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Episode 3
I had learned that when someone tells their name, it’s polite to give yours too. But it seemed the young master I was to serve didn’t care much for manners.
He answered curtly.
“Who asked for that?”
“Oh, right…”
“You even caught the pillow and the clock! How does a normal maid do that?”
“Ah, well… I’m just a bit quick on my feet.”
I shrugged.
The young master looked baffled for a moment, then suddenly snapped.
“You… you came here to assassinate me, didn’t you?”
“Eh?”
An assassin? Just because I’m a little athletic?
“Lisa, you saw that, right?”
What on earth had he seen? Where did he get the idea I was an assassin?
I felt wronged, but I didn’t dare interrupt. I just looked to Lisa for guidance. She sighed, then said calmly,
“Yes, I saw it. The young master is just bullying a brand-new maid.”
Lisa was amazing!
The young master’s proud little face fell instantly, realizing she’d taken my side.
“If Mary hadn’t caught the clock, she could’ve gotten seriously hurt. Surely, the young master isn’t so young as to not know you shouldn’t throw things at people.”
“That, that’s…”
“Well then, you should apologize to Mary.”
“What? No way. Why should I apologize to some maid?”
“If you don’t apologize properly, I’ll report it to Lady Lianne.”
Flinching at the mention of Lady Lianne, the young master muttered unhappily,
“Fine… I’m sorry. Happy now?”
It was a very half-hearted apology, but good enough for me. Young kids often find it hard to admit mistakes, so this was fine.
“Since you apologized, don’t tell your mother,” he said.
“Understood. Let’s let this slide for now. But next time, I’ll report it immediately.”
“…Okay.”
The young master pouted for a moment, then shot me a scary glare and told Lisa,
“Now fire that ugly woman.”
Ugly woman? Me?
I was too shocked to even remember he was the young master as I blurted out,
“Young master, what makes you think I’m ugly?”
“From head to toe. Your hair’s like straw, your eyes are snake-like and yellow, and your nose has freckles all over.
You look like a witch’s minion.”
I felt wronged.
I wasn’t a fairy-tale princess, sure, but people in my village had always said I was cute and pretty for my age.
I thought to myself, Maybe the young master just has terrible taste.
And a witch’s minion? Really?
I wanted to argue, but I held back.
I had to stay calm. After all, this brat was my young master. I couldn’t afford to fight him, no matter how ridiculous he was.
“Mary,” Lisa scolded him for me.
The young master pouted and said bluntly,
“I’m not wrong. And that girl’s a commoner, right? From her speech, she seems like a country bumpkin. I can’t keep someone so low-class around me. Fire her immediately.”
Seeing his arrogant, unkind attitude, I realized it was going to be tough to get along with him.
Just thinking about the future with this proud, naughty little master gave me a headache.
The next morning.
I was carrying the young master’s breakfast, thinking about what Lisa had told me.
“You know about Lady Lianne’s carriage accident, right, Mary?”
“Yes, I read about it in the newspaper.”
Lady Lianne had been in a carriage accident with her husband, the Duke. The wheel suddenly came off, and the carriage fell into a cursed river contaminated with waste.
The Duke died instantly, but Lady Lianne barely survived.
Her body was covered in mysterious black marks from the filthy water, which burned as if scorched by fire and caused immense pain.
“Luckily, treatment reduced most of it, but it never completely went away.”
After losing her husband and enduring the pain, Lady Lianne had fallen into depression. At one point, she even considered following him in death—but then she realized she was pregnant.
“That child is the young master, Ricardo Hamilton.”
Lady Lianne prayed that her child wouldn’t suffer the same fate. But the boy was also born with black marks covering his body. Fortunately, being a child, proper treatment could help him recover fully.
Lady Lianne kept him in the annex to protect him from gossip and cruelty.
“Everyone who saw the young master reacted the same way—screams, horror, like they were seeing a monster.”
She wanted to prevent him from inheriting her trauma.
“The young master has lived alone in the annex since birth. He’s a little awkward with people.”
“Does that mean no one has served him until now?”
“Yes. The hired staff either quit quickly or caused trouble and were fired.”
I asked to make sure I wouldn’t repeat past mistakes, but Lisa just smiled and didn’t explain.
“Don’t worry. Mary, you’ll be fine.”
Whatever that meant, one thing was clear: Lady Lianne and Lisa believed I could handle it.
I wanted to live up to their trust. To do that, I needed to get close to the young master.
I clenched my fists.
“Alright, let’s do this!”
But barely five minutes later, I ran into a huge problem.
Knock. Knock.
“Young master…!”
Knock-knock-knock.
“I brought your breakfast! Please open the door!”
Bang-bang-bang!
“Young master!”
No matter how much I knocked, there was no answer. I tried using the key Lisa gave me, but…
Click-click.
It seemed something was blocking the door. No matter how hard I pulled, it wouldn’t open.
If the door didn’t open, there was nothing I could do. I sighed heavily.
Everything outside the door suddenly went quiet.
“Gone?”
Ricardo crept over to the door, making sure I was really gone.
Peeking through the crack, he grinned.
“Good. She’s gone.”
He planned to complain that the scrawny maid didn’t serve breakfast properly and get her fired.
But then…
Thunk!
The balcony window behind the curtain opened. Ricardo froze.
A shadow appeared through the curtain.
“W-who is that?!”
It was pointless to ask. If someone was breaking in, they must be an assassin.
But the person standing boldly on the balcony was… familiar.
“Y-you…!”
It was that strange girl, Mary, smiling confidently.
“Good morning, young master! Here’s your breakfast!”
