This Is Why She's Obsessed #1
Morning light was only just beginning to stain the sky when a carriage raced down the well-kept road.
The sharp clatter of hooves striking earth and the rattle of wheels rolling over packed dirt filled my ears as I watched the scenery blur past the window. The carriage was headed for the Krauser estate.
The Altram manor also stood within the Krauser Dukedom, close enough that I could have walked—but the reason we took a carriage was simple. It was faster.
In that brief span of time, Chess had laid out for me what I was to do today, and what I would be expected to do from here on. There was nothing grand about it. I was only to serve as Helena's personal attendant: stay at her side, answer when called, and do as I was told.
"It's huge."
The moment I stepped down from the carriage I let slip something thoroughly vacant. That a duke's residence would be enormous was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Heh. Hearing you say that, you're still a child after all."
Chess, climbing down after me, clapped me on the back with a faint laugh. At eight years old, wasn't I unmistakably a child either way?
I nearly voiced the question just to see how he would react—but the iron gates were already swinging wide in welcome, and the chance slipped away. The servants who kept the vast machinery of House Krauser running always began their mornings early. Cleaning the great hall and every chamber, washing the linens, preparing clothing—there was never a shortage of work. From that angle, being assigned solely to attend Helena was something I could only be grateful for.
"Lord Chess, welcome."
The moment we slipped quietly in through a rear entrance, a middle-aged man in a tailcoat stepped forward as if he had been waiting and greeted us warmly. I knew him as the head butler who oversaw the household staff. I had seen his face at every one of Helena's birthday parties, so I remembered him well.
"Mm. You've been working hard as always. Nothing amiss yesterday?"
"Yes, my lord. Fortunately, yesterday passed in peace as well."
"Glad to hear it. Ah—this is my son, Zion. I've brought him to begin serving as Lady Helena's attendant starting today."
"Ah~. So this is the young master you mentioned yesterday?"
The butler gave a good-natured laugh and bowed to me with genuine courtesy—far more humble than one would expect toward a viscount's son.
"Heh heh. I believe this is our first proper meeting here. Allow me to introduce myself formally. I am Andy, the butler."
A noble's neck was usually stiff with pride. Even a mere viscount often carried himself with an arrogance that rivaled a duke's. But I had never been the sort to hold my head high. I hadn't been born that way, and serving Hypnos after my death hadn't changed it either. On top of that, I had already been instructed on how to treat the servants of this house. So I dipped my head lightly and steadied my voice as carefully as I could.
"I am Zion Altram. I have many shortcomings, and I'm sure I'll give you cause for frustration more than once—but I hope you'll look after me from now on."
"My, my. If Lord Chess's own son is lacking, then half the young nobles in the realm ought to be weeping tears of blood."
Andy laughed heartily as he piled on the praise. Plenty of people mistook a child's premature composure for genius; I wondered, a little warily, whether this butler might be one of them.
"Still… is it truly all right to dress the young master of Altram in servants' clothes? At the very least, a proper tailcoat…"
The gentle, unhurried atmosphere held, yet the butler glanced at my outfit with a note of regret. The clothes were clean—they were new—but they were cut in exactly the same style as the rest of the household staff. Plain servants' garb. House Altram served the Krausers, yes, but we were still nobility; the question had probably slipped out by instinct.
But—
"Don't worry about it. Altram may be a noble house, but before that we are colleagues who serve the same master, are we not? I've trained him, of course, yet while he is still learning there will be mistakes. And wearing a servant's uniform was entirely Zion's own decision."
"Pardon…? The young master himself requested it?"
At the news that I had volunteered to dress like the staff, Andy's eyes went round with open surprise. Even Chess had been thoroughly startled by it only yesterday. The reaction was only natural.
"Yes. I asked my father myself. Though I am a son of Altram, this is the first time I will actually do the work—and I am still a child. Rather than a tailcoat that doesn't suit me in the least, wearing the same clothes as everyone who works here seems far more comfortable."
I understood the impulse to dress a child in fine clothes. But the image of a little shrimp like me strutting around in an expensive tailcoat was so absurd I could barely stand it. So I had settled on a clean, roomy servant's uniform instead.
"Truly… Young Master Zion thinks quite differently from ordinary children. Is this the blood of Altram, I wonder?"
"Heh heh, that's far too extravagant a compliment. Don't elevate him more than he deserves."
Chess answered Andy's awed praise with a show of severity, but his face was full of smiles. Having his own son praised so openly seemed to put him in an excellent mood. A doting father through and through.
