The Angel Called a Villainess
My lady was an exceedingly busy woman.
"Lily, could you fetch the books listed here from the study? Oh — and some black tea as well, please? Use the good leaves."
"As you wish, my lady."
That damned Duke — a man who couldn't even manage the role of a father — had cast my lady away in this remote mansion, and now he was dumping every petty chore imaginable on top of her.
...Haah.
A lonely household, with not a single maid besides me — and I had only followed her here of my own accord. She was suffering treatment that would have been an injustice even for a commoner, let alone a nobleman's daughter, yet my lady simply laughed it off with a breezy, "But that means I get to be with you, doesn't it? This might even be a blessing."
Her conduct was certainly a fair bit more eccentric than the other noble daughters' — but had she really seemed wicked enough to deserve such treatment?
...I don't know. If I were the Duke, I would never have left a daughter so lovely to fend for herself.
"Here are the books and the tea, my lady. I took the liberty of bringing your favorite cookies as well."
"That's my Lily. You know what I want before I even ask."
"Well, I have watched you whine about there being no cookies once or twice before, my lady."
"Kuhuh... did I, now?"
Wandering the lonely mansion alone always sent thoughts like these welling up, but the moment I caught sight of my lady's bright smile, they all melted away like snow in the sun.
Right. A mere maid like me could agonize all day and never find an answer. For now, let me just focus on making my lady's life a comfortable one, Lily.
"Lily."
Tap, tap.
"...Why are you drumming on your lips all of a sudden, my lady?"
"I have a mountain of documents to finish by the end of the day."
"That must be exhausting. I can't help with the writing, since I can't read — but you have my full support!"
Tap, tap.
"Which means both my hands are occupied. So unless my lovely maid feeds me, I won't be able to eat a single cookie."
"Excuse me?!"
"Ahh~ could it be that no such maid exists for me? One who would devotedly feed cookies to a master who can't use her own hands?"
Tap, tap.
The lady who claimed to have no hands to spare had moved on from drumming her lips — she was now tapping away at my shoulder.
...Honestly.
"My lady."
"Hm~?"
"...If a lady makes requests like that, people might get the strangest ideas about her."
"I'm aware."
"Kuhuh."
A languid laugh.
I had caught on long ago that my lady was toying with me, but every which way I looked, there seemed to be no opening for escape.
Well, the one who falls first is the one at fault... Haah.
"There won't be a next time, though!"
"Thank you, as always, Lily."
The lady who had professed to be so terribly busy set her pen down on the desk, folded her hands neatly in her lap, and looked me straight in the eye.
Those blood-red eyes that everyone else scorned as ominous — yet to me, the purest red I had ever known, the first clean color I had laid eyes on since coming into this world. Holding the gaze of those eyes that always regarded me so tenderly, I carried a cookie from the plate up to my lady's lips.
...Well, it wasn't as though this were the first such exchange between my lady and me. There was less to do for amusement in a mansion housing only the two of us than one might think — all the more so under a bond as peculiar as maid and master.
"There's powder on your cute little hand, Lily."
"L-Lady Renoir!"
But today, my lady's teasing had taken a wickedly mischievous turn.
The moment I reached for the next cookie, she caught my hand — and began licking my fingertips.
An obscene pink tongue slipped out from between an angel's noble lips. Impossibly soft and supple, it traveled slowly up and down my fingers, lapping at a dusting of powder I couldn't even tell was there.
"Mmm, what a lovely taste. I may like this even better than the cookies."
"Th-this joke has gone way too far!"
I tried with all my might to wrench my hand free, but the difference in our builds made it a lost cause — and long before strength could have mattered, my heart had already melted into mush, leaving not an ounce of power in my fingers.
She was only licking my hand — so why did my whole body tingle like this?
If this keeps up... it'll look exactly like I'm lusting after my own lady.
I am not serving her out of anything so vulgar, I swear...!
"Oh my."
"I-I'll just go start dinner now!"
In the end, I only barely escaped, slipping free the instant my lady's grip loosened by a hair.
How was I supposed to face her afterward? Surely she wouldn't bring it up again...?
Harboring those anxious thoughts, I watched dinnertime arrive all the same.
"Delicious as ever today, Lily. Your cooking grows closer to my taste by the day."
"Th-thank you for the compliment, my lady."
Whether by fortune or misfortune, my lady never once mentioned the incident over our dinner for two... but the dream I had that night was far too mortifying to ever confess to another living soul.
"Hm? We're low on pepper..."
A few days after the Licking Incident.
The aftermath of that day had finally faded enough to free me from my pink-tinted dreams, but with my focus shot these past several days, I had failed at managing our food stores. Ordinarily I would have placed our orders well in advance... Haah.
"For that reason, I'd like to run down to the village for a short while to buy pepper and a few other ingredients—"
"No."
"M-my lady..."
"It's the merchant, isn't it? He'll come around again in two weeks. Send word now and he'll bring everything then. Make do without spices for a while, Lily."
Honestly, even with a dozen mouths I'd have had nothing to say in reply. Whatever my lady may or may not have done, the fault lay far more with me for letting my work slip.
And yet...
"...I don't mind for myself, but it means you'll be eating bland meals, my lady."
