SEIJO NO MARYOKU WA BANNOU DESU: GOSSIP 01 GOSSIP 01: WORKING HOURS “Excuse me.”
I knocked on the director’s office door and waited for a reply before entering.
I placed the tea set, plated sandwiches and sweets on the serving cart.
The Director and Captain were sitting on the lounge suite sofas, waiting for me.
“It looks delicious.”
The Director and Captain laughed happily when they looked at the dishes arranged on the table.
Today was my day off. But when I heard that the Captain had business with the Director and came to the Medicinal Herb Research Inst.i.tute, I decided to prepare some finger food.
The image was afternoon tea.
The research inst.i.tute didn’t have any tiered trays, so it was served on an ordinary dish. However, when there was a tea party at the Royal Palace, it seemed that the sweets were placed on a standing bowl.
The source of the information was Liz.
I poured tea into the tea cups and placed them in front of the Director and Captain. Lastly, I held onto the tea cup I had prepared for myself and sat next to the Director.
I had a feeling that the Captain lowered his eyebrows slightly but I ignored it.
Sitting next to the Captain was too nerve wracking, yup.
“I’m sorry, even though it’s your day off.”
“No, it is not a problem. I did it because I wanted to.”
The Captain apologised, but I wished he didn’t care so much about it.
Even though it was my day off, I did the same things that I usually did.
Besides, the Captain brought some sweets with him today. So I was happy that I could have a tea party like this.
Even so these sweet were very beautiful and colourful.
I thought that these sweets were made from fruits.
Because they were covered in sugar, it was really sweet. But since coming here, I’ve hardly had any sweets so I was kind of looking forward to it.
The Director and Captain had already finished their business, so right now the three of us were talking about various things.
“But you work really well.”
“Really?”
“Even on your days off you never go out. You’re always doing something at the research inst.i.tute, right?”
“Because I live here. I also want to do housework on my days off.”
It’s no different from when I did housework on my days off in j.a.pan.
There were a lot of things I needed to do on my days off like laundry and tidying up my room.
Even so, I finished everything in the morning.
Laundry, the most time-consuming thing, was usually done by servants.
Most of the researchers living here were aristocrats and a lot of them didn’t know how to do their own laundry.
So servants were hired to do housework, such as laundry and cleaning.
I didn’t like it when other people entered my room while I wasn’t there so I cleaned it myself.
Most people seemed to have other people do their cleaning for them.
Well, if they didn’t then it’ll be like Syvash1), surely.
“Other than housework, you also research or go to the library, right? Isn’t that the same as working?”
“But I don’t work as much as I did in j.a.pan.”
Both the Director and the Captain had a proper position within the Royal Palace so they knew that I was summoned by the 【Saint Summoning Ceremony】.
They were probably worried about me. They didn’t ask about j.a.pan much, but did speak about it from time to time.
Therefore, they knew that the country that I was from was called 【j.a.pan】.
“Before, I worked every day from three bells in the morning until the midnight bell.”
“Hah?”
The Director raised a rare voice in disarray and his eyes bulged open.
The Captain didn’t say anything, but he stopped moving the teacup that he was holding to his mouth and stared at me wide-eyed.
It was inevitable.
Three bells in the morning was 9am and the midnight bell was the bell that indicated that it was midnight.
If I added the time I took to get ready and commute, I woke up at 6am every morning and slept at 2am.
Although I had two days off on the weekends, I went to work every Sat.u.r.day……
I wanted to do housework on Sunday but since I had physical health problems all I did was rest.
Compared to people living in j.a.pan, they basically lived when the sun sets and rises. I thought it varied between occupations, but the working hours of the research inst.i.tute were also based on that.
Since coming here, I’ve only been working from 7am until 5pm every day.
Moreover, the people from the research inst.i.tute and 3rd Knight Order drank tea casually sometimes.
No one got angry when they drank tea.
Other people may have been different, but I felt that my lifestyle now is a lot freer than when I was in j.a.pan.
The Director and the others who had such free lifestyles would think that I overworked before.
“That…… Did you attend evening parties at work……?”
“No. I was a commoner.”
Yes, like the Director and Captain, there were also jobs where aristocrats attended evening parties.
Those parties may have been held in j.a.pan, but I was in no position to attend such celebrity gatherings.
“That kind of commoner is as busy as our Prime Minister.”
“Everyone around me was like that?”
“The civil officials are like that.”
“Is that so?”
“Ah ~, that’s right.”
Even in another world, the civil officials working at the Royal Palace seemed to be very busy.
However most of the civil officials were aristocrats, not commoners.
And the Director, who seemed to have comprehended something, placed his hands on my face.
“Huh, what is it?”
“No, you’ve become more beautiful compared to the first time you arrived here.”
“Hah? What are you saying so suddenly?”
“When you first came here, I thought that you looked like the guys from Interior when they’re busy.”
The Director placed his hands on my cheeks while saying, “Your eye bags have completely disappeared”, and stroked his thumb under my eyes.
No one other than my family has ever touched me like this and my heart thumped in my chest.
Perhaps, my face was also red.
And the Director amused himself with my reactions.
The Director’s facial expression didn’t change while he was looking at me but his eyes were mixed with joy, so I was sure of it.
He seemed to have noticed that I wasn’t accustomed to such skin ship so he was messing with me like this lately.
Ah ~, enough.
I wanted to escape from the Director’s hands, but it was hard to move from the one-seater sofa I was sitting on, so I couldn’t distance myself.
While I was cursing in my mind, I heard someone clearing their throat in front of me.
When I glanced up, the Captain was glaring at the Director in displeasure.
Please glare at him more, until he becomes an ice statue.
The Director also noticed him clearing his throat and glaring at him so he released his hands from my face.
“What?! Do you also want to touch it too, Al?”
“No!”
It seemed that the Director’s target had changed to the Captain.
Anyways, I drank my tea and sighed in relief.