Chapter 16 - Nobles on All Fours (1)

Chapter 16 – Nobles on All Fours (1)

“Uncle, then when can we go out? I hate it here! I’m tired of eating the same meal every day, bathing with cold water, and that stupid bell! I also don’t want to continue using an already used towel!” Estelle pleaded with him.

Huh. She had noticed that it was the same towel? I thought I had been stealthy enough by secretly folding and returning the towels to the pile while she napped. When she asked about them, I lied and said I had out the used towels in the library to dry.

“Why is the new butler coming and going so furtively? What would he do if something happened to us while he’s absent?” One of the brothers spoke up.

The other sibling chimed it as well. “And what happened to the cook? There is a limit to how many times we can eat the same meal. We feel like kept beasts! I almost stayed up all night waiting for that butler to show up because no one explained anything to us!”

Jerome, who had been vaguely blinking his eyes without reacting to his niece’s and nephews’ complaints, dropped his head and rested it against his folded hands. He kept that posture for quite a while. Seeing him looking so tired and tormented made the siblings stop complaining and fall silent.

When he finally spoke again, the only phrase we heard was a weak, “I don’t know.”

“What?”

We stood together to one side, me beside Estelle and both boys flanking us. We watched as Jerome raised his head, and a strange light filled his eyes that fixedly stared at us.

“I mean… I don’t know when the outside world will become safe enough for you to leave. As I’ve told you, we cannot lose you. I won’t speak of what is happening to most of the young nobles right now. I just need to protect you until this plague is over. At least you three…” He trailed off.

His tone was almost a sob, and none of us could utter a word in response after that. It finally dawned on us that some of our friends might have died. To be complaining from safety was a vile thing to do.

However, it was also true that we couldn’t endure staying here any longer. If rational adults couldn’t handle this situation, how did they expect us teenagers to cope?

The first person to open his mouth was Letis, and he spoke in a much more gentle and careful tone.

“Uncle, then at least give us an estimate of when we can get out of here. However long we have to wait, we’ll do it patiently as long as you tell us how long that will take. Staying here for an indefinite period is torture.” Letis said gently.

With how frail Jerome looked, I expected him to take a while thinking, but his answer came back surprisingly quickly. “A month.”

“… That long?”

“That’s only for a month. I know you kids can’t endure longer than that. Such a life is difficult for fully grown adults. For you kids, it must be insufferable. If you can hold out for a month, we will send you to Fjeya no matter what the situation outside is. Understood?” Jerome promised us with a kind smile, and the siblings’ expression fell.

First it was one week, then one became two, and now we had to stay in this dusty, dark hideout for a month. Judging by the expressions on the three children’s faces, they seemed to think that it was too long a period, and I felt the same.

If this scenario had been described in the book I read in my past life, I might have other ways of handling this. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do, and my status as a maid forbade me from questioning the Viscount. All I could do was make the best I could from this deplorable situation we were stuck in.

* * *

After extending the confinement period to another month, Viscount Ipolite made us some promises. He would make sure I had clothes befitting my station and said that if we wrote a list of what we needed and left it on the tray cart, Mr. Harris would make sure we got whatever we needed. Also, he promised that he would change the meal menus every day as soon as they found a new cook; however, sophisticated dishes wouldn’t be available since assistant chefs had died from the plague as well.

Inside the library, there was paper and a pen that we could use to write the lists. We also needed a stove and pots to heat water, extra towels, and detergent. At least we had enough candles and lamp oil. The chest we found in the library held enough stock to fill several carriages.

Thankfully, the things we needed arrived with the tray cart the next morning. Frail Estelle no longer had to wash with cold water now that we had this small but brand-new red stove.

But Estelle wasn’t very excited about our improved living conditions. When I mentioned those to her, she despondently responded with, “So what if they gave us some things? I feel so suffocated in here.”

Clearly, we couldn’t live for another month the same way we had been living the last two weeks. We desperately needed something to pass the time.

There was the library, where we could wander around or find something to read. It was large enough for us to play hide and seek in it, there were more books in it that we could read, and it was the only room to have a window aside from the upstairs bedroom.

Unfortunately, it was too dusty and messy, so no one wanted to go in there to play. The only one to frequent the library was Benya, risking his life from time to time to meet the gargoyle through the window.

“Sasha, what are you thinking about? You’re standing there and staring at nothing.” Letis stared at me, curious.

“I was just thinking of how to make this library livelier. Maybe if it was a bit cleaner, Estelle could play here, and we’d feel less stifled.” I explained my idea to him.

He seemed interested at first, but then he opened his mouth and said, “Okay, it’s a good idea, but how are we going to do that?”