The Maid With a Child - Chapter 1

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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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Raise it.
The head of House Sigelion had returned.
All the household staff lined up at the entrance to receive their master, who had been away at war for a long time.
“He arrives.”
At the distant sound of hoofbeats drawing near, the Butler straightened his head and murmured the words.
Adlen drew in a long breath and gazed toward the distance. This was her moment to greet her master—someone she had never once laid eyes on since joining House Sigelion and taking up her post.
“Waaaaah!”
“?”
But alongside the hoofbeats came the sound of a baby crying.
The servants exchanged glances. Yet none of them held the answer. They found only confusion mirrored in each other’s faces.
“Could it be that the master is… zero years old?”
Adlen asked the senior maidservant beside her carefully.
The senior maidservant turned without a word.
“……There’s no way that could be, right?”
It was a joke; Adlen laughed nervously and scratched her head.
The senior maidservant shook her head with a stern expression.
“Never let yourself stand slack-jawed like that in front of the master. You’ll lose your head.”
“Come on……is it really that serious?”
“…….”
“……So that’s what kind of person he is. Yes. I’ll be careful.”
While they whispered their idle exchange, the hoofbeats and the baby’s cries drew near enough to touch.
Leading the procession was a massive white horse. Behind it, a column of war-horses matched its size. They were Racalt, the head of House Sigelion, and his knights.
Enormous men sat astride those enormous mounts—it was like watching a mountain stampede toward them.
An overwhelming presence filled the forecourt of House Sigelion.
The Butler stepped forward as the household’s representative.
The Butler deepened his voice, donning all the dignity he could muster.
“Welcome home safe and sou——”
“Waaaaah!”
“——nd, my lord——”
“Kyaaaah!”
“——. Please come——”
“…….”
The solemn atmosphere of the master’s homecoming was utterly shattered by the baby’s wailing.
The servants struggled desperately to hold back the corners of their mouths from twitching. The Butler had practiced that speech for how long.
But the Butler’s mind had gone blank; he had lost the thread of what should come next.
“Um, that is to say, uh…….”
The half-finished welcome speech spun uselessly on his tongue.
Yet their master was not a man to wait for the Butler’s minor greeting.
Whoosh—a thick shape flew through the air. At the same moment, the baby’s cry traced a long arc through space.
“Waaaaah!”
The cry followed the parabola into the distance.
The baby had been thrown.
“Oh, oh no……!”
Those who had been watching only their master suddenly panicked, reaching out their arms. Their bodies moved faster than their minds could catch up.
Among those who reached out was Adlen.
“Huff!”
Bull’s-eye.
The baby landed squarely in Adlen’s arms, as perfectly as a ball dropping into a basket.
Adlen tightened every muscle in her body to hold the infant steady. Only when she felt the solid weight in her arms did she truly understand that she had caught the baby safely. Belatedly, cold sweat trickled down her spine.
“M-m-master……?”
“Raise it.”
Before she could steady her nerves, the command fell from her master’s lips.
“Pardon? I—yes? You mean me?”
But no answer came in return.
Racalt swept his cloak aside and walked on. His knights followed in his wake.
As the broad-shouldered men moved as one, the wind from their cloaks was like a typhoon. There was no nerve to catch up and address him.
“Kyaaaah!”
The baby in her arms thrashed and wailed without mercy.
Her master, who had ridden off to war, had returned with a child as his spoil instead.
It was a moment like a tempest.
And it was the moment when the maid Adlen’s life began to unravel completely.
* * *
Adlen stood there in a daze, cradling the baby that had fallen into her arms as if from a natural disaster.
The past flickered through her mind like a lightning strike.
Three months now since she’d taken work at House Sigelion. How overjoyed she’d been to become a maid in such an establishment.
The lord was always away at war; the wages were among the highest in the industry. And there was no mistress, no young master either—a perfect position.
Or so it had been.
Until just now.
‘A child here too?’
The lord had clearly tossed the baby carelessly, yet somehow it had landed in her arms. Was she born under some star of childcare, perhaps?
Adlen, raised in a foundling home, had spent her life from age ten onward caring for her younger siblings without pay.
