7.
“Uh, oh!”
One of the servants, who had been coming in with a sack of wheat on his shoulder, wobbled and pitched forward.
The mouth of the sack came undone as it hit the floor, and wheat spilled out.
“Are you all right?”
Julie quickly helped the servant up first.
The servant, whose palms had been scraped red, looked back with a face about to cry.
“What do we do?”
“Let’s get it upright first.”
The two of them worked together to stand the fallen sack back up.
After they carefully tied the opening so it would not come loose again, the sack they were struggling to hoist onto his shoulder was suddenly lifted straight up.
Left empty-handed, Julie and the servant looked up in bewilderment.
A dazzlingly handsome young man was standing beneath the sunlight.
With the sack resting lightly on his shoulder.
“Where should I carry this?”
The fact that his speech was so curt instinctively rubbed her the wrong way, which meant he was definitely younger than she was.
“……Over there.”
Still, Julie quietly pointed to the storehouse behind the mansion.
Then, with hawk-like eyes, she scrutinized the back of the handsome young man—no, the beautiful boy—as he walked away.
From his broad shoulders to his steady stride.
He was strong, and how had he developed so……
“Ahem, ahem.”
He did not look like someone suited to physical labor, yet the way he set the sack down in front of the storehouse and went to fetch the next one seemed quite practiced.
After moving the few remaining sacks in no time, the beautiful boy dusted off his hands.
“Should I move those too?”
“Those go to the kitchen.”
He nodded lightly, then filled both hands with groceries and strode off.
Even without being told where the kitchen was, he seemed to have noted it earlier while going back and forth to the storehouse.
Sharp eyes, too.
Julie, who had been on the verge of letting him pass her exacting internal judgment, suddenly lifted her head.
Why isn’t he coming back?
She hurried around the mansion toward the kitchen.
The beautiful boy in question was standing beneath a great tree.
His head tilted as though he were looking at something.
A sudden chill ran through Julie’s chest.
Because she had a very good idea who was likely to be sprawled out asleep there.
“Lady Asha!”
She immediately flung aside the fruit basket she had been carrying and ran over.
To think she had let her guard down when a stranger had come all the way inside the mansion.
Four years had already passed, so perhaps it would be fine now—without realizing it, she had grown complacent.
Even though she still remembered what they had suffered because of the ruffians who had stormed into the mansion back then!
“Lady Asha!”
Julie had gotten her hands on a rusty rake near the crumbling garden and was approaching with a huff when it happened.
“Jaka?”
Asha opened her eyes and called someone’s name in a voice heavy with sleep.
Then she took the hand the beautiful boy held out and rose to her feet.
Julie came to an abrupt halt.
It had become necessary to assess the situation.
“What brings you here?”
“I came looking for work.”
“Don’t tell me you were fired.”
“Let’s just say something like that happened.”
“Honestly, I can’t say I’m all that surprised.”
“……You’re not happy to see me?”
“I am.”
As she answered, Asha smiled leisurely.
Then the beautiful boy slowly reached out and plucked a leaf from Asha’s hair.
Julie finally saw it.
The way that beautiful boy’s expression melted softly, a smile brushing his lips.
“Who should I interview with?”
“You seem to have come well prepared.”
“Well, I’ve always been a ready talent.”
Where had that insolent face gone, the one that had looked annoyed by every breath he took just moments ago?
Now there was some purring cat……
Julie felt an uneasy stir in her chest at the unexpected scene before her.
What is that bastard?
Julie tossed the rake aside carelessly and approached at a brisk pace.
Asha noticed Julie and acknowledged her.
“Julie. This is the friend I told you about before. Jaka.”
After turning the name over a few times in her mind, something came back to her.
That attendant she had exchanged a few words with at the victory banquet?
But why would an imperial palace attendant come here?
When Julie swept him with an even more wary gaze, one corner of Jaka’s mouth lifted slightly.
There was absolutely nothing gentle about it.
Catching that subtle obnoxiousness, Julie said to Asha,
“So? It’s not as if we run a charity. We can’t just accept everyone who shows up.”
To be honest, they were in a situation where they would be grateful for anyone who came. There were hardly any applicants willing to work for this ill-reputed family.
Asha, who knew that better than anyone, blinked at the unexpected reaction.
Jaka opened his mouth.
“I’m different. The baron told me to come.”
“I did?”
Asha asked back, looking utterly confused.
As if he had honestly expected as much, Jaka looked at Asha without seeming particularly surprised.
“You don’t remember? You said you happened to be looking for one strong manservant, and I was perfect for it.”
