Chapter: 25
The primary physician was scheduled to arrive at three o’clock, and it was only one now.
Thankfully, there were still two hours left.
I had to find the young master before the doctor arrived.
I ran around in a frenzy.
“Young master, where are you?!”
I searched every corner of the corridors, even checked the storage room and the attic, but there was no sign of him anywhere.
Where on earth could he be…?
Sweat beaded on my forehead from running around without rest. My breathing grew heavier with every trip up and down the stairs.
But I didn’t even have time to catch my breath.
It’s already past two!
My anxiety kept mounting.
If I couldn’t find the young master in time…
If I failed to carry out the task I was given, I’d surely get scolded.
“Can’t you even manage something this simple? You’re so slow and lazy—what use are you at all?”
I remembered how Aunt Emma had once berated me harshly for not finishing the house cleaning by the designated time.
Just imagining Lady Lisa’s gentle face twisting into something frightening made my fingertips turn cold.
But there was something even more terrifying.
“What if something happened to the young master…?”
Being scolded myself was fine, but I was worried about him.
Children tended to disappear the moment you took your eyes off them. I’d often seen cases where they vanished like that and never came back, or were only found after getting hurt and bursting into tears.
And on top of that, the young master is ill….
I ran around busily for several more minutes without even cooling the heat rising to my face.
I searched the annex with hawk-like focus, but still couldn’t find him. My worry only continued to grow.
What if he wandered somewhere he shouldn’t have and got trapped? Or hurt himself? What if he collapsed…?!
My legs ached and my feet throbbed. My throat was hoarse from calling his name over and over.
Still, I couldn’t rest.
What if he’s in so much pain that he can’t even call out…?!
Realizing I couldn’t handle this alone, I finally decided to inform Lady Lisa and ask for help.
“Head maid…!”
“Mary?”
I hurriedly bowed my head and apologized.
“I’m sorry. The young master found out that the physician was coming. Because of me, he disappeared… I can’t find him on my own. I’m really sorry.”
“First, calm down and sit. Have some water. You’re drenched in sweat. You look pale, too.”
Lady Lisa handed me some water with a worried expression.
“Yes… thank you.”
Though I sat down, my legs trembled with anxiety, and my hands shook as I took the cup. The reflection in the window showed a complete mess.
My hair was completely disheveled, soaked and drooping with sweat, and my clothes were in total disorder.
I gulped down the water just enough to moisten my parched throat, then immediately stood up.
“I’ll look for the young master. You should rest here for a bit, Mary.”
“No. This happened because I made a mistake. I’ll go. If something happened to the young master…”
“Mary, I understand how worried you are. But at this rate, you’ll collapse first.”
Lady Lisa gently patted my shoulder.
“Don’t worry too much. This isn’t the first time the young master has disappeared. I’m sure he’s hiding somewhere again, just like last time.”
Instead of scolding me, Lady Lisa comforted me.
I had fully expected to be reprimanded for failing my duty.
Her kindness made my eyes sting.
I wiped my tears away and stood up determinedly.
“Thanks to you, I feel much calmer. Thank you for worrying about me! But I’m okay now. I’ve rested a bit, so I’ll go look again.”
It was already half past two.
There was really no time left.
I gently shook my head at Lady Lisa as she tried to stop me and left the room again.
I’ve already checked everywhere I can think of…
As I wondered if there was somewhere I’d missed, something suddenly came to mind.
A place the village children always hid in whenever we played hide-and-seek.
Could it be…?
I’d never even considered checking there because I didn’t think the young master would ever go somewhere like that.
But just in case, I headed to the young master’s room. Then I carefully opened the large wardrobe inside.
“Young master!”
He was curled up tightly in the corner of the wardrobe. In the darkness, a pair of green eyes glimmered.
“Haa…”
All the tension drained from me, and I collapsed to the floor.
“Y-young master, do you have any idea how worried I was, thinking something might have happened to you?”
As I scolded him, I checked his face. He didn’t look injured or unwell. Thank goodness… he was safe.
While I was examining him, the young master—who had been wearing a sulky expression—suddenly flinched. He widened his eyes in surprise and asked,
“But… you. What happened to you?”
“Huh?”
Was there something on my face?
As I touched my face, the young master spoke again.
“You look like you’re about to collapse. Your voice is completely hoarse.”
“No, I’m totally fine!”
