On her third trip home from work at the manor, Emily was startled when she tried to board the carriage. The two people already seated weren’t footmen.

“Oh, you took the Friday carriage, didn’t you?”

Excluding the head housekeeper and herself, there were seven maids total at the manor. Among them, the two people in front of her now never bothered to hide their distaste whenever they encountered Emily.

“I was wondering what cargo we were waiting to load that we hadn’t left yet.”

Seeing their expectant expressions, Emily wondered if comparing people to cargo was considered a great insult in the capital. She found it puzzling but sat down obediently.

She could feel their stares. Times like this, she wished she had some knitting to do. Since buying new yarn was expensive, she could unravel one of Oliver’s old sweaters…

“How’s the work going?”

Emily, who had been sitting absentmindedly, looked up at the maid sitting across from her.

“I’m still lacking in many ways, so I want to learn quickly and become helpful.”

“My goodness, where did you learn to speak so pretentiously?”

The maid from the capital’s eyes sparkled with amusement. With mockery written all over her face, Emily lowered her head instead of answering.

“Hey, why are you being so mean? You’re making her uncomfortable.”

Even the one gently scolding couldn’t be expected to be particularly friendly. She was the same person who had once shown displeasure at Emily for coming to the dining hall too early. She had also spilled a wax container before and gotten scolded by Michelle.

“What kind of work did you do before?”

The scolding maid asked with feigned kindness. Emily explained everything, starting from cleaning chimneys at the pastor’s house when she was twelve.

“…I did all the housework. I was the only maid at the pastor’s house.”

“That girl was the hat shop owner’s daughter, right? Among the ones whose recommendation letters came in.”

“Wasn’t there also some innkeeper’s daughter?”

But after making her talk, they whispered among themselves. Emily stared at her fingertips for a moment.

“The head housekeeper was disgusted because the hat shop owner’s daughter had sticky fingers. Who told us that again…”

“I heard there are two hat shops in this town. Which one was it?”

“There are really two hat shops in this backwater place?”

Their gazes turned toward her. Emily felt tired by their rambling conversation but answered sincerely.

“Yes. One near the fountain square, one behind the city hall.”

“Are there people who actually buy hats? What kind of wages do you get working as a proper maid here?”

“…I received 2 shillings at the pastor’s house.”

“Only 2 shillings a week?”

“A month.”

Both their mouths fell open. No wonder. She, a temporary maid, was currently receiving 4 crowns a month—20 shillings.

“Poor thing. How could you live on that?”

“How horrible. Imagine having to survive a whole month on just 2 shillings.”

“What could you buy with that? Oh, that’s why your stockings…”

Both their gazes dropped below the chair simultaneously. Since the maid’s uniform reached her ankles, Emily hadn’t bothered to buy new stockings.

But sitting now, her wool stockings would peek out from under her hem. In contrast, the maids sitting across from her had sleek, glossy black stockings wrapped around their ankles.

“Didn’t you come in and out of our room yesterday? Under the pretense of collecting sheets.”

“It would be better if she didn’t come into our room. Don’t you think so?”

Even being treated like a potential thief wasn’t particularly unfair. It meant less work for her.

“Oh right, when we were hiring maids. Out of the three recommendation letters we received from Tollum people.”

But seeing the meaningful glances they exchanged, this topic didn’t seem much different from their previous mockery.

“In the end, the head housekeeper had the male servants investigate, right? Since they go out to town a lot and know the Tollum people well.”

“Ah, right. They all rushed out together under the pretense of gathering information. Using that excuse to play at the tavern and crawl back in the morning.”

Emily sighed quietly. If that was true, she had unexpectedly received help from the male workers in getting this job.

“Maybe she spent the night playing with them that day? And got them to badmouth the other candidates.”

Ah, so that’s where they were going with this. Emily genuinely admired how they were systematically closing in on her.

“Absolutely not. That’s not true at all.”

She denied it because it wasn’t true. But they weren’t likely to believe her easily.

“Impressive. Quite the schemer.”

“You weren’t already involved with someone at our manor from the beginning?”

The conversation was heading in an increasingly unsavory direction, but fortunately it wouldn’t last much longer. The carriage was almost at Tollum town. Emily tried to clarify her innocence one last time.

