Chapter 23: The Maid’s Anxiety

“Welcome ho— Aaah! K-Keiji-kun!”

“I’m home, Sayaka.”

When I returned to the manor, Sayaka, who had skipped school, was waiting for me at the entrance. The moment she saw my face, she completely forgot her maidly duties, her formal welcome faltering.

“Y-Your face! What happened?”

“Nothing much,” I said, shrugging it off as I walked down the manor’s hallway. “Just a bit of senseless violence.”

She hurried to keep pace with me. “W-What happened while I was gone? Should I call Maki-san? I can buy some information from her.”

“No need to contact Maki, I’ll tell you everything,” I assured her, though a thought struck me. “Wait, you two already exchanged contact info?” It seemed girls formed alliances with surprising speed.

“You will explain everything,” she demanded, her voice regaining its usual firmness as she regained her composure. “Accurately, without omitting any details, in chronological order, and with complete objectivity. Understood?”

“That’s quite a list of conditions,” I remarked. Still, I felt guilty for worrying her.

I entered the living room and sank into the sofa. Sayaka scurried off, only to return a moment later holding an old-fashioned first-aid kit.

“We had one of these?” I asked, surprised.

“I checked the contents,” she said, opening it. “Surprisingly, nothing’s expired. It seems the emergency supplies have been restocked every few years.”

“That makes sense. If this place were truly abandoned, it’d be in far worse shape.” Who on earth has been cleaning and restocking… oh, right, a contractor. The manor was still Kiyomiya family property, a conspicuous landmark in the neighborhood; they couldn’t just let it fall into ruin.

“Alright, start explaining while I patch you up,” she instructed, her tone leaving no room for argument. “If I decide you’re lying, we’ll be switching from the kindness course to the mean course.”

“You’re already plenty mean… Ouch!” I winced as her hand touched the cut on my lip, a sharp pain shooting through my mouth.

Did she already switch to the ‘mean’ course, or is she just clumsy? I wondered as I endured her rather rough treatment and began to explain what had happened.

When I finished, Sayaka summarized the situation with a single, blunt question. “…So, to put it simply, Fujikawa is a pervert?”

“It seems that even a prestigious family with a lineage dating back to the Heian period can produce a pervert or two over a thousand years,” I replied. Normally, I’d be hesitant to expose someone’s twisted nature, but Fujikawa didn’t deserve such consideration, especially with the suspicion that he’d abolished Sayaka’s scholarship spot. “But we learned something from this, didn’t we?”

“Learned something?”

“That it’s not good to stand out so suddenly. I feel like half… no, maybe seventy percent of this was my fault. Causing a commotion in the classroom isn’t good.”

“You’re absolutely right about that,” she agreed. No matter the reason, a disturbance in class was undesirable, and a girl—especially the top-ranked, most beautiful girl in the grade—suddenly bursting into tears was bound to cause ripples. Of course, dragging a classmate to a clubroom for a beating was completely out of line, but Sayaka and I weren’t entirely blameless.

“There, all done,” she announced, stepping back. “It was just a small cut on your lip. Nothing serious.”

“That’s it? I took a direct hit, you know.”

“…”

Sayaka was staring at me with a suspicious glint in her eyes. “What is it?” I asked, tilting my head.

“Well,” she began slowly, “it’s just that you always seemed like the last person who would ever get into a fistfight, Keiji-kun.”

“I am the last person. Fistfights aren’t something nobles do, are they?” Not that I actually think of myself as a noble.

“At the very least, you were lying about your fighting ability.”

“I never lied. I never once told anyone I was a weak fighter.” Though Maki seemed to have an inkling about my physical strength. I recalled several times she’d looked at me as if she knew I could handle Fujikawa and his cronies on my own.

“You could have shut Fujikawa up with force from the very beginning, couldn’t you?” she pressed. “To just stand there grinning without even hinting at your strength… that’s practically the same as lying.”

“To be honest, I have almost no real combat experience. I wasn’t sure I could shut him up. Besides, there was no guarantee violence would have solved anything.”

“True. It might have been better if Fujikawa had become a complete enemy. A pervert is more troublesome than an enemy. You can break an enemy’s spirit by beating them down, but a pervert might actually enjoy it, don’t you think?”

