Chapter 23

Kelly and I began our cleaning with the high-priority rooms.

“Phew! Kitchen and laundry room, mission accomplished!”

“It was a help that the kitchen was simpler than expected. It seems there are very few belongings in the servants’ quarters…”

“Truly. It feels like the bare minimum… even though they put so many gaudy, gold-plated decorations in the areas they used themselves.”

“I hear many lords are like that. We should consider ourselves lucky the kitchen equipment isn’t broken.”

“That probably has something to do with why it’s so hard to hire servants. Still, it’s already evening… and we’ve only managed to clean two areas.”

I wondered just how long it would take for the two of us to get this entire mansion sparkling.

“Kelly. Let’s call it a day for cleaning and get ready to welcome Lord Nazel home.”

“A wise choice. For now, I shall handle the dinner preparations.”

“Kelly, can you cook?”

“No. Just like breakfast and lunch, I will go buy prepared dishes. I attempted to cook at the detached house once before, but Lord Nazelbert strictly ordered me that ‘cooking is hereafter forbidden.’”

Wait, why would he give an order like that!? Kelly… just what on earth did you make?

“We really do need a chef, after all.”

“…We do.”

Kelly headed down to the town, while I set about preparing the dining set.

I figured if I just imitated the work the maids did at the House of Eventail, I’d be fine.

“I wonder if Lord Nazel drinks?”

There were a few bottles of wine mixed in with the food Sir Henry had arranged for us yesterday.

Wine and Lord Nazel… a perfect match…!

“I don’t know if he’ll drink it, but I’ll set it out just in case.”

While I was doing that, the man of the hour, Lord Nazel, returned from work.

“Agnes, I’m home.”

“Welcome back, Lord Nazel. Thank you for your hard work today. Kelly should be back with food shortly.”

He possessed his usual, flawless beauty, but I had the feeling Lord Nazel looked a bit downcast.

“Agnes, I’m sorry. I’m putting you through so much trouble. All because I brought you to the frontier.”

“What’s brought this on so suddenly, Lord Nazel? I’m having more fun here than I ever did at my parents’ house, you know? If anything, life back then was just one struggle after another.”

It started with living in heavy dresses and painful shoes, followed by being badgered about my engagement every time we crossed paths, being forced to attend parties where I was hated, and getting hit whenever I failed.

Wow, thinking back on it now, it really was the worst!

“Compared to my time at the House of Eventail, none of this is a big deal at all. More importantly, would you like a drink? It seems this is the wine Sir Henry prepared yesterday, and it looks quite high-quality.”

“Yes, I think I will.”

I hurriedly poured the wine and handed it to Lord Nazel.

“Thank you, Agnes.”

With a beautiful smile, Lord Nazel proceeded to down the wine in a single, large gulp.

“Oh, Lord Nazel, what impressive drinking form…”

Was wine actually meant to be drunk like that?

“Agnes, may I have another glass?”

“Ah, yes. Here you go.”

Lord Nazel continued to consume the wine at a rapid pace.

The faint flush on his cheeks was likely from the alcohol. It seemed best not to pour him any more.

“Lord Nazel, that’s enough wine for now. Let’s save the rest for tomorrow.”

In the spacious dining room, I quickly hid the wine and took a seat next to him.

Back when we lived in the detached house, Lord Nazel hadn’t been much of a drinker.

This meant… something unpleasant must have happened at work. My father used to be the same way.

Though, I thought it was just like Lord Nazel to not take his frustrations out on those around him while drunk, unlike my father.

“Lord Nazel, I’ll listen if you want to talk. I might not be of much use, though.”

Perhaps because the alcohol was taking effect, Lord Nazel seemed more dazed than usual. With a pained expression on his face, he began to speak to me in fragments.

Normally, he probably wouldn’t talk about work with someone like me.

But right now, thanks to the wine, his lips were slightly loosened.

“…I see, I see. So that’s how it is.”

I tried to piece together Lord Nazel’s somewhat incoherent, drunken explanation in my head.

Just as Kelly had told me, it seemed we were currently “playing away”¹ here in the Sutrena Territory.

The situation was the same at Lord Nazel’s workplace. Even though he was an exile, he had been determined to work hard for the sake of the frontier, only to be told, “Please, don’t do anything.”

To top it off, they apparently told him, “It would be best if you just spent your time elegantly at the mansion, just like the previous lords.”

“Did the previous lords really not do any work at all? I wonder what exactly they were doing ‘elegantly’ at the mansion?”

It was a total mystery…

I knew that Lord Nazel had researched the Sutrena Territory extensively. I also knew he had been preparing to make this land a better place. But…

“It’s certainly tough when you can’t get any cooperation no matter what you try to do~”

“Yeah… I have to… think of a way…”

I wished I could have worked alongside Lord Nazel, but the “good old-fashioned” education for a daughter of the House of Eventail was focused solely on becoming a wise wife and a good mother.

Since being disowned, I had started looking things up by reading Lord Nazel’s books, but… it was frustrating that I still wasn’t of much use yet.

That didn’t mean, however, that I intended to just leave Lord Nazel like this.

“I know, Lord Nazel! Those seedlings you crossbred for the frontier—they were in our luggage, weren’t they? Why don’t we plant them here? You said you wanted to see if they would grow properly in this environment, didn’t you!? If that’s the case, I think we can manage that even in our current situation!”