Chapter 001
I’m a Princess, Master?
“Heidi Dalton…. Here you are.”
The Head Maid, pushing up her thin-rimmed glasses, pointed to the end of the ledger.
“Including the special bonus, it’s 320 Acnes. Count it to make sure it’s correct.”
“It’s fine. You aren’t the type to make a mistake with something like this, Head Maid.”
Heidi flashed a grin, showing her white teeth, as she slid the heavy pay pouch toward herself.
“Just do as you did before, please.”
“You want the whole amount sent home again? Without setting any aside for yourself?”
“Yes, Head Maid.”
Heidi, smoothing out her crisp, heavily starched apron, replied with a shrug.
“I don’t really have anything else to spend it on. My food, sleep, and clothes are all taken care of here. Besides, the Young Lady would be uncomfortable without me.”
At that, the Head Maid’s gaze, which had been fixed on the ledger the entire time, shifted toward Heidi.
Hair tied back bluntly without style.
A plain, dull maid’s uniform without a single decoration.
Clear skin without a trace of makeup.
She was clearly a girl with absolutely no interest in grooming herself.
Yet, despite that, Heidi was strikingly beautiful—so much so that the surroundings seemed to brighten just by looking at her.
Her bright blonde hair, falling to her waist, always held a luster, and her features, nestled into her small face, were as pretty as a delicately crafted porcelain doll.
Most notable of all were her vivid violet eyes. It was a color so rare it was considered one of the symbols of the Panther Royal Family.
‘I’ve heard it happens occasionally, but… they are as vivid as jewels every time I see them.’
The Head Maid took in every corner of Heidi’s face before letting out a short sigh.
“The other maids are all singing about going flower viewing or boating. You look as delicate as a precious daughter from a noble house who has never suffered a day in her life; why are you so desperate to work?”
Heidi replied with her eyes crinkled in a smile.
“I have more fun being with the Young Lady. It’s not that hard, anyway.”
“Don’t be like that; go visit your home for a bit. Everton isn’t even that far from here. Hmm?”
“Yes, I will.”
With a polite bow, Heidi stepped out of the Head Maid’s room.
Thud, thud. Walking along the long hallway of the mansion, Heidi suddenly stopped in front of a large window.
Warm sunlight was pouring in through the glass like a rising tide.
‘The weather is really great.’
Leaning against the window frame, Heidi looked down at the endlessly stretching garden.
The House of Heisen, said to be the most historic family in the kingdom.
True to its reputation, the Heisen estate boasted a massive scale—so large that it would take half a day just to tour the entire garden.
Looking down at the flowers blooming vibrantly with the spirit of spring, Heidi muttered indifferently.
“Is flower viewing really such a big deal? There are flowers everywhere just by looking out the window.”
She said that, but in truth, it wasn’t that Heidi didn’t want to play.
How could she not feel that way? Only yesterday, she had spent hours listening to Janine from the next room chatter about her boating trip with her boyfriend!
However, such leisure was not permitted for Heidi.
‘The price of Mom’s medicine keeps going up… what should I do? Should I try to get some more needlework jobs?’
Because Heidi had a family to support.
The livelihood of her family rested on Heidi, who had barely been an adult for a year.
It was a burden that even a grown adult would find difficult to handle, but Heidi never once complained about that fact.
She simply tightened her belt and worked day and night.
‘I should be grateful that I’m even able to do something. I have to be.’
Just then, urgent footsteps were heard from behind.
“Heidi!”
As Heidi turned around, a letter was suddenly thrust in front of her. The maid, huffing and puffing as if she had run all the way, leaned back and spoke.
“Go to the Young Lady quickly.”
Heidi’s eyes grew wide.
“Why? Did something happen?”
The maid shrugged.
“She says she hates the smell of the medicine and refuses to apply it. Go quickly and persuade her. While you’re at it, deliver this letter too. Please, okay?”
Whenever there was business with Eloise, the only younger sister of Duke Heisen, the servants of the Heisen household invariably sought out Heidi.
The only person who could soothe the sensitive Eloise—that was Heidi.
Taking the letter, Heidi hurried toward Eloise’s room. Even from the hallway, Eloise’s shrill voice was echoing out.
“Everyone get out! Stop annoying me!”
As Heidi cautiously opened the door, the heads of the maids, who had been flustered and at a loss, all turned toward her in unison.
‘Do something.’
Reading the desperate look in their eyes, Heidi let out a short sigh.
With a wave of her hand to dismiss them, Heidi approached the bedside.
