Chapter 2
I was a little taken aback by the blue window that had suddenly appeared.
"How do I turn this off?"
Maybe it'll disappear if I call it up again.
"Status Window."
Oh, it really does disappear.
There hadn't been anything like a status window in the novel, so maybe this was some kind of special perk that only I had.
But then, who had possessed me and brought me here?
Did the author possess me? I'd read novels with that kind of plot before.
No, to begin with, was possessing someone inside a novel even something a human could do?
'Ugh... thinking about it is giving me a headache. I should just check the status window.'
If this really was the world of a novel, then my future would be determined by my 'talent.'
Every character in 'The Return of the Genius Prosecutor' had a talent of their own.
Most talents fell into one of four categories: fire, water, earth, and wind. There were plenty of talents from other categories, too.
The age at which a person's talent manifested varied from person to person.
There was no way to know when your talent would manifest, but it was possible to find out what talent you had.
Once a year, people had the chance to discover their talent by looking into the God's Mirror at a temple.
But commoners couldn't afford the fee required to use it, so it had become an exclusive privilege of the nobility.
If my talent was listed in the status window, I'd be qualified to enter the academy where the novel took place.
Well, I wasn't particularly keen on getting involved in a messy struggle.
Even as I looked at the status window to check my talent, I wasn't hoping for anything particularly special.
At least if I got a talent that let me wield one of the four elements, I'd already be halfway there.
With that, I very carefully opened the status window and began to examine it.
[Status Window]
[Name: Serena]
[Age: 8]
[Weight: ??]
Talent: Maid's Basic Qualifications (Conditions not yet met)
"A maid?"
Fortunately, I did have a talent.
But it wasn't one of the four elements, and it was a strange one, too.
It wasn't a talent I'd ever seen in the novel, so there was no way I could figure out what it was right away.
At a glance, it seemed to be related to being a maid.
What did the condition next to it mean? Would the talent unlock if I became a maid and started working?
"After going to all the trouble of bringing me here, are you telling me to just work as a maid and clean?"
I didn't know who had brought me here, but I wanted to flick them on the forehead at least once.
Looking at my status window, I was clearly no more than an extra.
I was an orphan and a commoner. That said it all.
The protagonist was a commoner, too, but his talent was practically cheat-level, so no one could easily look down on him just because he was a commoner.
I was still pretty overwhelmed by the situation, but for now, I decided to sleep and think about it after I woke up.
Maybe because my body was so young, I fell asleep as soon as it got even a little dark.
***
The next morning came, and after a simple breakfast, I stepped into the hallway of the building for the first time.
The hallway was lavish and enormous, and countless people were bustling about, hard at work.
This must be the mansion of a pretty high-ranking noble.
"Where is this?"
"Oh, we didn't tell you yesterday, did we?"
"This is the estate of Duke Acaron."
"...Where did you say?"
"The estate of Duke Acaron. He's the highest-ranking person in the empire."
I mentally checked out, determined to completely ignore what I'd just heard.
My runaway consciousness was screaming and sobbing.
Why?
Because in the novel, House Acaron was the family of the final villain who fought against the protagonist!
In the end, the protagonist's party destroyed the family, but the young duke—the villain—managed to escape.
If I stayed here until then, it was obvious I'd die as the villain's shield.
Then I had to figure out roughly what point in the story we were at.
But how was I supposed to find that out?
"We're here. Go on inside."
"Thank you."
Following her instructions, I went inside and found a kind-looking old woman sitting in a chair.
"Oh my, what a cute little girl!"
"Mmph!"
The old woman grabbed my cheeks and began rubbing them with her hands.
Her touch was so gentle, like she was petting a grandchild, that I almost lost myself for a moment.
"Well then, shall we start the lesson?"
"Ah, yes!"
"My name is Charlotte. What's your name, little one?"
"I don't remember very well, but I think my name was Serena."
"All right, Serena. Do you know what a maid is?"
"Um, someone who cleans?"
"That's not wrong. But a maid's duties aren't limited to cleaning. I'll explain everything to you now."
"I look forward to learning from you."
And so, at the age of thirty, I took a lesson on some very basic knowledge.
The sort of basic knowledge I didn't need to remember at all.
She must have thought I was an orphan and was explaining all this to me for that reason.
Since I'd been left in the bushes by the wall, it wasn't unreasonable to think of me as an orphan.
Still, it was pretty pitiful that I had to sit through this kind of lesson at my age.
At the end of the lesson, she told me about the people who lived in the estate.
