Chapter 11.2

“Hey, are you listening to me? I know the haughty young lady cleaning up soaking wet is pitiful and you are waiting for someone to give you a hand, but there’s no use getting your hopes up.”

“…Cronaea-san.”

“What?”

“I have one very difficult question for you, if you don’t mind me asking.”

“What’s the question?”

I think I understand most of what Cronaea-san is saying, and I’d appreciate it if she wouldn’t interrupt me again.

Besides, as much as I hesitated to point out her physical characteristics, it’s unbearable for a cleaning lady to have the whole castle soiled every time she moves around.

This is a very important and fundamental issue in cleaning.

“Is it a habit of yours, Miss Cronaea…?”

“I don’t know what you mean by habit. I’m not doing anything.”

“I am very sorry to tell you this, but I am very troubled by the fact that you have what looks like Sea Slug fluid dripping down from your leg from a few minutes ago.”

It can’t be helped if it’s a physical feature, but it’s still necessary to have a dialogue. At this rate, Cronaea-san will end up being a water nymph that is harmful to clean environments.

As for me, I don’t want to perceive Ms. Cronaea as an enemy of the cleaning lady, so I have to talk to her properly.

“…bodily fluids of a water slug?”

“Yes, you see, this sticky, almost transparent green stuff is all over the castle. I was surprised at how filthy the castle was, but if you say it’s a racial  habit, then I can’t help it….”

Confused, Cronaea-san fell from the ceiling into the sticky, foam-covered hallway.

“Cronaea-san, perhaps you didn’t notice?”

“I’m not very good on land because I live in a lake, so it’s a little hard for me to move around. We are really useless without water, so we have a mucous membrane of water all over our bodies to protect us… Oh my God …!”

Ms. Cronaea wound up, confused.

The underside of what looked like the body of a water strider, which had fallen from the ceiling in place of her legs, there were tiny sucker-like cilia-like things protruding. I was a little pleased to see the underside.

“So you have been walking around the castle for about 200 years chasing after Gilbert, haven’t you? The … protective coating that fell off each time was the reason for the mess in the hallway, wasn’t it?”

“But … it’s like a magical mass, it will disappear in a couple of days. There should be no problem!”

Ms. Cronaea defended.

In other words, she is the enemy of the cleaning lady.

“There’s an old saying that says something like this, ‘A dirty room is a dirty mind’. It means that if you can’t keep your room clean, your mind is also polluted. From now on, if you continue to walk around this castle and keep dripping something like that protective coating, that’s what it means.”

“What are you trying to say, that my mind is dirty? Water nymphs need it. It’s a protective coating that allows them to walk through the castle as if they were gliding. For this reason, it’s important.”

I was tempted to scrub Cronaea-san with the mop.

Perhaps noticing my desire, Cronaea-san backed up a little in the foam.

“No, I am a cleaning lady, so I will wash away and beautify the path that Cronaea-san has made dirty. As for me, I have no intention of interfering with the routine of Ms. Cronea’s chasing of Master Gilbert around. I am a janitor and I will do my job.”

“Of course, You’re just a cleaning lady, you’ll do your best.”

At my words, she brushes her hair up in the air with pride.

“The castle is very big, a human with a short life span can not clean it all in one lifetime. If you don’t plan to return to your human country, you will spend the rest of your life as a cleaning lady.”

Cronaea looks very proud of herself. But I doubt if there is anything in this conversation that would make her happy, but she seems happy, so I let it go.

I am Lydith, the cleaning lady, and I never compromise when it comes to cleaning. I was hoping we could have a dialogue and find the right compromise, but it seems that’s not possible. Cronaea-san, I have identified you as the cleaning lady’s enemy, the dirty water slug”

“Don’t make up words I don’t understand! What in the world is a Water Slug anyway? It’s kind of disgusting!”

“I will follow you from today onwards and scrub the dirty floor beautifully from your dripping mucus. I understand now that it is my role as the cleaning lady, to make the castle clean and free from your dripping mucus, as beautiful as my heart.”

“What an infuriating person you are…! Have it your way, you filthy little maid girl!”

Cronaea-san said, and then she slyly wandered down the corridor. Since Cronaea-san seemed satisfied, I went back to cleaning the hallway.

By the end of the day, my underground empire would be beautifully reborn.

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