The Peaceful Life Of A Maid Who Hides Her Power And Enjoys It - Chapter 157

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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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Chapter 157

With this, the framework for the military operation to save the nation was decided.

One was a mage, another was a knight, and I was… once a maid, and before that in an even more distant past a soldier, and now a proper inspector and head of a family.

It wasn’t a bad combination.

After explaining the planned exploration sites to Raphael in advance, I tried to open the warehouse door with a solemn attitude, but.

“No, Daisy. Not here, start from the north.”

Lu blocked me quite effectively.

“Why?”

“You know that the power of the earth renders all magic useless. No matter how excellent a magical tool is, it cannot detect demons underground. The basement provides optimal conditions for hiding noisy, bizarre, and sinister acts like biological experiments. So if we want to save time, it’s better to check the north first.”

It was a logical argument with no room for rebuttal.

We headed straight to the northern forest behind the Imperial Palace. This forest was also where hunting competitions were held during hunting festivals, so we had no great difficulty heading north through the rain.

The way we escaped the attention of the knights stationed at the Imperial Palace was simple.

“Any problems?”

“Your Grace the Duke! Yes! There are no problems to the north.”

Raphael drew attention.

“Are you entering the forest? We’ll come with you…”

“No, I’ll go alone. Don’t follow, just rest.”

“Yes, please be careful!”

Taking advantage of that gap, Lu and I quickly put distance between us.

After repeating this several times, we could no longer hear any sign of the knights. On a dark night with no moon, only three shadows wrapped in raincoats moved quickly, hidden behind the sound of rain.

The long silence was broken when our destination appeared beyond the nearby bushes.

“Who is that guy?”

Raphael, standing tall on the low cliff area over the swollen valley, suddenly gestured toward Lu with his chin and asked.

‘…You’re asking now?’

Wasn’t the timing a bit too late? Well, I suppose it meant we’d arrived in a somewhat safe area. There were only the three of us around here.

“This is.”

But there was a problem.

When my eyes met those golden eyes that were soaked with rainwater and emanating twice their usual gloomy and melancholy aura, my words suddenly got stuck.

‘How should I introduce him?’

I felt like I had a similar worry just a few days ago. To have to worry about the same thing again.

‘Should I introduce him as my husband? Or my lover?’

Hmm. We’re probably in a relationship similar to those, aren’t we? But it’s a bit embarrassing to say it with my own mouth.

‘Kalerpa? Demigod? Count Sereniye? The Weatherwax family’s cook? Someone who knows Mephistopheles?’

None of that was information I could easily reveal. Ah, this is the same conclusion as last time.

‘Then should I say benefactor like last time?’

Lu would probably hate that.

‘My mage is definitely the best answer.’

But this also felt too plain, so I was somehow conscious of Lu’s reaction. In times like this, I follow Lu’s opinion.

“Who is Lu?”

Lu, who understood my terrible question perfectly, immediately responded.

“Your lover.”

“…”

“No, husband?”

“…”

“Hmm. Lifelong companion wouldn’t be bad either, and soulmate would be fine too. Or maybe Daisy’s master…”

“Ahem! You get the general idea, right? That kind of person.”

I coughed loudly and subtly looked away.

In my thirty years of life, this was the first time introducing a romantic partner or someone in a similar relationship to another person. Hmm, so this is what it feels like. Embarrassing yet somehow reassuring.

Raphael was quiet. His eyes were cold like darkness settled at the bottom of a lake, and in some ways seemed empty.

After being silent for a while, he asked me in a hoarse voice.

“…Count Alpen Sereniye?”

I couldn’t quite affirm that, so I looked at Raphael with eyes asking how he knew.

But Raphael showed no particular reaction and quietly stared at me before heading across the valley toward our destination. Soon after, Lu followed him. It was the lightest movement I’d seen from him all day.

『Full Moon Cathedral』

This was the official name of the abandoned building we had arrived at.

The Full Moon Cathedral was once the Imperial Palace chapel, but was closed about 60 years ago after two princes died of heart attacks while praying, deemed ominous.

However, due to the law that ‘no cathedral can be destroyed by human hands,’ it became a space that was simply abandoned.

