# 57
57. The Maid Left Alone (1)
Hot. It's hot. It was a fierce heat, enough to scorch my skin. Standing in front of it, my entire body was drenched in sweat. I wiped the sweat with a towel and shoveled away the ash. Sweat drops rolling down my forehead pattered onto my face. My vision kept blurring. The sweat soaking my palms made the shovel constantly slip.
I was gripping the shovel handle firmly and scooping ash when someone called out to me.
“Hey, ugly.”
“…….”
“Hey. Hey.”
When I didn't reply, he tapped my shoulder with his fingertips. I ignored him, making my annoyance obvious. Then, perhaps feeling offended, he brought his face even closer.
“Hey! Are you listening to me?”
It seemed he would keep being a nuisance if I didn't acknowledge him, so I finally sighed and stood up. I thrust the shovel deep into the ash pile and stood askance. As I faced him directly, the man flinched and shrank back. I looked at him indifferently and parted my lips.
“What.”
“D-Did you talk to her?”
“About what.”
“If she thinks about me. I asked you last time!”
Ah, that. I recalled him constantly badgering me to introduce him since last time. I dug my finger in my ear and flicked it.
“Yeah. She said she doesn't like you.”
“W-Why?”
The man looked as if he'd taken a blow, his face crumpling into a cry. Why? Isn't it obvious. I shrugged and picked up the shovel again. Then the man grabbed my arm, asking why she rejected him.
“Because you're a beggar.”
“What?”
“She hates you because you're a beggar. She likes gold coins. Can you fill her arms with gold?”
“O-Of course I can!”
“Stop spouting nonsense and give up. I'm saying this for your own good.”
Seeing as he was working a job like this, let alone gold coins, even silver would be a stretch. Even with a day's wages, it was hard to afford a proper meal. Besides, he wouldn't be able to handle her personality.
I shook off his grip and resumed shoveling the ash. The man stood frozen with a dazed look. Was it really that shocking? No, she never even gave him a glance. He fell for her on his own and deluded himself.
But it wasn't my concern. As I focused on scooping the ash again, the man, having come to his senses, suddenly pointed at me.
“Y-You, don't lie!”
“I'm not lying.”
“You are lying! You're trying to drive a wedge between her and me!”
“Are you crazy?”
He must have finally lost his mind in this sweltering heat. Who's doing what? I scoffed as if I'd heard the funniest joke in the world. However, the man was filled with conviction.
“Y-You, you like me!”
“You're insane. I'm already having a hard enough time without you adding to it, so get lost.”
“You like me! That's why you're acting like this!”
“Do you want to get hit with this shovel?”
I drove the shovel back into the ash pile with a thwack and glared at him. Sweat-soaked hair clung messily to my face. Sensing my threatening aura, the man flinched again, but he didn't back down.
“You think I'd like someone like you? As if an ugly wretch like you has eyes for such things. Hey, covet what you can actually covet. She's a hundred times prettier and a hundred times more lovable than you. I like her, there's no one else for me. Got it?”
“I don't know about all that, but I do know one thing for sure.”
Having listened to his drivel patiently, I grabbed the shovel stuck in the ash pile with both hands. I gave it a shake to dust off the ash, then looked at the man.
“That you're about to get hit with this.”
“What?”
“Come here, you son of a bitch!”
If he insisted on picking a fight, I had no reason to back down. I swung the shovel at the horrified man.
“What happened to you?”
“What do you mean, me.”
Wiping my ash-stained, dirty cheek, I glanced at Alicia. After making a ruckus shoveling the ash, my entire body had become covered in soot. The stinging gazes of the people who followed me all the way home made it so I could well imagine my state without even looking.
Alicia scanned me up and down and frowned.
“Dirty. Go wash up quickly.”
“I will.”
I placed what I was holding on the dining table. Alicia scurried over and unwrapped the paper bundle. But upon checking the contents, she fiercely contorted her face and shot me a glare.
“How am I supposed to eat this!”
“What's wrong with eating it? It's already more than you deserve, so just eat it.”
She should be grateful for even that, but she complains again. I was too exhausted from running around with a shovel today to have the energy to deal with Alicia's whining.
Just as I was pressing my tired eyes and turning to go wash, something flew at the back of my head, smacked into it, and dropped to the floor. It was the bread I had bought with today's wages.
As I grabbed the back of my head and looked at the fallen bread, I turned around to see Alicia fuming and glaring at me.
“How am I supposed to eat this trash! How, I ask!”
“…….”
She's doing that again. A sigh escaped me. I bent down, picked up the fallen bread, and dusted it off.
“D-Did you just sigh?”
“Because you're throwing a tantrum over food like a child.”
“A child? Are you saying my behavior is like a child?”
“That's right.”
“Hey!”
“What.”
I calmly met her fierce gaze. She was the one who needed it, anyway. I had no intention of buying new food, nor did I have the wages to do so. In this situation, I was just thankful I could eat this hard, tasteless bread.
“If you don't want to eat it, don't. I'll eat it.”
“…….”
“If you hate it that much, go earn your own food.”
