I glanced around the store and saw sophisticated maids working gracefully with their refined manners.
The place used high-end brand tableware from companies like Royal Copenhagen and Meissen, and even a first-timer like me could tell that all the furnishings were of top quality.
Unlike a cosplay café that was more like a hostess bar, you could feel the heady atmosphere of the real thing, conveyed through all five of your senses.
“Was it Mule who introduced my maid to her side job here?”
“No, sir, I’m sorry. I was the one who suggested she work here,” Lily said, bowing her head apologetically.
“Hey, why do you suspect me first?”
“Is that right? Well, then, it’s okay.”
“Hey, I asked you why you suspected me! Answer me!”
Mule started hitting me on the back.
I turned my attention to Snow, who was spinning a silver tray in her hand. With a wry smile on her face, she said, “I asked her not to mention it to you. You’re too spoiled and too dependent on me as my master, and I knew you’d start showing your possessive tendencies, and things would get complicated if I said I wanted to get a job. A girl has it tough when she has a clinging fiancé.”
“I’m sorry that Snow began working here without speaking to you, her fiancé, about this, sir,” Lily said. “We couldn’t keep it a secret forever, so we were talking about revealing it to you at this time.”
“Then what about that idea of using a maid café to do the preparations for our welcome party for new students?”
“That part was true,” Mule said. “I don’t lie. Trust is the most important asset that I must maintain as the individual in charge of our dormitory, and I can’t allow myself to lie. It’s meticulous correctness about the smallest details that will lead to improving my reputation, and I know that everyone will eventually start to listen to me.”
The dorm leader puffed out her chest and snorted.
“Okay, that’s enough talk. Why don’t you stop chatting and take your seats? I’ll give you special treatment, Master, and the exit is over there for when you leave, and the water is self-service.”
“Hey, if you give me special treatment, people will find out about what a loving couple we are. Now, go and get us some water, as if you’re making an offering to God.”
“Here you go.” (She splashes me with water.)
“Where’s the manager of this place?!”
I was soaked to the skin, and Lily started wiping my head with a handkerchief.
Snow clucked her tongue as she watched. Then she threw the menu at me, clicked her heels, and disappeared into the back of the shop.
“But hey, Lily, why did Snow choose this place? What is this place anyway?”
“It’s a café where the maids who were fired by the Eisberts work. Snow is in charge of organizing them.”
Upon closer inspection, I saw that the hardworking maids were staring at Mule with a mixture of fear and awe.
Meanwhile, our dorm manager seemed oblivious to their attention and instead focused on the pancakes on the menu.
“……”
“…I see.”
The Eisberts, huh? They were a respectable family that had locked their daughter away from society in a yellow dormitory, isolating her from the world and oppressing her as a clan.
They distinguished people by their class, whether they belonged to the upper, middle, or lower class, and disregarded those below the middle class.
That disregard was one of the reasons that made the Eisberts the Eisberts.
Through a rigorous selection process, the Eisbert family produced only the best of the best, leaving its mark on posterity as an elite family of nobles.
But I wondered how many people had been buried away in the darkness behind the scenes. The names on the list of victims had to be as numerous as the stars in the sky, just like the maidens who were working at this maid café.
“From the standpoint of contracts, termination in itself isn’t legal. However, the reasons for the dismissal of these girls are mostly criticism against them. It isn’t as if they had made huge mistakes. I had basically been suggesting other jobs to those who were dismissed, but some wanted to continue working as maids. The fact that they had worked for the Eisbert family was proof that they had high levels of skills, and you couldn’t expect them to give up their work that easily.”
“So because Mule is regularly monitored by her family, she can’t hire them openly, which is why she opened this maid café and has them working here.”
“Precisely. They make enough to pay for all the expenses and maintenance costs.”
I saw that Snow was briskly giving instructions to the maids.
“But why does it have to be Snow? Isn’t it a big responsibility for her to be the leader of those girls?”
Lily stared at me.
“Snow was once the head maid at the Sanjo residence.”
“…Huh?”
I couldn’t help letting out a gasp.
“She was the head maid there? Are you sure she wasn’t just helping out when they had events going on? Isn’t she a mob character?”
“A mob character…? I’m not sure what that means, but in my opinion, she has outstanding qualities as a maid. She’s extraordinarily sensitive to the needs and desires of her employer, and her instructions are precise. She has probably been carrying out her duties, going beyond the scope of a maid. Otherwise, she couldn’t have acquired the skills she has at her age.”
Was Snow a protagonist type who hid her true abilities? To be honest, I thought she was just a silly maid who worked while putting on comedy acts with me.
“Why did she quit working for the Sanjos? That can’t just be a case of lost opportunity, can it?”
“She said she owed you a favor,” Lily said in response as I mumbled my thoughts out loud.
“You’re a kind man, Mr. Sanjo,” she whispered, smiling beautifully. “You’ve probably helped many people over time.”
I was getting a bad feeling and broke out in a cold sweat.
Don’t tell me flags from the original Hiiro were coming to light at this point. You had to be kidding. Nothing like that happened in the main ESCO story. The only thing I could think of was that the flags were turned on when I became reincarnated as Hiiro in this world…but why?
F-forget it. I should stop thinking too much about stuff like that. I was going to protect myself. I just broke my ribs yesterday, and I didn’t want to be sent to the hospital again at this point because of a self-inflicted injury to my brain.
“Okay, so I understand what kind of place this is and why Snow works here. But I don’t see how that relates to the welcome party for new students at our school.”
“A welcome party requires maids to serve the new students,” Mule said matter-of-factly, holding a knife and fork in her hands.
“It was my idea!” Mule exclaimed. “I thought it would be a good idea to have her work in the sun once in a while instead of working grimly in a basement like this. I’m hiding these girls here because Lily insisted, and I’m sure they’d be happy if they could be useful to me!”
A plate of fluffy pancakes appeared, and Mule cheered in glee.
With a big smile on her face, our dorm manager began cutting her pancakes into tiny pieces. Meanwhile, Lily’s face was clouded with anxiety.
“It is a good idea—”
I finished her sentence for her.
“Eight or nine out of ten, the Eisbert family will do something to interfere.”