The Whipping Maid of House Calley - Chapter 75

Sheila sat in front of the fireplace, listening in on Judith’s lesson. This time, it was current affairs.

Because Cedric often asked questions without warning as part of his teaching style, Sheila always kept her focus on his voice.

It wasn’t like an uneducated maid would understand a noble’s lessons, but since the class was tailored to Judith’s level of understanding, which was low, it wasn’t too hard for Sheila to follow.

“Yesterday, a royal edict was issued regarding human trafficking. Soon it will be announced to the people of the territory through the local newspaper as well.”

At Cedric’s words, Sheila’s ears perked up.

‘Human trafficking….’

While the whipping maid listened diligently, Judith, the person who actually belonged in the lesson, had unfocused eyes. Looking at Judith like that, Cedric opened his mouth.

“First, what an edict is…,”

Another barrage of questions?

Both Judith, who had developed a sharp instinct for this kind of thing, and Sheila, who couldn’t help being sensitive because questions were directly tied to whippings, tensed.

“Of course you don’t know.”

Whew, it wasn’t a question.

Thanks to that, it seemed Judith came to her senses a little too. Watching her, Cedric began to explain.

“An edict is an order directly issued by the King, and it is a law that must be followed. And the edict issued this time states that those who participate in human trafficking will be punished severely.”

At the words “punished severely,” Sheila’s eyes widened again.

Up to now, human trafficking had been carried out in secret, but legal measures were lacking. The reason was that the victims of the crime were mostly from the lower class.

No matter how low someone’s status was, it was something that could destroy an entire life, but those in high places showed no interest at all.

Sheila’s mind flashed with her sister, and with Fred’s face, the man who sold her.

Maybe what Fred did wouldn’t meet the standard of human trafficking. He used the formality of “marriage,” after all.

If a similar law had existed five years ago, if it had been possible to legally punish an older brother who used his younger sisters’ marriages as a pretext to do something no different from trafficking, Sheila’s life would have been different from what it is now.

Then she wouldn’t have had any reason to stain her hands with blood, or to suffer like this now for the sake of it.

Sheila’s mood sank as she listened to the lesson.

“Since a royal edict isn’t issued casually, it is the lord’s role to understand the background that led to the edict, memorize its contents precisely, and then inform the people of the territory accurately and apply it. Do you understand?”

From the explanation, it seemed the cause was that a distant collateral relative of the royal family had been kidnapped and sold.

So that was it….

Laws were fundamentally made to protect nobles.

The content of the edict Cedric brought was written in an official document, so it was heavily softened, but in short, the background of this edict was a farce where a poor collateral noble of the royal family was mistaken for a commoner and kidnapped.

They said even if you were a noble, a noble without money was no longer treated as a noble. It looked like that was true.

So before something similar happened to other nobles, they hurriedly issued an edict.

It really was swift action.

When trafficking among commoners had been happening from time to time for ages.

Still, thanks to that noble, should she say it was fortunate that a law to protect even commoners was created…?

While Sheila was lost in all kinds of thoughts, the three-hour lesson ended.

It was also the last lesson of the week.

“I have one announcement.”

At Cedric’s words, Judith and Sheila looked at him.

“Effective immediately, Sheila will no longer serve as Judith’s assigned maid. She will work as my personal maid.”

“…Yes.”

“Yes…?”

It was sudden, but unlike Judith, who replied without protest, Sheila couldn’t. When she lifted the end of her words with a questioning tone, Cedric looked at her.

“You heard me. Judith, get out.”

With that brief reply, Cedric sent Judith out.

“What do you mean by that?”

Once Judith was gone, Sheila asked again.

“Is it hard to understand?”

“It’s just… it’s so sudden.”

“There’s no reason for a grown Judith to have three maids assigned to her. Even two is excessive.”

As Cedric said, Judith practically had three assigned maids. Anne had settled into the role of Judith’s maid as well.

“B-but I became the whipping maid because I was Miss’s assigned maid.”

“Does that even matter now?”

“Pardon?”

“Even if you become my maid, the fact that you attended to Judith for more than four years doesn’t disappear. And if she doesn’t care whether you get hit or not, then the problem lies with Judith’s character from the start.”

Come to think of it, even when she was Judith’s maid, Judith didn’t particularly care about her. The problem was that Sheila realized it far too late.

