My Home, Now With Uninvited Guests - 3
Seeing the Fourth Department Head in black clothes wasn't exactly a new experience. She'd worn a black uniform back in the Audit Department days, and even after transferring to the Ministry of Special Affairs, the Mukgwangdae still used dark-colored gear. So I'd figured that as long as it was black, anything would suit her.
It does suit her, I'll give her that.
Technically, a maid uniform is black too. There's white mixed in, sure, but black is still part of the equation. That said, I had never once imagined the Fourth Department Head in a maid outfit—nor had I ever wanted to.
Why does it look so good on her?
And that was exactly why it irritated me. It wasn't anything to get angry about, not really, but it left me with the same inexplicable feeling you get when a child you've carefully raised veers off down some strange path. A bizarre mood I couldn't put into words.
I felt a twinge of self-consciousness about who might be watching, but fortunately there was no one nearby. Sending the others into the mansion first had been the right call. At least now we could talk without pressure.
"When did you get here?"
"I arrived immediately after Master left the premises."
"About that..."
Could you maybe ease up on the 'Master' thing? The words climbed all the way to the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed them. She wasn't the type to do strange things without a reason. She might be presenting a rather baffling picture right now, but the Fourth Department Head was still one of the few normal people I could actually trust.
As if she'd sensed what I was thinking, she spoke up first.
"There are many who wish to serve Master. However, with guests already creating a commotion, adding more servants would only burden you further. Thus, I alone will attend to Master."
"Right. Thanks for the consideration."
"You flatter me."
She bowed at the waist again. Hearing the explanation, the situation made a rough kind of sense.
The Mukgwangdae existed as a force dedicated to supporting me, but having an Imperial special operations unit openly camped out in a mansion housing key foreign dignitaries was, by any measure, a show of force. If Villar found out, he'd grab the back of his neck, collapse, and shake with betrayal.
So the rest of the Mukgwangdae were staked out somewhere near the mansion, and only their representative—the Fourth Department Head—had made contact with me in the "natural" guise of a maid. Natural... was it? That counted as natural, right?
I gave her a quick once-over. The cold expression. The sharp eyes. The height that was considerable for a woman. Hmmmmmm.
"Let's get along for a while, then."
"Yes, Master."
Knowing she was the Fourth Department Head and not an actual maid made it hard to see the look as natural, but she must have had her reasons for coming like this. Fine. A slightly tall maid wasn't unheard of. Assuming commoners all had small builds was a pretty discriminatory mindset anyway.
"Did you meet the butler?"
"Yes. I have met every member of the household staff as well."
It had been a long time since she'd last seen the servants, too. After a reunion like that, you'd think she'd stay inside and have tea with them.
"Then why are you out here instead of staying inside?"
"I wished to be of even the slightest assistance to Master—"
"That's enough. Let's go in."
I gave her a light shove toward the mansion. She hesitated a few times, but the moment I walked ahead, she finally followed.
Left alone, some people grit their teeth and dig in; others go looking for work that doesn't need doing. The Fourth Department Head was the latter type—the kind who only rested if you took care of them yourself.
The summons from the Minister of Special Affairs had been sudden. Being called in the moment we returned from the northern campaign with the Intelligence Division had not put me in the best of moods.
"Proceed to the Audit Department Chief's mansion. Once you join him, follow the Audit Department Chief's orders."
If it was a chance to see the Chief, I would have answered the call gladly even if I'd just returned from the far edge of the continent instead of the north. I had seen him at the Academy not long ago, but this time we would be together in the Imperial Capital.
The squad members who had been unpacking immediately packed their bags again, ready to bolt out the door at a moment's notice. No one dawdled on the road to the Chief. That was only natural.
"But can all of us enter the mansion?"
The warm atmosphere plummeted at the deputy commander's words. He had a point. The Chief's mansion housed not only the Chief himself but also key figures including the Third Prince.
If we descended on the place en masse under those circumstances, we would only become a burden to the Chief. That was unacceptable. If we failed to help him and instead caused him harm, I would bite my tongue and die on the spot.
"Commander, you must lead the squad, so I will attach myself to the Chief—"
"I'm going."
"...What if someone from the Three Kingdoms recognizes the Commander—"
"I'm going."
I cut the deputy commander's nonsense short. Of course the commander—me—would stay with the Chief. What kind of insolent nonsense was this? An outrage that didn't even know its place, and one I would not tolerate.
And so I left the squad with the deputy commander and entered the Chief's mansion alone.
"Penelia unnie?"
"Wait, really? It's unnie?"
The moment I stepped into the garden, the gazes of two maids watering the flower beds locked onto me.
"Yuris. Sophia."
I greeted them by name, and they set down their watering cans and came running straight to me. Putting off work just because they were happy to see me—that would need a scolding.
"Unnie!"
"Wow, and Master came home today too!"
But looking at the two children beaming as they clung to me, my resolve softened. They were still young. Letting it slide just this once would be fine.
"Where is the Chief?"
"He just left."
Sophia's cheerful answer left me disappointed. If only I had arrived a little sooner, I could have greeted the Chief right away.
Still, it was all right. I would be staying at the Chief's mansion for the time being. With a happiness capable of overcoming any regret waiting for me, there was no need to dwell on small things.
"Ah, we should tell the butler!"
"Everyone will be so happy when they find out unnie's here!"
Chattering away, the children each took one of my hands and dragged me toward the mansion.
"Don't you have work to finish?"
"Master said it's okay if we take it easy!"
Well, then there was nothing to be done.
By the time Yuris and Sophia had led me to the butler, I seemed to have met every servant in the mansion. Everyone welcomed me so warmly that I could only feel grateful. For a long while, letters had been our only real form of greeting.
"Oh, if it isn't Lady Penelia."
"You may simply call me Penelia."
"Can't take a joke—yes, that's Penelia all right."
The butler himself brought me tea and welcomed me. He waved Yuris and Sophia off, telling them to go back to their duties, but the two stuck to my side and showed no intention of leaving.
I needed to explain my reasons for being at the mansion to the butler, so their continued presence was inconvenient.
"I'll be staying at the mansion for a while. We can play together later, so go on back."
"Really?"
"Really."
Only then was I left alone with the butler.
"So. Has everyone been well?"
"Yes. We are all in good health."
Having asked after the Mukgwangdae, the butler nodded as if reassured by my answer. That a special operations force of the Ministry of Special Affairs, doing such dangerous work, was still alive and well was something close to a miracle. All of it was thanks to the Chief, who had trained us so thoroughly.
"We've worried a great deal. We're family, after all."
"We think of it the same way."
"I'm glad to hear that."
I offered a small smile of my own as the butler laughed. The Mukgwangdae, who had served as the Audit Department's Fourth Division under the Chief, and the servants who guarded the Chief's mansion—we were all family, more or less.
Comrades who had lived at the very bottom, who had lost everything in a horrific war. Beings who had been given new life from that bottom by the grace of a single person. And so, each in our own way, we were a family serving one master.
"The Master has come to the mansion as well—I don't think this is a coincidence."
"I came under orders."
"I see. Very well. Make yourself comfortable."
"...You aren't going to ask anything further?"
The butler's easy acceptance was almost more startling than anything else. But at my reaction, he simply smiled as if nothing were amiss.
"What could possibly be more important than family coming home?"
That left me speechless. No wonder the Chief trusted him completely with the mansion.
Even so, I at least relayed that I alone had entered the mansion to avoid any clash with the Three Kingdoms, and that the others were standing by nearby. He nodded a few times, then told me to wait a moment and disappeared somewhere.
"Um... what is this?"
He returned holding a maid uniform.
"There's nothing strange about a maid being in a mansion. If you don't want to arouse suspicion, this is the best option, don't you think?"
The reasoning was sound enough that I nodded on instinct, but I couldn't bring myself to reach for it. From the day I swore to devote my life to the Chief, I had spent my years wielding nothing but a sword. And now I was supposed to put on something this... frilly?
What's more—if the Chief saw me looking like that, wouldn't he be disappointed? Wouldn't he think I was doing something completely unsuited to me?
"Now Penelia will be able to call Master 'Master' as well."
At those words, as if under a spell, I reached out and took it.
I changed into the clothes the butler had given me and paced the garden, waiting for the Chief—no, for Master—to arrive. Noticing something that bothered me and doing a bit of pruning was unscheduled work, but still.
And as I spent the time that way, Master entered the garden.
"When did you get here?"
"I arrived immediately after Master left the premises."
He seemed startled, but he didn't appear to reject me, and that put my heart at ease. I had worried that he might have preferred some other unit entirely.
But the way his eyes traveled over me from head to toe made my chest ache. So even Master thought I looked strange. Still, I was grateful for the consideration of not saying it outright.
"Why are you out here instead of staying inside?"
"I wished to be of even the slightest assistance to Master—"
"That's enough. Let's go in."
I followed Master silently as he turned toward the mansion. The moment I returned to my room, I would change. People ought to do work that suited them. Stray too far, and all you earned was dislike.
"You look uncomfortable in something different from your usual clothes."
And at those inevitable words, I squeezed my eyes shut. I had planned to change right away, but Master had finally reached his limit and pointed it out.
"But it suits you so well that I can't bring myself to tell you to change out of it."
"...Pardon?"
At the unexpected follow-up, I committed the rudeness of questioning Master. I realized my mistake a beat too late, but Master simply glanced back as if it were nothing.
"I said it suits you."
With that single line from Master, the anxiety in my heart settled as if it had never been there at all.
I could feel the Fourth Department Head fidgeting even from behind. How she'd managed to put on clothes she herself found so awkward was a mystery in its own right.
She seemed so cowed that I told her it looked good on her, and she seemed to cheer up a little—which was a relief.
I tried putting myself in her shoes. If I had to wear a butler's uniform for work and loiter around an acquaintance's house—my superior's house, no less—I'd lose my mind.
"Wow, look at this bastard's sorry state!"
For a second, the Minister's mocking voice auto-played in my head. Truly horrifying.
Incredible.
The Fourth Department Head really had stood before me with an astonishing amount of courage...