I Became the Maid of the Lout Prince - Chapter 258 [Red Riding Hood (3)]

T/N: This bonus chapter is sponsored by James B. (14/14). If you enjoy reading and are willing to help me catch up to the latest chapters faster by sponsoring bonus chapters, see my Ko-fi.

Cat shook her head and said no when asked if the wolf was still inside the house, despite having said no when asked if the wolf had taken her grandmother and left the house.

She had clearly come to us asking to defeat the wolf that had taken her grandmother, but now, she suddenly changed her story. Having witnessed this scene in real-time, I was simply dumbfounded.

‘Was it The Boy Who Cried Wolf instead of Little Red Riding Hood?’

Just as I was about to think that maybe no wolf had come in the first place and we had made a wasted trip, this time, Ethan posed a new question to the girl based on a different hypothesis.

“If it didn’t carry her away in its mouth, did the big wolf perhaps carry your grandmother on its back or in its arms?”

“…!”

Right, it could’ve been a werewolf.

I had momentarily forgotten that this was a medieval fantasy world. In this world, there exist were-beasts, hybrids of humans and animals. [Only on DarkStar Translations! / Axiomatic]

Among them, if the wolf was of a werewolf species that showed more animal traits than human ones – the kind of design that suspiciously wealthy people might particularly like… no, from a child’s perspective, it could easily look like a wolf.

And if it was a werewolf that had kidnapped the grandmother, there was still a possibility that she might be alive…

“No.”

“…Really? Are you sure?”

“Yes. I’m sure.”

“……”

…Right, it wouldn’t be solved that easily.

To be honest, a werewolf seemed the most likely possibility, but since she said it wasn’t that, I couldn’t press further. I couldn’t accuse her of lying when she was looking at me with such earnest eyes.

Keeping in mind the possibility that what Cat saw might have been a werewolf, I tried to clear up the misunderstanding between us.

“Did the wolf and your grandmother perhaps leave the house holding hands?”

“No.”

“…Then, did the wolf perhaps kidnap your grandmother by carrying her on its back?”

“Umm, no.”

“…Then did the wolf perhaps kidnap your grandmother by wrapping her in its tail?”

“…What does that mean?”

“…It’s nothing.”

I seemed to have presented all the possible options for a wolf, but Cat kept repeating “No, no” at the end of each sentence, to the point where I was starting to wonder if this child was playing with me. It’s not like we were suddenly playing 20 Questions or something.

If it didn’t carry her in its mouth, didn’t wrap her in its hands, didn’t carry her on its back… what other options are there? [Only on DarkStar Translations! / Axiomatic]

Just as the thought crossed my mind that maybe Cat’s grandmother never existed in the first place and was just an imaginary being created by her imagination, this time, Ethan asked Cat a question about the grandmother’s kidnapping incident.

“…Then why do you think that wolf kidnapped your grandmother? Isn’t it possible that it was just a wolf that came in briefly when your grandmother wasn’t home and then left?”

“…B-But… Th-That wolf said so…”

“…Said?”

“Yes. It said, ‘I’ve kidnapped your grandmother, so if you want her back, be good and wait for two nights’… But, even though I’ve slept for two nights since then, grandmother still hasn’t come back…”

“……”

“……”

…Given that it spoke to Cat, it seems certain that it was a werewolf after all.

Thanks to Cat’s statement just now, we were able to obtain another piece of information. That is, Cat didn’t directly witness the moment her grandmother was kidnapped.

She just believed what she was told about the wolf kidnapping her grandmother. Perhaps the wolf… no, the werewolf didn’t actually kidnap the grandmother, and she might not be returning home for some other coincidental reason.

‘Maybe finding her grandmother is possible, after all.’

Rather than telling the young girl that she had lost her only remaining blood relative, it would be much better to do some hard work and conduct an investigation.

With that thought, I entered one of the two rooms in the house with an open door to look for traces of the intruding werewolf.

“Cat, is this the room where your grandmother stays?

“Yes!”

“And is this also where you saw the werewolf… I mean, the talking wolf?”

“Yes!”

…Now it feels like we’re finally communicating. When she was just saying “No, no,” I was seriously about to lose my temper.

As I looked around the grandmother’s room, which was a bit messy, perhaps due to the werewolf’s intrusion, I picked up a suspicious string that had fallen on the floor.

‘…What is this thin piece of cloth…?’

It was mixed in with clothes fallen on the floor, so, at first, I thought it might be some kind of necklace, but it didn’t seem to be that. The strings that needed to be tied were on both sides, so they didn’t seem to be made to be worn around the neck.

