The Girl Takes Petty Revenge
“…”
Perry, who had fled after receiving verbal abuse of a caliber you'd expect only between archenemies — and before she could even confess to Gul — couldn't stop crying, even though it was long past her usual bedtime.
The plump pillow that always lulled her into deep sleep had been soaked through with her tears and snot until it was unusable, but Perry didn't care. She just buried her face in it anyway.
“Hiccup… I… I just wanted to be friends… I only wanted to say thank you…”
Back when Serpe's people, who had always guarded her, were taken down and she'd been left all alone, she had been drowning in a fear and anxiety that words couldn't describe. That was why she felt such warmth toward Gul, the one who had saved her.
It was like meeting the knight who rescued the princess from the monster in the fairy tales her father used to read her when she couldn't sleep as a younger child.
If Perry were a little older, she would no doubt have defined this feeling blossoming in her chest as a crush.
She was a child who didn't yet know love — but not knowing didn't stop the affection that had already taken root deep in her heart from stinging her.
And that was why, despite being terrified of going outside alone, she had gone to see Gul — only to be rejected outright.
It would have been better if he'd just shown open disgust. The way Gul treated her carried not a whiff of personal feeling at all.
Even a girl who didn't know love could sense, deep down, that she'd been turned away — and the sense of loss she felt was more than a ten-year-old could bear.
“Waaaaah!”
Remembering Gul's expression — that mask of a face, neither smiling nor irritated, telling her to leave if she had no business with him — she burst into wailing all over again.
Creeeak—
“Perry…”
Karma watched his sobbing daughter through the crack in the door, too lost in her grief to even notice it opening, but he didn't go in to comfort her.
“…”
Partly because his clothes reeked of the booze and cigarettes Perry hated — but mostly because of the conversation he'd just had with Gul. When he'd demanded why the boy made his daughter cry, Gul, clearly reluctant himself, had answered with an irritated face that it was for her own good, to truly protect her. And Karma, understanding what he meant, chose reality over his daughter's innocent first love.
I never wanted to see my daughter swooning over some other man for the rest of my life, but watching her get dumped like this… that's its own kind of hard to watch.
“Haah.”
In the end, accepting that there was nothing he could do for her, the father withdrew so his daughter could mourn her first heartbreak in private, without an audience.
I shouldn't force her to eat breakfast tomorrow.
“Ah, dammit…”
My mind snapped awake out of nowhere. I rubbed my bleary eyes and looked out the window — no moon, and the sun hadn't risen yet. It was that awkward hour, too early to even properly call it dawn.
Great, my sleep's wrecked.
I considered drifting back off, but figured if I fell asleep at a time like this, I'd oversleep instead. So I just got up.
When I opened the window, the still-chilly night air rushed in and jarred my grogginess awake. After tidying my bedding and washing up at the shared bathroom, the sun was climbing into the sky.
When I listened quietly, faint sounds of movement drifted from the other rooms — it seemed most of the servants started their mornings around this hour.
Knock knock—
I was checking for any reopened wounds as I rewrapped my bandages when the knock came.
“Oh, you were up.”
“Good morning, Head Butler.”
“The sizing won't be exact, but this is all I have spare, so make do with it for a while.”
Being the man who commanded the entire serving staff, the Head Butler arrived at dawn in his usual immaculate attire without a single seam out of place, and handed me a black suit similar to the one he wore himself.
I put the uniform on right away. It was a bit big, but nothing that got in the way of moving.
“Looks sharp on you.”
Whether it was sincere or a joke, I couldn't tell. The Head Butler told me to follow him, and when I did, I found the servants gathering one by one in the first-floor lobby of the annex.
“We hold roll call like this every morning. You're Lady Perry's guard, so you'll miss it often enough.”
“When I have the time, I'll be sure to attend, sir.”
“Mm.”
Finished speaking with the Head Butler, I walked over to where the servants had assembled and took the empty spot at the very back. Some of them recognized me and greeted me.
