Chapter 18
Episode 18
"Since I'm not on bedroom duty, I didn't receive prior notice...... I'm sorry."
An incredulous expression crossed his face at my shameless response.
However, I maintained an innocent, clueless facade.
"Do you not know what bedroom attendance means?"
"Cleaning the bedroom and attending to or assisting the Marquis...... isn't it?"
I'm pure...... pure......
I repeated the words inwardly like a mantra.
Arjen fell silent for a moment.
What on earth was the problem?
"No. Just go."
"......Is it alright if I don't attend to the bedroom?"
"I've changed my mind about wanting it."
He seemed to dislike the idea of me changing the bedsheets.
I understood what Arjen meant, but since I'd decided to play dumb, I interpreted it that way.
I nodded as if I understood.
"Then I'll take my leave."
Pretending not to notice Arjen's dumbfounded face, I closed the door and left.
Now I just needed to deliver Rihart's meal and retrieve the potatoes he'd peeled.
Tomorrow would be the last day of my precarious meal duty.
* * *
The Guard had been imprisoned that day and escaped just moments ago.
He couldn't die like this.
Using the connections he'd built up, he begged for mercy from them and successfully left the Evantes Marquis Family unscathed.
Though Rosie hadn't revealed he was a spy for now, she might spill it at any moment.
He immediately sent a 'message' to the designated location, and soon received a reply directing him to a remote cabin.
His employers who had sent him to Evantes were waiting in the cabin. He didn't know who they were.
As long as he got paid.
Two robed men were in the cabin.
One lounged arrogantly with legs crossed and back against the chair, while the other stood beside him, quietly attending.
They were undoubtedly high-ranking figures, whoever they were.
Realizing he might lose his head for returning without results, the Guard dropped to his knees the moment he saw them.
And confessed every single fact without omission.
Among them, he didn't skip the stories about Rosie and Marie. It was to make excuses that they had ruined his mission.
"Rosie?"
But the man who had been sitting in the chair the whole time reacted to an unexpected part.
"Yes, that's right. If it weren't for that maid......"
"What does she look like?"
The Guard was puzzled. Why ask that?
"Master, it's probably just a coincidence with the same name."
"Daring to question my inquiry—are you climbing too high?"
When the presumed servant answered for the seated man, a chilling voice replied.
"Of course not. I merely stated my thoughts."
"Fine. Your thoughts are unnecessary, so you there—the Guard, was it? Now you tell me. What does Rosie look like?"
Was the Rosie that man knew no ordinary person?
"She had pink hair and pink eyes. A haughty look like a cat......"
The Guard racked his brain to recall Rosie's face and described everything he knew. Rosie's striking appearance was vividly etched in his mind.
"I see?"
Strangely, the seated man looked satisfied with the Guard's words.
He felt he'd survive, whatever it was.
"I hear the Evantes Marquis Family is holding a banquet soon."
Arjen Evantes enjoyed luxuries and often hosted parties.
They were gatherings attended by high nobles, a dream for all nobility.
"Shall we attend?"
The man spoke as if getting an invitation to a party even prominent nobles struggled for was as easy as lifting a finger.
......Definitely someone of high status.
"Master......"
"My sister might have run there and be working as a maid, after all."
He giggled as if it were highly amusing.
At that moment, a single thought struck the Guard's mind.
Pink hair, pink eyes—his sister.
The Herthas Count Family's bounty for their escaped sister.
No way......
The moment he grasped the identity of the man before him, his eyes met the red ones peeking through the robe.
At that instant, the captivatingly beautiful eyes curved.
"Deal with him, Asel."
The man casually sentenced the Guard to death.
"W-Wait a moment......"
"......"
"P-Please spare me! Eek!"
The Guard let out a bizarre scream and tried to crawl away on all fours, but a chilling wind passed behind his neck.
Yurta looked down pitifully at the foaming, fainted Guard.
"Remove him."
"Understood."
Watching the Guard being dragged away, Yurta murmured languidly.
"Whether slave or whatever, I hope I meet Sis this time."
Sis, my patience isn't infinite.
* * *
Under the clear blue sky, a girl with lovely pink hair stood blankly.
"Rose......"
The girl murmured dazedly. It was her name.
Rose. A rose.
It was the name her stepfather had given her the moment she entered the 'Herthas Count Family.'
Her eyes, reflected in the candlelight illuminating the dark room, shone a vivid red, reminiscent of a rose.
Thus, her name became Rose.
Her original name had been 'Rosie.' Her stepfather deemed it lowly and gave her a new one.
But Rose thought it didn't matter what her name changed to.
Rose was thirteen years old.
She gazed at the world with dark, shadowed eyes unbefitting her young age.
"This is my name......"
The girl's lips twisted. She wanted to claw at the name until it bled, if it had form.
As her boiling rage subsided, a sharp 'thwack!' struck her head, shaking her mind.
Thud.
The girl's body collapsed powerlessly onto the grass. Warm blood trickled from her head.
Rose looked up at the brown-haired boy who had hit her.
"What kind of vermin comes into our house."
The brown-haired boy glared at Rose with unfiltered disgust.
Despite the chilling gaze, Rose merely looked at the boy's burning heart with bored eyes.
This only worsened the already foul mood of the brown-haired boy.
"Where do you get off with eyes like that?"
"Get lost."
"What?"
"I said get lost."
Rose found the brown-haired boy's nagging extremely irritating.
She wasn't afraid of his violence. What she truly feared was something else.
"How dare you......!"
"Brother."
At that moment, a calm voice stopped the boy.
The boy's hand halted in mid-air, unable to strike Rose.
Frustrated, he twisted his face.
"Trying to hit Sis again."
"This wench has no manners! I was just going to discipline her a bit......"
"Brother."
Once more, the calm voice cut off the brown-haired boy.
Though younger than the brown-haired boy, it held power to subdue him.
"Go inside."
"......You, Yurta."
"I won't say it twice."
The brown-haired boy feared Yurta.
His raw emotions were plainly visible in his eyes.
The brown-haired boy obeyed Yurta.
He wouldn't listen when she told him to get lost......
Even the usually taciturn Rose felt subtly upset.
As the brown-haired boy vanished from view, Yurta approached Rose with leisurely steps.
"Sis."
"......"
"I just saved you. Aren't you going to say anything to me?"
Rose thought.
A more annoying one has come.
She shook her aching head in annoyance and staggered to her feet.
Then, just as she had to the brown-haired boy moments ago, she spat the same words.
"Get lost."
The boy let out a short laugh at Rosie's words.
But Rose wasn't fooled by his shallow pretense. Finally, like thin glass cracking, a fissure appeared in Yurta's affability.
"Ah, this is annoying."
And so hell began.
