Chapter 32: What Is Stevie Doing

As we entered from the entrance hall, Countess Rosette herself was waiting.

"It has been a while, Countess. Thank you for inviting me today. I have been looking forward to this visit."

"My, what a cute thing to say. I have also been eagerly awaiting you. Welcome. Come now, please relax in my room until the meal is ready. This way."

Led by Countess Rosette, I was shown into her room again. The interior hadn’t changed. I walked over to the window and checked the position. I confirmed there was no discrepancy between the view from outside and from inside. *Good, this should be fine.* I confirmed it in my mind.

"What are you doing?"

Countess Rosette asked (of course it would look strange to walk straight to the window and mutter to myself right after entering).

I decided to be straightforward.

"I’m planning to come to your room at night. I was checking so I don’t go to the wrong room."

The Countess looked surprised.

"My, really? I thought you were joking last time, but you truly intend to come? This is the second floor, you know? How will you get up here? We don’t have any ladders lying around, fufu."

She laughed toward the end. Well, that’s a normal reaction.

"I don’t expect you to believe me, but please wait for me once. If I manage to come, please tie a string to the windowsill. That way you’ll know I really came."

"You really won’t be believed, will you?"

"That’s true. After all, it’s impossible for a prince to sneak into my room at night. But if you do manage to come, I will let you inside. And I will grant you any wish you have — as long as it is something I can do. Is that alright?"

"Understood. Please look forward to it. I’ll come tonight!"

"Oh dear, I won’t be here tonight. I have plans to attend a ball with my husband."

"That’s fine! As long as you know I made it all the way to your room!"

"Fufufufu, I’m looking forward to it. This will add some color to my boring life. I never imagined I would receive such entertainment from Prince Robby."

"Leave it to me!"

I thumped my chest confidently.

---

Right after I thumped my chest, I was informed that the meal was ready. That’s when it hit me. *What happened to Stevie? What is that guy doing?*

"Countess Rosette, what happened to the guard who came with me? Did he perhaps return already?"

"Ah, the one with blue hair? Let me check. I’ll ask the butler."

The Countess called the butler and inquired about Stevie. The butler replied that the carriage had returned to the rear palace, but Stevie was currently eating in the servants’ dining hall.

*Figures.* That guy is probably perfectly content as long as he has something to eat. And the better it tastes, the happier he is.

"If you need him, shall I have him called?" the Countess asked.

"No, that’s fine. I’m sorry for the trouble, but could you please let him continue eating? If you could also give him some sweets, he would be even happier."

"My, oh ho ho. Is that so? Understood."

The Countess gave instructions to the butler. After listening, the butler whispered something to her. The Countess chuckled softly and said,

"It seems your guard is extremely popular with the maids. They’ve been giving him all sorts of food and snacks, trying to win his favor."

"That’s... I apologize for the inconvenience. Thank you."

"Not at all, it’s nothing major. The maids are doing it because they want to. Besides, when their eyes are on your guard, fewer of them are watching me, so I can relax a little. Though... is that guard actually a woman?"

"You can tell?"

"Yes. Her voice is a bit low for a woman, but she has some chest, and her figure is quite slender for a man."

*(No, no, her chest isn’t that noticeable.)*

"Even so, she’s quite skilled."

"Eh!? Really? Does someone like her actually use a sword?"

"Yes, she does."

"People really can’t be judged by appearances."

"Indeed."

Dish after dish was brought out. Imagining Stevie happily devouring all of this made me smile naturally. He’s probably eating the leftovers right now.

---

At that moment, Stevie was in the servants’ dining hall. Just as Robby had predicted, he was surrounded by maids. Stevie had already learned that in these situations, it was best not to say he was a woman and to just stay quiet. If he did that, the girls around him would get excited on their own and bring him food and sweets. So today as well, even when the maids spoke to him, he simply smiled. His natural voice was rather low for a woman, so it could pass as a young man with a high-pitched voice. His height was short for a man, but believable for a boy who had just reached adulthood.

From the maids’ perspective, before even considering whether he was male or female, he had beautiful flowing blue hair, blue eyes, and was an incredibly handsome face that was pleasant to look at. And he listened to their stories (even though Stevie was only nodding and not actually listening) while smiling brightly at them.

