“Hey, Shia. You woke me up late today, what the hell were you doing? Don’t you remember you’re a maid? You-”
“Sigh. If that was the case, I wouldn’t go back to sleep.”
“As usual, you’re useless, aren’t you? I might need to replace you soon.”
“Get your act together. I don’t need a useless maid like you.”
Beret had been unreasonably harsh with Shia in the past. No no no no no. What are you doing, Beret? I’m shocked you can easily say such things without any hesitation.
“Ummm… B- Beret-sama…”
“Hm? Ah. Ah, yeah, I’m awake.”
Beret came back to his senses when he heard Shia’s voice from behind the door, trying to confirm that he was awake. He could tell that she was afraid just from her voice. I must be careful not to frighten her any further. Trying not to scare her, Beret said gently, “Shia, come in.”
“Y- yes, excuse me…” Shia entered the bedroom, holding a tray with tea on it, visibly nervous.
She looked just as Beret had remembered. Dressed in a maid uniform, with yellow-white¹ hair tied up in pigtails with pink ribbons, round blue eyes, a petite figure, and a slightly childish face. Although this is the first time I’m meeting her since my reincarnation, I surprisingly don’t feel awkward at all.
“G- good morning, Beret-sama.”
“Uh, good morning.”
“U- um… Good morning!”
“H- huh? Good morning.”
Perhaps because she wasn’t expecting Beret to greet her back, her gaze wandered for a moment, and then she bowed her head again.
“Um… I brought black tea, would you like some?”
“Since you’ve gone through the trouble of preparing it, yeah, I’ll have some. Did you prepare the tea by yourself, Shia?”
“Y- yes! It’s my job, so I always prepare-” Shia suddenly closed her mouth and looked down.
“Hm? What’s wrong?”
“…D- did you perhaps not like it?”
“Huh!? No, no, that’s not it! That’s not it at all.” Beret was bewildered by her unexpected question. Sigh… Abusing a girl who’s working so hard for you. You’re done for, Beret. You normally shouldn’t say such things. Beret felt an overwhelming sense of helplessness. He tried to shake off that feeling, and the only thing he could do currently was express his gratitude.
“Thank you for always preparing it… Shia.” Beret expressed gratitude, as it was a natural thing to do. But this caused Shia to make a mistake, which he soon realized.
“Eh…”
“Ah! Wait?”
Shia had a stunned expression, and she dropped the tray she was holding.
Beret, who usually behaved aggressively and arrogantly, and took it for granted to be served, suddenly bowed his head. It was no wonder Shia was shocked. She felt as if the world had turned upside down.
Clatter!
The sound of the cup breaking. Fragments flying. The tea, which was steaming, spilled onto the floor.
“…”
“…”
Both of them fell silent at the accident, but Shia quickly regained her senses with her eyes wide open.
“I- I- I- I’m so sorry! I’ll clean it up right away!”
“Wait a minute!”
She turned pale and crouched down to immediately pick up the broken glass, but Beret stopped her.
She could easily cut her finger on a piece of glass at this rate. I don’t want to think about it, but my past behavior is the reason that she’s like this…
“It’s dangerous, so I’ll do it.”
“Ah…”
Even though she’s a maid, she’s still a girl younger than me. It’s not right to let her clean up in her current state. Beret took the initiative to gather the scattered fragments onto the tray and wiped the tea with a paper towel.
While doing so, he snuck a glance at Shia, and saw her trembling with tears welling up in her eyes. She must have been in a really terrible environment… Sadly, this is all because of how harshly I’ve treated her all this time.
If Beret wanted to keep his reincarnation a secret and play it safe, then maintaining the same attitude as before would be the best course of action. However, he wasn’t someone who could treat others like that. While feeling sad that Shia was surprised just by him expressing gratitude, Beret asked, “Um, Shia. Are you injured or burned anywhere?”
“Y- yes! I’m not injured or burned… I’m sorry…”
“Hm?”
Her apology seems to be implying, “Was it better if I had been injured or burned?”. For a moment, Beret thought that he was overthinking it, but after considering how he had been treated her, he thought that his initial guess was likely correct.
“You don’t need to apologize. I’m just glad you’re not hurt.”
“…”
Beret wondered whether or not Shia had heard him, as she kept her head down and waited for the next order.
She’s probably feeling threatened by the fact that despite being a maid, her master is the one doing the cleaning, Beret thought. “Um, Shia?”
“Y-Yes?”
“Well, how should I say this? Everyone makes mistakes, so just be more careful next time, okay? Even if you break something, please don’t panic and pick it up carefully.”
“Eh…”
“Not ‘eh’. Be more careful next time, okay?” Beret asked for confirmation as he looked at Shia’s dumbfounded face.
