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From the moment I had entered the mansion of Lord Typhon, I had hidden behind a mask, pretending to be a nondescript maid. The only time that disguise had slipped had been when I had slipped into a strange funk and had become Seris’s sex toy. He knew what I truly looked like, but he had never questioned why or how I disguised myself. Instead, he had continued to the rouse, ordering the other maids in the house to stay away from me.
They were happy to do so, convinced that I was being brutally tortured. I hadn’t even broken my disguise when I had a baby, my spine broken and passing out. It spoke to the level of my disguise, as well as the state I had to have been in to finally allow that disguise to slip. In my delirious state, I likely had done it on purpose, although the current me wasn’t sure why, since it had ruined the relationship between me and Seris.
In reality, he had been treating me better and better. I only let my true body appear in his presence in private upon request. In his mind, my true appearance had become something that he owned. It was his little secret, a beautiful fairy that appeared only for him. Even so, he would only make me ‘come out’ when he was in a certain mood. Most of the time, even when we were doing sexual acts, he wanted me to remain as the nondescript housemaid.
While sneaking out of the house, I had finally dropped my disguise, only for someone to burst in just as I reached the door. Now, my entire appearance was on display for everyone present, but none of them connected me to the maid. Even the outfit I wore, as provocative as it looked, had no trace of being a maid. Rather, from the appearance, I looked like a prostitute. This was exactly what Bradrick assumed upon seeing me.
In his mind, his brother had picked up a prostitute the previous night. He knew Seris was a deviant, but he never would have guessed to what level. In his mind, picking up and hiring women was already at a level to consider Seris depraved. Then, I had been doing the walk of shame, leaving the mansion when this sudden event occurred.
Synophany was livid, wanting to yell at Seris for being so shameless, but even while holding my baby, she didn’t connect me to that Aria. I didn’t even bother to change my name. There were other Aria’s in this world, so connecting me to the maid never occurred to them. As for me trying to protect my identity, I did worry about such a thing. However, I couldn’t do anything about it at that moment.
I was sitting in a waiting room. There was an adjacent room where Seris sat with his mother and Bradrick. At first, he had shot me a scathing look. Having his little secret slut revealed had truly angered him. It was enough of a look that I shook slightly, desiring the old Seris who had tied me up and abused me. I didn’t truly believe that man would return though. My own appearance was simply too enchanting. I knew his feelings regarding me had changed from a fun, unbreakable toy to someone he was afraid of hurting.
In line with that, he had finally looked away, just a flash of guilt and desire on his face. His mother had yelled a few times, but when the baby started acting up, she had gone to shush it, and it was his big brother Bradrick who had taken over the questioning. He wasn’t angry over things like his mother. As for appearances, that didn’t matter to him. Rather, he was far more interested in my background.
I had feared that Seris would reveal the truth, but he seemed to have a particular distaste for his brother and responded instead with sullen looks and his arms crossed. It was clear that Bradrick typically took charge around here.
“How much did you pay this girl for a night?” Bradrick act.
“Why, you want to give her go? How about one for your friends too?” Seris snapped, his face filled with an ugly expression.
“No, rather, I want to hire her on.”
“Hire her?”
I raised an eyebrow too. I was already hired on as part of their staff.
“She saved Ella’s life. That Elixir she gave is working extremely well. Kam says she’ll be awake by tomorrow. That was a treasure even the Demon King would covet.”
“So what? The dumb bitch didn’t know the value and handed it over. Anyone could stumble across something. She probably stole it.” Seris retorted.
I didn’t take offense at his words. While they appeared cutting, he was trying to protect me in his own way. He was trying to diminish my role in all of this, and get his brother to leave me be. I wasn’t entirely certain that was possible at this point.
“I examined the Elixir before I used it. I saw the name of the person who made it. That person’s name was Aria!”
“So?” His face flashed for a second before he calmed down. “There are many girls named Aria. We have an Aria who, until recently, was working as a maid. She’s gone now.”
His eyes fluttered over to me when he said that. Of course, I understood what he was trying to say clearly. I was not to use that disguise anymore. As far as they were concerned, I fled in the night. The maids likely all thought he killed me during his demented games.
“She’s gone? Was that this so-called mother of the baby Mom was carrying? I don’t know how you look at it. That was no father’s child. I regret the woman already fled, otherwise, I would have kicked her out of the place myself! When dad gets home, he’s going to be livid. You’re supposed to be the head of the household while we’re away. Now I come home to prostitutes prancing in the halls and mom obsessing over a monster baby.”
“Idiot…” Seris shook his head, a cruel expression on his face.
“Excuse me.”
“Oh… you heard about the baby but you didn’t hear about dad on the way in?” He grimaced. “Typical. You have your head so far up your own ass that you don’t even know what happened.”
“What happened? Are you talking about the peace talks breaking apart? I’ve heard a bit about it. Dad will probably try to conscript me into the military again…”
“That won’t happen, because dad is dead.”
Bradrick froze. “H-he what?”
