Chapter 26
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 26
Chapter Title: As Expected, Dia Likes Ganeghan. (1)
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‘Understood.’
With those words, Ganeghan left Dia’s room. With Abera at his side, of course.
Dia pulled the blanket over her head tightly on the bed. Hildia and Iaseom, who had just entered the room, had no idea why she was doing that, but they weren’t particularly curious about the reason either.
And why would they be? Dia sulking because she was in a bad mood wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.
In fact, that was exactly the Dia they were used to seeing every day—the real her.
Ganeghan had instructed them to clean the room, which was why they had come in like this, but both hoped Dia wouldn’t swing a knife at them during the process.
“Hey, Iaseom.”
Hildia was the chatty type of maid by nature. True to form, she was the one to start talking to Iaseom first this time too.
Chatting was the only way she could relieve her stress. If she couldn’t even gossip a little, it felt like thorns were growing in her mouth—not to mention during something as boring as cleaning.
But Iaseom was too preoccupied with Dia under the blanket to even clean properly, doing it all cautiously.
Iaseom quietly raised one index finger to her lips and looked at Hildia.
“Shh!”
She even made the sound while doing it. Her eyes were filled with fear.
Hildia could guess what that fear was about.
She was probably scared Dia would wake up and get angry. The room had been left untouched for so long out of fear of the second young lady’s violent temper, so it was understandable to be nervous about suddenly coming in to clean.
But today, that fear felt unusually faint.
Because Ganeghan’s nutritional supplement was that effective.
Hildia gave a subtle smile as if to say it was fine. Still, just in case, she whispered in a soft voice.
“It’s okay. Young Lady Dia seems to be sleeping.”
“We’re not sure! That’s why we have to be careful!”
“Then let’s check.”
Before Iaseom could ask how?, Hildia raised her voice.
“Y-Young Lady Dia~ We’re going to clean the room now?! Please forgive the noise!”
No response came back.
Only then did Hildia and Iaseom both let out deep sighs of relief.
Now they could even chat a bit while cleaning.
Not that it changed their desire to finish up and get out of this room quickly—they still moved their hands busily.
“So? Why’d you call me?”
Iaseom asked back as she swept the floor indiscriminately, whether it was dust or stuffed bears.
Hildia was wiping dust from the window frame.
“About your body. It really works, right? Don’t you feel energy bursting out of you, Iaseom?”
“Yeah, definitely. I was really shocked. I thought you were just spouting nonsense because you’d fallen for Mr. Ganeghan...”
“Hold on, nonsense? What do you even think of me normally?”
“Whatever. The other girls were all raving about how effective it was too. And thanks to that, we’re cleaning Young Lady Dia’s room right now... Honestly, if it hadn’t worked, I wouldn’t have even thought about cleaning this place.”
Hildia burst out laughing at Iaseom’s words as she cleaned the window frame, then spoke up again.
“Exactly. I thought the same. But since it actually works... we have to give it as compensation like this.”
“This is pretty easy compensation. Young Lady Dia’s sleeping too.”
“Watch it. Keep calling her name and she’ll wake up.”
“Ah, seriously! Don’t say scary stuff like that!”
Iaseom shuddered, as if just imagining it gave her goosebumps.
Seeing that reaction, Hildia giggled a little. It was fun teasing her.
Dia’s room, which had seemed like it would never get clean, was gradually taking on the shape of an actual room under the skilled hands of the two maids.
“By the way, Iaseom. Mr. Ganeghan’s single. No girlfriend.”
Iaseom’s face crumpled as she dunked the dust-covered rag into the bucket. It was almost a look of contempt.
“...How far have you gotten in your imaginary romance?”
“What? No! I’m not bringing it up because I want to do something with Mr. Ganeghan!”
“Then? Focus on cleaning.”
“I am focusing. I brought it up because focusing alone is boring.”
“So what is it?”
Hildia bumped Iaseom’s hip with her own, as if to say this story was really going to be fun.
“You know how Young Lady Abera collapsed in front of Mr. Ganeghan’s room the other day?”
“Ah~ That? But didn’t you say Young Lady Abera doesn’t like Mr. Ganeghan? You said it yourself.”
Iaseom nodded vigorously, as if she remembered it perfectly.
Even Iaseom, who usually found Hildia’s gossip annoying, seemed interested in this topic.
An invisible question mark popped up over Hildia’s head.
“Huh, what? Did I tell you too?”
