Chapter 22
An Unexpected Helper
After quickly cleaning up Chris’s room, which had somehow become completely empty, I ran outside. I had already seen Chris off, so now it was time to see Damian off as well.
In the distance, I saw Damian talking with Ru. The two of them seemed to notice my footsteps and looked my way.
“You came fast,” Ru said.
“That’s because Your Highness dragged things out too long,” I replied lightly to Ru’s sarcastic remark, then turned my gaze to Damian. As usual, he was smiling.
“Stay a little longer before you go. You were only here for two days,” I said.
“No. Father will be waiting,” Damian answered.
Even though his father only caused him pain, Damian still thought of his family until the very end. I met his eyes as he smiled.
“Damian. If it gets too hard, don’t hold it in. Just let it out.”
His smile faltered slightly. Damian was always like this. No matter how he felt, he always tried to show me only a bright expression.
Given the situation, I thought he might show at least a little of how hard it was for him, but he kept smiling until the end. That made it look even more painful.
“When things are hard, it’s okay to complain or get angry. Why are you trying to endure everything? I can take it all, so you don’t have to hide it.”
At last, the smile completely vanished from Damian’s face. He bit his lip tightly, and tears began to gather in his eyes.
When Damian finally started crying, I smiled softly and wiped away his tears with my thumb.
Damian was only fourteen years old. His family kept growing poorer, forcing them to let go of the servants he had grown attached to. Now, all that remained in the house were his father—who wasted time on things no one understood—and Damian himself.
Seeing the empty house and his father slowly falling apart must have made it harder and harder for him to endure. I spoke gently to Damian as he continued to cry.
“If it’s hard to be alone, come visit anytime. I’ll pay for the carriage.”
“But… I’d just be a burden…”
“I didn’t have anything else to spend money on anyway. Seeing you is much better than saving it. Okay? You have to come often.”
I held Damian’s trembling hand tightly as I spoke. He wiped his tears with his other hand, then nodded with a small smile.
“Hey.”
Ru, who had been quietly watching us, called out to Damian. Damian, still sniffling, looked at him. Ru tossed something he had been holding.
“A gift.”
Damian stopped crying and stared blankly at what he had caught.
“…A magic stone?”
What Ru gave him was a magic stone. And somehow, it looked familiar.
“It’s a teleportation magic stone. You can use it as much as you want for one year, with no limit. Don’t take a carriage—just use this. It’s approved by the imperial family, so don’t worry.”
Damian stared at Ru with wide eyes. I was just as shocked.
Even single-use teleportation stones cost a fortune, but this one had unlimited uses. I couldn’t even imagine how much money it must have cost.
“Is it really okay for me to accept something so valuable…?”
“I got it for free too. Just take it.”
Ru replied indifferently to the fidgeting Damian. Who would give something like that away for free? As I wondered, a memory suddenly surfaced.
The day Chris visited the duke’s mansion, Ru was supposed to receive a teleportation magic stone in exchange for me becoming Chris’s personal maid.
Could it be that?
“Thank Lily. That stone belongs to her.”
As if confirming my guess, Ru pointed at me. I let out a small laugh. I had resented him for sending me off so cleanly back then, but to think this had been his purpose from the start.
Feeling refreshed, I nodded.
“Yeah. It’s a gift, so use it comfortably. Just make sure you visit often.”
“….”
Damian’s eyes welled up again for a moment, but he shook his head and broke into a bright smile.
“I’ll come visit again!”
I smiled back at him.
“Isn’t it a waste?”
I asked as we headed toward Ru’s room.
I had earned it through work, but the magic stone had originally belonged to Ru. He must have been quite inconvenienced during the ball without a personal maid, yet he gave the stone to Damian anyway. I was grateful—and touched—by his consideration.
“It’s fine. I have two more.”
My emotion shattered instantly.
Ru casually pulled two magic stones out of his pocket. They looked exactly like the one he had given Damian—clearly teleportation magic stones.
“I was supposed to get one per day, so I got three in total. Giving away one isn’t a big deal.”
Right. Why would I expect anything else from our young master?
Ru did know how to consider others and be thoughtful. But he wasn’t the type to do so at the cost of his own benefit.
I was the fool for feeling proud that he had matured, even for a moment. I let out a short laugh.
“I got one set to the academy and two set to the duke’s mansion. I was going to give one to you, but you don’t really go out much anyway. So I just gave it to Damian.”
“…Yes. You did well.”
It really was a good thing, but why did I feel so uneasy? It felt like I had lost property I never even owned.
“But why did you choose magic stones with an expiration date? You’ll be at the academy, so you’d use them maybe two or three times a year at most. Wouldn’t single-use ones be enough? This is really inefficient.”
“I’m commuting.”
I stopped walking at Ru’s words.
Commuting? He’d have to go to the academy every day. Why choose commuting when there was a convenient dormitory?
I couldn’t understand Ru, who was deliberately making things more troublesome. I blinked and asked,
“…Why?”
“Why do you think?”
Ru grinned at me, then strode ahead and slipped into his room.
I stood there blankly in the hallway where Ru had disappeared.
