Find the One Who Abandoned Me - Chapter 14

Jack tilted his head for a moment, then recoiled in disgust.

“No! Of course, I’ll call a maid for you. What do you take me for!”

“Oh, nothing. Just…”

Calliope, her expression slightly softened thanks to Jack, smiled and sat on the bed. Jack shuddered, then, seeing her sitting alone, decided he should indeed call a maid. He pointed outside and said,

“There’s probably a temporary maid assigned. I’ll go get her.”

“Take your time.”

“Is there anything you need? I’ll bring it when I come back.”

“I should have pajamas for sleeping and a dress for tomorrow brought in advance.”

“Understood.”

Jack disappeared out the door, leaving her alone in the large room. Only then did Calliope begin to examine the room closely. The room her mother had stayed in, even if only for a short time. It was incomparable to the old, warehouse-like house where she had lived.

The sofa, the bed, the shelves, and the display cases. All of them were worth far more than she could have imagined, exuding an understated, elegant dignity as if to prove their high quality.

Someone else might have been overjoyed, shedding tears at the sudden change in circumstances, but Calliope was not happy, not even a little. She was standing at the starting line of a long battle. She had only taken the first step.

Creak. Just then, a small noise disturbed her thoughts. Turning her head, she saw something like a red yarn through the slightly open door. Ah, it wasn’t yarn. Calliope realized that the yarn was human hair.

“Who’s there?”

At her call, the curly red hair bounced once. Then, it scurried away with hasty footsteps. Calliope went to the door and looked out into the hallway, confirming the back of a child disappearing around the corner.

“Ah, so that’s the one.”

“Miss?”

As she stared intently at the corner where the child had disappeared, Jack, who had returned with clothes and a maid, called to her with a questioning voice.

“Is something there?”

“No.”

Calliope went back into the room and sat on the sofa. Jack, who followed her in, introduced the maid, holding two dresses in his hands. The maid, with ordinary brown hair and brown eyes, looked about the same age as Calliope.

Ah, it’s her again. She must be sixteen this year. Whether they had considered her and matched someone of a similar age, or whether the lowest-ranking child had been forced to do it after being put off, she didn’t know, but she had been her temporary maid in the past as well. The maid bowed deeply.

“Hello, Miss. I’m Susan, the temporary maid who will be assisting you for a while.”

“Yes, Susan. Please take care of me, even if it’s just for a short time.”

“I will do my best.”

“There’s no need to do your best.”

Susan was clumsy, as she was low in rank, but she did her best for her. Later, after a full-time maid was assigned to her, she naturally returned to her position. The Calliope of the past had missed Susan quite a bit. Because the maids, who had naturally become more observant as they gained experience, did not properly attend to her, who was treated almost like a bastard.

What should she do? Calliope pondered, gazing at Susan for a moment. Clumsiness could be solved by teaching well. Since she was a diligent child, she would probably follow along well if she was taught.

“Miss.”

Just then, Jack called her, and she turned her head, asking with her eyes what was wrong.

“Your eyes are scary.”

“Mine?”

She asked with a puzzled voice, and Susan, whose freckles were scattered all over her face, giving her a cute impression, frowned and looked like she was about to cry.

“Ah, Miss. If you don’t like me, I’ll call someone else.”

“Oh? No, that’s not it. It’s just, it’s amazing to have a maid.”

“Come to think of it, Miss, you’ve never had a maid before, have you?”

Jack said, as if realizing it anew. Her gestures, glances, attitude, and behavior naturally showed the bearing of a noble, making him forget that she had clearly grown up like a commoner.

Could it be that Miss Hubert, the former Marchioness, had strived for her daughter’s education even in her impoverished situation? If she had raised her daughter this much even in a poor environment, she could have made a living as a tutor rather than doing menial work. But she didn’t have the courage to voice her questions and resolve her curiosity, so she ended up just speculating.

“Then, will you prepare a bath for me? I’m tired from traveling for so long, so I want to go to bed early today.”

“Yes, I understand. Please rest for a moment. I’ll prepare it right away.”

Susan went out through the door leading to the bathroom, and Jack, left alone, went into the empty dressing room to organize the two dresses. The mother’s room had a dressing room larger than any other room in the Marquis’s mansion, but hanging only two dresses in it made it look empty.

The Marquis had combined the two rooms next door for the former Marchioness, hadn’t he? Putting aside her brief musings, Calliope asked Jack, who had returned to the room,

“What’s the schedule for tomorrow?”

“Are you already concerned about that?”

“I’ve entered the family, after all. It probably won’t be anything special, but it can’t be completely nonexistent.”

