It's been a few weeks since my birthday and I think I've pretty much settled into my new life in the capital city.

Some days I have study sessions with Mother and other days I go diving in the dungeons myself.

Unfortunately, I have not seen Jerry and his group ever since that day so I don't know how it went with his family. As for me, I'm just trying to slowly explore my way through the E rank dungeon on my own for now.

The reason why I was taking so long is more because of the fact that the maze section of it was so damn confusing.

I've also gotten to know the other servants inside the mansion too. I mean they do take care of me everyday after all so I would of course start conversing with them.

Surprisingly, the servants actually employed to take care of our side of the mansion weren't that many in reality. The ones being trained as servants do come over to take part in training but the actual staff that are assigned to our side of the building were quite few in number.

I also realised that there were surprisingly few Mahuns here until I was told that most of them were basically slaves, orphans and people who had no where else to go and were thus given a place here by Mother in return for their service.

The servants have also seemed to have gotten used to me since almost everyone would give me some kind of sweet when I met them.

Today, I was on my way back from my dive in the dungeon when I overheard a few maids talking in the garden so I hid in the bushes to eavesdrop when I realised they were talking about me.

"Mistress Aster is truly full of surprises isn't she?"

"Indeed she is. I admit I was a little worried when she first came here."

"Oh? Why?"

"Oh you know. I've heard stories of how usually the children of nobles would mistreat their servants and abuse their parents' authority as their own. I'm so glad Mistress Aster is nothing like that."

"Fufufu~ She is a really nice Mistress isn't she? The other day she even helped me hang up some laundry on her way to training just because she was worried that I would have trouble reaching them."

Oh, that must Rita, the Yoblin maid I saw the other day. She was bringing out several piles of bedsheets into the garden to hang up to dry and I just got a little worried so I helped her out. I don't really think it's that big of a deal though?

She's also the first Yoblin I've seen in this world and unlike the goblins, they don't have green skin. In fact, I would liken them to halflings instead of goblins.

"Now that you mention it, she also helped me deal with some pesky Mahuns that were bothering me while I was out on my day off last week! She was so cool!"

"What?! Spill! This is the first time I've heard of this!"

"Yeah! Tell us, Fia!"

Oops, that's Fia the Rizzie maid that I met in the city that week. Rizzies are this world's version of fairies and apparently she was quite large for her race despite being half the size of Rita. The two pairs of translucent butterfly wings were already almost twice the size of her body.

I learned from her that most Rizzies can only fly up to a certain height while hers is at the limit of three stories high.

"Well… There was this group of mean Mahuns who were making a scene about my wings taking up too much space, then Mistress Aster showed up and flared her own wings in front of them, telling them to back off."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Kyaaa~ She's so cool!"

"Oh my gosh! You've seen Mistress Aster's wings?!"

"Yes! She was so beautiful I wish I could have a picture of that moment!"

Ahh… Hearing them praise me like that is making me a little shy…

"Have you heard? Miss Aster also started making sweets in the kitchen too?"

"Oh, I have! I have never envied you so much for being assigned to the Kitchen, Tracey!"

Oh yeah, Tracey… The Infrid maid that I would sometimes get to test my new creations. Infrids are basically succubi and she definitely fits the description of one with her curves and her very striking red skin and horns.

Sometimes I even suspect she spills the cream on herself on purpose.

"Hehe~ Mistress Aster is both kind and beautiful too. It's hard to believe she's only eleven this year."

"Oh you said it. I can't wait until she comes of age actually."

"Fufufu~ Don't we all?"

Hmm? Why are they so eager for me to turn eighteen? Is there something that will happen? Oh yeah, perhaps the nobles have some kind of ceremony to debut their children into noble society? Well, it's still a long way off so I don't think I need to worry about it for now.

"Oh, what are you girls talking about?"

Oops, that voice belongs to Mary.

"Head maid!!" All of them squeaked.

"Umm… We were just talking about Mistress Aster…" One of them explained honestly.

"Ufufu~ Mistress is indeed a very fine Mistress isn't she? But you are still on duty so please leave such discussions for when you are not."

"Yes Head Maid!" All of them cried out before dispersing.

I also decided to make myself scarce since it would be bad if I was caught eavesdropping in a conversation where I was the subject.

Thankfully, it looks like no one noticed me so I managed to slip out of the garden and towards the mansion unnoticed.

Entering through the door however, I was met with Katsuki who seemed to have been waiting for me.

"Welcome back Mistress." She greeted with a bow.

"Oh, that's surprising. I would have expected Mother to be here instead."

"I was instructed to inform Mistress that Madam had returned to Dragon Sanctuary to tend to the house and would be back in a week or so."

"Ah I see. I suppose Mother did say she'll go back from time to time after all. Oh! It's been a while since it's just been the two of us, how are things?"

"Umm… It… It has been well… Mistress…"

I noticed her averting her gaze from me, something she has not done for a very long time now.

"Katsuki," I called out, my voice stern. "What happened?"

She hesitated and I could see her wringing her fingers slightly, most likely thinking if it would be wise of her to lie to me.

Eventually, she reached into the pocket of her apron and presented a letter to me.

My immediate thought was that this was a letter of confession until I opened it and saw its contents.

Speed reading through its contents, I realised that this was a letter from her father demanding an answer as to why she was still alive and serving under someone else as well. It went into detail about how big of a disgrace she was before ending on an ultimatum where she either kills me and then herself or he would come and do it for her.

I looked at her, "How did he even know you're here?"

"I do not know, Mistress…"

"What do you intend to do?"

"I… My life belongs to Mistress, yet I would be unable to live with myself if I were to know my presence brought inconvenience to Mistress. Thus, I ask that Mistress please release me from my status as your maid…"

Ah… That's quite sad… But if that is what she--

"... And then I will go and fight my father to the death. I am not his opponent, so I would most likely perish but I hope that would be enough to prevent him from coming after Mistress."

… Wait what?

It took me a moment to register what she had just said, "You want to… Sacrifice yourself?"

"That is correct Mistress."

"Yeah, that's not happening. You vowed yourself to me, so you know what? I'm going to keep you right here by my side. I said I'll take care of you and I mean it. Your father wants to come and fight? Then let's fight. I'll make him hand you over to me personally."

Katsuki gave me a look of concern, "Mistress… My father is a strong assassin, he's been known to kill targets even before they know they are targeted! Mistress will not be safe!"

"Mmm… Do you have a way to contact him?"

She pursed her lips, "Not exactly… There are places where I can drop a message and he will receive it. But if Mistress is planning to ambush him…"

I shook my head, "Nothing that crude. Let's send a reply message saying that we wish to meet him to talk out our differences. If I'm unable to convince him then I'll issue him a formal duel or something."

"Mistress… Assassin's don't fight fair. Father will not agree to this and he might just kill you at the meeting place."

"I know that, Katsuki. Don't worry, I have a plan. Trust me."

Katsuki gave me a look that clearly showed she was against the idea but she moved to fulfil it anyway.

Alright, let's just hope her father isn't as strong as a dragon.