#Episode 56
<Do you really know what she wants? Do you even know why she’s helping you get rid of Albert and sticking by your side?>
<Hmm…>
<Do you think it’s normal for an ordinary maid, who’s only met her lady a few days ago, to take her side and kick out the young master she’s originally served? Whether it’s for money, ambition, or perhaps even resentment towards Albert, she must have her reasons.>
<Whatever her reasons are, doesn’t it have nothing to do with me? Albert’s already dead, after all.>
<Why wouldn’t it matter? She’s your personal maid. She’s the closest one to you. Even if she doesn’t need to share her thoughts with you, at the very least, you should know what she’s thinking.>
Todd spoke as if teaching Vasha.
<Or you could just keep her around until she does something suspicious and get rid of her then.>
The nuance was clear—it suggested eliminating her if things went wrong. Vasha, recalling this, clicked her tongue.
‘He’s always suggesting we kill at the slightest provocation.’
Yet, Vasha agreed with Todd’s point.
‘I do need to find out what Melina is truly up to….’
So, Vasha decided to use magic to probe into Melina’s intentions.
This would be the second test to keep Melina as her personal maid.
Taking a sip of tea to moisten her lips, Vasha continued speaking calmly.
“It must be difficult working every evening. You’ll also find it hard to socialize with others… Are you really okay with that?”
“Oh, absolutely! Just being able to work by your side is already more than enough for me.”
“Is that so? Why?”
Vasha rested her chin in her hand and looked at Melina intently. Magic glimmered in her red eyes.
The magic Vasha used was called 【Charm】. Beyond simply enchanting someone, it lowered the mental barriers of the target and clouded their judgment, making it useful for uncovering simple truths without resorting to advanced spells like 【Memory Reading】.
For example, she wanted to know exactly why Melina was so eager to work under her.
“Why do you want to serve me?”
With each word Vasha spoke, Melina’s gaze grew increasingly dazed.
She wanted to fulfill any wish Vasha had, and she felt compelled to pour out everything in response to Vasha’s question without holding back.
Melina let out an awestruck sigh.
“Because… my lady is truly beautiful….”
“Hmm?”
Vasha was well aware that Melina admired her appearance. After all, Melina often stared at her in a trance, so it wasn’t hard to notice.
But was that really the only reason?
Was that why she had set Albert up, turned her days and nights upside down, and isolated herself from others just to become Vasha’s personal maid?
For Vasha, it was difficult to understand such a reason.
‘Did the 【Charm】 spell not work as well as it should have?’
Vasha asked, somewhat hesitantly.
“Just because I’m beautiful, you want to stay by my side, even if it means going through all that trouble?”
“Trouble? Not at all!”
Melina exclaimed, cutting off any chance for Vasha to respond as she continued to speak passionately.
“Serving you, my lady, is worth any effort! When I first saw you, I was completely overwhelmed…. The moment I laid eyes on you, I realized that every concept of beauty I had ever pursued was nothing but a lie….”
Melina went on, praising the elegance of Vasha’s form and exalting her perfection down to the tips of her fingers and toes, until even Vasha was starting to feel dizzy from the endless admiration.
‘…It’s not that the 【Charm】 spell didn’t work; it worked far too well.’
Though Vasha was generally confident in her appearance, hearing Melina’s adoration made her feel a surprising sense of humility.
In the end, the reason Melina wanted to stay by Vasha’s side was because of her appearance.
Yet it wasn’t out of any hidden desire; she simply wanted to be near Vasha and admire her beauty purely for what it was.
‘Now that I think about it, I feel like there was someone like her beside me in the past as well….’
A vague memory surfaced briefly, but fragments of it quickly sank back into the depths as Melina’s praise continued.
Feeling that she might not be able to say anything if this went on, Vasha interrupted Melina’s speech and asked her a question.
“How… did you end up with such a fixation on appearances?”
“It’s not a fixation! I’m simply pursuing beauty!”
Melina exclaimed, sounding a bit defensive. Then, with a sigh, she began to share her story.