“I just arrived with you, Miss, so I haven’t received anything yet. I’ll go ask.”

“Take your time. There really won’t be anything special. I’ll get a report when I wake up tomorrow morning.”

Hearing her words, Jack made a slightly disgruntled expression for a moment. Calliope saw the expression that flashed and disappeared in an instant and wondered whether she should scold him or laugh.

“What are you thinking about?”

“I’m not thinking about anything.”

“Tell me honestly. I won’t scold you.”

“Oh, you’re already using the word ‘scold,’ you’re a model noble lady.”

“If you don’t tell me now, I’ll get a report at seven o’clock tomorrow morning.”

At her threat, Jack put his hands behind his back and quickly answered.

“I wasn’t expecting a vacation, but I was hoping that I could at least sleep in since I returned to the mansion, but that was thwarted.”

Calliope thought for a moment after hearing his words. Jack, one of the younger members of her father’s retinue, had been seen frequently in the past as well. There were often opportunities to talk, but of course, she didn’t form a deep friendship with him. When she was young, he was just a scary person, and after she grew up, he was just a slightly authoritarian and hardworking servant of her father. But meeting him like this, starting a new life, what should she say? A little.

‘He’s simple.’

Calliope glanced sideways, then turned her gaze back to its original position and said,

“It seems like we can meet after you wake up late. Eleven o’clock.”

“Is that alright?”

“Until then, one maid will be enough.”

“Understood. You mustn’t suddenly call me in the early morning or barge in in the morning.”

Calliope tilted her head with a slightly troubled face.

“Does that kind of thing often happen when you work with my father?”

“It happens every time. Even while coming to the capital with you, Miss, he would receive reports in the early morning after work.”

“I didn’t know.”

“Well, you wouldn’t know. There was no need to tell you.”

“…Let’s meet after lunch tomorrow. Would one o’clock be alright?”

“Of course. I’ll come after eating a hearty meal.”

Calliope stared blankly at Jack, who was standing stiffly with an almost expressionless face, and wondered. Could it be that he was like that because he was sleep-deprived?

She didn’t have many deep conversations with him in the past, so she didn’t know, but after hearing his story, she thought that might be the case. When she was learning etiquette and studying all at once in the past, she was exactly like that when she stayed up all night or slept little and was engrossed in it.

“Let’s meet after lunch for the next week. For now.”

At her words, Jack said in a low, warning voice.

“You can’t take back those words.”

“What will you do if I take them back?”

“I’ll jump out the window.”

She was speechless for a moment and rubbed her head.

“Why?”

“If I break a leg, I’ll get a vacation.”

“First, go to sleep right now.”

“Yes.”

Jack hurriedly disappeared, as if afraid she would catch him, and Calliope looked at his back with pity before heading to the bathroom at Susan’s call that she had finished preparing the bath.

The servant who had disappeared to go see the Marquis did not return until she had washed, changed into her pajamas, and lay down on the bed. He probably just received the answer to leave her alone. He’s not a talent, indeed.

Finishing a day that felt even longer than the days she had lived working hard, Calliope closed her eyes.

* * *

Calliope, who woke up at the same time as usual, changed her clothes with Susan’s help and enjoyed a light tea time instead of breakfast. Drinking cold tea instead of warm tea completely dispelled the remaining drowsiness.

After finishing all the tea, Calliope said to Susan, who was clearing away the teacups.

“Go and call the butler.”

“The butler?”

Susan hesitated for a moment, but reminded herself that the lady’s position was much higher than the butler’s in her mind, and soon nodded and left the room. Calliope slowly recalled the past to organize her thoughts before Susan brought the butler.

The day after she entered the Marquis’s mansion, she was crushed on the bed in the large room when she received the Marquis’s words from the butler.

‘Dinner will be with the family, so please prepare.’

At the time, she couldn’t find the butler again, who had just conveyed the message to her without a word of advice. So, she worked with Susan, who was inexperienced and unhelpful, to choose clothes and hurriedly began to learn by finding books related to etiquette. Still, she felt a slight excitement and a greater sense of tension at the fact that she was going to appear before the people who would now be her family.

“He told me that long after lunchtime.”

There was no way he didn’t know how much time it took to choose a dress and dress up. As the butler of the large Marquis’s mansion, she knew he had a lot of work to do, but there was no need for those who were the owners to understand that one by one.

One of his biggest tasks was to take care of the owner’s family in advance so that they would not be inconvenienced. Her father had filled her room with material things without any shortage, considering her situation of having lived in poverty, but that was all he really did.

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