“……Explain that to me again. I genuinely cannot understand it. Are you saying that a maid wronged by a nobleman is the one being punished? Did I hear that correctly?”
Edele gave an awkward smile and nodded. It felt as though she were defending the bad nobles herself, trying to explain something to Laslo that she found fundamentally unjust.
“Usually, they claim the maid brought it upon herself through improper behavior. It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. They believe that punishing the maid is the only way to save face.”
“Am I the idiot here? Why can’t I understand a single word you’re saying? How on earth does that save anyone’s face?”
“If they don’t make it the maid’s personal fault, then the nobleman’s own authority and status—just as you experienced, Count—would be seen as having been ignored.”
Laslo finally understood.
He understood why Terry and Angelo, when caught by him, had insisted that “that woman seduced us.”
*So that was the way for both me and those bastards to remain safe? By ending it with the punishment of a girl who had done nothing wrong?*
Laslo, who had been wearing a look of shock bordering on absurdity, let out a scoff after a moment and shook his head.
“I hate to disappoint your expectations, but I came from the mercenary life; I know nothing of such ‘noble customs.’ Consider your transfer to the kitchen from tomorrow settled.”
With that, Edele became certain that Laslo, despite his mercenary background, was more sensible and generous than many of the nobles she knew.
She gathered her courage to ask for one more thing.
“Thank you for your generous decision. However, Count?”
“Yes?”
“The work in the laundry room is difficult not just for me, but for Salia and Laila as well. The conditions there are terrible. Would you please allow us to use plenty of hot water, at least during the winter?”
“What?”
Laslo wore a look of utter bewilderment.
“What are you saying? You’ve been doing laundry with cold water on these freezing days? It wasn’t just that the housekeeper made you use it on that one day?”
“Yes…… It’s the same for the laundry room and the servants’ bathhouse. We can’t bathe in cold water in the middle of winter, so all everyone does is wipe their bodies with damp towels…….”
Laslo’s expression went blank, looking undeniably foolish. He was even more shocked than when he had heard about the nobles’ customs earlier.
Edele noticed that something was amiss.
“Was it not under your orders, Count?”
“Are you insane? Why would I order people to bathe and wash clothes in freezing water in the middle of winter!”
“Then did you not give instructions to use hot water?”
“To be precise, I never gave specific instructions regarding hot water. But I did tell everyone to buy whatever they needed—to use whatever they needed!”
He began to voice his frustration, then paused and asked, “Do I really have to give instructions for every little thing like that?”
“To use hot water, we need firewood, and that means a significant cost. That is why the head of the house’s permission is strictly required to use it.”
Laslo’s face flushed red.
“I didn’t even think of that…….”
“Did the head housekeeper not ask you about it?”
“Not once.”
An awkward silence hung between the two.
Then, Laslo, who had been rubbing his temples with a grave expression, suddenly asked Edele, “Is there a stove in the laundry room?”
“There is one heater. In the morning, we boil one large bucket of water, which we use to dissolve the laundry soap or soak heavily soiled items.”
“What about the bathhouse the servants use?”
“A stove? It seems it was built when this mansion was constructed, but it hasn’t been used for a long time, so it’s quite dilapidated.”
He nodded, offered no explanation, and immediately called for a servant.
He then commanded two servants who came running in, breathless:
“As soon as you finish breakfast tomorrow, go to the laundry room and build a proper stove. Once that’s done, repair the stove in the servants’ bathhouse properly as well. If you need more hands, take another person with you.”
“Yes, Count.”
“Oh, and see to it that there is a constant supply of firewood in the laundry and bathhouse until summer comes. Do you understand?”
“W-will we be allowed to use that firewood for our baths?”
“Why else would I have you pile it up there?”
At his answer, the faces of the servants who had been summoned lit up.
Bathing in cold water in the dead of winter was an ordeal for the male servants just as much as it was for the maids.
“Thank you, Count! We will have it built without fail by tomorrow!”
They bowed with loud, booming voices and retreated.
Seeing that, Laslo felt even more miserable.
