Chapter 3: Unveiling Secrets - The Coma Prince and the Enigmatic Maid
Charnox leaped back onto his bed, feigning unconsciousness upon hearing approaching footsteps. The door stood wide open from both sides.
Gently opening his eyes, he discreetly observed the person entering—the woman in her early twenties with golden hair and snow-white skin, adorned in a mismatched white and black maid outfit. She gracefully pushed a cart towards Charnox, moving unexpectedly majestically.
In his thoughts, Charnox questioned, "Isn't she the maid who always cleans for me? Why is she walking so elegantly?"
As she approached, he closed his eyes, and she began wiping his face with a wet cloth. As she reached near Charnox's neck, a tingling sensation prompted him to unintentionally wiggle his toes.
The maid, noticing, spoke aloud with a perplexed tone, "I definitely saw something move. Is it an insect, or did the prince move his toes?"
Charnox lamented internally, "Curse this human body, so sensitive and reacting to a woman's touch."
He tried to stay calm, not moving a muscle. While the maid still bewildered, continuing to clean his body.
As she approached Charnox's toes, the maid noticed the empty water jar and water droplets.
In Charnox's mind, worry crept in, "Damn it, she noticed the jar. At this rate, I might have to resort to drastic measures to hide the truth that I woke up. I have to kill her."
Approaching the table, the maid seized a jar, then returned to the cart, placing it down while muttering to herself,
"Someone must have trespassed into the Prince's chamber and even indulged in his water. Who could it be?"
Charnox felt a surge of relief at the maid's revelation.
After a few minutes, the maid pushed the cart out of the room, and the footsteps gradually faded away.
Once the maid left, Charnox stood up, executing a kick-up from his bed, jumped to the floor, and moved his body to relax his muscles.
Suddenly, he heard a clinking sound behind him. In shock, he turned around, and there stood the maid with the door wide open.
Both were shocked to see each other.
Charnox thought, "No, no! Why is she here? I didn't hear any footsteps."
Noticing an anomaly in her height, he glanced at her feet and witnessed a magic circle forming, causing her to levitate inches above the floor.
Sinisterly thinking, Charnox lunged at her, attempting to grab her neck. She swiftly evaded, grabbed his hand and body-slammed him, and knelt on his back, twisting his hand.
In pain, Charnox pleaded, "Oww, oww, stop twisting my hand, it hurts like hell! I'm sorry, please."
Calmly, the maid said, "A kid who has been in a coma his whole life is speaking so normally and even tried to grab my neck like someone who knows how to fight. Who are you?"
Charnox, still in pain, said, "Ow, ow, stop pressing more. I'll tell you everything, please release me. It's humiliating."
After the maid let him go, Charnox wiped the dust off his face and clothes, pretending nothing happened.
With pride, he began, "Did you really clean this place? The floor is still dusty."
The maid smirked and raised her hands above, prompting to slap him. Charnox stuttered,
"Sorry, sorry. I'll tell you everything."
Internally, Charnox reflected, "How humiliating. I'm a demon king, and because of this weak child's body, I can't even hurt this weak human. Above all, I'm asking for forgiveness and acting prideful, pretending to be afraid when facing a powerful enemy. Damn it, these are all Thiam's traits.I have turned into Thiam. Acting like Thiam is not easy. This stunt will surely help me lower her guard. When the opportunity arises, I will kill her."
Looking at the maid, he explained,
"Maid, look, I was never in a complete coma state. I could always see and hear what people were saying. At first, I couldn't understand anything, but over time, I learned to speak and understand others."
With a gentle laugh, the maid queried, "Where did you learn to fight? Don't think about lying."
Charnox, deadpan, replied, "I don't know what you're talking about. I thought you were trying to hurt me, so I tried to punch you."
The maid, smirking, "Forget about the fight. I'm 100% sure the words spoken in this room were not enough to learn and speak. You're clearly lying."
With sarcasm, she added, "The way you can understand perfectly, you must be a genius that our world has never seen."
Charnox attempted to reason, but the maid remained unconvinced. After minutes of back-and-forth, he conceded,
"I give up. Go ahead, do whatever you want with me. Tell the king or kill me and pretend I died in my coma. I'm done trying to convince you."
The maid walked toward Charnox and stood close to his face. The maid stood a few feet higher than Charnox. Charnox slightly looked up while talking to her.
She offered, "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone, Prince. Helping the future king is more profitable than the petty rewards I would receive if I told the king about you."
The maid extended her right hand for a handshake," Do we have a deal."