They were leeches, always taking her share, yet she’d believed they were her family all the same.
But then one day, a small incident on the street shook her entire world.
‘Oh no!’
It was in front of a fruit stand.
Startled cries erupted from the crowd, followed by the sound of something tumbling across the ground.
The fruit was extraordinarily expensive—this wasn’t the season for them. A single piece cost as much as Adlen’s daily wage.
‘What am I to do!’
The fruit merchant rushed out, bellowing.
‘I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to…. Waaah….’
A small child had caused the accident.
The child had tripped over a stone, and in flailing to catch themselves, had grabbed the fruit crate.
The child, realizing how expensive the fruit was, went pale and wept with apologies.
‘That child is done for,’ Adlen thought.
She’d braced herself to watch the parents beaten—but instead, the child’s mother and father did something entirely unexpected.
‘We’re so sorry! Truly, we apologize!’
‘I should have watched the child more carefully…. We’re so very sorry. We’ll make restitution, no matter what it takes.’
Both parents began bowing and pleading to the fruit merchant at the same time.
‘?!’
They weren’t scolding the child—they were apologizing on their behalf?
How was such a thing possible?
‘Ah, well. Children make mistakes. There’s no need to bow so deeply. Just settle the debt, and do get up. Are you hurt, little one?’
The merchant’s response was even more shocking.
Once the parents prostrated themselves in apology, his anger vanished entirely. Rather than scolding the child, he even comforted them.
The parents began discussing compensation with the merchant, and the onlookers soon dispersed.
But Adlen didn’t leave. This couldn’t possibly be the end. Surely they’d turn around and hit the child.
‘Are you alright? From now on, pay attention to where you’re walking.’
‘Yes…. I’m sorry, Mother. Father. I’m sorry for making you spend so much money.’
‘It’s fine. Everyone makes mistakes when they’re alive.’
‘But still…. It was so expensive. Because of me….’
‘As long as you’re not hurt, your mother and I are fine. You’re what matters most to us.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes. We’re family, after all. Family protects and cherishes one another.’
Those words struck Adlen like a thunderbolt.
Ah, so that was what a real family was.
Not people clinging to each other to steal scraps, not people merely heaped together in survival.
People who unconditionally shelter you. People who are the most precious in each other’s lives.
That was what a family was.
‘I want that.’
She desperately wanted people who looked only at her, who gave only to her, people like that.
From that day forward, Adlen’s dream became a family of her own.
But trapped in the foundling home, caring only for her siblings, it was a dream she could never achieve. The orphanage offered no chance to meet men, no savings for marriage.
So she’d thrown herself into the path of servitude.
The work was grueling, but the wages were high and her reputation among men was excellent—the finest profession.
‘I’ll have a husband far prettier than a toad and children far better than a contrarian goat, and we’ll build a happy home together!’
That single goal had been her entire world.
“What in the world is this.”
Not a windfall, not a stroke of misfortune—but a baby had fallen from the sky.
When she’d left the foundling home, she’d vowed that the next child in her arms would be her own.
Such vows meant nothing now—not against a single command from her lord, dissolving like paper in water.
“Wahhh! Waahhhhh!”
The infant’s cries were nothing short of a disaster alarm.
The wailing that reverberated through the entire manor snapped Adlen back from her reverie in an instant.
Everyone else had already gone white in the face, standing frozen like statues.
“W-w-what do we do?”
“W-w-we need to stop the crying first, it seems…….”
“R-r-right. The crying won’t stop? What now? Should we hit it?”
“No…… I saw someone do something once…… Or maybe if we set it down on the floor, it’ll crawl around until it gets tired and stops?”
A flood of unhelpful, wildly impractical suggestions poured forth.
“……It might be hungry.”
Unable to endure it any longer, Adlen offered the correct answer disguised as speculation.
She had no desire to pretend she knew anything about infants, but at this rate the child would drive her mad.
Eyes widened all around.
“Ah! That could be it. But…… what do you feed an infant?”
The group stood in blank silence, glancing helplessly at one another’s faces.
“Meat……?”
“Pie……?”
“No, first let’s try calming it down—what if we give it a little alcohol?”
“…….”
A heavy silence fell over them all.

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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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