Chapter 79: “(Extra) Frederica Just Wants to Sneak Away~”

[Next, Natsuki Subaru followed Ram and Rem to the changing room, with Emilia tagging along behind them.

Since he had voiced the wish to work here, picking out a proper servant's uniform — ah, or perhaps "butler's uniform" sounded more pleasing to the ear? — was a necessary first step.

In any case, it had to be done.

However, at the moment Natsuki Subaru was being stymied by the sizes of the clothes.

He had tried on several sets of men's formal wear in succession, only to discover that either the shoulders didn't fit, or the sleeves were too long, or too short.

With no choice left, they had him try on every piece of clothing available one by one — and then Ram, who had been gradually growing impatient, suddenly lit up.

"This one looks quite good overall. I seem to recall this was the outfit left behind by Frederica, the one who quit not long ago, wasn't it?"

"Wait — just from the name, you can tell that's a woman, right? So what I'm wearing right now is… a maid uniform?"

Natsuki Subaru lowered his head, the corner of his mouth twitching as he looked down at the formal wear on his body.

If Ram hadn't said something, he wouldn't even have noticed that what he was wearing was women's clothing.

He never imagined his crossdressing debut would be handed over in another world.

"No, no, absolutely no crossdressing. I can even smell it — this Frederica's body fragrance still lingers on the clothes."

Natsuki Subaru shook his head violently, protesting wildly inside.

If he caved here and lowered his psychological defenses, what was he supposed to do if he picked up some weird fetish as a result?]

"That… I don't have any body fragrance or anything that womanly, really, this Natsuki Subaru-san is just…"

Outside the screen, Frederica had lowered her head slightly, somewhat self-consciously hiding the sharp teeth she'd been born with due to her demi-human bloodline.

Her long golden hair concealed the expression on her face — all that could be seen was the fair skin of her neck flushing a faint red from embarrassment.

Decked out in a full maid's uniform, Frederica looked tall and imposing, but in actual build she was about the same as Natsuki Subaru.

Perhaps it was the gentle big-sister-next-door aura she carried that made people instinctively place their trust in her — and so in everyone's memory her figure took on that taller stature along with it.

And what's more, interestingly enough, if the formally dressed Natsuki Subaru on the screen had been standing next to Frederica at this very moment, one would have noticed how inexplicably well the two of them matched.

Even their outfits looked like a matching couple's set.

At this point, Garfiel — who was sitting closest to Frederica — had noticed this fact.

His gaze drifted back and forth between the Natsuki Subaru on the screen and his older sister at his side.

After a long while, as if he had thought of something, he split his mouth into a wicked little grin and said:

"Sis, you blushin'? How about it — why don't you give Boss some thought, eh?"

Seeing that Frederica's attention had been drawn to him, Garfiel quickly took the opportunity to sell Natsuki Subaru to her.

"In the future, Boss is gonna liberate the Sanctuary, and let everyone come out and live in the outside world."

"And then, Boss also helped me figure out the truth about why Mother left back then."

At this, Garfiel's voice dropped a little, but he still managed a smile for Frederica.

"I'm sorry, Sis. I already know now — Mother leaving back then wasn't about abandoning us. She just wanted to bring Father back, that's all."

"It's just that Mother ran into a landslide along the way, and could never come back…"

Garfiel's expression dimmed.

"The only pity is that by the time I learned about all this, it was already too late."

"I didn't just misunderstand Mother — I also, by digging my heels in over nothing, let down her wish for both of us to be happy."

At that thought, Garfiel clenched his fists, gritting his teeth as he cried out:

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!"

"If only I'd been a little stronger! Then I could've gone out together with Mother — I could've helped her…!"

"That's enough, Garfiel!"

Frederica, hearing this much, could no longer hold back her emotions, and tears spilled down her cheeks.

She reached out and pulled her younger brother Garfiel — sitting right beside her — into her arms, hoping that the warmth of her own chest could carry her feelings across.

"It's enough already… If Mother could see how much you've grown, she'd be relieved too. She'd give both of us, brother and sister, her blessing."

Frederica held Garfiel tightly.

In that instant, the two of them seemed to be carried back to that night in childhood when their mother had vanished without a word.

Brother and sister, believing they had been abandoned by their mother, had clung to each other and wept aloud.

Tears of feeling slid down Frederica's face. In that moment, her heart was filled with boundless joyous astonishment at her brother's growth.

The two matters she had wrestled with most in her life — the two she had never been able to put down.

One was her shame over her half-beastman bloodline. Having left the Sanctuary and spent so long in human society, she had always felt herself out of place because of the sharp teeth she'd been born with.

Because of this, she had even fallen into the habit of unconsciously covering her mouth whenever she smiled.

The other matter was her younger brother Garfiel, from whom she had been separated since they were children.

Her brother, because of his misunderstanding of their mother, had become obstinate, shutting his heart away within the Sanctuary and curling up inside himself.

She had always worried that this would affect Garfiel's growth.

She had wanted to become a proper older sister… and yet, much as she wished it, she didn't even have the right to be part of Garfiel's growth.

