Ā Chapter 8
They said that and then giggled amongst themselves.
While most of the staff felt sorry for Flora, there were bound to be those on the opposite side as well. Among them, Salin found Flora to be a particularly irksome maid.
*’A maid the master personally brought in?’*
She strongly disliked the newly arrived, lowest-ranking maid.
Just as Harriot took great pride in being the adjutant of the Heinster Ducal Residence, she too was proud of her position as a maid here.
Flora, who had entered this place without even a letter of recommendation, looking like a beggar, was someone who grated on her nerves every time she saw her.
“Rather than causing trouble for others because you can’t do your work, wouldn’t it be better to go quickly and try to do something?”
Though it sounded like a question at first glance, almost everyone grasped the displeasure contained within.
But regardless, for Flora, who had fought crossing the line between life and death on actual battlefields, women’s power struggles were merely trivial.
“So be it.”
With her usual expressionless face, Flora merely nodded slightly and left.
Perhaps because of the sharp exchange, the atmosphere had considerably cooled, and several maids, including Mary, left their seats one by one. Pleased that she had sent Flora away, Salin sat arrogantly in her chair.
After all, with the Head Maid backing her, Salin was one who liked to stir up trouble even among the maids. Pleased that everyone was watching her, Salin cautiously began.
“I heard somethingā¦ about Flora. They say she’s a woman brought from Ploheim in the west.”
It was a fact everyone already knew, but the tone was odd. As if by prior agreement, it was the maids close to her who responded.
“Ploheim? That’s a border region. I heard it’s so devastated that even the nobles who lived there haven’t been able to return. Where on earth did the master bring her from?”
Since it was a border area, the nobles of that region had long since left even before the war started. Seeing that the maids, who had been quietly eating, were perking up their ears, Salin snorted and opened her mouth.
“Where else? It’s obvious if she’s a maid brought from there.”
Answering the whispering questions clearly, Salin turned her head with a sneer.
“The Ploheim military garrison. There’s only one place there she could have worked as a maid, isn’t there?”
It wasn’t only knights and soldiers on the battlefield. The hierarchy of status existed there too.
As the war dragged on, maids naturally emerged to attend to noble-born knights. However, their numbers were small, and many lost their lives in the chaos, so opportunities to see a maid from a military unit were extremely rare in the capital.
“Well, since all the nobles who were there have come up to the capital, it could only be the garrison. But that place isā¦ a bitā¦”
Salin, as if waiting, finished the rest of the sentence for the maid who couldn’t.
“Is there anyone who doesn’t know what a maid working at a garrison is like? She would have attended to the knights and soldiers at night too, wouldn’t she? Right?”
At those words, the remaining maids who had been listening quietly froze.
In fact, this was completely nonsensical, but rumors about maids working on battlefields surrounded by countless men had never been good from the start.
The rumor, whose origin was unknown, had long been circulating openly. Moreover, it was a long war that lasted eight years.
Even those noble knights were men with desires, to say nothing of the lowly soldiers. It meant there was no fool who would remain chaste like a saint for eight years. Just looking at how brothels commonly sprang up in villages near garrisons, the reason was obvious.
And if that was the situation, there was no way those ignorant men would leave alone a maid wiggling her hips right before their eyes. Whether by her will or not, she would have been taken to bed somehow.
Salin, who had no idea that Flora had served as a soldier on the battlefield, thought that the new maid had somehow caught the Duke’s eye with her delicate looks and ended up here.
“Hahā¦ disgusting. She must have been with different men every night.”
“Do you think it was only one or two? Besides, those guys are at Ploheim.”
A look of shock flashed across the maid’s face as if she had just realized something. The other maids, who had also been listening quietly, furrowed their brows as if recalling something.
“The place has those guys. The cruel 12th Division.”
As soon as the words ’12th Division’ left Salin’s mouth, silence fell.
Although they had slaughtered enemies for the empire, the 12th Division never earned the awe of the empire’s people. That was only natural, given that their reputation was even worse than that of rough mercenaries.
The maids, who had never even been near a battlefield, had picked up many things. Among the various plausible rumors, the story of the 12th Division always drew attention.
“Surelyā¦ she did it with those horrific men too?”
“Have you ever seen a prostitute choose her men? She clearly soiled her body.”
Salin lifted her chin as if seeking agreement, implying that all those rumors weren’t circulating for nothing. A hint of disgust began to settle in the maids’ eyes as they thought of Flora.
Glancing at the maids who were starting to be greatly shaken, Salin added with a deeply pitying face.
