With his back to the light, the man looking down at me is handsome without a sense of reality. It was nice to see white shirts flutter in the wind, and well-organized blonde hair being disheveled. What is it? How can a terrible creditor be so cool? The distinctions from her first impression, which made her feel better, confused her.
“He…..llo, Mr. Banker.”
Why does my face seems to have a fever, I lowered her head so that she wouldn’t notice my red face. But it wasn’t either that my heart was fluttering or that he was just good. It’s just a little excitement from the visual sensation.2
“Rahee de Sallator, you came earlier than expected.”
“Yes? Yes.”
I’m sure I’ve expected it. We’ve checked Sofia’s condition as well as the Sallator family……..
“Are you going to ride?”
Lawrence reached out his hand to me. The fingers were long and delicate.
“……….!”
You’re giving me a ride? In the front seat? I only saw this in a fairy tale book I read when I was a child, and the prince on a white horse gave his hand to the princess……Lawrence was just the typical prince that girls imagined. Although he is now riding a black horse, not a white horse, there was no shortage of a prince. But no matter how young he was, he was not so vigilant as to ride a horse with a person he met twice. No. There is a reason why I don’t have to ride a horse with him.
“It’s all right.”
“Why? You think I’m gonna fuck you or something?”3
The same was true of Lawrence, who was dumbfounded. When he said he would take a person instead of a debt, she seemed to have misunderstood a person for a strange side despite his small favor. It’s understandable that as the rumours of Devicth are not so good.
“Now it’s not because of that. It’s so pretty, you know.”
“What? Pretty?”
Lawrence turned his eyes to where Rahee indicated. She smiled brightly at the red maple path. However, it was completely different from the way she stood against me the other day. She looked like just a seventeen year old girl with sparkling eyes and a smile without wrinkles.
“The road is so beautiful.It seems romantic.”
“Romantic?”
Lawrence burst into laughter. Is this a girl’s sensibility? It’s nice to see, but I’ve never thought that the street was romantic. Honestly, I spent a lot of money on gardening. Still, seeing her moved, it seems to be a waste of money. Lawrence, however, wondered if the young girl knew what it meant to be romantic.
“Why romantic? Did you just use that expression because it looked good?”
“What? I just got that feeling. In the fairy tale I read when I was young, the prince and the princess always walked this path together.”
‘Oh, fairy tale book.’
The girl who asked me to lend more money was a girl who had not yet completely escaped from the fantasy and childishness of fairy tale books.
“Do you still read fairy tales?”
“No way? That’s what I’m saying.”
Rahee blushed. I just wanted to express that it was beautiful, but I regretted it a little bit because it seemed like childish to him.
Lawrence jumped off the horse. But I felt a sense of deja vu as Ra-hee stood on the maple road. Yesterday, or even before, was as natural as she was standing on this road. Why do I feel so relieved as if I have come to my place, a girl who looks at the scenery which I’ve been looking at indifferently every day?
“Let’s walk together.”
When he got off the horse, the horseman ran quickly and dragged the horse away. So Rahee walked with Lawrence. The sight itself seemed very peaceful, even if not romantic.
“As long as you’ve stepped into my house, there’s nothing you can do at your will. Understood?”
“Yes, understood.”
Lawrence almost wanted to ask if Rahee really knew.
“My aunt is really sick.”
“She look like a tuberculosis patient.”
Rahee stopped walking at his words. Tuberculosis was a deadly disease. I regretted that I should have made a better judgment.
“I heard there’s a good hospital in the capital. I can’t let your aunt die.”
“……….”
“I repeat, you are wiser than your aunt. I’m going to have her to be treated now.”
“Thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me. Cause you owe more.”
Rahee suddenly stopped walking. She looked silently at Lawrence.
“You have granted my terms. It doesn’t matter whether I’m in debt or not. I’m desperate for my aunt’s treatment.”
“…………”
“So what do I do specifically when I become the maid of Devitch?”
“…?”
“I don’t think so, but do you have any other intentions?”
“Other intentions?”
“For example, a lover.”
I can’t believe the word ‘lover’ is coming out of the little girl’s mouth. I almost burst into laughter because it was amazing.
“Do you know what a lover is specifically?”
“Huh? I…know obviously.”
Rahee stammered. Instead, her face turned red and her eyes moved uneasily. I know, but it seemed embarrassing to say it myself.
“What is it?”
“That means a woman you love.”
“What?”
This kid knows everything. Lawrence ended up laughing dejectedly. It’s not a topic to talk to a young girl any more.
“No matter how you spend it, I’ll let you work as much as you owe.”
So you mean that I’m just as much as I owe you? Do you want to break down my body, or do I work? Or just do the laundry all day or pull out the grass. But it was also questionable whether such a thing could pay off so much debt.
But I’ll still ask. That way, Sophia will be relieved. If it wasn’t a bunch of junk like Cinderella and couldn’t be a lover, I had to know what Lawrence want from me.
“Tell me in detail.”
“For three years, you’ll work as Princess Katrine’s maid of honor.”
That’s why you’re here.
“Princess’s maid of honor?”
Rahee asked back in surprise. This was totally unexpected. Well, Lawrence think I’m good enough to take care of her.
“Why, no?”
“Oh…no! It’s good.”
“But when I become the princess’ maid of honor, does something good happen to the bank president? Does that mean our family can write off the debt?”
