Chapter 36
Chapter 36. If you don't like it
"Ah, that dog."
"Do you know that dog, Madam?"
"I heard His Highness raised him, is that right?"
Yuan slowly approached the dog, shaking the jerky Ralph had given her to eat when she was bored. He had deliberately lowered the salt content to feed it to Yuan as soon as it was made.
The dog tucked its tail between its legs and hesitated.
Yuan, thinking it must be timid despite its handsome appearance, carefully placed the jerky in front of it and took a few steps back, crouching down.
"Henna. Do you know this dog's name?"
When Henna didn't answer, Yuan briefly turned her head to look up at Henna, who was close by. Henna hesitated, looking at the dog, and then answered in a whisper.
"It's Oliver, Madam."
"Oliver."
As soon as it heard its name, the dog perked up its pointed ears once and then slowly unfurled its curled tail, wagging it gently. Yuan let out a sigh of relief and spoke softly.
"Oliver, I'm going to clean your house now. I'm asking for permission."
Oliver lowered its head, sniffing, and then lowered its body, folding its ears back.
"I'll take it that you're giving me permission if you eat this."
Finally, Oliver lightly touched its tongue to the jerky placed in front of it and began to chew it, smacking its lips.
In that gap, Yuan carefully reached out her hand. Oliver instantly lowered its posture, rejecting the touch, but didn't completely avoid it.
Respecting Oliver, Yuan didn't bother to pat its head and just quietly watched. The dog hesitated as if it would run away with the jerky, but eventually placed it near Yuan and ate it deliciously.
"...Oliver doesn't seem to dislike you, Madam."
"Henna?"
Yuan jumped up at the tearful voice.
Henna, clutching the Cleaning Potion, had her head bowed low. Thick tears dripped down from under her bowed head.
"Oliver seems to like you, Madam. Hwaaaah-!!"
At the same time.
Hille finished his morning rounds, pretending not to notice the chilling aura Klaud had been emitting all morning.
"I will bring you the newly made Painkiller before dinner. You seem to be sleeping well, so your complexion is bright, and there is nothing particularly lacking."
"It's always the same words."
"……Pardon?"
"Record what has changed significantly from usual while sitting in that corner."
"……Pardon?"
"Don't speak. Shut up and close your ears too. Don't wander around unnecessarily."
While Hille was dumbfounded by the absurd order.
The butler came in with lunch.
One might expect him to be pleased that the meal had arrived, but as soon as the door opened, Klaud turned sharply towards it, scanned the butler holding the tray, and made a displeased face.
Then, before the butler could be embarrassed by his unkind gaze, he rested his chin on his hand and cast his gaze towards the window.
"Should I decorate the garden?"
Klaud, who had been scanning the garden with dry eyes, suddenly uttered a soliloquy like a sigh.
As Gustav placed the dishes, looking puzzled, Klaud answered himself.
"It's almost spring."
Since when have you been interested in the garden? The butler stared at Klaud's face, who didn't seem interested in the food, for a long time before asking, just in case.
"……Shall I show you the relevant budget proposal?"
"Do as you please."
The butler hurriedly took out a thick file that he had been holding under his arm.
It was difficult to lower the corners of his lips, which were trying to creep upwards even as he tried to hide them.
For the first time in 10 years since Klaud had collapsed, he had been told to bring his work.
It was work that Lev's brothers and the butler had been dividing for 10 years.
Come to think of it, since the new Madam had entered the Mansion, Klaud's usually sensitive aura had gradually weakened, and the time he was awake during the day had increased. The amount of Painkiller that Hille filled in from time to time had also decreased slightly.
"There are budget proposals and execution details regarding the garden and the exterior of the Mansion in the second marked place."
"Ah, don't draw the curtains."
Gustav, who was about to draw the curtains for Klaud, whose brow was furrowed because of the pouring sunlight, stopped in his tracks.
"If you're going to draw them, only draw half of them, just the light coming into my face."
"?"
"……Because I have to read."
Even an excuse he wasn't asked for.
As if avoiding the butler's strange gaze, Klaud needlessly threatened Hille, who was stuck in the corner.
"Eyeglasses doctor. You run to the console and take out the Painkiller if I feel even a little bit of pain."
After the meal.
Klaud hesitated for a moment towards the butler, who was diligently clearing the table, and then slowly furrowed his eyebrows.
"What is she doing?"
"Who are you referring to?"
"……The Deposed Empress."
As the butler's smile deepened even more than before, Klaud hurriedly lowered his gaze to the budget proposal.
"No, never mind. Don't say it. She's probably wandering around again or trying to help and making a fuss."
Klaud, who had answered himself, twirled a quill pen with his long fingers and then scribbled numbers, estimating the personnel employment budget to the maximum. It was a nervous hand movement.
