Then, that night.
In the guest room I shared with Isabel, I laid down and slept, exhausted.
Tomorrow, I’d finally get the kitchen shift I’d been looking forward to.
I had been transferred to the kitchen on a whim due to my appearance as Lilith, but I wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity.
This would be the first time Lilith would be able to do something for herself since she hadn’t been able to train with her magic out in the open or go outside the mansion to hunt monsters.
I know it’s only a week, but that’s all she needs right now.
My heart was pounding with excitement at the prospect of using magic for the first time, and my mind was having trouble drifting off to sleep.
Sensing that I wasn’t asleep yet, Isabel called out to me.
“Lilith, are you asleep?”
“…No, not yet.”
“Lilith, you’re working in the kitchen starting tomorrow. It’s going to be lonely for a while since you’re working away from here….”
“Relax, it’s only gonna be a week. Once the guests are gone, I’ll be back to working here.”
“True, but….”
From Isabel’s point of view, Lilith has been working with her for a year, so she must be very attached to her.
It’s not that I don’t miss being away from her. It’s just that I’ve always made mastering my magic my priority.
My proficiency with my skills could mean the difference between being able to escape Ethan in the future or not.
So, for now, I had to focus on personal growth rather than my friendship with her.
“So, Lilith.”
“Yeah?”
“Lilith, do you realize how much you’ve changed lately?”
“……?”
“Like, a week or so ago, you seemed like a different person.”
……?
“Well, yeah, I’m the same as usual, but…?”
“Well, look at this. You’re still not the same.”
I could feel a chill run down my spine at Isabelle’s assertive speculation.
She had just pointed out my tone of voice and carefully continued her speculation by suggesting that I was not Lilith.
“Lilith’s always been very polite to me, but lately, she seems to have stopped being polite at all, and she’s been acting strangely different.”
“………….”
…I was caught off guard.
I was so despairing at the fact that I had been possessed by Lilith that I realized too late that I had completely forgotten about her character.
Lilith, the Foolish Maid.
If I were to continue to pretend to be Lilith after I recalled my memories, I would have had to continue acting out that needlessly obedient and frustrating personality.
Only then would my true identity be revealed to someone so close to me.
…Oh no.
What am I supposed to do if Isabel finds out I’m not Lilith, but someone else?
Or should I try to keep her quiet in some other way?
With all these anxious thoughts racing through my head, Isabelle’s next words fell silent.
I tensed up and listened intently.
“So Lilith, by any chance, do you want to be friends with me?”
“…… Huh?”
“Well, you suddenly started talking to me more casually, and for some reason, I feel like we’ve gotten strangely close. Hmm, I was wondering if that might be the case….”
…Well, yes, it is.
There was no way I could have come up with the idea that the humans of this world were possessed by humans from another world or that they had regained memories of their previous lives.
They’d never find out unless I told them in the first place, but now that I thought about it, I had nothing to worry about.
“Well, yes, of course!”
“…Really?”
“In truth, I’ve wanted to be friends with you since we first met. I’ve been helping my father with his work since I was a kid, so I didn’t have time to go out and play with my friends. That’s also the reason why I started working with you.”
“Me, too…! I’ve always wanted to be friends with you, too…! But you always talk down to me, and I was wondering if it would be too much pressure to be friends….”
“Oh, I see….”
…It hurts.
It hurts to see Isabel’s innocence fooled by my blatant lies.
But what can I do? I can’t tell her the truth right away.
It’s better to go out with a bang than with a whimper.
“So, shall we just be friends from now on?”
“Yes, yes! Pinky promise!”
Isabelle poked her head out from the top of the bunk bed and pointed her pinky downward.
Making eye contact with her, I raised the pinky of my right hand and crossed it with hers.
With two slender fingers dangling, she and I shared a silent smile.
“Promise~.”
“Yes, I promise….”
…Well, that’s not so bad.
One more reliable relationship in this world.
The next day, 4 a.m.
I rolled out of bed to get ready for work after reading the current time on my hourglass, a stone that tells time.
By the way, the hourglass is a stone that changes its transparency depending on the time of day. At midnight, it’s the darkest, almost black, and at noon, it’s almost transparent, and so on.
The stones were used as a substitute for clocks in this world by writing numbers of different intensities on them and seeing if the numbers were readable or not.
There are also ordinary-looking clocks, but in this world, such things are usually the domain of magical tools.
At the very least, it’s not something you’d want in a two-room apartment shared by two lowly maids.
I hurriedly changed into the maid’s outfit I’d pulled out of the closet to ensure I wasn’t late.
A rustling sound woke me up, and I heard it coming from the top bunk of the bed.
“Lilith…. Is it morning already…?”
“Sorry, did I wake you?”
“No… I need to get up anyway….”
“You can sleep for two more hours. It’s only four o’clock.”
“……Huh, four o’clock?”
Isabelle hops down from the bed, looking at the time on the hourglass with a puzzled look in her eyes.
She looks puzzled as she confirms that it is indeed 4:00.
“Yes…. It’s 4:00….”
“Sleep a little longer. If you don’t like the bunk beds, you can sleep in my place.”
“…and what about you Lilith…?”
