For a time after Serena joined the household, everything was a bit of a hassle. Adding just one girl I’d picked up in the royal capital made the dining table and the hallways feel strangely restless. Yet, it was a curious thing how quickly people adapted. Before I knew it, the mansion’s residents had begun to treat Serena’s presence as just another part of their daily routine.
That night, for once, I went to bed early.
Ever since returning from the royal capital, my desk had begun to resemble a crate of paperwork again, thanks to the reward money distribution, highway maintenance arrangements, village petitions, and the documents Clarice had drafted for my review. It was strange. I’d hired people for a pittance specifically to lighten my load, yet the work never seemed to shrink. Perhaps the minutiae were being handled, but the overall pile remained.
Mylene ran the mansion, Clarice sorted the files, Raisa oversaw the training grounds, and Serena was learning everything from cleaning to serving tea at a frightening speed. And yet, the papers that required my personal seal always seemed to linger on the desk. Being a lord was apparently a direct threat to my fingers.
Before I turned in for the night, I spotted Serena standing in the hallway.
Her blue hair was tied back loosely, and she wore the black maid uniform Mylene had given her. While she hadn't quite mastered the mansion’s etiquette, she looked the part. Her wounds were mostly closed, and the apothecary had cleared her for daily duties. Thinking about the cost of her medicine still irritated me, but she could pay it back through her labor.
"Serena... it’s late. If you’re cleaning, save it for tomorrow. Someone’s going to mistake you for a ghost and keel over if you keep prowling the hallways at night."
"This isn't cleaning. I am performing the nightly rounds... Mylene said it was my duty to check for unextinguished lights and ensure the doors are locked."
"That’s hardly a 'patrol.' It’s just checking locks and putting out embers. You move so silently that it looks less like a patrol and more like an infiltration."
Serena paused to consider this.
"...Next time, I will make noise on purpose."
"Keep it within reason. Don't go stomping through the floorboards."
"I won't. If I pick my footing, even old boards won't creak."
—How do you even know that?
I decided it was too much bother to press for details, so I simply waved her off and entered my room. She was just a girl I’d found in a back alley. As long as she worked, I could tolerate a few eccentricities. With that thought, I lay down.
As soon as I blew out the candle, the room plunged into darkness. Night at the mansion was far quieter than in the royal capital. In the distance, the wind brushed against the windows, and the occasional floorboard groaned. That was all.
That was why I had no idea.
I didn't know that, during the night, intruders had scaled the mansion’s outer walls.
◇
There were three of them.
Clad in black mantles with thin blades at their waists and cloth masks over their faces, they were operatives of the Black Needle Society from the capital’s underworld. Tracking a target from the capital all the way to his domain was a chore, but the Baron’s gold carried significant weight. Furthermore, the Black Needle Society’s reputation had begun to slip ever since the Shadow-Stitcher vanished. By assassinating the young head of a noble house, they could prove they were still a force to be feared. Or so they thought.
The mansion was quieter than they had expected.
While there were gatekeepers, there weren't nearly as many as one would find at a capital estate. The walls were high, but not insurmountable. The men approached through the woods at the rear and scaled the perimeter using the roof of a storage shed. They had been watching the mansion since before sunset and had confirmed that lights remained on in the back of the second floor until late. If the target was anywhere, it was in that room.
The villainous-faced young head... rumors said he had crushed a bandit group, but he likely hadn't wielded a sword himself. Nobles only gave orders. If they slit his throat while he slept, the job would be over.
As the first man reached the wall beneath the window, he heard the faint rustle of cloth behind him.
He spun around. No one was there. However, one of his companions had vanished. The man who had been standing right next to him a moment ago was gone. Before he could call out, cold fingers pressed against the back of his neck.
"This is Master's mansion... what business do you flies have here?"
It was a woman’s voice.
Before the man could reach for his dagger, his arm was wrenched backward. No bones were broken, but the strength left his hand, and his dagger fell silently onto the grass. The air he needed to scream was cut off as her hand tightened on his throat. His body slumped to the ground without a sound.
The last man drew his blade. In the darkness, blue hair caught the moonlight.
