“What?”

“P, pardon?”

Helena’s expression was nothing like her usual self as she stared blankly at Layla. Did I do something wrong? Layla shrank back in preemptive fear and bowed her head, holding out the tray.

“After a quick wash, I’ll help you with your bath. We need to start preparing now to be ready in time for the party.”

“Help me with what…… A party……?”

Helena’s brow furrowed deeply, and then she leaned over the washbasin in a daze. She raised one finger and tapped the surface of the water, then went completely still. Unable to do anything about the young lady frozen there staring at her own reflection, Layla and Marie fidgeted anxiously.

“Um, excuse me.”

“Yes? My lady?”

“What’s my name?”

“Wh, why do you ask, my lady…….”

It was frightening. Helena’s behavior, so unlike her usual self, fed their fear with every passing moment. Today it might not be a washbasin or a knife but an arrow. Marie seemed to be thinking the same thing, because from behind came the sound of her swallowing a sob that sounded ready to spill over at any second. But Helena paid no mind to the frozen atmosphere and only pressed on.

“I’m asking what my name is. Well?”

Is this the end? What if she’s asking to find some strange fault to pick? Layla hated getting hurt by the young lady’s tantrums, but being thrown out of the manor was worse. If she got thrown out, she had nowhere to go…… Lost in all manner of imaginings, Layla was now practically on the verge of tears as she parted her lips.

“It is…… Lady Helena Victoria La Devon…….”

“Ah. I see.”

Any relief at having recalled the young lady’s name correctly was short-lived. Helena furrowed her brow and seemed to turn the name over in her mind, treating it like something she was hearing for the first time.

“Helena…… something Devon. Right, yes. That’s it.”

“M, my lady!”

“Kyaaah!”

Helena, who had been nodding with a small smirk, plunged her head straight into the washing water and fainted on the spot. Layla dropped the tray and rushed to catch her crumpling body. The porcelain shattered as it hit the floor, and Marie’s scream from beside her, having witnessed the entire farce, brought the morning of Marquis Devon’s household fully and completely awake.

* * *

The young lady she served had gone strange. That morning, after fainting like that, Helena had not woken for two full days and turned the entire estate upside down. Once she finally came to, she spent a full ten days shut in her room under the pretense of recovery, refusing to let anyone in, and had only recently begun resuming her daily life.

The people of the manor quickly settled back into their ordinary routines, behaving as though nothing had ever happened. But something was different from before. Since waking from her faint, Helena seemed to have lost patches of her memory.

Thanks to the strict management of the Devon marquisate, word of the marquis’s daughter suffering from memory loss never spread beyond the front gate, but among the servants, the young lady’s strange behaviors came up in conversation often enough.

“I heard she went to the kitchen a few days ago and cooked herself? Is that true?”

“How did you find out?”

“How could anyone not know? What did she supposedly make? Is it true she made something absolutely dreadful?”

“Shh. Has the rumor spread that far? No, she produced some strange substance no one had ever seen before. Murrel breathed in the smell once by accident and couldn’t stop coughing for thirty minutes.”

“Oh my.”

It seems the young lady has added another strange episode to her collection. Layla crouched beside the cluster of chattering maids and listened to their conversation with great interest. Everyone was too busy gossiping to pay her any attention or speak to her, but that made it all the easier to pick up the rumors floating around. Her ears perked up, and from another group of maids seated nearby came yet another piece of news.

“She really does seem like a completely different person. I even had the ridiculous thought that her soul might have been swapped out.”

“And apparently she can see the future, too?”

“What kind of nonsense is that, Sophie?”

“No, it’s true. More than one or two things have already come true.”

“Oh, come on.”

Sophie held her ground despite the skeptical looks from those around her. Just as she was about to offer evidence to back up her claim, Layla, unable to contain her curiosity, had quietly slipped in to listen and carefully added her voice.

“Actually, was it true then that the under-butler was dismissed because of the young lady?”

“Ah! You startled me. Layla? When did you get here?”

“I’ve been here for a while…….”

“Goodness. Anyway, yes, the under-butler being dismissed was absolutely because of the young lady.”

“No way. Really?”

The maids who had been scattered and chattering gathered around Sophie. Not long ago, the under-butler had been caught and dismissed after evidence surfaced that he had been secretly leaking information about the estate to a woman. Apparently Helena had noticed it first and quietly tipped off the marquis, which was how he had been caught.

Layla’s light green eyes sparkled as she listened to Sophie’s account.

“And that’s not all. She apparently knew in advance that this year’s hunt would be cancelled due to heavy rain. We always suffer droughts at this time of year, so heavy rain seemed impossible. I didn’t believe it, but it turned out to be true.”

“My goodness. She said that?”

“I heard it with my own two ears. She was muttering to herself while looking at the sky!”

“She has been talking to herself more…….”

Layla nodded in agreement with Sophie’s words.

It wasn’t only the kitchen maids and Sophie who had witnessed Helena’s strange behavior. Layla herself had seen it on multiple occasions, the young lady muttering to herself and pacing restlessly back and forth around her room.

Once, Helena had asked for a notebook and pen, and Layla had watched her fill page after page with strange characters she had never seen before in her life. They looked something like drawings, something like symbols. What on earth had they been?

Everyone said the young lady had gone strange and found it unsettling, but Layla found the changed Helena far more approachable and liked her better this way. And there were more good things about the change than bad.

That sharp, vicious expression had softened considerably, and she no longer resorted to violence. She did occasionally display the rather alarming habit of using formal speech with the servants and then hitting herself on the head for it, but setting aside the strange manner of speaking, the rougher tone, and the constant incomprehensible muttering, the young lady as she was now was much better.

Yet Helena’s strangely altered mood and behavior seemed to strike greater fear into the servants than before. Because of that, no one volunteered to attend to Helena, and the role kept falling to Layla.

She was also the one among them who had suffered the least from the young lady’s cruelty, so she had no real complaints. Besides, Helena had been making few demands lately, and one maid attending her was more than enough. Layla even felt a small pang of pity for Helena, who had undergone such a sudden and strange change. Partial memory loss. How disorienting it must have been. Losing a part of yourself would have been a tremendous blow to anyone.

She listened a little longer as her colleagues moved on to other topics, then got up from her spot. It was time to bring up lunch.

The young lady had not been coming down to the dining room lately and had been taking her meals in her room. The absence of any word otherwise suggested today would be the same. Different maids had been bringing her meals each time, but starting today, that task had fallen to Layla as well.

When Layla stepped into the kitchen, the head cook and a maid were already bustling about loading the trolley with the meal, apparently having been told in advance. She shuffled closer, and the head cook Matthew looked up sharply at the sound of her approach and greeted her.

“Ah. Layla, is it? You’re here to take the young lady’s meal?”

“Yes. Should I take this as it is?”

“That’s right. Just this stew left to put on and we’re done. Here.”