🔊 TTS Settings
At that moment, a pitiful voice cut through my thoughts.
“Spare me.”
“……”
“I failed my mission, and even failed to take my own life. From now on, I’m a fugitive. If you let me go, I swear I will never appear before you again. I won’t utter a single word about you either. If necessary, I’ll even swear obedience.”
Yeah, no thanks.
I struck the assassin on the back of the neck and knocked him out.
After knocking him unconscious, I hesitated. What should I do with this guy?
‘Should I kill him?’
I couldn’t bring myself to do it so easily. There were too many things that bothered me.
The client had already sent assassins at least three times. If I killed this one, another would surely come. That would just be more trouble.
So for now, I decided to keep this one as well.
I considered keeping him in my room, but quickly gave up. If the head maid found out, I might get kicked out of this mansion.
And if I were kicked out, I’d have nowhere to go. So I needed to stay on the head maid’s good side.
As I wondered where to hide him,
my eyes fell on the house across the street through the window.
More precisely, on the slightly open window on the second floor.
“Hmm.”
They had moved out this afternoon, so it would take at least a few days before a new owner moved in.
I slung the intruder over my shoulder and leapt out of the mansion through the window.
Then I climbed over the wall of the house across, scaled the exterior, and slipped in through the second-floor window.
I pulled off the white sheet covering the bed and wrapped both the intruder and the bed together like one body. After sealing even his mouth completely, I shut the window and returned to my room.
“Ha…”
Is this mansion cursed or something?
As I brushed the dust off my hands and lay down on the bed, a faint question crossed my mind.
Why would the client want to monitor Baron Weatherwoods?
The next day, the weather was clear.
This excellent workplace, the Weatherwoods mansion, included a refined schedule of finishing a light breakfast at 9 a.m. and sipping black tea.
Thanks to that, I was granted a short moment of rest after a meal that tasted like it belonged to another world.
That was, until I noticed the unexpected sight outside the window.
That can’t be…
“……Moving in?”
When I pointed out the window, the head maid, who had been absorbed in reading the newspaper, turned her head.
“Hm? Ah, are you talking about the mansion across the street? The Ashla family moved out yesterday, so it hardly makes sense to call it the Ashla mansion anymore. But to think a new family would move in after just one day. It must have been quite a sudden sale.”
That’s right. The mansion across the street, which should have been empty after the move, was bustling with people carrying furniture.
Someone moved in after just one day? They moved out yesterday. This can’t be happening.
“I was careless.”
“What did you say? Stop muttering to yourself, Daisy. It’s not a good habit for an employee.”
Habit or not, there was an intruder tied up in that mansion since midnight.
I downed my tea in one gulp and ran to my room. There were too many people to storm in right now. I needed to assess the situation first.
My room was tucked away in a corner on the second floor, perfect for observing the mansion across. I pressed myself against the window and looked over.
Servants busily going in and out of the entrance.
A fairly well-kept flower garden, unlike some pathetic estate I knew.
And at a round table in the middle of the garden, an unknown man enjoying tea and reading.
For a moment, I was startled by his strangely blue hair.
Then I noticed the intruder kneeling neatly beside him.
‘What is he doing over there?’ I thought, just as it happened.
Our eyes met.
It wasn’t a mistake.
He wasn’t looking at the bright spring sky or the view of the Weatherwoods mansion.
He was looking directly at me.
Golden eyes, as striking and unnatural as his clear blue hair, fixed on me.
His sharp nose and deep-set eyes gave off a strangely melancholic yet noble air.
My eyes.
My expression.
My appearance.
His gaze was so blatant and precise, it felt like he was examining every inch of me.
The corner of his lips curled slightly, as if mocking the sight of me in a maid’s uniform.
Displeased, I took a step back from the window.
At the same time, I realized something.
It had been a very long time since I had felt something so personal and distinct as discomfort upon first meeting someone.
“……As I thought.”
This mansion really is cursed.
I may not be what I once was, but I had reached a level where I could cross blades on equal footing with someone once called a Sword Saint. For someone like me to feel such a strong, negative presence…
‘It means he’s suspicious as hell.’
It couldn’t be helped.
At this point, I would give up on retrieving the intruder’s identity.
I would just pretend nothing happened. Forget everything about yesterday.
