The Beast That Licks Me - Chapter 2.10

The accident happened the next day. Arriving at work early the next morning, Rosette was adding more detergent when she dropped the box after being yelled at to use less. The laundry instantly became a mess of bubbles and paper pulp, and the angry owner shouted at Rosette and raised his hand.

Evan, who had been watching Rosette nearby, immediately rushed over and stood between Rosette and the owner. It was more like a retriever preventing a fight than a threat, but it seemed the owner, who typically bullied the weak and cowered before the strong, perceived it differently.

He became terrified of Evan’s size and stepped backward, losing his footing and falling onto the laundry that Rosette had loaded with detergent. The detergent was quite harsh since it was meant to remove stains, and she had emptied an entire box into it. As the owner ran around the laundromat complaining of the stinging sensation, Rosette tried to help by dousing him with water, which resulted in rewetting all the already dried laundry, requiring everything to be washed again. The owner was furious but, perhaps afraid of Evan, managed to contain his anger and asked them to leave. Thus, Rosette was fired from her second job as well.

After hearing the whole story, the staff member reluctantly introduced her to another job, saying it would be the last one. That’s how Rosette became an employee at a restaurant.

“If only it hadn’t been glass plates…”

Rosette muttered with frustration. Rosette had a weakness for glass plates. It was related to her condition—since her parents feared their only daughter might cut herself on glass shards, they had replaced all tableware in the house with unbreakable wooden and copper dishes from a very young age. It was similar to the fairy tale where all spinning wheels in the kingdom were removed for the cursed princess.

Furthermore, Sarhen and Benedict had thoroughly educated young Rosette: “Those glass plates are dangerous, so don’t go near them.” Having learned to fear glass plates since childhood, Rosette still found them difficult to handle as an adult. This fear intensified after she broke a glass plate. While hurriedly cleaning up the broken plate, Rosette cut her hand, and the bleeding wouldn’t stop. She had to leave during the busiest hours, receiving both concerned looks and sharp glares from people. The incident at the laundromat, anxiety about the new workplace, and fear of glass plates all mixed together, causing her to break plates more frequently. Before she could overcome this fear, Rosette was fired from her third job today.

“Evan, are we going to starve to death on this ship?”

Rosette looked out the window with lifeless eyes, all her enthusiasm crushed. Seeing her like this, Evan gave a bitter smile.

“You’ve worked hard, Rosette. I’ll try to earn something somehow.”

“You…? How?”

Though it sounded dismissive, there was no malice in Rosette’s words. It was more like asking how a puppy could earn money. To Rosette, Evan was still somewhat like a puppy, and it was the owner’s responsibility to provide for him, which was why she had insisted on going out to earn money while keeping Evan at home.

“Well, somehow…”

Knock knock. Before Evan could finish, there was a knock at the door. There was only one visitor who would come at this hour.

“Levit, come in.”

Familiar with the invitation, Levit opened the door and entered. In both hands, he carried two well-baked, golden corn breads. Evan and Rosette cheered, momentarily forgetting their situation.

“Ma’am, I heard you got fired again?”

Levit, who had quickly become friendly with them, asked playfully while handing them each a bread. Rosette, who had paused while receiving the bread, pouted.

“Yes, I got fired again.”

“Oh no, really?”

Levit giggled when he heard this. He bumped fists with Evan and made a greeting gesture. The three had grown quite close recently. Even the connection to the staff member who had introduced her to jobs had been established by Levit.

“You really have bad luck, ma’am.”

Levit shook his head as he saw Rosette trying to split her bread in half to share. He meant for her to eat it all. Rosette took a weak bite of the corn bread. The fragrant, nutty smell of corn spread in her mouth. Though it was a bit dry, it had a different charm from the breakfast bread. After devouring the corn bread in no time, Rosette sighed deeply. Evan brushed away the crumbs on Rosette’s mouth.

“This time it wasn’t bad luck. I just wasn’t good enough.”

Seeing Rosette so depressed, Levit smiled triumphantly and asked.

“Ma’am, do you know what I brought?”

“What is it…?”

“Ta-da! 4 silver coins!”

Four silver coins gleamed on Levit’s small palm.

“I’m really sorry about that day.”

Levit held out the money toward Rosette. Rosette stared blankly at the coins in his palm. He had finally repaid the cost of the seasickness medicine. Rosette felt strange. Having recently learned the value of money through work, Rosette knew how difficult it must have been for this young boy to obtain this money. Along with gratitude, suspicion began to sprout.

“Did you pickpocket someone?”

“Are you curious?”

Levit asked with a mischievous grin. He was clearly teasing.

“I hope not…”

Rosette accepted the money from Levit while praying it wasn’t stolen. It was a moment when the well-raised Count’s daughter was somewhat compromising with the harsh world.

“I think I’m truly hopeless.”

Rosette muttered while sitting dejectedly on the chair.

“Ma’am, you just had bad luck.”

“That’s right, Rose. You just lack work skills, but you’re not hopeless.”

It was hard to tell whether they were supporting her or insulting her.

“I’ll find you another job soon.”

“It’s fine for now.”

It was Evan, not Rosette, who said this. Since he had never stopped Rosette from working before, Levit gave him a puzzled look.

“I’m going to work.”

“Evanium, what kind of work will you do?”

Rosette asked somewhat irritably. Evan shrugged, unconcerned.

“I wasn’t just doing nothing while you were working.”

At Evan’s confident words, Rosette and Levit exchanged puzzled glances.

***

Rosette couldn’t take her eyes off the growing pile of silver coins over the past few days. Evan’s words were true. He really had gone out and earned money. Quite a lot of it, too.

“Moving furniture…”

Rosette muttered in disbelief. Evan had recently been working for a private company that moved furniture. Apparently, there was a minor trend among first-class passengers to change the interior design of their rooms.

It had started a year ago when a noblewoman rearranged her sofa and table positions to decorate the room in her own style for a secret tea party. Since then, ladies have been competing to remodel their room layouts. Although all furniture on the ship was firmly secured to prevent movement during storms at sea, the ladies’ determination to change their room structures was remarkable. Thanks to this, private companies thrived, and the ship’s staff had headaches.

They couldn’t stop the nobles from changing their rooms, and ultimately, the easiest targets for the staff were the illegal private furniture moving companies. Recently, one of these companies was caught moving furniture in real-time and became a surveillance target, which meant the private company Evan worked for was experiencing a boom and was incredibly busy.

Evan, who appeared strong and had been wandering around the ship with nothing to do every day, was good prey for the busy company. Initially, Evan received 10 silver coins, but since yesterday, he has been receiving 12 silver coins for doing good work. Rosette didn’t know whether to be happy about this or not.

“Rosette!”

Evan burst through the door without knocking. Rosette, who had been lying on the bed counting silver coins, jumped up in surprise.

“Evan, knock.”

“Ah, sorry.”

Evan belatedly knocked on the door. Seeing this, Rosette sighed quietly.

“Shall we go eat dinner? I think we can eat somewhere nice today since we’ve been saving up.”

“No, Rosette. No need to spend money. Madame Yvonne is treating us to dinner tonight.”

“Madame Yvonne? Who’s that?”

“She’s the person whose room layout we changed today. She was grateful for the nice job we did and invited us to have dinner in her newly arranged room.”

Rosette’s eyes narrowed with suspicion.

“With other people, too? Or just the two of you?”

“She only invited me, but I think you could come too?”