Chapter 13
Chapter 13
Maid Lady
The professors had granted me a grace period. It was only until next Tuesday, but having time to think was still a relief.
This kind of mind can’t think properly under pressure.
“Seriously, I almost lost my mind.”
I leaned back on the café sofa and muttered. After a brief silence, Aili finally made my smartwatch vibrate.
“Between Deep in a butler outfit and Deep in an engineer outfit… I’m gonna think about it for a bit.”
Right. Even here, nothing was normal. Because everyone around me was abnormal, Aili started to feel normal by comparison.
As I stared blankly into space, I felt someone approaching. My spatial awareness picked it up on its own.
When I turned my head, I saw a maid.
She had taken a seat where the two professors had just been.
“Are you Cadet Deep?”
Black hair and pomegranate-colored eyes. Her neatly cut bob and refined atmosphere gave off an unmistakably noble impression.
Her black hair was similar to Ran’s, but the quality was entirely different. Even more meticulously maintained than Aaron’s.
Not my type of appearance at all, and yet I found myself associating her with words like calm and beauty.
“G-good afternoon.”
“You don’t need to be so formal. While I am inside this café, I am simply a maid serving customers.”
Is she really just a maid? Her tone sounded far closer to a young lady. In fact, everything about her felt more like an aristocratic lady than a maid.
Perhaps noticing my reaction, the maid smiled and poured tea into my empty cup.
Honestly, I couldn’t tell the taste or aroma of tea. I just decided to think of it as extra water for hydration.
“You seem to be treating it as if it’s just water for hydration since you don’t understand its taste or aroma.”
“W-what?”
Did I really make it that obvious?
Before I could respond, she continued.
“Observing the intent of the one you serve is also a fundamental skill for a maid. I understood that Cadet Deep has some difficulty communicating with others, so I tried to read your intentions more carefully.”
She picked up a sugar cube with tongs and dropped it into my tea.
“If you cannot appreciate the taste, then I shall make it sweeter. If you cannot appreciate the aroma, then I shall soften it with milk. A maid does not disgrace the dignity of the one she serves, but supports them faithfully.”
“Are you… doing, a club, promotion?”
“I am the representative of this club.”
The maid stood and lifted the hem of her skirt, bowing gracefully. It was an archaic, almost noble greeting rarely seen anywhere else.
“Aila von Dis Pater. Representative of the Employment Club.”
Dis Pater.
The northern front controlled by Duke Dis Pater, one of the Empire’s war zones.
My eyes widened slightly. Aila smiled and sat back down as if she had expected my reaction.
“Why is a princess running a club like this?”
The Employment Club was supposed to be for cases where lower-ranking nobles were hired by higher-ranking nobles.
But this was on another level entirely. A duke’s eldest daughter from the northern front acting as a maid for someone else was absurd.
Seeing my confusion, Aila answered with a smile.
“Because cute maids are justice.”
This place really had no normal people.
“And many men seem to adore maids, do they not? Cadet Deep, do you not like them?”
If I had to be honest, it would fall under “like,” but I couldn’t possibly say that out loud.
She was a noble lady. I couldn’t just admit that.
But Aila already seemed to understand my thoughts and nodded in satisfaction.
“Then I have even more reason to invite you to our club.”
“Even more?”
“Ah, this might be a slightly embarrassing answer… but would you still like to hear it?”
No. Absolutely not.
She didn’t give me time to refuse.
“Truthfully, I am blessed with a noble lineage, which means I have never been able to give orders to those of lower status or commoners.”
I didn’t want to hear this.
“But if Cadet Deep joins our club and participates, then I will inevitably be able to experience serving you as part of my maid training.”
No, seriously, please stop.
“To experience a noble-born girl receiving orders from a commoner… that is something I deeply wish to experience.”
As she spoke, her eyes sparkled with unsettling excitement. Her flushed lips and bright gaze remained fixed on me.
Elegance. Calm. Beauty.
“Aah, I got a little too excited, didn’t I? Please just remember that I sincerely hope you join our club.”
Nothing was left.
She was just a certified maniac.
There was no way I was joining this club.
“And thus, I shall introduce the new members of our club.”
Choice only exists when you actually have options.
After returning home and regaining my senses, Aili had started digging through not the official academy site, but the community boards.
And she found something important about the Engineering Club led by Professor Sumeragi.
There might be class discrimination.
It wasn’t something officially written, but something people shared subtly within the community. The real answer would have been to check the community first.
Still, if Professor Sumeragi personally approached me, there were only two possibilities.
First, she intended to reshape the club around me.
In that case, I had no intention of joining. That meant I would be actively involved in club work, which I absolutely did not want.
Second, she had no real interest in her own club.
That wasn’t rare for instructors. And in that case, joining would mean receiving no protection at all.
Either way, I had no reason to go there.
Thinking about it, the fact she had casually shoved her students’ prototype into a bag already proved her lack of interest.
Why were they so obsessed with making me a teaching assistant?
When the deadline on Tuesday arrived, the only club I could choose without hesitation was Professor Zeke’s Employment Club.
Every time Aila looked at me with that satisfied expression, I felt a chill. That wasn’t a pure young lady. That was a pure-eyed maniac.
“First, this is Cadet Deep. You’ve all seen him on the academy community videos, right? Quite a talented pilot. A welcome addition to our operator-focused club.”
Polite applause filled the room.
Thankfully, introductions were mostly led by Aila. That seemed to be standard for this club.
Honestly, I wasn’t even sure if I could function properly in a club setting.
The stares focused on me made my body stiff. I could only tremble internally. Sweat soaked my back.
My smartwatch vibrated faintly. Aili telling me to get it together.
If something like that could help, I wouldn’t be a socially anxious mess.
“And next,”
Standing right beside me was a familiar-looking red-haired cadet. I couldn’t quite remember where I had seen him before.
“Levan. Like Deep, he belongs to the pilot department.”
Levan.
Where had I seen that name?
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!
All watches in the room rang at once.
A system-wide notification.
“Ah, an academy notice has been posted. Let’s check it first.”
There were only two possibilities.
Club registration extension, or forced assignment.
Or—
“The entrance exam rankings have been released?”
Everyone had been waiting for it.
The top scorer of the entrance exam.
The “first place.”
At the academy, that title carried enormous weight. Not my words, Ran’s words.
Being first place meant massive benefits.
Discounts on parts, facility usage, and even financial support.
At that point, it was practically a one-person corporation.
So naturally, everyone tried to build connections with the top scorer.
But who was it going to be?
Sahya the princess? Aaron? Someone else?
There were many candidates. All of them were strong nobles.
And then the announcement came.
“First place… Levan?”
The red-haired cadet grinned.
That was when I remembered.
The one who told me Aaron’s left side was weak.
The one who said he had no personal machine and used academy-issued equipment.
No.
How?