Self-answering Claud turned the pen with his slender fingers and, using the back of the pen, scribbled the usage budget for hiring servants. It was a nervous movement.

When the butler, who had smiled as if his eyes were smiling, took the budget proposal file that Claud had offered, along with the empty dishes, and left, Claud, left alone with Hille, tentatively gathered his courage.

“What are you doing?”

“Who are you referring to, Your Highness?”

“…The weather is really nice. Your Highness. It seems like winter is either ending or getting longer.”

“Damn it. The sun is annoyingly long.”

A sharp response immediately followed the light weather talk.

With a pitiful expression, Hille blinked and stammered more words.

“Uh, if there’s anything in the evening…”

“I told you not to listen, Glasses-wearing doctor.”

As prompt and unreserved as the answer was, a sharp gaze was cast at Hille.

“Stay here and don’t move an inch. If you want to leave, pray that the sun sets quickly.”

Hille was on the verge of tears.

Oliver circled around Henna, who was crying loudly. Seeing the somewhat friendly interaction, it seemed that Henna had been taking care of Oliver all along.

Yuan, who comforted the crying Henna for a while, began to ignore her as she started feeling embarrassed.

It was a moment of stopping after stacking bricks one by one and giving up, sitting down with a sigh. Henna, as if embarrassed by suddenly bursting into tears, desperately wiped her face and casually spoke to her as if nothing had happened.

“Sob, my lady, if you sit like that, your knees won’t straighten when you get old.”

“Where did you hear that?”

“From my grandmother.”

“Is your grandmother still alive?”

Henna didn’t answer again.

Young maids often have many secrets.

Yuan, looking at Oliver today and recalling Henna’s actions as she sobbed, and Henna’s surprised expression when brought to this western annex, vowed to ask her properly someday.

Filling a small bucket with water and diluting cleaning solution, Yuan, ignoring Henna’s strong opposition to doing it herself, began to scrub.

“Wow!”

As he scraped off the soot-like residue, the original red bricks were revealed. Moreover, as he scraped a few more times, they became vibrant.

Yuan wiped it clean until not a speck of ash remained. The red bricks not only became clean but also looked as if they had been rebuilt.

“Wow, my lady!”

If he gradually changed it like this, Claud would not be able to leave without seeing it.

“My lady! It’s amazing!”

“Is it? I’ll try erasing little by little from today.”

“I’ll help too!”

“No. I’ll do it alone.”

“Huh? Why?”

“You and the other servants are always busy and tired with main mansion work. How can I ask you to do this?”

Henna, who quickly accepted the memory of a busy day, soon agreed.

However, she hesitated and hesitated, rubbing her fingers together, whether it was right to make the precious lady do such work. It seemed she was searching for the right words to console the lady.

“It’s for exercise. And…”

Yuan cautiously brought up the words buried deep in his heart.

It was a phrase to break Henna’s stubbornness not to burden her with extra work, along with the butler.

“I want to make it clean and beautiful with my own strength and show it to you. Like a gift.”

“Huh?”

“Understand… what I mean?”

Henna, who was about to shout for joy, sealed her mouth with her small hands and vigorously nodded her head. On her sealed hands, large eyes were shining towards Yuan.

Yuan diligently continued scrubbing while sending Henna back to the main mansion.

It was because he didn’t want to take away Henna’s time and also to hide the reddening face that he didn’t even notice.

“It’s more challenging than I thought.”

Yuan sighed lowly as he looked at the twenty or so bricks that had now found their color.
Straightening his aching back, Yuan stood up and looked up at the sky. The sun still showed no intention of setting.

“Ding-ding. Ding-ding.”

While standing there, he followed a sound nearby. Surprisingly, Oliver was sitting and looking at her from a distance.

“Oliver?”

Oliver perked up his ears once and then turned his head, as if signaling that the matter was over.

Well, that’s right. He probably doesn’t want to open his heart yet. He looks and acts somewhat like the master.

Someday, Yuan thought he should ask Claud about Oliver. He shifted his gaze to where Oliver, lying down and gazing endlessly, was looking.

… It was towards Claud’s bedroom.

His heart trembled.

Was that dog waiting every day like that for a master who wouldn’t come?

“Oliver, your master just has a bit of a bad personality; he actually likes you.”

Oliver twitched his ears a few times.

The dog’s gaze was still directed towards Claud’s bedroom.

“… If he didn’t like you, he wouldn’t leave you behind.”

He almost whispered the last part.

Yuan, covering his blushing ears again with both hands, sat down awkwardly, releasing strange emotions.

Each time he scrubbed, the accumulated black dirt became clean.

‘I hope the sun sets quickly.’

He didn’t know why.

He just wanted the sun to set so that the time Claud needed him would come, and Yuan could cross the threshold of that bedroom without the excuse of fetching meals.