TBLM 05

Chapter 5

“Wash the child before dinner begins.”

“Yes. Understood.”

“Come to the dining room at six. It is a family rule that we have dinner together.”

“…Yes, Fath-er.”

I answered while doing my best to hide my irritation.

But I couldn’t hide the sharpness in my tone.

Hmph! So I’m unbearably filthy, am I?

If I had lice in my hair, they’d definitely have spread to you too.

I glared fiercely at Bernardo’s retreating back.

Bernardo ordered the maids standing nearby to wash me and then disappeared with a tired look on his face.

Following the maids’ instructions, I was promptly escorted to the bathroom.

“Miss Isollet, please come this way.”

It was the first time in my life that someone had spoken to me so politely and treated me so respectfully.

However, I noticed that the maids taking off my ragged clothes were using only their thumbs and index fingers, as though even touching them was unbearable.

It seemed to be a purely instinctive reaction of disgust.

Sob. That’s too much.

I timidly approached the marble bathtub, where a warm mist was rising.

Oh, right. The bathroom floor was also made of shiny polished marble.

Could it be that the architect secretly designed this place to assassinate the people of the Count’s household?

Otherwise, why would they cover even the wet bathroom floor with polished marble?

Anyway, I approached the bathtub.

“Wow!”

The tub was filled with purified water heated to the perfect temperature.

Decorative roses had been scattered across the surface.

There was even a cute rubber duck toy, perhaps for the sake of a child like me who might be afraid of water.

They had prepared all this for me.

I felt touched.

Unfortunately, all that careful preparation was rendered meaningless because the bathwater was clean only at first.

It quickly became contaminated with the dirt coming off my body.

The roses lost their original freshness, and the cute family of ducks floating on the water no longer looked cute.

All that remained was a family of ducks that had apparently perished in a mass environmental disaster.

“Oh dear. How can someone so slender produce this much dirt?!”

“Hey! Hold her tightly! Someone go to the laundry room and bring some more people!”

“Miss, lift your arm a little higher!”

“Sniff, sniff…”

Had my filth awakened the maids’ competitive spirit?

They washed me with the determination of warriors who had finally encountered the final boss of their profession.

They seemed to be thinking that if there was such a thing as a final boss of filth, it had to be me.

No matter how much I pretended to cry, they wouldn’t let me off.

After they finally peeled away what felt like seven… no, eight layers of accumulated dirt, the soft, smooth skin of a child my age finally began to emerge.

After that, I could do nothing but get dragged around from place to place, being tossed and battered this way and that like a stuffed toy that had accidentally ended up inside a washing machine, until I was forcibly cleaned.

What’s more, the maids didn’t leave me alone even while I was crying.

Once they finished their human laundry, they wrung the water out of me as though I were a piece of wet clothing.

Then they fiddled with my face from every direction, dressed me, undressed me, changed my clothes again, and generally caused an unbelievable commotion.

I didn’t like a single thing about it.

My body was definitely clean now, but somehow I felt as though my soul had been dirtied instead.

I was beginning to think I might develop a trauma from bathing.

Sob, sob.

My vision blurred with tears.

I wasn’t crying because I was sad.

It was simply a physiological reaction.

I think I finally understood why children cried at the drop of a hat.

The devils—the maids—spoke to me with smiling faces.

How cruel.

They were shameless beyond belief.

Why did things like this happen to me everywhere I went?

Tears welled up because of my miserable situation.

“Don’t cry so much, and take a look in the mirror, Miss.”

“…”

Why would I care about a mirror at a time like this?

I buried my face even deeper into my knees.

I wasn’t sulking.

I was merely protesting with my entire body.

“Actually, the young master only told us to wash you, Miss, but when we saw what you really looked like underneath all that dirt, we got so excited that we couldn’t help ourselves…”

“……!”

I instantly snapped to attention.

These people…

They had been fully prepared to flatter me!

From the atmosphere, I had roughly understood that the maids were dressing me up.

I had no idea what exactly they had done to me, but I absolutely would not look in the mirror and smile or get excited.

I would never forget what they had done to me and start happily admiring myself!

That was what I swore to myself as I abruptly raised my head.

“…”

And then, for the second time since arriving at the Count’s residence, my mouth fell open.

There was a little girl sitting in the mirror whom I didn’t recognize.

No, I was pretty sure it was me, but something was different.

My skin was incredibly white.

I had always been fairer than most people, but this was on an entirely different level.

