“…Isn’t there a more moderate way?”
“But Master, I’m really confident in throwing a good slap. How about it, wanna test it?”
Helena giggled at my expression and raised her hand.
“Joking, joking. I won’t do it. Instead, help me out a bit.”
“What do you need help with?”
“We can’t just leave her like that, right? Originally, this isn’t something you do alone; it’s a job where two or three maids do it together.”
“…Are you telling me to wash Rose together with you?”
“I’ve already done almost everything, so you just need to wipe off the water. Come on, hurry!”
“That’s a bit……”.
Didn’t that mean Rose was naked in there right now?
When I showed reluctance, Helena pouted.
“If we leave her like that, the Madam will swell up like soaked spaghetti, will you be okay with that?”
“…….”
“Sigh, alright. I’ll demonstrate my slapping skills……”.
“-I’ll help.”
I waved my hand at Helena, who looked ready to roll up her sleeves even now.
“You should have done that from the start.”
Helena smiled and opened the door for me.
As I entered the makeshift bathroom, thick steam filled my vision and the subtle scent of soap wafted over.
Right in the middle, I saw Rose sleeping soundly in the bathtub with her head tilted to the side.
Damp hair, flushed cheeks, and below that…….
‘…Damn.’
I hastily averted my eyes from the surface of the bathtub water.
If I looked just a little closer, I felt like I would see Rose’s naked body submerged beneath it.
“Master, hurry! The Madam is going to double in size!”
While I was hesitating, Helena went ahead toward the bathtub.
‘Wouldn’t it be a good thing if she doubled in size?’
I thought that as I walked toward the bathtub, trying my best to only look at Rose’s face rather than the bathtub itself.
After standing in front of the bathtub, I asked Helena.
“What should I do now?”
“Lift the Madam up a bit. I’ll wipe her down in the meantime.”
“…….”
After hesitating for a moment, I moved to the back of the bathtub.
Shuk.
From behind Rose, I slipped my hands under her armpits. I was trying to lift her carefully so as not to brush against any other areas, but-
“What are you doing?”
Helena whisper-shouted.
“Is the Madam a criminal? What’s with your posture? You have to grab her from the front and lift her!”
I came over here to avoid exactly that.
I stubbornly maintained my posture and refuted.
“This is more comfortable.”
“Is it okay as long as you’re comfortable?”
Helena growled as she picked up a towel.
“You guys have already done everything there is to do with each other, so why are you suddenly acting so coy?”
“…….”
Helena’s words hit the nail on the head, leaving me lost in thought for a moment.
Indeed, acting like this between a married couple would seem suspicious.
But I didn’t want to do anything indecent while Rose was asleep. If I were to do something, at least when she was conscious…….
No, first of all.
“…The bedroom and the bathroom are different.”
In the end, I could only make a flimsy excuse.
“There’s just a little more water, what’s the difference? It’s the same.”
Helena glared fiercely.
“If you hold her from behind like that, I can’t dry her hair. I need to dry her hair first. Do you want to see the Madam catch a cold?”
“…No.”
Helena was right a hundred times over. In the end, it was something that had to be done.
‘Phew.’
I took a deep breath and steadied my mind, which was trying to become clouded.
This was purely an act to dry her body; there were no other lewd intentions. That was right.
After doing my best to clear my mind,
Shuk.
I moved to the other side of the bathtub.
Trying my best to only look at the crown of Rose’s head, I slipped my hands under her arms from the front. Then, I exerted force and lifted her.
Splash!
Water sliding off Rose’s body poured back into the bathtub.
Pat.
After leaning Rose’s body against me, I stayed frozen in place.
I was hypnotizing myself, thinking ‘I am the wall that Rose is leaning against.’
“Good. Stay like that.”
Helena swiftly rushed over and began patting Rose’s hair with a towel.
I watched that without any particular thought, but,
“-!”
As Helena lifted the hair, Rose’s buttocks were revealed.
…I didn’t see anything just now.
I wanted to think that, but the sensation of those buttocks I felt when helping Rose onto a horse before came to mind.
It was a truly bountiful sensation. It had been really hard to resist the urge to grope them.
‘…Let’s think of something else.’
Left with no choice, I turned my gaze and started looking at the ceiling or the wall.
But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop myself from feeling Rose’s body pressed against mine.
Her warm body temperature, her moist skin, her fragrant scent. Especially things like her breasts with their plump mass.
“Ah, Master.”
Helena’s voice came just in time, allowing me to barely divert my attention elsewhere.
“Don’t just hold her so loosely, hold her more firmly. The Madam’s body keeps slipping.”
“…Understood.”
Now that things had come to this, it seemed like obediently cooperating with Helena would get this over with faster.
In the end, I grabbed Rose’s shoulder with one hand and held her waist with the other, pressing her firmly against my body.
“Good. That’s much better than before.”
Helena let out a satisfied snort and moved her hands even faster.
During that time, I tried my best not to look down and to think of other things.
But paradoxically, the harder I tried, the clearer Rose’s body was drawn in my mind.
“…….”
Rose’s slender shoulders and narrow waist, felt acutely at my fingertips. If I moved my hands just slightly down from here, I would touch that bountiful mound.
Why was it drawn so clearly even though I wasn’t looking?
“Phew…….”
It had been quite a while since I slept while hugging Rose, so the curves of her body were familiar to me.
But in bed, she always wore a gown, so I didn’t know the feel of her bare skin would be this stimulating.
