Empress Borough, Backlund.

A huge villa stood tall with all of its glory and luxury, a beautiful garden decorated the villa's front, and a complicated patterned iron gate guarded the magnificent villa. 

This is the Hall family's villa.

Nearing the iron gate, Alice met the gate guards. Handing the envelope, the two guards looked at each other faces before one of them guides Alice to the villa. 

Following the guard towards the villa, Alice noticed several people were watching her, it should be those official Beyonders protecting the Hall family. Earl Hall is the King's trusted aide after all.

Walking along the large corridor behind the guide, Alice noticed a dog and a beautiful girl heading in her direction.

The beautiful girl has long blonde hair, a pair of emerald green eyes, and a well-crafted beautiful dress wrapping her. While the dog is a huge golden retriever with a collar around the neck.

Seeing the blonde girl, the guard quickly greets her respectfully with a bow. And of course, Alice followed the guide's behavior, receiving a nod and a curious gaze from the blonde girl.

Shortly after the brief encounter, Alice and the guard finally arrived in the lord's office after navigating through the huge villa with its seemingly endless corridors. 

Knock-knock

Several moments after the guard's knock on the door, an approval sound was heard from behind the door. 

As the door opened, the guard bowed at the gentleman inside the room, and shortly he leave the room leaving Alice behind.

The gentleman has loose skin with an obvious potbelly, blue eyes, and a beautiful mustache that made him appear good-looking.

Standing in the middle of the room was Earl Hall.

Gesturing Alice to sit as he's already sitting on the sofa.

Alice then walked inside the room and sat on the sofa across Earl Hall, waiting for the Earl to speak. After several seconds, Earl Hall spoke with a coughed.

"—Miss. Alice, I presume?"

"Yes, but let me reintroduce myself. My name is Alice Deloen."

Alice said with a polite smile on her face.

"Pardon my rudeness, Miss. Alice, but you have a soothing voice as I heard."

"Thanks for the compliment, and what do I call you Lord Hall?"

"Lord is fine, back to business Miss. Alice, I heard you have good managing skills?"

"Yes, that's true my Lord. I have several experiences in the managing area."

"Good. The first two months of working here will be your test period, whether you'll be hired for the next months will be solely based on your performance. And you'll be my daughter's lady maid for these two months with 3 pounds per month as the wage. How about it Miss. Alice?"

"I have no objection, my Lord."

Early Hall nodded at Alice's reply and rang the bell in his hand, shortly after the bell rang, a maidservant came in.

"Annie, this is my daughter's new lady maid—Alice, and she will be your assistant for two months from now. I hope you could show Alice around the villa and the job she will do."

Receiving a reply from Annie–the maid, Earl Hall gesture to Alice and Annie to leave the room. 

Outside the room, Annie introduces herself to Alice, vice versa. 

"You can call me Annie, Alice—if I may call you that."

Annie said cheerfully.

"Okay Annie, you can call me Alice too."

"Great! By the way, how old are you Alice? You look so young."

"I'm 18 years old, Annie. I know I'm young, but I have several experiences working as a maidservant."

"It's not that! It's just you're still 18 and you've already been acknowledged by the Lord! You're so cute and beautiful too!"

"T-thank you for the compliments, you're beautiful too Annie."

With a lovely smile, Alice replied Annie, making the latter blushed red.

"—you lady killer! A-anyway, let's start exploring the villa, Alice!"

Then, the red beet Annie and the giggling Alice begin exploring the villa. On the tour, Annie explained many things to Alice, and the latter memorized them.

From the kitchen, guests rooms, bathrooms, dining room, the servant quarter, the guards quarter, the gardens, each of the Hall family's rooms, and many more. And Annie introduced Alice to other servants, guards, and gardeners. Memorizing the many servants was a difficult task for Alice as the Hall family has many of them.

As for the servants who saw their new colleague, their reaction was of course amazed by Alice's beauty and her soothing voice. Seeing their reaction, Annie could sympathize with them, even she—who's always see their beautiful young lady couldn't help glancing at Alice. 

'Now that I think about it, Alice and the young lady both have similar ages, and each of them is beautiful!'

Annie thoughts as she stopped at the last room, and it's the young lady's room.

"This is the young lady's room, and you and I will prioritize attending her rather than other works."

"Okay, Annie."

"Good, now let's introduce you to the young lady."

Receiving a nod from Alice, Annie proceeds to knock on the door. 

Knock

Knock

"Who is it?"

A muffled sound could be heard from behind the door.

"It's Annie, my Lady. May I come in? I would like to introduce you to your new maid."

Hearing the approval, Annie opened the door and led Alice inside the room. 

***

Audrey was fantasizing about one of her recent hobbies, the mystery world that she was curious about recently when she heard a knock on her door.

And it turns out to be Annie, her maidservant, and she was saying about the new maid Audrey's father hired. Maybe it's the one who she met earlier?

