The Eldest Young Master's Personal Maid (1)
"Haah... haah...!"
I hoisted the stone and set it down again, over and over.
Snapping my own leg was the sort of madness that would horrify anyone who saw it — hell, it horrified even me, and I was the one about to do it. Still, if it broke clean in a single blow, the aftereffects shouldn't be too bad, and if I said I'd been hurt on the job, they'd give me medicine besides. Far better than being whipped, denied treatment, and driven out.
Of course, the best option would have been to throw myself into Oliver's arms.
I'd rather die.
A man's cock, inside my body. Absolutely not.
"Huuu..."
I drew a long breath, squeezed my eyes shut, and lifted the stone. I was a heartbeat from bringing it down—
"D-dangerous...!!"
Someone shoved me, and I went sprawling into the grass.
"Waaah...!!"
I scrambled up in a panic. A huge, fat man lay collapsed in front of me, and beside his head rested the head-sized stone I'd been holding only moments before. Silver hair — rare even in this other world.
"The eldest... young master...?"
The eldest son of this estate. Damian de Arbana.
"Y-young master, why are you here...?! Don't tell me I just killed the eldest young master...?!"
I'm dead. A maid murdering a noble. A crime so grave that dying ten times over wouldn't be strange.
"Aaaah...!! N-no... b-but it was an accident... an accident, I swear...!!"
"U-um..."
"W-waaaaaah...!!"
Damian caught my shoulder and called my name, and I screamed anyway.
"Y-young master...! You're not dead...?!"
"Could you... not kill me off on your own...?"
Silken silver hair. Violet eyes, the same as Oliver's. And a fat body, a swollen-looking face pebbled with acne. The eldest young master I'd only ever heard about in rumors. It really was Damian.
"Ah... um... s-sorry, but could you... not stare quite so openly...?"
The sight had been so shocking that I'd been gaping at his face without realizing it. Damian flushed and turned his head away.
"Ah... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..."
"...It's fine. I'm used to it."
Used to it. The look on his face as he said it was sad, and for no good reason my past life surged up and caught in my throat. I'd been an ugly man back then. I'd never been loved. I'd never even had so much as a fling. Even the childhood friend I'd liked... Anyway, I wanted to comfort him. Even if it was a lie meant to get me out of this—
"Ah... n-no...! I'm the one who should apologize... Young Master Damian's... um... your silver hair is so beautiful that I ended up staring without realizing it..."
My conscience twinged, but his silver hair really did gleam like silk.
"...What?"
It must not have been the answer he'd expected. He stared at me, blank.
"W-why are you looking at me like that?"
At the question he startled, eyes darting every which way, unable to hold still.
"N-no...! I was just... c-curious why you were holding a stone...!"
"Ah... well, you see..."
I poured the whole miserable story out to him.
"So... I was doing that because I didn't want to go to Young Master Oliver... ah—!"
Only after I'd spilled everything did it hit me that Oliver and Damian were brothers, and that the man in front of me was the eldest son of this estate. I bowed my head and apologized. Badmouthing a noble to a noble's face — his own younger brother, no less.
"I-I'm so sorry...! I-it's not that I wouldn't be loyal to Lord Oliver and Lord Damian, absolutely not...!!"
"...Right. I understand. I'll take care of it."
Damian didn't get angry. He simply nodded and rose.
"You should hurry back and get to work too."
"Yes..."
A few steps away he glanced back, face red.
"You... what's your name?"
"Y-yes...? It's... Aris..."
"All right, Aris... you don't have to go to the study tonight."
With that, he left. I got up and went back to work, and the maids welcomed me with worried faces.
"Aris, they said you weren't feeling well — you okay? We'll finish up today, so you go in early and rest... tonight... you're gonna be busy..."
"Ah... no, I'm fine. I'll work with you. I feel better after resting a bit."
They looked at me with uneasy eyes. I finished the day's work, washed up, and then paced the room, torn in two.
"Hey, Aris. You're making me dizzy — just sit down. You need to take a dump or something?"
Kali, sprawled on the bed, glared at me.
"Haa... you have no idea how sweet Young Master Oliver was today. Hehe. I might be done with this maid's life before long."
From the way she talked, she didn't seem to know Oliver had been making advances at me.
