Chapter 6
The world of maids is complicated.
A maid's work can be broadly divided into managing the estate and preparing meals.
The management staff handle an incredible range of tasks, from attending VIPs to cleaning, managing heating and cooling, maintaining supplies, and doing laundry.
Generally, once a senior maid has gained enough experience, she'll have a specific area of expertise assigned to her.
By contrast, a maid of all work—someone who takes on all sorts of odd jobs rather than specializing in one task—is at the very bottom of the hierarchy.
The only exception to this system of ranks is a personal maid assigned directly to someone of high status, like me.
Her only assigned duty is to stay by her master's side twenty-four hours a day.
In other words, unless something unusual comes up, she has to follow and assist her master in nearly everything he does.
That's why daughters of noble families, who receive a thorough education from a young age and possess basic knowledge and refinement, are preferred as personal maids.
Honestly, from the maid's point of view, it's incredibly tedious and exhausting.
I need a life where I can read books in my free time once all the cleaning is done, too.
“So that's why you don't want to come to the meeting.”
I sighed and straightened the tie in my hands.
I looped it around the back of Derek's neck, standing right in front of him.
“……What are you staring at?”
“You.”
“Ugh. Don't use that shitty line on another guy, would you?”
“I only said one word. And it's not even a lie.”
Like I wouldn't notice you staring at me.
Grumbling, I deftly tied the knot.
Aside from when he gives me a shoulder massage, the moment I'm closest to Derek is when I'm fixing his clothes.
A massage happens from behind, so the only time we're face-to-face and this close is when I'm tying his tie for him, like now.
This punk Derek acts like the very picture of perfection in public, but in reality, he's such a hopeless mess he can't even tie a tie himself and needs a maid to do it for him.
That's why I have to stand right up close, swallowing my sighs and irritation.
At least I'm doing it because he's a precious friend. If it were anyone else, I'd throw a fit and refuse to tie it because my arm was tired.
I finished the knot and patted it.
“There! All done, right?”
When I looked up, I saw my reflection in the gray eyes still gazing down at me.
“……I said, what are you staring at?”
“You. Yuria, you. You're tying my tie yourself. Where else am I supposed to look?”
“Cut the bullshit, you idiot.”
A little embarrassed, I hurriedly stepped away and turned my head.
Derek hardly ever wore a tie, so this sort of situation rarely came up. But today was a little special……
Maybe because every detail had gotten my personal touch, he looked quite dashing when I saw him from a little farther away.
From his hairstyle to the hems of his trousers, there wasn't a single part of his outfit my hands hadn't touched.
Normally, a personal maid would put together her master's outfit every day, but from the day I first arrived, Derek had always taken care of getting dressed himself.
Thanks to that, I was spared the horrifying task of helping him put on even his underwear.
But when he had an event outside the estate like today, I prepared his clothes and dressed him myself.
Maybe it was because he's the combat-oriented sort, but for a high-ranking noble, he was surprisingly clueless about fashion, so important occasions had to pass through my hands.
Still, even on days like this, he never let me pick out or help him put on his underwear.
A pointless but not unpleasant courtesy, I suppose.
Anyway, that's how Derek ended up looking pretty good today.
Almost enough to make me jealous.
If I had to become a kid again, I wish I'd ended up looking like that.
It's not that I'm unhappy with my looks now, but still, being a girl is a little……
“Why are you staring at me in a daze?”
“……Huh? Oh, yeah.”
Had I been admiring my handiwork in a daze without realizing it?
Hm, I really do have a good eye for design.
More importantly, Derek had closed the distance again before I knew it.
And in the blink of an eye, his hand brushed lightly across my cheek.
What was that just now……
“Yuria, are you feeling sick today? Why do you keep spacing out?”
“N-no. I'm not spacing out. Back off, you idiot. You're creeping me out.”
“Then don't walk around with something on your cheek.”
“On my cheek?”
What, that was all?
I brushed the spot Derek had just touched, just as he had.
“Nothing came off.”
“Not there. Hold still a second……”
Once again, his hand brushed past.
Uh, um……
“……Enough. Let's hurry up and go. We'll be late at this rate.”
Feeling a little awkward, I spun around and strode toward the door.
Why does he keep coming up to me out of nowhere?
Between friends, that's gross.
************
Although people commonly call it the North, its official name is the territory of the Grand Duchy of Ekardt.
Beneath its ruler, the Grand Duke of Ekardt, were countless lesser nobles.
Some got along well, while others growled at one another at every opportunity, but most did their best to govern the fiefs they'd been granted.
In the harsh North, if a lord didn't pay attention to his territory, it was only a matter of time before it withered away.