“Liar. Your face looks like a cooked tomato.”
A cooked tomato? Is this really the time to tease me?!
I sprang to my feet and snapped back at him.
“More importantly, you said you weren’t going anywhere!”
“I didn’t. I stayed right here.”
He wasn’t wrong. He had been in his room the whole time.
I sighed.
“I didn’t know that… I ran around for nothing.”
“…You kept looking for me?”
A hint of guilt crossed the young master’s face. I quickly shook my head.
“No, not for that long. Anyway, come out now, young master! The physician will be here soon.”
After hesitating for a moment, he suddenly turned his head away.
“I’m not going.”
“What?”
“I’m not getting treatment. Even if I do, it won’t get better anyway.”
“No, young master. If you keep getting treated and take your medicine…”
He covered his ears, clearly not wanting to hear another word.
What should I do? I couldn’t exactly drag him out by force.
After a moment of thought, I carefully squeezed myself into the wardrobe.
“W-What are you doing?!”
“I’m your maid, so I should stay where you are. Hehe.”
“And that means cramming yourself into a place this tiny?”
I sat right up against him. Maybe because I was so close, his body stiffened uncomfortably.
“Well… actually, I used to hate medical checkups too, so I once hid in a wardrobe like this.”
The young master’s eyes went wide, as if to say, You too?
That was half a lie. I had hidden in a wardrobe before, but I’d never really had to go for medical treatment.
I’d always been healthy, and whenever I felt sick, Aunt Emma would just scold me, saying, “Stop exaggerating.”
I hid in the wardrobe on a day when it rained heavily—no, now’s not the time to be thinking about that!
I shook the thought away and continued.
“I don’t like going to the doctor. It’s scary. Don’t you feel the same, young master?”
The green eyes wavered, like someone who’d been struck right where it hurt.
So he was scared too.
“When I see a doctor in a white coat, I get nervous for no reason. And when they pull out a syringe, I just want to run away.”
The young master nodded slightly, then suddenly caught himself and snorted.
“…What’s scary about that? I’m not scared at all.”
“Really?”
“Of course—”
When I looked at him with sparkling eyes, he clamped his half-open mouth shut.
I’d tried to gently persuade him by building a sense of shared understanding, like I did with the village kids.
But it didn’t seem to work on him.
“More importantly… are you okay?”
“Huh?”
“Your body’s really warm.”
I had been running around nonstop, sweating a lot. Sitting so close, my body heat must have transferred to him.
“Ah, it’s probably because I’ve been running around so much. I’ll be fine after I rest a bit.”
“What if you get seriously sick? Instead of doing this, you should go get checked by the physician.”
His gentle concern made me smile.
Oh—wait! This could work…!
I drooped my eyebrows and put on a frightened expression.
“I’m scared… I don’t think I can go alone.”
The young master might look prickly, but he was actually very kind and considerate toward those around him.
So if he saw me scared, maybe he’d gather the courage to go—with me.
I grabbed his hand tightly and pleaded.
“If you stay by my side, I think I’d be less scared… Would you go with me?”
“……”
“Please? Young master. Come with me.”
“…Fine. Just get your face out of mine.”
He turned his head sharply away.
“I’ll go. That’s what you wanted, right?”
So troublesome.
Listening to his grumbling, I quietly curled my lips into a smile.
Success!
Even in front of the physician, my award-winning acting didn’t stop.
“Aren’t you scared of injections, young master?”
“Of course not. What’s there to be scared of? It just stings a little.”
To reassure me, he bravely went first—getting examined and even receiving an injection.
When the needle went in, his eyes darted around nervously before he squeezed them shut, but perhaps because I was watching, he didn’t shed a single tear.
I showered him with praise, saying he was the bravest and most grown-up person in the world.
“Now it’s your turn.”
“Huh?”
Lady Lisa had told me that the treatment involved applying a special medicine to the marks covering the young master’s body and wrapping him in bandages until it was fully absorbed.
“Isn’t the young master’s treatment not finished yet?”
At my question, the young master scowled and snapped back.
“Are you planning to watch me strip and get treated?”
“N-no!”
“Then behave yourself, get examined, and leave first.”
“Ah, um…”
Up to this point, the plan had worked—but I hadn’t expected this outcome. Since it would take time for the medicine to absorb, I’d planned to quietly slip away while he was lying down.
But… is it okay for me to get examined by the young master’s personal physician?
