mistress or whatever.

Of all that, the thing most firmly etched into his memory was the woman with blonde hair falling all the way to her chest and blue eyes.

‘What was that girl?’

As Daemon climbed the stairs, he recalled the face of the maid who had stared with foolishly widened eyes.

The moment he saw that doll-like pale face, instead of saying she should be punished, all he managed to say was that he was displeased.

That was a degree of leniency he would not normally have shown.

Was that all? Just like a dog wagging its tail the moment it saw its owner, his heart had pounded heavily and fiercely.

Daemon still thought about that unfamiliar emotion.

‘Enough. I must simply have been too tired.’

He steadied himself and entered the drawing room.