In the middle of the guide to the bedrooms, I almost habitually entered Rue's bedroom along with him. This was the consequence of using the same bedroom at the noble council meeting.
—Miss Daisy, would you like to sleep with me? Well, I considered going to your side at night. It would be more convenient for us to wake up on time if we share the same bedroom.
I ran down the hallway with the maid before I was turned into a joke. Rue was a cruel demon who would take advantage of my mistake at least ten times if he caught me. Let's behave well.
It was quiet that night. After finishing an early dinner without the owner of this mansion, everything became even quieter.
—We're here. I couldn't ask about Viscount Weatherwoods and I couldn't deliver the head maid's letter.
Who would have thought the old man would recognize Rue?
—The blueprint of the Imperial Treasury is here. It seems there are many strange things in this mansion.
At least tonight, it seemed there would be no need for me to commit any robbery. Maybe I should do some digestion and research at the same time. When that idea came to mind, I took action immediately.
If I snuck into the vault, I could be dragged to the palace, but researching here should be considered a trifle and be okay. First, I checked the general structure of the second floor. Then, I began to check each room...
What was this? As soon as I opened the first room, I found myself face to face with Lenya, who was busy with housework in a corner.
—Ah! Miss Daisy, do you need anything? You just have to ask. I'll bring it to you.
It was a failure. I looked at the clothes and bedding piled on the table near her and asked casually, as if I hadn't been spying around,
—Ironing?
Lenya blushed and nodded shyly at her work.
—Yes!
Mmm. A maid knew best the struggles of another maid. Ironing was not an easy task and was one of the housework tasks that took away the most time. She couldn't afford to waste time ironing when she was busy taking care of her old master who had fainted.
I began to scatter the unironed clothes on the floor, one by one, in the order they were to be ironed. Fortunately, the floor of this room was impeccably clean, allowing me to scatter the clothes without any difficulty.
—Daisy? W-what are you doing?
—Wait, I'll show you paradise.
After spreading them all well, I took Lenya's iron. It was spherical and quite heavy. I breathed slowly and deeply and concentrated. I began to imagine.
This was the enemy camp where more than thirty demons had gathered. I had to finish them all at once and help my friends who were in danger.
"I'm going to cut them down."
With full energy. Like this!
The iron stretched forward like a sword and returned in a horizontal movement. At the same time, white steam rose from the fabric into the air. The feeling of humidity on my skin was not unpleasant.
Was it already done? I opened my eyes. All the wrinkles in the fabric disappeared in the blink of an eye. This was the technique of ironing dozens of pieces of cloth at once. I called it the Devil's Ironing.
Lenya, who recognized the true value of the Devil's Ironing, applauded me.
—Wow! It's incredible! It would have taken me at least an hour... What's your secret?
—Courage.
—Courage?
—And endurance. There's nothing you can't do if you don't have courage and endurance. Do you want me to teach you how to train your body? First of all, 200 push-ups every day to build basic physical strength...
—Wait a minute! Please wait here a moment! I'll go get a pen and paper! I want to write it down!
Lenya, excited, left the room, being careful not to step on the clothes. In fact, in Weatherwoods I couldn't use this ironing method because the head maid forbade it.
—Miss Daisy, if even a small part of the bedding is burned, I will deduct the same value of the bedding from your salary. Please, work normally.
The head maid who didn't appreciate the beauty of the devil's ironing. I felt sorry for her. Having a friend in the same industry who understood me was a very pleasant feeling. Friends.
"Friend."
Hmm. The way the word came off my tongue caused a strange sensation in me. Looking back, more than three months had already passed since I began living as Daisy. Meanwhile, I forged many relationships with people as Daisy: the head maid, Rue, the assassin butler, the old potato seller, the market merchants, Yeager and Volkwin...
"Even if you have difficulties, your life and your relationships continue."
I was waiting for Lenya, folding the clothes lined up one by one, when I felt a strange presence stopping in front of the mansion. I identified it by looking out the window.
