Chapter 10
Chapter 10
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: Pig Prince Ethan (3)
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"Young Master Ethan, are you alright?!"
"......Yeah."
"It seems there's no threat to your life, fortunately. I suspect you simply fainted from the shock."
"Thank goodness, Young Master. If something had happened to you as well, the Master would surely..."
Ethan awoke from a brief, cozy slumber and immediately scanned his surroundings.
The familiar sight of his room. And the servants gathered around him.
He realized he'd been moved to his bedroom while he was out. Despite his young age, Ethan quickly grasped the situation.
The servants weren't looking at him with their usual eyes full of expectation. They only showed concern.
Ethan instantly noticed the sudden shift in the emotions directed toward him.
For some reason, everyone's gazes had changed abruptly.
The only difference from his usual self was one thing.
He had slipped on the central staircase on the first floor and fallen.
Just that small change had made such a difference in how they looked at him.
Through this experience, the young Ethan began to naturally form a twisted set of values.
This suspicion turned into complete certainty when his father burst into the room shortly after.
"Ethan! Ethan!!"
A frantic voice and a twisted expression, utterly unlike his usual demeanor.
Ethan wasn't so foolish as to miss that this came from genuine worry for him.
He had felt countless emotional gazes directed at him since childhood.
In his father's excited embrace, Ethan felt every bit of that raw emotion without omission.
"Ethan! I'm so glad you're safe.... If I lost you too, I..."
A father's love that he thought he'd never felt before.
To sense it so directly after just one injury and collapse.
Just from falling down the stairs once.
The young Ethan learned in the most bizarre way possible how to earn others' love.
And so, for the next two years, Ethan strove to win people's affection in that manner.
"Young Master Ethan, are you alright?!"
"Young Master, if you skip your morning training, the Master will worry."
"Skipping etiquette lessons again today.... Please don't forget tomorrow, Young Master."
"Young Master Ethan. Coming out of your room in the middle of the night like this..."
"Young Master...."
Each time he got hurt, broke something, or messed up, the expectant gazes vanished quickly, replaced by worry and pity.
And as time passed, people stopped expecting perfection from him.
Ethan came to perceive these gradually shifting emotions from others as love.
Some whispered that the Young Master had become dim-witted after that staircase fall, but nothing could be further from the truth.
On the contrary, he had only grown more cunning.
Once he realized no one could reprimand him, Ethan truly ran wild through the mansion, doing as he pleased.
No one stopped him from sleeping until the sun was high in the sky, or eating whenever he felt hungry outside mealtimes. Neither sword training nor magic lessons could restrain him.
Even as his body deteriorated and he lost even the bare minimum refinement expected of a noble child his age, no servant could control or harshly scold him.
Because everyone knew Duke Harold cherished Ethan, his last remaining family and blood kin.
Mistreating the Young Master's mood could lead to reassignment to harsh postings outside the mansion, or even dismissal entirely.
No one left in the mansion could restrain whatever Ethan did.
They merely quietly hoped he would one day come to his senses and resemble his father, Harold.
All except one person in this vast mansion—a single new maid.
"I'm sorry, Young Master Ethan. I made a mistake because I was paralyzed with fear in the darkness."
"......"
Cold eyes devoid of any expectation, even knowing he was Ethan Richard Blackwood.
Accustomed to reading others' gazes, Ethan easily deciphered the look in this new maid's eyes.
Typically, servants meeting him for the first time harbored some subtle expectation that faded over time.
Yet this maid, clearly encountering him for the first time, showed none at all.
Ethan began to feel considerable interest in her, so different from the rest.
"If the darkness of the quiet hallway frightens you, I can accompany you."
"It's not strange at all, Young Master. You're at that growing age, so it's natural to get hungry in the middle of the night."
"I'll clean it up later if you just leave it there."
A calm demeanor unchanged no matter how disappointingly he acted.
Her eyes seemed to say she had never expected anything from him to begin with. For some reason, they reminded Ethan of someone dear he longed for.
Someone now gone, whom he had missed for so long.
