Things Have Gotten Ominous......!

It's been 1 week since I was hired by the Salar baronial house.

During that time, no assassins targeting Sara-chan and the others appeared.

Peace, peace, peace, absolute peace.

As always, Maid-senpai's cleaning is wonderful, Sara-chan's magic water spheres still don't fly, and the mean-eyed old butler guy keeps making petty, snide remarks.

Yes! That butler! The sinister butler!

He just plain hates me, and he harasses me right out in the open.

The other day, when I was late because I was eating snacks in the forest, he spent a long, long time after that making snide remarks.

Well, that's fine.

It was my fault for being late.

I've reflected on it, and since then, I've been making sure to finish my training and snacking before the sun comes up.

But still......

“Shabby, filthy cursed child.”

“Keep your hideous self out of sight.”

“The very fact that you breathe the same air as Madam is unforgivable.”

“You are unfit to work in this house. Back to the wilds with you this instant, beast.”

He says things like that, belittling me in a low voice every single time we meet, trying to drive me out of the mansion.

And he does it so the other people in the mansion can't hear.

What is this, grade-school bullying!?

Well, in both my previous life and this one, I've basically grown up being belittled by people.

Hearing that stuff now doesn't faze me one bit. Ignore him, ignore him.

But that sinister butler, at dinner the other day, was kind enough to top my soup with some bugs.

Well, I didn't actually see the moment the bugs went into the soup, so it's only a probably, but still.

For some reason, only at that time, the old guy, who is supposed to be the butler, served the soup and brought it to me, a mere maid apprentice, so I think he's the one who put them in.

They were crunchy and actually quite delicious.

Honestly, since my body is currently craving massive amounts of food, I'm very grateful for this kind of service, even in small amounts.

Even during work, if I find some insects, I make sure to eat them secretly for the time being.

That old guy might have seen me doing that and secretly increased my food intake.

Is he a tsundere?

My evaluation of the old guy went up a bit because of that, but then the snide remarks started again immediately, so it went back down.

It's a net zero.

What is he trying to do? That sinister butler.

Anyway, what with one thing and another.

Time passed without any particular incidents occurring.

......Until today, this day.

◇ ◇ ◇

“EMIIIII! I'm practicing magic again today, so come to the entrance, PLEEEEASE!”

Called by Sara-chan's customary loud voice, I interrupt my weeding and head to the entrance.

After cleaning and laundry, it's weeding. This is my daily routine.

The weeds in a fantasy otherworld are just ridiculously hardy; even when I think I've pulled them out clean, they've grown right back in 3 days, so it's a lot of work.

By the way, I eat all the weeds I pull.

“Today's the day! I'm going to succeed with 【Water Bullet】 easily! I'll blow away the target just like Emi and pass on the first try nano!”

Sara-chan is full of energy and motivation today as well.

She hasn't pulled off the magic even once in 1 week, but the way she keeps at it without getting discouraged is wonderful.

But, even though I'm the one who did it, I don't think there's a need to blow away the target.

After all, that's a magic for self-defense, right?

Look, Madam's face is twitching a bit.

“Hey, hey, Emi! After magic practice today, I want you to play with me! I want you to teach me about flowers again!”

Ah, she's already thinking about playing after practice......

<This lack of concentration. This is the biggest bottleneck in this child's ability to activate magic.>

I wonder if I can do something for her~......

Oh, by the way, for the past few days, Sara-chan has been given time to play with me as a reward after her magic practice.

I'm not sure why playing with me is a reward, though.

Even if she says play, I've never had friends, so I don't really know what to do.

So I spend the time sitting in the shade of a tree near the entrance where adults can keep an eye on us, chatting (usually Sara-chan is the one talking the whole time), but is this kind of thing okay for girls' play? Am I doing it right?

And then, when she occasionally asks me something, I tell her about flowers...... or rather, plants.

I have Omake-sama's knowledge, after all. I teach her that.

This one is edible, that one isn't, this is delicious, that isn't, this is poisonous, this is poisonous but (I've) recently become okay with eating it, and so on......

When I tried to actually eat some nearby weeds with her, though, Maid-senpai came flying over and desperately stopped me.

Once I run out of plant topics, I'll tell her about some creatures next.

Leisurely, leisurely.

I walk behind Sara-chan and Madam toward the magic practice grounds behind the mansion.

The still-warm sunshine and the cool breeze that blows every now and then feel nice.

A late summer afternoon, passing slowly.

The thing that ruined such a peaceful time...... was a single board.

“!!”

What I picked up was the tiniest sense of something off.

A direct malice that I don't usually feel inside the mansion.

Not the crude kind thieves give off, not the wild kind monsters have, and not the beautifully honed kind like Master's either, but a strangely hazy, murderous intent.

It was only because I'd been on the receiving end of Master's 【Intimidation】 that I could sense it at all, tucked into the thinly leaking magic power, and when I noticed it and looked up.

A large roof board was falling toward Sara-chan.

“......Rya!!”

Still possible to handle!

I immediately kick off the ground and leap up, catch the falling roof board, and hurl it in a direction where no one is!

With a Biiin! sound, the roof board stabbed into the ground.

