A maid is a person who exists in a mansion, but does not. It was their role to clean the premises from the eyes of the employer, neither heard nor seen. There are often people who help the lady dress up on behalf of the poor maid, but this has been the case in very few cases. The maid must do other things while the butler, the maid, and the servant wait for the employer and the guest. In particular, on a morning like this, she has to roll early in the morning.
“I want to go out there, too.”
Lina murmured in a voice full of regret.
“I want to feel like I’m at a party, too.”
“Your Excellency gives the employee a vacation after the banquet. Why don’t you feel like a party then?”
“That’s not what I’m saying! It means I want to be part of a fancy social life.”
The words stopped washing the dishes and turned out of the window. The place where many young maids, including Lina, stare with envious eyes. It was already the thirteenth carriage. As the servant opened the door, a woman with a long black feather tucked into her head stepped on the ground with an elegant movement. The woman entered the mansion, showing off her sparkling dress with the help of her servant. Perhaps in the hall, the maid will guide her to the room.
“You mean, you want to serve the aristocratic people?”
“Yes, it’s better if you wait and see a good gentleman in the eye.”
“You’re too honest, Lina.”
“Susan, why don’t you take a break? I’ve already prepared all the tableware to cook.”
I answered, shaking my hands because there was no plate left.
“It’s been tough today, but I’ll be in hell for three days from tomorrow.”
“When I think about the food that so many people have left behind and the messy bedrooms….”
“Shh! Look over there, she’s Azmaria Will.”
The attention of the scattered maids was once again focused. This time I had no choice but to show interest. Azmaria is a noble woman who is praised by the ladies. She was also a woman who was admired by many men because she was graceful in her conduct, words and actions, and had both vitality and wisdom.
“As rumored.”
“She must have followed her peers. She haa no fear. I’d never come if I were her, it’s scary.”
The young aristocrats got off the wagon one by one. Two, no, three. Among them, Azmaria’s beauty was outstanding. There was something that caught my attention even though she had black hair like others and white skin like others. Long arms, slender jaws, dancing steps. She was the main character’s lover.
“Mr. Campbell is here, too.”
Tuk.
I carefully picked up the handkerchief that fell on the top of my foot. I felt a cold sweat running behind my back. His last expression, which was falling down the terrace, glimpsed in front of me like an afterimage.
“He had been courting Susan like that! He is going to marry Susan not Lina”
“He’s good enough.”
“Are you okay? It’s a rise in status!”
In their minds, it seemed that I had already been chosen as Viscount Chambell’s prospective wife. I’m okay? How could I say that, knowing how I almost killed him? It was a terrible picture just by imagining it, so I pretended not to hear it and left the mansion through the back door. It’s only been fifteen days, but how did he come to Ingord? on crutches? If not, lie down? With a rag in his mouth?
“Honestly, I was a little disappointed.”
It was Mary. Without answering, she sat down next to the stack of fruit boxes. Mary, who was squatting right next to me, spoke to me from time to time.
“The nobles. Rather, I feel that Susan-senpai is more suitable for the noble woman I expected.”
Well, the Agrane I possessed comes from a wealthy and prestigious noble family. I nodded silently without answering. Then, because she thought I was about to burst out laughing, she shoved her nose between her neatly gathered knees. It was funny that Mary was much quicker than Ingord’s maids, who were flying and crawling.
***
Since guests were gathering from all over the place, the entry continued even after the sun went down. If all the nineteen had arrived early, they would have been busy preparing the dinner, which was quite fortunate as a maid. The day before the banquet started, it seemed to pass smoothly.
Clink!
The sound of tranquility was heard well after midnight and when everyone was asleep. My mind, which had been floating in the dark, became clear. The noise was coming from the second floor, not the employees’ bedrooms. If the poison hadn’t made my hearing sensitive, I would have overlooked it too. But there was no second thought. Instead, the sound of pouring rain engulfed the mansion.
I carefully left the bedroom and went up to the second floor. Even though nineteen guests visited the duke’s mansion, the mansion at dawn was as gloomy as a ghost castle. At one point, a faint light appeared in the darkness. It was the light from Richton’s office.
“… master?”
It’s always a closed space. However, the door was more than half open and the owner of the room was absent. A vase disassembled into pieces was seen under the yellow light. It seemed to be the culprit of the noise that woke me up. I slowly walked towards the window. In the bleak darkness where even the Milky Way could not be seen, a bright light could be seen gradually receding away. I was accustomed to seeing the glimmering back of the lamp.