But it was too small in area to be called clothing. It made me wonder if there was any part of it that could function as clothing. [Only on DarkStar Translations! / Axiomatic]

As I was expressing my confusion about the purpose of this black piece of cloth shaped like an H made of thin strings, Cat carefully asked me a question.

“…Um, Big Sister?”

“Yes?”

“Why are you holding my grandmother’s underwear…?”

“Underwear? …Wait, this thing is…?”

“Yes. What you’re holding, that’s my grandmother’s panties…”

“…Eeeeek?!”

Startled by the statement that this thin piece of cloth was women’s underwear, I hurriedly threw away the H-shaped string I was holding.

Th-This is underwear?! This thing that doesn’t have even the slightest intention of covering anything?!

This piece of cloth, no, this string that would immediately reveal the lower body if the wind blew and lifted the skirt even slightly, would probably only be called “panties” by Cat and the owner of this string.

Just how perverted would one have to be to proudly wear such underwear, and if Cat was telling the truth, the owner of this underwear was clearly…

‘It’s somewhat fortunate that I haven’t met Cat’s grandmother yet.’

If I had known her face, I would have imagined her wearing this underwear in even more detail.

“…Lili, is that kind of thing your preference?”

“N-No, it’s not, Ed!”

“…I see. If you need anything, tell the head maid. She’d probably get you almost anything you ask for.”

“I said it’s not like that!”

Who does he think is some kind of exhibitionist pervert?

My head just got hot at Ethan’s ridiculous suspicion, making strange misunderstandings just because I looked closely at some underwear without knowing it was underwear.

‘…Now that I look at it, all the clothes that had fallen on the floor together seem to be clothes worn by one person.’

Setting aside that black string that may or may not be clothing, the other clothes had traces of being slightly torn in the back and waist areas in a peculiar way.

If that string panty from earlier was the grandmother’s underwear, then this torn pajama and the sleepwear pants with loose seams were all clothes worn by Cat’s grandmother.

Given the circumstances, these were likely the clothes she was wearing on the day she disappeared.

‘If they were going to kidnap her, it would have been fastest to just take her without undressing her. Why did they tear all her clothes like this?’

If the story about the werewolf kidnapping the grandmother was true, and if that werewolf had a peculiar taste even among werewolves… [Only on DarkStar Translations! / Axiomatic]

If it had felt lust for Cat’s grandmother in the house it broke into in the middle of the night, and just as it was about to pounce on her, what if Cat appeared and it fled in a hurry?

‘…Surely not, right?’

The developers of Luminor Academy that I knew might not have made a Lilith virgin route, but they were quite skilled at making “games that sell.”

They knew how to create heroines full of personality and charm, multiple capture routes, and where otaku would cheer and get excited. That’s probably why a game made in a peripheral Asian country was uploaded to Steam, translated into various languages, and sold worldwide.

Developers with that kind of sense wouldn’t have created an episode like this “grandmother lover” thing. They know best that there are quite a few people who would hate this kind of content.

Then, let’s think again, excluding that reason for now. There has to be a rational reason why a werewolf that broke in at night had to tear off and remove the clothes Cat’s grandmother was wearing.

‘Was it trying to remove the packaging before eating…?’

By eating here, I mean eating in the literal, dictionary sense. Not a euphemism with a sexual meaning.

But the werewolves in this world are treated as ordinary beast-people, and there’s no reason they would resort to cannibalism.

If they had really done such a thing, there should have been traces of resistance or splattered blood somewhere in this house, but no such traces were visible at all.

Moreover, even in the traces of torn clothes, there was no sense of resistance. If someone had tried to do something forcefully, it wouldn’t have been torn so cleanly.

‘Wait, looking closely at these clothes…’

Looking at the traces of torn tops and pants, there was one thing in common between the two torn garments. That is, both the top and bottom were torn along the ‘seams’.

If they had been torn by external force, it would have been difficult for them to be torn so neatly along the seams like this. Usually, the fabric would have been ripped with a “pop” or torn into rags and shredded. [Only on DarkStar Translations! / Axiomatic]

This kind of tearing happens when uniform force is applied to the entire garment and pulled with almost the same intensity.

Unless it was done by wrapping a large balloon with clothes and then inflating it from inside the clothes until it burst, in this way…

“…Ah! I got it!!”

“Eek?! B-Big sister?”

“…Lilith?”

Cat’s testimony, the talking wolf, the traces of clothes torn from the inside.

…All the puzzles are solved. The truth is always one!