As Sheila found herself thinking deeply about Judith’s character, Cedric spoke again.

“And you have something you need to pay me back for, don’t you?”

D-don’t tell me that’s why…?

Last week, during her period, Sheila couldn’t take the scheduled punishment.

“It can’t be helped. We’ll have to push it to next week.”

When she said it would be difficult because of her period, he postponed the punishment to this week.

She’d braced herself to take him even on days without lessons, but she hadn’t expected it to turn into this.

If she became the Young Count’s personal maid, as he said, then to make up the postponed punishment, she wouldn’t need to secretly come and go from the Young Count’s room anymore.

“I’ve already informed the head maid through Rufus, so you only need to follow it.”

Of course you have….

Sheila puffed her cheeks.

A few days ago, he’d been angry for no reason, and now it seemed he’d eased up again for no particular reason, too.

Unlike that time when he’d poured out an overwhelming barrage of questions, today his attitude in teaching Judith was much more lenient.

Naturally, the number of wrong answers also dropped to around twenty.

‘Now that I think about it, you’re nothing like what I imagined.’

Maybe because of that perfect face that looked inhuman, she felt like he wouldn’t even have emotions. Especially not getting sulky and angry over trivial things.

But the more she experienced him, the more she found that wasn’t really true.

Then was it that he’d disliked her from the start over something trivial?

Thinking about it made her angry in its own way.

She’d been so terrified all this time.

“So what’s that dissatisfied look on our maid’s face?”

“D-dissatisfied? No! It’s not that.”

Startled that he’d read her expression so clearly, Sheila could only deny it.

“If you say so.”

Ugh, how annoying….

Sheila didn’t know it. That his annoyingness was only just beginning.

***

“It was Viehaver Farm, wasn’t it? The milk is really not great.”

Seriously, so annoying….

How can someone be that picky and that whiny?

“This one isn’t great either, it’s just sweet. Sheila. Come here and eat this.”

What, does he think I’m the food waste disposal squad?

“Yes.”

Even as she grumbled to herself, Sheila answered quickly and went to sit in front of the tea table.

The room happened to be clean, so she had only been pretending to tidy.

Snacks came into his room from time to time, and because of his picky palate, they almost always ended up being Sheila’s.

‘It’s delicious, though.’

It wasn’t a lie. It was true.

Ever since she got to taste the cookies last time, Cedric’s snacks had been setting a new personal best for desserts in Sheila’s mind every time.

Dessert wasn’t good just because it was sweet. Even if sweet food was precious, desserts that were only overly sweet didn’t suit her taste. It was probably because she hadn’t grown up eating much sweet food.

But most of what came up as Cedric’s snacks was moderately sweet and went down smoothly.

‘People in Lotas must be happy even if they do nothing but eat desserts.’

With his picky tastes, Cedric had recently paid a huge sum and brought a dessert artisan from Lotas all the way here.

‘He really has money.’

Sheila took a sip of the milk beside her.

The milk tasted good too.

‘Even with water added, it’s excellent.’

Wait…!

Sheila hurriedly took another sip of the milk.

‘No. What do I know about the taste of milk….’

But even thinking that, she could clearly feel it was richer than the milk she’d drunk in front of Cedric last time.

‘I should talk to Uncle Sam once.’

She still hadn’t brought up the matter of the milk with Sam. She couldn’t come to a conclusion about what she should do.

But since the milk had improved on its own even though she hadn’t said anything, she needed to ask about it.

While she ate her snacks, lost in thought, Cedric and his secretary were busy working.

‘Business must be going really well.’

The two of them always looked swamped.

Listening in on bits of their conversation, Sheila could tell that he wasn’t just a pervert who happened to be born into an incredible position.

Of course, she couldn’t understand every word. While looking over documents, the two of them sometimes spoke in Lotas.

[Are you going to keep the maid in this room?]

[Is there a problem?]

[No, but… it does make me a bit conscious.]

[Who are you to be conscious about my maid?]

[Not in that sense… never mind. It’s fine. Yes.]

[Then stop talking nonsense and get back to work.]

Sheila glanced at the two men from the corner of her eye. Really, only one of them was caught in her peripheral vision.

Sheila’s gaze lingered on Cedric.

On the sculpted face of a man working with a sharp expression, speaking a foreign language fluently….

‘Get a grip, Sheila!’

Sheila shook her head hard.