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			Saving The Dog-eared Girl From Her Circumstances (5)
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TL: Hikari
ED: Chinozuku

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――――Well, it was fine to this point. This is not something I wanted to say but it’s almost like this every time when he contacted me or gives a requests.

The one which was irritating me is “I think you have something to say, but I’m busy with official business at the moment, so I don’t have any free time to meet you” as his postscript at the bottom of the letter.

That bastard Leo didn’t have any intention to hear words. What was that idiot thinking by telling me to do as my wish.

“……………”

“U, umm, Danna-sama……?”

Maiya timidly calls out to me who fell silent while deepening my frown as about one hundred ways of verbal abuse to Leo were swirling inside my mind.

――――But, it’s useless to abuse that person who wasn’t even here, and above all, Maiya has done nothing wrong. After sighing, I started to speak.

“……Surely Leo wrote it, and I understood that you don’t get to a wrong house. But, I totally don’t know why that fellow sent you for.”

Well, his thought has always been hard to read since a long time ago. At the time like this, he must scheming something behind me…… But first of all, I honestly don’t have any idea about this matter.

“Either way, what I can make sure is, I don’t need something like maid. ――――Now, what should I do with you.”

I looked at Maiya who was in state of anxious.

If the visit of Maiya was simply a mistake, the story was simple. Because it’d be finished when I sent her away. However, since the situation turned like this, I must decide the treatment to this girl as my responsibility.

“P-please! I- I beg you, please hire me!”

Maiya holds both of her hand in front of her chest, and draw closer to me straightforwardly. Before I could interject, her words――――or rather, her flood of appeal is rushing to me.

“No, I don’t mean to hire me! You don’t need to pay my wages to me who is similar to garbage! But, at least please give me a little to eat and a place to sleep……! I have no place to go anymore! I will risk my life to be useful for you! I will do anything! I don’t even mind if you use me as you wish!!”

“……Calm down first”

I put my hand on Maiya’s head and stopped her.

“You made my head cramped with your loud voice. Don’t make racket here”

“――――――――!!”

After opened her eyes wide, Maiya took a step back.

“……Please forgive my rudeness.”

Her ears and tail hung down. I think that her behavior doesn’t have any different with a dog being scolded. By the way, I don’t dislike dogs.

“Umm, actually I wanted to repay your kindness by all means and I asked Leo-sama for help when he asked me about my future’s wish.”

“You don’t need to be indebted. A work――――isn’t quite fit terms here, that was merely my role to did that”

“But……You have saved my life.”

She looked at me with an eyes of a puppy being abandoned, literally.

I groaned and stirred my hair.

“……Is this okay? I don’t know what that Leo’s plan but, I have a right to decide what I would do to you. Rather, you have no choice.”

“Yes……”

“So, as what I’ve said it before, I don’t think I need a maid at present.”

“……………Yes”

“This is the conclusion. Take your baggage and get out.”

“…………”

Tears were swelling in Maiya’s eyes slowly.

“――――is what I wanted to say”

I shrug my shoulder faintly.

“It might become troublesome in various ways later if I ignore the intention of Leo selfishly here.”

Even if he’s like that, he still Emperor’s family.

“Besides according to the letter, it appears that he can’t be in touch easily at the moment. I need to have a talk with that guy one day―――― Well, until then, I will give you a shelter here. I have no other choice, you see”

“Eh………?”

Unable to grasp the meaning of my words, Maiya facial expression turned into the face in verge of tears.

“All the guest rooms on the second floor are available to use. Use the room whichever you like. There is a bed and a blanket too. I have never clean it, so it should be dusty, but it won’t be a problem if you just use it to sleep.”

“Ah……”

Finally, the signs of her understanding appeared on her eyes just like the blue sky which became clear.

“T-thank you very much! Thank you very much!”

Maiya thanked me with a face that pleasantly expressed her relief and joy.

“Ah……B-but…”

“What’s the matter?”

“Umm, Maiya is a human beast, so it’s enough if I can sleep on the floor, you know? The bed and room is really a waste on me.”

“……Just what kind of life you have been through?”

No, she came from slave trader as a [Commodity]. Since she was sold as a slave in the first place, she probably did not have a decent life before that.

There are also differences in feeling by region and individual, but beast man is often regarded as lower social ranking by commoner. If they were hired by a people with mainly strong discrimination sense, their living environment would be reasonable like that.

(Well, let’s prying into her personal info later…..)

After in thought for a bit, I spoke.

“I will be troubled if you were to frozen to death in my house. It seems to be cold tonight, or would you like to cause me trouble?”

