Published: August 2, 2025
Today, two chapters posted simultaneously.
This is the second chapter.
“Who might you be?”
“I am the maid entrusted with taking care of everyone here.”
Bathed in the softly descending moonlight, the figure of a maid with glossy black hair was revealed.
Despite a well-paved venue being available, for some reason she emerged from the shade of the trees and declared her role confidently.
She was suspicious just for hiding in such a place, but even more so,
“I’ve never seen you before.”
“Well, it’s a vast mansion. That can happen, can’t it?”
“That might be true, but you’re not a maid, are you?”
Though the young ones from before were temporary workers, the maids allowed to appear before guests are said to have proper training. In fact, the head maids—Mr. Alone, Ms. Luluneze, and Mr. Ribiola—all behave appropriately.
But this person? She calls herself a maid but doesn’t identify herself properly or bow her head. It’s not that I want her to bow, but when I said I hadn’t seen her before, she replied with a slightly provocative tone. Clearly, this was not the attitude of a proper maid, and there was no real intention to hide the truth by playing dumb.
“If you’re not a maid, then what do you think I am?”
“A house-bound fairy.”
When I answered, the woman smiled without denying it.
However, it wasn’t a soft smile but a sly one... though she probably wasn’t wrong.
“When did you notice?”
“I’ve sensed your presence all along.”
After hearing about house-bound fairies, I tried not to pay it much mind, but I’d felt it many times from the day I arrived at the mansion until today, so there was no way I could be mistaken.
...Though I never expected her to show herself.
“Also, I thought the behavior of those four and the surroundings felt a bit off.”
The conversation was natural, but no one told me anything about the meal here beforehand.
Yet the four of them brought food and drinks as if prepared ahead of time.
Even if we were to eat together, why outside? There was no sign of being guided indoors.
Even after dark, no one came to check on me, despite me never returning to the mansion once.
Everyone here usually takes care of things with such meticulous attention that this made me feel even more uneasy.
“Did you calmly eat the food brought by someone you thought was acting suspiciously?”
“I did check for poison or medicine at least. When I summoned the slime to prepare.”
At that time, I had once summoned a large number of scavenger slimes from the dimension home for garbage disposal, alongside poison and medicine slimes.
“Poison slimes and medicine slimes prefer poison and medicine respectively. Since they didn’t react to the food, I thought it was safe. It was just a guess, though.”
Actually, it never felt dangerous, now or before.
I was just being cautious, and they were simply listening to the story and accepting it.
“I thought you weren’t using divination magic. Is that what happened?”
“Well, honestly, it was just a spur-of-the-moment idea. But I thought it was a good one—to use slimes to detect poison or drugs. It might be worth researching.”
“That would certainly be valuable to the nobility... but talking about you and slimes might take too long, so let’s stop here.”
...When said like that, I kind of want to talk about it, but I’ll hold back.
“So, what exactly are you?”
“Half correct, I’d say. I am indeed called a house-bound fairy by the people of this mansion, but strictly speaking, I am a ‘fairy living in this mansion,’ not a house-bound fairy.”
She probably didn’t intend to hide that much. She readily admitted to being a fairy.
But this raised a new question.
“Are ‘fairies’ and ‘house-bound fairies’ different species?”
“They are born in similar ways, but house-bound fairies and those said to reside in objects are closer to undead-type magical beasts. They exist only for the benefit of humans.”
She kindly explained.
According to her, fairies are born from the elemental magic of vast nature in this world, and have tangible form. They are basically innocent and free-spirited, usually living where they are born, but sometimes out of curiosity travel far or wander into human towns. They appear like small people and are cute, but possess strong mana and excel at elemental magic like fire and water.