“Could it be that you’re wearing your mother’s clothes because the budget is insufficient?”

“Oh my. No, it’s not. These clothes are really excellent. I’m wearing them because they’re exactly my taste. Why? Does it look strange?”

“It’s just… too much.”

“Tch. I thought it suited me quite well.”

Hailey pouted.

Though naturally less feminine than a dress, Hailey thought it was a perfect outfit for her. She had somewhat expected a positive reaction from others, thinking it would better accentuate her physical features.

When Hailey spoke in a slightly disappointed tone, Axel quickly grabbed her hand.

‘Too close.’

When she looked up, Axel was staring at Hailey with burning eyes.

“Hailey, you look the prettiest today out of all the appearances I’ve seen of you.”

Hailey blinked in surprise at Axel’s direct expression.

In an instant, Hailey’s face turned red up to her neck.

But Hailey wasn’t the only one blushing from embarrassment. In fact, Axel was also very shy.

“So… you’re too pretty.”

To the point where I don’t want to show you to other guys.

Axel kept the latter part to himself.

Hailey and Axel couldn’t say anything for a while, their eyes locked. Neither could break this awkward atmosphere first.

At that moment, the door to the room where Axel and Hailey were finally opened. Of all times, at this moment.

“Are you two alright?! We’ve found them here!”

Hailey hastily dropped Axel’s hand.

Axel glared murderously at the tactless servant.

* * *

It seemed the news had spread throughout the grand ducal castle.

It was an embarrassing rumor that the young ducal couple had stubbornly insisted on exploring by themselves, only to end up lost, and were finally found after two-thirds of the castle’s servants had searched for them.

‘Are you out of your mind? Do you have nothing better to do? Not doing your actual work, what’s all this commotion about?! What if you had fallen into a trap?’

Naturally, Axel and Hailey were summoned together by the Grand Duke and scolded for quite some time.

Hailey bowed her head, saying she was ashamed, while Axel remained defiant. He thought it was entirely the fault of the unnecessarily complex grand ducal castle, never considering it might be his own fault.

‘It’s fortunate we didn’t fall into one. I guess I have that kind of luck.’

‘……’

Only after Hailey apologized twice as much on behalf of both of them were they finally able to escape from the Grand Duke’s office.

After that incident, Axel and Hailey became incredibly busy from the next day.

Axel was semi-forcibly confined to the study all day due to the work in the domain he had dumped on Khalid, leaving no time even to have lunch with Hailey. That day, lunch ended up being just Hailey, Theo, and the Grand Duke.

Hailey also met with the tailors they called again one by one, dividing Queen Madeleine’s clothes in half for alterations.

Since they were only altering, they could save costs compared to making new ones, so she also ordered a few more outfits with new designs.

“Where’s Theo?”

“The little young master has gone for a bath. Today, Roto is attending to him for a trial bath. Of course, other servants are on standby, so you needn’t worry too much.”

It seemed Theo got along with Roto even better than expected. They were always together except when sleeping.

Originally, Roto, being a trainee butler of sorts, didn’t handle bath duties, but Roto enthusiastically volunteered and ended up being in charge of Theo’s baths as well.

Of course, that bath was not really a bath, but more like playing with water for the two.

Just imagining how the two would play in the water was so cute that Hailey couldn’t help but smile just hearing about it.

“Young madam. We have a unique bathing culture in Winchester that doesn’t exist in other regions. Have you heard about it?”

“A unique bathing culture?”

“Yes. I couldn’t inform you earlier as I wasn’t able to attend to your bath. There’s a small room behind the bathroom, have you seen it?”

“I didn’t even know such a place existed.”

“That room is a sealed chamber with heated stones and steam created by pouring water on those stones. In Winchester, we relieve fatigue by sweating in that room and then immersing ourselves in cold water. If you’d like, would you care to try it, young madam?”

Hailey had consistently refused the maids’ offer to attend to her bath, both here and at the royal palace.

While she didn’t mind other things, receiving assistance in the bath was uncomfortable and embarrassing for Hailey, whose past life experiences were more dominant in this aspect.

The maid who was originally supposed to attend to Hailey’s bath followed her, calmly explaining.