"Ah—um… may I begin work from now?"
"And full of zeal as well. Very well. Shall we go up?"
Praise was pleasant enough, but too much of it left my face burning. Once I had the butler's leave, I went straight up toward Helena's chambers. I only visited about once a year, but I already had a rough grasp of the layout. No guide was necessary.
I stopped before the door of the room where Helena would be and took up my post without going in. The Krauser family assigned each member a dedicated servant, precisely so that someone would always be waiting just outside, ready to be summoned at once. It was a practice shared by other noble houses as well. In the Krausers' case, however, the duty rotations were generous, which made the work far easier than in most households.
"…Is someone there?"
I had been waiting outside the door for roughly thirty minutes when a familiar woman's voice came from within. Helena's voice.
"Yes, Lady Helena. I am standing by."
"Ah—then, if it isn't too much trouble, some water…"
She broke off mid-sentence, and a sudden flurry of noise erupted inside—clattering and thumping of the sort people made when they were rushing about in a panic. I listened, wondering what was going on, then snapped my gaze toward the door as it burst open.
There stood Helena in a thoroughly light state of dress, her eyes wide with disbelief and her lips trembling. Finding me stationed at her door at this hour must have been a genuine shock.
"Zi—Zion…? Is that really you, Zion?"
"Yes, Lady Helena. This is the first time we've met this early in the morning, isn't it?"
"Well… it is the first time, but…"
Helena still stumbled over her words, excitement not yet under control. In time with her voice, the swell of her chest—far too developed for sixteen—trembled faintly. She had already grown taller than most men and carried herself like a fully grown woman. Looking at that dramatically curved figure, I still found it hard to believe she was the finest knight in the kingdom.
"A-anyway! That's not the point—why are you here, Zion?"
"Starting today, I have been assigned as your personal attendant, Lady Helena. That is why I am here."
"A-attendant?! Zion, as my attendant…?"
Even in House Altram, no one would normally put an eight-year-old to work. Fifteen was the usual age for sending a child out into service; a child's body was simply too small and slight for labor. Ordinarily, only slaves, orphans, or others with no choice were forced into work at that age—and Altram was not in such straits. We held no fief of our own, but ongoing business ventures meant we were never short of coin.
Even so, I had taken this post in a child's body for one reason only: my own will. Helena's mind would shatter completely around the age of twenty, and I had decided she needed looking after long before then. Lately, though, she had been visiting the Altram house more often and seemed far healthier in spirit, so I had begun to wonder whether I was worrying too much.
"Yes. However, if you have any objection, please say so. If you would prefer your previous attendant, I can assist them instead…"
"N-no! I have no objection! I'm actually happy—I'll get to see you more often!"
"Ah… yes. That is fortunate, then."
Helena had completely abandoned her usual composure and was flustered beyond measure, but the color blooming across her face made it plain she was genuinely glad. She was someone who unloaded the burden of being a perfect lady and knight onto me; she would not be hiding her true feelings now.
In any case, I had my master's permission. It was time to begin my duties in earnest. And the first step was to do something about this hopelessly disheveled young lady's attire.
"Then shall we start by changing you into day clothes? You can hardly take your meals in your nightgown."
"…Ah."
Only after I pointed it out did Helena check her own clothing and flush red. I was biologically male, but still only a child. The problem did not seem to be any awareness of me as the opposite sex—only simple embarrassment at having come out looking so careless.
"Ah… um. Yes. You're right."
"Then, if you'll excuse me."
Most nobles required an attendant's help even to change clothes. Helena was no exception, so she would certainly have been used to the assistance—and now that role fell to me. Fortunately, I was thoroughly practiced at dressing a woman. I had trained steadily for it using one of Altram's female servants as a willing model, and as a result I could manage even the most complicated gown without trouble.
I gestured for her to go inside. Instead she lingered in the doorway, fidgeting. I glanced around for whatever was holding her back, but the corridor was empty. So I gently urged her on.
"Lady Helena? You should go in at once. If you wander about like this, His Grace will not look kindly on it."
"A-ahem! Yes. We can't very well stay like this. Very well. I am prepared. Let us go!"
She turned her back with the grim resolve of someone marching off to war. It seemed an excessively dramatic reaction for simply changing clothes. Or perhaps, to her, a boy was still a boy no matter how young.
I couldn't say. All I knew was that, for some reason, I felt a flicker of pity.
Because the eldest son of this house—Helena's younger brother, Cain—hated her with a pure and one-sided loathing. With a sibling like that, she had never had the chance to build any real family affection at all.