Looks like a Job for a Maid! The Tales of a Dismissed Supermaid: Volume 1 (eBook)

Yasuaki Mikami (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025
250 Seiten
J-Novel Club (Verlag)
978-1-7183-1886-1 (ISBN)

Infos

For plain little Nina, working as a maid in the house of Count Mirkwood is her whole world-until a false accusation has her swept out on the streets. Jobless and with nowhere left to turn, Nina decides to set out on her very first solo journey. But Nina isn't just any maid-she's a supermaid! Her talents quickly prove indispensable to the people she meets during her travels. There's Emily, a mage who can't use magic; Astrid, a brilliant inventor whose experiments never quite work; and Tien, an orphan who can't seem to keep a meal down. Meanwhile, back at the Mirkwood household, things go awry in Nina's absence...

None of them realize it yet, but Nina might just be the answer they've all been searching for. Because when this supermaid is on the job, no mess can stand in her way!

Textauszug

“Enough. My word is final. All I ask is that you remove yourself from the estate of the honorable Count Mirkwood, and I shall consider the matter closed.”

“B-But it truly wasn’t me...”

“Would you prefer to pay for the vase out of your meager salary? It was valued at three million gold.”

“I... I can’t afford that.”

“Then hurry up and gather your things. I want you gone today. And from this moment forth, I forbid you to speak with any of the other servants. Is that clear?” The housekeeper got to her feet as though to declare that the conversation was over. She opened the door out of the room, then stood imposingly to one side.

That was Nina’s cue to get out. Reeling from the shock, she rose heavily, then slowly made her way out into the corridor. Even so, she still bowed her head and said, “It was an honor to serve this household. I wish you all health and happine—”

SLAM.

The door shut. After regarding it silently, Nina walked back to her room, scarcely able to tell if her feet were moving at all.

Her room was located in a detached wing of Count Mirkwood’s estate that housed its various servants. Among them were all sorts of different maids, from ladies’ maids to kitchen and scullery maids to parlor and nursery maids—thirty of them, all told—not to mention the butler’s men, the footmen, the cook, and the boys. The sheer number of servants was a testament to Count Mirkwood’s wealth.

Nina reached her room at last. It was just large enough for a bed, a writing desk, and a wardrobe. Her own possessions were negligible, but for one: the travel bag she took out to pack with. Though scarcely used, it was well taken care of—this was the bag Nina had brought with her when she came to the house five years earlier.

I’d hoped to buy you a big travel bag for when you’re grown up, yet here you are, Nina, off to work before you could get any bigger. Well, there’s nothing else for it. Here, this was mine when I was young, but it’s got a lot of use in it yet. Take it with you.

The bag was a gift from Nina’s mentor, who had trained her to perfection in all a maid’s skills.

“I’m sorry, mistress...” Nina murmured. As she packed up her belongings, bitter tears spilled down her cheeks. “There... There was so much I could have done for this household. But now I have to leave...”

She had been three years old when she’d begun helping her mentor with housework, and five when her mentor had noted her gift for it and they’d begun to work together. When she was ten, Nina had received her mentor’s seal of approval and gone out on her own to the estate of Count Mirkwood.

Five years had passed since then, and Nina was now fifteen years old. Never had she imagined that she would be cast out like this—for a crime of which she had no recollection.

“Well, if leaving is to be my final duty,” she said to herself, “I’d better do it right.” She thought back on what her mentor had told her.

A maid completes every task to perfection. You must be inconspicuous. Standing out is the master’s job.

Nina checked her appearance in a little mirror. She quickly tucked loose strands of mousy brown hair back into her two braids. Behind her glasses, the eyelashes that framed her sky-blue eyes were wet with tears that she wiped away with a handkerchief, trying as best she could to return her face to normal.

She had no personal items of clothing. She could wear her maid’s uniform about town without anyone giving her a second glance, as maids hardly ever had time off. Some did take holidays, but never Nina, who couldn’t stand the idea of the house getting dirty or the other servants’ work falling behind because she’d taken a day off.

Nina put on a coat over her maid uniform, then she remembered.

“Oh! I need to hand over my duties—”

But the housekeeper’s words came back to her: I forbid you to speak with any of the other servants.

Of course. She couldn’t speak to anyone.

Nina fell silent. She would have to leave without seeing her duties properly handed over.

“But I can do this much at least.”

She took out a sheaf of notes in which she had recorded the names, descriptions, food preferences, and points of caution for each guest who called at the estate. It would surely be of use to someone.