I was so white that if I buried myself in snow, I could probably pass for camouflage.

Who would have thought such smooth, beautiful skin had been hidden beneath all those layers of grime?

If not for the maids, I might have gone my entire life thinking my skin was gray.

The girl in the mirror was wearing a pale pink silk dress that looked as though it had been handmade by a master tailor.

The white frills and pink ribbons complemented one another perfectly, and the dress looked expensive at a glance.

The lively yet elegant pink dress suited my snow-white skin beautifully.

After dressing and undressing me countless times as though I were a doll, they had apparently finally found the outfit that suited me best.

My beige hair, which had been wrapped around and washed a whopping ten times until it was clean, looked as soft as cream.

My beautiful hair had been braided into twin braids by the professional hands of the maids.

My red eyes, which could look slightly intimidating depending on the viewer, seemed much more lively thanks to the twin braids.

Twin braids…

I had always thought they were merely a hairstyle people used when they wanted to look cute.

But this really was…

Cute.

Cute enough to make me want a little sister!

For the record, my younger sister in my original world had been the cutest creature in existence.

Therefore, saying that I wanted to make someone my little sister was the highest compliment I could possibly give.

I completely forgot my resolution not to fall for the maids’ flattering remarks.

Before I knew it, my mouth betrayed my will and opened on its own.

And I blurted out my brutally honest opinion.

“Cu…”

“……?”

“C-cute…!”

I let out my final verdict like a dying gasp.

The maids stared blankly at me for a moment after seeing me call my own reflection cute.

Then they began giggling as though they had just received the greatest compliment imaginable.

“How is it? You like it, don’t you?”

“Isn’t it beautiful?”

When I saw the maids grinning at me while I stood there completely mesmerized, I finally came to my senses.

Only then did I realize that I had been staring at the mirror with a vacant, foolish grin on my face.

These ridiculously honest facial muscles of mine!

Smack! Smack!

I lightly slapped my own cheeks without hurting myself.

I quickly regained control of my expression.

After clearing my throat several times, I grumbled for no reason.

“N-no! I mean, it’s not like I’ve changed that much! I’m just a little cleaner! I look exactly the same!”

“You’re so cute!”

Then one of the maids suddenly threw her arms around me and hugged me tightly.

W-w-w-what is wrong with this household?!

They’re nobles! They’re supposed to be nobles!

How could they treat me so casually?!

Did that man Bernardo deceive me?

Did he introduce me not as his daughter, but as some experimental specimen that the maids were free to play around with?

What?

I couldn’t stand it anymore.

I decided I had to say something.

But just as I was about to speak, the head maid rustled around in her pocket, pulled something out, and handed it to me.

“Here you go~. You were very patient, Miss~. This is a present. Do you like candy?”

“Yes!”

It looked less like candy and more like a raspberry coated in sugar syrup, but…

My eyes lit up.

It was the first candy I had seen since coming to the Baros Empire.

I immediately turned into a puppy in front of it.

I stared at it with sparkling eyes.

“Hehehe.”

The head maid gave an evil laugh and even waved it in front of my face.

My eyes followed the candy helplessly.

C-could she be training me?!

But I lost to the temptation of the candy.

As I turned into a puppy whose eyes sparkled at the sight of a treat, the head maid unwrapped the candy and popped it directly into my mouth.

Sob.

It was so delicious!

How many years had it been since I had tasted something sweet?

Every food I had eaten in Hellbaros had been either salty, spicy, sour, or disgusting.

It was so terrible that I couldn’t tell whether I was eating to destroy my sense of taste or simply to stay alive.

In this case, “destroying my sense of taste in order to survive” would probably be the more accurate expression.

Part of the reason was that, as a commoner, I had rarely had the opportunity to eat delicious food.

Anyway, this candy was the first delicious food I had eaten since coming to Hellbaros.

They had given me something this delicious.

Hmph. Fine.

Maybe I’ll forgive you just this once.

You seem like a nice person, too.

Before I knew it, my anger melted away like snow in the sun, just like the candy dissolving inside my mouth.

My anger had disappeared so easily because of nothing more than a piece of candy.

Was my mind becoming childish because my body had become younger?

Apparently, although my memories had remained intact, my emotional changes and speech patterns seemed to have followed my physical age.

The head maid bent down until she was eye level with me, smiled, and placed her index finger against her lips.

“Normally, you shouldn’t have snacks before a meal, but this is our little secret from the head of the household, all right?”