Chapter 99

They said you should strike while the iron’s hot, so during a brief break in the afternoon, Sheila casually asked Lucika, who was in charge of the hall.

What should you do if you want to quit?

Lucika would know well. Not long ago, Lucika’s niece, who worked here, quit her maid job to get married. On top of that, Lucika was close friends with the head maid, so she was well versed in those procedures.

“It’s nothing complicated. You just tell the master you serve, then tell the head maid. Ah! These days, they say you write some kind of “resignation letter.” Remember when we wrote those employment contracts before? Since then, they manage things by keeping a document that briefly states the reason for quitting.”

“The reason for quitting?”

“Nothing special. You just write something like you’re quitting for personal reasons.”

As expected, the answers flowed smoothly from Lucika. As she explained, Lucika asked,

“Why, are you thinking of quitting?”

“N-no!”

Sheila denied it strongly.

You never know how things might turn out, so until the very moment she actually left, the rule was to say she wasn’t leaving.

“People rarely quit these days. I was just wondering if there was some kind of penalty fee if you quit.”

“Penalty fee? Where did you even pick up words like that? There’s nothing like that, so stop worrying about useless things and go do your work.”

Sheila, who almost ruined her life by signing a contract carelessly once before, let out a sigh of relief and patted her chest.

“If you want to leave with a letter of recommendation, don’t say it in a rush. You need to talk about it ahead of time, got it?”

“Yeees… ah! I mean, not me.”

At Sheila’s strong backpedaling, Lucika made a knowing expression and turned away.

At this point, something was really wrong with her. Did she serve only Judith for too long? Her personality was awful, but since she was still a child, it wasn’t hard to fool her….

Anyway, after returning to her attic room, Sheila decided to try writing the resignation letter in advance, partly as handwriting practice.

Before, she carried groundless confidence just from knowing a few letters, but now she really did know how to read and write.

She worked hard all this time, so it wouldn’t be difficult to receive a letter of recommendation when she left.

[I hereby wish to resign from my position as a maid under Count Calley for personal reasons, and I respectfully request your approval.]

‘Damn! I don’t know who wrote this, but it’s really well written!’

Sheila felt satisfied with herself as she wrote it exactly the way she heard from Lucika.

It seemed the time she spent practicing for Judith’s homework wasn’t wasted. The carefully written letters were worthy of a calligrapher.

Servants who couldn’t read usually had the head maid or the chief butler write things for them, but she could read and write herself.

If she wanted to add even one more line saying she could read and write on her letter of recommendation and raise her value a bit when changing workplaces, she needed to always present her abilities.

Sheila neatly folded the resignation letter in half twice and tucked it between the pages of the ledger.

Later, when she truly said she was quitting, she would just need to write in the date.

As Sheila put the ledger back in its place, a loud knocking came from the door.

As always, after a brief delay, Cedric showed up to give her a massage.

“Yes!”

Sheila answered loudly as she spread the carpet on the floor. When she opened the door and he appeared, he asked, “What were you doing?”

“Huh? Just cleaning a bit….”

Sheila, who stood awkwardly, answered while pretending to be calm. Even so, when Cedric shot her a suspicious look, Sheila swallowed hard.

“Lie down.”

Phew….

Sheila quickly undressed and lay flat on the bed.

Cedric looked over Sheila’s body, asking whether she was in pain anywhere or if anything felt uncomfortable. Even so, his tone was never gentle, yet she kept feeling that he was being kind.

‘Is it because I’m starved for affection…?’

Sheila made a self-pitying guess.

She grew up loved by her father and older sister, but that didn’t fully fill the void left by her mother. After her father died and she was separated from her sister, she grew even more thirsty for affection.

In the midst of that, his touch was unquestionably gentle.

Feeling that gentle touch, Sheila replied with a few words that she wasn’t in pain and that she was fine, then drifted into a deep sleep.

That night, Sheila had a dream.

In the dream, she already quit working at the Calley estate.

Carrying a light bag that held no more than a few clothes and her knitting tools, the place Sheila headed to was a shoe shop.

A shop that sold ready-made shoes instead of high-end custom ones.

Sheila chose a pair of shoes that looked decent at a reasonable price.

‘I worked hard all this time. This much luxury should be fine.’

The shoes she wore were worn, but they weren’t falling apart to the point she couldn’t wear them. Even so, buying new shoes was a major luxury for Sheila.

‘I’ll take these.’

The clerk who asked for her shoe size pulled out a pair that fit Sheila’s feet from the shop floor itself, not a storage room, then shut the lifted floor with a clack.

