The Young Lady Has Disappeared

"Catherine is late."

Yulia, who came to visit again today, says this suddenly while lying on Catherine's bed and staring blankly at the ceiling. Lillian nods at this and lies down next to her.

"You're right. It's already well past the time she should have returned."

"Do you think something might have happened?"

"That's impossible. We're talking about Catherine here."

Even though they weren't proper knights, Catherine had subdued two knights in an instant. There was no way anything could happen to her in a place as safe as near the academy.

"But isn't it strange for her to be this late?"

"Is it?"

But since there was no way to contact her, Lillian just tilted her head. While they were anxiously worrying like this, suddenly the door of the room opened.

"I'm back."

"Ah. You're back? Catherine. Why are you so la—Eek?!"

"Kyaaaa?!"

The two screamed as soon as they saw Catherine's face, and honestly, they couldn't help it because Catherine's appearance was a mess.

The blood stains splattered on her maid uniform, which had been without a single wrinkle when she left, the dirt covering her as if she had rolled on the ground, the fatigue in Catherine's eyes, and the drops of blood scattered here and there on her face were enough to shock them.

"Wh-Wh-What happened?!"

"Would it be alright if I change clothes first, young lady?"

"Ah, yes. Of course."

As Lillian readily agreed, Catherine, as if suddenly remembering, put down the bag she was carrying.

"Don't worry, the dresses are fine."

"Who cares about the dresses?! Catherine is hurt like this!"

"...In case you misunderstand, let me tell you that none of this blood is mine. I'm not injured either."

"Huh? Oh, really?"

"Yes. Then, if you'll excuse me."

Catherine bowed her head and entered the shower room, and Yulia and Lillian stared blankly at each other before suddenly coming to their senses and opening the bag. Inside were three dresses neatly folded.

"Huh? Three?"

"Ah, one is for Catherine."

"...Oh."

To be honest, I wanted to see Catherine's reaction too.

Lillian thought this as she closed the bag again. Then she let out a small sigh. Just you wait. I'll hear all about what happened when you come out. She thought.

* * *

Shaaaaa-

Water streams pour from the shower head. In this world, shower heads were originally something only nobles could enjoy, but since they were installed in every room at the academy, I could use them too.

The water streams beat against my snow-white naked body, and I let out a small moan. Due to technical issues, it wasn't warm water, but nevertheless, I couldn't help feeling the convenience every time I encountered such fragments of modern technology.

Hot water needed to be heated like a boiler, but since I was the only servant here, there was no one to tend the fire outside. That's why I had no choice but to take cold showers.

Fortunately, as summer was approaching and the temperature had risen a lot, it wasn't that cold, but still, I usually avoided taking long showers because of the chilly feeling.

Today, however, I planned to take a longer shower.

'I need to wash off the blood on my body...'

They must have been very surprised. They probably were very surprised.  Not only Lillian, who had lived as a noble all her life, but Yulia too would not have had occasions to see blood.

I slowly closed my eyes as I faced the water streams beating against my body along the shower hose. The recent events were still vivid in my mind.

* * *

The spear shakes several times. As if to give variations, I tried my best not to be deceived and followed the trajectory of the spear. The problem was that I hadn't brought much armament, as I hadn't planned to enter the back alley from the start. I thought this while trying my best to avoid the incoming spear.

Normally, this wouldn't have been an opponent to struggle against, but I was having quite a hard time.

One of the problems was that he was an opponent who could take advantage of the reach provided by the spear as a weapon. His spear technique itself wasn't exceptional, but he was making full use of the reach.

To overcome this difficult situation, I needed to accept some damage.

Honestly, I didn't want to take any damage, but... it couldn't be helped.

Swallowing a sigh inwardly, I rolled my body forward, grazing past the spear and avoiding it. I saw the opponent looking flustered, probably not expecting me to suddenly roll like that. Anyway, the distance was now closed. I gripped the dagger I was holding and stabbed it into the opponent's shoulder.

"Arghh-!"

The opponent whose right shoulder was stabbed dropped the spear, and I immediately twisted his hand and kicked his shin. Then the opponent collapsed, clutching his shin.

