Chapter 9
“What are you going to do with those?”
“I need to dress appropriately for work and fix my hair and appearance accordingly.”
“My goodness!”
While she was frozen in place, still holding my clothes, I quickly snatched them from her hands.
“I’ll go change.”
Fortunately, Gremory seemed so shocked that she didn’t follow me.
Thanks to that, I was able to change comfortably and use the ballpoint pen to tie my hair up tightly.
When I came back out, she was holding her forehead as she asked,
“You have hair ties. Why did you use a ballpoint pen…?”
“It’s more comfortable this way. And tying it with a hair tie leaves a mark.”
Gremory waved her hand through the air as though she couldn’t understand my reasoning, but I decided to simply ignore her.
As I turned my back, I suddenly wondered,
‘Wait, is it okay to treat her like this?’
She was a demon, after all.
Wouldn’t I end up being punished later for treating her so casually?
At that creepy thought, I slowly turned around and looked at Gremory.
Fortunately, she didn’t seem to realize that I had ignored her.
Although what she muttered afterward was rather frightening.
“Let’s find an opportunity to tear up that gloomy, horrible black dress.”
“……”
“No. What if Lady Liliana gets angry if I do that? That would be bad. Then maybe I’ll break that ballpoint pen and do something about those awful glasses…!”
Well, she wasn’t saying she would tear me apart.
So it should be fine, right?
When I finished getting ready, Bael was waiting outside the door.
He had been checking some documents, but raised his head when he saw me.
“If you’re ready, then we can…”
Bael slowly looked me up and down.
Then a horrified voice escaped his mouth.
“Where did you find such a horrible outfit?”
…
Was round two starting already?
“My goodness, Lady Liliana. Black is forbidden in Winsphere!”
“That’s ridiculous. It wasn’t mentioned anywhere in the contract.”
Considering I had tossed and turned all night thinking about how I had been manipulated by Bael’s ability and tricked into signing that contract, I felt I was entitled to a little bit of revenge.
Just as Bael was about to argue back, Roan came walking toward us from a distance.
He was also dressed entirely in black.
“Is something wrong? You didn’t come when I was waiting.”
Roan stood beside me and asked Bael coldly.
Bael flinched.
I smiled brightly and said to Roan,
“Apparently, there’s a problem with the color of my clothes.”
“Oh? What kind of problem?”
“They said you’re not allowed to wear black at the Duke of Winsphere’s household. His Grace seems to be stricter and more difficult to serve than I expected.”
I knew exactly who he was.
But they didn’t know that I knew.
So I thought I could get away with saying this much.
Like a frightened cat, I continued chattering.
“I’m worried. I didn’t know he would be so difficult to deal with…”
The more I spoke, the more Roan’s expression darkened.
At the same time, Bael’s face became increasingly pale.
Roan seemed to grit his teeth.
But so what?
The man standing beside me right now wasn’t the Duke of Winsphere.
He was Roan, the aide who worked with me.
“So that’s what His Grace is like. I had no idea.”
Roan looked at Bael with an extremely dark expression.
Bael trembled and quickly answered,
“No! That’s not true!”
“Oh my, Mr. Bael. Aren’t you trembling a little too much?”
“It’s just my personal preference! I’m a black-hater! Please, don’t misunderstand His Grace…”
Bael’s pupils shook wildly as he looked back and forth between Roan and me while desperately defending himself.
Maybe I should stop teasing him now.
I shrugged and patted him on the shoulder.
“Mr. Bael, I won’t misunderstand you. So don’t cry.”
“I’m not crying!”
“Yes, yes.”
There were clearly tears gathering at the corners of his eyes.
I couldn’t help letting out a small laugh.
It really was surprisingly easy to make a demon cry.
Bael tightly bit his trembling lips and told us to move on.
As I watched him walk ahead, I suddenly became strangely convinced of something.
