The Male Lead Is Obsessed With the Wicked Maid – Chapter 1
Hider stared blankly at the plate on the table.
The chipped dish held soup that reeked of rot. This was the third day he had been served such food.
At that moment, a small white hand pushed the plate aside.
“You shouldn’t eat something like this, Young Master Hider. I made this one myself—with carrots I grew and fish I caught myself. I even cooked it, too. Please eat this instead.”
The savory scent of butter and the gentle aroma of herbs stirred his empty stomach, which growled in protest. Hider clutched his belly.
He looked up with wary, cat-like eyes at the maid.
A girl who seemed to be about fifteen grinned at him.
“Go on, eat up. Oh, if you don’t trust me, I’ll eat it first. I get why you wouldn’t trust me.”
She pulled a fork from her apron and took a bite of the carrots and fish, making sure to show him. Then, smiling sweetly, she added,
“Mmm, it’s tasty. Now, go ahead.”
Only then did Hider slowly begin to move his fork.
Compared to the soup from earlier, which was disgusting just to swallow, getting food poisoning from this seemed like the better option.
He didn’t trust the maid. He just found her food somewhat more bearable.
This maid used to be one of the girls who led the charge in tormenting Hider.
Serving rotten food and saying things like:
“If you don’t eat, I’ll tell the Duchess. Don’t tell me you want to crawl on the floor like a beast and eat from the ground?”
Or—
“You smell bad, Young Master. The Duchess says it’s because you have filthy blood! A gypsy, ew. Don’t give me your germs.”
She used to mock him like that.
But about a month ago, she started acting strange.
She stopped tormenting him and began helping him instead. Sometimes, she even gave him her own portions of food.
“I’m sorry, this is all I have. But would you like it anyway?”
Hard bread and scraps of cheese, snuck to him in secret. Then, a few days ago, she started boldly bringing him proper meals.
“I have a new ability now! It should taste good!”
She even gave him medicine when she thought he had a stomach ache—though, of course, he never took it.
It had taken time, but eventually he started accepting the food. And just as she promised, it really was good.
Hider glanced at the maid again. She was still grinning widely, cat-like eyes filled with mirth.
She looked genuinely pleased just to see him eat well.
…This is weird. Really weird.
Hider stirred the food with his fork.
The weirdest part was that despite eating this suspicious maid’s food for three days now, he hadn’t once gotten sick.
Why… why am I totally fine?
This was the world of a novel called The Tragedy of the Cartieron Ducal House.
It had been about a month since I came here. My life in the other world had already ended. I was born out of wedlock into a dirt-poor family and worked like a maid my whole life.
By the time I was five, I already knew how to operate a rice cooker.
Even while working as a housekeeper, I never once received proper tuition fees, so I had to work part-time jobs too.
Compared to that life, this place—where you actually got paid for the work you did—was basically paradise.
The person I was assigned to serve was Young Master Hider.
The male lead of the novel.
Hider was the illegitimate son of the Cartieron Duke, who spent his childhood being neglected and abused. Eventually, he met the female lead, a saint, on the battlefield. Together, they became war heroes and returned triumphant.
At first, when I possessed this body, I was confused and panicked.
But once I understood the situation, I immediately switched allegiances to Hider. Anyone else would’ve gotten me killed. Lately, I’ve been pouring my soul into improving his nutrition.
A full belly leads to a full heart, right? If you want to win someone over, start with a good meal.
“I’m glad I dug up those carrots.”
I felt proud seeing Hider’s empty plate. For the past few days, he’d barely eaten.
The rotten food—I smuggled that out and burned it in the incinerator. Ugh. How dare they call that fit for human consumption?
Seriously, everyone in this mansion was awful. And yeah, I used to be awful too. The original owner of this body had been one of the maids who bullied Hider.
But once I possessed her, I quit that cold turkey.
The Duke was rarely home, always out gallivanting, so the Duchess basically ruled the estate.
She had a son with fragile health and absolutely loathed Hider because he was a bastard.
From what I saw, her son wasn’t sick—his brain just seemed rotten.
It wasn’t real illness—he was a master at faking it whenever something didn’t go his way.
And the Duchess indulged him like he was the second coming of Christ.
“That filthy rat is making my poor baby sick. It’s all because the Duke brought such dirty blood into our house! The Cartieron line is cursed now!”
Does that even make sense?
Tsk. If she wants to blame someone, she should blame her husband. What did that poor kid ever do wrong?
With the Duchess leading the charge in bullying Hider, the rest of the staff followed suit.
They had a death wish.
Once Hider leaves the ducal house and returns as a war hero, all of them get thrown out or arrested—or even killed.
And since I was here now, I had no intention of dying so pathetically. The original maid, Lani, had done enough damage already. Gaining Hider’s trust wasn’t going to be easy.
“Sigh.”
Even giving him proper food was a challenge. The kid didn’t trust me.
“Still, there are three years left before he leaves. That’s plenty of time.”
Before that, I had to help Hider as much as I could and repay all of Lani’s sins. I wanted to make sure Hider wouldn’t want to kill me when he returned.
He hadn’t touched my food for the first week.
Only recently had he started eating, and now he was eating more with each passing day.
“Tch. Still won’t touch the supplement.”
It was a special nutritional supplement I made for him, hoping it would help him grow properly after so much malnourishment. Even after a month, he refused to take it. Was the taste that bad?
I sniffed the bottle.
There was a faintly musty smell… but nothing unbearable. That’s how you knew it was good for you.
Still, him eating anything at all was a miracle.
If Hider were a cat, he’d finally stopped running away and was at least sitting nearby. That was real progress.
I tucked the intact plate away and carried the chipped one—the one that had been originally given to him—into the kitchen.
The other wicked staff watched me with eager eyes.
“He couldn’t even eat this? He must be starving. What an idiot, no pride at all.”
I muttered what they wanted to hear while doing the dishes. I mixed up the used dishes and hid the real ones so they wouldn’t know which I’d actually used.
They probably wouldn’t care anyway, but better safe than sorry.
“The Duchess will be pleased.”
“If he’s still alive after eating that crap, then he must be garbage too.”
“Maybe we should poison him next. How’s he not sick yet?”
I listened to them chatter and gave them a discreet middle finger behind my back.
Pathetic cowards who bullied a kid just to suck up to the Duchess.
They were cursed, and for good reason.
With my hands behind my back, I tapped my toes on the floor.
Best to let those kinds of words go in one ear and out the other.
It was all smoke and mirrors.
Thanks to decent meals lately, Hider was starting to look noticeably better.
If word reached the Duchess that his face was looking healthier and brighter—
No way. That couldn’t happen.
My precious Hider. I’ll protect him no matter what.
