Servants, Past and Future

When I was born, I already had three servants there to care for me.

First, there was Erina. She was my maid, but—most importantly—she loved and cared for me like a mother. Next, there was Noel. She was full of life, and always made everyone else in the room smile. Finally, there was Dii. He was quiet and a bit awkward, but always supported everyone quietly from the sidelines.

They were originally my mother’s servants; but, when she’d died, they were there to care for me instead. Even after Mom had been stripped of her title and wealth and sent off, the servants insisted on joining her in this house. She wasn’t able to pay them, but they stayed. They were incredibly loyal, which was also why they wanted to serve me after Mom had passed away.

Erina had been struck by a terrible disease called mana pollution, though I had managed to cure her. Day by day, the servants grew more attached to me, and I to them.

One day, as we were drinking tea together after lunch, I asked them all a question.

“How did you all meet Mom?”

They all looked a bit torn at first. They probably didn’t want to hurt me by talking about Mom. I made it clear that I’d be fine, so Erina spoke up.

“I met Miss Arya the day I had been thrown out of the noble house I was serving at the time.”

Apparently, Erina had served a different noble family when she was younger. When she fell ill, though, she was thrown out of the house. Even after she’d recovered, she hadn’t been taken back. The illness had taken a toll on her body, and there were some permanent effects. As a result, she couldn’t work as well as before.

With nothing but a small suitcase and some pocket change, she was thrown out. She wandered aimlessly through the nearest town, weak from the aftereffects of illness. Eventually, she had collapsed in an alley.

“Not only had I grown weaker from the illness, but I would also never be able to have children of my own. But, as I was lost in despair, a girl came up to me.”

That girl had been Mom. At that time, Mom had been the daughter of a noble family—for her to address a mere commoner like that was unheard of.

“Hey, are you okay? What are you doing?”

Mom was 10 at the time—old enough to know that speaking to strangers could be dangerous. Yet she didn’t hesitate at all when she called out to Erina.

“She told me later that it was fate that led her to talk to me. I don’t know if she was just kidding, but it really did feel like fate to me.”

Erina quickly noticed that Mom was a noble, and warned her not to talk to her. She had tried to leave, but Mom spoke up.

“Now I’m even more sure that you’re not going to hurt me, so there’s no problem! I want to know what happened to you—how did you end up here all alone? Could you please tell me?”

The girl had refused to back down, so Erina told her everything. After she’d heard Erina’s story, Mom clapped her hands together, then put her hand on Erina’s shoulder.

“Hmm, I see. Got it. Be my servant, then!”

“Excuse me?”

“You’ve served nobles in the past, so you must be skilled. Become my servant!”

“B-But like I said, I’m not able to work like I used to...”

“You’re not sick anymore, so it shouldn’t get any worse. Just work as hard as possible; that should be enough!! Besides... for some reason, I really want you as my servant!”

Mom continued to try to convince Erina to come home with her. She kept at it until her bodyguards caught up with her.

“She was a strange and strong-willed girl, but hearing her say she needed me really saved me that day.”

Of course, her family was against bringing in a commoner off the street. At the same time, they didn’t want to go against their cute daughter’s wishes, so they accepted her as their servant.

“Arya was still just a young, vulnerable girl, but she would run off whenever she had the chance to. I really had my hands full chasing after her when she did. But, I must admit, it was a lot of fun.”

The way she’d found Erina made Mom seem like a really reckless girl, but she apparently also had a careful side. She could spot anyone who seemed fishy in an instant and ignored them.

She was great at recognizing who her allies and her enemies would be with a single glance.

“A few years after that, as I’d grown used to Miss Arya’s sporadic behavior, we went out to a nearby town together. As we walked down the main street of the shopping district, she spotted Dii setting up a small camp by himself a little ways away.”

“She really surprised me that day.”

Apparently, Dii’s adventuring partner at the time had just retired due to an injury, and Dii had been contemplating whether to continue solo, or retire as well.