"P-Please spare me...!"

"Run away!"

"The boss is down!"

"You disloyal bastards-!"

Expecting loyalty from back alley thugs. What a fool.

I thought this as I pulled out the dagger stuck in the opponent's shoulder and dealt with him as usual. After all, I had no intention of killing.

I started treating the injured, going around. The one with a dagger in his abdomen hadn't been hit in a vital spot, so he wasn't as badly injured as I thought, and the one with daggers all over his body only had muscle damage, not bone injuries.

"...What are you thinking?"

"I should be the one asking. Why did you target a servant of the Fortus family?"

"...The Fortus family sees their servants as no more valuable than stones on the street anyway. So we thought it wouldn't matter if we kidnapped one."

"Hmm."

That's true. The servants of the Fortus family are regularly replaced, unlike servants of other great families, with only the head maid and I enduring. The head maid because she was brought directly by the madam, and me because I was the only one who could tolerate the young lady's temper.

The young lady brought me directly? Marquis Fortus was unlikely to care about such things. He was originally a cold-blooded person who had little interest in others. A person who didn't care about people's personalities or appearances, only interested in utility.

That was Marquis Fortus, and to him, most servants were merely consumables.

That rumor was quite widespread, so it wasn't entirely strange that this man before me knew about it. At least, if he was interested in information, he would have heard various rumors about the Fortus family.

"So, why are you sparing us?"

"Because it's not worth killing you. And there's something you need to do for me."

"...What is it?"

To be honest, I thought it was a bit late, but nevertheless, it was something necessary, so I slowly opened my mouth.

"Who is above you?"

"...What? I don't know what you're talking about."

The leader of the organization was playing dumb, but I ignored that and continued.

"Whoever it is, they're not higher than the Fortus family name, right? Are you interested in serving the young lady?"

"...Can you decide that on your own?"

"As you can see from my combat abilities... I'm the young lady's personal attendant. I serve as her bodyguard and personal maid. It's quite an important position."

It's a lie. There's no such thing. Of course, Marquis Fortus never gave me such authority. It was natural since even my training was the head maid's independent decision.

But it wasn't entirely a lie. At least through the young lady, it wouldn't be wrong to say I had some authority. And the young lady wasn't someone who would oppose such things.

"...Give me some time to think."

"Alright. I'll come back here in a week. Oh, of course, you're free to run away, but I don't particularly recommend it."

"Of course. Who would run away unless they were crazy?"

I didn't know who was behind them, but if they were at a level to have an organization stationed at the academy, they certainly weren't pushovers. It probably meant certain death if they ran away. Leaving them collapsed like that, I headed back to Karl's salon.

I knocked on the door and tried to tidy up my disheveled appearance a bit. Of course, it didn't improve my messy state much, but it was a matter of feeling.

"Welcome... Kyaaah!"

"Madam. I've come to pick up the dresses."

"Um, are you alright?"

"Ah, don't worry, not a drop of my blood is on me."

"...Well, that's a relief, but what on earth happened?"

"I was attacked when I took a back alley."

Madam's eyes widened at my calm explanation.

"Were there people who would attack even after seeing the Fortus family embroidery?"

"They seemed to know the circumstances of servants better than I expected."

"Ah..."

As I held out my hand towards Madam, who was sending a pitying gaze, she muttered, "Oh my, look at me," and disappeared into the back of the atelier, then reappeared. In her hands was a large bag containing the dresses.

"Two dresses, right?"

"No, three."

"...I remember it was only two."

"Ah, one is for you, Catherine. Miss Lillian said it was a gift... You don't look surprised?"

"No, I'm sufficiently surprised."

It's just that my expression is dead, but this was a sufficiently surprised face.

The young lady, who rarely even says thank you, let alone gives gifts, giving a gift? It was the most surprising experience in my 20 years of life in this world.

"Umm, be careful on your way back?"

"Yes. Thank you, Madam."

Gripping the bag, I left Karl's atelier. Receiving everyone's stares, I came out to the square, paid the surprised coachman, and headed straight for the academy.