“Ah, that dog.”

“Do you know that dog, madam?”

“Is it true that His Highness used to keep that dog?”

Yuan slowly approached the dog, waving the jerky that Ralph had given her to eat when she was bored. He said he deliberately lowered the salt content to feed it to Yuan as soon as it was made.

The dog hesitated, curling its tail between its legs.

Thinking it seemed timid despite its handsome appearance, Yuan carefully placed the jerky in front and retreated a few steps to squat down.

“Henna. Do you know this dog’s name?”

When Henna didn’t answer, Yuan briefly turned her head to look up at Henna who had come close. Henna fumbled, looking at the dog, then whispered in response.

“It’s Oliver, madam.”

“Oliver.”

As soon as it heard its name, the dog perked up its pointed ears once, then slowly unfurled its curled tail and wagged it gently. Yuan sighed in relief and spoke softly.

“Oliver, I’m going to clean your home now. To get your permission.”

Oliver lowered his head to sniff, then flattened his ears and lowered his body.

“If you eat this, I’ll take it as permission.”

Finally, Oliver lightly touched his tongue to the jerky in front of her and began to chew and eat.

In that moment, Yuan carefully extended her hand. Oliver instantly lowered his posture, rejecting the touch, but didn’t completely avoid it.

Yuan respected Oliver and didn’t insist on petting his head, just quietly watching. The dog hesitated as if about to run away with the jerky, but eventually put it down near Yuan and ate it deliciously.

“…It seems Oliver doesn’t dislike you, madam.”

“Henna?”

Yuan jumped up at the tearful voice.

Henna was standing with her head bowed low, hugging the cleaning solution. Thick tears were dripping down from beneath her lowered head.

“I think Oliver likes you, madam. Waaah-!!”

At the same time.

Hilre finished the morning consultation, pretending not to notice Clard’s cold demeanor that had been emanating all morning.

“I’ll bring up the newly made pain medication before dinner. Your complexion looks brighter, probably because you slept well, and there’s nothing particularly lacking.”

“You say the same thing every day.”

“…Pardon?”

“Sit in that corner and record how much has changed from usual.”

“…Pardon?”

“Don’t speak. Keep your mouth shut and ears closed. Don’t wander around unnecessarily.”

While Hilre was dumbfounded by the absurd order.

The butler came in with lunch.

Although one might expect him to be pleased that the meal had arrived, Clard turned sharply towards the door as soon as it opened, then looked over the butler standing with the tray with a displeased expression.

Before the butler could be flustered by the unkind gaze, Clard rested his chin on his hand and threw his gaze towards the window.

“Should I decorate the garden?”

Clard suddenly muttered to himself like a sigh as he scanned the garden with dry eyes.

As Gustav arranged the plates with a puzzled expression, Clard answered himself.

“It’ll be spring soon.”

Since when have you been interested in the garden? The butler stared at Clard’s face, which seemed uninterested in the food, for a long time, then asked hopefully.

“…Shall I show you the related budget proposal?”

“Go ahead.”

The butler quickly pulled out a thick file he had been tucking under his arm.

It was hard to suppress the corners of his mouth that were trying to rise even if he tried to hide it.

For the first time in 10 years since Clard’s collapse, he had asked for his own work to be brought.

For 10 years, it had been work divided between the Lev brothers and the butler.

Come to think of it, ever since the new madam entered the mansion, Clard’s usually sensitive demeanor had gradually weakened and the time he spent awake during the day had increased. Even the amount of painkillers that Hilre filled in from time to time had decreased slightly.

“The budget proposal and execution details for the garden or mansion exterior are in the second marked section.”

“Ah, don’t draw the curtains.”

Gustav, who was about to draw the curtains for Clard whose brows were furrowed due to the pouring sunlight, stopped in his tracks.

“If you’re going to draw them, only half. Just the light coming into my face.”

“?”

“…I need to read.”

An unsolicited excuse on top of that.

As if avoiding the butler’s strange gaze, Clard unnecessarily threatened Hilre who was stuck in the corner.

“Four-eyes doctor. You stay there and run to the console to get painkillers if I’m in even a little pain.”

After the meal.

Clard hesitated for a moment towards the butler who was diligently clearing the table, then slowly furrowed his brows.

“What is she doing?”

“Who are you referring to?”

“…The former crown princess.”

As the butler’s smile deepened even more than before, Clard hurriedly lowered his gaze to the budget proposal.

“No, nevermind. Don’t tell me. She’s probably running around messing things up somewhere or trying to help out with work.”

Clard, who had answered his own question, twirled the quill pen with his long fingers, then measured the staff employment budget to the maximum and scrawled down the numbers. It was a nervous hand movement.