Of course, I already knew all of it.
But I also learned one important thing I hadn't known.
The current age of 'Rael,' the duke's son and the villain of the novel.
"The young duke looks about your age."
"Does he?"
"If things work out, you might end up serving the young duke."
I didn't want that.
Anyway, thanks to Grandma Charlotte, I was able to figure out what point in time we were at.
The story hadn't even started yet, and Rael was currently around the same age as me.
That was when I came up with a plan.
I'd learn the work here, earn money, and then become independent.
I didn't know what my talent was, but I didn't need to go to the academy.
All I had to do was leave for somewhere that had nothing to do with what was going to happen.
Of course, I also had to find a way to turn my body back into a man's.
"That's all for today's lesson. The sun's going down, so go have dinner."
"Yes!"
The sun, huh.
Did I really have to listen to someone talk like that at my age...?
I suddenly found myself desperately craving a cigarette.
If I couldn't have a cigarette, I wished I could at least have some alcohol to help me forget everything.
"Did you listen well in class?"
"Ah, yes. Grandma Charlotte explained everything really well."
"Lady Charlotte is in charge of educating all the maids. Would you like to become a maid someday, too?"
"Will I become a maid like you, b-big sis— I mean, miss?"
Damn it. My tongue got tied, and I almost called her 'big sis.'
Luckily, she didn't seem to notice.
"You could say that."
"Then I want to be a maid, too!"
"Then there's something you have to do to become a maid."
"What is it?"
"Eat your fill and go to bed early. Understand?"
"Yes!"
I was starting to get used to being treated like a child... Actually, no.
It was still so embarrassing that I got goosebumps all over.
They said the coming-of-age ceremony was at sixteen, so I had no choice but to hold out until then.
That was how I could escape being treated like a child and start earning money.
'Please let this hell end soon.'
After dinner, I returned to my original room.
After enduring the hellish bath time, I had no choice but to come out and collapse straight into bed.
No matter how much I looked like a little girl, inside I was still a thirty-year-old virgin man.
A woman's naked body was far too stimulating for me, and it was enough to wear down my mind.
"I wish time would pass at least five times faster."
***
A week, a month, and a year passed, and before I knew it, I was fifteen.
Over those seven years, I'd made plenty of plans for what I would do.
But the maids here weren't anything like the maids I'd imagined.
I'd even planned to reform the villain, but in all the seven years I'd been here, I hadn't seen Rael even once.
Was he locked away in a safe or something? I hadn't seen so much as a strand of his hair.
On top of that, I couldn't roam around the mansion as I pleased.
The maids here also had to protect their masters, so they learned all kinds of weapons and covert techniques.
I found that out when I was around twelve, and from then on, I was stuck doing combat training every single day alongside my maid duties.
With the mental fortitude I'd built up working as a corporate slave, I handled every task perfectly and got excellent results in combat training, too.
And among the maids, I earned the rather embarrassing nickname 'Smiling Serena.'
When I began working as a maid in earnest at twelve, the first thing I did was observe how everyone around me worked.
Whenever they received guests or went to attend the duke and duchess, they always smiled, so I went around with a smile on my face, too.
After a month, and then a year, my face was always wearing a smile.
Since I was always smiling no matter the situation, it wasn't surprising I'd earned a nickname like that.
"Serena!"
"Whoa!"
"Where were you? I was lonely."
"Lonely, my foot. You're not some puppy that lost its owner."
"I get bored when you're not around."
The guy who'd suddenly wrapped his arms around me from behind was a servant my age who'd joined the estate two years ago.
His name was Ryuan. He was a boy with slightly dark red hair.
From the moment he came to the estate and became a servant, he started clinging to me.
I ignored Ryuan, but in the end, I gave in to him when he just kept following me around.
After that, we were always together and became close enough to play around like this.
"Serena! The mistress is calling you. Hurry up."
"Yes! I'll be right there!"
"You're leaving?"
He gave me puppy-dog eyes as he watched his owner leave.
"Let go of my skirt before I kick you."
"Tch. They always call you whenever I'm with you."
"I left some snacks in the dining hall, so go eat those."
"Then I'll see you later!"
Look at him run off the second he heard about snacks.
Honestly, he's like a big puppy.
"Serena, hurry up! The mistress is going to tear me to shreds!"
"Ah, I'm sorry!"
The duchess hardly ever called for a maid. What could be going on?
I felt a faint sense of unease, but dismissed it, thinking it was probably nothing.
Well, what could possibly happen?