Masters, Are You Going To Imprison My Sister?

I rubbed my eyes, comparing the invitations to the names on the lists. I’m going to die of hardship because I kept doing this for hours. Still, if the head maid liked me, that’s enough, so let’s just keep doing it!

Should I mention that I want to change jobs soon? Or should I wait a little longer? 

“Hmm…”

“Why, Layla? Is there anything strange about it?”

“Ye-Yes? It’s nothing!”

After smiling bashfully at her, I fixed my gaze back on the list again. It would be better to tell her after I gain more likeability points from her. If you ask someone for your original purpose right after getting closer to them and they open their doors towards you, their feelings for you will drop. It’s as if you’re being asked by someone who pretended to be close to you all just to borrow a million won from you.

E/N: A million won is equivalent to between 800~850 US dollars.

After a while, the head maid opened her mouth.

“Hmm, I’m starting to get the munchies.”

“Ah! Then I’ll bring something to eat!”

“You don’t need to…”

“Not at all, I will do it because I want to.”

She smiled when I said I’ll go bring a snack. Haha… This is like a question with a fixed answer. This meant she wanted me to secretly go to the kitchen and come back. I got up from my seat and went out.

All the way to the kitchen, I could see the employees busily moving and carrying things and hanging them on the wall. The butler was leading the people there with Osses.

I also saw my sister climbing up the ladder and hanging a paper folded like a rose on the ceiling.

It was then that I realized that the duke’s birthday party was near. It was the same as saying that Count Nigor’s people were coming.

“… What do I do?”

Should I tell my sister about the fact that Count Nigor is coming? I could see her on the ladder with a bright smile on her face and I couldn’t help but see an overlapped image of her past crying self. My heart was in throbbing pain.

“I can’t.”

I’ll never tell her. I’ll never let my sister get hurt. I’ll hide it so no one will know it.

At that moment, my eyes met Lemon’s, who was moving a chair. Shaping her mouth, she said, “stupid bitch” and stuck out her tongue. She must be feeling quite the temper since I’ve been receiving a lot of love from the head maid. It was annoying to see her hurriedly turn her head and head to the garden, but strangely, I felt relieved. I raised my fists at the back of her head and headed toward the kitchen.

I was on my way back to the head maid’s office after receiving one or two pieces of bread, cookies, lukewarm drinks, and strawberry jam made by the chef in the kitchen. Then as I looked out the window while walking, I witnessed a terribly terrifying sight!

“Isley Emers…!”

He was chatting happily with Sister outside the window. That fact alone made my eyes feel sour that I couldn’t stand it. What is this? What are you two talking about that makes you so happy? Sister, don’t smile at that person… I mean, he’s such a jerk! Seeing Isley slyly stroking my sister’s hair, my hand went to the back of my neck. Alas, I think I’ll collapse from the high blood pressure of fury.

I glanced around to see if anyone was around. Almost all of the employees were busy decorating the garden, which meant that no one was going to see my actions. It was the perfect condition for committing the perfect crime.

I bowed my head and rummaged through the basket. The cookies were too small, and the drinks were in bottles so I could potentially kill him. So, I took out the bread that was resting in the center of the basket.

“How dare you, to my sister… Eat this and die…!”

I hurled it towards Isley and quickly hid underneath. I stood up cautiously and glanced outside. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to have been hit by the bread. It was because the bread I threw was sliced in half by the sword he was wearing around his waist. The pieces of bread rolled about on the ground. It was a failure. Operational retreat… As I was about to crawl out of the hallway, I bumped into something hard. Human feet? I grabbed my forehead and lifted my head.

“…Oh my gosh…”

“…What are you doing?”

He was looking down at me with sullen eyes. What are you asking? Are you asking why I was crawling on the floor? You haven’t seen me throw the bread, have you? You must be asking why I was crawling, right? A cold sweat began to trickle down. But, breaking my expectations, he asked,

“To Isley… Did you throw bread?”

Ah… Damn it… I screwed up.  How much has he seen? Layla, you stupid idiot… Why did you act so recklessly out of anger? Haah, I want to beat up my past self! My sister told me every day not to act impulsively…

I am an idiot!

Sister, Sister Yuria, I might really die today… Although Arthur hated Isley, it wouldn’t mean he would allow a mere maid to get away with throwing bread at Isley.

After taking a few deep breaths, I stuttered.

“Ah, tha-that, this is…my hand slipped…”

“For it to slip, the bread sure went nice and far.”

“……”

That’s true. I had pictured a fantastic parabola in my head.

I guess I should have become a shot-put athlete.

“It’s not… It’s a misunderstanding!”

“Then what?”

“I-I was holding bread and suddenly my head was dizzy… Really…  So I fell to the floor… Then all of a sudden, the bread wasn’t in my hand. And as it turns out it flew to Master Isley. I had no intention of doing that on purpose…”

“……”

“… It’s true…”

Arthur covered his mouth with his hand and turned his head. Perhaps he was angry at my excuses, for he trembled ever so slightly. Tsk… I guess my excuses didn’t work. I buried my head in the ground and pretended to cry.

“It’s true…Trust me!”

“To think you thought you can gloss over this by crying… shh.”

