episode_0011

“Maid, I’m hungry. So, please cook for me today as well.”

‘Fuck.’

As soon as I entered the kitchen, faced with Ethan’s expression and his shameless treatment of me like a servant, curses involuntarily popped into my head.

Why is this bastard here again today?

The most likely reason is pretty obvious. The pig must have crawled in because he’s hungry; there couldn’t be any other reason.

Or maybe he appeared to seek attention, liking the appearance of the character from the original work, Release.

“If that were the case, he would have called me during work instead of using this annoying method.”

Considering the power Ethan holds, transferring the duties of a few lower maids was as easy as pie.

If this brat suddenly says he wants to make me his personal maid, Harold would promptly appoint me as Ethan’s personal maid without a second thought.

At that moment, it would be no different from stepping halfway onto the damn path of being a personal maid.

That’s why, even in yesterday’s conversation with this brat, I acted annoyed, and the meal I made when he said he was hungry was deliberately made as unappetizing as possible.

I shouldn’t have bothered trying to make it somewhat presentable at the end. I should have just given him some radish and told him to eat it roughly.

I tried to make the meal look somewhat like real food out of fear that making it too unappealing might lead to other implications, but now he’s showing his face again today.

‘I really want to just kill him.’

I barely suppressed the evil urge that momentarily rose within me.

If I were to inflict even a slightly significant injury on this despicable body right now, Release’s life would become much cheaper than that of a fly.

As I’ve mentioned before, I might receive a punishment so severe that death would be preferable.

In the worst-case scenario, I could end up being sent as a sex slave for the front-line soldiers or tortured by dangerous individuals like professional torturers, unable to die.

Moreover, I hadn’t realized earlier, but there was also a possibility that Isabelle might get splattered with mud under the pretext of collective punishment.

Adding ridiculous reasons like knowing in advance that I would kill Ethan and not stopping it.

“Release, are we going to be friends from now on? Promise me~.”

If it were a problem limited to just me, I might have taken the gamble of killing and escaping, but the moment Harold loses his son, he will most likely lose his sanity.

Isabelle, who joined at the same time as me, as well as most of the people I recently interacted with, were at risk of being punished.

Including the senior maids who dumped this workload on me today.

…Come to think of it, that doesn’t sound too bad.

Anyway, I didn’t want to cause as much harm to Isabelle as possible. What wrong could that kind girl have done?

Forcing her to experience a fate tied to her just because she happened to join as my colleague named Release… It was such a pitiful story.

It would be better to be screwed alone than together when push comes to shove.

In fact, avoiding all possibilities of getting involved with Ethan in the future was simple.

Just feed him the same menu as yesterday, then send him back to his room. That would be the end of it.

Still, there was no need to worry about future events not yet faced, so I compromised with reality for now.

Right now, I’ll just cater to Ethan’s tastes in front of me.

“Looks like you woke up hungry again today, Master Ethan.”

“Yeah!”

“Understood. I’ll prepare the same menu as yesterday for you. Please wait in the dining room for a moment…”

“I don’t want what I had yesterday! Make something else!”

“It seems like the conditions aren’t right to make a different dish with these ingredients….”

For a moment, the words ‘you son of a b****’ almost slipped out, but managing to regain composure and cover it up made me feel proud.

In a way, this might also be an instinct for survival to escape the crisis.

My mind, sensing the difficulty of surviving in this mansion where cursing at a brat could make it hard to get by, naturally glossed over the slip of the tongue I almost made.

Fortunately, the young brat didn’t seem to realize that the word I was about to say was a curse.

Judging by the fact that he only picks words that provoke, it’s safe to say.

“If you’re going to make it, then make it! I’m hungry!”

“….”

They say patience is rewarded three times over, even sparing one from murder.

With the kid already whining with two stacks, I barely managed to suppress my impulse in front of him.

I even succeeded in coming up with a response to navigate the situation.

“…Understood. If that’s the case, I will try making a dish other than tomato radish salad.”

“Yes!”

“But just like last time, I can’t guarantee you’ll like the taste of the dish. You might not enjoy it more than the tomato radish salad.”

“Okay!”

“I will start cooking now, so please wait in the dining room for a while, young master.”

Endure. Endure.

Just feed this brat anything quickly and get on with the work….

“Do you want to watch the maid cook?”

“…Please sit quietly in the dining room and wait.”

“No! I want to watch the maid cook!”

“…The kitchen is a dangerous place, so please wait quietly in the dining room, Master Ethan.”

“I said no!”

…3 stacks.

