The Maid With a Child

1. Raise It.

 

It was time for the return of the master of the household.

All the household members lined up in front of the door to welcome the master who had been on the battlefield for a long time.

“Here he comes.”

The butler muttered, raising his head at the sound of horseshoes approaching from afar.

Adelen took a deep breath and looked into the distance.

The moment to welcome the master, whom she had never met since she came to work in the Sigelion household, has finally come.

“Waah!”

“?”

But the sound of horseshoes was followed by the sound of a baby crying.

The servants looked at each other’s faces. However, no one had an answer. So they could only look at each other with eyes filled with question marks.

“Is the master 0 years old?”

Adelen cautiously asked the senior maid next to her.

The senior maid looked back silently.

“…That can’t be true, right?”

Having meant it as a joke, Adelen laughed and scratched her head.

The senior maid shook her head with a stern expression.

“Don’t act so crazy in front of the master or you’ll lose your head.”

“Ah…he wouldn’t go that far, right?”

“…”

“…He is the kind of person who does that. Yes. I’ll be careful.”

While they were whispering meaningless chatter, the sound of the horseshoes and the crying baby came closer.

The leader was on a huge white horse. Behind him, steeds of equal size lined up. It was Rakalt, the head of the Sigelion household, and his knights.

With the huge men riding on the huge horses, it seemed as if mountains were coming in droves.

A sense of awe filled the front yard of the Sigelion mansion.

The butler stepped forward as the representative of the household.

He lowered his voice with a very dignified expression.

“I hope you have all returned safely,”

“Waah!”

“… It’s a pleasure to welcome you,”

“Neh!”

“… My lord. Please rest well,”

“…”

The atmosphere that should have been grand to welcome the return of the head of the household was shattered by the baby’s crying.

The servants desperately tried to force their quivering lips to stay still.

How long had the butler practiced that?

But the butler seemed to have lost his concentration and had forgotten what to say next.

“Uh, so, that…”

The welcoming speech that had been half-finished rolled around the butler’s tongue.

But their master was not someone who would wait for the butler’s insignificant welcoming speech.

Whoosh, a thick object flew through the air.

At the same time, the baby’s crying drew a long parabolic curve.

“Neh!”

The crying sound followed the parabolic curve far away as the baby flew.

“Waaah, whaah…!”

The people, who had been looking only at the master, stretched out their arms in panic. Their bodies moved before they could think.

Adelen was among those who stretched out their arms.

“Waah!”

Got it.

The baby was placed in Adelen’s arms like a ball in a basket.

Adelen held onto the baby with all her might. Only when she felt the heavy weight on her arms did she realize that she had safely received the baby. And a belated cold sweat ran down her spine.

“M, M, Master…?”

“Raise it.”

Before she could calm her startled heart, the master’s order came down.

“Yes? Oh, what? Me?”

But there was no answer to her questions.

Rakalt walked briskly, his cloak fluttering, as the knights followed him.

The men, who were like door panels, moved in a group, and the wind from their cloaks was like a typhoon. She didn’t even dare to follow them or talk to them.

“Kwaaaa!”

The baby in her arms flailed its whole body and cried loudly.

The master, who had gone to war, tossed a baby instead of the spoils of war.

It was a stormy moment. And, it was also the moment when the maid Adelen’s life began to change completely.

 

* * *

 

Adelen was in a daze, holding the baby who had fallen from the sky like a natural disaster.

The past flashed before her like a lightning strike.

It had been three months since she had been employed by the Sigelion family. How happy she had been to be able to work as Sigelion’s maid.

The master was always on the battlefield, and the salary was the best in the industry. On top of that, there was no mistress, no little master, a perfect workplace.

…That was how it was.

Just a moment ago.

‘Even here, why!’

The master could have thrown the baby anywhere, but why was it in her arms? Was she born under the star of childcare?

Adelen, who had come from an orphanage, lived by taking care of her younger siblings as unpaid labor from the age of ten until she became an adult. Although they were always like maggots who took Adelen’s things, she still thought of them as her family.

However, one day, a small incident she encountered on the street shook Adelen’s life upside down.

