The Whipping Maid of House Calley - Chapter 38

The text read as follows:

『If the party fails to complete the original contract period and quits early, they are liable to compensate double the total amount of whipping-maid pay corresponding to the unfulfilled period.』

“Th-this is… this is too much!”

Cedric’s brows tightened at the maid raising her voice, as if she’d learned that rude manner from somewhere.

“What exactly is ‘too much’?”

At the changed expression of the Young Count, Sheila lowered her voice, frightened.

“This… this kind of important content written in such tiny letters….”

“Whether the letters are big or small, once you sign, you follow it.”

When Cedric leaned closer, Sheila held her breath and squeezed her eyes shut. Cedric, amused by the sight, rose to his feet.

When Sheila cautiously opened one eye, Cedric spoke again, sounding as if he were the one being wronged.

“It was merely a caution about a possible situation, yet you’re accusing me of being shameless. You’re the one who couldn’t even honor the original contract period and tried to break faith.”

He added that all of this was standard practice in normal contracts.

To Sheila, who knew nothing of such practices, none of it made sense.

But Cedric was the count’s heir, had received elite education, and had even established a major trading company. Sheila had no grounds to argue against someone so intelligent.

When Sheila kept her lips tightly pressed and said nothing, Cedric said, “If you have nothing else to complain about, I’ll leave now.”

Huh…! As if she’d complained so much…!

Well, time is money for someone like him, so of course he’d act that way.

Unable to hide her irritation, Sheila glared slightly up at Cedric.

She wanted to find some loophole in the contract and flatten that arrogant nose of his. Then an idea struck her.

“But… wasn’t this a whipping-maid contract?”

Cedric, who’d been about to leave, turned around. He tilted his chin slightly, as if telling her to go on.

“What I mean is… I think… what happened in that room goes against the contract.”

A faint smile of amusement crossed Cedric’s face. Then he spoke as if explaining something obvious, “No, Sheila. You saw it earlier. Article Seven, Clause Three. The choice of tools belongs entirely to Party A.”

Cedric continued, “I have a club of my own too.”

He dropped his gaze to the space between his legs.

“Wh-what kind of nonsense…!”

Even as she thought it was absurd, Sheila’s eyes involuntarily followed his.

From the center, a long object stretched toward the right inside his trousers. Even Sheila could see the silhouette.

‘That went inside my body….’

She unwittingly stared at Cedric’s groin and stiffened. Cedric lifted his head too, meeting the flustered maid’s eyes head-on. He didn’t bother to hide it. His blatant gaze only made her panic more.

But she gathered herself and protested, “J-just because I’m an uneducated maid doesn’t mean you can say anything you want!”

If she let this slide again, it would truly be the end.

“It’s unfortunate you think that way.”

Cedric’s expression darkened, and Sheila stiffened as well. A maid’s ingrained instincts ran deep.

“Look at Article Nineteen.”

Cedric spoke in a cold voice.

Article Nineteen…?

Sheila hurriedly flipped the pages with a sinking feeling.

The section he indicated stretched from the end of the second page into the first line of the third.

The content was simple.

『The detailed terms of this contract may be amended by mutual agreement between Party A and Party B.』

It was a passage she’d actually read before. But… was this what it meant?

“Is… is this kind of thing normal?”

“Do you think it’s not?”

The moment Cedric’s cold eyes fixed on her, Sheila felt that none of it mattered. Whatever he said became the rule.

If he said he was right, Sheila had no way to confirm or refute it.

Besides, the contract itself had been drafted by Cedric’s side from the beginning. Naturally, it was written to favor Party A alone.

And it had been written so meticulously across multiple clauses that no matter what happened, things would be dragged in whatever direction Cedric wanted.

In return for signing such a contract, Sheila would receive no small sum, but even that was nothing more than pocket change to Cedric.

“This is… unfair.”

Sheila finally said it.

Unlike Sheila, who could be beaten senseless and still end up penniless if anything went wrong, Cedric risked absolutely nothing.

If she’d quit on the very first day she’d been struck with the paddle, she would have owed compensation for the two unfulfilled months, double the amount and making it forty solids.

But Cedric hadn’t told her that. Instead, he’d promised to double her pay. And because Sheila had accepted him on his terms, the compensation she’d owe if she quit had now jumped to four times that amount.

Forty solids was barely manageable, but eighty solids was impossible.

Blinded by money, she’d stepped straight into a trap.

She had no idea why Cedric, the Young Count, had gone to such lengths to arrange all this.

As Sheila sat there in shock, Cedric pulled up the chair again and sat before her.

“Why are you doing this to me…?”

Barely able to lift her head, Sheila whispered the question like a helpless mutter. His expression didn’t change as he answered.

