Chapter 5
***
The room was neat and tidy.
It was much larger and brighter than the room she had occupied as a maid.
Matilda said expressionlessly.
"Please make yourself comfortable. If there's anything you need, don't hesitate to ask."
Lalit found herself staring blankly at Matilda, swallowing hard.
She hadn't even put down her luggage yet, lost in a slight pang of regret. It was inevitable, having returned to a place steeped in her past.
Matilda Meitzen. Now approaching sixty, a woman on the verge of retirement.
Though she was a housekeeper who had never shown her a shred of personal kindness, but to the young Lalit, she was the most trustworthy person in the world.
She was the one who brought her from that hellish house with her drunkard, gambler father to this paradise of a Duke's mansion.
The slow, deliberate words Matilda uttered when she first encountered the battered, staggering Lalit were still vivid.
"I will buy this child. What is the price?"
Usually, maids signed employment contracts.
But Matilda 'purchased' Lalit from her father. She received no wages, only lodging and meals, and was bound to work as a maid in the Duke's mansion without holidays for the rest of her life. In a way, it was a terribly unfair contract.
But her father rubbed his hands together and answered immediately.
"How much are you willing to pay? The inn in the village over the mountain offered 89 gold, and the tavern in the lower village offered 97 gold!"
Her father had already decided to sell Lalit anyway.
If she had been sold to a place like a tavern instead of a Duke's residence, Lalit might have spent her youth doing kitchen work until adulthood, only to face even worse fates.
"I'll give you 100 gold."
That's what Matilda told her father when she 'purchased' her.
"Of course, you must never come looking for this child again. From the moment the duke's household pays the full sum, you have no rights whatsoever over the daughter you once had."
Lalit was more grateful for that cold condition following the bargain than anything else in the world.
If she had received a salary, that money would have been taken away by her father anyway. Having no days off was perfect too. If she had days off and ventured outside the duke's residence, her father would have tracked her down.
She was very glad Matilda had brought her here. She truly considered that 'purchase' a stroke of luck. Though she had to work tirelessly from morning till night at the duke's residence, she was overflowing with happiness.
Not only did she have her own bedding, she didn't go hungry and could wear clean clothes.
If she got sick, she could ask the duke's personal physician, Jansen, for medicine. Above all, there was no violence.
She learned to read from the older maid she shared a room with, who insisted it was essential knowledge for a noble household servant.
The Duke's residence, led by Eleonor, had an atmosphere like walking on thin ice, and the maids themselves were far from warm and friendly, but still, it was good.
An unwelcome wave of regret washed over her, but Matilda's voice pulled her back to reality.
"Your meal will be served in your room."
"Yes."
"I trust I needn't explain the layout of the duke's residence?"
"Yes."
Lalit answered calmly.
“I know everything.”
She had no choice.
From the moment she first arrived at the Duke's residence as a child, Lalit had been utterly captivated by this space. Precious and beautiful things were scattered everywhere. Every painting displayed in the corridors, every vase placed in the arcades, all shimmered.
Having grown up in the slums, seeing only filth and ugliness, Lalit's heart was instantly stolen by these beauties. Without being told, she would wander every corner of the Duke's residence, cleaning meticulously.
"You're quite diligent, Lalit, cleaning even these places every day."
"Thank you."
She often praised her, thinking of her simply as a diligent servant. In truth, it wasn't diligence.
Everything in the Duke's mansion was so beautiful, so lovely, that she wandered about simply because she wanted to touch them, even if only like that. Therefore, Lalit was always grateful to Matilda for bringing her to this heavenly place.
"Head Maid, thank you so much for bringing me here..."
"Lalit, don't get the wrong idea. I didn't save you. I just happened to be looking for a maid, and you caught my eye. I bought you cheap. So don't look at me like that."
Matilda drew a line, insisting it wasn't so, but to Lalit, Matilda was still her savior.
"However, once you come of age... let's draw up an employment contract. I'll speak to the Lady of the house about it."
Matilda had already planned to terminate the unfair contract and grant her freedom once she came of age. Though she never mentioned it directly, Lalit sensed Matilda had specifically 'purchased' her to rescue her from her father.
Perhaps that was why. When she saw Matilda from afar, she sometimes imagined that her mother—a maid in some noble household, though she never knew her face—might have been someone like that.
Of course, in the end, she was wrong and Matilda was right.
Matilda was not her savior, and certainly not her mother. She only realized that at fifteen.
"Ah, only the library has been relocated and expanded."
Matilda frowned as if she'd just remembered.
"Where exactly is it...?"
"It's okay."
Lalit smiled faintly and set down her luggage.
"I won't be going to the library anymore anyway."
Matilda flinched slightly at those words. After a moment of complex expression, she sighed once and said in a troubled voice.
"You're free to come and go as you please, as long as you avoid the times when His Grace visits the library. If you're curious about those times..."
"I'm not curious at all."
Lalit shook her head flatly.
"There's only one thing I'm curious about."
And with an utterly serious expression, she declared.
"How much I can earn here."
“………………I thought you already had an annual salary contract.”
"I got permission for a side job. I'll receive additional compensation for doing other work at the Duke's residence."
Matilda looked stunned. But she quickly composed herself, perhaps deciding there was no need for a long conversation.
Bringing up the 'library' between them wouldn't do any good.
The library at the Duke's residence, housing countless volumes.
It was the place where the young duke, secluded with Lalit, one of the many maids, had met her eight years ago.
The accidental meeting itself was fine, but the problem was that they began meeting repeatedly.
The immature boy couldn't name that feeling, and so he didn't realize how dangerous their ambiguous meetings were.
If either young Lalit or Adrian had stopped frequenting the library, Lalit might have continued living as a very happy maid in the Duke's mansion. She might have even married a diligent and loyal servant by now.
But well, that was all in the past. Lalit had no intention of ever setting foot in the Duke's library again unless money was involved.
Perhaps realizing she'd brought up the library unnecessarily, Matilda cleared her throat several times and spoke in a somewhat softer tone.
"In any case, if there's anything you need or any favors you'd like to request, please don't hesitate to tell me. Since you are the lady's personal physician, if anyone should ever ask you to do menial tasks..."
"I'll work diligently for anyone who gives me tasks."
"......Huh?"
"Besides, I need to bill Evan for additional compensation. Lady Eleonor already has her assigned maid, and I'm not standing by her side 24 hours a day anyway."
Looking at Matilda's bewildered expression, Lalit said earnestly.
"Just one request... please remove pork from my meals. That's all I ask."
"Ah..."
Matilda flinched and replied.
"................Ah, understood."
***
After changing clothes, Lalit went straight to see Eleonor. She lay there like a corpse, and Lalit mechanically, without emotion, meticulously checked several points.
After that, she reviewed the medications Jansen had prescribed during that time. By the time she finished that, dusk had already fallen.
Jansen's prescriptions were excellent, but continuing this way would only maintain the status quo. Only after carefully planning the future treatment regimen did Lalit begin to unpack her belongings. It was then.
"Dr. Lalit."
A young maid, barely ten years old, knocked cautiously.
"The Duke is calling for you."
"………………Me?"
"Yes. He is in his study."
"Why?"
"He says he needs a doctor because of a health issue."
Lalit's eyes widened. Since she was the only doctor at the Duke's residence right now, going was the right thing to do. Her heart sank, fearing it might be an emergency. She sprang up from her seat and ran.
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