“My mother was a nanny to a young nobleman. He adored my mother as if she were his real mother… Thanks to that, both my brother and I received an education that commoners usually wouldn’t have access to.”
They had access to finer clothes and a better environment. Since the young nobleman had no younger sister, he cherished Melina as if she were his own sibling. This was in stark contrast to Melina’s biological brother, who only bullied and teased her constantly.
Because of how much the nobleman adored Melina, she spent her childhood freely roaming the estate like a young lady of the house.
“One day, I had the chance to see the portraits of the previous generation of nobles in the family. Beautiful paintings! They had skin as smooth as pearls, and golden curls like delicate threads…. My heart raced at the thought that such beauty could exist in the world.”
Melina was captivated by the angelic figures depicted in the portraits. Seeing how the previous masters of the household were so stunning, she couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed by the young nobleman’s appearance.
“But when the day came for the young master’s portrait to be painted, I realized I had been completely mistaken. The person in the painting wasn’t the young master I knew! Instead, it looked exactly like the ancestors I’d seen in the portraits. That’s when I realized all the beauty in those paintings had been exaggerated.”
“Oh, my….”
Vasha sighed sympathetically at Melina’s pained recollection.
Melina remembered clearly how her mother had reacted when she confided in her about her disillusionment.
<How could you say such a thing about the young master? What’s wrong with him? He’s so handsome, so distinguished! Do you think men like him are common?>
<That’s just because you raised him, and you see everything he does through rose-colored glasses! I’m telling you, he’s not handsome at all!>
<What’s that, this girl?>
Melina’s mother dismissed her dreams as unrealistic. Despite the young nobleman’s objections, her mother made Melina do menial tasks as a way to teach her humility.
<Don’t stop me, young master. She’s gotten so full of herself just because you pamper her… She needs to learn her place through a little hard work!>
And so, Melina was given all sorts of chores, from laundry to cleaning. Her mother hoped that this would break Melina’s stubbornness, but Melina did not lose hope.
“Still, I held onto the hope that there might be someone even more beautiful than the people in those portraits. So, when I heard there was someone with angelic beauty in Noctiluca, I packed my bags and ran off to find them.”
Contrary to her mother’s intentions, Melina used the skills she gained from her chores to easily find a position as a maid in another household. If her mother had known, it would have driven her mad.
Hearing mention of someone with angelic beauty, Vasha raised an eyebrow and asked,
“Could that someone be Albert?”
“Yes! But when I finally met him as a maid, he still didn’t meet my standards…. It was disappointing….”
Though handsome, Albert was far from angelic in her eyes, lacking the grace and elegance she sought. Melina sighed, shaking her head.
“I was so disappointed back then. It made me wonder if only vampires could meet my standards of beauty.”
“Cough, cough!”
Vasha choked and coughed violently. Sensing her reaction, Melina quickly added in defense,
“I’m not a… a blasphemer or anything! It’s just that vampires are famous for their beauty, so I was curious…. Besides, they’ve been in hiding for so long that it’s impossible to meet one now…. If only I’d been born a hundred years earlier….”
“……….”
“But then you appeared, my lady! You were perfect! I felt ashamed of myself for having any hopes for mere vampires!”
It seemed that Melina’s fate was somehow tied to a vampire, allowing her to meet Vasha without having to be born a century earlier.
All Vasha could hope was that Melina wouldn’t scream and flee once she learned the truth someday.
In any case, given the effects of 【Charm】, Melina’s words at this moment were undoubtedly her purest truth.
At this point, Vasha had heard more than enough.
‘More than enough—no, actually, far too much….’
🍓;
*Rose colored glasses, it’s a metaphor for seeing life through a ‘filter’ that makes everything appear more pleasant or ideal than it actually is.
*Blasphemer is someone who speaks or acts in a way that shows disrespect or irreverence toward something sacred or religious, particularly toward God or religious beliefs. The term often carries strong negative connotations, especially in religious contexts where blasphemy is considered a serious offense. For example, in some traditions, denying or mocking holy figures or scriptures could be labeled as blasphemy, and the person doing so would be called a blasphemer.