“Y- Yes…”
“Alright. Then, I’ll just say that I broke this cup, okay?”
“Eh, ah… Th- that’s-”
“It’s okay, it’s okay.” Whether I broke it or Shia broke it, the teacup would still be broken. But if I say that I broke it, then at least Shia won’t be blamed for it behind her back.
“U- um… Then, what about the punishment…? Beret-sama, this cup is one of your favorites…” It seemed like Shia wanted to say, “Usually, you would…”, but she was too scared to say more.
If that’s the case, I can phrase it like this. “Ahhhh. While I did love it, things break eventually, so it can’t be helped. So there’s no punishment.”
“…”
Yeah, it’s strange, isn’t it? For the Beret who’s been abusing you to say such things. That’s why I just want to say one thing: get used to this Beret as quickly as possible.
“Anyway, the most important thing is that you’re not injured, Shia. There are plenty of cups to replace this one, but there’s no replacement for you.”
“…”
Yeah, it’s strange, isn’t it? For the Beret, who usually abuses you, to say such things. You must be wondering where those words are coming from. While thinking that, Beret carefully chose his next words to fit his previous actions to not expose the fact that he had reincarnated.
“To begin with, you dropped the cup because of me, right? Because I did something different from usual.”
“T- that’s! It was my carelessness!”
“Be honest. It didn’t seem like carelessness to me.”
“!”
Shia felt that it was an order from Beret’s voice, and she gasped.
No, you don’t have to tremble like that… Beret felt even more sorry for Shia now.
“… H- honestly, I was surprised…”
“Because I said ‘thank you’?”
“…”
Shia nodded slightly after an extremely long pause and looked up nervously, wondering what was going to happen next.
I’m sure she’s also wondering, “What on earth happened to Beret?”. This is a critical moment for me. I have to make sure that she doesn’t realize that I have been reincarnated.
“Um, well. I’ve changed, you know?”
“…”
Silence was affirmation. Looking at the situation, there’s no way to deny the fact that Beret has changed.
And here’s my excuse for abusing Shia until now. To be honest, I don’t know what to say. It’s not something I can be forgiven for with just a simple apology, but I know that I will be spoiled by Shia’s personality.
“I know it’s not something that’s forgivable, but I’m sorry for everything up until now, Shia. For everything I’ve done.”
“!?”
It’s rare in this world for the heir to a marquis family to apologize to a maid. However, apologizing for a bad deed was common.
Your face is asking, “What’s happening?”, but I can’t just tell you “I’ve been possessed by another personality! Hahaha.”
Beret desperately racked his brain for another reason.
“What should I say? I know you won’t believe me …, but the reason I was so harsh until now was because you are going to leave this house and become a maid or servant for another noble, Shia… That’s why.”
“Me leaving this house?”
“Yeah. Your family has served us for generations, but we don’t know when the Marquis family will decline. So, I’ve had that attitude to make sure you could endure any environment.” Beret was cleaning up after “Beret”’s mess, but now that he’s Beret, he didn’t have a choice. The real reason “Beret” had abused Shia was that he didn’t like her, but there was no way Beret could say something like that. That’s why Beret decided to make up a reason. “Well, Shia’s well-regarded at the evening parties, it’s none of my business, but since you’re serving me, I have to take responsibility no matter how things turn out, you know?”
“…”
“S-so I told an acquaintance about it, and they advised me, ‘You’ve gone too far’, ‘You should talk to her directly’, and that’s why we’re here… right?” As Beret and Shia looked at each other with serious expressions on their face, Beret thought, It’s painful. Just as I thought, justifying myself is too difficult…
“Beret-sama…”
“Yeah?”
“S-so, in other words… in other words, everything you did until now was for me? Not because I was incompetent or anything like that…”
“Of course. You’ve been working really hard. You’re as good as any other servant.”
“!” That was enough to cause Shia, who hadn’t been praised in a long time, to become teary. She brought her yellow-white hair tied in a pigtail to her face, trying to not let anyone see her cry.
“Ah, ahhhh… I’m really sorry for giving you a hard time. I’ll interact with you like this from now on, so, can I continue to rely on you…?” Beret said. I can’t ask you to believe me. I’ve been treating you harshly, so there’s no reason for you to trust me. I’m even trying to convince you through lies. I know this isn’t right. Even so, I want to get along with you. I want to live happily. I want to build a good relationship. That’s how I honestly feel.
And in response to those feelings, Shia nodded her head vigorously
Author’s Notes:
We’ll enter the school arc in the next chapter.
Translator’s Notes:
¹ The light novel illustration shows her with pink hair, but the author wrote 黄白, which is yellow-white.