Still, at least once a year, that tendency helped bring about the worst sort of situation.
“This time—this time, our territory has to be first, no matter what!”
“What are you talking about, Baron? Did an orc's club hit you on the head while you were out hunting? If your territory gets first place, are the rest of us in the northwest supposed to go hungry until February?”
“Eeh, enough, all of you! Shut up. We're number one, that's final!”
“Now, Count. I usually like you as a neighbor, but right now I'm itching to curse you out. You know I have beastkin blood, right? If I throw a punch, it'll hurt. A lot.”
Though the Empire occupied most of the continent, it still couldn't fully extend its influence north of the mountain range.
A place teeming with countless monsters.
A place with no resources to offer besides stone and timber.
Worse, in winter, monsters frequently invaded human settlements, so Northerners had no choice but to regard the place as hostile.
That place was known collectively as the White Mountains.
Since monster attacks could happen anytime the weather turned cold, the Ekardt ducal house, rulers of the North, had a duty to protect the border territories surrounding the White Mountains.
The Ekardt Knights—the strongest force in the land, growing more formidable the colder it got—patrolled the mountains each winter for this very reason.
Once the Knights made a thorough sweep of a territory's surroundings, the monsters generally didn't dare show their faces for a while.
Because of that, the earlier the Knights visited a territory, the safer it tended to be through the winter.
And so, whenever the border lords gathered to decide the order of the Knights' visits for the year, the atmosphere at the ducal residence grew heated.
The Grand Duchess, Erika, never hesitated to sum it up as “a complete mess.”
Even so, she had no intention of stepping in to clean up the mess before her.
The true lord of the land was temporarily away on other business. The Grand Duchess could have acted in his stead as the lady of the house, but she chose not to.
Because someone else was better suited to wielding a sword.
As it happened, at just the right moment, the meeting room doors slowly opened.
The noise that had been painfully loud abruptly fell silent.
Thud, tap. Thud, tap.
Two sets of footsteps made their way through the crowd toward the Grand Duchess.
The one in front, the Grand Duchess's son, came up to her and bowed his head slightly.
“You have a cruel sense of amusement, Mother. Instead of watching while you wait, you could have been getting things under control.”
“I chose you to wield my authority this time, didn't I? It's your father's policy, so shouldn't you follow it?”
Her son, Derek, answered with a slight tilt of his head.
He's so cold, the Grand Duchess thought.
Though she had given birth to him, Derek wasn't exactly what one would call warmhearted.
In public, he was known as cold and levelheaded. In truth, he was a little less severe than his reputation suggested, but not all that different.
At least, that was how he was with everyone—except the petite maid standing quietly behind him with her head slightly lowered.
The maid had done little besides offer a brief, polite bow when she first met the Grand Duchess. But the moment Derek finished speaking with his mother, she moved quickly.
She smoothly pulled out a chair in perfect step with Derek.
The Grand Duchess watched the maid's actions and gave a wry smile.
Her dear friend's daughter, whom she cherished almost as much as her much-younger daughter, Maria.
For the sake of a friend who had wept, saying they desperately wanted to spend what little time they had left beside their only friend, the Grand Duke himself had placed her by his son's side.
Though her memory had been somewhat impaired by her serious illness, she'd visibly recovered at some point and reached the point where she could fulfill her role as a maid admirably.
Yuria still had a disability people politely referred to as “clumsiness,” but aside from the occasional accident she caused unintentionally, she worked beyond even the standard of a perfect maid.
That “beyond” had a great deal to do with Derek, who had been expressionless until then, thanking Yuria for pulling out his chair with a faint smile.
The Grand Duchess privately thought Yuria would make a fine candidate for her daughter-in-law.
However, after watching them quietly for some time, she saw that while her son showed a subtle interest, Yuria seemed to have no interest in anything beyond her maid duties.
According to Derek, when the two of them were alone, Yuria's childhood-friend side became quite apparent, but who knew.
The Grand Duchess cared for Yuria very much, but she didn't think Yuria absolutely had to become her daughter-in-law.
In any case, she thought it would be best for Yuria, who had suffered so much from a young age, to marry someone she loved.
And so whether her son achieved what he wanted would depend on his own efforts.
At least, perhaps something would be settled once the weather warmed and he returned from the capital, the Grand Duchess thought.
It didn't seem likely, but perhaps watching Derek's efforts to conquer high society would make Yuria feel a twinge of jealousy, even if she didn't realize it herself.
Regardless, Yuria simply stood quietly just behind Derek and off to one side, looking only at him.
Since it was her duty to refill his glass if it happened to empty during the meeting.