I Became the Maid of the Lout Prince

T/N: This bonus chapter is sponsored by James B. (12/14). See the announcement above! I’ll explain my reasons for finishing this series and not retiring just before the series gets moved.

『Lilith has reached level 23!』

『Lilith has reached level 24!』

『Lilith has reached level 25!』

The battle fought by Ethan, Caraham, and I somehow ended our victory.

It might have seemed like an easy battle, but it truly was a life-or-death fight. Gathering stacked spells while dodging this agile bear’s attacks and counter-attacking its electric attacks at precisely the right moment wasn’t so simple.

If my swing had been even slightly too fast or too late, I would have been paralyzed by electricity instead of the Crescent Bear, and if that had happened, it would have meant Ethan and Caraham would have had to fight an already difficult opponent while carrying dead weight.

‘That’s why I wanted to play it safe if possible….’

Since we couldn’t use the safe method, what choice did we have? What was fortunate was that my level was quite high and my Luck stat wasn’t too low.

Of course, as someone who preferred certainty, I wanted to avoid such battles as much as possible. Unlike games with save-load features and resurrection in nearby towns, in this world, we only had one life.

After the intense battle in the western part of the forest near the altar, we dragged the Crescent Bear’s carcass back to the witch’s village, and the first to join us were Agnes and the other two (Antonio and Knight Colt) who had been assigned to defend the Eastern Lake.

Actually, Agnes and the other two had been excluded from the Hero’s plan from the start. Agnes’s fire magic was too dangerous a variable in the Witch’s Forest.

Also, Antonio was excluded for being too weak. Knight Colt was a variable that shouldn’t have appeared in the original story and was excluded to protect Antonio in case of emergency.

In other words, it was essentially like exiling Agnes and Colt to the Eastern Lake just to prevent one powerless royal, Antonio, from getting hurt, but ironically, among the three who returned, Prince Antonio was the one who came back the most injured.

“Ah, Prince Antonio!”

“…A-Are you alright?”

“Ah, you’ve returned, too… And judging by the size of your prey, it seems you’ve had quite a battle….”

Looking at our injuries, Antonio was the most severely wounded among us. ඞ The fact that he returned injured from what we thought was the safest location left me quite shocked.

When we heard the full story, it turned out Agnes’s group had also fought a battle around the same time as us. The three of them fought a three-headed hydra that emerged from the lake.

“I apologize. Due to my incompetence, the Prince was injured…! I-I will pay for this sin with my life…!”

“K-Knight Colt! You shouldn’t judge so hastily!”

“It’s… fine… I’m not that badly hurt… A-After all, it was my own carelessness that caused this….”

“……”

Knight Colt showed her sense of responsibility as a Royal Knight, while Agnes, for some reason, remained silent with a troubled expression.

I felt it would be improper to ask for details, so I refrained from inquiring. Instead, I used my Saint’s power to maintain Antonio’s strength so his wounds wouldn’t worsen.

Fortunately, Seriste, a (real) Saint, was also in this forest, and she immediately poured her Holy Power into healing Antonio’s wounds upon her return.

“Th-This should do it, Prince Antonio….”

“…Yes, thank you.”

“You should rest well for about three days starting today… A-Although I managed to seal it somehow with my Holy Powers, it will take more time to heal completely….”

“I understand.”

“…Thank you, Saint Seriste. And I’m sorry for troubling you with my thoughtless younger brother. You must be tired after the battle.”

“N-No, not at all…! I-I can quickly replenish any lacking Holy Power with just one desperate prayer…! Y-Your Highness was just in the most dangerous place fighting with the H-Hero, and compared to that, my skills aren’t that impressive….”

“Who contributed how much to the battle isn’t what’s important right now. Seraphine is probably saying that because she feels bad about making you work after the battle. Anyway, good work, Seriste.”

“Th-Thank you…. Hero….”

Gyeongmwajogyegigwat casually called even Seraphine, the highest-ranking person in this space, by name.

How ridiculous. He claims he won’t do anything he’d have to take responsibility for in this world, yet he makes people misunderstand like this?

Seeing Seraphine slightly flinch beside him just now when the Hero called her name, there was a high chance that the future he envisioned wouldn’t come to pass.

On his other side was Selena, and in front was Seriste. Watching him receive such sweet gazes from the main heroines, I thought the real problem would arise after defeating the Demon Lord.

‘I should warn him some time. I need to tell him to at least give these three a heads up if he’s planning to return to his original world.’

