Chapter 10: Chapter 9: I Will Become the Villainess Maid!

To say that Count Shadowstep was in a happy mood was an understatement.

Not only had he gained a mage from his own bloodline, but his territory had also been blessed with another mage—one of even higher rank.

Moreover, she had asked for employment of her own accord.

"Hey! Bow deeper! You are seeing the first mage of House Shadowstep!" Count Shadowstep barked proudly, ordering the pitiful maids around.

Elidranthia could only facepalm as she watched the maids bow deeper—some even going so far as to kneel.

"Father, let us not harass the maids," Eli said.

"Of course, my dear," the count replied.

He was about to send Eli to her chambers, but she unexpectedly followed him into his office.

"I want to meet Alicia tomorrow.

She’s important for this territory, right?

We’ll be mages together, right?" Eli pleaded with her father.

The count might have been arrogant, but from what Eli had seen after asking around, his arrogance never went beyond his mouth.

The proof was there—even when he ordered them to kneel, the maids still smiled and didn’t look afraid.

Eli still believed she could turn things around.

She could still build this county into a prosperous, beloved land.

"Hm? Well, I’m glad you’re eager.

But the tutor will need time.

They will come here in one week at the earliest.

We should celebrate!" the count said.

"Please... the celebration can wait.

We could study civics or etiquette together!

She will be my maid, right?" Eli pressed.

She couldn’t afford to relent.

People scrambled for talented individuals no matter the era—and this world had mages, people with quantifiable power.

She couldn't risk a high-ranking mage being stolen from her territory.

"Alright, alright. I’ll send soldiers to her house tomorrow," Count Shadowstep relented.

"Thank you!" Eli said, skipping away like a child.

She was eager to meet Alicia tomorrow.

Her new mission was clear: she had to pander to her.

She would even ask the cook to prepare the best food he could make for her.

"Well, let’s get to work.

Rodrick! Who is that farmer girl?" the count said, plopping himself onto the chair after seeing Elidranthia skipping out of the room.

As he raised his foot onto the table, he called for his steward.

"She is not a farmer girl, milord. And my name is Rodrique," the steward corrected with a bow.

"Whatever..." the count waved his hand dismissively as he looked through Alicia’s files.

His expression soon darkened as he read her background.

Meanwhile, in the middle of the night, Alicia tried her hardest to remember who Duke Luca was.

Her two brain cells were far from cooperating.

"Duke Luca... he sounds familiar.

I kinda know about Duke Bron since he played a part during the war with the neighboring kingdom.

Ahh! Yes. Duke Luca—the rich and greedy merchant!

Since the continent was at war, he barely had any screen time in the book.

I remember now," Alicia muttered as she stared at the thatched roof of her shack.

To be honest, Duke Luca had completely slipped her mind.

She had almost forgotten about him.

But from what she could recall, he was the greediest merchant pig in the entire Althemer Empire—and Eli didn’t like him either.

Alicia had no intention of serving under greedy merchants.

In every fantasy, working for such a character always led to a bad ending.

Alicia decided to ignore that shady man’s offer and went to sleep. Alicia regretted spending her previous two brain cells on something so unimportant. Nothing changed after all.

At dawn, two soldiers came to Alicia's shack under orders from Count Shadowstep.

"I thought Count Shadowstep had ordered me to pick Alicia up myself. Why are you guys here?" John asked, frowning.

"Well, Count Shadowstep requested us to pick her up first thing in the morning yesterday," John's friend Edward said, scratching his head.

He then turned toward Steve.

"He said first thing in the morning, right?"

"Yeah. He even gave us two silver for this task. Let’s get it over with," Steve replied.

"Alicia is still sleeping," John pointed toward a snoring animal with white hair. John sighed, "...Well, I’m going to wake her up.

Good grief, she’s going to have a hard time working for the count if she keeps this up."

"Hahaha, she’s a mage. They’re even more privileged than nobles, you know. And they don't even need to act like it," Edward laughed.

"Ah, but she was asking the count to be a maid yesterday," John pointed out.

"Even maids have rankings, you know.

There’s no way she’ll be a normal maid.

She’ll probably become Elidranthia’s playmate or lady-in-waiting instead of doing regular maid jobs.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

She won’t have any of the usual chores.

I know because Elena was a maid," Steve said.

They talked nonsense as John gently nudged Alicia awake.

Still yawning, Alicia was taken to Shadowstep Manor.

"Greetings, Mr. John, Mr. Steven, and Mr. Edward.

Thank you for bringing Alicia to our manor so early.

We are glad to have dutiful soldiers like you," Elidranthia said, curtsying to them.

The atmosphere turned tense—the one who greeted them wasn’t a butler or a guard, but Elidranthia herself.

