To My Arrogant Master - Chapter 9

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“Damn… I’m tired.”

Claude, who had returned to the mansion after being held up at the imperial palace for about two weeks, threw his heavy formal uniform behind him while furrowing his brow as much as possible.

Harriet, who caught it just in time, marveled at the emblems on what looked like expensive fabric before carefully folding it over her arm.

“Did His Majesty assign you some useless task again?”

“That young lad told me there’s no need to return to the southern front, so I should come and stay at the imperial palace.”

“What? No, you’re not some imperial guard for the emperor. This isn’t just being immature, it’s practically uneducated, isn’t it? My, where did he throw away his manners towards the nobility…”

Since there were no ears to listen to their conversion, Claude gladly listened to his aide’s disparaging remarks about the emperor. After all, he too had been tormented by that emperor for two weeks, so how could he not enjoy his subordinate’s curses?

Claude’s eyes, which hadn’t even been able to get proper sleep, let alone a good night’s rest, for two weeks, were so bloodshot that fine capillaries were visible.

He often couldn’t sleep even at the mansion, so it wasn’t much different at the imperial palace.

Even without that, for about half a year after the end of the war, he had been so busy that having two bodies wouldn’t have been enough. Because they had lost the war, he had to deal with the aftermath that came like a storm.

It took several months just to assess the damage, and after coaxing the nobles to reorganize the lands devastated by the war, now that young emperor was the problem.

Claude glanced at Harriet, who was grumbling that the emperor should have visited the battlefield at least once.

“By the way, how is that woman doing? I didn’t see her when I came in earlier.”

The duke, who had pushed back the hair that had fallen onto his forehead, suddenly asked about Flora’s recent situation as if he had just remembered. He had put her out of his mind since that day, but seeing his grumbling aide suddenly reminded him.

“Ah, you mean that murderer?”

“She’s not still carrying around an axe or something, is she?”

When he asked with a stern face, as if he might throw the aide out of the carriage again like two weeks ago, Harriet shook his head, startled.

“No, my lord. I told the head maid right away that day to give her maid work. But why are you so interested? You’re someone who doesn’t usually care about others at all.”

“I brought her here, didn’t I?”

Claude chuckled as he reflexively responded to his subordinate’s grumbling about the unsatisfactory human treatment.

The reason the emperor had summoned him this time was unexpected.

‘Duke Heinst, about that… woman.’

After hesitating for a while as if he was about to speak, the topic he finally brought up was about that woman.

As it turned out, the emperor had intended to entrust that woman called Flora to Marquis Sternbrow. He had called Claude because he was curious about why he had taken the woman he thought no one would want.

A woman who was both an object of hatred for the imperial citizens and at the same time received great interest from the emperor…

Whatever the inside story was, Claude was satisfied with his choice. The face of Marquis Sternbrow, who was present there, was also worth seeing.

Claude, clearing away his thoughts, looked with annoyed eyes at the pile of party invitations stacked high on his desk in his absence, then averted his gaze.

“She might have been a bit upset about being given maid work. I’m curious about what she’s doing now.”

“Your Grace, I think I need to say something after all. I’ve served you for nearly 20 years now.”

“Ha. You’ve been assisting me since you were 8?”

“Even when Your Grace beat me up in every sword practice, I endured, admiring how your skills improved day by day.”

“Speak properly. You kept losing to someone a year younger than you, so you desperately tried to catch up.”

That’s right. How much understanding of his lord could an 8-year-old child have when pushed by his father to be a companion to the young master?

Stung by the truth, Harriet flinched but decided to push on shamelessly.

“Your Grace, you don’t appreciate my loyalty enough. Because of whom did I train to death…”

“I don’t particularly want to know… Just finish what you were saying.”

Knowing that this was the excuse Harriet always used when he wanted to express his opinion, Claude dismissed it, telling him to get to the point.

Showing a hurt expression but pouting at his indifferent master, Harriet said,

“I still don’t like that woman being here. Who knows? She might suddenly go crazy while asleep and start rampaging with a knife.”

“If you’re losing sleep because you’re afraid of that, you’re the foolish one.”

Claude retorted to his subordinate’s words while burying his back in the soft chair. After pretending to be solemn and attentive and doing all sorts of pretending at the imperial palace, even Harriet’s complaints were quite enjoyable.

“Who said I’m afraid? I sleep very well.”

“Then there’s no problem, is there? It would have been the same if I had brought someone else.”

As Claude habitually pulled out a cigar from the drawer, indifferently responding regardless of whether his subordinate’s face was turning red or blue, Harriet let out a strange interjection, “Uh…”

“I was actually going to mention that… Do you think a woman who has been killing people for 8 years will turn into a docile maid just by doing some housework for a few days?”

