Chapter 23

While heavy rain fell so hard that visibility was poor, the sound of the sky rumbling could be heard from far away. Raven Manor was hunched over, receiving the pouring rainwater.

‘What the hell kind of rain is this, coming down so hard that you can barely see outside.’

After finishing cleaning all the dishes used for lunch and wiping her hands on her apron, Mrs. Loska, the manor’s cook, listened to the sound of rain echoing inside the manor and took a breather. Since there wasn’t much to clean up, she had sent her assistant to their room saying they’d handle the cleaning themselves, but it was secretly taxing.

‘Let me rest for a bit—I can prepare dinner gradually.’

Knock knock—

As she settled her bottom in a dining chair, the sound of someone knocking on a wooden door suddenly came through the rain. Normally she wouldn’t have heard it, but the surroundings happened to be quiet and sounds carried particularly well on rainy days.

Thinking someone might be going out as she had heard, she held her breath and listened again, but no hurried footsteps could be heard coming from anywhere inside the manor.

‘Are they all holed up somewhere being lazy? In the end, I’m the only one working hard here.’

Though Mrs. Loska rarely left the kitchen, she grumbled and moved her body. The knocking continued until she got close.

‘But who could it be with all this rain?’

Sudden visitors to the manor were extremely rare. Since it was such a remote place, even though Mrs. Loska had worked here quite a long time, she could count the visitors she’d seen on one hand. She suddenly remembered hearing that Gabe the groom, who lived in the small house behind the manor, was originally a vagrant who had been passing through with his son.

‘Poor man. So pitiful, really. It would be nice if he’d at least eat dinner together, but he stays holed up in his den like a bear and won’t come out…’

Mrs. Loska, who briefly thought of Gabe with his bulky frame but shy nature, always just watching nervously, shouted for them to wait at the urgent knocking sound and extended her plump hand to unlock and open the door.

“Wait a moment. My goodness, with rain coming down like this, I didn’t even know someone had come.”

Along with the sound of rain pouring like buckets, before her stood a man with long, unkempt hair wearing ragged clothes. His wet hair was stuck all over his face so his face wasn’t properly visible, making it hard to tell his age at a glance, but anyone could see he looked like a vagrant.

“Who are you?”

Wondering if he might suddenly pull out a knife, she asked cautiously, and the man opened his mouth.

“…I’m just passing through, but I haven’t eaten anything all day today. Could I get some scraps, even leftovers?”

At that low, hoarse voice, Mrs. Loska crossed her arms—thicker than most men’s—and looked at the man pitifully with her button-like eyes. Seeing the man suddenly reminded her of her son working as a cook at an inn in a distant region.

‘I wonder if he’s been eating properly.’

Maybe she’d bring him in briefly while everyone was unaware, feed him plenty of leftover stew, and send him on his way when the rain let up. If he’d been thin and pitiful, she would have let him in without suspicion, but she was torn about letting in this large stranger.

“What’s the matter, Mrs. Loska?”

Then she felt a presence behind her. Glancing back, she saw the head housemaid with her eternally unchanging expression. Mrs. Gauner, stick-thin and tall as a pole, was the opposite of Mrs. Loska in personality as much as appearance, with her sturdy shoulders and broad frame. Her unblinking eyes scanned the man, and her thin, unsympathetic lips settled in a straight line.

Just as she was thinking that this principled person without an ounce of sympathy would surely close the door, a cold voice rang in her ears:

“The rain must be troublesome for you. Come in for a moment and have a meal before you go.”

Blinking at the unexpected words, she quickly came to her senses and stepped aside.

The man stepped inside as if he’d been waiting. A puddle mixed with mud formed below the man who had entered.

“Mrs. Loska, let’s serve this person something warm. I need to get something to clean the floor.”

“What? Yes, follow me quickly.”

Mrs. Loska, still bewildered by the unexpected situation, snapped to attention and headed to the kitchen with the man.

Though she’d only been at the door briefly, the kitchen felt more cozy. The pot hanging over the stove in one corner of the kitchen was still boiling as it had been before Mrs. Loska went out.

First, she seated the man at the long, large table used for preparing food ingredients or when servants ate. Then she moved her legs quickly to take out a heavily scratched wooden bowl from the cupboard, took a ladle hanging on the wall, and filled it with what was boiling in the pot.

“Lucky there’s something that’s been boiling continuously. You’re fortunate—where else could you get such treatment?”

The hot stew Mrs. Loska kindly offered in the bowl contained various colored root vegetables and several fairly large chunks of meat. When she brought a crude wooden spoon and set it down in front of the man, he bowed to Mrs. Loska and ate eagerly.

The way he pushed the spoon toward his lips was like someone who’d been starving for days.

“I’ll give you more when you’re done, so speak up if you need it. But where are you headed in such heavy rain?”

