Chapter 82
The young master, lying on the white sheets, looked as pale as a corpse. The bed was rumpled, and a few buttons on his pajamas were undone. Was he feeling hot?
I ripped the sheets away.
“Wake up!”
“No, Anna… just let me sleep.”
“How long are you going to sleep! It’s time to play with me, I mean, it’s time to work!”
He took the sheets back from me, eyes still closed. He was completely out of it. He turned his back to me. He was trying to sleep, but I wasn’t going to let him.
“Go, Zomrat! Sparrow, go!”
I threw my secret agents at him. They landed on the bed after bouncing off him.
“Squeak.”
“Chirp.”
“Good heavens. Even my secret agents are useless.”
He was a formidable opponent. He didn’t even flinch as they scurried and chirped around him. He just curled up tighter, trying to sleep.
It was time for me, the leader, to step in.
I jumped on him.
“Wake up!”
“Anna, please, just let me…”
He slowly opened his eyes, rubbing them.
“Anna?”
“Yes? Oh, no!”
I had instinctively responded to the name “Anna.” I quickly corrected myself.
“I’m Estella! Open your eyes wider and look at me. I’ll pry them open for you if you can’t.”
I tried to pry his eyelids open, but he grabbed my wrists. Just a moment, I’m trying to help you open your eyes. He resisted stubbornly. I could probably overpower him if I used more force, but I held back.
I won in the end. He opened his eyes and looked at me.
“…Right, Estella.”
“Are you going to play with me now?”
“No. I’m going back to sleep.”
“Are you hibernating? Do you have no sense of season? It’s spring, Young Master.”
“Spring or not, I woke up earlier and looked at the documents. I wasn’t just sleeping.”
“When? I didn’t know you woke up.”
“I woke up right before you chased Godora away with your vacuum cleaner.”
I sat on his stomach.
“So you were having fun without me?”
“I wasn’t having fun, just forget it.”
He grabbed my waist, lifted me up, and placed me beside him on the bed. I bounced slightly.
“Young Master! Then when are you going to wake up?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
“What should I do until then?”
He picked up Zomrat by the tail and tossed him into my arms.
“Play with this.”
Then he grabbed Sparrow by the scruff of his neck and tossed him at me too.
“And this.”
I placed my bewildered secret agents on the floor. They sniffed each other, groomed each other’s fur, and then curled up in a corner.
They were just like him. They could be spending their day energetically, but they just wanted to sleep.
He closed his eyes and pulled the sheet over himself, trying to go back to sleep. I grabbed the sheet and was pulled along with him.
“Hey…”
“Please play with me. I’m bored out of my mind after guarding your door all day. Please wake up. Please, please, please…”
He covered me with the sheet and hugged me tightly.
“Is this… seduction? Are we playing a romantic game? You are going to wake up, right?”
“Let’s play pretend sleeping, Estella.”
He hugged me tighter. If I were human, I would be suffocating, but I was a sturdy doll. He would probably find me a bit hard to use as a pillow, though.
Well, I could be his pillow if he wanted. I slipped my arm out from under the sheet.
“Should I be your armrest?”
“…”
He silently pulled my arm back under the sheet.
Was this the time for me to yield? I had resolved to be victorious in my life as the young master’s maid. But it seemed I was destined to lose to him.
I closed my mouth and relaxed my body. He hugged me tighter and buried his face in the sheet.
“…Don’t I look like a ghost? Covered in a sheet like this?”
“Can’t you be quiet like a ghost?”
“Should I bring you some wax? It would be faster for you to seal my mouth yourself.”
“I would have done that already.”
He moved the sheet slightly, revealing my face. That was good enough! I looked up at him with my most pitiful expression, hoping he would take pity on me and wake up to play.
“Play with me…”
“Can’t you find something to do without me? In this huge mansion?”
He seemed slightly more awake. I bounced on top of him, still wrapped in the sheet.
“Oof!”
“There’s nothing! I only have you!”
