Chapter 21
Is this maid really going to be okay...?
――A few hours after I began to have some misgivings about Liera.
I was being put through the ordeal of pretending to have fun at a hangout for noble scumbag brats.
“This place really is the best. We can do whatever we want here.”
The idiot son of a noble sitting across from me said with a leering grin.
Yep. Scum.
“Heh heh heh... The food and drink are extravagant, and there’s no one around to nag us!”
Then the idiot son of a noble sitting diagonally to my right chimed in, flashing another triumphant grin.
Yep, a respectable scumbag through and through.
And on top of that, these idiot sons—
“I never imagined even the mayor of this great city of Lyon would quake before our prestige.”
“Right? We really are special, after all!”
“Right, Lord Ultos?!”
“...Y-Yeah... That’s right,” I replied, my cheek twitching.
Exactly.
In other words, these two were completely convinced that Lyon’s mayor, Gregorio, was treating them so lavishly because he was quaking in fear of their prestige.
“Heh heh heh... Well, once he’s no longer useful, we’ll just throw him away.”
“Exactly. He’s just prey, after all. We might as well squeeze him dry until then.”
The two idiot sons put on airs like the small-time crooks they were.
The words “There’s no way that’s true” nearly escaped my throat.
The pitiful prey being used was us.
Gregorio wasn’t that soft.
More precisely, Gregorio appears in the original after Kuzutos.
In other words, he was a far more formidable character than Kuzutos, the annoying mid-boss who shows up in the middle of the Academy arc.
To make matters worse, since these two were of lower rank than House Randall, they kept fishing for my agreement.
“Y-Yeah... Ha ha ha... Let’s squeeze him dry... Sure,” I said with an awkward, noncommittal laugh.
Anyway, putting that aside—
This secret club was depraved.
Beautiful women would appear from time to time in revealing outfits, serving food and alcohol.
Incidentally, every time someone offered me a drink, I refused, saying, “I won’t drink cheap swill like this!!!”
I couldn’t afford to get completely wasted in a club like this. My life was literally on the line.
Besides, I was underage.
So what I asked for instead was water.
I’ll never forget the confused look on the sexy lady’s face when I declared, “Don’t give me this cheap swill—bring me some water!”
Of course she was confused. I’d called their finest liquor “cheap swill” and asked for water instead.
I wasn’t just some noble idiot’s son anymore. I was simply an idiot.
Anyway, I was doing my best to act like a scumbag, but...
However.
That wasn’t the only thing troubling me.
The one troubling me most of all.
It was—
“Here you go. Say ahhh.”
None other than Liera.
Liera, sitting beside me, urged me to open my mouth, and I ate a piece of fruit.
(...Ultos-sama.)
Then, in the middle of it all, Liera leaned close and whispered in my ear.
(...What is it?)
(Please touch my breasts soon.)
....................
I wasn’t keen on it, but I silently touched her chest.
Just a light touch.
Then,
“N-Now, that’s not allowed...!! Ultos-sama!” Liera put on an exaggerated display.
“Ooh...!! As expected of you, Ultos-sama!”
The people around us were getting more and more excited at the sight of the beautiful maid acting wanton.
Liera leaned close and whispered to me again.
(Ultos-sama, next, please touch my breasts even more vigorously—)
“I-I need to use the bathroom!!!!!”
BAM!! There was a loud bang.
That was the sound of me hurriedly opening the door and taking Liera out into the hallway.
I looked around to make sure no one was there.
“...Liera-sa...”
“Yes, what is it, Ultos-sama?” the maid asked, tilting her head.
Liera stood before me with a puzzled expression.
What an incredible maid, I nearly found myself admiring her.
It was true that I’d asked her.
I had asked her.
I’d told her I needed her help because I had to pretend to be one of the noble idiot sons who hung out here.
But still, this was too much.
“But... I thought this was what the disreputable pastimes of nobles were usually like...”
Liera replied, tilting her head.
“No, listen...”
I was a man, too.
I didn’t dislike women’s breasts.
But usually, the girl being sexually harassed didn’t like it.
What kind of maid secretly tells someone, “Please touch my breasts”?
Was I some kind of robot who just touched her breasts whenever she told me to???
For now, I decided to explain it to Liera as carefully as I could.
“...So, please try not to grope my chest too much. You can do the ‘Aah’ thing as much as you like.”
“I see. Understood.”
At least Liera seemed to accept that.
“Good. Well, let’s go back to the room for now.”
“Ultos-sama...”
Liera stopped me, her eyes serious.
“What is it?”
Had something happened? I tensed up.
“Now that Ultos-sama has touched me... I’ll never wash my body again.”
....................
I don’t think I was wrong to think, Please, at least take a bath.
♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢
And so I kept up the scumbag act.
We got excited talking about how “commoners are scum!” and bragging about our family pedigrees.
And yet, in the end, the protagonist—the very commoner they looked down on—would manifest 【Space】 Beyond-Domain Magic and become a hero. You never know how things will turn out.
If anything, since I wanted to become one of the protagonist’s hanger-on side characters, I’d lick Sieg-kun’s boots without hesitation if someone told me to.
Noble pride????
I had none. Not a bit of it.
And every so often, I made sure to step out into the hallway.
The men standing guard looked suspiciously at me, but I didn’t care.
I knew she would come.
She was sure to come.
Because she—this woman who was about to arrive—had a stronger sense of justice than anyone else.
――Several hours later, a voice came from the entrance.
A girl around my age, and a man. If anything, the girl sounded angrier.
“About time.”
I signaled to Liera, then slowly made my way toward the entrance.
A thug-like man guarding the entrance started to say, “What do you think you’re—?!” but I stopped him with a hand.
“There’s a disturbance, isn’t there? I’m the heir to House Randall, after all. I’ll handle it.”
With that, I went outside.
It was already completely dark out.
But even in the darkness, a beautiful girl stood before me, staring straight at me.
“Randall Ultos...”
A voice slipped from her lips.
“And who might you be?”
I asked, feigning ignorance.
I already knew her name without asking.
“Iris Webern. I’m the daughter of Baron Webern. What on earth is the heir to House Randall doing in a place like this?”
――Her eyes held such strength that I found myself intimidated.