Chapter 04: First Encounter
Dismissing those who offered to follow, Raymond headed alone to the main library on the second floor, saying he had something to look into quietly.
Every spring, Raymond, the current head of the Chester family, returned to Elfengrin in the capital, and the House of Nobles had sent multiple letters urging him to attend the parliamentary sessions.
It was a routine matter, but recently, the senators of the House of Nobles were grappling with a bill passed by the commoners’ House of Representatives, pressing him to return to the capital as soon as possible.
As a result, his close friend Edward, also a senator in the House of Nobles, had flown across the continent to find him, unable to withstand their pressure.
With the gradual weakening of royal authority in line with the times, the Rubayk monarchy was also transitioning into a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary cabinet system.
Though it was still an era where the king’s authority could not be ignored, many believed that in the near future, the power of the parliamentary cabinet would surpass that of the king.
Consequently, the role of the parliament, which had been merely nominal under the absolute monarchy, was becoming increasingly prominent.
Between the House of Nobles, dominated by hereditary aristocrats, and the House of Representatives, primarily composed of elected officials, there was less cooperation and more rivalry and power struggles, which were intensifying day by day.
Typically, most bills were passed under the leadership of the powerful and wealthy senators of the House of Nobles, but recently, a bill passed by the House of Representatives had garnered enough support that the House of Nobles could not easily reject it, causing a commotion in the capital.
This had put the senators in a frenzy, urgently seeking Raymond, the head of the Chester family, as the fixer to resolve the issue swiftly.
Thinking there was no need to rush into troublesome matters when he would return in a few days anyway, Raymond had ignored their requests.
But with letters arriving almost weekly and even his friend Edward being sent to pressure him, he finally raised both hands and feet in surrender.
That was the decisive reason Raymond returned to Elfengrin earlier than planned.
First, to address the troublesome issues they had sent, he intended to review some legal texts that might help, heading straight to the main library without even taking a bath, despite his weary body.
If people lingered around him under the pretense of checking on him, it would distract him and make it hard to focus, so he dismissed everyone and headed to the main library.
“…”
But an entirely unexpected situation awaited Raymond.
As he approached the library, he heard an unfamiliar woman’s humming, and when he reached the door, puzzled, he found it slightly ajar.
Through the gap, a woman’s clear and melodious voice pierced his ears even more distinctly than before.
Drawn by the lark-like tone, Raymond quietly opened the door and stepped into the library.
Feeling strangely as though whoever was inside might vanish the moment he made a sound, Raymond instinctively muffled his presence and moved silently.
As he fully entered the library, the humming became even clearer than at the door.
Raymond slowly moved toward the source of the sound.
“…”
And then, the scene before him made Raymond’s eyebrows twitch momentarily.
The source of the voice that had piqued his curiosity was a woman—a maid, it seemed, dressed in worn clothes.
The woman was sprawled on the library floor, diligently scrubbing.
Judging by the shine left in the wake of her rag, she appeared to be polishing the floor.
Despite the grueling labor, wiping sweat from her forehead with her forearm, the maid was humming cheerfully as if thoroughly enjoying herself.
It was absurd that she was so engrossed in scrubbing that she didn’t even notice someone had entered, but that wasn’t the only reason Raymond found it hard to tear his eyes away from her.
Polishing the floor was heavy labor, requiring her to scrub vigorously with both hands gripping the rag and her whole body’s weight behind it.
Because of this, her unusually slender waist and the swaying chest above it stood out vividly in his view.
Raymond, forgetting to chase the maid out of the library, now stood with his arms crossed, staring at her as if spectating.
Unless she was a lady’s maid or a parlor maid, a lower-ranking maid—often called a “fairy under the stairs” for rarely showing her face—was unlikely to be known to Raymond.
Yet, the fact that such a maid existed in his mansion felt oddly unfamiliar.
Like admiring an intriguing piece of art, Raymond meticulously examined the maid from head to toe.
As the maid, with her wavy brown hair tied back tightly, moved, her full chest, visible beneath her bowed head, swayed gently.
The slender waist, in stark contrast to that ample volume, stood out even more, and the smooth, white calves peeking from under her raised skirt, along with her small bare feet, somehow evoked a strange feeling in the onlooker.
If Raymond hadn’t returned to the mansion earlier than planned without prior notice, one might suspect the maid’s attire was a deliberate attempt to seduce the master.
“Ah!”
As Raymond was lost in such thoughts, a sudden clatter rang out as a tin bucket tipped over at the woman’s feet.
It seemed to contain polish, and the maid, with a startled expression, quickly began scooping it back into the bucket.
“Oh… what do I do?”
Frantically trying to collect the polish that had seeped into the floor, she only then noticed it had stained her apron.
