A small card fell to the floor; it seemed to have been wrapped in the dress. I didn’t even need to pick it up to read it because it’d fallen with the right side facing up.
Congratulations on your engagement. You forgot the things you’ll need to work at the count’s castle.
This was my mother’s handwriting.
Suddenly, I heard feminine voices snickering; I could make out two of them. Mio threw my dress to the floor and rushed to the corridor. Before I could count to three, the snickering stopped, and I heard screams instead.
In between the door and me was Thomas, who was still crouching down fearfully. He looked at me, then outside the room, in utter confusion.
“I-I-I’m so sorry! I messed up, didn’t I?” he asked, panic in his voice. “And what’s with that crate? Why was it filled with trash?”
“Madam, please don’t worry about the mess,” Toppo said. “Toppo will clean it all up. We’ll put it all in Toppo’s furnace and let it burn until only the ashes are left.”
“Good idea. Throw these two in the fire while you’re at it,” Mio said, dragging Hanna and Ilsa into the room with her.
Her hold on them seemed to be very strong, and they whined in pain. Mio unceremoniously threw them to the floor. While her eyes were usually a clear blue resembling a placid lake, they were presently burning with rage so fierce I could’ve sworn her irises had been dyed crimson.
“What are you doing? It hurts!” Hanna complained.
“Don’t you know who we are?” Ilsa added. “You’re just some waiting maid! Know your place!”
Except for the storm in her eyes, Mio’s expression was perfectly blank—no trace of anger, and no smile either.
“The two of you are waiting maids. I’m the grand chamberlain of this castle,” she replied indifferently.
“That doesn’t matter! We used to serve the third-eldest prince, in the royal palace! Now we serve the richest man of the kingdom—a future duke!”
“And I’m that future duke’s grand chamberlain,” Mio said.
“You just got the job because you’ve been here for ages. We, on the other hand, have been personally handpicked by the count. He even decided to have us serve him personally from now on while you have to pick up after the stupid daughter of some poor baron!”
“I made that call.”
Neither Hanna nor Ilsa seemed to have any interest in listening to Mio, and they started laughing without drawing the logical conclusions that should have followed her statement.
“What a pitiful woman, don’t you think, Hanna? I’ve heard rumors, you know. They she’s a bastard that barbarian duchess had with a customer back when she was just a whore! The only reason she’s here now is that she was along for the ride when the duke married his concubine!”
“Oh my! That’s even worse than I thought. And here I thought the duchess had just plucked some pitiful orphan girl off the side of the road!”
“Who knows? Either way, she’s just some dirty commoner with no family name. She never should have been allowed to become a waiting maid.”
“You’re completely right, Ilsa! Her life simply doesn’t carry the same worth as ours.”
Hanna and Ilsa were still sitting on the floor, their mouths wide open as they laughed incredibly loudly. Mio glared down at them, her posture perfectly straight. She didn’t move, but I noticed the corners of her mouth lifting almost imperceptibly.
“I see… The two of you are a lot stupider than I thought.”
“Wh-what?!” Ilsa screamed, raising her hand to strike Mio.
Wait! You’re going to get hurt! I thought, but I didn’t have the time to stop her.
Ilsa’s body spun in the air, and she hit the ground with a loud thud. She let out a pained croak like a frog being crushed before falling completely silent. Hanna goggled and her mouth went agape as she watched the scene unfold.
“I’ll take care of you too while I’m at it,” Mio said, picking Hanna up and hurling her into the corridor.
My room, which had been very lively moments prior, was now oddly quiet.
Mio bowed to me lower than she ever had before and apologized. She told me this was her fault for failing to supervise the servants under her care. Then she assured me she’d have everything cleaned up as soon as possible and provide me with new things if I needed them. Last, but the not least, she informed me she was going to “knock the lord awake.”
