Chapter 41
#41화 Servant Cedric (7) - Image Improvement. Manor Edition.
To the manor maid Neria, the scariest person in the world was none other than the 'young lady of the house.'
「Aah! ...Hey, are you messing with me!?」
The trigger was trivial.
While helping the young lady with her morning dressing and brushing her hair, she accidentally snagged some strands in the comb.
Just one of those trivial mishaps that can happen while brushing someone's hair.
But for that small mistake, Neria was beaten so badly that her face was left bruised, and she had to groan in pain for an entire day.
After that, it became an endless vicious cycle.
Just seeing the young lady's face, or even sensing her presence, made her shrink back instinctively, and in that state, trying to do housework naturally led to more mistakes.
Then she would be harshly scolded by the young lady again, which made her shrink even more the next time.
Some of the other maids pitied the newcomer and tried to switch places with her somehow, but even that had its limits.
The available manpower was always stretched thin, because servants who couldn't bear the young lady's behavior would quit at the drop of a hat.
Neria, too, had thought about quitting several times, but she never actually managed to hand in her resignation.
Having lost her parents early and having had to support her younger siblings all by herself, she simply couldn't ignore the shockingly generous salary this place paid.
For Neria, the recent changes at the manor were very welcome.
As a result of the young lady's attention being entirely focused on the newly arrived male servant, a little breathing room had returned to her mind and body.
Neria cautiously savored that breathing room, but at the same time she felt uneasy.
Knowing how terrifying the young lady's personality was, Neria couldn't think this peace would last forever.
"I'm sorry. I was too harsh last time."
So when the young lady suddenly bowed her head and apologized, Neria could only stand there, stunned.
It wasn't just Neria who was shocked; the other maids nearby also seemed to hold their breath.
Perhaps taking that silence as something else, the young lady kept sneaking glances at Neria.
Only then did Neria realize she hadn't given any reply, and she hurriedly spoke up.
"I-it's fine! Really, it's fine! It was all my mistake, so there's nothing for you to apologize for, my lady!"
In her haste, Neria bowed even deeper than the young lady had lowered her own head.
Mixed in with that action was contrition, but fear was even stronger.
She had taken the young lady's apology not as a real apology, but as a kind of test.
If she were to stiffen her neck here and blurt out something like, 'Yes, you really were too much,' and then the young lady turned the tables, how on earth was she supposed to deal with the aftermath?
"No, um...."
Seeing how completely intimidated Neria was, the young lady trailed off, then let out a sigh.
"...There won't be anything like that again from now on. And as an apology, I've put extra into this paycheck, so please accept it."
That was the end of it.
The young lady didn't say anything more or pick a fight, and instead left Neria's side, then went around to the other maids and apologized to them one by one.
Only after the young lady had completely left the area did Neria finally manage to relax.
A senior maid who often helped Neria came over and said,
"Neria, are you okay?"
"Yes, somehow..."
"Still, you really never know what life has in store."
The senior maid, who apparently had experience serving not only Redbell but other noble houses as well, looked very surprised by Claudia's behavior.
By nature, nobles are stingy with apologies to those beneath them.
Because admitting fault and asking forgiveness from someone below them is, in their eyes, an act that chips away at their dignity as nobles.
Most of the time they don't apologize at all, and after that come things like "making up for it with material compensation without ever saying the words of apology," "having someone else deliver the message," or "phrasing it indirectly, like saying there was a misunderstanding last time," and so on.
In that sense, what Claudia had just done was almost unprecedented.
In front of everyone watching, Claudia herself had bowed her head and directly spoken the words of apology, without any roundabout phrasing.
"It looks like the young lady has changed a lot."
At the senior maid's words, Neria stared at the spot where Claudia had just stood.
To be honest, Claudia's apology hadn't really touched her heart that much.
It couldn't be helped.
A wound on the heart doesn't disappear so easily.
Just one thing.
Very slightly.
Really, just a tiny bit.
It was true that she had started to feel that something might change.
***
Thud.
Claudia, without even properly changing out of her clothes, collapsed face-first onto the bed.
It had taken about two hours to go around the manor and apologize to each servant for everything that had happened.
It wasn't physically all that exhausting, but the mental fatigue Claudia felt was far greater than she'd imagined.
The humiliation of apologizing to servants she normally looked down on.
The shame of walking around with her head bowed in front of others.
More than anything, what had worn her down the most was—
"—It doesn't end just because you apologize once. It seems you've felt that deeply."
"Ugh."
At the servant's remark beside her, Claudia's body jolted hard.
She turned her head and glared at Cedric with a resentful look.
