Vol 2 Chapter 8 – First Time Making a Baby With the Maid【Vol 2 – Personal Maid = Mistress!?】

I sat there with that softness pressed against my back, feeling the heat rise to my face.

This had to stop.

“Iris — I, um, this is putting me in a difficult position. Could you please—”

“Is it? You seemed quite interested in my figure earlier.”

So she had noticed.

But that wasn’t the point.

“Look, I’m still a man, and if you keep doing this, I’m going to — I might do something I shouldn’t—”

“Please feel free.”

“What?”

“In fact, that is precisely why I’m here. Seeing to Kazuki-sama’s every need is my duty. That includes… relieving certain needs.”

Iris continued washing — her chest moving against my back, drawing soft, involuntary sounds from her own lips with every shift. “Ahh…”

My pulse was hammering. I forced myself to speak.

“Even if ‘every need’ is on the table — that kind of… relief… isn’t typically part of a maid’s duties, is it?”

Iris went still.

The warmth withdrew from my back.

Part of me was relieved. Another part of me was not.

But then she stepped around to face me.

Both hands shielded the front of her body, and the towel was long gone — yet somehow the sight was more arresting, not less. Her figure was generous in every sense of the word, her chest overflowing from behind her own arms.

She sank to her knees before me and looked up.

“Kazuki-sama is not from this world, I believe. In this world, a gentleman’s personal maid is, in practice, a mistress.”

A mistress.

An intimate companion, as distinct from a legal wife.

So that’s what this is.

I looked to the ceiling.

Iris continued softly.

“There is still time before your marriage to Princess Flora. For the period in between, please make use of me for whatever you require.”

“Make use of you — I’m not going to treat you like a tool.”

“You are to become His Imperial Majesty. A maid of my standing — were you to end my life, not a soul would hold you accountable. Bedding me, getting me with child — no one would raise an eyebrow.”

“That may be true here, but by my world’s standards, it isn’t something I could do.”

“By this world’s standards, it is entirely acceptable.”

“I have Flora. Doing something like this would be like cheating.”

“A mistress is not a wife. To Kazuki-sama, I am merely an attendant. Given the difference in rank between Princess Flora and me, there is no such thing as infidelity or betrayal in this arrangement.”

“Even so — what would Flora think?”

“It is Princess Flora’s own command.”

I’d suspected as much.

Flora was the one who had appointed Iris as my personal maid — which meant Flora had sent her to me fully intending for Iris to serve in this capacity.

But why?

“Her Highness wishes for Kazuki-sama to be as comfortable as possible. In this world, having a mistress is simply how things are done. An Emperor might be expected to have dozens of consorts and hundreds of mistresses.”

Evidently, there was a distinction between the two. Consorts likely held a formal station — perhaps noblewomen elevated to a recognized, if secondary, position alongside the Empress. Mistresses were something else: a lower rank, and in a society as skewed as this one, apparently treated as little more than an outlet for male desire.

But whatever the customs here, my own mind was clear.

“I was raised in a country with one husband and one wife. I don’t need consorts or mistresses.”

“My, how surprising. I had assumed all gentlemen wished to bed every beautiful woman they encountered and leave them with child.”

“I won’t deny the impulse exists.”

“Then there is no reason to hold back. I am nineteen years old, and a virgin. It may be strange to say so myself, but I do not believe I am unattractive.”

As she spoke, she lowered the hands shielding her chest.

I snapped my gaze away — but Iris pressed forward and brought her chest flush against mine.

She smiled.

“Am I not to your liking?”

“That’s not the issue. But Iris — is this really all right with you? Even if it’s Flora’s order, serving as a mistress to a man you just met—”

Iris blinked, looking genuinely caught off guard.

She glanced down at herself — chest still pressed against me — as if she’d momentarily forgotten.

“How unusual. To concern yourself with the feelings of a maid.” A pause. “Is that the quality that drew Princess Flora to you, I wonder?”

“Flora is drawn to me?”