My body, now unable to restrain itself with reason, reflexively lunged towards Ethan.

And at that moment, the brat collapsed to the ground, choking and gasping for air under my weight.

Being only thirteen years old and completely untrained, the puny body couldn’t handle the strength of an adult woman raised in the countryside.

With his chubby body pinned to the kitchen floor with force, I imagined myself strangling the life out of him with both hands….

…It was just a fleeting thought.

“….”

“Maid?”

“…I earnestly ask for the last time. Please wait quietly in the dining room until the meal is ready.”

‘Please let my sanity hold out.’

Even though the clueless brat seemed to sense that something was off by now, he still listened attentively to my final words.

“Ah, okay…. I’ll wait in the dining room….”

“I’ll have it ready soon and bring it to you.”

“Yeah, okay….”

Only after the brat darted out of the kitchen did peace finally return.

As Ethan disappeared beyond the door, I could finally release all the intense emotions I had been holding back.

“Damn it. Already dealing with a tight schedule, and now this damn brat throwing tantrums two days in a row….”

If that brat wasn’t the young master of this household, my sanity wouldn’t have held up.

If one of my senior maids had done the same thing? Well, we’d both be in trouble.

But the fact remains that he’s not just any senior or junior maid; he’s the illegitimate son of a commoner and a duke, an existence with an absurd class difference.

Having spent over 2000 hours playing ‘Luminor Academy’ in my past life, I was well aware of the death events in games.

At least I could be sure that if I were to harm Ethan in any way, things wouldn’t end well for me afterward.

If the protagonist could solve everything with power, it would be a different story. But using the power of a mere maid, I ended up causing trouble between Harold and Ilgito, and the result was obvious.

Even though I possessed a different body in this life compared to my past life, I still value my life above all else.

“Sigh, what kind of creative dish do they want me to make today?”

Coming into the favorite game of my past life, all I’m doing is handling tasks for my superiors and dealing with bratty kids behind their backs.

I felt the urge to curse at the person who reincarnated me as Lily once again.

***

And about 10 minutes later.

“What is this?”

“It’s not muk-sam… It’s a radish roll.”

“Radish roll…?”

Ethan looked at me as if asking what on earth it was.

Seeing his expression clearly demanding an explanation, I personally explained the creative dish I had made.

“It’s a dish made by wrapping thinly sliced radish with julienned carrots, onions, tomatoes, and turnips into a round shape.”

“Such a dish exists…? And turnips too…”

“If it doesn’t suit your taste, I’ll get rid of it.”

“Oh, no! I’ll eat it!”

…But he seems really hungry. To willingly eat something like that, which clearly dampens the appetite.

Honestly, it wasn’t a dish I particularly wanted to eat. How can you enjoy eating radish without meat or salmon?

Even the so-called sauce consisted only of salt and olive oil.

I’d rather just munch on a tomato raw than eat something like that.

He chose the creative dish. Whether he eats it with gusto or not is up to him.

– Munch, munch.

“Inferior, inferior.”

“… .”

…I did offer it to him to eat, but he’s really devouring it disgustingly.

I seriously started to wonder if he was eating like that on purpose to annoy people.

Otherwise, a thirteen-year-old noble kid wouldn’t have eaten so messily.

Although Harold may act like a doting father, he seems overly permissive.

Well, that’s none of my business.

Whether that brat grows up properly or not is not my concern. All I want is for him to stay out of my life as much as possible.

…It might be too late now that we’ve met in the kitchen two days in a row.

“I should have fed him something so tasteless from the first day.”

But it’s too late to turn back now. All I could do was regret yesterday’s foolish actions.

While thinking these thoughts, Ethan had already neatly emptied his plate.

With a clatter, the fork he had been holding fell onto the empty plate.

“Have you finished?”

“Yes!”

“Did it suit your taste?”

“No!”

“I thought as much.”

I didn’t expect anything else.

The guy who said yesterday’s tomato turnip salad wasn’t great wouldn’t find today’s dish delicious either.

Without feeling particularly disappointed by the returning kid’s response, I advised Ethan to return to his bedroom.

“It’s getting late. You should go back to your room before someone sees you.”

“Okay!”

At least he leaves quietly after eating, which makes things easier to handle.

After confirming Ethan’s wobbly figure disappearing down the mansion corridor, I magically cleaned up the plate and seat he used.

…Surely, he won’t show up in the kitchen again tomorrow.

I couldn’t be certain whether my sanity could handle it next time, so I silently prayed that he wouldn’t appear again.

In the current state of release, all I could do was my best.