66. The Strange Count's Family's Paula (4)
I finished wiping the windows and washed the rag in the water from the iron bucket. The water was already dirty. I lifted the bucket's handle to go fetch fresh water.
While walking down the hallway, I ran into Johnny. I frowned as soon as I saw his face. He looked exhausted, with dark circles under his eyes like someone who hadn't slept in days.
"You look tired?"
"Is it that bad?"
Johnny felt his own face.
"Yeah. Something happen?"
"Just, well, work has been tough."
He forced a smile as he said that. Seems like he's going through a lot of emotional stress.
"How are things with Alicia?"
"Not bad. These days she even responds when I talk to her!"
Johnny beamed. Life suddenly returned to his exhausted face.
Before coming to the Count's household, Alicia would only smile when Johnny talked to her, not even bothering to reply. To Johnny, it might have looked like an affectionate smile, but Alicia had no desire to converse with him. She thought that if she responded, he'd get his hopes up for nothing.
When I was removed from Joelly's charge and Alicia took over, Johnny got an 'opportunity.'
Recently, Alicia found out that Johnny was the scruffy guy who had a crush on her. I told her. She was absolutely horrified when she heard it. Anyway, since then, her fondness for Johnny seems to have increased somewhat, and she started responding to him subtly.
'Ah, hello. Alicia.'
'Yeah. Hello.'
I happened to see the two of them talking the other day. Her voice was curt, but Alicia smiled with her eyes curving slightly. Johnny stared at her face so intensely it looked like he was trying to burn a hole through it. Anyone watching would have mistaken them for a couple just starting to date. Knowing the backstory, I was so dumbfounded I was speechless. The obvious power dynamic between them was just too pitiful.
Well, knowing the hidden circumstances wouldn't do any good anyway. Sometimes secrets are more beautiful left as secrets.
"Take this opportunity to get close to Alicia."
"W-w-what are you talking about. How could I?"
Why is he so startled? Anyone would think I told him to confess.
"Just talk to her a lot. How long are you going to suffer alone? You seize opportunities when they come. If you miss this one, when will you get another chance to be alone together. Right?"
"That's true, but..."
"This could be your last chance."
"Last chance...?"
Johnny murmured those words with a dazed expression. I raised both my clenched fists. As if encouraged by my cheer, Johnny nodded with renewed determination.
"Well, give it your best shot."
After giving him some decent comfort, I parted ways with Johnny.
I was walking down the hallway again, just past the corner. A woman and a man were standing in the middle of the hallway. They were looking up with anxious expressions, stamping their feet. Urgent voices burst out in unison.
"Please! Come down!"
"It's dangerous!"
"Yes, it's dangerous!"
"Yes, it's dangerous so you need to come down!"
Wondering what was going on, my gaze heading in that direction naturally turned upward as well. In an instant, something flew past me and hit the wall with a whoosh. Startled, I looked to the side, and with a thud, something crashed down and rolled across the floor before stopping at my feet.
A horse? I picked it up and checked—it was a wooden figurine shaped like a horse. Where did this fly from?
When I looked ahead again, I could see the situation more clearly this time. Across from the two people was a large iron horse statue, and someone was sitting on top of it.
As the person sitting on it shifted their body, the iron horse statue wobbled. The man grabbed the statue in terror. His face was pale. The woman was screaming and looked about to burst into tears. Only the feet dangling below the statue's saddle kicked playfully.
But those feet were really... small.
"Kyahaha!"
Soon after, a cheerful laugh burst out. I approached with slow steps. The small feet kicked the horse's body, then bounced up and down on the saddle. Golden hair briefly appeared and disappeared.
"Please come down! Huh?"
"My heart is dropping! Please!"
"Yeehaw! Yeehaw! Haha!"
Wondering what on earth was happening, I approached closer, and that's when I saw the small feet tilting to the side. The moment I realized it, I threw aside the iron bucket and ran toward them. A small body popped out from the left. By the time the man, belatedly catching on, spread his arms, I had already caught the falling small body in my arms and slid across the floor.