“I’m on kitchen duty, so the seniors said I have to get up two hours earlier, so I have to get to work early.”
“Really…? I didn’t hear about anything like that….”
As she said that, Isabel slowly snuggled herself into my bed.
It was understandable that she was tired, as she was caring for a girl her age from morning till evening.
Tomorrow, I’ll have to move a little more quietly so I don’t wake her.
“Good night, Isabel.”
“…okkkkk…”
I left Isabel in her room, still fast asleep in her bed on the first floor, and quietly slipped out, closing the door behind me.
I made my way to the dining room on the first floor, with quiet steps, so as not to wake anyone else in the mansion.
Taking a deep breath, I stepped quietly out the door.
Creak.
The dining room, the prep room, and the kitchen.
I opened the doors one by one and slowly stepped inside the kitchen door, being wary of the squeak of the worn hinges.
Into that forbidden space, where I, a lowly maid, would never be allowed.
‘…No one’s here.’
Actually, I was in a bit of a hurry, wondering if I was running late when I looked at the timetable. Fortunately, I didn’t seem to be in trouble for coming later than the senior maids.
Being a maid was hard work, and the hierarchy was a bit tight.
The hierarchy of maids, especially in a ducal household with so many employees, was similar to the military in my previous life.
If I didn’t want to get into trouble, I would have left as soon as possible.
“Haha, I really do have a lot of dirty work to do….”
A sigh escaped my lips as I looked at the mountains of potatoes and carrots piled up on one side of the kitchen.
This was barely enough for breakfast. I’d have to chop this much before lunch, and the same for dinner.
I could see what it meant to be called in at 4:00 when breakfast was at 9:00.
With this amount of work, it’s no wonder they ask you to come two hours earlier than you’re supposed to.
I could probably get it done in three hours with four maids.
‘…Just a quick check before the seniors get here.’
Being the first to arrive in the kitchen was an opportunity in another sense. After all, it meant I had a chance to use my magic without anyone noticing.
I took another look around and confirmed that there was absolutely no one in the kitchen.
I tried to remember how to open the information window of Luminor Academy from my previous life.
“…If I remember correctly, I should do this…”
[Name: Lilith Rosewood
Title: Junior Maid
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Occupation: Maid
Affiliation: Blackwood Family Employee
Attack: 3
Defense: 5
Intelligence: 4
Charm: 12
Luck: 0
Current Level: 2
Experience points remaining: 19
Current Skills >>
Current Health: 15 / 15
Current Mana: 21 / 21]
“…Oh, that’s it.”
The all-too-familiar information window appeared in front of me after spending two thousand hours grinding in Luminor Academy.
This is how the information window works. When you made the character you were playing perform a specific action, the character’s information window would pop up in front of you.
In the case of the main character, you could specify the action yourself, but for the other characters, the action to open the information window was already set.
For Lilith, the way she opens the info window is by silently clasping her hands together in prayer.
Since I was only level 2, most of her stats were pretty bare bones, but this was something I’d have to work around later by leveling up.
Out of all the stats, the two that stood out the most were Charm and Luck.
These two stats seemed to represent Lilith’s life well, as they were the extremes, while the other stats were hovering around average.
These stats were perfect for Lilith, who, because she was beautiful, caught the eye of Ethan, an asshole of a prince, and had a terrible life until she was accepted into the academy.
It’s important to note that Intelligence, Charm, and Luck don’t have a direct effect on reality, but only affect the accuracy and power of your skills.
If you have higher Intelligence, your magical abilities will be more effective, if you have high Luck, your hit accuracy will be higher, and so on.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that a character with 0 intelligence is dumber than a straw bug.
Of course, the rate of stats increasing as you level up tends to be proportional to the character’s stats.
Note that Charm was a stat that affected buff and debuff magic. Since Lilith herself is a buff and debuff specialist support character, it makes sense that she would have high attractiveness.
This was also consistent with the fact that she was treated as an attractive character in-game.
‘…Luckily, it doesn’t seem like popping up an information window is treated as magic.’
Up until this point, I’d been hesitant to even open an information window, just in case, because I might be accused of using magic.
Now that I’ve confirmed that I’m not, I’ll be able to open the info window anywhere from now on.
That alone had fulfilled more than half of my purpose for coming to the kitchen today.
“…Oops.”
Realizing that I had entered the world of Luminor Academy for the first time in a long time, I wasted too much time looking at Lilith’s information window.
Even though the other senior maids hadn’t arrived yet, if I arrived early and didn’t do anything, they would yell the crap out of me.
It’s an information window, it’s magic, and I’d better pretend to be working just to check it out.
After all, I could peel potatoes while checking the information window.
‘Let’s get some work done. The opportunity will come later.’
I picked up the mountain of potatoes and carrots, thinking that not raising suspicion was my top priority.
As I waited for the other senior maids to enter the kitchen, I began prepping the ingredients for breakfast.
Chop. Chop.
“Square…….”
Chop. Chop.
“Square…….”
Half an hour later…
After I’d peeled enough potatoes to fill a large crockpot, I finally noticed.
“…These bitches.”
That I had been fooled by a bunch of fucking senior maids.