When Waking the Young Master Who Sleeps In

The North's winter nights are long.

If this were the capital in the middle of the continent, it would already be six-thirty in the morning—the time when the sun starts to rise.

But here in the North, the sun rises later.

Even if some strange phenomenon kept the sun from rising at all, a maid's schedule wouldn't change.

Back when I commuted to work, six-thirty in the morning was still sleeping time.

But now that I live and sleep at work, it's already time to get up, wash, and start getting ready.

Colorful scraps of fabric were neatly arranged in one corner of the room.

As I had every day for the past four years, I let out a deep sigh, then picked up the white bundle.

There's no particular underwear requirement for a maid's uniform, but since the shirt is always white, underwear in a color that won't show through is best.

I pulled on my underwear.

My chest felt a little tight today.

Had I gained weight, or had I grown and gotten bigger?

After several years, women's underwear itself had become familiar.

It was something I had to adapt to just to survive, after all.

But if there's one thing I still can't get used to, no matter what, it's this damn garter belt.

No further explanation needed. Just putting it on feels like it's shaking my very identity.

Of course, that's not to say I'm okay with tight over-the-knee socks, a short skirt that barely covers my thighs, or fluttery frills that don't suit my sensibilities at all.

When you think about it, they're all part of the same set.

It's depressing that my workplace has a dress code that, just for me, creates overwhelmingly negative synergy.

Though it's not as if the casual clothes sleeping peacefully in my closet are any better.

I'm a bona fide noble, and “von” comes before my surname.

It's common for high-ranking nobles to assign a personal maid or servant from among the children of the household's key retainers, so they can get close to the heir in advance.

I haven't gone beyond the city where the Grand Duke's estate is located in four years, so I hardly ever have occasion to wear them, but I do own the gorgeous dresses noble ladies wear.

Dresses I've barely ever worn, since of course I hate wearing them.

Though if the master sleeping in the next room told me to put one on, I would...

I straightened my uniform and stood before the old mirror in the corner of the room to tie my ribbon.

A maid of flawless beauty met my gaze.

In other words, me right now.

I still don't know why I have to look like this, even today.

But since things have turned out this way, I might as well adapt and live with it.

As much as I hate being a woman, at least it's better than the hell of my previous life.

**************

A personal maid must be ready to answer her master's call at any time, twenty-four hours a day.

Even while sleeping, she must always stay near her master.

And so, if I open the thin door in one corner of my room, Derek's room is right there.

A very thin door that's never locked and has absolutely no soundproofing.

In four years, Derek has never once crossed this threshold.

Ever since I strongly demanded that he not come in after learning on my first day as a maid that I'd have to sleep in the room next door, Derek had truly respected that boundary.

No matter how deep our manly friendship was, I was still in a woman's body now, so I felt a little uneasy at night.

Derek was a man in the throes of adolescence, too, and he could sometimes be stirred by Yuria's graceful female body, which I was inhabiting.

Of course, Derek was a friend who knew how to respect boundaries.

He'd joke around, pretending to sneak a feel of my chest while giving me a massage, like yesterday, and sometimes make dirty jokes, but he'd never once reached out with genuine lust.

In any case, Yuria was also a very old friend of Derek's, so he wouldn't treat her carelessly.

That is, the body I'm inhabiting.

I glanced down.

A mass of flesh blocking my view of my feet came into sight.

They weren't absolutely enormous, given my somewhat small frame, but proportionally, my breasts were pretty impressive.

I'd never measured them properly, but roughly... a 65E.

If I had to wind up in a fantasy world, would it have killed them to make me the protagonist, with a heroine sporting an absurdly unrealistic figure like this?

I never thought I'd end up in the heroine's position.

I reached out and took hold of the doorknob.

Once I opened this door and went in, my day as a proper personal maid would begin.

And the first order of business was to chase the sleep from my peacefully snoozing master's eyes.

“Hey, wake up! Get up already and... Aw, fuck. My eyes.”

Derek was asleep on his side, with his back to the door connecting to my room.