Even her father stood behind her.

"My dear, you need not curtsy to commoners," Count Shadowstep sighed.

He then waved his hand dismissively.

"You may leave."

"Yes, sir!" Steven and Edward immediately saluted and darted off.

"We should be polite to everyone, Father," Elidranthia said sweetly as they walked toward the estate’s living room.

However, her intimidating red eyes made it look more like she was smirking than smiling. It had the opposite effect.

Alicia felt that weird murderous instinct again.

She liked Elidranthia—she was cute and elegant.

So why did she hate her so much?

After a moment, the strange feeling faded.

"Would you like some tea?" Eli smiled, gesturing toward the snacks and tea her chef had prepared beforehand.

"My daughter went to such lengths to prepare this. Be grateful!" Count Shadowstep scoffed.

He clearly wasn’t pleased to see Elidranthia being so welcoming toward a commoner.

"Thank you!" Alicia said cheerfully, plopping herself onto a chair.

Again, Count Shadowstep scowled—but the thick-skinned Alicia ignored him.

Eli couldn't understand why her father was so vain.

Mages were important to everyone—they were required for literally everything.

And yet, she had to personally go to the chef to prepare snacks and tea to serve them.

In a way, Elidranthia was more mature than the count.

He was scowling in his chair like an elementary school kid.

"So, I heard you wish to be my maid. Is that correct?

I am pleased to have a new friend of the same age, Alicia," Eli said. Emphasizing the word friend instead of maid or subordinate.

She had been the one to request this meeting, so she tried her best to appear welcoming.

Alicia responded just as she had hoped—but apparently, her behavior was still not good enough for the almighty Count Shadowstep.

"Me too. Nice to meet you, Eli," Alicia said brightly.

"Hmmf! This kid has no manners.

Rodrick, ask Laura to teach her some manners!" Count Shadowstep huffed.

"As you wish, milord," Rodrick replied. "and my name is Rodrique."

"You, come to my office. We shall discuss your daughter’s employment," Count Shadowstep said, giving John a side glance.

John timidly followed him.

Elidranthia sighed in relief.

"I’m sorry about my father.

He’s a little full of himself."

"Was that normal for nobles?" Alicia asked.

"Well, yes.

In my lessons, we were taught that nobles must act pridefully toward those of lower rank."

"So you guys were taught to speak like that?" Alicia smirked.

"Annoying, right?" Eli smirked back.

The two hit it off in no time.

Now that her father was gone, Eli held the highest status in the room.

"Yes!" Alicia said, smirking in return.

"So, do you like dolls?

Would you like to play with one of mine?" Eli asked.

She didn’t particularly like dolls herself.

However, there had been many times in her previous life when she had to butter up politicians—and as a girl, talking about dolls was simply expected.

She even remembered the time she had to act pretty for a certain politician, thanking them sweetly for the cute doll... all while slipping poison into their food.

"Hm? Not really.

My father is a knight, so I would prefer to see some swords or bows," Alicia said.

"Oh. How about we sneak into the knights' barracks?

We might see some of them there—though I’m not sure if they’re training today."

"Let’s go!"

The curious children then snuck out—not to the barracks, of course, but to Shadowstep’s personal training grounds.

Eli knew the difference, but the barracks were farther away, near the wall.

She figured Alicia wouldn’t notice.

The training grounds were still filled with Count Shadowstep’s personal guards, after all.

"Greetings, Lady Elidranthia," a knight saluted as they arrived.

Rows of wooden training swords and arrows were neatly lined up across the grounds.

"Greetings, sire. Are you training today?

We would love to watch.

By the way, Alicia’s father is also a knight.

Do you know him?" Eli asked.

"Yes, of course.

We are in different squadrons, but I know him.

He often guards the southern gate—and sometimes he mans the wall during stampede season."

"I’m glad that our knights care for each other," Eli said, curtsying politely.

Alicia eyed her curiously.

The hint that Eli might be a reincarnator like her was faint—her way of speaking wasn’t quite how Alicia remembered people from Earth sounding.

"We would love to show you our prowess against monsters, milady, but since monsters are dangerous creatures.

I’m afraid you’ll have to be content with a sparring match.

Would that satisfy you, milady?" the knight said.

"Yes! Let’s see them spar!" Alicia jumped girlishly.

If anyone thought Alicia would act boyishly or be disgusted by male muscles, they would be wrong.

Alicia had embraced her new self as a female.

She didn’t like men in a sexual way (yet), but she certainly loved swords and bows.

"Very well.

We shall do our best to entertain your new friend, Lady Elidranthia," the knight said, though he frowned slightly at Alicia’s informal manners.

