Chapter 21

21

The maid must have been quite shocked, for she quietly sat down by the passageway wherever I pulled her, continuing to sniffle. While she calmed down, I called over a passing servant and had them clean up the broken dishes, then took out the handkerchief I had brought in my pocket and handed it to the maid.

“What’s your name?”

“Sniff, Ma, Maya…… Libel.”

“Okay, Maya. First, try to calm down a little. You know there’s nothing to be solved by crying.”

I wondered if that was a little cold of me, but fortunately, the maid tried to stop crying even as she continued to sob.

“I couldn’t just walk past, so I stepped in, but you, um, did you do something to get on that girl’s bad side?”

“N, no! I’ve only been here for a year, so that was the first time I had even seen the young lady up close.”

“Hmm. She definitely seemed to have some kind of grudge against you……. Anyway, she didn’t even ask you to pay compensation, so you don’t need to cry that much. It’s not the worst that could have happened.”

Someone had to go as far as thinking about dying, but you don’t.

“But if I’m thrown out without a letter of recommendation…….”

“Is being a maid the only thing you can do? You could at least work as a clerk at a local restaurant.”

“I could do that if I had to, but I’d have to commute a long distance, so the amount of time I could work would be reduced.”

“Why?”

Maya seemed about to cry again, for she pressed the already-soaked handkerchief to the corners of her eyes and muttered.

“In the neighborhood where I live, a thug has been blocking every job opportunity…….”

“What do you mean?”

When I asked in disbelief, an even more absurd story came pouring out.

Apparently, a thug in the neighborhood, at least thirty-five years old, had taken a liking to Maya and forced her to marry him. That was when she was only sixteen years old.

“When I refused, he threatened the people in the neighborhood, saying he wouldn’t let anyone who hired me off, so no one will employ me.”

Hmm. Still, there were plenty of bastards who would think of even worse things, so for that much, he was a romantic in his own way. Of course, it was horrible from the victim’s perspective.

“Can’t you move?”

“I don’t have the money to move. The place where I live now is the cheapest area in Herona in terms of housing prices.”

Fortunately, thanks to an old man who took pity on her and arranged a job for her as a maid, she was able to make a living, and after working elsewhere, she had apparently come here last year.

Maya must have finally stopped crying, because she took a deep breath and bowed her head deeply to me.

“Thank you. Thanks to you, I’ve calmed down a lot. It’s a relief that, as you said, I don’t have to pay compensation. I’ll somehow be able to find another job…….”

“Wait.”

I stared at her quietly, and a good idea occurred to me.

“You know, I may be a Baroness, but I don’t even have a maid accompanying me.”

“Yes……?”

“Would you like to work for me ?”

At those words, Maya opened her swollen eyes wide.

“R, really?”

“How much did you get paid here?”

“900,000 Gylden a month…….”

“Hmph! So even the great nobles living in the capital don’t pay that much?”

Considering the difference in the cost of living between Tessis and Herona, they were only giving her an extra 100,000 Gylden. And that was to a maid who commuted to work.

Of course, I wasn’t exactly well-off myself, but I thought I could afford to be a little more generous.

“I’ll give you 1 million Gylden. But the work might be a little heavier. Is that okay?”

“Are you serious? You really mean you’ll hire someone like me, who doesn’t even have a letter of recommendation, as your maid?”

“Hmm. Actually, I haven’t even made any acquaintances yet who could recommend a maid to me. Haha!”

It was a little bitter, but it was the truth. Although it had been publicly announced that Emma, who had been my personal maid, had died, even Countess Brough and her husband had not introduced another maid to me separately. It would have been easier for them to keep track of me if they had assigned one of their own maids to me.

Of course, if I asked a labor agency, I might be able to get an experienced maid introduced to me, but résumés from places like that weren’t exactly trustworthy…….

“My lady, thank you so much! I don’t have much experience, but I’ll really do my best!”

“You don’t have to be so moved. It’s not like I’m just giving you money.”

I told her where she would be working starting tomorrow.

Until now, I had been uncomfortable because I had to watch what I said and did in front of the maids from the Count Brough household, but now that I had my own maid, I would be able to relax a little.

***

Attending the tea party at the Dartmouth residence had not been a bad experience.

First of all, I had been able to find out for certain about Arthur Gottfried and his ‘childhood friend,’ overhear the latest news circulating in high society, get Heather Dartmouth worked up, and acquire a maid dedicated exclusively to me.