He had a dream of becoming a chef, but he had no connections who could help him get started. He had given up on it and spent time practicing and experimenting with cooking at his own camp, instead.

“Something smells good!”

“Who are you?”

Few people came up to him because of the look in his eyes, apparently. He was even more awkward back then than he was now, so that wasn’t too surprising. Despite that, Mom had happily walked up to him and wanted to try his cooking.

“I’m Arya! Something smells really good. Can I try some, please?”

“Miss Arya! You can’t eat that! What if it’s poisoned, or—”

“Who would put poison in their own food, silly?! Hey, you—is there poison in this?”

“No... of course not. That would be rude to the food.”

“See? He clearly sees the value in good food! We can trust him! So, can I please try some?”

“Suit yourself.”

Dii didn’t act like a commoner normally would around a noble—he treated Mom like any other stranger. She didn’t care at all, though, and eagerly dug in to Dii’s cooking. After tasting it, she furrowed her brow.

“Hmm... it’s not bad, but there’s something missing. You seem to know what you’re doing, so I expected this to taste better.”

“If I had more ingredients, it would.”

He was fairly poor, so he didn’t have much to work with. Obviously, Mom’s comments upset Dii a bit.

She simply smiled and responded, “So if you have more ingredients, you can make something really good?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay! Want to be my servant?”

“Miss Arya!”

“Huh?”

And that was how Dii became Mom’s cook. Her family was more guarded against letting Dii in, at first, but they eventually gave in after they’d tasted his cooking.

“I was a little wary of him myself at the start. But, as I got to know him, I realized how kind and honest he is. Miss Arya must have noticed it right away.”

“I can’t thank the mistress enough for taking a useless guy like me in, and letting me cook for her.”

Because he finally had a way of making his dream come true, Dii was excited to serve Mom. Mom and Erina also helped him a lot with his social anxiety, which he was grateful for.

“He truly has come a long way now. Back then, he was quite a mess.”

“I’m sorry.”

He bowed his head awkwardly, though I could tell his eyebrows were furrowed slightly. It was rare for him to visibly show any emotion, so that meant he was really serious. Mom continued to grow, although she still acted the same way.

A few years after they had taken Dii in, she snuck out of the house, and Erina went out to look for her.

“When I finally found her, she had gotten in a quarrel with a slave trader. She was shielding Noel behind her back.”

“Noel, you used to be a slave?”

“H-Haha... yeah, I did...”

She laughed like usual, but her eyes were different—I could see the pain behind them.

“I’m sorry, Noel. That must have brought up some painful memories.”

“It’s fine. I’m good now. Hey, Erina, remember how cool Miss Arya was that day?”

“Indeed. I really shouldn’t commend such reckless behavior, but she refused to back down when she talked with the slave trader.”

When Erina tried to get in between the two of them to understand what was going on, Mom just shouted, “Good, Erina! Go back home and get my coin purse!”

“Could you at least explain what’s going on?”

“I’m buying her!”

As soon as she saw the scared demi-human hiding behind Mom’s back, Erina knew what was going on. She also knew there was no use in talking her out of it, so she headed home to retrieve her purse. Mom threw her money at the slave trader.

“She shouted at the man to never show his face near her again, then threw in an extra gold piece. That’s how Noel joined us. At first, she was really frightened, and wouldn’t talk to anyone but the mistress.”

“You’d look at me, say I’m scary, then run away.”

“I-I couldn’t help it! Everything was scary to me back then. And you really were scary back then, you know Dii?! Now I like you, though! Y-You know...a-as a colleague...”

“I see.”

Noel frantically tried to cover her slip of the tongue, but I could see Dii’s lips curve up into a smile. The two of them seemed to be having a little moment, though Erina ignored it and recounted Mom’s next words.

“I bought you, so now you have to listen to what I say! So, here's your first order—you’re my little sister now!”

“O-Okay...”

