Chapter 01……………..
January 20
`Apparently our family used to serve the Duke of Resean.
This is the first I’ve heard of it.
I asked Dad why he didn’t tell me, and he told me not to say useless things.
A lady passing by told me we got kicked out because Dad didn’t work.
I figured as much.
February 1
Dad disappeared. I’m pretty sure he was put in jail, but everyone tells me not to worry.
I almost told them that if they’re trying to hide it, they should hide it better.
Still, they gave me snacks, which was nice.
It was my first time eating cream puffs. They were delicious.
March 5
I’m going to serve as a maid at the Duke of Resean’s estate.
They say the second young lady is about my age.
I asked what a maid does, and they said I’d be her companion.
April 7
Lady Yujire is way smarter than I expected.
She’s great at chess too. We played thirteen games—
I won one and lost thirteen.
I think she let me win once so I wouldn’t get bored from losing too much.
…But wouldn’t two thrown games have been fine?
May 19
It’s been a while since I started working as a maid.
Honestly, it feels less like working and more like being adopted.
When I said I think I’m being treated too well, a knight passing by started crying.
She said something about how children deserve proper treatment.
…I almost said I had no tragic past and that the duke’s household is just giving me too much money, but I didn’t. Too troublesome.
Still, giving a maid a dress worth a villa seems a bit much.
January 8
Dad suddenly showed up.
There was some commotion, but it seems everything got handled.
But now I have homework: think about what I want to do when I grow up.
The duke suggested becoming a retainer, but I hate reading.
The young lady said she’d find a solution for me.
April 13
Do knights not do paperwork?
May 13
Knights don’t do paperwork!
June 18
I started knight training. We mostly just run every day.
My stamina is definitely improving.
Now I can run away quickly even if Lady Yujire and I break a chandelier while playing.
June 20
Come to think of it, I can’t just run away alone.
If I have to piggyback Lady Yujire, I probably can’t escape with this stamina.
I told this to the knight training me, and she laughed.
October 13
Today I held a wooden sword for the first time.
It seems taller than me.
When I told the knight, she said I need to eat well to grow.
But I do eat well.
I guess the problem is that I didn’t eat much before.
November 5
I went on a picnic with the young lady to the lake.
…Was it a picnic?
I fell in the lake twice, saw a monster living in the forest, twisted my ankle a little, caught a cold, and got scolded by the knight, but anyway, it was fun.
The young lady was scolded twice by the duke.
While watching that, she misunderstood and thought I envied her for having a mother.
She kept trying to comfort me, which was awkward.
The knight didn’t know what to do either, so that doubled the awkwardness.
I said I wasn’t thinking about anything, but I probably looked like someone with a lot on her mind.
I decided next time I’ll just keep my mouth shut.
January 10
New Year!
The young lady, the duke, and I baked a New Year cake.
Well, we just did the decorating and the duke supervised.
The actual baking was done by the cook grandma.
January 29
The young lady suddenly asked why I decided to become a maid.
Now that I think about it, I never actually made that decision.
I just told her it was my only option, and a knight passing by started crying.
That knight seems more soft-hearted than I thought.
At this point I don’t even want to guess what misunderstanding she had.
April 5
The young lady said she had a question.
She asked if I became a maid because I was too lazy to do anything else.
As expected, she’s smart.
June 12
The young lady hired a new maid.
I thought I was being kicked out, but apparently you can have multiple maids.
Come to think of it, we have multiple servant girls, so there was no reason the lady’s maid had to be only one.
If I say this out loud the knight might cry again, so I didn’t.
August 4
Training has been busy, so I finally got to talk to my new friend today.
Her name is Luzea.
I thought it was a very long name for a commoner, but there was a reason.
She was originally a noble, but her parents got addicted to gambling, ran out of money, and sold their status.
Then they sold Luzea too, and the duke bought her.
September 18
I got scolded.
Luzea tried to teach me a card game, but cards kept going missing.
Turns out she’d been pilfering them one by one.
She said her parents taught her the trick.
I was learning it because it was interesting, but a servant girl passing by scolded me.
It was my first time being scolded by someone who wasn’t the knight, which was interesting.
Luzea suggested we play something called “mahjong” next time. I’m looking forward to it.
December 10
I got my first real sword!
The knights argued a little about it, but anyway—it’s a real sword.
It’s way heavier than a wooden one.
December 11
I guess even knights have to take theory classes.
Today was about the mindset of a knight, but none of it stuck in my head.
February 14
The duke says he never assigned me a swordsmanship teacher.
I told him about the knight who trained me, but apparently no one has ever seen her.
February 18
I found out who the knight was!
Loren Glia. She was the first duke’s personal guard.
…But the records say she’s already dead.
And then…
Laseil adapted quickly to life in the duke’s household.
There were occasional small problems, but it was still better than living with her father.
As for the people around her…
“I’m telling you, there was a ghost!”
They started believing in the supernatural.
Too many things happened that couldn’t be explained otherwise.
“…Isn’t that kind of dangerous?”
And they worried more and more about Laseil.
She was too dense.
All the supernatural events happened around her, yet she never realized a single one was supernatural.
“…Maybe she’s fine?”
After a few years, they reached a conclusion.
Laseil somehow came back unharmed no matter what happened.
She was so oblivious that sometimes she stayed safe because of it.
“Isn’t that aura?”
And then Laseil became a Swordmaster.
Only then did people in the mansion finally relax—
enough to joke that she learned from a ghost and her skill became ghost-like.
By then, Laseil had become an adult, received a knightly title, and started working as Yujire’s guard knight.
She was slowly getting used to being called “Sir Jaen.”
Yujire also became an adult and simultaneously received the position of Vice-Duke.
She was the only one of the duke’s three daughters interested in succeeding him.
“Would you like to try handling some lordly duties? You’ll need the experience anyway.”
One day, while she was getting used to her new responsibilities, the duke asked her:
“There’s this troublesome territory. I can’t just leave it alone.”
“Yes?”
“The overseer quit.”
Apparently because of paranormal activity, terrifying rumors, and so on.
Since Yujire was learning the duke’s work, he thought sending her to handle it would be good practice.
“Sir Jaen will go with you, so it should help.”
Only then did Yujire remember something:
The territory they were going to was where Laseil used to live.
“A year… yes, a year should be about right.”
If only she had known what would happen during that year.
