Walking along the silent corridor, I maintained a steady pace returning to my quarters, my mind still running background algorithms analyzing the lecture from earlier.
However, just as I turned the final corner, my footsteps halted.
Standing in front of my door was Kanade. She had her head bowed, hands tightly clasped together in visible fluster, and right at her feet was a large piece of luggage. Under the magic lamps of the corridor, her orange hair seemed even more vibrant, but the feline ears on top of her head were drooping sadly all the way down to her cheeks.
"Lady Kanade?" I called out, my voice carrying unconcealed surprise. "It is already this late; has there been a major incident that requires you to wait for me here along with... all your personal luggage?"
Hearing my voice, Kanade's shoulders trembled slightly. She looked up at me awkwardly, her lemon-green eyes watering, and her cheeks already burning red.
"Sir... Sir Zero..." Kanade's voice was as tiny as a mosquito's; she had to take a deep breath before she could continue. "According to the personnel management regulations of the Shirakawa family... because I have now been personally designated by the Eldest Lady as your personal maid, so..."
She hesitated, her hands unconsciously wringing the hem of her white apron.
"So...?" I raised an eyebrow, a premonition of illogic beginning to warn my brain.
"So... I will have to move into the same room... and take charge of your personal daily life starting tonight."
My entire nervous system seemed to stall for a tenth of a second. The volume of information just loaded completely mismatched any data regarding personal space that I had ever known. An analytical machine that always operated smoothly suddenly encountered an absurd command file, leading to a critical system error.
I blinked, the polite smile constantly on my lips stiffening slightly, letting out a rare sound of astonishment that completely shattered my composed shell.
"HUH?"
After a few seconds of "freezing," my brain quickly rebooted to process this sudden data stream. I sighed softly, putting the shock aside, and politely took a step back, gesturing for Kanade to enter.
As soon as the room door closed, I saw Kanade awkwardly open her luggage, hastily pulling out a thin mattress and intending to spread it right on the floor in the corner. The natural reflex of an adult man caused me to immediately speak up.
"Lady Kanade, please stop and use that bed."
Kanade's movements froze. Her already rosy cheeks flushed even redder, the two feline ears on her orange hair twitching in fluster.
"Sir Zero, this matter..."
Looking at her expression, I easily read the contradictions in the thought system of a demi-human bearing the title of a maid. I smiled reassuringly.
"Please rest assured; I will use the sofa over there."
Kanade's lemon-green eyes widened. She hurriedly shook her head, her voice carrying a tone of panic.
"That cannot be allowed, Sir Zero! I am currently just a servant. Using the master's bed while you have to sleep on the sofa is completely contrary to the estate's security and hierarchical regulations. If others were to find out..."
I smiled gently, cutting through her tangled train of thought.
"Lady Kanade, I cannot allow a lady to lie on the freezing cold floor."
"But... my status..."
"Please temporarily set aside those rigid regulations when you step into this room." I approached, maintaining the calmest and most serious tone possible. "The most important reason I want you to use this bed is that I immensely respect the private space of others. Every individual needs their own safe frame of reference to recharge after a long day."
I directed my gaze toward the empty space between the large bed and the sofa area near the window, slowly proposing a systematic solution.
"For tonight, we will temporarily resolve it like this. Tomorrow, I will request the butler to install a drawn curtain right in the middle of the room. It will divide this space into two independent areas. When the curtain is drawn, the half of the room with the bed will be your absolute personal space; no one has the right to intrude. The sofa and desk area outside will be my zone. This way, we both meet the Eldest Lady's requirement and maintain our freedom of living without affecting the other party."
Hearing this, the feline ears on Kanade's orange hair drooped again. The fluster was still clearly visible in her lemon-green eyes; she bit her lower lip slightly, her brain seemingly still trying to find some loophole to decline this overly generous favor.
"Even though you have calculated so thoroughly... I am truly not worthy for you to have to..."
She looked up intending to object, but the words suddenly choked in her throat.
I used no further arguments, simply silently looking straight into her eyes. It wasn't the coercive, commanding gaze of a master, nor did it contain bothersome pity. It was simply the absolute tranquility and determination of someone who had completely established all the variables, locked in the result, and accepted no further rebuttals.
Sinking into that gaze, Kanade's psychological defense line gradually crumbled. She lowered her eyelashes slightly, her cheeks still bearing a rosy flush, her hands lightly gripping the hem of her pristine white apron.
"I... I understand. If you have decided so... I request permission to obey." Her voice trailed off, mixed with hesitation but ultimately yielding, obediently taking the mattress and placing it on top of the bed.
