Maid’s Night - Chapter 26

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“Ouch! I hate spiders so much.”

No, like why does a spider appear somewhere no matter how much I put it away? 

Evely trembled and picked up a wooden stick from one corner. Then, while holding the stick as far away as possible, she cleared the spider’s web. Then the spider attached to the web fell onto the furniture. Startled as if she hadn’t seen it, Evely gently pushed the spider out of the window with a stick.

“Tidying up this warehouse….”

Although the warehouse was cleaned every time it was opened, there were a lot of old things, so there was a lot of dust in every nook and cranny. In addition, the most difficult thing about cleaning the warehouse was that she could not even clean it at will. There were many rare and old antiques, and it took a lot of time because she had to touch each one carefully. So the warehouse needed several people to clean up within a day.

It had been a few days since she started cleaning the warehouse by herself, but the progress was very slow.  She had no choice but to do so in her spare time, serving him and helping other maids with the housework. Charlotte told me to put it all away by the end of  this week…

“I hope it’s not next week when I open my eyes.”

The scariest thing was the fact that she might not be able to do it all this week.

“Forget it. Seriously, if I just get rid of all of this……”

Evely clenched the stick harder as if in anger.

“…… condescendingly.”

Ugh. Evely, who sighed and put down the stick, picked up a dry mop and began to clean the vase with elaborate patterns.

A long time passed. She tapped her shoulders a couple of times and stretched them out, but she didn’t see any signs of fatigue going away.

Cough, cough.

Maybe because she kept breathing in dust in the warehouse, she kept coughing. She felt a little feverish and dizzy. Thinking that she might really get sick, she picked up the mop again when the warehouse door burst open.

“Evely, why are you still here? It’s time for the master to go to bed.”

His livelihood was surprisingly ordinary. He usually trained at home during the day when he didn’t go out, and worked late in the evening in his own office room.

As a military official, he knew not only how to train hard but also how to faithfully rule the land, so it could be said that he was a pretty good lord.

“Yes, I understand.”

She left the warehouse and headed straight for his office. She opened the door hearing the word to enter, but he was preoccupied with his work without giving her an eye.

“It’s late, shouldn’t you get ready for bed?”

As if on a troubling agenda, he asked, pressing his temple with his fingertips.

“How long has it been?”

But there was no replying back. As soon as he looked up, strangely, Evely had already fallen on the floor.

“Evely!”

He sprang up from his seat and approached, lifted her upper body, hugged her and shouted out. At the urgent call, a servant in the hallway rushed in.

“What’s going on….?!”

“Call a doctor right now.”

At this moment, his voice sank coldly.

It was a strange room when Evely opened his eyes. Looking blankly at the colorful lights on the ceiling, she blinked.

She thought it was heaven at first, but it was too luxurious and realistic for the landscape to call it heaven.

When she turned her eyes away, furniture familiar to the eyes came in her vision. A room for guests at the castle. It was unfamiliar but not unknown.

What’s going on…

She couldn’t figure out how she came here. She last remembers the time when she saw Alec working hard after she cleaned the warehouse….

Evely turned her head and reached out when she found a teacup on the table. When she put her fingertips on the surface, it felt warm. Her mouth was both dry and parched, like the land around the time of the drought, which was both dried up and cracked.

Evely, who barely had a sip of the water, touched her cheek. The temperature, if not as hot as the water just held in the cup, would clearly be conveyed. Her head was dingy, her mind dazed like it’s out somewhere.

I was sick, I was sick. I wonder who put me here. Brianna? Or someone who was passing by? No, no one would dare leave me in the guest room.

Evely slowly shook her head as if she was erasing a face that came to mind at the end of one thought or another.

“I don’t know what happened.”

Evely pulled herself out of the covers and slowly pulled herself up from her place. And as soon as she tried to stand on the floor, she stumbled as if the ground had shaken hard. After a moment of stillness, she slowly opened the door and went out.

It was quiet around. Evely moved as diligently as a wandering woman. Not long after she walked, she found a maid approaching her and opened her mouth.

“You there….”

