ITMLWKM 7

Chapter 7.

I was just as angry, so I glared at Bill and Ron. But the truth was, I had been hoping those two would act exactly like this.

I let out a big, obvious sigh and said,

“Yeah. People definitely won’t believe Carsian’s words.”

Carsian trembled with pure frustration. I stepped in front of him, shielding him behind me, and continued,

“Is that all?”

“…Excuse me?”

“The water of reconciliation—is that all? Then I’ll drink it instead. That’ll settle things, right?”

“Wh-wh-what…!”

“Then this whole thing gets covered up.”

At my words Carsian sucked in a sharp breath in shock, and Bill and Ron’s eyes went wide.

“Young lady!”

Susan, who had been watching from behind, rushed forward, but I stuck my arm out to stop her.

“Answer me. This gets covered up, right?”

Bill and Ron hesitated in confusion, then snickered and held the bowl out to me.

“Sure. Fine.”

“As long as you can finish every drop, that is.”

They clearly thought I was just putting on a brave front and wouldn’t actually drink the dirty water.

Too bad for them. To someone who’d already stood on an execution platform, dirty water like this was practically holy water.

I’d even drunk rainwater that dripped down filthy prison walls. I had no idea how many days I’d survived in conditions bad enough to make me grateful for that.

The moment I took the bowl from Ron, Carsian and Susan both screamed.

“Don’t drink it!”

“Young lady, no! I’ll go get someone!”

But I just turned my head, gave them both a smile, and downed the entire bowl of dirty water right in front of everyone. Calling it dirty water was generous—it was basically water that had had a mop dunked in it and pulled out again, no soap involved. And since it was still morning, it was surprisingly clean.

I turned the empty bowl upside down so they could see. Instead of water droplets, a single leaf fell out.

“Satisfied?”

Bill and Ron stared at me with their mouths hanging open. Carsian and Susan were too stunned to say a word either.

While Bill was still frozen, I snatched the recording magic tool that was still blinking on his chest.

“Ah, that’s—!”

Bill reached out in surprise, but I stepped back quickly, switched it off, and tossed it to Susan. She snapped out of her daze and caught it in a hurry.

“You said it yourselves—you’re just lowly servants. Where did you get such an expensive magic tool?”

“That’s…”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it? Father’s office. You stole it from there, right?”

“N-no, we didn’t!”

“Really? Then I’ll take this straight to Father and ask him myself. ‘Has a recording magic tool gone missing recently?’”

Bill’s face turned ashen at my words.

“Let’s see… Whoa! It was recording? So everything—harassing Carsian, who was entrusted to this household, and making the eldest daughter drink mop water—is all recorded, right? If I hand this to Father and say, ‘These servants committed insubordination, so I’ll make sure the whole world knows and no one else will hire them,’ what do you think Father’s reaction will be?”

Our Gladellis family cared a lot about maintaining a gentlemanly image on the outside. There was no way they’d let servants like Bill and Ron get away with something that could damage that image.

Realizing that, Bill and Ron dropped the arrogant attitude completely and fell to their knees in front of me.

“P-please forgive us just this once, young lady!”

“Young lady, we were wrong!”

They slammed their heads to the ground before I could even say anything.

I looked down at them and said,

“I don’t think I’m the only one you should be apologizing to.”

“W-we’re sorry! Young Master Carsian!”

“We were wrong!”

“Carsian was telling the truth, right?”

“Yes! I snatched the pitchfork from Young Master Carsian as he was walking by and hurt myself on purpose!”

“And then I forced the pitchfork back into his hands and threatened to break it if he dropped it!”

So that was why Carsian hadn’t been able to let go of the pitchfork. If it broke he wouldn’t be able to do the stable work, and then he’d get scolded.

“We’re truly sorry, Young Master Carsian!”

“We’ve committed a crime deserving of death. Please forgive us just once!”

Bill and Ron kept bowing their heads and begging. I told them that what happened next was up to Carsian.

Carsian thought for a moment, then took the bowl from me and filled it with dirty water again.

“Drink.”

“…Excuse me?”

“I’ll forgive you if the two of you split it.”

“…What?!”

Bill and Ron looked horrified at Carsian’s calm words. Honestly, I was surprised too. I hadn’t expected him to say something like that.

“What. Even Latia, the young lady of this house, drank it. You two servants can just split it between you.”

