Chapter 89
89
"Get me someone reliable. Four, no, five should do."
"What are the conditions?"
"They must be good at housework."
Seria seemed puzzled by my words, but soon nodded.
"Where should I send them?"
"To Count Bartu's residence."
If Leticia didn't have time to meet because she was busy, then I would just have to make time for her.
Leticia blinked as she watched the people who had come to the Bartu residence since morning.
"You've come for an interview?"
"Yes, Young Lady."
A middle-aged woman with a kind face took off her beret and bowed her head lightly. The people who came with her also greeted her with smiles.
It was a strange thing.
She had been putting out employment ads every week, but finding people was like picking stars from the sky because she kept having to let them go due to delayed wages.
No one had even come for an interview for the past three months, but suddenly five people had come in one morning.
Moreover, judging by their age and the calluses on their hands, they seemed to be quite skilled.
"What's going on?"
A voice was heard from above the stairs. It was Count Bartu, coming down with a newspaper in his hand.
Leticia glanced at the people and approached her father, lowering her voice.
"They said they've come for an interview."
"That's good. I was worried about how dirty the mansion was getting, so I can tell them to start working right away from today."
"But there are five of them. It's hard enough to give one person a salary, how can we afford to hire five?"
"Didn't you say that Duke Marche would help us soon? Besides, your brothers are about to graduate, so they'll soon enter the Imperial Palace. All that's left is to count the money, why are you worrying about such trivial things?"
Her father's belief that Duke Marche would help the Bartu family had been going on for four years, but Marche had never helped them even once.
Rather, Bartu's situation was getting worse as they mortgaged their territory to work for Marche.
Leticia knew very well that her father's wish for his sons to enter the Imperial Palace was also just a pipe dream.
They had spent a fortune to put them in a university attended by the children of high-ranking nobles, but her brothers had been postponing their graduation for years.
As Leticia frowned, the Count clicked his tongue and pushed her aside, shouting to the people who had come for the interview.
"Start working right away from today. Start cleaning immediately, and one of you bring tea to the study."
"Father!"
As she shouted, the sound of a child crying was heard from upstairs.
"Don't say useless things, and stop that annoying noise. If you've come back after having a child by shaking your hips lightly, at least don't talk back to your parents."
"……."
As her father clicked his tongue and walked away, Leticia forced herself to move.
When she went up to the room, her five-year-old son was crying with his nose red.
"I'm sorry. Lionel. Mommy shouted and scared you."
The boy wiggled his nose and buried his face in her shoulder.
"Hate Grandpa... he bullies Mommy."
"He may speak harshly, but he has a kind heart."
"Always lying... Grandpa's a bad person, but you say he's good, and he said he'd take me out to play, but he went out alone yesterday."
"Okay, let's go out today."
"Really?"
"Yes. So, my baby, stop crying now and let's change your clothes."
"Okay!"
The boy, as if he had never cried, jumped up and ran to the closet.
'I need to get a transcription job too.'
If she crossed the deserted Roselle Bridge and went around to the shopping district, she could go to the transcription room without her child's existence being discovered.
Leticia dressed her child and secretly slipped out through the back door.
Lionel walked on his own for the first ten minutes or so, but soon got tired and started to whine. The thought of carrying the heavy child and walking for more than four hours to the transcription room made her feel faint.
It was then.
"Dubled's Young Lady Bartu!"
A youthful voice was heard.
When she turned her head, LeBlaine Dubled, wearing a black hat that covered her ears and a bright yellow long coat, was waving her hands wildly.
"Where are you going?"
"Ah, to the shopping district……."
"I'm going that way too! Would you like to go together? And tell me those old fairy tales again!"
Behind LeBlaine was a luxurious and enormous ebony carriage that was hard to see even in The Capital.
"But……."
"By the way, who is that child?"
Leticia flinched. She wondered how she should explain, but LeBlaine continued, saying, "Ah."
"A cousin? Did I guess right!"
"……."
"The child must be cold. Let's go together. Our carriage is very warm."
Just then, Lionel coughed.
'It seems there are no adults. I can explain the situation well to Dubled's Young Lady.'
Leticia followed the child, who was pulling her along, as if she couldn't resist.
So that child is Lionel Rocart, the Grand Duke's only son.
The child was gaping at Dubled's carriage. It seemed he had never ridden in such a carriage before.
"Hello?"
The child flinched when I spoke.
"……Hello."
I chuckled and took out a cookie from the small bag I was carrying.
