Surviving as the Villainess’s Servant in a Martial Arts Novel - Chapter 6

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 6

“You’re telling me to attend to the young lady’s medicine?”

A-so nodded her head gloomily. I let out a sigh.

Being told to attend to the young lady’s medicine was no different from being told to just die.

The reason was simple.

‘Seo Yeon-ri’s personality is exceptionally vicious…’

When I first started working here.

At that time, I was searching for a way to approach Seo Yeon-ri.

No matter how much information I knew about the disease, it would be useless if I couldn’t convey it, and if some stranger suddenly appeared and said such things, it would only cause suspicion and trouble.

I thought I should slowly build trust first. Even though I was just a dung carrier now, I figured opportunities to approach her naturally would arise while working…

But then.

“Waaaaah!”

“My arm, my aaaarm!”

“I can’t do this anymore. I really can’t do it!”

I couldn’t approach her at all.

The more I watched, the more strangely the situation unfolded.

I already knew that Seo Yeon-ri had a bad personality. Even in the novel, it said she had become devastated by her illness and was extremely sensitive and irritable.

But I didn’t know it would be this severe.

In reality, Seo Yeon-ri’s hobby was literally ‘replacing maids.’

“How many times has this been now?”

“I don’t know, twenty? Twenty-five?”

Seo Yeon-ri replaced maids whenever she was bored.

And she didn’t replace them quietly either – she would drive them away while committing all sorts of atrocities, cursing at them or hitting them at the slightest provocation.

All kinds of incidents really happened. She would slap maids across both cheeks, curse their parents, grab their hair, punch them, kick them, bite their arms, and so on.

And the crowning touch was something else entirely.

“Kyaaah! Blood, there’s blood…!”

“Quickly, to the medicine room, move her to the medicine room!”

“Someone call the Chief Steward… no, call the physician!”

This was a recent incident where a maid serving Seo Yeon-ri was hit in the head with a flower vase and fell into a coma.

The Seo Family Estate was in complete chaos.

From people running while carrying the injured maid on a stretcher, to maids crying loudly beside them, someone who went to call the Chief Steward, someone who brought the physician, and people like me who were watching in a daze…

In this complete pandemonium where no one could think straight, I thought blankly.

‘Is this, is this right?’

Am I really right to stick with Seo Yeon-ri?

Shouldn’t I switch to following some wealthy supporting character with a mild personality even now?

Fortunately, that maid didn’t die, but many people were shocked by the incident. Most maids and even servants would flee the moment the young lady’s name was mentioned.

I too was contemplating whether I should give up on my path to reversing my life, when I unexpectedly encountered A-so here.

“When I argued about why I should do work that wasn’t assigned to me, they said I’m the only maid here who hasn’t served the young lady before, you know? They said they’d been lenient with me because I was young, but that wasn’t fair…”

“…”

“Ha, it was Lady Ma who showed me consideration, so when did they ever show such generosity? They volunteered to take on the job because they got greedy when the Chief Steward said he’d double their wages, but now they’re scared to actually go so they’re trying to secretly dump it on me—do they think I don’t know?”

“…”

“And then they even threatened me, saying if I tell Lady Ma, I shouldn’t expect to work comfortably anymore… I have to go deliver medicine right now, but what am I supposed to do…”

Having said that much, A-so began sniffling again. It seemed that talking about it brought back her sense of injustice and made her tear up.

I could only watch A-so with a bitter feeling.

‘What should I do about this?’

I felt sorry for A-so, but… honestly, there wasn’t anything I could do here.

What could a dung carrier do? Go with A-so to tell Lady Ma? Of course I could take A-so’s side, but then what about delivering the medicine right now?

Unless someone goes in her place…

‘In her place?’

I suddenly spoke up.

“Should I go in your place?”

* * *

In front of the entrance to So-nang Garden.

I stood there blankly, holding a tray with a medicine bowl.

‘…Will I be able to do this well?’

I regretted it belatedly, but it was too late. I had already spoken the words and received the medicine from A-so to come here.

So why did I say such a thing?

‘Isn’t this an opportunity?’

That thought suddenly occurred to me.

I had been looking for a chance to encounter Seo Yeon-ri, but I had never succeeded even once. While that was partly due to Seo Yeon-ri’s personality…

The real problem was her residence.

So-nang Garden, located in the deepest part of the Seo Family Estate, wasn’t accessible to just anyone.

Only the Master and a few permitted individuals could enter and leave, and even I, who cleaned all the dung in the manor grounds, wasn’t given permission.

