The Count’s Secret Maid - Chapter 8

Paula was having a power fight with him for fear of being kicked out if she didn’t do anything, but honestly, she thought that if she were to get caught, she would be punished. It was an act that risked her life. But why? As she followed her, puzzled, Isabella spoke.

“Paula, do you know that quite a few users have passed by here?”

“Ah, yes. I have heard of it.”

“As the situation is, I tried to bring people carefully, considering the conditions more meticulously than usual. However, all those brought in did not properly serve the master. On the contrary, the master’s condition worsened. Still, I had to keep looking for people, but even that has become difficult to do as strange rumours have been circulating around. That’s the reason I brought you in, Paula, who didn’t have proper education, to do this job.”

Then Isabella stopped walking and turned around. Stopping walking at once, Paula faced her, still clutching her nose with the apron. Her eyes, exposed through the cracks of the slightly split bangs, twitched.

“You can’t change people every time, so it’s time to change your methods.”

“Then…”

“As long as the master’s body is not harmed, the service is entirely up to Paula, so you can take care of it.”

It was close to implicit permission for her actions. To be honest, Paula didn’t think she would be able to turn a blind eye. What strange rumours were circulating around?

Anyway, it was good for Paula. She never meant to hurt him; rather, it was meant to make him healthy. But the process had never been easy.

When someone touches his body, he freaks out, pushes them away, and throws objects, making the person fly out of the room. No furniture was left, as they crashed on the floor or in the bins. Moreover, if he had nothing to throw, he would scream loudly or try to scratch his neck or chest to the point of tearing his flesh, often sweating.

At this point, it was a question of who got tired first.

And at night, a moan could be heard through the thin wall. The sound of resistance weeping in pain. Paula was awakened from her sleep by the faint sound of a painful cry. Listening to the sound that seemed to turn off at any moment, she couldn’t close her eyes and would stare into the darkness. The escaped sleep didn’t return easily.

He was fighting…

Death.

Thinking about it that way, she felt a strange sense of homogeneity.

Long or short, one more day. She wanted to live like that. Someone wanted to close their eyes a day sooner in this hellish life, but she didn’t.

She wanted to live. There was a time when she longed for death, but now, she wanted to live. Even though life was like hell, it was resentful to choose death. It’s okay to be pointed at because you look weird, and it doesn’t matter if they curse at you because you are dirty. Even if she bowed her head, she wanted to live. Survive.

People called that day a poison bell. It was nice to be called that.

Even if the old gentleman accidentally caught the eyes of an ugly girl passing through the street, who came in as the maid of the famous Count. The blind master, who had a more outrageous personality than she could have imagined.

As Paula entered Vincent’s room, something flew away as if it was natural. The cup slipped to the right and crashed into the door. The clock swung to the left, hit the wall and then rolled over the floor. The pillow that flew in undefeated hit her in the face and fell. At that shock, the silver plate he was holding in his hand fell forward. It was a foreboding thing to see the dessert on top of it pouring down.

Even today, she looked at him indifferently and thought about what to do in her head. A straight path, forward. Once on the floor, she leaned down to wipe away the crushed dessert. Immediately, another pillow flew out and landed in her face.

As soon as the pillow fell, she decided.

She has to say a word.

So as she got up, she heard a groan that was crushed. Vincent was curled up. The chaos disappeared.

No, his condition was strange.

“Master!”

Vincent was clutching his chest and gasping for his breath.

Seeing his pale face, she immediately rummaged through her apron’s pocket. Then she took out a small instrument and put it in his mouth. When she pressed the protruding part on top, he began to breathe even though it was hard.

She had been through a lot of shocking things lately while taking take of Vincent. One of them was he couldn’t breathe suddenly, just like now.

When she first encountered this situation, she was so shocked that she ran to see Isabella. Upon telling her about Vincent’s condition, she immediately called the doctor. It turned out that there was a doctor dedicated to the master living here.

The attending physician held Vincent’s chest, looked at his distress, and took immediate action. He put a small instrument like this in his mouth like now. Then, press down on the protruding part at the top to help him breathe, and Vincent soon regained his composure.

When she asked the doctor who was leaving after finishing his work what it was, he said it was a device to help with breathing.

“I’ll give you another one. Always be prepared.”

This device, small enough to fit in her hand, saved him.

According to the doctor, he was nervous because he couldn’t see and was very tired, but he was in a state of weakness because he didn’t eat on time and didn’t go out. So it’s easier to get sick.

