Chapter 5: Conflicted

"You are finally awake! Good morning sister! Did you have a good night's sleep?"

Finesse pushed the door open wide and hugged her. Jane felt like her heart dropped and stood in her place like a statue. Her mind was filled with confusion and looked around while Finesse was still hugging her. The maids and knights in front of her room looked at her with surprised and dumbfounded expressions and Jane just stared back at them with a stupid expression on her face.

Finesse released her embrace from her and held her hand and started to pull her to the dining hall. All the maids and knights around her gave way for them while still having surprised expressions on their faces. Jane finally snapped out of it and immediately pulled back her hand. Finesse looked back at her with a surprised expression.

"Sister? What's wrong? Are you not feeling well?"

"No miss, I should be the one asking you that."

'Finally getting out of your room for the first time in weeks and you suddenly came into the maids' chamber and called a mere maid 'sister'?! Did you hit your head while you were sleeping or something?!'

Jane looked at Finesse with worried eyes. Finesse saw her gaze and gasped with her two hands covering her mouth. She suddenly felt teary while looking at Jane.

'Sister is such a thoughtful person! She asks my condition right away because she was worried that I might get sick! She looks so tired, it must be because of what happened yesterday but she still has time to worry about me. As expected of my second sister!'

Finesse shook her head sideways and grabbed Jane's hand with both hands while looking at her with admiration.

"Don't worry sister! I'm fine thanks to you! But you should be worried about yourself! You must be tired because you slept late yesterday because of me. So we should go eat something together!"

Jane looked at Finesse with shock and unconsciously blurted out.

"W-wait! What about your room? It still needs to be cleaned right? I should go clean it today because I am the maid who is responsible for miss."

"D-don't worry we'll handle it."

Jane turned her head and saw the grandma who she first saw when she woke up in this world. She looks at her hesitantly before saying something.

"Don't worry about anything today and accompany the miss."

'What?! Why?!'

Her face was filled with shock as she looked at the grandma. The grandma just avoided her gaze and started to head in the direction of Finesse's room with other maids.

I tried to reach out to them but Finesse stopped me by pulling me again towards the dining room.

"Now, now sister. You should be worried about yourself first! Look at you! You're so skinny! Let's eat lots of food today shall we?"

"W-wait no, is this even okay? A maid and her master..."

"It's fine! What are you so worried about?"

'Aren't you worried about your reputation?! What if a rumor starts spreading saying that 'the miss of the Duke Viscellete has gone crazy and called a maid her sister!'. You should know how to take care of your image!'

Her mind continued to ask questions but suddenly stopped when she heard a voice inside her head. It was a familiar voice of a young boy...

• Who is she? Why is she so clingy?

Jane's eyes opened wide and looked around.

No way...

'He's still here? I thought he just left?'

Jane's mind went blank. She didn't notice that they finally arrived at the dining hall and let Finesse push her down on a chair and sat next to her. Finesse smiled brightly at her and put a steak on Jane's plate. Jane stared blankly at the plate. Finesse noticed this and worriedly asked.

"Are you not hungry? That's not good. You're so skinny. Please eat."

• Hey, give me the steak if you're not hungry. I'll eat it. Put it under the table.

Jane snapped back at her senses and secretly put another steak on a plate and push it under the table.

'It will be worrisome if he's that hungry and decides to appear here. It would be chaos.'

Jane put more steaks on the plate and put it under the table. She could feel something soft hit her leg and realized that the black beast was under her. She then slowly picked up the knife and fork and started to eat the steak in front of her. Finesse looked happy and started to eat hers too. They ate quietly but Finesse broke the silence.

"Sister Jane, thank you. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have known how long it will take for me to stay locked in my room."

"Hmm, it's good that you are finally back to being yourself. But stop calling me sister Jane, I feel like a nun."

Finesse smiled brightly at Jane. Jane looked at Finesse's brown hair and blue eyes, smooth skin, and bright smile. Her beauty is truly the one that belongs to female leads. But of course, when it comes to beauty, Jane is pretty confident about her face but not confident to say that her face is at the level of a female lead. Well, she is going to become a man soon enough anyway so there is no point in trying to compare her face to a woman.

"Yes, sister!"

'Don't call me sister either...'

Jane sighed and suppressed herself from saying that and continued to eat. While eating, Finesse was quietly observing her with sparkling eyes.

'Even though her tone is rude, she is still clearly worried about me.'

Finesse smiled at that thought and ate her steak happily. What she didn't know that there was a small furball glaring at her from below the table while eating steak, and that was the black beast.

'Why does she keep staring at the human? I don't like her, she is being too clingy.'

The black beast kept glaring at her while chomping on the steaks that Jane delivered for him underneath the table. His fluffy ears then twitched when he heard heavy footsteps coming this way. He turned his head to the door of the dining hall.

Bang!

"Finesse!"

"N-Noah?"

A handsome man with jet-black hair and black eyes suddenly rushed into the dining hall after slamming the door open. He looked at Finesse with wide eyes. The black beast didn't know who this man is but Jane know who he is.

'The male lead is here.'

