The Peaceful Life Of A Maid Who Hides Her Power And Enjoys It - Chapter 4
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 4
After buying ingredients and returning to the estate, the Head Maid led me to the kitchen.
“You’re late.”
“First time.”
Tonight’s dinner was vegetable stew.
While I peeled potatoes, the Head Maid prepared carrots and onions and seasoned the stew.
When we sat at the table to greet the warm, steaming stew, my heart felt touched.
‘How long has it been since I’ve tasted such warm food? There’s even proper tableware.’
But only we’re eating?
“For reference, the master takes care of her own meals, so there’s no need to worry about it.”
I see.
I took a spoonful of stew, savored the taste, and swallowed.
An amazing flavor spread through my mouth that would surprise even someone who had lived like a beggar.
“Tastes bad.”
“Tastes bad?”
“Yes.”
“Keep such impressions to yourself. I have no talent for cooking originally.”
We silently emptied our plates. For reference, I was emptying my third plate, while the Head Maid watched the slave-like eating with tired eyes.
“Though we’ve only known each other for a day, Miss Daisy is the first maid like this I’ve seen. It’s not a boast, but many maids have come and gone from the Weatherwax Estate. Most quit quickly or ran away.”
I think I know why they ran away. It was too delicate to answer, so I just kept moving my spoon.
“How did you end up doing this work?”
How did I end up doing this?
After escaping Quin Island with the soldiers’ help, I had one big problem. I had no money to live on.
My hometown and home, Quin Island, had burned long ago, and having lost my younger brother’s identity that I’d used for 10 years, I had nowhere to get money.
There are few jobs a woman with no connections or skills can do.
Factories won’t hire without a letter of introduction, farms have off-seasons so they’re not year-round work. Store clerks don’t receive lodging, so the only way to secure both room, board, and money was to become a maid.
That’s why I specifically told the bespectacled interviewer that I “wanted a wicked employer.”
Because I was in a position where I had to work even in such places.
‘A maid, huh.’
I think it was ultimately not a bad choice.
I only had 3 years to begin with, and to extend that lifespan, there was a ‘thing’ I needed to find in this city called Midwintry.
Since I had no intention of saving money to live luxuriously, I didn’t need more than enough money to survive. I’d never even thought about it.
The Head Maid’s eyes looking at me became a little pitiful.
“If it’s difficult to answer, you don’t have to say anything. Where in the world is there a person without a story? Don’t we all live carrying at least one in our hearts?”
I changed my mind from answering “because I have no home or money” and kept my mouth shut nicely.
‘If I show that I’m penniless here, they might work me even more like a slave.’
Let’s just pretend to be someone with many stories. They might give me less work out of pity.
Still, washing dishes was my job.
The next day.
Following the Head Maid’s orders, I cleaned the estate like a dog.
“Miss Daisy has really good strength and stamina. Today we’ll wipe the dust from the second floor ceiling. Do you know? If you don’t maintain it for too long, dust accumulates even on the ceiling.”
I had only closed my eyes briefly after dinner, but a new day had already risen. Is this real? It was the first experience since rolling around on battlefields.
The day after next.
Today I worked like an ox instead of a dog.
“Tomorrow morning a new employee will arrive. The schedule will be harder than today, so we plan to finish about an hour earlier. Let’s start by cleaning each room’s fireplace.”
After about three days, I became quite familiar with maid work.
Now I felt I should start looking into the ‘purpose’ of coming to Midwintry, so I questioned the Head Maid and market vendors for information related to ‘that thing.’
But the answers that came back were predictable.
“Hmm. Are you talking about that legacy that Dian Ket left before he died? It must exist. Wouldn’t it be carefully enshrined in some great noble’s treasure vault?”
“Dian Ket’s legacy? Ah, yes. They say such a thing is hidden in this city… but that’s just rumors, isn’t it? No one but children believes it, miss.”
【Dian Ket’s Legacy】
That’s right. I had settled here in Midwintry searching for the ‘eyeball,’ one of the five relics left by Dian Ket.
Dian Ket was a great healer who could revive even the dead.
He divided his power and sealed it into each legacy, and a myth that wasn’t quite a myth has been passed down that gathering all five of his legacies can cure any incurable disease.
