I Became the Maid of the Lout Prince-Chapter 485: Chase (1)

“Lilith! L-Lilith!”

Only after grasping the meaning of the letter did Ethan finally understand and burst out of his room in a hurry.

Intent on meeting her to clear up any misunderstandings, Ethan rushed to the waiting room next to his own, expecting to find her there, but instead, two other maids stood in her place.

“Heuk?!”

“...Young Master?”

The pink-haired maid was visibly startled by his sudden entrance, while the vanilla-haired maid greeted him calmly.

In their hands was a letter, seemingly written by Lilith, much like the one he had just read.

“Isabel? Katarina?”

“Judging by your urgency, it appears you’ve also received a letter, Young Master.”

“...Does that mean you two have one as well...?”

“Yes. She left a letter saying she’d be leaving the Blackwood Mansion. Katarina and I came up to confirm whether she truly vanished.”

“...”

If it had been a prank aimed solely at him, he might’ve brushed it off as a joke. But realizing she had left letters for Isabel and Katarina, too, drove home the fact that she had long been preparing to leave the mansion.

‘How could I not have noticed...?’

Reflecting on it, he realized he might have had plenty of chances to figure it out.

Lilith had always been consistently saving money, turning anything she could into gold coins whenever the opportunity arose. At the time, he’d merely thought she was overly frugal, but in hindsight, it was clear: she had been accumulating funds to leave the mansion and live independently.

‘Lilith, were you perhaps trying to tempt me?’

‘Yes, I have been for quite some time.’

And then, there was last night—when, for the first time, she seduced him without any conditions, inviting him into an intimate moment. If that had been her way of creating one final memory with him before parting ways...

“Young Master.”

“...What is it, Isabel?”

“The letter’s contents... Are they true?”

“...Which part?”

“The part about you already having a fiancée, which would make it impossible for Lilith to become your official wife.”

“What... did you say?”

Startled, Ethan snatched the letter from Isabel’s hands and read its contents, quickly realizing the absurd misunderstanding Lilith had fallen into.

According to the letter, Lilith believed Ethan was already engaged, and thus, no matter what, she could only ever be his concubine or second wife. Unwilling to endure the idea of him with another woman, her jealousy had driven her to leave.

“A fiancée? Me? There’s no one like that, Lilith... There’s only ever been you...”

“...I apologize for the misunderstanding, Young Master.”

Watching Ethan confess far too late to an absent Lilith, Isabel quietly lowered her head, having pieced together the situation.

“In my opinion, Lilith likely left due to a misunderstanding.”

“...I can’t imagine where the misunderstanding came from. Was my love for her really so lacking that it could lead to this?”

“Lilith often believes her assumptions are correct, refusing to listen to others’ words. Didn’t something similar happen when you first ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) entered the academy?”

“...Yes, it did.”

“And honestly, if I were Lilith, I could understand her misunderstanding. No matter how much you shower affection on a maid, her place could be nothing more than that of a mistress, if she’s lucky, perhaps a second wife.”

“...”

“Just saying this now, but... if you were truly planning to make Lilith your official wife, you might have done well to move faster.”

The perspective of nobility and that of a commoner differed greatly.

To Ethan, making Lilith his official wife was simply a matter of convincing his father. He had taken their future for granted. But that was not the case for Lilith.

While he dreamt of a life together, she had always believed she could only end up as a concubine or a second wife.

If she had been an ‘ordinary’ maid, the prospect of such a future might have been enough to keep her waiting. But for Lilith, who was fiercely possessive and valued purity, the thought of a future beyond her control likely drove her to leave.

“Heuk?!”

“Damn it, damn it all!!”

...He should have spoken sooner.

No, he should have made it official sooner.

The idle fantasy of giving her a special graduation gift by proposing after completing the academy... It was that nonsensical plan that led to this misunderstanding and her escape.

“Aaaah!! Aaaahhh!!”

Hearing Ethan’s anguished cries as he sank to his knees, others began gathering around Lilith’s quarters.

“...What’s all this commotion in the morning, Ethan?”

His father’s voice cut through the gathered servants, pulling Ethan back to his senses, however barely, from his turbulent emotions.

“Father...”

“...What on earth is this ruckus, Ethan? How disgraceful for the next head of Blackwood to be acting this way.”

“...I apologize.”

“And as for the rest of you, why are you still here? I assume you have other tasks to attend to?”

“““We apologize!!!”””

At Harold’s reprimand, the gathered butlers and maids hurried downstairs, leaving Ethan and Harold alone in the empty room.

This content is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

“All this fuss over a single maid disappearing? Is your personal maid’s absence that unsettling?”

“...She’s not just any maid, Father. She’s someone irreplaceable...”

“If she’s that precious, you should’ve kept her closer. Only now, after she’s gone, you realize what she meant to you... Such a disgrace.”

“...”

“This happened because you failed to gain her trust, Ethan. Had you done so, she would have had no reason to leave.”

“...Yes, Father.”

Despite the pain his father’s words caused, Ethan couldn’t deny it. The conversation with Isabel had forced him to acknowledge that his lack of clear communication had driven her to leave.

He should have told her more clearly.

That he planned to marry her as soon as he graduated from the Luminor Academy and hold a grand wedding at the Blackwood Mansion.

That he intended to love only her, forever, as his one and only official wife.

If not that, at least...

‘I should have tied her to me, so she couldn’t escape...’

His reluctance, born from the fear of being hated by her, had been his downfall.

He should have been prepared to bind her to his side if necessary.

While he hated the thought of her resenting him, what he couldn’t endure even more was the emptiness of her absence.

It had barely been an hour since he learned of her departure, yet the oppressive weight in his chest was unmistakable.

“Will you pursue her?”

“...”

“I asked, will you go after her, Ethan?”

“...Yes.”

“Good. A man should at least have the resolve to regain what he’s lost. I would’ve been disappointed if you’d had no intention of reclaiming her.”

“...Pardon?”

Taken aback, Ethan looked up, surprised by his father’s approval. With the academy term about to begin, he hadn’t expected permission.

Pursuing her would undoubtedly mean missing the academy’s start date, possibly even delaying his graduation. His father’s approval was essentially granting him an unofficial leave.

“Losing something precious and living a life of regret is far worse than delaying your graduation by a year or two.”

“But, Father, the leave...”

“Arranging a leave of absence for one or two students is within a professor’s discretion. And even if it meant expulsion, I believe you’ve already decided, haven’t you?”

“...Yes.”

If he could never see Lilith again, an academy diploma would be worthless to him.

If trading the diploma and his years at the academy could bring her back, Ethan would do so without hesitation.

“A father’s role is to support his son in difficult times. Change into something comfortable and meet me in the courtyard. Today, I’ll teach you how to ride a horse in a day.”

“...What?”

“Surely, you don’t intend to pursue someone on horseback by carriage. Learn what’s most necessary first, Ethan.”

“...Understood, Father.”

The next morning, Ethan, now equipped with the skill to ride on his own, set out from the Blackwood Mansion.