"Squad Two and Squad Three!

We have guests!

Let us show our future mages the prowess of our knights!"

"Hm... There aren’t any mages in any squads..." Alicia muttered.

Her dream of becoming an adventurer or knight suddenly didn’t seem as exciting as she had hoped.

"Hahaha, well, mages are rare.

We certainly can’t have them in every squad.

Only specialized units have them," the commander said.

"Sir Knight, could you explain to us about bows?

Was it difficult to master?

Ah, I didn’t get your name yet—my apologies," Eli asked politely.

"Of course, Lady Elidranthia.

I certainly have forgotten my manners.

I am Jadenbale Wicked, lieutenant of the first to fourth squads of the Shadowstep personal guard."

"Greetings, Sir Jadenbale.

Alicia, let us spectate the sparring match.

We should not stray too close, lest we invite danger.

Mr. Jadenbale has indulged us—we should not trouble him further," Eli said. She then scooted herself to the corner of the training grounds. Mr. Jadenbale, acting as a guide led the way.

"Okay!" Alicia replied cheerfully.

"Thank you for your consideration, Lady Elidranthia.

First, let’s start with archery.

We have the short bow and the longbow," the lieutenant explained.

Four knights stepped forward, demonstrating their skills one after another by shooting at the scarecrow targets.

Alicia clapped loudly as the arrows struck the targets one after another, while Eli carefully analyzed the knights’ performance.

It’s nothing special.

Even I could hit those targets from this distance if only I had my seventeen-year-old body and a compound bow.

As I expected, these knights need more training or better gear, Eli thought.

"I wanna try!" Alicia said, skipping excitedly toward the knights.

John hadn’t owned a bow, so she wondered if the goddess had given her at least another skill.

As expected, Alicia’s greed knew no bounds.

"Of course," the lieutenant said, giving a short bow to Alicia.

A soldier whispered something to him, but he waved it off.

These were training arrows—there was no way Alicia could hurt herself.

As expected, Alicia couldn’t even draw the bow halfway.

The arrow flew wildly off to the left before falling to the ground with a thud. It didn't even reach the dummies. As expected, she is a dummy.

"Ugh..." Alicia groaned as the bowstring left red marks on her hands.

"Well, it’s harder than it looks, right?" the lieutenant said with a smirk.

"Thank you! Please let us play here again!" Alicia said cheerfully while returning the bow back to him.

Her smile brought chuckles among the knights. They thought she would be irritated or feel offended at the poor results, but the lieutenant knew better about slum kids. She was not a noble, after all.

Eli was about to entertain Alicia further with more sparring matches, but Count Shadowstep appeared.

"Eli! How are you?

Are these worthless knights causing you trouble?

You! Bow!" the count barked, and the knights immediately knelt before him.

"Sir!"

"Not to me, morons!

Bow to Elidranthia!

She will be your superior commander someday!

She’s a mage!

Where is your salute?

Where are the others?

How could the training grounds look so desolate when my mage daughter visits?

Show the pride of the Shadowstep knights!

Call everyone!" Count Shadowstep roared.

Before Jadenbale could actually go to fetch the others, Eli stepped in to stop her father’s rampage.

"Father... the other knights have other duties.

I am satisfied with Mr. Jadenbale and his knights here.

We didn’t make an appointment, after all.

It is our mistake," Eli said politely.

"I see.

Knights, thank Eli—you escaped punishment today because of her magnanimity."

"Sir!" the knights saluted again.

"Alright, I have another matter to attend to," the count said. He then eyed Alicia.

"Ah! Farmer girl, you stay here.

Your employment starts today.

I’ve spoken to Laura and Elena about your room.

You will also need to attend etiquette lessons.

I have overlooked your transgressions because you were uneducated, but no more!

If you don’t fix your manners, don’t expect me to keep you!

And for god’s sake, you smell like animals," Count Shadowstep scoffed, then walked away.

His deep frown and scoffing clearly showed how displeased he was with Alicia’s behavior.

Eli pumped her fist in victory.

She had finally secured this valuable mage girl into her territory.

"We shall lead you to your room, Alicia," two maids said, stepping forward.

"You will need to clean yourself before attending lessons with Lady Elidranthia tomorrow."

"Eh? Tomorrow? Not today?" Eli asked, tilting her head.

"Lord Shadowstep decreed so.

Alicia will attend lessons starting tomorrow, as she is currently too unpresentable to attend classes," the maid said, eyeing Alicia’s coarse linen tunic and dirty body.

"Alright... Alicia, let's play again someday." Eli sighed, feigning obedience.

But as she attended her usual lessons that day, she quietly developed another plan for Alicia tonight.