“Heidi, Heidi!”

Early morning.

As I was heading to the kitchen as usual, I turned my head at the sound of my name being called loudly.

Then I saw Robert jumping across the main building in the distance.

“Hey, beautiful black-haired maid over there! Stop for a moment!”

My ears burned as I heard the murmurs of the servants going to work in the main building.

What on earth is he doing!

His mood was too good from early in the morning.

‘Pretend not to know him. Pretend not to know him, pretend not to know him…’

He’s a stranger to me. A complete stranger.

I kept walking while repeating that to myself, but Robert caught up to me out of breath and grabbed my shoulder.

I sighed deeply and asked.

“Robert. Can’t you stay still for a moment? I miss Marie enough to want her to give you a scolding.”

“If you knew what news I brought, you’d be too happy to say such things!”

Robert, still catching his breath, snapped his fingers as he spoke.

What news could it be this time?

The news Robert brought was always the latest information from the mansion. He was like a sparrow of the estate.

They say daytime words are heard by birds and nighttime words by mice.

All the daytime words that happened in the Delgado mansion were conveyed to the ears of sparrow Robert.

However, he sometimes brought news that I didn’t particularly want to know.

For example, like the story he told last time about Dietrich receiving a marriage proposal from Princess Ariana.

I waited for Robert’s next words with a nervous heart, wondering what kind of news it would be this time.

It felt like choosing between good and bad luck.

He won’t tell me right away after this buildup.

As expected, Robert, who had been building suspense for a while, asked me.

“Heidi, have you ever been to the summer festival?”

Summer festival?

It was a word I didn’t expect to hear from Robert’s mouth first.

‘Come to think of it, I was planning to go to the summer festival.’

I was going to ask Robert about it.

I shook my head and answered.

“No.”

“Then this news can’t be anything but exciting!”

Robert seemed even more excited than before. Now even his wheat-colored eyebrows were twitching as he hummed.

Summer festival, I really wanted to go.

Marie said she was going with her siblings, so she must be going?

Unfortunately, I had no one to go with except Robert.

There was also Blaine, but he was more uncomfortable than Robert.

Besides, Blaine was also busy with knight training.

So Robert would be much better as a festival partner than Blaine.

‘If Robert goes, that is.’

There was a good chance he wouldn’t go. If Robert said he wasn’t going either, I would enjoy the summer festival alone.

It would be more fun if we all enjoyed it together, but there would certainly be unavoidable circumstances.

But all of that was just my hopeful wishful thinking.

‘If I could take a vacation, that is.’

But it had already been a few days since Marie left.

The summer festival would be held soon, but I couldn’t be sure if I could go.

Many servants would take vacations during the summer festival.

I hadn’t cleverly taken a vacation in advance, so I might not have a way to go to the summer festival.

However, Robert’s excited voice broke through these thoughts of mine.

“The lady has given vacation to everyone except for the dedicated maids, some maids in the main building, and some kitchen staff! Enjoy the summer festival and come back!”

“What?”

I stopped in my tracks. It was an unbelievable, drastic measure even after hearing it.

Even for Lady Leriana, who was rumored to be benevolent, it was a special favor that would be difficult to bestow twice.

Do you know how many servants there are in the Delgado mansion!

Of course, Lady Leriana would know better than me, but that wasn’t the important thing.

At the same time, I thought it was strange. There must be a separate reason why she suddenly bestowed such an enormous benefit on the servants.

And soon the question was answered.

“It makes sense. Lately, the lady’s reputation has hit rock bottom. She’s been irritable every day and treating the maids badly. The rumors are very bad.”

Ah, this must be the rumor about the duchess that Lady Becky mentioned.

“In the midst of that, she even made subtly discriminatory remarks distinguishing between maids and servants. It’s natural for everyone to be surprised when someone who hasn’t done that before does it.”

It seemed like a belief about status that was basically installed in her head had unintentionally popped out.

Leriana often acted as if she had forgotten that she herself was of common birth.

She always smiled kindly, but her eyes held contempt that she couldn’t completely hide.

