Chapter 16: Housemaid
The next morning, a young girl knocked on the door of the Peltra household.
“Uh, um! I’m Senni!”
The girl was small and still had a youthful look to her, not yet in her late teens. She wore the black and white uniform of a maid. Her black hair was styled in a pixie cut, with a sparkling white brim on top.
“I heard you’re looking for a maid, so I came!”
“…Yes?”
Alex-sama responded in confusion.
It was true that we were looking for a maid, but we had not yet hired a mediator or placed an ad in the newspaper.
She rummaged through her pockets and pulled out a letter.
“This is a letter of introduction!”
The letter was from Talvo, the butler of the Periknen household.
Ah, I see. Let me ask you a question.
“What were you doing in the mansion?”
“Yes, I worked as an “apprentice between” for two years, then as a housemaid for two years.”
“What did you do as an apprentice?”
“Between” means to help with various tasks of the person in charge, in other words, to be in between. It also means to find one’s aptitude while doing so.
“Yes, I have experience as a dishwasher and laundry worker.”
Alex-sama looks back every time I speak and looks forward every time Senni speaks, like a nodding doll. Perhaps he is unable to catch up with the sudden questioning.
“Can you read and write?”
“I can read. Writing… I’m not good at it.”
Hilka and Talvo are being very nice to me.
“What is your job at Periknen?”
“It looks like it will end. There seems to be a surplus of personnel because of Vilhelmina-sama’s absence.”
That’s not wrong, but the layoff is too early.
Father doesn’t understand that this is where his reputation is at stake… I guess its former father now.
“I think that instead of a commoner’s house close to the slum, there are better conditions elsewhere.”
“No, I volunteered to serve Periknen’s Vilhelmina-sama.”
“Do I know you?”
I haven’t had any dealings with servants or maids.
“No, it’s just…every time you went out, you often bought us sweets, and no one was ever chastised when a servant made a mistake.”
I can’t help but smile.
“That’s only natural.”
“But I heard that my friends who worked at other households were hit with books or beaten with whips.
And I was in charge of cleaning Hilka-san’s room, and I often heard from Hilka-san about Vilhelmina-sama’s greatness.”
“I can’t even buy you sweets now. And the wages are lower for a maid
“That doesn’t matter!”
I turn to Alex-sama.
“Husband, a very capable young girl wants to work as a maid at our house.”
“Is that so… Really?”
“Yes, I don’t think we can find someone better than her no matter where we advertise. Just think of it as my former butler arranged for such a talent.”
He sighed.
“I see, I’ll take care of it.”
“Please sign a contract with me at the standard wage for a housemaid. However, if your work is good enough to meet Alex-sama’s standard, we would be happy to treat you better.”
And with that, the black-haired petite maid was hired in this house.
And without paying anything, the former servants including Hilka started to visit and check on the situation.
Slowly but surely, a cycle of life is starting to form.
Since I have no experience in housekeeping, I started to learn from Senni.
Senni says she can only do simple things and likes cooking, so she was put in charge of the kitchen. I tried to learn cooking and she agreed, but when I held a knife she screamed “Impossible!” and forbade me from standing at the cooking counter. I don’t understand.
My job is mainly to summarize Alex-sama’s research, like a secretary. In my spare time, I try to understand his research by reading basic (but still specialized) books from the bookshelf.
——Oh, by the way, ‘Doki-Doki★Marin-chan no Muchipuri ❤️ Paradise’ has been removed from the bookshelf.
I wonder if Alex-sama has hidden it somewhere or if Senni threw it away.
Senni started living downstairs, so Alex-sama also started sleeping upstairs, but he sleeps in the corner of the room opposite the bed. There is no nightlife.
“I see. He’s that guy who claims to be better than others but is actually a cherry chicken (virgin),” says Senni.
“Oh, what’s the big deal about chicken meat and cherries?”
“N-Nothing, my lady. But I, the laundry maid, can guarantee that he’s not an impotent chicken!”
Senni has a witty way of speaking. I don’t understand the meaning well, but watching her cheerful personality makes me feel energetic.
