Chapter 57
The Count's Secret Maid - Chapter 57
Translation: godsn
Hot. So hot. The intense heat was enough to scorch one's skin. Just standing there made my entire body drenched in sweat. I wiped the sweat with a towel and shoveled ashes with a spade. Beads of sweat rolled down my forehead and plopped onto my face one after another. My vision kept blurring. The sweat soaking my palms made the spade slip repeatedly.
As I firmly gripped the spade handle and scooped ashes, someone called out to me.
"Hey, ugly."
"......"
"Hey. You."
When I didn't respond, they tapped my shoulder with their fingertips. Annoyed, I ignored them. This seemed to upset the person, who leaned in closer.
"Hey! Are you listening to me?"
It was clear they wouldn't leave me alone unless I acknowledged them, so I finally sighed and straightened up. I thrust the spade deep into the pile of ashes and stood at an angle. When I faced them directly, the man flinched and recoiled. I watched his reaction indifferently before speaking.
"What."
"So, did you talk to her?"
"About what."
"About what she thinks of me! I asked you to do that last time!"
Ah, that. I remembered how he'd been pestering me to introduce them since before. I dug my finger in my ear and flicked it.
"Yeah. She said she's not interested."
"Why, why?"
The man made a face as if shocked. Why? Isn't it obvious? I shrugged and picked up the spade again. But he grabbed my arm, demanding to know why she'd refused.
"Because you're a beggar."
"What?"
"She said no because you're a beggar. She likes gold coins. Can you fill her arms with piles of gold coins?"
"O-of course I can!"
"Stop lying and give up. I'm saying this for your own good."
Anyone could see that working here, gold coins were out of the question—even silver coins would be hard to come by. The wages here barely covered a single proper meal a day. Besides, he wouldn't be able to handle her personality anyway.
I shook off his grip and went back to shoveling ashes. The man stood frozen, looking dazed. Was it really that shocking? No, she hadn't even spared him a glance—he'd just fallen for her on his own, lost in his own delusions.
But it wasn't my problem. As I focused on scooping ashes again, the man snapped out of it and suddenly jabbed a finger at me.
"Y-you're lying!"
"I'm not."
"Yes, you are! You're just trying to come between us!"
"Are you insane?"
He must have finally lost it from this sweltering heat. Who would even bother? I snorted as if I'd just heard the funniest thing in the world. But the man was dead serious.
"You—you—you like me, don't you!"
"You're out of your mind. I'm already exhausted enough without you adding to it, so get lost."
"You do like me! That's why you're doing this!"
"Want me to hit you with this spade?"
I stabbed the spade back into the ashes and glared. My sweat-drenched hair was disheveled, sticking to my face. Sensing the threat, the man flinched again but didn't back down.
"You think I'd ever like someone like you? As if an ugly wretch like you even has the right to look at me. Hey, you're overstepping. She's a hundred times prettier than you, a hundred times more lovable. I like her, only her. Got it?"
"I don't know about that, but I do know one thing for sure."
Having patiently listened to his nonsense, I pulled the spade back out of the ashes and gripped it with both hands. After shaking off the ashes, I looked straight at him.
"That you're about to get hit with this."
"What?"
"Come here, you bastard!"
If he was going to push it, I had no reason to hold back. I swung the spade at the horrified man.
"Why do you look like that?"
"What do you mean?"
I wiped my ash-streaked cheek and glanced at Alicia. After all the commotion of shoveling ashes, my entire body was covered in soot. The stares of people who had followed me all the way home stung—I could easily imagine how I looked without even seeing myself.
Alicia looked me up and down with a scrunched-up face.
"Disgusting. Go wash up right now."
"I will."
I placed what I was holding onto the dining table. Alicia swiftly dashed over and unfolded the crumpled paper bundle. But upon seeing its contents, she contorted her face in fury and glared at me.
"How am I supposed to eat this!"
"What's there you can't eat? That's already too good for you, so just eat it."
She should be grateful for even that, yet here she is complaining again. I was too exhausted from running around with a shovel all day to have the energy to deal with Alicia's tantrums.
As I rubbed my tired eyes and turned to wash up, something flew past and smacked against the back of my head before clattering to the floor. It was the bread I'd bought with today's wages.
Clutching the back of my head, I stared at the fallen bread before turning around—only to find Alicia huffing and glaring daggers at me.
"How can anyone eat this trash! How, I ask!"
"......"
Here we go again. I sighed. Bending down, I picked up the fallen bread and dusted it off with a few taps.
"Are—are you sighing at me right now?"
"You're throwing a childish tantrum over food, so yeah."
"Childish? You're saying I'm acting like a child?"
"Yep."
"Hey!"
"What."
I met her fierce glare with calm indifference. It wasn't like she had any better options anyway. I had no intention of buying different food, nor did I have the wages to afford it. In our current situation, I was grateful just to have this dry, tasteless bread to eat.
"If you don't want it, don't eat it. I'll have it myself."
"......"
"If you hate it that much, go earn your own damn food."
Fewer mouths to feed meant more for me. I placed the bread back on the table and took off my hat. Unwrapping the cloth covering my hair, I checked my reflection in the cracked mirror hanging on the wall. My already dark skin looked even blacker with soot stains. No matter how much I wiped with the cloth, it wouldn't come off clean.
Then something whooshed past and smacked against the wall behind me. It was the bread I'd just put back on the table. Immediately after, something else flew sideways and shattered against the wall—the tableware I'd scavenged last time.
As I blankly stared at the plate in pieces, more objects came flying, hitting both the wall and the back of my head. Aaaah! A scream erupted. Alicia had started hurling whatever she could get her hands on.
Reacting would only be a hassle, so I didn't even glance Alicia's way. I kept examining my face in the mirror when suddenly my head was yanked backward. The mirror reflected Alicia, her face twisted with venom, as she grabbed and shook the back of my hair. It was so sudden I couldn't even scream.
"You vicious bitch!"
"Let go."
"You think I will? You treat me like a dog and expect me to take it? Just you wait! I'll seduce some noble and turn my life around. When that happens, I won't even spare you a thought!"
"Do what you want. Just let go of my hair."
"No!"
"Fine."
I immediately lunged at Alicia. Grabbing a fistful of her silky hair, I yanked hard. Alicia shrieked sharply, but I ignored it. Though my scalp burned as if it were being torn off, I paid her back in equal measure.
"Ahh! Let go! Let go, I said!"
"You let go first!"
Let go! No! After a tussle of pulling each other's hair, Alicia was the first to release her grip. Only when I saw her collapse onto the floor did I finally step back.
Both of us were left with tangled, disheveled hair. My hand was full of Alicia's long strands, clumped together like tufts of fur. Alicia glanced at them before clutching at her own hair.
"Sniff, my hair!"
I tossed the hair in my hand onto the floor. Watching it flutter down, I smoothed my own hair. The tangled mess clung stubbornly between my fingers.
Then something barely hanging on brushed against my fingertips. Fumbling to untangle it, I found the hair tie, now filthy with soot, its original color long lost.
Ah— I let out a short sigh before quickly brushing off the soot. The embroidered flower pattern at the end caught my eye. Staring blankly at it, Alicia's shriek snapped me back to reality.
"What are you going to do about my hair?!"
"You tell me—what are you going to do about mine?"
"Is my hair the same as yours? Do you know how much care went into this?!"
"Well, you can't care for it anymore, so just cut it off. Sell it at the market."
"You wretched bitch! This is all your fault! How dare you act so shameless when you're the reason for this? You cursed wench!"
"Like father, like daughter, I suppose."
What else could you expect from the spawn of a devil? I shrugged, and Alicia suddenly burst into tears. For some reason, she was so overcome with sorrow that she wailed, tears and snot streaming down her face.
"Waaah—I don't need any of this! I should've just died instead!"
"I hope you get your wish soon."
A sharp glare shot my way. I pretended not to notice and turned to the mirror. I was about to wipe off more soot but ended up tossing the cloth aside instead. I was exhausted, and irritation was boiling over. Behind me, Alicia continued to sob miserably. Seeing her cry like that, I figured she still had some life left in her.
But right now, I couldn't stand the sound. Scratching my head roughly, I turned around, and Alicia immediately shot me a glare, as if she'd been waiting.
"Just you wait! One day, I'll marry a noble—no, a royal—and rise above this wretched life! Hic—I'll leave behind this miserable, filthy existence for good! And don't think groveling to me then will do you any good!"
"You seem to be under some kind of delusion."
I slowly scanned the house. Cracked walls, a leaky roof when it rained—a shabby, dilapidated shack. In winter, we feared freezing to death; in summer, we sweltered. A house so flimsy that even a gust of wind made the walls shudder, startling us.
But even a house like this—one that let me breathe, that gave me a tomorrow—was the only place shielding me from death.
"A noble's life isn't all beauty. Sometimes, it's worse than the hell you imagine. There'll come a day when you'll wish you'd stayed in this shabby, poor, broken-down house—when you'll realize you were happier here."
"What? How would you know that?"
"Because I do."
After sweeping my gaze across the room once more, I fixed my eyes on Alicia again. She furrowed her brows, her face demanding an explanation. All I did was shrug.
The next time I heard news of them was the day I happened to pick up a discarded newspaper on the street. The bold photograph and the text beneath it marked the final chapter of their story.
[Count James Christopher Arrested on Suspicion of Murder]
Only then did it truly sink in—that I had been nothing more than a fleeting presence in their tale.
That day, with Ethan's help, I arrived at a village where I hid for a while. The village was fairly large, with many residents who paid little attention to outsiders. Perhaps that had been his intention all along. Thanks to that, I managed to stay hidden without much difficulty.
The pouch Isabella had handed me before we parted contained gold coins. They covered my lodging and meals for a while, but within days, I was pickpocketed and lost everything. Even my belongings were stolen by beggars, leaving me with nothing but my worthless body.
In an instant, I was reduced to destitution, wandering the streets. The struggle to find food inched me closer to death. I remember mocking myself—had there ever been a single smooth stretch in my life?
Then, suddenly, I thought of Father and the third child back in Pilton.