The Whipping Maid of House Calley - Chapter 61

“I said I’d grant whatever you wanted if you went to the royal palace. Let’s talk about that now.”

After hearing the matter, Alfonso opened his mouth. “That, I’ll think about it later.”

Alfonso’s expression twisted slightly. Perhaps because of the aftermath of meeting the Crown Prince, he’d forgotten something that important.

Cedric said without taking his eyes off Alfonso, “I’ve already thought of something, so sit down.”

Alfonso was the second son of a count’s family who’d grown up wanting for nothing. Because of that, there was hardly anything he still desired. Even so, Cedric always presented him with something better.

After hesitating, Alfonso eventually sat down.

His brother being ‘that kind of relationship’ with the Crown Prince and what he himself needed to look after were separate matters.

“This time, you should choose a marriage partner too.”

“That’s the reward?”

Alfonso frowned at Cedric, who was stating the obvious.

“If possible, it’d be better to choose a woman from a prestigious family. She’ll be the mother of the next heir.”

Those words meant… that he intended to make my child his own heir?

No, before that….

‘Has he become someone who can’t do it with women at all?’

Alfonso couldn’t bring himself to continue. Pity seeped into his gaze as he looked at Cedric.

Finding Alfonso’s gaze somehow burdensome, Cedric added an explanation, “Stop making strange guesses. I never had any desire for children in the first place.”

“…?”

This time, Alfonso’s eyes clearly showed he didn’t understand.

Cedric could understand Alfonso’s reaction. To nobles, children were not merely a matter of desire but a kind of duty.

“Anyway, that’s how it is.”

Cedric had no intention of adding any further explanation.

“If you were the eldest, there might’ve been no problem. But as you know, birth order is something that can’t be helped. Still, I’ll promise you this one thing. After me, your son will become the next-count.”

Alfonso finally parted his lips and managed a single word.

“Brother….”

To the pitiful look he’d been giving Cedric, a spoonful of emotion was added.

“I’m telling you in advance because, as before and going forward, there’ll be many times you’ll need to work for the sake of the family,” Cedric said.

Just as he’d told Alfonso.

Before leaving to study abroad, Cedric had already made this decision.

Of course, it wasn’t as if Cedric had reached that decision without anguish.

The moment he realized the flaw in himself that he’d believed to be perfect, he’d even considered giving up the planned study abroad in Lotas.

Not going abroad would have meant the same thing as giving up the position of heir for Cedric.

The purpose of studying abroad wasn’t limited to academics alone. Rather, broadening one’s horizons and connections was the more important task.

Moreover, since it was a place where powerful families from inside and outside the country gathered, displaying wealth was also important.

As such, studying abroad, which required enormous sums of money, couldn’t be afforded for every son just because he was a son. In the end, studying abroad became a required course and privilege for heirs.

After deep consideration, Cedric ultimately went abroad.

That meant he ultimately could not give up the position of heir.

From the beginning, Cedric was born to become the count who would one day rule Calley County. Giving up the position of heir would have been the same as giving up the self he’d lived as until now.

Thinking about it, becoming the next heir and producing the next heir were separate matters. As long as the person had the qualifications to govern the territory inherited from his grandfather, it didn’t matter if the heir wasn’t his own child.

Thus, Cedric came to the conclusion that his successor after him should be his younger brother’s child.

Fortunately, Alfonso, his younger brother born just a year apart, wasn’t lacking in ability. If he married well, his child would also inherit fairly decent qualities.

“Now that you understand, you can leave.”

“Haah… got it, brother.”

With a complex expression crossing his face, Alfonso extended his hand toward Cedric.

“A handshake isn’t necessary,” Cedric said.

After making such a fuss over even the slightest touch of fingers, now he wanted a handshake….

At Cedric’s words, Alfonso, who had unconsciously held out his hand, withdrew it with a look of sudden realization.

“Then, good night, brother.”

Cedric, who’d neatly tamed his younger brother, who had been acting strangely these past few days, rose from his seat to attend to important business.

***

“You’re going back to your hometown?”

“Yes….”

Sheila’s expectation that Cedric wouldn’t come up to the attic was mercilessly shattered. She’d hoped Alfonso’s conversation with Cedric would drag on late into the night….

‘Wasn’t he busy preparing for the appointment ceremony?’

In truth, Sheila’s mind was no less busy than Cedric’s.

The day to go to the guild was only one day away.

While lying face-down in front of the young count and receiving a massage, with ointment being applied to the marks left behind, heila confessed to Cedric that she would be going out the next day.

Somehow, it felt like she had to tell him.

He came to the attic every day, and naturally knew Sheila’s schedule. Even the fact that she hardly ever left the estate on her days off.

Sheila had stopped going to the market on her days off. There was no one who would scold her for not going.

After catching a cold from going out needlessly last time, she had lost some confidence in her stamina.

Even now, although she wasn’t being whipped as much as before, physically it felt even more exhausting than back then.

Of course, she had no intention of quitting that work entirely. She had only decided to take a brief break for the remaining one or two months of whipping duty.

Instead, she continued doing maid-uniform laundry. If she quit that, complaints from regular customers would surely pour in.

