The Count’s Secret Maid - Chapter 7

At first, he went out to look around the village to get some air, but he was attacked by a boy who came to sell some goods. Vincent was vigilant because he was still young. He swiftly avoided the sharp blade as it was about to pierce his chest and slash his waist. The escort, who was with him, caught the boy, but the boy committed suicide immediately after being caught. There was no hesitation in his actions as if he had been trained that way. Thanks to that, they couldn’t figure out the attacking opponent’s identity.

Since then, Vincent has been reluctant to go out with him. Taking a walk in the garden in front of the mansion was as far out as possible.

Then one day, while alone in the garden, Vincent was attacked again. It was said that when the servant, bringing something simple to wear due to the chilly wind, ran after hearing the scream, a stranger was dead with an iron rod stuck in his chest. Seeing Vincent sitting on his back, gasping for breath, his whole body dirty with dirt, the servant hurriedly summoned the crowd.

The attacker was a stranger. They investigated his identity, but everyone said it was the first time they had seen him. While running away from an attack, Vincent struck his opponent in the head with a stone and stabbed him in the chest with an iron rod lying nearby.

Well, you can say he was fortunate.

However, even though the surrounding security was strengthened and outsiders were particularly checked for entering and leaving the mansion, he no longer left the mansion.

Another time he was eating, he suddenly felt pain and collapsed. Fortunately, the moment he collapsed, he vomited up everything he had eaten, so there was no major problem, but it was later found out that the food contained poison.

Soon after, a maid was found dead in the forest. It was a maid working in the kitchen. They thought she was killed while trying to sneak away. It was revealed who the culprit was, but it was not known why she did it or who killed her.

Vincent, who survived his death, was afraid to eat food after that, and after being sensitive to every meal for a while, he began to refuse to eat at all at some point.

His condition deteriorated day by day as he refused to go out and eat. He would have liked to go out of the room, but there were many people in the mansion, so he stood out even if he went out a little. In fact, he had been out for a while before being spotted. Fortunately, nothing much happened, but it was a significant memory for Vincent, so he moved directly to the annexe and didn’t leave the room.

Being wary of everything around him, he gradually became impoverished and was told he had severe depression.

The fear of someone trying to kill him.

Fear that he doesn’t know who it would be…

If it were known that he had lost his sight, people would question his qualifications to lead the family. So he stayed under the pretext of recuperation and locked himself in the room. Without meeting anyone and no contact with the outside world, he slowly withered away.

Hearing those words, for the first time, Paula felt sorry for him. His physical illness spreads to his mental illness. In the torn poverty, they are hungry, steal bread, and then die. It was well experienced that his exhausted body soon became a disease of the mind.

Vincent was a sick man.

Therefore, Paula tried to understand and accept his temper.

But throwing away food like this was unacceptable. She was angry at his behaviour. Food is precious, and to eat food, she had to be beaten all over her body.

But this man…

“Bad behaviour can only be corrected by scolding. Children and adults should be scolded if they do something wrong. Didn’t you even hear that you should cherish food? Or have you learned that you can throw away these things because you have a lot of things?”

“…”

As she spoke, her emotions soared. She had to suffer to the extent of having a swollen, bruised body just to be able to get some food.

It was so painful that she almost burst into tears.

But no matter how blind he was, she couldn’t cry.

It was embarrassing.

She clenched her teeth in fear that a cry might leak out.

‘Do not be like this.’

It was an abominable thing to say who’s worse off.

Fortunately, it didn’t break. Paula wiped the floor clean with an apron where the rice grains had fallen.

“I’ll bring it back. If you are worried, I’ll eat it first and then the master will eat it. I can at least do this for my cowardly master. If it’s hard to finish, please eat as much as you can, and I’ll take care of what’s left. I hope you will be satisfied by this.”

“I won’t eat it.”

“You are not going to say you don’t want it, are you? I said I would sacrifice myself for my precious master while trying to see if the food contained rat poison, but the master wouldn’t turn a blind eye to my sincerity, right?”

She thought he wouldn’t be so cold-hearted.

Paula dusted her clothes and left the room, stepping hard on the floor.

She went straight down and asked the cook to give her a new meal. The cook looked at her pitifully and served her a new bowl of rice, and Paula ran back to the room with it.

She knelt down in front of the bed again.

His face whizzed along with her voice.

His eyes were still looking in the air, out of focus.

