Chapter 13
7. Will He Ever Get Married?
“H-how can you tell a lady to take off her clothes?!”
I shouted, covering myself with my arms. My voice was so loud that the nearby servants all turned to look at us.
The young master grabbed me by the back of my neck and dragged me towards the workshop.
“Don’t embarrass me and just follow quietly.”
“I’m already being dragged around by the scruff of my neck, how can I be any quieter?!”
“I’m not grabbing your scruff!”
As soon as we arrived at the workshop, he tossed me aside.
Thud! I slid on the floor and spread my arms to regain my balance. The young master flung open the door to the bathroom located in a corner of the workshop. With an irritated gesture, he turned the faucet, and water gushed into the bathtub.
Whirr— The magic stones glowed, heating the water.
“Are you taking a bath? Should I bring you a change of clothes? Why are you bathing in the workshop?”
The young master glared at me.
“Not me, you. I’m going to wash you.”
“Gasp! Pervert!”
I covered myself again. To be fair, I was filthy. My entire body was stained from crawling around zombie remains, and the hem of my maid uniform was torn in several places.
“I can wash myself in my room!”
“You’re not going anywhere after being in contact with zombies. It’s dangerous.”
“Huh, are you worried about me?”
Just as I was about to be touched by his concern…
“I’m worried about the other maids. You’re a doll, you can’t get sick.”
As expected, he retorted with his usual coldness. I briefly considered quitting.
“I can’t even repair you in this filthy state. Hurry up and take off your clothes and get in the bath.”
“No way! I won’t bathe in your workshop!”
“It’s not a bath, it’s a cleaning. You’re not even a human woman, why are you acting like this?!”
“I have a more human heart than anyone!”
“Well, I’m not human, so it’s fine, right? Take it off.”
“Pervert! A human is molesting a doll!”
The young master and I continued to bicker about whether or not I should undress.
“I can’t repair you if you don’t wash up!”
“I said I’ll wash up somewhere else!”
He even tried to pick me up and throw me into the bathroom. He insisted that I wash up with my clothes on if I didn’t want to take them off!
“A human! Is molesting! A doll!”
“Why would I be interested in you?! I told you I can’t repair you when you’re dirty!”
Just as he was about to throw me into the bathroom, the workshop door slid open.
“Young master, I’ve moved the artifacts to the workroom…”
Head Butler Godora, who had entered leisurely, stopped short. He looked back and forth between me and the young master with his small eyes, then quietly closed the door again.
“Godora! Wait, Godora! This is a misunderstanding!”
The young master dropped me abruptly. He stared anxiously at the spot where the head butler had disappeared, then pointed at me and ran after him.
“I’ll be back soon, so you wash up. Listen to me! Godora! Wait! Godora!”
I was left alone in the workshop. I looked around. It was familiar yet strange. The place was littered with fragments of dolls, golems, and artifacts that the young master had been working on.
Perhaps it was a magician’s stubbornness, but he didn’t allow anyone else to clean his workshop. And he didn’t clean it himself either.
Maybe I should tidy up after washing up.
I took off my tattered maid uniform and stepped into the bathtub. Steam rose from the water, but I couldn’t feel the temperature, so it didn’t affect me.
As I washed away the zombie blood, I could clearly see my naked body submerged in the water. I was undeniably a doll. With clothes on, I looked completely human, but completely naked, I looked like a doll.
‘The Crown Prince said he could turn me into a human.’
I rested my arms on the edge of the bathtub and thought about it. The handsome Crown Prince was a light magic user. Turning an inanimate object into a living being sounded like dark magic.
The Imperial Palace, which abhorred even the Magic Society, would allow a Count’s doll to be turned into a human using magic? It was absurd.
It was an offer I had to refuse. Because it was too outrageous.
Besides, I was quite fond of my durable doll body.
“Zombies are more likely to become human than I am.”
I sank into the bathtub and leaned back. My long, black hair swayed like seaweed. When I was Anna, I used to play with my hair, brushing and braiding it. I had always admired black hair, but I never thought it would actually become mine.
“…I respect your preferences, but I think you should reconsider marriage…”
“It’s not like that.”
