APMLEHHS CH 1

Chapter 1

“Hrmm.”

I swept the area in front of the entrance.

It was early morning, with the dim light of dawn just beginning to brighten.

The first task given to me as a maid was to thoroughly clean the front entrance.

Only three people ever came and went, so the entrance was always spotless without fail, yet it still had to be swept every single day.

Because that was a maid’s job.

“Hrmm!”

The next thing to do after dusting was to water the flowerpots neatly placed on each step of the staircase.

Truthfully, that was supposed to be the gardener’s duty, but in this manor, distinctions between jobs meant nothing.

In the Weatherwoods household, everyone cleaned together, everyone tended the garden together, and everyone cooked together.

The reason was simple: the master’s purse was stretched terribly thin.

“Hrrrmm!”

I stopped in the middle of watering the flowerpots and looked toward the iron front gate beyond the desolate little garden.

For a while now, some bastard had been clearing his throat as loudly as if he wanted to cough his lungs out. Including the men who seemed to be his underlings, there were four of them in total.

When our eyes met, he made an incredibly arrogant face. Anyone could tell from the look in his eyes that he wanted me to speak to him first.

But there was no reason for me to step up.

The head maid had already come out from the manor and crossed the small garden to greet the man.

“You’ve come again?”

“Tut, ‘again’? You make it sound so embarrassing for the listener.”

“As I told you the last time, and the time before that, and the time before that—we have no intention of selling this manor. Please leave.”

A real estate broker, was he?

I turned my head away and continued watering the seeds we had gotten cheaply at the market.

I did not know the name of the flowers those seeds would produce. Forget the type—I had simply bought the cheapest packet with the largest quantity.

“That’s not what I’m here for today. I absolutely must meet the new Baron Weatherwoods in person. Show me inside the manor.”

“I’m sorry, but the master is currently away.”

“That makes the third time I’ve heard that this month!”

“My apologies all the same. The master is very busy.”

A heated reply burst out of him as if he were about to explode.

“Busy, my foot! At this point, I have no choice but to say something. Is the new Baron Weatherwoods really in this manor at all? For over a week, the only people I’ve seen come out of here are the three employees. Everyone is saying this place is a ghost manor without an owner! And what’s with this gloomy black exterior? Isn’t it ruining the streetscape?”

“That is not for us to concern ourselves with—”

“Not for you to concern yourselves with? Move aside! I’ve had enough!”

When I looked up, the man shoved the head maid by the shoulder and stepped through the front gate.

He slowly looked around the ruined little garden, then muttered with a face like he’d bitten into dung.

“Tch. To leave such a famously beautiful manor in this wretched state… Hey, maid!”

Was he calling me?

“What are you staring blankly for? Get over here at once.”

Since he called, I went over for now. The man crossed his arms with a haughty face and asked,

“How long has the new Baron Weatherwoods been away from this manor? Two years? Three?”

Thinking of Baron Weatherwoods sleeping soundly in the bedroom, I answered,

“He hasn’t been away.”

“What?”

“I said he hasn’t been away.”

The man, who had been glaring at me with an annoyed expression, asked again with a face of deep, forced patience.

“That way of speaking… no, never mind. Is the new Baron Weatherwoods perhaps gravely ill? So ill that he can’t even move once a week?”

Thinking of Baron Weatherwoods, who had been lying still for ten straight days with skin smooth and glossy like a boiled egg, I answered,

“He’s healthy.”

“Hah. What an insolent mouth you have. Do you know who I am? Then again, what would a maid hired by a place like this know? I am Baron Pedegail, the dearest and closest friend of your late former master.”

And what was I supposed to do about that?

It seemed he had expected me to gasp in shock and plead. To be fair, there was one tiny surprising part.

A man with the title of baron had come three times in one month demanding the manor be sold.

“…Before he died, he left me with a request. His dying wish was that I help the new Baron Weatherwoods settle in this city. So stop worrying unnecessarily and speak honestly. Has anything happened to the baron? Is there truly nothing I can do to help? Hmm?”

“There isn’t.”

The baron, deeply moved by my kind answer, widened his eyes.

“Yes, I see! Your utterly improper way of speaking has convinced me. There is no new Baron Weatherwoods here! This is just an empty manor, dressed up by hiring two maids to keep up appearances. If the baron truly lived here, a mere maid would never dare speak like that!”

I, too, could be certain now. This man was a swindler after the Weatherwoods family’s inheritance.

A vile bastard, through and through. Picking the bones of a flea, was he? What exactly was he hoping to steal from a household that had already sold off all its silverware?

Bang!

With a manner utterly unbelievable for a guest, the baron flung open the front door and shoved me inside the manor.

Startled, the head maid hurried in after us with a tense expression.

“What exactly do you think you’re doing, Baron?”

The baron snorted at the head maid’s outcry.

“You, go outside and make sure no one enters the manor. And you, search the manor and bring me something suitable for a beating. Excellent timing, really. I’ve been wondering how long the head maid of Weatherwoods would keep her mouth shut. It’s time she learned her place.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Understood.”

At the baron’s command, one man closed the front door and went outside to stand guard. Another disappeared into the right corridor. The remaining one stepped between me and the head maid.

The baron quietly swept his gaze across the interior of the manor, then fixed his eyes on the portrait hanging above the stairs.

