Chapter 09
One hour later.
“My lord, I have prepared an ice pack.”
Piru brought an ice pack on a tray.
“I’ll go in with you and set it down.”
“No need. I’ll do it.”
“…….”
At Wayne’s words, Piru’s eyes narrowed. Instead of handing over the tray, she took a step back.
“This is strange.”
“What is?”
“Even though I am a maid, you treat me as if I were a noble.”
Piru studied Wayne’s expression with a suspicious gaze. Wayne felt a slight sting at her sharpness, but he had no intention of revealing Valley’s true identity.
Piru was already prone to nagging, and she would surely jump to conclusions and bring up marriage. Besides, if Valley failed the test again, she would leave the mansion immediately, so there was no reason to say anything.
“What noble daughter would come dressed in a maid’s uniform?”
“That may be true, but…”
“She said she made a deal with me, loud and clear. I’m just making sure she lives up to her word.”
Wayne frowned and took the tray with one hand.
“If she can’t prove herself, she’s out.”
“That is what you promised.”
“If she’s not useful to me, she doesn’t deserve to stay in the Viterad mansion.”
With those words, Wayne opened the door to the reception room. As he stepped in, he saw Valley leaning back on the sofa, fast asleep.
When she first arrived at the mansion, her blue eyes had sparkled with determination and a fierce will to succeed.
Yet here she was, an hour later, sleeping so vulnerably.
“Quite confident…”
Wayne muttered at the entrance, then walked toward Valley.
Even when he stood right next to her, she was sleeping so deeply that she didn’t notice his presence.
Wayne had intended to sit across from her, but changed direction and moved to her side.
As the distance closed, her cheeks came into clear view.
The swelling, a mix of red and blue, was clearly the mark of a hand slap.
He didn’t need to ask what happened; he could picture it. Even if she was a fifth-rate mage, the servants wouldn’t dare strike her face so blatantly that it left a mark.
That meant the only ones who could have injured a noble daughter’s cheek were Valley’s own family.
“…So that’s why you were so desperate to be hired as a gardener.”
Magic was the privilege of nobles. It was the law of the empire that the weaker one’s magic, the more they were treated as no different from commoners, and looked down upon.
But Wayne had only ever heard of such discrimination, never experienced it himself. The Viterad family possessed stronger magic than other houses and had played a great role as part of Special Unit Zero, so they knew nothing of the struggles of the weak.
Wayne stared at Valley’s face for a long while, then pulled out the gauge he had brought from his pocket.
The number that had been 96 three days ago had become 97.
The needle had dropped for the first time ever after meeting Valley.
Wayne moved a little closer to her, but his eyes remained fixed on the gauge.
He waited, thinking it might happen again, but the needle didn’t budge. Wondering if it was just a coincidence, he raised one eyebrow and was looking at Valley’s face from right beside her when—
“…Mmm.”
She flinched with her eyes still closed, then slowly lifted her eyelids.
Through her unfocused gaze, the color of skin appeared. A question mark floated in Valley’s mind.
Thick neck, broad shoulders, even broader chest. Huh…? Chest?
“Oh my!”
Startled, Valley shoved both hands against the chest in front of her.
“Ah!”
But the other person didn’t budge an inch, like a rock. Instead, Valley’s own body fell backward onto the sofa.
Lying on the soft sofa, looking up at an unfamiliar ceiling, Valley blinked widely, took in the situation, then hurriedly sat up.
Wayne watched quietly as she flustered about on her own. More precisely, he was looking at her palms, which had just touched his body again without any issue.
“Why, why are you so close?”
She tried her best not to look at Wayne, whose chest was still exposed. In the process, she moved one hand to vaguely cover herself.
Instead of answering, Wayne checked the gauge. Still no change.
“I came to tell you it’s over.”
“Huh? What’s over?”
“An hour has already passed.”
Hearing that, Valley’s face turned pale. She looked at the clock hanging on the wall of the reception room. As Wayne had said, the agreed hour had long since passed.
Once she was left alone in the reception room, her tension had eased. A sense of relief that she had revived the flowers just as she did when training in her own room, and a feeling of gratitude that only the final test remained, had made drowsiness wash over her belatedly.
She had even pinched her thigh to keep from falling asleep, knowing the test was still ahead.
But the eyelids are the heaviest thing of all. She hadn’t slept properly for three days, so keeping her eyes open was a struggle.
Moreover, perhaps because it was a fire-attribute mansion, the temperature was higher than the Priatin mansion, making it a perfect environment to fall asleep.
She must have eventually lost the battle to sleep, drifting off.
“W-Wait a minute. It’s because I haven’t slept properly for three days while practicing…”
“Do I have to understand that as well?”
“Th-That’s not it… But if I can’t revive them more vividly than before, I’ll leave on my own.”
Her words tumbled out in desperation.
After a moment of thought, Wayne pulled out all the flowers from the vase. In the brief moment he brought them from the center of the table to in front of Valley, the outer stems had already dried and withered.
“Instead, revive two at once.”
“…Both at the same time?”
“I don’t have all day to wait for you to do them one by one.”
She had never revived two flowers simultaneously during her training.
Valley was nervous, but she had no choice. She swallowed hard and looked down at the dry bouquet on the table.
At first, even reviving one flower had been difficult, but now she could do it without trouble. She could do this too.
“Hoo—.”
She let out a long sigh and grasped two stems with both hands. Remembering the sensation of reviving the stem and petals first, she focused her magic.
This time, she poured out more magic than when reviving a single flower.
After the one-minute hourglass had been turned twice and the sand had fallen about halfway, Valley finally set down the revived flowers.
“Is this enough to pass?”
She was breathing even harder than when reviving one flower. The more Valley panted, the more visible her swollen cheek became.
Wayne stared not at the flowers but at her cheek, then raked his hair back roughly.
“As you said, I need someone to tend the flower beds in my mansion.”
“Then you’ll hire me…”
“But with magic this weak, how many years would it take to finish the garden?”
As Wayne continued, Valley’s eyebrows went up and down repeatedly. Her large eyes made her expressions impossible to hide, and Wayne could read her all the more easily.
She looked just like a small puppy.
“One month.”
“Excuse me?”
“Within one month, bring me a landscaping plan for how you will maintain the mansion’s garden. Also, train your magic so you can revive an entire flower bed at once.”
“If I succeed within a month, you’ll officially hire me, right?”
“Yes. Until then, your official employment is on hold.”
Wayne extended his index finger and tilted it as if pointing at Valley.
“You remember what I said? That here, you can cast aside your family name and live like a maid.”
“Of course.”
“I will never allow your family to be mentioned in this mansion.”
His tone drew a clear line, and Valley nodded firmly in response.
“If I do it within a month, even if I succeed as fast as possible, you’ll still officially hire me?”
“Yes.”
As if the matter was settled, Wayne rose from his seat.
“Oh, and all of this only applies while I am alive.”
“…Pardon?”
“If I die, you will leave my mansion immediately.”
With those final words, Wayne left the reception room first.
“Are you finished talking? Shall I show that maid out now?”
Piru, who had been waiting, hurried over and peppered him with questions. Instead of answering, Wayne checked the gauge first.
The needle had moved slightly. Between 96 and 97. After Valley had pushed against his chest, the number had changed.
But the change was so small that he wanted to grab her hand and confirm it properly, like the day they first met.
Wayne smirked at Piru and answered.
“No. Give her a room.
