At that moment, a pathetic voice disturbed my thoughts.
"Let me go. I failed my mission and failed to commit suicide, so from now on I am a fugitive. If you let me go like this, I will never appear in front of you again. I promise I won't even talk about you. If necessary, I will take an oath to obey."
Yeah, I didn't need that.
I hit the assassin on the back of the neck.
I thought about it after knocking him out. What should I do with this guy?
"Should I kill you?"
There were many things that bothered me about putting the thought into practice.
The client was the one who sent the assassin at least three times. If I killed the assassin like this, it was clear that another assassin would come. It would be problematic again.
So let's hold this guy for now.
At first, I thought about leaving him in the room, but I quickly gave up on the idea. If the maid caught me, it was possible that I would be kicked out of this mansion.
I would have nowhere to go if I were kicked out of here, so I definitely had to look good in front of the head maid.
While I worried about where to hide him, my eyes caught the panoramic view of the house in front visible through the window.
A window opened at an angle on its second floor, to be exact.
"Good."
Since they moved this afternoon, it would take at least a few days for the new owner to move in. I put the intruder on my shoulder and jumped out the window.
Then I jumped the fence of the front house, climbed the wall, and entered through the second-floor window.
I pulled out the white sheet covering the bed and tied the intruder to the bed. After sealing his mouth completely, I closed the window and returned to my room.
"Ah."
Was there a dead mouse in this mansion or something?
When I shook the dust off my hands and lay on the bed, I had a small question.
Why did the client want to spy on Viscount Weatherwood?
The next day was sunny.
This excellent work at the Weatherwoods mansion included a grand schedule of taking tea after a quick breakfast at nine in the morning.
Thanks to this, I was given a break to enjoy some rest after a (not so) delicious meal.
Until I saw the unexpected landscape outside my window.
No way.
"Are they... moving?"
When I pointed at the window with my finger, the head maid, who had been busy reading the newspaper, turned her head.
"Hmm? Oh, you mean the Eachus residence over there? Ah, I guess they took everything out since yesterday; it's strange to call it the Eachus residence. I didn't expect a new family to move in here in one day. It must have been quite a sudden sale."
Yes, the mansion across the street, which was supposed to be empty due to the move, was currently full of people moving furniture.
A person moved in in one day? What if someone forgot their things yesterday? It couldn't be.
"I felt complacent."
"What? Stop mumbling to yourself, Miss Daisy. It's not a good habit for an employee."
I had slept out of habit, and that mansion had an intruder trapped since midnight.
I emptied the tea in one gulp and ran to my room. There were too many people to rush to bring him back immediately. First we had to analyze the situation.
My bedroom was located in the corner of the second floor, but it was perfect for having a panoramic view of the mansion across the street. I stuck myself to the window and looked at the mansion carefully.
A door full of workers.
Unlike our own garden, a well-organized flowerbed adorned their place.
An unknown man was enjoying tea and reading at a round table in the middle of the flowerbed.
For a moment, I was surprised by his mysterious blue hair, and then, I found the intruder sitting on his knees beside him.
At the moment I thought, "Wait, why is he there?" I made eye contact with the blue-haired man.
It was not an illusion.
He was looking directly at me, not at the spring sky or the panoramic view of the Weatherwood mansion.
Golden eyes, as strange and beautiful as his vibrant blue hair, fixed on me.
The sharp tip of his nose and his deep eyes gave off a strangely gloomy and noble atmosphere.
My eyes. My expression. His gaze was so clear and brazen that I could feel him scouring my appearance.
I had the illusion that the man's smiling mouth was mocking me, dressed as a maid.
I took a step back from the window in disgust.
At the same time, I realized something new. The fact that I hadn't felt such a special and personal feeling as unpleasantness for a long time, in my first encounter with someone.
"...as expected."
Something was wrong in this mansion.
It was some time ago, but it was once said that I had ascended to the point of being able to clash swords on equal terms with someone with the title of "Sword Saint." To impose such a strong and negative presence on me...
"It means that person is very suspicious."
It couldn't be helped.
Now that this had happened, I had to give up on recovering the intruder. I would simply pretend nothing happened. Let's forget about yesterday.
Back in the kitchen, naturally, I poured myself a new cup of black tea.
