After that, he started cleaning up the small garden on his own even though no one asked him to clean it.

The head maid returned to the kitchen after asking him about various things. She seemed to have given up halfway because of his stinginess with the answers.

“Hmm.”

Standing inside the kitchen, the maid looked at Rue outside the window with troubled eyes.

In the meantime, Rue was communicating closely with someone who we did not know where he brought from. But considering the words they’re using; garden trees, fountains, carps and so on, it seemed like they were planning to do a major re-construction project.

What the hell does it mean when a gardener that is hired to take care of the garden hires a professional to plow it?

“I’m jealous.”

He’s suspicious, but also handsome, really rich and owns a home. I on the other hand previously devoted myself to world peace, currently live as a maid with barely enough to fill my mouth with.

‘I mean, he didn’t kick the assassin out of his home.’

Is Rue the client who asked for surveillance on Viscount Weatherwoods? It was necessary to check.

I pointed to Rue on behalf of the helpless maid who had many restrictions on what she could and couldn’t do as a figure of authority.

“Fired.”

The maid glanced back at me.

“Who? Mr. Rue?”

“Suspicious.”

“Isn’t that just like you?”

Me…? But it’s not comparable to that.

“Of course, Mr. Rue is definitely not a normal person. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone as unique as him in this job for years. Except for you.”

“So fire him.”

“You don’t have to rush, Miss Daisy. If there’s a dangerous man in the mansion, the Viscount Weatherwoods will kick him out. Do not worry too much.”

How can a Viscount that doesn’t exist get rid of that man?

The head maid is too complacent.

I wanted to say, ‘At dawn, an assassin came inside the house, but I beat him up and locked him in the house across the street. But today, I saw that very assassin by Rue’s side. The two must be in cahoots and sent to spy on Viscount Weatherwoods!’ but I shut up.

If I say so, it’ll make me look suspicious.

In fact, I don’t care how I look in other people’s eyes. However, if the opponent is the maid of Weatherwood’s mansion, my position stands differently.

“You have to be a family as weird as Weatherwood to accept me.”’

If I get kicked out of a house like this, I’ll have nowhere to go.

Money is such a dangerous thing. I can’t even reveal the existence of something that threatens the owner’s life.

“In addition, wouldn’t it be a waste to fire a gardener who says he will directly re-construct the garden for half-the price? That kind of money is tight even for the Weatherwoods. Let’s just wait and see for some time.”

The maid was a true slave to capitalism.

Money is a very dangerous thing. Enough to leave a man who might be a wretch in the house.

“Well, then, shall we get to work?”

Today’s schedule was cleaning windows on the second floor. For your information, it’s my least favorite type of cleaning. It’s the second hardest thing after wiping the ceiling.

As a dutiful maid of this era who is loyal to her master, I did not forget to keep an eye on the gardener while I wiped the windows. What would I do If I lost my precious and one and only job?

The gardener was picking dead weeds in the garden.

Even the appearance of him picking weeds was so suspicious, so I monitored him even more.

‘Originally, in this situation, you should pick a fight with the person over something trivial, have a physical confrontation and induce them to reveal their true feelings.’

As I did with the assassin at dawn.

However, with Rue, I was rarely given a chance to enact this. Surprisingly, Rue did not even show the slightest gap.

It is beyond ridiculous. You’re handsome, rich, own a house, and are even perfect?

‘What’s the purpose?’

It was then.

While cleaning up the weeds he’d been pulling out this whole time, Rue suddenly looked up.

“Do you have something to say?”

It was an ordinary voice, but Rue’s voice could be heard so clearly it was as if he were speaking straight into my ear drums.

Wearing a white shirt and a light-yellow vest, he was working hard on gardening… it looked good on him. But then, what wouldn’t suit a beautiful man?

I can’t have a physical fight with him, so I guess it’s better to pretend nothing happened.

I asked him while resting my chin on the window.

“Who are you?”

“If it’s my first name you’re asking, I must have said it is ‘Rue’ earlier too, Miss Maid.”

Miss Maid. I feel upset even though I’m just being teased.

“Not your name.”

Rue’s eyes narrowed thin. He had a look on his face that was supposed to look happy, but he didn’t look very happy.

“Do you mean you want to know more about me? I don’t think we’re in that relationship yet.”

“Stop acting like a scoundrel and answer me. Who are you? Why are you here?”

It’s been so long since I spoke this much that I was out of breath.

“Because I’m your fan.”

What?

He smiled as he looked up at my face with his head tilted.

“Last night, you caught a pervert and tied him to my house. It was quite impressive of you to lock up a stranger in a place you’d never been to before. I’d like to award you the ‘Midwinterre Brave Citizen’ award…”

“Are you saying that’s why you came to this mansion?”

Again. It was so ridiculous that I spoke for a long time without realizing it.

My shoulders trembled at my unfamiliar voice, Rue shrugged his shoulders with a mean smile.

“No way.”

You don’t want to open your mouth? Fine, I have no choice but to tear it open myself.

I jumped into the garden through an open window.

“You.”

As I strode toward Rue, he shouted to the inside of the mansion while watching leisurely with his arms crossed.

“Head Maid! Miss Maid keeps messing around and flirting with me. Is this okay? Does Weatherwoods not protect the human rights of its employees?”