Jane stood up from her seat and bowed to Noah who just walked past her. The black beast saw this treatment and frowned. Meanwhile, Jane saw this chance and starts to sneakily escape the dining hall. She saw two knights at the door who came with the duke but they weren't focusing on her, they were focusing on Finesse with a surprised expression.

'The male lead was supposed to come here with that very same kind of reaction because of the dead legendary beast but now there was another reason for him to come here flying. It was good though because the male lead needed to come home because the crown prince will soon visit the mansion once he heard about the annihilation of the assassins that killed Viana. Thank goodness the plot didn't change that much.'

In the novel, The Crown Prince visited the Duke's Mansion to check the current condition of the soldiers and the whole surrounding territory.

The Viscellete Dukedom was in the Southeast part of the kingdom and they were responsible for Guarding the Southeast Border of the Reece Kingdom.

The Crown Prince was checking the current status of the Duke's territory because he knew... He knew that the Kingdoms that reside in the south will soon invade their kingdom. The Carac kingdom, Ayleth Kingdom, Brom Kingdom are the kingdoms that belong to the south and are also the kingdoms that will soon invade.

The Crown Prince was making sure that the Duke's territory and soldiers were in good condition for the upcoming war because they were the ones that were responsible for guarding the South Border.

Furthermore, the citizens who placed their faith and relied upon the Duke will be affected, their morale will shrink and they'll feel fear and threatened once the Viscellete Dukedom loses against the three kingdoms who invaded.

Originally both Ayleth Kingdom and the Carac Kingdom were neutral kingdoms that always step out from conflicts.

But suddenly it changed and the two kingdoms joined forces with the Brom Kingdom just to get a piece of land for each of them, once they completely conquer the Reece Kingdom.

Unfortunately, they just had to confront the male lead who was a Swordmaster, and he was wearing the strongest armor of all, plot armor. He also had the full support of the crown prince who had a strong influence over the mercenaries and he also accumulated a lot of money by selling magic tools that were used to support the male lead.

Because of the strategic prowess of the crown prince and the strength of the male lead, they won the war. But of course, with heavy casualties.

Noah is indeed the male lead but is not a god to have the ability to protect the whole kingdom. Well, it's the enemy kingdoms who played dirty though.

The enemy kingdoms divided their attacks and attack the southwest part and southeast part of the Reece Kingdom at the same time. So the Reece Kingdom needs to split their forces which is hard to do, causing the war to be a tough one.

'Anyway, the crown prince came here because he knew that the enemies will use the reason that the duke attacked them first and wage war. He's pretty smart. But I know exactly when the southern kingdoms will attack. The supposed attack is one year from now so I had to hurry and find the containers and live that damn peaceful life.'

I continued to sneakily escape the dining room but had to stop when Finesse called me.

"Ah, sister!"

"Sister?"

'Don't call me that!'

Jane turned around and looked at the two couples with a constipated look. Finesse looked worried and rushed in front of her. She worriedly held her shoulders and examine her from head to toe.

"Sister, are you okay? Why do you have the look that you ate something bad? Are you sick? Is it because of yesterday? I'm so sorry."

"N-no, I'm fine."

"Are you sure? Do you want me to get the doctor for you?"

"Uh, I'm fine miss. You should go talk to the duke."

"Sister, don't call me Miss! Call me sister! Or Finesse! I don't like formalities."

'What do you want me to do?! Call you 'hey sister!' Or 'Hey Finesse' like a rude thug?! I'm just a maid! Leave me alone!'

"I can't I'm just a mere maid-"

"No! You are my sister! If you want you could stop being a maid from now on and become my family! So just call me sister, please?"

Jane's ears twitched and her eyes sparkled while looking at Finesse.

"Really? You'll do that?"

"Of course! I'm planning to do that anyway since I woke up in the morning so please call me sister."

Jane smiled brightly at Finesse like she had been freed from something. Finesse thought that Jane is happy because they could now freely call each other sister and can't stop smiling ear to ear.

"Yes, sister."

Finesse eyes sparkled and hug me while squealing with joy. Jane also looked quite happy.

'Hell yes! I'm no longer a maid! I'll be free!'

Jane suppressed her extreme joy and hug back Finesse. Noah, who stood there like a dumb person, looked at Finesse hugging a maid in front of him. He couldn't help but be shocked at the sight, the two knights who came with him also looked shocked. Meanwhile, the black beast looked at the human hugging the annoying girl and frowned, he then sent a message inside the human's head.

• If you want to be free you could have just said so, I can immediately destroy this mansion and free you from being a maid.

Jane's face stiffened at the message and started to become nervous.

'Please no. And besides, destroying the mansion?! Are you kidding me? You'll just make every worker here go jobless!'

Jane wanted to say that but she had no magical powers to send it to the black beast so she just had to keep it to herself. And moments later, someone seemed to have already snap out of it and intervene with Finesse and Jane.

"Finesse let's talk."

Finesse looked at Noah and then nodded with a smile. On the other hand, Jane sighed with relief that she could finally leave. The guards let her pass but still looked at her with curious expressions.

'They are probably curious about what happened.'

Jane thought that and left the dining room.