My Youngest Keeps Bringing Home Male Leads - Chapter 13

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 13
The next morning.
Alfred stood at the carriage to see Agnes off to the city.
“I’m troubled to see you leave again so soon after arriving.”
“I stayed the night yesterday. I need to get to my business now.”
“That’s work I should be doing, actually.”
“I’ll build up some credit first, then I’ll ask you to take over from there.”
“Of course. I shall certainly do so.”
“Don’t strain yourself trying to clean the house while I’m away.”
“I already know what’s on your mind. I’ll hire people before tackling anything major, so don’t worry.”
Agnes sighed and paused as she was about to board the carriage, studying Alfred’s face.
Alfred offered only a rueful smile.
“Are you worried about Elizabeth and Edmund?”
“Are they still the same?”
Alfred nodded quietly.
“Both of them have difficult temperaments. They’re hard to deal with.”
“That’s not so. They’ll improve soon enough.”
“I suppose.”
Agnes sighed and quickly changed the subject.
“Did you pass along word to Amy?”
“Yes.”
“Did she say anything particular?”
“Only that she was relieved.”
“That can’t be right. She must have complained about me.”
Alfred neither confirmed nor denied it. Seeing that, Agnes gave a wry smile.
Complex emotions hung at the corners of her mouth.
“In any case, I’m counting on you.”
“Don’t worry about this place. Please travel safely and return well.”
“Yes.”
After they finished their farewell, Agnes boarded the carriage to find Kesenor and Silmare already sitting inside.
“Did you sleep well last night?”
The two men nodded to Agnes, who still bore an apologetic air.
Even though she’d helped tidy things with her own hands, Agnes continued to fret that she hadn’t treated them well enough.
No words would easily console her conscience.
Understanding this already, the two men stayed silent and made room so Agnes could settle herself comfortably.
“I’m sorry. You went to the trouble of coming, only to leave so quickly.”
“It’s all right.”
“It will take roughly two hours to reach Kalbun City. You must be tired, so I’ll have us go straight to an inn first.”
As they made their way onward with various talk, a great stone wall gradually appeared in the distance.
Kalbun City.
It lay at the crossing point between Valdemar Territory and Laenheim Territory, the two great fiefdoms of the south, and was the largest city in all this region.
Beyond the walls, the road stretched out smooth and straight, and buildings large and small crowded densely along both sides.
It looked nothing like the provincial Laberose Territory, and since entering the city, Silmare had worn a perpetual frown.
“What a desolate place this is.”
“You see it that way? I find it beautiful.”
“Everything is full of dead things. There are no trees, no grass to be seen.”
“That’s because this is a city. Not everywhere is like this. It’s fascinating to see you experiencing this for the first time.”
“We have been separated for so very long.”
When she thought about it, more than a thousand years had passed, which made it seem understandable enough.
Agnes’s eyes sparkled with curiosity as she asked a question.
“Then fairies don’t fell trees to build their homes?”
“No. Wide meadows and great trees—these are our dwellings.”
“But wouldn’t animals and insects fly around in such places? Wouldn’t they bite?”
“We are friends with all living things.”
“Good heavens!”
It was likely less a fitting metaphor than simple fact.
Kesenor watched in silence as Agnes, charmed by what seemed like a dream, grew animated with wonder.
Soon the carriage came to a halt before an inn.
It was a fine establishment where nobility and wealthy merchants stayed, the very place where Agnes had lodged with her father when visiting the city as a child.
There was no time to dwell on memories of happier days or the complicated longing they awakened.
The three of them ate a light meal and then made their way to the Personnel Office in the city.
“The Laberose House, you say?”
When Agnes stated the purpose of her visit, the manager couldn’t bring himself to speak, his expression turning thoroughly disdainful.
Seeing this, Kesenor produced the Family Seal.
The manager’s face drained of color as he began to stammer, his hands trembling.
“Y-you are Marquis Celesta in person? I—I have committed a grave discourtesy! I most humbly beg your forgiveness!”
Ordinarily, when hiring servants, one sent a representative; direct visits from the employer were virtually unheard of.
The manager, meeting a high noble face-to-face for the first time in his life, hastily began sending out notices, and when the scheduled interview time arrived, several candidates were already waiting at the Personnel Office.
“There are fewer than I expected.”
Perhaps thinking it insufficient compared to the name Celesta that had been invoked, Kesenor furrowed his brow. But Agnes smiled as if pleased.
“Is there? I’m simply grateful that anyone at all is willing to come work at our house.”
The problem, however, was that sound candidates were few and far between.
“Heh-heh. Master, I don’t need much—just keep me well supplied with drink at every meal, if you don’t mind? Will there be plenty of ale to go around?”
“Next.”
“Cooking? I’ve never done it before, but how hard can it be? I’ll just wing it……!”
“Next.”
“I’d appreciate it if you could advance me a year’s wages upfront. I have something urgent I need money for. I’d rather not say what it’s for…….”
“Next.”
“I have a family dependent on me—young children and a wife in poor health. If you could possibly allow them to live with me……!”
“Impossible.”
When Kesenor cut off the final applicant with cold finality, Silmare, who had been listening quietly until then, protested.
“Wait—that one seemed like a decent person. Why reject him outright?”
“We’re not running a charity. We need people who can work immediately.”
“You can’t take on his family as well?”
“We’re not hiring serfs. We need staff who can begin work at the Mansion right away.”
“Does having a family make that impossible?”
Kesenor is right, Silmare. We simply don’t have enough rooms available, and there’s too much work that needs doing at once. Cases involving entire families require a separate arrangement.”
When even Agnes sided with Kesenor, her expression firm, Silmare had no choice but to fall silent.
After careful winnowing, they managed to hire only four people.
“We are Pavel and Ben! We were soldiers in Kalbun City originally.”
“My name is Lillia. I will work diligently at whatever tasks you entrust to me.”
“My name is Oliver. I’d like to apply as a gardener.”
Silmare, who had kept his mouth shut with a sullen expression, finally spoke after Oliver’s interview concluded.
“Please do hire that man, Agnes.”
“Yes, he seemed sincere and capable. Though I wonder—is there a particular reason?”
Silmare nodded lightly, a smile playing at his lips.
“The wind recommended him to me. Apparently he loves trees deeply.”
“I beg your pardon?”
Though it was an odd thing to say, Agnes recalled what he had mentioned earlier and nodded in understanding.
“Does the wind count as a living thing?”
“Not just the wind—everything in existence.”
Silmare watched Agnes with satisfaction as her eyes sparkled with wonder.
Having decided to employ the four of them, Agnes arranged for a carriage to be procured and provided travel expenses as well. They would depart for the Laberose Mansion once preparations were complete.
She also instructed the Personnel Office to send laborers for farm work in the Territory as they became available.
When all the business was concluded, the sky had already turned a deep crimson.
Agnes and the two men found a nearby restaurant for supper.
After ordering their food, Agnes asked Silmare something that had puzzled her all along.
“Can you truly hear what the wind says?”
She’d asked half-skeptically, but Silmare answered with surprising candor.
“Yes. Any fairy can do it.”
“That’s a form of magic only fairies can use!”
Pleased by Agnes’s exclamation, Silmare elaborated further.
“More precisely, I hear the stories that plants and animals communicate through the currents of the wind.”
Records on the fairy folk were ancient and poorly preserved.
Kesenor, seized by curiosity about this new information, quietly inserted himself into the conversation.
“Does distance matter? Can you hear conversations taking place very far away?”
With a perfect audience before him to show off to, Silmare shrugged as if it were nothing, though a certain excitement could not be entirely hidden from his bearing.
“Long distances are naturally difficult. It’s only a direct transmission, you see. Rather like how rumors spread.”
“If the wind carries the message, then practically speaking, there’s no limit to what you can hear, is there?”
“The wind has no intelligence, after all. Just as sound grows faint over distance, the same applies to me.”
“How wonderful! It sounds like something straight out of a fairy tale!”
“Then perhaps human fairy tales were crafted from stories of fairies themselves, were they not?”
Kesenor doused their romantic reverie with cold practicality, pointing out the reality of the matter.
“We cannot simply marvel at every strange occurrence, Agnes. If you could hear the tales of rats and birds that scurry through every corner of human habitation, then there is no dangerous secret you could not unearth.”
Agnes blinked, realizing the truth of it. Her eyes widened as she asked.
“Truly? You could know absolutely everything?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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