"Beauty is a sin, beauty is a distraction, your beauty... is the fall of all."
...
"Those of you who are here are the fortunate ones we chose among thousands of maids working in this residence to serve our Masters."
Outside the residence where the maids of the Arclore family live, a group of young and mature maids stood still.
The head maiden, who serves the master of the residence directly, came to examine them. Because Today was the day they selected new maids for the young masters.
Standing under the shadow of the roof, Vanessa gazed at all the maids. She, who was present today to choose a maidens for her master, needed to be extra careful in her selection.
However, at the moment, she already had someone in mind.
Among the maids stood one particular girl with extraordinary charm. It was as though she carried her own environment of cold and snow. Her skin was extremely fair, like snow, and her eyes were the same blue color as water.
But slicing through her otherworldly charm was a scar, a cut mark that made any man pity her at first glance.
"With utmost loyalty in your hearts, serve your masters well."
With these words, the head maiden gave the order to the maids sent by the masters to choose new maids for them.
For Vandir, his personal maid was responsible for selecting maids. However, compared to her, Vanessa had to choose a whole group of maids since her master would be moving to a new residence soon when he went to the academy.
Looking at the group of maids, Vanessa gave her instructions to the nearby maids with her to choose from the group.
After a few minutes, she selected at least fifty maids that she thought were fit to serve Mordred.
"Evelyn, it's been some time," Vanessa greeted her with a slight nod, as they were no strangers to each other.
Evelyn nodded her head in response without saying a word. Vanessa didn't mind her lack of words. After all, considering what Evelyn had experienced, it was still surprising that she was staying as a maid in this family.
"Although I've chosen you to serve our master, you still need his approval. Behave to the best of your ability now."
With the maids she had chosen, Vanessa arrived at the residence where Mordred was staying. However, after knocking several times on the door, she received no response from him.
"Did Master go somewhere?"
Unbeknownst to her, Mordred was still inside the room. Hearing the knocking sound, Mordred ignored it and went back to reading the book he held.
Spirit Summoning was the name of the book in his hands.
Beside the chair where he sat, on his bed lay a tall ghostly woman, also reading a book from the category of spirit summoning. Standing beside the bed was the knight Remiar reading a book about holy knights and their traditions.
Thud!
After completely reading the book, Mordred closed it. The tall woman gazed at him from the bed.
"Let's begin."
With his words, she blended into the darkness and absorbed into Mordred's body, turning him slightly dark.
This should really work. With the ghost's concealment ability, those from the spirit realm could not sense my scent. But if something goes wrong...
Mordred looked at the knight, Remir.
I don't think he will be able to handle it.
However, I'm not just a common spirit summon, but a spirit warrior. If something does go wrong, it serves as the last resort.
Extending his hand, Mordred closed his eyes. In the game, players just had to click on the correct icon to open a portal from the spirit realm to summon a new spirit. But in this reality, there were no buttons. However, Mordred could feel that he could open the portal whenever he wished.
"With the authority granted by the will of the world and the unity of God, I request a pathway to the realm of spirits."
Mordred's deep voice resounded through the room. In the game lore, it explained that the Realm of Spirits is in a different dimension, and the user needs the permission of the will of the spirit realm before doing anything else.
A moment passed after his words, and on the floor of Mordred's room, a magical circle appeared.
The glow of the circle slowly began to increase, and a light erupted from the circle, showing a silhouette of a strange-shaped creature.
As soon as Mordred saw that, he waved his hand, and the circle and the light disappeared like a blowing wind.
"It's... success."
The fact that someone didn't jump straight out of the portal to Mordred, and just a creature was summoned, made Mordred aware that the concealment did work. The knowledge he gained from browsing through all those books proved valuable.
"To summoners, what matters the most is the strength of their soul."
Opening his inventory, Mordred took out a potion bottle.
Item name: Juice of Amrita
Grade: Honour
Description: Elixir of wonder that, upon consumption, would reborn the being completely with a new and powerful soul. (Only individuals in the Champion rank or above could consume the item; suitable for summoner-class individuals.)
Current owner: Mordred Vorthian Arclore. (Cannot be consumed as the power of the being is under the minimum requirements for the item.)
Gazing at the item for a few minutes, he stored it back. This was the first time he faced a complete restriction from an item, and it was one of the reasons that prevented him from using more powerful items in his catalog.
"Let's start from the bottom."
Getting up from his seat, Mordred prepared to walk out of his room, but just when he touched the door handle, he heard a ghostly woman's voice in his ears.
"There are a few outside, waiting for you."
Mordred halted. The voice he heard was from the tall ghost woman.
I did hear a knock before, Vanessa maybe?
Taking a step back, he sat back down on the chair.
"Come in."
After a moment, Vanessa stepped in, alone.