To get over this, he had to eat a regular meal, get out in the sun, and do some light exercise, but Vincent was still confined to his room. He was surviving without taking any medicine.

Like a dying man.

What’s the deal with not being able to see?

But when she thought about not being able to see ahead of her, she was terrified.

How terrible would it be to live in a dark space, relying solely on sound?

Of course, you can feel the touch, smell, and taste. But not all that doesn’t overcome the invisible fear. Besides, he almost died.

The fear must be more than Paula thought.

But she didn’t want him to die.

It was not a pity.

It was just because she didn’t want to clean up her owner’s corpse, waiting for her.

But she knew.

Every night, he struggled to live.

Now she took the inhaler out of his mouth. Putting it back in her pocket, she looked at his condition as he lay on the bed. Cold sweat was forming on his forehead, and his bloodless face looked tired. Still, he was breathing more evenly than before.

He slapped her hand violently as she tried to wipe the cold sweat off. His eyes were facing the ceiling, but the narrowed brows showed dissatisfaction.

“Do not touch.”

“Looking at you, you seem to have gotten better.”

“I think I’ll be better without you.”

That mouth!

“You must be enjoying the pain.”

“Get lost.”

“If you eat.”

Paula brought breakfast to him instead of the fallen dessert. As usual, it was rice. She approached him with a bowl of rice in one hand and a spoon in the other, and she decided not to have a face full of determination.

“Get away from me!”

“Yes, yes.”

Paula took hold of Vincent’s face, avoiding his touch, took a spoonful of rice and put it into his mouth. She wanted to keep his mouth open with her finger, but she couldn’t. It was because she almost got bitten by his teeth while putting her finger last time.

Paula wanted to feed him slowly, but his resistance was so strong that she poured the entire bowl into his mouth. The sheet became messy because food couldn’t get into his mouth and flowed down. His neck and face were smeared with rice too.

“No, get lo-”

“A little more.”

“Let go, uh, let go… Let go!”

Unable to bear it any longer, he kicked her. Concentrating on feeding rice, Paula fell backwards without being able to resist the sudden force. As they were arguing, she fell to the floor as she was on the edge of the bed.

“Ugh.”

It hurts!

Paula grabbed the back of her head that had hit the floor and moaned. Her eyes were blurry. The bowl that fell next to her face started spinning and stopped.

Rice bounced from the floor to the bed, leaving an empty bowl. His clothes also got dirty. Nevertheless, he pulled the sheet and wrapped it around his body. Rice, sticking onto his cheek, fell to the sheet.

‘How can I wash that?’

There was a sigh at the scuffle that would happen again.

“You are crazy.”

“The sheet got dirty. Clothes too, and you’d better change into a new one.”

Paula took the empty bowl and looked for the spoon, but she couldn’t see where it fell. Eventually, she gave up and brought new sheets and pyjamas. Since his personality was so disgusting, she realized it was better to do it all at once rather than do it one after the other, so she prepared it together.

“Don’t touch my body.”

“If you change your clothes yourself, I won’t touch you.”

After thinking for a moment, she threw his new pyjamas at him. Paula leaned against the wall and watched him. Vincent shook his pyjamas gently but didn’t receive them, so when she finally got on the bed to force him to change, he quickly took them away.

Somehow, while trying to change his clothes calmly, Paula quickly brought a small basin of lukewarm water. He refused to take a bath, so she tried to wipe his body with a towel wet.

“Wait.”

As he tried to stop her from changing his clothes in a dirty state, he slapped her hand violently. It was painful. Soon after, Vincent stared fiercely, but she was not particularly surprised. It was also a familiar behaviour.

“If you change as it is, you will still be dirty. Wipe it with this and put your clothes on.”

Paula gave him the wet towel. He hesitated for a while but started cleaning himself.

However, the places where the towel went didn’t get cleaned. It was cleaned without any sincerity.

Eventually, Paula took away the wet towel and started wiping the areas with rice. And Vincent dodged straight back. But there was no escape.

Paula silently wiped the rice off his face, neck and hair, and got out of the bed.

She had to change the bedclothes, so she glanced at him, but there was no sign of getting out of the way. She glanced around and pulled the bedclothes. Even though he noticed her intention to move away, he pretended not to know and didn’t budge.

In the end, there was a fight between his and his strength to hold out. Then, in an instant, the bedclothes fell off.

Thanks to this, she fell down and hit the back of her head for the second time.

***

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