Chapter 13 - A Tiny Overreaction

The Halesworth mansion's ballroom was the kind of place you would see in a fairytale. It could only be described by the word 'magnificent'. Known as one of the premier locations in the kingdom, events held here never failed to live up to people's expectations.

Right now though there were only three women inside. One was a frumpy lady with graying hair. Her brows were furrowed and she had a deeply concerned expression on her face.

"A leg cramp? Goodness! Is he alright?"

"Yes. The young master apologizes for not being able to attend tonight, and asks for your understanding."

Emma bowed, struggling to maintain her calm facade. Lying was not one of her strong points.

"No apologies are needed, dearie. Just tell the boy to rest up and be gentle on that leg until it fully recovers. I'll see him once he gets better then."

"Thank you, Ms. Perrins. I will be sure to relay your message."

The maid wasted no time and left. Now there were only two people left in the ballroom.

Ms. Perrins sighed, then turned to Christine, who was sulking a fair distance away. Her arms were crossed in front of her chest, and she refused to look at the middle aged woman. Seeing this Ms. Perrins' eyes narrowed in anger.

"Well, this may be for the best. Tonight I will be able to focus all of my attention on you, young miss. Perhaps we'll actually be able to make some progress for once."

The woman's sarcastic tone was unmistakable.

Christine bit back her retort. Anything she said would just earn her another scolding from her parents.

So the girl just nodded with reluctance.

"Now, from the beginning!"

__________________________________________________________

Yaaaaaaaawn.

I stretched, sat up, and blinked a few times like a lazy house cat.

"Good morning world~"

Today marked my third day in Lost in Love. While there was a mountain of things left to do, at least I woke up feeling completely refreshed.

Honestly, I haven't slept this well in ages. My bed was absurdly comfortable! I wonder what material the sheets were made out of? It felt like I was resting on a bunch of fluffy clouds.

This new life really wasn't that bad. Although I was still bitter over dying so unexpectedly, and I sorely missed my games, this luxury was way beyond what I was used to. Perhaps the most satisfying thing was the thought that I was now richer than all of the snooty customers I had to deal with in my previous job. Going from clerk to esteemed high noble - pretty damn big leap in social status, yeah?

Now if only this wealth didn't come with a hundred strings attached.

Well then, time to take a bath. I've got a long day ahead of me.

Oh, I forgot to mention. My bathroom actually had two doors. One connected to my bedroom, and one leading to the hallway. The latter was used by servants who clean and fill the tub with warm water in the mornings. That way they never needed to disturb my sleep; it was a pretty convenient setup. Both of the doors had deadbolt locks on the inside, so there was no risk of someone accidentally entering while I was using it either, much to my relief.

...

After a quick bath, I was drying my hair with a towel when someone gently knocked on my bedroom door.

"Young master, are you awake? It's Emma."

The familiar voice was a little quiet. Perhaps she was afraid that I was still in bed, and didn't want to wake me up prematurely. I wondered for a second why she was here, until I remembered that I had 'asked' her to be my personal attendant yesterday. Her showing up in the morning was only natural then.

"Go ahead and enter, the door isn't locked." I carelessly answered.

The door opened and Emma came in with her head respectfully lowered.

"Excuse my intrus- kyaaaah!?!?"

Her eyes widened and she let out a weird sound the moment she saw me.

"What?" I asked, my brows furrowed.

This was the second morning in a row that she was picking on my appearance. And her reaction was even worse this time; yesterday she just stared in disapproval, now she screamed the moment she saw me? It was starting to hurt my self-esteem.

Emma was desperately looking at anything except me. Her face was dyed crimson, and her voice came out in stammers.

"Y-y-y-young master, you're… undressed..."

It was like she would faint at any second.

"..."

Hold on.

Let me make this clear.

By no means am I a sick pervert who would invite a maid into my room while being completely naked. I would never stoop to that level of harassment. If you even considered for a moment that this was the case, then I am greatly offended. Please apologize for doubting my integrity.

"Emma. I'm wearing a bathrobe." I said. Then I looked down to make sure that everything important really was covered up. Whew, okay, no problems there.

"Yes, but…!" She said, still blushing furiously. "For a mere servant to see you in such a state, forgive me young master!"

Huh. Maybe this prudishness was also part of the Lost in Love world's culture. But no, wait, that doesn't make any sense! It was specifically mentioned in the game that some nobles (including Christine) always had their servants bathe and dress them, just to highlight how pampered they were compared to commoners. This was nothing compared to that.

When I pointed this fact out, Emma's face turned even more red.

Her head bowed in shame, the girl tried to speak. "Uu… I'm sorry. I understand that, young master. I know that this should be nothing, but it's just, I've never…"

Through her embarrassed mutters, she explained to me that she has had very limited contact with the opposite sex until now. Situations like these weren't covered in her training. Seeing me fresh out of the bath, my hair still wet and wearing only a blue robe, must have been too much stimulation for her, hence her panicking like a scandalized nun.