If…….
‘Your Excellency.’
If I rubbed this piece of flesh, grabbed and twisted it to torment her, how would Rose react?
Just imagining that made my head heat up. At the same time, I felt the center of my body stand right up.
‘…Crazy thoughts.’
I rarely have memories of agonizing over wanting to possess something.
However, just for this moment, I felt like I could do anything if it meant I could legally grope Rose’s body.
Helena started drying Rose’s hair with a second towel.
“…It takes quite a lot of towels.”
I opened my mouth because it seemed like I had to say something to stop my thoughts. A thickly cracked voice came out, but I couldn’t afford to care.
“Right. That’s why there’s a lot of laundry, too.”
Helena replied nonchalantly and diligently moved her hands.
“Now you understand why several maids do this job?”
“That makes sense.”
“Yeah, and I came here alone and suffered this much. At least acknowledge that, Master.”
I just nodded at Helena’s fussing.
Helena tilted her head at my obedient attitude, and this time, wrapped Rose’s hair in a towel and twisted it up.
It was quite fascinating how it fixed firmly after wrapping it around a few times.
“Alright, now turn her the other way. I’ll only dry the front and put the gown on her.”
“Understood.”
Shuk.
I slightly separated Rose’s body and was about to carefully turn her around.
“…Gasp.”
Helena gasped. Her slightly widened eyes darted down below me before hastily shooting back up.
Her face, which usually didn’t get flustered, was flushed.
Whether she was flushed or not, I was preoccupied with my own things.
I pulled Rose’s body in, leaned her against me, and pressed her firmly to fix her in place. Because if I didn’t do this, it was obvious I’d get nagged.
But.
“-!”
This time, Rose’s bountiful buttocks pressed squarely against the center of my body.
It was extremely fatal.
Other thoughts, other thoughts…….
“…Don’t even think about doing ‘it’ with the Madam here.”
Thankfully, Helena spoke to me. Her face was indiscernible—whether she was smiling or frowning.
“Why?”
“…Were you actually planning on doing it?”
“I’m just curious about the reason.”
Helena visibly jutted out her lips and began wiping down various parts of Rose’s body.
“Master, you can just leave and be done with it, but I have to empty the bathtub water, wipe the floor, and do all the cleanup, you know? And all by myself?”
“…….”
“So please—don’t cause an accident here and just stay put.”
Helena, who had fired off those words rapidly, paused to think and then added.
“…If you really want to do it, do it in the bedroom. I can clean that up tomorrow morning.”
The content of her words was frivolous, but for some reason, her tone was completely deflated.
I shook my head, unable to understand the reason.
“I won’t do it, so just finish what you were doing.”
Helena stared at me for a moment, then focused on drying Rose’s body.
While the two of us were struggling so hard (?), it was fascinating that Rose didn’t budge an inch. Her peaceful, deep-sleeping appearance was cute but also slightly irritating.
“Can someone fall asleep so soundly while taking a bath?”
When I mumbled in wonder, Helena replied.
“She must have been very tired.”
“Was the trip here hard? Or did she do a lot of work? Enough to be this tired?”
“That’s part of it, but there was something else, too.”
“What?”
Helena let out a sigh as if she realized she had slipped up.
“Ugh, I’m so stupid. My fuse is even shorter, so why am I meddling.”
She cast her eyes down and muttered to herself,
“The Madam is probably going to suffer alone again, so I’m telling you.”
She finally said as if she had no choice.
“Earlier, the Madam and the Knight Commander had a fight.”
That bastard Matthias couldn’t endure it even for a moment…….
Seeing my eyes turn icy, Helena shrugged.
“The Madam handled it well, though. Anyway, talk to the Madam about it later.”
“I will.”
I nodded and added.
“Good job telling me, Helena.”
“Heh, well. Okay.”
I recalled Matthias, who had made a sour face upon seeing me arrive at the mine.
‘This piece of shit dog…….'
It was a common occurrence for someone to harbor dissatisfaction regarding personnel transfers and promotions. Usually, they couldn’t protest to me, their superior, and took their anger out on easier targets.
The people I had chosen so far had either confidently suppressed such grievances or fought and won against them directly.
Of course, I believed Rose had done well too, but I couldn’t help the surge of unpleasant emotions.
‘That’s exactly why I had stuffed this guy in the mine.’
The manager of Gallery 13 and the miners were not normally strong-spirited for nothing, having lived their whole lives doing rough work.
Matthias was the kind of guy who could bark loudly without being intimidated even among such miners.
He placed them in a strict chain of command and suppressed them with a rigid hierarchy. Rising to an important position at a young age was thanks to that dog-like personality.
‘I should talk to Rose about this later.’
One fortunate thing was that, thanks to Matthias’s barking, the heat in my body had subsided a little.
“Oh, but the front is easier, isn’t it?”
After finishing wiping off the moisture, Helena brought a bath gown.
“Are we done now?”
“Roughly. We only squeezed the water out of her hair, so we need to dry it completely in front of the fireplace.”
“Is there still more to do?”
“Of course. Did you think serving a noblewoman was easy?”
Helena spread the bath gown and gestured to me.
“Here, turn the Madam around again.”
With my gaze fixed far away on the ceiling, I grabbed Rose’s shoulders and separated her. When I flipped Rose’s body the other way, Helena draped the gown over her shoulders.
“Now, sit the Madam on that chair over there.”
“Are you ordering me around?”
“Not me, the Madam did.”
“…….”