The butler, who had been smiling from ear to ear, left with the budget proposal file and empty plates that Clard had handed back.

Hilre, who was suddenly left alone with Clard, stumbled over his words as Clard threw himself into the rocking chair with irritable footsteps.

“The, the weather is quite nice, Your Highness. The sun seems to have lengthened a bit, as if winter is ending.”

“Damn it. The sun is annoyingly long.”

An immediate irritable response flew to the light weather talk.

Hilre blinked his pitifully drooping eyes and stumbled over his words.

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

“I told you not to listen, four-eyes doctor.”

A sharp gaze as unrestrained as the answer poured onto Hilre.

“Don’t leave and just stay there watching my mood. If you want to leave, pray for the sun to set quickly or something.”

Hilre was on the verge of tears.

Oliver circled around the sobbing Henna. Seeing how friendly they seemed, it appeared that Henna had been taking care of Oliver all this time.

After comforting Henna who had been crying bitterly for a while, Yuan pretended not to notice as she started to feel embarrassed.

She had been counting the bricks one by one before giving up and squatting at the end. Henna, seemingly embarrassed by her sudden outburst of tears, desperately wiped her face and tried to act as if nothing had happened as she spoke to her.

“Sniff. Madam, they say if you squat like that, your knees won’t be healthy when you’re old.”

“Where did you hear that?”

“From my grandmother.”

“You have a grandmother?”

Henna was silent again.

This young maid sure has a lot of secrets.

Yuan made a mental note to ask properly someday, recalling Henna’s behavior of sniffling while looking at Oliver today, and her surprised expression when brought to this west annex.

Yuan diluted the cleaning solution in a small bucket filled with water, dipped the brush in and out, and began scrubbing, ignoring Henna’s protests that she would do it.

“Wow!”

As she scrubbed, almost scraping off the black soot, the original red bricks revealed themselves. Moreover, after scrubbing a few more times, they became shiny.

Yuan wiped them clean repeatedly, three or four times each, until not a speck of ash remained. The red bricks became as bright as if they had been newly laid rather than just cleaned.

“Wow, madam!”

If she changed it little by little to its former beautiful red appearance like this, even Clard would not be able to resist coming out to see.

“Madam! It’s so amazing!”

“Isn’t it? I’m going to try to erase it little by little from today.”

“I’ll help too!”

“No. Let me do it alone.”

“Huh? Why?”

“How could I make you and the other staff do this when you’re always busy and tired with work in the main building?”

Henna quickly agreed, recalling her tight daily schedule.

But she fidgeted and hesitated, seemingly uncomfortable with having the precious madam do such work. She appeared to be searching for the right words to dissuade the madam.

“I’m doing it for exercise. And-”

Yuan carefully brought out the words she had buried deep in her heart.

It was enough to break Henna’s stubbornness, along with the butler’s, of not wanting to give Yuan menial tasks.

“I want to clean it all up beautifully with my own strength and show it to His Highness. Like a gift.”

“Heup-!”

“Do you… understand what I mean?”

Henna, who was about to let out a squeal, tightly covered her mouth with her two small hands and nodded vigorously. Above her covered hands, her large eyes sparkled towards Yuan.

Yuan diligently scrubbed and sent Henna back to the main building first.

It was partly because she didn’t want to take up Henna’s time, and partly to hide her own face that had unknowingly turned red.

“It’s harder than I thought.”

Yuan sighed softly, looking at the bricks, about twenty of which had now found their original color.

As she stood up to stretch her stiff back and looked up at the sky, the sun still showed no intention of setting.

-“Pii-ii-. Pii-ii-.”

Suddenly following the sound coming from nearby, to her surprise, Oliver was sitting far away, looking at her.

“Oliver?”

Oliver twitched his ears once, then turned his head as if his business was done.

Well, of course.

There’s no way he’d open up to me already.

He’s quite similar to his owner in both appearance and personality.

Thinking that she should ask Clard about Oliver someday, Yuan shifted her gaze to where Oliver was lying down and staring endlessly.

…It was towards Clard’s bedroom.

Her heart ached.

Is this dog waiting like this every day for an owner who doesn’t come looking for him?

“Oliver. Your master may have a bit of a bad temper, but he likes you.”

Oliver twitched his ears a few times.

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

“…If he didn’t like you, he wouldn’t keep you around.”

She spoke almost in a whisper at the end.

Yuan covered her reddening ears with both hands and squatted down again noisily as if to shake off the strange emotion.

With each scrub, the old black grime became clean.

‘I wish the sun would set quickly.’

She didn’t know why.

It was just that when the sun set, the time would come when Clard would need her, and Yuan would be able to cross the threshold of that bedroom without the excuse of bringing a meal.