Chapter 04
I clasped both hands in front of me like a criminal and lowered my head. The boss covered his ears tightly and complained fiercely.
“I hate her. Her snoring is so loud……”
Just from his trembling voice, anyone would think that I had tormented him terribly instead of merely snoring.
Mr. Belt stared at me and asked,
“Did you sleep?”
“Let me tell you one thing. Is it really reasonable to arrive at the ducal residence from such a remote mountain village in only four days?”
“So?”
“It was way too much! I was sleepy. I fell asleep. I’m sorry. I won’t snore next time.”
We came straight here without even taking a break to meet the boss. Give me a break just this once.
“She says she’ll sleep again……”
Apparently, the recluse hated the sound of my snoring so much that he kept picking at my words while pulling at his hair.
I protested quietly.
“People are supposed to sleep……”
Grrrrr.
I really was doing everything wrong today.
“Go! Please! Get out! Leave me alone!”
In the end, he could not stand it anymore and, just like Hannah, threw something at me. It hit me right in the forehead.
Thud!
Tap.
“……”
“……”
“……”
The three of us remained silent. More precisely, the recluse did not even pay attention to me, while Mr. Belt personally informed me about the condition of my forehead.
“It has a small cut, and there is blood.”
The corner of the box of tissues had stabbed my forehead.
“It’s okay. My forehead was actually split open because of Hannah before. Compared to that, this is nothing.”
The scar from back then was still faintly visible. Hannah had felt terribly sorry, but I did not really care.
It was so faint that you could hardly see it unless you looked closely.
“……What?”
I ignored the sharp voice of the recluse and gestured for Mr. Belt to come closer. He approached and leaned his ear toward me.
Keeping an eye on the boss, I lowered my voice and asked,
“Where am I supposed to eat?”
“You should eat together with the boss. You need to watch him eat.”
“Has it always been like that?”
“Yes. And he never ate.”
“Why do you think that is?”
“Because he is a recluse.”
“Do you really think that’s a reason?”
Excuse me, Sub-Male Lead! You don’t mind when your closest aide openly insults you?
Perhaps it happened so often that the boss did not even bother responding. Or maybe he had already realized that there was no point talking to the unreasonable Mr. Belt.
“Does the boss ever hurt himself with utensils?”
“He never does anything like that.”
“Then I think it would be better to leave him alone while he eats, even if he refuses the food.”
Mr. Belt immediately rushed in.
“If he starves himself, that body will be ruined!”
“Excuse me, Mr. Belt! Isn’t the whole point to get the boss out of his room? Why are you worrying about something so strange?”
Is it your body? Why are you the one getting so worked up?
“I’ll turn him into a muscular macho man later, so leave him alone.”
Bang! Bang!
The recluse slammed his fists against the floor like a child throwing a tantrum. It seemed to silently tell us to stop talking nonsense and leave.
Fortunately, his fists looked perfectly fine.
“You said you’d leave him to me, right? Then leave him to me. From now on, the boss can eat alone. Comfortably.”
Mr. Belt looked at the boss’s body regretfully several times, as if he could not let go of the matter.
“……Fine. Since I said I would leave him entirely to you, I will.”
He was obviously reluctant, but fortunately, he stepped back.
I set the food on the table so the boss could eat comfortably, then left the room and took off my glasses.
“You can keep wearing them. If you’re not in a dark place, they’re no different from ordinary glasses. They protect your eyesight and even let you see farther than usual. They’re one of our very expensive item items items.”
“You don’t have to emphasize it that much. I understood.”
When I first came here, everyone welcomed me warmly, so I thought there would be no hostility toward me.
I really thought that was fortunate.
What a joke.
Let me give you a warning. From now on, never let your guard down so easily.
The moment I headed toward the garden to bring some flowers into the stuffy boss’s room, I was hit by a bucket of water.
“How did they know I look pretty when I’m soaking wet?”
I quickly raised my head to find the culprit, but there was only an empty bucket. Its owner had already run away.
He was pretty fast.
He ran so quickly that it was almost as if he had been practicing for this day.
I squeezed the water out of my wet black hair and took off my glasses.
I was about to head to the linen room to get a maid’s uniform, my glasses loosely held in my hand, when I stopped.
This might actually be a good opportunity.
I cheerfully turned around and headed toward the boss’s room. I was no expert, but thanks to Hannah, I had learned one thing.
If you wanted to win someone’s heart, you had to chatter about even the smallest things.
I had done the same with Hannah.
I would visit her for completely pointless reasons, talk by myself, and laugh by myself. Eventually, Hannah would sometimes laugh with me.
I also remembered to give her plenty of time to herself, but later, Hannah would be the one to come looking for me and want to stay with me.
She even followed me to the bathroom.
The boss probably wouldn’t go that far, but if I slowly approached him like this, someday he would open his heart just like Hannah had.
Knock, knock.
“Boss, I’m coming in.”
I entered the room, put on my glasses, and struck a pose. The boss’s hollow face, which looked like someone who had already given up on the whole world, showed not even the slightest change.
“How do I look?”
The boss quietly covered his nose and turned his head away.
Do I smell?
Sniff, sniff.
I don’t smell.
“Lying is bad.”
His body trembled. As if I had pressed some kind of button, he bit his lips with a frightened expression.
“I know. That’s why I……”
Oh, oh. My mistake.
I approached him as he tried to crawl into the ground.
“I didn’t mean it that way.”
When I carefully took his hand, he was startled and slapped my hand away before squeezing himself even farther into the corner.
