Chapter 3
Chapter 3
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: Long time no see? - 2
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A heavy silence settled over the room.
Inside Ellis's mansion, a servant would lose their mind every so often. One after another, like clockwork.
This place was hell for anyone in their right mind from the start. They had to endure grueling labor day in and day out, scraping by on just four hours of sleep.
So, when a servant snapped, it wasn't a big deal. Handling it wasn't hard either.
Just classify them as "defective goods," cut off their air supply, and toss the body outside.
Like the rabbits Ellis kept.
But this scene looked ordinary at first glance... and it was anything but.
That was why everything around me had gone so quiet.
Rave flying all the way over there and slamming into the wall? The other servants probably never even dreamed of something like that.
"...What the hell?"
A black-haired maid brushed off the dust from her clothes, tilting her head curiously before heading my way.
Snap. With a flick of her fingers, the dust turned into a wand.
"Right. There was a guy like this too."
I muttered without thinking. That was the head maid.
Rave had been such an annoying prick that I'd completely forgotten about her.
Servants basically couldn't use magic. They weren't supposed to have bodies capable of it.
The reason was simple. If magic users rebelled against Ellis, it'd be a pain to deal with.
That was why the servants went mad.
They had to slave away day after day with no mana support at all.
"So... Florian, was it? The newbie."
Snap. Snap. She tapped the wand against her palm like a riding crop as she approached.
The head maid was the exception. She could use magic.
She'd earned her promotion through proven loyalty, so she got that perk.
But what was her name again?
Thinking back, my life here had been truly pathetic.
I'd been rolling in the dirt so much I hadn't even seen the head maid's face more than a couple times.
"Did you use some magic or something? How'd you send Rave flying? Becoming defective goods on your first day... pity. Don't hold a grudge."
A blue glow began to form at the tip of her wand.
But instead of backing off, I strode right up to her, closing the distance.
Thud!
"Wha..."
I snatched the wand and jammed it straight into her shoulder blade, nice and showy.
It was shaped like an awl anyway, so it wasn't hard.
The whole thing took less than a second.
"Huh... hey?"
Confusion spread across the head maid's face.
Even her panicked look pissed me off. I swung a fist right into her slack jaw, full of openings.
Crack!
"Guhk..."
She crumpled to the floor like a felled tree.
"Oh. Right."
I should've asked her name first.
Looking at her sprawled out now, it was too late to bother.
Feels pretty good. I clenched and unclenched my fist.
My body was in peak condition, just like that day I terrorized the academy.
A dead silence fell once more.
The head maid getting knocked out was a big deal, but seeing the one who did it, the others knew rushing me wouldn't change a thing.
That was the silence that formed. They just stared at me with fearful eyes, no one daring to charge.
"Get back to work. Ellis is coming back soon."
Ellis.
At those three syllables, the servants sprang back into frantic motion.
Ellis, Lady Ellis is returning... Even if someone dropped dead right beside them, they had to do their jobs to survive.
I stepped past the head maid and walked down the mansion's corridor.
Memories—ones I could hardly call nostalgic—started resurfacing one by one.
Beaten here, beaten there, begging for mercy way over there...
I shoved the memories aside soon enough. They just soured my mood.
As I reached the end of the corridor, Rave—still embedded in the wall—opened his eyes.
Gasp. He shook his head groggily, then shot to his feet.
"You little shit...!"
Thump!
I drove my knee into his gut. Obviously.
"Kuhk, guhek...!"
Clutching his stomach and bowing his head, he looked like he was greeting me politely.
Nice manners. As a reward, I slapped his cheek hard.
Smack!
"Agh!"
He hit the floor with a loud thud. I debated stepping on him...
"Rave."
"Hah... huff. Y-you... what the hell are you...?"
"What's the head maid's name?"
"...?"
He rolled his eyes like he couldn't process it.
"Not beaten enough yet?"
I raised my fist, and reality hit him. He blurted it out desperately.
"Ray! Ray!"
"Ah, right. That was it."
Finally, that nagging itch was scratched.
"The head maid's your buddy? Talking casual like that."
"Wh-what? Guhek!"
Thump! Thud! Thump!
The second he questioned it, I pummeled his face like a madman.
No one else, but this guy—I'd always wanted to beat him like this someday.
"Ugh... urk..."
He twitched, groaning.
Still breathing. Good enough.
With my petty revenge done, I headed to the kitchen. Working up an appetite.
"H-here you go..."
The head chef, sweating bullets, placed food in front of me.
"Don't drop it."
"Y-yes, sir... whoa!"
I'd just warned him, but he tripped over a fallen cook and went down spectacularly.
My pizza splattered miserably on the floor.
Trump-shaped pizza, baked rectangular like playing cards. Trump Pizza, for short.
It was Ellis's mansion specialty, but now it was a ruined mess on the ground.
"You wanna end up like that too?"
I pointed my index finger at the downed cooks.
No, better at the squashed pizza to drive the point home.
I shifted my finger to the pizza.
When I first got to the kitchen, I'd asked nicely.
Make me the tastiest thing you've got. Gentlemanly compared to Ellis.
But coming at me with kitchen knives? Crazy bastards.
"S-sorry!"
I pointed at the splattered pizza on the floor, questioning the head chef.
"What kind was this?"
"Spade King!"
The kitchen doubled as a drug lab, really.
Ellis's clever twist: they didn't call drugs "drugs."
Spade shape meant laced with drugs. King meant enough to knock out an adult man flat.
"......?"
Wait. That's what they prepared?
"You messing with me?"
I scooped up the floor pizza and hurled it at the head chef's face full force.
Splat!
"Kyaaack!"
He hopped around as the hot cheese hit. Who was that supposed to knock out?
"Prep a Clover. Now."
"Y-yes, sir!"
Clover was your standard pizza. No drugs, just normal.
The head chef eyed me like he wondered how a mere servant knew the code, but I flashed a friendly smile and raised my fist.
"Sorry!"
He bolted deeper into the kitchen. While waiting, I sank into thought.
'This life, I'll do whatever the hell I want.'
-Choices and consequences are yours alone.
That's what the Goddess had told me.
She's right. My choices, my responsibility. No one's handing it to me.
So I don't regret what I just did.
But I need to rein in my thoughts a bit.
How many of Ellis's trash noble ladies were there? At least fifteen.
Two things in common.
They all end up under Elfriede Dice. And they all go down in history as villains.
Everything else differed: looks, personality, their criminal specialties...
I'll prune them all before they become Elfriede's limbs.
Can I pull it off? Even with the Stigma, not easy.
"I'll do it anyway."
Do what I want.
That flame had taken root in my heart this life. One that would never go out, no matter what.
By then, the head chef set a pizza in front of me.
First meal since returning to the past: pizza. I grabbed a slice with my bare hand, no fuss.
Ding-a-ling!
The big bell over the kitchen started ringing.
Ding-a-ling! Ding-a-ling! Ding-a-ling!
One at first, then all three blared loudly.
Ding-a-ling! Ding-a-ling! Ding-a-ling!
Each bell had artwork hanging below, paired up.
Hat under the left, rabbit in the middle, Winter Dormouse on the right.
The passed-out cooks' eyes flew wide; they scrambled up, ignoring me completely, bustling about.
"She's here! The Lady's back!"
"It's not done yet! We're screwed!"
"All three at once! No warning!"
I nodded calmly.
"Finally."
In the midst of the chaos, I leisurely bit into my pizza slice.
Lady of Revelry Ellis.
She had returned at last.