--------------- ‌‌‌
Brought to you by Valir Scans! ‌‌To support our ‌team and enjoy ‌‌‌the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
---------------

A Corporate Slave Becomes a Villainous Nuisance in a Zombie ‌‌‌Apocalypse
Episode 37
Soda, who had secured her position as Head Maid of the Duchy before even reaching thirty, found herself thinking.
'The young lady has been acting strange lately.'
Yusara.
The Duke's daughter.
Excluding the Emperor and a handful of Imperial Family members, the most precious status in the entire Empire—a woman.
A villainess. ‌An idiot. A hollow-headed woman.
My mistress, who had shown me that even a beautiful, wealthy noble lady was nothing special when you looked beneath the surface.
Or rather, precisely because she was beautiful and wealthy, there was something thrilling about dismissing and mocking her—
A woman I found myself hoping would ‌‌‌‌fall to ruin.
'Did the young lady really fall for it? That easily?'
'I'm telling you! When I acted all shocked and said the young lady didn't know, she got even more flustered!'
Juicy gossip for the servants working in the Mansion.
'Hey, you don't even work under the young lady. Do you know what she said yesterday?'
When speaking with maids from other Mansions I was acquainted with, it was ‌‌‌‌‌proof I could ‌‌‌use to complain that I worked the hardest.
'The eyes never lie, after all.'
'Honestly, I can't even tell if the young lady is beautiful. Her attitude certainly isn't that of a beautiful person.'
A common enemy ‌‌who united everyone present with one heart and one mind.
And lately, that young lady had been acting strange.
It started after she returned from the Villa following the Crown Prince, ‌‌whom she harbored an unrequited love for.
'Just because she was born with good blood, she gets to enjoy all these luxuries while being an idiot.'
For Soda, who insisted she lacked nothing compared to the young lady, the fact that her mistress was suited to the Crown Prince simply because she had fortunate parents was nothing but infuriating.
'Where is the young lady?'
'In her bedroom. She's passed out.'
'Why?'
'Who knows. Maybe the Crown Prince held Yujein's hand, and she got so upset seeing it that she fainted.'
'Hey, go pinch her and see.'
'Are you insane!'
'What!'
Yet when the young lady awoke (pretending to have been unconscious), not a single word about the Crown Prince came from her lips.
'The ‌‌Crown Prince ‌‌was so worried about you, young lady!'
Even when Soda, unable to bear it any longer, cautiously probed the matter, it was the same.
'Why are there only stones? Where are the slippers?'
And then, out of nowhere, she started ‌searching for some slippers.
'That filthy thing?'
Soda had no intention of retrieving that disgusting object she'd thrown into the trash the moment she saw it.
It made no difference whether Soda herself searched for it or not.
'Understood, understood.'
Letting out an audible sigh, Soda whispered to the youngest maid.
'Go out and handle your business, then come back when the young lady forgets about it.' ‌‌‌
She's not the ‌‌‌‌brightest, so she'll forget why she was angry in just ten minutes anyway.
What if she doesn't forget?
I'll just show her some newly sewn lace.
True to Soda's prediction, the young lady never mentioned those slippers again after that.
But she began acting increasingly strange.
'Young lady, aren't you sleeping?'
'Just let me finish this. ‌Could you bring me a glass of ice water? Thank you.'
When she returned from her outings, she'd bought stacks of books (the day the young lady met the Grand Duke at the Coffee House became the talk of the Duchy all day long, and Soda was even more irritated).
She opened a book the ‌‌‌moment she woke, read while eating, and continued reading until just before sleep.
In fact, it seemed she wasn't sleeping ‌at all.
'You ‌‌weren't sleeping, were you? You were still awake when I took over.'
'Yeah, even when I took over.'
'Yeah, me too.'
This was the first time Soda realized a person could spend eighteen hours a day with her nose in a book.
'Still, she's just a young lady.'
Unable to believe the young lady possessed such persistence, Soda dismissed it outright.
'She must have heard that the Crown Prince likes intelligent women.'
'Maybe.'
'That's it! She's just a hard worker after all. A hard worker trying to impress a man.'
Such remarks faded away after a day.
'Young lady, aren't you hungry?'
'I am hungry.'
'Please eat something.'
'Never ‌‌‌mind. You're just going to give ‌‌‌me ‌‌lemon water ‌‌anyway.'
Without a desk of ‌her own, the young lady placed her books on the vanity or tea table and spent the entire day hunched uncomfortably over them.
The delicate beauty with her slender neck and wrists, frowning and absorbed in the text, looked surprisingly intelligent.
Even after watching her like this for four days straight, Soda deliberately ignored it.
Seeing a person change for a few days doesn't erase ‌‌the habit of ‌always dismissing them.
Her young lady couldn't change. She had to continue existing pathetically, receiving criticism from all sides, filling Soda's ‌‌‌sense of superiority.
But.
"Would you ‌‌‌rather be locked in the Colonial Prison a month's voyage from here, ‌‌‌or listen to what I say?"
Had she known the changed young lady would be the first to turn a blade on her.
"The choice is yours." ‌‌
She wouldn't have been so complacent.
The young lady's eyes, meeting hers directly, gleamed with intensity.
The opposite of Soda's wavering gaze.
* * *
"Head Maid, I plan to report you to the Public Security Bureau as a thief who stole her master's slippers."
I flipped through the book I'd marked with folded pages and the organized notebook I'd prepared, continuing my words.
"You claim you discarded it by mistake and couldn't find it, but there's already a witness who ‌‌‌‌can testify that you never even bothered to look for it."
