If ever I wake up in the middle of the night, I always go to the kitchen and look for some tea. Tea makes me feel tired after drinking it. However, I always end up falling asleep before finishing it.

***

The cleaning immediately started after I summoned Shell for unloading our stuff from the carriage. Everyone became popped eye when I suddenly summoned him. Given his appearance, it couldn’t be helped.

Before we started, I used wind magic > which sucked out almost every dust from the mansion, but some stuff got sucked along with the dust so Jane, Ghena, and Lapis had to take them from the pile of dust. Next, I used earth magic > which turned the dust particles into moist and healthy soil so that it can be used in the nearby farm. Since I can’t properly manipulate water magic due to lack of practice, I let Cherry use hers to clean the floor and walls. Because Matt wasn’t able to help with the cleaning, she took care of Marie instead. After doing the hard part, Jane, Ghena, and Lapis did the easy work which is to wipe the furniture inside the Mansion.

When I was able to explore the whole mansion, I was able to grasp its full interior and the extension. There are about 10 rooms which are four in the ground floor and six in the second floor, a kitchen at the end of the hallway in the ground floor, a storage room for food next to the kitchen, an empty basement, a secret wine cellar (I’m going to keep it a secret from the girls), a veranda in the master’s bedroom (last room on the second floor), and the extension outside the mansion Grandpa’s workshop. I was able to tell that it was the workshop because of the anvil I saw along with some blacksmithing tools. Sadly, there were no weapons that were left.

Everything was neat about this mansion, except for the number of rooms. I thought that grandpa was a loner type of guy, having ten rooms is making me think otherwise. Come to think of it, the villa was too large for 3 people only too.

Everyone was busy during the afternoon. Especially Shell, I told him to send the moist soil to the nearby dwarven farms. I was worried about him, but then he came back with some energetic dwarves to pick up the soil. During that time, the Dwarves were fawning over me because were curious about Shell’s armor. When I told them that he was just a summoned monster, everyone became dishearten and returned back to their usual jobs. I was quite intrigued to the fact that they didn’t mind Shell having four arms and a nine-footer height.

When evening arrived, everyone was pretty tired from the work. I also didn’t forget to return Shell to where he came from (where do summoned monsters came from anyway?). But because I enchanted everyone with >, a derivation from >, they’re not too tired that they still have energy remaining to cheerfully play with Marie.

Currently, everyone is staying in the living room. Jane, Ghena, and Lapis are playing with Marie on the newly cleaned floor mat. Lapis is just staring at them though. On the other hand, Cherry, Matt, and I are sitting on the couch with a mug of beer I bought from the town we made a stop yesterday. This is my 5th mug actually. And by the way, Cherry and Matt aren’t drinking and just sitting by my sides while looking at Marie who’s having a ball with warm gazes.

“This must be what they call ‘Motherly Joy’.”

Out of a sudden, Matt blurted something out of context that it almost made my spill my beer.

“What made you say that?”

“Well, I’m just looking at Marie smiling for a while now. Out of a sudden, joy filled up my chest. It’s like I started to want a child of my own.”

Because of Matt’s statement, I’m breaking out cold sweats. It can’t be helped. I still don’t want a kid. I’m still too young to be a father. Though there’s already Marie here, she’s a special case. And of course, I didn’t reply to Matt and just gave her a wry smile.

“Me too. I remember seeing the daughter of my older brother. She was so adorable that I want her for my own. H-hey Key, you’re listening right?”

While saying so, Cherry looked at me from my left with her cute face. Putting aside the soft sensation of her chest on my left arm, her words are giving me mini-heart attacks.

“I’m listening. But please take into account that we’re still in the middle of a fight against the gods. I can’t afford increasing my bu*burp*family currently because of that. I don’t want many people getting caught into my problem.”

“But you already have Marie right? Once you have one, there’s no problem if there’s a second one right?”

“Or a third one…”

“Did you girls even listento what I just said?”

Cherry is slightly sulky because of what I said, she’s putting her chin on my shoulder while talking about an addition to the family. Matt’s even agreeing with her which is pretty rare. That aside, I’m still thinking about the matter as a negative thing. As a side note, Jane and Ghena were listening to our conversation and now their faces are filled with fluster. Lapis just tilted her head like a cat though.

“Am I the one drinking or them?”

One would without a doubt say that after listening to these girls’ conversation.

While holding my right hand, Matt then pulled it towards her face and carefully studied it while holding her glasses.