“…It won’t be easy.”

“Right? It’s impossible. Haven’t all those who have been through war gone a little mad?”

“Unfortunately… I have no rebuttal.”

Claude took a deep breath. Somehow excited by his easy agreement, Harriet brought up his main point.

“So let’s send her back. Make an excuse that it’s difficult to keep her and send her to another noble house. You said initially that you were just pretending and had no intention of actually hiring anyone, right?”

“That’s certainly what I said then. But… Harriet.”

Claude, with his eyes lowered languidly, habitually chewed on the cigar between his teeth.

“I feel like I’m forgetting something.”

He smiled, twisting the corners of his mouth, and took another deep drag on the cigar. The hazy smoke he exhaled after rolling it on his tongue spread thickly in the room.

“…Pardon?”

“I’m not exactly sane either, you know.”

With those words, he let out a self-deprecating laugh. Then, as if he had drunk a bitter drink, wrinkles appeared on Claude’s straight forehead.

“You and I both fought in that war. You haven’t forgotten what I did, have you?”

Harriet couldn’t continue speaking.

Being present at the scene that day, he couldn’t help but know what his lord was recalling now. The memories of the horrific battlefield were the cause of his master’s severe insomnia.

‘You stupid fool. Why did you make a slip of the tongue here?’

In the heavily sunken atmosphere, he imagined hitting his own head hard inwardly and carefully tried to change the subject.

“Actually…”

Harriet, who was about to say that Flora had been kicked out of the kitchen for doing a terrible job, closed his mouth when the duke waved his hand.

Harriet turned his head towards the window, following the duke’s gaze who had just sat at his office desk. Looking carefully, a thin thread like a horse’s tail was swaying gently above the window frame.

Something like the fine thread of fabric used to make dresses… The shimmering appearance reflecting light somewhere seemed familiar.

“A bird?”

Before Harriet could confirm, Claude stood up abruptly and walked with his long legs to fling open the window in one swift motion.

“……!”

As he gripped the window frame with both hands and raised his head, Claude unconsciously held his breath.

Following the clear forehead above the hair spilled onto the ground, their eyes met. The woman with an absurd appearance opened her eyes wide.

Her eyes, with the cloudless sky behind her, were incredibly blue. For a moment, he thought the world had stopped.

After staring for a while, he only came to his senses when he heard a strange “Huh!” sound from behind.

“Ha…”

Only then did he properly recognize the situation and let out an exasperated sigh.

What had been flickering beyond the window was Flora’s hair.

More precisely, she was not in a normal posture with her feet on the ground, but hanging upside down, making eye contact with him.

“…Duke?”

The woman, who seemed equally surprised, blinked her large eyes, but in terms of bewilderment, he was no less so.

As he tilted his head slightly, he saw that she was hanging upside down with her legs hooked over a support on the roof side, holding a dry cloth. Of course, there was no rope or anything else that should have been on her body.

Claude’s smooth forehead furrowed deeply.

“I told you to do maid work. I don’t remember telling you to hang from the roof like a monkey.”

There was no such thing in the work he had assigned. Since when did maid work involve climbing onto the roof like that?

As surprised as he was, the duke’s voice rose.

“Are you in your right mind? Come down immediately, it would be troublesome if you fall.”

“I won’t fall.”

The woman who had been staring blankly at him answered calmly as if she was hearing something strange.

“Are you confident?”

“Yes. If I had made a mistake, I wouldn’t be here right now.”

The woman, who he thought would immediately follow his order, was stubborn instead of coming down. Rather, unlike her taciturn first impression last time, she answered without hesitation.

Suddenly feeling his throat dry, Claude continued, seemingly trying to calm his somewhat bewildered state.

“Why would a maid have any reason to hang from the roof in the first place?”

“I’m currently cleaning the windows as per the head maid’s orders.”

“The head maid said that?”

In his common sense, there was no way to climb onto the roof to clean windows. Claude clicked his tongue and ordered Harriet to call the head maid immediately.

Meanwhile, Flora continued to clean the window in that upside-down hanging position.

He sat on the window sill with his arms crossed, as if to see how far she would go. He intended to just watch what she was doing, but she was absorbed in wiping without paying any attention to him.

They say that when something is too absurd, it makes you laugh. Claude was so perplexed that he couldn’t even recognize what his own feelings were.

For him, who had been imagining a face that would grumble about being dissatisfied with working as a maid, it was utterly bewildering to see a woman cleaning so diligently with all her heart and soul.

Claude stared at the woman who showed no signs of coming down for quite a long time. Her flushed cheeks and the heated skin of her neck caught his gaze.