"Hey! Sir Nix is talking to me!"

"What are you saying!? I was the one talking to him, and you butted in!"

"No way! I was talking to him first, and you girls cut in!"

The maids started arguing among themselves, completely ignoring Stevie. The head maid, who had initially been watching the swarm around Stevie with a wry smile, finally had enough.

"You girls! That’s enough! Stop crowding around Sir Nix and get back to work!"

Her scolding rang out like thunder. The maids shrugged and scattered, while Stevie, who was used to being yelled at by his superiors, also shrank his shoulders and closed his eyes.

With the maids gone, Stevie grew bored and started looking around. The head maid then approached with some sweets.

"Sir Nix, I don’t think Prince Robby will be back anytime soon. I saw him earlier in the Countess’s room, and they were chatting pleasantly."

"I see. Thank you. May I wait here until he’s finished?"

Stevie looked directly into the head maid’s eyes as he asked. He had recently realized that making eye contact while speaking was extremely effective with women.

The head maid blushed despite her age and said,

"Eh? Yes, of course. You may wait here as long as you like. Please enjoy these sweets if you’d like."

"Wow, they look delicious! Thank you! I love these kinds of sweets!"

At Stevie’s reply, the head maid unconsciously placed a hand on her cheek and melted.

The watching maids whispered among themselves:

"What the heck!? That old lady! She told us to work, but she’s over there flirting with Sir Nix!"

"Exactly! She’s the only one having fun. How shameless!"

"She really thinks she’s something special, doesn’t she!?"

*(She is the head maid.)*

Stevie’s stomach was full, and there was nothing to do but wait. Reading had never been one of his hobbies. What he was good at was moving his body. So he decided to kill time by training.

He asked the head maid,

"Excuse me, is there a spacious area I could use?"

"There is a garden. What will you use it for?"

"I’d like to move my body a little. I’ve eaten quite a lot of food and sweets, so I want to work it off."

"In that case, there’s a section of the garden without grass. Would that be alright?"

"That’s perfect. May I use it until my master’s business is finished?"

"Of course. Um... if it’s alright with you, may I watch? I’ll stay in a place where I won’t be in the way."

"That’s fine. Could you show me the way?"

"Understood. This way please."

The head maid led the way. The maids who had overheard their conversation got excited:

"Kyaa!"

"He’s going to train!"

"Let’s go watch!"

"But if we slack off, that old lady will get mad again, right?"

"We can watch from somewhere else! Like the windows on the second floor?"

"That’s brilliant—!! Yes, let’s do that!"

"Yeah, let’s go, let’s go!"

Stevie was completely unaware, but he had ended up stealing the hearts of the maids at Countess Rosette’s mansion. Under their watchful gazes, he did warm-up exercises, loosened his body, and began repeating martial and sword forms. He imagined fighting imaginary opponents (maybe the section chief?) and became so absorbed that he stopped caring about his surroundings and forgot about the maids’ stares. Sweat flew as he moved, and even though the maids were squealing, he no longer noticed.

When he finished, a maid brought him a towel. Stevie made a vow in his heart: *I will never hand over this delicious job of being Prince Robby’s guard to anyone. I won’t yield it to anyone!*

---

After the meal, we moved to Countess Rosette’s private room.

"Please take your time."

The butler bowed his head, closed the door, and left. Finally, I was alone with Countess Rosette.

"U-Um, Countess Rosette..."

"My, Robby dear. When you visited last time, I asked you to call me by my name, didn’t I?"

The Countess puffed out her cheeks slightly and gave me a mock glare.

"Yes, you did. I’m sorry. Then... Jacqueline, I heard you managed to obtain a magic book...?"

My apology brought her smile back immediately.

"Yes, that’s right. The book finally arrived, so I contacted you. This is the one."

As expected, it was the book sitting on the desk. I reached out to pick it up, but Jacqueline gently pressed my hand down.

"Robby, before you pick it up, there’s something you should do first, isn’t there?"

She puffed her cheeks again.

"Ah! That’s right. I’m sorry. Thank you very much for obtaining this book for me. May I look at it?"

"Yes, go ahead. Unfortunately, it seems to only contain beginner-level magic."

"Eh!?"

"So I’ve been told. Even if you say ’beginner,’ I don’t really know what counts as beginner level."