Chapter 37
37
‘I shouldn’t worry, but I can’t help it. But if I went to join them right now, I’d probably be chased away.’
I don’t want that.
Nina pouted.
‘Still, Lord Louis went with him…….’
“Huh?”
“Why? What’s wrong?”
Nina chuckled at Jin, who only used honorifics when he felt like it.
Well, whatever.
“I need to let Lord Louis know that a guest is coming, but Lord Louis followed Young Master, didn’t he?”
“Isn’t that what Commander was going to talk about?”
Nina’s eyes widened at Jin’s words.
“Me?”
“Yes, so, damn it, I’ll just drop the formalities when it’s just us.”
“Go ahead.”
“But if I speak informally when other guys are around, I’ll give you a silver coin each time.”
“Deal!”
Nina quickly raised her hand, and Jin raised his hand with a determined look.
They slapped their palms together to seal the promise.
Jin cleared his throat and said,
“His Excellency and Lord Louis are both away, so you, as the Commander of the Knights, are the highest-ranking person in our castle right now.”
“Huh? Ah? Wow, really?”
Me? I’m the highest authority?
Nina started walking again, racking her brain.
She arrived at the executive office but didn’t sit down.
Jin took her long coat as she entered the room.
Leaning against the desk, Nina called the butler.
The butler, Smith, rushed over.
“Greetings, Commander.”
He bowed politely. Nina smiled brightly and said,
“A distinguished guest is coming tomorrow. I need to prepare a room, so prepare the corner room on the east side of the third floor. Leave the cleaning to Margaret and Anne.”
Nina counted on her fingers as she spoke.
“Tell John and Bobby to move the heavy furniture. Margaret and Anne will know how to handle them well.”
Butler Smith looked dumbfounded at Nina’s words. Nina asked,
“Is something wrong?”
“Ah, no. It’s just that you know all their names…….”
“There are only twenty people? It doesn’t make sense not to know the people you eat and sleep with in the castle. How can I sleep soundly if I don’t even know what’s under my feet?”
Smith bowed, replying, “Th, that’s right,” at Nina’s straightforward words.
“Is that all you wanted to say?”
“Yeah. For now.”
Smith quietly retreated at Nina’s words. Nina rested her chin on her hand.
“This is a problem.”
“What is? Because of the sage coming tomorrow? Is he coming alone?”
“No, it’s because of the servants working in the castle. No one knows how to treat nobles properly. Smith is the only one who’s somewhat decent?”
“Well, they’ve never been trained, and they’re all from the village below the castle.”
“That’s right. That’s the problem. Etiquette is for me as much as it is for the other person.”
Etiquette is a weapon to protect oneself from nobles.
By having proper etiquette, one can escape the attacks of nobles and gain justification.
It’s a fight for the weak, but that’s why it’s even more necessary.
“I need to hire new servants too. Training them will take time. If only well-trained servants would just fall from the sky……. Huh.”
Could there be?
Wait a minute.
Think, Nina.
Remember, remember it!!
Nina groaned, pulling at her pigtails.
Ignoring Jin, who asked with a suspicious look, “Nina, are you okay?” Nina pulled her hair even harder.
It feels like I’ll remember something if I do this…….
“The Chara Baronetcy!!”
Nina shouted. Jin, surprised, asked back,
“The Chara Baronetcy? What about that baronet? What’s going on?”
Nina smiled slyly and replied,
“A place where lots of good servants will come from.”
Jin looked dubious, but Nina wore a confident expression.
The Chara Baronetcy.
This baronetcy, with the red rose as its family crest, is a family with a long tradition.
Even though the territory is small, it can be said to be a baronetcy with a history.
Of course, the story goes that the heir is a mess and ruins everything.
The baronetcy’s heir is so terrible that he harasses the servants working in the castle, regardless of gender, and frames the protesting servants, kicking them out without letters of recommendation, a story as predictable as a third-rate novel, but quite common in noble society.
Later, when the Chara Baronetcy’s heir becomes the Chara Baron, this story is added when he appears as an extra villain.
An extra villain taken care of by Adrian…….
‘I should look into it. Without a letter of recommendation, it’s almost impossible to get a job in a noble family…….’
Bringing in a servant without a letter of recommendation might be questionable for the Duke’s family.
‘But if Adrian looks into it and likes them, it should be fine.’
I should ask him to look into it, Nina sighed.
‘If I think about this, I should go to the capital.’
Well-trained servants can’t be raised right away, so I have to bring them when I can…….
I need to build up my reputation by then to make things easier.
Until then, I have to make do with the current servants.
‘Well, Randel probably won’t make a fuss about it.’
She thought of Randel, the male lead.
The sages of Bluestone Island often take children with talent from a young age.
Randel has also lived on Bluestone Island since he was young, so this might be his first time coming out.
‘That’s how it was in the original story. He’s coming out sooner.’
\ \ *
Nina checked the room where Randel would be staying in the evening.
It was clean, and the furniture was filled as needed.
Opening the wooden shutters revealed the garden and greenhouse in sight.
I deliberately gave him a room with this view. Since he likes studying plants and animals, it would be nice to have a view of a place he likes.
“I’ve done as much as I can.”
Nina closed the window.
As she checked the room and returned to the Commander’s office, Jin was sitting in the waiting room.
He had taken off his uniform and was wearing comfortable clothes.
“How are the new recruits?”
At Nina’s question, Jin replied, “They all look happy because they passed.”
Nina chuckled and asked, “No complaints about getting beaten up?” as she took off her jacket and threw it to Jin.
“Yes, yes. Commander.”
Jin caught the jacket and stood up, opening the door to the waiting room so she could enter.
Nina entered the Commander’s office and plopped down on the desk, and Jin hung up the jacket.
“They looked like they couldn’t complain even if they had any. They looked curious about what would happen in the future.”
“We need to assign them to the Knights’ quarters and start training. We also need to get them fitted for the Knights’ uniform……. Come to think of it, where do we get our Knights’ uniform made?”
Nina tilted her head as she untied her shoelaces.
“There’s probably a workshop that makes them separately? We use special materials for our clothes.”
“Yeah, they’re specially treated to prevent contamination. Now that I think about it, was this treatment only done on our Knights’ uniforms?”
“Yeah, I heard they use materials from the Violet Forest. Now that I think about it, we’ve been using things from the Violet Forest.”
She heard that the reason why their black uniforms were black was because the raw material was black.
Jin tilted his head and continued,
“No one else would need to use it. Bellac doesn’t appear in the city because of the Barrier.”
“But now Bellac is appearing everywhere because of the Cultists. Ah, really. Why isn’t this being resolved?”
Jin, watching Nina struggling to untie her shoelaces, finally approached, knelt on one knee, placed her foot on his thigh, and untied the laces, saying,
“Are they going to ask us to give it to them? They wouldn’t have the nerve to say such nonsense, no, those nobles have no shame.”
Jin said after emphasizing the aspirated consonants.
“Our Excellency is a special case.”
He untied the other shoelace and lightly flicked Nina’s round knee with his finger, saying, “Can’t you even untie a shoelace properly?”
“I don’t know why it’s not working. Thanks, Jin. I feel alive now that I’ve untied them.”
Nina shook her feet on the desk and threw off her boots. It was an unusual, rude behavior.
Jin smiled wryly and said,
“Don’t worry too much.”
“About what?”
“Your Young Master.”
Nina slyly raised her eyes to look at Jin.
“Is it obvious?”