He was clutching the blanket like a body pillow, his back fully exposed to me.

The noteworthy thing was that he was completely bare, rather than wearing the sky-blue pajamas I laid out for him every night as part of my routine.

Broad shoulders and an imposing back full of bulging muscles, even at rest.

My gaze slowly traveled down the perfectly symmetrical ridges of muscle along his spine.

The moment my gaze reached his equally exposed butt, I suddenly came to my senses.

Swordmaster or gym rat, the guy's body was insanely good, but why was I admiring it?

What good did it do me to look at another man's ass?

I went over to my wretched master, who still showed no sign of waking.

He was hugging the blanket tenderly and burying his face in it as if it were his girlfriend.

For some reason, seeing him rub his face against it pissed me off, so I smacked him across the back.

“Hey, you punk, aren't you getting up? And why are you sleeping naked?”

Derek still didn't move.

Even though Derek was the type who struggled to wake up in the morning, I'd hit him with all my strength.

Looks like my right arm was in really bad shape today, too.

Then, a way to wake him up...

“Master, Master. Please wake up. It's morning.”

I whispered softly into his ear.

I had no idea why, but if I whispered like this in the voice of a demure, well-behaved maid, even someone who'd been impossible to wake would get up just fine.

Just like now.

Derek whipped his head around and opened his eyes.

Since I'd been whispering into his ear, our faces were practically touching.

For a moment, I stopped breathing.

Had I ever looked into his eyes from this close before?

I stared into his still-sleepy, unfocused eyes for a moment, then shook off the dazed feeling and slammed my forehead into his.

Except I'd meant to hurt him, and I was the one who got hurt instead.

“Ow, my forehead's a rock too... Wait, aren't you getting up? And what the fuck, why are you sleeping with all your clothes off?”

“H-Hey! Why'd you come in here?!”

Derek finally seemed to shake off his sleep and realize he was naked, hurriedly covering his lower half with the blanket.

“What do you mean, why'd I come in? Starting the day by fighting to wake your ass up is my daily routine.”

“No, but still, you seeing my body is a little...”

“I didn't see it, you idiot. What good would it do me to look at another guy's body?”

Of course, I hadn't seen his important bits, but I had seen the rest.

My gaze did keep drifting to his upper body, which was still uncovered by the blanket.

I mean, like admiring some guy with an amazing body at the gym.

Nice body...

I let out a small sigh and brought over the fresh clothes folded in one corner of the room.

“Seriously, what kind of dream do you have at night to strip your clothes off like a butterfly shedding its skin? My eyes, man.”

“...I dunno. Maybe I was hot.”

“Oh, that's... sorry. Should I go chew out the chamber maids?”

“N-No. Leave them alone. Actually, it wasn't so much that I was hot, but, uh... I don't really remember, but I was hugging someone in my dream.”

“Hugging someone in your dream? And naked? You got thoroughly bewitched by a succubus, you bastard.”

Adjusting the heating and cooling through the night was also a maid's job.

It just wasn't something I did myself.

I was assigned to Derek one-on-one as his personal maid, but the Grand Duchy normally had hundreds of maids.

There were so many because they had to look after the Grand Duke's family, the retainers and their families, and even manage a mansion large enough to be called a castle.

The chamber maids handled miscellaneous tasks like cleaning bedrooms, lighting fires in fireplaces, and heating bathwater.

As Derek's personal maid, I held a high rank, and unlike the ordinary lower-ranking maids who were commoners, I was a noble, so I also supervised some of them.

If Derek had been hot through the night, it was primarily the on-duty chamber maid's mistake, but secondarily it was my responsibility for failing to manage her.

But if he hadn't stripped because he was hot, and had done it because he was having sex with a succubus in his dream...

“Ah, why'd you hit me all of a sudden?”

“You're not even hurt, quit acting dramatic. Hey, get dressed already.”

“...You have to leave before I can get dressed! I'm not wearing anything underneath!”

Derek pointed at the blanket covering his lower half.

So, what, he was embarrassed because I was looking?

“Sheesh, I'm not interested either, you idiot.”