Leriana probably didn’t look down on maids. However, the words she carelessly threw at the maids, who were mostly of common birth, were more subtly sharp than those aimed at the maids who were mostly from noble families, no matter how humble.

‘That’s why Becky didn’t know well.’

It seemed like a rumor created by the maids who had heard insulting remarks from the duchess that they never thought they would hear, huddling together among themselves.

Robert also seemed to think the duchess had gone too far.

“Anyway, since the rumors are spreading quickly, the lady has done something amazing to appease the hurt servants. So we’re going to play from tomorrow, Heidi.”

“Then we can go to the summer festival.”

“Of course!”

As we approached the kitchen, Robert completely erased his excited appearance and neatly tidied his clothes.

It was a moment that revealed Robert’s recently sincere attitude towards kitchen work.

Robert, who was about to open the kitchen door and enter, turned to me and said.

“But I’m not planning to go to the summer festival.”

“Really?”

My plan to ask Robert to go together was completely ruined.

I thought Robert would go to the summer festival.

I was about to ask why he wasn’t going, but he didn’t wait and flung open the kitchen door to cheerfully greet the people.

Robert immediately tied the apron he had put in the basket around his waist. Then he patted my shoulder.

“Don’t be too disappointed, Heidi. Even without my surprisingly handsome self, the summer festival will be very enjoyable.”

“Robert, you know I haven’t even asked you to go together yet, right?”

“Ah, Heidi. I can’t help but know from your desperate look.”

I hurriedly turned my eyes to look at the apron in front of me.

I tried to act like I wasn’t, but it seems my disappointment showed.

Robert’s nose grew higher saying, ‘My popularity is endless!’, and I quickly sat down in front of the basket of garlic to be peeled today, not wanting to see him.

My knife skills were improving day by day.

Now I could finish simple ingredient preparation in 30 minutes. I smiled at the chief cook who praised me for improving my skills, and pulled over the next basket.

Next was carrots. Preparing carrots was easy. I just had to cut off the unorganized small roots and the parts eaten by bugs, and remove the stem part.

Robert was already watching my knife skills.

“Heidi. This might sound a bit funny, but.”

Robert asked with his eyes twinkling.

“Don’t you want to work at my shop later? I’ll make you the chef!”

“If you really open a shop, I’ll think about it.”

Robert looked at me with surprised eyes, as if he didn’t expect such a cool answer.

Then, unable to contain his rising emotion, he pouted his lips. In the end, he put down his knife and hugged my shoulder tightly.

Thanks to that, I couldn’t move an inch and twisted my body to push him away.

“Ow, really. Robert. Let go of this right now.”

“But Heidi. You so readily agreed to work at my shop. You’re really the best friend.”

“I’m grateful that you appreciate it, but it’s not without pay.”

“Of course! The more friends we are, the more thorough we should be about money! This is my principle.”

…He had quite a proper business value?

I was lost in thought while half-listening to Robert’s grand dreams.

Since Robert said he wasn’t going to the summer festival, I was thinking of going alone.

However, I couldn’t deny it.

‘I want to ask Dietrich.’

I could immediately picture him saying why go to a meaningless summer festival full of people.

Still, I wanted to at least ask. If he had any thoughts of going to the summer festival together.

He might say he doesn’t want to because it’s troublesome to have to disguise himself to avoid being noticed by people.

But I had nothing to lose by asking.

Hmph, what’s so pretty about that Dietrich guy who just ran away after being praised.

Thinking that, I worried about what to say all the way to his office carrying his breakfast.

‘Dietrich, want to go to the summer festival?’

No. Too ordinary. It’s so ordinary that it doesn’t even make me want to go.

Then the second one.

‘Dietrich. Don’t you want to see the summer festival where fireworks go bang bang?’

But would someone like Dietrich, a born rich and noble young master, be curious about mere fireworks?

No, he wouldn’t be.

Then the last one.

Lost in thought as I walked, I was already in front of the office. I unconsciously knocked on the door.

And then I was lost in thought again.

It was really the moment to decide now.

“Hmm… Dietrich. I will personally take you to the summer festival! No, this is too over the top.”

“Why. It’s fresh and good.”

“…Aack!”

He leaned crookedly against the wide open door and chuckled.