Chapter 3: An Encounter with Royalty

The game ‘Minorus Academy’ naturally has its own lore.

Shall we briefly touch upon some simple settings?

The city where Minorus Academy is located is named Rios.

It’s a city near the royal capital, said to be run by a member of the royal family.

And the nation this city and academy belong to is the Minorus Kingdom.

It’s a simple name, meaning the country founded by the Minorus family.

Yes, it’s a really simple setting.

Three days had passed since arriving at the academy.

During that time, all Sayo did, aside from going out to the city for meals, was stay cooped up in her room, reading or practicing how to handle mana.

She had been slightly worried, but moving mana and using magic posed no major problems.

Her body adapted frighteningly quickly to mana usage, as if it remembered.

And one more thing.

She felt her mind and spirit, which had been like a restless fire back at the Marquis’s house, stabilizing.

“Haaah…”

Ahrin, standing behind her, tried to stifle a yawn quietly, but Sayo heard it.

Sayo knew Ahrin, who loved being active, must be feeling stifled staying cooped up in the room all the time, so she had told her it was fine to go out into the city.

“As my lady’s one and only dedicated maid, who would assist you if I weren’t here?”
-Ahrin had declared confidently.

Of course, Sayo wasn’t convinced at all.

There was no way Ahrin, a clumsy, airheaded rookie maid, a commoner who had received only about two months of rushed, basic training, could be reliable.

Still, she thought Ahrin looked incredibly cute, standing on tiptoes despite her short height, puffing out her chest with an expression that seemed to say ‘just trust me’.

Rustle

Without realizing it, Sayo reached out and patted Ahrin’s head once.

Ahrin blushed slightly but didn’t seem to dislike it, quietly accepting Sayo’s touch.

‘Drawing such a reaction from Sayoreinne… you’re quite something.’

‘If it were the real Sayoreinne, she would have looked contemptuous and said something like, ‘Someone like you?’, but Sayoreinne had been strangely quiet lately.’

Was it because her mind was at ease?

Back at the main house, Sayo used to toss and turn, falling asleep late in the dawn, yet would automatically wake up in the morning.

Now, she woke up only around lunchtime.

Sayo, having overslept, only woke up around noon.

After washing up, Sayo prepared to go out for a meal, and opened the door with Ahrin.

A girl with fiery red eyes and red hair tied once near her armpits.

The striking appearance of the girl, dressed in a white outing dress, looked familiar.

Sayo’s grip tightened on her fan.

“It’s been a month, Lady Euru.”

“I trust you’ve been well?”

Sayo gave a slight curtsy, offering a greeting with graceful gestures and words.

The etiquette ingrained in her body emerged naturally.

“Long time no see, Sayoreinne.”

“I thought I was doing fine, until I ran into you.”

The princess of the Minorus Kingdom.

Euru Minorus.

This red-haired girl, smiling yet openly displaying hostility, was one of the game’s heroines.

‘Really… this isn’t easy.’

Feeling the other person’s hostility made her breathing ragged.

Her heart trembled.

Irritation surged.

Displeasure welled up.

The mind she thought had stabilized wavered.

‘Okay, calm down.’

‘I shouldn’t show hostility back.’

‘I mustn’t get angry.’

‘Let’s try to settle these emotions.’

‘Since regaining consciousness in this world, reading Sayoreinne’s memories, and assimilating, wasn’t the priority to control this unstable mind and emotions?’

‘I can’t let them consume me.’

‘I can do this, I have to.’

Sayo snapped open her fan with a chwak sound, covering her mouth area.

Huu-

“I apologize if my presence has displeased you.”

“I merely wished to offer a greeting.”

Even in the game, Sayoreinne usually maintained a smiling face whether she was being attacked, attacking others, or at any other time, so managing her expression wasn’t difficult.

Additionally, the task was to convey ‘sincerity’ without lacing her words with negative emotions.

“……?”

“What scheme are you plotting now?”

The Sayoreinne that Euru knew was always a sharp, seemingly neurotic girl.

The sharp blade hidden beneath her usual, incongruous smile spared no one.

Sayoreinne, who didn’t hide her feelings rather than being unable to, had managed to make enemies not only of her own Class A but also other first-year students within a single semester, and that included Euru, the princess of Minorus.

“There are no schemes.”

“I truly just wanted to say hello.”

Euru narrowed her eyes, observing Sayo.

Since Sayo had always expressed negative emotions without bothering to hide anything, this unfamiliar demeanor simply made Euru suspicious.

“For now… I’ll say I understand.”

“Well then.”

Euru swiftly passed by Sayo and disappeared.