“It’d be one thing if it were just me, but it’d be bad if he started messing with you or Maki,” I said. “Maybe I should have that bastard Fujikawa transferred.”

“What a scary thought… If you did that, you’d be no different from the people who tried to take my scholarship away from me.”

“I know, I’m kidding.” But I only meant it as a half-joke. In fact, Fujikawa was the perfect ‘immediate enemy.’ If I was going to shed my trash persona and rise through the ranks at Sōshūkan it would be easiest to understand if I stood above the top-class Fujikawa.

I looked at her, my resolve hardening. “Sayaka, you are my maid.”

“Kya…” she let out a small gasp as I placed a hand on her cheek.

“Things took a strange turn, but I’ve decided to take responsibility and make you my maid. And I’ll make sure to enjoy a life that isn’t just about being scum.”

“…You say that like you’re trying to be cool, but it’s not really that cool,” she muttered, averting her eyes.

“Shut up.” I was just trying to deliver a cool line. After saving the girl I like, hiring her as my maid, playing right into the chairman’s hands, and beating down a childhood enemy… with so much happening at once, of course I was going to get a little fired up.

“Just kidding,” she said, her voice softening. “You’re cool, Keiji-kun.”

“Wh-What’s this, all of a sudden?”

“…It’s not all of a sudden. I’ve known you were cool for a while now.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever received a compliment like that in my entire life.”

“You took in a stray cat like me and even acknowledged me as a maid. Of course you’re the coolest. Are you an idiot?”

“Don’t tack an insult on at the end!”

“I can’t say things like this without joking a little… Besides…” she trailed off.

“Hm?”

“I’m sorry, Keiji-kun. You got hurt and it was about seventy percent my fault… and I was here at the manor all by myself, and so…”

“You were just resting. If anything, I’m glad you weren’t here. You might have gotten dragged into it.”

“You really are cool. I’ll say it as many times as you want. Compared to you, I…” Sayaka looked down, her hand resting on her hip where a master key and several room keys now jingled, attached sometime during the day.

Did the great head maids of the past walk around with their keys jingling like that?

“Oh, did you use the master key? I told you it was fine to go into any room.”

“But… I might have done the worst thing.”

 

The worst thing? I wonder what she meant by that.

In the end, Sayaka never explained what she was talking about.

“Ah, so that’s what it was.”

The realization hit me in the middle of the night while I was studying in my room. I’d felt that the arrangement of things had subtly changed. The books on my desk were neatly organized, the closet door I always left ajar was closed, and the sheets on my bed were perfectly straight.

“Did she rifle through my room for anything suspicious while cleaning? Not that I’d care at this point.” I mused. While I was tangled up with Fujikawa, was Sayaka searching my room for anything strange? I didn’t mind, but calling it ‘the worst’ was a definite exaggeration.

“Oh, the mirror is covered. Come to think of it, they say you should cover mirrors for superstition, like warding off evil spirits.” There was a full-length mirror in my room, but I never used it, so I hadn’t paid it any mind. “Looks like she polished it, too. She didn’t have to go this far… Oh, shoot.”

When I removed the cover, I noticed the bandage on my face was peeling off.

I washed my face earlier to wake myself up. I thought I’d been careful, but I must have scrubbed with my usual vigor.

“I should probably keep this on a little longer.”

Reluctantly, I stepped away from my desk. “Come to think of it, where did Sayaka get that first-aid kit from?” Today was the first time I’d ever seen it. Was it in the living room, or was there some kind of storage room? “I still have no idea where anything is in this old manor.”

I felt bad asking her for a favor so late, but I had no choice. The Kiyomiya Family’s Old Manor had a separate wing connected by a covered walkway where the servant’s quarters were located.

“I didn’t notice when I carried her princess-style the other day… is this wing actually newer?” It was likely an addition, built as the number of servants increased. I passed through the walkway and went up the nearby stairs. “It was on the second floor… Ah, this is it.”

Light was leaking from under a door that was slightly ajar. The last time I was here, I was too preoccupied with carrying Sayaka to take in my surroundings. This was practically my first visit. This is probably the right room…?

“Hey, Sayaka. Are you awake?” I knocked, trying not to peer inside.

