While I did briefly entertain the notion of sabotaging Kang Jiesu's outfit, it was ultimately a silly idea.

  Everyone knew that it was the attendant's responsibility to dress their liege, so poor fashion choices and wardrobe malfunctions were unquestionably the handmaiden's fault. Curiously, the inverse wasn't true — nobles took all the credit and praise if their outfit looked good — which was an unfortunate example of a double standard in feudal society. The cards were generally always stacked unfairly against commoners, but this was a fact of life that everyone (including Hanamarie) was accustomed to.

  Kang Jiesu's clothing reflected on myself, so it was in my best interest to do well.

  That being said, this task was easier said than done, because the Otherworlders had only just arrived st night. We never had an opportunity for them to visit the tailor, and likewise we hadn't measured their bodies (yet) because our managers didn't want us to seem overly intrusive. In short, we could only eyeball and guesstimate their approximate sizes and proportions, which wasn't easy to do accurately.

  Basically, we could only pick something out of the clothing rack and pray like hell that it fit well.

  Compared to my coworkers, I think I had a huge advantage though.

  For reasons that I won't eborate on, I already knew all of Kang Jiesu's sizes. Back on Earth, our families were extremely close, and Kang was sort of a standardized yardstick that my parents measured me against when we were growing up. In elementary school, I was taller than him, but then puberty happened and he overshot me like a weed. To this day, I know my own height in 'Kang units' (i.e. 20cm shorter than Kang), mostly because my family never stopped remarking on our height difference.

  Ultimately, picking the right size wasn't difficult at all.

  I did, however, spent a lot more time thinking about the particur style and color.

  In the end, I went with my conventional high school approach and aimed to perform 'only slightly better than average'. For selfish reasons, I didn't want Kang to stand out too much, and it was more convenient for me if the Kingdom continued to overlook him. Although he was our legitimate css president, the Grand Archbishop had never realized this, and I was perfectly fine with the misunderstanding that Sha Guadi was the 'leader' of the heroes.

  I intentionally picked something that was less fshy and more subdued.

  Of course, it was still very luxurious and noble, but it was retively modest by aristocratic standards. It would be easy for him to blend into a crowd of dozen Otherworlders and simply be forgotten about. The fashion choice, likewise, was neither good nor bad. I wouldn't be praised for my performance nor rebuked, which was precisely what I desired.

  + + +

  Having said all of this, I still didn't take out of all of Kang's new clothes immediately. Mentally, I already chose his outfit in my head, but I still hadn't yet gathered his clothes from the wardrobe.

  It was still six o'clock in the morning, which was a too early for him to get up.

  If I id out his clothes, Kang Jiesu would almost certainly dress himself immediately, and then he would get in the way of my chores. To put it pinly, I wanted to keep him in bed, in which case I was perfectly aware of the fact that I was holding his clothes hostage and stranding him under the sheets in his underwear. This was a tough lesson, but my cssmate would have to get used to the fact that he had servants shuffling around his bedroom from morning until night.

  This was the ancient custom of this world.

  Privacy?

  Hah.

  Perhaps it was a bit shameless to say, but Kang didn't really have that anymore.

  Maids and servants were everywhere, and we were here even when the nobility rolled around with their concubines and snuck a few extra-marital affairs. Aristocrats generally got used to the fact that their maids were invisible, and likewise the most important rule for a personal servant was absolute lifelong silence. This was strictly enforced, and in fact a lord was legally permitted to seek the death penalty for a servant who spilled their secrets.

  In this way, the Kingdom of Galuterica was perhaps more barbaric than medieval Earth, but the stereotype of a gossiping maid was heavily frowned upon here. While the aristocracy cked privacy from their own servants, it was rgely because loyal servants were regarded as the fundamental protectors of confidentiality. A personal attendant was essentially an extension of their liege, in which case the concept of privacy didn't exist, since people don't grow embarrassed at their own naked reflection in the mirror.

  Mentally, I was handling this situation surprisingly well.

  Perhaps it was thanks to Hanamarie's unflinching personality and professionalism.

  Yes. I wasn't avoiding the subject.

  In fact, I did know that I was expected to help Kang Jiesu bath and get dressed. Seeing him nude was essentially part of the job description, but I wasn't really that armed by the thought of it. In total honesty, it wasn't something that I had never seen before. Kang and I had a long history as childhood friends, and I wasn't exaggerating when I said that we knew too much about each other. It was just very weird, especially with the way that our retionship in this life had arisen purely from coincidence.

  We had never officially dated. We weren't a couple, and in fact he lost my trust a long time ago. I don't have feelings for him anymore, and I'm certainly not interested in him as a significant other.

  This proximity was just awkward.

  Was I ever going to be able to get away from him?

  It was beginning to feel like I was never going to escape from my past.

  ?