"You don't need to live up to anyone else's expectations, Ethan. Mommy loves you no matter who you are."
"......"
As he returned to his room from the kitchen in the dead of night, Ethan secretly thought to himself.
If he came to the kitchen at this hour tomorrow, he might meet that maid again.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Day three of kitchen duty.
At 4 a.m., my eyes snapped open on their own, and I dragged myself out of bed.
Carefully, slowly, so as not to wake Isabel...
"Heading to work, Lilith?"
...Damn.
"Sorry, did I wake you again?"
"Nooo.... My eyes just opened..."
I'd really tried not to wake her this time and sneak out.
I felt bad for Isabel, who was already losing sleep for days because of me. She was at that age when sleep deprivation hit hard, and now she couldn't even rest properly on my account.
Of course, I hadn't chosen kitchen duty out of desire, nor was starting at 4 a.m. my original intention.
"If the top bunk's uncomfortable, you can sleep in my spot. I'm heading out anyway."
"Yeah..."
Isabel, apparently finding the upper bunk uncomfortable, climbed down and claimed my bed.
She wriggled under the blanket I'd just been using, which was oddly cute.
Well, by my original world's standards, she was still a high schooler who hadn't even started college yet, so it made sense.
"If the second floor's no good, starting tomorrow, you take my spot and I'll sleep up top?"
"It's fine.... That wouldn't really change anything..."
"Huh?"
"Mmm.... So warm..."
Isabel mumbled nonsense as she burrowed into my blanket and drifted back to sleep.
Confirming she was out again, I quietly opened the door and stepped into the mansion corridor.
The now-familiar Blackwood mansion hallway at dawn.
Walking like this for no reason brought back memories of guard duty in the army.
Though this version had the fatal flaw of no shift changes even as the day changed.
-Rustle.
"Hm?"
"......"
What was that?
I thought I'd heard a noise from behind me.
Wondering if Isabel had followed me absentmindedly, I glanced back, but saw no one trailing me.
Must be my imagination. With tired steps, I headed to my destination: the kitchen.
"Haa.... I really don't want to chew garlic anymore..."
Yesterday, even after Ethan left, I'd spent over an hour chewing garlic while prepping veggies, so this sentiment was inevitable.
The results of all that hard work had plummeted in efficiency by day two, though.
⚔ STATUS ⚔ ✨ Magic Power: 245 / 245 I'd braced for some drop in efficiency, but I never imagined it'd tank this hard.
Rough calculations showed I'd used about the same amount of mana as the first day. It was just that my maximum mana had grown, reducing the relative gains.
Still, the undeniable fact was that my mana capacity was increasing.
At this point, quitting was impossible anyway—I'd come too far.
The senior maids now expected me to handle everything as a matter of course.
'Great job again today, Lilith~. Looking forward to tomorrow~.'
'See? We really need you, Lilith~. Wanna keep working with us from now on?'
'......'
Are they insane? As if I'd choose to work with them if I had a screw loose.
Who'd want to team up with second-years who boss around juniors after just two years?
I was only enduring this for the magic training benefits. Once this shift ended, I'd avoid those damn seniors as much as possible.
Just five more days, then I'd be back with Isabel. Hang in there until then.
-Creak.
With those thoughts, I pushed open the kitchen door and sighed involuntarily upon entering.
A mountain of refilled vegetables piled up overnight. The moment I realized my tasks hadn't changed.
...I just hadn't anticipated one other unexpected presence in the kitchen.
"Haaa..."
"Maid, did you just sigh?"
"......Huh?"
For some reason, an irritating voice came from nearby.
Thinking I'd misheard again, I cautiously looked around, but unfortunately, my guess was wrong this time.
The moment I spotted the short, squat silhouette near the kitchen counter, a curse nearly escaped me.
...But given who it was, I had no choice but to swallow it.
"The maid's sighing 'cause she hates working~. Should I tell Daddy~?"
"......"
"Maid, I'm hungry. So cook for me again today."
...Haa, seriously.
Starting my shift off pissed already.