Nina turned back to the room she had spent the past five years in and bowed. The bedsheets were pulled tight and there wasn’t a speck of dust anywhere. It was perfectly taken care of.

Nina had taken pleasure in keeping the whole house in the same way.

“Look, over there.”

“Ooh. Isn’t that Nina, the one they fired today?”

Nina stepped out into the corridor to the sound of maids’ voices.

“I never understood how such an average girl got a job working for a man of great consequence like Count Mirkwood.”

“Shhh. She’ll hear you.”

“So what? She isn’t a part of this household anymore.” The other maids giggled.

They wore maid uniforms, but their hair was carefully coiffed and adorned with small accessories, all in the hopes of winning the attentions of the master of the house. The mistress of a noble, after all, could have whatever her heart desired.

Of course, one could guess how good such women were at their jobs. It had been down to Nina to pick up every bit of work they neglected.

Even so, she now went up to one of them.

The other maid turned her nose up and demanded, “What do you want?”

Nina held out her notes.

“I-I’m not talking to anyone, just to myself. This is a list of notes about the guests who have visited this household. I’m sure it will be useful.”

The rest of the maids stared at her in silence.

Not one raised a hand to take the notes from her.

“I’ll just leave it here,” Nina said. She laid the book at her feet, then turned away from them.

Nina had come to the estate on the recommendation of her mentor to be a lady’s maid. Accomplished in languages and well-versed in the rules of etiquette, she had done well in that role, but couldn’t help but be bothered by other things. There were the grimy corridors, the haphazardly served meals, the patchy education of the master’s sons—all things with one, easy explanation: The count hired his maids primarily for their looks.

It was important for some, such as parlor maids, to be pleasing to look at, but he had used the same criteria to select maids who didn’t serve guests, and so duties all over the household went unfinished. The one who remedied this was of course Nina. Despite how large a house it was, she was the sole maid-of-all-work.

What will happen now...? For a moment, Nina imagined what might become of the household without her, then gave her head a vigorous shake. I’m sure the housekeeper will see to it that the household keeps running even after I’m gone. Besides, none of them would want Nina’s concern. The housekeeper would know what needed to be done.

Or so Nina thought. Sad to say, the housekeeper did not know. Nina, following her mentor’s command to “be inconspicuous,” had gone about all her work without attracting notice. She was a lady’s maid and yet a full year had passed after she started before the lady of the house realized she existed and asked for her name.

As she went along, worrying about the future, Nina used a cloth from her pocket to wipe at fogged patches she noticed on the windows, swept up dead leaves that had blown inside, and put away a mop that had been left out. She made each task look as effortless as though she had simply strolled down the corridor, leaving it spotless and sparkling in her wake.

It was in a way inevitable that the other maids would fail to notice Nina given her incredible level of accomplishment. They had no notion of how special Nina was, and Nina never boasted of it, and so unfortunately, they never realized their mutual misunderstanding.

“Oh...” Nina’s gaze fell on a corner of the corridor where there had been a mysterious stain when she first arrived at the house. She remembered the hours she spent getting it out. The window opposite was high up, so she had asked the gardener to lend her a ladder to wipe it. She had spoken to the cook about the servants’ meals, which, prepared in advance to be eaten in spare moments, were often eaten cold, to work out a menu that would still taste good.

That broom closet... That window at the end of the corridor... That ceiling... Even the servants’ wing had received Nina’s attention, although it was the main house where she pulled out the stops and cleaned until it sparkled.

Nina paused. The final place she passed was the kitchen in the servants’ wing. Roy was the cook for the main house, but he also put his culinary skills to work for the servants. At this hour of the morning, he was sure to be here. From inside, Nina could hear the chopping of a knife.

Roy is a genius cook, Nina thought. Even the count’s wife ordered the maids to knock once before entering when she needed something from the kitchen in the main house.

Nina knew his reputation as a cook with impeccable manners, and that he was very good at...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 24.11.2025
• Reihe/Serie: Looks like a Job for a Maid! The Tales of a Dismissed Supermaid
• Illustrationen: Kinta
• Übersetzer: Sylvia Gallagher
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Fantasy
• Schlagworte: Adventure • Comedy • Fantasy • Friendship • Light Novel • Maid • OP protagonist
• ISBN-10: 1-7183-1886-3 / 1718318863
• ISBN-13: 978-1-7183-1886-1 / 9781718318861