"Come in."

Audrey responded gently after she finished tidying her stuff. 

Shortly, the door opened and Annie walked in with a young girl similar to her age in tow. And as Audrey suspected, the young girl was the one who she met earlier. 

A beautiful young girl with waist-length dark brown hair and pale lilac-colored eyes with a hint of blue. Now that she observe her properly, the girl is truly beautiful like a noble lady and she has white porcelain skin almost as if she always bath with the most expensive beauty product. 

While Audrey was observing Alice intently, unaware of her scrutinizing eyes and her amazed look made her ladylike usual behavior falter. She's always behaving ladylike in front of strangers after all.

"Cough...My Lady, this is your new lady's maid, and my assistant, Alice Deloen. She will help me attend to all your needs."

As Annie spoke, she broke the silent room as Alice bowed to the young lady in front of her.

After several seconds, Audrey finally fixed her usual bearing and spoke for the first time the two maids comes. 

"Nice to meet you, Alice. My name is Audrey Hall, and you can call me Audrey. And that is Susie, my golden retriever."

Audrey said to Alice with an energetic tone.

"Nice to meet you too, my Lady. And pardon me, but I'm afraid I can't call you by your name, as we have a different social standing. And nice to see you too Susie."

With a smile, Alice replied with her usual lullaby-like voice, causing Audrey to pout at her refusal and Susie to wag her tail.

"But our age is similar right?"

"Emm… Maybe if we got close enough?"

"Fine…"

Annie could only sigh at her young lady antics.

After the introduction, Annie and Alice leave the room, leaving Audrey and Susie inside. And then, Alice was led to her room in the servant quarter, and her room was beside Annie's room. As they both say good night to each other before they sleep, the crimson moon has illuminated the night after all.

The next day was quite a busy and tiring day for Alice, as she was adapting to the huge villa while doing her work as a lady's maid and a maidservant of the Hall. Brooming the marble floor and cleaning the glass of the windows was her first work, continuing to tidy each of the guest's rooms and helping Annie attend to the young lady of the house. 

Many days have passed as Alice finally adapted to her new work on the villa and she's befriended the other servants and Annie. She's also talked many times with Audrey while she was attending her, talking about the many hobbies and her hobby, which is reading literature. 

She's also met with Audrey's eldest brother and Audrey's mother, Hibbert Hall and Caitlin Hall. 

Audrey's mother looked to be in her early thirties despite her actual age, and she still retains her beautiful and graceful appearance. She's also treated Alice kindly, and whenever She and Audrey were having tea time, she would always invite Alice to join them. Making Alice wonder why Caitlin taking care of her intently, not that Alice hates it of course. 

Hibbert Hall, Audrey's eldest brother, is a handsome man with bright blond hair. He looks like a classical sculpture, regardless of which angle one viewed him from, he too always greets her when Alice met him in the hallway like her mother and occasionally talked to her about how is her work doing.

As for Earl Hall and Audrey's second brother, Alfred Hall, the former still treated her the same as other servants, which she appreciate it, while the latter didn't stay at the villa.

Two months have passed in a blink of an eye, Alice wearing her maid outfit is having tea time with Caitlin Hall–Audrey's mother and Audrey. As time goes by, Alice has accepted that she can't escape from Caitlin and Audrey's invitation to join the tea time, so without refusing first, she's now happily joining their tea time.

"Say, Alice, do you like working here? And I hope Audrey didn't make your work harder."

Caitlin said concerned about the 18-years-old Alice while teasing the 17-years-old Audrey.

"It's alright Ma'am, the work here is manageable and the colleagues are competent too, and my Lady didn't make it any harder."

"I'm not a child now, mother. And, Alice, didn't I say you can call me Audrey!"

Audrey sulked as she heard the both of them.

"Fufufu… my baby is right Alice! You can call her Audrey you know, she's similar to your age after all, and don't say anything about social standing."

".... Alright, Ma'am."

"Great!"

Audrey exclaimed enthusiastically.

Shortly they talked till afternoon, as the tea time of this day has ended. Alice then tidied the tea set and the snacks with Annie, while Audrey's help was refused cause that is their job as a maidservant.

The crimson moon shone in the sky, illuminating the night of Backlund. As Alice laying on her bed in the servant quarter, thinking about her future action.

"Haahh… What should I do….another two months until Zhou Mingrui transmigrated as Klein…"

"Should I help him save his Nighthawks¹ colleagues or not? Then again, I don't know if I could bypass 0-08 arrangement…or should I just kill the wielder? But… Klein may not upgrade his Sequence…..haahh."

Closing her eyes, Alice rolled around on her bed while thinking about what path should she take.

'Now that I think about it… should I try to upgrade my Sequence to Sequence 0? Hmmm...the Demoness Pathway already has a Sequence 0 but the neighboring pathway—the Red Priest Pathway doesn't have a Sequence 0… it's my only choice if I want to be a God.'