Watching Kanade timidly place her luggage neatly in a hidden corner at the foot of the bed, I smiled slightly, approaching the desk and beginning to rearrange the stack of documents.
"From now on, please feel free to use all the amenities in this room, including the bathroom and other daily necessities." I spoke without looking up, my tone relaxed as if discussing a normal work schedule. "Please do not mind those stereotypical rules. Once you step through this door, you are my partner, not an errand tool."
Hearing that, Kanade's feline ears twitched up again. She turned around, clasping her hands in front of her stomach, and bowed down to a standard angle.
"I truly do not know what words to use to express my gratitude for your tolerance, Sir Zero."
Although her tone had lost some of its panic, through the corner of my eye, I still noticed the tension in her shoulders and her anxious gaze. This sudden room transfer order had clearly pushed her nervous tension level to an alarm threshold. A soft intervention method was needed to cool down the temperature of this atmosphere.
I stopped my hands, pulled out a chair, sat down, and directed my gaze toward Kanade, asking in a gentle tone laced with pure curiosity.
"By the way, Lady Kanade... I've always had a small question about the biological traits of your Feline tribe. Is your hearing overly sensitive to low-frequency sounds at night? I have a habit of reading and taking notes quite late. Would the sound of turning pages or a pen scratching on the desk inadvertently disrupt your sleep cycle?"
The sudden question, veering completely into a personal and mundane direction, made Kanade stall slightly. She blinked, seeming to take a second or two for her brain to switch from a defensive state to processing biological information.
"Ah... no, sir." she stammered in reply, her cheeks flushing pink. "It is true that Feline hearing is sharper than normal, but we can self-adjust our sound filtering threshold when entering deep sleep. Rhythmic sounds like turning pages or a writing pen... actually act like a kind of white noise, sometimes even helping us sleep better."
I nodded, logging this new data. "What a wonderful adaptive mechanism. Then what about night vision? Is the light from the magic lamp on my desk glaring enough to pierce your eyelids?"
"You need not worry about that at all, sir." This time, Kanade's voice was much more fluent, her shoulders gradually relaxing. A gentle, shy smile bloomed on her lips. "Our vision works very well in the dark; dim light does not bother us at all."
I smiled in satisfaction. The tension-reduction protocol had been executed successfully. The room seemed no longer as suffocating as it was ten minutes ago.
The atmosphere in the room gradually softened, returning to its inherent quiet pace.
However, a maid's instinct still seemed to not allow Kanade to completely relax. She hesitated a bit, then spoke up to ask, breaking the silence.
"Sir Zero... would you like me to brew a cup of herbal tea for you to have while reading?"
I took my eyes off the incomplete rows of equations, smiled slightly, and shook my head to decline in the gentlest tone.
"Thank you for your kind intentions, but I do not need tea at the moment. My nervous system is maintaining quite good focus." I pointed toward the closed bathroom door in the corner of the room. "Instead, please use the bathroom first. The warm water from the magic shower will help relax your muscles and accelerate the recovery process after the sparring match this morning. Please freshen up and get some early rest."
"But sir, as a maid, how could I..."
Kanade was about to decline and yield to me to use it first according to proper etiquette. However, as soon as she opened her mouth, I had already turned back to the stack of documents on the desk, my eyes once again glued to the pages, the pen scratching steadily creating small rustling sounds. My entire attention seemed locked onto the knowledge system in front of me, creating an invisible barrier separating me from any external disturbances.
Noticing that intense concentration, Kanade swallowed the words she was about to say. She didn't want to interrupt my train of thought any further. Quietly grabbing her personal toiletry bag, she stepped lightly into the bathroom.
A while later, the trickling sound from the magic shower stopped completely. The bathroom door opened a crack.
Kanade stepped out, her orange hair still slightly damp. She was about to announce that she had finished using the bathroom, but then stopped.
Under the soft golden light of the magic lamp, I still sat motionless at the desk, back straight, diligently taking notes and reviewing the complex blocks of data. It seemed that for me, the concept of time had been temporarily suspended.
Kanade stood still in place, her feline ears twitching slightly, listening to the steady rhythm of the pen scratching. She decided to remain absolutely silent, tiptoeing to the large bed and slipping under the covers.
The room sank into silence, leaving only the rustling sound of paper and pen and steady breathing.
From the bed, Kanade's lemon-green eyes still looked toward the desk. She intently watched my still and sturdy silhouette cast upon the wall. In this unfamiliar space that strangely brought an incredibly safe feeling, the Feline maid's eyelids gradually grew heavy.
And then, she drifted off to sleep without realizing it, carrying the rhythm of the paper pages into her most peaceful slumber since the fall of the Suzumiya castle.
End of Chapter 18.