“N-no! I never wished for something like that!”


Maiya shook her head strongly.

“I am determined to never make a trouble to danna-sama ever once!”

“Then, sleep in guest room obediently. ――――And, there is a food storage inside the first floor. If you’re hungry, you may eat and drink it as you like. Because it would trouble me if you were to starve to death”

“Y-yes”

“And also――”

I was about to say something but then I hesitated. It may be unnecessary…… But oh, well.

“And also, I have one warning.”

“War, ning?”

“I don’t mind if you’re regarding it as warning, advice, caution, or anything. In short, it’s not particularly an order. ――Hear me, when you promote yourself, don’t ever say a careless thing like “You will do anything” or “Please use me as you like”. You will get taken advantage in the future, you know”

The dog-eared girl blinked her eyes and looking at me again.

“Eh, but…… that wasn’t a lie, you know? It was Maiya’s real intention. When a garbage like me want to be a help for someone, I must give everything I had, is what I always think……”

A garbage, eh.

Hearing it, I felt quite unpleasant. I knew it wasn’t from Maiya herself, but such sense of values had been taken form in the society and environment, it’s the circumstances regarding to her life until this point.

“You have heard about the rumor of this house as “Cannibal Mansion”, haven’t you?”

“Y-yes, when I asked for the way.”

“What kind of rumor was it?”

“Let’s see…”

No one ever see the master of the mansion.

The servants who can be seen going in and out from there sometimes, their body was disappeared regularly in a few days after.

In fact, the master here has the taste of the special meal, in other words, he eats a person vigorously.

The acquaintances of their acquaintance seemed to be sacrificed, too.

Do you go to be employed? I advice you better to stop, you know?

“―――Something like that, I guess.”

“I see, then I am regarded as Laestrygonian.”

I snorted.

“And, you’re fine with such thing as your master? Try imagine for a bit. One day you’re suddenly killed, made into a tasty cook, and you ended up inside my stomach, you know? If the rumor true, what would you do by then.”

“What would… I do, is it?”

Maiya gave a confused look. On the other hand, I lifted the gossip like irony.

“You said to me to “use me as you wish”, so you have no complaint to be ended up like that, right?”

As a matter of course, such idiotic rumor couldn’t be a fact. Although I have an idea of the circumstances that cause the exaggeration on the story―――― I am an ordinarily decent person. Of course, my taste of food is also common.

However, I know that there is a lot of scum in this world unexpectedly.

Even among great noble, regardless of eating them or not, there are people who were abusing their servant and slave frequently. Even torturing them for fun until they were in verge of death, such a story isn’t rare either.

This girl called herself as a garbage. With such low self-rating, it was the same as giving another person an authorization of “you can use me even to that extent”.

Because she has no place to go, she would became a servant of someone else. In exchange for her temporary peace, she easily entrust her own life. ――――――That is the way of life that is equal to a suicide, as if walking on the edge while blindfolded.

Even with her circumstances, as a young girl without relatives, she should understand the danger. That was what I thought.

………Well, I don’t have to take any responsibility for her life but, the thought of “I have saved her from miserable fate, and yet she had jumped again into disaster by herself” made me felt unpleasant.

“Ng? Nn……”

Maiya was getting more confused, she was tilting her head.

“Maiya is stupid, so I don’t know what should I do, but…..Umm, but, I can give an answer if I were to get eaten by danna-sama.”

“Hou~ let’s hear it”

However, the answer of this young human beast was only slightly different from my imagination. (TLN: ummm, I was confused about that “slightly” in the raw…)

“I’m sure I will feel very happy.”

“――――――Happy?”

I was at a loss. Did she happy to be killed and eaten?

“Because, if I were to become danna-sama’s food, got eaten, and ended up in your stomach, that means my life can be useful for you. Even if I live as a garbage, but I won’t get valued as such when I became a meat, right?”

Maiya is giving a nod repeatedly while turning her clear pure pupil to me. As if that face showed that―――――― It’s the truth and a given fact from the bottom of her heart.

“That’s why, for Maiya it’s really a very very happy thing.”

“…………”

I noticed chills ran on my back while seeing the smile in her face. I couldn’t help myself to say that this girl was too naïve. I didn’t think her own denial was deep-rooted to this extent. Was her self-awareness gone already?

Maiya who saw me who became speechless, tilted her head and was saying with an innocent voice.

“So…..Umm, do you want to make me into a food, danna-sama?”

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Author Notes:

The Episode of “Saving The Dog-eared Girl From Her Circumstances” ended.

The next story is “Maiya want to be useful for Danna-sama! (1)”

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