A sharp scream rang out immediately after. Sliding on the floor, I crashed into the iron horse statue. With a thud, my vision flashed.
"Ahhh! Young Master!"
"Oh no! Are you alright!"
The screaming man and woman rushed toward me. By then, I was lying on the floor groaning in pain. It hurt enough to make me cry. As I was groaning, I felt something near my stomach wiggling and sitting up.
Only then did I awkwardly raise my upper body to examine who I had caught. But there was a young child nestled in my arms. A boy who looked about four years old. With disheveled short blonde hair and violet eyes, the child stared at me blankly.
Who's this?
"Young Master, are you alright?"
"How is your body?"
The two adults checked the condition of the child in my arms. Only then did I realize they were servants.
But Young Master? I was flustered by this unfamiliar presence, but the child kept his gaze fixed on me.
Then the child's head tilted to the side. His plump red lips moved.
"Who are you?"
That's what I want to ask. Who are you?
"Young Master, please come down first. Even if she's a servant, it's rude to sit on a woman's body like that."
At the man's signal, the woman took the child's body and lifted him off my stomach. Only then could I sit up properly. A sudden coughing fit erupted. My chest and stomach stung—probably from the impact of wrapping my body around the child as I fell.
"Are you alright?"
"Yes. I'm fine."
The man extended his hand to me. I took it and stood up. I straightened my rumpled clothes and coughed again. Standing up, I realized the back of my head was throbbing, and my back especially hurt. The impact from the fall must have been significant, as delayed pain washed over me.
As I was feeling my back, the man spoke with a worried expression.
"Just in case, I think it would be best to get examined."
"I'm fine, so I think it would be better to check on this one's condition first. I did catch him, but he might have still taken some impact."
I didn't know who the child in front of me was, but since they called him Young Master, he was at least a noble. So I added politely, and the man nodded.
By then, the child's clear eyes were still fixed on me. Then he tugged at the woman's skirt beside him and called her nanny.
"Who is she?"
"Well. She's someone I'm seeing for the first time too."
The woman's gaze was also fixed on me. She had an apologetic face.
I waved my hand that was feeling my back and shook my head to indicate I was fine. Then I realized my hand was empty. I quickly looked around. Beyond the woman's shoulder, I could see the iron bucket I had thrown earlier lying on its side. And the dirty water that had thoroughly soaked the area around it.
"Ugh."
By the time I got there, the water had already been spilled. I lifted the overturned bucket and surveyed the wet floor. A sigh escaped me.
"Oh my, what should we do. I'll help you."
The woman said as she looked at the spilled water on the floor.
"It's fine. I'm the one who threw it."
I crouched down and wiped the floor with the rag, then wrung the water into the bucket. As I repeated the process of wiping the floor and wringing into the bucket, the woman insisted on helping and wiped the floor water with her skirt. I stopped her, telling her not to. The quick-witted man said he'd fetch more rags and ran down the hallway.
I eventually surrendered to the woman's insistence on helping and was wiping the floor again when suddenly a small foot stomped into view, pressing down hard on the end of the rag. When I looked up, the child was glaring at me with a pouty face.
"You're ugly."
What?
I froze, wondering what kind of sudden insult this was, when a small hand pointed right at me.
"You're ugly! Ugly! You're ugly!"
"Y-Young Master."
The woman looked at the child with a troubled expression. I pondered what I had just heard. But as if to dismiss my confusion, the child continued.
"Ugly, who are you?"
"Y-Young Master, why are you being like this. Please stop."
"I asked who you are!"
He said that while pressing down even harder on the rag. Each time, the dirty water splashed and soaked my hands.
I was so shocked I couldn't answer right away. I still couldn't fully process what this little brat was saying. Calling me ugly just like that? Did I hear that right?
The woman tried to stop the child in panic, but it was no use. When I didn't answer, the child seemed to get more stubborn and shouted even louder, asking who I was. He had no intention of backing down until he got an answer. Then the child stuck out his pouty lips.
"It's an order!"
"Young Master!"
I didn't know who the child was, but I knew this much.
A bratty, arrogant, obnoxious little kid!