As long as I didn’t let them discover that I knew Winsphere was a den of demons, I might actually be able to enjoy working here.
It was a strange and oddly reassuring feeling.
I take that back. Cancel what I just said!
‘Enjoy working here, my ass.’
I sighed as I looked at the demons who had been introduced to me as the servants working at Winsphere.
“We look forward to working with you, Lady Liliana! We’ll serve you with all our hearts!”
“Ah.”
There was no doubt about it.
Not a single normal person was here.
I couldn’t find a single demon dressed like a proper servant, no matter how hard I looked.
Every one of them stood before me dressed in clothes that seemed designed to show off their individual personalities.
More importantly, whenever they slightly opened their mouths, I could see their sharp fangs.
The ones pushed toward the back were hurriedly fixing the horns and wings on their heads and putting them away.
It happened in an instant, but I saw it perfectly.
The demons of Winsphere really never gave me a chance to let my guard down.
They all bowed deeply with great enthusiasm.
Some of them even had their shoulders trembling as if they were pleased with how impressive their greeting had been.
“Miss Ria, shouldn’t you respond to their greeting?”
“Ah, right. Nice to meet you all.”
Once I returned their greeting, the demons straightened up.
Their excessively sparkling eyes made me uncomfortable, so I was about to tell them they didn’t need to greet me like that anymore.
“But you don’t have to greet me like this every…”
At that moment, the shoulders of several demons that had been raised so proudly began to droop.
“You don’t…”
Their eyes drooped too.
Their mouths were beginning to turn downward as well.
Unable to hide my awkwardness, I continued,
“…Thank you for welcoming me.”
At those words, the pitiful expressions I had just seen disappeared as though I had imagined them.
They immediately returned to normal.
I stood there opening and closing my mouth in confusion as Bael introduced a few of them.
“I’ll introduce only the important ones.”
Bael pulled forward a demon who was noticeably taller than the others.
“This is Amon. He often stays by His Grace’s side and sometimes goes outside as His Grace’s eyes and ears.”
Amon stood in front of me.
He looked almost like a bear.
His dark brown hair and eyes only made him look even more bear-like.
I swallowed the hiccup that was about to escape and greeted him.
“Nice to meet you.”
Amon simply nodded without saying anything.
After greeting me, he stepped back.
Bael then brought another demon forward.
“And this is someone you met yesterday, right? This is Shion, the one who uses magic.”
Shion, still hiding his face beneath his robe, nodded.
A glimpse of his pale purple hair appeared and then disappeared again.
“And over there is Vasago.”
A man with the only visibly grumpy expression among the demons stepped forward.
His red hair and red eyes made him look as if he could breathe fire at any moment.
I instinctively stepped back slightly at Vasago’s intimidating presence.
Bael kindly continued explaining.
“His brain is a little empty, but he’s the strongest when it comes to physical force, so… hmm. I suppose you could call him the head of the knights?”
I came back to my senses at Bael’s ridiculous explanation.
It seemed as though they had no proper hierarchy and simply did whatever work they wanted.
But I decided not to pay much attention to it.
There was no reason for me to understand deeply how this place operated.
“And then… Hmm. There are too many. Three important people should be enough, right?”
Bael looked as though he couldn’t be bothered to explain any more.
He smiled brightly and looked at me as if asking for my understanding.
Behind him, the demons waiting for their turn to be introduced visibly drooped.
But that wasn’t my problem.
“Yes. I think that’s enough.”
When I agreed with Bael, the demons pouted while Bael’s face brightened.
“I knew you and I would get along well, Lady Liliana.”
Behind him, the demons were grinding their teeth furiously.
Bael simply scratched his ear once and said,
“Then shall we discuss your work now?”
It seemed there was absolutely no such thing as a proper system here.
“Um… don’t we need to move somewhere else?”
“No, it doesn’t really matter. Anything we discuss here won’t leave this place. The people of Winsphere are very tight-lipped.”