“Eh?” A voice answered from within, followed by the clatter of footsteps before the door swung wide open.

“Keiji-kun? Is something wrong?” Sayaka stood there, still in her maid uniform.

“Sorry to bother you so late. I wanted to know where the first-aid kit is.”

“Eh? Oh, it peeled off. It’s alright, I have the same kind of bandages in my room.” She turned and went back inside, and I slowly followed her in.

“Um, the bed is fine, right? Have a seat.”

“O-Oh.” I hesitated—entering a girl’s room and sitting on her bed felt strange—but since she invited me, I couldn’t refuse. She returned with bandages and sat on the bed next to me.

“Oh… Keiji-kun, isn’t your cheek a little swollen?”

“Maybe it’s starting to swell up now. Whoa, Sayaka, your hand is cold.”

“It’s because your cheek is hot, Keiji-kun.” Her soft, cool hand stroked my cheek. The smooth sensation felt nice… wait, I’m being creepy.

“We should probably ice it.”

“You don’t have to go that far. It doesn’t feel that swollen.”

“…”

Sayaka stared intently at my face, almost glaring. Then, for some reason—

“H-Hey…!”

“It really is hot, your cheek.” She pressed her own face against mine, nuzzling it gently. It was even softer and smoother than her hand—!

“Mmm… let’s cool it down after all,” she said decisively, pulling away. “We don’t have an ice pack, so we’ll have to use ice.”

“R-Right.”

“Alright, shall we go to the kitchen?”

“Yes, I’ll go too. I have to make sure you cool it down properly.”

“You’re acting more like a mom than a maid.”

“That’s because you’re such a handful,” she shot back with a glare, getting up from the bed.

I stood up to follow her and— “But Sayaka. You only had one carry-on case when you came here, right?”

“Eh? Yes.”

“For someone who only brought one case, don’t you have a lot of stuff…?”

“…Don’t stare so much,” she mumbled.

“Ah, yeah, my bad.” Still, this was a classmate’s room; it was unreasonable to expect me not to be curious. During the princess-carry incident, I’d just dropped her off and left. This was the first time I was properly seeing it.

The room was small, with just a bed, a desk, and a closet, but the desk was quite messy, and the closet seemed stuffed with clothes.

“There were various clothes in the other servant rooms, so I borrowed them. Some were my size. That’s fine, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, no problem at all.” After all, the manor had been practically abandoned for ten years. No one was going to complain. Though I feel like clothes from over a decade ago wouldn’t suit a modern girl.

“And your desk… you really are studying, huh.”

“You’re staring pretty hard now.”

“Well, I’m curious about the desk of the top student in our grade. Your dictionaries look well-used, too.” Her desk was scattered with notebooks, textbooks, reference books, and dictionaries for English and classical Japanese. Sayaka may be a capable maid, but she might be careless when it to her own things comes.

“Hm? This notebook is…” A single notebook lay open on the desk. I’d expected it to be filled with English sentences or mathematical formulas, but—

“Recipes… and they’re filled with notes. This is amazing.”

“W-Wait…!” I instinctively picked it up. It was filled with handwritten cooking recipes. Detailed notes on how to grill meat, chop vegetables, and more were written in the margins, all neatly organized with red and blue pens.

“Sayaka, you were studying this hard for your maid job?”

“Th-That’s why I told you not to look!” she cried.

“You say that, but… after seeing something like this, I can’t just ignore it.”

She had said she learned her duties from her mother, but to think she was studying so diligently on her own… She’s been trying so hard. I feel bad for not hiring her sooner.

“That’s why, don’t look! You perv!”

“Perv!?” I never thought such a childish word would come from the cool, composed Sayaka. She snatched the notebook from my hands, hugging it tightly to her chest, clearly embarrassed that I’d discovered her secret efforts.

“You have a surprisingly cute side…”

“Sh-Shut up!” She threw the notebook into a desk drawer and glared at me, taking a stance that made it clear I wasn’t getting near her desk again.

“I get it, my bad.”

“…Hmph.”

I had even managed to see a rare sight: Sayaka blushing bright red in embarrassment. In a way, I had Fujikawa and his gang to thank for this. This whole violent, bloodthirsty incident might have actually been a net gain for me after all.