Volume 10, Chapter 25 – Let’s Pick Servants for the Mansion (Part 1)!

Accompanied by Camilla, Yisi arrived at the first-floor living room and scanned the room. It was surprisingly full of people, to the point where they were lined up in rows, squeezing against each other. The moment she appeared at the door, all the people—their faces smudged with grime, their clothes washed so thin they were pale—looked over in unison. Their gazes felt clingy and fawning.

“These are all the servants Solanya found,” Camilla explained in a low voice from behind Yisi.

“There are this many?”

“Yes. It’s far more than we agreed on yesterday.”

According to yesterday’s discussion, the total number of gardeners and maids needed for the mansion wouldn’t exceed ten. But now, the arrivals took up more than half the living room.

Furthermore, besides Tiffany and Tina, all of her companions were in the living room. Pepe was sitting on the sofa in the posture of a dignified lady, crossing her legs and sipping blood-laced tea. Refina was standing by the door with Miss Solanya, both giving Yisi a wry smile. The remaining Mary stood attentively behind Edith—she’s probably setting an example for the newcomers. Although Yisi always emphasized that Mary was her family, Mary herself always held the awareness of a servant.

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“Miss Yisi, you’re finally here.”

Unlike yesterday’s plain clothes, Solanya was now wearing an elven-style outfit woven from leaves and vines. Although still revealing, it was less flirtatious and had more of a sacred feel.

Is this the formal attire for elves?

As Yisi sized up Solanya, she recalled the elves she’d seen in various books. The elven clothing described in them was exactly what Solanya was wearing now.

Perhaps feeling embarrassed for bringing so many people without prior notice, Solanya’s expression was a bit reverent, and her form of address for Yisi had changed from “little girl” to “Miss Yisi.”

“I said I would bring the people by yesterday afternoon, but it dragged on until now… I will refund you five copper coins from the commission fee, as a penalty for my breach of contract…”

“Miss Solanya, you don’t need to blame yourself. The contract didn’t specify that you must find everyone by yesterday afternoon. That was a limit you placed on yourself. So you don’t need to refund me. To be honest, finding people who meet my requirements in just one day is already beyond my expectations.”

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This other world’s communication was not as developed as in the information age. From the fact that people could only recruit sailors by shouting in the streets or relying on acquaintances to spread the word, one could see that hiring a reliable servant required considerable luck and patience. Yisi’s internal deadline had been two weeks, so she had no intention of blaming Solanya.

“R-Really?” Solanya looked incredulous.

“Of course. It’s just… these people…”

Yisi’s gaze pointed to the servants lined up at the end of the living room. Like the commoners she had seen in the Niru Diocese, their clothing had no redeeming qualities other than being clean, and their complexions looked malnourished.

“Ah, them.” The previous apology vanished. Solanya puffed out her attractive chest, a wry smile on her face. “After I went back yesterday, I immediately went door-to-door, notifying the people on my list who had worked in noble houses before and lost their jobs. When they heard Miss Yisi was offering a salary of a full gold coin, they all scrambled to work here. Later, even people not on my registry came to sign up. The reason I couldn’t bring them yesterday afternoon was because too many people came, so I had to screen them according to your requirements first.”

Without even looking at the servants, Edith set down her teacup and said coolly, “There are still too many. The mansion doesn’t need this many maids and gardeners. Too many people leads to cliques and factions. The efficiency will be worse than with fewer people.”

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Edith’s words made the servants’ faces grow tense. Some began to whisper among themselves. This action made Edith frown with displeasure, and she ordered Refina to go over. Yisi noticed that Pepe had Refina write down the names of those who were talking, probably to weed them out.

The reason Camilla said these people weren’t competent, besides their physical fitness, must be their lack of basic servant knowledge. Some of them, when they worked in noble houses, apparently hadn’t learned proper etiquette. Unless it was a master-servant relationship as close as Pepe and Refina’s, where they were like friends, a maid was not allowed to speak without the master’s permission when meeting a guest. No matter how much they wanted to give advice, they had to wait until the guest left. This was true in every country.

Although I just need them to clean well and not touch my things… This is a place I share with my companions. I have to consider their feelings.

“Miss Solanya, may I select from these people?”

“Of course. You are the employer, Miss Yisi. You decide how many you want.”

“Mhm. Then let’s start the selection.”

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Soon, Yisi, Camilla, and Refina formed an interview team, using a smaller adjacent room as the interview spot to select the maids one by one. But while it was an “interview team,” the ones actually testing the maids were Camilla and Refina. Yisi just followed behind to prevent them from doing anything outrageous. For example, Refina demanding all maids strip upon entering so she could check their skin for scars, and Camilla asking if they had a spouse, their bust size, and age. As both were too rude, Yisi stopped them without exception.

When Yisi brought this up later, Refina explained that checking the skin was an order from Pepe back in the Pescia Territory. At that time, Pepe had a habit of drinking blood from the maids, so she required them to have no wounds that would spoil the aesthetic.

As for why Camilla asked about spouses and age, Yisi guessed, based on Camilla’s past behavior, that it was probably to exclude the “older sister” types she liked. The maids who passed Camilla’s test were, at oldest, the same age as Camilla, and their “development” wasn’t outstanding. As a result, only three maids passed, and Yisi had to demand a do-over.

The interviews lasted until noon. After selection and compromise by the three, seven maids were chosen from the nineteen. All seven were of noble birth and had received etiquette training since childhood.

It must be emphasized that not all nobles were rich. Some with barren lands, or no land at all, could often only pass their estate to the eldest and second sons. The children after that were mostly just given a sum of money, stripped of their family name, and cast out to become commoners. Likewise, women who couldn’t inherit the family business mostly chose to receive education as a lady’s maid, to make it easier to work in a higher-status, wealthier noble’s house.

As for the gardeners, since no one in the group was skilled in horticulture, Yisi ultimately took Solanya’s advice and kept two gardeners who had previously worked for a great noble family.