“Heidi. You’re to go to the kitchen starting today.”

“…Huh?”

The next morning.

I went to do laundry with Marie as usual.

Arriving at the laundry room, I blinked in surprise at the unexpected news.

The maid, who was stuffing laundry into the basket, spoke again.

“I said you’re to stop working in the main building and go to the kitchen.”

Just like that, so suddenly?

To be moved without any prior notice.

Marie, who was next to me, stepped in and asked on my behalf as I was bewildered by the sudden job change.

“Why so suddenly?”

“I don’t know much. It’s just the head maid’s order. We have to do as we’re told. You’re new, aren’t you?”

‘Hmph, a newbie talking too much,’ the maid muttered, glaring at me.

It was clear that the maids in this mansion generally disliked me.

The maid who had filled the basket with laundry straightened her back and said to Marie.

“Marie. You should stop hanging out with her too. It’s not good for you, I’m telling you.”

The maid with the laundry basket bumped my shoulder as she passed by.

As I was still standing there dazed, Marie huffed as if she had been wronged.

“What’s with that attitude! What business is it of theirs who I hang out with?”

Marie’s freckled face turned red with anger.

“This is really absurd!”

Leaving Marie fuming behind, I let out a deep sigh.

Then I entered the laundry room and started putting the bedding we were supposed to wash today into the basket.

Marie, who had been angrily standing at the doorway, asked with a puzzled expression.

“Heidi. They said you have to go to the kitchen now.”

“I know. But it’ll be hard for you to do this alone. I’ll just help you take it to the yard.”

“Heidi…”

Marie’s eyes welled up with emotion, but then she seemed to get angry again as she thought about it and shouted.

“Why are they only picking on you? I don’t understand! Is it because you’re too pretty?”

Marie was dead serious even as she made the absurd claim that I was being bullied for being pretty.

“The more I think about it, that must be it. None of the maid girls here are pretty because they all had hard lives. But look at you, Heidi. You’re really beautiful.”

Marie touched her own freckles.

“I have freckles and dry, dull brown hair. My eye color is boringly brown too. I have no distinctive features at all.”

Marie’s shoulders slumped as she harshly criticized herself.

“That’s not true, Marie. Your hair and eye color are so calm and pretty.”

I sincerely complimented Marie.

According to Marie, it might seem unremarkable brown, but to my eyes, it looked warm and gentle, reminiscent of the deep brown of trees in midwinter.

Feeling my sincerity, Marie seemed embarrassed and changed the subject.

“W-well, let’s say I’m pretty! But you’re different, Heidi. You’re really beautiful, I’m telling you. Haven’t you looked in a mirror?”

“Mirror?”

Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen a mirror since I arrived here.

When I arrived at the Delgado mansion, I asked Dietrich if there was a mirror, but there wasn’t one in his room.

There weren’t any in the maid’s quarters or the bathroom either.

Marie nodded as if she understood and said.

“Of course there wouldn’t be mirrors in maid quarters like ours. You’d probably have to go to the powder room in the annex or the dressing room in the main building to see one.”

“Are mirrors that expensive?”

“No, they’re not that expensive. But it still takes about two or three days’ wages to buy one.”

For a maid, two or three days’ wages was enough to affect their living expenses.

I slowly moved with Marie, carrying the bedding basket.

“Anyway, Heidi, you’re incredibly pretty. I haven’t seen many noble young ladies, but you’re prettier. I’m sure of it.”

As we left the mansion and headed towards the yard next to the garden, Marie pointed at the gardeners in the garden and whispered.

“Did you know that the gardener Mark always sneaks glances at you when you’re doing laundry?”

“Mark? Who’s that?”

“You really weren’t interested at all, huh?”

Hearing Marie’s words, I quickly scanned the garden and made eye contact with a man with orange hair.

Marie giggled as the man immediately averted his gaze upon seeing me.

“It’s just because you’re still new and everyone hasn’t gotten close to you yet. There are many people interested in you. Especially Mark, he seems to show great interest in you.”

True to her age, Marie seemed very excited about love stories.

By the time we finished talking about how much interest the Delgado mansion staff had in me, we had arrived at the yard.

I put down the laundry basket in the middle of the yard and said goodbye to Marie.

“Well, I’m off to the kitchen!”

Marie looked at me with worried eyes and advised.

“The head chef, Mr. Chief, is very prickly. Be careful, he goes berserk if there are any mistakes with ingredients.”

It was practical advice from Marie, who had experience as a kitchen assistant.

‘Kitchen work, huh.’

The kitchen was located at the end of the corridor, a little distance from the mansion’s dining room.

