Chương 318: Sweet Leomi

It made no doubt in my mind that Conduit was doing everything in his power to try and find a way out of this situation for himself. However, I needed him around for the well-being of my plan, so I kept him suppressed… Well, it wasn't really me doing the suppressing. It was Nara doing it. Ever since we discovered that she could affect the systems of others, we had been exploring the possibilities.

Some conditions needed to be fulfilled for the interaction to actually have any weight, and one of such nebulous conditions was that I needed to be able to interact with what I wanted Nara to mess with in the first place. Considering my affinity with curses and my ability to devour them without suffering any drawback, it was quite easy for Nara to reach out to Conduit, especially in his weakened and immobile state.

It went without saying, but Nara was much more knowledgeable when it came to things like energy manipulation and the like, so she was capable of doing things I would never be able to do–Such as using my natural predisposition as a predator to curses to put pressure on Conduit and make him shut down an ability even he wasn't able to properly control. I do wonder what Conduit truly thought about this.

From his perspective, I was supposed to be some sort of weird hybrid, not even a proper Living Curse, and yet, since he didn't know of Nara's existence, he could feel how much power I wielded over him directly. It wouldn't be odd if he presumed that I was actually some sort of special Living Curse, or some curse slinger who somehow turned themselves partly into a curse. Well… It doesn't really matter.

It is pretty much impossible to guess that I am actually simultaneously a Living Curse, a Vengeful Spirit, and a machine all at the same time, somehow all in equal measure. I am even a special kind of Living Curse, a Steel-Bound Curse. Regardless, Conduit can not do much, but I still don't feel like giving him time to think of something. He's an old entity. He can probably figure something out even in such a disadvantageous situation. … Taking care of the young lord was trivially easy for the first few months.

He may be a demon, but he wasn't that different from a human boy of the same age… And at that age, there weren't many things that were going on inside a boy's head. In my experience, there were three fundamental paths for a young man at this age: Firstly, the fool with idiot friends. This is akin to the kids I scared the crap out of all the way back when I dwelled inside my old home.

They aren't idiots in the sense of lesser brain activity, but idiots in the sense that they evaluate the 'fun' of something above anything else. At the same age, you will find way fewer girls attempting to enter an abandoned house that they specifically think is haunted. Secondly, the loner. Self-explanatory, this kind just doesn't have friends and spends their time alone, and probably has an obsession with a specific subject that is used to fill in the time that friendship would usually take up.

The gap between the first and the second one was much smaller than it might seem. A single step to the side could change everything. Lastly… I like to call this kind the consumed ones. If there is one thing that absolutely plagues the minds of boys around the age of the young lord–It's girls and their attraction to them. Before some sort of invisible barrier is crossed with age, it wouldn't be weird to see a little boy be repelled at the idea of holding a girl's hand. Afterwards, though? Everything changes.

Since I was already fishing for a future husband when I was young, I got to see these three different kinds in action, and the third one is simply a pain. It is pretty much universal for boys to catch an overwhelmingly strong interest in girls past a certain age, but the 'consumed ones' are basically only defined by this. They are basically dogs, and they aren't worth anyone's time. Oddly enough, this third type seems to be quite prevalent with those who are somewhere in between low and high status.

Above commoners, but still below actually having any true influence. Food for thought… In any case, all this reminiscing was to say that the young lord was–As one would expect–A friendless loner. It was due to Conduit's presence that he had never been able to actually form any friendship that lasted, or any relationship for that matter. The only person he could see without risking getting them killed was his father. As such, he was starved for pretty much all kinds of relationships.

This made him very easily manipulable. I could simply go ahead and let him do all the work by making him believe that I, who was immune to his condition, could actually fill in several of these relationships at once, but of course, that wasn't truly possible. So it made him confused. That state of confusion was splendid. Over several months, I was able to mould him in a way that really made it seem like I was the ideal caretaker for him. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent.

Report any appearances on Amazon. Sometimes, I would feel a little bad about what I was doing. After all, he was actually a good kid, but such sensations never stay long within me… Big Sis, I managed to do it Nara said something that was like music to my ears. Splendid. Oh, dear baron… This wasn't part of the original plan, but what can I do when you won't allow me to get closer?

I had held the hope that getting closer to Hyotrask Junior would allow me to also get close to Hyotrask Senior, but it would appear that the opposite was true. The demon had been avoiding me like the plague! I was a bit stumped at first, but I quickly realised what the problem was. He didn't want anything to happen between him and me, as he didn't want to ruin things for his son.

