Chapter 10
Today again, the duke sat at his desk in his neat black uniform, flipping through documents.
“Shasha.”
“Yes?”
“You should knock.”
“Oh, sorry.”
…Too much enthusiasm can ruin things.
I stepped outside again and knocked twice.
“Come in.”
“Good morning, Your Grace!”
“…”
The duke paused while turning a page and let out a soft sigh while looking at me.
Well, what’s done is done.
All I can do now is act confidently.
Since I had already cleaned the study once, today’s cleaning went quite smoothly.
I was wiping the marble near the window when I heard something.
Amid the rustling sound of papers, the duke muttered quietly.
“Come to think of it, the horses seem to lack energy lately.”
…Ah!
I found one more thing I could do.
My eyes lit up as I looked at the duke’s perfectly shaped head.
*
After cleaning the duke’s bedroom, I headed straight for the stables.
“Mr. Kelpie, Mr. Seeker.”
“…Yes, Head Maid!”
Someone answered hurriedly.
But his footsteps weren’t very fast.
A squelching sound approached, along with the smell of horse manure.
I almost covered my nose but stopped myself.
Since they were working so hard, it would be rude to do that in front of them.
Kelpie and Seeker walked toward me in boots, wiping sweat from their necks.
At a glance, the front area of the stable was already mostly cleaned.
But honestly, cleaning wasn’t the real problem here.
“Are the horses eating their feed now?”
“…”
At my question, the two of them avoided my gaze.
Then Seeker quietly jabbed Kelpie in the waist.
“Ah!”
Kelpie let out a scream far too dramatic for a simple poke.
“Well… um… sorry.”
“So the horses still aren’t eating? And you don’t know why?”
“Yes. That’s correct.”
Well, that’s strange.
I awkwardly looked at the two of them as they avoided eye contact.
The reason I had assigned them to the stable in the first place was because their faces were… horse faces.
Their bodies were human, but their faces were horses.
They were monsters like that.
At first, when I assigned them the job, they protested loudly.
They said it made no sense for them to clean horse manure just because they had horse faces.
But after seeing Mr. Jameson being used as a mop, they quietly went to clean the manure.
Since then, they had been listening to me well.
Still, contrary to my expectations, they didn’t seem to get along particularly well with the horses.
“Excuse me… but can you communicate with the horses?”
“What? We are not horses.”
“Oh… sorry.”
“Our true origin is the sea! Not these insignificant land creatures—”
Suddenly Kelpie got excited, but Seeker quickly covered his mouth.
Kelpie’s eyes widened as if he realized his mistake.
I crossed my arms.
This is troubling.
If the horses recovered their energy, it would make the duke feel better.
But if I reported that they couldn’t even communicate with them…
Well, there wasn’t much I could do.
I sighed and shook my head.
“I see. Then I suppose I’ll have to tell the duke that since you can’t communicate with the horses, there’s nothing we can do—”
“No. I think we can.”
“Huh?”
Didn’t you just say you couldn’t?
And it was Seeker, who had been the quiet one until now.
With a determined expression, he clenched his fists and walked toward the horses.
Then—
“■☐? ■☐☐☐■■☐!”
He made a strange noise I couldn’t understand.
Neigh!
The horses immediately began kicking and neighing loudly.
It looked like they were actually having a conversation with Seeker.
Wow.
Amazing.
They insisted they weren’t horses.
But there must be a reason they have horse heads.
Their intense and mysterious discussion continued for quite a while.
Finally, Seeker returned.
With horse feed dumped all over his head.
“It’s done.”
“Huh?”
“It’s hopeless. I couldn’t understand a single thing.”
“…”
What was that, then?
You looked like you were having a heated debate.
Turns out the angry horses had kicked the feed onto Seeker’s head.
Wait a second.
The fedora sitting on his head caught my attention.
The color looks strange.
“By any chance… how long has this feed been stored?”
“Huh?”