She clattered a mouthful of rice so that he could hear. Then she chewed something she didn’t even have to chew, took another spoonful and held it out to Vincent.

“Ah, go ahead.”

But once again, the bowl rolled on the floor.

“It’s dirty.”

With the sound of a bang, the bowl rolled on the floor, and her reason was cut off.

The rice was half poured out of the bowl, and she returned to bed with it.

Vincent was still looking down at the floor.

He seemed to keep an eye on her actions.

Paula took another bite of the rice with the spoon and calmly placed the bowl on one side of the bed. She then pushed Vincent by his shoulder.

Vincent, who had no time to counter, was put on the bed. She quickly climbed onto the bed. Surprised, she grabbed Vincent by the neck and put weight on him not to run away. She poked her thumb to open his mouth. Then, she put a spoonful of rice in his mouth.

“Cough, cough!”

Vincent struggled. Paula weighed down his resisting body with all her might, and fed him rice with her own hands. As a result, her body almost lost its balance several times, and his one hand that struggled grabbed her back. Her head jerked back. Tears sprang to her eyes in pain as if her head was being pulled out, but she clenched her teeth.

He shaved his head away from the spoon. However, her thumb was still in his mouth so he couldn’t close it.

She lowered her eyes and quickly put the spoon in as his face twisted. Then, when the spoon went empty, she repeatedly scooped rice and put it in his mouth. All this was done quickly and accurately. Later, she took the bowl that was dragged to the side for easy feeding and held the spoon. The hand holding the spoon trembled.

“Master, I’m so happy you’re eating well!”

“Cough, you- cough!”

“Yes, enjoy your meal!”

One spoon, two spoons, three spoons, and a spoon in his mouth until the half-remaining rice was all gone. In fact, half went into the mouth and half spilt, but she didn’t care.

By the time the bowl was empty, her body fell back. This was because he pushed her away as soon as she relaxed her strength with the sense of accomplishment she had fed him all.

She came out of bed with an innocent empty bowl and spoon. She thought her hair was falling out and still touched the back of her hair, and a handful of hair came out. As she turned around with a laugh in vain, Vincent, who grabbed his tight neck, shouted with a red hot face.

“You’re fired now!”

“I’ve only served my master’s meal.”

“Ha! This is crazy! Don’t you know what you’ve done? How dare you touch someone’s body! You must have really wanted to die!”

“Who saw it?”

“What?”

She answered his question calmly.

“It’s just the two of us here, my master and me. How do other people know? That I dared to stick my finger in the master’s mouth and feed him with rice.”

‘What I did, of course, really deserved to die.’

If someone was watching, her neck would fly away right away, but it was just him and her here right now. The same was true outside the room. No one was even passing by on this floor because he was sensitive to a small sign because he couldn’t see.

Besides, he’s got a nasty temper which everyone she knew well knew before she came. After all, the patient was sharpened as much as the opponent was in full swing. He had the qualifications to fire her, but it was quite ineffective just to believe his words and fire an employee.

“Oh, there was a gun. You could have killed me with that. But master, is there a bullet in the gun?”

“…”

He shut his mouth tightly. For a moment, there was a look of embarrassment on his face, just in case. It was time to shoot, so she wondered why he didn’t shoot. She continued, trying not to snort.

“For your information, there has been a rumour recently that the master is a very picky person, and it’s not easy to find someone. If everyone, including those already hired, is the master’s attendant, no one should do anything just because they shake their heads first. Even if you fire me, there’s no one to replace me immediately, so you’ll have to stay with me until a maid is found. From now on, if not saved, forever!”

Paula took a deep breath. Her tousled bangs were slightly lifted in the wind and dropped back down. In the meantime, she could see Vincent biting his teeth.

An angry face…

Seeing him like that, Paula laughed softly.

“I wish you all the best in the future, my lord.”

Since that day, Vincent and Paula have been fighting for strength.

She forcibly stuffed food into his mouth, which he didn’t want to eat, and had to fight for a long time whenever she changed his clothes or bedspreads. One day, she tried to get the smelly man washed as she tried to take him to the bathroom, but to no avail.

She was hit in the face by his forearm and bleeding from the nose.

Paula met Isabella while grabbing her nose with an apron and coming out of the room. Her body stiffened, and she glanced at Isabella impassively as she grabbed her nose and turned around without saying a word.

‘Since when have you been standing here?’

‘Did she want to hear the noise in the room?’

No, she realized that Isabelle had already noticed from her appearance.

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