‘Why was that there?’

Her puzzlement lasted only a moment. The new shoes taken from under the floor fit her perfectly.

Wearing her new shoes, Sheila left the shop in a good mood, only to find a babbling stream flowing in front of her.

The road for a new beginning was a bit rough, but not impossible to cross.

There were stone stepping stones laid across it, too.

‘Still, it’d be a shame to get my new shoes wet.’

Sheila took off her shoes and socks.

And when she lifted her head, the stream that had been babbling just moments ago turned into a river overflowing with pitch-black water.

‘What is this? I can’t cross it like this!’

She didn’t know where it was, but the place Sheila needed to go was clearly on the other side of the river.

Sheila regretted taking off her shoes just to avoid getting them wet and looked down at them.

‘Huh… huh…?’

The new shoes she bought at the shop were nowhere to be seen. What she held in her hands were the old shoes she’d worn the entire time she worked at House Calley.

“My shoes… where did they go…!”

Muttering in her sleep, Sheila snapped awake. After confirming the familiar ceiling, she muttered to herself, “Damn, the shoes… no, this time it was a river dream…?”

It was dawn, when the morning sun was just starting to rise. As always, her eyes opened right at the usual time.

A plain cotton quilt was carefully draped over Sheila’s body.

Before opening her eyes, the last memory she had was of a man massaging her body, but unsurprisingly, he was nowhere to be seen.

After having such an unsettling dream, Sheila got up with a bitter smile.

It was time to go out and fulfill her duties as a maid for the remaining days.

***

The vacant lot in Broden, which was once nothing more than a mining town and especially sparse of people, had changed so much that its former appearance was unrecognizable.

It was thanks to the casino that opened recently, Peace Valley.

With the opening of Peace Valley, modern hotels and all kinds of shops sprang up nearby.

The local economy wasn’t bad because of the mines, but people mostly spent their time drinking and gambling by lamplight. Now, those same people gathered under the dazzling glow of gas lamps.

They said the royal family invested money, and it showed. Not only did a flashy casino sign go up, but streetlights were installed nearby as well, making the streets lively like it was daytime.

“How is it? Coming with me was the right call, wasn’t it? We’re in a good mood, so you’re buying the next round!”

At the words of the colleague slinging an arm around his shoulders, Fred smiled in good spirits.

The two of them, having just left the casino, headed together into a nearby tavern.

There was a bar and restaurant inside the casino too, but the prices were high.

For Fred, who was used to chewing on cheap sausages at local bars, that kind of refined atmosphere still felt awkward.

Still, sitting at a poker table covered in green felt and playing cards didn’t require any adjustment at all.

After bleeding money for several days, he finally won a proper sum for the first time when he came with his colleague Ernest.

Of course, once he accounted for the money he lost early on, the actual profit wasn’t that much.

Even so, the thrill of the moment when he won a sum big enough to recover all his losses in one shot still lingered in Fred’s hands.

When Fred tried to keep playing with the money he won, Ernest stopped him.

“Let’s call it here. This kind of thing, you quit while you’re ahead.”

Anyway, thanks to Ernest, Fred managed to walk out with all the money he won intact. Once they took seats in the tavern, Fred first paid back the money he borrowed from Ernest.

Sheila’s payday was coming up soon.

He planned to rest until Sheila sent more money after spending everything he got this month, but Ernest said he’d lend him some money and told him to come along.

The money Ernest lent him was ten solids.

It was almost equal to a month’s income for a miner.

With that much capital, Fred felt secure. He had a feeling he’d win, and he really did.

Even in the worst case, even if he lost it all, Fred wasn’t worried.

Sheila would send nine solids before long.

The money Sheila sent from her job as a maid at a grand estate was never a small amount.

So Fred could live, eat, and enjoy himself at roughly the same level as the miners without working at all.

After drinking cheerfully with Ernest and leaving the tavern, Fred still had one solid left in his hand.

One solid was enough to enjoy small games for a day or two.

For Fred, who had nothing left before coming here, it meant he now had money to enjoy the next day as well.

Of course, it wasn’t enough to win a fortune.

“Thanks for the drinks. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah, Ernie. Get home safe.”

Fred watched Ernest’s back as he walked away with ten solids in his pocket. It was the moment he desperately wished Sheila would hurry up and send those nine solid.

“Fuck, time’s moving so damn slow.”

Grumbling as he cursed the dragging hours, Fred headed toward his house.