Chapter 20: 20

Chores and Cleaning the Bath

“Well, that’s how it was, and in the end, I was scolded for two hours….”

“You got what you deserved.”

“Why did Felix get so angry like that? He’s just like Claushezade-sensei.”

“There’s no room for rebuttal when it’s your own fault. And anyway, how dare you speak ill of me so openly? Forget such idle talk and move your hands.”

“Well, isn’t this all Claushezade-sensei’s job? You’re completely exploiting me. aren’t you?”

Claushezade summoned her to the usual teacher’s office, where Sheila was made to do endless chores. It was a regular event that happened once every three days.

He moved his hands without a moment’s rest. He must’ve been half-listening to her complaints about the report session with Felix.

Sheila’s job was just to separate the documents by entry, but she would be caught up by the busy Claushezade, who would read them carefully and stamp them with a seal of approval or send them back to her. Sheila hurried back to her work.

She quietly arranged the documents, and then sorted the approved and returned documents by the location where they were to be carried.

“…. Anyway, aren’t you working too hard, sir? There are even documents mixed in that have nothing to do with the knight department.”

If she looked closely, she could even find documents from the civil service department in the mix. That was definitely out of Claushezade’s domain. Because he did his job quickly, he probably got more work, but the faster he did it, the more work he had to do, which was just too depressing. It was a vicious cycle, if you asked her.

But Claushezade read the documents without a single complaint. He seemed to be skillful enough to handle everything flawlessly, but wasn’t this person surprisingly clumsy?

“If you think I’m working too hard, I would greatly appreciate it if you could help me more efficiently.”

“I’m saying it’s not a job for two people to begin with. Besides, I’m not very good at typography.”

“It’s not that. You’ve learned to read well enough to know what the documents are about, haven’t you?”

“――Oh. Come to think of it, yes.”

However, there was no doubt that she was being used in the name of special training and study. The character practice books that he gave her as homework after her chores were full of document forms and formal words, none of which seemed to be useful in her daily life. It was just like Clauschezade, who prioritized efficiency and rationality to the point of killing two birds with one stone.

“By the way, I hope no one besides Jorn Werner has found out about your gender?”

“No one has found out. I always wear a breastplate as a precaution. With this, if someone touches my chest, there’s no problem at all.”

Sheila puffed out her chest. She didn’t feel comfortable wearing a blazer, so she devised a desperate plan to wear a breastplate for practice all the time.

“I think a woman should do her best to avoid being touched in any way, but I don’t see the point in asking for a normal response from you. Rather, I should ask if people around you are not suspicious about the unnaturalness of wearing a breastplate all the time?”

“Ah, Cody asked me once, and I told him that it’s so I was ready to fight at any moment, and he agreed.”

“I see… Cody made a wise decision.”

Claushezade had a faraway look in his eyes. She’d heard that for tired eyes, they should look at something green in the distance to make them relaxed.

“Speaking of Cody, it seems he has always admired Claushezade-sensei.”

She recalled the story about the youngest knight ever to join the Kingsguard, which Cody had told her before with shining eyes.

“I heard that you joined the Kingsguard at the age of 13. That’s amazing, isn’t it? That was before you had even begun full-scale training, or rather, just after you entered the academy.”

“At the time, the country was in the midst of a political upheaval, and all factions were short of personnel. I just happened to have had several opportunities to meet His Majesty the King, so I was trusted, regardless of my abilities.“

Claushezade replied without lifting his gaze from the paper.

“Oh yes, Cody also mentioned something about a political change. But I didn’t hear anything about that in Denan Village.”

“I suppose a village that deep in the mountains would have had nothing to do with such bloody talk of a political upheaval.”

“It’s in the countryside. But anyway, Claushezade-sensei, what exactly happened during the political upheaval? I would like to know more about it.”

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The hand that was writing crisp, flowing letters stopped in its tracks.

“…. If you want to know, find out for yourself. If we conversed for a long time, your work will be delayed.”

Claushezade didn’t look at Sheila. His peacock eyes seemed to be skimming over the words, even though he was still staring at the paper as he had been earlier. It was difficult to read anything from his expressionless profile, but she no longer felt inclined to mention it further.

Perhaps sensing Sheila’s silent concern, Claushezade unusually opened his mouth.

“I was still inexperienced at the time, so when I was entrusted with the major role as Felix’s bodyguard, I was quite nervous.”

Hearing his words, Sheila blinked. The only sound in the quiet room was the sound of a pen moving.

“Eh… Are you talking about when you came to Denan Village? So you’re saying that at that time, Claushezade-sensei was 13 years old?”

Perhaps because Sheila had uttered that in such a low voice, Claushezade looked up quizzically.

“What does it matter?”

“I was four years old eleven years ago which means…. Does that mean Claushezade-sensei is now 24 years old?! No way! I thought for sure you were close to 30!”

Claushezade shook his head as if his head hurt at the shocked Sheila.

“…. Was that all you noticed when you heard what I say?”

“Huh? Was there anything important other than the fact that Claushezade-sensei looked surprisingly old?”

“….”

Even though she asked back earnestly, Claushezade fell silent and didn’t tell her anything in the end.

Needless to say, the homework for that day was increased to three times the usual amount, once again.

◇　◆　◇

After dinner, Sheila, exhausted from struggling with her homework, staggered down the hallway.

She had worked as hard as she could, but she had only gotten a few pages done. She wondered if she would be able to finish it before the next meeting.

“Ugh, Claushezade-sensei is too much of a devil… I still have a lot of work to do.”

While the students were finishing their baths, eating dinner, and relaxing, Sheila still had work to do. That’s right, she had to clean the baths.

The bathhouse was large, and the bathtub was also huge. It was a lot of physical work to clean the bathtub by herself every day. Although she saw it positively as a way to build up her strength, she felt like she might fall apart when she was exhausted from studying.

Sheila took off her breastplate in the changing room and dressed lightly, in loungewear only. Rolling up her trousers to her knees, she forcibly exclaimed, “Okay.”

It was pretty hard work, but the reward of having the spacious bathtub all to herself made it all worth it.

At dinner time, she felt embarrassed to be among the boys who smelled like soap. Sheila wasn’t a very feminine person, but she was still very uncomfortable when she was the only one who smelled like sweat, even though she cleaned off the minimum amount of dirt with a wet cloth. It felt as if all the little bit of femininity she had was being stripped from her.

“I wouldn’t be doing this without a reward.”

First, she scooped up the floating hair and other suspended matter in the bathtub with a net and removed it. This alone would make a normal girl cry and hate it. It was just the dirty stain of sweaty men.

Sheila finished the job, taking care not to look directly at it. Next, she poured hot water over the entire bathroom and scrubbed it with a brush, starting from the edges. The steamy bathroom was hot, and her entire body was drenched in sweat as she worked. Her face was so hot that she felt like she was melting.

“This might be as hard as class….”

She took a breather while rotating her shoulders to loosen the tension in her right arm.

As she wiped the sweat from her face and looked up vaguely at the ceiling, she heard the door slam.

“――Sheila.”

Sheila’s eyes widened at the next voice she heard.

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