NOVEL NEXT Chapter 22.1
Seria had a crush on her master.
Since her mother, a maid in the imperial palace, passed away while giving birth to her all alone, Seria grew up in an orphanage where the girls were raised as slaves.
There, she, who boasted superior abilities and was more beautiful than the other children, was unexpectedly chosen to become one of the emperor candidate’s maids.
However, such glory was short-lived as her master, who had been receiving education in the imperial palace before owning her, suddenly changed.
The name of her new owner was Park Min-ho.
Seria was taken aback but didn’t show it on her face.
Because first impressions of oneself were very important.
“Hello. I’m Seria and I will serve my new master from today...?”
A shocking sight reflected in her eyes as she raised her head.
Her new master was burning her slave papers with a grim expression on his face.
‘A-Am I being abandoned on the first day...?’
Seria was so shocked that she couldn’t say anything, and she just stood there as if she was frozen in time.
After a while, Park Min-ho spoke to her with a gentle smile.
“Slaves...! We are the same people, so such a relationship is not right. Seria, you are free! I can’t change the empire yet, but I can save your life at least.”
She had no choice but to inform him of the cold truth, while he was still indulging in the ease the slave papers brought him.
“That one you just burned... It’s just a copy... The original is probably in the Imperial Palace’s Slavery Administration...”
“······.”
“And if you raise my status without a good reason, I will be severely punished... It’s a violation of the status law...”
“That, is that so...?”
Her first impression of Park Min-ho, who smiled awkwardly back at her, was that he was not a bad master.
Unable to find a solution right away to the issue, she started living as his maid, which he didn’t want.
He was always respectful and kind to her.
He tried to do the best he could to find other ways to free her, and he never exercised his authority over her.
Seria had been living with Park Min-ho for several months by now, and she realised that she wanted to dedicate her life to this person.
He was kind and caring, always worked hard to help others, good-looking (she had to stress that point especially), talented, and her master.
‘Sometimes though, he can be a bit insensitive...’
Seria looked around the dining hall of the commoners’ dormitory, which had become a mess.
Her master wandered around the room restlessly.
An unknown man was lying face down with his head on the floor, and the man who introduced himself as Ian earlier was at a loss by the situation before him.
“Ahhhhh... You bastard...”
Her master’s lover was crying sadly.
Seong Ah-young—
She was a beautiful woman who suited her master much better than Seria ever would.
She often came to her master’s room to play and treated Seria as if she were just any other friend of the same age.
‘He seems to have drunk a lot. How did this happen...?’
Seria recalled the events of the previous 15 minutes.
***
“How many girls has Ji-hoo dated so far?”
I could see the body of my Jihye flinching at senior Carolina’s question.
Hyerin tilted her glass too, pretending to be uninterested in my response, but she seemed to be eagerly anticipating it.
“Haha... I have never dated anyone so far.”
“Huh! Ayy, that must be a lie!”
“That’s ridiculous. Is it possible that your world has a different standard for attractiveness than ours?”
My seniors doubted my answer, but it was true.
This is because I was absorbed in my studies while enjoying a pseudo-love affair with Ji-hye on Earth.
Of course, I have no intention of doing that in this world.
Jihye was visibly relieved.
“Ooh~ That’s a lie~ Drink drink~”
“That’s right! Do it! Do it!”
“No, what are you guys saying?”
I am now realizing the truth behind the drinking game being a game of politics.
I told them the truth, but then why are they forcing me to drink like this?
Hearing them egging me on, I proposed to Jihye with a flowery look on my face.
“Is it possible for you to take a black rose...?” [T/N: Fem Drink for me.]
“Jihoo! You said you wouldn’t play my black knight earlier! Mosol Jung Ji-hoo, hurry up and have a drink!” [T/N: Mosol: a person who has never had a romantic partner.]
Her answer was savage.
At that moment, a slender white hand beside me stole my drinking glass.
Hyerin took the drink in my stead and smiled at me.
The smile that I could see in her eyes that had the ability to shake a man’s heart was very enchanting.
“Oh~ Black Rose~!”
While everyone admired Hye-rin’s bold action, Ji-hye’s eyebrows twitched and she made a strange expression.
After that, senior Carolina kept asking me questions that were difficult to answer and attacked me relentlessly, and each time Jihye and Hyerin competed with each other to play as my black rose.
“Haaam... I’m sleepy...”
As a result, both of them got drunk and fell asleep.
Jihye took my lap and curled up in it like a cat.
As I gently scratched her chin with my hand, she gently opened her mouth and bit my index finger.
The sight was strangely electrifying.
Hyerin fell asleep with her head resting on my shoulder.
Thanks to that, I was able to appreciate her long eyelashes from a very close distance.
Her scent was still sweet.
It was a fragrance that was made to arouse a man’s lust.
Blood suddenly began to rush to my lower body.
They say that men don’t get erections when they’re drunk, but that doesn’t seem to be applicable to me.
They were both asleep, but the truth game continued.
Senior Lyle asked Minho with a reddened face as if he was slightly drunk—
“Minho~ Let me ask you a question from man to man. Will you answer this honestly?”
“Yes.”
Why do I suddenly feel concerned?
“You’ve had your eyes on a girl other than your girlfriend! Yes or no?”
To be honest, I don’t know where this question is coming from.
And taking into account the fact that his girlfriend is right beside him, that was a very mean question to ask.
Reminding myself not to get too close to Lyle in the future, I waited for Minho’s answer.
······?
Why isn’t he answering?
When I turned my head, Park Min-ho was hesitating.
This idiot...!
No, here he should confidently assert that he had never been in such a situation, or after saying that he had, he could go about digging into the loopholes of the question by saying, ‘I can’t walk around and not see other people, right?’!
Thank you to me for answering the question.
Ah-young, whose mind was unstable because she was on the verge of losing consciousness from drunkenness, couldn’t see reason when she saw Min-ho’s foolish expression.
Tears began to well up in her eyes.
“Ahhhhh... You bastard...”
She cried pitifully, as if in an attempt to relieve her accumulated stress all at once.
Silence settled upon the dining room as the unexpected crying sounds spread across the room.
‘Oh shit.’
Lyle-senior seems to have realized his own mistake, so he quickly dropped his head to the floor, and Ian-senpai, the president of the commoner dormitory, walked towards him with a straight face.
I couldn’t get up from my seat because both Jihye and Hyerin occupied a spot on my body.
“Huh-geup... Inhale...”
In the end, the situation ended when the two maids comforted Ah-young.
Minho and Ah-yeong’s maids supported the duo and then they left the dining hall with the sobbing Ah-young and the guilty Minho in tow.
Anyway, they will reconcile in a few days.
This is because the two of them cannot live without each other.
I am extremely happy about the fact that a very small rift may form between the two.
I entrusted Jihye and Hyerin to their respective maids and finally regained my physical freedom.
Senior Ian, who scolded Lyle and kicked him out of the restaurant, approached me.
If I look closely at him, he is honestly quite a bulky guy.
“I’m sorry. I brought him because I thought he could raise the mood but I didn’t know he would do something like that...”
“No. Lyle-senpai must have made an honest mistake too.”
“Okay, thank you for understanding. By the way... You are Jihoo, right?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
As he opened a new bottle, he said—
“I wanted to talk to you.”
Senior Ian handed me a glass and I took it with my two hands.
He is the president of the academy commoners dorms.
I still don’t know exactly what his responsibilities are nor how powerful he is, but he’s a friendly individual so there’s nothing wrong with speaking to him for a while.
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