Until now, she had taken on work indiscriminately, but this was the first time Sheila had chosen to focus selectively.

It was also an unavoidable choice until she fully completed the whipping-maid work that even carried a penalty fee.

In any case, given the circumstances, going to the guild was truly a rare outing.

Unable to honestly say where she was really going, Sheila told Cedric she was visiting her hometown.

Cedric looked at her with suspicious eyes when he heard that, but Sheila, lying face-down, did not notice.

“You said your hometown was Broden. Do you go back and forth to Broden by train?” Cedric asked.

“Yes. Haha, that’s… right?”

Once she’d told one lie, she couldn’t avoid lying again when the questions continued.

Feeling a pang of conscience, Sheila added words he hadn’t even asked for.

“I won’t be late. Since I’m going back and forth by train, it doesn’t take that long.”

To go to the guild, she used a carriage.

It was a distance she could reach on foot if she walked for a few hours, but since she had to move with money, she took every precaution for safety.

Cedric, who had shown slight interest when she mentioned her hometown, said nothing more.

“Ah! Hah… there…!”

Sheila cried out while receiving the massage.

Hah… it hurts.

The pressure on her leg felt stronger. That was just her imagination, right?

She’d cried out from the pain, but soon a refreshing sensation followed.

Since she would have to travel a long distance after a long time, it might not be bad to loosen her body like this in advance.

Having said everything she needed to say, she grew drowsy while being massaged.

‘No wonder I don’t have time to sew tablecloths to sell at the market. Well, this will only last another month or so….’

Sheila fell asleep before she could finish the thought.

***

Pacing around her room, worrying about what to wear, Sheila eventually took out the new outing clothes Molly had bought for her.

So that’s why Molly bought me new clothes.

Even when she got by with old clothes, she thought it was decent enough, but now that she had new clothes, her hand kept reaching for the new ones.

If she wore the new clothes and then went back to the old ones, somehow they looked even more shabby….

Saving things was fine, but it was really time to switch to new ones now.

Thinking that, Sheila went ahead and pulled out the new underwear that had been sleeping in her drawer, too.

If it wasn’t now, it felt like it’d be even harder to wear them.

Since she was mixing bodies with Cedric every two days, if she suddenly put on new underwear, it’d look like she was wearing it to show him.

Sheila put on the underwear Molly had bought her, and of course, it even had lace.

Later, no matter what he thought on his own, she was just wearing new underwear for going out.

After putting on the new clothes, pressing an outing hat down over her neatly tied brown hair, Sheila checked the money she’d tucked into her inner pocket one more time before leaving her room.

It was an outing that actually felt like an outing, for the first time in a while.

After coming out onto the main street, Sheila started walking in a different direction from the one that led to the train for her family home.

“It doesn’t look like she’s going to catch a train.”

A mysterious man who had been watching Sheila from far behind muttered to himself.

***

The place Sheila arrived at by carriage was Holzeroad Village, located on the outskirts of Calley County.

As expected of a street where trade thrived, the road was bustling with all sorts of people.

Because the city had little farmland but well-developed handicrafts, there were shops selling handicrafts lined up everywhere. Getting down at the intersection where crowds flowed back and forth, Sheila went into a restaurant without hesitation.

It was a restaurant in name only. Inside, it was closer to a casual pub, and as always, a few people were sitting at the bar table and a few at the round tables, enjoying food and drinks.

When Sheila showed herself, a young man inside the bar greeted her while chewing gum. It was Jerry, who had come to the estate a few days ago.

“Sheila, what’s going on?”

“What’s going on? I told you I was coming,” Sheila answered curtly and walked toward the bar where Jerry was.

“Who’s talking about that? I mean the new clothes. You always wore those crappy clothes, so what’s going on?”

Sheila knew he was talking about the new clothes she’d worn for the first time. She was just embarrassed to make it obvious.

“Crappy? You’re talking rude to your older sister?”

“Oh, right. You are my older sister. My bad.”

Jerry naturally shot back at Sheila’s jab.

“Come to think of it, you look a bit prettier? They say clothes make the man, and I guess it’s true.”

“Stop talking nonsense and tell the Master. Tell him I’m here.”

“Wait.”

Jerry came out from inside the bar and went up the stairs. The restaurant had two floors, and it also took lodgers.

When Jerry left his spot, a big, middle-aged man came out from the kitchen and filled in for Jerry.

In looks and age, he was a man who looked like the owner of the restaurant to anyone.

Unlike Jerry, the man didn’t say a single word to Sheila. He knew Sheila was a customer for “upstairs.”

After a moment, Jerry leaned his upper body over the stair railing.

“Sheila!”

When Sheila looked up, Jerry gestured for her to come up.

Sheila stood up from her seat and headed for the stairs.

And just as she was about to reach the top, a blunt voice rang out from below the stairs.

“Where’re you going?”

When Sheila looked back down, the middle-aged man who had been watching the bar had already come over and was blocking the bottom of the stairs.

“I was looking for the toilet….”

At the words of the unfamiliar customer who was trying to go upstairs, the man silently gestured off in that direction.

“Thanks.”

Perhaps it was his first time here.

Withdrawing her interest and turning her head back, Sheila went into the room Jerry was frantically gesturing to.