Chapter 2
“I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,” the maid sobbed, apologizing at breakneck speed. I was the one who felt awkward.
Her name was Liera.
She was Kuzutos's personal maid, with cool, composed eyes that made a strong impression.
Incidentally, Kuzutos's type was big-breasted women.
On that one point, I trusted Kuzutos. It wasn't exactly pleasant to share his taste when he called himself “the great me” or something, though...
Oh, well.
“Uh, well...” I tried to say something.
But what was I supposed to do in this situation?
I was racking my brain.
After getting myself fired up earlier, I decided I needed to get a handle on the situation, so I summoned the person who probably knew me best—my personal maid—to my room.
And so Liera had come when summoned, tears welling in those seemingly timid eyes of hers.
“L-Liera... um, why are you apologizing so much?”
“Huh?”
She clearly hadn't expected me to ask that.
Liera, who'd had her head bowed so low she was practically kneeling, raised it.
“It's because yesterday I failed to do your usual 'say ahh' properly, and caused you trouble, young master...” the maid said, tears in her eyes.
“Huh????”
'Say ahh'??
I had no idea what she meant.
“C-could you explain a little more?”
After hearing about my usual behavior from Liera, I wanted to vanish from the spot.
Why?
Because Kuzutos's daily routine was so utterly awful. He'd have someone feed him breakfast, then lunch, and then dinner too, all in the same fashion.
Let me be clear.
He. Was. Insane.
By the way, I asked whether this was normal in this world, and apparently, the 'say ahh' routine wasn't normal here either.
Come on, Kuzutos... You really went way too far... I was almost impressed.
And that's not all.
I had a bad feeling about this.
I had seen Liera's name before.
――It was on the wiki from my previous life.
Liera—a maid who worked to support her family, she was one of the few who served Kuzutos with genuine devotion, but his selfishness constantly wore her down, and in the end, she broke her right hand.
And Kuzutos, not caring in the least, fired her as she screamed and cried.
The story went that Kuzutos had fired a devoted maid who'd worked hard since childhood, earning the hatred of the other servants in the manor and losing his chance to reform his character.
Incidentally, when this bit of information was posted as a short story on the official website, it apparently caused a minor uproar: “Why the hell did you put Kuzutos in the game?!”
In other words, she was a fairly important character.
“I'll get your 'say ahh' ready right away...!” she pleaded desperately, and I told her,
“No, that's fine.”
“Huh?”
Her eyes widened again.
“I-is that all right? You always tell me to do the 'say ahh' every day. You said you'd fire me if I didn't do it...”
“Ah, no...”
I was filled with remorse. What kind of kid was I?
To make matters worse, Kuzutos had excellent taste in women.
Liera was beautiful, too. Honestly, I'd be lying if I said I hadn't wanted to try being fed by a beautiful woman like her at least once...
――But.
“I don't need it,” I replied with a serious expression.
Right. If I thought about it calmly, the answer was obvious.
Sure, I was curious about having a beautiful woman feed me, but if I kept up that sort of behavior, it would definitely lead to my death.
In other words, this 'say ahh' routine would cost me my life.
Yeah, when I thought about it that way, it didn't seem worth it.
No matter how you looked at it...
As I thought this, my gaze shifted to Liera's right hand.
“Your hand's hurt, isn't it?”
“Huh? How did you know...?”
Liera looked shocked and clutched her right hand protectively.
“Your right hand was moving just a little slower than usual. I could tell by watching you.”
I couldn't exactly tell her it was because of my knowledge of the original story, so I improvised.
Of course, I had no idea how her right hand usually moved. I barely knew anything about it.
“Besides, you always keep an eye on me, Liera. So of course I'm paying attention to you, too.”
I vaguely improvised and smiled.
Was that okay??
I didn't know anymore.
“Y-Young master...” Liera murmured, stunned. I wondered what she was thinking. Maybe because her eyes were swollen from crying, I couldn't really make out her expression.
“Of course, I have absolutely no intention of firing you. Go rest, then get back to work.”
I'd been talking off the cuff this whole time, but I was starting to have no idea what the right thing to say was.
“Y-Young master...! Why would you suddenly say something like that...?”
“Why, you ask...”
I turned around and headed for the door. Without looking at Liera at all, I opened it.
“It's simple――you're the only maid I have.”
I told her I'd inform the head maid, then closed the door.
Yeah.
How did that go?
Surely that was a more decent move than anything Kuzutos would do.
Though, I wasn't all that confident.
“I need to train my body, practice magic, and clear my name... There's really so much to do.”
But it wasn't bad.
I'd avoid scummy behavior and become a decent background character A.
With that vow, I started walking down the hallway as the afternoon light began to stream in.
With a faint hope in my heart that maybe this would work out.
But then.
The elderly head maid saw me walking alone down the hallway and—
“N-no way. There's no way the young master would walk alone without holding a woman's hand...!!!”
—screamed and collapsed.
...Yeah.
Kuzutos-kun.
How old were you, anyway? I wanted to grill you for a solid hour.
My cheek twitched.
Apparently, my battle against the bad reputation Kuzutos had left behind wouldn't end so easily.
“S-someone!!!”
Thinking, “You've got to be kidding me!” I summoned all my strength to tend to the collapsed head maid.
“Somebody help me!!!!!!!!!!!!”