But now an opportunity to enter had come?

‘It wouldn’t be bad to try once and then give up, right?’

Of course, A-so was startled by my crazy suggestion.

“Are you insane? Have you ever served a superior? Do you think this job is a joke? Do you know what happens if you make even the slightest mistake…!”

“I’m not saying I’ll keep doing it. We need to deliver the medicine right now anyway. So I’ll go first, and then we’ll go to Lady Ma together. You can tell her then, right?”

“Still…”

A-so hesitated for a while. But in the end, she accepted. Her fear of the young lady was greater than her guilt about dumping the work on me.

“Got it. Then let’s go heat up the medicine again first. I’ll explain everything in detail on the way….”

Fortunately, the task wasn’t too difficult.

I just had to take the medicine and hand it to the young lady.

Originally there were many other trivial tasks to do, but even this one task alone was overwhelming now. Because the young lady was refusing the medicine itself.

“Most of them ended up that way after trying to force the medicine on the young lady. So you just speak from outside. Say you brought the medicine. Never step forward first. And don’t make loud noises either! Got it?”

A-so even handed me cotton shoes from inside her clothes so I could muffle my footsteps, repeatedly emphasizing her warnings.

I put on the cotton shoes and thought.

‘Do I really need to go this far?’

Looking at the fierce-faced warrior standing guard at the main gate, I understood within 3 seconds.

‘I really do need to go this far.’

How sensitive must she be for even those warriors to stand there motionless like stone statues waiting for their husbands’ return.

I swallowed dry saliva at the scene that was more brutal than I had imagined.

When I approached the main gate trying to act nonchalant and showed my pass token, the head of the warrior who had been standing like a statue slowly turned.

One warrior opened his mouth.

“A boy? Did they hire a page boy this time?”

“He brought a pass token, so I guess so.”

“Well, after what happened last time, ordinary endurance wouldn’t be enough….”

At one warrior’s muttering, the warrior next to him quietly scolded him.

“Don’t say unnecessary things! Go on, enter.”

I suddenly wanted to ask.

‘What do you mean by ordinary endurance?’

They must be talking about when the maid was carried out last time with her head split open. Then could it be that something even worse might happen this time….

I shook my head vigorously at the growing fear. Then I gathered all my courage—what little courage I had—and barely managed to cross the threshold.

The sight of So-nang Garden that I saw was….

‘…Huh?’

It was desolate.

So much so that I wondered if this was really a place where people lived. The house site was dark and gloomy with no sunlight coming in, and the garden in front was also filled with withered and dead grass.

Like an abandoned house swept by plague… I thought while shivering in the eerie atmosphere.

‘Th-this is where Seo Yeon-ri lives?’

Seo Yeon-ri was surely a precious daughter beloved by the lord, so why was she staying in a place like this?

Feeling a strange uneasiness along with my questions, I carefully approached the house. I didn’t forget to walk stealthily on tiptoes, following the warning to ‘never make loud noises.’

When I climbed the stairs and reached the door, I finally took a deep breath. My back was already soaked with cold sweat.

After taking a breath, I opened my mouth.

“Young lady, I’ve brought your medicine.”

However, no sound came from inside.

“Young lady, I’ve brought your medicine…!”

Still, no sound at all.

“Miss, miss?”

No matter how many times I called, it was the same.

I began to feel scared little by little. I had already been cowering due to the dark and ominous atmosphere, and the quieter the surroundings became, the more my heart trembled.

…No, wait, is it really quiet? I feel like I’ve been hearing strangely small sounds since earlier.

Somehow, close to me….

At that moment.

―Rustle.

Something brushed against the back of my neck.

Goosebumps rose all over my body. My mind went blank and I could only think about escaping somewhere. I hastily grabbed the door handle.

“Ah, miss, excuse my rudeness but I’ll enter for a moment!”

Then I pulled the door handle with force….

―Swish!

“Huh?”

I blinked my eyes. I felt wind brush past me to the side, then felt a warm sensation near my neck.

When I raised my hand to touch it, blood came away on my fingers.

Blood…?

“Huh huh?”

Without realizing it, I turned around to look behind me. I could see something embedded in the ground far away.

A short sword… gleaming with a blue-black blade.

I looked forward again.

And finally discovered it.

In the quiet darkness, eyes glinting as they looked toward me.

Those were eyes like a beast that had found its prey, and for a moment I couldn’t breathe.

The Beast slowly opened his mouth.

“Get lost.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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