Chapter 15.3

“Why … I won’t let you, … I’ll make you disappear without a trace …!” Cronaea-san said in a hoarse voice.

At that same moment, steam begins to rise from her feet with a shuffling sound.

The smoke was rising from what looked like a protective coating on Cornaea-san. The floor under her feet melted into a sludge. Apparently, Cronaea’s protective film has the power to dissolve things.

Because of her circling around me, my bare feet are also covered with the protective film.

In other words, my feet, like this floor, will melt.

I noticed it, but there was nothing I could do about it. A nasty sound begins to rise from all over the floor. I can’t seem to escape.

There is a saying that ‘too much cuteness equals a hundred times hatred’.

I’m not sure if this end is inevitable.

“Lydith-chan.”

I was gently hugged and floating in the air.

Astaroth-sama, holding me in his arms, moved his fingertips. A huge, circular, mysterious pattern that glowed purple appeared on the floor of the hall.

It wiped out my empire of bubbles and the mucus-like protective film in an instant.

The pattern then shrank around Cronaea-san, who glared at me with angry eyes, and transformed into a sphere. The sphere enveloped Cronaea, who was flailing around inside it, and lifted her up into the sky.

Astaroth-sama, still holding me in his arms, lowered his feet to the floor of the beautifully transformed hall.

“You shouldn’t behave like that towards our first human guest in a thousand years, Cronaea.”

“Master Astaroth… I, I just, I just want… for Master Gilbert!”

“I tolerated you until now because I felt sorry for you when you were not chosen by Yule and desperately tried to cling to the young lord, but now it’s time to put an end to it. Who you really wanted was Yule. Not the young lord.”

“Ah, Master Yule….”

Cronaea-san called out the name of the previous king lovingly.

“Thank you, Lydith-chan… Cronaea is a bit broken and I’ve been wondering what to do with her. Thanks to you, Lydith, I now have a reason to lock her away.”

“You’re locking her up?”

“Yes, I’m going to lock her up. Half of the young Sir’s distrust towards women is because of Cronaea. Besides, she unconsciously spreads the magical slime throughout the castle, and it’s hard to deal with. It would be a problem if the dungeon was melted down, and I didn’t want to touch it so much, so I pretended not to see it, but… when I saw Lydith-chan, I thought that pretending not to see it wasn’t good a good idea.”

“You mean the basement room? I thought that was the cleaning lady’s room.”

“That place is essentially the dungeon where they lock up anyone who gets into trouble in the castle. I’m sorry, Lydith. I’m sorry you had to sleep in the dungeons.”

“No, it was very comfortable.”

Cronaea-san is crying loudly inside the sphere. The sphere is filled with water overflowing from the body of Cronaea-san, and the more the water overflows, the smaller Cronaea’s body becomes.

Her body, the main feature of Ms. Cronaea-san that looks similar to that of a water slug, has somehow changed to a fish-like shape. Cronaea-san now has the appearance of a half-fish woman with a light blue body, small enough to be held in both hands.

“Water nymphs by nature live in the water, they’re not suited to living in a castle. That’s the original Cronaea. Cronaea changed her body and managed to move around in the castle for a long time, but she had to use a lot of magic power to change her body, so she had to take in other water nymphs into her body. Thanks to that, the number of water nymphs was reduced a lot.”

“So she wanted to stay by Yule-sama’s side to that extent, is that what you’re saying?”

“It wasn’t this bad when Yule was still here. Cronaea lived in a lake right next to the castle and was content with Yule visiting her from time to time. The poor thing was that Cronaea thought he was coming to see her, but Yule just liked to watch the water nymphs swim in the water.”

“I see… Astaroth-sama what’s going to happen to Cronaea-san?”

‘Well, I don’t know what to do. The water nymphs in the lake have disappeared because of Cronaea, and the others in the castle have also disappeared because they got fed up. To top it all off, she tried to kill my precious Lydith.

Astaroth gently lowered my body, which he was holding up, to the floor.

I appreciate that you think so much of me that you fed me poison, but I hope you don’t get too angry with me, because I can sympathise with Cronaea-san’s feelings.

“I am safe thanks to you, Astaroth-sama, so please don’t be angry with her. It’s not appropriate to say this as a cleaning lady, but I hope you’ll take into account that a woman who has fallen in love sometimes goes astray.”

“Lydith. Have you ever been in love, too?”

“Me? No, I haven’t.”

“Well, that’s okay. So, Lydith, what do you think we should do about Cronaea?”

“An eye for an eye, there’s an old saying in the Code. Miss Cronaea-san has been going around making the castle a mess, so I think she should become a cleaning lady with me.”

You sowed your own seed, so you should reap what you sow.

Besides, with two cleaning ladies, we can clean the castle more efficiently.

“Ah, but she can’t live in the castle, can she?”

“As long as their magical power is sufficient, they can swim on land without changing their bodies. Yes, that might be good… Hey, Lidith. Instead you should stop being a cleaning lady. Cronaea is a water nymph, it’s not hard for her to keep the castle clean, and it wouldn’t be Cronaea’s punishment if you helped her.”

“…that may be true, though.”

As for me, if Cronaea-san will clean it for me, I’ve mastered the art of cleaning, so I’m no longer unskilled as a cleaning lady.

“Then I will cook for Master Astaroth.”

I have decided to change from Lydith the cleaner to Lydith the head chef.

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