“I must have been the worst master ever. Washing in cold water in the middle of winter is something they only do in torture chambers!”
“……Thank you for granting my request, Count.”
“I should be the one thanking you. I could have gone on without knowing until all the servants quit.”
He offered a smile mixed with embarrassment.
It might have been a strange thought, but Edele found it somewhat cute.
*To think that a man known as the King of Mercenaries could look cute.*
Edele smiled, too. She wanted to make him feel a little less embarrassed.
“Then…… I shall take my leave now. Once again, thank you for your merciful decision, Count.”
Edele bowed politely again and quietly slipped out of the room. She found it slightly strange that Laslo kept staring at her until she closed the door, but she didn’t think much of it.
* * *
“Oh, look who has arrived. Come on in, ‘His Majesty the Emperor’s Gift’.”
On Edele’s first day assigned to the kitchen, Marsha, who was already sitting at the breakfast table, sneered as soon as she saw her.
It was clear that instead of reflecting on her actions, she believed the reason she had been humiliated in front of other servants and had her wages docked was entirely Edele’s fault.
In the past, Edele would have bowed her head submissively and apologized, but this time, she offered no response.
*I have done enough, Lady Bohen. I will not just endure it anymore.*
Edele had given up on living quietly, as if she didn’t exist. It was a conclusion she had reached after a night of deep thought.
*If I remain silent and there is no intention for others to treat me with respect, I would rather fight to win my own peace.*
Most of all, she could no longer tolerate Marsha’s malicious behavior. Not just for herself, but for everyone in this household, including Laslo.
*I am the only servant who doesn’t need to worry about a letter of recommendation. If someone must denounce the housekeeper’s misdeeds and stop her, I am the only one who can do it.*
Edele intended to uncover the housekeeper’s corruption, one by one.
She had come to this resolution after the conversation with Laslo yesterday. Laslo’s failure to give prior instructions regarding hot water was understandable; no one had ever told him that such an order was necessary.
But Marsha was different.
As the head housekeeper, as the representative of the servants, and as the only person who could communicate with the master of the house, she should have asked.
No, Laslo had said, “Buy whatever you need,” so that was effectively permission for the servants to use hot water.
If so, why did Marsha forbid it?
*I will have to check the ledger, but the probability that Marsha is embezzling the money meant for firewood is high.*
If Marsha had been washing in cold water too, Edele would have simply believed that she hadn’t received direct permission or was trying to save the mansion’s funds.
But last night, after asking Daisy a few things related to water usage, she had heard something shocking.
“She pretends she doesn’t, but Lady Bohen and Mina-unnie are bathing in warm water. We can tell once February comes. Because only those two are clean.”
“If they were heating water to bathe, everyone would have noticed. Didn’t anyone protest?”
“Lady Bohen seems guilty about it, so she doesn’t heat the water where we can see her. She uses the bathroom attached to her own room, and it seems she heats it there.”
Edele’s jaw dropped at those words.
*She really thinks she is a noble.*
Living in a room with an attached bathroom as a servant—even as a housekeeper—and creating a boundary between herself and the others.
Edele was shocked by her arrogant mindset, and then indignation welled up inside her.
*She…*
“So she warms up her water to wash, while making the other servants scrub their bodies with cold water? She doesn’t even dip a finger into cold water herself, yet she makes the others do the laundry in freezing water all day long?”
As Edele thought of Salia and Laila, whose hands were always swollen and red, of Daisy, who had to steel herself just to wash her hair, and of the other maids who had to draw water the night before just to have something to wash with the next morning, her stomach turned.
She decided she would no longer be overly polite to the head maid, and she even made up her mind to dig into her corruption.
Marsha, having no idea about any of this, trembled with rage when Edele didn’t even pretend to listen to her.
“My, my, His Majesty’s gift really has a lucky life. You just pretend to be a little sick, and the Count even promotes you to kitchen maid. It’s just too bad for Salia and Laila, isn’t it?”
She tried to sow discord between Edele and the laundry maids.
However, Salia and Laila just shook their heads with indifferent expressions.