(Renée’s POV)

The task that Reden took over. 

I felt guilty even though I wasn’t the one who neglected it.

God, so it was originally Renée Blair’s job, but Reden took care of it. 

However, if it was Renée Blair’s duty in the first place, then this makes things easier.

“Well, yes! It was originally my duty so I want to take care of it from now on. Please give me the position, Sir.” 

I clasped my hands together and said as if I was begging. But Reden was an impregnable fortress. I cramped my face and sighed. My sudden visit must seem quite suspicious.

“I asked what kind of trick you are pulling..”

He fixed his eyes on the paper again. Time seemed to be a waste.

“I’m not pulling any tricks…”

“You neglected it, making me take over the responsibility. Now you claim you want to do it. Do you think I’ll believe you without doubting your intentions?”

Please do not repost our translation. Read only at Pink Muffin Translations.

Of course, it’s not like I don’t understand where he’s coming from. 

Worried about my adamant stance, he bit his lips tightly and put his hands on the desk.

“Then, what do I need to do to earn your trust?”

His hand paused. I added another condition since he didn’t seem to mean to ignore me.

“If you’re unable to trust me, you can put in some conditions.” 

“…Hmm.”

Conditions. He muttered and looked up.

His eyes, similar to mine, were calm as a still lake. He doubts my intentions and remains as an impregnable fortress. But I can see that he’s sincerely considering my words. 

“If I do well, perhaps you can put more trust in me?” 

I thought he would give me a response, but instead he came up with a random question.

“I wasn’t going to ask you this but what’s wrong with your face?” 

My face? 

I touched my face wondering what was on it. I felt a slight pang on my cheek. The pain made me realize that it was the cheek that I slapped because of the quest. I shrugged and responded in an indifferent tone.

“Oh, this.” 

“Who hit you?””

“Why? Are you worried about your sister getting beat up?”

“Worried?”

Reden repeated my words in a mocking tone. 

Oh, well. I know that you and Renée Blair weren’t close enough to each other for you to worry… Still, mocking at me like this still hurts my feelings. 

Please do not repost our translation. Read only at Pink Muffin Translations.

Slightly embarrassed, I coughed and shrugged. 

“Well, let’s move on. What do you think? Are you going to hand it over to me?”

“…It doesn’t matter what the conditions are?” 

“Yeah! It doesn’t matter. As long as I get the job back.”

Reden was silent. He wore such a complicated expression that it was hard to tell what he was thinking. 

I had no choice but to tilt my head inquisitively. He sighed in response.

“Yeah. I have no idea why you’re doing all this so suddenly. If you agree to my condition, then I’ll hand you the authority.”

“Good! What’s the condition?” 

“Don’t abuse your power.” 

Are you trying to make it difficult for me to punish them? 

I answered right away. 

“I accept your condition.” 

“I’m telling you not to raise their salary for no reason.”

“Oh, my. Of course.” 

“…If you abuse your power…” 

“What would happen?” 

Reden stared at me and lowered his gaze. Maybe it was just a feeling, but I felt like he was avoiding my eyes. 

“I’ll kick you out of the family.” 

Oh, what a strong punishment.

I was impressed by how firmly he stated his condition. As if he were already expecting it to happen. But I didn’t feel worried. I had no intention of violating his conditions. 

The goal is to hire myself as a maid. 

Not only that, I want him to see me in a positive light as much as possible. I’m saying that I’m going to avoid doing anything that’s out of Reden’s scope of authority.

“Good!” 

I was quite willing to accept it after thinking this far; however, Reden’s eyes bore into mine once again.

Please do not repost our translation. Read only at Pink Muffin Translations.

He looked at me with great distrust, so I smiled and stuck my pinky out to him. 

“You still don’t trust me? Then let’s make a promise with our fingers, come on.” 

I waved my pinky. Reden looked down at my shaky fingers from his point of view.

Was it too much?

Realizing that my finger had been up for a long time, I decided to awkwardly withdraw it only to find Reden hook his little finger onto mine.

The unexpected gesture made me stiff in bewilderment.

“Whoa…”

I thought that you’d ignore me thinking that it was a ridiculous gesture. But you actually gave in and followed. Could this be taken as progress?

It was a shy gesture but I put a lot of meaning to it. That was a big enough deal to me. 

Anyways, the mission was a success!

I was trying to pull out my finger with glee but Reden suddenly showed no signs of letting go of our pinky lock. 

Surprised, I opened my eyes wide and looked at him. 

“You’ve gotten weird.”

I didn’t understand him and stared blankly. Noticing what he meant with those observing eyes, I smiled and put my thumb against his thumb. 

Please do not repost our translation. Read only at Pink Muffin Translations.

“It’s not weird. It’s back to normal.”

It was a significant and indirect message of my image change to be similar to other people, not uniquely bothersome.

-ˏˋ ━━━━━━ ʚɞ ━━━━━━ ˊˎ-

(Renée’s POV)

After lunch, the housekeeper Catherine came to my room. 

She was the one who led me inside the mansion on the first day of my duties. 

