Search for Collaborators (3)

I had only mentioned the bare minimum of items I usually carry as Ethan’s maid, yet I could feel the three pairs of eyes looking at me gleaming for different reasons.

“You’d go that far? You really are a foolish couple.”

“Indeed, that level of preparation is the basic duty of a maid. I’ll take note of that, Miss Liss.”

“…So the rumors circulating in the academy about you being a ‘Genius of Seduction’ weren’t unfounded after all. Hmm…”

“I don’t understand why you’re all looking at me like that, but as Kru said, what I do is merely the minimum etiquette required of a maid. It’s absolutely not because the other party is Dan that I do anything special.”

“If that’s the minimum etiquette for a maid, over 90% of the imperial maids would have been fired long ago, Miss Liss.”

“Leave her be. She’s part of a foolish couple. When you’re love-struck, you can’t help but go all out.”

“By any chance, what other minimum etiquettes do you have? As a maid serving Lady Sera, I’d really like to learn, Miss Liss.”

My claim that it wasn’t anything special didn’t seem to be well-received.

Only Luke seemed to understand and react to what I was saying, so I simply told her about the preparations I usually make as Ethan’s exclusive maid.

“If you’re an exclusive maid to a noble or royalty, you naturally need to have the combat skills to match. Not that I’m saying Kru is particularly weak, but being ready to draw your sword at any moment to counter sudden threats is basic etiquette, I believe.

And while this might not apply to Sera, young men in their prime often have… urges toward women, so in my case, I prepare for such occasions…”

“You’re straying further and further from being an ordinary exclusive maid, Miss Liss. What kind of maid is that? Are you not just an exclusive maid but some sort of exclusive errand-bodyguard-virginity-taking maid?”

“……”

Unable to come up with a rebuttal, I averted my gaze as a response.

Well, it’s not like bodyguarding or satisfying urges were my main duties-they were just additional perks.

With that thought, I neatly folded Ethan’s mended dress shirt and set it aside before starting to sew his academy uniform jacket.

“Ahem, well, that aside, Miss Liss.”

“Yes?”

“I was just wondering… how did you manage to capture Dan’s heart?”

“…Me and Dan?”

“Y-yes, purely for reference. There are hardly any couples in the academy as close as you and Dan, so I was wondering if you had any special secrets to building such a good relationship.”

“……”

In other words, she was asking for advice because she wanted things to work out with that Gyeotmwa guy.

Frankly, it wasn’t a request I wanted to entertain. Knowing the hero’s true intentions and future plans, I only wished for Sera and the hero’s relationship to not progress.

‘At best, I could tolerate a harem, but saving three girls and then running away is a bit much, don’t you think?’

In a way, what he was doing was worse than a harem, and I had no desire to do him any favors. But I couldn’t outright refuse Sera’s question, which she’d mustered the courage to ask.

…So what could I do? I just briefly shared some anecdotes about Ethan and me-preferably in a way that would make Gyeotmwa’s life harder.

“Would you believe me if I said I seduced him with my body to get closer to him, Lady Sera?”

“…What do you mean by that?”

“Exactly what it sounds like. I seduced Dan with my body to bridge the gap between us. It all started with a simple breast grope.”

“”……””

The moment I mentioned seducing him with my body, the three pairs of eyes focused on me again.

Realizing once more that, no matter the world, risqué topics always pique everyone’s interest, I explained to them the methodical way I had seduced Ethan.

“At first, it was just breast groping. Back then, I had something to ask of Dan, and the only resource I had at my disposal was this ample bosom and the rest of my body.”

“…Hmph.”

“……”

“Thanks to using my body to bring it up, I managed to achieve my goal at the time. But the problem was what came next. After carelessly letting a young man grope my breasts, Dan became obsessed with them 24/7.”

“…I see. I think I’ve heard from Her Majesty that men are weak to women’s breasts…”

Agnes and Luke, who ranked near the bottom in bust size, seemed to lose interest, but Sera, on the other hand, grew even more curious and asked more questions about my relationship with Ethan.

