LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 8
Chapter 8‘This….’I stared blankly at the portrait of a girl on the paper.Although it was a picture drawn with poor skill, but the girl on the paper was unmistakably me.Red, wavy long hair and purple eyes.A face I’d seen in the mirror countless times, unfamiliar yet familiar.And underneath the drawing were the words, “Looking for someone.It was Colin’s handwriting from when he was young.I held my breath for a moment and bit my lip.And when Colin opened his eyes, I quickly put the paper back between the books.“… Rose?”“You woke up?”I smiled at Colin as naturally as possible.Colin looked at me, wide-eyed, as if surprised to see me sitting on my knees in front of his bed.“What are you doing?”“Oh, nothing, just… I came out after washing up and found you sleeping.”Ha Ha Ha.I smiled awkwardly and scratched my cheek, and Colin looked at me and burst into laughter.Anyway, it’s still weird. He muttered in a voice mixed with laughter.“I laid down for a minute and fell asleep. Sorry about that. I was up all night reading.”“Oh. You still like books.”“People don’t change easily.”Whenever books were brought into the orphanage, Colin was the first one to read them.Thanks to that, in the original novel, Colin played an active role by handling the accounting and transactions of the Holden company.But I pretended not to know about that role and just smiled.“Rose, are you going now?”“Yes. I’ve been fooling around, and I need to get back to work before I get caught.”I stood up and brushed the dust off my knees.“Wait, Rose, one of your buttons isn’t buttoned.”“What? ah…”Colin sat up, too, and slid down the bed to stand in front of me.“Oh, my wet hair got tangled and I couldn’t get it…”A maid’s uniform had to be buttoned at the back.However, the buttons were too small and numerous, and the button went right below the nape of the neck, so I often got cramps in my arms when I tried to do it by myself.Plus, my wet hair would get tangled up in the buttons.‘I thought he wouldn’t be able to see it well since my hair grows all the time anyway.’As I was thinking about the button at the nape of my neck that I had not yet fastened, Colin suddenly raised his hand.“I’ll do it.”“What? No, that’s enough.”I tried to refuse, but Colin had already grabbed my shoulder, turned me around, and put my hand in my hair.With a very light touch, Colin moved my waist-length hair in front of my chest and touched my collar.“The button is small. It must be uncomfortable.”Maybe it was because he had moved all his hair forward, but I seemed to be able to feel Colin’s breath particularly well when he muttered.I felt a strange tickling sensation starting from my toes.No, no. Yeah. Maybe friends can button each other’s shirts for each other. Yeah, because they’re friends!‘But Colin, this guy. Unlike when we were young, he doesn’t listen to me anymore.’Not only did he force me to wash up earlier, but he also insisted on doing the buttons himself.‘He’s so stubborn now that he’s grown up. I used to be such a good little boy.’When I was at the orphanage, when I told him not to do something, he always listened to me without even asking why.It wasn’t for nothing that he was called Angel Colin.Just as I was feeling disappointed at Colin’s small change, Colin’s fingers touched the nape of my neck and then fell.“It’s done, Rose.”“Thank you.”“It was nothing.”I pushed my hair back and smiled brightly at Colin. * * * I ended up scrubbing stairs all day.After scrubbing every inch of the stairs in the mansion, as well as the stairs in the annex, my back was sore and my eyes were bleary…But the good news is that I felt less tired thanks to the refreshing bath in hot water.‘As expected, being a noble was good. I can get hot water every day.’After returning to the accommodation early and eating dinner, I was pessimistic about my situation for a while and returned to my room to rest.Knock-There was a knocking sound.When I opened the door, I saw one of the senior maids standing there in her nightgown.“You are Rosieta, right?”“Yes. What it is?”The sun has already set and it’s time for the maids to go to bed, so what’s going on?I frowned at the unexpected appearance of the senior maid. I had a bad feeling about this.“I left my ring in the Count’s dressing room. I’m sorry, but can you get it for me?”“Yes? Why me?”I asked, dumbfounded, and the maid snorted as if I was even more ridiculous.“Why, you’re a junior maid, the last to come in. Shouldn’t I, the senior one, be able to send you on an errand?”Although she had a timid face with freckles, her tone of voice was somewhat bold. For some reason, it reminds me of someone I saw during the day.But I had no intention of listening obediently.“That’s right, if it’s work, it could be like that. Isn’t bringing a ring a very personal matter? Why on earth did you leave the ring in the Count’s dressing room?”“Well, it’s….”When I asked the question clearly, the maid was quite surprised.Even if it is a men’s dressing room, there will be a lot of jewelry and accessories.It’s obvious even if you don’t look at it.She must have left her ring behind and forgot it while putting the owner’s ring on.Well, it was a hassle to go back to the mansion at such a late hour, so she came to look for a new, easy-going maid.