The New Job (2)
From the second day onward, I decided I would be standing at attention in front of the Marquis's bedroom door the very moment I woke up.
I had no intention of repeating my earlier mistakes.
After a long wait, the door finally flew open, and I bowed my head at once.
"Oh—"
"Good morning, my lord. Shall we start with breakfast?"
"I'll... wash up and come back out."
The door slammed shut again.
The moment he laid eyes on my face, he had abruptly hunched his shoulders and backed away.
Why on earth would the Marquis—always so arrogant and shameless—act like that?
I was utterly bewildered.
Did something get on my face?
I hastily pulled out my pocket knife, flipped it open, and studied the reflection of my face on the blade.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
I returned to my post and stood waiting. About three minutes passed, perhaps.
The door opened again.
"Whew. I'm ready now."
"......"
Did he actually wash up?
He looked exactly the same.
Though I supposed he did seem a bit fresher.
Did he use some kind of cleansing magic?
"Shall we have breakfast first?"
"I have a schedule today, so let's head out."
"I'll help you change your clothes."
"N-no, that's all right?! I can change by myself."
"Then I'll change into my outdoor attire and return."
A schedule to attend first thing in the morning.
Whatever else he might be, the Marquis was clearly a Marquis.
Then again—if he was offering to help me change my clothes, was there really any reason to refuse so frantically?
Well, it suited me fine that he didn't need my help.
Watching a man's bare body and dressing him was the last thing I wanted to do.
And there was no guarantee I wouldn't be pounced on partway through.
If I could help it, I wanted nothing to do with being alone in a room with the Marquis.
"Whew. So thick. So uncomfortable......"
When I went to change, I found my body drenched in sweat.
The maid uniform in this house was, quite frankly, a design that hadn't given the slightest thought to practicality.
The outdoor uniform was apparently a bit better, but it still had that visual quality that made you short of breath just looking at it.
It seemed the founder of this household had harbored some rather perverse fantasies about maids.
I hurried through the change and stepped out the front door to find a lavish carriage waiting.
"You took quite a while. I nearly gave up waiting and left without you."
"My apologies, my lord."
"Just joking. Climb aboard."
"......"
Once inside the carriage, the Marquis extended a hand toward me.
The sight of that outstretched hand immediately brought back the memory of my botched handshake at the party, and I cringed a little.
That was clearly an invitation to take his hand and step up.
But my pride as a man would not permit it.
I ignored the Marquis's hand entirely and climbed up using the carriage's footstool.
"Hahaha. How rude."
"Don't worry. Any hand offered by someone other than you, I'll take with perfect courtesy."
"Ha, ha......"
I couldn't have cared less about other people, but the Marquis treating me like a woman was something I simply could not tolerate.
He seemed to think of me as a convenient packed lunch he could carry around and unwrap and eat whenever the mood struck.
I had no intention of becoming his woman, and outside of work matters, I had no intention of meekly obeying him either.
I had to make that crystal clear to him.
"I'm relieved to see you know your etiquette well."
"Of course. I'm not some shameless degenerate who assaults a woman he's just met in the corridor of a banquet hall."
"Hahaha...... You really do milk that one for all it's worth......"
He would probably milk it for the rest of his life.
Because I would never, ever forget it.
I settled calmly into the seat across from the Marquis and glared at him.
"By the way, is it all right to leave your daughter behind?"
"My absence shouldn't cause her any trouble. I've firmly instructed her not to leave the lodging, so don't worry."
"That's not what I meant. I was asking whether she'll be all right without her mother. And telling her not to leave the lodging? She'll die of loneliness."
"She won't die. She's used to it."
"Used to it?"
"Yes......"
That gave me a moment's pause.
She would be used to it, wouldn't she.
Spending her time alone, without a busy mother.
Not that that made the time any more enjoyable for her.
All I ever felt toward Tia was apology.
I needed to find a school as soon as possible and get her enrolled.
"Besides, I'll be sending her to school soon, so it's fine."
"School? Is the child that much of a prodigy?"
"No. Not a university—a regular school."
"Ah. In that case, I could lend you some assistance."
"No need. I have more than enough money."
I had the 300 million from the settlement.
That much would cover even the most expensive private school's tuition with plenty to spare.
"If you believe everything in this world can be solved with money, you're gravely mistaken. No private school will accept a commoner's child in exchange for a bribe, you see. A letter of recommendation from a high-ranking noble, however, would carry weight."
"......"
A letter of recommendation from a high-ranking noble.
From the Marquis, for instance.
The Marquis crossed his legs and nudged my knee with the toe of his shoe as he spoke.
In other words, the person I had to beg was none other than the Marquis sitting right in front of me.
Driving such a hard bargain over a single letter of recommendation—how shameless could he get?
He wasn't trying to renege on our previous agreement, was he?
Anxiety seized me, and my body began to tremble.
After all, he could pounce on me right here and now......
"A letter of recommendation...... Might I trouble you for one......?"
"Of course. Consider it part of your employee benefits. Would Saint Pedro Academy do? No, wait—that school is only for the children of reactionary diehards, so that's a problem. Hmm. Saint Sophia would be better. It's become open-minded enough to accept beastkin students these days, so if we say Tia is a lizardkin beastkin, that should fool everyone sufficiently."
