As I sat, pressing a cold cloth to my cheek, I thought that it was very wrong that all the servants thought Mrs. Rose was bad. In fact, it turned out that she was fair enough, despite the apparent severity.

Maybe she’s just too conservative, but she’s clearly a good person at heart. From this thought it became somehow pleasant to the soul and not so offensive from the situation that arose earlier. It is correct to say that good deeds overlap with bad ones. All right.

In addition to serving the Adamanian princess, I also had my duties to maintain order on the second floor of the central building. That’s exactly what I was going to do now, at the same time clear my head.

Before lunch, I managed to do quite a lot of things – swept the floors in all the rooms, wiped the dust, straightened the books lying unevenly in the library and even the furniture that someone did not bother to move. The latter was quite problematic, since my build was not gifted with powerful muscles. Therefore, I had to make an effort to put the furniture in its place. I feel my whole body will hurt tomorrow.

The last thing left is to remove all the curtains in the library, which are already covered with a thick layer of dust and take them to the laundry. I will do it and I will be able to go to lunch, my tummy is already giving me direct signals with its rumbling.

At the thought of food, saliva began to stand out in the mouth, and the brain deliberately created olfactory hallucinations. Eh, now I would like to eat something meat, and then have a sweet snack... and teeea, a lot of tea, honestly, I would drink a huge mug in one gulp.

The curtains were long and very massive, heavy, but I somehow managed and dragged them to the laundry. The room was quite large, and although I had never been to a laundry in Riliya, I was impressed by the size here. It became immediately clear that washing is a frequent and voluminous business here.

In the middle of the room there were four huge vats in which several people could safely fit to take a bath without touching each other. And along the wall there was a strange device – a huge machine with rollers in the middle. It was a fabric-wringing device. It’s easy to imagine how hard it was for the laundress to twist the lever, squeezing out so many things. And in general, it was a hell of a job.

I walked past one of the vats and dipped my hand into the water. Surprisingly, it was warm, even closer to hot. But there was no fire nearby. The water must be brought here from somewhere, or... magic again. Then that would explain everything.

An elderly woman quickly rushed past me, carrying a large basin with wet things in her hands and with simple movements unloaded everything into a spin. It looked like it wasn’t hard at all and the basin weighed like a feather. But it can’t be. It can’t at all. Most likely, the woman just managed to pump up the muscles of her arms, otherwise it would be difficult to explain her endurance.

- Excuse me. - I interrupted her. - I brought some laundry. Where can I leave it?

The laundress turned around and looked at me as if she saw me for the first time, although just a minute ago she walked past me, almost hitting me.

- Oh, honey. See, there’s a bench over there by your side? - she pointed to the opposite side from me. – Drop it while there. I’m going to finish the push-up now and get on with your stuff. - she smiled good-naturedly.

- Thank you. – I smiled back and headed to the place she pointed to.

I put her things in a neat pile on the bench and sat down next to her, waiting for the laundress to be free. The corner was remote and darkened, and behind the mountain of curtains I was almost invisible.

After a while of waiting, two more maids came into the room. One of them immediately noticed me, but without saying anything, moved on to the center of the laundry, grabbing the hand of another maid.

I sat and looked around. What else could I do? Time dragged on slowly and it was terribly boring. The hard wooden bench made my ass hurt a lot, so I decided to stretch out and walk around. The laundress was still doing push-ups, and two girls kept casting sidelong glances at me and... laughing?

No, I must have imagined it. Or not? Maybe I have something wrong with my clothes or my face is dirty? I briefly examined myself - everything was clean, and hastily wiped my face with my hands, since there was no mirror at hand. But these movements of mine apparently amused the girls even more.

Right, they’re laughing at me.

- Is something wrong? - I asked them both a direct question, which caused their close attention to me. - You were laughing at me just now, weren’t you?

- What makes you think that? - One of the girls said sarcastically.

I felt her dislike in my direction right on my skin. Even the tips of my fingers turned slightly cold.

- Do not think that we have nothing more to talk about, like a new royal whore. – the second one picked her up and both burst into rolling laughter.

- Clarice, look at her face. Haha, that’s hilarious. – the maid tactlessly pointed at me with her finger, and I raged with rolling anger.

Gritting my teeth and furrowing my eyebrows, I was already thinking of taking a bucket of water standing on the floor and splashing them in their painted faces to wash these idiotic smiles off their faces. But the elderly laundress was faster.

- You have nothing else to do, just gossip, and spread lousy rumors? - she whipped both of them with a wet rag, not stingy in her movements. – Well, get to work, otherwise you will wash yourself now!

With her hands on her hips, she was aggressive in her statement, so the girls preferred not to argue and ran away laughing, throwing contemptuous glances at me before leaving.

I exhaled with relief, realizing that I had been holding my breath for a while. What was that all about just now? The royal whore? Seriously? I wanted to tear and throw, what kind of stupid speculation?

Although, considering the intimate moment that happened between me and Raphael, it is unlikely that they are wrong about something. I humiliated myself with this act, I should have pushed him away right away, but I fell for this voluptuous feeling and that’s how it turned out for me. But how did they even know about it?

- RAPHAEL!!! – through clenched teeth, I hissed angrily, as quietly as I could.

- Did you say something, dear? - the laundress didn’t hear me.

- Oh, no, I just... talking to myself.

- The women’s collective is a hellhole, gossip cannot be avoided. Don’t take it to heart. Well, what have you got there? - She glanced at the huge stack of curtains and raised her eyebrows in surprise.

I immediately realized that she was surprised by the neatness with which I put each curtain in a large pile, while two recent maids piled their belongings in a shapeless pile.

- It’s from the library. I replied. – They were covered with such a layer of dust, as if no one had washed them for centuries.

- You won’t believe it, but it is. Almost. In all my long work here, you’re the first one to bring them to the laundry. - she laughed heartily, but at the same time wrinkled her nose from the contamination of the fabric.

I was a little taken aback by this information. How can it be that no one has washed them before? Would the strict Mrs. Rose not have noticed this and scolded the former maid?

- Don’t be so surprised. It’s just that only the chosen ones are allowed into the library, there were no maids in it before you. How did you get there anyway?-The laundress asked, clearly interested.

- Ah... well... I didn’t seem to meet any obstacles and no one told me that it was impossible to enter there. - I tried to justify myself. – Then who was cleaning there all this time? – I was very interested in this question.

- I don’t know. The elderly woman shrugged her shoulders. -I’m just an ordinary laundress, and only Margaret can know the answer to your question.

- Margaret? Who is it?

- You call her Mrs. Rose. - The laundress smiled at me.

Ah, that’s it. I’m not going to ask her for sure, and it’s not my business who. Now it matters that no one scolded me for breaking into the library, which means Raphael gave unspoken consent. Well, that’s what I think.

- In general, leave your things here and come back tomorrow, everything will be dried and ironed.

I thanked the laundress again and went to the kitchen, finally I could eat.