If he just disappeared with a ‘poof’ without saying anything, a small-scale war would break out between the Empire, the Holy Kingdom, and the Elves. Each side would suspect the others of hiding the Hero.

“K-Keep this splint on for three days… The broken bone needs to stay in this position to heal properly….”

“…In this state?”

“Y-Yes…. It will be uncomfortable, but….”

“Hmm….”

Antonio sighed with a slightly troubled expression as he looked at the splint on his right arm.

He didn’t seem too happy about not being able to use one arm for three days. 

What made it even more troublesome was that the injured arm happened to be his dominant right arm.

In that state, it would probably be difficult to handle meals and personal needs alone. And as luck would have it, his escort knight was a woman, not a man.

“…Well, it’s a small price to pay considering what was saved in exchange for an arm. Anyway, we successfully subjugated the monster, so isn’t it all good? Knight Colt, you don’t need to worry about it. After all, this is the result of my own reckless behavior, so I should bear the consequences.”

“I am ashamed, Prince Antonio. In exchange, I will take full responsibility for attending to your needs while your arm is inconvenienced.”

“Hmm, would you? I was actually worried about that part, but if you will take care of it, Knight Colt, then that’s fortunate….”

Even without a male knight, Knight Colt was the only one who could take care of Antonio in this situation, and Antonio seemed about to accept her offer reluctantly, but…

“…I’ll do it.”

Agnes interrupted Antonio’s words with an unexpected statement that no one had anticipated.

“…Lady Agnes?”

“…I said I’ll take care of you for three days.”

The atmosphere went quiet at the red-headed mage’s sudden bombshell declaration.

Since an unexpected statement came from an unexpected person, naturally, all our attention focused on Agnes, and the first to break the silence was Antonio, the subject of her words.

“…You don’t need to feel responsible for my injury, Lady Agnes. I was hurt purely due to my own lack of ability….”

“Shut up. I said I’ll do it. …Unless, do you have a problem with me?”

“Ah, no… That’s certainly not the case, but….”

“…Then don’t make someone else do it. You got hurt because of me, so I’ll take responsibility. Besides, it’s only three days, anyway.”

“Ah, yes… Th-Then I’ll be in your care, Lady Agnes….”

“……”

Agnes insisted on taking care of Antonio with a troubled expression while nodding her head, and Antonio eventually nodded and accepted.

It wasn’t hard to guess that something had happened between these two.

Shortly after the commotion following Agnes’s declaration to take care of Antonio, we proceeded to have a meal to recover everyone’s strength after the battle.

There were typically two types of meals in the Witch’s Forest. Traditional vegetarian dishes made with vegetables native to the Witch’s Forest, cooked with spices, and occasionally, meat dishes using monsters from the forest as ingredients.

On this day, when we had caught both Moonlight Wolves and a Crescent Bear, we naturally had an abundance of meat, so our meal turned into a meat party.

‘This feels like we’re having a samgyeopsal party.’ *1

Of course, the meat we were grilling now probably tasted closer to a hindquarter or a chuck roll than samgyeopsal. Wild monster meat typically had less fat, after all.

Well, the grilling atmosphere was similar enough, so it didn’t matter. After all, meat is always good to eat.

‘If only we had some grilled kimchi to go with this or even some ssamjang….’

Once the thought occurred to me, I was suddenly overwhelmed with emotion thinking about Korean food. Come to think of it, how many years had it been since I’d had proper Korean food?

Since my memories of my previous life returned about seven years ago, it felt like it had been that long since I’d eaten Korean food.

…I knew it couldn’t be helped. It was actually a luxury to even think about whether I could eat Korean food in this kind of setting.

While eating meat grilled with salt and imagining dipping it in oil sauce to make up for what was missing, a familiar seasoning dish was suddenly placed on the table between me and Ethan.

“Doesn’t this feel like we’re having a samgyeopsal party, grilling all this meat outdoors like this?”

“……”

People do think alike, I guess. Is it because we’re both Korean?

T/N

Samgyeopsal (삼겹살) itself is a dish that refers to grilled and barbecued pork belly. A samgyeopsal party refers to a setting where a group grills and cooks raw samgyeopsal together. Korean BBQ (sometimes incorrectly said as interchangeable with samgyeopsal) restaurants feature this cook-your-own-meat system and are often all-you-can-eat.

Thanks for reading, see you in the next one!