“Hi there! You're Gul, right, the one taking over as the Lady's guard from today? I couldn't make the welcome party yesterday — wasn't feeling well. I'm Dorothy. I'm the Lady's personal maid, so I hope we get along!”
The one who approached me most enthusiastically was a big-sister type named Dorothy, whom I hadn't seen yesterday.
“It's I who should be asking for your guidance, Dorothy. If I ever slip up and upset the Lady, please help me out.”
And I wasn't just being polite — after yesterday, I figured I'd be leaning on her for help plenty for a while, so I decided to be as courteous and deferential as possible.
“'Sir,' nothing — I'm only fifteen, you know. Just call me big sis.”
“…Yes, big sis.”
Big sis…
“All right, enough chatter. Aside from the new hire I introduced yesterday officially joining us today, there's nothing particular to announce. Gul there is a valet for the first time, so if he asks about something he doesn't know, do teach him.”
“Yes, sir!”
Being morning, the servants who'd been chattering noisily all snapped to attention at a single word from the Head Butler, falling silent and focused. Then, as one body, they fired off crisp, unified answers.
“Now, off to your cleaning!”
At the dismissal, the crowd scattered in a bustle. Those assigned to the annex headed off to clean it, those on yard duty grabbed their brooms and headed outside, and the ones who serviced the main house vanished toward it.
“Uh, and where am I cleaning?”
“Hmm… you… you're not familiar with the estate yet, so go wait with the Lady. She'll still be asleep, so don't wake her.”
“Yes, sir.”
Even if our work differed, skipping out on communal labor like this would make me look bad to the seniors. If there was evening cleaning to be done, I'd have to find time to pitch in with that, at least.
I wanted to get along smoothly with the faces I'd be seeing every day — but in the end, the most important thing was Perry's safety. So without complaint, I set my steps toward the main house where she would be.
“Um… did you sleep well, my lady…”
“…”
I reached the main house first, learned the location of Perry's room from the valets busy cleaning, and headed up — but contrary to what the Head Butler had said, there was someone moving around inside her room.
So, just in case, I knocked as softly as I could — a tap she wouldn't even notice if she were still asleep — and within a few minutes, the door opened.
The face that greeted me through that crack was vastly different from yesterday's Perry.
Her eyes were swollen so badly I couldn't guess how long she must have cried, and the dark circles under them were so deep it looked like she'd smeared soot there on purpose.
She didn't just sleep badly — she looks like she cried all day long.
Hard to say how much water had come out of that tiny body — the pillow lying on the floor visible past the doorway was soaked through like it had been caught in the rain.
But what stood out most of all was the look in her eyes. Unlike yesterday, she was glaring at me like I was her sworn enemy.
“…Good morning to you too.”
“…Excuse me?”
“I said I didn't sleep well. I cried all day… oh, no, wait. Because of you.”
Perry hurled it at me without hiding a shred of her sulkiness — or her disappointment in me. More than annoying, it was honestly pitiable.
I didn't know it would hit her this hard…
When Karma stormed in yesterday I'd dismissed it as an overprotective dad being dramatic, but it was more than justified.
Maybe I should apologize for going too hard yesterday…
Watching her pitifully try to bury her sorrow under anger softened me for a moment — until I remembered her parents' faces, and stopped myself.
Right. The relationship could improve gradually, later. If I hammered the nail in deep at the start, Perry wouldn't try to cross the line either.
“Why are you just standing there?”
“Sorry?”
“You're my guard. Do something, anything, quickly.”
“Like what…”
“You're my guard! Why are you asking me?”
Will it… improve, though?
Ting. The fork that slipped off the table rang out with a clear metallic chime.
In the fairly spacious dining room with its long table, the only ones seated were Karma, the master of the house, and his daughter Perry.
And the one who had dropped the fork was Perry.
“Bring me a new one.”
“Yes, my lady.”
“No, not you — you! You're my guard, so you fetch it!”
“…”
“…”
The intent behind the order was transparent. Dorothy, watching it unfold, and even her boss — Perry's own father — could only wear expressions of speechless resignation as they looked back and forth between me and Perry.
I wordlessly picked up the dropped fork, took a fresh one from the dish cabinet in the corner of the room, and set the fallen one aside to be cleared all at once later.
For the record, the stack of dropped tableware beside the dish cabinet already numbered five. All of them, naturally, dropped by Perry.
“Here you are, my lady.”
The moment I placed the new fork on the table —
Plip. Perry dropped it on the floor. On purpose.
“Again.”
“Perry, if you bully your guard too much, he won't be any use.”
Karma interjected, unable to watch any longer, but Perry clearly wasn't in a forgiving mood over something like this — she just shot her father a glare. And Karma, who knew exactly what I'd done yesterday, couldn't come down hard on me either. He just sighed.
When she stole a sidelong glance at me, I could read a whole tangle of emotions in that look — pity, a sense of self-inflicted retribution — feelings she couldn't put into a single word.
“Haah…”
Nothing for it. A calamity of my own making; all I could do was bear it.
And so, for the entirety of breakfast, I swapped out tableware more than thirty times in a row. Only when I'd replaced every last spare in the dish cabinet did Perry finally stop venting her spite.
Annoyingly enough, once she quit tormenting me, her table manners were immaculate — not so much as a single clink of cutlery.
“Perry, what's on the schedule today?”
“Nothing special, Daddy… I don't really feel like going out.”
Her expression dimmed slightly, as if yesterday had come back to her.
“That's right — stay home and rest up for a while, no need to go out unnecessarily. When the streets are safe again, Daddy will let you know. Read whatever books you like with Daddy, and if there's anything you want, I'll go fetch it for you.”
On words alone, he sounded like a smothering, overprotective father wrapping his daughter in cotton wool — but she'd nearly been kidnapped just yesterday, so it was more than warranted.
“Well then, sweetheart, since you're resting at home today, Daddy's going to borrow your... ahem, your guard for a bit.”
“…Why my guard?”
The depth of her grudge against me showed in how quickly her shadowed eyes sharpened.
“Nothing much — he's got no luggage of his own, so I thought I'd get him some daily necessities, and look into a few things he'll need for guard duty.”
Come to think of it, yesterday when he'd asked what I wanted, I'd asked for a whetstone to maintain my knife, and some free time. Apparently he planned to deliver on that today.
“Hmm…”
Perry studied me carefully at Karma's words, and the moment our eyes met, she scrunched up her face and whipped her head away.
“No.”
“Hmm?”
“He's my guard. He's supposed to protect me. What if those bad people come here to kill me while he's gone?”
“No matter how ballsy these people are, they wouldn't come all the way here…”
“Still, it scares me. If you absolutely have to take him, then I'm coming too.”
“…”
“…”
The girl who'd claimed she was too scared to go outside just moments ago was nowhere to be found. All that remained was a small, childish little avenger, hell-bent on following me to the ends of hell just to rub salt in my wounds.
Hey. What do we do.
What do you mean, what do we do — she's your daughter. You handle it.
How am I supposed to stop her?
So it's on me, then?
Caught off guard by Perry's stubbornness, me and Karma traded the whole argument through eye contact alone — and came up with nothing.
“Then… I suppose I'll have to put it off until another day…”
In the end, since I couldn't drag Perry along, I was about to postpone my outing too — but this little devil, it seemed, had spent her sleepless night cooking up nothing but ways to make me pay.
“…I changed my mind. I want to go out today, Daddy. I can take care of his errands while I'm at it. A guard has to prepare properly before he can protect me, doesn't he?”
“…”
“…”
Against an edict with not a single hole to poke in it, me and Karma — once again — had no choice but to surrender without a fight.