The fewer people eating the food, the better. I put the bread back on the table and took off my hat. After untying the cloth wrapping my head, I examined my face in the cracked mirror on the wall. My already dark skin looked even darker smeared with ash. Even when I wiped it with the cloth, it wouldn't come off easily.
Just then, something flew from behind me and hit the wall. It was the bread I had just put back on the table. Immediately after, something else flew sideways, hit the wall, and shattered. It was the tableware I had brought back last time.
As I stared blankly at the shattered plate, objects continued to fly, hitting the wall and the back of my head. Aaaagh! A scream erupted as well. Alicia had started throwing whatever she could get her hands on.
Reacting would only make things more troublesome for me, so I didn't even give Alicia a glance. As I kept examining my face in the mirror, my head was suddenly yanked backward. The mirror reflected Alicia, full of venom, grabbing the back of my head and shaking it. It was so sudden I couldn't even scream.
“You wicked bitch!”
“Let go.”
“You think I'll let go? Just watch while you treat me like a dog! I'm going to properly seduce some nobleman and change my fate. When that happens, I won't even care about the likes of you!”
“Do whatever you want. Just let go of my hair.”
“I won't!”
“Fine.”
I immediately lunged at Alicia too. I grabbed a fistful of that beautiful hair and yanked it out. Alicia let out a sharp scream, but I didn't care. It hurt as if my scalp was being torn off, but I paid her back just as much.
“Aagh! Let go! I said let go!”
“You let go!”
Let go! I won't! After a fierce struggle grabbing each other's hair, Alicia let go first. Seeing Alicia flop onto the floor, I finally stepped back too.
Both of our hair was disheveled. My hands were full of Alicia's long hair like a tuft of fur. Alicia glanced at it and grabbed her own hair.
“Sob, my hair!”
I threw the hair in my hand onto the floor. Watching it fall in a cascade, I smoothed my own hair. The tangled hair caught in the joints of my fingers.
Then, my fingertips brushed against something precariously hanging to one side. Fumbling to untie it, it was a hair ribbon, stained with ash and having lost its original color long ago.
Ah, I let out a short gasp and quickly brushed the ash off. The embroidered flower pattern at the end caught my eye. I stared blankly at it before snapping out of it from Alicia's shriek.
“What are you going to do about my hair!”
“What are you going to do about mine?”
“Is my hair the same as yours? Do you know how much effort went into this!”
“You won't be able to put any more effort into it now, so cut it off while you're at it. Sell it at the market.”
“You wicked bitch! This happened because of you! It's all your fault, so how can you be so shameless? You jinxed bitch!”
“Like father, like daughter, I suppose.”
A child born from a demon spawn couldn't possibly be normal. I shrugged, and Alicia suddenly burst into tears. I don't know what she found so grievous, but she wept, snot and tears running down her face.
“Waaah—I don't need any of this! I should have just died!”
“I'll hope for a good outcome even now.”
At that, a sharp gaze pierced me. I pretended not to notice and looked into the mirror. I started to wipe the ash again, then stopped and threw the cloth down. I was exhausted and my irritation was rising. Behind me, Alicia was crying sorrowfully again. Seeing her cry like that, she must still have the strength to live.
But right now, I didn't want to hear that sound either. As I scratched my head vigorously and turned around, Alicia glared at me as if she had been waiting for it.
“Just you wait! I'll snag a noble or royal later and raise my status! Hic, I'm going to quit this pathetic life and leave! Even if you try to get on my good side then, it'll be useless!”
“You seem to be misunderstanding something.”
I slowly scanned the house. A shabby, old house with cracks here and there and a roof that leaked when it rained. A house where we had to shovel the snow off the roof when it snowed, fearing it would collapse. A house that felt like freezing to death in the winter and roasting to death in the summer. A house where we had to flinch at even a little wind because it felt like the whole place was shaking.
But even if it's a house like this, it lets me breathe like this, lets me live to see tomorrow. It was the only place that protected me from death.
“The life of a noble isn't just beautiful. Sometimes it's more hellish than you can imagine. A day will come when you'll think it was happier living in a shabby, old, and poor house like this.”
“What? How would you know?”
“Because I do know.”
After looking around the house once more, I fixed my gaze back on Alicia. Alicia furrowed her brows. At her face asking what I meant, I just shrugged.
* * *
The day I came across news of them again was when I happened to pick up a newspaper lying on the street. The large printed photo and the text written below it marked the end of their story.
[Count James Christopher Arrested on Murder Charges]
Only then did it truly sink in that I was just a person who briefly appeared in their story.
That day, with Ethan's help, I arrived at a village and stayed hidden for a while. The village was quite large, with many residents, and it wasn't a place that paid much attention to outsiders. Perhaps this too was his intention. Thanks to that, I was able to hide there without much difficulty.
The pouch Isabella handed me before we parted contained gold coins. I managed to pay for room and board with it for a while, but within a few days, I was pickpocketed and lost it all. Even the luggage I had was taken by beggars, and ultimately, all that was left was my worthless body.
Reduced to a beggar in an instant, I wandered the streets, and the inability to eat properly gradually brought me closer to death. I think I might have mocked myself, wondering how my life could never be smooth even for a single moment.
Then, what suddenly came to mind was my father and the third child in Filton.