"Haahh... But I don't know if my gender will be changed when changing my pathway to the Red Priest Pathway… and I don't really want to be a male…"

Alice mumbled as she stood up abruptly from her bed.

"Let's just get some fresh air…"

Still, in her nightgown, she went outside towards the garden near the servant quarter. Arriving at the well-cared garden, Alice strolled aimlessly while she looked at the crimson moon in the night sky.

Walking under the night sky, Alice was deep in thoughts about what choice should she take, when suddenly a tap on her shoulder woke her up.

'!!!'

Jolting briefly, she soon awakes from her thoughts and sensed a person standing behind her. Then, she turned her body around to see the person behind her.

A short bright blond hair and emerald green eyes stared at her pale lilac eyes with concern, the person behind her is Hibbert Hall, the eldest son of Earl Hall.

Both of them stood in the middle of the garden under the crimson moonlight, staring at each other in silence.

.

.

.

What's this? A scene straight out of the typical 'young master and his maid' troupe!? Just wow, even I the narrator was speechless, let alone my readers.

Isn't this supposed to be an adventure fantasy novel!?

And how the hell our wicked Angel got herself in this cliché event! She's supposed to be an Angel—no wait, maybe—no, it's surely one of our wicked Angel's plans to control the most influential noble house!

Truly, a plan worthy of a Demoness!

A ticked mark can be seen on Alice's forehead, she would be happy at this moment but somehow she seemed annoyed…. Well, whatever.

.

.

.

'......don't just stare idiot! you look like a creep damn it! okay, let's talk—'

Hibbert's thoughts, as he was about to start the conversation, Alice broke the silence first.

"A-ah young master, what are you doing here in the servant quarter's garden?"

Alice said while looking like your typical clumsy maiden.

'Ah great going Hibbert—wait, which garden??'

"This is the main garden, Alice. Are you okay? I called you several times before I came here…ah and sorry about the pause before."

"—The main garden?"

Alice quickly looked around her vicinity and confirmed, that somehow she's arrived at the main garden far from the servant quarter's garden.

"Yes, Alice. And you should wrap yourself with another layer before you decide to take a stroll in the night, you could get sick you know."

A hint of blush could be seen on Hibbert's face as he realized what Alice only wore right now.

'How come a lady wore that while strolling around the night!! Calm yourself, Hibbert! I'm a Loen gentleman!'

While Hibbert was having turmoil in his mind, Alice looked at her clothes, realizing that she's only wearing the white silk nightgown she bought. She forgot to put on a robe before leaving her room! She forgot that even though she didn't feel the cold wind, she needs to remember basic courtesy!

"I-I'm alright, just thinking about something a-and I'm ashamed you have to look at me like this young master…" 

Alice said with her head hung low to hide her blush, but Hibbert could still see the blush on Alice's cheeks.

.

.

.

What's this? A shy maiden now!? It's just acting, right? RIGHT!?

.

.

.

Seeing a blush on Alice's cheeks, Hibbert looked away and handed the coat he was wearing to Alice.

'Good job Hibbert!'

Hibbert thoughts as he finally behaving as usual. 

"Thank you, young master."

Alice thanked Hibbert with her warm smile, toppling Hibbert's composure yet again. 

"N-no problem, Alice. I won't pressure you to tell what's on your mind, but if you need a listener, I could be of your service."

"I think I need a listener right now, while I do think that it isn't worth your time to listen to my dilemmas—"

"It's worth my time, Alice. Don't worry about me."

Looking at the young master of the Hall family in front of her, Alice could only wonder why he is so concerned about her. While she thinks that their relationship is quite good, she isn't that close to him to show concerns, as both of them haven't talked this long, in the past two months.

Surely he didn't fall for her, right?

"If you say so, young master……. I-I kinda need to pick a choice between the many choices I have, and each of them had its consequences. And I kind of at a loss on what to do."

"Sorry if it isn't that informative about my problems, young master…"

Alice said with an apologetic smile.

"That's okay, Alice. While I don't know the choices, I do think that you should choose the one you want the most."

"..."

"Sorry if my advice isn't that helpful."

With a wry smile, Hibbert could only curse the little wisdom he had.

"—No, young master. I was just thinking about your words, and thank you for listening to me and for the advice, it's helped me a lot."

Shaking her head, Alice thanked the young master in front of her.

"That's great then, and it's getting late, you should go to sleep Alice. Should I come with you to your room?"

Looking in silence at the silent girl in front of him, Hibbert soon realized what is he saying in the middle of the night with just the two of them.

"I-I mean—I just want to escort you safely to your room!!"

"—I-I know young master!"

With that, both of them bid goodbye and went towards their own room. 

'Do what I want? Yes. Maybe I should just do what I want! Let's—'

***