房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

Aku felt a chill run down his spine – he could not really explain it himself but the prospect of the dark-haired girl seeing his messed up face terrified him to no end.

In his imagination, he could already see Miriette\'s face twisting with horror and disgust as the girl would look away immediately regretting asking him to show her his face.

"I refuse."

Aku said in an ice-cold voice before he even realized it himself.

"...wha...?! Then... Doesn\'t that mean that you are my Zoemi and you don\'t want to get me involved in something you discovered?!"

Miriette\'s eyes widened and she took a deep breath before declaring, trying to close the distance created by Aku between them.

"No, I want to hide my face from you because half of it was melted off to bare bones and I don\'t like to show it around."

The masked boy shook his head decisively while doing his best to hold the pushy girl back without hurting her.

"That\'s a lie!"

But instead of giving up, Miriette gritted her teeth and declared.

"!!!"

*crack*

Her body shone with the wind enchantments as she pulled her hand free and yanked the porcelain mask right off the boy\'s face while one of her earrings shattered into fine dust without any explicit reason.

The thought of the dark-haired girl using spells against him never occurred to Aku – for some reason – and the boy ended up taken by surprise and unmasked.

In a desperate attempt to hide his disfigured face, he lounged to the side while hiding his visage with both hands.

*thunk*

"Zoemi, stop with those games. I can protect myself so you don\'t have to go that far to shield me from danger. This is childish."

Miriette wiped off her tears and dropped the porcelain mask on the floor while approaching the cowering boy.

"Let\'s get over it."

While reaching towards him and grabbing his wrist to pry his hands away from his face, the dark-haired girl scoffed feeling this weird mixture of relief and annoyance.

|Zoemi is definitely worrying about me way too much!|

She thought to herself while using her enchantments to overpower the young attendant and...

"What I hate the most are people forcing their way on me, only because they are of a higher social standing, young lady."

"Eh...?!"

But the moment of questionable truth was completely ruined – upon pulling the boy\'s hands apart, instead of the expected face of her beloved person Miriette saw another porcelain mask and was greeted by emotionless scoff, both of which caused her to gasp and pull back for a moment.

"Hm-hmph...! I am going to make you pamper me so much as compensation for being so mean to me...!"

Miriette\'s will was too strong to be broken just yet and with a slight stutter she leaned forward again and reached out for the second mask to get rid of it too.

"Young lady, if you will try it again, I will use force to defend myself..."

"?!?!"

Just as the dark-haired girl felt the smoothness of the porcelain under her fingertips the masked boy declared coldly and he turned into a cluster of silver mist that then phased through the wall while the stunned girl could only stare at the empty spot in shock.

"...?!"

She hurriedly turned around to the first mask that she removed from him, but it was gone.

"...wait... it was just a copy... just like during Kierul\'s entrance...?!"

*bump*

Miriette stumbled back and actually tripped, falling onto her but and blinking repeatedly trying to understand the situation.

"..."

At the same time, back in the ballroom Aku who never left Kierul\'s side straightened his back after some barely noticeable silver mist floated to him and settled down on his body.

"!!!"

The very next second, the few people closest to the snack table the master and servant felt an overwhelming dreadful pressure weighing down on them.

"...Aku...? Please tell me you didn\'t kill young lady Espine..."

Kierul, being the closest one to the center of the monstrous aura, felt the chills down her spine and asked after taking a deep breath.

"...of course not..."

"...whew..."

Aku lowered his head and denied it, making the red-haired girl breathe out in relief and relax as the pressure disappeared.

"...she did try to take off my mask though. Even after I explained the reasons I didn\'t want to show my face and explicitly asked her to not touch it. Twice."

The masked boy stepped closer to his master and explained in more detail.

"Hoo...? What a bitch. Forget about the plan to get closer to her. You have my permission to stay away from her unless the opposite would be absolutely necessary, or a king\'s order."

"Thank you, my lady."

Kierul and Aku said and exchanged a discreet fistbump.

"Although, I can\'t say I really hate her. She is almost unbearably cute..."

The masked attendant leaned to the side and tilted his head before adding playfully.

"...although she seems to have a lot of issues. We will probably see her again during your next birthday, my lady, but I wouldn\'t mind waiting a bit longer and seeing how she will act in the Aspakeony Academy after maturing a little bit. You and her will start it the same year, right?"

But then his voice turned serious again as he turned his head questioningly towards Kierul.

"..."

The red-haired girl looked at his solid porcelain mask and furrowed her brows, carefully considering something.

"My lady...?"

Aku asked in confusion and actually glanced over his shoulder despite being unable to see anything because of his mask.

Despite that, his ears immediately picked up on the footsteps he recognized as Miriette\'s.

The dark-haired girl returned to the ballroom, and judging by the sound her feet made, she wasn\'t feeling all too confident.

She was also constantly messing around with one of her ears.

"Her earring is broken... I hope this isn\'t because of your self-defense, because we both will be in trouble if it is... If her reputation was worse, then we could slither our way out of trouble, but with things being as they are..."

"I don\'t know how she will try to present it, but that earring of hers broke when she used her enchantments to pin me down."

As it turned out, Kierul really was looking beside Aku which she confirmed by pointing out the sulking Miriette and making the masked boy hurriedly explain himself.

"That little bitch did what...?! Who does she think she is?!"

In a flash, Kierul\'s expression turned furious as she growled angrily glaring at the dark-haired girl.

Just as if it was Kierul\'s vengeful wish being granted, Miriette\'s mother approached her and the two had a short conversation.

Short but definitely important, because a few minutes later they announced their departure and left the party long before it was supposed to end.

"...are we in trouble...?"

Aku asked Kierul conspicuously, watching the backs of the mother and daughter pair leaving and exiting the ballroom.

"I can\'t really say for now... Just in case, let\'s hold back for the rest of the day. The seed was sown and needs time to sprout. Tsk. Whoever came up with the idea that a lady cannot dance at parties until she is thirteen, and even when she is it\'s only with her fiance or family members until she is fifteen, should go get themselves eaten by monsters."

The red-haired girl shook her head and breathed out bitterly, glancing longingly towards young lord Victureo and his group of friends which included the first prince Horeo as well as young lord Derizno and young lord Moyena.

"My lady, shouldn\'t you be happy? I vividly remember being stepped on more than once even during the last dance lesson. You could use more time for practice~"

"Pffft...! Cheeky asshole~"

The masked attendant teased his master, but instead of getting angry or embarrassed, Kierul snorted and playfully tapped his arm.

The party was a great success for Kierul, it was merely the first step in her plan to become the next head of her family.

It might not look like much, but just putting herself out there and making an impression on the guests who before the party could not even be bothered to remember her name already put her in a better position than one-third of the young generation of Helterose family.

She still had a long way to go, but in a world where appearances and connections were just as important as one\'s magic power - if not more - the youngest child of the Helterose family\'s insatiable hunger for power and recognition had no equal.

With an outrageously competent accomplice like Aku by her side there was no reason for her to bully others just to feel important~