I felt like I had done something really terrible.
“……You’re damp.”
Even though our recluse was frightened and had a gloomy face, he still had to point that out.
“Listen, Boss. Someone threw water at me.”
When I moved closer to him, he became so uncomfortable that he pushed me hard with his large hand.
“Just get out. Don’t come any closer!”
The boss was extremely prickly.
I got up and stood in front of him. He did not even look up at me. Instead, he suddenly grabbed my ankle tightly with his large hand.
What’s with him all of a sudden?
“Let go.”
He kept his mouth tightly shut before warning me in a very low voice.
“I told you to get out while I’m still asking nicely.”
You haven’t said anything nicely.
“You have to let go if you want me to leave.”
His eyes glared at me with displeasure. The recluse slowly released my ankle, and I pushed him as hard as I could, only to be pushed back myself.
As if that wasn’t enough, I stepped on the water that had fallen from my body, slipped, and fell backward with a loud thud.
“Ouch!”
“……”
Wasn’t it polite to fall backward when someone pushed you?
As I awkwardly got back up, he said one thing.
“The show isn’t funny.”
It’s not a show.
The next afternoon.
I never managed to find the person who had thrown water at me. Instead, I got permission from the gardener to pick a large bundle of flowers and was walking back into the mansion when I came face-to-face with a man.
He was a handsome man with dark brown skin, black hair, golden eyes, and a large, muscular build. When he saw me, he frowned.
“Your face is strange.”
“I was stung by a bee.”
It hurt.
It was still throbbing.
“Why did it sting you?”
“Maybe it thought I was a flower……”
Whoosh!
He walked past without even waiting for my answer.
It was my first time seeing him, but from his appearance, I could roughly guess who he was.
The boss’s other closest aide, Danny Duffield.
He did not talk much and always spoke briefly. He also had a personality that could not stand leaving his questions unanswered.
So that was why he had asked someone he’d never seen before why she had one eye swollen shut.
‘Everyone around the boss seems to have at least one screw loose.’
Maybe that’s why they were all drawn to each other.
I was carrying my aching eye and heading to get a vase when I ran into Jessica and Lynette.
Jessica and Lynette were twin sisters, both well over 180 centimeters tall, with sturdy builds and faces like statues.
They spoke awkwardly and somewhat poorly, but they were kind people who had treated me very warmly when I first met them in the dining room.
The two of them widened their eyes when they saw me and hurried over.
“Y-your eye!”
“Your pretty eyelid!”
“I was stung by a bee.”
“How did that happen?!”
The two of them lamented together, and I gave them the answer I had not been able to give Danny earlier.
“I guess it thought I was a flower.”
“That’s right. Then it couldn’t be helped.”
“Then you can’t complain even if you get stung fifteen times.”
Now that’s a normal reaction.
As expected of a romance novel. The male lead, the sub-male lead, and the people around them only care about the female lead. That’s the classic rule of romance novels.
“But why were there bees?”
“Even if they aren’t very dangerous, the gardener catches all the bees.”
They were foreigners, so their Imperial language was a little awkward, but I had no trouble understanding them.
“There were a lot of bees, though?”
“……?”
The two tilted their heads, saying there was no way that could be true.
Then did someone deliberately release the bees?
“Is there anyone here who doesn’t like that I came here?”
The two exchanged glances before shaking their heads.
“We like you.”
“Yeah, we do.”
“Thank you.”
Judging from how they avoided answering, they seemed to know who the culprit was.
Since they were covering for the person, I did not particularly want to press them about who it was. It was not like the bullying had gotten that bad yet.
Compared to how William had treated me, this was nothing more than a child’s prank, so I decided to let it go.
“Did you remove the stinger?”
“Yes. It wasn’t a wasp, either.”
It was a type of bee that had not existed where I used to live. It looked similar to a bumblebee, but its sting was weak.
Even though the area became very swollen at first, once the stinger was removed, the swelling disappeared completely the next day.
“By the way, you two. Do you know what the boss likes?”
The two answered without even thinking.
“Being cursed at.”
“Stabbing things.”
“Maybe it’s because he’s the guild master of Eclipse, but even the things he likes are unusual.”
I thanked them with a glance, took the vase, and entered the boss’s room. By now, he did not care whether I entered or not.
I put the flowers in the vase and placed it neatly on the bedside table before looking around.
In the quiet room, I slipped a hand into my pocket and secretly pulled out an apple.
“For you……”
He tried to swat the apple out of my hand, so I quickly raised it above my head.
“This is an apple!”
“……”
“It’s a very delicious apple, but I’m not going to eat it today. I’m going to let the boss do something he likes.”
I gave him the fork I had secretly brought and placed the apple in front of him.
“I heard you like stabbing things. Try stabbing the apple to relieve your stress.”
I gave him the fork because I knew the boss would never hurt himself.
“……”
He looked back and forth between me and the apple. Without lowering his guard, he picked up the apple.
He raised the fork high and plunged it into the apple.
The apple split in half, and he dropped it to the floor without any hesitation. Apparently, that wasn’t enough to satisfy him, because the boss kept his eyes on me while repeatedly stabbing the already battered apple.
“Why are you doing this?”
“Why does your eye look like that……”
“I was stung by a bee.”
“……Not very good.”
Just when I was beginning to feel a little grateful that he had not said something more blunt—
Crack!
Even as he pulled the fork out after it had gone through the apple and stabbed into the marble floor, the boss looked straight at me and said,
“Fucking ugly.”