“You need to address her with more respect! Sister or not, you’ll be serving the mistress from now on. I’ll help teach you some proper manners.”

“Eeek!”

“It’s okay, Erina won’t hurt you. You don’t need to hide behind my back. Come on out!”

“Miss Arya, dinner is read—”

“Eeek!”

Even Erina scared her at the time; so, when Dii had first shown up, Noel had panicked and ran away. This had made him feel pretty sad, apparently.

“But after spending more time with Miss Arya, Noel slowly, but surely, opened up. That is how she became the handful that you see today.”

“Who are you calling a handful?! I helped with work, didn’t I?!”

“You seemed to be working hard.”

“True—you did try hard, and your love for Miss Arya was very clear. But you also broke more plates than I can count, for starters. The mistress might have laughed it off, but we were the ones who had to clean up after you. I have told you a thousand times already, you need to be collected and calm when working!”

“Uhh, when did this turn into a lecture...?”

The lecture continued until Erina got it all out of her system.

“Thank you all for telling me about Mom. It means a lot to me.”

“You don’t need to thank us. We’re your servants, so we’ll do anything you need from us.”

After Erina had finished venting, I decided that was enough about Mom for the day. Talking about her too much might bring up a lot of memories for the servants, and I didn’t want to make them feel too upset by telling me everything in one sitting.

Hearing how they all met was plenty for now.

“Sob. I’ll go clean now...”

Noel dragged herself out of the room to clean, clearly still recovering from the harsh lecture she'd just received. Dii looked at her as she walked away, then turned to us.

“Erina. I’ll go help her clean.”

With that, he followed after Noel.

“Is he going to comfort her?”

“Yes. Whenever I scold her, he goes to console her. They have been like that ever since Noel finally opened up to Dii for the first time.”

“I see. That makes sense. He’d never get mad at her, so I can see why she took a liking to him.”

“Indeed. And he just couldn’t bear to see her sad, so he’d always try to make things better. Honestly, I’ve never seen Dii get angry at anyone. He’s quite a patient man.”

Especially so when it came to Noel. If she said she was hungry, he’d always go and make a light snack for her. After he learned that she loved the pudding I made, he started to work hard to memorize the recipe, just so he could make it for her.

“They’re both in love with each other, don’t you think?”

“You’ve noticed it too?”

“I think not noticing it would be impossible. I guess neither of them have confessed yet, though.”

Erina shook her head with a wry smile.

“I love both of them like family, so I’d love to see them together. I’ve given them plenty of jobs together where they’d be all alone, but...”

Noel still had some trauma from her days in slavery. Apparently, she felt like she would just hold her lover back, so she didn’t want to confess to anyone. Trauma like that didn’t go away so easily.

And Dii told himself that he had to focus on being there for his master, and that he didn’t have time to worry about love. It was clearly an excuse to cover up for his anxiety. Unless they had kids of their own right away, a girlfriend wouldn’t be much of a hindrance to his work.

“They do seem happy with how things are now, though. Just make sure you don’t push them too hard.”

She had been trying to find ways to bring the two of them together for a while, but nothing had worked so far. She’d opted to watch over them with a smile instead.

“I see. So, how did the two get so close? You said Noel was terrified of everyone at the start, right?”

“To sum it up in one word: food.”

“This is Noel we’re talking about, so it seems plausible that it really was that simple.”

She explained a little further—after six months, Noel had started to smile again, though she still ran away from Dii. She didn’t scream anymore, but she was still frightened.

One day, he tried to get closer to her by giving her some bread that he’d baked. Mom had been the one who gave him the idea.

“Of course, that didn’t work at first. She just became more suspicious of him, which really hit him hard.”

It made sense. She was still really scared at that time, so anything might have seemed suspicious to her. Just like a scared animal who needed to warm up to humans again, it would simply take time. Dii tried changing his strategy.

“Next, he left some food with a note on Noel’s bed. He hoped to hear her opinion on it.”