The butler, who had been smiling as if his mouth would reach his ears, took the budget proposal file and the empty dishes that Klaud had handed back and left.
Hille, who was suddenly left alone with Klaud, stammered as Klaud went to the rocking chair with hasty steps and stretched out his body.
"T, the weather is very nice. Your Highness. It seems that the days are getting a little longer as winter is about to end."
"Damn it. The days are disgustingly long."
A nervous answer flew back immediately to the light weather talk.
Hille blinked his pitifully drooping eyes and stammered.
"I, is there anything in the evening……."
"I told you not to listen, eyeglasses doctor."
A gaze as sharp as the answer was poured out on Hille.
"Don't go out, just stay there and watch my mood. If you want to go out, pray for the sun to set quickly."
Hille was on the verge of tears.
Oliver was circling around Henna, who was crying her eyes out. Seeing how friendly they seemed, it seemed that Henna had been taking care of Oliver all along.
Yuan, who had comforted Henna, who had been crying sadly for a long time, pretended not to notice her starting to feel embarrassed.
She had been counting bricks one by one before giving up and squatting down at the end. Henna, embarrassed that she had suddenly burst into tears, desperately wiped her face and spoke to her as if nothing had happened.
"Sniff. Madam, if you squat like that, your knees won't be good when you get old."
"Where did you hear that?"
"From my grandmother."
"You have a grandmother too?"
Henna didn't answer again.
The young maid has so many secrets.
Yuan recalled Henna's actions when she saw Oliver today, and Henna's expression when she was brought to this west Annex, and vowed to ask her properly someday.
Yuan, who had diluted the Cleaning Potion in a small bucket filled with water, dipped a brush in it and started brushing, ignoring Henna's dissuasion that she would do it.
"Wow!"
When she scrubbed, almost scraping off the black ash, the original red brick revealed its flesh. Furthermore, it became shiny after rubbing it a few more times.
Yuan wiped it repeatedly three or four times until not a single grain of ash remained. The red brick was so bright that it looked as if it had been newly built, not just wiped clean.
"Wow, Madam!"
If she gradually changed it back to its former red and beautiful appearance like this, Klaud wouldn't be able to resist coming to see it.
"Madam! It's so amazing!"
"Right? I'm going to try to erase it little by little from today."
"I'll help too!"
"No. I'll do it alone."
"Yes? Why?"
"You and the other servants are always busy and tired with the main Mansion's work, how can I make you do even this?"
Henna quickly agreed, recalling her tight daily routine.
However, she hesitated, fidgeting with her fingers, as if she didn't like the idea of making the precious Madam do such work. She seemed to be looking for the right words to stop the Madam.
"I'm doing it as exercise. And-."
Yuan carefully took out the words she had buried deep in her heart.
It was a word that would be enough to break Henna's insistence on not making Yuan do chores, along with the butler.
"I want to clean it all up and make it pretty with my own strength and show it to Your Highness. Like a gift."
"Heop-!"
"Do you…… understand what I mean?"
Henna, who was about to shout "Kyaaah," pressed her small hands tightly over her mouth and nodded vigorously. Large eyes sparkled towards Yuan from above her covered hands.
Yuan diligently brushed while sending Henna back to the main Mansion first.
It was partly because she didn't want to take up Henna's time, and partly to hide her face, which had unknowingly turned red.
"It's harder than I thought."
Yuan sighed lowly and looked at the bricks, about twenty of which had now regained their color.
As she stood up to stretch her stiff back, she looked up at the sky and saw that the sun still had no intention of setting.
-"Beeep-. Beeep-."
Then, following the sound that suddenly came from nearby, she followed the gaze, and surprisingly, Oliver was sitting far away, looking at her.
"Oliver?"
Oliver moved his ears once and then turned his head as if his business was over.
That's right.
There's no way he'd open his heart already.
Both his appearance and personality are subtly similar to his owner.
Thinking that she should ask Klaud about Oliver someday, Yuan shifted her gaze to where Oliver was lying down and staring endlessly.
……It was towards Klaud's bedroom.
Her heart tingled.
Is that dog waiting for his owner, who doesn't look for him, like that every day?
"Oliver. Your owner is just a bit bad-tempered, but he likes you."
Oliver perked up his ears a few times.
The dog's gaze was still directed towards Klaud's bedroom.
"……He wouldn't even keep you if he didn't like you."
She spoke almost in a whisper at the end.
Yuan covered her ears, which were turning red again, with both hands and squatted down again, noisily shaking off the strange feeling.
Each time she brushed, the old black stains were cleaned away.
'I wish the sun would set quickly.'
She didn't know why.
It was just that when the sun set, the time would come when Klaud would need her, and Yuan would be able to cross the threshold of that bedroom without the excuse of preparing a meal.
