The Devilish Duke Can't Sleep

Proofreader: somnium

Every time Liddell called her in a friendly voice, ‘Maybe this time…… !’ She looked forward to it, but the work given to Elliot has always been chores. It’s barely a position better than the normal maid.

Every time she realized that she became madly envious and jealous of the chief maid, Maria, who was trusted by Liddell. Maria doesn’t seem to be prettier than her, just look at her appearance, and she didn’t know how Maria could become Liddell’s chief maid, as she was also a Baron’s Lady.

‘It’s unfair! It’s unfair!’

Elliot grabbed Liddell’s silk robe and clenched her teeth. First of all, no matter what happened, she had to regain her status as a noble.

And, Liddell looked at Elliot’s back, as she search for the maid to wash the laundry, with her face revealing dissatisfaction, although she pretended not to be.

* * *

“Wow…… ! It’s all snow!”

They said it gets colder the further north you go, so no wonder, Sharden was already a snow country. It was cold enough that she could even breathe clouds in the carriage, but Lena looked around the snowfield the whole time with a curious expression. Kahel was convinced that Lena would love sledding.

When the carriage arrived at Sharden mansion, the waiting servants ran out and moved their luggage, and the butler, the maid, and the servants of the mansion greeted Kahel politely. However, when a young woman followed after Kahel from the carriage, they were surprised as if they had forgotten that they were even in front of the Duke.

Someone had to act as a representative and explain her identity.

“Welcome, Your Excellency. You must have been tired after a long trip, so it is best to take a bath in hot spring water first. How many baths would you take?”

Marianne, a seasoned maid who followed Kahel, naturally raised a question about the relationship between the two. Unless the woman was the Duke’s lover, she would be able to use the bath only late in the evening after he had finished eating.

“First, only I and Lena will use it. After dinner, prepare it for the rest of the party.”

At those words, the employees around swallowed their breath silently. The fact that the mature Duke had a lover was not a common occurrence within the family. However, Lena quickly poured cold water on their inflated anticipation.

“Your Excellency! I, I will wash after eating. I have to organize my luggage and greet the chief maid…….”

“You can greet the chief maid now, who else are we going to meet? Marianne! This is my close maid, Lena. This maid is doing all my attendings. Know that she is the one who has to wait by my side all the time.”

Everyone was surprised once again. Everyone knew that Kahel could not have a maid or servant by his side. But she is a close maid, which was more surprising than if she was Kahel’s lover.

Curiosity filled everyone’s minds, but they were thoroughly trained as servants of the Duke’s family for a long time, and they bowed their heads without expressing their feelings.

However, Lena’s situation, who was much younger than the chief maid, was a little different. She was restless as she seemed to have become a maid who defied the authority of the chief maid in front of the servants. Now, everyone’s looking nonchalant, but the thought of what kind of bullying she might face while staying here is upsetting.

‘Even Mrs. Marvin, the chief maid in the village, was so anxious when she could not assert her authority. What about the Duke’s chief maid?’

Kahel’s stride towards the mansion gave her no time to excuse and forced her to follow, but she felt like she would have to take the time to greet the chief maid properly.

She wondered what would happen if she stood idly by Kahel even after entering the mansion, but fortunately she had to clean up her room, so she was able to say she was busy. The Luave mansion in Ardennes was also huge, but it was not comparable to the mansion in the estate. Getting lost in the mansion was also a possibility.

However, in such a large mansion, Lena’s area of ​​movement was limited. It was because Kahel is going to live mostly on the second floor, so Lena’s range of activity hardly strays from there.

The Master’s room is a ‘room’, but it is actually a series of five or six rooms, so it was a work to walk from the last bedroom to the outermost parlor. It was divided into a bedroom, a bathroom, and a secondary bedroom that doubles as a dressing room, an office, a meeting room, and a parlor, but Kahel had decided to eat his meals at the large table in the conference room, so it seemed that he really rarely went out.

Lena, along with the other maids, hung Kahel’s clothes in the dressing room and checked out the hot water for the bath. Unlike the bathroom of the Ardennes mansion, which made the bathtub a part of the bathroom, here a portable ceramic bathtub was used. Of course, since it was so heavy, it seemed that there was hardly any reason to move it while using it.

“Miss. Would you mind looking at the water temperature?”

“Ah yes!”

The maids of the mansion were also polite to her, but it was more awkward for the maids of the estate to call her politely. But Lena, reassured that her own attitude would soon be directly linked to Kahel’s honor, hoped to be as natural as possible, and she dipped her hands into the water of the bathtub as gracefully as possible.

“I think it needs a little more hot water.”.

“Yes. And you can just be casual. We are commoner maids.”

“Ah, I, I…… see.”

The words kept getting stuck in her throat. The truth is, I am a commoner like you and even the illegitimate daughter of a criminal, but I wanted to confess that I do not know how I became a close maid of the Duke.

