ALL NOVEL Chapter 23 – Fall Down
Starting from the next day, ‘the secret monitoring on Arlea and Faye’ mission for all the maids in the residence was officially commenced. The maids were normally aware and kept tabs on Arlea due to their fear of her, though. But this time, they were motivated by the will to protect little Faye from the devil, Arlea.
Though the maids weren’t close to Faye (Ann still won over them in terms of her closeness to Faye), they still couldn’t help but develop protective feelings towards a child like Faye. Perhaps those feelings also developed from the sympathy they initially felt when it was announced that Faye would fill the position of Arlea’s personal maid.
When they heard that Arlea’s cruelty finally started, they felt more sympathy to Faye and...
“Little Faye, here, have some of my soup!”
“What about some bread?”
“Oh, would you like to have my pudding?”
...the maids were busily offering their foods to Faye when they were eating together.
Faye had initially received a good portion of food from the maids due to her being too skinny, so she was good enough with her usual portion. She tilted her head in confusion over the maids’ sudden weird behavior.
“I’m full--,” Faye tried to reject, but some of the maids shoved their food to her.
This poor child seems to be so clueless on what’s waiting her!
She is going to need extra energy to deal with the devil mistress!
Such were the thoughts of the maids who shoved their tasty foods to Faye’s tray.
“Uh...Thank...you?” Faye felt like those maids won’t relent no matter what she said, so she decided to thank them and keep the food for snacking later. Perhaps she could also share it with Arlea later on.
She didn’t really think too much on the quality difference of her food and her mistress’, as Arlea seemed to welcome any food coming her way so far.
And for work that didn’t require Faye to meet directly with Arlea, the other maids offered their help despite them being busy as well.
Again, Faye tilted her head in a wonder.
This isn’t my birthday or any special day...right?
Or could she be pampered because she was the youngest out of the maids? But why now, out of all days?
Add another point.
Faye was already used to Arlea not accepting whenever she offered to make her some tea or snacks and both of them had no problem with it.
But from this day, the other maids fretted over it and went out of their way to make some for Arlea.
“A-A-A-Arlea-sama, here’s some tea and sweets...,” A maid said with trembling body.
“Eh? I didn’t say I wanted it...,” Ann tilted her head.
“Hii! No, this is our basic responsibility as a maid to their master! Little Faye is too young that she didn’t know what she did—spare her...,” the maid said.
“...Uh, but I already told Faye that I...,” Ann wanted to explain in her frustration that she really didn’t want any, and Faye only did what she was told to do.
“If you have any specific request, you can tell us!” The maid said again.
“Well, you can have them as I don’t feel like—”
“No, I wouldn’t dare!” –since the tea and the sweets were for upper nobles.
“...Thanks, then,” Ann said with a sigh.
After the maid excused herself, Ann said to Faye, “You can have them if you’d like to.”
Faye shook her head as she took out some of the food from her pocket, “I received them from the other maids.”
Faye felt like everyone around her was trying to fatten her then butcher her when she becomes fat...
“...Let’s eat them together, then!” Ann said as they changed their plans a bit.
The same occasions kept happening that Ann decided to just brush it off as the maids’ consideration for her. She even started to think that the maids thought she was too skinny that she was kept being fed like this...Or did they want to fatten her up to a chubby person?...Could it be that Allen liked chubby person better?!
Ann looked at herself in the mirror and kept poking her slender belly which seemed to be fatter after the maids kept giving her snacks...
Thus, that led her to do more exercises. Since she was eating with Faye, she took the opportunity to grab Faye to accompany her exercise sessions.
And that led everyone in the residence to be shocked to see the figure of their mistress running around the house without any care to her appearance. Thankfully, they were used to seeing their mistress doing some light exercises before, so their shock didn’t cause anything bad.
However! This time’s level of exercise was higher than the usual ones she did, so it still came as surprises to everyone.
And one day. Something happened. A simple thing that unknowingly incited more misunderstanding...
During one of their exercises, Faye wobbled.
“Faye, be careful!” Ann tried her best to catch Faye who was about to fall, however...
THUD!
Faye fell to the ground while Ann’s stretched hand was catching the air...
“Uwaa...,” Faye had tears forming in her eyes, partly due to the pain, and partly due to the embarrassment.
A maid who was around them caught a glimpse of what happened, yet she was positioned a bit farther from them, so she couldn’t hear what Arlea and Faye were talking about.
Upon seeing their postures and analyzing what happened, the maid came to a conclusion.
Arlea-sama pushed Faye in the garden!
The maid hurriedly reported it to Gwen. Finally, after several days of nothing, they got another ‘proof’ to Arlea’s cruelty which manifested back!
Meanwhile, as for Ann and Faye...
“Pain, pain, go away! Whoa, it’s lightly bleeding!” Ann was tending to Faye’s wound.
“Blood...uwaa...,” Faye trembled upon seeing her own blood and the pain she felt.
“Come here, I’ll clean it!” Ann said as she summoned her water magic to wash away Faye’s wound.
“It hurts!” Faye said as the cold water’s sensation washed over her knee.
“There, at least it’s clean from any bacteria! All that’s left is to apply some medicine and bandage...,” Ann thought, “where can I find them, though?”
Faye grabbed Ann’s hand and said, “It’s okay, Arlea-sama. I will go ask the other maids for it.”
“Can you stand and walk?” Ann asked in concern.
“Don’t worry, I can!” Faye finally stood up. She was happy that Arlea was concerned for her. But she couldn’t really burden Arlea too much, right?
So, Faye went to the maids’ quarter to get some medicine when the other maids noticed her. Some had heard of what happened, and looking at Faye’s walking which wasn’t the same as usual, they pitied Faye a lot.
“Come here, let me treat your wound!” One of the maid said.
“Oh, poor thing...,” Another maid patted Faye’s back as she helped Faye sit on a chair.
Faye tilted her head.
I only fell due to my own clumsiness, though?
Regardless, the report of today’s finding reached Gwen as usual. The loyal Gwen immediately reported this important finding to Allen, as she suggested something in the meantime.
“Allen-sama, today, one of the maids told me that she witnessed Arlea-sama pushing Faye down in the garden. As a result, her knee was injured. She even bled from the looks of it.”
Allen raised his eyebrows, “Pushing a child?”
What for, though?
Was it for fun?
Allen couldn’t comprehend the way Arlea was having fun.
“That’s right. And I would like to propose that I’m ‘going to evaluate Faye’s performance as a maid’ as a pretext to be around Arlea-sama and Faye during the time you’re finalizing things,” Gwen suggested.
“Accepted,” Allen answered.
“Thank you for your permission,” Gwen bowed to Allen.
“No, thank you for your dedication,” Allen said.
“Of course, I couldn’t stay calm when a child’s future is at stake here,” Gwen said as she fixed her glasses.
Her look was that of a very responsible and strict maid, yet her eyes exuded kindness.
Meanwhile, Allen was also seriously considering things that he needed to do in order to settle Faye somewhere else.
...If only Ann knew what they were thinking, she wouldn’t know whether she should cry or laugh at this wonderful misunderstanding that was only escalating...
But alas, she didn’t know what was up, for Allen managed to act as if nothing had happened whenever they met...
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