Chapter 49
That evening, after finishing her duties attending to the old lady who had regained consciousness, Luirene stepped out to find the surroundings noisy. Curious, she saw Miya’s group gathered where the commotion was. From repeated observations, she knew that whenever they gathered, the reason was always the same.
Eneka.
Wondering what excuse they had to harass Eneka today, it turned out she hadn’t cleaned the area they’d assigned her. At this point, Luirene had the reasonable suspicion that they were collecting their wages without lifting a finger.
Her eyes met Eneka’s, who was just sighing with a bored expression, as if to say she couldn’t be bothered to deal with them. Don’t interfere. Luirene could feel her silent warning. On any other day, she would have obeyed, but today, for some reason, the discomfort wouldn’t go away.
‘If someone becomes your ally, I’ll gladly get along with them.’
Was Eneka that kind of person to her? Thoughtfully, Hitaon had even told her how to find out. In the midst of crises that befell her, Eneka consistently wanted to draw a line between them. To prevent Luirene from getting entangled and harmed.
That night, Luirene sought out the Nanny, who had returned from outside duties. She reported the petty acts Miya had been committing.
The Nanny said she had heard such rumors but had taken them lightly since there had been no word from Eneka herself. She added that she would take measures, and moved more quickly than expected.
“Who the hell ratted us out?”
“Just wait until we find out who it was.”
The very next day, Miya’s group was grinding their teeth in the dining hall.
Luirene pretended not to notice, pricking up her ears as she emptied her tray.
After finishing her meal, she headed to the library. Eneka, looking as if nothing had happened, was practicing writing sentences on practice sheets. Having finished her meal and left at the crack of dawn, she seemed completely unaware that anything had happened to Miya’s group. Luirene didn’t go into details about it either.
Whether the report had worked, Miya’s group remained quiet after that. Luirene could feel that Eneka, whom she met in the library, was in far better spirits than before. Her focus on writing and reading had also improved.
It was one afternoon, feeling secretly proud that she had created the best possible environment for her.
Passing through the corridor overlooking the rear garden of the mansion, she heard giggling. Looking out the window, she saw Miya’s group. Gathered in a circle, they were collecting mop water into large buckets. Somehow, she had a bad feeling.
“Isn’t that Luirene?”
Miya, standing with her arms crossed as if leading the other maids, spotted her and greeted her cheerfully. Her face was so carefree it was hard to believe she was up to something bad. Luirene waved back out of politeness and asked.
“Hi. What are you all doing gathered here?”
“Us? We’re preparing to have some fun.”
“…Fun?”
“You know about us being falsely reported a few days ago, right? We tried to find out who did it, but the Nanny absolutely wouldn’t tell us. So we put our heads together and came to the conclusion that it must have been a setup by Eneka herself.”
“A setup… you mean you think Eneka reported you?”
“Yeah.”
“…So you’re going to throw that dirty water on Eneka for revenge?”
“No. That’s too obvious—no fun.”
Miya uncrossed her arms and lifted something. Luirene immediately recognized what it was. Eneka’s sentence practice sheets. How had they gotten those? Had they stolen them while Eneka was away?
“Luirene. Do you want to join?”
A sigh escaped her. It was often said that evil people rarely know they are evil. Wasn’t this situation a perfect example?
Why were they so desperate to torment Eneka? Luirene thought: hiding any further was meaningless. If her report was going to cause even more harm to Eneka than before, she couldn’t just keep hiding.
“Hey, Miya.”
“Yeah?”
“How about you stop?”
“What?”
“Doing this—singling someone out and tormenting them like this. It doesn’t look good. I’m saying I wish you’d stop.”
Miya’s laughter stopped. Her arm, raised high like a sword-wielding warrior’s, slowly fell. Miya’s smile deepened into something else.
Discussion
0 CommentsReactions
No comments yet.