Rahee asked him with a look on her face.
“I’ll get one. I can get a little higher than I am now. Sometimes relationships with people give you more trust and power.”
‘If you’re higher than you are now, you’ll be royalty.’
In Rahee’s eyes, Lawrence was higher and more than any other noble family in the world. However, if he wanted more than that, he have only one royal family as far as he know.
“It’s not easy being a maid. The princess is a little sensitive.”
‘Sensitive’ is a connotation of the word very picky, only I know, and very capricious…….There is a lot of aristocratic ladies around, but no friend. In just a year about 30 maids have been replaced.
“I can do it.”
The princess’s maid is better than the maid who cleans, does the laundry, and cleans the floor. That way, I’ll tell Sofia the truth. How much do you blame yourself for being sold instead of debt, for tarnishing your family’s reputation?
“Yes, you’ll do well.”
My eyes have never been wrong. If I didn’t want to, I wouldn’t have accepted Rahee’s debt from the beginning.
I didn’t want to propose to Katrine in the same way as others.
I needed a way to win her favor, and just in time, Rahee, who looked like the doll that the princess liked, appeared.5
If she becomes a princess’ maid and friend, she will naturally have more time to be with her.
“And yet every contract or negotiation is at risk.”
“What? Danger?”
“There’s no contract that’s just good and only good for you. It could be a loss, and sometimes you might regret signing the contract.”
“I know. Every choice can have a completely different picture, like both sides of a coin.”
Lawrence looked at Rahee. Sometimes I was surprised by the mature side of the girl.
***
After coming to Devicth, everything was amazing and the bath was different. The water smelled like flowers and the head smelled like powder. Then she applied perfume to the skin for several stages.
The maid carefully trimmed Rahee’s eyebrows, nails and toenails. It took me two hours to take a bath, another hour to untie my hair, and another hour to put it back up, and an hour to put on the dress.
“Do I always have to prepare like this to go to parties?”
Rahee asked, looking at the maid’s closet reflected in the mirror. There’s no woman who doesn’t like to dress up, but it wasn’t something she could do for hours.
“It’s hard, isn’t it? It’s not always like that. But this is your first social gathering, so master has ordered you to pay special attention.”
Well, it’s a princess’ tea party, and the nobility’s young children are attending, so Lawrence can’t afford to make it a waste. I don’t know much about him, but Lawrence is a perfectionist.
He was a man of elitism. It was a part that could be inferred enough just by knowing his way of speaking, dressing up, and lifestyle without having to tell him.
The maids dressed Rahee in a blue dress with layers of lace. The hem of the skirt was studded with jewels and pearls, and each embroidery was very exquisite.
“Come on, look.”
The maids smiled and said to Rahee, perhaps finished grooming. Ra-hee showed herself in a full-body mirror.
“………..!”
The person in the mirror doubted whether he was right or not. This is why jewelry and women shine more as they are trimmed and decorated. I found out for the first time that my face had such splendid features. To be honest, I don’t look like a person. The height of very artificial beauty, frankly, was not my taste.
“Master is waiting in the office.”
The word sounded to the effect that it should be examined for proper decoration. How bustling the maids were, Rahee did not seem to have walked her own way to the office. It was as hectic as being caught up in a storm.
At last the door of the master office opened. I can’t pinpoint it, but I was nervous and my heart thumped at the thought of showing him a different side of myself.
‘Why am I nervous?’
What if he doesn’t like it? What if it doesn’t look pretty? It was a short time, but I hoped Lawrence would be satisfied. Would he look at me like a lady in a dress like this? Or Will he still looked at me like a 17-year-old girl? Finally, I saw him sitting in front of a big mahogany desk.
When the maid called him, Lawrence put down the papers he was looking at. And Lawrence’s eyes were fixed on Rahee, who was groomed for hours by her maids. He began to skim down slowly from head to toe of Rahee. However, the sharpness of his eyes made one almost mistake him for facing his enemy.
In this case, it was polite for men to smile and say that they are pretty. But Lawrence has been silent for a long time.
Rahee was afraid of his eyes staring at her as if they were piercing. He was a man as beautiful as a painting, but his eyes were like predators hunting prey.
“The earrings are wrong. It’s not a diamond in platinum, it’s a pearl with a pink tint on the petals of white magnets.”
The maid-in-waiting was startled at his point, and beckoned the maid to bring her earrings.
“Thank you.”
When the maid put pearl earrings on Rahee’s ears, Lawrence stood up as if he had now thought it was enough. But he was also well dressed. Of course, it’s usually flawless, but it’s exceptionally glossy today.
“Rahee, let’s go.”
“Is the bank president coming with me?”
“Yes, I’ll accompany you until the right Cheparone is there. And don’t call me the bank president.”
“Then?”
“Call me Lawrence.”
Lawrence smiled slightly, revealing his white teeth. But I can’t believe he can smile so beautifully. It was amazing that creditors could smile, too. So Rahee stared at him blankly for a moment.
“People will misunderstand.”
“Oh, yes.”
There was no need to inform people of the relationship between creditors and debtors. It’s only going to make the Devitch’s reputation worse. A bad business owner who makes me pay back with my own body instead of my debt.
“Yes, Lawrence.”
A smile hung from the corners of his mouth as Rahee shyly called his name.
“Let’s go.”
He reached out his hand to Rahee. As if to treat the most prized person in the world.