To My Arrogant Master - Chapter 6

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Her eyelids suddenly opened before the sun had even risen. She quickly sat up and curled her body, but the surroundings were too quiet.

As Flora groped beside her for her sword, she soon sighed, realizing there was nothing there. It didn’t take long for her to remember that this wasn’t Filheim.

Although it had been about a month since she came here, Flora still couldn’t get a proper sleep. She had never once let her guard down, and that continued until the moment she fell asleep.

‘You won’t need that sword anymore, so I’ll keep it for you.’

When she saw him at the camp, Flora had received an eerily cold impression from the duke.

But now she was a bit confused. The duke had taken her sword away with quite a pleasant smile.

Especially that gaze, as if he was looking at something interesting, and his probing tone. Even for her, who was quite used to Ian’s sarcasm, he was a difficult opponent to know how to react to.

“What is that man thinking?”

Flora let out a light sigh and looked with complicated eyes at the light beige dress hanging next to the dressing table.

It was the maid uniform that Mary had brought for her to work as a maid of the Heinst ducal residence, as per the duke’s orders.

Maid work was incredibly difficult to get used to. She didn’t know what the duke was thinking when he assigned her maid duties, but for now, she had no choice but to do as she was told.

Flora reluctantly put on the maid uniform. Although it was said to be a maid uniform with good mobility, the design still covered down to her ankles, and the sensation of it lightly touching her skin felt cumbersome.

After tying up her hair, which she had been wearing loose every day, into a tight knot, the image of a perfect maid was complete.

An unfamiliar woman appeared on the surface of the mirror hanging on the wall. There was no trace of the woman who had wielded a sword and cut down enemies anywhere in the mirror.

Thinking that she should have asked for pants like the servants wear, she arrived at the dining hall where the main building staff usually ate while walking.

“Oh! Flora, over here.”

Mary, who greeted Flora first, raised her hand and pulled out the chair next to her, indicating for her to sit there. Around twenty other maids were already seated around her.

Perhaps because it had been a few weeks since Flora became a maid, no one seemed awkward about her appearance.

The other servants didn’t pay much attention to Flora’s identity, perhaps thinking that the master had brought a maid who had been doing odd jobs near the western border.

There were some questions at first, but the new maid was quite taciturn, and they soon lost their curiosity.

“Oh my. This is how you tie it.”

“Ah…”

Today too, Mary, having noticed something, reached out to Flora’s apron.

Flora flinched and tried to move back belatedly, but Mary’s touch on her waist area was so natural that she missed the timing.

Mary, who had untied the loosely tied ribbon and tied it tightly again, smiled brightly.

“Now it’s done. The more I see, the more I think you’re really not good at this kind of thing, Flora.”

Mary, who had been looking at Flora like a younger sister who lacked dexterity despite being taught several times, grinned.

Mary was quite friendly, so after introducing themselves two weeks ago, she often called Flora by name like this and took care of her. Although Flora, who had no social skills to begin with, felt uncomfortable even when she refused, it was the same every time.

“Thank you, but I’ll do it myself from now on.”

“Alright.”

Despite the tone that sounded cold enough to be harsh, Mary smiled broadly without seeming hurt. There was no one in this place who didn’t know that the new maid had a blunt personality.

Meanwhile, warm soup and freshly baked bread were placed on the table.

“Come on, eat up well. There’s a lot of work to do today.”

Chef Michael brought out the food, showing off. Then, seeing Flora sitting quietly, he added a word.

“I thought you’d be sulking after being kicked out of the kitchen, but you look fine.”

“I don’t blame you, Chef.”

“What nonsense is that! After causing such a ruckus, I should be the one blaming you. Right?”

Michael retorted with an incredulous face, but the new maid, who showed no change in expression today as well, only maintained a calm countenance.

Two weeks ago, her work suddenly changed from chopping firewood, which she had been doing well, to kitchen work.

Harriet, who didn’t like even running into her wandering around the mansion, sent her to the kitchen, telling her to do the dishes to her heart’s content.

However, it wasn’t calculated that Flora had never even properly seen a precious teacup in her life, let alone cooked. Handling delicate dishes that needed to be treated sensitively with her rough hands, she caused accidents every day.

If it was just dropping them by mistake, it would be understandable. Originally, expensive dishes should be handled very carefully, but whether she lacked that concept altogether, she had already crushed several wine glasses with the strength of her own hand.

The chef, who looked at Flora wondering where they brought such a person from, had no choice but to assign her to be in charge of ingredients.

But there was another problem here too. Somehow, this woman didn’t even know the names of basic ingredients and spent all day with a blank face.

