Chapter 2
Chapter 2
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: Inciting Incident (2)
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A completely ordinary South Korean male college student, Lee Ji-hwan.
That was the identity I remembered from my previous life.
I hadn't lived a spectacular life where I could recall every single moment from my childhood all the way through college.
Just the usual—studying through middle and high school like everyone else, getting into a decent university in Seoul, and living a standard college life.
Though I never managed to date anyone for various reasons, I had a reasonable number of friends, got average grades in university, and had my future all mapped out: graduate and join a decent company.
Even thinking back now, it wasn't like I'd lived some extraordinary life that would make me the perfect candidate for getting isekai'd into a game.
The only karma remotely related was that Luminor Academy was my favorite game, and I'd sunk nearly 2,000 hours into it.
...And that I'd been steadily posting on the Luminor Academy gallery—nicknamed Lua Gallery—calling Lilith a "total slut whore."
The one silver lining was that the Lilith whose memories I'd awakened in still hadn't had any... male experiences. She was pure.
If I'd possessed her after that bastard Pig Prince had finished "training" her, I probably would've bitten my tongue and killed myself right then and there.
"Still, if I was gonna get isekai'd, why not before she got sold to this house?"
It felt maliciously timed that I'd only regained my memories after a full year working at the Blackwood Manor.
Like being a flower crab slowly steaming to death in a pot you couldn't escape.
If things followed the original game plot from here, my future was just as horrific and predictable.
To sum up my situation: I had to work as a maid for the Blackwood Family for the next seven years.
That had been the choice made by the pre-memory Lilith Rosewood to pay off her father's gambling debts—in exchange for eight years of service.
Subtracting the year already passed, I was stuck here as a servant for seven more years, no escape.
Sure, seven years might give me a chance to slip away eventually, but this world wasn't kind to a commoner girl trying to make it on her own.
Making an enemy of a noble house and running? That was unrealistic from the start.
The Blackwood Family was an ancient ducal house.
Even if I somehow escaped the territory by sheer luck, capturing an unidentified commoner girl wouldn't be hard for them.
Of course, they wouldn't mobilize the territory guard just for one girl—that wouldn't make financial sense—so they'd probably let it slide once I was outside.
But if I ever crossed paths with the Blackwoods again, it'd be inescapable doom.
They'd turn me into a textbook example to make an example of someone who insulted a ducal house.
A future so bad it'd make getting "trained" by Pig Prince seem preferable. Better not even consider it.
With Lilith's abilities, she could probably scrape by as an adventurer in some guild, but adventurers ultimately lived off noble commissions anyway.
And finding stable work without papers? Only a brothel would hire an unknown girl unconditionally.
So escaping the manor and living differently? Table that for now. Escape itself wasn't easy anyway.
The most realistic path was serving out the remaining seven years of the mandatory contract and gaining independence.
There was another option: getting "saved" by the "protagonist" at Luminor Academy and fleeing.
"But that's a shitty ending too..."
Escaping via the protagonist's salvation had two big problems.
First, to meet the protagonist, I had to enroll in Luminor Academy—which meant accepting the position as Ethan's exclusive maid.
Second, after being saved, I'd have to stick with the protagonist all the way to the story's end.
In short: endure all sorts of crap from Pig Prince, then switch to the protagonist and repeat the role.
Follow the game's Lilith Rosewood route as the ultimate slut whore.
"Fuck. No way in hell..."
To escape Pig Prince, become his exclusive maid and stick it out until academy enrollment? What kind of nonsense is that?
And after escaping him, live as one of his girls until the ending?
Worse, if he went harem or Lilith-specific route, those few years could turn into a lifetime.
I shook my head to dispel the instinctive disgust.
Plus, if I somehow enrolled in Luminor Academy by enduring Pig Prince, only to miss the protagonist's salvation turn, things would get even worse.
"Play it safe, safe."
Seven years wasn't short, but it wasn't unbearable either.
Working as a Blackwood maid guaranteed food, shelter, and clothing—far safer than adventuring solo.
Besides, Lilith's abilities were specialized for party hunting over solo play, so going lone wolf wouldn't be easy anyway.
"Just grit my teeth for seven years. After the contract, Lilith will be mid-20s. Save money diligently, and I can go independent. Settle in some rural village farming peacefully, or open a small shop in a quiet town..."
