In noble families, the selection of maids for the young master follows a rigorous and standardized process.
Candidates are typically girls aged between twelve and twenty, preferably daughters of serfs or tenant farmers tied to the noble family’s manor.
Such maids tend to be loyal and diligent, rarely causing palace intrigue.
Additionally, they must be well-versed in basic etiquette and possess a decent appearance.
The selection goes as far as understanding the young master’s preferred sleeping posture, disliked foods, and even the ideal lighting for reading.
Within the Clemence Family Manor, the head maid conducts the initial screening of maids each year, then submits the candidates for Lin Nuo’s review.
Thankfully, the considerate Priestess Xī often compiles the information for him, making Lin Nuo’s final check much easier.
***
In the chapel, Xī’s room.
Lin Nuo leaned back with his hands behind his head, leisurely flipping through the Soulstones containing each maid’s self-introduction.
“A lonely girl drifting through half a lifetime, only regretting that she never met a wise master! If Young Master Lin Nuo would not abandon me…”
This kind of melodramatic maid was instantly rejected.
“Please report to the Young Master that I can breathe on my own, eat when hungry, put down my utensils when full, and know to use an umbrella when it rains…”
Girls like this clearly had their wits about them and passed.
“I don’t want to take care of Young Master, I just want to touch and kiss his bird every day!”
‘You… you want to touch what?!’
‘Oh, Fatty Bird.’
Just a harmless obsession.
Passed.
Of course, the batch of maids who made it past the head maid must also pray before the master priest and then face Xī’s questioning: if the young master asked them to do “that kind of thing,” would they be willing?
Those who hesitated for a long time but firmly answered “No” were obviously maids who just wanted to faithfully perform their duties and live a peaceful life.
Xī would specially mark them as qualified.
“Sleep with Young Master Lin Nuo…?”
“Where is morality? Where is the bottom line? Where is dignity?!”
“And where exactly is the young master’s bedroom?”
Such answers were immediately filtered out by Xī, no need for Lin Nuo to say anything.
‘Honestly, sis, locking maids in the dark room whenever you have a minor disagreement, calling for two burly men to watch over them, earning a reputation that you’re obsessively wanting to sleep with me… either you fantasize about having a baby with me to become the future mistress of the Clemence Family, or you’re hiding the sickly girl from the original story…’
Either way, it’s a recipe for someone to end up dead!
But!
With the responsible head maid, and especially with clever Xī’s meticulous screening, if that sickly girl still manages to get in, then Lin Nuo would just have to…
Well, he couldn’t really do anything.
In short, that sickly girl simply cannot enter the manor.
***
“Every time I have to ask you to help me organize these, Xī, thank you for your hard work.”
The sound of running water came from the bathroom, causing Lin Nuo’s voice to unconsciously grow louder as he spoke to her.
“There are quite a lot of servants wanting to serve, huh~”
“But that indirectly proves how excellent Young Master is.”
Xī seemed to have stopped stirring the water in the tub, speaking softly: “Young Master must have seen some pottery engraved with ‘Scenes of Pleasure,’ right? Some lowly barons even require their personal maids to perform the actions in those paintings a hundred times until perfected.”
“Serving Young Master is naturally a choice above serving those types of men. Speaking of which, here and around Young Master is truly a refreshing breeze among the nobility, isn’t it, Young Master?”
“Chirp chirp!”
Fatty Bird bobbed its head.
“Young Master~”
“Could you please help me get my towel?”
The water sound ceased, replaced by Xī’s sweet and slightly syrupy voice.
Hearing this, Lin Nuo glanced at the priestess outfit she had changed out of on the bed, then stood to pick up the soft towel beside him, glancing toward the bathroom.
But that single glance froze his gaze.
Behind the steamed-up glass door of the bathroom, a slender, snow-white silhouette was visible, as if alone, carefully running a wooden comb through the long hair cascading over her front.
Xī sat properly on a wooden stool, her back to the glass door, her posture somewhat carefree, causing the perfect curve of her waist and hips to appear faintly through the rising steam.
She… hadn’t drawn the shower curtain!
As if sensing that even through the door a proper distance should be kept, she covered her chest with one arm before lightly rising to the door.
“Click.”
She opened the door a crack, snatched the towel, then returned to dry herself from head to toe…
The whole process was fluid and seamless.
But… Can you close the door before drying off?!
Xī seemed to be completely at ease with herself…
Returning to his seat, Lin Nuo, trusting the adorable priestess’s confidence, simply boredly played with Fatty Bird.
Unexpectedly, Fatty Bird seemed to have noticed something in his lap and suddenly pulled a piece of paper from the drawer.
“Chirp chirp…”
“Reveal paper?”
A magical item that reveals shading and line layers according to pigments, commonly used for drawing.
“Xī, you paint too?”
Lin Nuo, who didn’t know much about Xī’s hobbies, asked casually, wanting to appreciate some of her work.
He picked up the reveal paper by the corner and flipped it over.
On it was what seemed to be a rough sketch of a figure, drawn only with motion and center-of-gravity lines.
If one just looked at the two hands making the “peace” sign and the tongue half-stuck out from the figure’s mouth… um.
Though the face was not fully detailed, Lin Nuo guessed the drawing was meant to show the character’s joy and playfulness.
Lin Nuo wasn’t well-versed in art.
However…
The figure looked deliberately limp, slack and loose, lying down in that pose.
It was hard not to let the imagination run wild, picturing that figure, sticking out its tongue and making the peace sign, lying in the background after being pressed down and mercilessly violated by someone else?
“Huh?!”
‘Have I been filling my brain with too much lewd trash? Why would I interpret a drawing like this that way?!’
Before Lin Nuo could lean the reveal paper over a bee wax candle to check if anything else looked odd, a slender jade finger quietly pressed the paper down from his view.
The faint scent of soap pods and the elegant fragrance of a girl fresh from her bath mingled sweetly, instantly enveloping him.
Xī’s eyes sparkled, her expression charming: “Young Master, a girl’s boudoir is full of secrets. If you peek, you must take responsibility.”
“…”
Setting aside the question of responsibility…
‘Could you at least fasten your ties properly before coming out?!’
Perhaps due to the mild recent weather, Xī had only wrapped her graceful figure in a soft, thin bath towel.
The steam rising from her white neck to her fragrant shoulders made it hard to breathe for a moment.
At her heavy chest, the towel was held together only by a cute blue silk bow tied around her.
Her snow-white legs gently swayed in Lin Nuo’s sight as she sat on the stool before him, her skin as delicate as a fine cream cake—truly a sight to behold.
No, wait…
The way she wore that towel really gave off a bit of an “open and ready to eat” vibe!
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