The young master returned, muttering to himself.
“Estella?”
“I’m in the bathroom. You can’t come in.”
“I’m not coming in. But I need to prepare the materials, so answer my questions. Where are you broken? Tell me about any scratches too.”
Looking down at my body, I pointed out each flaw. All the fingers on my right hand were broken, and my left arm was cracked. My ankle was slightly cracked, and there were some scratches on both calves.
The young master listened quietly to my report, then opened the bathroom door a crack.
“Young Master!”
“I’m just giving you a towel. I’m not looking. I made you, so what’s the big deal?”
“That’s true. But it’s embarrassing.”
I glared at him. He squeezed his eyes shut and placed a thick towel on a nearby shelf. His words were grumpy, but his actions were surprisingly innocent. Even at twenty-five, he was the same young master I knew.
“That’s what I like about you, Young Master.”
“…Shut up.”
The bathroom door slammed shut. Was he embarrassed? I heard a soft sigh from behind the door.
Our young master was a bit cute.
As I stepped out of the bathroom, wrapped in a towel, the young master, now in a comfortable shirt, glanced at me.
“Sit on the workbench.”
He rolled up his sleeves and put on an apron. It was the thick, dark brown leather apron he always wore when working on complex projects. Was this a major surgery?
“Am I that badly injured?”
He sat down at the workbench and nodded.
“You seem to be stronger than I thought. You managed to break this much of a material that’s supposed to be nearly indestructible. I don’t know whether to be impressed or call you a brute.”
“I’ll take it as a compliment. Thank you.”
“Right…”
He took my hand and examined the broken parts. As he tapped the sharp, uneven edges with a hammer and smoothed them with sandpaper, he said casually,
“That part is kind of charming.”
My heart fluttered. I touched my hollow chest. If I had a heart, it would have been pounding.
I couldn’t express how happy his compliment made me, and I was disappointed that Estella’s body couldn’t feel it.
“Young Master, Young Master. Make me a heart too.”
“What? No way. It’s too difficult.”
He put on his glasses, preparing to begin the actual repairs. They looked ordinary, but they were actually magic tools. They allowed him to see the flow of mana.
“The mana that animates you has a different principle and flow compared to humans. I haven’t had a chance to examine it properly, so the analysis is incomplete.”
“So I can’t have a heart?”
“Maybe if I study the zombie cores, I might find a way…”
His fingertips glowed. The finger he touched healed perfectly, without a trace of the broken pieces.
“Wow.”
“I’ll add a few functions while I’m repairing you. Anything you want?”
“A heart…”
“Something else.”
What functions should a perfect maid have? Especially a maid who had to fight zombies alongside her master?
First, a durable body was essential.
“I wish my body were even stronger. So that no matter how many zombies I fight, I won’t break.”
“Estella, are you planning to fight zombies with your bare hands…?”
He said that after using a magic staff to beat down zombies.
“And the nostrils you didn’t make last time! I’d also like to be able to feel temperature. I don’t want to feel pain, but it’s a bit inconvenient not being able to sense it.”
“And?”
“New clothes.”
“Alright.”
“And pretty hair ties. It’s a waste to just tie up my beautiful, thick black hair. And long boots that won’t get wet even if I step on zombies…”
At some point, I had gone from requesting doll upgrades to listing all the things I wanted. The young master listened to each request as he repaired my body and nodded.
He had always been generous with employee benefits. He didn’t refuse any of my requests or say they were too expensive.
He did make one suggestion, however.
“That’s all good, but if you’re going to be with me, it would be good for you to have a weapon. No matter how durable I make you, there’s no guarantee you won’t get hurt.”
“A weapon…”
It made sense, but it was also a bit troubling. Having lived my whole life as a maid, I didn’t know how to use any weapons.
Even today, all I did was swing the carriage door around haphazardly.
“If a weapon is too difficult, a tool that can be used as a weapon would be fine.”
In that case, I did have an idea. A tool that was essential for a maid and could also be used as a weapon.
The perfect tool.
“Young Master, can you make anything? Custom-made, I mean.”
Hee hee, I couldn’t help but giggle. The young master’s expression, however, began to darken.