Charnox, grasping the gesture, was about to shake hands. But he hesitated, contemplating,
"Charnox, stop acting like a demon king. You are a child who has been in a coma his entire life. From now on, question everything and pretend you don't know anything."
As the maid kept her hand mid-air for a handshake, Charnox raised his right hand and suddenly slapped her hand away. Then he slapped her face in quick succession.
The maid was shocked and grabbed Charnox's shirt collar, asking, "What do you think you're doing, you bastard?"
Charnox pretended not to know anything and said,
"What? You held up your hands, right? It's a game. I've seen kids play this when they came to visit me. I think the game is called 'Slap if you can, Bitch,' or something like that."
The maid released her grip on his collar and walked toward Charnox's bed, sitting down gently, pretending as if nothing had happened, just like Charnox pretended that her body-slamming didn't occur.
After a few seconds of total silence, the room fell into total despair. Charnox hated the silence and tried to break it by saying,
"Hey, how did you find out I woke up from a coma? It seemed like you entered the room after knowing the truth."
The maid looked at Charnox, and he noticed a hand imprint on her snow-white skin. The red imprint was quite clear. Without much thought, Charnox reacted to what he saw.
"I'm extremely sorry."
She, in a gentle tone, commented "This is the first time a noble has apologized; even kids never apologize. Why can't all nobles be in a coma?"
Charnox couldn't say anything to the maid's words. As she noticed Charnox struggling to say anything, she added,
"Check the bottom of both your feet."
Charnox noticed a torn white paper, split entirely in half, on both of his legs and was bewildered.
The maid continued, "I noticed you woke up from a coma because of that. The white paper is infused with magic, and even if it detects a small amount of movement in your body, it tears gradually. The way the paper tore entirely means you must have moved your entire body and even jumped, right?"
Charnox, humiliated, averted his eyes.
Charnox suddenly remembered and asked, "How are you able to float from the ground? Why didn't I hear your footsteps and the door opening?"
The maid began to explain, "Well, I used magic to float and open the door, so you couldn't hear my footsteps and the door opening."
Charnox, in shock, thought to himself, "When did humans start using magic? I remember they were only able to use their magic circle in their hearts to create an aura to cover their bodies, weapons, and objects. How are they able to use incantation magics?"
Charnox, visibly shocked, asked, "What is magic?"
Charnox, in his mind, thought, "Asking when humans learned magic will increase suspicions."
The maid then said, "Yeah right, Prince. You've never seen someone use magic, or are you pretending not to know?"
Charnox, with an awkward laugh, said, "No, no, I really don't know anything about magic."
The maid responded, "Whatever."
The maid flicked her fingers, and suddenly a blue hologram appeared before her. Charnox was taken aback and stepped two steps back, thinking she was using a weapon.
The maid, with a smile, assured him, "Don't worry. It's not a weapon. It's called a magic window."
She whispered something, and two books fell on the bed—one brown and one green. Each looked like it had more than a thousand pages and weighed around 1.8 kg.
The maid picked the books from the bed and walked toward Charnox, telling him to show his hands.
As she dropped the books into his hands, Charnox's weak body couldn't handle the weight, and he dropped them on the ground.
Charnox cursed himself, "How weak am I to not be able to lift two books?"
Suddenly, Charnox noticed a reflection through the window from sunlight. It was the first time he had seen a window in his room.
Charnox looked at the window but couldn't see anything past the window; it was as if fog was blocking his view outside.
He caught sight of his reflection, with black hair, pale skin, standing at a height of 5 feet 1 inches, and bones clearly visible through his body. Clad in a white shirt and pants, he resembled a living skeleton.
He said aloud, "This is the first time I've seen a window in my room. Where has it been all this time? Why can't I see anything?"
The maid went near the window, flicked her fingers again, and the window slowly disappeared, replaced by a wall.
She looked at Charnox, who was shocked, and said, "Everything that happened here can be explained in the books. It's too troublesome to explain it all to you."
Charnox, annoyed, "You're not like any other normal servants I've seen. The way you talk arrogantly, the way you present yourself, everything looks royal. Who are you exactly?"
The maid, with a smirk, "Oh, I believe there are only around five or six servants who have ever stepped inside your room. You talk like you've lived an entire lifetime before."
Charnox stuttered, "Don't change the topic. What I meant before is that you act like royals who came to visit me. That's what I meant."
The maid sat on the bed and looked toward Charnox. She said,
"No point in hiding it from you if I'm going to need your help. I used to be a princess myself."
What kind of future awaits after the strange encounter with the maid, and what kind of life did the maid lead before becoming a servant?
[End of Chapter]
*To be continued...*
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