The Villainous Me Turned the Losers into Blackened Bosses-Chapter 277 - Springtime for the Beastkin Maid (1)

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“Young Master? How’s the wound? Eir isn’t very good at healing magic, so... there might be some lingering effects.”

She tilted her head, gently releasing his arm. She circled him carefully, examining him from head to toe.

Will looked down at his own arm. He noticed the scratches from mere tree branches in the forest had not only received healing magic but were also neatly wrapped in a thin layer of bandages. The bandaging was expertly done—a single thin layer for breathability, yet each wrap was meticulous, perfectly overlapping the last.

“No problem. Very well done,” he praised automatically.

He looked up. Eir’s fluffy tail perked up, wagging happily behind her.

“That’s wonderful! Young Master slept for a very, very, very long time. Eir was so worried. But Eir... knows, Young Master hasn’t slept well for such a long time, so Eir didn’t wake Young Master up.”

She bowed slightly, that peculiar smile still fixed on her face. It had a hint of something unsettling, a touch of the macabre, and... a definite streak of pathology. Especially considering how brightly she smiled, as if the blood-soaked maid dress she’d been washing moments ago didn’t even exist.

If there was anything truly ‘off’ though...

He looked around at this ‘garden’—a place where he’d often played in the afternoons when he lived here. Now, it was desolate. The small pavilion where he used to tutor Eir was dilapidated, its table and chairs broken and covered in moss, devoid of its former ‘brightness’. The fallen leaves and dust littering the ground looked like they hadn’t been swept in at least a month.

Standing amidst this ruin, the brown-haired Eir, with her twitching ears and wagging tail, was ironically a splash of vibrant color.

It felt like he’d ‘returned to the past’, yet was simultaneously grounded in the ‘present reality’. The dilapidated ‘home’ and the maid who had always been by his side, presented to him concurrently—anyone would feel a sense of unease.

But, undoubtedly... he had woken up from the dream.

It felt like he’d been trapped in a very, very long dream. The bizarre scene before him now—his ‘home’ of over a decade, deserted and empty; the maid who had always accompanied him, washing a bloodstained dress... all of it, along with the late autumn wind that cut through him, making him shiver, was ‘real’.

Yet, this ‘reality’ was tinged with strangeness. And the initial source of that strangeness was... Eir, just now, blurting out a ‘confession’ so directly, without hesitation? Yet she hadn’t waited for his reaction, just continued talking. Combined with the maid dress she was washing... Will had a bad feeling. He took a small step back.

“Young Master, you look a little... um... confused?”

Just then, those soft, fluffy ears leaned in close. Very close. The fine fur on Eir’s ears tickled Will’s nose. She didn’t usually disregard personal space like this. Even if she accidentally got too close, she would normally apologize and shyly retreat. Now, it felt... ‘intentional’.

She looked up at him obediently. Then, her eyes crinkled as she smiled.

“Eir knows Young Master very well. Young Master is the type who won’t rest until he understands the situation—just like when Young Master fainted after using Extreme Flame Meteor for the first time. When he first saw Eir, he was more concerned about the measured parameters.”

“You... still remember that,” Will murmured, a sliver of reassurance settling in as he recalled the event himself. This act of him recalling the memory meant he truly had ‘broken free’ from Treya’s control. Now, back in ‘reality’, he needed to think about what came next—

“So, Eir is prepared. Has been prepared for a long time. After Young Master wakes up, Eir will answer every one of Young Master’s questions completely honestly.”

But, what Will hadn’t expected was that Eir would answer him before he even voiced the request, before he even asked.

“Good... good understanding. You... it’s like you know what I want to say.”

“Because, from childhood until now, the one who has always watched Young Master grow up is Eir,” she beamed, a genuine, radiant smile this time. She turned and, with surprising ease, arranged the old tea table and chairs—the ones frequently used in the Hysterm household—in front of him. The table and chairs, of course, looked considerably worn. The once-elegant white paint on the wooden furniture was chipped and faded in many places.

“Please, sit. It’s just, if Young Master wants tea, it might take a while. Eir thinks the tea here is probably undrinkable. We’ll have to wait for the shops in town to open to buy new tea.”

`Shops in town opening...` Considering Eir’s first piece of information, Will looked up and noticed the sky was just beginning to lighten. It was still very early. So, at least, the previous events had happened ‘yesterday’.

“Ask away, Young Master,” Eir said, having also pulled up a chair. She wiped it down with her hand before sitting opposite him, prim and proper.

“...”

It was so much like the old days, Eir sitting before the blackboard, waiting for his lecture. Had everything truly ‘returned’ to how it was...? But whether it was Eir’s impulsive ‘confession’, her recent smile, or even, for some reason, the pinkish-purple mist his left eye kept seeing around her... everything seemed to confirm...

`She’s not normal.`

Being rescued by her and brought here... wasn’t ‘salvation’. It was falling into another pit.

“Was it you who found me when I was controlled by Treya?”

“Mm. Eir is clumsy, but Eir understood the numbers Young Master left! It was the answer to that question in the ‘300 Questions on Blackening’, right? Then, Eir used Young Master’s scent to find Young Master in the forest.”

“Yes. But... how did you rescue me from Treya’s grasp?”

“Mmm... it was a very simple thing? Using the shield Young Master gave Eir and the ‘Rimefrost Phalanx’ Young Master taught me, I beat her up wham-bam-thwack.”

“Then... Treya, she...”

“Eir doesn’t know. But judging from the smell of the blood, that... probably wasn’t ‘human’ blood. After all, Eir has... tasted Young Master’s blood and remembers the taste very well. She probably... ran away?”

“And here? Why has the old Hysterm estate become like this?”

“Lord Carver said the Hysterm family has already moved away from here. But Eir’s life, apart from the capital academy, only remembers this place and the more distant Novis Town. Also... this place is... Eir’s favorite, filled with Young Master’s scent, so I brought Young Master here.”

...

He had asked all his questions.

The conclusion: Eir understood the numbers he left, remembered the ‘300 Questions’, found ‘missing’ him, tracked him down before Treya, and rescued him. Because Eir didn’t have many other places to go, she brought him here.

It was all questions. Yet, somehow, it all seemed to have no problems. From her actions to the logic and the outcome, everything was... perfect.

“Young Master, Young Master, any more questions? Is there anything else you want to ask? Eir... will answer everything.”

Her ears twitched. Will understood now. She looked like she was answering questions, but... she was using this opportunity to solicit his praise. Her tail was wagging so hard it was a blur, and her head, ears perked, kept inching closer to him.

Although he still felt that strange ‘sickness’ about her, undoubtedly... it was Eir who had saved him from the ‘nightmare’. It was Eir who had brought him out of ‘despair’. It was Eir who had pulled him back from the ‘abyss’. It was Eir who had given him...

Hope.

“I have no more questions.”

“You did very well, Eir.”