Chapter 429

To meet a hero as a mere maid, one had to be quite cautious throughout the process.

First of all, the situation where Lilith and I meet alone could easily appear awkward under normal circumstances. If others saw us, it could become troublesome.

The most problematic people, if we were caught, would be Ethan on my side, and Seraphine, Luke, and Silena on the hero's side.

At the very least, it was better not to let those four see us talking alone. While I could brush it off with others, it wouldn't be easy to convince them with words.

If I had been a part of the hero’s party, I could have avoided suspicion by claiming to be another party member. However, the only connection between the hero and me was the secret that we came from the same place in a previous life.

Still, sneaking a meeting with the hero wasn’t too difficult. The recent items I obtained were quite helpful in that regard.

Using the “Whispering Leaf,” which reveals the target’s location, I pinpointed where the hero was, and the stealth ability of the “Silent Dagger” helped me wait for the moment when he was alone.

“So, during this festival, we’ll all...”

I saw the hero talking alone with Agnes about the festival.

Holding the Silent Dagger in my hand, I hid in the shade of a tree, waiting for their conversation to end.

“Alright, I’ll let them know later.”

“Thanks, Agnes.”

“Remember your promise though, the research class next semester has to be the Flame Studies Research.”

“I know, I know.”

It wouldn’t have been a problem if Agnes caught me talking to the hero, but it would still be difficult to converse as freely with her around.

Once the two parted ways, I quietly approached the hero from behind.

“I’ve spoken to Agnes, now I just need to convince Natalie and Thomas...”

“What are you planning? What are you doing for the festival?”

“Wow, damn. You scared the hell out of me! I thought you were Luke sneaking up on me like that.”

Well, Luke was a character specialized in stealth and infiltration in the original story. The fact that the hero mistook me for him, even for a second, meant the Silent Dagger was working perfectly.

“This thing works great, huh? I retrieved it over the summer break.”

“That’s the ‘Silent Dagger,’ right?”

“Yeah. Originally, you were supposed to get this when you visited Blackwood Estate, but since it didn’t seem like you had plans to visit, I just grabbed it. Better than it falling into the hands of some dangerous character.”

In the original story, it was supposed to go to Luke to increase his favorability, so I figured I should report this. If the hero went to Blackwood Estate only to find it missing, it would slow his growth.

It’s a shame, but if it becomes necessary for the story’s progress, I might have to hand it over.

“Do you need it? I’ll sell it to you for 200 gold coins.”

“Nah. Luke’s going to get a new dagger during the festival event anyway. And that thing’s only worth two gold coins in the original story...”

“I figured you’d say you didn’t need it. It was just a joke. If you’d really needed it, you’d have retrieved it during winter break, wouldn’t you?”

“Well, yeah. If you need it, go ahead and use it. I don’t mind.”

“Sweet! Don’t backtrack on this later.”

With that, I tucked the fourth dagger I now fully owned back under my skirt and walked toward a quiet bench in a corner of the deserted park.

The hero probably knew that when I came like this, it always meant I had something important to talk about, so the conversation was bound to be lengthy.

“So, what is it this time? Is there something I need to watch out for during the Luminor Festival?”

“Not really. I didn’t interfere much with the festival in the original story, so it should go as expected. Well, except for the Seraphine kidnapping incident near the end, which probably won’t happen.”

“Well, yeah. Ligeia isn’t dead in this world, and Caraham hasn’t fallen either. And it seems like Auguste Trading Company is still running fine.”

In the original, Seraphine and Mechart went missing one after the other, causing a chain of complex events in the middle of the third arc. But those two incidents likely won’t happen in this world.

This might be the first timeline in the Luminor Academy world where we have a festival with no incidents at all.

“I was just curious about what you were planning to do for the festival. I saw you talking with Agnes earlier. Is the hero’s party doing something as a group?”

“...”

“...?”

Seeing him hesitate to answer, I focused on the hero, who then cautiously began explaining the party’s festival plans.

“Well, we decided that the hero’s party would run a maid café. It’s a safe way to build camaraderie among the party members and doesn’t interfere with the main story too much.”

“Wow. Pretending you don’t care on the outside, but you’re really giving in to your desires, huh?”

“You’re the one who wrote the guide suggesting the maid café route. There weren’t any other clear options. The play route you mentioned drops favorability with Seraphine and Silena, so we can’t do that, right?”

“It’s not that you can’t do it, it’s just not recommended. It’s hard to maintain their favorability.”

“Same thing. There might not be a second playthrough, so I don’t want to risk making a difficult choice. I can’t keep bothering you during the festival, constantly checking how Seraphine and Ethan are reacting.”

I understand. His goal is to clear the game safely and return to Earth using the wish granted by the goddess.

If this were just a game, it’d be different, but now that the game has become reality, his caution makes sense. He hadn’t gone through the Luminor Festival event 25 times like I had.

‘But if the hero’s party is doing a maid café, it’ll be a bit hard to pull Agnes and Natalie away.’

Agnes aside, Natalie was a key character in contributing to the café’s revenue. If I took her away, it could mess up the hero’s plans.

Agnes also helped by using fire magic for large-scale cooking, which was useful for handling many customers at once... though her charm as a maid was somewhat lacking.

‘Guess I’ll have to prepare something else for Ethan and me to join.’

As I thought about it and was about to stand up, the hero suddenly added more to the conversation.

“I already talked to Agnes about it, but in hindsight, I could’ve just come to you directly.”

“...Huh?”

“When I mentioned doing the maid café at the festival, Luke suggested your name. He said if we’re going to engrain the maid spirit in a short time, it’d be best to ask you for advice.”

“...What? Luke said that?”

“Yeah, he said you were the model maid. So, I figured you must be enjoying your life as Ethan’s maid if Luke is saying stuff like that.”

“...I haven’t really talked about maid life in front of him... oh.”

...Now that I think about it, there was that one time. During a humanities research class, we shared a room. It must have left quite an impression.

“Anyway, the idea came up to bring you along if we’re doing a maid café. Seraphine and Agnes are fine with it, and the others don’t mind either.”@@novelbin@@

“If I join you, what about Ethan...?”

“Of course, he’d come along. Since having another guy would make the numbers a bit uneven, we thought about changing it up a bit from the original maid café setup.”

“Changing it up how?”

“Since it’d be boring with just maids, the guys would wear butler uniforms, while the girls stay in maid outfits. We’d run it similarly to the original maid café.”

...Now that I think about it, there was an option in the original game to run a maid & butler café if there were too many guys in the party. Though I never really tried it, since my party was almost always all-female.

“You want to see Ethan in a butler uniform, don’t you? Of course, it depends on whether he’ll wear it or not, but it’s a festival, so he’ll probably go along with it.”

“Ethan in a butler uniform...”

“Now that I think about it, you were curious about what we were doing for the festival, so does that mean you were planning to join us? If you don’t have any other plans, we could all do it together. With ten people, we could even rent a bigger activity room.”

“...That’s true.”

Listening to the hero’s suggestion, it didn’t seem like a bad idea.

As a maid, I couldn’t ask Ethan directly to wear a butler uniform, so maybe this would be better than the play.

Either way, making unforgettable memories at the Luminor Festival wouldn’t change.