After checking that the maids were preparing bath water, towels, and soap, she came out to the parlor, and unexpectedly, the chief maid herself was checking the fireplace. Not seeing the other maids around, she thought it was a great opportunity for Lena to greet the chief maid. Even if she greeted her, and a cold reaction could come back, it would have been better than to pass by without doing it. At that moment, the chief maid turned her head at her presence.

“Chief Maid. I will greet you again. My name is Lena.”

She was so nervous that she spoke too quickly and bowed her back too hastily, but she hoped this would make it clear that she had no intention of disregarding the chief maid’s authority.

“Nice to meet you, Miss Lena. I think you can raise your head up.”

Fortunately, Marianne’s voice was warm and there was no hostility. As she gently stretched her back and met her eyes with Marianne, she smiled sweetly. Marianne, who appears to be in her late 40’s, has all the characteristics of the northerners. Tall stature and slender body, pale wheat-colored hair, white skin, and sky-blue eyes could have made her look frivolous, but her expression was as gentle as the weather on the southern coast.

“Well, please forgive me for not greeting you when I first met you.”

“You don’t have to be so nervous. But I also wanted to talk to Miss Lena. How long have you been with His Excellency?”

“It’s been about half a year.”

“It’s not that long yet, but it seems that His Excellency cares about Miss Lena. By any chance, are you using an aura?”

“No way. That’s what knights use.”

“Then, you must be very strong in holy powers, don’t you?”

“Yes? Isn’t that the power that high priests use? I have never been to a temple.”

“Then do you drink the potion of purification every day?”

“A potion of purification? I don’t have anywhere that hurts enough to have to take potion..….”

Lena and Marianne’s expressions became more and more strange.

“Then, how do you withstand His Excellency’s devilish power?”

“Yes? Devil? What is that…… May I ask?”

“You don’t know anything about the devilish curse?”

Marianne’s eyes grew so large that she felt like her eyeballs would fall off if she added a little more.

“Curse, what is that…… Ah, come to think of it, Arder had talked for a while about whether it was a curse or what…….”

Just as Lena’s eyes narrowed as she recalled her old memories, Marianne heard a familiar voice behind her.

“Marianne. Don’t talk nonsense, and go and look after where the party will sleep.”

It seemed similar to usual, but Kahel’s voice was somehow chilly. Marianne, who reflexively bowed her head at Kahel, as if she had noticed something, quickly turned to Lena with a gentle and bright expression on her face.

“Miss Lena. Don’t worry about the previous story. It’s just a joke between us. I was going to play around a bit before the master came, but His Excellency came too early. Hohoho!”

“Ah, I see! I was surprised that there was a curse. After all, if there’s a curse that the Duke deserves, it’s probably a curse that makes people fall for him because he’s so handsome, right?”

Lena thought it was a joke and laughed, but the joke was so close to the right answer that Kahel and Marianne both held their breaths at the same time.

“Excuse me, I have to go downstairs. Nice to meet you, Miss Lena.”

“It was nice to meet you, chief maid. I look forward to learning in many ways in the future. Please tell me the joke about that curse again.”

Lena thinks that Marianne is a good person, and she tries to approach her, but Kahel cuts her off as if she was in the way.

“What do you want to learn more about? Lena, you just have to do what you have been doing until now.”

“Yes? However, I also want to learn about the skills as a maid…….”

“Lena.”

“I’m, I’m sorry…….”

Lena quickly shook her head at Kahel’s cold gaze. For a long while, Kahel has been so good to her that she unknowingly overlooked Kahel’s words. What will she do if Kahel gets very angry? Lena couldn’t raise her head up.

In the meantime, Marianne looked at Kahel and left the room. Looking at Lena’s stiff shoulder, Kahel sighed.

“I am not criticizing you for wanting to learn more as a maid. However, Marianne is the busiest person in the mansion with the butler. Besides, winter is the busiest time in Sharden.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t even know that..… I’ll make sure this never happens again…….”

“No, it’s not that you did something wrong…… Ha…… Enough.”

Lena was even more withdrawn at his giving up tone. Naturally, she was a maid in Kerouac, and there were so many things she didn’t know. Suddenly, her confidence plummeted, at Kahel’s frustration.

“Is the bath ready?”

“Yes! Waiting for your bath…… !”

“No, it’s fine. You must be cold and tired, so take a bath first. The maid outside will guide you.”

Kahel took off his fur coat and draped it over the sofa, and before Lena could pick up the clothes, he went into the bathroom.

As she hesitated, Lena hung the fur coat over the dressing room and left the room helplessly. As Kahel said, one of the young maids was waiting to guide her into the bathroom. Lena followed after, pulling an easy-to-wear clothes from her traveling bag next to Kahel’s door. After a long journey she was able to relieve her fatigue, but she felt depressed.