It had always been that way. I was a servant girl in a circus, performing tricks and running errands. That was until I was five. Then I was sold to the Countess and became the young master’s playmate.
Perhaps because I had come to the mansion alone at such a young age, he was my only friend. The other maids didn’t like me because I was too young and the mistress favored me.
It was a complicated situation that I couldn’t resolve on my own.
I became friends with the young master, so it was natural for him to be nice to me, and the mistress, his mother, naturally doted on me. I couldn’t tell her to stop, could I?
I suffered a bit because I was too good. I hadn’t told him, but I was a bit lonely when the mistress passed away and when he went to the academy.
“Play with me now.”
I would forgive him for leaving me to go study magic at the academy.
I bumped my forehead against his chest repeatedly. He winced in pain, then hugged me tightly. I struggled like a caterpillar in a cocoon, but he didn’t seem to care.
I reached out and tugged on his hair. It was too short to wrap around my fingers, but it was enough to annoy him.
“Get out of bed. It’s not time for dreams anymore. Cool adults do cool things outside of their blankets. Although when you get even older…”
He covered my mouth with the sheet.
“You said you were bored?”
“Mmm.”
“I’ll give you a mission. Go check if the mansion is secure.”
“You’re just trying to get rid of me.”
“No, it’s a very important mission.”
He rubbed his eyes and fumbled for something on the nightstand. He opened a drawer and took out a set of keys.
“These keys will let you into all the old rooms. Go through each one and… count how many dead bugs there are. It’s a very important mission. Let’s just say it’s for my new magic formula.”
“Wow!”
Perhaps a bit too excited, I burst out of the sheets like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis.
“…”
“…”
Worried that he might change his mind, I snatched the keys.
“No take-backs.”
“You have to be back by tomorrow morning.”
“Should I count the live bugs too? What about the dying ones?”
“…”
“Just kidding. I won’t count the bugs. I know it’s just an excuse.”
I got out of bed and put my two secret agents in my apron pockets. They were so big that the pockets were about to rip. They seemed to feel the same way, as Sparrow flew to my arm, and Zomrat climbed onto my head.
“You can lose your friends there.”
“I’ll be back with them. Right here.”
He beckoned me over with his hand. I leaned closer.
“…Don’t I get a reward for giving you a gift?”
“Thank you.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Young Master, you shouldn’t expect something in return for being kind. Did I teach you to be so selfish? Well, you are older than me and became an adult earlier, but that’s a different kind of adulting.”
He chuckled at my words. I was glad he was amused.
I hugged him and kissed him on the cheek.
“Thank you for the gift. I’ll go play now.”
“I’ll accept this much as a reward.”
“If a kiss is a reward, I can give you a bigger one. Should I brush my teeth first?”
“I’ll pass.”
He wrapped himself in the torn sheet and turned away. I shrugged and left the room.
Captain Yuji was still standing guard outside the door.
“I’ve never seen that set of keys before.”
“The young master gave me a very important mission.”
“Oh, a mission. The mansion isn’t particularly busy right now. So what’s your mission?”
I picked up my vacuum cleaner from the floor.
“Exterminating dead bugs in the mansion.”
“…Was our mansion that dirty…?”
“I’m busy now, so please look after the young master. He’s been cooped up in the workshop for days, without sleep. He even plucked a few feathers from Sparrow, the phoenix… No, that’s a secret.”
It was still a secret that he was researching the elixir. What if the Crown Prince summoned us again if the news got out?
“Leave the young master to me. So where are you going first?”
Captain Yuji looked at me, my secret agents, and the vacuum cleaner curiously. My destination had been decided the moment I saw the keys.
“I’m not the type to save the best for last. Of course, I have to check the young master’s workshop first! I mean, clean it! I’m sure it’s full of… bugs. Let’s go! Alexander Zomrat, Elizabeth Sparrow. Our adventure begins now.”
The young master’s workshop. The place filled with our memories, where Estella was created.
I had a feeling something good would happen if I went there!