“……I don’t remember, but that certainly does sound right.”
Under Julie’s sharp stare, Asha smiled shamelessly and shrugged.
“He’s skilled enough to work in the imperial palace, so of course we welcome him. Right, Julie?”
“Even so, he should be interviewed. Why don’t we decide after that, Lady Asha?”
“Naturally, I respect your opinion.”
Saying that, Asha turned her head and met Jaka’s eyes.
As she secretly mouthed—“She may say that, but she’ll definitely like you!”—Jaka looked down at her steadily, smiling.
Julie noticed and bit her lip.
‘Rejected.’
‘You are absolutely getting rejected.’
But unfortunately.
Jaka was a perfectly prepared talent for this impoverished mansion, which suffered from a shortage of capable people every year.
“You even know how to cook?”
The mansion’s sole cook, in a household not especially fond of eating, had his eyes shake as if feeling a sense of crisis for the first time since he had begun working there.
On top of that, his cleaning skills, boasting a neat finish that did not require going over the same spot twice, were enough to make one click one’s tongue in admiration.
The mansion’s sole cleaner coughed and, as if in competition, grabbed a wet rag and scrubbed the wall vigorously.
“……You don’t need to clean there.”
And at Julie’s remark, his shoulders slumped as he went back.
And above all else.
“……I knew your wall-climbing that day was no ordinary skill.”
Muttering as if to himself, Jaka even cleanly collected all the liquor bottles scattered around the attic railing and across the roof.
He was light on his feet and nimble, quick-witted, and above all, strong.
He could not even be compared to the coachman, who would accompany them on shopping trips only to be bedridden for the entire day afterward.
He even knew how to ride a horse.
Naturally, he could also drive a carriage.
But there was one flaw that offset all those merits.
He was far too handsome. Excessively so.
Of course, none of the servants in this mansion thought of that as a flaw. Only Julie remained on guard.
‘Lady Asha is weak to beauty!’
There was something arresting about the sight of him simply standing still beneath the sunlight, enough that even Julie lost herself staring for a moment.
That alone was already more than enough of a problem, but on top of that, whenever he looked at Lady Asha……
And when even warmth hovered in those pale, ash-gray eyes.
How radiant they became, as though a beauty from an unreal canvas had come to life.
Julie could state with confidence that at least eighty percent of the reason Lady Asha looked kindly upon that insolent wretch was due to their looks.
However, there was a clear limit to how unreasonable one could be.
In the end, Julie was won over by fragrant bedding, new snacks, and the efforts of the all-purpose porter.
And so, the mansion gained one new member of the household.
It was the first time in a full four years.
* * *
Zaka set down his luggage in the dark room and walked over to the window.
When he pulled the thick curtain halfway aside, he saw the crumbling garden right outside.
The fact that the woman named Julie did not like him did not particularly bother him.
In the end, she was only a servant of this mansion, and if Asha truly wanted it, she was in no position to oppose it to the very end.
And indeed, it had gone just as he had thought.
Though there had been a few bothersome matters.
Zaka dragged a chair to the window and sank deeply into it.
He stared at the shadow flickering by the window beyond the dimly glowing diagonal line of light.
It was Asha’s bedroom.
At that, a memory naturally came to mind.
That day, on the terrace.
‘But you still can’t see the garden very well from here.’
‘Do you like gardens?’
‘Yeah. Wouldn’t it be easier to see from somewhere high up?’
He should have sensed it from the moment Asha swayed as she sprang to her feet.
Asha immediately stepped hard onto the terrace railing, then climbed up onto a stone statue carved into the wall of the building.
Her decisiveness was as nimble as a flying squirrel’s.
‘What are you doing right now—no, just come down first!’
In an instant, Asha had climbed to a place beyond his reach.
Standing below with both arms stretched out, Zaka shouted in alarm for the first time in a very long while.
‘I’ll take you somewhere with a better view, how about that? So come down now!’
But Asha did not seem to hear Zaka’s proposal at all.
Asha stepped on the head of the raised stone statue and craned her neck far out.
‘Oh! I can see better from here.’
Though there was nowhere left to set her foot, she pushed the toe of her shoe into the window frame as if she were used to it, somehow managing to keep her balance.
As she even let go with one hand to shade her eyes, Asha staggered several times as though she might fall.
By that point, Zaka had no choice but to outright plead.
‘All right! I understand, it’s all my fault! I’m sorry! So please come down, please!’
Asha’s golden eyes, which had been gazing far into the distance for a long while, turned downward.
After staring blankly at Zaka, Asha suddenly smiled.
‘You said there was somewhere with a better view?’