That day, I was so caught up in my anger that I forgot something important.
Yes, the one-week trial period, which was set by Vice-Captain Dortmund.
"Eh? Starting from now, I"ll be accompanying the Leader?"
Since no ghost appeared when he was with me for eight days straight, I was given an official position.
Actually, Vice-Captain Dortmund was going to inform me of this yesterday.
While muttering that, he handed me a brooch engraved with the knight"s insignia. This was the proof of knighthood.
"It was sent by a government officer from another department. As long as you carry this, you will be recognized as the member of the knight order. Therefore, you can freely come and go."
"That kind of thing… am I allowed to possess such a valuable item?"
"This is only natural. After all, you"re going to stay with the Leader all the time until the Star Festival."
I see.
I was their special measure, and in turn, I was rewarded with quite the authority.
…Ghosts are such terrifying existences.
"I understand. But, would it be okay for the Leader to have lowly me tag along with him everywhere? Won"t I hinder him?"
"…Aren"t you the grudging type? I already apologized, haven"t I? Remember those sweets I gave you?"
It isn"t such an easy thing to let go, y"know?
Pay for your words!
Yes. Vice-Captain Dortmund gave me cookies and also said "my bad" to me, just before he handed me this badge.
The cookies were made by a famous patisserie, one which had become a hot topic among the maids recently…
…this guy is used to handling women, indeed.
Well, anyway, we made up. Although as he said, I still felt a bit of resentment towards him.
"But, wouldn"t this be suspicious? I don"t think the lice story will fool them for long."
—besides, Tina Walter"s special anti-lice blend"s almightiness had been proven already. The longest it would take to destroy the lice was one week.
"Don"t worry. I"ll take care of that."
Hearing him casually saying that while laughing, I instantly got a bad vibe for the n-th time that this week.
"Leader, here we are."
"Excuse me."
There was a slender man beside Captain Ranbic, wearing a pair of gla.s.ses.
"Ms. Walter, let me introduce him to you—he"s Mr. Herez, from the government office."
"Nice to meet you. My name is Herez Dunkel."
"Nice to meet you too…"
You shouldn"t judge people by their appearance—however, Mr. Herez appeared to be somewhat lacking in confident.
"He"s from the Ministry of Accounting. He"s been dispatched for the Star Festival."
"Ministry of Accounting…"
The Ministry of Accounting was the department that oversaw the entire national budget.
Their works ranged from budgets for national policies to the purchase of cleaning supplies for us maids.
"During the Star Festival, there would be an increase in knights" spending. That"s the reason he came this year."
After all, during the Star Festival, the knights also had to be well-dressed. Thus, they needed a budget for purchasing attires and security equipment.
Basically, the increase of paperwork wasn"t something that the knights could catch up to, hence, they required an aid from the Ministry of Accounting. Every year, one person would be dispatched from the accounting ministry to help the knights.
I had also heard about the recent increase of workload for those government officials…
…is that the reason for his bad complexion?
"To put it simply, Mr. Herez will be a.s.sisting Knight-Leader."
"Umm, what does it have to do with me…?"
Captain Ranbic looked troubled.
Vice-Captain Dortmund looked interested—contrasting to that, Mr. Dunkel looked uninterested.
"You see… Mr. Herez loves tidiness."
"Uh…"
"Leader, that"s putting it mildly. Listen to me, Tina—"
…so it turned out, that Mr. Dunkel was an extreme neat-freak.
Vice-Captain Dortmund completely disregarded Captain Ranbic"s compa.s.sionate, careful choice of words.
Mr. Dunkel didn"t even try to deny said claim.
""Extreme", you say… Vice-captain Dortmund, isn"t it only natural that there should be not even a single speck of dust inside the castle?"
"I—okay. Well said."
"Good, your foresight is getting better."
The royal palace was large.
While there were enough cleaning maids to ensure the place stayed clean every day, not leaving a single speck of dust was still a difficult thing to accomplish. Regardless, cleaning properly and carefully should solve the problem.
After all, dust only roamed around when you cleaned carelessly.
All of these should be obvious.
Besides, it was also true—Mr. Dunkel looked quite clean and tidy.
"This is where you come in."
"I understand. I"m going to follow Mr. Dunkel and help him clean."
"You understand this very well. I think you"ve developed."
To follow Mr. Dunkel was basically the same as tagging along with Captain Ranbic everywhere, only with Mr. Dunkel included.
"Two more weeks until the Star Festival. You have the record of having exterminated the lice amongst the knights, right? I"m going to write this as a reason for me to request your cleaning a.s.sistance."
"Ah! I see!"
That reason was so much better and reasonable than exterminating lice!
Nice a.s.sist! Thank you, Mr. Dunkel!
—so, I thought without noticing the worried glance Captain Ranbic sent towards me.
"Tina!! I heard you"re a.s.sisting Mr. Dunkel of the Ministry of Accounting!! Are you alright!?"
After introducing me with Mr. Dunkel, Captain Ranbic had to go somewhere for an inspection. After seeing him off to the door, I stopped at the maid"s dining room. It felt like I hadn"t stepped in there for a long time.
By chance, I met Sylvie and Riona.
I was so happy I got to meet them after such a long time—however, they didn"t reciprocate my joy.
Thus, I was greeted with the earlier question.
"? Yes… why? Do you know anything?"
"Of course—! It"s Mr. Dunkel, you know—! You"ll probably hear the rumor soon…"
…What"s with Mr. Dunkel?
He looked competent to me. Although he seemed a bit cold, he was also tidy. His face was neatly groomed. What could the rumor regarding him be?
When I tilted my head to the side, not only Riona"s eyes, but also Sylvie"s went wide in surprise.
"Tina, did you seriously forget?! He"s the one infamous for being known as "the Devil of the Ministry of Accounting", you know?!"
"…eh?"
***T/N: YESSS!!! ANOTHER possibly-c.u.n.t-demon male for our Amulet Maid to sprinkle with holy water of feminism.
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