‘Oh, oh, oh!’

It was in front of a fruit store.

Amidst the people’s surprised cries, the sound of something rolling down echoed.

It was a fruit that was extremely expensive because its harvest season was very short. The price of one fruit was Adelen’s daily wage.

‘Oh my! What should I do!’

The fruit store owner ran out and shouted.

‘I’m sorry, I was wrong…Oh my….’

The one who caused the accident was a small child.

While walking, he tripped on a rock and fell, and what he grabbed to cushion the fall was that box of fruit.

The child also realized how expensive the fruit was, so he turned blue and apologized while sobbing.

He’s dead now.

Adelen clicked her tongue inwardly. He was going to get punished heavily.

I was looking around to see how he was going to be punished, but the child’s parents did something completely unexpected.

‘I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!’

‘I should have taken better care of the child…. I’m so sorry. We’ll compensate for this somehow.’

The child’s parents both knelt down to the fruit shop owner and began to beg.

‘?!’

Instead of catching the child and beating him, they were apologizing instead?

How could they do that?

‘Oh, hmm. Children can make mistakes. Why are you kneeling down and begging like that? Just compensate for them. Get up quickly. Are you hurt?’

The fruit shop owner’s reaction was even more shocking.

When the parents apologized immediately and knelt down, his anger seemed to have subsided. Instead of scolding the child, he even tried to comfort him.

The parents began talking to the owner about the compensation, and the people who had been surrounding the scene soon dispersed.

However, Adelen couldn’t leave. This couldn’t be the end. They would definitely turn around and hit him.

‘Are you okay? You should walk carefully from now on.’

‘Yes…. I’m sorry, Mom. Dad. I’m sorry for making you spend so much money because of me.’

‘It’s okay. Anyone can make mistakes in life.’

‘Still…. It’s too expensive. Because of me….’

‘If you don’t get hurt, Mom and Dad will be okay. You’re the most important.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes. We’re family. Family members should protect and cherish each other.’

Those words came as a great shock to Adelen.

Ah, that’s how a real family is.

Not just clinging to each other to take away even one more thing. Not some people who just live together.

They are the ones who unconditionally protect each other. The most precious beings in each other’s lives.

That was family.

‘I want that.’

I really wanted people who only looked at me, who only gave for me.

From that day on, Adelen’s dream became family. However, it was a dream that could never be achieved if she was stuck in an orphanage and only took care of her younger siblings. There was no chance to meet a man or have money for marriage in the orphanage.

So she threw herself into the path of a maid.

The work was hard, but it was the best job she could have, with a high pay and a good image in front of men.

‘I will marry a handsome husband and have obedient children to build a sweet, happy family!’

I was living with only that goal in mind!

“What is this?”

But suddenly I wasn’t hit with a windfall or a bolt from the blue, but a baby.

When I left the orphanage, I decided that the next child I would hold in my arms would definitely be my own.

That kind of resolution became meaningless like tissue paper soaked in water at the master’s one command.

“Whaa! Whaa!”

The baby’s crying was a real disaster alarm.

Adelen, who had been lost in memories of the past, at the sound of the crying that shook the entire mansion, suddenly came to her senses.

Everyone else’s minds were already blank and turned to stone.

“Uh, uh, what should we do?”

“F, f, first of all, I think we should stop his crying….”

“T, that’s right. But why won’t the crying stop? What should we do? Should we hit him?”

“No…I saw someone do that and it wasn’t effective…. Or if we put him on the floor, he’ll crawl around and stop crying because he’s tired?”

A series of unrealistic suggestions that were completely useless and didn’t help at all poured out.

“…He might be hungry.”

Adelen, who couldn’t keep listening to their nonsense, gave the correct answer as if she was guessing.

She didn’t want to alert people to her experience with children lest they leave him with her.

The other people’s eyes lit up.

“Oh! That could be it. But… What does he eat?”

The people

blankly looked at each other.

“Meat…?”

“Pie…?”

“No, what if we give him a little alcohol to calm him down?”

“….”

Everyone became silent.¹Seriously?! Have they never met a baby or are they all nobles?