Two men.
—Miss Daisy! Huff, I'm already ready to take notes, so let's...
—Miss Lenya.
—What's wrong?
But the energy of these two was unusual. More specifically, it was hostile.
—By any chance are you and the grandpa criminals?
—W-what? No, we are law-abiding imperial citizens who settled in the Empire 15 years ago...
—Or maybe you have a bad relationship with someone.
Her answer had to be interrupted. I asked again, keeping my gaze out the window.
—Do you have someone like that?
—...The master gets along well with his neighbors and sometimes plays with their children. He is a friendly person. He is only an enemy of those from Mephisto's army.
—Really? Then those two over there are just your friends?
Lenya, approaching, looked carefully out the window. The two disgruntled visitors waited motionless, ringing the mansion's bell.
—No, I've never seen them before. Wait, I'll go down and check...
—Don't go. —I grabbed Lenya's arm and clearly expressed my intention—. I have a bad feeling about them. Let them leave.
—But...
—The old man is also unconscious. If they have important business to attend to, they will return.
Lenya, who looked at me with inquisitive eyes, soon nodded slowly.
"Normally I wouldn't care."
Perhaps it was the way I confirmed the royal vault blueprint. And, furthermore, after considering Lenya's words, it seemed somewhat sinister to me. After that, the two men, who had been standing in front of the mansion for a long time, turned around and went back the way they had come.
It was not until midnight that they reappeared.
The assassin's footsteps were stealthy. The ability to completely eliminate any trace of presence was the most fundamental skill of an assassin. When crossing a fence, they had to be lighter than the fluttering wings of a butterfly. When climbing a wall, they had to rise with the delicacy and speed of the wind. Taking a life also had to be done calmly, as if sending the other person to sleep. These were the basics, and the assassin's skills went one step further.
—You check the ground floor, I'll go up.
—Received.
He was sure he could control every breath, even his heartbeats. He had always fulfilled the missions he had been entrusted with and today would be no different.
"This is where the Weatherwoods are funded from."
His mission was to kidnap the 70-year-old owner of this mansion. The truth is that the assassin was quite disgusted with today's mission.
The Weatherwoods had been the target of his guild's scrutiny for almost four years. As members of aristocratic society, there was a highly secret treasure hidden inside the house of this historic family. At the instigation of their client, the guild had been diligently investigating both the treasure and its owner. For the investigation, the guild employed its usual methods, as there were no additional requests beyond that. Although employees changed frequently and the presence of magic traps installed inside the mansion made it difficult to monitor, the mission had continued without major problems. However, complications began to arise in the mission about three months ago.
"Two assassins have disappeared... No, were there three?"
Since they hired the new maid and cook. Before the guild realized it, the assassins who had been sent to search the Weatherwoods mansion began to disappear. Among them was even an excellent assassin with a 100% mission completion rate. The guild had searched Midwinterre to find them, but there was no trace of the missing assassins anywhere.
"The Weatherwood family is quite suspicious, to say the least."
And it wasn't a common family. The enigmatic figure known as "Gray Weatherwoods," who they were sure would never appear, suddenly appeared out of nowhere and then disappeared like a ghost. Not to mention that the Viscountess of the Northern Continent Union had also suddenly appeared. Furthermore, according to information provided by their client, it was said that the maid was a survivor of Queen's Island, while the cook's background remained unclear. Even the employees themselves are far from normal in this strange house.
"When I complete this mission, I will ask them to exclude me from any mission related to Weatherwoods."
Meanwhile, the client had received a new request: to kidnap one Mr. Malcolm Joe of Westwinterre. The close relationship between Malcolm and the Weatherwoods could only be discovered after four years of investigation. And in that old red-roofed mansion lived only an old man and a young maiden.
However, the fact that the maid did not appear even after ringing the bell in the afternoon meant that she had significant suspicions about outsiders. The assassin leaned against the wall, carefully inspecting the left hall of the second floor. Now, it was time to fulfill the mission.