Chapter 8 : Chapter 8
Chapter 8: Is It Only Natural for a Maid to Sleep with Her Master?
Cosette finished the last crumbs of bread, even carefully licking the grease from her fingertips. Only crumpled oil paper remained on the table. The aroma of food still lingered in the room, mixing with the scent of new cotton clothes to form a warm, comforting atmosphere.
The fullness in her stomach felt heavy and solid, something she had not experienced in a long time. Yet it also made her slightly drowsy.
Ryan gathered the oil paper and tossed it into the wastebasket in the corner, where it made a faint rustling sound. He straightened in his chair and looked at the still somewhat reserved girl across from him. His gray-blue eyes were calm, and his voice returned to its earlier even tone.
“Listen,” he said. “Starting tomorrow, there are a few things you need to remember.”
Cosette immediately straightened her back, placing both hands neatly on her knees. Her hazel eyes focused on him attentively.
“First, your job is to assist me, not to serve everyone. At the academy, aside from me, you do not need to bow and scrape to anyone. You are my personal maid. You represent me, and the reputation of the Velt family. Be polite if necessary, but you do not need to be afraid, and you do not need to flatter anyone. Understand?”
Cosette blinked.
The idea felt unfamiliar to her.
All the survival instincts she had learned on the streets had been about shrinking back and hiding—about using timidity and invisibility to secure the smallest measure of safety.
Something like “representing dignity” or “not needing to be afraid” sounded like stepping out of the shadows and into the light while keeping her back straight.
She looked at Ryan’s expressionless face, which nevertheless carried a quiet authority.
Perhaps it meant… being like him?
Not raising his voice, not making threatening expressions, yet simply standing there with an unmistakable air of “do not bother me.”
She did not fully understand, but she nodded firmly.
Ryan continued with more specific instructions. Every morning she should prepare clean water and a fresh towel; keep his personal area tidy; deliver simple messages or collect items from the academy’s public areas when necessary; remember his general schedule and class times.
His instructions were orderly and clear—simple matters, but ones that required attentiveness.
Cosette listened carefully, doing her best to remember every detail.
Time passed quietly between Ryan’s calm explanations and Cosette’s focused attention. Outside the window, the sky had darkened without them noticing. The deep violet night now covered White Bell City, and only distant lights and the warm glow of a single lamp inside the room resisted the darkness.
In two days, the academy would officially open.
“…That’s all for now,” Ryan finally said. He glanced at the dark night outside the window. “All right. Get some rest.”
“Yes, Master,” Cosette replied softly.
But once the word “rest” was spoken, the practical atmosphere in the room shifted into something faintly awkward.
Sleep?
How were they supposed to sleep?
Ryan’s gaze swept across the room.
There was only one bed.
Should someone sleep on the floor?
He was the “master,” so by convention he should take the bed while a servant slept on the floor or elsewhere. But when he looked at Cosette’s pale, youthful face—and remembered the wounds still fading on her back—making her sleep on the hard, cold floor made him frown slightly.
His eyes drifted back to the bed.
It was a standard single bed. Not particularly wide, but not especially narrow either.
If both of them… did not take up much space…
Cosette had clearly realized the same practical problem. Her cheeks began to warm again, and her fingers unconsciously gripped the hem of her skirt.
Did that mean… they would sleep together?
The thought made her heartbeat grow unsteady again. She secretly glanced at Ryan, only to see that he had already stood up and walked to the washing area in the corner. He turned on the faucet and began washing up.
Water flowed steadily.
He made no arrangement at all, as if the matter required no discussion.
Was it normal for a maid to sleep in the same bed as her master?
Cosette stood there blankly for several seconds before realizing she should wash up as well. She imitated Ryan’s actions, using the spare washing tools to quickly clean herself with cold water.
Then she slipped behind the screen and changed out of the brand-new maid uniform, carefully hanging it up.
When she emerged again, she was wearing Ryan’s old shirt—the one that had now officially become her nightclothes. Beneath it, she wore the simple cotton undergarments that Ryan had also asked the elderly tailor to prepare earlier that day.
The rough but clean fabric rested against her skin. Compared with the empty feeling before, it now brought both a sense of security and a faint embarrassment.
When she slowly approached the bed, she saw that Ryan was already lying on the inner side beneath the thin blanket that had been on the bed earlier. He had also taken another light blanket from the wardrobe and tossed it onto the outer side of the bed.
“You sleep here.”
He adjusted his position and leaned back against the headboard. At some point he had picked up a hardcover book—《Introduction to Basic Elemental Theory》—one of the subjects he would soon study at the academy.
Warm yellow light illuminated his profile as he read, the expression on his face focused. He needed to review these subjects again; the original owner’s memories alone were not entirely reliable.
Cosette stood by the bed, looking at the blanket that had been tossed to her and the space left beside it.
She bit her lower lip. Her heart beat rapidly.
Slowly, she sat on the edge of the bed and carefully climbed onto it.
As she moved, the hem of the oversized shirt rose slightly, revealing a pair of slender, pale legs in the lamplight.
Because she was nervous and had just washed with cold water, her skin felt faintly cool. Her knees pressed together, and the curve of her calves looked even softer in the curled position. Even her toes unconsciously curled slightly.
The mattress was indeed as soft as she had imagined.
The moment her body sank into it, she was wrapped in a comfort that almost made her sigh.
It was completely different from sleeping on floors, in corners, or on piles of straw.
It was the kind of softness that made a person want to drift into sleep.
She turned slightly onto her side, facing Ryan, taking up only a very small portion of the bed.
In her view was Ryan’s profile as he read under the lamplight. The light cast a faint shadow beneath his eyelashes. The turning of pages made soft rustling sounds, and his calm concentration made it seem as though the presence of another person breathing beside him had no effect at all.
As if noticing her gaze, Ryan briefly looked up from the book.
“Sleep first,” he said quietly. His voice was lower than before, carrying a strangely soothing tone in the quiet room. “Don’t worry about me.”
Cosette gave a soft “mm” in response and closed her eyes.
The faint rustle of turning pages filled her ears. The scent of ink from the book, the clean smell of bedding, and Ryan’s own fresh and unfamiliar scent drifted together in the air.
Surrounded by these sensations, the tension she had carried all day finally melted away.
Sleep came quickly, like a gentle tide.
Within moments she had fallen into deep, dreamless darkness, her breathing steady and soft.
Ryan listened to the quiet rhythm of breathing beside him. His gaze returned to the page, yet for a long time he did not turn it.
The lamplight stretched his solitary shadow reading beside the bed across the wall.
Outside, night deepened, and White Bell City gradually fell into complete silence.