After healing the maid, I didn't speak to her; the st thing she wanted to hear was my voice right now. I continued to do my duties while working with the maids; I was still not having it. I covered for the maid, and I lied to him; I said that I had an accident and spilled all that boiling water over myself. I don't want the maids to get in trouble; I deserve this.

  I am with the same maid who poured the boiling water over me; we are left alone in the kitchen. She has a pretty face, and everything about her excludes elegance and grace; her red hair and eyes with the bck maid uniform made her stand out like a sore thumb.

  "Look, I don't know how to say this, but…." - She looked in my direction while I was cutting onions and some roots.

  "What is it?" - I replied, my voice apologetic.

  "I am sorry for pouring boiling water over you" – The maid stopped me from what I was doing; she took one of my hands in hers and looked at the scar that it left.

  "I should be the one saying that. If you feel better after that, no need to apologize." – I turned from her and went on with cutting the veggies.

  "No, I realized some things. First is that you really want to change, and two, we had gone too far ourselves; getting revenge on someone doesn't feel good to me; it feels petty to do that, especially to you; you already showed that you wanted to change to all of us, but, none of us believe you at first. Also, you are pretty helpful to us maids; we can clock out on time with your help. Don't tell them I said this." – She gave me a warm smile, one I don't think I deserve.

  "Fine, I will continue to help you; I wasn't doing anything special before, so I might as well." – I returned the smile and continued with my work that day.

  Technically, my dad can't force me to do anything; he can scold me or do other things, but that's beside the point: I am now in his office, where he takes care of administrative stuff.

  "For the st time, why are you doing this? I raised you to be a noble dy, not a maid! They can take care of everything themselves. You are already harming yourself there, and I can't bear that," – He shouted at me while throwing a book in my direction.

  "Still, it's what I had chosen, I need to know basic cooking and cleaning skills myself to survive in the world. I don't want people to serve and do everything for me; I want to do that with them; everyone is human and equal in my eyes." - I took a look at the book he threw my way; it's a book about finances, damn, I hate this subject, I already know about them from my old world, but I took a look in the current one, before going into the military, I worked as an accountant for a few years, these terms are familiar to me.

  "Look, I don't care about your nonsense. Have you forgotten that you are a noble? Why humiliate yourself with the work of the lower css?"

  "I can do both works of the upper and lower csses now; if you teach someone to do work and have the knowledge required to do it, then they will do it; it doesn't matter if they are noble or not. I know that nobles might have higher magic power, but that doesn't mean someone can't match us through sheer effort and hard work." – I left the room without saying anything; I could hear my dad smming a few things while closing the door.

  I returned to work with the maids, and something seemed to change; it's only been a few days since the red-haired maid poured boiling water on my head, and the maids seemed to be treating me better than they were a few days ago.

  I forgot the name of the maid with the red hair, but she resembles the one person that I lost while I was in the military, Hikari, my girlfriend of 4 years at the time; we were deployed in the middle of nowhere in a middle eastern country in the grips of a civil war.

  We were about to cross into the enemy lines to take down the rebel leader in power ourselves; we were the only special forces units left, and the other people that we had under command in our unit were taking suppressive fire undercover while we sneaked by to capture the leader, we failed to consider one thing tho, there were traps in the house, but we managed to disarm a few and kill the rebel leader. Still, on our way out, there was a st trap that we didn't see, one that was to activate when we exited the house. Hikari and I were blown out of the building; Hikari lost her ability to walk and fell ill due to the heavy organ damage; she shielded me from the bst with her own body; to say I didn't take damage was an understatement, but not as fatal as Hikari's, she was quick to pass away only 4 months after we retired when I decided to use a government program to end my life, I did qualify due to a few incurable illnesses that will have killed me either way, the damage suffered that day left me scared mentally, so much so that working became impossible, my family and friends already left because in their eye I betrayed them because I married a woman instead of a man and have kids with him, I didn't care, but they did care all of the sudden when I was ending my life, selfish fucks.

  Back to my point, that maid looks like Hikari. Hikari also had red hair and red eyes, but it can't be, it can't be.

  "Miss Fatima?" - The red-eyed maid interrupted me; it seemed like I was having a fshback again.

  "It's ok, Hikari," – I blurted without realizing it; her eyes went wide with shock.

  "How did you know my true name?" - She looked while I was shaking; I was on the brink of fainting and

  ….