"Master, your new maids for the journey have been selected. Would you like to take a look at them?"
"Let them in." Although not very interested, Mordred had to take the necessary steps when doing certain things.
However, when the maids came in one by one, his interest was piqued as he saw Evelyn among them.
Evelyn... I've been expecting you.
Just like Vanir, Evelyn is also a late-blooming villainess, but she was originally a childhood friend of Mordred. However, after the evil spirit took over his body, things turned for the worse. As a non-human being, the evil spirit had a curiosity toward humans. One of those curious results was the experiments it did on humans, and another was the deep cut mark on Evelyn's face.
Seeing her otherworldly beauty, the spirit couldn't resist his urge. He imprisoned her and tortured her until he became satisfied. And when that happened, what was left of Evelyn was her broken self.
With the power of the Arclore family, Evelyn's relatives turned silent, and she was accepted as a maid in the residence.
Although she looked so calm, she had an incredible hatred for me. As a result of that hatred for me and her otherworldly beauty, she awakened her unique catalog seduction.
The longer the man was around her, the more they favored her. As time went on, it turned to the point where men became slaves to her power.
Although she's a top-notch beauty, that's all there is to her, but that's all I need. If I could make her one of my allies, that would be a huge benefit. The only problem is... she would never forgive me for what Mordred did.
After looking at all the maids, Mordred gave his approval. And with a bow to their new master, each one of them stepped out gracefully.
Alone in the room, Mordred gazed at the closed door.
"The evil deed Mordred did in the past is catching up with me. Good!"
Ding!
Mordred rang a little bell on his desk. After a few minutes, Negun knelt in front of him.
"Do we have any information about the location of a Leviathan pearl?"
"..... Currently, we do not possess such information, master."
"Hmm...."
Removing the few books on the table, Mordred looked at the map he borrowed from the library.
Finding the location he searched for, he pinned it.
"Contact the Adventure Guild. Put in a request anonymously to retrieve the Leviathan pearl from this place. After posting the mission, keep an eye out for it. There might be other parties trying to seek treasures from others' chests."
"As you wish, my lord." Memorizing the place pinned on the map, Negun stepped out from Mordred's room.
. . . . . . . .
In the evening, Mordred took a walk around the garden of the Arclore family. It was a massive landscape covering a lake, a forest, and a field of blooming flowers of all kinds.
Accompanied by Vanessa by his side, Mordred enjoyed the scenery he saw, in a noble way.
A honey tea prepared by Vanessa was offered to his hand when he needed it, and a soft wind blew past him when he felt stressed.
Well... This is truly the life of a noble.
After an enjoyable time escorted by his maid, Mordred came back to his room. Putting on his bathing suit, he prepped to go for a bath, but at that moment, a bird landed on his window.
"A pigeon... only a person crazy enough to use a pigeon in this time would be someone with great curiosity or someone too lazy to come look for me. I think I know who sent this."
Taking the pigeon in his hand, Mordred took the letter bound to its leg.
As he read it, the expression on his face turned into a slight smile.
. . . . . . . .
"To my knowledge, didn't we say to them we are taking a break? But look at us now, doing work again."
On a road through a forest, two knights were riding their horses slowly, emblems on their armor signifying they were from the Holy Sanctuary.
"We just got together and were having a moment, and those bastards had to crash it."
"Honey, don't be mad. After all, it's an order from the Saintess. Like it or not, we have to do it. Absolutely. We got all the other time after that."
The two knights argued in voices only they could hear.
"Oh, believe me, woman, when we're done with this, time will be the only thing holding me back."
"Ha-ha... I don't get it."
As their horses slowly walked through the forest, the two knights' smiling and happy expressions faded.
"Something's weird. We're almost closer to the Forbidden Forest, but I didn't see any creatures," the first one to feel that ominous feeling was the woman.
"Don't you think you're imagining things? This is closer to the Forbidden Forest. It's always been like this," the man tried to find reasons to erase the same ominous feeling he felt.
"No, there should at least be a bird. But now... there's no one."
The two horses suddenly halted, in front of them on the road, A body of a brutally decapitated woman was scattered around.
The two knights got down. Drawing her sword, the woman rolled the head part of the body, where the couple saw the face of a woman who had experienced great horror before death.
"Maybe you're right, there's no one in here anymore. At least not a living one."
The two gathered the pieces of the woman's body and buried her under a large tree. Spilling holy water around the grave, the two prayed before hopping on their horses.
Urging their horses, the two knights moved forward on the road.
"Those scars marked on her body, they are not from a bear or any other creature I know of."
"I had the same thought. Remember there was a tavern in this area? Let's go visit it for some info."
With another urge from them, the two horses ran faster down the road.
After they faded into the distance, the grave they had made suddenly shook, and the dirt above it began to fall down.