In This Confinement Novel, the Maid Doesn’t Change the Original - Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Translator: Yonnee

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The answer to the question Sien had asked only came four days later.

“This is…”

Adeline, who had been summoned to Sien’s rarely-used office, was holding a gift box that was neither too large nor too small.

“A reward for bringing me the ledgers.”

With his chin propped on the desk, Sien replied in a flat voice, completely lacking in gratitude.

“……”

To give a gift as a reward for something she considered her obvious duty…

At this, Adeline felt a strange, yet familiar sense of unease.

With a reluctant face, Adeline carefully untied the ribbon around the box and opened the lid.

“…Young Master.”

Her ominous premonition had, as expected, not been wrong. The moment the box opened, a severed hand and a pair of eyeballs came into view.

The hand belonged to the priest who had groped Adeline’s backside, and the pair of eyes were those of the priest who had harassed her with his gaze.

“You seemed reluctant to talk about it, so I just took care of it myself.”

When Sien added that he had cut them off at night when there were no witnesses, as Adeline had advised, she finally realized.

That the question Sien had asked in the carriage had been about Hamel.

At the same time, she also felt a sense of contradiction.

Even if she had told Sien what he wanted about Hamel that day, the result would have been the same.

One way or another, Adeline would have ended up receiving this box.

Without changing her reluctant expression, Adeline picked up the hand rolling around in the box.

The fact that the temple hadn’t lodged any protest despite what he had done to the priest meant that he must have used the ledgers she had brought as blackmail.

She had expected as much…

But she couldn’t help but wonder if this was really necessary. Not that she cared particularly about the priests.

“Young Master, I’m sorry, but I sincerely don’t need this.”

She wasn’t especially surprised by the gruesome gift. Just a few months ago, she had received something similar from Sien as a so-called present.

As Adeline moved, the severed fingers tilted toward the back of the hand. When she moved it slightly forward, it tipped toward the palm.

Watching this, Sien grinned with a dangerous expression.

“Is that so? Then just throw it away. It was getting on my nerves anyway, since it felt like I was holding hands with someone.”

He was the one who gave it to her, yet he was being absurdly contradictory.

Adeline, now out of habit, let out a deep sigh, put the hand back into the box, and asked,

“This aside, have you met with the saintess?”

It was a question she hadn’t been able to ask yesterday. In fact, Adeline was more curious about Sien and Claire’s meeting than this kind of gift.

A faint look of expectation flickered in Adeline’s pitch-black eyes. Even though Claire had already slept with another man, that didn’t really matter to Adeline.

‘As long as she marries the Young Master.’

Whether he imprisoned her and married her, or married her and then imprisoned her. For Adeline, their ending would be marriage, one way or another.

So before marriage, especially when they weren’t even lovers yet, it was ridiculous to fuss over things like this.

“Do you know that this is already the twenty-seventh time you’ve mentioned the saintess today?”

Leaning back at an angle in his chair, Sien crossed his legs and asked in return.

“You counted every single time? You really hold a grudge— Ah, that almost slipped out.”

Adeline exaggeratedly hit herself on the head with her fist and muttered.

It was hard enough that a bump might have formed, but since it was her own head, Sien didn’t care.

“Saying it on purpose isn’t a mistake.”

It seemed she was trying to be careful, but in reality, when she was with Sien, Adeline tended to say whatever came to mind, whether she should or not. Since Sien wasn’t especially bothered by it, he simply let it be.

“It really was a mistake. I just accidentally said what I was thinking out loud.”

Which, in the end, meant it was her true feelings.

“So, what about the saintess? Was she able to purify your magic?”

Adeline asked, feigning ignorance on purpose. In the world, it was believed that the saintess’s power could only purify miasma. That is, the toxic magic released by monsters.

It was thought to have no effect on magical power possessed by humans.

Even though people knew that magic itself was a force derived from monsters.

But Adeline, who remembered the contents of the novel, knew this was incorrect.

The saintess’s power worked on human magic as well. It was just that the poison within human magic was extremely faint compared to monsters, and most adapted to it as they grew up, so even when it was purified, they didn’t notice.

Unless you were someone with a special constitution like Sien.

Surely, the saintess would be able to purify the poison within Sien’s magic as well.

Sien had always searched for a way to resolve the poison in his magic.

Because the chance of a saintess appearing in his generation was extremely low, he’d never even considered that possibility until now.

So a saintess appearing by chance was nothing short of an opportunity for him.

“…And if she can?”

Resting his chin on his arm atop the table, Sien narrowed his eyes and asked. Though he didn’t give a definite answer, Adeline interpreted it as she wished and replied quickly.

“Then we’d have to make the saintess yours, Young Master.”