episode_0311

“…cough, cough.”

…Ah, it’s a cold.

My body felt hot, and as soon as I opened my eyes in the morning, I confirmed that I had caught a cold, spitting out dry coughs involuntarily.

“I must have caught a cold.”

I had been walking outside in the winter weather with a lack of sleep, engaged in a swordsmanship duel with Harold outdoors for an hour, depleting all the magic I used to keep warm and wearing sweaty clothes for quite some time.

Even if I had only done one or two things like this in the current season, catching a cold was inevitable. If it ended with just a cold, it might be better.

“I used to do much more than this when I still had the qualifications of a saint, and I was fine…”

The time when I was burdened with all the kitchen work by Aria and Alicia, or when I was just becoming Ethan’s personal maid and was being pushed around and exploited.

In reality, if I was going to get sick, I should have been sick back then too, but I was fine. During the time when Lillis still had the qualifications of a saint, I had some immunity to illnesses.

I wanted to receive treatment from a priest belonging to the Blackwood family, but unfortunately, viral diseases like colds could not be treated with divine power.

Even if I could be treated, as a mere maid, I couldn’t ask the priest for treatment.

“My face seems a bit red… maybe it won’t be too noticeable if I cover it with a mask.”

I couldn’t neglect my duties as Ethan’s personal maid just because I was feeling unwell. Even during the time when I was suffering from lack of sleep due to MacHart, I still went to work.

With these thoughts in mind, I changed into my maid uniform, put on a mask, and arrived at Ethan’s room about 30 minutes later.

“Just rest. Your forehead is burning up, why are you even coming to work?”

Dragged by Ethan, I was forced back to my room, changed into my sleepwear, and lay down on the bed.

“But if I’m not here, who will take care of Ethan Young Master’s personal maid duties?”

“You’re not going to leave the mansion anyway. You’re not some helpless kid who can’t survive a day without a maid. You can manage without a maid for a few days, so focus on getting better quickly, Lillis.”

“Understood, Ethan Young Master.”

“Just rest. I’ll ask Isabelle to bring you breakfast.”

“Yes…”

-Click.

With that, Ethan closed the door and left me alone in the maid waiting room, where I spent time moaning and coughing intermittently.

“Ah, damn it.”

If I had known, I should have just refused when Harold suggested a duel. No, I shouldn’t have gone for a morning walk at all.

Returning from the Academy, I lay on my bed, feeling sorry for myself for catching a cold.

“If this were my past life, I would have had a smartphone or something. It feels so empty without anything.”

Well, they say the best way to recover from a cold is to eat well and rest. I should just focus on getting better as soon as possible.

In a way, I could consider it a long-overdue vacation. Well, considering my position as a maid serving Ethan, going to work was more like a vacation for me.

With these thoughts in mind, I covered myself with a blanket and lay down, staring blankly at the ceiling until the door opened and a maid with vanilla-colored hair entered.

“Lillis, how are you feeling?”

“Isabelle…”

“I brought breakfast. Since you’re not feeling well, I didn’t bring any meat or bread, just soup and salad.”

“Thank you…”

Sitting halfway on the bed to eat, I reached out my hand to the spoon on the tray, but Isabelle shook her head, stopping my action.

“Rilis, just stay still since you’re not feeling well. I’ll feed you.”

“It’s not that bad…”

“Enough, just lie down again. You need to replenish your strength a bit and get better quickly.”

“….Okay.”

Well, I didn’t really feel like arguing about this and that while I was in pain, so I just nodded my head as Isabelle suggested. It was true that replenishing my strength a bit would help me recover faster.

Isabelle fed me spoonfuls of soup and briefly mentioned something about my day off.

“Master said to rest well since Rilis caught a cold. And he mentioned something about giving you some sort of injury compensation?”

“…Injury compensation?”

“Yeah. I don’t know why he’s giving it. I just heard it from Master.”

…Is she worried about me catching a cold because of the morning training?

It was another unexpected behavior from Harold. As I mentioned before, the original Harold was a man who dealt with everything in a businesslike manner unless it was related to his son.

Considering that I was Ethan’s exclusive maid, there might be some reason to pay attention to it, but it didn’t really make sense just because of that. In the original work, he didn’t care at all whether Rilis was raped by Ethan or the assistant.

Maybe he had some peace of mind that his son had grown up properly compared to the original work, so there was no need to attach meaning to it.

“…And later…Master, listen for a moment…”

“….”

“…Rilis? Are you listening…”

“Ah, yes… I’m listening…”

After that, in a somewhat hazy state of mind, I responded to Isabelle’s feeding and vaguely agreed with her words.

Amidst the pouring sleepiness after the meal, I fell back into a deep sleep.

***

…How many hours had passed since then?

When I opened my eyes again, I felt somewhat better, with a clearer head and the sensation of throbbing pain that I had in the morning gone.

Carefully turning my gaze to the surroundings, I saw Ethan sitting next to the bed, quietly examining my body with a serious expression.

“….”

Ethan looked at my body with a serious expression, deep in thought. He didn’t seem to notice that I had woken up.

‘…What is he trying to do?’

I was curious about why Ethan had come into the servant waiting room and was looking at my body, but I didn’t say anything about waking up for now.

Seeing that the blanket covering me had been lifted… I had a suspicion that he might be up to something sinister.

‘It’s been about two weeks since that day at the academy…’

Thanks to overcoming Harold once, Ethan had been able to occasionally win against the full-powered Harold in their duels since that first day.

And on those days, he continued to give me ‘rewards’ without caring about the academy, so the number of times Ethan and I shared the night had already reached four, including the first experience.

‘It’s a bit strange to do something like dating without having sex.’

If we were official lovers of this age group, it would be normal to mix our bodies every day, not just once or twice a month. But still, doing it to that extent seemed a bit much.

The biggest reason was that my body couldn’t handle it, and another reason was that it might interfere with Ethan’s skill growth.

When I let out all my strength on the bed, the relationship between me and Edan was about maintaining an appropriate boundary so that I wouldn’t have the energy to wield a sword the next day. …Of course, kissing and touching the chest isn’t exactly sex, so even if it’s not a reward, I let him do it occasionally.

Anyway, at this moment, Edan had probably been accumulating desire since the day we last had a relationship. And with that desire, he probably had a mischievous intention to use my body while I was asleep to relieve himself… That’s why he must have intruded into my dressing room without a word.

Normally, taking advantage of someone’s pain as an opportunity to satisfy one’s own desires should be disgusting, but somehow, thinking that Edan might be trying to do that made my heart start to flutter.

…I wondered if I could see Edan acting according to his desires, wanting me after a long time.

“Recently, he hasn’t come running to me as if he’s obsessed with me.”

Just in case you think it’s strange, I don’t have any fetish for Edan to pounce on me.

I just wanted to see how much Edan cared about me. Once we crossed the line, if I treated him like a piece of meat and he didn’t become so obsessed… I would feel a little disappointed.

“And if I pretend to be caught off guard now, he might use it as a weakness to tease me later.”

No matter how much he is Edan, if he were to confess that he pounced on me while I was asleep, he would feel sorry.

With those thoughts in my head, I quietly opened my eyes and waited for Edan’s next move, as his hand slowly began to move towards my chest.