Of course, Erina or Mom were the ones who actually left it there, in order to make sure they didn’t spook her. At first, she’d ignored it completely. He kept at it, though, so she eventually ate some and started to write replies.

“At first, she simply just wrote things like ‘it’s good.’ That alone made Dii happy. After they’d continued for a while, they finally got to a point where they could talk together. And, before long, they ended up like this.”

While he left the notes, he’d start asking what she wanted to eat next. Then, he’d prepare the dishes she’d asked for. I wanted to ask a bit more about them, but Erina had to get back to work. I left it there.

It made me wonder what they specifically felt for each other.

I wanted to try doing what I could to bring them together. At the same time, though, I wanted to make sure I didn’t meddle too much. That’s why I went to ask them how they felt.

I found Noel humming happily whilst dusting. She was clearly in a good mood, thanks to Dii’s help.

“Huh?! H-How I feel about Dii?! I-I don’t... hate him, I guess...”

“I know that much. You’re attracted to him, right? I’m asking when it started.”

I just said it outright, which made her blush. Hopefully her reason wasn’t as simple as, “he gave me food, so I fell in love.”

“At first, I was really scared of him and I’d run off. But, after a while, I realized he’s just a nice guy who wants to make good food for me. Then, when we started to talk more, it became clear just how nice he really is. He kept helping me when I did stuff wrong. Before I knew it, I... started to fall for him. Eek, I said it!”

The embarrassment was too much to handle, I guess, because Noel darted off like a spooked cat. She wasn’t done cleaning, so Erina would surely give her another lecture after that. At least she admitted that she’s in love with him. That was all I wanted to hear.

Next, I found Dii and asked him the same question.

“Wh-What made me fall in love with Noel?!”

He looked really bewildered. When I explained that Erina had told me about the two of them, he calmed down a bit and answered.

“At first, I just wanted to see her smile.”

He had only ever seen her look scared, and that made him pity her.

Once he’d finally gotten closer to her, and she’d started to smile around him, it was like he’d been struck by lightning.

“When I saw that smile, I never wanted to look at any other woman again.”

Her smile really took his breath away, and he realized shortly after that he was falling for her.

“Aren’t you going to confess to her?”

“Ugh?! I-I can’t put my own needs ahead of yours, Sirius. I have duties to—

“I don’t mind at all. I’d love to see you guys happy together. Make some babies, you know?”

“B-Babies?! I-I appreciate the sentiment, but wouldn’t that be bad in our current situation?”

We were barely scraping by with the money my “father” was giving us. He really was worried about our quality of life if he were to get together with Noel.

“I’m sorry. You must be exhausted having to work so hard to care for me.”

“Don’t be. I’m happy to serve you, just like I was with your mother. And... I’m more than happy just working together with Noel.”

“You sure? Are you sure you’re not just scared of confessing?”

“I’m sorry. I just remembered I have some urgent work to do with Erina. Excuse me.”

Then he ran off, just like Noel did. They really were perfect for each other.

So the reason Dii wasn’t confessing was a mixture of fear for my future, as well as his own anxiety. Unless we either suddenly came across a fortune, or he managed to get a hold of his anxiety, it was unlikely he would confess any time soon.

Since we already had our hands full trying to save enough money for my school fees, it would be tough to suddenly improve our financial situation.

Sadly, it seemed I had to set it aside for the time being. They both seemed happy with how things were. And, if either one got too impatient, I’m sure they’d end up confessing at some point. So, just like Erina, I decided to just watch them with a smile.

※※※

A few years later, soon after I had saved Emilia and Leus.

The servants had all gathered in the living room to help teach the siblings the basics of what they needed to know in the house.

Suddenly Leus had blurted out, “Big bro Dii, are you and big sis Noel married?”

Silence filled the room, and everyone looked over at Dii and Noel. Not only had it been a bombshell of a question, but he’d skipped dating and gone to marriage.