Returning to the kitchen as naturally as possible, I poured myself another cup of tea.
“Daisy? You rushed out earlier. Where did you go?”
“The bathroom.”
“Try to phrase things more delicately.”
Good. As long as I acted naturally like a maid of the Weatherwoods mansion, everything would be fine.
Not long after making that resolve, the doorbell rang.
“……The doorbell? It’s been broken for over a year.”
With a puzzled expression, the head maid stood and went to the entrance. As a maid of the Weatherwoods mansion, I naturally followed behind her.
Beyond the gate, I saw the silhouette of an overwhelmingly tall figure.
Just from the outline alone, I had a bad feeling. A very bad feeling.
“Who is it? Unfortunately, Baron Weatherwoods is not at the mansion. Please make an appointment and come back next ti—”
Click.
As the gate opened, a dazzling figure appeared like sunlight pouring down.
The head maid’s firm voice abruptly stopped.
A man with blue hair, dressed elegantly like a gentleman of the city, stood there.
He smiled.
“It’s me. The gardener and cook who will be working here starting today.”
He was looking at me, not the head maid.
That was my first meeting with ‘Ru.’
Suspicious.
Not just suspicious. Extremely suspicious.
My senses, sharpened on the battlefield, were sending loud warnings about this man named Ru.
No matter how I looked at him, from every angle, he was no ordinary person.
I agreed completely with my instincts.
First of all, Ru himself looked suspicious.
The moment I faced him directly, not only the head maid but even I, standing several steps away, felt a considerable mental shock.
It might sound ridiculous, but Ru possessed a beauty so overwhelming it could unsettle both body and mind.
That wasn’t an exaggeration. It was the truth.
Even his strange blue hair only added to his striking appearance.
His features, composed of sharp, refined lines, were impeccable. His golden eyes shimmered like sunlight on the sea. And yet, his gaze somehow seemed languid and sunken.
At this rate, I felt like I’d spend all day praising him, so I stopped myself.
“You are…?”
“I’m Ru, employed through a staffing agency. You must be the head maid… no, that doesn’t seem right. How should I address you?”
“You can call me the head maid. So you are…?”
“Yes. A cook. A cook and a gardener.”
“I’m sorry, but you keep repeating the same thing…”
“I understand. You find it hard to believe that someone as blindingly beautiful as me would become something like a cook or gardener in this dying mansion, right?”
“……”
“But it’s the truth, so accept it. I’m Ru, starting today. I look forward to working with you, head maid.”
With a graceful smile, the man then turned to me.
Just like that moment when our eyes met across the mansion.
As if nothing were amiss.
“And this one?”
I didn’t like him.
It was an instinctive rejection, but also one born from experience.
So even though it was obvious he was asking for my name, I avoided answering.
“Maid.”
“Is your name Maid? That’s quite unique. I look forward to working with you, Miss Maid the Maid.”
This bastard. With a face like that, his personality was just as outrageous.
“Ha…”
Seeing the head maid rub her face in exasperation, something she had never done in front of me before, I realized he was no ordinary shameless man.
As if it were his own home, he stepped inside and looked around the disastrous garden.
“Hmm. Let me ask one thing. Is this garden supposed to be themed as a trash heap?”
The head maid, snapping back to her senses, slowly shook her head.
“If that were the case, we wouldn’t have hired you, Mr. Ru. Come to think of it, I don’t see any luggage. Don’t tell me you came here with nothing but the clothes on your back?”
“No.”
“That’s a relief. We do have a few spare uniforms, but given your height, none of them would fit. Shall we head upstairs first? I’ll show you your room.”
“I appreciate the offer, but I won’t be staying here, head maid.”
“What do you mean?”
Smiling faintly, he raised his right hand and pointed beyond the gate.
“I moved into that house today.”
The place he pointed to was the mansion across the street.
“So I’ll be commuting. What time should I come in?”
For a moment, the head maid couldn’t say anything.
Then she asked in disbelief,
“You’re the one who bought the Ashla mansion? Why would someone that wealthy choose to become a servant?”
“Does one need a reason to work?”
“Generally no, but in your case, I have to ask.”
Rubbing his chin, Ru answered casually.
“Let’s just call it a hobby.”