The Head Maid's eyes before me widened as though they might burst from her ‌‌skull.
"Even if you did discard it by accident, the fact remains that ‌‌‌you carelessly disposed of your master's property—your career ends there."
As for the witness who heard you ‌say 'there's no need to look for it,' well, she's right here.
I gestured toward the Young Maid standing one step behind the Head Maid. ‌‌‌
She was the one who had attended to me this morning before I entered the Palace.
On the day I first awakened in this mansion, I overheard the Head Maid whispering in her ear.
The Young Maid who had readily agreed to become my witness ‌to avoid being charged with theft herself.
"You...!"
The Head Maid's body spun around sharply. The startled Young Maid averted her ‌‌gaze.
I cleared my throat to draw attention back to myself.
"Perhaps you're thinking something like this: 'So what? Who would believe the claims of a foolish young lady?'"
Even ‌‌‌‌if this matter escalated to trial.
Wouldn't the judge simply side with the poor maid, muttering 'Yusara again, always Yusara'?
But that's not how it ‌‌works.
"You may think I'm ignored and belittled here, but I'm still nobility."
No matter how villainous that nobility might be—if a maid carelessly handled a ‌‌‌noble's possessions and faced no punishment?
The nobles would think.
That the same could happen in their own households.
So ‌this time, they would all take my side.
"The only thing left in your ‌‌‌‌future is exile."
So, what will you do?
I asked with ease, crossing my legs.
1. Blackmail the Young Maid with theft charges.
2. Secure the testimony of the frightened Young Maid.
3. Using the testimony secured in step 2, blackmail the Head Maid (also) ‌‌with theft charges.
My plan to fracture this household that had united against everyone ‌‌‌but me was nearly at its conclusion.
Carelessly discarding the master's belongings.
Did that even make sense in a society with a caste system? ‌‌‌‌
I'd verified it because it seemed like Yusara was being played for a fool.
And she was indeed a fool.
'In the original timeline, this could never have happened.' ‌
In this world, stealing even ‌‌a ribbon from the master's sleeve could earn you ten years imprisonment.
The laws here were similar to nineteenth-century England, in fact.
= Which meant criminals were shipped off to colonies as exiles.
Places like America or Australia.
'In modern times, being sent to America or Australia for free would be a blessing, but in the nineteenth century, it certainly wasn't.'
Q. So what exactly do you gain by blackmailing the maids like this?
A. A bundle of keys.
The heavy keys hanging from the waist of the Head Maid, whose hands were now beginning to tremble.
'A bundle of keys that can open and lock every room in the Duchy Residence.'
Obtaining that key bundle was my ultimate objective.
Q. Why?
A. Because.
'It feels like zombies are about to appear in this ‌house!'
Look, just hear me out.
1. My younger brother disappeared right at the moment I possessed this body.
2. But the mother who overprotects her son makes a ‌‌‌lot of noise without ‌‌actually worrying much.
3. And even that mother is suspicious!
She pathologically avoids sunlight, doesn't eat anything yet keeps belching grotesquely.
During meals, she doesn't touch any other food—only drinks blood.
Her neck also rotates ‌‌‌‌‌nearly 180 degrees.
Isn't that exactly what people look like right before they become zombies in movies?
Even if the Capital is supposedly safe until the Investigation Team departs, shouldn't I be cautious ‌‌‌rather than rely solely on that?
After the Investigation Team leaves, the Duke could very well be the mastermind behind a zombie outbreak in the Capital!
Even the slightest possibility had to be nipped in the bud.
Honestly, I wanted to lock her away somewhere immediately ‌‌‌and call a priest.
'But I have no power.'
Not a single person in this Mansion would obey me.
The Young Maids who won't even retrieve the slippers I've discarded or bring me a proper meal.
Would they listen to me saying 'let's lock Mother in her room because she seems like she's becoming a zombie'?
Of course not.
I'd be the one getting locked away instead.
I also considered confiding in Praha or Cyprus about how strange Mother is.
But it was obvious ‌they wouldn't believe me either, so I dropped the idea.
Mother is strange, my younger brother has vanished, and I'm powerless.
The only method available to me was blackmail.
"Ah, Miss."
I looked at the Head Maid, her face drained of color at the thought of possibly going to prison.
'I'm sorry.'
But having ‌‌‌your keys torn away by me is better than having your flesh torn away by zombies, right?
"W-what should I do...."
"Well. First."
"...."
"Don't prostrate yourself like that."
I helped the Head Maid up from ‌‌where she knelt on the floor.
"No matter what ‌‌‌mistake you've made, I have no reason to make you kneel. Don't do it."
A noble making servants kneel—it's the very picture of tyranny.
Even though I'm possessing this body now, I'm still a person ‌‌from the 21st century.
Just because I woke up as a noble doesn't mean I want to lord it over others or abandon my principles in a single day.
So what, next time you possess Hitler and live by committing massacres? ‌‌‌
'I can't argue if someone says this coercion I'm doing is also abuse of power. But not getting played for a fool and abusing authority are clearly different things.'
"What I want is simple. Your key."
It was originally my house key anyway, so there's no reason for you ‌to feel wronged.
"And there's one thing I'd like to ask your opinion on."
"Y-yes...."
"Is there any way to legally keep her confined to her room of her own volition?"
A method to prevent the Duke—whether she's a zombie or not—from moving voluntarily.
Even as I spoke, I wondered if such a method could possibly exist.
Surprisingly, it did.
[(Temporary Safe Zone) Duchy Residence]
- Yusara (Survived)

---------------
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team ‌‌‌and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
---------------