WDEDLF-Chapter 110

St. Nicholas’s Day in December was a bustle of activity all over the empire, but this year Count Lindell was even busier than anywhere else.

 

St. Nicholas Day had meant nothing to Elaine in the past, but this year, with Elaine staying at the mansion, the family had to prepare a St. Nicholas Day party for the first time since that family was formed. And it was perfect.

 

When you do things in a hurry, mistakes are bound to happen.

 

“Hey, let’s be careful. Besides Rossie, Courbet, and Marka, who else made a mistake?”

 

Sergey glared at his servants with a fierce look.

 

Starting with Rosie being caught by Emily trying to create a magical butterfly for the perfect St. Nicholas Day, Courbet was criticized by Elaine for baking a cake without leaving a smell, and Marka was pointed out by Elaine for going into the garden without even leaving a footprint.

 

“You seem to have lost your discipline after all the times I’ve come and gone.”

 

“I’m sorry, Master. It’s all my fault. Please forgive the others!”

 

Rosie begged with teary eyes.

 

When she was making the butterfly, she knew that Emily was a little bit away, and since Emily was usually so unobtrusive and unsuspecting, she thought that nothing bad would happen, which was the cause of the problem.

 

Who would have thought Emily would ask her to show it to Elaine.

 

The butterfly, which had little magical power, was getting closer to disappearing while showing it to Elaine, and a panicked Rosie suddenly pushed Elaine and Emily away, telling them to go eat Courbet’s cake.

 

Courbet, who had welcomed them without knowing that, got the general idea as soon as he heard the story of ‘Rosie’ and ‘Butterfly’ and magically created a rum cake in the kitchen.

 

Courbet thought it was a success until Elaine and Emily ate it deliciously, but he never dreamed that he would hear them say that it didn’t ‘smell’ like cake making.

 

Marka was someone who went to a dining room without thinking and got into trouble.

 

That day too, He had just come home from the garden with a nice dusting of snow, and the moment his footprints were pointed out, he felt as if sweat was coming out of every pore of his body.

 

In his 750 years as a demon, it had never occurred to him that “walking on snow makes footprints,” because when he created his snow scenes, he worked while hovering just slightly above the surface of the snow, and it was perfectly natural to him.

 

As everyone else just watched with their heads down, eventually the head maid, Louisa, stepped forward and defended the servants.

 

“Master. With all due respect, it’s admirable that they’ve been working with magic and have managed to keep it a secret for so long. And since it happened while everyone was practicing for St. Nicholas Day, I hope you’ll forgive them this time.”

 

Then Sergey’s eyes burned even bluer.

 

“Did I ask you to do anything difficult? All I asked you to do was to pretend to be human while doing small chores, and even then you made mistakes, so what’s so great about it?”

 

Since Serge rarely got angry at his servants, all the demons standing in front of him trembled in fear.

 

But Sergey’s anger never subsided.

 

It had been several days since the banquet when Elaine had been anxious that she was not human, and he wondered why Elaine had suddenly remembered it today. 

 

It was surprising that the wound had healed so quickly, but Elaine had not brought it up until then.

 

And later on, he found out that the servants had almost been caught using magic.

 

Elaine was used to blaming herself for everything that happened, so when she witnessed unexplained things, it was clear that she doubted herself rather than the other person.

 

When he thought about how pitiful Elaine’s eyes were wavered anxiously, Sergey wanted to take out the magical cores of the erring demons alive.

 

“It was you guys who made a mistake that made Elaine scared!”

 

The shoulders of the servants sagged at his words.

 

In reality, Elaine was afraid of herself, but to the servants, it sounded like Elaine had become afraid of them.

 

Hubert, who had been watching Sergey growling as if he was about to eat a few people, cautiously stepped forward.

 

“We all love Miss Elaine very much. Thankfully, Miss Elaine also takes special care of us. She would be sad if any of them were to disappear.”

 

“Are you threatening me right now?”

 

“Oh, no! I…was just worried because Miss Elaine usually likes Courbet’s food, thinks of Marka as a grandfather, and thinks of Rosie as a sister since Rosie is close to Emily. I will follow your orders.”

 

Sergey glared at Hubert, who was nodding his head and gritted his teeth.

 

But Hubert’s words were not a lie.

 

Sergey knew well that Elaine had become like family to all of the servants at Count Lindell.

 

At that moment, there was a knock on the door of the living room where everyone was gathered, and Elaine’s face appeared through the crack in the door.