Mrs. Loska, who sat across from him with one arm on the table, waited and asked when the man had consumed about half the stew.

Just then, Mrs. Gauner entered the kitchen carrying several cleaning supplies.

“…I’m originally a wanderer who drifts from place to place.”

The man lifted his bowl and gulped it down, then wiped his mouth and gave Mrs. Loska a belated answer. Whether he was naturally quiet or exhausted, he didn’t speak much.

Thinking he must have walked all day since nearby villages were all far away and farms were scattered, Mrs. Loska clicked her tongue.

“There are lots of swamps around here too, but you managed to get here without falling in. This area gets a lot of rain in this season.”

“After my leg got stuck once, I just followed the road.”

At those words, Mrs. Loska’s eyes caught sight of one of the man’s feet soaked in mud.

Mrs. Gauner moved like a ghost to place a towel beside the man and stood behind Mrs. Loska, giving off an atmosphere as if she had nothing to do with the two of them.

When the bowl was empty, Mrs. Loska filled it with stew again and handed it over. Not refusing it, after emptying the bowl two more times, the man finally wiped his face and body with the nearby towel. Due to his extremely unkempt hair, only his sunken lower face was visible.

Then the man’s lips, which had only moved when answering and eating, opened:

“…Thank you for the meal. I’m being shameless, but is there anywhere around here I could find work?”

“Well, if you walk quite a ways from here there’s a village… You’d have to go there and ask if they’re hiring workers. Or…”

This place wasn’t exactly overstaffed either.

Being in such a remote location, and after a sudden accident a few years ago, several servants had left, leaving them short-handed. But since it wasn’t something she could readily decide, she glanced at Mrs. Gauner standing firmly behind her.

Perhaps she’d been looking at her, as Mrs. Loska’s eyes met Mrs. Gauner’s. When her gaze turned toward the man, Mrs. Gauner said something unexpected:

“…How about working here?”

While Mrs. Loska looked back and forth between the two in surprise, the man moved his body sideways and wrung out the water-soaked towel. Water hit the stone floor with a trickling sound.

“…”

“I don’t know if you’re aware, but this is the manor of Baron Giles who governs this region. We were short-handed, so could you find a guarantor?”

“…I do have relatives living in the capital.”

As expected, Mrs. Gauner, being middle management, couldn’t just let someone seeking work pass by.

Looking more closely after bringing him inside, though the person before her was somewhat thin, he was tall and from the outline beneath his rain-soaked clothes, his body seemed quite well-trained.

‘The sunken cheeks are probably from not eating properly… If he’s just capable of work, he’d be perfect.’

His quiet nature meant the manor’s atmosphere probably wouldn’t change much.

Though the manor’s atmosphere hadn’t been particularly lively in recent years, it had become even more subdued after the tutor caring for the young master suddenly died. Not long after, when the young master was also sent off to boarding school, the manor’s owner began not coming out of his room.

They could only tell the master was alive by the plates on trays that the butler occasionally brought in and took away.

‘Poor person. He doesn’t eat as well as before, and come to think of it, his face was pale as flour and seemed somewhat weak-hearted.’

At first, Mrs. Loska thought the young master was deeply grieved and worked hard preparing food to send him, hoping to cheer him up even a little, but unlike before when he’d always clean his plate, it came back almost untouched.

‘The young master must have grown quite a bit by now…’

The young master, who had been in his early teens, would be well past coming of age by now. Come to think of it, she was wondering if he might return soon when Mrs. Gauner’s voice was heard:

“I’ll speak to the butler separately, so wait here.”

The man bowed at those words.

Mrs. Gauner nodded and left the kitchen. Mrs. Loska, watching this, casually spoke up:

“That worked out well. Here, as long as you listen well, you won’t go hungry. I’m Loska Aloise, responsible for this house’s kitchen. Usually people call me Mrs. Loska.”

“Avery.”

The man answered with a towel covering his head. He was so thoroughly soaked that several towels were used for him to dry himself. His mud-covered shoes were washed with water Mrs. Loska poured and handed to him. Before long, Mrs. Gauner appeared with the man and they disappeared upstairs.

Mrs. Loska sighed briefly. With new dishes to wash and the floor dirty, it was more like her work had increased.

‘I thought I could rest for a bit… Really, I’m the only one working hard in this manor.’

Though grumbling inwardly, her hands moved quickly. She busily washed dishes and mopped the floor. Meanwhile, someone entered the kitchen. Seeing the young woman with a vague impression and not particularly bright face, Mrs. Loska gestured for her to move quickly.

“Olga, we need to prepare more food today, so make more than usual. Got it?”

The woman called Olga nodded at Mrs. Loska’s words and began taking out and preparing ingredients at a somewhat slow pace. Soon the kitchen began filling with the sounds of two people moving busily.