“Wait a second...” I mumbled, at a complete loss upon seeing the outfit in its full glory.
That bastard!
I left the room and returned to Nadir.
“Hey! What’s the meaning of this?!” I demanded.
Upon seeing me there with the outfit in hand, Nadir clicked his tongue. “You didn’t put it on,” he said.
“Of course I didn’t!” I exclaimed, my face turning red in anger.
The outfit in question was a very frilly maid’s dress, its skirt so short that even bending slightly would’ve no doubt exposed my undergarments.
It was clearly not meant for work.
“You expect me to work in this?!” I asked. “This is blatant harassment!”
“No,” he replied. “I might’ve wanted to see you in it once, that’s all.”
“So you wanted to laugh at me wearing it! You monster!”
This outfit was far too cutesy. It would’ve been perfect for a girl with a more innocent look. Me? Why, I’d put it on, and boom, it’d instantly cancel out the whole allure of the dress. In other words, it didn’t suit me at all. It wasn’t meant for someone with curves.
“Weren’t you selling this outfit?” he asked.
“Urk!”
Indeed, the reason I knew so much about the outfit was the fact it was one of the products I sold as part of my business activities to pay off the debt’s interest. It sold extremely well, in fact.
“This isn’t practical for actual work,” I murmured, returning the outfit to him.
“I see,” he said. “How unfortunate.”
Unfortunate why, exactly?
“In that case, wear this,” he said, handing me a different outfit. “There shouldn’t be an issue with this one.”
This time, I checked the design before leaving the room. I checked it front and back, and it looked like a standard maid uniform.
Relieved, I clutched it to my chest and left Nadir’s chambers for the next room over. There I took off my dress and slipped into the maid outfit. The buttons closed snugly up to my neckline, and the size seemed perfect, which was reassuring.
“Sometimes my chest doesn’t fit,” I muttered to myself. Not many would understand this struggle.
I made my way back to Nadir.
“It fits perfectly!” I announced.
“Hmm.” He looked me up and down as if sizing me up in my new outfit. He sounded disappointed when he mumbled, “It does fit just right. I see.”
“What?” I hadn’t quite caught what he’d said.
Nadir shook his head dismissively. “You may use the room you just changed in as your private chambers.”
“I figured. It looked like a hastily prepared servant’s room.”
The furnishings had been modest for such a wide space; their size didn’t match how large the place was. It was as though they’d just placed furniture meant for servants in a room that hadn’t originally been used for that purpose.
“Wait,” I said. “You want me next door to you?”
“I don’t see the problem,” he replied, snickering at me from his chair. “If anything, it’s more convenient that way.”
Something felt off in the pit of my stomach about this man’s smirk, and my intuition hadn’t been wrong about him so far.
“You’ll be living here from today on,” he said.
I tilted my head, unable to comprehend what he’d just said. “Pardon?”
Nadir shook his head in exasperation. “I mean you’ll be a live-in maid from now on. Is that so hard to grasp?”
“What? Live-in maid? You never said anything about that!” I protested.
“I just did,” he replied calmly.
I mean, yes, I’d thought something was off. The bed in that room was far too good to be just for naps, and the chest could hold multiple changes of clothes, which seemed odd for a servant working only the day shift.
“But I have my parents to take care of,” I said.
All our servants had quit, after all.
My mother had started handling some of the household chores, but she wasn’t quite familiar with them and, given her age, I couldn’t possibly leave all of them to her and saunter off to live elsewhere.
“It’ll be fine,” Nadir assured me, noticing my unease. “Don’t worry. I’ve sent a servant to your home.”
“You’ve what?” I asked, confused. Sending a servant wouldn’t solve anything. We couldn’t afford one.
“Someone who originally worked here,” he explained. “I’ll pay for their services.”
“Wait, but weren’t you short one person here? What’s the point of reducing the number of servants further?”
I thought this was a reasonable question to ask. He’d brought me to work here because he was short one servant, but this arrangement was just a simple swap, meaning he’d still be short one servant. Besides, overall efficiency would be lower due to both of us being in unfamiliar environments, and that would only increase Nadir’s expenses.
“You still don’t get it, do you?” he said, scoffing. “I’m doing this strictly to mess with you.”
I beg your pardon?
“Excuse me, what?” I asked. “You’re making me work as a maid just to mess with me?”
“Indeed.”
“You only want to mess with me,” I repeated.
“Indeed,” he repeated in turn.
“You went as far as to have a room set up just to mess with me.”
“That’s what I’m saying, yes,” he snapped, seeming a bit irritated at my repeated questions.
If that was the reason, that could only mean one thing—
“You’re an awful man!” I said.
“I know.” Unbothered by my insult, he handed me a stack of papers.
“What are these?”
“A list of tasks you’ll be handling from now on, and instructions on how to spend your time in this house,” he explained. “If there’s anything you don’t understand, ask me tomorrow. For today, take a bath, and go to sleep.”
With that, he pushed me out of his chambers.
I’d been prepared to be bossed around starting today, so being told to rest was a bit of a letdown. Still, I went back to my assigned room. There was no point in wearing the maid outfit if I wasn’t going to do any work, so I decided to change out of it, and opened the chest.
“Oh, this looks like loungewear,” I said to myself as I found a simple, comfortable-looking dress. I took off the maid uniform and quickly put the dress on.
“Now, let’s see what else is in here...”
There were two more similar dresses, as well as two extra maid outfits. And, somehow, a number of undergarments that were, mysteriously, the correct size. Hmm.
The final article of clothing, however, gave me even more pause. I reluctantly plucked it from the chest.
“A-A negligee...”
And it was see-through to boot!
I threw it on the floor. Damn him and his little bonus prank!
“That fiend!” I exclaimed.
I could’ve sworn I heard laughter coming from the neighboring room.