"Haa... do I really not have to go?"
Damian had said I didn't. I was worried anyway.
"Aris, is something wrong?"
Ruina, fresh from her bath, perched on the edge of my bed and took my hands. Soft hands.
"Ru... Ruinaa..."
A few tears slipped out, and I buried my face in her enormous breasts and rubbed like a madwoman.
"Ah... ahn...! Aris... that tickles...! Hehe!"
Through a single thin layer of cloth, those huge breasts made a cock I didn't even possess feel like it was about to stand at attention. Soft, yielding flesh gently cupping my face. If heaven existed, it would feel something like this.
"Hsss—. Haa... I seriously want to stay like this my whole life... Ruina, won't you marry me?"
"You've been weird since we were little, Aris..."
Even at nonsense like that, she smiled and patted my shoulder. Ruina was going to make a wonderful mother someday. A shame I couldn't be the husband. If she ever brought one home later, he'd need my permission first.
And so the next day came.
"Mmm... Aris, did you stay up all night? You look exhausted..."
"Yeah... a little."
Even with Ruina's comfort, sleep hadn't come easily. Regret kept washing over me — should I have gone to Oliver's study yesterday and begged him to stop? And any moment now that door might fly open and Oliver would come storming in, veins standing out, face scarlet with rage.
"Haa..."
The bed across from mine was empty. Kali had already gone to Oliver. I just hoped the sparks wouldn't land on her. Fretting over it, I put on my maid's uniform and went to work.
Morning passed. Noon came. Oliver never appeared. Given everything I knew of him, he was the sort of man who might have stormed in and slapped me across the face at any moment — and yet nothing happened at all. Did Damian actually do something?
I was turning that over while trimming carrots when the Head Maid called me.
"Aris, come with me."
I followed her on trembling legs. The Head Maid never summoned a maid in person under ordinary circumstances, and she certainly never led one off somewhere herself. So Oliver was angry and had called for me after all. Was I about to be dragged away, rolled up in a carpet, and whipped?
While I was thinking it, she stopped before a door — the largest, most ornate door in the estate. The Family Head's Office.
"My lord. I have brought the maid Aris."
A voice from inside told us to enter. The Head Maid stepped back, armored soldiers opened the door, and I scurried in after her.
"...You are Aris."
Silver hair, green eyes, a handsome man in his middle years. Master of this estate, and head of the Arbana Family — Arbalt de Arbana.
"M-my lord. I am honored to be in your presence."
I bowed in a hurry.
"Yes... how old are you?"
He asked it from his seat at the desk.
"I... I turned twenty this year... and I've been working here for two months..."
"Is that so... quite a pretty little thing."
At the family head's words I clenched my hands tight. I'd thought I'd escaped Oliver — don't tell me I'd caught the family head's eye instead.
"...Half-elf, are you."
He murmured it, looking at my ears. Being half elf and half human, mine were a little more pointed than most people's. A casual glance usually missed it. He must have a sharp eye. His gaze was a little unpleasant, though.
"I called you because that boy Damian asked to be given a personal maid... it seems he is a man after all."
Arbalt let out a short laugh.
"From now on, you are the personal maid of our family's eldest son, Damian. You may withdraw."
With that, he dismissed us.
"Then come this way. I'll show you to Young Master Damian's room."
I followed the Head Maid down the corridor until we reached Damian's room, in the farthest corner of the estate.
"I'll be going, then."
She left just like that, and I was left standing alone in the hall. Might as well go in.
Creeeak.
"Um... Young Master? I'm Aris, and starting today I'm your personal maid..."
I poked only my head in. The room was filthier than I'd expected. The furniture was expensive enough, but papers that looked like magic circles and mathematical formulas were scattered across the floor and the walls, all over the room. Careful not to step on them, I crept inside.
"Ugh... what is that smell..."
The moment I stepped in, a sour, sticky air hit my nose. Like a sewer mixed with sweat.
"Ah."
Damian must have been researching something all night. He wasn't on the bed — he was slumped over the desk, as if he'd fallen asleep there. I went to his side and looked down at his face.
"..."
I'd felt it yesterday too... he was ugly as fuck. And that revolting stench of sweat...