The Peaceful Life Of A Maid Who Hides Her Power And Enjoys It - Chapter 6

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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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Chapter 6

After that, he began organizing the Small Garden on his own, even though no one had urged him to do so.

The Head Maid asked him various probing questions about his background, then returned to the kitchen. She looked half-resigned.

“Hmm.”

Standing inside the kitchen, the Head Maid watched Lu outside the window with troubled eyes.

Meanwhile, Lu was having an intimate conversation with some contractor he’d brought from who knows where. Judging by the words “garden trees,” “fountain,” and “carp” that could be heard, he seemed to be planning some major construction project.

A gardener hired to tend the garden calling in professional contractors to completely overhaul it?

‘I’m jealous.’

Suspicious but handsome, plus rich and owns a house. Meanwhile, I’ve devoted my life to world peace and barely scrape by as a maid.

‘So this guy didn’t kick that assassin out of his house.’

Could Lu possibly be the client who commissioned surveillance of the Weatherwax Baroness? I needed to confirm this.

I pointed at Lu on behalf of the indecisive Head Maid and spoke—no, declared.

“Fire him.”

The Head Maid turned to look at me.

“Who? Mr. Lu?”

“Suspicious person.”

“Are you talking about yourself?”

Myself? …Even so, I’m not comparable to that guy.

“Of course, Mr. Lu certainly isn’t an ordinary person. In all my years doing this job, I don’t think I’ve seen anyone quite so unique. Except for you.”

“That’s why fire him.”

“There’s no need to rush him out, Miss Daisy. If he were dangerous to the estate, the Weatherwax Baroness would have him expelled. Don’t worry so much.”

How could a baroness who doesn’t even exist expel that man?

The Head Maid was too complacent.

I was about to explain, ‘An assassin snuck in at dawn, so I beat him up and locked him in the house across the street. But today I saw that Lu had that assassin by his side. They must be spies who came to surveil the Weatherwax Baroness,’ but I closed my mouth.

If I said that, I’d look suspicious too.

Actually, I don’t care how others see me. But if the other party is the Head Maid of the Weatherwax Estate, my position changes.

‘Only a family as strange as the Weatherwax would accept me.’

If I got kicked out of even this household, I’d have nowhere to go.

Money is this dangerous. It prevents me from clearly exposing even the existence of spies who threaten the master’s daily life!

“Besides, wouldn’t it be a loss to fire a gardener who’ll do the garden construction himself for half wages? The Weatherwax Family is tight even on that kind of money. Let’s wait and see for now.”

The Head Maid was a true slave to capital of this era.

Money is this dangerous. It makes you willingly keep someone who might be a spy in the estate!

“Well then. Shall we start our work?”

Today’s schedule was cleaning the second-floor windows. For reference, this is the cleaning I hate most. It’s the second hardest after cleaning the ceiling.

Like a fine maid of this era who serves her master loyally, I didn’t forget to surveil the spy even while cleaning windows. What wouldn’t I do if it meant protecting my one precious job?

The spy was halfheartedly pulling dead weeds from the garden.

Even his posture while pulling weeds couldn’t be more suspicious. So I watched him even more intently.

‘Normally in this situation, I should pick a fight over something trivial, have a physical conversation, then induce him to reveal his true feelings.’

Like I did with the assassin at dawn.

But with Lu, I was hardly given such an opportunity. Surprisingly, Lu showed not even the slightest opening.

It was absurd. Handsome, rich, owns a house, and has no openings too?

‘What exactly is his purpose?’

That’s when it happened.

Lu, who had been organizing the weeds he’d pulled all along, suddenly stopped and looked up.

“Do you have something to say?”

It was an ordinary voice, but Lu’s words reached my eardrums with piercing clarity.

The sight of him devoted to gardening while dressed in a white shirt and light yellow vest was really… well-suited. Well, what wouldn’t look good on a beauty?

Even if I couldn’t have a physical conversation, acting like nothing happened was only in front of the Head Maid.

I rested my chin on the window and asked him.

“Who are you?”

“If you mean my name, I introduced myself as Lu earlier. Maid who is a maid.”

Maid who is a maid. Even knowing he’s obviously mocking me, I feel annoyed.

“Not your name.”

Lu’s eyes narrowed thinly. He was making an expression that should have looked pleased, but didn’t look particularly pleased.

“Are you saying you want to know me more deeply? I don’t think we’re at that stage yet.”

“Stop acting like a snake and answer. Who are you? Why did you come here?”

It had been so long since I spoke this much that I was out of breath.

“Because I’m your fan.”

What?

He tilted his head and looked up at my face, then chuckled.

“Last night you caught some pervert and tied him up at my house. The way you boldly imprisoned a complete stranger was quite impressive to me. I’d like to give you Midwintry’s brave citizen award if I could, but…”

“Are you saying you entered the estate because of that?”

Again. It was so absurd that words poured out of me without realizing.

While I shuddered at how unfamiliar my own voice sounded, Lu shrugged with an annoying smile.

“As if?”

So he has no intention of opening up willingly. Then I have no choice but to interrogate him face to face.

I jumped down into the garden through the open window.

“You.”

As I strode toward Lu, he had been watching leisurely with his arms crossed, but suddenly shouted toward the inside of the estate.

