Chapter 7 (1/2)
“Aeeda, you will be responsible for cleaning this corridor on your own”
Cool girl Asti-san instructed while passing over the cleaning tools The corridor she was talking about appeared to be the roofed passageway that encircled the building, courtyard and other areas
“Yes I understand”
“Wait, Asti, are you serious? It’s impossible to clean that area alone”
Another irl who showed ht, her nairl with carareen eyes
“Don’t say anything unnecessary, Sofia My decision is final”
“But, to finish it all one day would be almost im-…”
“It’s okay I’ll do it”
“Aeeda?!”
“See, even the person concerned is fine with it Alright then, I’ll leave it to you”
Asti-san gave an intense glance and left 'Sheesh, she’s so mean', I heard Sofia-san say
Oh, was this beingthankful that she had given me a lot of work to do Perhaps the reason she hasn’t said that many words to h to be hated so I don’t know the reason but, I wonder if it’s because I’ner?
Sofia-san told me if she finished her oork early she'd help me out
“Oh, right, I forgot to say this yesterday but, I suggest you don't go near His Majesty”
The chances ofhim are slim however, she added as she warned me
Apparently, His Majesty had a violent temperament There was an incident in the past where he had iher ranked female servant over athat I had seen in that short amount of time yesterday had been quite tyrannical
She also said that because the higher ranked female servant was fired, her family’s reputation was completely ruined, and she was sent away on house arrest to a faraway relative Her father, as a high ranking official, was driven out of the royal court, and now even his existence was forgotten If it were trivial maidservants like us who could be bloay by aoff for real[2]
……Scary Too scary
After sharing her words of wisdohost stories, Sofia-san headed to her oork station
‘You o near His Majesty If you ever see him, you must run away immediately'
Iin mind
What a contradiction Even though I wanted to become a side consort, I needed to tell myself to run away if I ever saw him
I had even perfectly constructed up my face and body today Well, I did have to ad, another reason for uise was so that people wouldn’t think that I was a couise was high enough that I would definitely get stopped at an airport
The end of my bath road is eternally far
No There's no way I’ll give up One day I’ll definitely dive into it with a splash and swiht in it
I’ll have a bubble bath, and tip in essential oil… Heheheh
Just you wait, my dear little bathy!
I pronated passageway It had sculpted carvings and arched white pillars evenly spaced along the passage Its at a pink dress would suddenly peep out from a pillar and s that pretty girl all of a sudden rived up my motivation
Apparently, the pillars and ceiling were cleaned yesterday Those areas and the floor are cleaned on alternating days or soe was so long you couldn’t see the end and it seemed like it would be pretty hard labour for one person to clean it all by themselves
The e consisted of a long dark blue cotton dress, white apron, and a white hat with frills Although I was calling it a hat, it was like a nurse’s cap, so small that I really couldn’t see the point of it
It was also ridiculously hard to round when I crouched, and it didn’t allow for much arm movement If one cares too ress in work
I didn’t want to do careless work I would rather use every available second to polish up to the very corners Therefore, this outfit was nothing but shackles
Alright, I'ed Fortunately, I had heard that the castle had very few visitors today and probably very few people would be using this corridor That was probably why they left this passageway to a newcoain after I finished cleaning, it shouldn’t be a problem
I quickly returned to ed out ed I removed that hat of course
I hadn’t thought it was necessary to mention this till now but, my work clothes are overalls Not the fashi+onable type you see youngsters wearing on the street, but the hidden buttons, one-piece, super uncool type which you can tell in one glance are for work purposes Possibly to express a sense of cleanliness, the overalls were a water blue colour If I had a baseball style cap as well, I would look just like acompany workman
On the back were the words “Sawaguchi Cleaning Services” in very large print Every worker is forced to buy one when they register into the coht after I started living in the internet cafe so this expense hit me very hard That’s why I vowed toit until it completely wore out
The floor in question was coe tiles of a material that rese clay and is used for pottery and construction Hence, even in japan it is also often used for places like entrance porches However, unlike the brick colour distinctive to terracotta, the tiles used in this passageere a whitish crealossy Furthermore, after a closer look, as it also had marble patterns, perhaps, like how ht actually be natural stone cut fro stone If that was the case, it was probably tremendously expensive As one would expect of the royal palace
Either way, I could not use acidic detergent as the redients are substances like calcium and potassiue In that case, I would have to use baking soda after all However, with such a long passageway to polish, there was no way the baking soda I had in hand was anywhere near enough
The only tools I had been given were a bucket, a brush with a long handle, and a mop However, I wouldn’t feel satisfied if all I did was add water and scrub Doing that would merely spread the fifth around
So, what to do? I crossed my ar wheel sound which sounded like so transported
A young man appeared from behind the trees He was a head taller than me and had short hair that was alnified eyebrohich could be described as masculine, and sunflower coloured eyes And, those yellow eyes met smack with mine
“……Are you… a suspicious person?”
“I’m not”
After a long staring contest, the other side spoke first His voice was surprisingly soft and the way he tilted his head made him look like a puppy He was similar to the boy as , excellent reflexes, always thein front of me, like my former classmate, had the ater and older women
After I held up the cleaning tools, he finally seemed to understand that I was athe one wheeled wheelbarrow like object On top of that thing was a thick heap of whitish grey powder that looked like sand
“It’s pearl ash”
Probably noticing that I was looking at it curiously, he told me what the poas It was ash extracted fro wood and could make bread rise
Wait, isn’t that like baking soda?