Reincarnated as the Villainess's attendant

"[A GROUP OF BARBARIANS HAVE ATTACKED AND TAKEN OVER THE FIRST OUTPOST! I REPEAT! A GROUP OF BARBARIANS HAVE TAKEN OVER THE FIRST OUTPOST! THEY HAVE AT LEAST FOUR CURSE USERS AND A HEX USER! THEY ARE AIDED BY AN UNKNOWN MAGE USING AN UNKNOWN VARIANT, SPELLS THEY CAST ARE MELTING EVERYTHING THEY COME IN CONTACT WITH! EVERYONE ON STANDBY!]"

"!!!"

Zoemi woke up to the voice of the wind magician officer sending out the message to everyone within the castle.

The black-haired boy immediately jumped out of the bed and dressed up when...

"[SHUT UP! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW FAR THE FIRST OUTPOST IS?! DO THEY HAVE LIGHT MAGES HELPING THEM TOO OR SOMETHING?!]"

Another voice - this one far more powerful - drowned the announcement.

"...too late..."

Zoemi framed to himself and lowered his head in defeat, although he did leave his quarter and walked down the hallway.

He passed a few flabbergasted soldiers just looking around in confusion, unaware of who had just made their officer stop repeating the very important message.

*knock* *knock*

Within a minute, the black-haired boy was in front of the right door and lightly tapped it before pushing his way inside as they were unlocked.

"The auda-aaa-acity... of those people...!"

Miriette was already wearing a helmet even though she barely put a shirt on, and was grumbling, deeply offended by the whole situation.

"Miri..."

"..."

Zoemi sighed while approaching the girl who did not say anything and instead walked up to him and immediately went for a hug, pressing the hard and bumpy helmet into the boy's chest and almost hitting his chin with it too.

"...did you kill that other wind mage with the pressure of your message spell...?"

The black-haired boy asked, gently stroking the girl's back.

"Hmph. No... They explained that in case of emergency an officer will be contacting everyone... and I reme-e-eeembered it just in time. He will live. And if we ask Burushi to help him out... then he might even hear again.

Miriette nagged while clinging sleepily to Zoemi.

"Scary. Alright, if he's alive then all is good. Let's dress you up and go to the briefing room as we did during the practice emergency. Okay?"

"...shower..."

The boy snickered but then he pulled away from the girl and walked straight to the old cupboard that had to do for a closet, as Miriette mumbled and moved in the direction where the bathroom in her dormitory room back in the Aspakeony Academy was.

*thump*

*thunk*

"...eh...?"

The girl reached out her hand to grab the door handle that wasn't there and when she looked down to see why she didn't grab anything, she ended up bumping her helmet against the empty wall and stumbled backward thrown in for a loop.

"I might have seen it countless times, but having you unable to wake up without taking a bath will always be the most adorable thing."

Zoemi smiled brightly as he returned to the helmet-wearing girl's side with a fresh set of uniforms for her to wear.

"And thank you for always making sure that she is wearing the helmet just in case."

The boy added, glancing down at the completely transparent air emperor coiling herself around Miriette's neck.

"..."

The air emperor didn't respond but nodded at Zoemi, making the boy snicker and nod back.

"Zoemi... where did the bathroom go...? Did the barbarians take over it too...?"

Miriette whose mind was still woozy, mumbled in an adorably pitiful voice as she turned to her former attendant and pointed at the empty wall.

"Pffft...! No, they... Wait! Oh, dear goodness! The barbarians! Miri, you had a bath before going to bed, you will be fine. We need to get going!"

Although his first reaction was to melt over the sleepy cuteness of the dark-haired girl, her half-sleeptalk brought him back to the reality that he momentarily lost contact with and he hurriedly helped her dress up.

-----

They were on their way to the way to the briefing room and judging by the lack of people in the hallways they were running late.

|Please, open the gate for us.|

"(Yes, sir~!)"

Zoemi thought and his second sentinel answered playfully as the murky-black shadow climbed the wall next to them, creating a menacing arch.

"Miri, we're taking a shortcut."

"Nnn..."

The black-haired boy put his arm over the helmet-wearing girl's shoulders and led her into the darkness as she let out an indifferent sound indicating that she was falling asleep again.

------

"...!"

As the pair emerged from a murky-black spot that suddenly appeared on the wall instead of the door a little bit to the right, the briefing room became completely silent.

Everyone just stared at the black-haired boy casually strolling in with the helmet-wearing girl by his side...

...which made Devios close his eyes and hold back a sigh.

Despite what he personally thought about the entrance of the two, he could not be left stunned by its eccentricity.

"With that, everyone is here. This is what we know."

The blue-haired heir of the Perserios family straightened his back and started speaking, getting back the attention of the large conference room's worth of people.

"As everyone has already heard, the barbarians have managed to capture the first outpost. Today at exactly..."

As Devios was explaining, Zoemi spotted Burushi slumped in the corner and made his way towards her together with Miriette, after asking his sentinels to cast muffle so that at least the sounds they were making would not bring more distraction than their sudden appearance already did.

"Yo. I see you aren't a morning person either."

The black-haired boy greeted the blond heroine in disheveled clothes with a smile as he motioned at the swaying, half-asleep Miriette at his side.

"...yah... not to mention that I was dragged out of the bed to heal up that guy who got messed up by the message spell interruption or whatever..."

Burushi scoffed, squinting her eyes at Zoemi, angry since she expected him to be mocking her.

Index, the disorderly buttoned, tugged-out shirt, and the crooked collar alone made it look like she wasn't just dragged out of the bed, but rather dragged all the way towards the patient.

"...it was confirmed that although the front gate was melted by the spell of the unknown magical, the other one was opened by a soldier taken over by the hex user. The last report from fifteen minutes ago states that the troops stationed there are getting pincered and the earth magicians will try to create an emergency exit. We haven't received any update on whether that plan worked or not. The second and third outposts are preparing to send in their troops, same with the fourth and seventh. As the place we have the most reserves, we will send supplementary units to either help retake the first outpost or aid in defending the possible next target. As for..."

"Well... I do hate to be right about my bad feelings sometimes... now if you excuse me."

Devios was composed and delivered the speech as if there was no doubt in his mind that the attack is not the reason to panic and it will be dealt with swiftly - to which Zoemi groaned to himself before reaching towards the cornered heroine.

"Eh?! Now hold on! What do you think you are doing in front of everyone?!"

As the boy's hands were definitely moving towards her voluptuous chest of hers which was barely contained by the slovenly affixed buttons, Burushi blushed in embarrassment and tried to back off, but her back met the wall.

"Right in front of Miri, too?!"

She gasped in accusation crossing her arms on her breasts to block the access.