Letting out a groan as if the world had collapsed, the maid suddenly sensed something odd and whipped her head around.
Her eyes, spotting a tall man staring down at her, instantly filled with wariness.
“Who… are you?”
Raymond’s gaze, directly meeting the maid’s face, narrowed slightly as if he had seen something peculiar.
Up close, the maid’s face was as pale and translucent as her exposed calves, almost ghostly.
Her flushed cheeks, heated from exertion, glowed red, and her large, rabbit-like eyes shimmered with mysterious golden hues.
The voice, which he had thought lark-like, trembled as if frightened by the discovery of a stranger in the library.
And then—
“A maid who doesn’t even recognize her master.”
Just before Raymond spoke, the maid’s eyes flickered as if realizing something, but it was so brief that he didn’t notice.
At Raymond’s sarcastic remark, the maid’s amber eyes slowly hardened.
* * *
‘Why is this man here?’
Deborah, spotting the tall man who had entered the library without a sound, blurted out the question without thinking.
This library was scheduled for floor polishing all afternoon, and no one was supposed to come until the polish dried.
So, it was only natural that Deborah, who had been diligently polishing with her sleeves and skirt rolled up, was startled by the sudden intruder.
Due to the sunlight reflecting off him, she couldn’t clearly see his face at first, but as he took a step closer, his features gradually etched into her vision.
Finally, seeing the man’s face clearly, Deborah’s eyes widened slowly.
She instinctively held her breath, a subtle reaction inaudible to the man standing before her.
‘Duke Chester!’
Deborah screamed inwardly.
It was fortunate, if anything, that she hadn’t blurted it out loud in her shock.
Thump thump—
Perhaps due to the surprise, Deborah’s heart began racing.
She had heard that the Chester family wasn’t due to arrive for a few more days, so she couldn’t comprehend why Duke Chester was standing before her, and alone, no less.
“A maid who doesn’t even recognize her master.”
Deborah, looking up at Raymond from her kneeling position on the floor, flinched at the cold voice flowing from the picture-perfect man’s lips.
Only then did she realize she had been staring at the master of the mansion, a great noble, without so much as a greeting, sitting rudely on the floor.
Deborah hurriedly stood, clasping her hands in front of her and bowing.
“I-I’m sorry, my lord.”
“What exactly are you doing here?”
“…I was, um, doing spring cleaning… I mean, polishing the library floor.”
Unable to meet his eyes and keeping her head bowed toward the floor, she seemed to frustrate Raymond, who furrowed his brow and ordered her to stand straight.
But even as Deborah slowly straightened her back as commanded, her gaze remained fixed somewhere on the floor.
Raymond, slowly scanning her from head to toe, spoke in a chilly tone.
“It seems the trends in Denvero (the capital of Rubayk) have changed in the few months I’ve been away.”
“…?”
Not understanding his meaning, Deborah’s gaze slowly shifted from the floor to Raymond’s face.
Meeting her uncomprehending stare, Raymond let out a low tsk.
“To expose your bare skin so brazenly like a vulgar harlot—without a hint of shame.”
-!!!
At Raymond’s sharp criticism, Deborah finally looked down and checked her attire.
Her face flushed bright red in an instant, and she hurriedly began untying the knot holding up her skirt.
But in her nervousness, her hands kept slipping, and the knot wouldn’t come undone easily.
After struggling with trembling fingers, Deborah finally managed to untie it and quickly pulled down her rolled-up sleeves.
The thought of showing such an unrefined and unsightly appearance in front of none other than Duke Chester filled her with burning shame.
It felt even worse in contrast to the impeccably polished man before her.
Unable to meet his gaze out of embarrassment, Deborah stood under a cold remark that soon poured over her.
“I never thought Charlotte’s management was so lax, but it seems that was all an illusion.”
Startled at the thought of causing trouble for Lady Charlotte due to her mistake, Deborah hesitated, her lips trembling several times before she finally spoke.
“…Please, I beg your forgiveness. I… I only made this careless mistake because I haven’t been in this mansion long. Lady Charlotte is not at fault.”
The words, spoken cautiously, slipped out from between her moderately full lips.
Raymond, staring intently at those moving lips, suddenly scanned her face as if searching for something.
Deborah, tense to the point of barely breathing under Raymond’s silent, piercing gaze, finally couldn’t hold back and was about to let out a breath—
At that moment, Raymond, who had been staring for a long while, turned wordlessly and left the library.
Only then did the breath she had been holding burst out.
Phew—
Even though Duke Chester was no longer in sight, her heart, which had been pounding as if caught in a storm, showed no signs of calming.
Pressing her hand tightly to her chest as if to soothe her racing heart, Deborah suddenly noticed the spilled tin bucket and the stained hem of her skirt, her face quickly turning crestfallen.
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By Anna 💓