It was the portrait of the former Baron Weatherwoods.

“A face I miss dearly. If my old friend could see his manor fallen into such ruin, how bitterly he would grieve. Come to think of it, has it already been four years since he died in the Magic War? Time truly flies.”

The Magic War.

Explaining exactly what kind of war that was would take far too long, so let us skip it. Just remember that it was a terrible war that lasted nearly ten years.

The baron looked around the inside of the manor with greedy eyes and smiled unpleasantly.

“For the sake of the man who gave his body for his country, I really must help the new Baron Weatherwoods. There is no better way to honor a fallen friend. Yes, indeed.”

It was only a short remark.

But I felt my heartbeat quicken, and hot blood surged through my entire body like the tide.

Even if I had brushed past the Magic War lightly, that did not mean I could brush aside the countless sacrifices within it.

Those who died in battle had left while protecting the families and friends they loved. To try using such noble sacrifice as an excuse for one’s own filthy greed—

As someone who had witnessed the horrors of those ten years with my own eyes, I could never let such words pass.

A person had a duty, and this bastard’s duty, as a friend, should have been to honor that sacrifice.

Not to covet Baron Weatherwoods’s property.

But the baron’s behavior was far removed from honoring a friend’s sacrifice. Which meant he was no friend of Baron Weatherwoods at all.

A man who was not the master’s friend had forcibly invaded the manor.

So this bastard was a thief.

That was my conclusion.

“Baron, I’ve brought it.”

“Good. I like the look of it. Sturdy.”

The baron took the shovel from his subordinate and came back over to me.

It seemed he intended to beat me with that shovel.

The head maid’s expression hardened coldly.

“Stop this now, Baron Pedegail. You must not lay a hand on that child. Take me instead—”

“Oh, head maid. How admirable, your concern for your inferiors. Then I’ll give you one final chance. Tell me where Baron Weatherwoods is. Do that, and I promise I won’t harm any servant in this manor, including you. I mean it.”

“The one giving you a chance is not you, Baron, but me. Please, for the preservation of your body, keep your composure—”

“Hah, still not in your right mind, I see. If you do not open your mouth by the count of three, I’ll begin the beating. And there will be no place for you to complain of injustice. I’ll take this wench away just as she is and sell her as a slave to the East! Now then—one.”

Judging from the way he spoke of the East, it seemed he dealt in slaves too?

So this was a thief with no sense of duty, and on top of that, trash that trafficked in slaves?

As the diligent maid of Weatherwoods, the stance I needed to show was obvious.

The head maid called my name with tense eyes.

“Daisy.”

For reference, Daisy is my name.

As though he found the situation amusing, the baron grinned and raised two fingers.

“Two.”

“Please endure it for now.”

Like an obedient maid, I nodded.

“Yes.”

And then I swung my right hand.

“Threeee—ghk!”

The neatly dressed maid merely swept her right hand sideways, yet the sturdily built baron flew like a stone and embedded himself in the wall.

The area fell silent in an instant. The baron’s subordinates stared blankly at the collapsed baron before rushing over to him.

“Baron!”

The head maid called my name sternly.

“Daisy!”

“Yes.”

“I clearly warned you to endure it. Why did you not listen? You know full well that if you use your strength, that sickly raccoon’s life will be in danger.”

“I am enduring it.”

“You can still say that while looking at this situation?”

“My right hand says it can’t endure. Look.”

I slapped the cheeks of the two subordinates who had been trying to lift the fallen baron as well.

“Ghk.”

“Hk.”

The two large men collapsed right on top of the baron. What a wonderfully close relationship between master and servants.

“My right hand is really impossible to control. I’ll scold it sharply once this is over.”

The head maid glared at me again, but there was nothing to be done.

My right hand would sometimes follow my heart rather than my head, and in those moments even I, the owner of this body, had difficulty consciously controlling it, and so on and so forth.

“What the—”

After neatly taking care of the third subordinate, who had foolishly opened the door and come back in, I asked the head maid,

“Shall I bury them?”

The head maid glared at me, the number one contributor to the manor’s security.

“Don’t say such terrifying things. Where did Mr. Lu go?”

At the mention of an unwelcome name, my brow naturally furrowed.

“To buy ingredients.”

“Don’t answer so curtly. Haah… it can’t be helped. We’ll place these people in front of the manor—”

“Shall I cut off their heads and hang them there?”

“We’re going to sit them there normally. Normally.”

“If we send them back, the aftermath will be troublesome.”

“Would hanging their heads make it simpler? I’m amazed you’re capable of such rational judgment, Daisy. It’s true these men did something wrong, but that doesn’t mean they committed a crime grave enough to deserve being buried alive. Sending them back is the correct choice. This was self-defense on our side, after all, so we should be able to settle it within reasonable bounds. Trust in the Weatherwoods family. This place will protect us to the very end.”

As someone who knew the true nature of Baron Weatherwoods, it was not a very convincing argument.

But when a maid is told to do something, she does it.

So in accordance with the head maid’s orders, I had to carry the fully grown adult men outside the manor in a princess carry.

I laid them out in a row on the paved road where carriages passed and prayed they would be trampled to death by horses’ hooves.

They say another name for a maid is hardship.

And hardship’s hardships never end.

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