“Still, to think that the gods would want to have your power, this always blows away my understanding of their unreasonableness.”

Now that I took a good look at her, her face is full of concern while looking at my hand. Because of that, I inadvertently gripped her hand tighter.

“Don’t brood on it too much. This is my problem, not yours.”

Matt got slightly surprised when I said that. Then, she gave me a smile that’s filled with warmth.

“What are you talking about? I’m going to be your wife soon, remember? Anything that’s going to happen to you IS my problem.”

Ah… our relationship has been too stagnant lately that I didn’t notice that these girls have already given thought about everything in advance. On the other hand, I’m just thinking about things for myself. I’m such a selfish idiot!

“Don’t start falling out like that Key. I know you’re busy with everything, but that doesn’t mean that you should think about everything too. Let us your fiancées plan our future while you should do things in the present. After all, you literally have the power to do almost anything.”

-Can she read my thoughts?

When I looked straight at her, I can see my face with her eyes, not her glasses. For some reason, my face is starting to feel hot too. And slowly, her face is getting closer and closer to me.

Out of a sudden, I can feel a strong pinch from the left side of my waist. When I look towards that direction, Cherry is looking at me with an obvious jealous expression that’s saying, ‘what are you guys doing?’

“For the record, I’m also concerned about you too you know! I’m also your wife in the future so at least give me some attention. And so that I remind you, your life is connected with mine so what happens to you is a big deal for me. But I’m more concerned about my life just so you remember!”

Cherry’s voice is close to screaming that it startled Marie.

Sora told me about this girl’s personality. He told me that her type is called a ‘Tsundere’ in Japanese term. She acts tough in front of people to protect her pride, but on the inside, she’s pretty sweet to people that is nice to her. ‘The harder the Tsun, the sweeter the Dere’ he said.

And because of his explanation, I was able to understand her and I reassessed the way I look at Cherry. Though her words sounds irritating, it’s lesser if you compare it from before.

When her fuzzing came to an end, I then gave her a wry smile.Because I don’t know how to react to her words, I just gripped her hand tighter which was holding my hand.

“You sound so confusing you rendered Key speechless.”

And then Matt just had to ruin the mood by making an unnecessary remark. And judging from Cherry’s personality, this isn’t something she’ll ignore. And of course, since I’m the reason for that remark, Cherry’s glare shifts naturally to me.

“What does she mean by that?”

“Don’t be unreasonable. I didn’t say anything.”

“Exactly.”

“Don’t say anything Matt.”

I was just giving Cherry a calm reply, but Matt still continued adding more unnecessary things.

Because Cherry looks like she’s going to explode in anger, I immediately kissed her forehead to calm her down. Since she didn’t foresee that attack, her face turn beet red and exploded before passing out. Her vulnerability is really cute.

“Ghena, please prepare Cherry’s bed. I’m taking her there now.”

“O-okay!”

Ghena was in bewilderment while looking at us that it took her a while to answer me. Jane has the same expression as hers, but Lapis is just playing with Marie with an expressionless face.

After taking Cherry to my room… there are ten rooms here and drunk me picked my room, me and Ghena headed back to the living room.

When I came back, I found Matt drinking my last mug of beer. It really surprised me since this is the first time I’ve seen her drink something different from wine.

“Oh, I thought that you were going to sleep too.”

“Not yet. My body still feeling up the place so I can’t sleep. By the way, why did you drink that?”

Matt raised the mug and stared at it in a daze. The next moment, she let out a cute hiccup that isn’t like her.

“I was really curious how this thing taste like so I drank it thinking that you won’t finish it. I didn’t think that I’d get tipsy even though I just drank.”

Matt’s face is slowly turns red as the beer’s effect is surfacing. Seeing that she’s swaying around, I took off her glasses and put it in my chest pocket.

“You should get to bed now. This is your first time drinking beer so your mind is probably in shock. Moreover, your face is turning beet red like Cherry’s.”

I didn’t say something funny. However, Matt just started laughing at me. I guess the beer hit her hard as a first timer huh.

“Come to think of it, the merchant I bought this from said something about the beer as very strong and can only be drank by adventurers. I think he was referring the beer as something non-athletic people shouldn’t drink.”

“Really? I didn’t know. *hick*”

Since Matt’s looking very sleepy now, I took her from her seat and carried her with both my arms.

“Princess Carry, you should’ve saved this moment for the wedding.”

“There are two of you who I’m going to marry. Unless I can grow another pair of arms then I’d do it.”

