I Formed a Party with a Girl via an Adventurer Matching App - Chapter 21

 The Housemaid of the Salisbury Family

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am a housemaid currently in the service of the Salisbury family. My name is Susie Winterson."

Seated with immaculate posture on the single-seater armchair, Susie lowered her head in a perfectly disciplined bow.

However, the moment she raised her gaze back up, her eyes turned into two razor-sharp daggers aimed directly at me. If looks could kill, this was undoubtedly the textbook definition.

The targets on the receiving end of Susie's piercing glare were myself and Cordelia, currently sitting side-by-side on the spacious couch. Well, to be entirely precise, Cordelia wasn't the target. Susie’s lethal gaze was focused with absolute, unyielding intensity solely on me.

Furthermore, because of the suddenness of her arrival, we hadn't had a spare second to change out of our bathrobes. Standing there looking thoroughly disheveled certainly wasn't helping defuse the maid’s murderous aura.

Hoping to soften the terrifying sharpness in her eyes even a fraction, I decided to clarify my presence.

"Er. I'm Kent O'Brien. I've formed an adventuring party together with Cordelia." 

"A party with my lady, you say……"

Susie continued to rain down a persistent, suffocating layer of skepticism upon me. Naturally, her primary concern was evaluating whether I was some predatory lowlife posing a threat to her precious mistress.

Fortunately, my explanation of being an adventuring partner seemed to register well enough to prevent her from trying to execute me on the spot. But based on the way she was still glaring a hole through my skull, she was clearly far from accepting the situation.

To establish context, we had already explained that the reason we were both wearing nothing but bathrobes was because "we had just gotten back from a long crawl covered in grime and took turns using the bath." I certainly couldn't be honest with a maid I had just met and blurt out, “Actually, we were scrubbing each other naked in the tub until five minutes ago!”

Knowing that further interrogation would spell disaster, I quickly redirected the conversation.

"So…… you mentioned you're a maid for the Salisbury family, which is Cordelia's surname. That means, you're……" 

"Yes. Ever since the lady…… Ever since Lady Cordelia was a small child, I have remained continuously by her side, attending to her every need." 

"Ah, right. So when Cordelia mentioned a housemaid who used to do her laundry earlier, she was talking about you." 

"Laundry?"

Susie tilted her head slightly in mild confusion, but she didn't press the matter any further.

"Still, an actual housemaid…… wow."

Looking at Susie now, she was the absolute, mathematically flawless blueprint of a high-class maid. The buttons at her collar and the cuffs at her wrists were fastened completely securely without a single millimeter of error.

The city we were currently in was a rough-and-tumble frontier town overflowing with mercenaries and raiders. Wealthy elites who could afford to maintain dedicated housemaids didn't typically reside here. Because of that, her impeccably refined, aristocratic presence felt utterly alien against the backdrop of this gritty settlement.

Naturally, her sheer discipline also served as undeniable proof that the Salisbury house she served was a family of staggering affluence. Just as I had suspected, Cordelia really was an ultra-elite, sheltered noble daughter. It perfectly explained why a girl her age could afford a spectacular apartment like this, purchase top-tier brand gear in cash without batting an eye, and casually throw away high-quality items the moment they picked up a slight scent.

I broke eye contact with Susie and glanced over at the girl sitting next to me. Even when faced with an unexpected intruder from her past, Cordelia hadn't lost a shred of her haughty, regal composure. Crossing her long, elegant legs, she fixed the maid with a cold, intimidating glare of her own.

"So, Susie? What exactly did you come all the way out here for? Let me make one thing perfectly clear: I have absolutely no intention of crawling back to that house."

Cordelia casually twirled a glossy strand of her freshly washed blonde hair around the tip of her long finger.

"Be that as it may, my lady, I cannot simply sit idly by and accept this. For a lady of your stature to choose, of all things, the life of a common adventurer……" 

"I knew that was your angle. Let me ask you this: did my father order you to do this? Or is this purely your own rogue initiative, Susie?" 

"……It is my own initiative." 

"I thought as much. My father and mother have already granted their explicit blessing for me to leave the estate and pursue my goal of becoming a first-rate adventurer. I chose my own destiny, and I left that house on my own terms." 

"Yes. That is, of course, entirely correct. However, my lady." 

"What?" 

"You have recently graduated from the training academy, have you not? Consequently, I have taken it upon myself to judge that it is high time you accepted reality." 

"Reality? What reality?!" 

"You throw the word 'adventurer' around far too lightly, but such a profession is permanently intertwined with lethal hazard." 

"I am well aware of that. That is precisely why I attended the Holy Regiastar Training Academy—to master every necessary combat discipline." 

"I am fully aware of your enrollment." 

"And I graduated from that very institution at the absolute top of my class! What possible complaint could you have against—" 

"With all due respect, my lady. Those are nothing more than the artificial metrics of a sheltered academy." 

"Excuse me?"

Utterly unfazed by the oppressive, menacing tone bleeding into Cordelia's voice, Susie drove her point home.

"Transcribing memorized regulations onto a written exam and achieving high marks in choreographed martial dances using blunt, non-lethal props—what does any of that actually amount to? No matter how exquisitely you dance inside a true dungeon, the monsters will not offer you a single round of applause. They will simply tear out your throat."

Susie's spectacles caught the light, flashing ominously as she continued.

"To put it bluntly, I do not believe for a single moment that you possess the capacity to engage in actual, life-or-death combat when brought face-to-face with the grim reality of dungeons and monsters." 

"Why, you……! You have an incredible nerve talking down to me like this, Susie! Do not dare underestimate—"

Cordelia’s retort was cut violently short.

For a split second, it felt as though a sudden, violent gale had swept through the room.

Before the stray hairs of my bangs could even settle from the sudden draft, Susie had already breached our perimeter, closing the distance until she was inches from Cordelia’s face.

"……!"

An involuntary gasp caught in Cordelia's throat. She likely hadn't even been able to process the physical mechanics of what had just occurred.

Even watching from the sidelines, the movement had been an instantaneous blur that I could barely track with my own eyes. A mere fraction of a second ago, Susie had been sitting perfectly still on her armchair. Moving with a weightless, terrifying agility that completely defied gravity, she had used our low coffee table as a stepping stone, closing a massive distance in less than a heartbeat to corner Cordelia.

Clutched firmly in Susie's right hand was a long, pearl-headed sewing pin. Apparently, she had drawn it from a hidden stash secured inside the garter belt beneath her heavy, floor-length skirt.

Though small, the pin was a specialized, lethal tool, and Susie currently held its sharp point pressed directly against the soft flesh of Cordelia's pale throat.

If she had driven her momentum even a single millimeter further, that needle would have ruthlessly pierced her neck, effortlessly severing a critical artery.

"I do not believe for a single moment that you possess the capacity to engage in actual, life-or-death combat when brought face-to-face with the grim reality of dungeons and monsters."

Susie repeated the exact same sentence, her voice completely flat. Then, she slowly withdrew her hand, concealing the weapon back beneath her long skirt.

Having completely forgotten to breathe, Cordelia let out a sharp, ragged wheeze as air finally rushed back into her throat.

"I am merely suggesting that it would be wise not to underestimate a real battlefield, my lady."

Staring coldly down at the trembling noble girl, Susie delivered her final words with absolute, terrifying composure.

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