“Head Maid! The maid who is a maid keeps slacking off and bothering me. Is this acceptable? Doesn’t Weatherwax protect the human rights of its employees?”

Faced with such despicably cunning behavior, I had only one reaction.

To walk right back the way I came and enter the kitchen through the estate’s back door.

My teeth were grinding.

‘Suspicious and despicable too.’

Of all things, mentioning the Head Maid?

I devoted myself to window cleaning like a thief with guilty feet. I was so zealous that I broke one window, but the Head Maid didn’t scold me severely. Only part of this month’s wages were deducted.

Thanks to that, my mood was quite low by dinner time. But as always, only the Head Maid and I sat at the dining table.

“Where’s the cook-gardener?”

“He says he’ll have dinner separately. Since our estate has dinner after official work hours end. He’ll probably continue having dinner separately.”

No need to see him after sunset. That one point is to my liking.

I comfortably pushed the tasteless vegetable stew down my throat.

The next morning.

After quickly finishing my morning duties, I encountered Lu in the passage leading to the kitchen. Like yesterday, he greeted me with an appearance too neat for a gardener (precisely, neat enough that he wouldn’t look strange as the estate owner).

“Good morning, maid who is a maid.”

I ignored him and entered the kitchen. I heard a small laugh behind me.

Lu explored various parts of the kitchen, then uttered just one sentence.

“Haven’t today’s ingredients arrived yet?”

The Head Maid, who had come down first and was sipping tea, answered instead.

“We don’t order ingredients, Mr. Lu, we go to the market and buy them ourselves. And today’s ingredients are over there.”

Lu looked at the potatoes, carrots, and onions sprawled in the wooden box under the table and let out a short exclamation.

“Oh my, I thought it was leftover food scraps.”

For the first time since being hired yesterday, he looked like he was experiencing hardship and adversity. I felt kinship with Lu for the first time.

Yes, this household only has a decent reputation but is moderately poor. You’ve entered to suffer.

“It can’t be helped. Let’s make do with this for today’s lunch. At least there seems to be plenty of butter, pepper, salt, herbs, and milk, which is fortunate. Maid who is a maid?”

He smiled and pointed at the box.

“Peel them.”

I peeled the ingredients without complaint.

Living like a beggar for the past month taught me one thing: it’s best to obediently follow the words of whoever feeds you. At least during the moments they’re feeding you.

I peeled potato skins while observing Lu.

After examining the cupboard, he took out a square container I’d never seen before, then a seasoning storage box I’d never seen before.

‘Was there something like that in this kitchen?’

After cleaning the dust-covered container thoroughly, he cut the butter he took from the paper and slowly melted it over the fire. After coating the container with butter, he skillfully picked up a kitchen knife and sliced the potatoes thinly.

He neatly layered the potatoes in the container, seasoned them with pepper and salt, then covered the top with milk.

His cooking skills were so proficient that I found myself unconsciously watching in fascination.

“Miss Maid.”

Lu called out to me while crushing dried herbs into small pieces.

“Do you see the mouse on the fence beyond the window?”

Suddenly? I turned my gaze away from him to look out the window. Just as Lu said, a small gray mouse was scurrying along the top of the fence.

“That mouse would peel potatoes better than you. Your potato peeling speed is ridiculously slow.”

“…Mm.”

He’s a cook. At least for this moment, he’s not a gardener but a cook.

This is the only way to escape the Head Maid’s cooking hell round 2. Let’s not get on his bad side.

I peeled the potatoes faster. Lu waited silently while I finished peeling the remaining potatoes, then repeated the same cooking process two more times in different containers. All that was left was waiting for them to bake in the oven.

And finally.

“Please eat.”

The moment I put the potato gratin with its soul-stirring wonderful aroma on my tongue.

I couldn’t help but freeze at the intense sensation called ‘taste’ that pierced through my mind.

‘How can it be this delicious?’

That’s right. Unbelievably, Lu was a skilled cook.

He perfectly understood how to utilize both good and bad ingredients. The shabby, dying potatoes were reborn as perfect potato gratin in his hands.

It was an excellent taste that couldn’t even be compared to the Head Maid’s cooking skills in the same kitchen.

“You eat well.”

Lu, who had been staring at me intently, left those words and went out to the garden.

Wasn’t he hungry? I thoroughly cleaned up Lu’s portion of potato gratin that was left sitting there.

A comfortable life and satisfying meals are inseparable companions. The Head Maid wiped her lips and let out an admiration in a half-enchanted voice.

“I haven’t had a more satisfying breakfast than this in years. Mr. Lu’s cooking skills are truly amazing. I almost feel sorry for hiring him at half price.”

Seeing the Head Maid’s eyes that had fallen in love with the potato gratin, my fading sense of crisis shot up sharply.

‘No. At this rate, the Head Maid will completely fall for that swindler.’

Perhaps because of who he was, even this delicious cooking felt like an excellent scheme.

‘Fox-like bastard.’

Working in the same house with someone so bothersome doesn’t suit my temperament.

‘What’s even more annoying is that he’s radiating his suspiciousness with his whole body.’

He’s confident, isn’t he?

I have two assumptions about Lu’s identity that I’ve been considering.

First, like the assassin, he infiltrated to monitor the Weatherwax Baroness.

Second, he knows my past and followed me here.

‘…What are the chances of it being the latter?’

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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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