Chapter 101 - Homura Emi

"If you're not doing anything, then finish these."

Homura Emi looked up from the dishes that she's putting back in their shelves and saw three young servants who placed three full baskets of dirty laundry that couldn't be washed with the machine.

It's been four days since she had officially started her new role as Yayoi's apprentice, and even if she didn't need to, she had insisted on doing some chores herself. Her status was not told to the other servants however in her behest, as she wanted to work as a normal servant while learning the ropes. Emi believed that by experiencing everything, she would understand her work better, and would be more efficient in managing the household as the head housekeeper in the future.

Some people like these three however thought that she was simply stripped off her title and was made into a lowly servant like them.

These people had started to work in the Cedar Palace, months earlier and had just been recently regularized after a period of training. They were her former servants and they used to treat her with the utmost respect and even praised her a lot. But since becoming one of them, these three started targeting her, passing on their own tasks for her to do.

She stared at them hard with her chocolate eyes. Since losing her position, she had realized the hard way how true it was that people would treat you like the gods when you're at the top, but treat you like dirt when you're down.

These three didn't just treat her like the dirt. They had happily trodden all over her person, trying to break her spirit by ganging up on her.

"As you can see, I'm busy," she retorted, then returned to her task, ignoring the three.

"We don't care. Wash these after you're done there," they told her before they stalked off to idle somewhere, leaving the baskets of laundry to Emi.

In reality, Emi found that she liked doing house chores. Doing them made her feel useful and accomplished, like when she scrubbed and waxed the wooden floor at the dojo until it sparkled, or when she had pulled the weeds at an area in the garden to make it look neater. She surprisingly enjoyed hand washing the laundry too.

However, even if she did, she would not wash the laundry the girls told her to do. Even if she had fallen so low, she refused to be bullied and pushed around. She might not have the luxury she used to enjoy, but her dignity remained rich.

After finishing her task around mid-afternoon, Homura Emi decided to return to her small room. On the way though, she saw a girl being dragged away by the other servants and guards, and she wondered what happened. Then, she remembered the rumor among the servants about a weird girl who had been trying to sneak into the Koutaishidenka's private quarters.

"Such bravery…" Or was it stupidity?

Maybe the girl had no idea how scary the Young Master was, that's why she did that.

"Oh well…" she muttered as she continued on her way.

Yayoi had left her some reading materials to study, and so she decided to read them while she ate a humble meal of two rice balls wrapped with dried seaweed, with a bit of tuna inside.

She picked up one book from the table and began reading them. They were record books of all the things related to the Cedar Palace: the inventory of the treasures, schedule of events, schedule of maintenance, and other mundane things such as the household budget, and inventory of materials the place needed, used, and in stock.

Normally, servants couldn't get their hands on these important books. But, since Homura Emi would be taking Yayoi's position when she retired, she would need to learn all of these. She studied well and took some notes to test her memory.

As she wrote though, a membrane on her finger broke, and she flinched in pain as it bled. All the chores she had been doing took a toll on her soft skin, injuring her hands, slowly making them rough.

She's not going to complain though. Seeing her hands battered like this was strangely a sign of her new peaceful life. All these things cheered her up. Emi felt good – like she was finally a person, a far cry from the pampered doll that she used to be.

She was very thankful to Homura Ryuu for giving her this chance to become someone who could work so hard and earn her own keep.

Finishing her reading materials for the day, Emi stretched her body. Tonight, Yayoi had asked her to assist her in catering to the Kabuki Theater staff that they had invited for the students. The troupe was a very famous one, and Yayoi wanted to introduce Emi to them as her successor.

Emi had no worries about these social things though and she wasn't nervous. Part of her education was the arts after all. She didn't need to review or prepare as she knew the traditional arts by heart.

Seeing as she had nothing else to do, Emi decided to take a walk outside in the garden. As soon as she stepped out, the servants who had told her to do the laundry earlier came rushing towards her with their faces purple from anger.

"You!"

One of them pointed at her as soon as the three reached her.

"Why didn't you do the laundry? Didn't we tell you to do it after you finished putting the dishes back on the shelves?"

"Because of you, we got scolded by the manager!"

In the Homura House, there were several managers working under the Head Housekeeper: Laundry manager, accounts manager, stocks manager, cleaning manager, chef, etc. Each manager was tasked to supervise the servants under their respective departments. But for new servants, any of those managers could give them tasks.

"Why is that my fault? Weren't you the ones who didn't do your jobs?"

At her words, the three were stunned at first, as they thought Emi didn't know it was specifically assigned to them. These three had no idea that all the managers knew her position, and Emi knew all the tasks for the day as the managers reported to her and Yayoi daily.

"How dare you talk back – You're just a rejected whore! You got thrown away because you couldn't please the Young Master in bed! What a lousy lay – and now you couldn't be useful even as a servant," one of the servants who seemed to be their leader as she's always in the middle spat at her.

Homura Emi was amazed by how people could be this disgustingly stupid and evil. She was about to open her mouth to retaliate when someone spoke behind them.

"Of course she dares – she's a Homura."

The familiar voice made all of them stiffen in surprise, Emi most especially as they all turned to see a fierce-looking Kazehaya Gin standing there.

"Y-young Master…" the servants hurriedly greeted as they bowed.

Emi too turned to the newcomer and gave a polite bow. "Young Master Kazehaya," she greeted, but Gin ignored her, his stormy eyes focused on the three servants who had been bullying her.

"Go to your managers to get your pay and get out of here – you're all fired!"