I was sitting on the sofa in Lilia-san's office, which was used for a break and for urgent visitors, with my head in my hands.
　Lilia-san, sitting opposite me, was looking at me with a worried expression on her face, and Lilia-san's complexion wasn't in a very good state of mind either.
　Honestly, I didn't expect to face this kind of problem with building a house.

　........No, it's not about the new building party. As for that one, