“I don’t want to. -No, I can’t.”
“Joachim, hyung-nim will check.”
Rilke said caringly. The kid had maids accompanying him, and what they were holding in their hands was a men’s corset.
‘Make sure to put a corset on this guy.’
It was something Mikhail had casually thrown out, thinking I had gotten bulkier.
Men’s corsets were something that had only recently come into existence.
About ten years ago, Count Rolang, who had led fashion trends in southern high society, started wearing one and it began to become known through word of mouth. I knew that recently it had become fashionable again after rumors spread that Rilke was wearing one.
Still, I didn’t like it.
“He hasn’t checked yet, has he? Surely he won’t check today?”
“Oh dear. I did my best. If you say so, then there’s nothing I can do.”
Rilke really did have the corset, which looked like waist armor, put away. The slender back view of him leaving with the maids felt striking anew. I came downstairs to the first floor, thinking that not only the lady but that kid was truly remarkable too.
However, the empty shell bomb Mikhail had thrown wasn’t just the corset.
“Young Master Joachim.”
This person also needs to be collected.
‘Stop by the first floor later and take an attendant with you too.’
Around this time in the past as well. Mikhail had assigned me a permanent servant.
The problem was that this servant before my eyes, whom Mikhail trusted to some degree, turned out to be Rilke’s minion. My head hurts thinking about how to avoid him going forward.
“I heard you came down early, so I came to relay the message instead. It seems you’ll have to wait a bit.”
He said something I couldn’t understand.
“Jake?”
And I couldn’t help but be surprised to see the prim face coming down the stairs with quick steps. My old servant went up to the second floor as if he had done his job.
Only then could I understand why Mikhail had told me to ‘take’ an attendant.
“I’ve been assigned to attend to you, Young Master Joachim!”
It was Jake.
“I don’t know how long it’s been.”
Speaking about her was a bit complicated.
Jake was one of my wet nurse’s daughters and was my maid in my childhood. It was possible because my wet nurse had given birth to a late-born child. Since my father had assigned her to me as my maid early on, Jake had taken care of me for quite some time when I was young.
“Really, hyung told you to attend to me?”
After father passed away, Mikhail called Jake, who had been staying in the annex, to his side. The back view of Jake running off on tiptoes without even saying goodbye, delighted, is still vivid.
She, who was already well past marriageable age and just spending her years, currently held a position as Mikhail’s maid and roughly like a lover.
“Address me as Baroness!”
She said primly.
“I am properly a vassal of the Count’s house. In terms of title, I’m in a higher position than you, young master!”
“Can’t I just call you Jake?”
Jake, who had been a girl, came to dislike her androgynous name as she became an adult. She had definitely been proud of it when she was young.
When I extended my arm as if to escort her, she lightly touched it.
“…Well, if you insist on doing so, what can I do? Do as you wish.”
“Thanks.”
Jake used to sneakily make me escort her behind father’s back when I was young.
Perhaps reminded of old times, she chuckled and said,
“Is this repayment for a polite gentleman? But escorting your own maid is not good! This is the first and last time.”
“Hyung does it often too.”
“Oh my, is that the same as this?”
Ahem, Jake cleared her throat. We were just leaving through the main entrance of the main building.
“Wait. What’s that?”
Jake stopped.
The mansion’s servants and unfamiliar people were moving something large. Judging by their attire, they seemed to be from the family’s merchant group.
It was a splendid purple couch that I had definitely seen somewhere before.
“Did the second young master change furniture again?”
“Ah, yes. The second young master had purchased it. There’s a defect, so they’re taking it back.”
“Aah, I thought he was just changing it again.”
Since he changes furniture so often. Jake’s eyes, which had whispered, scanned the couch as if examining it.
The heavy couch, which was largely assembled as a whole without legs, looked fine on the outside, but there could be invisible defects. The merchant bowed his head, apologizing for bringing such goods into the Count’s house.
At first glance, it seemed fortunate that Jake had become my permanent attendant. It didn’t look like I’d have to worry about being tormented by my servant from the past.
But that was a mistaken thought.
“What are these letters?”
Jake, who had quickly examined my room as if scanning Rilke’s couch, started by hurriedly rummaging through various places.
She discovered a pile of invitations and pulled them out one by one before I could stop her.
“I’ll tell the Count immediately!”
Every single move was about to be reported to Mikhail instead of Rilke.
Jake really seemed ready to run off. I managed to stop Jake from running out—she really ran. In a dress.—by promising I wouldn’t do it again, but I could bet tonight’s dessert that the matter would reach Mikhail’s ears within the day.
In the end, I couldn’t miss social events for a while.
“Get properly dressed right now.”
“My pheromones are unstable today—”
“How strange. It keeps happening only at convenient times, so aren’t these very obedient pheromones that listen well to their master? In my opinion, you could get a formal diagnosis and move to the main building.”
I was dragged around without being able to say a word.
“Joachim!”
“……”
“Joachim! Where on earth has this guy gone!”
“……”
“If you disappear again—”
Mikhail said he’d break my leg.
But he won’t be able to.
If he really broke it, he wouldn’t be able to drag me around like this.
In the end, even Mikhail couldn’t do anything about me deliberately running away after arriving at social gatherings. Unlike within the mansion, he had to maintain appearances.
“I really hate these gatherings.”
“You hate gatherings with many people and honor!”
No.
I hated gatherings where Prince Benedict might come.
“Absolutely not… I can swear on hyung-nim.”
“Don’t stake me on something so trivial!”
It was pathetic, but I was alone avoiding the Prince. Because it seemed like the rustling sound inside my heart became a little quieter that way. That was the only common point among the invitations I had hidden.
“You are a member of House Meyer!”
Does Mikhail know?
“It’s not for you to decide where you go or don’t go! Fulfill your responsibilities as a member of the family!”
Rilke always moves about freely.
How ridiculous that such a Rilke eventually becomes the treasure of House Meyer, while I, who was cultivated with even the people I meet controlled, become useless.
A dramatic counterexample proving Father and Mikhail were wrong. Perhaps to truly become valuable to the family, one must, like Rilke, directly clash with all kinds of human masses, sometimes getting worn down and sometimes becoming sharp.
I was tormented by Mikhail for a fortnight like that.
Between being scolded and running away at banquet halls, I felt like a worn-out shoe sole.
That day too, I had gotten an earful from Mikhail and was heading to the annex holding my heavy head. Jake, who always seemed inversely proportional to my mood, was humming when she brightened up.
“Oh my, how cute!”
Her steps quickened.
In the arms of one of the young maids bowing their heads was something that didn’t match this mansion.
It was a baby rabbit.
“It suddenly appeared in the garden.”
The eyes explaining sparkled.
“I asked both the butler and the head maid, but we have no idea where it came from.”
Chattering away, they occasionally gave me glances too. Perhaps it was partly thanks to Jake, who treated me casually from the start, being by my side, but I felt like the expressions of the servants treating me had become much lighter. I could feel my shoulders straightening along with it.
“Where on earth could that tiny animal have come from?”
“I wonder.”
After the maids left, I answered in a slightly excited mood while retracing my memories.
There had been an incident where rabbits suddenly appeared in the Count’s garden as if they had fallen from the sky. Later they gathered them in one corner of the garden and raised them.
Since I had seen the rabbits for almost several months, I remembered what they looked like, but the one I just saw didn’t seem to be one of them. Probably unlike those rabbits raised at the Count’s house, I couldn’t see that one because a maid took it away.
So in total, four rabbits had suddenly appeared.
Where on earth were they coming from?
Since I had returned to the past, I thought it would be fun to find out where those rabbits came from.
The rabbits’ appearance was three days in a row.
It was a very cute incident where, when you woke up in the morning, a rabbit would be playing around in the Count’s garden, one at a time.
The next day at dawn, I woke up early and went around to the low hill behind the mansion.
The first rabbit appeared.
The rabbit discovered in the morning was already out at dawn. It seemed like the one from my memory. After watching the tiny creature graze on grass for a moment, I looked around.
Behind the mansion. On the right side was a building where some servants stayed, and deep on the left side was the annex where I stayed. Other than that, it was just a garden.
Wondering if there were other rabbits under the bushes, I meaninglessly rummaged around looking, but either I couldn’t find them or there was nothing. Was there someone among the servants who secretly brought in rabbits? I peeked around the building, but there wasn’t even a mouse hole from which a rabbit could emerge.
Meanwhile, the rabbit was busily moving its body. The rabbit, following the grass that was its food, eventually advanced to the front of the mansion where the lawn was lush.
I continued to follow the small back leisurely grazing on grass with questions.
Where on earth did you come from?
As expected, there was a small commotion in the morning.
“What if it eats the garden flowers we bought at a high price?”
For that reason, the first rabbit was captured.
It seemed like everyone couldn’t imagine that rabbits would appear tomorrow and the day after as well.
That night, I had been out since nighttime.
“I’m late again.”
When I went to the back of the mansion, the rabbit was already out. This time too, it was near that path leading to the rear garden.
Today it was much closer to the main building than the rear garden building. I looked around every corner of the main building, which I hadn’t examined yesterday. Whether they were managing it thoroughly, no matter how much I looked, there was no gap from which a rabbit could emerge.
Then the remaining place was,
“……”
I looked up at the upper area, the second-floor terrace.
Since the main building was designed with its back against a gentle hill, the second-floor terrace was positioned about half a floor lower than the front.
Since the night wind was still chilly, there were hardly any rooms with their doors open,
But there was exactly one room with its terrace door slightly ajar.
Purple curtains.
It was Rilke’s room.
