I entered the Duke’s mansion while being carried on Miss Rottenstein’s shoulders, and was taken away into the depths of the mansion, with the servants looking back at me in shock.
Miss Rottenstein had been wandering around the mansion for a while, but then she seemed to spot the person she was looking for in a room with an open entrance, and she ran into the room with me on her back.
“Alfred! Sean Jr.! It’s so convenient that you two are here together! That’s right!!
There’s something I want to talk to you about!!”
Alfred and Sean Jr., who had been talking in the room, stopped their conversation and turned around when they heard the voice. I also tried to get a look at the two of them, while still being carried by Miss Rottenstein, by turning my head.
An elderly but well-built gentleman with round glasses, short hair, and fine-looking clothing responded to Miss Rottenstein, who was carrying me.
“Is there something you need to tell me? Now, Lady Isabella, please tell me.”
Unable to get in , a man with black hair slicked back standing next to him added on top of him.
“First of all, please give priority to talking about the boy you are carrying. Also, as I have said many times, please call me by my correct name, Ferdinand, not Sean Jr. There are three people in this mansion named Sean Jr., including my father, so it would be confusing.”
” It’s hard to remember, so I’ll try . Now, Alfred, Far… hufund, let me introduce you. This is Ursch. I’d like him to live in a vacant room, but do you know of any nice rooms around here? …Do you know?”
The gentleman named Ferdinand responded to Miss Rottenstein’s words.
“Where did you get the boy from anyway?”
“I kidnapped him because he was bored outside observing ants.”
‘Kidnapping,’ Miss Rottenstein said, unashamedly.
“Please return it to where it was. There are creatures that we can pick up and creatures that we cannot pick up. Other people’s children are classified as creatures that cannot be picked up. Therefore, please return it to where you found it. Right now. As soon as possible.”
“I’ll take good care of him and raise him to be a great companion, so please give me your permission. I’ll take good care of him until the very end… Alfred, I’m asking you.”
In the middle of her request, Miss Rottenstein must have decided that it was impossible to persuade Ferdinand, so she set her sights on Alfred and began to ask him instead.
After hearing that turn of events, Alfred-san spoke with a slightly troubled look on his face.
“You kidnapped him. If you kidnap him without any prior notice, it would mean we would have to make changes to our work, so I would appreciate it if you would refrain from kidnapping him so suddenly, but…”
“Alfred, please change the word about “kidnapping” to “refrain” instead of “please refrain.””
Ferdinand spoke, overlapping with Alfred’s statement, but Alfred, who seemed to be more on Miss Rottenstein’s side, shook his head.
“As expected, blood is thicker than water, so if we do not give permission, there is a strong possibility that Lady Isabella will take young Ursch and run away all over the country…no, all over the continent. This may be a bloodline, or perhaps it is the Rottenstein family. For now, we will allow the boy to stay at the mansion, on the condition that he be taken in as an apprentice. Young Ursch is likely the son of the Schneider Trading Company, who is currently here for business negotiations, so we will report the situation to the master and madam and have them persuade the Schneider Trading Company.”
After that, the matter moved forward without my opinion being asked, even though I was supposed to be a party involved in the matter, and by the evening of that day I was dressed in a trainee’s uniform and shown to the room where I would be living for a while.
It seems that Miss Rottenstein does not yet have a personal maid, and a young maid named Marie, who is usually in charge of Miss Rottenstein’s personal needs, has been appointed to look after me as my nominal senior.
Although it was a sudden promotion, Marie, being the eldest daughter, readily agreed to take on the role of my nominal tutor.
By the way, the “formal” part was the result of discussions between the Rottenstein and Schneider families, which concluded that my stay with the Rottenstein family as an apprentice was a temporary measure, with the understanding that I would return to the Schneider family in the future.
The Rottenstein family wanted to officially employ me as per their third daughter’s wish, but the Schneider family apparently refused.
I knew that the Schneider Company had grown into a large trading company with branches all over the continent, but I never thought they would turn down the Duke’s request, so I was surprised when I heard the story.
It seems that the Rottenstein family had negotiated in good faith, offering good treatment and creating a fair employment contract, even going so far as to include it in their conditions to officially submit it to the government, and my father and grandfather decided that it wasn’t a bad deal, but my mother, who had no interest in me at all, flatly refused and wouldn’t budge.
