Chapter 1 - Chapter 1

Translator: Nox

Chapter 1Chapter 1

“Ahem.”

I swept the front entrance.

Early morning, as the hazy light began to brighten.

My first duty as a maid was to clean the front entrance spotlessly.

With only three people coming and going, the entrance was always impeccably neat without a single gap, but it had to be swept every day without fail.

That was a maid’s job, after all.

“Ahem!”

After dusting, the next task was watering the small flowerpots neatly placed on each step of the stairs.

In truth, this was the gardener’s duty, but in this mansion, there was no meaning to dividing roles.

In the Weatherwoods family, everyone cleaned together, tended the garden together, and cooked together.

The reason was that the master’s wallet was seriously pinched.

“Aheeeem!”

While watering the flowerpots, I glanced toward the iron gate beyond the desolate small garden.

Some guy had been fake-coughing his lungs out since earlier. Including the men who looked like his underlings, there were four in total.

When our eyes met, he wore an extremely arrogant expression, his eyes clearly begging me to come over and speak to him.

But there was no need for me to step forward.

The head maid came out of the mansion and crossed the small garden to greet the man.

“You’re here again?”

“Hey now, ‘again’? That’s embarrassing for the listener.”

“As I’ve told you last time, the time before that, and every time before, we have no intention of disposing of the mansion. Please go back.”

A real estate broker, perhaps.

I turned my head and continued watering the cheap seeds I’d gotten from the market.

I didn’t know the name of the flower that would bloom from these seeds. I’d simply bought the cheapest packet with the most quantity.

“Today it’s not about that. I must see the new Viscount Weatherwoods without fail. Escort me inside the mansion.”

“I’m sorry, but the master is currently away.”

“I’ve heard that three times this month alone!”

“Likewise, I’m sorry. The master is very busy.”

An indignant, heated reply exploded.

“Busy, my foot! At this point, I can’t just let it slide. Is there really a new Viscount Weatherwoods in this mansion? The only ones seen leaving this place in over a week were the three servants. Everyone’s saying it’s a ghost mansion without an owner! And what’s with the mansion’s pitch-black exterior? Isn’t it ruining the street’s appearance?”

“That’s not for us to concern ourselves with…”

“Not for you to what! Get out of the way! I can’t stand it anymore!”

When I looked up, the man shoved the head maid’s shoulder and strode inside the gate.

He scanned the barren small garden and muttered with a face like he’d bitten into dung.

“Tch. To abandon a mansion that was once renowned for its beauty in such a beggar-like state… Hey, maid!”

Was he calling me now?

“What are you staring at so dumbly? Come here right now?”

Since he’d called, I went over for the time being. The man crossed his arms with an arrogant face and asked.

“How long has the new Viscount Weatherwoods been away from this mansion? Two years? Three?”

Thinking of Viscount Weatherwoods sleeping prettily in the bedroom, I answered.

“He hasn’t left.”

“What?”

“I said he hasn’t left.”

The man, who had been glaring at me sourly, asked again with a deeply forbearing expression.

“Your manner of speech… Never mind. Could it be that the new Viscount Weatherwoods’s health is gravely ill? To the point he can’t move even once a week?”

He hadn’t budged an inch for ten straight days, but recalling Viscount Weatherwoods’s skin, smooth and glossy as a boiled egg, I answered.

“He’s healthy.”

“Hah. What a cheeky mouth you have. Don’t you know who I am? Well, a maid employed by a dump like this wouldn’t know anything. I am Baron Pedegail, the close friend of your late previous master.”

And so?

It seemed he wanted me to be startled and plead. There was indeed a speck the size of an ant’s eye booger to be surprised about.

The fact that this baron came three times a month demanding the mansion’s disposal.

“…Before he died, he left me one request—a dying wish to help the new Viscount Weatherwoods establish himself in this city. So don’t worry needlessly and tell me honestly. Is everything fine with the viscount? Is there truly nothing I need to help with? Right?”

“Nothing.”

The baron,感動ed by my courteous reply, bulged his eyes.

“Yes, that’s it! I’ve confirmed it from your rude speech and behavior. There’s no new Viscount Weatherwoods here! You’ve hired two maids just to keep up appearances in an empty mansion. If the viscount actually resided here, a mere maid wouldn’t dare show such insolence!”

I could confirm it too. This guy was a scoundrel after the Weatherwoods family’s legacy.

A truly vicious bastard. Sucking the spine from a flea. From a household that had sold off every last silver utensil, what did he plan to take?

Bang!

The baron flung open the front door with behavior unbelievable for a guest and shoved me inside the mansion.

Startled by it, the head maid chased after with a tense face.

“What is this outrageous behavior, Baron!”

The baron snorted at the head maid’s cry.

“You, go out and stand guard so no one else enters the mansion. And you, search the mansion for something to use for the whipping. Perfect timing. I’ve been curious how long the Weatherwoods head maid would keep her mouth shut. Time to make her grasp her place.”

“Yes.”

“Understood.”

