The Peaceful Life Of A Maid Who Hides Her Power And Enjoys It - Chapter 41

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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 41

My exit has finally appeared. But something is strange.

‘Didn’t she just speak?’

Moreover, she’s standing with one leg propped up, looking up at me with a confident gaze. It was a completely different appearance from the usual exit I knew.

‘Originally, she would only follow behind me with a terrified face.’

And she never opened her mouth. As if she were mute.

That means.

‘…Ah, right. She didn’t appear as my exit but as my reverse scale.’

To think I’d fall under an illusion while being aware of the trap. It was more interesting than surprising.

‘Andert or Grand Sorcerer Mephistopheles usually appeared as my reverse scale. And sometimes dead comrades too. Why did it change to my young self?’

Perhaps finding it frustrating that I was standing there silently, Young Protagonist grabbed my clothes with a sullen expression.

“What are you staring at like an idiot? Let’s get out of here now.”

“…Mm, right.”

I need to break the illusion first to discover a new exit.

I picked up Young Protagonist, who was taking quick steps, and held her in my arms as I walked.

Young Protagonist, who had frozen with a startled face, glared at me with eyes that seemed to say ‘Is she crazy, why is she doing this?’ but soon became docile.

I think my young self was quiet and well-behaved. Are my memories idealized?

Young Protagonist, who had been comfortably held in my arms with all the strength drained from her body, asked me.

“What were you doing here all this time?”

It feels strange being questioned by my young self. I answered her sincerely.

“I was saving my friends.”

“Friends? How do you save something that doesn’t exist? Were you delusional?”

Shock. Young Protagonist’s mockery left my mind blank.

No way.

‘My reverse scale is… being a friendless outcast?’

I feel uncomfortable.

Even though she’s an illusion, isn’t she my childhood self? I didn’t want to make Young Protagonist dig into the ground saying ‘I’m an outcast.’

“You’re making a huge mistake. I’m not an outcast. Both my current self and my past self had many precious friends. You and I are no longer alone.”

Young Protagonist asked back with an indifferent expression.

“Who are your friends then? Tell me.”

“Head Maid, Assassin Butler, Potato Selling Old Man…”

Should I include Quincey and Volkawin? Come to think of it, they’re not my friends but Weatherwax Baroness’s friends. Well, three is plenty, so let’s not force it.

“That’s it?”

“Yeah. Roughly that much?”

“It can’t be over.”

“Then?”

“What about the cook and gardener?”

Young Protagonist, who had been looking at me with displeasure, raised one corner of her mouth and chuckled.

“Ah, right. Lu isn’t a friend but the master holding the dog’s leash. You understand your place very well. I’ll praise you for that.”

Second shock. What? Who’s my master?

No way.

‘My reverse scale is… Lu?’

No, I don’t want Lu to be my reverse scale! I hugged Young Protagonist tightly and screamed.

“Snap out of it! Lu isn’t my master! That guy is just a princess living for her own self-satisfaction!”

Young Protagonist, with her face squished in my arms, asked back with incredulous eyes.

“Princess?”

“Right.”

“…Well, fine. Either way, you’re well aware she’s someone you have to serve.”

The cynical smile appearing on her lips somehow looks familiar. Young Protagonist should be cute when she smiles, so why does she feel annoying?

“I think the word games are enough. There’s one thing I want to ask.”

“Ask away.”

“Why do you think I’m an illusion?”

I closed my mouth and looked at Young Protagonist.

‘What?’

Are there cases where illusions recognize themselves as illusions? No, absolutely not, I’ve never heard of such a thing.

“Because you’re not my exit.”

“Why am I not your exit?”

“My exit is my childhood appearance, but that exit has never spoken even once.”

Then. Young Protagonist asked back with a strange smile.

“Do I look like your childhood self?”

Those words just now, I feel déjà vu.

The reason is clear.

“Do I look like Quincey?”

It was exactly the question I had asked Volkawin.

My legs suddenly froze. I put Young Protagonist down on the ground and stepped back.

Young Protagonist mocked my behavior.

“What are you doing?”

“Who are you.”

“Well, who could I be. You seem to need more productive self-reflection.”

“…”

“Like, what is my illusion.”

“…”

“If you know, why do you just leave it alone without thinking to overcome it.”

Only then did I look around.

The whole world is dark. I was standing alone in the middle of darkness.

[Die, Andert!]

[We don’t need you if you can’t save us. Just die!]

A world filled with screams and curses.

I know. Those voices are all illusions. Very old illusions at that.

The people I couldn’t save.

[If you can’t save me, just die!]

Those beings were my reverse scale.

I hear them without fail every time I’m trapped, but that was all.

I can escape traps through exits even when I hear the voices. It was natural since I was aware that they were my reverse scale.

As my thoughts reached that point, one question suddenly came to mind.

