I Became the Maid of the Lout Prince

T/N: This bonus chapter is sponsored by James B. (14/14). Thank you, James, for sponsoring these past 14 bonus chapters and for your continued support! 

Making Agnes help bathe Prince Antonio while naked was an act I enabled with some calculation.

It wasn’t about teasing Agnes or anything like that. I just purely thought this would be the most effective method.     

‘Agnes is easy to handle if you just make her think she’s following proper principles.’     

First of all, Agnes was someone whose standards became quite lenient regarding things she categorized as ‘something that needs to be done anyway.’     

Naturally, no normal woman would like to show her naked body to an unrelated man, but just by adding the condition that ‘it’s necessary for helping with bathing,’ those boundaries would lower considerably for her type of personality.     

If Agnes didn’t realize this was strange on her own, the gamble would be successful. After all, Prince Antonio, who was completely smitten with Agnes, wouldn’t refuse bathing together with her.

‘Prince Antonio might appear proper, but he’s appropriately faithful to his desires for his age.’

His faithfulness to his desires had already been proven through his actions over the past month. He had even followed her all the way to the Witch’s Forest just to create opportunities to get closer to Agnes, who earned curses at the mere mention of her name.    

So, even in this extremely abnormal situation where someone of the opposite sex enters the bathroom naked to help with bathing, Prince Antonio would probably keep his mouth shut and not tell Agnes the truth.  

After that, everything would flow smoothly. Not only was Prince Antonio obviously in love with Agnes, but even someone as wooden as Agnes would naturally awaken to romantic feelings with just a little trigger.

Even if she didn’t feel anything seeing Prince Antonio’s body, it didn’t particularly matter. After all, after today’s events, Prince Antonio would become even more conscious of Agnes.     

‘He’ll probably think something like he needs to take responsibility since he saw Agnes naked.’

Just achieving that much would be a success. Once Prince Antonio enters the academy next year and bumps into Agnes more often, their relationship will gradually grow closer after that.

In the end, women tend to be happiest when they’re with a man who loves them. Actually, I had seen this in some research results on the internet in my previous life.

When they surveyed the happiness levels of married couples, men were happier the prettier their wives were, while women were just happier the prettier they themselves were.

The research concluded that women were happier when they were pretty because their husbands treated them better as a result.   

Among all the men I knew, Prince Antonio was the one most capable of treating Agnes well.

‘Well, anyway, even if it doesn’t work out, it wouldn’t be my fault.’

If he can’t make anything happen after I’ve done this much, that’s the prince’s fault, not mine. I think I’ve done as much as I could.

I was looking forward to seeing if Agnes could achieve a sub-couple ending that differed from the original story.    

Three days passed after we defeated the last monster in the Witch’s Forest.

After completing Lara and Lizzy’s witch trials, we exchanged farewells at the entrance of the Witch’s Forest before naturally parting ways to board carriages heading to our respective territories.

“Th-Thank you so much, Ro-Rosewood… Th-Thanks to you, I sa-safely finished the test…”

“It’s nothing, Miss Medichilling. Also, others worked harder than me.”     

“Bu-But Rosewood, y-you helped the m-most… If, if it weren’t for you… I m-might not have been able to ta-take this test… If that ha-happened, uh, uuuh…”

Lara grabbed both my hands tightly as she expressed her gratitude after safely completing the witch trials with Lizzy.     

She shivered, clutching her arms as if imagining the penalty for failing the test.

“So. What’s the penalty for failing the test?”    

“Wh-What?!”    

“You can tell us now, right? Everyone here helped you and that one over there take the test.”     

“Ah, th-that…”     

“…”     

“My n-name… Wo-Would have changed…”     

“…Huh?”  

“Your… name?”     

“What do you mean?”     

While Lara answered, trembling as if it was something she really didn’t want to imagine, the others focused on her words.     

Only the Hero and I, who knew what the penalty was, quietly averted our gazes.     

“My n-name… would have changed… to L-Lya Medichilling…”     

“…”     

“…”     

“…That’s it?”

“Wh-What do you mean that’s it…?! Do-Do you know how shameful it is for a witch to ha-have her name changed…?! It means dropping back an entire witch class! It would’ve happened just because I couldn’t pa-pass the test on my first try…!! And besides, Lya is such a difficult name to pronounce…!!”

Agnes’s expression hardened ominously upon hearing the true nature of the ‘penalty’ from Lara’s mouth.     

I had deliberately prevented them from talking about the penalty because I expected this kind of reaction.     

It was natural to feel disillusioned when everyone here had taken turns guarding the altar for a month, dealing with monsters while facing potentially life-threatening crises, only to learn about such an anticlimactic penalty.     