"Here."
"……."
"This is delicious. Eat it."
The child looked at his mother as if asking if it was okay. Leticia smiled faintly and said, "Say thank you."
"Thank you……."
The child took a bite of the cookie and widened his eyes. Then he devoured the whole thing in an instant.
"I've never eaten anything so delicious before……."
"Come to my house! There are even more delicious things."
"Really? But what's your name?"
Leticia was flustered and quietly called her son, "Lionel."
"You shouldn't be rude to someone you've just met. She's Dubled's Young Lady."
"Young Lady?"
The child looked at me and said that, so I nodded.
"LeBlaine Lisette Dubled."
"I'm Lionel!"
"Nice to meet you, Lionel."
After greeting him, I looked at Leticia.
"Where should I drop you off?"
"I would appreciate it if you could drop me off at the back gate."
Lionel pouted at the mention of the back gate.
"Another transcription room……. I have to be alone again when Sister goes."
It seemed that they had agreed to call her sister in front of people, as Lionel was used to calling her that.
"Then, would you like to stay with me?"
Leticia's eyes widened when I said that.
"I can't trouble you like that."
"I'm fine. I came out to play, but I was lonely because I didn't have any friends. I'll tell Lionel the fairy tales that Young Lady told me."
As I said with a grin, Leticia smiled back at me.
"Thank you so much."
"It's nothing. Can I go to the confectionery store with Lionel?"
"Of course."
As we were talking, the carriage stopped. We got off at the back gate and walked near the transcription room.
While she was at the transcription room, Lionel and I decided to stay at the confectionery store, but before we could even see Leticia off, the child was stuck to the window of the general store next to the confectionery store.
"Wow, wow! I know that! That's really cool!"
I wondered what it was, and it turned out to be a toy bow that was recently popular in The Capital.
When you pull the string of that toy bow, a very, very faint fire or cold energy comes out of the round magic stone attached instead of an arrow.
As it had a magic stone attached, it was naturally the exclusive property of noble children. Of course, it was that expensive.
"Can't I just look at it? Huh? Please?"
Leticia looked troubled as she watched the child start to whine.
There was no way he would just look at it. If he touched it once, he would lie on the floor and whine to buy it.
But Leticia seemed to be a very weak mother to her son.
"We're just going to look at it for a moment. Can you promise?"
"Yes!"
The child answered loudly.
And a little later.
……I knew this would happen.
"Buy it for me~! Buy it for me!!"
"You really!"
Leticia was trying to force the child, who was lying on the floor, to get up.
But Lionel hugged the toy bow for the sample and rolled around on the floor.
Leticia sighed and checked the price tag of the toy bow and flinched.
10,000 francs.
That was an amount she couldn't earn even if she stayed up all night transcribing for a month.
"Get up. Let's come next time."
But how would a child know?
"No. I want you to buy this for me. Please buy it for me……."
Just as the two were struggling, the bell rang, and some well-dressed noble boys came in.
The biggest child walked straight towards us.
Then, he clicked his tongue at Lionel, who was lying on the floor, and picked up a toy bow that was much more expensive than the one the child was hugging.
"Wow! It's a new product. That's the most expensive one that the Hope Merchant Group sells."
"My father said I could buy it."
"What about the one you bought last time?"
"I threw it away. I was done with it after playing with it once."
"Wow, you're so cool! It must be really nice to be rich."
"Not really. Oh, but it's nice not having to roll around on the floor like a beggar asking for a cheap one."
Then the boys looked at Lionel and snickered.
Young Lionel also understood what the boy meant, and stopped whining.
Leticia's face hardened.
"You guys, what are you saying……!"
"Oh? Auntie, you know me."
The big boy looked at Leticia.
"The daughter of that grandfather who came to borrow money from my father last time. What was it? Ba, ba, ba…… Bartu!"
As Leticia stiffened, the boy smiled.
"So you were a beggar after all."
As he was about to pick up the new bow, I snatched it away first!
"I'm going to buy this."
"What? Hey, you little brat! I picked this out first!"
I called the owner of the general store. The middle-aged man who was organizing the display case quickly approached.
"What's the matter?"
"Wrap it up for me."
"Hey! I picked it out first! Mister, sell it to me. Or I'll never come again!"
The boy seemed to be a regular, as the owner was flustered.
"Well, Young Lady, how about you pick something else……."
"I didn't say I was only buying that."
"Yes?"
I took out Dubled's seal and said.
"I'll buy all the toys here."