In case you forgot, this was the girl who stripped down to her underwear the first time she came into my room. I think there's a problem with priorities here.

"...A, and when I imagined t-that you weren't wearing anything underneath, I just couldn't help-!"

Emma clamped her hand over her mouth with a horrified expression. I mercifully decided to ignore that slip of the tongue, since even I was starting to feel embarrassed now.

"Well then, I guess there's no chance of you washing my back in the future?" I said, trying to lighten the atmosphere with a joke.

"Haaaau…"

Judging by the way she slumped to the floor, the answer was a resounding 'no'.

__________________________________________________________

She waited outside my room while I got dressed. Okay, done, take two.

"Please excuse me, young master."

The door opened and my personal attendant entered, her cheeks still slightly red. I noticed her breathe a tiny sigh of relief when she saw me this time. Hm? Wait a minute.

"What's that you're holding behind you?" I asked curiously.

Emma smiled and brought it out. A long piece of wood with a crosspiece at the top. If I'm not mistaken, this should be...

"A crutch?"

Emma nodded eagerly. "I was able to borrow it from the head butler. Since you said that you got a leg cramp last night, I thought that using a crutch would make it more convincing!"

"…"

Well, she had a point. They would definitely be suspicious if I walked fine the day after a cramp bad enough to keep me from dance practice. But the thought of limping around with a crutch was just so uncool. Ugh, why did I have to pick such a troublesome excuse?

I sighed, knowing that I had no choice. "Fine, I'll use it. Thank you for going through that much trouble."

"It was no trouble at all, young master! Mr. Hudson was very understanding, and wished you a fast recovery. He said to let him know if you needed any pain remedies or a doctor."

That was obviously unnecessary.

...

Emma proceeded to help brush my hair again - which was as stubbornly high maintenance as always - and I decided to make sure that there were no more 'surprises' in my schedule.

"So today I'm completely free, correct? I don't have any lessons?"

"Indeed, young master. Was there something in particular you wanted to do today?"

I pondered it for a moment.

"Not really, so we can continue with our plans."

It sounded so suspicious when phrased like that, but considering that the plans' goals could be summarized as "make everyone hate me less", it was actually kind of sad. This was like the unpopular guy in class trying to come up with ways to get everyone to like him.

Bad, suppressed childhood memories. Bad! Go away.

Anyway, I prepared quite a few things last night before going to sleep.

"Here's something for Grace, that should be enough to cover her house's emergency repairs. If she's reluctant to accept then just say that she should consider it a congratulatory gift for her wedding. And here's a letter for Amy, marked with my personal seal. I can't just have her little brother released since he really did steal from that shop, but at least the jail guards won't mistreat him while he's there. As for Hilda… ugh. There's not much I can do about that, it's not like I can tell the household guards to join the search, but take this. It's a bounty notice, offering a reward to anyone who can find and safely bring back her dog. Maybe that will get more people to pitch in."

"Wa, thank you, young master, this will definitely take a load off their minds!" Emma beamed with delight, but it quickly turned into a troubled expression. "Umm, it may be hypocritical of me to say this, since I was the one to bring up their problems in the first place… but is it really okay for you to be doing this much for us?" She looked at me anxiously.

"It's fine, it's really nothing. Don't worry about it." Like I said before, the money I was using was just a tiny fraction of the 'spare change' I had lying around in my room, it would be a long, long time before I even needed to ask my parents for more. "So that's it, right?"

"Yes, young master. For now I can't think of anyone else who might need your help." She bowed deeply to me.

"Hm, that's a lot less than I was expecting. So I guess it's time for something a bit more broad."

Not everyone was like Ms. Ruth who had an issue they badly needed help with. The majority of the servants were doing fine - it's just that they were unhappy with how harsh their treatment was, and lived in constant fear of being punished for small mistakes by the head maid. From the stories Emma told me, her viciousness was something else.

So the best way to help them was by improving the working conditions at the mansion. But this was a bit complicated - as much as I wanted to, I couldn't just straight up fire Ophelia since she was appointed by my father. My parents still liked her so I had to find a decent justification if I wanted that bespectacled tyrant gone. Maybe I could just selfishly demand it and they'd give in, but I didn't like the chances, so I would leave that as a last resort.

First, I'll talk to my parents about forbidding corporal punishment in the mansion entirely. That will just be a stopgap measure though, leaving a sadist like Ophelia in charge of the maids was still unacceptable. She'd sooner or later find a different way to torment them.

Hmm, what to do...

"I feel bad for saying this, young master, but quite a few people would rejoice if that happened." Emma giggled when I asked her if she wanted the head maid replaced. "Please don't tell her I said that though."

"Of course not."

Brush, brush, brush~

Mmm. I had to admit that having my hair brushed like this felt great, but wasn't it kind of… maidenly? Maybe that's why the old Alexander insisted on doing it himself. Well, Emma seemed to be having fun, so I'll just keep quiet.

Soon my appearance was in order, and we decided to head to the dining hall