episode_0005

After Mother’s cold warning, the dining room was so quiet that you could only hear the occasional clatter of tableware, and even breathing seemed to have stopped.

That was because the second-in-command of the mansion was sitting there, blatantly displaying her displeasure.

“Hic…”

An uncomfortable meal for everyone.

The servants’ faces were turning paler, and Emily, who was inadvertently exposed to Mother’s anger from the closest seat, was trembling her fingertips while forcibly suppressing her cute hiccups.

I couldn’t just leave Emily, who was too nervous, so I put down my fork and carefully grabbed Emily’s hand so that Mother wouldn’t see.

“Ugh…”

A flinch and a slight moan.

It wasn’t loud enough for Mother to hear, but Emily glared at me with resentful eyes and bit her lip.

“……”

I smiled and met Emily’s eyes, and Emily turned her head away with a sulky look and shook off my hand.

Is she a little angry?

But it was nice to see that her tension seemed to have eased.

I knew she was uncomfortable because she was dragged here because of me and was trying to be careful.

“Are you done eating?”

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

Seeing my lips twitching, Mother glanced at me while spearing the last piece of meat with her fork.

At the look that told me to stop fooling around and eat my food, I picked up my fork and continued the meal I had paused for a moment.

-Clatter!

“……”

After putting the last piece in her mouth, Mother put her fork and knife down on the empty plate, dabbed her lips with a handkerchief, and then beckoned to the head butler standing behind her.

The head butler, who had approached Mother, lowered his posture by bending his knees.

“Did you call?”

“I have something I want to talk about with William alone, so everyone please leave.”

“Yes.”

With a precise movement, the head butler raised his right hand to his chest, bowed his head, stepped back, and signaled all the servants remaining in the dining room with a gesture to convey Mother’s intention.

Even Emily left, leaving only the two of us in the dining room.

Even though everyone had disappeared, Mother kept silent for a while, looking at me with sharp eyes.

Ah… I haven’t even eaten half of it yet…

“……”

I felt like I would get indigestion if I ate while receiving Mother’s glare like this, so I carefully put down my fork and knife.

“Do you know what you’ve done?”

“Um… Am I late for breakfast?”

“No.”

“Did I stay up all night again?”

“That’s not it either.”

“Did I run around in the hallway noisily?”

“Similar, but no, and don’t make it sound like this mother is the type to get angry at her grown child for something so childish.”

“Hmm… Is it because of Emily?”

“Now that’s a more pleasing answer.”

Mother, who smiled coldly like a northern duke in a romance novel, raised her left hand and showed three fingers.

“Putting unfamiliar clothes on Emily for the first time.”

Her thumb folded.

“Holding hands amicably.”

Her index finger folded.

“Running around the mansion as if you were going to spread rumors throughout the entire territory.”

And strangely, the middle finger, which was the last one remaining, folded, turning her left hand into a fist, and Mother rested her chin on it.

“What do you think?”

“I’m a complete son of a bitch.”

Mother smiled gently, curling up the corners of her lips.

“I’m so glad you know, I was going to kick you out of the house if you didn’t.”

“Haha…”

“It’s not something to laugh about, she was a maid but she was a child I cherished, and thanks to someone, the marriage prospects of my cherished child have been completely blocked, I feel like I’m going crazy with frustration.”

“Oh, I’ll take responsibility for that somehow…”

“How?”

“Um… If it really doesn’t work out, I’ll have to take her in.”

“Huh-”

Mother, who burst into a hollow laugh, narrowed her eyes and said.

“Even if your attitude is light, your spirit is good to see.”

“Haha…”

“I’ll take this as a mistake today and lightly move on, but if something like this happens again, I won’t stand still, so keep that in mind.”

“Yes…”

I answered in a subdued voice and nodded my head.

Mother, who dropped her chin from her left hand and crossed her arms, frowned and asked a new question.

“Anyway, what on earth made you cause such a commotion? If you’re having a rebellious phase late in life, this mother would be sad.”

“That’s not it.”

“Then?”

“Um… I made new clothes for Emily, and they were so pretty, you know? So I wanted to let everyone know.”

“You’re causing trouble for such a stupid reason, you foolish son.”

“Haha…”

“Ugh, I’m so frustrated.”

I scratched my cheek gently, letting out an awkward laugh.

I was so caught up in showing off our pretty Emily that I did something idiotic.

