CH2: The bounty is one million gold

In the kitchen of the mansion, three figures stood.

Roy, the cook, with his thick eyebrows and strong-willed eyes and his thick, hairy, folded arms.

Toms was an old man with short, salt-and-pepper hair.

“Why is Mr. Toms here, too?”

The other is a maid with long blue hair tied back.

Her name is Mona.

Because of the similarity of their names, Nina and Mona became fast friends when Nina came to the mansion. Five years after they met, Mona is 20 years old and is getting married this summer.

“Why am I here, you ask? I heard that Nina was called by the head maid… So I figured she was up to no good.”

“That’s right.”

Mona spoke, her lips quivering with anger.

That the vase in the treasury had been broken and that Nina had been dismissed for this crime.

She had forbidden her to say goodbye to the other servants, and Mona had just found out.

When Mona had finished, there was silence in the kitchen,

“…”

“Roy… What are you doing? Take the knife and get up.”

Toms grabbed Roy’s arm as he stood up.

“I’m going to cut the maid’s head off.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. What are you trying to do?”

“I like the idea.”

“Don’t be silly, Mona. Calm down.”

Toms said, but Roy couldn’t calm down.

“She broke it herself and blames Nina for it! A person like that has to die before they can be cured!”

“But killing her won’t help, and Nina will be sad. And it won’t bring Nina home. You’ll be hanged.”

“Damn…”

Roy put the knife down hesitantly.

“… I’m frustrated.”

Mona burst into tears.

“Why does Nina have to go through this…? She’s the hardest working maid in the mansion…”

“Don’t cry. Nina is the one who should be crying. In other words, where will Nina work next? If there are not enough gardeners in this house, she can apply for the job.”

“Oh, Mr. Toms, you mustn’t be so careless.”

“Perhaps she should apply to be a cook.”

“…That’s a good idea.”

“Ah—!”

And Mona shouted so loudly that Roy and Toms put their hands over their ears.

“T, that girl! Maybe she didn’t get a referral!”

“What the hell!?”

“That damn head maid!”

“I guess it’s better to kill her.”

Toms grabbed Mona’s back with his right hand and the knife-wielding Roy with his left as they both turned and ran from the room.

There was a reason they were so angry and wanted to leave.

Maids work in the homes of others.

For this reason, they must be trustworthy and have a clear identity.

This is confirmed by a letter of introduction.

When a maid leaves the house, she is usually given a “letter of introduction.”

If you take this letter with you, you will have no trouble finding a new job. Especially if it is a “letter of introduction” that comes from the estate of the Earl.

But the head maid didn’t write it.

She said, “You’re fired for breaking a vase.” So it would have been strange to introduce someone in that way.

“Don’t stop me, Mr. Toms!

“I’m going to kill her.”

“So what! There’s nothing you can do now! That’s enough!”

Toms complains in his head as he stops both.

Once Nina was gone, that was it.

It was thanks to Nina that this jerky and rowdy horse was able to function at all.

In fact, Toms, who was working in the field, was painfully aware of Nina’s importance.

The three of them, the gardener, the cook, and the maid, have very different work styles, but they have much in common.

The gardener prepares the firewood for the kitchen, the cook prepares the meals, and the maid prepares the tea party in the garden.

In all these small overlapping tasks, she is the “coordinator.”

Everything went well with her, and she made them feel good about their work.

Her presence is unobtrusive.

For this reason, many of them assume that they will get the job done.

“It’s hard for me, too. I mean, what are we going to do with all the work in the mansion…? It’s only because of her that we can do this.”

Toms said,

“Yeah, that’s true… I don’t know.”

Mona looks pale.

“She was dealing with a very difficult mage.”

“Good luck, Mona.”

“It’s not possible! She could tell a fake when it was being sold! I can’t do that!”

“…”

“…”

Roy and Toms look at each other.

“…How on earth did she develop such knowledge and skills?”

“That’s all well and good, but what happens when Nina is gone? We’re just servants, but do the Count and Mistress understand how serious this is?”

“…”

An eerie silence reigned in the kitchen.

******

“Hey, what are we supposed to do with this?”

“What, we don’t need it.”

“Of course, it’s in the way, so let’s put it away.”

Nina’s note, which was in the hallway, was taken away by the maid and thrown into the incinerator.

“Haa, haa, haa, she broke the pot!?”

The Earl of Mirkwood, the owner of the mansion, cried out when he heard the report.

He was a short man, but his small stature made him seem even fatter.

He was in his forties, but his hair had fallen out, and the wig on his head was slipping off because the “broken pot” was upsetting him.

The head butler and the head maid both  shrink back.

By the way, the head butler knows the real situation from the head head.

“Master, it seems that your hair comb does not fit properly…”

“Don’t talk about my hair! What do you mean!?”

The count adjusts his wig in a panic and sees a broken vase in front of him.

If only it had been broken cleanly, it could have been repaired, but it is shattered in places, as if the shards had been stepped on, and where the shards have collided, there are scratches, as if they had been crudely put together.

“Well, actually, the maid broke them while cleaning…”

“Where’s the maid?”

“Don’t worry, sir! I fired her!”

“Idiot! Bring her here! I’ll punish her myself!”

“What…?”

The head girl panicked.

She would only throw her out of the house on a presumption of innocence, not force compensation.

She had the conscience to do so, or rather, she didn’t want Nina to resist.

She tried to convince the Earl that the best solution was to dismiss her.

But the Earl would not hear of it.

“Find the maid! Put a bounty on her head!”

The bounty on Nina’s head was set at “1 million gold.”