Chapter 36: A Good Excuse to Convey One’s Heart

The maids gathered closely together were busy with laundry. Usually, the laundry room was noisy with their chatter, but these days no one opened their mouths, creating a desolate atmosphere. While washing her share of clothes, one maid took her hands off and sighed.

“What is this, with laundry and dishes every day, my hands won’t last. I can’t even sleep properly these days. My wrists hurt so much I can’t sleep deeply.”

“Me too. The butler is really too much. Telling us to start from the bottom again… When I first started as a maid, at least I was young, but at this age, what is this?”

“Every day, I’m on the verge of saying I’ll quit.”

Their complaints flowed endlessly about their situation of being demoted to the lowest position overnight. They had gone through all sorts of hardships to serve the Marchioness, and now they were doing it all over again.

The butler had made them do the work they did when they first entered the Marquis household, saying they needed to find their initial mindset.

“Hurry up. We need to finish washing today. The pile of dishes is already mountainous.”

“Sigh.”

“If you don’t want to work until bedtime, get to it quickly.”

After their brief complaints, they moved their hands diligently again. Even though their shoulders felt like they would fall off and their arms were sore, they couldn’t avoid it.

“But you know.”

Someone’s hands slowed down as they spoke in a subtle voice.

“Has the lady really changed?”

“What? Why are you suddenly saying that?”

When one maid frowned at her words, the maid who brought it up carefully continued.

“Well, she hasn’t hit anyone so far. And look at Jackie. How many mistakes must that inexperienced girl have made?”

“True, it’s still a time when she makes many mistakes. The other day I saw her bringing a dress that was out of fashion…”

Another maid chimed in.

“I saw that too. But that day, the lady wore it. And Jackie, who followed her, didn’t seem to have been hit either.”

“Right. Not just avoiding being hit, she’s going around here and there just fine. If I had known this would happen, I should have gone out when Jackie asked to accompany the lady.”

A woman who had been quietly doing laundry without joining the maids’ conversation suddenly threw down the laundry in her hands. The wet laundry stuck to the floor with a splat. The woman who threw the laundry was Mint, who had been at the forefront of pushing Jackie away when she asked to go meet the lady.

“I can’t take it anymore!”

“What? What are you thinking?”

“I’m going to ask to serve the lady again. We can’t just do laundry forever. Why do we have to do laundry anyway?”

“Right. Laundry is work for the newcomers.”

Another maid stood up, agreeing with Mint’s words. She looked at her severely chapped hands. When she was serving the Marchioness, she didn’t even take on hard work for fear her hands would get rough.

That’s why serving the lady was the best position. You didn’t have to do harsh work, and the salary was the highest among the maids.

“Let’s go talk to her again.”

Mint roughly wiped her wet hands on her skirt and looked around at the others in the same situation. However, they just fidgeted with their wet skirts, unable to readily follow Mint.

“Talk to the lady? Will she accept us just because we ask?”

“We won’t know unless we try. But we can’t stay like this forever. We went through all this before to get there. We can’t go through it step by step again.”

Mint gritted her teeth and shouted, then looked around at the maids.

“Don’t tell me you’re thinking of working your way up again? Jackie got to serve the lady as soon as she came here, but we have to endure this twice? Isn’t that more unfair?”

The maids nodded at Mint’s persuasion.

“That’s right. Jackie got to serve the lady from the start, why just us?”

“Yeah, it’s too unfair. We can’t just stand by and let that Jackie take everything.”

The maids untied their aprons with determination. They left the laundry room, each strengthening their resolve to go talk to the lady again.

***

Bliss asked the maids who came to see her.

“You want to serve me again?”

“Yes.”

The line of maids and Mint, who stood in front representing them, nodded.

“We were wrong for not serving you properly. But pushing us away without giving us a chance was too harsh.”

“Too… harsh?”

Bliss repeated Mint’s words.

“We’re different from Jackie.”

At Mint’s words, Jackie, who was caught in the middle, fidgeted nervously with her skirt.

“You don’t know how long it took us to get to serve you. We did laundry until our hands were calloused, over and over. And when we got somewhat used to it, we moved on to cleaning rooms, and that’s how we built up our position.”

“If it was so difficult to get there, why didn’t you serve me properly?”

“Because you hit us.”

“…What?”