I couldn't bear for my mistake to put my lady in even the smallest situation she disliked — even something as trivial as her food losing its flavor. All the more so lately, with how often she'd been praising my cooking.
"For my sake..."
My lady seemed lost in thought, eyes closed, chin propped on her hand.
"Very well. You may go."
"Lady Renoir!"
In the end, what left her lips was permission.
What a relief... My lady had graciously forgiven me this once, so I would simply have to be careful never to make the same mistake again.
"That said, there are a few conditions."
"Conditions...?"
"Return before the sun sets. Buy only what you need, and stray down no side paths. Keep conversation with others to the bare minimum."
Well... that much is nothing.
I never particularly enjoyed talking to anyone but my lady anyway, so no trouble at all.
"And lastly — man or woman alike, I will not have a single fingertip of yours touched, Lily."
"Hm?"
Her voice seemed to harden with peculiar force on that final condition... or was that just my imagination?
No — when it came down to it, I was more or less her possession, so that must be it. She had always been particular about other people touching what belonged to her.
"Break even one of them, and you will be punished severely, Lily. Are you certain you'll be fine? If you simply waited two weeks, there would be no problem at all."
"I'll be fine! They're hardly difficult conditions to keep!"
"Fufu... well, all right. If you insist you'll be fine, Lily."
"Yes! Thank you for granting permission, my lady. I'll be back before you know it!"
Pepper, salt, flour... I should order ahead on everything, even the stocks we're not short of.
Eles Town — a town one had to walk a good thirty minutes and more downhill to reach from our mansion, tucked deep in the mountains. Said to take its name from a distant ancestor of Lady Renoir's, it overflowed with people and life — everything our gloomy mansion was not.
Courtesans prowled the streets, touting for customers with their own two feet, while adventurers trailed after them with grins hanging slack on their faces...
"Plenty of fine fresh fish came in today, folks! At least have a look around before you go!"
And merchants bawling themselves hoarse, hauling in every passerby they could. Perhaps it wouldn't have been, once upon a time — but to me, long since accustomed to the mansion's stillness, it was all just noise.
I want to hurry back and hear my lady's gentle voice.
"Hello, Auntie Mary."
Plugging one ear with the hand that wasn't holding my purse, I arrived at a shop that sold every manner of ingredient packed away in boxes.
"Oh my. Oh my, oh my."
The middle-aged woman who could only be the shop's owner had been counting gold at her counter mere moments before, but the instant she laid eyes on me, she dropped the coins onto the table as they were and bustled right up to me.
"Lily! It's been a whole year!"
"H-has it really been that long?"
"It has! Do you have any idea how much I've missed you!?"
Greeting me with a flurry of flamboyant gestures, she was — once upon a time — one of the maids who had served at the ducal estate. She was the one who had trained me so devotedly back when I was still green at the work... The only soul on this rowdy street I could truly trust, so naturally my feet had carried me straight here.
"Th-thank you. Um... I came today to pick up a bit of this and that. You do still deliver by cart, don't you?"
"...We do. But child — are you still staying at that mansion with Lady Renoir?"
"Of course. Ah — if possible, I'm hoping to buy quite a lot today. One small box of pepper, two sacks of flour, salt..."
"Lily. You are still young and beautiful... You don't have to rot away under that woman."
I did my best to steer us back toward the sale, loath as I was to bring up my lady at all, but she wasn't hearing a word of it.
"Why not leave that mansion, even now? The old master wouldn't say a word to someone who's given him years of devoted service. And if you've nowhere to go, you're always welcome to work under me..."
Grab.
Her hand, seizing mine without a moment's warning, was as wrinkled and warm as it had always been.
...My lady did tell me not to let a single soul touch me.
Yet my first thought wasn't of the memories I shared with her — it was the guilt of having broken one of my lady's conditions.
I should have pulled away sooner... I'm sorry, Lady Renoir.
"I'm quite all right, truly. I only came to buy supplies today, Auntie."
Taking care not to wound her feelings, I gently slipped my hand free and folded both of mine neatly atop my stomach.
So they couldn't be caught again.
"...I see. Haah, honestly."
Shaking her head a few times, Auntie picked the conversation back up on the business side, her voice brisk and bright once more. Once my sizable purchase was wrapped up, she forced a glossy red apple — pretty as a picture — into my arms over my repeated protests, and was nothing but kind to me to the very last.
...So they all still think my lady is a terrible person.
But my heart, in spite of her warmth, sank deep into gloom. It had been more than two years since my lady was cast out to that mansion, and nothing had changed at all.
Would the day ever come when we could cross this deep rift of feeling...? For that, my lady herself would have to leave the mansion first — and that, for now, was surely beyond hoping.
"So difficult, so difficult..."
Grumbling my grievances under my breath, I did make it all the way back up to the mansion...
"Welcome home, Lily."
The instant I saw my lady waiting for me at the entrance — an icy look carved onto her face — every bone in my body locked solid.
"I-I'm h-home... Eep!"
In the blink of an eye she was upon me, my wrist clamped fast in her grip.
That was the last bone-chilling thing I heard before an arm wound around my waist and I was hauled off into the mansion.