“Hoooowooo~”

Ahrin, who had been holding her breath and trembling during the tense exchange between the two, finally let out a huge sigh once Euru was out of sight.

“La-Lady Euru?”

“Isn’t she the princess?”

“Is there perhaps some connection…”

‘Even for a commoner maid who hasn’t been properly educated, what is this?’

‘Does she have no tact at all?’

‘Besides, for a maid to say something like this to her master….’

Sayo shook her head once, clearing away those recent thoughts.

She swallowed the words about to escape.

‘Calm down.’

“Ahrin.”

“Let’s go.”

The tone and manner of speech were the same as usual, but something was different.

“Yes…”

‘Clearly, I let my guard down too much.’

‘I stayed cooped up in the room precisely because I worried something stimulating like this might happen…’

‘Meeting her without any mental preparation, I almost made a mistake.’

Her mind, foggy from trying to manage her emotions all day, seemed to clear up a bit as she eased her body into the bathtub.

She thought she had stabilized, but just one stimulus immediately unsettled her.

And this was against Princess Euru, someone Sayoreinne showed even a sliver of deference towards.

She really still had a long way to go.

Sayo blankly gazed at her own body reflected in the mirror for a moment.

‘Yes.’

‘This is… my body.’

She touched her own ample chest with her hand.

A soft, yielding sensation.

But no further emotion arose.

Even though it was a body most men would go crazy for.

Was it because the assimilation was sufficiently complete?

Or was her original self as Juseong, the man she used to be, gradually fading away, returning to how it should be?

She still couldn’t know anything for sure.

“It’s still okay for now.”

What flowed from her lips was not her original rough voice, but Sayoreinne’s beautiful tone.

Nothing had happened yet.

Worrying is meant to resolve concerns, not add to them.

‘It’s fine for now.’

‘And it will be in the future too.’

“That’s how it will be.”

She spoke to her reflection in the mirror.

-Ahrin-

Ahrin’s earliest memories began at the orphanage.

She heard from the people there that she was a girl unfortunately abandoned in the dead of winter.

Ahrin thought differently.

As luck would have it, she was found by someone from the orphanage run by the Marquis Meirel family and was admitted into the Meirel Orphanage.

As expected of an orphanage directly run by a Marquis family, the facilities were excellent, and most of the staff were decent people.

The girl, born optimistic and cheerful, was grateful for being admitted to a good orphanage rather than despairing over being an orphan.

Wasn’t it fortunate not to be abused in some other poor-quality place?

The work was easier compared to other places.

She heard that places providing education in necessary reading, writing, and basic arithmetic were rare.

Fifteen years passed since she entered the orphanage, and then people came from the Marquis’s household to recruit servants.

They were hiring servants and maids to do chores under the stewards and ladies-in-waiting.

The people from the Marquis’s family she saw for the first time seemed like incredible people to Ahrin.

Instantly captivated, Ahrin prayed she would be chosen.

There was also a slight worry that in two or three years, she would have to leave the orphanage with a small support fund.

Disappointingly, however, the children being pointed out seemed to be around 10 years old, usually the quiet ones.

Ahrin felt a little disheartened.

After selecting a few children, the people from the Marquis’s family spoke with the director, and then the director called her over.

She was told to follow these people.

In that moment, the girl cheered and jumped up and down.

She hesitated for a second, thinking she shouldn’t act like that, but the servants from the Marquis’s house said nothing.

And so, the girl left the orphanage she had grown attached to for 15 years and entered the Marquis’s household.

After several months of training as a maid, she was tipped off that she would become a noble lady’s ladies’ maid—that is, an exclusive maid.

Even for the naturally optimistic Ahrin, this caused worry.

She thought it was too much for someone like her who kept making mistakes, but since it was already decided, she had no choice but to try harder.

Ahrin heard from people that the lady was very neurotic, sensitive, and ill-tempered, which scared her slightly, but she decided to do her best since she had gotten the job.

‘If I do well, maybe she’ll treat me well too?’

Her usual optimistic nature quickly dispelled the worry.

Soon after, the lady she was to serve turned out to be an incredibly beautiful person.

Uh… she didn’t know how to describe it.

Just a really pretty person.

When their eyes met, her heart pounded fiercely.

‘Was I too nervous?’

She somehow managed to greet her as she had learned, but she didn’t know if she did it well.

As if in response to her greeting, a similarly lovely, beautiful voice flowed from the lady’s pretty lips.

“Is this clumsy and young-looking maid supposed to attend to me from now on?”

…That was her first meeting with Lady Sayoreinne Meirel.