“What do you mean ‘okay’? At this rate, you’re going to catch a cold!”
My sister exclaimed as she tried to dry the water with her handkerchief to no avail as I backed away, avoiding her extending hand.
“No, what if your handkerchief gets dirty?”
“Don’t say that! You are more important than my handkerchief.”
My sister wiped my stained cheeks.
‘Well, thank you very much, sister.’
I believe there’s a bigger problem than my drenched body.
With tired eyes, I looked down at the bottom of the spilled water.
“Ah… I need to clean this mess again.”
The hallway that we spent seven hours to clean up, it got dirty again!
‘Ugh, the dirty water even splashed the wall.’
Why was Becky so mean to Rose?
I glared at Becky.
“You’ll improve your skills if you keep cleaning, so you need to clean more,” Becky snarled, her words filled with malice.
She stepped forward and added, “I had worked so hard in the launderette, the head maid even praised me for doing such a great job.”
“What?”
“Let me give you a little advice. It’s better if you stay away from Lize. You haven’t seen her true nature. That’s why you’re still sticking up for her,” Becky said with a pointed look at Rose.
‘What nonsense is she spouting?’
I stared at Becky. She was so unreasonable that it was getting absurd.
But Becky didn’t stop.
“Even though Lize is younger, she said she would take on difficult tasks because she wanted to claim the head maid’s favor….”
Becky glared at me, her eyes filled with fury and rage.
“That’s why she wanted to clean this hallway up.”
‘… what is she trying to say? Wasn’t she the one who asked me to do it because she didn’t want to do all the hard work?’
The other maids were messing around and skipped their work. That’s why they forced me to do their dirty job.
“You just have to show the head maid how good you are, don’t you?” said Becky, looking at me with a wistful look.
‘Is she holding a grudge for what happened back then?’
‘Why are you doing this to me!’
I couldn’t hide my astonishment.
Becky clucked her tongue impatiently.
“Are you doing this all, so the head maid assigned you to the Emperor’s Palace or the Empress’s Palace?” she said before ending her speech.
‘No! Who wants to go to the Imperial Palace or the Empress’ Palace?’
I was dumbfounded.
However, Becky seems to have misinterpreted my silence as a silent affirmation.
Becky looked alternately at Rose and me, crossing her arm.
She looked at me, trying to compel me into admitting the ‘truth’.
But suddenly from outside the hall.
“Your Majesty!” a hurried cry was heard, and with it, the sound of footsteps closed in, crossing the corridor.
I doubted my ears.
…Your Majesty? The Empress?!
Becky’s face became puzzled.
I looked up at Rose reflexively.
My sister faced away from me at my astonished stare.
Si-sister Rose?
“… Sister Rose,” I called her cautiously.
My sister only bit her lips in response.
Before us, an old maid who arrived.
She adorned a yellow brooch on her chest. In other words, she was a maid who’s responsible for the whole palace.
The court lady gasped and bowed down.
“Your Majesty, I finally find you.”
“….”
“Your Majesty?”
Sister Rose glanced back at the maid.
“Hello, Maid Hayden.”
Maid Hayden.
I searched the words in the back of my head.[b]
I knew that name.
Because I wanted to avoid the Empress, I remembered all the maids’ names in the Empress’s palace and stayed away.
I tried to, but…
I clenched my fist.
After all my effort, the reality had instead gone beyond my imagination, rendering them into nothing.
“Your Majesty, you didn’t come back, therefore this maid came to look for you.”
Hayden looked at Becky with a fierce glare at her discourteous pose.
Yet, instead of responding to the maid’s displeasure, she looked at Rose in puzzlement as if she couldn’t grasp the situation.
After a while, my sister gave a sign and raised her head.
My sister, who always had a soft and carefree attitude around me, gave off a regal bearing.