Indeed, it would be a pretty bad look if he were to do things with the maid immune to the drain, who was working so hard to take care of his son. … Urgh, I would have expected him to do the complete opposite, and instead try to actually make me into his wife for the sake of his son. After all, the young lord was already calling me mom at times. Anyway, I still have a mission to fulfil, and to do so, I need Devilblood to let me get close to him. So I had no choice but to do something truly evil.

Manipulating the young lord is already truly evil, I would say. Especially since you'll be leaving him behind after taking such an important place in his life Let's say that I'll do something else that's truly evil, then! My idea was quite simple… The door to the room opened slowly, revealing the imposing figure of the baron. Right on time.

"Miss Leomi""My Lord" This fucker even made a wide demi-circle around me, as if us slightly brushing against one another would cause the apocalypse. Alas, that will be the last day he can afford to do such a thing, as the second I stepped out of the door to leave him alone with his son as per usual, it happened.

"Is… Is this…?" The baron was naturally panicked as he felt the drain he had been immune to all this time try to seep into his body. His natural defences proved impressive enough to fend off the encroaching despite the fact that the modified curse was empowered many times due to the love the son had for his father.

I stepped back into the room, acting as if I was merely concerned due to the lord's unusual reaction, and I felt his emotions grow from horrified and deathly worry to confusion and probably contemplation–Though the last one was just a guess, as it wasn't a negative emotion. Seems like he is figuring it out immediately, good.

"Miss Leomi, would you mind taking a few steps back?"

"Of course not, My Lord" I stepped back as he asked, and his face scrunched up as the drain took hold of him once more.

"W… We need to talk" I've never seen him so openly flustered before. What I had done was quite devious. Making use of Nara's talents, I had her forcefully bring a change to how the out-of-control innate curse ability of Conduit worked. It no longer cared about familial bonds whatsoever. It only cared about whether or not I was around. As long as I am near the young lord, the drain could simply not take hold of anyone, thus making me indispensable for the lord to spend time with his son.

Being that I had played my role as a slightly silly, but good-hearted maid for months now, Devilblood showed no suspicion towards me. He did seem to believe that my presence was the cause of the change, but that it was merely accidental. Being able to so easily read his negative emotions truly gave me an edge in getting an idea of what his thoughts were. The baron simply seemed to believe that the bond I had formed with his son was what was to be blamed for the 'change of rules'.

And while I couldn't sense positive emotions precisely, the lack of negative emotions was also information. He clearly thought positively of me, so I kept the facade as I was now an integral part of this man's interactions with his son. Whether Devilblood liked it or not, Hyotrask Junior was associating our combined presence with the idea of a father and mother in his head. He could ignore it for now, but he would have to address it eventually… All I needed to do was simply continue to play my role as per usual…

Heheheh… Who could possibly suspect the kind-hearted Leomi? The silly Leomi, who is too airheaded to notice the verbal spikes some of the other maids send her way? The nice-to-a-fault Leomi, who will increase her own workload just to be nice to someone she doesn't even speak to? Leomi, Leomi… She's a very nice girl, but not nice to the point of it being odd. That niceness is counterbalanced with her airheadedness and silly nature. She isn't being nice for the sake of it.

She's just doing things without thinking too deeply about them. Indeed, this demoness made for an excellent disguise. Especially since I have plenty of time to let my 'Gynoid Form' cool down and recover when my duties are over. Taking care of the young lord is an important mission, but it comes with the benefit of having a lot of free time, which I mostly use to ensure that my disguise never even comes close to falling apart during my work.

Sometimes, I find myself contemplating whether I should try to rob the treasury, but I hold myself back. I can feel many delicious things hidden away in there. The baron had many interesting treasures that he had gathered from his years as a knight… Including the item that had allowed his son to live, and which had once been a prison for Conduit. I felt something… Special toward that item ever since I learned of its function. It had felt like nothing much before, but since then…

It has seemed like a most delicious snack. If I can only take one thing before leaving, it would be this. In any case… I spent two more months as Leomi following the change of rules regarding the drain ability. Hyotrask truly was a hard nut to break, but the more time passed, the more I was able to keep close to him. I just needed to bide my time and wait for the perfect occasion. I have a present I have been working on for a while now… This mission will be completed successfully.