“Richton.”
His steps were truly bizarre. The straight and outspoken signs disappeared without a trace. As if riding on a single rope, the man’s precarious footprints headed towards the forest beyond the far-off stream. Something is wrong with him. But Richton wouldn’t be the kind of person who would show a loophole to others. The thought could not last any longer. I went down alone, grabbed my umbrella, and left the mansion.
Shwaaaaa
The sound of rain hitting the back of my ear was much louder than the sound of my breathing. I forced my legs hard towards the distant light. His stride was so great that it took me quite some time to catch up.
“Master.”
Up close, Rchton’s condition was the worst. The rain was so thick that it was hard to see his face, which had been washed away by the rain. I held the umbrella high and drew near his wet arms.
“Master”
Where are you looking? His gaze was looking far away somewhere in the dark forest. It was as if he was possessed by something. Richton, who is no one else, was possessed by something strange and invisible?
“Richton!”
It was so weird. I grabbed his neck and looked down. A white breath filled the space between us and scattered.
“Agrane”
And the name that came up after a while, Agrane. It felt like my mind was empty. The strength in my hand that was holding Richton was quickly drained. A tiny drop of water formed under his eyelashes and fell to the ground from his chin.
“Now I’ve found it. Don’t you know that being caught in the fall rain is an act of death for a woman as weak as you?”
If there was a big hole in the umbrella, would this cold come? Even the umbrella I was holding trembled in the raging cold. Richton, who looked down at me, gently wrapped his hand around the back of my hand. His eyes were looking at her, but he wasn’t looking at me either.
“Let’s go back to the castle. You look so pale after only a few minutes have passed.”
Richton grabbed my shoulder and hugged me. A shiver ran through my bones as if trapped in an underground freezer. His hands were colder than the rain falling from the sky. Where is he wandering?
“Where are we going?”
“To your bedroom.”
“Where is my bedroom?”
“You want to play a question-and-answer game with me? You really feel like a different person today. Where would your bedroom be if it wasn’t in Hill Castle?”
Madness. The short word that had been forgotten appeared on the surface of the water. If his madness is to suffer from a past he can’t throw away…
“There is no Hill castle here, my lord.”
I stopped walking and shook off the arm that was wrapped around my shoulder. Richton lifted my lamp with a puzzled look and pushed it close to my cheek. With a face that looks exhausted and out of breath enough to make the hearts of viewers numb
“The Agrane Karold I know doesn’t look like this.”
“Well, I am not the Agrane you know.”
Richton twisted his eyebrow. Wet platinum hair covered his forehead and between his eyelashes.
“Is it Wilhelm?”
With his gaze fixed on me, he slowly lowered the lamp onto the wet ground. Then his corpse-hard, cold hands wrapped around my face.
“No, not Wilhelm. What the f*ck did that b*stard do to you again? “
“He has nothing to do with me.”
Richton looked as if his limbs had been severed. Otherwise, he could not show such a painful expression. There were teeth marks on the bitten lips. The distance between the tip of the nose was so close that the shape of the torn lips looked delicate one by one.
“Things like that, don’t go through it anymore.”
We’re not getting through each other. It’s not my business that he went through a lot of suffering because of Agrane in the past. I am not that woman. I twisted my neck from Richton’s grasp and pulled my face away.
“Do you know how cold your body is now? It’s so pale that it won’t look strange even if you collapse right away. You look like a corpse. You can’t stay here any longer. You need to go back to your room.”
“I don’t have my room. We are going to Hill Castle.”
“Calm down. Because there is no castle named Hill here.”
As I was about to walk ahead, Richton turned my body back. He also took the lamp I was about to pick up. And with a strong grip, he pulled the back of my head to the point I could feel his breath. His body, bent towards me, obscured the still dark vision even darker.
“Agrane, please listen to me… .”
Richton is not a man with such a desperate voice. I felt frustrated and hot as if I was dealing with a stranger. I clenched my teeth and slowly recited each word one by one.
“This is Ingord.”
I shouted louder, lest he could hear me.
“Okay? This is Ingord, not Hill Castle. You dragged me like a dog from Triviache to Ingord with a leash! To abandon Agrane and to live as Susan in Ingord!”
I struggled to escape from Richton with evil, but he locked me in the end with his mighty strength.
“Please don’t call me Agrane! I’m not Agrane, she’s dead. I’m the only one left. Everything was taken away by me….”