I thought it was usually done by the Lady’s exclusive maid but…

Since I became possessed, I have never even seen the shadow of an exclusive maid, so I came to the conclusion that there was no one assigned for it. 

Red hair, brown skin, and scars on the cheeks. She had a big body and tall height. Catherine, who brought the document, looked at it in awe without realizing.

“Do you need anything”?

“None, these are all that I need, right?”

“Yes, these are employee resumes and plans that I receive weekly. And these are salary statements and resignation letters. We keep these on file for about a year before we destroy them.”  

There were more documents than I thought. Especially… 

Please do not repost our translation. Read only at Pink Muffin Translations.

“There are a lot of resignation letters.” 

Catherine remained silent as I muttered to myself. Yeah, I’m aware. She wants to say that it’s because of me, but she can’t. 

I coughed in vain from embarrassment before smiling at her. 

“Anyways, great work. I’ve already heard the details from Reden this morning. You may take your leave.” 

“…Yes, I see, Lady. If you need anything else, please call me.”

Catherine said in a polite tone and left the room.

It wasn’t until after I heard the door close that I hurriedly looked through the documents. 

If you ask me, I want to laze around and not do this. However, I want to avoid getting on Reden’s bad side. So I have to properly fulfil my duties.

Me taking charge of this doesn’t mean that Reden will now have time to relax. I should at least contribute this much.  

I also need to complete the mission. 

“But what if I still don’t succeed?” 

I shook off my anxious thoughts. Overthinking won’t help me in any way. 

I skimmed through the resume and among them, there was one that really stood out. 

Susan Ballamy, an impressive woman with decades of experience as a maid. But this person works as a personal maid.

She was my personal maid. 

“…What? I had a personal maid? Why haven’t I seen her?”

Isn’t it normal for an exclusive maid to follow around me all day like a shadow? 

I was a bit puzzled as I was unfamiliar with the duties of a personal maid. I had figured that Susan’s weekly plan would have an answer to my query, so I searched for it.

It didn’t take me very long to find it. 

Please do not repost our translation. Read only at Pink Muffin Translations.

“Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm”. 

Her plan, which was written in great detail, sounded perfect. 

But there was a problem.

In the plan it states that she is always by my side. But how come she has never appeared in front of me?

Rather, everything that was written in the plan were things that Handel did for me.  

“A schedule like this wouldn’t allow you to take a vacation, would it?” 

Did she pass off the duty of being the scoundrel lady’s personal maid to the ‘seemingly gullible’ Handel? I sure hope not. 

I decided to ask her in person later and put down the week plan. 

Then I noticed an eye-catching sheet of paper on the cluttered desk filled with disorganized documents. This one sheet of paper was a subtly different color than the rest.  

I absentmindedly pulled out the paper from the stack. At the top of the sheet, written in big letters, was “Knights of Hugo Report”.

“Knights of Hugo”? 

Somehow it sounded familiar. I read the content by reflectively lowering my gaze. 

[Found a trend dragon hibernating in the Sukea Mountains in the eastern part of the Kingdom of Uphony and completed subjugation over a span of two weeks. Dragon carcasses will be distributed to some martyards except bones and hearts. Three injured. No deaths. In the next two week we will head for the Kingdom of Conia. Furthermore….] 

Below the short content were the signatures of the deputy head of the Hugo Knights and Reden Blair. It appears to be a document that Reden received from the Knights.

More than that… A Dragon? 

It wasn’t that I didn’t know what a dragon was. Just strangely enough, the word dragon caught my attention. 

*knock, knock

“Gah!” 

Like a person caught spying on something, I was startled by the sudden knock. I asked the person to come in while I hurriedly put the documents down on the desk.

I wondered who it could be and saw that it was just Catherine standing outside.

Please do not repost our translation. Read only at Pink Muffin Translations.

“May I ask what brings you back here?”

“I’m sorry, lady. I think I might have accidentally mixed up another document in the pile I just gave you, but…” 

“Oh, I believe this might be it! There is something odd in the pile you’ve given me.” 

For some reason, I don’t think I should tell her that I read it. So I handed the documents over right away without saying anything. Catherine bowed bluntly and left the room.

“Hmm… Moreover…” 

I crossed my arms and tilted my head. 

Aside from the dragons, I think I’ve heard of the Hugo Knights somewhere…

Oh well. I’ll think about it later. 

I took out my resume.

According to Reden, they recruit employees once every three months. 

The timing was perfect. I thought that if I don’t apply at a specific time and approve it right away, then I wouldn’t be able to proclaim myself as a second-grade maid.

It was only a hunch, but it’s better to consider everything. The mission window seems to be quick at picking up things so sensitively. 

Please do not repost our translation. Read only at Pink Muffin Translations.

“Huuh…” 

Why am I nervous? 

I grabbed the pen with my cold hands and wrote my name on the resume. 

However, as soon as I wrote down my name, I faced another difficulty. I had to write down Renée Blair’s date of birth.

“…I’m not aware of such a thing!”

I only know the FL’s birthdate!!