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Honestly, I find it absolutely infuriating how utterly terrible your reading of the room can be. Exactly what about my death do you find comforting? If anything, you should be crying your eyes out over your recent change in relationship status to widow! I find it downright insulting how you sully my memory and make me look so cruel! WHEN HAVE I EVER BEEN HARMFUL TO YOU IN ANY WAY?! I gave you the privilege of being with someone so perfect that he was practically beyond your own reality, and yet all you can do is harbor negative thoughts and feelings toward me! This is a complete violation of my post-mortem rights! YOU INSOLENT WOMAN!
...
Before the white-haired man with the grotesque expression could lay a hand on her, she suddenly awoke with an indifferent expression, save for a tiny twitch in her eyes. Controlling her facial expression for so many years in order to maintain perfect indifference was a habit that couldn't simply be erased in a few months.
It was night. Very late at night.
No matter how much she knew that her ex-husband was a whiny idiot who would be nothing without his cheat-like ability, the fear was still etched into her heart.
—...
Determined to get some water, she got up from the comfortable bed. She could no longer fall asleep. She made her way barefoot across the soft, cold, bluish carpet. Everyone seemed to be asleep.
She knew she wasn't the only one having these kinds of problems. Resettling after being prisoners of the Archbishop had not been easy. Many of them, herself included, had decided to remain in the service of their saviors.
Although it was comforting, they couldn't help but still feel somewhat without freedom. They had merely changed who their devotion was directed toward, and now they had the freedom to leave or express themselves more comfortably. Yet the uncertainty that there was no longer a world worth living in outside the mansions weighed on them like a carriage piled high with burdens.
It didn't help that the man they now served was, above all else, a strange individual who enjoyed wearing makeup and speaking in a sing-song voice, whom practically no one in his immediate circle—save for a pink-haired maid—seemed to particularly like or tolerate.
And the fact that the man who had personally participated in their liberation had an intimidating stare and a reputation for being an excessively energetic and expressive madman didn't exactly help either.
"Nice to meet you! I hope we can all get along from now on! If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask!"
He announced enthusiastically, pointing a finger toward the sky as he welcomed the newly freed girls.
If you asked Sylphy, he was strange, but he didn't seem to have any bad intentions. Still, unfavorable rumors circulated about his perverseness and his particular fondness for young maids, thanks to one of her instructors, a woman called Ram.
Now that she thought about it, she had never actually seen Ram work at the same pace as everyone else in the mansion.
Putting those slanderous thoughts about the older maid aside, she walked through the monotonous corridors illuminated by moonlight streaming through the wide windows.
If more than half of her fellow maids had found themselves in a similar situation, she wondered how they had managed to recover from their insomnia.
Ah. There he is again.
It was no secret that Knight Natsuki frequently stayed up past his bedtime. He always seemed to push himself harder than necessary. This time in particular, he appeared to be leaving the room of the sleeping young lady under the Authority of Gluttony.
—...
Her stomach sank slightly with noticeable discomfort as she watched the young man disappear around the corner. Her unease led her to inspect the room he had come from.
—...
There doesn't seem to be any noticeable change in the room.
She sighed, trying to ignore the uncomfortable thoughts running through her restless mind. Her suspicions and fears stemmed from a terrifying experience during her time living alongside the Archbishop of Greed.
At night, he would often patrol the rooms, since he didn't need to eat, sleep, breathe, drink anything, or—
...
She left the room, carefully closing the door behind her. The kitchen was quite far away, and if she was lucky, she wouldn't run into Lord Natsuki again.
The blonde descended the stairs normally, only to find, to her misfortune, Subaru already downstairs, gazing at the moon through the kitchen windows with an empty glass in his hand.
Looks like she wasn't the only one who had the same idea.
This encounter was inevitable.
It was obvious that the black-haired young man had already heard her footsteps descending and approaching in his direction, so there was no way for her to turn back without looking suspicious.
She entered silently, trying to suppress her growing unease and hoping to go unnoticed.
"Oh, hey. Sylphy, right?" he greeted gently, his thoughtful expression turning into a smile as he looked at her.
Oh, well.
"Good evening, Lord Natsuki," she said politely as she took another glass from the cabinet, feigning indifference.
Noticing that Sylphy didn't seem interested in conversation, the boy decided to remain silent and return to what he had been doing. It was easy to tell from the dark circles beneath the beautiful young woman's eyes that she had been having trouble sleeping.
"Sir..." she called, uncertainty evident in her voice.
"Yes?"
"What are you doing awake at this time...?" she asked, a note of exhaustion resonating in her voice, unable to hide her curiosity.
"Ah, I had a little nightmare."
"...May I ask you something?"
"Go ahead."
"If you don't find it too intrusive of me to ask... could you tell me what you were doing in Lady Rem's room?"
