I AM A MAGE BUT WITH MILF SYSTEM

Chapter 874: One final choice

One by one, the maids bowed again, swallowing whatever complaint or plea still sat on their tongues. Sera remained quiet among them, already marked as the first chosen. Mira stood apart now, the flush still visible in her cheek.

Julian gave the corridor one last glance, then motioned lightly.

“Come.”

Sera and Mira hesitated only for a breath before they followed him.

**

He led them deeper into the corridor, away from the spot where the other maids still lingered in silence. The noise of the castle continued around them: distant footsteps, the faint clink of armor and even the the chatter of servants as they made their final preparations for the day.

As they walked, Julian’s eyes naturally wandered over Mira.

She was a well-endowed woman. Her breasts were medium in size, and there was a clear curve to her body, hidden well beneath her maid’s uniform.

She was attractive in a grounded way.

Even so, he had already decided that he would not take things too far with them right now. He was already dressed for the King’s reception, and he had no intention of undoing two hours of formal preparation only to endure it all over again.

“Mira,” he said.

“Yes, Young Lord,” she replied almost immediately.

“Do you have any children?”

She shook her head.

“No. My husband and I have not planned for children yet. Raising a child is a huge task and requires heavy money. We are saving for now. Once we have earned enough, we will be ready.”

Julian gave a small nod, then asked the sharper question beneath it.

“And how do you take all this? You are married. You have a husband. The two of you are carrying a dream carefully enough to wait for children. And yet you are now about to please your Young Lord.”

The question caught her off guard. For a moment she remained silent, and the emotions moving over her face were easy enough to read.

Conflict. Shame. Calculation.

It was a strained attempt to organize feelings that did not sit neatly beside one another.

Even Sera glanced sideways at him with a look that clearly said, Was that even necessary?

However, Julian did not take his question back.

Seeing that he had no intention of softening it or moving on, Mira finally sighed and answered.

“Honestly… I do not know how it feels, Young Lord. It is a strange mixture of sadness, conflict, confusion, and also happiness and excitement.”

She paused, as if weighing whether to stop there, then continued.

“Yes, I am committing adultery. I understand that. But the reward for that adultery is so huge that the act itself becomes smaller in the face of it.”

Julian smiled.

He was pleased by the answer.

Most people in her position would have reached immediately for a cleaner story. They would have blamed him outright and climbed onto moral high ground, speaking as if they were being dragged forward by force alone. They would have talked about power, pressure, and the impossibility of refusal, while carefully refusing to admit that some part of them had been blinded by the size of the reward placed in front of them.

Mira did not do that.

She did not pretend the gold was irrelevant. She did not hide her choice as pure victimhood. She looked at the exchange directly and admitted that the scale of the compensation was altering the weight of the act itself.

That kind of honesty was rarer than virtue. Most so-called morality collapsed the moment it became expensive. People only discovered how flexible their principles were when those principles were asked to stand against their survival, comfort, or a sudden path out of long, grinding limitation.

Of course, Julian did not mistake himself for a saint either.

He knew he was at fault. He knew the imbalance of status made the entire conversation possible in the first place.

A young lord could place a fortune on the table and call it a request; a maid could only decide how honestly to walk into it.

He was not interested in washing that clean.

If anything, he was fully aware of the uglier edge in himself: that her being married did not restrain his interest. It sharpened it. He knew that about himself and did not bother dressing it in prettier language.

Julian glanced at her once more.

“That is honest of you.”

He paused, then continued in a calmer voice.

“Do you know that human beings are flawed creatures?”

Mira immediately shook her head.

“No, Young Lord. It is true that commoners like us are flawed, but noble beings like you are perfect.”

Julian laughed, then waved a hand.

“You can drop the act.”

The smile lingered on his mouth, but there was no softness in what followed.

“Nothing is certain in this life. There are people who would give their arms and legs to earn money. Some would give their lives if that money could keep their family breathing through another winter.”

They kept walking for a few steps before he went on.

“And you, Mira, could earn diligently and maybe in two or three years gather enough to stop grinding yourself like this. Maybe.

If no one falls ill.

If your husband is never injured.

If the price of food does not rise.

People like to speak of hard work as if it were a straight road with a guaranteed end. It is not. For most, it is a narrow path with soft ground, and one bad season is enough to send them sliding back to the beginning.”

He stopped dead in his tracks.

Sera and Mira halted with him, the sudden stillness making the moment feel heavier. Julian turned fully toward them and his eyes settled on Mira with an intensity that left little room for performance.

“So I am giving you a final choice,” he said. “What do you want to do?”

The corridor seemed narrower than before.

“If you step away,” Julian continued, “I will not hold you in any bad regard. There will be no punishment. You may return to your work, to your husband, and to the slower road you were already walking.”