Translator: Nox

Chapter 8

The next morning.

As I stepped into the back garden to gather the laundry, I was startled by the sight of the garden landscape that caught my eye.

In just two days, the small garden of Weatherwoods Mansion had taken on a quite respectable appearance.

No workers had come by since the first day, yet all the dead grass was gone, and the ground was covered in soft, moist soil.

‘I thought he was just taking on any job to get into this mansion.’

His cooking skills too. Why was he so unnecessarily good at so many things? It only made him more suspicious.

When I tried to recall his heart-shaking beauty, the message from last night about potatoes or whatever came to mind, souring my mood again. At that moment, my eyes met Lu’s as he passed by with a shovel in hand.

He beckoned to me as if it were perfect timing.

“Come here, miss maid.”

I wanted to ignore him.

‘To properly scout what kind of guy he is, I’ll need some interaction.’

I set down the laundry basket midway and approached Lu. In a voice that even I could hear was sullen, I said curtly,

“Daisy.”

Lu, who had been bent over by the front steps, turned to me with puzzled eyes. Facing his dazzling face, I opened my mouth again.

“My name.”

“……Ah.”

Lu stood before me with that habitual soft smile of his.

“Alright, Miss Maid Daisy. Three days in, and we’re finally exchanging proper introductions. I can only call this progress magnificent.”

If every word he said sounded like mockery, was it the speaker’s problem or the listener’s?

“I’m entrusting this flowerpot to you.”

I unwittingly took the small reddish-brown flowerpot Lu held out. At a glance, it was filled with high-quality moist soil.

“Entrusting it?”

“Make a flower bloom in this pot somehow. But no transplanting. Start from seeds, not seedlings.”

“Me? Why?”

When I asked incredulously, Lu replied as if I’d asked something obvious.

“Didn’t you say you were curious? About me.”

What did that have to do with flowers?

“Coincidentally, my identity is a very, extremely, eye-rollingly tremendous secret. I’m not inclined to reveal it for free to just anyone. So in that sense, blooming a flower seems a rather modest price, don’t you think?”

I glared at the flowerpot now cradled in my arms, my brows furrowed deeply.

‘Why flowers of all things?’

This wasn’t child’s play.

Was he toying with me now?

‘At this point?’

This flowerpot was Lu’s first plausible response to my suspicions and distrust. Unlike the first day, he wasn’t ignoring me; it was the sole reaction he’d given, with the condition of hearing an answer.

Refusing out of annoyance might be foolish.

“If you don’t like it, 500 gold.”

“……500 gold?”

“The fee for hearing the secret without blooming the flower.”

This con artist must be insane. Where was I supposed to get 500 gold? Did he think that fortune grew by digging up dirt? I couldn’t earn that even working as a maid for a hundred years!

I hugged the flowerpot tightly with both arms and answered.

“I’ll do it.”

“Good thinking.”

“Keep your promise.”

Lu, smiling warmly, patted my head lightly. It was the lightest and most natural smile among those he’d shown.

“You got it, Miss Maid Daisy. I look forward to seeing what flower you bloom.”

Annoying bastard.

I glared at Lu’s broad back, then set the flowerpot back in its place and returned to gathering the laundry.

For now, I decided to put investigating Lu on hold.

I hadn’t given up on uncovering his identity. I’d just taken one step back.

In conclusion, as the head maid said, the best course was to watch him for the time being.

I had no one to investigate Lu behind the scenes, no funds for it, the man himself wasn’t one to open up easily, and he wasn’t someone I could subdue and force to talk.

‘Besides, my suspicions are just a hunch. He hasn’t done anything wrong yet.’

Focusing more on Lu would be a waste of mental energy and time. For now, I’d settle for cooperating with the butler assassin.

I’d grown accustomed enough to maid work, so now it was time to focus on gathering information about Dian Ket’s relic.

Everything has its priorities, after all.

“Have you gathered all the laundry, Daisy?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll handle sorting it. Go buy the ingredients. The list and money are in the kitchen.”

“Yes.”

As I left the mansion, I checked the ingredients to buy. It was the same list as before, except eggs had been added.

There was no meat again this time, but I wasn’t too disappointed. Lu would surely fill the table satisfyingly even without it.

He knew how to cook.

That talent was his one and only redeeming quality.

Before entering the market, I stopped in front of a scrawny old man crouched in a narrow alley, selling dingy vegetables.

‘Hmm.’

The potatoes looked in poor condition, but I decided to buy them.

It was because the old man’s shabby appearance tugged at me, and with the cook’s decent skills, subpar ingredients shouldn’t be an issue.

“Seven potatoes.”

The old man, who had been dozing with his head bobbing, snapped his eyes open and looked up at me.

“Eh? Oh, a customer at last.”

This old man wouldn’t head home until he sold a certain amount of potatoes.

“Thank you, miss. Come again.”