Ignoring the flustered girls watching me, I brought her to my room as put her beside the passed out Cherry. After that, I returned again to the living room.

I noticed that Marie is looking sleepy, so I let Jane bring her to the other room beside mine to let her rest. I also let her accompany Marie in the room. By the way, Marie and Jane are staying in the same room to sleep. I casted > to maintain the temperature that’s enough to say that the room has an air-conditioner.

“You can also sleep Lapis. You can choose any room you like.”

Since Lapis looked like she’s very sleepy, I also advised her to rest. Her staggering while sitting up straight really looked adorable.

Now, only Ghena is staying with me in the living room. She doesn’t look like sleepy so I’m guessing that she’s feeling the same thing as me.

She’s sitting on the opposite sofa while looking at the fireplace with a calm expression.

“It’s been a while since we’ve talked. Just the two of us I mean.”

“Yeah. I really thought that we can’t talk to each other normally since you got inaugurated.”

Ghena made a wry smile while looking at the fire. Using her left hand, she leaned her head and let out a sigh. For some time now, I noticed that she’s keeping her stare at the fire. She looks like she’s reminiscing something.

“Is there something bothering you? You look like you’re in deep thought.”

“Well, I just suddenly remembered my mother. The fire reminded me of her.”

I think I just put my finger on her wound. Though she didn’t really show it, but I can tell that she’s hurt just by looking at her eyes. Maybe it’s better off if I veer the topic away from this.

“Say, I never heard why you became a maid. From Cherry’s personality, I hardly ever think that you could bear with it all the time.”

“Huh?”

-I’m really sorry Cherry for indirectly badmouthing you. I’ll make it up to you later.

“Is there a reason why you became a maid?”

When I ask her that, she became amazed. Next, her expression somehow became blue. And then, she looked back at me with a calm smile.

“You failed miserably at reading the mood Key.”

I could only reply to those words with a dry laugh. Just like she said, I totally touched the same wound again. But she just smiles as if it’s nothing. Moreover, she easily read right through me.

“Don’t worry Key. It’s just something that happened in my far past so you don’t have to feel bad about it. In fact, I’m willing to tell you about it.”

“Really? No, I think it’s bad to invade someone’s private life.”

“No worries. A lot of people knows about this including Miss Cherlaine.”

Because it looked like a long story, I used the magic > from the combination of [Force Magic] and [Arcane Magic] category to summon a butler version clone of me. It was really hard to create this magic because his composition is very fragile and is not for combat. I called this guy ‘Lock’ because he has the opposite of look of mine. I let him get some midnight snacks in the kitchen for me—us to eat.

Before starting to talk, I heard Ghena mutter ‘to use magic for convenience’ while looking like she’s taken aback.

“It all started from a regular day. It was just me and my mother doing house work. It was also my birthday at that time. I could remember how my mother worked hard for me just to buy me new clothes for that special occasion. Though I was already happy just us staying together, she did what she can to give that day a special meaning.”

“It sounds like your mother was a kind mom.”

“She was. Every day, I help her do farming related work. It was her way of feeding us two. Sometimes she even goes to a dangerous forest just to hunt.”

“To hunt in a dangerous forest huh… sounds like your mother was an adventurer.”

“Oh, no, no, no, I misspoke that. She actually just helps hunters in their hunting. Those hunters are our good neighbors. Those neighbors treated us like a family too. I had a good and simple life back then.”

“If you had a good life,why did you end up being a maid?”

My words hit a painful spot. Ghena made a sidelong glance at the fire and made a wry smile. I didn’t want her to continue, but she spoke faster before I could open my mouth.

“It all changed when our village got attacked by mountain bandits. Everyone tried to protect the village, but the bandits were too many in numbers and killed everyone.”

“That includes your mother, doesn’t it?”

Though Ghena didn’t show it, her clenching fists gave away how sad she is.

“Yes, your correct. One of the people that died that time was my mother. In fact, I’m probably the only survivor of that attack. I was thankful to my mother for letting me escape.”

After listening to her, I’m feeling quite thankful to those gods that hate me. Though this might be the only time this thing will happen.

“Then how did you become a maid?”

“It was a short story actually.”

It looks like this part is not as heavy as the first story. Her shoulders are easing up as the atmosphere lightens up a bit.

At the same time, Lock came back with a mug of beer before disappearing. I think I told him to get some snacks. What happened to my request? Anyhow, this is the last mug and I’m done.

