The Abandoned Duchess Seems to Want a Peaceful Life - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: A New Home and the Bodyguard Knight

By midday on the fifth day of a leisurely journey along the highway, they finally reached their destination, Enkar Village.

Enkar Village was the largest settlement in the Enkar region. According to the information she had checked on the way, it was a farming village of about two hundred people, most of them pioneers and their descendants, with several small settlements of gathered serfs scattered around it.

The lord's manor stood in the center of the village, and this was to be Melfina's base from now on. It had originally been built for the Duke of Oldrand to stay in for short periods during inspection visits, so although it was solidly constructed, it was a very modest building for a noble's residence.

Though it was called the center, there were no houses around it, only a few scattered here and there across an excessively wide expanse of land. The terrain had gentle swells in places, with steep cliffs here and there, and the distant mountains were still capped with snow. Several streams flowed through, probably tributaries running into Lake Moltre.

By her past-life sensibilities, the royal capital where she'd grown up had been quite like a scene from a movie, but if she overlooked the plainness of the buildings, this was like wandering into a picture book.

It was about the size of a somewhat large inn, but since there was no plan to have a large household, she thought that this size would be easy enough to manage. Melfina felt that way, but to her handmaiden Marie and her bodyguard knight Cedric, it seemed not merely unsuitable as a place for a duchess to live but beyond the realm of the possible.

"Let us turn back to the nearest large town."

Cedric said it as though it were all but decided. Melfina shrugged and went into the manor. Normally an inspection visit is announced months in advance, but this visit had been sudden, and the inspections themselves probably hadn't been carried out in years, because the inside of the house had the dusty smell of a building kept shut up.

"Marie, let's open all the windows. Cedric, help us too."

"My job is that of a knight. I cannot leave your side."

"I see. Then stay right behind me."

Marie was a handmaiden, neither a servant nor a maid, but since her work was looking after Melfina, she didn't seem resistant to following instructions. But for Cedric, a knight, managing and cleaning a house was certainly not part of his duties, so she couldn't force him.

"Um... if you like, we could help you."

One of the porters who had driven the carriage all this way spoke up hesitantly. He seemed unsure whether they were even allowed to speak directly to a noble.

"That would be a great help! First, let's open all the windows to let the air in, and I'd like to have a rough clean-up too. Of course, I'll pay your daily wages."

"Lady Melfina. I think we should take on a few menial servants."

Every time a window was opened, fine dust drifted up and glittered. Even if it was a small manor, cleaning every corner of it would take considerable effort.

"I was thinking of asking the village to arrange that."

"Then I will go now."

"Wait. Even for servants, I'd like to hire people I get along with, so I'm thinking of holding interviews. For today, just helping these men is enough. In exchange, would you go to the market to buy groceries and seasonings?"

Up to here, they had eaten at restaurants and inns in the towns along the way, but since almost all of Enkar Village's residents worked in primary industries, that would no longer be possible. Marie looked surprised at those words but soon nodded.

"You there, um, what are your names?"

"I'm called Rad."

"I'm Cliff."

"I... I'm Ed!"

Of the three porters, the youngest was still so young he could be called a boy. About twelve, she guessed. In this world, that was the age one started working as an apprentice.

His cheeks reddened with nervousness as he stood straight, and it was so endearing that she smiled.

"Ed, would you go with Marie and carry the shopping? You may use the carriage. A few days' worth of vegetables, eggs, and seasonings. For milk and meat, just fresh ones for today."

"Understood!"

"Then we'll be off."

She saw the two off and went on opening the windows along the corridor. In this world, window glass was a luxury, but not so rare as to be almost never seen. It was thicker than what she knew from her previous life, and its surface was wavy. It was divided into small panes by lead, probably because the technique for making large single sheets was still immature.

Beyond those glass windows were shutters installed for security.

Once light came in, the impression of the building improved on the spot, and at the same time the problems that needed dealing with stood out. The dust, above all, was something else.

"For today, getting the kitchen, the living room, and somewhere to sleep ready is all I can manage. Where are the cleaning tools?"

"Madam! We'll do the cleaning!"

"We're good at cleaning!"

"Then I'll leave it to you. I'll go look at the kitchen."

Leaving the porters, who were young men, to dust, she headed for the kitchen. Perhaps because there were no cloth items in here, it was comparatively clean, and it looked as though washing and wiping the utensils and dishes would be enough. There was no expensive porcelain tableware on the shelves; everything was wooden.

For Melfina, raised in the royal capital, tableware had always been all porcelain or glass. The tankards, which looked like barrels made small, were fairly heavy, and felt fresh and new to her.

—I always thought of these as something pirates carry, but they're in ordinary use here.

Turn the tap and water came out; pinch the stove and a proper flame appeared. Both were magical tools that used magic stones, the kind found even in somewhat well-off commoner homes in the royal capital.