“!?”

“Eh, what happened nano!?”

Hearing that sound, Madam and Sara-chan realize the situation.

“......Board, fell.”

“My......! This mansion has been standing for quite a few years. It might be time for some repairs.”

While saying that, Madam glances toward me.

I give a small shake of my head.

Madam's face twists.

This is absolutely not just an accident.

That was what I conveyed.

The intuitive Madam noticed immediately.

“......My husband, Sneigen and I must draw up a repair plan right away. Sara, no magic practice today.”

“Ehhh!? That can wait! I want to go outside and pla...... ahem, practice magic!”

“I'm sorry, Sara. ......Now, let's go back inside the mansion.”

“No nanooo! No nanooo!!”

Dragging a complaining Sara-chan, Madam heads toward the mansion entrance.

I follow her.

I kept my guard up in all directions to see if there would be a follow-up attack...... but in the end, there were no further attacks against Sara-chan and the others.

◇ ◇ ◇

“While we're at it, let's show Emi as well. This is the barrier stone...... the magic tool that produces the barrier keeping outsiders out of the mansion. A top-grade piece from the ‘Great Mage’ brand, complete with a self-repair function.”

That night, as one of the people involved in the incident, I was called to the baron's study.

What the baron showed me was a crystal ball placed on a pedestal with mysterious patterns drawn on it.

“If someone forces their way into the mansion by breaking the barrier, an alarm rings, and a piece of paper recording the time the outsider entered comes out of this hole in the pedestal. This time, that didn't happen.”

The baron is frowning while polishing the crystal ball.

“Well, the barrier doesn't reach as far as the roof. If someone had been lurking up there, it wouldn't be strange at all...... Let me ask you once more, Emi. You're telling me you definitely sensed someone's murderous intent back then. Is that right?”

Nod. I nod.

“Is there anything to prove that?”

“............”

“......Forgive me. That was a mean question. It's only something you felt, after all. Of course there's no proof.”

Sighing while fiddling with his little mustache, the baron falls into thought.

The silence drags on.

The magic lamp illuminating the room from the ceiling creates deep shadows on the baron's face, making his expression unreadable.

“......All right, understood! My, my, sorry to call you in so late at night, Emi! You can go back to your room now.”

After a while, the baron looked up and said that with a beaming smile, but that was a fake smile. Even I can tell.

Leaving the study and heading for my room, I think about this and that.

<There's something puzzling about this incident.>

Omake-sama begins to speak.

<What bothers me is why the culprit chose a roof board as the weapon.>

Yeah...... that's true, Omake-sama......

If someone of a profession like an assassin wanted to attack Sara-chan and the others, I think there are weapons that are much easier to use, like throwing knives, for example.

Why pick a roof board as a weapon? You can't even be sure it'll hit if you throw it.

<I can only think that they tried to make it look like an accident.>

Hmm...... mumu, that's certainly true.

To be blunt, if I hadn't been there, if I hadn't gone on about killing intent or whatever, this whole thing would most likely have been written off as a simple accident.

But still......

<There's no need to pretend it's an accident at this point, is there?>

Right! Normally, that's how it is!

The assassins who attacked Sara-chan and the others before were thieves.

There was a blatant, open malice there.

Since it's already obvious that Sara-chan and the others are being targeted, I feel like there's no need to pretend this incident was an accident.

And yet, in this incident, the culprit is trying to cover it up.

Something about it just doesn't add up.

<There are all sorts of possibilities, you know?>

For example?

<Hypothesis No. 1. The mastermind behind the previous carriage ambush and the culprit of this roof board drop are completely different, unrelated people. Therefore, the methods differ.>

Hmm, could that happen?

I've spent 1 week with everyone in the baronial house, and they're really good people, you know?

They're not the kind of people who would direct grudges or hatred toward others.

So for them to be targeted by several culprits who have nothing to do with each other, that just can't happen, right?

<Hypothesis No. 2. The mastermind is the same both times, but the person who carried it out is different. Therefore, the methods differ.>

Ahh, that one fits better, I guess?

<But here's the thing, Emi...... with either Hypothesis 1 or Hypothesis 2, the question is why the perpetrator wanted it to look like an accident.>

......Because if it looks like an accident, nobody will, turn suspicious eyes on them?

<That's the most natural way to see it, isn't it? In other words, whoever dropped the roof board this time is someone who doesn't want to be found out.>

Eh? Nobody's happy to get found out as the culprit, right?

<For example, if it were a third party hired with money, they would just need to flee after the crime, so they wouldn't cover up the crime in the first place. The thieves from before are a good example.>

......I see?

<In other words, the culprit of this incident is a person who needs to remain in the mansion after the crime.>

Remain in the mansion......?

W, wait a minute, Omake-sama!

Does that mean......!

<In other words, the culprit is someone who lives in the mansion. That's what it comes down to.>

........................

Before I knew it, the sky outside had clouded over, without a single star to be seen.

The wind that suddenly began to blow hit the mansion walls, rattling the windows.

The sound of raindrops, falling one by one, began to echo as they hit the roof.

Uhm......

Kind of, like...... you know......

Things have gotten ominous......!