Once I figured out the child's disposition, my mind rapidly calmed down. Right, that's how it is. Getting worked up and flustered is for immature people. I was a pro at dealing with obnoxious people. Besides, I had experienced worse situations. With a man who was even brattier, even more arrogant, and even more obnoxious than this child.
"Young Master, please stop that and move your foot..."
"Young Master."
I calmly opened my mouth. The child's eyes sparkled as if he had been waiting. The nanny looked at me in panic.
"Even though my status may be lowly, I do know manners. If you want to know who someone is, it's proper etiquette to introduce yourself first."
I explained word by word clearly so the child could understand. The child just blinked his eyes. He seemed to be thinking about what my words meant. Only the woman, who had understood properly, didn't know what to do.
"Order, must follow!"
Even though he didn't fully understand what I meant, he seemed to feel something was off, and the child shouted. The child had an excellent ability to construct sentences, but his pronunciation was so inaccurate that even when he shouted, it was just cute. There was no dignity to it at all.
"Unfortunately, I have no answer for that order. I kindly ask you to withdraw that order. And that foot too!"
I grabbed the end of the rag trapped under the child's foot and shook it. It was meant to tell him to move his foot, but it didn't seem to get through to him as he didn't budge. Just as I was about to carefully pull the rag out from under his foot, a small hand suddenly shoved my shoulder hard.
I ended up falling flat on my bottom on the floor. At the same time, there was a splash. When I looked up, the child was face-down on the floor. As my body fell backward, the rag had slipped out abruptly, causing the child to lose his balance and fall forward.
The woman hurriedly scooped up the child, but his face and the front of his clothes were already completely soaked with water.
The child's face crumpled into an expression about to cry. Tears welled up in his large eyes, looking like they would spill over any moment. Not knowing what to do, the woman pressed her skirt against the child's wet face.
I told you to move your foot. I panicked and stood up. The man who had gone to get more rags still hadn't returned, and I felt like I shouldn't stay here any longer.
"T-to wipe up all this water, this small rag is far from enough. I need to get a larger mop. Please leave it."
I babbled as I turned around immediately. A loud wail burst out behind my back as I ran.
"Waaaaah!"
Naturally, I didn't look back.
Actually, I was running away.
He clearly looked like a young master from a noble family, and I belatedly worried I might be punished for making him cry. So I dawdled in getting a new rag from the kitchen. When I returned, fortunately, neither the child nor the woman was there.
Even as I finished wiping up the spilled dirty water, I still felt unsettled. Should I find the child and apologize for making him cry and running away? But I didn't know who he was, and I didn't want to go looking for him and cause more trouble. It wasn't a pleasant encounter, after all.
After wiping up all the dirty water, I patted my throbbing back and went to get fresh water for the bucket. And soon forgot about that day's events.
However, it didn't take long to meet that obnoxious little kid again. While cleaning my area as usual, I was called by Audrey and went to Joelly's room.
"This is my nephew. He'll be staying with us for a while."
Beside Joelly stood a small child with a familiar face. That face with short blonde hair and a mischievous expression was impossible to forget even if I tried. Violet eyes sparkled as they looked at me. I fell silent before him.
"This child was talking about you. Saying he definitely wanted to meet you."
I'm doomed. I forcibly suppressed the urge to bolt from the room. But I was ready to run if necessary.
"Who are you."
"Robert, you should greet her first."
"Hello. Who are you?"
The child clearly remembered who I was. He also seemed to understand very well what kind of situation this was.
"...I'm Ann."
The child, Robert, who finally heard my introduction, smiled happily. Of course, it wasn't a genuine smile at all.
"From now on, Ann will assist the nanny and attend to Robert."
"Me?"
"Yes."
"Are you talking about me?"
"Yes. Ann."
Joelly smiled radiantly. Beside her, Robert smiled even more happily. Behind them, the nanny forced a smile and sent me a sympathetic look. Alicia, who was attending to Joelly, kept glancing at me with a displeased expression.
"Please take care of me."
Amidst all that, I just wanted to cry.