‘That’s a pretty excellent outcome!’

Count Brough and Countess Brough seemed to have hoped that I would get along well with Heather Dartmouth, but there were bound to be people in this world whom one was simply incompatible with on an instinctive level.

It wasn’t impossible to accommodate each other if one tried, but was there any reason to go that far?

‘If we ever become people who run into each other often, I can pretend to be close to her then.’

Thinking about it lightly that way, I first told Count Brough and Countess Brough the news that I had hired a new maid.

They wore expressions of incomprehension.

“Did you not like the maid we assigned to you?”

“No, of course not! It’s not that. From now on, there will be more and more occasions when I’ll need to have people work for Tessis, and I can’t keep using people from the count’s household for things like that.”

At those words, they could not refute me.

‘Did you really think I wouldn’t know that the maid you assigned to me was also serving as my watchdog?’

That obedient young maid was very pleasant and clever, but she still didn’t know how vast the world was.

My dear. There are many people in this world who grew up seeing all kinds of vile and filthy things from the moment they were born. There are places where, if you roll your eyes around too noisily, you’ll die without anyone knowing whether a rat or a bird took you.

If you were going to deceive me, you should have been more meticulous.

“But who introduced the maid to you?”

“Ah, unexpectedly, Young Lady Dartmouth…….”

“Oh my! You two have already become close? That’s wonderful, just wonderful. If it was Heather who introduced her, then she must be trustworthy.”

In front of Countess Brough, who was delighted, I merely smiled.

And that afternoon, as promised, Maya came to see me. She was momentarily confused upon learning that she would be staying at Count Brough’s residence as Baron Tessis’s maid, but soon nodded.

I had thought she might be a little clumsy since she only had three years of experience as a maid, but surprisingly, she was dexterous and clever.

‘With such a pretty face, if she had joined a theater troupe, she might have landed a leading role.’

Having finally been able to relax in a comfortable position after a long time, I asked Maya as I watched her make her own bed in the corner of my room.

“I heard you have younger siblings?”

“Ah, yes! There are two of them. The older one is fifteen, and the younger one is thirteen, and they’re both boys.”

“What about your parents?”

“……They passed away.”

I sensed a brief hesitation before she said they had died, but I did not pry any further. For some reason, I had a strong feeling that they were still alive, but I wondered what business it was of mine to learn the arduous history behind calling living parents dead.

If they were dead in Maya’s heart, then even if they were alive in this world, they were no different from dead parents. Just as my birth mother was to me.

“If a boy is fifteen, he’s old enough to earn his own living, isn’t he?”

“Ah……. Kurt…… doesn’t come outside the house.”

“Why?”

At that question, Maya was unable to open her mouth for much longer than when she had answered that her parents were dead.

It seemed this girl had also gone through a life that was anything but easy.

“If there’s a personal reason, you don’t have to answer, but it’ll be difficult if you can’t bring your younger brother outside the house.”

“What? Th, that’s…….”

“You two need to move. No matter how I think about it, commuting to and from work in the neighborhood where that thug lives is dangerous.”

This was also the opportunity when I had moved my residence at the count’s household to the second floor of the west wing.

I had felt self-conscious about using the guest room in the central wing despite not being a close relative of Count Brough and Countess Brough, and it was also uncomfortable always living with my nerves on edge.

Even though they didn’t say anything, the count and countess must have found it rather bothersome as well, because when I gave them a plausible excuse and asked to move rooms, they readily gave me permission.

I also received additional rooms for the servants who worked for me to stay in.

“Is there anything you absolutely need to take with you from your house?”

“Uh……. O, other than clothes…….”

“Then when you come to work tomorrow, pack the essentials and bring the children with you. I’ll tell them they’re my errand boys as well.”

“M, My lady! Thank you!”

Maya fell flat on the floor and bowed several times, thanking me.

Even as I accepted her thanks, I felt strangely bitter.

Strictly speaking, all I had done was provide a room so that I could have my own pair of hands nearby, yet to that maid, it had been salvation.

‘The world really is unfair, and I’m taking part in that unfairness.’

The next day, Maya entered Count Brough’s residence with one boy whose face was almost completely hidden by blond hair and another boy who looked exactly like him, but was slightly younger.

“This is Kurt, and this is Dylan. Boys, say hello. She’s the baron we’ll be serving.”

“Hello!”

The two boys bowed their heads, but only the younger one’s voice could be heard as he greeted me.