“Excuse me, excuse me! Pardon me just for a moment!”

An Entoho maid had been carrying a large laundry basket when she was hit by a strong gust of sea wind. As a result, the laundry scattered wildly all over the Third Class deck.

“Over here, here.”

“There’s some here too.”

Because the service on the Entoho was extremely satisfying, the passengers were generous as well.

“I’ll help you. There are some over there too.”

The passengers picked up the scattered laundry and placed it back into the maid’s basket.

And in the midst of that, I quickly hid one of the laundry items. It was a maid uniform from the Entoho.

Since it wasn’t assigned individually, it wasn’t exactly causing harm to anyone.

I dried that freshly washed but still damp maid uniform in my room.

‘If I put this on and wander around the First Class deck, maybe I’ll run into Zahid or Ray?’

The maid uniform didn’t dry completely until after midnight.

I tied up my hair tightly and neatly, just like the other maids, changed into the maid uniform, and grabbed a dry rag hanging on the deck before heading up to the Second Class deck.

‘Wow.’

And no one stopped me.

In Second Class, lower-ranking nobles were gathered in small groups playing card games or sipping cocktails.

‘I’ve got no business here anyway.’

I pretended to wipe the railing while scanning the area with my eyes.

‘If I want to be useful in this operation, I have to go higher.’

The so-called “Entoho Operation,” which had existed before my regression.

This Entoho, known merely as a luxurious cruise ship, had a secret.

‘This ship is supporting a massive project by the Temple. This whole luxury cruise setup is just a smokescreen.’

Right now, beneath this massive Entoho, there was a massive weapon called <Karso>.

A ridiculously large weapon secretly built by the Temple to escape public scrutiny.

This weapon was set to be discreetly transported to a small outer Temple and installed to target various places across the Empire.

Karso possessed the destructive power to annihilate an entire city if the Temple ever decided to activate it.

‘It took over ten years just to construct, and a massive amount of altered divine power from experiments was poured into this huge project…’

The weapon was meant to remain unseen by the public. If it ever needed to be activated, the public would be told: “God has delivered divine punishment.”

In other words, the mere existence of Karso could make people tremble in fear of divine wrath.

‘It’s too large to transport by land, so they needed a huge ship. And to float such a ship unnoticed, they had no choice but to disguise it as a luxurious cruise liner.’

If they’d announced it as a regular cargo ship, the cargo volume would have immediately raised suspicion.

‘Even before the regression, Zahid and Ray were the ones who stopped it.’

Even though things were different this time, Zahid and Ray would likely play the same roles. Because no one else could do it.

‘While Ray handles the Empress Dowager to draw attention to the Special Class cabin, Zahid will descend to the lower levels and deal with Karso…’

Down below, many Holy Knights and priests were guarding Karso. The only way to distract them was to stir up a commotion with the Empress Dowager. She had many chronic illnesses and was severely hypochondriac.

‘At this rate, Zahid’s going to get seriously hurt. It would be great if I could help from the Special Class cabin where the Empress Dowager is. But… is that possible?’

Fortunately, there was still plenty of time left.

I casually continued cleaning and slowly headed toward the stairs to the First Class deck.

‘Will I succeed just like I did coming into Second Class?’

But then—

“Hey.”

A knight guarding the stairs held out his hand familiarly.

“Pass.”

I let out a deep sigh inwardly.

Well, of course. Starting from First Class, the high-ranking nobles were gathered, so the security was bound to be stricter. Come to think of it, if it were that easy to sneak into First Class just by wearing a uniform, that would be the problem.

“Oh no, I forgot it. Please wait just a moment. I’ll go fetch it from the maid’s quarters.”

Since I was never the reckless type, I decided to simply give up on entering First Class.

I was about to go back to my room and just sleep when—

“Uuweeeeeeeek!”

From the stairs connecting First and Second Class, someone tumbled down noisily.

“Ggweeeeeek!”

Both the knight and I flinched and backed away in surprise.

A woman had suddenly fallen down the stairs, completely wasted and barely conscious.

A thick stench of perfume, strong alcohol, and acrid cigar smoke seemed to paralyze my nose.

“Gwweeeeeeeek!”

Thankfully, despite the loud noises, she didn’t actually vomit anything. But she was clearly not in her right mind and kept trying to rub her cheek against the floor.

“No, stop!”

In the chaos, the wine from the glass in her left hand spilled out with a splash.

I quickly snatched the glass from her and handed it to the knight. Then I scooped her up off the floor and said regretfully:

“It may seem hopeless, but could you try your absolute best to at least pull yourself together just a tiny bit?”

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

At that moment, someone called out pitifully from the top of the stairs.

“L-Lady Linna!”

Huh?

Linna?

Linna Idra?

So this woman collapsed in my arms right now, completely out of her mind, was Linna Idra?

Only then did I take a proper look at the woman I’d internally dismissed as a total wreck.

Her long dark red hair had come loose and was a mess. Though her eyes were closed, her makeup was absurdly thick.

She wore a flashy, extremely revealing black dress, with countless piercings scattered across her body, and grotesque skull-shaped accessories dangling everywhere…

‘This woman… is Lady Linna Idra…?’

I’d read about Linna Idra in newspaper articles from time to time.

The dazzling and beautiful queen of the social world, the Empire’s ultimate irredeemable villainess, the disgrace of House Idra, who—just after coming of age—got herself addicted to every bad thing imaginable…

“Uuh… uuhuhu…”

And now, she was drunk and crying.

As tears rolled down her cheeks, her black makeup ★ ★ smeared into streaks.

While I stood dazed, staring at her, a black cat suddenly walked up and jumped onto Linna’s head.

“Meooow.”

The black cat smacked Linna’s cheek with its front paw.

“MEOOOOOOW!”

<Get it together!>

‘Ah.’

I blinked and thought—

‘That must be the Earth Divine Beast.’

Even as I watched, the black cat kept kicking Linna.

“Meoooow!”

<I’m getting old, OLD!>

Though I could understand the meaning behind the meows, I pretended not to. Just hearing it made my head spin.

“Uuu… Cassie… uu…”

“Nyaa…”

<Sheesh.>

The cat, called Cassie, let out a deep sigh.

Cassie leapt gracefully from Linna and stood in front of the stairs, glancing at me. Then, suddenly, it gestured with its paw as if to say “Come.”

“…Huh? Me?”

As I blinked blankly, Cassie nodded once.

“Meow!”

<Yes, YOU!>

Then, looking frustrated, it kept waving its front paw toward the upper deck. Even without the ability to communicate with Divine Beasts, anyone could tell what that gesture meant.

“Q-Quickly! Go!”

The knight who had been trying to check my pass flailed and shouted.

“The Divine Beast is asking you to follow it!”

“Ah…”

I blinked and murmured.

“Yes…”

Just then, Linna staggered upright.

With her makeup smudged and streaky, she opened her half-lidded eyes and looked at me.

Between the strands of her flowing dark red hair, her golden eyes gleamed.

‘Whoa?’

I found myself unintentionally admiring her.

‘What is this decadent, wild ultra-beauty? And…’

As Linna swayed unsteadily, I instinctively supported her and thought—

‘Just from her eyes, her mental state looks seriously unstable.’

The black cat tapped its tail on the floor ahead of us, urging us to follow.

And so, in the end, I succeeded in leaving the Second Class deck—supporting Linna the whole way.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep