Surviving as the Wife of the Swordsmanship Clan’s Troublemaker - Chapter 21

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 21

She looked at my face with a startled expression, then looked me up and down.

“Hmm? A new maid?”

She asked, looking at my old and shabby clothes. Even I thought I looked worse than a maid.

Anyway, I didn’t know how to introduce myself.

I wasn’t formally marrying Docheop, and I couldn’t call myself his mistress like Geti had.

I couldn’t exactly say something like ‘I’m a woman who decided to live with Docheop. The duchess told me to try living with the young master for now. Maybe she’s hoping that the young master will change even a little by living with me?’

“Uh, sort of similar.”

“What do you mean by similar?”

“I’m looking for cleaning supplies.”

“What? Then you are a maid. What is the head maid of the annex doing to neglect you like this? Did she go play in the main building again… Really, if it’s going to be like this, they should give me the head maid position.”

The maid who had been grumbling to herself let out a deep sigh and gestured for me to follow.

The place was a laundry room piled high with washing.

The maid rummaged through a corner and brought out something.

“It’s a maid uniform. Wear this.”

She definitely said it was a maid uniform, but it was much more luxurious and softer than my clothes.

As expected of a ducal house, even the maid uniforms were of good quality.

“The cleaning supplies are in that room over there. Since you’re new, want to start cleaning from the first floor? You do know how to clean, right?”

“Hey, of course I know. Don’t worry about the cleaning. It’s my specialty.”

“Then I’ll leave the first floor to you.”

“Thanks.”

The maid took a hand towel and left the laundry room.

I quickly changed into the maid uniform. It was perfect timing since I’d have to wash my clothes if I got covered in dust. The maid uniform was so comfortable that I wanted to take several more sets.

“Great. With these clothes, I can clean to my heart’s content.”

Seeing that it had become bright outside the window, I cheerfully gathered cleaning supplies in a bucket and went out.

***

Before the morning dew dried.

Only Moldorf, the knight commander, remained in the quiet training grounds. He was organizing the training grounds alone before the apprentice knights arrived, then sat on a tree stump polishing his sword.

Though this had been his routine for over 20 years, today his movements stopped due to an uninvited guest.

Moldorf was briefly wary at the unfamiliar footsteps, but his expression turned to shock when he confirmed the identity of the person.

“…Young Master Docheop?”

Clatter!

Moldorf was so surprised that he dropped the sword he was holding.

There stood Docheop, the second young master of this family. Someone who seemed like he would never come again, someone he wondered if he’d see before dying.

The Bloodmere Knights.

Among them, the Third Division.

It was a training facility that raised apprentice knights to be deployed in actual combat.

The young masters of Bloodmere also received education here.

When Nikolai, Docheop, and Helbeorn turned five, the duke personally entrusted their education to him.

But Docheop hadn’t shown his face since he was thirteen.

The reason was simple. He had no talent for swordsmanship.

While his other brothers awakened their sword aura around age seven, he never managed to awaken it. The skill gap became more pronounced as time passed.

Docheop constantly lost to Nikolai and Helbeorn, and by age thirteen, he was even defeated by apprentice children who had entered as regular knights.

Then one day, after being seriously injured in a sword duel with Nikolai, he stopped appearing at the training grounds.

Moldorf visited Docheop’s room several times to persuade him, but Docheop kept his door firmly shut.

That was a full 10 years ago.

And now that same person had voluntarily set foot in the training grounds after 10 years.

“Moldorf, it’s been a while.”

While offering a greeting unlike his usual self.

“…Why are you here?”

When the flustered Moldorf asked, Docheop, who had approached nearby, handed him the fallen sword.

“I’ll be direct. Become my sword instructor again.”

“Sword instructor…?”

“Yes. I’m thinking of taking up the sword again.”

In truth, Docheop had never let go of his sword for even a moment. And he didn’t need something like a sword instructor. Even if he had returned.

But he needed the knight order in this family. The enemy who destroyed the family was skilled enough to defeat the 9-star duke and the 8-star Nikolai and Helbeorn. Whoever it was, to face them, he needed more skilled knights.

Hallara, the beginning of that destruction, had appeared, and he had kept the changed Hallara by his side, so now it was time to move quickly.

For that, he needed Moldorf, who unlike him had deep trust.

“I need you.”

Docheop looked straight into his eyes. The atmosphere was clearly different from his childhood when he was steeped in defeatism, and Moldorf’s breath caught for a moment.

“It’s been quite a while since I’ve been here too.”

Docheop calmly looked around. Like someone who was trying to draw this place.

“Are you serious?”

It was a serious and heavy question. According to what the knights were saying, recently he had been wandering around drunk and got into fights with mercenaries. Moreover, he had no intention of accepting someone who had left the training grounds of his own accord just because he was a young master.

Then Docheop reached for the wooden swords piled next to Moldorf.

“Then let’s test it.”

“What kind of test are you referring to?”

“The test for joining the knight order. The test I should rightfully take to re-enter. Isn’t that right?”

Docheop gripped the wooden sword properly.

There was no despair or inferiority complex in his attitude.

***

After finishing a round of cleaning, I came out to the corridor and focused all my attention on the scent wafting from afar.

[When will they give us food… I’m starving to death.]

“Me too. But you won’t actually die.”

[I mean I’m hungry enough to die.]

“Wait. I’ll find something quickly.”

Junel drooped weakly on my shoulder.

Geti was still nowhere to be seen.

It seemed she couldn’t find the room, but I couldn’t afford to wait for her any longer. If she wasn’t coming, I had no choice but to go find her.

Sniff sniff.

And before long, I found the kitchen.

“Here it is.”

I opened the door wide at the subtle scent seeping out and the bustling sounds. Then a delicious smell wafted over.

The hunger I had barely suppressed came rushing back at that smell.

“Now I’m saved.”

The kitchen was still busy with meal preparations. There were quite a lot of servants, but Geti was nowhere to be seen. Seeing maids and attendants eating, this seemed to be the dining area for servants.

“Oh? You’re the girl I saw earlier. You came to eat too.”

“Huh?”

“Bowl’s here.”

Geti wasn’t there, but the maid who had told me where the cleaning supplies were earlier was there. The girl with her hair tied in two braids handed me a crude wooden bowl this time.

“Come here.”

The maid ladled stew generously into it. I took it and sat at the dining room table attached to the kitchen. The table was full of bread, and the maid said I could eat as much of it as I wanted.

“Unlimited bread refills? That’s really nice.”

Being a ducal house, the benefits were decent.

I took a bite of bread first.

“I don’t know what you mean, but you probably won’t be able to eat much of it.”

I could understand the meaning right away. This wasn’t bread made only from flour, but bread made from a mixture of whole wheat and rye. It had a dry, choking texture that stuck in your throat.

Actually, this is good.

Here, whole wheat bread might not be considered good food, but back in my day, whole wheat bread cost twice as much as white bread.

Because whole wheat bread is healthier than white bread.

As I was enjoying this distinctive aroma and chewing away, the maid opened her eyes wide in surprise.

Then she said.

“I’m May. What’s your name?”

“I’m… Lara.”

I told her Lara instead of Hallara, in case she might recognize the full name.

“Lara? That’s a pretty name.”

May didn’t suspect anything at all.

“You’re pretty too.”

“My name? Mine’s just a common name.”

May shook her head and picked at her stew. I followed her lead and put my spoon into the stew.

It looked similar to the food sold at the market, but the contents were completely different. Not only potatoes, carrots, and onions, but also corn, peas, and pumpkin that were considered luxury items at the market.

It was truly a nutritional bomb stew!

But why was May picking at it like that?

“Ugh.”

The moment I put a spoonful in my mouth, I understood why.

“What’s wrong with the seasoning…?”

[Blech. My taste buds are ruined! Did they serve us food waste!]

Ptui ptui, Junel also tasted the stew and rinsed her mouth with water.

“You’d better get used to it. It wasn’t great to begin with, but all the skilled chefs went to the main building.”

“There must be some maids who are good at cooking.”

“They’re all at the main building too. People with cooking skills are precious.”

“Then why not hire a new chef?”

“To hire a truly skilled chef, we’d have to bring someone from outside, but there was once a spy who got a job disguised as a chef. So since then, they try not to hire new people as much as possible.”

May whispered in a small voice. Hearing that, I could understand, but the taste was just too awful.

To think they made food like this with ingredients that people at the market couldn’t even afford due to lack of money… No wonder all the maids and servants were so thin. It seemed the food problem was bigger than the hard work.

“Still, you should eat. And I’ll show you where to rest, so take a break. If you exhaust yourself like that on the first day, you’ll get tired quickly.”

“Me?”

“Yeah. It looks like you worked really hard?”

May pointed to my clothes. White dust was stuck all over my black maid uniform like cat fur.

“Haha. It was pretty dirty.”

“Was it that dirty? The first floor is near the entrance, so it gets cleaned often and there shouldn’t have been much to clean…”

Actually, it was from cleaning my room in the corner of the third floor, but there was no need to mention that.

“Haha. Since it was my first day, I was looking for anything to wipe down… That’s probably why I’m so hungry and dizzy. I want to eat something delicious.”

Whole wheat bread wasn’t enough to satisfy my hunger.

Originally, the hungrier you get, the more you should fill your stomach with delicious food. That’s why I was planning to do business at the market with cooking that would properly fill people’s stomachs.

[You’re hungry… Hallara, just go find that Geti or Jeti person and tell them to bring proper food.]

That would be the best option for now, but there was no guarantee that Geti would bring proper food.

Besides, I’m a K-possessor, so I don’t really like Western food anyway.

“May, could I use the kitchen?”

It would be better if I made it myself.

“Huh? The kitchen?”

“I actually have cooking skills.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. When I leave here later, I was planning to sell food at the market.”

That’s not all. I may not have a Korean cuisine certificate, but there’s no Korean dish I can’t make. Thanks to my husband Samsik!

“You don’t like eating this either. I’ll prepare a meal for you.”

“Oh? Okay. I’m fine with anything as long as it’s not this. I’ll report to the head maid.”

May also seemed quite dissatisfied with the meal, so she readily agreed to my suggestion.

“Great.”

***

Hotsen, the chef of Bloodmere’s annex, returned to the annex late.

“Chef, did your treatment go well?”

An assistant who had just finished eating and was coming out spotted him and approached. His gaze turned to Hotsen’s injured arm.

“Yeah, we’ll have to wait and see for a few more days.”

“Oh my. That’s why you shouldn’t mess around trying to research cooking.”

“What do you mean, mess around? Did I overdo it for no reason? I was trying to learn proper cooking because everyone keeps complaining that the annex food is terrible and tasteless!”

His hand cut by the knife was already killing him with pain, and now his assistant was saying such things, making Hotsen angry.

“Just leave it be. At least the food here isn’t garbage like what servants eat at other noble houses.”

“You talk strangely. Aren’t servants people too? Is there some law that says they should only eat tasteless food?”

“I’m saying this out of concern for you, Chef. Compared to other families, the people here are treated well, so when they get their wages, they buy delicious food to eat.”

He was right. Unlike other families that made servants’ meals from discarded ingredients, Bloodmere used fresh ingredients. Moreover, the wages were high to match the intensity of the work. Perhaps because of this, no one complained about the food.

“That’s the problem! There’s always so much food being thrown away! I’m too ashamed to face the head chef. It’s not even as good as the junk food they buy outside.”

Hotsen found this very shameful. Although he was a chef, there weren’t many people who enjoyed eating his food.

If ingredients overflowed like in the main kitchen, it might be different, but here he had to create flavor with limited ingredients, making it even harder to make delicious food. So he had been cutting back on sleep and dedicating himself to cooking research, only to hear such words.

Step step, Hotsen strode to the back of the kitchen and opened a wooden container.

“Look at this! Look how much food gets thrown away today too!”

It was the food waste bin.

Obviously it would be full as usual.

“It’s clean.”

“What?!”

But what was this?

There were no dinner leftovers.

Well, there were some, but only a very small amount.

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