‘That’s not fair. Do I have to do this for you?’I’ve been trying to keep my relationship with the seniors without friction, but not this.The senior maid must have realized I was looking at her pathetically, because she blushed and her eyes widened.“So you don’t want to?”“Yes, I don’t. You can go pick it up tomorrow.”“You… Then I will tell the head maid that you dented the bucket today.”I looked back at her in bewilderment.“I beg your pardon? It was originally dented, right? The head maid also told me to throw it away?”“Anyway! None of the things in this house belong to you. It’s all the Count’s stuff. You damaged the Count’s thing. Do you realize that?”I just remembered that during the day I kicked the bucket and crushed it like a soccer star.So, she was just saying that she was going to threaten me using something like that.‘I thought to myself. What’s that Daniel going to say about a dented bucket?’However, the maid on the other end seemed to think that I dozed off for fear of being scolded by the head maid because I didn’t say anything. And the person the maid was referring to was not Daniel, but the head maid.Mrs. Rosa will protect me like today.But no one knew how long she would be kind to me. If you let Mrs. Rosa knew that I had a dispute with one of her maids, I might lose face in her eyes.What I was saying was that a pointless fight could only make my impression worse.I don’t want to give the impression that I’m a troublemaker, even if I’m only here for a short time.‘Besides, I’d only make myself look ridiculous if I made a scene.’I checked the time and sighed.“Just so you know, I’m only doing you favor this once, and it’s the last time.”“What? That’s up to me to decide, you a stupid newbie…”“Yes, yes. I’ll be back.”Ah, I can’t hear you.I deliberately interrupted the conversation, walked past her, and left the room.I could hear her mumbling something behind me, but I cupped my ears in response. Right now, my precious sleep is being threatened.How can you be so arrogant when you are asking for a favor? There was only one person who could do that to me, Lynne.“No matter how much I think about it, I think she sent me because she was scared of the dark.”I said to myself as I turned on the lamp I brought from my dorm and headed into the mansion.That’s because the white mansion I visited at night looked so eerie and grand, as if it was haunted.The good news among misfortunes is that I am not that afraid of ghosts.“People are scarier than ghosts.”It can be said that it is a truth that I already learned at the orphanage that I am more scared of the living and money than the dead.I smiled and walked through the dark central hall and up the stairs.To get to the dressing room, you had to climb the stairs and go to the very end of the second floor of the mansion. I babbled as I climbed the stairs, holding the lamp up to shoulder height.“She’s stupid. Why are you so angry at me over a dented bucket, when you are the one who wears the owner’s ring?”Now that I think about it, I tried to act cool, but I couldn’t shake off the feeling that I was being bullied by that senior.I came out ignoring her as a senior maid, but in the end, I accepted her request without saying anything…‘Actually, I’m an easy target…?’Unbelievable. I was the victim!I left the dorm in a hurry, but since I was granting her request anyway, I wonder where there’s another person like me.‘Really, this is just for today. If she threatens me with a bucket again, I’ll just snitch on her to Daniel.’I guess I should have held out and said I couldn’t go after all.I went up to the second floor with an uneasy look on my face, remembering that fierce-looking maid from earlier.From what I heard from Mrs. Rosa, the second floor mainly had bedrooms, an office, and a dressing room, and the third floor was full of guest rooms and empty rooms.Recalling the structure of the mansion I had learned throughout the day, I took a quick step to the right at the crossroads.When I got to the end of the hallway, I saw a door.As I opened the brown door and entered, I saw a room lined with a dressing table, jewelry box, and several closets in the dim moonlight.And fortunately, there was a thin ring on the dressing table that looked like what the senior had mentioned.“I’m glad I don’t have to look for it.”I breathed a sigh of relief and turned my head out the window.One side of the second floor was all connected to a long terrace, so it was said that most places could be accessed from the terrace.It’s probably all connected from the dressing room we’re in right now to the room on the other end. And most of those rooms are the rooms of the owners of this house…‘Huh…?’Just then, I noticed a white object hovering on the terrace.A white figure, with golden hair that glistened in the moonlight.“Lucas?”I called his name and approached the window leading to the terrace.Lucas, wearing a loose-fitting pajama shirt, was standing alone on the terrace.
Lucas looked at me and tilted his head.“Rosie? Why are you here?”“Why would you be out on the terrace at this time of night? It’s windy.”I looked at him in surprise, but he opened the window, came to stand in front of me, and smiled broadly.“Great.”“Yes?”“Stay with me, Rosie.”