“The potatoes never end.”

Crouched in the corner of the kitchen peeling potatoes, I squeezed my eyes shut at the sight of two baskets of potatoes still remaining.

I was trapped in potato hell.

No matter how many I peeled, more potatoes kept popping up.

Meanwhile, listening to Robert chattering away beside me made my blood boil.

‘This is all because of him!’

I had come determined to do well at my newly assigned job, but Robert ruined everything.

I glared at the insufferable Robert with all my might.

Oblivious to my mood, Robert seemed absorbed in the joy of having found a companion.

“Heidi. We peel about 10 kilos every day. There’s hardly a dish that doesn’t use potatoes.”

“……”

“After we finish this, we’ll peel onions. Do we cook? Of course not! We’re just kitchen assistants. We just do the endless kitchen chores we’re told to do.”

Ignoring Robert, who was spewing information I hadn’t asked for, I lost myself in thought.

‘So that’s why they say the kitchen is like exile. I wonder who sent me to the kitchen?’

It certainly wasn’t Dietrich.

We had barely met recently.

And he had no reason to send me to the kitchen.

‘Then there are only a few people with the power to send me to the kitchen from the duke’s side.’

The duchess, Yurian, and the head maid.

The head maid responsible for managing the mansion’s staff, and the duchess who was the head maid’s employer.

These two were the most likely suspects.

But why?

I had been giving the duchess quite good information.

It wasn’t a small matter to report every move Dietrich made.

If I worked in the kitchen, I would neglect reporting on Dietrich’s daily life.

‘This would be a setback for the duchess!’

As I was peeling potatoes while thinking about this and that, I managed to finish peeling all those potatoes.

However, when the chief chef saw that the potato peeling was complete, he brought out two sacks of onions from the storage.

“Peel all these onions too. There’s not much time left before dinner preparation, so hurry up.”

Before I could even straighten my back, I had to move my hands quickly to tackle another task.

And finally, after peeling all the onions, I was sick of the sight of potato soup and onion salad that would be served for dinner tonight.

“Heidi, Robert. Good work. You can go now.”

As I stretched my shoulders that had been bent from peeling potatoes and onions all day since early morning, a groan escaped involuntarily.

“Oh my……”

On the way back to the maid’s quarters after leaving the kitchen.

Robert, who had good social skills but no tact, persistently followed behind me.

“Heidi. How was work today? Peeling potatoes is no joke, right? This is actually quite a task that requires using a knife, so it’s tiring, you know?”

“……”

“You’re quite the quiet type, aren’t you!”

This, this… tactless jerk!

Forced to respond to Robert, who made it impossible not to reply, I shouted.

“I’m not quiet at all!”

“Then why don’t you talk? You barely said anything while peeling potatoes and onions.”

“That’s because you betrayed me!”

At the word ‘betrayal’, Robert’s eyes widened, and then he hung his head with a dejected face.

“I’m sorry. I did it because I wanted to live. I’m not good at kitchen work, so I keep making mistakes. Yesterday, I spilled a pot of porridge that was already made and got scolded badly, so today I wanted to get scolded a little less.”

As he walked dejectedly while complaining, my desire to scold him subsided a little.

I didn’t dislike Robert’s honesty in admitting he was prone to mistakes.

I replied in a softer tone than before.

“Still, that was too much. It was my first day today.”

“I’m really sorry. But you probably haven’t been disliked yet. The chief chef usually turns a blind eye to one or two mistakes. Or I can go tomorrow and honestly tell him everything. That what I said yesterday was a lie!”

Robert sure talked a lot.

But he had a unique charm that wasn’t unlikeable.

Looking at Robert, who was sincerely apologetic, I shook my head.

“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it. I’ll do better from tomorrow!”

“Great! Then we’re friends from now on!”

Hearing Robert’s clear laughter, I thought that today wasn’t so bad after all.

Although adapting to a new job wasn’t easy, making a new friend was always a pleasant thing.

‘I’m not sure what kind of person the chief chef is yet.’

Anyway, I’m sure I’ll be able to adapt well!

On an early morning with the sunrise streaming in.

Dietrich opened his eyes to start another day, just like any other.

After getting up, his routine was simple: a quick shower, then off to the training grounds.