“Indeed. She was overjoyed, I assure you. She said she was very glad you were kind and handsome.”

As she said it, something shifted in Iris’s expression — a small, unguarded warmth.

“Have you served Flora-san for a long time?” I asked.

“Yes. Since Her Highness was a young child. …To say that my happiness is Flora’s happiness would be no exaggeration.”

The look on Iris’s face as she said it was soft and utterly sincere.

Which made me wonder — if this maid was so precious to Flora, why had she sent her to me?

“An Emperor must eventually take consorts and mistresses. Carrying on the imperial lineage is a duty. When Her Highness chose me, she said she wished the first woman to share her husband to be someone she could trust completely.”

“So she chose you.”

That made sense. Flora had mentioned it — almost in passing — that I’d be making children with the ladies-in-waiting too.

Still, Iris clearly mattered to Flora. That was all the more reason I couldn’t simply take her here on impulse.

“I’m grateful — truly — to both Flora-san and you, Iris. But right now, I genuinely don’t need a consort or a mistress.”

“But—”

“Flora-san told me to do as I please. I understand it’s an Emperor’s duty. But Flora-san alone is already more than enough for me to handle. And when the person waiting for me is that adorable, honestly — she’s all I need.”

For the first time, something cracked in Iris’s composure.

“If I return to Her Highness having done nothing, she will be terribly cross with me.”

She looked genuinely distressed.

She’d come here to serve me, and if she went back having accomplished nothing, she’d face Flora’s displeasure.

She pressed on, quietly.

“As you know, this is a male-dominant society. Part of why that is — is the war. A great many men were killed, and the balance between men and women shifted drastically.”

“That dramatic a difference?”

“One man for every ten people. In a monogamous society, if there are ten women for every man, nine of those women would have no husband at all.”

I stared at her.

Set aside being an Emperor or a man from another world — just being male made me a rarity here.

Iris’s gray eyes had gone glassy. A faint flush had risen to her cheeks.

The cool composure I’d first seen in her had given way to something much more earnest as she looked up at me.

“Being held by a man is extraordinary for a woman in this world. To be held by the Emperor is even more so. If I were to carry Kazuki-sama’s child, I could always remain by Princess Flora’s side.” She drew a breath. “So please — even just once — will you not hold me?”

Iris was begging. Genuinely.

And somehow I was starting to feel like I was the one in the wrong here.

Maybe I was.

By this world’s measure, refusing Iris was the transgression. It would leave Flora in an awkward position. It would leave Iris worse off. And there was no conceivable downside to accepting.

The only remaining variable was my own feelings.

And with a naked woman right in front of me — to claim I felt nothing would have been a flat-out lie.

I stood up and stepped quietly back from Iris.

She flinched, reading it as rejection. A shadow crossed her face.

But in the next moment, my hands found her chest.

“Ah — hyah — oh—”

Iris let out a startled, high-pitched sound. She hadn’t expected that at all.

I didn’t stop.

“Weren’t you the one who said I could do anything?” I murmured.

“I did, but — it was so sudden — ah — so you were looking at me that way, weren’t you — kyah—”

“Men are beasts. When there’s a girl as cute as you in front of them, this sort of thing is inevitable.”

“C-Cute?” She faltered. “Me?”

“That’s right.”

Her composure was completely scattered. Her face went scarlet. Every trace of the cool, poised maid she’d been was gone — just a flustered girl, staring at me wide-eyed.

I leaned a little closer.

“Am I really all right for you, Iris?”

“Of — of course.” A breath. “Because Princess Flora chose you. And whoever Flora-sama loves… I find that I love it too.”

She said it with a smile so genuine it caught me off guard.

My mind was made up.

I scooped Iris up into my arms — a proper bridal carry.

“Kyah!”

She squirmed, embarrassed, but made no move to escape. She simply settled against me and let me carry her.

I crossed the room, laid her down on the bed, and pinned her gently beneath me.

“Ah… Kazuki-sama…”

A soft, sweet sigh escaped her lips.

And so I came to have a personal maid of my very own.