Imagining Gyeotmwa’s flustered face when Sera blatantly seduced him with her chest, I elaborated further on what had happened between Ethan and me.

“Of course, that doesn’t mean you should just shove your breasts in his face without any pretext-that would be a bit crude, wouldn’t it? So back then, I attached one condition to letting Dan grope my breasts.”

“A… condition?”

“He had to land at least one valid hit in a sparring match against his father. If he could do that, I’d grant him the privilege of groping my breasts for one full minute.”

“…Wait, if Dan’s father is the current swordsmanship department’s…”

“Yes. The very professor you’re thinking of, Lady Sera.”

A condition where he had to land a single hit on a Sword Master just to grope a girl’s breasts.

At first glance, it might seem excessively harsh, but the libido of a young man in his prime is beyond imagination.

…Of course, back then, I had set the condition thinking he’d never achieve it.

“Thanks to that, Dan trained like a madman to win against his father, and now he’s become quite the skilled swordsman in the academy’s swordsmanship department. Naturally, I’ve never once failed to reward him accordingly.”

“……”

-Gulp.

“Of course, given your status, Lady Sera, this method might be difficult to employ recklessly. But one thing I can say for certain is that all men are obsessed with breasts.

If you use this to your advantage, perhaps you can find a way to seduce Bart, Lady Sera?”

“…Have I ever mentioned Bart to you before, Miss Liss?”

“Sometimes you can tell just by observing. I’m sure Ness and Kru had some idea too, right?”

“As your exclusive maid, of course I knew, Lady Sera.”

“You sometimes act like Liss in front of Bart, Sera. It’d be weird if we didn’t notice.”

“…I don’t know what you mean by ‘acting like me,’ Ness.”

“Really? Then think back on your behavior in front of Dan. Just earlier, you were blatantly emphasizing those lumps of fat while putting on an affectionate display with him.”

…It wasn’t an affectionate display-it was a medical procedure.

But Agnes didn’t seem like she’d accept any rebuttals, so I ignored her and moved on to the next topic.

“All men are obsessed with breasts, so if you use that to seduce the hero…”

…Well, since Sera’s developed unnecessary feelings, Gyeotmwa will have a hard time for a while.

If you recklessly seduce multiple women at once, you must pay the price for it.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

On the second day of our volunteer work in Bridget Village.

Just because the date had changed didn’t mean our tasks were any different from the first day, so I was once again teaching the village women self-defense dagger techniques.

-Swish! Swish! Swish!

“Good! That was really cool just now! Keep swinging it smoothly, like flowing water!”

On the first day, hardly anyone could follow along properly, but after a day of practice, some had become decent enough to handle basic self-defense techniques.

Of course, they were far from perfect and would struggle in real situations, so repeated practice was essential.

‘Just one more day of practice, and they should be able to defend themselves somewhat.’

As I watched the women practice, a clear voice suddenly reached my ears.

-Clang!

“Aah, I-I can’t do this anymore! What’s even the point of this…?!”

A green-haired woman, seemingly exhausted from the repetitive training, threw her dagger to the ground and started complaining irritably.

I think she was the same one who had argued with me on the first day, saying she didn’t want to do this.

“Th-the bandits are already gone, aren’t they?! Why do we have to prepare for them coming back to this nothing village?! If those guys have any brains, they wouldn’t…”

Before I could intervene to prevent her from disrupting the training mood, someone else stepped forward.

Before I could act, her palm struck the fallen woman’s cheek with a sharp slap.

-Smack!

“Kyaaah?!”

‘…That woman.’

She was the one who had asked on the first day if I could teach her something other than “self-defense dagger techniques.”

“Shut up. If you don’t want to do it, don’t ruin it for everyone else-just leave. I’m going to kill those damn bastards no matter what.”

At that moment, the bandit collaborator hidden among the village women began to act.