Both of them looked at me.
I grabbed a handful of the feed from Seeker’s head and held it out to them.
Seeker answered without hesitation.
“About… 300 years.”
“What?!”
Crumble—
I barely touched it, and the feed immediately turned into powder and scattered.
No wonder.
The feed wasn’t yellow anymore.
It was almost turning purple.
I thought it just looked colorful.
“You still have feed from 300 years ago? Actually, more importantly, how are the horses still alive after eating this?”
“Well… somehow…”
“The feed is definitely why they’re weak!”
I need to tell the duke immediately!
Holding my aching forehead, I rushed out of the stable.
Honestly, I can never understand how these monsters think.
How did they not consider replacing the feed for 300 years?
Still, at least we found the solution.
I ran toward the duke’s study.
Since there’s no butler in this mansion, the duke probably manages all expenses himself.
What if some financial issue with the imperial family caused a tragedy in his family and left him traumatized…
My imagination started running wild, and I quickly shook my head before I started tearing up.
*
The next morning.
It was a bright day with nothing unusual happening.
“AAAAAH!”
…Or maybe not?
What kind of scream is that in our peaceful Vermillion Duke’s mansion?
At first I assumed I had misheard and ignored it.
But then I saw someone wobbling toward me from far away.
Looking closely, it was Kelpie running toward me.
Still wearing boots covered in dirt—or maybe horse manure.
“…I just cleaned that!”
A monster responsible for cleaning the garden screamed beside me.
But Kelpie didn’t care at all.
His eyes were fixed entirely on me.
“Head Maid! T-there’s a huge problem!”
“Huh? What happened?”
“You have to come to the stable immediately!”
Why were his eyes so red?
I hurried after Kelpie toward the stable.
Inside, Seeker was staring upward with a completely stunned expression.
Following his gaze, I saw it.
Horse feed was piled into two huge mountains as tall as the stable itself.
Seeker noticed me and looked over.
Hope suddenly appeared in his eyes.
“Head Maid! You’re here! The supplier just dumped all this here and left!”
“Wow, they delivered it in just one day.”
“What? Logically, no one would order this much.”
“The duke must have ordered it himself.”
There’s no butler here, after all.
“…”
“Mr. Kelpie, Mr. Seeker. Please move it all inside.”
“All of it?”
“Yes. The duke wouldn’t make a mistake.”
He probably ordered plenty.
“Should we ask the duke if this was a mistake?”
“No.”
The hope in their eyes disappeared.
Without another word, they began moving the feed.
I watched their backs proudly.
They’re moving it just fine.
Why were they panicking so much earlier?
They work well, and supplies are arriving quickly.
Honestly, it’s amazing the order arrived in just one day.
Yesterday I ran straight to the duke’s study and told him the horse feed seemed wrong.
I explained that it had been sitting there for 300 years and needed to be replaced.
But there was one unexpected problem.
I thought he would be just as shocked as I was and immediately order new feed.
Instead, he narrowed his eyes and said:
“The feed… shouldn’t be a problem.”
Excuse me?
Who feeds horses 300-year-old feed?
For a moment my admiration for the duke almost cracked.
But I reminded myself to stay calm.
Since the duke has trauma related to his appearance, he probably never leaves the mansion.
So of course he might not know normal things.
And after living with monsters for so long, maybe his sense of normality has become a bit strange.
Yes.
Our duke did nothing wrong!
I calmly explained that food doesn’t last that long and should never turn purple.
And that purple food usually means death.
Only then did he finally say:
“Very well. Let’s replace the feed.”
I had successfully persuaded him.
Not only that, the duke even thanked me.
He even smiled faintly.
The sunset was shining through the window behind him at the time.
I almost dropped to my knees in awe.
If the horses regain their energy, the duke will be happy too.
Thinking about yesterday, I glanced toward the window of the duke’s study.
Just then—
Neigh!
A loud hoarse cry suddenly rang out behind me.