When Bliss looked on with surprised eyes, Mint poured out all the words that seemed to have built up in her chest.

“You hit us when you were in a bad mood and when you didn’t like something. All of us… well, except Jackie, you hit all of us.”

“That’s…”

Bliss trailed off. She knew the previous Bliss had beaten the maids. But there were things she was learning for the first time.

“We worked so hard to serve you… it was such a hard-won opportunity.”

As she listened to Mint’s tearful confession, Bliss looked at Jackie. She was the youngest among the maids who served her, always watching for others’ reactions and shrinking herself, a pitiful child. Seeing Mint’s expression as she too looked at Jackie, Bliss smiled. Mint stammered in confusion.

“Why are you smiling?”

“I was thinking I’m glad she wasn’t hit, since I hoped this young child wouldn’t be harmed.”

“What?”

At the words that sounded like she was talking about someone else, Mint looked around at the other maids with a puzzled expression. However, Bliss didn’t explain their confusion, instead saying something else.

“I’m sorry.”

“My, my lady.”

Bliss looked at each one intently. Their faces were haggard from their recent hardships.

“About only accepting Jackie’s service… honestly, I pushed you away partly because I was upset. It seemed like you didn’t want to serve me. You kept putting Jackie forward and stepping back. I wondered why you said you wanted to serve me if that’s how it would be.”

As Mint was about to open her mouth with much to say, someone pulled at her skirt. When Mint turned around, Jackie, who had pulled her skirt, silently shook her head.

“But the order was wrong. I should have reflected first.”

She had forgotten that she was Bliss. Knowing how the original character had treated the maids, she too had treated them harshly.

Bliss took Mint’s hand and caressed it. She could feel the calluses embedded in her hand.

“I’m sorry.”

“My lady.”

Overwhelmed, Mint called out to Bliss with tears in her voice. Soon tears began falling from her eyes one by one, and she sobbed.

“If you’re willing, would you serve me again?”

At Bliss’s offer, the crying grew louder. The butler, startled by the crying of Mint and the other maids, came inside.

“What is all this about?”

At the butler’s question, the crying grew even louder, and Jackie nervously nibbled at her fingertips.

“My lady, it’s time to go to the Imperial Palace…”

At this rate, they would be late.

***

“So?”

Bliss turned her head slightly, uncomfortable with the stare fixed on her. When the Imperial Princess asked why she was late to the palace, Bliss had told her about what happened with the maids. Though it had become an awkward situation when the butler appeared in the middle of the tearful scene, thanks to that, they were able to handle the situation quickly.

“Um… I apologized.”

“To the maids?”

Imperial Princess Jasmin looked at her with incomprehension.

“They weren’t doing their duties properly, so why did you apologize?”

“Because it was my fault.”

Bliss let out a long sigh.

“I hit them and pushed them around. They were tense not knowing what kind of looks they would receive, shrinking back not knowing when they would be hit, and I pushed them away saying they wouldn’t serve me.”

Still insisting it was her fault, Bliss repeatedly showed and erased an awkward smile while looking at Imperial Princess Jasmin. Her embarrassed hands fidgeted with the ornaments on her dress before moving to the sofa. After watching all this, the Imperial Princess spoke as though she were surprised.

“Yes, I heard many rumors about you. But since you weren’t like that with me, I thought the rumors were wrong, but that wasn’t the case.”

“The me before Your Highness now is not who I was before.”

Though Bliss’s memories had seeped in, the soul was clearly different.

“Anyway, I let them serve me again, but that doesn’t erase what happened before, so I feel sorry.”

Bliss revealed her troubled feelings. At that, Imperial Princess Jasmin rested her chin on her hand, deep in thought.

“Did I say something too strange? I’m sorry. Please just ignore it.”

Bliss apologized after belatedly seeing the Imperial Princess’s reaction. She had just voiced her troubled feelings, but now she slightly regretted doing so.

“You think just apologizing isn’t enough, right?”

“What? Yes.”

But Imperial Princess Jasmin gave an answer that went beyond Bliss’s expectations. In other words, she had accurately understood and accepted her concerns. While Bliss was looking on with surprised eyes, the Imperial Princess spoke with sparkling eyes.

“Then how about this?”

Seeing the princess who had already thought of a solution, Bliss found herself unconsciously leaning toward her.