At least she was decent at knife skills, so he asked her to dice the ingredients for the casserole that would be served at the formal dinner, but even that was chopped up finely like minced seasoning.

Unable to bear the effort of having to explain everything one by one, the chef finally threw up his hands and kicked Flora out just yesterday.

“That’s too much. Flora hasn’t been here long. She’s just clumsy because she’s new.”

Mary chimed in with a pouty face at Michael’s scolding.

“I barely stopped the butler from deducting it from her salary… and you say I’m too much?”

“What? He wanted her to compensate for breaking just a few teacups?”

Everyone nodded, saying it was absurd but something that stingy butler would do.

There was another stubborn person in this mansion no less than the strict Mrs Melady — Butler Deverik, who didn’t hesitate to cut the servants’ wages when property was damaged.

“It’s over thirty pieces. And all expensive ones at that.”

Hup. Mary’s eyes widened in surprise as she slightly covered her mouth with one hand, then cleared her throat and tried to look nonchalant.

“Still, that’s too much. Both the butler and the chef.”

“…I apologize for that.”

A low voice interjected between Mary, who was pouting and retorting that it was too harsh, and the chef.

Flora, who had bowed her head, came into Michael’s angry eyes. Somehow, her apologetic face seemed lukewarm.

But he too had already experienced over the past two weeks that the new maid was extremely blunt.

Thinking that she might not be good at work, but her character wasn’t that bad, the chef, feeling a bit embarrassed, pushed the soup towards her.

“Well… It’s not a big deal if you can’t do kitchen work, so don’t feel too down about it.”

“Flora, don’t worry about it. The butler is just a bit of a stickler for rules, you know.”

With Mary winking and patting Flora’s shoulder, the conversation came to an end. The talk then moved on to other topics, and soon the usual bustling chatter began.

Flora lowered her gaze, holding the shiny silver knife and fork in her hands. Eating together was always uncomfortable.

All sorts of conversations were exchanged over the servants’ dining table, but they were all things she didn’t know about. Most were about the latest fashionable dresses, someone’s news, or gossip.

Having no interest in such talk, she quietly ate her food. She couldn’t understand why they cared about appearances in a world where one might die at any moment.

The laughter and chatter stopped abruptly when she had almost finished her meal.

Raising her head at the sudden silence, she saw everyone looking at her with pity, having stopped mid-conversation. The most experienced woman among them gently pushed the bread basket in the middle of the table towards Flora.

“Would you like some more? We have plenty of food, so eat slowly.”

“No, thank you. I’m fine.”

“But you’re so thin, how can you work properly? Here, have some meat too.”

“I’m really fine. I’ve had enough.”

Flora put down the spoon she was holding with a clatter and answered, moving her chin slightly.

She didn’t understand why they were suddenly so eager to give her more food, but she had already eaten an appropriate amount. She hadn’t noticed that everyone had become concerned after seeing her, like in the blink of an eye, inhale the food as soon as she sat down.

“Then what work should I do?”

Flora stood up from her chair and took a step back with a stiff posture. The maids looked at her enviously for her upright posture and graceful figure.

“I think the head maid will…”

“The work you need to do today is prepared in the backyard of the annex, so you’ll know when you go there.”

The answer to the sudden question came from the woman in the middle of the three women who had just entered.

Flora had roughly grasped the hierarchy of the servants as soon as she arrived here. With her keen observation skills, it wasn’t difficult for her to remember the faces and names of the people working here.

The one who answered was Celine, who always walked around with her chin held high.

“I’m not sure if you’ll be able to do it properly, given how unsatisfactory your work has been so far…”

“I wonder if she’ll turn the bedding into rags this time.”

The other maids who always followed Celine chimed in, giggling behind her as she added a remark.

“Well… Flora is still unfamiliar with this place.”

“Mary, you seem to have gotten quite friendly with the lowest-ranking maid? Seeing how you can’t distinguish where to butt in and where not to.”

Celine’s eyes sharpened, seemingly thinking Mary was taking Flora’s side.

An awkward atmosphere descended on what had been a cozy breakfast.

Celine, who always acted ingratiating towards the head maid, behaved exactly like a fox without a lion when the lady was not around. Acting as if she was something special, she manipulated and bullied the other maids, making everyone wary of her.

Seeing Mary’s face turn uncomfortable, Flora raised her head and met Celine’s gaze.

“Is this work really ordered by the head maid?”

“You’re speaking strangely. Are you implying that I might be lying?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“We’re on our way back from meeting the head maid. She said that even if you can’t do kitchen work, you should at least be able to do laundry. Hah!”