Frederica had imagined, more than once, that one day she might be able to dissolve the rift between herself and her brother — to walk out of the shadow of the past and achieve true growth herself.

And to her surprise — this very obsession of hers had come true today, in this very moment.

No words could have described the joy welling up in her heart at that moment, nor the respect she now felt toward that Natsuki… no, that Mr. Subaru, whom she had never even met.

"Hehe, alright, alright. Speakin' of which, Sis, lemme let you in on a little secret about Boss."

After a long while, Garfiel released Frederica from his embrace.

He swiftly wiped the tears off his face with the back of his hand, then replaced it with a grinning, mischievous face and said to Frederica:

"That secret is — Boss doesn't hate beastmen one bit. Matter of fact, he actually quite likes them. 'Specially when it comes to fluffy, warm fur — that's somethin' Boss flat-out can't resist!"

"Garfiel, stop saying such nonsense!"

Frederica, who had still been swept up in emotion just a moment before, now found her face going red, her cheeks burning hot as if they were about to catch fire.

Garfiel watched as his sister said one thing while clearly meaning another — saw the way her lips were curling into a smile that she instinctively reached up to cover with her hand.

Immediately he gave a smug little laugh, leaned in next to his sister's ear, and tossed another log onto the fire.

"And besides, Sis — lemme tell ya, it's not just fur. Boss isn't put off by naturally sharp teeth either, you know?"

"Take me, for example. I've got naturally sharp teeth too, same as you, Sis. But Boss has called me 'cool-looking' more than once, even said that if he could, he'd kinda want a pair of teeth like mine!"

"Wh-wh-what—"

At this Frederica found herself, just a little, genuinely moved by what her brother was saying.

Handsome looks, no prejudice against demi-humans, no aversion at all to her sharp teeth.

Most importantly of all — he had helped her younger brother undo the knot in his heart, and dissolved the rift that had stood between brother and sister.

Mr. Subaru fit, perfectly, every single point of her every requirement and fantasy for a future partner.

But —

Without moving her head, Frederica slid her gaze quietly toward Lady Emilia and the sisters Rem and Ram, all sitting together.

A woman's natural intuition told her that the relationship between Subaru and these three women was very likely far from ordinary.

In that case — as a latecomer… could she really hope to compete against three of them?

"Stupid little brother, don't go saying weird things. I don't have any of those extra feelings for Subaru."

Thinking this, Frederica gave the thoroughly unbothered Garfiel a halfhearted scolding on the surface.

Then she turned her gaze back to the image on the screen, putting on an air of nonchalance, the very picture of someone who didn't care at all.

Yet at that moment, her eyes — fixed on the screen — were unfocused.

The longer she watched Subaru, the more an irrepressible urge welled up inside her — the urge to meet Subaru, to come to know Subaru.

Frederica couldn't help but imagine: in reality, when she actually got to be around Subaru in person, what sort of scene would unfold?

Surely… it would be filled with happiness and laughter, wouldn't it?

But before they met, she still needed to hide herself well.

She needed to keep her presence as low as possible, so that the three women beside her wouldn't catch on to her feelings.

——This was a small piece of wisdom she had learned during those days as a maid at the Mathers branch family, after she had resigned from her work at Roswaal Manor.

There she had come to know many human junior maids who were well-versed in the matters between men and women, and she had gotten along with them quite well.

Because of that, she had learned a great deal of… particular knowledge from those junior maids.

Right now, Frederica could only sigh that all of this was the arrangement of fate.

Somehow, she found herself thinking once more of a line that a certain junior maid had whispered in her ear one night.

"As a maid, sneaking out should be common sense, shouldn't it?"

ps: Sorry the last chapter felt a bit padded for some of you. I saw a lot of people commenting on it, so I cranked out a new chapter as an extra update right away.

How should I put it — I can understand how everyone feels, after all you've been following along all this way. But the author really is working hard at writing right now. This book's performance honestly isn't great — day after day it's basically the same group of people subscribing, and I'm even losing a few subscriptions every day. Especially after my pitch for a recommendation slot got rejected on Friday, things have pretty much hit rock bottom.

So at this point the author doesn't really have any grand ideas — I just want to post four thousand characters a day, lock in the full-attendance reward, and be satisfied with that. Just put out a little bit each day, and hopefully once the word count builds up, the numbers might improve.

But I'm not saying I'm ignoring what everyone's been saying. With this chapter being a bit watery, I added an extra update within my abilities, trying not to disappoint everyone. But please, don't pile too much pressure on the author. Even just for a watch-along, I still have to sit with the original work and figure out how to describe things, what to cut so the best parts stay, how to add some original content — it's all written bit by bit by the author. There are people accusing the author of just using AI to write — what's an author supposed to do about that? All I can do is try to correct it, try to put in more original content.

In the end, all the author can say is that I'll do my best to deliver exciting plot to everyone. Of course, if there's any part that's badly written, not subscribing is everyone's freedom. The author will do everything in his power and keep on writing.

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