It is said that happiness and misfortune are two sides of the same coin.
Two weeks later, I was clearly feeling it.
To find happiness, there was a lot of precious food that I couldn't even touch before.
Spaghetti with Gruyere cheese! When I was a maid I always ate leftovers.
What is misfortune?
It was the fact that I was with the Archduke who I served.
Only the sound of me eating spaghetti echoed in the silent hall.
I didn't study aristocratic etiquette I only saw it from the side, so I gave up on that in the first place and ate as I wanted.
"I heard you caused a ruckus."
I choked while I was swallowing spaghetti.
The Archduke, who was sitting diagonally, kindly handed me orange juice.
"Yes."
Sipping my orange juice, I nodded my head slightly. It seems that he also heard the news.
Fifteen days ago in the morning, there was a commotion.
Fortunately, Hannah came to her senses that afternoon.
The maids still firmly believed that I had cursed Hannah.
I didn't expect that I would hear it from Archduke Ferze himself.
"You made a maid faint this time, right?"
Saying that, Ferze had a happy face after a long time.
As I rolled the spaghetti noodles on the fork with my head down, I lifted my face.
I murmured without even swallowing the spaghetti noodles in my mouth.
"It wasn't "
Ferze did not scold me even when he saw my bad manners.
"I didn't mean it either, but I've killed a lot of people so far."
Duk
The fork in my hand fell off and rolled on the floor.
Embarrassed, even before I could grab the fork, Ferze glanced at the servant who was serving the meal. The expression on the archduke giving instructions was dry.
The servant immediately hands a new fork in front of me, with pale face.
"How can you go to Visenna when you're this scared?"
I glared at Ferze with a dissatisfied face.
The moment our eyes met, I fixed my eyes on the spaghetti bowl as if I had never done so.
"I'm not going."
I'm sorry, Ferze. No matter how much I think about it, I don't think I'll ever go to that family.
Ferze smiled as if there was no point at my resolute tone.
From the looks of it, it's a face that say you don't have a choice.
"I will bring my life as a maid to an end."
"I've heard that exactly 32 times. Ever since you opened your eyes as a child."
Did I ? I got embarrassed and scratched my cheek.
It turned out that Ferze wasn't obsessed with power, but that I was obsessed with the maid.
But I mean, there is no one who offers better conditions than here, and there is no one who pays you twice salary.
"Can't you speak more like a child? It's too much for a six-year-old child to use."
Enemy, what do you mean? How did my image get stuck like that?
Ferze has been a member of the royal family since birth, to be exact, the emperor's cousin. As the Grand Duke of Yekart, there was nothing lacking, but I wasn't.
And when I mumbled like a child, I think it was only yesterday that you told me to stop being stupid and talk straight.
After I opened my eyes as a six-year-old, I had more time to looking at Ferze face.
"I'm not really six years old…."
I muttered to myself.
The doctor came and went for a while before eating. It was to get a medical examination to find out why I suddenly became young.
When the butler told him my age, the doctor looked like he couldn't believe it. The doctor then carefully looked at me and said I looked six years old.
Although the body age is six years old, there may be side effects of swallowing poison.
When I asked what the side effects were, he said, 'Your mental age is a bit...'
He said my mental age was decreased like a real child, but I didn't care. There's something else I don't understand.
I can call the butler if I want something, but the point is that Ferze will come to see me at busy times.
At first, my hands were shaking so much that I couldn't concentrate on eating.
But now, two weeks have passed, I'm getting used to it pretty well.
Contrary to popular rumors that Ferze is a cruel villain, he did not touch the child.
He doesn't give a finger flick to a child who doesn't listen.
Is that kind? I couldn't even see it like that.
Usually, adults would laugh at a child saying they were cute, but he was always expressionless.
He showed no interest in cute things.
But I don't understand why you always come to see me.
'If I have to find the reason, it's to keep an eye on me?'
Moreover, seeing that he keep talking about the Visenna family, he seems to be sending me to the north, but I never intended to go.
The only one bad guy in the Archduke house is Ferze, but there are three awful men in Visenna.