—The world feels medieval, yet the convenience here is so conveniently fantasy. Still, I don't know how to use a wood-fired oven, and convenience is always welcome when it comes to living.

She opened the shelves, took out the tableware she would need for the time being, and washed it. She dried it with rags she found put away, and when that was done she wiped the table with a damp rag.

Meanwhile, she decided to ignore Cedric, who stood behind her like a guardian spirit.

"Now, I need to decide on rooms."

Noble residences are generally divided so that the first floor is for guests and the second floor is for the master and his family, houseguests, and retainers, and this lord's manor seemed to have been built roughly according to the rule. The master bedroom was at the southern end of the second floor, with a sitting room next to it.

Servants, incidentally, often share the attic. Marie was a handmaiden and thus a senior servant, so she would need a private room.

She knew this much from Melfina's knowledge, but she wasn't well versed in matters concerning bodyguard knights. Her mother, Letina, had disliked the southern territory as a backwater and hardly ever stayed there, so Melfina had spent nearly all her life from birth at the townhouse in the royal capital.

There, with several senior servants always around and eyes everywhere, bodyguard knights were used almost exclusively as guards when going out, and she'd had almost no chance to see knights walking about inside the house.

"Tell me, does a bodyguard knight live with me? Or is it more common for him to keep a house outside and commute?"

"There are often barracks within the castle, and it is also normal for those with families to commute from outside the castle, but when staying at this manor, I believe the usual arrangement would be for me to lodge in the house."

"Then I'll use the master bedroom as my private room and bedroom, and the room next to it will be Marie's, so pick whichever of the remaining rooms you like."

The master bedroom had also been shut up, so she opened the windows. The bed was splendid, but she was reluctant to sleep in bedding that had probably gone unused for years. Fortunately the weather was good, so she decided to air it in the sun until dusk after an early lunch.

When she noticed Cedric had not replied and turned around, the young bodyguard knight had a troubled look.

"What is it?"

"I am trying to decide which room to accept. For security, the first floor would be best, but in this manor there is nothing on the first floor except the kitchen, the hall, and storage rooms, so I think I should clear one of those."

"Um, what did you do during inspection visits?"

"This is my first time at this manor, but generally, apart from posting a knight on night watch, the party stayed at an inn in the village."

"There are still rooms on the second floor, so wouldn't it do to choose one of those?"

This was a peaceful countryside, so she didn't think she needed a bodyguard, but Cedric, together with Marie, was Alexis's eyes watching her. Keeping him at too great a distance might invite needless suspicion, and somehow it also pricked her conscience to make Cedric, who came from a noble family, live in a storeroom.

That was all she had meant, but Cedric was staring at her in dismay.

"...I beg your pardon. I have sworn my loyalty to His Grace."

"Hm?"

"As his vassal, my pride as a knight will not permit me to enter into such a relationship with the wife of my liege."

"Hm???"

She tilted her head, then quickly said, "Ah."

"That's not what I meant! I'm not telling you to become my lover, you know!?"

"...It isn't?"

It was common knowledge that the second floor was used by the master, his family, and close relatives. The townhouse where she was born and raised had been home to her mother as the legal wife, so her father had never brought women in, but presumably, among those who used the second floor of a country house, there was a custom of including mistresses.

"I'm sorry, that was careless of me. The third floor is an attic, so it's for servants, and the first floor is storage, so I just thought both would be unfair to use for a knight like Cedric."

The bodyguard knight looked visibly relieved, and she reflected on how completely she had forgotten the usual distance between a noble lady and a knight.

Cedric, with short, earth-colored hair and deep brown eyes, was a sturdily built man, as a knight should be, and as one of the capture targets he had an astonishingly handsome face, though a different feel from Alexis, called the Ice Duke.

He was only twenty years old. Being a knight from a count's family, he was surely popular with women, and had probably often been looked at that way.

—I never imagined for a moment that anything would happen between me, the villainess Melfina, and him, so that perspective was completely missing.

"Well, I'll pay the cost, so would you like to take a room at the village inn? Wouldn't that be easier for you, Cedric?"

"No. If you would, please give me the storeroom on the first floor. Though it is a storeroom, it is of reasonable size, and once cleared it will function well enough as a room."

If he himself was fine with it, then it must be fine. She'd have liked him to go back to the ducal manor if possible, but of course that couldn't be done.

"Then I'll have Cliff and Rad clear it out. For the bed, there should be a few servants' beds upstairs, so use one of those for now, and we'll make or buy a new one soon."

"I am grateful for your consideration."

"Mm, if anything comes up, tell me right away. I don't want a misunderstanding left to fester and tangle things up."

How glad she was that he hadn't shown up in her bedroom in the middle of the night with a tragic face. Saying so with deep feeling, she watched Cedric, silent, make a bow once more.