‘Why was my exit my young self?’

Why was a powerless, fragile young girl my exit?

A weak me couldn’t save them.

A frightened me couldn’t possibly save people.

For such a weak being to become my refuge…

“Right, now your head seems to be working a little. That’s right, Daisy. Your reverse scale isn’t the beings you couldn’t save.”

Young Protagonist, who giggled, whispered in a lovely voice.

“Your reverse scale is the act of saving people.”

“…Saving people is my reverse scale?”

“Why. Are you embarrassed?”

I felt dazed.

The reason why a frightened young girl was my exit. I finally understand that reason now.

Because I could run away.

Because it’s okay for a child to run away.

Because it’s okay to succumb to fear and disappear far away.

‘Oh no.’

In an instant, my face felt like it was burning hot as if scorched by fire.

“What could be so embarrassing? Being caught forcing myself to do something burdensome? Finding myself ridiculous for acting like I was doing a favor despite that? Oh no. You’re completely wrong, Miss Daisy.”

I could hear the young me’s footsteps gradually approaching. Above my lowered gaze, the girl’s small shoes appeared.

“Don’t be ashamed of yourself. Instead, feel more pity for yourself who’s been overworked by pitiful obligation.”

“…”

“Listen more to the inner cries you’ve been ignoring all this time.”

“…”

“Harshly scold yourself for taking your own sacrifice for granted.”

If it wasn’t my imagination, the childish girl’s voice that continued endlessly seemed to be gradually growing heavier.

“Ah, right. Shall I ask once more at this point?”

A solid coolness settled over the light rhythm.

To the colors that had been filled with loveliness, a gloomy and dark resonance was added like waves rushing into the cave.

“Do I still look like your childhood to you?”

And so the newly changed voice was a voice very familiar to me as well.

Long legs that had walked boldly with large strides as always stopped proudly in front of me. His height was so tall that his waist crossed my field of vision as I kept my head down.

“How about it. Try lifting your head.”

But I couldn’t bring myself to lift my head.

“Hmm?”

The other party was no longer a girl.

The dangerous man who had come to shatter my hallucination.

The man’s sleeves were coolly rolled up. On the smooth skin beneath his sleeves, various straight lines were embedded.

‘Traces of oaths.’

Roughly ten of them. The person who had carved so many oath traces on the inside of their arm was… unique as far as I knew.

Truly uniquely, only Lu.

.

.

.

I want to die.

My exit is taking Lu’s form. Doesn’t that mean I was unconsciously relying on him?

Clearly at first it was taking the form of my childhood self, so why did it change to Lu’s form later? Why exactly? For what reason? Of all people? So infuriatingly? So embarrassingly I want to die?

‘Because I learned the identity of my reverse scale? So that’s why it changed to Lu’s form?’

That’s even worse.

My weakness that even I didn’t know. The fact that Lu is the one and only person who can expose that weakness.

“Hmm.”

Following a short murmur, Lu’s voice was heard.

“The first enlightenment of unity of mind and body. The words sound nice. But with just one short enlightenment like that, you can’t penetrate yourself from head to toe.”

“…”

“Usually the guys who feel and learn by bumping into things with their bodies like this gain enlightenment faster than those who don’t. At least that’s how the ones I’ve seen were. Sitting at a desk all day just reading books is the height of inefficiency. You lose a lot of muscle too.”

Are you comforting me right now?

‘You think I received a big mental shock from realizing the identity of my reverse scale.’

I did receive one. But it’s less than the shock I received after realizing you were my exit.

“So acknowledge that today’s events are one of the rare strokes of luck in your life.”

“…”

“And accept the fact that you yourself are infinitely weak.”

Who’s weak?

Me?

“Fragile things are all precarious. The potted plant ‘Lu’ you’re raising, and you. In my eyes, you’re not much different.”

In the whole wide world, he’s the only one who calls me weak. He was also the only one who put me on the same level as the fragility of a daisy flower that had barely grown its first leaves.

The one who penetrates, displays, and advises… yes, advises about my inner weakness and flaws that even I didn’t know – Lu has been the only one until now.

‘…Damn guy. In the end, he makes me have no choice but to acknowledge it.’

Lu is indeed my exit.

He’s the most excellent t, t, tea, t… In other words, s, se, sen, se…

Anyway. That thing. Therefore, it wasn’t strange at all for Lu to be my exit!

‘Hah, now that I’ve acknowledged it, I feel so relieved.’

With a much lighter feeling, I lifted my head. And immediately bowed at the waist to greet him.

“Thank you for the life lesson, you bastard Lu.”

When I lifted my chin as if telling him to say whatever he wanted, Lu made a deflated expression.

“How boring. You should be more ashamed.”

Lightly touching my forehead with the tip of his index finger, he said.

“Let’s go back.”

The quiet words became a magic spell that shattered my hallucination.

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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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