“Do I need a reason?”

He spoke as if, should a ‘reason’ be required, he could invent one at any moment.

Well, he probably didn’t need one.

A haughty heir playing with a maid didn’t require deep justification.

“It’s just a three-month contract, Sheila. Stop thinking and endure it.”

At that devil-like whisper, Sheila thought about it. Out of the three months, only two remained. If she quit now, she’d suffer enormous loss after taking a month’s worth of beatings. But if she endured just two more months, she’d gain money no ordinary maid could ever earn.

With that money…!

When Sheila didn’t respond, Cedric spoke again, “From now on, we’ll call that room the punishment room.”

His declaration made it clear: whatever happened there was nothing more than punishment.

Sheila once again couldn’t find a single word to argue back with.

“If you’re curious about anything else, ask. I’ll answer whenever.”

Leaving those unilateral words behind, the busy man whose time was money stepped out of the shabby attic room.

***

Before it got too late, Rufus went to Judith’s room. Cedric had given him instructions two hours after the usual end of lessons.

Knock, knock. As soon as he knocked, a sharp voice snapped from inside.

“Who is it!”

“It’s Rufus, my lady.”

There was no verbal reply. Instead, a maid cracked the door open.

“What brings you here…?”

Only half the maid’s face was visible.

“May I come in for a moment? The Young Count instructed me to deliver a message to the young lady personally.”

At Rufus’s words, the maid asked for a moment and closed the door.

A little while later, the door opened wide.

“Please come in.”

The atmosphere in the room was grim.

The maid who’d recently married lowered her head politely, but Rufus immediately noticed her swollen cheek. The young maid assigned not long ago had a similar face.

It was obvious Judith had grabbed and hit both maids after lessons ended.

“Why?” Judith asked aggressively.

Still, the fact that she at least used polite speech to her eldest brother’s secretary was the only small mercy.

“I’ll deliver the Young Count’s words. He ordered that I relay them directly to you, my lady.”

“I get it, so hurry and say it.”

Judith knew perfectly well that if she acted rudely in front of Rufus, Cedric would hear about it immediately, but she still couldn’t control her temper.

After going to the trouble of carefully training her maid for an entire month, she got caught the moment she could finally put it to use.

Sheila put on an innocent expression and denied that she’d tattled, but Judith wasn’t foolish enough to believe a maid’s excuses.

Judith was convinced Sheila had reported her out of resentment for being beaten in her place.

And to such a Judith, Rufus spoke, “The Young Count told me to inform you that he knew Sheila was the one who did the homework, not because anyone told him, but because he discovered it himself. No matter how similar the letters look, every person applies pressure to a pen differently.”

Judith’s breathing grew ragged. To her ears, that sounded like the stupid maid’s fault for getting caught.

Judith immediately began plotting how she would torment Sheila the moment she saw her the next day.

“He also said that all responsibility for the misconduct lies with the young lady who ordered her maid, who can’t refuse, to do the homework, and that Sheila’s imitation was good enough that most people wouldn’t have noticed.”

Cedric, who’d ordered Rufus to relay the message, seemed to know exactly how Judith would take it.

Judith, who’d already been thinking of ways to torment her maid, now showed clear annoyance. And some of that irritation flickered faintly across Rufus’s face as he continued.

“In any case, the Young Count said he himself is capable of catching even the smallest discrepancy, so you are not to scheme like this again.”

Judith made a face that said, Tch.

Rufus quickly continued, “The Young Count said he won’t hold the young lady responsible this time. But if you ever try to blame Sheila again, then the Young Count will make sure you pay a price for it in some form. That is all.”

“I get it, so leave,” Judith snapped, breathing hard.

Watching her, Rufus recalled the conversation he’d had with Cedric before coming here.

“You’re not seriously trying to blame Sheila when the young lady is the one who ordered her. Every day she cries because she gets beaten in her place.”

Rufus had seen enough to know that Judith cried every day at the end of lessons, claiming she couldn’t bear watching her maid get beaten. He also knew she’d go to her mother daily, whining that she couldn’t stand seeing Sheila get hit.

Because of that, Rufus had thought Cedric was worrying too much. Judith was dim-witted and selfish, but he didn’t believe she was cruel enough to do something that terrible. She was only a thirteen-year-old girl, after all.

“Don’t be naive, Rufus. She’s not crying because she feels sorry for the maid. She cries because she enjoys being the kind of person who sympathizes. In reality, she doesn’t care at all whether the maid gets beaten.”

“No way… surely not.”

“Stop talking back and just do what I told you. She’d planned to dump the homework on her again, but her plan got ruined, so she’s probably furious right now.”