 

“Elaine? What’s going on?”

 

Sergey, who had been full of energy just a moment ago, was surprised and smiled awkwardly.

 

“Since I didn’t see anyone, I thought I should check it out…”

 

“Oh, it’s nothing. We just get together once in a while to talk about managing the mansion. I was just about to leave anyway.”

 

“Really? Then can I take Rosie with me? I’m going to make a wreath for St. Nicholas Day with Emily and Rosie.”

 

“Rosie?”

 

“Yeah. Oh, and Sir Marka! Thank you for the flowers and wreath materials you brought me from the greenhouse. I’ll use them well. The plants Sir Marka grows are really pretty.”

 

As Elaine greeted him with a smile, Marka nodded, forcing a nervous smile on his face.

 

“I’m glad you like it, Miss.”

 

“You are truly the best gardener in the empire.”

 

At those words, Marka looked at Sergey’s expression and quickly added.

 

“The title of ‘best in the empire’ suits Courbet better than me. Courbet’s cooking is really delicious.”

 

“That’s right! I haven’t had much of a chance to eat delicious food, but Sir 

Courbet’s cooking is really amazing. I can’t stop thinking about the rum cake he made me last time.”

 

As if on cue, Elaine brings up the rum cake, and Marka pokes Courbet in the side. 

 

Then Courbet also laughed and said,

 

“So, would you like me to make rum cake for your teatime snack this afternoon?”

 

“Really? Wow, that sounds exciting! I’ll be looking forward to it!”

 

Elaine smiled happily and liked it.

 

Sergex, who was watching the scene, told Elaine to leave for a moment, then turned around and muttered quietly.

 

“I’ll let you off just this once. Don’t make that mistake again.”

 

“Thank you, master.”

 

Sergey clicked his tongue briefly and left the living room.

 

And that evening, Elaine came to Sergey’s room.

 

“Sergey. Are you busy?”

 

“No. Come in.”

 

It was rare for Elaine to come to Serge’s room, so Sergey welcomed her with a half-uneasy feeling.

 

“Is something wrong?”

 

“No, that’s not it.…I was going to give you this.”

 

Elaine put her hand forward, which she had hidden behind her back.

 

In her hand, she held a small wreath decorated with fir branches, pine cones, red berries, and ribbons.

 

“I made this today, and I wanted to give the best one to Sergey.”

 

Accepting the wreath from Elaine, who seemed shy and embarrassed, Sergey felt a little strange.

 

Just like the pine cone tree decoration he had received the year before last, these things were actually of no use to him.

 

He was still confused about the name of St. Nicholas’ Day, so there was no point in decorating for it. And he didn’t have the aesthetic sense to consider them pretty.

 

But what he got from Elaine was different. He liked it so much that he could understand why humans hang all these things.

 

“You made this yourself?”

 

“Yeah…Rosie is really good at making these kinds of things. I learned from her while making them.”

 

“Are you a genius?”

 

“Huh?”

 

“I’ve never seen such a pretty wreath before!”

 

“That can’t be true…”

 

Elaine was embarrassed to see Sergue carefully handling the still-novice wreath as if it were some kind of treasure.

 

Moreover, it was embarrassing to hear Sergey, who was surrounded by all sorts of good things, say that he had never seen a prettier wreath before.

 

Elaine smiled shyly, thinking that Sergey was being nice to her.

 

“Thank you for liking it. I’m embarrassed because my skills are lacking—”

 

“What are you talking about? I’ve never seen such a pretty wreath before. I should hang this on my doorstep.”

 

“Huh? Your room already has a wreath.”

 

“Yeah, I guess I’ll just take it off and put it on.”

 

On the door of Sergey’s office hung a huge, expensive-looking wreath.

 

It was a heavy, classic wreath that gave off the impression that ‘this is the master’s office!’ to anyone who saw it, but Sergey was going to take it down and put up that small, shabby wreath that she had made.

 

Sergey went out the door himself, tore down the expensive wreath, threw it away, and hung the wreath Elaine had made in the middle of the door.

 

And then he nods his head as if he likes it.

 

“Sergey!”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Why did you take that off?”

 

“Why? This is prettier than that.”

 

“No! That one is much prettier!”

 

“What are you talking about? No matter how I look at it, yours is prettier. It’s rude to be so humble, Elaine.”

 

Sergey smiled happily again as he looked at the wreath Elaine had made for him, and then he saw Hubert coming and called him urgently.

 

“Hubert!”

 

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