"Miss Daisy? You left in a hurry. Where did you go?"
"To urinate."
"Express it indirectly next time."
Everything was fine. I would continue to act naturally as a maid in the Weatherwoods mansion.
Shortly after I had made such a commitment, the mansion's doorbell rang.
"The... doorbell? It's been more than a year since it broke."
The head maid, who stood up with a suspicious face, went out to the front door. Naturally I followed her as a maid in the Weatherwoods mansion would.
Beyond the front door, I could see a figure of overwhelming height. I only checked the silhouette, but I didn't feel good.
It certainly wasn't good.
"Who is it? Unfortunately, Viscount Weatherwood is not in the mansion. Please make an appointment and come back next time..."
When the iron door opened, a dazzling beauty entered like the sun.
The maid's firm voice suddenly stopped. There stood a blue-haired man dressed as a city gentleman.
He smiled.
"The cook and gardener who's going to work starting today—that's me."
He was looking at me, not the head maid.
That was my first encounter with Rue.
Suspicious.
He wasn't just suspicious; he was frantically suspicious.
The five senses that I had sharpened on the battlefield were sending me a very strong warning about this man with the elegant and unique name, "Rue."
Even if you looked at him from the front, back, or side, he definitely was not a normal person. So I had to be careful.
I deeply agreed with the warnings sent by my instinct.
In the first place, this "Rue" was suspicious from his appearance.
The moment I faced him head-on, not only the maid, but also I, who was five or six steps away, suffered a considerable mental shock.
It could sound a bit funny, but Rue was a beauty that disturbed the body and mind of whoever contemplated it.
Yes, this expression was the truth, not an exaggeration. Even the strange blue hair that hung over his beauty was frankly beautiful.
What about those features that harmonize with the dark and sophisticated lines of his body? What about the golden eyes that shone like the sea when the sun shone on it? But what about that gloomy and sleepy look?
I decided to stop thinking about it, otherwise I'd be singing praises all day.
"You..."
"I'm Rue; I got this job thanks to the help of the human resources office. You must be the head here... what should I call you?"
"You can call me head maid. You are..."
"Yes, I'm the cook. Chef and gardener."
"I'm sorry, I keep making you say the same thing over and over..."
"I understand. You mean you can't believe that such a dazzlingly beautiful person as me could become a cook or gardener in this gruesome mansion? But you must accept it, because it's true. I'm Rue and I'll be working starting today. Thank you, head maid."
The man who smiled gracefully soon turned to me.
Just like the moment our gazes met when I was standing by the window on the second floor and he was in the Eachus residence over there. As if nothing had happened.
"And on this side?"
I didn't like his look. It was an instinctive but complete rejection backed by experience. That's why I avoided answering, even though it seemed clear that he had asked me for my full name.
"Maid."
"Is your name 'maid'? That's unique. I look forward to your kind cooperation in the future, Miss Maid."
He was not as good as his face. The odds of being in the improvement class seemed great.
"Ah..."
When I saw the maid blinking blankly washing her dry face that I had never seen in front of me, he didn't seem to be an ordinary person.
As he walked toward the back of the front gate as if he were entering and leaving, he inspected the messy garden.
"Hmm. Please let me ask you one thing. Is the concept of this garden a 'dumpster'?"
The maid, who regained her senses, shook her head slowly.
"If that had been the case, I wouldn't have hired you, Mr. Rue. Now that I think about it, I don't see your luggage. Did you come in with nothing—with only a single piece of clothing?"
"No."
"That's a relief. I have some servant uniforms left, but Mr. Rue's height is so great that I thought they would never fit him. Shall we go up first? I'll show you the room where you'll be staying first."
"Thank you for your kindness, head maid, but I will only work here; I will not make my bed."
"What does that mean?"
The smiling man raised his right hand and pointed somewhere beyond the gate.
"Starting today, I moved to my house." The place he pointed to was the mansion across the street. "So I will travel. What time should I come?"
The maid couldn't speak for a moment. Then she asked Rue, bewildered.
"Was it you who bought the Eachus residence? I don't know why such a wealthy person wants to be an employee."
"Do people need a reason to work?"
"Not in general, but I can't help but ask you."
Rue, who ran his hand over his chin, answered insincerely.
"Let's call it a hobby."