“B-but…”

“Y-young master…”

Bill and Ron made pitiful faces as they stared at the sloshing dirty water. Carsian tilted his head.

“Don’t want to? Can’t do it? Latia, about that magic tool—if I go to the marquis right now and say, ‘I can’t take this kind of treatment anymore’…”

“I-I-I-I’ll drink it!”

“I’ll drink it gladly!”

Bill grabbed the bowl of dirty water before Carsian could even finish and gulped it down.

“Hey, hey! Leave some for me!”

Ron, worried he’d be left with the whole problem, urgently smacked Bill on the back. The two of them even showed us the empty bowl afterward.

Once he confirmed it, Carsian spoke in a calm voice.

“Don’t do this again. Tell the other servants too. Don’t bully me.”

“Y-yes! Understood!”

“We’ll make sure to pass it on!”

Bill and Ron bowed their heads to Carsian over and over, then fled like they were running for their lives.

I was watching their retreating backs when—

Wham!

“Young lady!”

Susan ran over and pulled me into a hug.

“What in the world… why…!”

She was crying so hard she could barely get the words out. I felt a little guilty inside. For me, with the memories of my previous life, drinking dirty water was no big deal. But from Susan’s point of view it was different.

“Did I scare you a lot? No, while I was looking at it the water actually seemed pretty clean, so I figured it’d be fine. And it’s morning, so they probably haven’t cleaned much yet.”

“Even so, young lady. Drinking that kind of water…!”

Tears welled up in Susan’s eyes as she hurriedly checked me over.

“This won’t do. We need to go get some medicine right away. What if something happens to you? Hurry!”

“Ah, wait! Susan!”

I wanted to talk to Carsian for a moment, but Susan dragged me straight back to the room.

Under her watchful eye I drank five glasses of clean water and took medicine just in case anything went wrong with my body.

A person’s body isn’t as fragile as you might think. I’d been fine even after drinking filthy rainwater, after all. So I wasn’t particularly worried, but I liked that Susan was fussing over me, so I just sat on the bed with a silly smile.

I completely forgot to mention that the leaf that had fallen from the bowl of dirty water was a purifying herb that cleaned dirty water.

Earlier, while looking for the bird, a leaf with purifying properties had stuck to me. I happened to notice it and thought, Perfect, so I volunteered to drink the dirty water. Of course, the dirty water Carsian made Bill and Ron drink didn’t have that leaf in it.

That evening I asked Susan to return the magic tool to Father.

Along with a letter that said: ‘Susan told me there are people outside the estate saying bad things about our family lately. I think I know why they’re spreading those rumors. I tested them a little and they confessed right away.’

It was a lie, of course, but it would make Father’s heart drop. He was obsessively attached to the gentlemanly image of the Gladellis family. When he heard that I had believed Carsian’s words, he praised me for “handling it well” and gave me an amethyst necklace.

It was the first thing that was truly “mine.”

And the next day, I never saw Bill or Ron in the mansion again.

* * *

A few days later I went out to the garden again with Susan to look for the baby bird from my memories. The container of feed the bird used to love was completely empty.

“Some other bird must have eaten it, right?”

“Maybe it came, ate the feed, and left. This feed is made from dried plant roots, so ordinary birds don’t usually eat it.”

Susan worked hard to comfort me, worried I might be upset.

“Then we should just leave the feed out from now on. Looks like it’s doing fine.”

I turned away, pushing the disappointment aside. That was when it happened.

“Please, just once! Or even just look at the catalog! I’ve carefully selected only the highest-quality herbs!”

“Hey! Who do you think you are making a racket here? Get lost already!”

“Tsk! Our marquis may be kind-hearted, but even he draws the line at letting peddlers like this in!”

A big commotion broke out at the main gate of the mansion. One man was clutching saplings and shouting, while the knights were trying to drag him away.

“I’m not a peddler! I’m from the Gruan Trading Company, which has been doing business with your family for generations…!”

“The Gruan Trading Company went under ages ago, so that makes you a peddler!”

“Please let me see the marquis just once! I have something truly urgent to tell him!”

“I said no! Does our marquis look like he has time to deal with every random peddler like you?”

The man was nearly in tears, but the knights showed no mercy.

Wait a second—Gruan Trading Company?

In that moment a scene from the original novel flashed through my mind.