The frail old man bowed repeatedly to me, expressing his gratitude.

After paying for the potatoes, I turned toward the market and counted them as I walked.

‘One, two, three…… eight.’

Eight, not seven. The old man must have miscounted.

I turned back to return one.

In the meantime, new people had taken positions in the alley, which had been empty except for me and the old man.

It was somehow an eyesore.

“Hey! This granny finally made some money.”

Three burly men surrounded the old man selling potatoes.

The largest in the middle held out his palm toward the old man.

“Hand it over.”

“P-please, sir. Just give me one month…….”

“Merchant Union dues are over a week late. You thought hiding here and selling would get you out of paying?”

“Union this, union that—I’m just an old man doing small business. I’ve told you I didn’t join…….”

In an instant, the man’s leg kicked roughly at the old man clutching his pant leg.

The scrawny old man tumbled to the ground without even a scream. His forehead, where he’d grabbed, was torn by the shoe heel and bleeding.

Not satisfied, the burly man mercilessly stomped on the old man’s hunched back.

“You damn geezer, if you can’t pay dues, quit selling or get out of our turf!”

Ptooey! The man who spat hiked up his pants and hawked phlegm onto the trembling old man’s back.

“Whatever. We’ll be back tomorrow at the same time. Be ready.”

With that, the old man’s meager earnings vanished into greedy hands.

I looked at the old man’s pitiful potatoes. Not even twenty of them. After I took eight, barely ten remained, and a couple had green sprouts.

This old man wasn’t selling potatoes for luxury. He sold them to avoid starving. He spent half a day peddling them just to get through one more day.

Look at that gaunt body. If he couldn’t sell even one day, he’d starve and fall ill for sure. Two days without sales, and he’d be too weak to move. Three days, and he’d be at death’s door.

These men were killing him in the end. Claiming ownership of the streets that belonged to no one.

“Hey.”

The men turned to me.

“What?”

I asked them sincerely.

“Why’d you crawl out of the trash can?”

The boss trash, brows twisting viciously, waddled toward me.

“You crazy bitch, do you know where you are? Hey, looking at your clothes, you’re a maid or something. What makes you act so cocky? Want me to make sure you can’t walk these streets anymore? Huh?”

I carefully examined the smug face, then nodded.

Perfect timing, boys. I’ve been pretty stressed these past few days.

I immediately raised my hand and lightly struck the boss trash’s face.

“Guhk.”

He crashed into the wall and collapsed, eyes rolling back as he passed out.

I did the same to the second trash, who stood there dumbfounded.

“Kek.”

Only then did the third trash snap out of it and flee without looking back.

Catch him or not? The dilemma was brief. Instead of chasing, I crouched by the old man and rummaged through the boss trash’s pockets eagerly.

“Oh.”

A wad of bills poked out. Was this the dues for that Merchant Union they forced on people? It was basically protection money. And not a small amount either.

“Miss, get up quick. You need to run before the others come, okay? Hurry.”

The old man, barely pulling himself together, was shocked I’d taken down two grown men but hurried to pull me up and usher me out of the alley.

Every time he wiped his bleeding forehead, his sleeve stained red.

“They’re real scary folks, so never come back here. An old fart like me dying is no big deal, but if a young miss like you gets mixed up in trouble, your parents would be heartbroken.”

The wrinkled hand gripping my arm still trembled faintly.

Fear etched directly into the body doesn’t fade easily.

I gazed at the old man’s tense face, then brushed off the potatoes that had been trampled and scattered on the ground.

If I let this slide today, people like this old man would suffer again.

Trash like them always worked that way. They took out their anger on the weak. They might jack up the protection money, using the violence as an excuse while stewing over what happened to them.

The victims would suffer more, and this old man would end up leaving the city.

“Granny.”

“Didn’t I say run?”

“Do you know where these guys hang out?”

The old man looked at me questioningly and pointed across the paved road toward the market, at a clean-looking one-story shop.

『Pub Piece of Land』

The suspicious tavern gave off just the vibe for thugs who bullied the weak.

Strange, really.

As far as I knew, pubs in the empire were such places.

Spaces for hometowns and people.

Especially in the empire’s south, under Great Mage Mephisto’s influence, pubs were practically bases for volunteer militias who gathered to protect their hometowns.

Those who gathered at pubs took up arms to defend their hometowns, families, and friends. Pubs near the front lines even pooled resources from the village for supplies. In my memories, their faces were filled with pride and pathos.

‘And now, Merchant Union.’

It might actually be useful to me, at least. Especially for gathering information.

I returned the potato money scattered on the ground to the old man.

“Don’t come sell tomorrow. Okay?”

Then I tore off part of the bill wad and stuffed it into the old man’s palm.

“Get that forehead wound treated before it festers. Okay?”

I dragged the two downed trash deep into the alley, pocketed the bill wad against my chest, and headed back to the market.