A Mastermind? No, I'm just the Live-In Son-in-Law-Chapter 19: Misunderstanding

Then, all of a sudden, Sasha lifted her head and slowly turned toward Hestia, who was sitting on the bed, and began stealing glances at her with a pale face.

“H-Hey.”

“......”

“Hey... can you hear me?”

But there was no response from Hestia, who had been completely spaced out ever since she made contact with Whitney’s soul.

“Excuse me...”

“Eek!”

“Eek!”

As Sasha nervously leaned in toward her, Hestia flinched, and Sasha yelped as well, stumbling backward in shock.

They were a perfect mirror image of each other.

“W-Who are you?”

“S-Sasha.”

“Huh?”

“I-I’m your assigned maid. I used to serve Young Master, but... well...”

Just as the two of them were stammering and trying to continue their ridiculous conversation, it happened.

“Why is everyone gathered in here?”

Parsha’s voice came from behind them, making them freeze in place.

“W-What are you doing here, Parsha...?”

“My body’s feeling a bit better, so I came to see Young Master.”

“H-How did you open the door?”

Sasha twisted her neck like a broken doll to look back, stunned, and asked. Parsha tilted her head and answered.

“It was just open.”

“Ah.”

She then quietly hid the key behind her back. But Sasha, too far gone to notice, just stood there with her mouth hanging open, frozen in place.

“By the way, who’s ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) that behind you?”

“Ah, um... well... she’s...”

“Oh, I get it now.”

Parsha clapped her hands softly as if something had just clicked for her.

“She’s the new maid, right?”

“M-Maid?!”

“Didn’t Young Master mention he was hiring new maids lately? Or am I wrong?”

“Ah, y-yeah! A maid!”

Of course, it was news to Sasha, but she had no choice but to force an awkward smile and go along with it.

“But I don’t like her outfit...”

“Huh?”

“A maid should dress like a maid. Why is she wearing something like that?”

“T-That’s...”

But when Parsha frowned in confusion and asked again, Sasha froze once more.

“S-She’s going through initiation!”

“Initiation?”

“Y-Yes! At our estate, there’s a tradition of dressing new maids in dresses! Uh... Miss Lunelle...”

Sasha threw a desperate look at Lunelle, who was still spaced out, silently begging her to agree. But Lunelle only tilted her head.

“A-Anyway! Let’s go get a proper maid outfit for her. You should feel honored!”

“......”

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

“A-And just so you know, the part of the initiation where we cut her hair and dye it isn’t over yet. S-So prepare yourself!”

Still not giving up, Sasha got up and gave Hestia—still in a daze—a quick wink before sprinting out of the room.

“We have to disguise her before anyone figures it out...”

“Pfft, my friend really is the cutest.”

Watching her run down the hallway with the urgency of a passport photo in distress, Parsha let out a quiet chuckle, then turned to Lunelle and whispered in a low voice.

“Miss Lunelle, I think it’s time you headed out too.”

“Why should I follow your orders?”

But Lunelle, who was looking down at her, responded flatly.

“Because I’m the Young Master’s right hand?”

“That’s odd. I thought that was me.”

“Didn’t you call yourself just a ‘tool’ earlier?”

“A tool in the right hand has a higher chance of being used than an arrogant thing no one can read.”

Sparks seemed to fly between their eyes for a moment, but—

“Well, we’ll settle that later.”

Parsha suddenly turned her gaze to Hestia, then paused and walked toward her. Their bizarre little loyalty competition was momentarily put on hold.

“Excuse me.”

“Y-Yes!?”

“I have a question for you...”

Parsha stepped right up to Hestia—who hadn’t heard a word of the previous conversation due to still being in a trance—and whispered softly.

“...You read Sir Whitney’s soul, didn’t you?”

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about...”

“What did you see in it? In Sir Whitney’s soul?”

Naturally, Hestia tried to play dumb at first, but there was something too sincere, too intense in the way Parsha looked at her.

“...Why are you asking that?”

“Because the successor of the true gate depends on the Saintess’s answer.”

Hestia had always been weak to kids. And now, with Parsha tugging on her sleeve, eyes glistening with pure desperation, there was no way she could escape the question.

“Are children like you being held here against your will...?”

“Please, Saintess... please...”

“Haaah.”

In Hestia’s mind, Sasha and Parsha were already nothing more than pitiful kids forced to work under duress like stable hands roped into hard labor.

“You have to promise not to freak out when I tell you.”

After wavering again and again, she finally made up her mind and began speaking slowly.

“...His soul was too pure for a kidnapper, so I kept trying to find even the slightest trace of evil.”

“......”

“And then what I saw, buried deep in the innermost part of his soul...”

Cold sweat started to trickle down Hestia’s forehead.