"Hold on a moment."
"......"
A lizardkin.
Why did that come up out of nowhere?
The way he said it made it sound like he knew about Tia's tail.
I scrambled to work it out so fast that my words failed me.
And then the answer came.
"Ahaha. Was that supposed to be a secret? I just happened to find out......"
"You lifted up Tia's skirt!"
"What? Pardon?"
This perverted bastard.
I'd firmly believed he couldn't possibly be a pedophile, but—
There was no doubt about it. He had looked under Tia's skirt.
Otherwise, there was no way he could have known about her tail.
The lunatic......
"How could you do that to a child?!"
"N-no! It's a misunderstanding! My sense of smell is just very sharp!"
"You smelled her...? Ugh."
"Another misunderstanding!"
Absolute pervert.
Not only did he look, he smelled too.
I was going to lose my mind.
I wanted nothing more than to fling open the carriage door and leap out right then.
I was the fool here.
Showing up for work because I thought a settlement would keep everything under control.
I should have just quit and gone back to the tavern.
"I told you I didn't do it! Please, just hear me out!"
"......"
I listened to his explanation for a long while, but I wasn't entirely convinced.
The Marquis claimed he could sense a dragon's aura, or something to that effect.
Since I knew next to nothing about magic, I had no way of telling whether that was a load of nonsense.
Frankly, "pervert who looks up children's skirts and sniffs them" explained everything far more neatly, so I wondered why I should even bother trying to believe him.
I would downgrade the alert from confirmed pedophile to suspected pedophile. For now.
"We've arrived. Please step down."
"Ugh......"
When we arrived and it came time to exit the carriage, I had no choice but to take the Marquis's hand.
Thanks to the enormous lumps of fat on my chest, I couldn't see a thing below me......
I hoped he wouldn't mistake my taking his hand for a change of heart.
But judging by the sly smile creeping across the Marquis's lips, the misunderstanding had already taken root.
"Where are we headed now? If you could give me some hint about whom we're meeting and where, I could prepare......"
"Yulia. Do you smell that?"
"Smell? Hmm... bread?"
"Correct. We're here to eat bread."
"......"
The first item on the schedule, which we'd rushed to reach.
It was a brunch restaurant.
The tension drained out of me all at once, and I let out a quiet sigh of relief as I followed behind the Marquis.
Deep down, I'd been worried I was being dragged off somewhere secluded.
Though perhaps I was overreacting.
"What are you doing? Sit down."
"Pardon? I can just stand while you—"
"Sit down and pick whatever you want to eat. You're hungry, aren't you?"
"......"
A chill ran down my spine.
I had been taught that it was common sense for a maid to stand at her master's side and attend them even during meals.
And yet here he was, telling me to sit across from him and eat......
"I must decline."
"I can guarantee you there won't be another chance to fill your stomach today. If you don't want to starve until midnight, sit. Now."
"......"
Threatened with a threat that wasn't quite a threat, I sat down.
Ordering a moderately expensive bread and an obscenely expensive pasta dish, I spent the entire meal so self-conscious I thought I'd go mad.
Was this a test of whether I knew proper table etiquette?
Or was he probing the limits of my appetite?
I was so tense I couldn't tell whether the noodles were going into my mouth or up my nose.
"The bread here is good, isn't it?"
"Yes. Well. It's fine."
"It's my favorite shop, you know."
"......"
What was I supposed to do with that information?
The Marquis kept spouting things I couldn't make sense of at all.
If the day was packed enough to warrant leaving at the crack of dawn, I wished he'd focus on the work.
"Have you finished your meal, my lord?"
"Thanks to you, I ate well. As for our next destination... where shall we go?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"Miss Yulia, where would you like to go?"
"I... I don't understand what you mean......"
"Oh. Shall we go to a scenic observation deck, then?"
What kind of nonsense was that?
For a moment, I was so flustered that my words caught in my throat.
It sounded for all the world like today's schedule had never actually been set at all.
What was more, judging both by the way the Marquis treated me and by our itinerary, it felt exactly like we were on a date.
If only it were all my paranoia.
"Um, my lord."
"Yes, my dear maid?"
"The 'schedule' you mentioned—surely you meant official business, didn't you?"
"Who can say? It doesn't necessarily have to be."
"......"
The moment I saw the Marquis's easy, languid smile—
My head spun so violently I nearly lost my temper.
I was going to lose my mind.
He was trying to seduce the maid he'd hired with his own money—a married woman with a child, no less?
Technically speaking, not a married woman, but still......
"If you're done eating, we should get moving."
"My lord. I believe you're laboring under a misunderstanding......"
"What are you doing here?"
"......?"
At the low voice from behind me, my body went rigid in an instant.
I knew that voice.
The first time I'd heard it, I'd been certain it was a man's voice—but now, knowing its owner, it almost sounded like a woman deliberately lowering her tone.
I turned around, and sure enough, there stood Leopard the Hero.
Her face twisted into a scowl of unmistakable displeasure.