“You, you made us go through all that trouble just for this…”     

“Ah, ah! Come to think of it, if you couldn’t take the test this time, the next chance would be in 10 years, right, Lara?”     

“Y-Yes, yesss… The purest energy only seeps into the Northern Altar once every 10 years…”     

“If you hadn’t made it this time, you would’ve had to wait a whole 10 years. That could have been really serious!”     

“Th-That’s important too, but more than that, the name…”     

“Now, now, it’s already over. Anyway, you successfully took a test that can only be taken once every 10 years. Isn’t that what matters?”

The Hero belatedly joined the conversation and added supplementary information about the witch trials. If Agnes were to become angry here, the entrance to the Witch’s Forest might have been set ablaze. 

Reminded me of this one fictional character in this one gacha game in my previous life.

Actually, for witches who live for hundreds of years, a decade doesn’t feel particularly long. Of course, it’s not an extremely short period either, but it feels much shorter than how ordinary humans perceive 10 years.     

That’s why Lara didn’t seem to care much about that aspect, but Agnes appeared to somewhat accept the point about it being a test that could only be taken once every 10 years.

“…If it was such an important test, you should have said so earlier.”     

Agnes was someone who had lived each day more fully than others, even cutting sleep time until right before entering the academy.     

Having devoted herself to studying magic while even giving up proper growth during her crucial developmental years, Agnes couldn’t help but soften at the mention of a test that could only be taken once every 10 years.     

After placating Agnes like that, we decided to split up and return in three carriages that had gathered from various regions.     

One merchant carriage brought by the Augusts.     

One private carriage that the Hero had brought from the Northeastern Plains.

And one Imperial Carriage that we had ridden from the Imperial Capital.     

The simplest method would have been for everyone to return with the carriages they came in, but that wasn’t the most efficient choice.     

The second semester at Luminor Academy would start in just ten days, and it would be quite wasteful to spend several days visiting the capital or other places on the way back.     

Therefore, the eleven people decided to split into three groups for temporary travel companions. People with the same destination would move together, and if someone needed to pass through an intermediate route, they would make a brief stop to drop them off.     

“See you at the academy in a week, Lilith.”     

“Yes, Miss Lizzy. Take care on your way back.”     

The first carriage was the merchant carriage that Lizzy and Caraham had ridden.     

Since it was a carriage of the August Trading Company, the August siblings, who owned the carriage, naturally had to return in it. After all, Caraham was the coachman who had driven this carriage here.

One additional person was riding in this carriage.

“You remember the elective courses for next semester, Lilith? Advanced Spirit Theory and Applied Fire Magic…”     

“Yes, yes. We’re taking them together, so don’t worry, Agnes.”     

“…Right. Don’t forget.”     

Since one of the Elizabeth family’s branch houses was on the way to the August territory, Agnes also decided to return in the same carriage.     

Originally, Agnes was supposed to return to her residence after returning to the Imperial Capital, however, there were so many people heading to the capital after joining the Hero’s group at the end.     

Rather than cramming into a tight carriage, she decided to impose on the August family. With only three carriages available, they had to divide themselves up somehow anyway.     

“Ah, Miss Lilith, I secretly packed the mandrake roots in the box that you’ll be taking. It’s the box with the light blue X marked on it…”

“…Keep it down, Miss Lizzy.”

Things would get complicated if Ethan found out. If he discovered I bought something like this, it might look like I’m not satisfied with my nighttime activities with him.

It was just something I bought as insurance and as a souvenir from visiting the Witch’s Forest, not particularly something I bought to use on Ethan.     

Meanwhile, Agnes and Prince Antonio were also exchanging farewells.     

“Lady Agnes! Please take care on your way back!”     

“…Right.”     

“I’ll send letters to the address you gave me! And gifts too…”     

“Don’t. That’s unnecessary meddling.”

“Yes…”    

“…”

Agnes seemed to converse more freely than before as if they had gotten closer, but she still drew clear lines. Prince Antonio became dejected as usual at such behavior.  

While I observed Agnes and wondered if my strategy hadn’t been very effective, she suddenly swung her staff lightly toward the ground before getting into the carriage.     

Whoosh!

A brief flame that instantly bloomed and disappeared from the ground.    

Where Agnes’s fire spell had swept past, burn marks created what looked like letter-shaped stains here and there.

“Lady Agnes?”     

“…My dormitory address.”     

“Pardon?”     

“…I can’t stay at home for long. If you’re going to write, send it here. Don’t send anything else.”     

“Ah, yes! Thank you, Lady Agnes!”

Judging by this reaction, it seemed they had at least become ‘friends.’ At the very least, they had gotten much closer than before when she would become serious at just the mention of his name.     

Of course, it still seemed like these two had quite a long way to go.

T/N

Thanks for reading! See you in the next one!