“Our master, really. Out of all the places, why did he have to bring a woman like thatā¦ Well, Flora must have fooled him completely.”
Unlike his cool exterior, their master was quite generous compared to other nobles. He never struck or threatened the staff arbitrarily, treating them as individual human beings.
Since he was clearly different from the previous Duke, who didn’t treat his servants as people at all, the master’s character was naturally held in high esteem.
So, the master must have been fooled by that fragile-looking woman’s hide. That was how it began to be etched into the minds of the maids who remained.
—
When she went out to the back of the rear garden, sure enough, an enormous, abnormal amount of laundry awaited her.
“Oh my god, what is all this?”
Mary exclaimed, startled by the blankets piled layer upon layer in the middle of the backyard.
Her freckled cheeks, which showed whenever she smiled brightly, twitched. Flora was also somewhat taken aback by the sheer volume, more than expected.
Having been targeted by Salin, who would praise her if she did well but deliberately pile on work if she disliked her, all the backlogged chores had fallen into Flora’s hands. Even though spring was far off, they had even dragged out all the winter blankets and dumped them on her.
“Anyway, Salin is really mean!”
Mary slapped her skirt at the obvious trick. But perhaps deciding it couldn’t be helped, she boldly rolled up both sleeves.
“There’s absolutely no way you can do this alone. I’ll help.”
“It’s my work, so I’ll be fine.”
At her insistence on doing the work assigned to her alone, Mary abruptly lifted her head towards Flora.
The unsociable woman, who answered everything in short sentences, looked clueless, as if she had never received kindness from anyone before.
“It’s not fine at all. You won’t be able to finish even if you stay up all night by yourself.”
“It’s my work. I’ll manage somehowā¦”
As she said, it was questionable whether even the two of them could finish before the day ended, but that didn’t mean she could borrow someone else’s hands.
“Flora!”
“Yes.”
Mary, who had been staring at Flora’s face as she spoke politely despite Mary suggesting they speak casually since they were the same age, sighed deeply.
She knew she had suffered at her previous place, but Mary couldn’t understand why she was so reluctant to accept help.
Even though helping Flora would surely get her on Salin’s bad side, she couldn’t stop worrying about her. Because Salin’s orders were clearly unfair.
“If this were my work, what do you think you would have done?”
“ā¦.”
“If Salin had dumped all the work on me, wouldn’t you have helped me?”
Flora said nothing, as if her lips were sealed. Mary, who had been a bit angry, softened her expression slightly and patted Flora’s shoulder.
“Helping each other is natural, since we’re maids in the same situation.”
Mary continued, like a teacher comforting a child, and then gave her usual bright smile.
“Let’s hurry. Let’s finish by dinner time and flatten Salin’s nose.”
Soon, Mary began humming and sorting the thick blankets by color.
Flora stared blankly at Mary for a while, moving her hands diligently while singing a work song.
—
Having finished her day’s work, Flora took a refreshing shower, wrapped her wet hair tightly in a towel, and sat on the edge of the bed. Even though she had only done that laundry, her body felt as heavy as lead.
A wry smile escaped her. Even when she had spent a week searching the forest without a wink of sleep, she had never felt tiredā¦
About to lie down as she was, Flora suddenly looked around her spot.
The clean, subtly fragrant bedding. The scenery surrounded by ordinary brown furniture never felt like her own room, no matter how many times she saw it.
She got up from her spot, lay down in the middle of the hard floor as usual, and wrapped herself in a blanket. The cool chill seeping in actually put her at ease.
Ignoring her damp hair, she lay sprawled on the floor, blankly staring at the ceiling painted with a landscape of a green forest.
Fortunately, the laundry, which had looked impossible to finish by today, was completed before dinner thanks to Mary’s help. It would have certainly been impossible alone.
Naturally, Flora found herself pondering the question Mary had asked earlier.
“Would I have helped?”
To be honest, she wasn’t sure if she would have offered to help if Mary had been in the same situation. After all, she had no reason to help Mary, a stranger.
But the reason she hadn’t said anything at the time was that she was gripped by a feeling that she shouldn’t. The end of that train of thought, as always, led to the Duke.
“How long does he intend to keep me doing maid’s work? Do I have to do this for the rest of my life?”
A sigh escaped her. She was aware that she had failed to properly carry out her assigned tasks.
She was already trying to find flaws in her own actions. Because she, the most reliable on the battlefield, was being treated as a useless maid at the ducal residence.
Curtling her body, Flora turned onto her side. Beyond the fireplace made of dark gray bricks, she could see pitch-black darkness.
The memories of that day overwhelmed Flora as she lay down her weary body.