“Lady Eloise, everyone is gone.”
“……”
“My Lady~.”
Then, Eloise pulled down the blanket she had been using to cover herself up to the top of her head.
Despite it being midday, the room was dark, revealing the silhouette of a gaunt woman. Brushing back her disheveled hair, she opened her lips with a whine.
“I don’t want to apply the medicine. I’m tired. I can skip just one day.”
“Oh, no you can’t. Please get up.”
Shaking her head firmly, Heidi boldly helped Eloise sit up.
“It will only take a moment. I’ll apply it so gently you won’t even know it’s being put on. You know my hands are fast, right? It’ll be over in a flash, a flash.”
Having soothed Eloise’s heart with her brisk attitude, Heidi pulled the curtains halfway back.
As the midday sun pushed back the darkness slightly, only then did the scenery of the room become clear.
A neat and tidy bedroom. However, it felt excessively plain for the only young lady of the wealthiest family in the kingdom.
The large arched windows were all covered with dark-colored curtains, and there wasn’t even a dressing table.
Let alone a mirror, it was a room without a single smooth surface that could reflect a body.
There was a reason for the somewhat peculiar atmosphere of the room.
“Wasn’t it difficult because of the dryness?”
“……It was a bit itchy.”
“If the scent is bothersome, shall I go pick some flowers? I think the herbal scent might be masked a bit if we fill the room with the fragrance of flowers. The flowers outside are blooming like crazy.”
Swish, swish.
Lifting the hem of Eloise’s clothes, Heidi began to carefully spread the ointment.
The skin revealed beneath the thin, soft pajamas was not smooth.
Unlike her white, smooth forehead, the skin was red and lumpy.
Revealed in the sunlight, the right side of Eloise Heisen’s body bore the vivid scars of where the flames of a fire had clawed at her.
The scars, caused by a fire accident three years ago, brought back the horrific moments of that time just by looking at them.
Naturally, speaking of the fire or the scars became an absolute taboo among the servants, and they even began to be cautious about making eye contact with Eloise.
Even if Eloise screamed curses and threw tantrums, threw and broke everything in the room, or kicked the maids out once a day, no one could point it out.
Not knowing that this only made Eloise even lonelier.
In the midst of that, Heidi appeared before Eloise.
“My Lady, please stop.”
“What does someone like you care!”
“If doing that makes you feel better, you may do it as much as you like, but it makes your heart uncomfortable too, My Lady. For your own sake, please don’t do that.”
The entire mansion was turned upside down by a single remark from an ignorant rookie maid.
How could you say such a thing? Do you want to be kicked out with your bags packed immediately? Harsh scoldings followed.
But for some reason, Eloise did not send Heidi away.
Of course, she acted quite spiteful.
Heidi endured Eloise’s grumbling with her characteristic briskness.
One year passed like that.
Eloise opened the door of her heart wide to Heidi. The instances of taking her anger out on innocent people or rioting while breaking things vanished.
“All done. You did well to endure it.”
Heidi, who had skillfully spread the medicine over Eloise’s skin, spoke in a bright voice.
Eloise, who had been pouting, discovered the letter Heidi had placed by the bedside.
“By the way, what’s that? Is it yours?”
Heidi shook her head.
“No, it came for you, My Lady.”
“For me? Is it a letter from my brother?”
Picking up the letter, Eloise quickly opened the envelope. Eloise, reading through the short letter with a flushed face, shouted loudly.
“Heidi, Brother is returning within a few days! And what’s more, he’s going to stay for a long time!”
* * *
Meanwhile, at that time.
Eloise’s only family, Duke Decion Carlos Heisen, was in a private audience with the King.
“For health reasons?”
“Yes.”
“Is it an illness that cannot be cured in the capital?”
Decion nodded with an expressionless face.
“What better treatment could there be than resting in a place with good air? As a Lord, I have been away from my post for a long time, so I do not intend to leave the territory for a while.”
“……”
The King scrutinized Decion’s clean-cut face with half-closed eyes.
Skin slightly tanned by the spring sun beneath jet-black hair.
Broad shoulders and a firm body without a speck of flab.
Even his red eyes, flashing sharply in the shadows.
No matter how one looked at him, he did not seem like someone who needed recuperation because they were ill.
“……Well, fine. If you say so, then it must be so.”
The King stroked his beard with a withered hand.
“I had inwardly hoped you would become Anastasia’s mentor again…. It is a shame in many ways.”
Anastasia.
The moment he heard that name, Decion’s jaw tightened.