“Even someone who survives on just 2 shillings a month knows basic right from wrong. My recommendation came directly from the pastor’s wife—”

“Oh my, she talks quite convincingly.”

“They say ‘when lowlifes argue, no one can stop them.'”

They wouldn’t listen no matter what she said. Just then they arrived at Tollum town square, and Emily bid them farewell for next week, whether they listened or not, and got off the carriage.

It was nothing serious. She hadn’t heard any terrible curses. But as she walked down the stone road, those last words kept ringing in her ears.

“When lowlifes argue, no one can stop them.”

It was something educated people usually said when the lower classes stubbornly insisted on something ignorantly. Claiming there was no way to deal with them since logic and reason wouldn’t work.

But weren’t they the ones being unreasonable?

Emily frowned. She had laughed off the capital people’s nastiness as just running their mouths, but today she felt particularly unpleasant.

Her frustrated mood didn’t subside even after arriving home. When she opened the old door, Emily was greeted by a ceiling with a fallen plank and tattered wallpaper.

Has their house always been this run-down?

Seeing her childhood home feel cramped and dirty, she must have unconsciously grown accustomed to the manor’s grandeur. Emily sighed softly and hung up her coat. Just then, the door burst open behind her.

“Huh? You got home before me today?”

“Oliver! How have you been?”

She was happy to see her cute little brother, but today he was too grimy to hug. Setting aside being black with coal, his old clothes seemed even more torn.

“What happened?”

“I fell and rolled around in a coal pile.”

His face was flushed red, suggesting he’d gotten into a fight with someone. But there were no tear marks, and he didn’t seem seriously hurt, so she asked lightly.

“Did you win?”

“What are you talking about? I said I rolled around. Mom! I’m hungry!”

“What brings you two home together? I had a feeling it would be an ‘evening full of joy.'”

Mother, apparently returning from the vegetable garden, walked over from the back door in her apron. Emily quickly grabbed the back of her brother’s neck as he tried to enter the house.

“You, shake off your clothes outside before coming in.”

“I know. Let me put down the coal I brought first.”

Oliver grumbled and set down his bag by the kitchen hearth, then stuck out his tongue as he passed by.

Is this the age when he starts having secrets from his sister too?

Oliver took after someone—who knows who. To put it nicely, he was mature; honestly speaking, he was a bit cunning. But with his still-childish face smiling cutely, she decided to let it slide.

But then.

“Sister.”

Late at night. Today Oliver kept following her around past his bedtime. Emily was roughly clearing the clutter piled in the living room, working by the light of a single candle.

“What kind of work do you do at the manor?”

“Cleaning. Same as what I’m doing now.”

“I see.”

Oliver hesitated, then asked another question.

“Is the food good?”

“Of course. I’d like to bring some home, but I’m still new.”

“I see.”

By now it seemed Oliver had something to say, but considering his adolescence, she waited for him to speak up on his own.

“Would it be hard to become a school teacher?”

“You’d have to be a good student first.”

“That’s hard.”

Emily chuckled. She was considering whether to lecture him about how being a good student wasn’t difficult when—

“Sister, what’s a wh*re?”

At the appearance of this ominous word, Emily set down the box she was holding.

She slowly straightened up and looked at her brother. A fourteen-year-old boy raised in Tollum couldn’t possibly not know what that despicable profession was.

“Who said that?”

“Nobody.”

Oliver’s expression was subtle. But Emily knew her brother’s cunning well. The way he opened his mouth wanting to say something, then shrank back while reading the situation—it was all a silent message. Since he couldn’t bring himself to say it, he hoped she would figure it out by now.

“About me? Are they saying that about me? Who said I do such things? At the manor?”

“No.”

Her brother quickly denied it, but his expression said yes.

“Oliver. Do you think such words could make your sister sad?”

A child from Tollum doesn’t get hurt by just that much. Emily asked with a low growl.

“Whose mouth should I tear apart?”

“Dan.”

At the answer that immediately popped out, Emily raised her head and gauged direction like a hunter.

“Dan lives in the alley by Johnson’s place.”

She immediately walked to the door and put on the coat she’d taken off during the day. Even while doing so, she didn’t forget to instruct Oliver.

“Lock the door, and no matter what sounds you hear, absolutely don’t let Mom come out.”

Because their mother was never a child of Tollum.