Chapter 183 Sasami’s Daily Life
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
By the time Ayumu returned to his office after lunch, finally done with the morning’s pile of work, something was sitting squarely in the center of his desk—a certificate, all decked out in frilly borders and gaudy pink ink. He froze, stared, and slowly picked it up.
”For Lord,” it read, in bouncy handwriting. “Because Lord always bullies Sasami, you are officially certified as a Super Evil Villain ♪”
”Wha—hey, what the hell kind of slander is this?!” he blurted out to the empty room, jaw dropping. “Me?! When have I ever bullied a child?!”
Sure, he *had* occasionally smacked her upside the head or delivered a light slap to the cheek whenever she pulled something outrageous—but that hardly counted as “super evil,” did it?! He was merciful! Gentle, even!
Fuming, he held the paper up with two fingers like it was cursed and—rrrip, rrrriiiip!!—tore it into tiny shreds until it was nothing but confetti drifting onto the carpet.
And that was when it happened. From behind the wall—the wall that hid the secret escape door he’d had built into the office just in case assassins or angry rioting townsfolk ever attacked—came a muffled shriek.
”Y-you ripped up a certificate from adorable Sasami?!! H-how could you do something so cruel?! Lord really is a heartless beast, the worst of the worst!!”
Ayumu jerked so hard he almost toppled his chair. His eyes shot to the source of the voice—and froze as the painted eyes of the landscape portrait on the far wall shifted, just slightly, watching.
The portrait’s eyes. Moved.
(Wait… waitwaitwait—*what?!!* How does Sasami even know about that secret passage?! That door was supposed to be known only to *me*, the Lord here!!)
But there she was. She’d clearly been peeking through the hidden crawlspace just to spy on his reaction, and had caught the exact moment he shredded her stupid “certificate.” The audacity! The sheer *spy-level* audacity!!
A secret passage wasn’t much of a secret anymore if even the child maid knew about it!
”This is ridiculous,” he growled under his breath, stomping over and yanking the hidden door open. “This whole security system is useless!!” ꐦ
(↑Never mind that he was the one who’d ordered this flimsy, leaky excuse for a secret passage to be built in the first place.)
He charged into the narrow corridor, but either he’d reacted too slow or the maze-like layout worked against him—because within minutes he was completely, humiliatingly lost. Sasami had slipped away without a trace, leaving him wandering like an idiot in his own emergency tunnels.
* * *
Meanwhile, having successfully shaken off her furious Lord, Sasami crept through the dim stone passageways, puffing her cheeks out like an angry squirrel.
(Lord… I’ll never forgive you for this…!) she fumed silently, slipping out into the pantry storeroom that Vanya managed. Shelves gleamed with glass jars of golden honey, bricks of imported sugar, and burlap sacks stuffed with rare salted peppered meat—luxuries in this world, all of them.
And she, without a shred of hesitation, began stuffing them into her own sack.
”Fufufu… Lord! Taste despair, it is what you deserve!!”
* * *
She ducked out through the servants’ gate with the sack slung over her shoulder, skirting the cobbled main roads and heading straight for the crooked lanes of the old Slum Street. Born and raised there, her feet moved with practiced ease, slipping past Ayumu’s cheap little patrol squads like smoke.
They’d never catch her. They never had. Not when she was a kid swiping fruit from market stalls, and not now either.
Before she’d been taken into the mansion, she and the other slum kids had made a habit of sneaking all the way into Livonia to steal goods, smuggling them back to fence with black market traders. It was survival. This was just… the same thing, really.
She found one of the familiar old faces, handed off the glittering honey jars, the fragrant sugar, the precious peppered meat, and collected a nice fat handful of coins in return. Then she tucked the coins deep into her pocket and ran the rest home.
”Oi! You two, come out here!” she called outside the crooked door of her parents’ shack, grinning as her little brother and sister scampered out barefoot. She shoved the wrapped meat and the coins into their hands.
”Waaah! Thanks, big sister!!”
”Shhh!” she hissed, pressing a finger to her lips. “If papa or mama see it, they’ll just waste it all on booze and drugs again ꐦ So hide it well, okay?!”
”Okaaaay! (whispering!)”
She patted their heads, then skipped off down the alley with the leftover coins jingling in her pouch. On the way back she stopped by a corner stall and bought four bottles of ramune—the fizzy, bright drink that had suddenly become all the rage lately. She cracked one open, sipping it as she walked, and by the time she reached the mansion again her bad mood had mostly evaporated.
”Hey, Big Sis Sasami! Lord was really mad at you, you know!” piped Cocoa the moment she walked into their shared room, wide-eyed as always.
Sasami just hummed, not bothering to look concerned as she handed over two of the ramune bottles. “Here. Souvenir.”
”Wha—?! Th-thank you, Big Sis Sasami!!” Cocoa squeaked, already popping one open and guzzling it.
”By tomorrow,” Sasami said calmly, stretching out on her bed, “I’m sure Lord will have forgotten all about it.”
And honestly, she was probably right. Ayumu was always so buried in work that he rarely ever got around to scolding her properly. In a few days, she figured, she could just sneak into the secret passages again and swipe something else from the mansion’s supplies.
Business as usual.
And with that perfectly wicked little plan tucked snugly inside her head, Sasami curled herself up under the thin blanket of her bed, the faint fizz of the half-finished ramune bottle still tickling her tongue. The moonlight slipping through the window painted pale lines across the wooden floor, and Cocoa’s soft, hiccupping snores puffed from the other bed like tiny sleepy whistles.
Sasami stared at the ceiling for a moment, eyes glinting faintly in the dim light, lips curved into the faintest victorious grin.
Tomorrow… or maybe the day after… Lord would have forgotten everything.
Then she could go treasure hunting through those “secret” passages again, and maybe this time she’d steal something even better.
Thinking exactly that—and only that—Sasami let her eyes slowly flutter closed, the grin still lingering, as quiet settled over the room.
Notes:
• Sasami – Birene girl, small and sharp-eyed with messy brown hair | First in Ch.126 | Servant maid from the slums, does chores with chaotic energy | Has many starving siblings she secretly sends wages to | Bonds with Cocoa as her junior but constantly drags her into trouble | Meets Ayumu as part of the first servant group, wakes him with flying tackles and endless pranks | Unique note: loudmouthed gremlin who hides deep loyalty and homesickness behind mischief
• Vanya – Half-Yugan half-Caesar cook, deep-blue hair and scarlet eyes with a voluptuous figure | First in Ch.138 | Former Imperial Court chef, now Keldan’s head cook | No family mentioned | Hired through Emperor Rai’s recommendation, now indispensable to Ayumu | Known for miraculous flavor and calm mellow tone | Unique note: walked in with fresh cream puffs right after the party room was blown apart
• Cocoa – Birene girl, tiny and round-cheeked with soft blonde hair | First in Ch.127 | Junior servant maid, clumsy but earnest | Orphan with no known family | Shadows Sasami everywhere and copies her antics | Met Ayumu as part of the first servant group, now joins Sasami’s wild wake-up attacks | Unique note: innocent copycat who causes chaos without ever realizing it
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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