Raphael, who entered the cathedral without hesitation, swept his gaze over the desolate interior and said.

“The upper area here was thoroughly searched by more than ten knights a few days ago. They couldn’t find any traces related to demons.”

As he said, the abandoned building was completely empty.

I moved to the dormitory, recalling the Head Maid’s explanation. Walking along the long corridor, I fumbled around a corner of the wall built with marble.

Click.

“Ah, it opened.”

The bottom of the wall slid inward, revealing a space where an adult could crawl through. The interior I checked after struggling to enter was more like an ordinary warehouse. Except for chairs, bedding, and a large amount of emergency food, there seemed to be nothing special.

“It’s just an ordinary bunker. Nothing puzzling about it.”

The two men were quiet without any particular response. Are they ignoring me? I don’t even hope for them to get along, so at least give me some reaction.

Among the secret passages the Head Maid told me about, this was the only outdoor underground location. All the others were either connected to the interior of the Imperial Palace manor or located above ground.

In other words, if we couldn’t find traces at the Full Moon Cathedral, the laboratory was likely located outside the Imperial Palace.

“There wasn’t much to gain.”

Just as Raphael observed. We came out to the cathedral backyard and searched thoroughly near the graves, but found nothing but dust.

Was there really nothing at the Imperial Palace?

“What are you looking at so intently, Lu?”

Lu, who had been leisurely looking around the cathedral, answered.

“This grave. It’s Loqwe style.”

He gestured toward the tree in the middle of the grave.

“The position of the zelkova tree.”

Next, he indicated the graveside where the dead priest would be sleeping.

“And the structure of the gravestones.”

“Couldn’t it be a coincidence? This is the Imperial Palace of the Pen Rota Empire. There’s no way it would follow Loqwe customs.”

Lu smiled slightly and walked around the graveside, stopping in front of the left gravestone. Then he boldly knocked the area below the gravestone with the back of his hand.

“Noble families that converted to Loqwe bury their heart crystals underground when even the last owner of the heart crystal closes their eyes. They hide entrances so they can retrieve only the heart crystal in case of emergency, and this grave’s structure serves as a hint indicating the location of that entrance.”

At those words, Sereniye Castle naturally came to mind.

It was a night when rain was falling heavily just like now. Certainly, when Lu, transformed into a wolf, vigorously dug below the gravestone…

Rumble.

…just like now, the ground collapsed and hidden stairs were revealed.

My goodness. Before I could even sigh, an eerie energy covered the entire cathedral area and then evaporated. I checked the ground where demonic power remained faintly.

‘The footprints embedded in the mud have disappeared.’

Magic that completely erases traces of visitors.

‘Is this why we couldn’t find any traces of demons?’

Truly seamless. The three of us stood in a line in front of the stairs leading underground, examining the pitch-black abyss below. From within, a disgusting demonic energy that pierced the mind was thickly rising.

Thump, thump. The sound of heartbeats echoed in my head.

Instinct warned me.

What slumbered below was my natural enemy. The demon that killed me…

“Mephistopheles.”

I couldn’t believe it. That such powerful force had been completely sealed off for the simple reason of being hidden underground.

“It’s on a different dimension from the energy that the Temple of Mephistopheles possessed.”

Shing. Raphael drew his sword and descended the stairs first.

The stairs that continued endlessly in the darkness suddenly changed to flat ground at some point. Then, bright light turned on, revealing the underground interior. I blinked several times to adjust to the light, then swallowed hard upon seeing the scene spread before my eyes.

“Oh my.”

It was truly a scene of slaughter.

Unsightly broken large glass tubes. Bookshelves packed densely with books and documents. Unknown liquid soaking the floor. Black blood mixed with such liquid, creating an unpleasant atmosphere.

What lay scattered above it were human corpses, not demons.

Corridors and rooms stretching long like a hospital ward. Offices, meeting room, bedroom, dining room, storage, and even unknown spaces where unidentifiable chunks of meat were grotesquely tangled together. Everything was decorated with corpses.

“…At least this definitely looks like the laboratory we were looking for. Right, Lu?”

Lu, who had lifted the back of one corpse’s head to check the face, answered lightly.

“And these corpses seem to have been researchers.”

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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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