There was only one reaction I could show to the vulgarity of his tongue.

Walking the very way, entering the kitchen through the back door of the mansion.

My teeth gnashed against one another.

“Suspicious and even mean.”

Why would you tattle to the maid?

I worked hard to clean the windows until my feet went numb. I broke a window because of trying too hard, but the maid didn’t scold me very much. Although this month’s salary has been cut in part.

Thanks to that, I felt very low at dinner time. However, as usual, only me and the maid sat at the table.

“What about the chef and gardener?”

“He says he’ll have dinner separately. I guess our mansion has dinner after the official routine. We’ll have a separate dinner table in the future.”

I can’t believe there’s nothing to see after sunset. I like that one thing.

I tucked the headless vegetable stew into my throat with ease.

The next morning.

After finishing the morning routine briefly, I ran into Rue in the aisle into the kitchen. Like yesterday, he greeted me with a clean appearance, unlike a gardener (which, to be exact, would not be strange if I were the owner of the mansion).

“Good morning, Miss Handmaid.”

I ignored it and went into the kitchen. I heard a small laugh behind my back.

Rue was searching here and there in the kitchen and uttered just one word.

“Have the daily groceries not arrived yet today?”

The answer was replaced by the maid who had come down first and sipped the car.

“We don’t order ingredients, we go out to the market and buy them ourselves, Mr. Rue, and the daily groceries are there today.”

Rue looked at potatoes, carrots, and onions sprawling in a wooden box under the table and uttered a short exclamation.

“Oh, I thought it was leftover food waste.”

For the first time since he was hired yesterday, he looked like he was going through hardships and hardships. I felt homogeneity for the first time in Rue like that.

Yes, this family is a decent poor family, with a good reputation. You came in for a dog’s dinner.

“We can’t help it. Let’s settle today’s lunch with this. But I’m glad at the very least that the butter, pepper, salt, herbs and milk seem good enough. Head Maid, Miss Maid.”

He smiled and pointed at the box.

“Cut them.”

I cut the ingredients without complaining.

There is something I have realized while living like a beggar over the past month, that is that it is good to follow the words of the person who feeds you. At least in the moment they’re feeding you.

I peeled potatoes and watched Rue.

While fiddling with the cupboard, he took out a square pan I had never seen before, and then took out the seasoning storage box that I’d also never seen before.

‘Was there always something like that in this kitchen?’

After wiping the dusty container clean, he cut the butter off the paper and slowly melted it on the fire. After buttering the pan, he skillfully held the kitchen knife and thinly sliced them.

He piled the potatoes beautifully inside the pan, seasoned them with pepper and salt, and covered them with milk.

While I was admiring his amazing cooking skills,

“Miss Maid.”

Rue called me, breaking the dried herbs into small pieces.

“Do you see that mouse on the fence beyond the window?”

So suddenly? I took my eyes off him and turned to the window. Like Rue said, there was a little gray mouse running about on the window sill.

“That mouse will peel potatoes better than you. Your potato peeling speed is so slow that it exploded.”

“…mm.”

The opponent is a cook. At least right now, he’s not a gardener, but a cook.

He’s the only way out of escaping from the Head maid’s hell cuisine. Let’s not get riled up into a mood.

I peeled the potatoes faster. Rue waited silently while I finished peeling the remaining potatoes, repeating the same cooking process two more times in different pans. All that was left was waiting for it to be baked in the oven.

And finally.

“Eat it.”

The moment I put the potato gratin that smelled so good I was going out of my mind on my tongue. I had no choice but to settle into the strong ‘taste’ that penetrated my mind.

“How is it so delicious?”’

It was true. Unbelievably, Rue was a skilled cook.

He was fully aware of how to use good and bad ingredients. The potatoes that looked like they were dying were reborn into a perfect potato gratin dish from his hands.

The taste was wonderful and could not be compared to the skills displayed by the head maid in the same kitchen.

“You eat well.”

Rue, who was staring at me, left those words and went out to the garden.

Are you not hungry? I even emptied Rue’s share of potato gratin.

A pleasant life and satisfying meals go hand in hand together. They’re inseparable. The maid, wiping her mouth, muttered her admiration in a voice that sounded half-possessed.

“I haven’t had such a satisfying breakfast in years, Mr. Rue’s cooking skills are amazing. I feel bad for hiring him at half the usual wage.”

When I saw the maid’s eyes falling in love with the potato gratin, the sense of crisis that had subsided stood up.

‘No, at this rate, the maid will fall for that swindler’s deception!’

Perhaps because the other person was my opponent, even this delicious dish felt like a great masterpiece meant to throw me off my game.

“You foxy little thing.”

It doesn’t suit my nature to work in the same house as someone whom I’m concerned about.

‘I hate it even more when you’re emitting suspicion with your whole body.’

That shows confidence.

There are two assumptions about Rue’s identity that I have in mind.

One, he’s here to spy on Viscount Weatherwoods, just like the assassin.

Second, he knows my past and has chased me here.

‘…what are the chances of it being the latter?’

~~~

Happy Holidays! (although I got merely 5 days of vacation…) I’m going to enjoy it. I hope you do too. ^^