The Villainess Whom I Had Served for 13 Years Has Fallen

Chapter 26: The Secret He Hides (2)

The lady was acting strangely.

Ever since we returned from the outing, she had been blatantly staring at me, outright scanning my body, leaving me with ambiguous feelings.

‘What is this?'

It felt like being harassed on the subway.

Was it because a pretty girl was looking?

Weirdly, it made me feel good.

-Intently-

I moved my hand swiftly.

The lady followed my hand movements with her face.

‘Oh…!'

I discovered something amusing.

When I twirled my hand left and right, the lady turned her head to follow it, and when I moved it up and down, she nodded along.

‘Down. Up. Left. Right. Again.'

After repeating it dozens of times.

"Dammit!"

The lady threw her fork at me. Why is she stealing looks at someone else’s body? I easily dodged and handed her a new fork.

"Lady."

"What."

"Why are you looking like that? It's unpleasant."

"I'm not feeling unpleasant."

"No, I am the one who feels unpleasant."

The lady looked up at me.

She glanced from her bed and then nodded at me.

"I'm fine."

She wasn't asking about her mood, though.

"Take responsibility for my wounded heart."

The lady continued without a retort.

She kept staring at my wrist. If looks had temperature, I might have suffered third-degree burns on my wrist from the intensity of her gaze.

Ordinarily, we would spend our evenings throwing forks and knives in rage due to bell peppers on the dinner menu, but today the lady seemed more curious about me than her food.

I was higher on the priority list than food.

Perhaps I was also entering the ranks of a successful butler.

I felt strangely good about the situation.

While I was setting the table and serving food, the lady's gaze lingered on my wrist.

She bent down, trying to glance at the inside of my sleeve.

I wrapped my finger lightly and flicked her forehead with a flick.

"Ow!"

The lady clenched her fist.

"That hurts!"

"Supposed to hurt when I hit."

"Why did you hit me!"

"Because you keep looking."

"I did not look."

"Lies."

The lady turned her head toward the window, avoiding eye contact.

"I did not look!"

When lying, looking at the window was the same as always, whether it was then or now.

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"What did you not look at? You’ve been staring so intently at my sleeve I thought I was on fire, I nearly died of the heat."

"It's not hot. I looked so coldly."

"So you admit you looked."

The lady said nothing.

Her mouth tightly shut.

She fiddled with the stew.

"Why is there no meat in this damn stew! This is meat abuse. No respect for meat!"

"Instead, it's healthy."

"I do not consent."

I finished serving dinner by putting bell peppers in the lady’s mouth.

Today, I also need to rest in my room.

That's when it happened.

The lady sipped milk and ‘Ahhed,' signaling overtime work. It stopped my heart as I was awaiting the end of my shift.

"Ah, Ricardo, I will take a bath."

"What?"

What is this woman saying?

A bath at a time when the maids had left, and it was past my shift—this was a huge bomb dropped on the Confucian boy's heart. I trembled slightly.

The lady looked up at me.

With cat-like eyes, she stared at me. Her eyes wide, threatening to go on a hunger strike if I refused her intense plea.

This time I turned my head toward the window.

"Don't avoid my eyes."

"It's not that. The sun is just too glaring, that's all."

"It’s 9 p.m., how can the sun still be out!"

"Sometimes it could be, couldn't it? The moon gets tired too."

"Nonsense!"

"Arf."

The lady loved her bath.

So much so, she would faint in the tub.

She enjoyed soaking in hot water to the point of becoming limp and protesting when it was time to come out, seriously passionate about baths.

No wonder collecting bath additives was her hobby.

It was a clean and neat hobby, but the lady was excessive.

Mint-scented bath additives.

Beef-scented bath additives.

Lamb-scented bath additives.

She had collected all sorts of odd bath additives.

After becoming poor, she abandoned this odd hobby, but the lady's yearning for bath additives persisted.

‘When I have time, maybe I should make some bath additives with the lady.'

I was proud to have come up with a pastime to enjoy with the lady, but remembering her strange bathing philosophy made me shiver again.

When the lady was 10 years old.

At a stream, she proclaimed while undressing.

-Proper baths are taken naked! Baths with clothes on are no different from laundering. Got it, you bum!

-Put on your clothes, please.

-No way!

The lady had advocated for naked bathing. Knowing that the lady had such a unique philosophy—that a bath wasn't genuine unless taken naked.

Tense, I asked the lady in a nervous voice.

"Do you intend to take a bath now?"

To my confirming question, the lady gave a brief confirmation shot.

"Yeah. Sweaty and sticky."

"One day without it won't kill you."

"It might. I could die."

"Then, I'll bring you a warm washcloth."

The lady spoke resolutely.