Claudia's disheveled clothes and coquettish, upturned eyes were alluring enough to stir any man's heart, but Cedric's face, as always, was a steel plate.
"The servants didn't accept the apology because they truly forgave you. It was because you are a noble, because you are House Redbell's young lady, because you are their employer, and so they had no choice but to accept it. You probably sensed that as well, my lady."
Claudia couldn't say anything.
Because Cedric was right.
Even after she apologized, the servants still feared her and remained wary, wondering whether she might be hiding some ulterior motive.
For that reason, she couldn't help but wonder.
"Does this even mean anything? Everyone looks unconvinced anyway, and they don't seem very willing either."
"My lady, forgiveness is not a product sitting on a display stand."
"What?"
"The very notion that because I apologized, the other person must give forgiveness in return is itself a misunderstanding—and arrogance."
Claudia's eyes darted around, skimming the floor.
She asked carefully.
"Then what am I supposed to do."
"Since you've expressed your will in words, all that's left is to prove it through action. And in that regard, my lady, you are in a rather advantageous position. Because everything up until now has been so abysmal, simply acting 'normal' or 'a little friendly' will already have a dramatic effect."
When someone who is normally known as a good person makes even a small deviation, people rain down enormous criticism on them.
When someone who is normally known as a villain does even a small good deed, people reevaluate them, saying they have an unexpected side.
Claudia's reputation was undoubtedly at rock bottom, and the expectations surrounding her were endlessly low.
But precisely because of that, even a trivial change could carve a very strong impression.
"Especially since my lady is beautiful, and her lineage is noble as well. It may be something you yourself don't want to do, but it will be a major advantage in what you're trying to do."
When a common soldier was injured and collapsed, someone treated his wound.
If a village woman treated his wound with a scrap of cloth, the soldier would consider it a "kindness."
If a beautiful princess treated the wound with her handkerchief, the soldier would consider it an "overwhelming honor."
It may seem amusing at a glance, but the actual effect is absolutely impossible to ignore.
Especially in a society where class consciousness is deeply rooted.
The frontier regions of the Kingdom of Birka have already had that class consciousness greatly eroded, because the nobles there have been flaunting their incompetence for nearly a hundred years, but in the kingdom's capital region, where Redbell's lands lie, there are still many commoners who think nobles are simply amazing and noble just because they're nobles.
Cedric said they had to take full advantage of that.
"Every now and then is fine. If there is a servant who has done their duty well, give them words of praise. In particular, if someone has achieved a noticeable result, it would be good to give them an appropriate reward and commend that accomplishment in front of the other servants."
"Be lenient with mistakes. However, that doesn't mean you should forgive every mistake unconditionally. This kind of approach may temporarily raise the servants' support for you, but in the long run it will weaken your authority, my lady."
"Set a clear standard of reward and punishment in your heart, and let the servants infer it to some extent. However, don't make it into public rules. The moment you codify the standard, the thing the servants pay attention to will shift from you to that standard."
"Conversely, if you reveal part of the standard but not all of it, the ambiguous parts will become a weapon you can wield as you wish."
To be honest, Claudia didn't fully understand what Cedric was saying.
She vaguely understood that what she had done to the servants was a "wrong," but she still didn't truly grasp how serious it was, and she also couldn't properly carry herself like the ruler Cedric described.
In a way, that was only natural.
For someone who had lived for years as a spoiled noble young lady, changing that easily with a single decision wasn't possible.
But that didn't matter.
Whenever Claudia made a mistake, Cedric pointed it out and told her how to improve it.
Whenever Claudia had doubts and asked questions, Cedric gave her a clear solution.
Claudia wasn't a genius who learned ten things from one lesson, but at the very least she was smart enough to absorb things if taught repeatedly.
"The head maid, Paula, is concerned that her position doesn't match her years of experience. Because the senior maids left the manor one after another, she's only in her third year yet has been put in charge of all the maids. If you acknowledge her authority, she will surely be deeply moved."
"The gardener, Rudolfe, is under a lot of stress because the garden he had painstakingly tended gets wrecked every time the blood beasts run amok. If my lady were to casually say, 'I didn't say it outright, but I know how hard you've been working. Thank you for always putting in the effort,' he would surely be delighted."
"Chef Cruallo is troubled because it seems like my lady doesn't really like his cooking. Rather than praising his dishes blindly, if you point out what he changed when making them and tell him whether you liked them, he will surely burn with even greater enthusiasm."
And so, time passed.
To the maid carefully helping her with her morning dressing, Claudia said,
"Hmm. Good. I like it. You've improved, Neria."
The maid widened her eyes, then answered with a faint smile.
"Thank you, my lady!"