It was a distant future not yet here, but imagining it working out didn't seem so bad.
Getting isekai'd into my favorite game world, Luminor Academy, was joy enough for me.
If not for possessing this damn character, Foolish Maid Lilith.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Three full days had passed since I regained my past-life memories and collapsed onto the bed.
"Lilith, how's your body feeling?"
"Ah, Isabel..."
The colleague smiling and talking to me now was Isabel, a fellow maid.
As I mentioned before, she'd entered the Blackwood Manor around the same time as the pre-memory me, a year ago.
Of course, back then I was just plain Lilith Rosewood, so it was a bond built in that life.
No plans to treat her like a stranger now that my memories were back.
She'd picked up maid duties quickly, as if she'd done similar work before, and I'd relied on her a lot over the past year.
As I said earlier, the 18 years of memories as Lilith hadn't vanished two days ago.
It was more like suddenly gaining an extra 20 years from my previous life tacked on.
So now I was a hybrid of 18-year-old Lilith Rosewood and 26-year-old Lee Ji-hwan.
Might've been better if I'd reincarnated as a baby with my male memories—18 years would've let me gradually accept being a girl.
...Nah, if I'd had memories from infancy, I could've stopped my damn father from gambling and never ended up sold to the Blackwoods.
The possession timing was absurd no matter how I sliced it. Just one year earlier, and things would've been way better.
Unless the trigger was seeing Ethan's face—which might've been unavoidable.
"...Lilith."
"It's not too late yet. Survive seven years and I can say goodbye to the Blackwoods forever. Then off to some distant city with no Ethan or anyone..."
"Lilith!"
"Whoa, you scared me!"
Isabel's voice right by my right ear made me flop backward onto my butt.
Turning, I saw her looking flustered, surprised I'd startled that badly.
"A-Are you okay, Lilith?!"
"Ow... that really hurts..."
"Sorry! I didn't think you'd get so startled..."
She clasped her hands, bowing her head in genuine apology.
No anger toward her face rose in me, so I quickly stood, brushing off my butt.
Partially my fault for zoning out mid-conversation anyway.
"I'm fine. It was my bad for spacing out during our talk."
"Really fine?"
"I told you, yeah. I've always said it—my body's tough enough not to get hurt easily."
"First time I'm hearing that today..."
"...Ah."
...Come to think of it, tough body was a past-life trait.
And since I'd died in an accident there, not even that.
Though nitpicking that now was pointless.
"So, Lilith, what were you thinking so hard about in the middle of cleaning? I was calling you from right beside you and you didn't notice."
"Just... nothing. Don't worry about it...?"
"And you've seemed off since the day before yesterday... You're not still sick, are you?"
"No, really. My body's perfectly fine."
The problem was my mind getting wrecked instead.
Endless problems ahead, none solved, so naturally I felt urgent.
At least regaining memories before becoming Ethan's exclusive maid gave me a chance to prepare.
But as a lowly maid, there wasn't much I could do right now.
Especially as a long-term contract servant sold for debts—leaving the manor was forbidden.
The only option was something within the manor, but the issue was there was no one of lower status than me here.
Isabel was a peer, same entry batch, and everyone else was Blackwood affiliates— no room for a commoner maid like me to maneuver.
Even among maids, we couldn't act casually toward seniors.
So realistically, the only person I could influence in this manor was Isabel.
"......"
"What's up, Lilith? Now you're staring at my face."
"...No, nothing."
Of course, "influence" didn't mean exploiting her.
No matter how desperately I flailed to escape becoming exclusive maid with my past-life memories, I wouldn't throw Isabel into that hell instead.
I wasn't ungrateful enough to forget a year's friendship or her secretly teaching me during probation.
Her nighttime lessons in the dorms let me fake normal maid now.
Without them, I'd probably still mess up salad before soup this morning, or ironing, or maid etiquette.
Drawing attention from family now was bad all around—I needed to stay invisible until I could act.
And Isabel, who'd made that possible, was someone to repay, not sacrifice.
'Sigh, who am I even worrying about right now...'
My fly-on-the-wall life could end tomorrow with orders to become Ethan's exclusive maid, no complaints allowed. Worrying about repaying favors?
Being a lowly maid in a ducal house was more exhausting than imagined.
I could only pray the next seven years passed without incident.