TMWDS Chapter 10

He wasn't especially clever, but he had judgment enough to sort out priorities.

He said, his voice lowered:

"Sit down, Nils."

"Fadh……!"

"I said quiet! Nils, just how much more are you planning to disappoint me!"

Hayden snapped, venting his frustration.

Unable to say anything to Ionna, he'd redirected the blame instead onto the son sitting beside her.

It was the exact reverse of how things usually went, and Ionna found the feeling it left her with strange.

"You're the elder—you ought to know how to be broad-minded about it, and here you are trying to raise your voice first over every little thing! Is that really appropriate behavior right now?"

"……I wath wrong."

"Good. I can take it you haven't changed your mind about reconciling with your sister?"

"……Yeth."

Nils answered with something closer to a groan than a word.

The brief farce had reached its close; it was time to make her exit.

Ionna rose from her seat and spoke as though teasing him.

"That's enough, Father. Nils has surely felt something from this much. In consideration of the effort, I'll let it go here too."

She thought if she pushed any further, Nils might actually start bawling like a child.

She'd sooner decline a graceless sight like that even if offered for free.

Just as she was turning to leave, Ionna, as though something had just occurred to her, turned back to Hayden.

"Oh—Father. There's no need to concern yourself any further about who serves under me."

At her words, Hayden startled and half-leapt up.

"What? You just said you'd bring back a dedicated maid a moment ago……!"

"I will, of course. But I'll be choosing who works under me myself."

Ionna set a hand on his shoulder as though to calm him.

Hayden wanted to keep voicing his objection, but under the fearsome pressure radiating from his daughter, he ultimately tucked his tail.

His lips twitched faintly and then fell still, and only then did Ionna's set expression finally soften.

"Doesn't it seem like every time someone else comes between Father and me, some needless misunderstanding springs up between father and daughter?"

"……."

"Well then, I'll take it there's no problem, and I'll head in for now."

Ionna left the study without so much as a backward glance.

She had no wish to spend more time than she had to on that repulsive breed.

Once she'd shut the door behind her, Ionna paused where she stood and sank briefly into thought.

'A dedicated maid, was it.'

It was a matter she hadn't had the attention to spare while sorting out the current situation. Busy as she'd been just handling the matters directly in front of her, there hadn't been room to look after someone else's circumstances too.

But as Hayden had said, a noble house's daughter couldn't go on forever being treated like a discarded child.

To move properly, it was about time she had someone trustworthy at her side.

'Who would be good.'

Ionna went up the stairs, running through the various figures rising in her mind.

Having once run the county as its head, she had a fair number of retainers whose loyalty she could trust.

Among them, if there was someone suited to this situation……

"Steward."

Ionna called out, stopping the steward who happened to be standing in front of her room just then. She asked her business shortly.

"What is it?"

"Ah—I heard word you'd returned home. It's nothing much, only there's a matter I wanted to discuss with you regarding the next maid's appointment."

So the steward, too, had come looking for her, on top of Hayden.

It seemed he'd had his own share of grief under his master's badgering. She could sense him reading her expression, gauging the mood.

"Good timing. I happened to be looking for you myself over that very matter, with something to ask."

"A request, my lady?"

"You'll recall I sent three maid back home last time. I imagine the household's short-handed enough for it now…… I've been feeling somewhat sorry, using people who are already busy enough as it is."

"My lady? There's no need at all to trouble yourself over such a thing……"

"Which is why I'm bringing this up. Wasn't there a maid who was sent off to the far estate, some years back, when the late Countess passed?"

Ionna cut in over the steward's words and went straight to the point.

At having an unexpected figure so suddenly brought up as the topic, the steward's fluster was considerable.

Looking into his eyes, Ionna smiled faintly.

"Have someone send for her."

"If you're pitying me, you'd best not."

Ionna said abruptly.

At that, Marsha, sweeping up broken glass some steps away, paused and lifted her head.

Marsha said, as though the very idea were absurd.

"On what grounds would I go pitying you, my lady. I'm only doing what needs doing."

"No one's going to bother themselves that my room's ended up like this. Which also means you're doing work no one's going to give you credit for."

Ionna pointed that out, gesturing vaguely at the disordered room.

Ever since she'd been formally registered into the household and started living there, Yvonne had made a habit of coming to Ionna to throw her vicious little fits whenever she couldn't hold her temper in—today no exception.

This was a fairly ordinary occurrence in the household, and like every repeated thing, it drew no particular attention from anyone.

Unable to counter what Ionna had said, Marsha fell silent for a moment.

Then she asked, out of nowhere:

"Have you never once thought, my lady, that you'd like to leave this place?"

Leave, was it. Leave, and then what.

It seemed a hypothetical with no real point to it.

"No."

"Then don't say anything. If it's a room you're going to keep living in, you should at least keep it looking like a place a person lives."

Marsha scolded her, her voice firm.

Every time the other woman acted like this, Ionna always got the feeling she was behaving just like a mother. Even though the actual gap in their ages was only nine years or so.

As Ionna simply stared back blankly, the sharpness eased slowly out of Marsha's raised eyes.

Turning the other way, she said, calmly:

"But you know, my lady. There are things in this world that no one else can straighten out for you."

Ionna found herself suddenly craving a drink. She looked around for an intact glass, but the surroundings were a mess.

How old had she been, at this point.

Now that she thought of it, it seemed she'd been a little too young to know the taste of liquor yet.

The instant that realization landed, Ionna jerked awake from sleep.

"……What a fool's dream that was."

Ionna muttered, rubbing at her dry mouth with a finger.

Sitting up, her lower back stiff, she found—thankfully—a body mature enough that she could enjoy a drink.

Had something outside caused her to wake so suddenly? A heavy knock was sounding beyond the door.

Ionna raised her voice.

"Talk from there."

"My lady, it's the steward. The maid you sent for has arrived at the estate sometime before dawn—shall I have her prepared and brought in?"

Tomorrow was the very day she was set to meet the Duke.

She'd worried the maid might be delayed getting back from so far away, but fortunately, she'd arrived just in time, and so Ionna could avoid Hayden's meddling.

Ionna gave her body a quick once-over and soon made her decision.

"Not ready yet. Bring her in in thirty minutes."

It was exactly that much time later that Ionna finished preparing to receive her guest.

By the time Ionna had finished washing her face and buttoned every last button on her house robe, a knock sounded once more at the door.

"I was told you sent for me, my lady. It's Marsha."

Ionna wasted no time granting entry.

Soon, a familiar face appeared before her.

She might have expected surprise, given how long it had been since her last summons, but Marsha wore her usual unmoved expression as always. The voice that followed carried no fluctuation either.

"It's been a long time. I trust you've been well?"

Ionna, having tucked her sleeves and finished smoothing out her clothes, took a seat and gestured for the other woman to sit as well.

"As you can see. And you—was life out in the country all right?"

"Thanks to your concern."

To Ionna's polite question, Marsha answered just as politely.

There didn't seem to be any need to draw out the preliminaries any further.

"I don't know if you were caught off guard, being summoned back to the estate so abruptly. All my dedicated maid positions ended up vacant recently, over an unfortunate matter. So I ended up borrowing your hands, even from so far away."

"……Are you saying I'll be working under you from now on, my lady?"