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I look out of the window of a room in the inn, and see that the sun is already high up in the sky. I’ve got everything ready, but it’s still a bit scary to think about what is about to happen. But I can’t avoid it any longer, I’ve decided to stop running away.

Knock knock!

Someone knocks on the door. I open it, and see the first two friends I made in this world.

“Hey, it’s been a while.”
“Natalia!”

Danny greets me, and then Mir shows up behind him.

“Woah, you look surprisingly good in those clothes!”

I’m not wearing my usual maid uniform; instead, I’ve opted for the male disguise I used to visit the forest in Ingralowe.

“Nevermind that, just come in.”
“Okay. Ohh, that looks so good!”

The table of the room is covered with the food and drinks I prepared for today. They sit down and I serve the drinks.

“Well then, cheers.”

We all raise our mugs together and start drinking.

“So tell us, why did you have to rent out this place under a disguise and fake name? It would’ve been easier to just go to a tavern somewhere.”

Danny makes a good point, assuming all I wanted was to drink with my friends. But I don’t want other people overhearing this.

“Actually, there’s something I needed to tell both of you.”
“Huh, what is it? Don’t tell me…are you together with Olivia now?!”

Mir has already emptied her glass, and her eyes are starting to look glossy as she leans forward and asks with excitement. I don’t know why everyone always guesses that first.

“Okay so… You might not believe what I’m about to tell you, but I swear it’s true…”
“What is it? Spit it out already.”
“Well…you two might end up hating me after this…”

I’ve already told Olivia and Aria about this, but having to tell these two makes me nervous, and a bit scared. I feel like they’ll push me away, and our relationship will break apart. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this feeling.

“So what is it?”
“Danny, don’t rush her.”
“My bad…”

Danny goes silent after Mir reprimands him. Then both of them look at me with serious faces, waiting for me to continue.

I get it, it might be scary, but I can’t keep running away. I take a deep breath and try to calm down my emotions.

It’s been five years since I became a magic automaton, and I know that deep breaths do absolutely nothing to my body, but I keep doing it out of habit, I guess it’s yet another reminder that I’m actually human.

After gathering my courage, I speak.

“The truth is, I used to be a guy!”

After my daily workout, I take a shower to wash off the sweat. I’m still drying my hair when I enter the dining room and notice the fragrance of some particular spices, which smell quite nice.

“Oh, Olivia. I was just about finishing up lunch here.”
“Thank you. We’re eating food from Longshan today?”

Fan Yen takes off her apron and sits down.

“Natalia brought everything I needed, so yes. Though it’s still a simple stir fry.”

I sit down as well, and then Clarissa goes to her bowl on the floor and we all start eating.

Natalia went to an inn in Bamel today, since she wanted to tell Mir and Danny about her past life. Those two were the first friends she made here, so she looked pretty worried about telling them the truth.

But she felt she owed them that honesty, so she told them to gather with her in an inn where no one else would overhear them.

“So complicated. One time enough, if they went with the Maid to the cave.”

Clarissa is right. Natalia already spoke about that when she went to talk with Aria. If she invited Mir and Danny there as well, she could’ve told everyone at once. But I’d feel mean pointing that out to Natalia.

“Natalia is always like that, afraid of telling the truth.”

She’s probably dead worried about everyone turning against her or holding a grudge against her. But I feel like she went to Aria first not because she wanted to clear up her identity, but because she still feels responsible about Akane’s death.

Somehow, that’s both her good side and her bad side. She prioritizes the comfort of others, to the point of hurting herself. Her kindness is really clumsy, and she doesn’t realize how vulnerable she is.

“..? The Maid is the Maid. Before and always.”
“I concur. She’s as much a comrade as the rest of us.”
“…Mhm, you’re right.”

Clarissa’s simple reply is probably everything that needs to be said.

I don’t know how Natalia feels, but we’ve never known her as anything else but Natalia, and we never will. So I just hope she can become more confident in herself, and accept herself as who she is.

“Natalia just needs to see herself as Natalia.” Her biggest problem is that she refuses to do that. I’ve really ended up dating someone troublesome… But I wouldn’t want it any other way.

After listening to Natalia’s story and eating, Danny left the room for a moment to answer the call of nature.

(Man, so Natalia was a guy all along. Or at least that’s what I understood. I have no idea what all that coming from another world stuff was about.)

Danny had realized in the past that Natalia had a rather masculine way of talking, though he just waved it off since he was used to female adventurers having coarse attitudes as well.

Hearing the truth behind that left him surprised, but it also made everything make sense. There had been many times when Natalia had been blunt with him, just like other men were, and Danny didn’t really mind that. They had a rather rocky first meeting, but that made it easier to be direct and straightforward.

(Oh well, I’m sure it isn’t easy.)

As he thought about it all, he nearly bumped into someone walking around the corner in the opposite direction.

“Woah, sorry about that.”
“I’m the one who should apologize. I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

The man’s voice was refined and polite. He had black hair, black eyes, and had a lean body¹. His face also looked average, like he could vanish in a crowd within five minutes. But he was wearing a white hat and coat, a rare sight in Bamel, which made him stand out.

Danny then returned to the room, not thinking much of it. There he found Mir, fully drunk, cornering Natalia.

“Ahahah, so Olivia really has you right under her thumb now! I always knew you two would end up like that one day! Ahahahahahah!” Mir had one arm around Natalia and the other waved a mug around, while Natalia was curling up trying to make herself smaller.

“Sooo, spill it, what did you two do that first night?!”
“Please…anything but that…”

It seemed like the two had been talking about far more intimate topics while Danny was gone. Natalia had looked scared before talking earlier, but in a different way to her current terror.

“Aww, don’t be like that. If you don’t tell me, then I’ll tell Olivia that one time you took off my clothes while I was unconscious!”
“I’m really sorry!”
“I think she’s suffered enough…”

As a fellow male, Danny could not help but feel pity for Natalia².

1. Robinxen: Is it our mysterious Japanese migrator?
2. Robinxen: All of us do.

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