I looked up at Ferze and ate spaghetti with a face that looked as pitiful as possible.
Since I'm trying to eat, I have to act while eating.
When I was a bit full, I put my fork down.
And didn't forget to rub my eyes with the back of my hand.
I didn't even want tears to come out. I just want my eyes to look red.
Hiks. Ferze, who looked at me rubbing my eyes with a strange gaze, reached out to me.
Startled, he raised his head and gently grabbed my hand. And he clasped something in my opened hand.
It felt cold and rustling to the touch. When I glanced at it, it was even lit up in gold.
I'm sure this is .....
"Here, cookies."
What he brought out was almond cookies. That's a shwilin cookie, right?!
It's so expensive, for commoner it was impossible to obtain even before we died.
Sometimes, whenever I went to the capital on an errand for a butler, I was envious of the people who went into a store selling shwilin cookies.
But he gave me those cookies!
"It's a shwilin cookie!"
After pretending to cry, I reached out my hands and took the cookie that Ferze had offered.
Don't curse at me for being shameless!
Maybe it's because I'm young. I became greedy for snacks.
"Thank you."
I tried to peel it off, but it didn't work because my hands were slippery.
As I wrestled with the cookies wrapper, Ferze looked at me with a pathetic gaze and took the cookie from my hand.
"If you give and take it back, you will be punished."
"Do I look like a bully who steals cookies from a child?"
"A little?" I nodded my head at Ferze's question.
Guess that's the wrong answer.
I should have just said 'no' to be honest.
Contrary to what I expected, where he would get angry, he just peeled off the wrapper and shoved the cookies into my mouth.
For a moment his hand touched my lips and I froze.
"Don't just swallow it, chew it well."
Said Ferze, looking down at me with an expressionless face.
Inevitably, memories from before I was young came to mind.
Was it when I knocked out the wine glass to save the Archduke?
He grabbed my chin and ordered me to swallow the wine.
The expressionless expression was the same then and now, but it felt a little different.
Is it because he gave me shwilin cookies?
Unknowingly, as I looked at him with moved eyes, Ferze furrowed his handsome brow.
Oh, yeah. You just gave me a shwilin cookie. I take back that thank you.
Looking at Ferze with uncomfortable eyes, he smiled strangely and said meaningful words.
"You have to eat a lot to grow up quickly."
Where are you going to send me when I grow up?
You're not going to send me to the Visenna family as a test subject, where it says it only has heinous people, are you?
When I asked him with my eyes, he held out a bundle of papers in front of me.
When I looked at the paper involuntarily, my face hardened like a Moai statue.
As if he knew it, he looked at me with his jaws clasped in his hands.
"Read it."
With trembling hands, I grabbed the first sheet of paper that had been pushed out in front of my eyes.
The word written straight as if it were printed was unexpected.
"Contract?"
Even though I rubbed my eyes, wondering if I saw something wrong, the text I saw did not change.
They said that contracts should not be made carelessly.
Just looking at the mysterious contract once, my anxiety began to pour in.
When I couldn't turn the next page easily, Ferze got up from his seat with a gentle motion and approached me.
His big hand wrapped around my trembling hand as I gripped the first page.
Even the size of his hand looked three times larger than mine. Maybe it's because I'm a child?
Without looking at the contract, I turned my head to the side, and Ferze was reviewing the documents with stricken eyes.
I saw a sharp jawline and strangely sensual lips, and a long silver hair tickled my cheek.
He sighed deeply when I was frightened by the fact that he had come close.
"Some might think I'm a monster that eats a child."
"But..."
Ferze, who was staring down at me, placed the back of his hand on my cheek.
When I felt a warm body temperature, I felt relieved without realizing it.
"Shh—."
I wonder if the temperature has reached him for a while. Ferze, who immediately shook his hand from me, picked up the papers.
This isn't an Archduke, but a dangerous butler-like position trying to kill the owner's daughter, isn't it?
That would have been scarier.
As I was thinking about it, Ferze's hand fluttered through the papers and gently slipped over.
When I passed the first page of the contract, I saw the second page stating the contents of the contract.