"Well... watching her sleep calms me down quite a bit."
"...You only watch her sleep, right?"
Huh?
With growing indignation, he turned toward the maid, utterly stunned by such an accusation.
Sylphy immediately regretted asking the question so bluntly when she saw the hurt expression on her superior's face.
"I'm sorry. I apologize. That was a terrible offense on my part—"
"What exactly makes you say that?!" he asked indignantly, raising his voice, visibly uncomfortable.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! It's just that, considering your reputation and the rumors, I had a moment of doubt—"
As her embarrassed stream of apologies continued, she realized she was only making things worse when she saw Subaru's complexion growing paler as he listened.
"W-what reputation? What rumors?" he asked nervously.
"Well... when Lady Ram talks about you—"
"She's ruining my reputation again!"
He felt a strange sense of déjà vu as his hands held his own hair and rested his elbows on the counter, burying his face between them in frustration, his blush growing deeper.
"Exactly what does she say about me?!" he asked, distressed.
Sylphy took a step back. Subaru realized that he might have sounded a little too harsh and could only look away in embarrassment.
"W-well... Nothing particularly serious. The last part was mostly my own prejudice getting the better of me..." she confessed sheepishly, staring at the floor.
"Ah."
His mind immediately began working through the possibility that all the new maids probably had a terrible opinion of him. This definitely called for a serious conversation with the haughty pink-haired maid to see if he could repair at least some of his shattered reputation.
She bowed deeply, apologizing once again for her transgression to the now-defeated knight, who had his face buried against the cold marble countertop.
Even so, there was something she wanted to get off her chest.
Whenever she asked about the blue-haired girl who looked almost identical to Lady Ram, she received vague answers about her being Ram's sister, having once worked as a maid in the mansion, and, of course, having been a victim of the Archbishop of Gluttony.
"Lord Natsuki..."
"Hmm...?" he groaned resignedly.
"Who was Rem?"
"Uh..."
Lifting his face from the cold surface, he answered formally, avoiding Sylphy's eyes.
"She's Ram's sister. She also worked as a maid, and she's under..."
Yes. The usual answer.
But this time, Sylphy decided to press a little further.
"You seem to be able to remember her despite what happened. It's obvious how much affection you still have for her. Who was Rem to you?"
"Hope..." he murmured absentmindedly.
"Hope?"
"I broke down before forming the alliance between Crusch and Anastasia. Then she motivated me to keep fighting. She was a vital part of the plan to bring down the White Whale... I was never able to properly investigate the sequence of events for those who are incapable of recognizing Rem's existence, but I don't exactly look forward to finding out what they think happened on the battlefield..." he said melancholically.
The amount of praise and recognition he received after Rem's existential erasure was absurd.
Impossible.
Even for someone who knew him personally, believing in him so deeply was simply ridiculous.
Suddenly, he became the Super-servant man from his very first day of work, did three times the amount of work while rescuing the village from the Mabeasts, and rode alone through the fog to solve every problem.
The undeserved respect that came afterward gave him ulcers.
He didn't even seem to realize that tears were falling from his ugly eyes.
...
Sylphy didn't know how to respond to what she was seeing.
Had she just made a Royal Knight cry?
At this point, any punishment she received would probably be deserved.
"L-Lord..."
Confused by her sudden shift toward pity and empathy, he only now realized that he was dirtying the place with his pathetic existence.
"A-ah! I'm so sorry about that!" he exclaimed in embarrassment, wiping his face with his forearm as he hurried to flee the scene. "G-good night, Sylphy!" he said as he raced up the stairs.
The young woman remained downstairs, unsure of how to process what had just happened.
She definitely regretted doubting the knight's good intentions so much.
She returned to her room, though not before taking one small glance at Rem's room, and resolved to hold Subaru in much greater respect from that day forward and to try to dispel the bad reputation that was forming among the other maids.
...
A week later, Subaru was blushing and visibly nervous as he explained how he prepared breakfast alongside his new companions.
The reaction was caused by the sudden closeness they seemed to have developed. Three good-looking girls—one of them taller than him—were watching with interest as he prepared one of the original recipes from his homeland, while the other maids listened to the growing nervousness in the boy's voice.
The situation earned him a cheerful smile from Emilia and Frederica's approval as they watched the girls getting along with him.
A mocking laugh from his brothers, Garfiel and Otto.
A strange, proud look from Ram, who was clearly amused by his current state.
A peculiar expression of jealousy from Petra, and one of indifference from Beatrice, as though the popularity of her naive spirit contractor was hardly surprising to her.
Roswaal seemed to be holding back his laughter with his face hidden behind one hand.
"W-what are you all looking at me like that for?!" the boy asked as he looked around at his group.
Recently, all the maids seemed to have grown much closer to him, and he had absolutely no idea what to make of the situation.