‘Whether that treatment can heal even a broken soul is uncertain though.’
Dian Ket was called a demigod along with the great mage Mephisto. It must be worth expecting. If only I could find it.
So I spent hard days combining the work of searching for Dian Ket’s legacy with maid duties.
At midnight when a hard day was ending.
My mind, which had been wandering the boundary between reality and sleep, suddenly sharpened.
‘One person.’
Someone had snuck into the bedroom.
Footsteps, breathing, timing. It was excellent infiltration skill in many ways. I thought about threatening them preemptively but held back for now.
Highly trained assassins generally commit suicide when they feel they can’t complete their mission. It was a very bad habit.
So it would be difficult to reveal the intruder’s identity without targeting their weakness.
“Wake up, maid.”
Soon a cold blade touched below my chin.
“If you scream, I’ll slit your throat like this. Listen with your mouth shut. If you want to live, follow orders.”
When I calmly opened my eyes, cold blue pupils were glaring at me.
“From today, you’re a spy. Monitor the Weatherwax Baroness’s movements and report regularly.”
“Why?”
“Didn’t you hear me say to shut your mouth? This isn’t a request but an order. If you want to live, follow orders.”
At my question, the intruder seemed momentarily flustered.
“Why?”
I flicked the intruder’s head who muttered “You must not be fully awake.”
The intruder staggered, half-unconscious from the modest flick.
Not missing that moment, I stuck my finger into the intruder’s mouth and pulled out a hidden pill.
A pill fitted conspicuously in the molar area, commonly called 【Merciful Bite】.
It was a suicide pill favored by the Assassin’s Information Guild.
“Why?”
I stuffed the blanket into the mouth of the intruder who recovered consciousness quite quickly.
I pinned the man to the floor and took away and threw out the hidden weapons concealed all over his body.
“Why?”
Needle-like long blades, solid daggers, powder of unknown use, leaf-shaped throwing stars…
And finally, when I threw out even the emergency 【Merciful Bite】 hidden in his sleeve, the fighting spirit completely died in the intruder’s eyes.
Now he had no means of suicide left.
“Ready to answer.”
The intruder, who had squeezed his eyes shut in despair and opened them, nodded his head. When I pulled the blanket from his mouth, rough breathing followed.
He opened his lips with eyes that couldn’t believe it.
“You’re not an ordinary maid. Who exactly are you?”
“Answer.”
“…I only took on a commission that came to the guild. I don’t know who made the request or why the Weatherwax Baroness needs to be monitored.”
“What number am I?”
“From what I’ve heard, at least the third.”
That meant at least three maids had been threatened in exactly the same way as me.
The goal was one thing. To monitor the Weatherwax Baroness.
“The previous maids?”
“…”
“Answer.”
“I don’t know either. My role is to extract a pledge of obedience from the maid. I’m not involved in what happens before or after.”
The assassin held out a small thumbtack-shaped earring attached to his right ear.
Seeing the mystical energy flowing from it, this earring was clearly a magical artifact.
‘It must be a magical artifact for extracting oaths.’
An oath is a promise made with one’s soul as collateral.
Since those who break it die as their soul is destroyed, it was also forbidden magic that had been banned long ago.
‘To think they tried to impose such a terrible oath on a mere ordinary maid. And more than three times at that?’
Come to think of it, it was definitely strange.
Though I had only worked for a few days, the Weatherwax Manor was just a bit demanding work-wise, but not a terrible enough workplace for maids to flee or quit one after another.
The master to serve was nowhere to be seen, the assigned bedroom was spacious and clean, and the daily schedule strictly followed the hours from 6 AM to 7 PM.
Therefore, it was more likely that the maids had disappeared rather than fled. By force, not by choice.
‘But the Weatherwax Baroness isn’t actually in this estate.’
Having rolled around battlefields for ten years, detecting human presence wasn’t difficult for me.
I was certain that the Weatherwax Baroness had been away from the estate. For quite a long period at that.
‘If they sent assassins more than three times, there’s no way the client wouldn’t know that fact.’
An estate without its master.
A client who steadily monitors such an estate.
This estate is suspicious in many ways.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————