The peculiar thing was that to get to the kitchen, you always had to go to the back of the mansion.

This was because the kitchen door was only connected to the back door.

I came out through the back door and found myself already at the kitchen entrance, where I let out a short breath.

I thought I wasn’t nervous, but as I stood at the kitchen entrance, my heart started pounding.

‘Stay calm.’

Even before entering, I could feel the hot air billowing out from the kitchen entrance.

I could hear the clattering sounds and the noise of people busily moving things around.

After taking a deep breath, I was about to open the kitchen door and enter when.

Bang, someone opened the door and came out.

“Telling me to carry something this heavy alone? That’s really mean!”

Thin arms holding a basket piled high with potatoes were trembling, the face hidden behind the load.

Watching the unsteady legs, I thought the man was about to drop the potatoes at any moment.

Sure enough.

The man’s precariously wobbling legs got tangled, and potatoes spilled out everywhere.

“Aaack! Nothing’s going right, damn it.”

With an exaggerated cry, the man put the basket down on the floor and stomped his feet.

Then he started running around trying to pick up the potatoes, but it seemed impossible for him to find all the ones that had already rolled away on his own.

“I’m really pitiful!”

The man suddenly crouched down, looked up at the sky, and cried out miserably while picking up potatoes.

He looked so miserable.

I was about to enter the kitchen, but seeing the man start to sniffle, I turned around.

I picked up a potato rolling on the floor and handed it to him.

“Here you go. Don’t cry.”

“Sniff, sob. Who are you?”

The man’s voice trembled faintly as he cupped his hands to receive the potato.

Whether it was from being touched or from crying, I wasn’t sure.

I approached him and crouched down beside him.

“I’m Heidi.”

“Heidi. That’s a cute name. I’m Robert.”

Robert wiped his tear-stained eyes with his short sleeves that reached his wrists and smiled brightly.

“I work here in the kitchen. I’m a kitchen assistant.”

“Kitchen assistant?”

Robert was my colleague.

Feeling glad, I grasped his hand eagerly.

“I’m starting as a kitchen assistant today too! I originally worked in the main building, but I was suddenly assigned to the kitchen.”

“What? You too?”

It felt as familiar as talking with Marie.

“I was also working in the main building, but I was moved to the kitchen a few months ago. When I asked why I was suddenly moved, no one would answer me!”

“Really? The same thing happened to me. It was so sudden!”

“We’re comrades, you and I!”

Robert’s expression brightened considerably after hearing my situation.

Earlier when he spilled the potatoes, he seemed devastated as if the world had ended, but now he looked extremely excited.

“By the way, since I spilled all the potatoes, I’m going to get scolded terribly by Chef Chief. Because the potatoes got bruised, you know.”

“Is Chef Chief that scary?”

“Don’t even mention it! He has such a nasty temper that last time, I broke one egg and got scolded all day long!”

Robert seemed to have a lot pent up against Chef Chief.

As I was about to pat him on the shoulder to comfort him.

“So I have such a nasty temper. I see, Robert.”

A large shadow loomed over our heads.

Tilting our heads back, we saw a man in a white chef’s uniform staring down at us intently.

“Oh no! Ch-Chef Chief!”

Startled, Robert sprang up from his spot like a coiled spring.

I also stood up slowly, observing the situation.

‘So this is Chef Chief.’

The Chef Chief that Marie had mentioned was actually a man with a more genial appearance than expected.

If we’re talking about looks, Uncle Calt, the vice-captain of the knights, seemed scarier.

Chef Chief just had a somewhat plump build, that’s all.

‘He looks kinder than I thought.’

Chef Chief alternated his gaze between the potatoes scattered on the floor and Robert, then grinned.

I could feel Robert trembling at that smile, but I couldn’t understand why.

“I wondered why you weren’t coming in, turns out you were spilling potatoes and slacking off?”

“No, that’s…”

Robert, who had been mumbling, hung his head low.

Just as I was about to think that Chef Chief’s personality wasn’t that bad.

“How many times have I told you that the basics of the kitchen is to treat ingredients with care!”

I felt like my soul was leaving my body at the thunderous shout that could make one’s ears fall off.

Robert, standing next to me, was the same.

With a dazed look, Robert stared at the potatoes and then hurriedly pointed at me.

What? Why is he pointing at me?

Suddenly feeling that this was a strange action, I looked at him, and Robert, with his eyes tightly shut, opened his mouth.

“I-I bumped into Heidi and dropped the potatoes!”

Feeling like I’d been hit on the back of the head, I immediately put my hand to my forehead.

It seemed that my start in the kitchen wouldn’t be smooth sailing.

This betrayer Robert!