"Wh—!? Shadow—"
Before he could finish the name, his world spun.
Serena did not kill the three men. Vain had told her not to. Killing meant more paperwork, and disposing of corpses was a nuisance. Therefore, she simply bound them alive... hurting them enough to ensure they couldn't move, without stopping their hearts or crushing their throats.
However, she hadn't been told not to swell their faces. She drove an elbow into the jaw of the man who tried to scream, slammed the cheek of the man trying to rise into the dirt, and silenced the last one with two sharp punches to the face.
—The problem was that Serena's definition of "enough to ensure they couldn't move" was significantly more severe than that of an ordinary person.
Three muffled groans echoed briefly in the nighttime garden.
Serena bound the men, gagged them with cloth, and dragged them toward the back entrance. She was careful not to soil the hallway, knowing Mylene would be cleaning it in the morning. She diluted the bloodstains with water and wiped them away, then scrubbed the mud from the walls. Patrolling and cleaning. She followed Mylene’s instructions to the letter.
However, she had not yet been taught exactly what counted as "trash" to be cleared away.
◇
The next morning, I woke up slightly earlier than usual.
The hallway was strangely quiet. The mansion was never loud, but I usually heard the rhythmic footsteps of Mylene and the other servants in the morning.
Today, there were none. Sensing something was wrong, I stepped out of my room, only to find Mylene standing at the end of the hallway. She was pale. Clarice was there as well, while Raisa stood with her arms crossed, staring down at something.
Three men were sprawled at their feet.
Or rather, they were bound and displayed there. Their limbs were tied together with rope, their mouths were stuffed with rags, and their faces were so battered and swollen that they were barely recognizable as human. They were breathing, but they certainly weren't a sight I wanted to see before breakfast.
I stood in silence for a moment before looking at Serena, who was standing nearby holding a water pitcher. Her face was as expressionless as ever, looking for all the world as if she had simply finished changing the water in a vase.
"Serena... what is this?"
"The people who approached Master's room last night. I stopped them before they reached the door."
"You need to use the word 'stopped' with a bit more precision... I can't even tell what these guys used to look like."
"They are alive. I did not kill them. Master said that disposing of corpses is a hassle."
Clarice pressed her fingers to her temple. Mylene covered her mouth. Only Raisa stooped down to inspect the men’s wrists and the soles of their shoes, letting out a low whistle.
"Boss... these guys aren't common thieves. Look at the curve of the daggers and the tread on those boots—they’re from the capital's underworld. What exactly did you do back there?"
"Nothing! I collected my reward at the Medal Ceremony, gave a piece of my mind to some obnoxious baron, and got pestered by a bratty girl. Why would underworld assassins follow me all the way here?"
"I don't trust your definition of 'nothing' for a second..."
Clarice shot me a frigid look. She was an incredibly disrespectful woman. However, looking back on my recent actions, I couldn't entirely deny her suspicion. I suppose I did humiliate Baron Barzen in front of everyone...
The realization hit me. I’d had a hunch, but sending assassins in the middle of the night for that? Nobles in the royal capital were far too petty.
I looked down at the bound men and muttered, "Is the royal capital way too scary...?"
The words slipped out before I could stop them. Serena’s eyes flickered slightly.
"Are there people targeting Master...?"
"There might be... actually, there almost certainly are. But don't go acting on your own. Let Raisa confirm who they are, and have Clarice investigate them. We’ll send a letter to the capital if we have to."
"Understood. First, I will finish cleaning the hallway."
"Right... you're talking about the floor, right?"
Serena tilted her head just a fraction while still clutching her pitcher.
"Yes... in the broader sense."
—Wait... what does "broader sense" mean?
Before I could demand an explanation, Serena turned her attention away from the men and focused on a smudge of mud in the corner. Following Mylene's instructions, she moistened a cloth and began to wipe meticulously along the grain of the floorboards. Her movements were graceful and precise—much more like a proper maid than yesterday.
However, with three mangled men tied up at her feet, it didn't look like a peaceful morning at all. I felt a massive headache coming on.
I thought I’d picked up a high-utility apprentice maid. But as it turned out, this woman was even more dedicated to "cleaning" than I had ever imagined.