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Chapter 3
Madam Rosette watched Roella with a subtle expression.
Roella was organizing documents with a face that looked… somewhat strange.
It had been about ten days since Roella arrived here. When she asked to be given work, Rosette had assigned her light tasks—moving small items or running errands. Naturally, none of those took more than thirty minutes.
Eventually, she handed Roella some simple paperwork. Nothing sensitive—documents that wouldn’t matter even if they were seen.
Roella’s position in this estate was extremely ambiguous.
She was a woman who had been sold. Yet she wasn’t serving in the bedroom either—she was merely a conduit to release magical power. That was her only role, so Rosette hadn’t even considered assigning her any other duties.
In the beginning, Compatibles had been slaves. In later generations, some even became grand duchesses.
Because of that history, it was impossible to clearly define Roella’s standing.
‘His Grace only said we should observe her for now.’
In that situation, Roella herself had requested work.
‘Do you know how exhausting it is to sit around spacing out all day, Madam Rosette? Letting talent like mine rot away is a tremendous loss. Just give me one task, and I’ll prove it to you!’
Overwhelmed by that forceful plea, Rosette handed her the documents.
Less than a day later, they were neatly organized.
Even Rosette—recognized as one of the most capable head maids and stewards in the North—had to acknowledge it.
‘It was a fresh approach. I never would’ve thought to organize things that way.’
Using tables was nothing new.
But using those tables to simultaneously organize expenditures by year and by department—this was something she had never seen before.
And the lines were so straight and clean.
The only thing bothering her was Roella’s expression.
‘Are you feeling unwell, Miss Roella? If this is too much, you may rest. As I’ve said, this isn’t even your duty—’
‘Oh, you mean my expression? You don’t need to worry. It’s kind of a habit. When I concentrate, I always end up looking like this.’
She had muttered something afterward, but Rosette hadn’t understood it.
‘This is just the face of an office worker suffering from caffeine withdrawal. And without a computer, I have to draw all this by hand.’
In any case, since Roella insisted she was fine, Rosette let her continue.
Still… that expression—like a dried-out fish at a market stall—and those unfocused eyes were hard to ignore.
Just as Rosette was about to clear her throat and tell her that it was enough for now—
Knock, knock.
A polite knock echoed through the room.
“Madam Rosette, may I come in?”
“Oh, Mr. Aidan. Yes, please come in.”
It was the grand duke’s aide.
When speaking of competence, Aidan was impossible to leave out.
A top graduate of the Imperial Academy, with exceptional work ability—he was a jewel of the North.
Talented young people all wanted to go to the capital, regardless of status. Because of that, finding someone like Aidan in the North was nearly impossible.
That was how he earned the honor of becoming the grand duke’s closest aide, despite his young age.
Aidan scanned the room—then flinched.
He had spotted Roella, diligently working at the small desk Rosette had provided.
“Is something wrong? Perhaps there was an issue with the report I submitted?”
“No, there wasn’t, Mr. Aidan.”
After glancing at Roella several times, Aidan gestured for Rosette to step outside. He clearly wanted to speak somewhere Roella wasn’t present.
Rosette nodded and followed him out. Once they closed the door and moved a short distance away, Aidan asked cautiously,
“Before we get to the main matter… is she all right? Miss Roella, I mean. She looks a bit….”
“You want to say she looks like fish laid out on a stall, don’t you?”
“Haha… yes, well. Exactly. I was wondering if she might be ill…”
“She says she’s fine, so she should be.”
Though, truthfully, Rosette was worried as well.
Aidan nodded, then continued.
“Now, to the matter at hand. It seems His Grace was very pleased with the documents this time. He wants to know exactly who organized them. I believe you mentioned Miss Roella before, but His Grace didn’t believe it.”
“…Is that so?”
“Yes. That’s why I must ask—did Miss Roella truly organize those documents?”
“You saw her just now, didn’t you, Mr. Aidan? She did them. At this very moment, she’s organizing next month’s budget.”
“Huh… This is going to be difficult to convince His Grace.”
“Then why not show him directly?”
Aidan and Rosette discussed the matter seriously.
After all, there was a huge gap between Roella’s usual absent-minded image and the clean, efficient, highly competent documents she produced.
Lately, Rosette had begun to truly understand what Roella meant.
‘Letting talent like mine go to waste is a loss for all humanity, Madam Rosette.’
* * *
I mechanically drew tables and organized next month’s budget.
Since the grand ducal family governed the entire North, the amount of expenditure was enormous—but their methods were ridiculously complicated.
For example, something that could be summarized in three pages was written out over thirty.
Who does paperwork this inefficiently—and with this much effort?
Tsk, tsk. If my former boss had seen this, he would’ve ripped out his own hair and set it on fire.
The only inconvenience was not having Excel—I had to draw every table by hand. Wasn’t there some way around this?
Still, I was basically just a grand ducal intern(?) at this point, so it wasn’t my place to complain.
Recently, I’d settled on a strategy.
I decided to become Madam Rosette’s most loyal subordinate.
Back at my old company, they always said riding the right line was the key to surviving comfortably and long-term.
Once the female lead appears, my role will become useless anyway. Is surviving enough? What comes after that?
I don’t even have money right now. And I’m unpaid.
So wouldn’t it be best to stick close to Madam Rosette, show off my competence, and live comfortably?
Then I could ask her for a recommendation and get hired by another noble household…!
When the female lead appears, I’ll be obsolete—but that just means I’ll have a way to make a living.
After that, I’ll buy a house.
I had a plan. A very solid plan.
As I neatly organized the tables using several colors of ink, a shadow fell over me.
“Hm? Madam Rosette, do you need something?”
“…So it’s true.”
A murmured groan reached my ears.
Huh? That wasn’t Madam Rosette.
I lifted my head—and met a pair of blue eyes.
“Ghk!”
It was someone I had never seen in daylight.
Why was the grand duke here? Did I do something wrong? That couldn’t be it—I checked everything multiple times.
“Hic!”
I covered my mouth, still clutching the quill pen.
Grand Duke Kristan rubbed his forehead and let out a hollow laugh.
“So it really was you who did this.”
“Hic!”
“If this can be called a talent, then it’s certainly one. And it’s a talent I need. Miss Roella, you are a person with many abilities.”
“Hngh!”
I was so shocked that my hiccups came out completely wrong.
Kristan spoke as if it were nothing.
“I would like to hire you.”
“Hic! I-I’m already—!”
“Already hired? The money your father received was payment for your nights and dawns. What I am saying now is that I wish to purchase your daytime as well.”
My eyes widened.
“Of course, I intend to pay you appropriately. Thirty ekra per month.”
The first thing I memorized while organizing these documents was this world’s currency.
Thirty ekra meant… about three million won.
I swallowed hard.
As a starting salary, that wasn’t low at all—no, it was high.
It seemed the grand duke was quite conscientious.
I’d assumed I’d be unpaid forever in this household!
I couldn’t hide my excitement.
This was an opportunity.
A real one.
So I asked, completely serious—
“…Is that before tax, or after tax?”