“...was a world—no, an entire Empire—engulfed in horrifying flames.”

“Hm.”

Parsha flinched at the words. Hestia, still locked into the vision, gently patted her back and continued.

“We were nothing but puppets moved by his hand. Every gesture he made forced fate to twist and turn...”

“......”

“And once everything ended, the world was overwritten...”

But she stopped there. After taking a deep breath, she forced herself to continue with a trembling voice.

“What remained... was only darkness and silence.”

Then—silence.

“S-So please, help me. If I can get out of here, I can still warn others about—”

“Um, are you listening to me?”

Carefully watching Parsha’s expression, Hestia finally began to plead, but grew nervous at the lack of reaction.

“Can you... see me, by any chance?”

“Huh? Now that you mention it...”

As Parsha blankly repeated her question, Hestia dug into her memory.

“You were... clapping right in front of me...”

She trailed off, eyes going wide.

“I knew it...”

“N-No way.”

“I knew my eyes weren’t mistaken...!”

Only now did she realize that the very person who had exposed Whitney’s domination of the world with a single slip of the tongue... was standing right in front of her, clasping her hands like a saint.

“More importantly... to think you trusted me that much...”

“Oh my god.”

“Hee... heeheehee...”

Parsha suddenly burst into a fit of giddy laughter, full of joy, and Hestia instinctively backed away in alarm, tightly shutting her eyes and folding her hands in prayer.

“Still... at least I didn’t say the one thing that matters most.”

Just like her thoughts were now whispering, Hestia hadn’t told Parsha everything she saw.

‘After the world was overwritten, those strange symbols that rose up from the darkness... That must be Whitney’s goal.’

Because the final image she saw was of the sky above a world flattened into one layer, where a string of unrecognizable characters slowly began drifting by like the final words of a will.

‘O God, if I really am Your Saintess...’

Updated from freewёbnoνel.com.

But sadly, the language in those symbols was unlike anything she had ever seen. Hestia, for the first time as a Saintess, offered a desperate prayer to the heavens.

‘Grant me the knowledge to understand the truth...’

Yet despite that heartfelt plea, she never learned what those symbols truly meant.

‘...God?’

Because even God would have had a hard time explaining that what she saw... was the end credits from a video game Whitney had played in his past life.

Of course, the real fault didn’t lie with Hestia, but with Whitney—whose most evil sin in life was playing the game in “evil route” mode once out of sheer curiosity.

“S-Saintess... no, handmaiden of God. I brought the maid uniform, so please change into this.”

“...Alright.”

Maybe it was for the best.

***

“...Why is my ear so itchy?”

Riding a horse for the first time in my life, surrounded by an escort from the entire knight division, I couldn’t even reach up to scratch because I was afraid of falling and rolling across the ground. All I could do was frown and turn my head.

“Is something bothering you?”

“...No, haha.”

“We’re almost there, so just hang in a little longer.”

Just as the captain of the 2nd Knight Division said, the spires of the Imperial Palace were already visible, towering in the distance.

‘Just yesterday, I thought things would be quiet for a while...’

Even though the Ringaarden estate was right next to the capital, normally I wouldn’t be treated like a suspicious person under escort like this. It wasn’t just the distance—something about me always seemed to trigger extra security at checkpoints.

If it weren’t for the royal insignia the 2nd Knight Division had presented each time we passed a gate, I probably wouldn’t have been allowed to arrive at all.

“Urgh...”

Also, the royal steed—famous for its incredible speed—was so fast that it had nearly given me a phobia of horses after just one ride.

“Stop. Halt the carriage.”

“Hold there!”

I swallowed the nausea rising from deep inside and finally arrived at the gates of the palace, where an armed checkpoint had been set up.

“...The misunderstandings just never stop.”

“Yahahaha...”

Maybe it was because of what happened yesterday, but the guards looked like they were on high alert. They waved frantically and ran toward us.

“Please don’t misunderstand. This man is not a black mage or a criminal—he is Sir Whitney, acting under the Emperor’s direct orders—”

“W-We know that!”

The 2nd Knight Division captain looked like he was about to hold up the royal seal again, assuming I was being mistaken for a criminal or black mage, but—

“Then why are you stopping us?”

“T-That is...!”

Even so, the guards blocking our way looked extremely nervous. I furrowed my brow just as the captain did the same.

“You brat! Get out here!”

Someone shoved the guards aside and waved them off before turning toward me.

“Sir Whitney!”

Only then did I understand why the guards were so antsy.

“I’ve been waiting for you!!”

The crown prince—who was supposed to be the star of yesterday’s engagement—was running toward me with the desperate look of someone reuniting with a long-lost best friend.

“Please help me!!!”

‘What the hell is this now...’

Considering I’d just abducted his fiancée a few hours ago, this was... beyond awkward.