The Duke, my grandfather, and my father had all tried to persuade my mother, but Duchess Rottenstein, perhaps because she had some thoughts as a fellow mother, sided with my mother, and when negotiations with the two mothers did not go well, the men were forced to bow down. In the end, they made a considerable concession and settled on the idea that I would “temporarily stay as an apprentice (formally).”
Although I was a party to the negotiations, I was not called to the meeting and my opinion was never heard.
I was not happy about it, but I didn’t think that my opinion as a 6-year-old would be accepted in a discussion between the adults of the Duke’s household and the company, and when I thought about it carefully, I didn’t really have any reason to want to go back home, so I thought it didn’t really matter either way. So I decided to go with the flow.
From then on, I began my life as a nominal apprentice at the Rottenstein household, but it was far more comfortable than the life of a servant in the mansion of a high-ranking aristocrat that I had known up until then.
Up until now, I’ve accompanied my father on business negotiations and seen the various mansions from the carriage, but the employment environment at the Duke of Rottenstein household is probably in the category of fairly good treatment compared to other households.
Employees in every department worked freely and had three meals a day, a 30-minute nap, and morning and afternoon snack breaks, so they all lived peacefully.
Ferdinand told me that the turnover rate is very low, and that the Rottenstein family is in the top five for servant positions among the mansions of high-ranking nobles, making it a highly competitive workplace in the servant world.
What is the servant world? Is there such a thing?
The polar opposite of the well-treated and peaceful lives of the servants is Miss Rottenstein. Lady Isabella and I, who occasionally get caught up in her affairs.
At irregular intervals, before sunrise, I would be woken up by Damon, the second son of the Rottenstein family, and given 30 seconds to get ready.
Afterwards, together with the servants from the security department led by Damon, they launched a surprise attack on Lady Isabella’s bedroom by throwing a flash bomb, a magical indoor device that explodes while emitting a loud flash of light, and if Lady Isabella was able to deal with it safely, then Lady Isabella would begin her early morning training together with Damon and the combat-type servants.
I was exempt from the training, so I did some light record keeping, tidying up, and distributing the drinks prepared by the servants on the early shift to Lady Isabella and the other servants taking part in the training, and then I waited for the training to finish.
Apparently if Lady Isabella is unable to respond properly to the attack, a penalty will be imposed on this early morning training, but so far I have not seen any penalties being applied.
I mean, I think that flash bomb is a magical tool used to subdue armed groups or hostile forces in a room, but is it normal for a high-ranking noble to throw one into the bedroom of a 6-year-old young lady?
But every time we do an assault training session, I’m secretly shocked.
After Lady Isabella’s early morning training was over, she quickly finished breakfast after finishing her usual morning preparations as a young lady, and then had various lessons with her tutor. I was allowed to participate in these lessons as well, and was able to learn things that I wouldn’t have had the chance to learn at the company, so I thought staying here wasn’t so bad.
I have classes in the morning almost every day, but a tutor comes after lunch, so I have intensive classes in the afternoon as well.
On days when the tutor doesn’t come in the afternoon, Damon gives Lady Isabella some homework, and if there is any homework, Lady Isabella completes it by dinnertime. During that time, I help out a little.
After dinner we finally had some free time, so we spent the time doing whatever we wanted until bedtime.
When we first met, Lady Isabella said that she had no friends, but after a few days I realized that there was no way she could make friends living like that.
I also learned that although the current Duke of the Rottenstein family is currently the Prime Minister, he was originally a colonel in the Rosereal Kingdom’s army and an A-class adventurer, and that although his second son, Damon, is a member of the Royal Guard, the Rottenstein family itself is not a family of military officers.
Yes, the Rottenstein family is not a family of military officers.
In that case, Lady Isabella shouldn’t have to do raid training before sunrise or early morning training, right?
The eldest daughter, who married into a neighboring country, had apparently received a normal lady’s education, and the second daughter, who was engaged to the next Margrave, had received magical training and basic combat training after it was confirmed that she had magical properties during the mandatory status check at the age of 10, but until then she had received the same lady’s education as the eldest daughter, as I heard from the other servants.
While questioning why a young lady of a high-ranking noble family her age was being forced to undergo excessive combat training that was not actually necessary, I thought that because of this she was in a lonely situation where she couldn’t make friends, so I wanted to be by her side, to stay by her side forever.
And, without any basis, I was convinced with strong confidence that this was “what we wanted more than anything, how it should be. The promise that should be kept.”
I don’t remember making any “promises” though.
I never really thought about why Isabella does raid training. I thought it was just in the current life but it makes since that it would be in every life. I wonder why that is though.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter and thank you for reading!