Thomas and Toppo, who seemed to finally understand what was going on, tried their best to comfort me. Toppo told me he’d bake me more sweets, while Thomas started singing a song from his birthplace. Apparently, people sang it to uplift others when they felt sad.
They didn’t need to worry, though. “Don’t worry. I’m perfectly fine,” I said with a smile. This time, I wasn’t forcing myself at all. “And Mio, you don’t need to apologize. Actually, I have a request.”
“Of course, my lady. Anything you want.”
“Could you lend me scissors, a needle, and some thread? I’ve come up with a good idea.”
Everyone stared at me with confusion. They all looked so funny that I laughed despite myself.
In the mornings, Johan watered the flowers, and in the evenings, he went around weeding. During the afternoon, he took care of the vegetable garden. Such was Johan’s daily life in a nutshell.
Naturally, he didn’t do everything alone, but I still thought that he was remarkably hardworking for coordinating everyone else and making sure the vast garden of the estate remained in good condition.
I spotted him, his rounded back curled over as he observed the new sprouts, and I called out to him.
He turned around and seemed very surprised to see me.
“M-madam?! What brings you here?”
“You told me you’d show me around the vegetable garden, did you not? I really, really want to see it.”
After playing that game with Lord Kyros last night, I’d realized there were things I like—namely, I loved growing vegetables, and I loved eating them. I’d always thought I was only eating vegetables for every meal because vegetable scraps were all that remained of everyone else’s meals and because our house had been too poor for me to afford anything else, but actually, that wasn’t quite it. At the end of the day, I just genuinely liked vegetables. I liked eating them, and I liked getting them to grow with my own two hands. I even liked getting my hands dirty in the process of tending to the plants.
I was starting to realize that all that time, I’d actually only been using selling vegetables as an excuse to spend more time gardening. But since I was completely self-taught, I’d never been very good at it, and always produced terrible yields. All things considered, it seemed reasonable enough to think I’d persisted in spite of my failures due to all the fun I was having!
Since I’d always felt forced to keep myself busy, I’d never noticed that aspect of my personality. However, being made to refrain from my duties had finally brought me some clarity.
There really are things I love!
As I approached the field, Johan started panicking. “Madam! Please be careful! I just watered, so your hands and your shoes will get dirty!”
I laughed softly and pointed at my feet. “It’s fine.”
I wasn’t wearing a fancy dress, but rather comfortable loungewear with a short hem. I had rolled up my sleeves and was wearing used work gloves. From the knees down, I also had the perfect barricade against dirt: bands of old fabric rolled around in the shape of long socks. They covered my shoes too.
“I’ve dressed for the occasion, so it’s perfectly all right if I get dirty. Besides, these things belong to me, not to the castle, so there won’t be an issue even if I damage them.”
Johan squinted, but after seeing me take a few steps out onto the soil, he gave up. He let out a long breath and said, “If you were just worried about dirtying your fine clothes, you could have said so. I could have given you as many pairs of shoes we servants use as you like.”
“Ah! That’s a good point. I could have simply asked for some!”
“Please let us know what you need, madam,” he said, then shrugged. “Oh well, it all worked out either way. Come, follow me. I was about to get started on the eggplants. There are blossoms to trim.”
“I’m fairly good at growing eggplants! May I help you?”
“Oh? Let’s see what you can do, then,” Johan said, turning to me. His suntanned face wrinkled and his abundant gray beard and mustache shook as he laughed.
“I’m sorry if I sounded rude,” Johan told me.
As a refugee from the Banderi states, his Diltsian was sometimes a little clumsy. He had also never learned how to speak in the mild, pleasant way nobles liked so much. He’d worked under several houses before coming here, but no matter how well he’d done his job, people always ridiculed him. Sometimes, they’d even subjected him to harsh criticism for no reason at all. Apparently, he’d once been fired because his employer was convinced that he was liable to steal from them or attack their daughter. Needless to say, Johan himself had no idea why he’d even been accused of such things.