“Dad died. Congratulations, you’re the head of the household.” Seris sneered.
“This…” Bradrick sat back on the desk, looking dazed. “When?”
“Last spring, around the time the peace talks fell.”
“I had…” Bradrick worked moisture back in his mouth. “I had thought that the reason dad wasn’t here was that he was being reamed out by the nobility for his failure. I didn’t think… I didn’t realize…”
“Yeah, well, now you do.” Seris started to look awkward, the emotional reaction his brother had not been as satisfying as he had hoped.
“Who… who did it?”
Seris shrugged. “It was an assassin. They don’t have the name.”
That wasn’t true, but I believed that was all Seris knew. If he knew I was the one accused of killing Typhon, how would he react? They likely had kept my name secret from that whole debacle. To acknowledge my presence for any of it would create a lot of holes in their story and perhaps even insight fear and confusion. It looked like I was a coverup. Perhaps, I would be safe remaining here. After all, my arrival wasn’t seen by the outside. The only Aria known to be here was an unattractive maid. Anyone who had wanted to check on her would have already done so. If she was suddenly replaced by a beautiful woman, it might go unnoticed.
“I see… then, I guess… that is that.”
“Don’t act like you care now. When dad was alive, you did everything in your power to avoid him. You keep going out on your hero missions, rescuing cats from a tree or something. You don’t have what it takes to take over. The decline of this household is inevitable.” Seris’s words were brutal, but they were honest too.
“I loved Father.” Bradrick stood up angrily. “Unlike you… who doesn’t love anything.”
“I love things.” His eyes flicked to me without his awareness.
Bradrick did notice though, and he turned to me. After a thoughtful glance, he walked out of the room and to me. Seris frowned, standing up and following behind him.
“Are you the alchemist who made the Elixir?” Bradrick demanded in a no-nonsense voice.
I lowered my head. I was confident I could have lied and tricked him, but something told me I should be honest.
“I am.”
“I see.” He continued to stare at me. “Why do you whore yourself if you have alchemy abilities? You could be able to provide for yourself.”
“My master… I was a slave. My master died in a monster surge. I was freed after his death. It’s what he would have wanted. Although I know a bit of alchemy, using my body is all I truly know.”
Every word I spoke was true. The best lies were forged from the truth. Using every bit of my charm, I looked up at him with tearful eyes, selling myself as an innocent woman of circumstance. If there was any chink in my story, it was that I was too attractive and skilled to be believed. I know my looks were at a level that could move nations, so the idea I was just a lone slave was slightly laughable. That was why I depended on deception to sell it.
“I see… then it can’t be helped.” He spoke after a moment.
He bought it! Even Seris seemed a bit surprised that he accepted my story. Then again, Seris knew a bit of the truth, and he couldn’t pick out anything I said that was a lie either. Well, I don’t think I had told him I was a slave to his father. Perhaps saying I was freed after his death might be seen as a lie. Of course, I didn’t mean I was freed from slavery. That had happened before death. Rather, I was freed from captivity. He didn’t know about any of that anyway.
“I’m the leader of a band of heroes, the Light Tide. We’re S-class adventurers who go around the demon realm and do good for our fellow men. Your alchemy skills would be extremely useful not just for my friends, but also for the house of Typhon. If you can produce other potions for us, especially such high-ranking ones as Elixirs, then we might be able to maintain our power. My dad had many merits, which will keep us protected for a time, but eventually, without him, the Demon King will struggle to justify allowing our family so many benefits.
“On the other hand, if we start producing and selling expensive and difficult potions from a loyal servant, it would keep our name on people’s tongue until a time I can break through and finally be acknowledged as a hero.”
“What hero?” Seris made a face. “You should have joined the army with my father. That would have gotten you the respect of a hero. Adventurers are only respected by other adventurers. Mother said it best. You’re just playing around with your lives.”
“I do not wish to have the confines of a soldier, and I do not wish to have to slay humans! Monsters and thieves are good enough prey for me. Dana is human, and so are many residents of the demon realm. Trying to claim humans are somehow evil… this entire war is a joke!”
For someone who had been on the front lines, his words seemed a bit naïve. The demons might be willing to let the humans be, but the humans would never feel the same toward the demons. After all, demons came from the brutalized rape of their women. I had experienced the birth of one of those. The women did not typically survive, and the baby was basically a humanoid monster. It’d be at least his kid or his kid’s kid before that creature resembled a demon line.
“If you say so, brother.” Seris sighed, seeming to have similar thoughts to my own.
He might not truly know how bad things were, but he was a pessimist at heart.
“Then, Aria, will you join us… no, me. I will pay you handsomely, and you can be an official member of Light Tide.”
“Adventuring as a hero?” I asked, hesitantly.
“Mm… I wish for you to travel with me. Can you make potions on the go?”
I saw Seris staring at me from behind Bradrick with a hostile glare. He was jealous, worried, and angry. He wanted to keep me trapped in this mansion. If Seris represented captivity, then Bradrick was offering freedom. I reached out my hand and took his.
“It would be my honor.”