There were three servants in the room, excluding the elderly couple who commuted.

“You all, what are you doing right now?”

As Ael spoke coldly, they looked at each other and exchanged glances. They seemed to be contemplating how to handle this situation.

“Leave the room immediately. And when father returns, honestly confess your wrongdoing…”

“Are you crazy? As if that man would let us off easily if we did that.”

“…!”

The servant who had been sitting stood up and spat on the floor as he spoke.

Ael felt fear at the unruly attitude, completely devoid of the awkward politeness they usually showed.

But she couldn’t back down here like this.

“I’ll say it again. Return to your places right now. If you do, I’ll pretend this never happened. If you won’t listen further, I’ll have no choice but to fire you all.”

“Fire us? What nonsense.”

The servant strode up to Ael and clenched his fist, making a cracking sound.

“Do you think we have nowhere else to work but here? Even though the employer is terrible, we’ve stayed out of loyalty from working here so long. Fire us? Hey, when the viscount returns, who do you think he’ll believe if we speak up, you or us?”

“…”

Ael couldn’t answer the servant’s threat. Not because she didn’t know. It was because she knew the answer better than anyone.

While Ael was unable to respond, the maid playing with Elize’s shawl in the room noticed the earrings placed on the dressing table.

Due to their hasty departure, Elize and the maid had left without properly tidying up.

The maid quietly picked them up and put them in her pocket. But Ael saw her do it.

“Put that back!”

“What? Put what back… Let go!”

The maid, caught in her theft, roughly pushed Ael.

Her body, still not fully recovered and weakened from recent lack of proper nourishment, was easily pushed back and fell like a paper doll. As she fell, she knocked over the lamp the servants had left on the floor.

The oil inside the lamp spilled onto the carpet. Soon, the fire spread along the oil with a whoosh.

The startled servants stepped back. The sudden flames caught on Elize’s clothes nearby.

“Water! Bring water!”

The servants shouted in panic. They floundered about before running outside. Meanwhile, the fire spread further.

Ael got up and looked around, then grabbed the blanket still on Elize’s bed and covered the carpet with it.

“Cough!”

As the fire under the blanket died down, acrid smoke rose up.

Ael held onto the blanket while covering her mouth and nose with her arm.

After a moment, only when she confirmed the fire under the carpet had completely died out did Ael remove the blanket.

“Huff… huff…”

In the room still filled with smoke and acrid smell, Ael approached the window and caught her breath.

Only then did the servants come up with water containers. But it was only enough for one splash anyway.

Seeing the room where the fire was already out, they slowly backed away.

As they sobered up, they realized what they had done. Then the maid threw down the earrings she had pocketed and the shawl on her shoulder and shouted.

“I didn’t take anything from here! And I’m quitting this house first!”

Then she hurriedly turned and went downstairs. The two remaining servants looked at each other and then shouted.

“You fell and started the fire, I didn’t do anything wrong!”

“Right! And I was going to quit this house with such meager pay anyway! We’re going to the Ash Company mansion! What was it called again? Oh right. The Oltbea mansion! My close friend said he’d get us in together!”

The servants yelled at Ael, who was covered in soot, then fled downstairs.

In the meantime, Jena, who had woken up late due to exhausting labor, came down.

Jena looked at the servants who bumped into her and left without apologizing, then smelled the acrid odor and hurriedly came to Elize’s room.

“Miss!”

Seeing Ael in as terrible a state as the wretched room, Jena quickly examined her.

“I’m fine. But quickly…”

“How can you be fine!”

Jena shone the lamp she was holding on Ael’s arm.

When had she been injured? Traces of burns with blisters already forming were visible.

Jena hurriedly pulled Ael out of the ruined room.

Examining her in the corridor still lit with dawn light, Ael’s condition looked even more pitiful.

Her whole body was covered in soot and reeked of an acrid smell. Moreover, there were burn marks here and there.

Now was not the time to worry about the servants who had gone off somewhere. Jena immediately took Ael to the kitchen to wash her wounds with clean water, then went upstairs to bring a change of clothes.

