MYKBH 13

Chapter 13

The next morning.

Alfred was seeing Agnes off in front of the carriage that would take her to the city.

“It doesn’t sit well with me that you’re leaving again so soon after arriving.”

“I stayed for a night. Now I have to go take care of what needs to be done.”

“Those are actually things I should be doing.”

“I’ll go establish some connections first. After that, I’ll leave it to you.”

“Of course. I’ll take care of it.”

“And don’t overwork yourself trying to clean up the house while I’m gone.”

“I already know how you think, my lady. I’ll hire people to handle the major work, so please don’t worry.”

“Okay.”

Agnes sighed, then was about to climb into the carriage when she stopped and studied Alfred’s face.

Alfred gave her a quiet, bitter smile.

“Are you worried about Lady Elizabeth and Young Master Edmund?”

“Are they both still the same?”

Alfred silently nodded.

“They’re both difficult to deal with because of their tempers.”

“No. I’m sure they’ll improve soon.”

“Perhaps.”

Agnes sighed before quickly changing the subject.

“Did you tell them about Amy?”

“Yes.”

“Did they have any particular reaction?”

“They simply said they were glad.”

“That can’t be true. They must have complained about me.”

Alfred neither denied nor confirmed it.

Seeing that, Agnes gave a bitter smile.

A complicated mixture of emotions lingered at the corners of her lips.

“Anyway, I’m counting on you.”

“Please don’t worry about this place and return safely.”

“Okay.”

After saying her goodbyes, Agnes climbed into the carriage.

Kesenor and Silmare were already sitting inside.

“Did you sleep well last night?”

The two men nodded at Agnes, who still looked deeply apologetic.

Even though they had helped with the cleaning themselves, Agnes still regretted that she hadn’t been able to treat them properly.

There was probably no way to ease her mind with mere words.

The two men already understood that, so they remained silent and shifted aside to make room for Agnes to sit comfortably.

“I’m sorry. You came all this way, only to have to leave again so soon.”

“It’s all right.”

“It should take about two hours to reach Calburn City. You must be tired, so we’ll go straight to the inn first.”

As they chatted about this and that, a massive wall appeared in the distance.

Calburn City.

It was the largest city in the region, connecting the great southern territories of Valdemar and Raenheim.

Once they passed through the city gates, a broad, well-paved road stretched straight ahead, with buildings of all sizes packed densely along both sides.

It was completely different from the remote and rustic Laverose territory.

Yet ever since entering the city, Silmare had worn a constant frown.

“What a bleak place.”

“You think so? I think it looks beautiful.”

“It is filled with dead things. There isn’t a tree or blade of grass in sight.”

“That’s because this is a city. Not everywhere is like this. How fascinating. I suppose this is your first time seeing something like this, too.”

“We have been separated for a very long time, after all.”

Come to think of it, a thousand years had already passed.

It made sense that things would have changed this much.

Agnes’s eyes sparkled with curiosity as she asked,

“Then do fairies not cut down trees to build houses?”

“Of course not. The wide fields and great trees are our homes.”

“But if you sleep somewhere like that, there must be animals and insects flying around. Don’t they bite you?”

“We are friends with all living things.”

“My goodness!”

It was probably not just a poetic comparison.

The fairy’s words were likely meant quite literally.

The story sounded so much like something out of a dream that Agnes became thoroughly excited.

Kesenor silently glanced at her.

Before long, the carriage stopped in front of an inn.

It was a luxurious establishment where nobles and wealthy merchants stayed. When Agnes was young, she had often stayed there with her father whenever they visited the city.

She barely had time to feel the complicated nostalgia brought on by memories of happier days.

After the three of them had a light meal, they went to the city’s employment office.

“The Laverose family?”

When Agnes explained why she had come, the administrator couldn’t say anything openly to her face, but he wore an extremely disrespectful expression.

Seeing this, Kesenor took out the family seal.

The administrator immediately went pale.

His hands even began to tremble as he hurriedly bowed.

“Y-You’re His Excellency, the Marquis of Celesta himself? I-I have committed a grave discourtesy! Please, please forgive me!”

Normally, when nobles wanted to hire servants, they sent an agent.

It was virtually unheard of for them to come in person.

The administrator, who was facing a great nobleman at such close range for the first time in his life, immediately began sending out notices.

When they returned to the employment office at the appointed interview time, several people were waiting.

“There are fewer than I expected.”