So… why?
After mulling over the strange conversation and letting out a hollow laugh, I followed him into the room a moment later.
The day the academy term began.
According to the original plan, I should have been free from my duties as a personal maid, sleeping in and mocking Deriksha for having to go to work late.
But because the young master suddenly decided to commute, I had to kick myself out of bed at the crack of dawn.
Since I had to help Ru prepare for school, I actually had to wake up even earlier than usual. After enduring Deriksha’s endless teasing as she lay sprawled on her bed, I left the room.
“Damn young master…”
Of course, my salary had increased, but to someone who had lost the precious joy of sleeping in, money meant nothing.
I fiddled with my blonde hair that reached down to my waist. Deriksha had always tied my hair for me when we got ready together, so my loose hair felt awkward.
“I’m here for work~”
I called out as I flung Ru’s door open. Since he always woke up early even during vacation, I assumed he’d be awake—but he was still lying in bed, asleep.
The unexpected sight startled me. Should I wake him? Deriksha had always woken me up, so I had never woken anyone else before.
I walked toward the bed as quietly as possible.
‘Wow.’
Looking at Ru’s peacefully sleeping face, I couldn’t help but admire it again. His jet-black eyelashes, his small hand tightly clenched into a fist, and his body curled up as if he were cold.
It was hard to believe he had just turned fifteen. He looked like a baby.
Seriously, when is he going to grow up? He already looked like a kid, but sleeping like this made him look even younger. He’s actually the same age as Miss Abel—did he lie about his age or something?
As I admired his face while lost in thought, a strand of my hair slipped over my shoulder and fell onto Ru’s face.
Oh no. I quickly lifted my head. Luckily, Ru was still asleep.
…Still asleep?
The young master, who was usually so sensitive to presence, didn’t wake up even when his face was touched. Feeling suspicious, I cautiously spoke.
“…You’re awake, aren’t you, Young Master?”
“Ah, you caught me.”
As if he had been waiting, Ru suddenly sat up. His voice wasn’t hoarse at all, so he must have been awake for quite a while. I let out a hollow laugh.
“Why are you pretending to sleep…?”
“I was curious how you’d wake me up.”
Ru rubbed one eye as he got out of bed. I watched him with an annoyed expression.
After helping Ru get ready for school, I saw him off as he disappeared using teleportation, then left the room. But as soon as I stepped out, someone blocked my path.
“…Anna?”
Standing in front of me was Anna, Miss Abel’s personal maid. As always, she looked at me with a stiff expression.
“…Um, good morning. Have a nice day today—”
I gave a casual greeting and tried to pass by, but Anna blocked me again. I tried going the other way, but she blocked that too.
What now? I looked at Anna with clear irritation.
“Miss Abel is calling for you.”
I had more or less expected that. Miss Abel often invited me to her tea time, and Anna frequently came to fetch me.
Anna walked past me as if telling me to follow. She was always so rigid that I could never get used to it.
The place Anna led me to was the indoor garden—Miss Abel’s favorite spot. She liked setting up a tea table in a sunny place, surrounded by flowers, and drinking milk sweetened with honey.
Sure enough, Miss Abel was sitting in her usual seat, holding a teacup.
“Thank you, Anna. You may go now.”
Without taking her eyes off the teacup, Miss Abel dismissed Anna. Anna bowed and promptly left the garden.
Miss Abel took a sip of the milk and smiled gently.
“Lily, I’ve decided to give up on everything.”
It was an abrupt statement. Her face held an expression of enlightenment. It wasn’t something an eleven-year-old child should have. It was the face of a sage who had felt all the hardships of the world.
“Whether I care or not, you all end up happy, and the world stays peaceful anyway…”
Still smiling, Abel met my eyes. Confused, I glanced around. What was I supposed to say in a situation like this?
When I was eleven, my biggest worry was choosing between chocolate cake and ice cream for a snack. What on earth had this young lady gone through to look at me with the kind of eyes an aunt would give her niece?
“Did something happen…?”
I asked quietly, unable to hold back my curiosity.
Abel took another sip of the honeyed milk, still smiling.
“Be happy… I’ll always be cheering for you…”
At this point, it was obvious that someone’s soul had swapped with hers. There was no other way a person could change this much in just a few days.
As soon as that thought settled, I impulsively grabbed her shoulders. I didn’t care about blasphemy or anything else. Half in tears, I shook the shoulders of the stranger who looked like Miss Abel.
“Who are you?! Where did our Miss Abel go?! Is this possession? Polyjuice? Another personality? Or did you swap souls with a magic stone?!”
“Wait, calm down! I am Abel! I—wait.”
As she grabbed my wrist to calm me down, her grip tightened. Startled by the sudden change in atmosphere, I tried to pull my hands away, but I couldn’t move at all.
Miss Abel stared at me with a chilling gaze I had never seen before.
“Possession?”
It was the same voice I always heard, yet somehow different. Just a slight change in tone made it sound like an unfamiliar adult woman’s voice, piercing my ears.
“Are you a possessor too?”
I froze on the spot.