Mother, who was looking at me with pitiful eyes, took a deep breath and patted her chest lightly a couple of times.

After patting and rubbing her chest like that for a while to calm her anger, Mother leaned back on the backrest and opened her mouth with a languid expression, as if all her energy had been drained.

“So I’m curious to know what you meant when you said you wanted the maids to wear the clothes you were so proud of.”

The grueling scolding that felt like hell was over, and the question I had been most hoping for flowed from Mother’s mouth.

I smiled reflexively and quickly took out the answer to the question.

“I made the clothes as practice, and the results were pretty good, so I was wondering if it would be a good idea to have the other maids wear them.”

“Clothes? You said something like that when you were young and gave up, what wind blew in that made you say that again?”

“Because of what Mother said at the previous banquet.”

“Explain in more detail, it’s hard to understand why the conclusion to make clothes came from the words to make some friends.”

“Mother, I hate people’s clothes.”

“William, you don’t have impure thoughts like pagans who aspire to be naked, do you?”

Mother, who had lost her words for a moment, frowned and spoke with worry in her voice.

“No! I don’t hate them in that sense!”

I was taken aback by Mother’s casual remark and shook my head, raising my voice.

Then Mother raised one corner of her mouth and said teasingly.

“I’m just kidding.”

“Hmph…”

My stomach was churning.

I was suspected of being impotent or gay a few days ago, so it was difficult to distinguish between jokes and seriousness, and it was really chilling.

“So?”

“Haa… Anyway, it’s a bit difficult to meet people because I don’t like the clothes, people look like hourglasses because of the corsets, and everyone decorates themselves in a fancy and dizzying way, so they’re all bizarre, you know?”

“An hourglass, what a truly strange impression.”

Mother chuckled at the word hourglass and nodded her head.

“So I wanted to throw all these clothes in the trash, I wanted clothes that didn’t exaggerate the body shape by reducing the decorations a bit.”

“Hmm… This mother also wants that a little, dresses are so expensive after all.”

“Right?”

I felt a little better seeing Mother glance at her dress and shake her head as if she was fed up with it.

Even if there were some differences, there was a common denominator that she was dissatisfied with the current clothes.

While I was imagining a hopeful future for a moment, Mother, who had taken her eyes off the dress, tilted her head slightly and asked a question.

“But why maids’ clothes in particular? Listening to you, it seems like you want to change the clothes of the nobles.”

“Think about it carefully, Mother.”

“…?”

“If I make clothes, will the nobles wear them?”

“Oh…”

Mother let out an exclamation as if she had gained a deep realization, clapped her hands lightly three times, and crossed her arms again.

And a cynical smile appeared on her face again.

“Compared to suddenly doing crazy things from the morning, you have a good grasp of the subject, I’m a little relieved.”

I shrugged my shoulders.

Even if I become a complete idiot when I stand in front of Emily, I’m a person who thinks and lives in my own way.

“So I was thinking about what would be less resistant and would build up my performance, and I thought that maid uniforms would be good, and I also have personal tastes.”

“Taste?”

“I like clean designs, like the one you just saw.”

“I see…”

Mother, who nodded her head slightly, closed her eyes slightly and fell into thought.

Mother, who was sitting quietly with her arms crossed, tapping her arm with her index finger,

“I understand that you suddenly want to make clothes.”

“Yes.”

“But, is there a reason why we have to specify the clothes of the servants?”

Reason…

Rather than just talking, I wanted to hear Mother’s thoughts first.

“What is the reason why you view it negatively, Mother?”

“A maid is not a maidservant or a servant, nor does she come forward to serve guests like a butler, she doesn’t often appear in front of people, and even if she does, only the head maid shows her face, so why should we make uniforms for the maids that people don’t see? Even if we do make them, do you know how many maids there are in our mansion? Have you calculated how much money it would take to provide clothes to all the maids?”

A very reasonable point.

“Ha.”

I couldn’t help but laugh.

That’s because I was worried that she might just say she didn’t like it and act stubborn, but she was telling me the concerns I had anticipated in advance.

“Yeah, of course I’ve…”

“Of course I’ve done it, it’s not like I’m doing it with my own money,”

“You’ve done it?”

Mother’s eyes widened like a startled rabbit.

I met those eyes of Mother and smiled confidently.

“Which should I tell you first, the reason or the money?”