Perhaps thinking the number was disappointing considering they had invoked the name of Celesta, Kesenor frowned.

But Agnes smiled with satisfaction.

“Really? I’m just grateful that there are people willing to come work for our household.”

There was just one problem.

There weren’t many decent candidates among them.

“Hehe. Sir, I don’t need much of anything else. As long as you provide me with plenty of alcohol, I’m happy. Do you give enough to drink with every meal?”

“Next.”

“Cooking? Well, it’s my first time doing it, but how hard could it be? I can just do it roughly…”

“Next.”

“I’d like to receive a year’s salary in advance. I have something urgent I need to spend it on. I’d rather not say what it is…”

“Next.”

“I have a family to support. My children are still young, and my wife isn’t in good health. If you could let them live with me…”

“No.”

Kesenor coldly cut him off after hearing his circumstances.

Silently listening until then, Silmare objected.

“Wait. This one seemed like a decent person. Was it really necessary to reject him outright?”

“We’re not running a charity. We need people who can work immediately.”

“You can’t take care of his family, either?”

“You’re not hiring serfs here, Your Excellency. We need workers who can immediately perform their duties at the estate.”

“So having a family makes that difficult?”

“His Excellency is right, Lord Silmare. We don’t have enough rooms to begin with, and there’s a lot of work that needs to be done immediately. If we’re going to hire someone who brings their entire family, we’ll need to recruit them separately.”

Agnes firmly sided with Kesenor as well.

With no choice, Silmare fell silent.

After narrowing down the candidates again and again, they were finally able to hire four people.

“We’re Pavel and Ben! We used to be soldiers in Calburn City.”

“My name is Lilia. Whatever work you entrust to me, I’ll do my very best.”

“My name is Oliver. I’d like to apply for the position of gardener.”

Silmare had been sitting there with a sullen expression and his mouth shut, but only after Oliver’s interview did he finally speak.

“Agnes, please make sure you hire that man.”

“Yes. He seems diligent, so I think he’ll be fine. But is there a particular reason you want him?”

Silmare smiled faintly and nodded.

“The wind recommended him. Apparently, he loves trees very much.”

“Pardon?”

It was such an unexpected statement that Agnes remembered what Silmare had said earlier and nodded.

“Does ‘living things’ include the wind, too?”

“Not only the wind. Everything in this world.”

Agnes’s eyes sparkled with admiration.

Silmare looked at her proudly.

After deciding to hire the four people, Agnes arranged a carriage for them and provided them with travel expenses as well.

As soon as they were ready, they would depart for the Laverose Estate.

She also asked the employment office to send workers for agricultural labor in the territory whenever suitable people became available.

Once everything was finished, the sky had already begun turning red.

Agnes and the two men looked for a nearby restaurant where they could have dinner.

After ordering their food, Agnes finally asked Silmare about something she had been curious about all day.

“Can you really hear what the wind is saying?”

She had asked half skeptically, but Silmare answered surprisingly readily.

“Yes. Any fairy can do it.”

“It’s a kind of magic that only fairies can use!”

Silmare smiled proudly at Agnes’s exclamation before explaining further.

“To put it more accurately, we hear the voices of grass and animals carried on the wind.”

There was very little reliable information left about the fairy race, since the records about them were so old.

Kesenor quietly joined the conversation, curious about this new information as well.

“Does distance not matter? Can you hear conversations taking place very far away?”

Silmare had been given the perfect opportunity to brag, so he shrugged as though it were nothing.

Still, he couldn’t quite hide how excited he was.

“Of course it’s difficult if it’s too far away. The wind only carries the words to me directly. It’s kind of like a rumor being passed from one person to another.”

“If the wind carries the words, then doesn’t that mean there’s practically no limit to how far you can hear?”

“The wind doesn’t have any intelligence. Just as a sound becomes faint as it travels farther away, the same applies to me.”

“That’s amazing! It sounds like something straight out of a fairy tale!”

“Then perhaps human fairy tales were based on fairies in the first place?”

Just as the two of them became immersed in their romantic imagination, Kesenor poured cold water on the conversation by pointing out the practical implications.

“You can’t simply marvel at it as something fascinating, Miss Agnes. If you can hear the stories of rats and birds wandering through every corner of human settlements, then that means you could uncover any dangerous secret.”

Come to think of it, he was right.

Agnes’s eyes widened as she asked,

“Really? Does that mean you can know everything?”