As Hailey listened quietly, she immediately recalled her past life memories.

‘A sauna? Are they talking about a sauna now?’

Hailey’s ears perked up, but she couldn’t let on that she knew, so she maintained an indifferent expression.

Thinking that Hailey wasn’t interested, the maid carefully added one more comment.

“…Everyone in Winchester does this. Even children as young as the little young master can do this kind of bath, so please don’t worry too much, young madam.”

“In that case, would you prepare it for me? I’ll try it out today, why not.”

“Yes, young madam!”

Although the maid’s ‘I succeeded’ look in her eyes was somewhat concerning, Hailey was inwardly very excited.

‘How long has it been since I’ve had a sauna? I should have a good sweat.’

Following the maid’s word that preparations were complete, Hailey entered the steam-filled room, her body covered with a towel.

“Oh my. It really is a sauna.”

Excited, Hailey sat in the middle of the warm, long wooden bench covered with towels.

Hailey was so fascinated, looking around curiously, that she didn’t notice the door being quietly locked from the outside.

In her past life, Hailey was a sauna expert who would stay for a long time in the sauna with elderly people when she went to the bathhouse.

“Since there’s no one else, it should be fine, right?”

At first, Hailey looked around curiously, but since she was alone anyway, she laid down on the long bench.

“I wish I could eat boiled eggs and sikhye¹a cold beverage made from fermented rice and malt, often enjoyed with boiled eggs after using a sauna because the cool, sweet drink and the protein-rich egg are believed to help replenish the body after sweating in the sauna after finishing this.”

She giggled, muttering to herself as she recalled memories from her past life.

As her tense body melted away, Hailey felt like she could fall asleep right here.

In fact, by Hailey’s standards, it wasn’t that hot, so she felt drowsy and sleep was overtaking her.

* * *

Senior maid Anika didn’t like the new madam.

Though she was said to be a noble, she was just from the capital, and her family had been wiped out anyway. She heard that the woman hadn’t even been properly educated.

People from the capital were all the same, but honestly, this woman wasn’t any better than the local residents here.

For such a woman to suddenly appear and act as the mistress of Winchester.

The maid had received instructions from Anika to somehow get her into that bathroom.

She was wondering what to do if she didn’t go in, but fortunately, the young madam took the bait easily.

Honestly, it felt a bit satisfying to see the young madam walking in of her own accord.

For ordinary maids, the senior maid’s instructions were absolute.

But even without the hierarchy, there was no reason not to participate in ‘pranking the young madam’.

‘She’ll probably make a fuss asking to be let out in less than 5 minutes. Don’t open it right away, wait about 5 more minutes.’

‘What if she says something later?’

‘Tell her that even children do it for 10 minutes, so you didn’t expect her to want to come out in 5 minutes. If she asks why the door was locked, say that the door is faulty and sometimes opens suddenly, so you did it to prevent the room from cooling down.’

Originally, they just had to wait in front and open it after about 10 minutes.

However, on that particularly tiring day, the maid accidentally fell asleep.

When she woke up startled and looked at the hourglass, all the sand had already fallen.

Wondering how much time had passed, she went out to the corridor and asked a passing maid, realizing that more than an hour had passed. Of course, the door was still locked.

Anika, who found it strange that the bath wasn’t finished, came to check the bathroom and found the bath attendant maid pacing anxiously.

“Ah, Miss Anika. What should we do? I accidentally fell asleep here… It seems the young madam is still inside.”

“How many minutes has it been? 20 minutes?”

“Well… it’s been over an hour, I think.”

I told you to open it after 10 minutes!

Anika’s eyes widened.

If someone who’s experiencing Winchester’s bath for the first time had been in there for an hour, they might have lost consciousness. If only losing consciousness was the worst of it; if a bigger problem occurred…

Anika bit her lip hard. Pushing aside the maid who was pacing anxiously next to her, she hurried to the door and knocked.

“Young madam. It’s Anika. young madam!”

There was no answer from inside. With no choice, Anika opened the locked door.

As she flung the door open, Hailey was stretching and getting up.

“…Young madam?”