Amidst the chaos, summer had arrived and the sun rising early began to light up the horizon. When the first rays of morning sun rose above the horizon, Jena and Ael sighed at the sight of Elize’s room.

“What should we do…”

At Jena’s despairing murmur and the state of the room, Ael felt her vision go dark.

The soot remaining throughout the room, the carpet and Elize’s clothes that clearly could no longer be used, and even the furniture.

What would the viscount couple and Elize say when they returned and saw this?

In the morning, Ael cleaned Elize’s room together with the elderly servant and maid who had come to work. They tried to sort out things that might be salvageable if washed and cleaned, but there wasn’t much left.

With a feeling of suffocating fear, Ael sent another letter to the viscount.

She wrote that there had been a fire in the house and Elize’s room had suffered significant damage. Of course, she also included the story about the servants who had quit.

A week later, unlike the lack of response until now, a reply from the viscount arrived. Ael opened the envelope with trembling hands and read the viscount’s response.

And after a while, she put the letter down on the table with a sigh.

“As expected…”

The letter was full of nothing but words of condemnation.

The viscount hurled verbal abuse at Ael in writing, to the point where it was hard to distinguish whether this was a reply or a curse.

Even regarding the servants’ misdeeds, he only berated her, saying how poorly she must have managed people for them to behave that way.

Then the viscount told her to find a husband on her own if necessary to get money and restore Elize’s room to its original state.

He also said that since the place where they were staying was very security-conscious due to the Grand Duke, he would no longer reply to letters, so she shouldn’t send any more.

He continued that they would spend the summer there and return before the fall season, so she should have everything finished by then.

If not, he said he would choose a way to recover the cost of everything she had eaten and used until now, besides marriage.

At the last written words, Ael quietly closed the letter.

Anyway, she had to do what she could first.

Ael spent all day cleaning Elize’s room. Jena also came to help.

The clothes in the wardrobe were less covered in soot, but they still smelled of smoke all the same.

While Ael wiped off the soot remaining on the window frames and floor, Jena took Elize’s clothes to wash them.

When Ael returned from meeting a carpenter for room repairs, she found Jena collapsed in the laundry room.

“Jena!”

Alarmed, Ael carried Jena on her back to her room. The elderly maid brought a wet cloth and water, then said with a pitying look:

“Jena would secretly wash clothes even at night, saying this was all she could do to help the young miss. I told her not to do it as she might collapse from overexertion, but…”

Hearing the maid’s words, Ael tightly grasped Jena’s hand.

To think that someone who had done nothing wrong was suffering like this because of her.

Ael took care of Jena until late at night. And the next day, she put on clothes and headed to the port.

Ael’s steps stopped at the Ash Company’s Denertum branch building, passing through the street already bustling with people coming and going from early morning.

‘He said he was looking for an ancient language tutor back then.’

But quite some time had passed, so he might have already found an excellent tutor incomparable to the likes of her.

‘Still, I have to ask.’

She needed to inquire if there might be any other job opportunities.

She couldn’t earn enough to repair Elize’s room with cleaning jobs. Other jobs that paid enough wouldn’t accept someone from a family with an already ruined reputation like her.

So the only option left was a job at the Ash Company.

As Ael entered, an employee at the entrance approached.

“What brings you here?”

“Ah, well… I was offered a position as an ancient language teacher for the branch manager’s matter before… At that time, I declined due to unfavorable circumstances, but I was wondering if that position might still be available, if possible.”

Though it wasn’t something to be ashamed of, her voice kept getting smaller, unaccustomed to speaking like this.

“The branch manager? I’ll pass it on for now. May I have your name?”

“Ael… Frida.”

“I see, Miss Ael Frida. I will pass it on, but there are many meetings from this morning, so I’m not sure when we can give you an answer. Should we contact you at home?”

At those words, Ael thought for a moment before shaking her head.

“No. If it’s alright, may I wait here?”

“Of course.”

Ael was guided to the waiting room where others were waiting.

As she sat down in a seat where no one else was nearby, sunlight poured down on her head. As time passed, the sunlight coming through the window gradually changed direction.

Sleepiness overcame her body, tired from the continuous events. Ael fell asleep right there, sitting in the sunlit seat.