Knowing that Sihael was under a lot of stress because of this incident, I decided to feed him whatever he wanted. And in return, he promised to work harder on his workout.
But that didn’t mean it was okay to wake me up at dawn. I was in a deep sleep, and I opened my eyes to a hand pressing down on my cheek.
“Whyyy…”
“Rosetta, I’m hungry.”
“Bear with it. If you keep eating like this, you’ll become a pig.”
I pushed Sihael away and covered myself in a blanket. Then Sihael bit the blanket and pulled it down, and blew into my ear.
“Hey, don’t do that!”
He knew that I hated it when anyone touched my ears!
I pushed Sihael’s face away with all my might, but he held onto me like a leech.
“If you don’t wake up, I’ll eat you up.”
Oh my, can you really eat me?
I snorted, but eventually got up with a tired face and headed to the kitchen due to his incessant biting actions. As Sihael led excitedly, I noticed his butt had become plump.
“See, your butt has gained weight. What are you going to do?”
“I’ll run two rounds tomorrow.”
Like hell, you would run! Sihael’s words were flat-out lies. Where did the war hero, who once killed off the enemy, go? Now only a dog remained, who became lazy after once settling for peace.
“You really have to run two rounds, okay?”
“Yes, yes.”
After getting a promise that would most likely not be kept, I followed Sihael down the stairs. The mansion, which was so noisy during the day, was now so quiet that one could hear anyone breathing. In the quiet mansion, where only the sound of our footsteps could be heard, I suddenly heard the sound of something falling.
‘Was that from the kitchen?’
As we looked into each other’s eyes, we silently muffled our footsteps. I looked around to see if there were any weapons nearby that could be used, but there was unfortunately none.
‘Oh well, if need be, I’ll just ask Sihael to bite them.’
So with this casual thought, I opened the door. And what awaited us was not some strange trespasser, but a googly-eyed maid. In front of her, leftover food was spread out; her puffed-up cheeks stiffened.
It was funny how I had misunderstood her as some trespasser, but she looked more like a chipmunk. My tensed shoulders loosened up.
“Cough, cough, cough.”
I wasn’t sure whether she was surprised because of the sudden opening of the door or because of suddenly seeing me. The maid who swallowed the food down the wrong pipe coughed breathlessly. I approached her and patted her on the back.
The way she quickly threw away the food in front of her was almost similar to putting away a corpse. The maid, who had been coughing for a while, finally calmed down after drinking the water I gave her.
“M-My Lady.”
As soon as she was able to breathe properly, the maid dropped to the floor and started begging.
“I was really wrong. Please forgive me just this once.”
Looking closely, I realized it was the maid who spilled the tea over me not long ago. At that time, she had spilled the tea on me, and today she was caught trying to chuck down the leftover food. I left her shivering self behind and searched around the kitchen.
“Didn’t you have dinner?”
“I-I did eat…”
*Grumble*
“But from your stomach, you seem to not have eaten anything.”
“Heu, heuk. Please let me live!”
No, what should I say if someone begged me to let them live when I haven’t even done anything to her? As I stared at her dumbfoundedly, she gasped and started blabbering about her family situation without me even asking about it.
“M-My fam-family… is poor…”
She stammered and babbled at lengths. So to sum it up, she had a sick brother and all her salary went to pay her brother’s medical expenses. Moreover, she said there were times when she had to often skip a meal and so she sometimes sneaked some dinner home. Whenever she was very hungry, she would sneak in here at night and eat the leftovers. The maid, who kept making excuses in a mumbling voice, prostrated on the floor with a fearful look on her face.
She looked like she was fifteen year old at most. It was the age when one needs to eat enough to develop their bodies, but she looked too thin. Sihael on the other hand, seemed more plump than her. I didn’t like to see the sight of a skinny child prostrating on the ground. It was not a good scene to watch. I threw a rather large piece of beef to Sihael and turned on the burner.
“What’s your name?”
“H-Hannah.”
Hannah. The name sounded familiar. I muttered to myself and put the meat on the pan. Soon after, a delicious scent started wafting throughout the kitchen. Sihael leaned next to me and nuzzled me on the back.
That meant that he wanted to eat grilled meat. I picked up the meat I threw and grilled it. The grilled meat was placed in front of Sihael and the rest was served to Hannah.
“Eat it.”
Hannah, who had been distracted by the smell of her meat, jumped up and cried.
“I’m terribly sorry, My Lady. Please don’t feed on me.”
“I don’t eat human meat.”
“No. Not the Lady, I meant Shasha.”
When I frowned at what she was saying, Hannah fumbled,
“Aren’t you trying to fatten me up and then feed me to Sir Shasha? You said to us all that if we didn’t do well, we all would be Sir Shasha’s meal… It’s already my second mistake…”
Man, there were so many rumors going around.