I Ran Away And The Reverse Harem Started

Chapter 54 “Me?” “We will leave behind some maids to manage the mansion, and the other maids will also have to go to the villa. You’ll be part of the group heading there.” “Hmm.” “If you go to the resort area, there’s a beach and mountains too. Around Colin’s birthday, there will probably be festivals in all the nearby villages.” Lucas described the town where they had their vacation home, Rewybourne. It’s a typical vacation town with a continental ocean to the east and dense forests to the west, where hunting tournaments are often held. In the summer, there are large and small festivals, and boating is popular on the lake. “The sea! It would be so nice to play by the sea!” Lucas, who had been dreading the thought of being surrounded by nobles just now, spoke excitedly. He seems to be imagining me joining and playing with him. I looked at him and flicked his nose. “Ouch!” “Fool, Do you think I’m going there to play? I’ll be working, not vacationing. Stop saying such nonsense.” “But still, we could play after you finish working!” “Your head is full of nothing but playtime, huh? Just do your work. If you hate work so much, why not clean it?” I clicked my tongue and gathered up the materials on the bed and organized them. Next to him, Lucas was protesting and insisting that I should go to the villa together. “Lucas, you said you’d let me clean if I did what you said, so why don’t you get out of the way?” “Lucas, didn’t you say you’d clean if I followed your instructions? Want to get hit and move aside?” “I’ll do it if you agree to come to the villa! Ow!” In the end, only after getting a light smack did Lucas quietly start helping me clean up by my side.  * * * “So they’re holding the birthday party at the villa, not the mansion.” This meant that when the three brothers of the estate went on their summer vacation to Rewybourne, they could stay there for a few weeks or up to several months. ‘Then would it be better for me to stay in the mansion or follow the three brothers to the villa?’ I started to worry. Although I had groaned to Lucas about the idea of following them to the villa and having to clean there, the place was, after all, a resort city. The salty smell of the sea and the wide port. Unique scenery and seafood. When I was working at Lynne’s restaurant, I was so busy with work that I couldn’t even dream of taking a vacation. Of course, even if I went along with them, I’d be there as a maid, so it’s not like I’d spend my time playing. Still, it had been a long time since I’d seen the sea, and the thought of going was a bit exciting. I can play in the sea during my break with the new maid friends… But what Lucas said bothered me. “Daniel? He’ll probably stay behind at the mansion since he’s busy with work.” While other nobles were all escaping to their villas to avoid the summer heat, Daniel planned to remain at the mansion to work. I clicked my tongue in disapproval. What was the point of being young and wealthy if you couldn’t even attend a birthday party for someone as close as Colin because of work? Daniel, who hated struggling because of poverty, had seemingly flipped his priorities. Now, instead of suffering from a lack of money, he was suffering despite his wealth. It’s clear that Daniel, who hated to suffer from poverty, clearly had a problem with money and life. Now he’s struggling with being rich. “By the way, Rewybourne. It seems like a city I’ve heard of before.” After leaving Lucas’ room, I continued walking down the hallway without thinking. As I was thinking about the party at the villa and Daniel, my footsteps reached the end of the hallway. I had left Lucas’s room, passed the three brothers’ rooms and the empty rooms, and reached the far end of the hallway, the dressing room which was the last room. “Oh, I’ve come all this way.” I sighed as I stared blankly at the dead-end. Honestly, whether I went to the villa or stayed at the mansion, I just hoped I wouldn’t run into the two people who made me uncomfortable. I was about to turn around and go back towards the stairs, but at that moment the door to the dressing room burst open. I was startled, took a couple of steps back, and saw an unexpected person. “Angela?” Angela looked a little surprised, as if she hadn’t realized I was standing outside, but her expression quickly turned wary. “… Rosieta?” “What are you doing here?” I asked reflexively, and Angela was taken aback. Then she furrowed her brow and shouted, “What do you think? I was obviously cleaning!” Her sudden outburst left me even more flustered. Couldn’t she just have said that calmly? “Why are you yelling?” “Why?” As I looked at her, annoyed, Angela raised her chin defiantly, though she couldn’t hide her flushed cheeks. She was clearly trying hard to look composed. “You asked as if I was up to something, didn’t you?” She had an impressive talent for overanalyzing every word. After glaring at me for a moment, Angela stomped off toward the stairs, her shoulders stiff and her breathing heavy. “What’s her problem?” Why are you overreacting like that? I gathered my absurd thoughts. Just like they say, “Speak of the devil and they shall appear.” One of the two I was uncomfortable with popped out. Miriam and Angela. While Miriam was at ease these days because she wasn’t paying attention to me, Angela was actively ignoring me and being wary of me. I don’t know why. Was she still holding onto that argument we had about Marie? ‘The way she raises her chin and icy glares kind of remind me of Miriam.’ I sighed deeply. “It happened a long time ago, but she’s still angry?” I grunted and turned to leave. My gaze was drawn to the door to the dressing room. Through the slightly open door, a glass cabinet was visible where the clothes and accessories worn by the three brothers were stored. I looked at the gap for a moment. “This is the ring that Lucas bought him.” I looked through the crack in the door Angela had left open and then entered the dressing room. As expected, it was a room where the three brothers’ clothes and accessories were stored all at once, and the inside was filled with a huge closet and jewelry boxes. At first, I was overwhelmed by all the expensive clothes and jewelry, that I couldn’t even clean them properly. I looked around the room calmly, then bent down and looked inside the glass jewelry box. There was the ring that Lucas had mentioned. A gold ring with three small emeralds attached. It was something Lucas had given Colin as a birthday present last year. “How much must this ring cost with three emeralds?” Although the gem is small, it won’t be that cheap. As I gazed at the ring sparkling under the light, my attention drifted to the terrace. Curious, I rubbed a finger along the terrace’s glass door and found a thin layer of dust. … Did Angela really clean this room? ‘I’m sure she wasn’t holding any cleaning tools.’ But even if something had gone missing in a room like this, or for the maids to put a jewelry ring on her finger and then take it off. It’s suspicious. Angela didn’t look even prettier because she had a record. But I wasn’t about to jump to the conclusion that she was a thief, not knowing what was missing or what had been touched. I looked around with open eyes and headed toward the terrace. I opened the opaque curtains wide, letting the midday sun flood into the room. I blinked a couple times in the warm light and stepped out onto the terrace. The terrace extended along one entire side of the mansion, connecting the dressing room to Lucas’s room on the other end. Next to the dressing room was Daniel’s room. The curtains there were drawn tightly closed. “I don’t think he’s even there.” Instead of going over to the terrace of Daniel’s room, I turned my back and just stared at the window of Daniel’s room. The curtains were closed so I couldn’t see inside. Maybe he’s working, or maybe he’s just taking a nap.  ‘… Are you sure you’re not taking a vacation and working all the time?’ Stupid fool, I thought, even though I had advised him to take care of himself. Anyway, he hadn’t listened to anyone since he was a kid. “Ha, he’s only ruining himself.” I let out a long sigh. Anyway, it was either follow the two brothers to the villa by the sea or stay at the mansion with Daniel. ‘Wouldn’t staying at the mansion with two fewer people mean less work?’ Thinking this, I stared at Daniel’s curtained window. ‘Not that I care about him working alone or anything…’ Feeling awkward, I scratched my cheek and looked away. * * * Rattle, rattle, rattle— At that moment, Mikhail was sitting in the modest drawing room of the temple, nervously shaking his leg. Mikhail Tezeb, who had always admired Deborah and watched her from afar, had finally summoned up the courage to request an audience with Deborah a few weeks after the royal palace party. Although everyone was puzzled by the news of the visit of Marquis young master, who had never been a religious man, Deborah’s servant dutifully escorted Mikhail to the drawing room. The central temple in the kingdom’s capital was enormous. Hundreds of worshippers came in and out every day, and it was no wonder, for it was a sacred place with a high priests. Since Deborah became a saintess, dedicating herself to caring for war victims and the poor, the temple had regained its vitality. However, while the High Priest’s reception room was known to be lavishly decorated with gold and opulence, the most luxurious feature of Deborah’s drawing room was a few simple flowers. Even those seemed to have been grown by Deborah herself. Mikhail, while anxiously biting his lip as he waited for Deborah, scanned every corner of the small, humble room. He suppressed a surge of frustration as he glanced at the bouquet in his hand. ‘Damn it, if I’d known it was this modest, I would’ve brought diamonds instead!’ No matter how you look at it, Deborah’s drawing room was embarrassing to even be called a drawing room. It was more like an attic that had been decorated to look nice. It was a time when railroads were being laid to the neighboring kingdoms, and wealthy merchants were expanding their businesses. After the defeat, the kingdom ran out of money, even going into debt. The intention was to hide the shadow of their loss, but the influx of money only made the rich richer. While the poor went hungry, they expanded their businesses by taking advantage of tax savings. As money circulated throughout the kingdom and business expanded, the temple became less of a priority. ‘And yet, in this neglected temple, the saintess—a symbol of divinity—is treated like this?’ If it were his true personality, Mikhail would have gifted her a chair encrusted with diamonds. Although it was small, the Marquis of Tezeb had diamond mines. But today, what he had brought was a simple bouquet of white hydrangeas and pale purple roses! What a foolish, idiotic choice. ‘How could I have made such a stupid decision?’ The reason he made such an uncharacteristic and foolish choice was purely because of that red-haired woman he’d encountered at the royal palace party.