I glanced up and saw Arthur pressing his index finger over his lips and signaling something with the other hand. He was fanning his hand up and down… It felt like he wanted to say something to me but I don’t know what you’re talking about. 

As I watched it in amazement, he let out a deep sigh and pressed my head down. For Arthur, who pretends to be high-class every day, it was quite a not-so-high-class behavior. What are you doing? Do you want me to keep my head down for some more? Okay, if you’ll pretend you didn’t see my actions earlier, I can bow my head as much as you want!

Just then, Isley’s voice came from above.

“My little brother~ my dear Arthur~”

He seems to have come all the way here to find the culprit who threw the bread. Should I be glad that he was no longer talking to my sister, or should I be afraid that he’s here to get me? I lowered myself more than before and held my breath.

“…Don’t call me that way, you idiot. It feels disgusting.”

“Have you seen anyone around here?”

“……”

“I was standing still, and someone threw this at me.”

“Bread? I do not know. No one was here.”

I opened my eyes and looked up at Arthur. Uh? Why was he hiding it? Aren’t you supposed to tell him that I was the one who threw it at him? According to his personality, isn’t that right? Suddenly, I remembered what had happened before I recovered my memory.

There was a time when I accidentally broke a vase while cleaning. Of all people, I was caught by Arthur, who just wrinkled his face and nagged a bit, and sent me off to clean up. I’ve been choking all day for fear of being told to pay for the vase. It was only in the evening that I found out that he had lied that he had broken the vase I had broken.

I feel as dumb as I was then. Did you hurt your head?

“But why are you hiding?”

“Ugh…”

Isley poked his head through the window and looked down at me. I quickly hid the basket I was holding in my arms and shook my head.

“… I just tripped.”

“Haha, right, you must have fallen.”

Arthur laughed at me like I was stupid. That kid… Yeah, honestly, that was kind of a stupid excuse. But in this situation, there was no better excuse than that. What more can you say to someone who has already seen everything before their eyes?

Isley rolled his eyes and smiled like a demon. A loaf of bread – cut in half – dangled from his hand.

“Isn’t it you who threw this? I thought you were hiding after throwing it~”

“Oh, no…”

“She is not the culprit. So get out of my sight right now.”

Is Arthur covering for me? Anyhow, at the same time as he was covering for me, Isley’s face suddenly became expressionless. It happened in the blink of an eye that he threw a loaf of bread in Arthur’s face. The bread flew forward and fell to the ground, revealing the face it had smacked. Arthur was looking at Isley with a face that seemed to say, “Oh, I’m mad now.”

Crazy… What just happened? Why is Isley so angry all of a sudden and why is he suddenly throwing bread in his brother’s face? What a waste of food!

I watched this scene with my mouth gaping and decided not to think much about it. They must be acting crazy because they are already crazy, right? And when I thought that this bastard just experienced something humiliating, I felt flustered yet happy.

“Isley Emers!”

Arthur couldn’t contain his anger and grabbed Isley by the collars.

“This trash… What the hell is this? You’re being impulsive, stupid, and violent! That’s not the behavior of an aristocrat at all!”

“Yes… Yes~”

Literally the violent person himself, Isley shrugged as if he didn’t know.

“Just why did I do that? Perhaps it was because I was annoyed?”

Wow, he even has anger issues! He’s just like the perfect man who will stab me into pieces with a knife in the future! The two began to fight so much that even the servants became scared. The atmosphere and the words they were hurling at each other were harsh, but it’s surprising that they weren’t using their fists. If I were Arthur, I would have turned Isley’s eyes black and blue.

“Whew, they’re fighting very fiercely… Then please excuse me… ”

Cautious than ever, I walked away from the scene. It was a good thing no one caught me when I did! As I was walking down the hallway, I spotted Osses in the distance, ran to the other side to avoid him, met my sister on the way, gave her a hug, and arrived at the head maid’s office. With her glasses on and scanning the paperwork, she said without even looking at me,

“It’s pretty late, Layla. It wouldn’t be that far to the kitchen.”

“Ah~ That’s because I was viewing the sky…”

Viewing the sky. This was another way of saying that I had gone to the bathroom. The head maid grinned and beckoned towards her sofa.

“Is that so? Alright, take a seat.”

“Yes! Oh, and here are the snacks. And I picked these because they were so pretty.”

I handed her the light brown wildflowers I found behind the kitchen. I don’t know what kind it is, but it might be an autumn flower anyway. After being stroked on the head by the head maid, I sat down on the sofa.

Layla, aren’t you very good at flirting? If I had been the emperor’s servant, I would have been his best servant… It’s a shame I was just an ordinary maid! Should I just go for the duke’s heart as well? Oh my, how can I, to that doll-like person?

I laughed out loud in my head as I thought about it.

Then, I discovered a basket of yarn in the corner of the sofa. Previously, it had been covered with a cloth and had not been found.

I want it… 

My sister, who dreamed of becoming a fashion designer, liked to knit and sew. She will be very pleased if I bring her knitting needles and yarn. The head maid said as if she noticed I was staring at the yarn,

“You want to take that yarn and needle?”

“Huh? Really?”

“That’s right, what can I not give you? You can take all but one piece of yarn.”

“Thank you!”

Sister, I’m taking this with me~!

-To Be Continued