When he held a sword, everything around him instantly became quiet, and all worries and thoughts disappeared.

Dietrich liked this time when he could focus entirely on the sword.

It was the only time he could escape from the terrible reality that tormented him every day without fail.

In those moments, he could be free from the painful memories of losing his mother and being left alone, from the duchess eyeing the Delgado family, and from the suffocating loneliness.

But now.

He couldn’t concentrate on training at all due to a voice that was messing up his thoughts.

A bright and cheerful voice, clear as if without any worries, kept ringing in his ears.

“[He’s not just kind to me. He’s a bit picky, but he tries to do everything by himself without ordering the servants around. He reduces the work for the servants, so it’s as good as being kind to everyone.]”

Kind?

The sound of swinging the sword through the air was fierce.

A blue aura, as azure as Dietrich’s eyes, flickered on the blade.

Dietrich let out a dry laugh, still finding it absurd even after thinking about it again.

The day he took Harpe to the training grounds.

After finishing the match with the newcomer, he had quickly left the training grounds as usual, but when he realized Harpe wasn’t following and went back, he heard those words.

That he was kind to everyone?

He didn’t even know where to begin correcting such a severe misjudgment.

‘She has a bad habit of making arbitrary judgments.’

Having made this cold assessment of Harpe, he swung his sword once more with a sharp sound.

The sword’s aura left a beautiful trace following its trajectory.

Harpe.

A bold girl who knew nothing yet feared nothing.

She became a maid right away because she couldn’t stand hunger, and even dared to tease the duchess by delivering strange letters.

Meanwhile, she seemed to be quite suited to being a maid, even settling stably into the mansion.

No, not quite suited – it seemed she was very well suited to it.

She refused to become a lady’s maid, and these days, she was nowhere to be seen.

However, it would be unseemly to go and find out what Harpe was up to personally.

What reason would there be to do that?

As long as Harpe could get along well without others discovering that she was a spirit of the sword, it didn’t matter how she lived.

‘Right, it doesn’t matter.’

Dietrich frowned irritably, feeling that the sunlight was particularly strong today.

He didn’t feel like swinging his sword.

It used to be a time that made him forget all his worries and troublesome situations, but for some reason, now he could only think of that Harpe.

He sheathed the sword he had been swinging and sighed.

It seemed he would have to stop here for today.

It was just about time for the maids staying in the maid’s quarters to finish their breakfast and head to work at the mansion.

It wasn’t that he had particularly timed it that way, but it happened to be so.

Thanks to his long, quick strides, he soon arrived at the mansion.

Instead of going straight up to the second floor where there were hardly any maids, he caught his breath for a moment in the central hall on the first floor.

The maids bustled about, keeping an eye on him standing in the middle of the hall.

The maids, who were busy coming and going with their eyes lowered to the floor, all tried not to make eye contact with him.

Of course, Dietrich wasn’t particularly interested either.

He quickly scanned his surroundings while catching his breath for a moment.

To check if there was a black-haired maid who always walked with energetic steps, looking straight ahead.

However, the maid with hair like ebony, swaying as she walked with an exceptionally bright smile, was nowhere to be seen.

After standing there for a while.

Just as he was starting to feel ridiculous about himself, he headed to his office.

He couldn’t tell if Harpe was late or if she had gone off somewhere else.

He entered the room and sat down in the chair with somewhat rough movements.

‘Where could she be and what could she be doing?’

It would be fortunate if she wasn’t causing any trouble.

When she was in sight, she was so irritating it drove him crazy, but now that she wasn’t visible, he worried if she might be causing problems somewhere.

Thinking that she had a talent for making him concerned one way or another, he turned his gaze to the desk.

His eyes widened slightly as he discovered a letter on the desk.

A question mark appeared in his mind, which had been full of thoughts of Harpe.

‘A letter?’

There weren’t many places letters could come from.

He rarely attended social gatherings, and due to the duchess’s machinations, his reputation in noble society was in tatters.

Unless it was official correspondence with the Delgado family – and even then, only when it wasn’t through the duchess – he hardly ever received letters.

He slowly picked up the letter on the desk. Then he turned over the envelope to check the sender.

The moment he confirmed the seal on the envelope.

His smooth brow furrowed mercilessly.

The red seal with an eagle drawn on it belonged to the imperial family.