"I want to soak in warm water."

And she added a condition.

"Stark naked."

Oh my, what is this woman saying, proposing to do this in front of a grown man?

Despite my heroic thoughts, my eyes were shaking tremendously. I may be incredibly handsome in my past and present life but was a timid virgin with no experience with women.

An awkward atmosphere hung in the air.

The lady who loves baths and the butler striving to maintain a man's dignity.

"I refuse."

"Why?"

"No, am I not a man? Perfectly handsome at that."

"You're not handsome."

"Don't lie."

"…It's true."

The lady puffed out her cheeks.

I must've hurt her feelings by denying her wishes. Though I felt weak, I could not bend the meaning of ‘men and women should not sit together after the age of seven'.

"Hmm."

The lady glared at me again.

This time, she began smirking after looking at my sleeve and my body.

She really seemed like a pervert.

"Heheh."

"What is that laugh for?"

"It's nothing."

But with that said, the lady's gaze was directed toward the window.

"Let's do this then…"

***

"Argh!"

I threw the lady into the bath. She splashed into the tub, and the resentful look she gave me, completely drenched, filled me with a peculiar joy.

"Hehe."

As I flashed her a grin, the lady threw soap at my face.

"Such clumsy attacks will take a hundred years before they could touch me."

"Hmph."

Whoosh. The lady turned her head away.

I wanted to pinch her cheeks, all puffed out with indignation.

I dipped a finger into the bath where the lady was soaking.

‘It's warm.'

The water was at a temperature that was neither too hot nor too cold, just how the lady would like it.

"How do you find the water temperature?"

When I asked for confirmation.

"Yeah. Feels like I'm turning into a stew."

The lady replied approvingly.

By the lady's standards, if it’s cold, it's like pig's feet, but if it’s warm, it's stew. Since the water was the right temperature today, that seemed positive.

"Sigh."

The lady was wearing clothing.

In staunch refusal, she had decided to take a step back.

-Let's do it this way. I’ll wear clothes, a bathrobe should be enough, right?

Donning a white bathrobe, the lady pouted her lips and murmured as she splashed water at me.

"This isn’t a real bath."

"You're right."

"No, this is laundry."

"Then so be it, do the laundry."

I smeared shampoo on my hands and began washing the lady's hair.

As I delivered a fantastic scalp massage, the lady, unable to keep her composure, groaned softly.

"Oooh… It feels like I'm being laundered."

"Please be quiet. It disrupts my concentration."

"Oooh…"

The lady was out of it.

As time passed, and the end of the bath was approaching.

I said to the lady.

"Lady."

The lady, sitting in the tub eating snacks, tilted her head slightly at my question.

"Huh?"

"I might need to be away for a couple of days next week, is that alright?"

"Why? Going to catch more bugs?"

"No. It's similar but different."

I felt like I needed to dust off my fortune a bit.

In two weeks’ time, an article will announce the discovery of an unexplored dungeon near the summit of Mount Havel.

Just like in the novel.

It was an unprecedented dungeon, attracting many adventurers with its myriad artifacts and gold, an ancient labyrinthine dungeon filled with treasures.

In the novel, the female protagonist and Ruin. These two notable characters find time to participate in the dungeon exploration.

During this episode, they encounter friction with the heretics, but that was a situation they'd have to deal with on their own.

Ultimately, I intended to do a bit of recycling of the fortunes that Ruin and Uriah would scour for.

I would leave whatever was necessary for the story and take the unnecessary bits for myself.

I planned to collect any usable fortunes before more hands reached them.

Now that my swordsmanship level had increased to Lv. 6, there was no need to worry about dying even if I ran into heretics in the dungeon. I might even be able to farm a little.

I could also gather a sword for Hanna and elixirs to send to Malik—snatching some treasure on the side would surely make it perfect.

So when it was time to ask for permission,

I sought to gain the lady's consent.

The lady pondered.

"Is it dangerous?"

"No. Just going out for fun."

"Really?"

The lady's expression wasn't cheerful.

She seemed to misconstrue that I was headed for another tough job like the last bug-catching mission.

To alleviate the lady's concerns, I mixed truth with falsehood.

"Just going to pick some herbs in the mountains. It's getting colder, thought to prepare some tonic."

"Hmm."

After a lengthy contemplation, the lady nodded her head, signaling agreement.

"But don't dig up anything too bitter, bring back herbs with chocolate flavor."

"Where on earth would you find that?"

"They might exist."

I need to ask the maid coming tomorrow to schedule a two-day stay at the house.

"But Ricardo,"

"Yes?"

After a brief lapse of thought.

The lady looked at my hand and said.

"Why is your forearm so dark?"

The wet shirt revealed a charred, darkened forearm.