At the baron’s command, one closed the front door and stood by outside, one vanished down the right corridor, and the last one blocked between the head maid and me.

The baron, quietly surveying the mansion interior, fixed his gaze on the portrait hanging above the stairs. It was the previous Viscount Weatherwoods’s portrait.

“What a nostalgic face. How heartbroken my friend would be to see the mansion fallen like this. By the way, has it been four years since he fell in the Magic War? Time flies.”

Magic War.

Explaining what war that was would take forever, so let’s skip it. Just remember it was a horrific war that lasted nearly ten years.

The baron ogled the room’s furnishings with greedy eyes and flashed a sleazy smile.

“For the sake of the man who gave his body for his country, I must help the new Viscount Weatherwoods. There’s no other way to honor my fallen friend. Of course.”

It was a brief remark.

Yet I felt my heartbeat quicken as hot blood surged through my body like an incoming tide.

Brushing off the Magic War simply didn’t brush off the countless sacrifices it contained.

Those who fell had left to protect their beloved families and friends. To use such noble sacrifices as an excuse for one’s filthy personal desires…

As someone who had witnessed the ten years of horrors with her own eyes, it was a statement I couldn’t let pass.

People have principles, and this bastard’s principle as a friend was to honor his sacrifice—not to covet Viscount Weatherwoods’s wealth.

But the baron’s actions were far from honoring his friend’s sacrifice. In other words, the baron wasn’t Viscount Weatherwoods’s friend.

Since a non-friend had forcibly intruded into the mansion, this guy was a thief.

That was my conclusion.

“Baron, I brought it.”

“Good, this sturdy one is just to my liking.”

Taking a shovel from his subordinate, the baron circled back to me. He apparently planned to beat me with it.

The head maid’s expression hardened coldly.

“Stop this now, Baron Pedegail. You must not touch that girl. Rather, take me…”

“Oh, head maid. How admirable to cover for your underling. So, I’ll give you one last chance. Tell me the viscount’s whereabouts. Then I promise not to harm you or any servant in this mansion. I’m sincere.”

“The chance is one I’m giving you, Baron. For the sake of preserving your body, please stay calm…”

“Hah, still haven’t come to your senses? If you don’t open your mouth by the count of three, the beating starts. No way to plead injustice. I’ll drag this wench off and sell her as a slave to the East! Now, one.”

From bringing up the East, he must deal in slaves too?

A thief who couldn’t keep principles, and now slave-trading trash on top?

As a diligent Weatherwoods maid, the proper attitude to show was clear.

The head maid called me with tense eyes.

“Daisy.”

For the record, Daisy is my name.

The baron smirked as if the situation amused him and raised two fingers.

“Two.”

“Endure it for now.”

I nodded like an obedient maid.

“Yes.”

And swung my right hand.

“Three… Guhk!”

The maid in her neat attire had merely swept her right hand sideways, yet the burly baron flew like a stone and slammed into the wall.

The area went silent in an instant. The baron’s underlings stared blankly at their fallen lord before rushing to him.

“Baron!”

The head maid called me with stern eyes.

“Daisy!”

“Yes.”

“I clearly warned you to hold back. Why didn’t you obey? You know full well that if you use your strength, that mangy raccoon’s life hangs by a thread, right?”

“I was holding back.”

“You say that seeing this situation?”

“My right hand said it couldn’t hold back. See?”

I slapped the cheeks of the two underlings who had been trying to support the fallen baron—with my right hand.

“Guhk.”

“Hk.”

The two sturdy brutes sprawled atop the baron. What a chummy lord-retainer bond.

“I told you, my right hand is impossible to rein in. I’ll give it a good scolding once this is over.”

The head maid glared at me again, but what could be done.

My right hand sometimes followed its heart over my head, and in those moments, even I, its owner, struggled to control it consciously, or so.

“What…”

After cleanly finishing off the third underling who had boldly opened the door, I asked the head maid.

“Shall I bury them?”

She shot a look at me, the mansion’s number one security asset.

“Don’t say such awful things. Where did Mr. Lu go?”

Hearing the unwelcome name, my brow furrowed on its own.

“To buy ingredients.”

“Don’t be so curt. Sigh, no helping it. These people, just leave them in front of the mansion…”

“Shall I cut their heads off and hang them up?”

“We’ll seat them down normally. Normally.”

“Sending them back makes cleanup a hassle.”

“Does hanging heads make it simple? I’m amazed you can make such logical judgments, Miss Daisy. They certainly committed unjust acts, but it’s not a crime grave enough for… burial. Sending them back is the right call. This was justifiable self-defense on our part too, so we can wrap it up appropriately. Trust the Weatherwoods family. It will protect us to the end.”

As someone who knew the true nature of Viscount Weatherwoods, her persuasion didn’t inspire much confidence.

But a maid must obey when ordered.

At the head maid’s request, I had to carry the full-grown adult men like princesses and move them outside the mansion.

I laid them out in a row on the paved road where carriages passed and prayed they’d be trampled to death by horses.

They say a maid’s other name is hardship. The hardships upon hardships have no end.