"Are you sure it is okay?"
Burushi asked nervously, glancing suspiciously at the murky-black portal in the middle of the living room in the Banemor mansion.
"If I wasn't, I wouldn't ask you to come with me. You said that you are okay with helping out with the chores."
Zoemi looked up from over his baggage and raised his brow questioningly.
"I am not worried about the servant duties! Teo was bullying me when I was a student! What will she do when we will be on equal footing?!"
The blond girl shook her head and revealed what she actually was so worried about.
"Snitch on her to me immediately if something like that happens. I want to believe that Teo is smart enough to realize her mistakes – but if not..."
The black-haired boy rolled his eyes and declared, before furrowing his brows in a rather menacing way and leaving the sentence unfinished.
"Doesn't it feel weird to be going back...?"
The blond heroine fidgetted nervously and tackled the subject from a different angle, as the uneasy feeling inside her chest would not go away that easily.
"Well... for me it wasn't all that long, for you, it was like some extended holiday if you think about it. Try to think about is about a new opportunity."
Zoemi gave up acting all threatening and tilted his head while making a bothered expression.
"...I would really prefer that opportunity to be opening a small clinic in this territory and fading away into the background as my role as a heroine has come to an end..."
Burushi muttered under her head, lowering her head and looking away.
"How about we first make sure that I am not considered some evil mastermind and you aren't a quack?"
The black-haired boy finished making sure that all of their stuff is in order and stood up before walking over to the blond girl and fixing a few unruly parts of her uniform.
Burushi wasn't wearing a maid's uniform so to speak, at least not the extremely cute one that Patishi loved, but a simple yet elegant one that made others think about a prim and proper girl when they looked at her.
It wasn't the exact type of clothes that Burushi usually wore so she wasn't aware of a few spots that always required more attention or the whole positive aura it was giving off would turn slovenly.
"...thanks..."
The girl spread her arms apart to make the adjustment easier for the black-haired boy and muttered with a blush when he was close to her.
"...but I am still just a commoner in a school of nobles, and now I am on even lower standing than before. I mean, you do understand where I'm coming from, right?"
She breathed out and asked, looking up at Zoemi's face as he was straightening one side of the collar of her shirt.
"Ah, so that's where this misconception is coming from? Burushi..."
The black-haired boy smirked and took a step back to have a better look at the heroine's overall appearance.
"..."
The tone of his voice made the blond girl lower her head and pout since it really sounded like he was making fun of her.
"First of all, you are mistaken in thinking this is a downgrade."
"Eh...?!"
Zoemi breathed out and smiled at the confused reaction he got.
Or maybe Burushi was just surprised that he started head patting her all of a sudden?
Regardless of the actual reason, the black-haired boy continued.
"When you were a student at the Academy, you were still just a commoner without any backing whatsoever. You got accepted only because of your unique attribute, but..."
Zoemi pointed out but then he suddenly froze in place, making a face as if someone has slapped him.
"...Zoemi...?"
Burushi furrowed her brows in confusion and reached up, ending up tugging onto the sleeve of Zoemi's shirt to get regain his attention.
"Ah...! Sorry. Sorry. I kind of... had a weird thought. Never mind that, please."
The black-haired boy shook his head and nodded apologetically, realizing that he was tousling Burushi's hair this whole time – but when he tried to take back his hand, the girl did who did not let go of his sleeve stopped him.
"It's okay, I don't mind. At least I know that you aren't condescending or anything. So what was that about me becoming a servant ending up as an upgrade to my status?"
Burushi announced with a timid smile and pulled the boy's hand back to her head before asking curiously.
"I meant to say that back when you were a student, you still were just a commoner who also happened to get the privileges of a student. Now you are a servant. My servant. The reputation might be plummeting, but no one can demote one of the original high noble families of the Bellcephora kingdom. Being someone who works directly under me actually elevates your status above most lower nobles. Please, try to remember to still use the sir, miss, lord, and lady, forms though, that is important regardless of the buffed social standings. That includes me. Unfortunately, the public requires the servant to always address their master as their lord or lady. Young miss or master is optional."
Zoemi explained.
"If someone will be giving you trouble, or even try to make you run errands or do some chores that don't directly involve me, make sure to remind them who you serve. To drive the point in you can even use my name without honorifics to show that we are close – just don't do that latter one too often, as if overused, that strategy will backfire and make it seem like you just don't respect me at all."
He added after a moment of hesitation, making sure that Burushi would not get herself or him in trouble.
"All in all, if nothing unusual happens, you should witness a major improvement in the way others treat you."
"..."
Zoemi smiled, but Burushi herself didn't seem all that convinced.
"...even with all the rumors going around about you...? Evil magician kidnapping others to feed on their mana and the quack girl whose spells drive others to harm themselves... I want to believe in you, but the information that we were provided with does not paint a pretty picture for us."
The blond-haired girl breathed out all dispirited and only then did she let go of the boy's sleeve.
"Do you really? I bet you that the first person who isn't like a friend or close acquaintance that we will encounter in the Academy will ask me whether stealing mana from other magicians really works."
Zoemi's smile only grew bigger as he said that, but Burushi wasn't in a mood to laugh.
"Isn't that bad though?!"
She asked clenching her fists in anger at the boy's dismissive behavior.
"Depends on how you look at it. The thing is to make the best of the bad situation~!"
Zoemi cheered with a confident expression and went back to the baggage to lift it up and walk through the murky-black gate.
"(Master, did you eat something bad...?)"
"(Did someone kidnapped or hexed our master when we weren't looking?! But we were looking!)"
"..."
The genuine cries of worry and concern over the boy's state spoken by his sentinels made him realize that his confidence might indeed be a tad overblown...
But, was he in the wrong though...?