Chapter 2

The self-proclaimed heir to the Demon Lord’s throne, who called himself Albert, declared proudly:

“Rejoice! As my maid, you are now the luckiest person in the world!!”

To that, I had only one thing to say.

“Can I go home now?”

“Why!?”

So let me get this straight: I’ve been turned into a woman, out of nowhere, and now he wants me to be a maid? Anyone who just accepts that would be the weird one.

Still, what the hell am I supposed to do about work tomorrow? I can’t show up looking like this. But if I take a day off, my asshole of a boss is going to give me hell. And even if I did show up like this, would that bald bastard even recognize me as Yuya Aiba? Let’s say, for argument’s sake, they somehow accepted it. No. No way. Knowing him, the king of power harassment and sexual harassment, it’d definitely turn into a nightmare.

If you want money, you work. That’s the rule. Even if your workplace is a human rights violation waiting to happen.

“Hey! Yuka! Are you defying me!?”

“Eh, I mean… maybe it’s not that bad?”

“Not that bad, you say!?”

“Look, I’m just really tired. I wanna go home and sleep.”

“Then sleep at my mansion!”

“I have to wake up at four tomorrow.”

“Four!? That’s less than three hours from now! Yuka, are you okay!?”

The current time: 1:23 a.m.

For the first time, Albert—who’d been acting all high and mighty—looked genuinely concerned. Yeah, that’s a normal reaction, honestly.

“I’m used to three hours of sleep. Honestly, if I get even one hour, that’s a win.”

“That’s way worse than I imagined! Quit that job immediately—you’re gonna break your body!”

“But... I need money. I have to survive…”

“If it’s money, I’ll pay you. How about this?”

With a casual flick of his hand, Albert pulled out a stack of cash from who-knows-where. Way more than my entire day’s pay.

“Wha—this much? You’re saying this is my daily wage?”

Albert tilted his head, looking genuinely confused.

“Daily? What are you talking about? That’s your hourly wage.”

“Hourly!? That’s your hourly rate!?”

“Well, you said you needed money, right? Then wouldn’t this kind of pay keep your motivation up?”

My willpower was already starting to crumble.

And then Albert delivered the final blow.

“By the way, your job would be to help manage the mansion. Not alone, of course—you’ll have help. I’ve got familiars and golems handling most of the cleaning and cooking, so your main task would be taking care of me. Mostly assisting with paperwork and errands.

You’ll get three meals a day, work hours are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a one-hour lunch break. Eight actual hours of work. I try to avoid overtime, but if it happens, you’ll get paid 1.5x your hourly rate.

You get Saturdays and Sundays off—full two-day weekends. Mornings are a bit early, but you’ll definitely get more sleep than at your current job, I promise.”

I mulled over his words carefully. I weighed the pitch-black hellhole I worked at now against managing Albert’s mansion.

Which one sounded better?

“So? What’ll it be?”

I looked Albert—no, Lord Albert—straight in the eye and said:

“Pleased to serve you, Lord Albert!”

“Well, that was fast. Someone’s motivated when money’s involved…”

He mumbled something under his breath, but I must’ve imagined it.

“Alright then. Let’s go, Yuka. You start work the day after tomorrow.”

“Oh, good. Not today. I just pulled a second all-nighter in a row—I'm totally wiped.”

“What the hell!? Of course not! Are you seriously still alive!?”

“Two all-nighters in a row was pretty normal for me.”

“THAT’S NOT NORMAL!! That’s horrifying! I’m actually freaked out right now!”

“Anyway, shall we head out, Lord Albert? By the way, where do you live?”

“…I’m seriously glad I found you when I did. You were probably minutes away from death… My mansion’s not here. We’re using teleportation magic to get there.”

“Teleportation magic.”

What a beautiful phrase. Just the sound of it made my heart flutter. It had to be like Zoom in Dragon Quest or something, right? Man, if I’d had that, my commute would’ve been so much easier.

“Alright, I’m casting it. Hold on to me.”

“Okay. Like this?”

I grabbed onto Lord Albert’s arm.

“Perfect. Here we go—Fly.”

And just like that, we set off toward Lord Albert’s mansion.