“How much gossip do you spread that you can’t even remember? Yeah, you did, you idiot.”
“Ah~ Right, I did.”
“But honestly, even if you hadn’t said anything, everyone would’ve figured out it was a misunderstanding after a bit.”
“Why?”
Iaseom continued as Hildia tilted her head.
“Looking just at that situation, it was understandable to misunderstand. Young Lady Abera suddenly blushing and collapsing. It was such a shocking sight.”
“Right, right.”
“But Hildia, thinking about it now, there’ve been more than one or two amazing guys proposing to Young Lady Abera. All with serious wealth and talent. For her to ignore all those and fall for Mr. Ganeghan at first sight? It doesn’t add up.”
“Yeah... That’s what I was getting at too. But isn’t that common knowledge now? What I want to say is something else.”
“What? You’re not saying it to point out that Young Lady Abera doesn’t like Mr. Ganeghan?”
“Nope!”
Iaseom wrung out the rag with a squeeze and hung it on the window frame, as if declaring she’d focus on the story for a moment. Leaning against the frame, she asked Hildia.
“So what do you want to talk about?”
“I was thinking about it. Who does Mr. Ganeghan like? Who does Young Lady Abera like? Stuff like that.”
“...Another groundless romance theory. Pass.”
Iaseom reached for the rag on the window frame again, as if she was sick of that.
“Iaseom, listen. I think Mr. Ganeghan likes Young Lady Dia. Like, seriously? Romantically? Either way.”
At those words, Iaseom’s hand stopped dead.
“You... Be glad Young Lady Dia’s sleeping right now.”
“Just hear me out! Iaseom! After he gave us the injections, what did Mr. Ganeghan ask for as compensation?”
“We’re doing it right now. Cleaning Young Lady Dia’s room.”
“Right. But Young Lady Abera got an injection from Mr. Ganeghan too?”
Iaseom let out an uh? and finally stopped wiping altogether. The maid who had paused eyed Hildia curiously.
“No way...?”
“That’s exactly it! I gossiped with Alfred earlier, and he said Young Lady Abera told him never to say she likes Mr. Ganeghan or anything like that, even if it killed him. So Young Lady Abera doesn’t like Mr. Ganeghan to begin with, and Mr. Ganeghan likes Young Lady Dia, so he gave her the injection too!”
“Doesn’t that just mean Young Lady Abera dislikes Mr. Ganeghan? Not necessarily that he likes Young Lady Dia...”
“Think so? I heard this from Alfred too—what Mr. Ganeghan demanded from Young Lady Abera.”
Hildia held up three fingers toward Iaseom.
“Visit Young Lady Dia’s room three times a day or more. Make it possible for him to take her out. And something else... Anyway, it’s all stuff like that!”
“...No, really?”
“See? Does it feel right? Women’s intuition! Mr. Ganeghan only talked about Young Lady Dia, so he had a lot to say to Young Lady Abera!”
“Now that you mention it, yeah... All his interests seem to be Young Lady Dia. He asked us to clean her room as compensation too...”
Kya! The two squealed at the same time, then frantically covered their mouths as their eyes met in midair.
Fortunately, the young lady under the blanket was still asleep.
After resuming rag-wiping for a bit, Iaseom just tossed the rag into the bucket entirely.
Hildia asked in confusion.
“What’s with you all of a sudden? Do you like Mr. Ganeghan?”
“It’s not that... I just feel bad for Mr. Ganeghan.”
Seeing Iaseom’s bitter look, Hildia seemed to easily understand the thoughts behind it.
“Ah. Oh! Yeah, true...”
“Young Lady Dia hates Mr. Ganeghan so much.”
They said it in perfect unison.
“Whatever. Let’s finish cleaning and get out.”
“Yeah. We’re almost done anyway.”
As the two wrapped up cleaning, satisfied with their fun gossip,
“Is that story true?”
A low voice suddenly spread across the room floor.
A voice they shouldn’t have heard rang out.
The two maids froze and barely managed to turn their heads. Dia had already thrown off the blanket.
“Y-Young Lady! W-We were just cleaning...”
“...I’m asking. The story you two were just telling.”
The young lady’s pale pink eyes were gleaming.
The dry corners of her eyes were now deep with moisture, even rippling.
One drop.
A tear trailed down her cheek. At the utterly unbelievable sight, the two maids froze even more.
“...Is it true? Really true?”