Noel blushed red, like a tomato. She looked at Dii for help, but he mumbled something about starting dinner and ran away.

Of course, it wasn’t a surprise that he did. If he had been able to confess to her under pressure like that, he would have done it a long time ago.

At that point, things had gotten easier for us—we pretty much had the money we needed for school, but maybe he was worried about the future now that we had two more family members to feed.

Also, it had become clear to me that Dii was actually quite the romantic. I had taught him many different ways of confessing to a girl by using the knowledge from my old world, and he had rigorously written them down. I glanced at his notes after, and saw that he had circled “pick her up on a white steed” and “confess your love for her under the stars and give her a ring.”

So—seeing as he wanted a grand and special setting for his confession—doing it randomly when someone asked would ruin the moment for him.

After that, the tomato-faced Noel had darted off in embarrassment too.I explained Noel and Dii’s relationship to the siblings.

“How wonderful! I’ll cheer for them, as well!”

“I don’t get it. Why don’t they just get married? I saw them just gazing at each other outside in the garden the other day.”

“Romance is complicated stuff.”

“Indeed. Try not to push them about this too much.”

“No way! To me, it just looks like they’re killing themselves by waiting! I’ll go talk to big bro Dii!”

Leus ignored us and ran after Dii. He returned in a bit; though, based on the way he was chewing on something, it seemed like Dii had distracted him with some food. Leus happily chewed on whatever it was, and probably forgot all about why he’d gone after Dii in the first place.

“You’re not done with your studies yet. You shouldn’t just leave whenever you feel like it.”

“And you shouldn’t walk and eat at the same time! I’ve taught you this already!”

“Huh?! I-I was going to talk to big bro Dii about big sis Noel, and...”

Erina scolded Leus, and took his snacking privileges away for the night.

That night, during dinner...

“Um, big bro Dii, I feel like I’ve got a smaller serving of meat than everyone else...”

“You’re imagining things.”

“Look, my bread is much smaller than the others.”

“You’re imagining things.”

“And I clearly have less soup!”

“You’re imagining things.”

“I’m so sorry! I’ll never meddle again, I promise!”

After that, Leus learned about the true wrath of an upset Dii, and never asked about his relationship with Noel again.

Of course, even after that, Dii didn’t confess. I had gotten my hopes up a little bit, since the two of them had been asked so bluntly about it together, but alas.

We had finally gotten to a point where we were saving up a little money for ourselves for once. While it wasn’t much, their relationship wouldn’t have been a problem for us at all.

At that point, I felt like his only excuse was his anxiety holding him back. I decided to talk to him again. Even though I was his master, and getting love advice from a child might have felt strange, I had gained his trust. He also seemed to be more aware of his own confidence issues, and he sat down earnestly to listen to what I had to say.

“Dii, you know what I’m here to talk about, right?”

“Yes...”

“No matter the reason, running off like that was the worst thing you could have done. You clearly hurt her.”

“Th-There’s a good reason, though. I... I’ve ordered a ring for her, and—”

“Wait, really?!”

He explained that he had met an old merchant friend in town and placed an order for a ring with him. He wanted to give Noel the ring when he confessed, so doing it before then would ruin his plan. In this world, it wasn’t really normal to give a ring when confessing, so this was something I had taught him.

“But I didn’t have enough money at the time. It took a while, but I was finally able to convince him to make it. It’s custom made and had to be ordered, so I’m still waiting...”

“I see. That makes sense, then. But even so, simply running away wasn’t very nice. It was clear as day that Noel was hoping you’d confess to her there, and you just fled.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s still not too late. You can still tell her how you feel, and give her the ring later.”

“I... uh...”

He felt so bad for running away that he didn’t have the courage to go confess to her that night, after all. He might have looked cold and scary at first glance, but he was actually a really sensitive guy.

The ring was finished a little while after that, but he still hadn’t managed to confess.

It seemed like it would be a while before the two of them got together.