But she brushed past Evely without saying much. For some reason, she felt like the servants glancing at her when they were passing by. While walking like that, she found a room where light was creaking out. It was the Master’s room.

Evely sneaked up on him unconsciously, with soundless footsteps, and looked inside through the slightly opened door creak.

Unlike the dim corridor, the room was bright, and in it were Alec and Charlotte. Charlotte had a face about to burst into tears, strutting her head under her feet. His overbearing voice flowed low. She listened closely to what he was saying.

“Is it normal to make people work until they fall?”

Charlotte just repeatedly apologized in a crying voice.

“Can’t you tell?”

“I’m sorry, I made a mistake… I’m so sorry.”

“No, is it on my side that I can’t judge? Should I question my judgment that I trusted you all along?”

His voice was twisted.

“It’s not that……. I’m guilty of offending you…….”

“It’s my slave, it’s my property.”

It wasn’t until she heard it that Evely knew they were talking about her.

“Who do you think you are to scratch on my property? Can you take responsibility if something really happens?”

He was pushing Charlotte in a cool tone. Charlotte was just shaking on her stomach with her head down on the floor.

“Do you know what kind of people I cut off first when I’m rearranging the army?”

Charlotte couldn’t bring herself to answer his question.

“They’re the stupid commanders who make me lose money, and men who don’t know the subject just because they have a sword. So, Don’t let me cut you off any more.”

Charlotte bowed her head again and again, as if she were going to hit her head on the floor.

“I’m sorry. I won’t let this happen again.”

Then he added his words as if he was nailing it.

“Don’t forget how I handle my property and how I spend it.”

“Yes…….”

“Like you said, it shouldn’t happen again.”

Evely was watching the scene, and when he looked back at the door, he quickly turned her body around. Her heart pounded for nothing as if she had peeked at something she shouldn’t have seen. She hurried back to my original room.

“… Don’t know. I don’t know.”

When she came back to the room and lay down on the bed, her body drooped down like cotton soaked in water. She thought she’d be fine after a good night’s sleep. The feeling of touching the bed was cozy. And everything was silent and deafening as if in the water.

Evely closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

“Umm.”

[T/N: This was the yawning sound.]

It was unknown how long she slept like that. Evely opened her eyes with a wailing sound. At some point, the blurred vision became clear as if she had entered the water. And as soon as it became clear, she could see an unexpected character.

“The doctor said it was too much.”

“……Master.”

She called him on the tip of her tongue as if she were reciting. He was sitting on the bed looking down at Evely. She dared not lie down while her master was sitting, so she flinched. Then he uttered his words in a cracking voice.

“……I’m sorry I didn’t take care of myself properly.”

Looking at Evely, Alec rose from his seat without answering. And he turned his back on her. Evely opened her mouth in a hurry as if to catch him.

“What did you say to Charlotte?”

“Isn’t that obvious?”

His answer was so refreshing that Evely’s eyes were round.

“You’re so sick that I can’t use you when I need you.”

She wanted to see his expression, but she couldn’t see it because he was turning his back.

“You were just cleaning up that warehouse, and messed up your health.”

“Does that mean…….”

You wanted to hug me? I wanted to ask that, but I said another thing instead.

“……There are other maids, not just me.”

He turned around and faced Evely again, and she sprang up.

“Do you want me to hug the other maidens?”

“……Yes?”

“Do you want another woman to cry underneath me like you? Do you want me to run into any woman like an animal?”

I felt like I was stabbed in the back of my head. Instead of giving a hasty answer, I thought about him hugging another maid. Sofia, Diana, Chloe…

Evely bit her lips, and at the end of it, she barely opened her mouth.

“That’s…….”

“Your answer doesn’t matter anyway.”

He continued in a nonchalant manner.

“You’re the only one who cries under me.”

Evely’s eyes have become more round. Perhaps because of the pain, his indifferent words sounded so sweet today. Her heart kept pounding. She had no strength in her body, and her heart was beating fast at every word he said.

But she turned her head and looked out of the window as if she was turning away from such a thought.