“When I was in verge of dying from hunger…”

“I think you skipped some few parts in your story.”

“You look like someone who already knows a lot so it might be pointless if I did.”

“That’s actually very accurate.”

After that, she let me have my time to drink my last mug of beer before speaking. Now that I’ve noticed, since we made a short stop in Parlit Town, I can’t get drunk anymore. Although I get a bit tipsy, that’s it. Moreover, it feels like my body can take in more beer than before without me feeling sick. Is there magic at work here?

“Continuing, it was when Miss Cherlaine visited Mister Oljis’ shop. I didn’t cry out for help when I saw her, not because she was a noble, but because I was too weak to even speak.”

“That sounds really painful.”

“It did. And because of that, I was very thankful to Miss Cherlaine for pulling me back from death’s door by healing me with her magic.”

-Something’s not right here.

“How old were you at that time?”

“I think it was 7 years ago, so I was probably 8 at that time.”

“So in other words, Cherry was still around 10 or 9 while learning magic. Doesn’t that make her a genius in magic arts?”

“She is a genius. Not only can she use light magic in an early age, she was already helping her parents in their potion making business.”

Ghena really looks thankful to Cherry huh. They way she praises her is something I can’t describe in words.

“You really look up to her don’t you.”

“Yes. Not only because she helped me from starvation in that alley, she also took me into her household for shelter and offered me work to feed myself. I’m still very thankful to her until now. I probably can’t repay her kindness even after my death.”

“She was this kind huh.”

“It’s probably more than what you’re thinking right now. Though her letting me drinking potions is a bit problematic, her mistakes only happen because she’s a clumsy girl.”

I guess this will change the way I look at Cherry now. I wish she shows that kindness every day, not her annoying prideful act.

I then stood up from my seat and turned towards the door. Because I was too sudden, Ghena became curious.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m gonna get some fresh air outside. You’re probably sleepy right now, you can go sleep first. I’ll be the one who’ll lock the doors for now.”

“I still can’t sleep anyway, might as well get some fresh air too.”

At the same time, Ghena stood up and followed me.

When we got outside, I used my magic to jump to the roof of the mansion. By the way, I carried Ghena in a princess carry. There’s no issue about it.

When we looked towards the City of Berigious, our eyes got filled with awe from the lights that are coming from the city. Almost as far as the eye can see, the whole city lights look like stars that can’t be seen tonight because of the clouds.

“It looks like they’re having a party over there, Ghena.”

“I think they really are. The year is over in the next 3 weeks after all.”

“Now that you mention it, I can actually feel the winter season disappearing. The wind is blowing less cold air than before.”

Ghena and I talked a bit while sitting on the snowy roof tile while looking towards the city. We just sat there and talked like some old friends do.

Out of a sudden, Ghena asked me something that I never would have expected.

“I’ve noticed this for a while now Key, why are you faking your kindness towards Miss Cherlaine?”

“Say what now?”

It really surprised me that I almost slipped from where I sat. Moving suddenly while sitting above snow is dangerous after all.

“Sorry for being too forward but, that’s what I’ve been observing for a while now. It’s like you’re evading something. I know you’re capable of real kindness, but I can’t understand why you’re doing it.”

“So you saw right through me huh.”

“Not just me though, Miss Matilda is also aware of that fact. Only Miss Cherlaine doesn’t because she’s quite a dense girl.”

--It wasn’t just Matt huh… I guess I’m that easy to read.

“Was it really that obvious?”

Ghena put her finger on her chin while tilting her head while thinking about something. That gesture is slightly cute.

“It actually doesn’t. You act like normal every time so it’s really hard to tell if you’re doing it or not. It’s probably my ‘Intuition’ working.”

“That’s a really scary asset, as expected from girls.”

“I guess you can say that.”

While saying so, she made a slightly cute mocking expression by letting out her tongue.

“Since we’re talking about it right now, I would like to make a small request.”

While sitting by my side, she gave me a stern gaze while keeping eye contact. Somehow, I can feel her seriousness.

“Since I’m really indebted to Miss Cherlaine, it goes without saying that I’ll do anything for her.”

Her expression is slightly giving me the Goosebumps and makes me nervous. Even if it’s like that, I can’t help but ask her.

“W-what’s the request?”

Then, in one breath, she gave me the possibly scariest request that I would hear in my lifetime—

“I would like you to treat Miss Cherlaine as your fiancée as possible—no, please be return Miss Cherlaine’s feelings.”

--Or so I thought.

-End of Chapter-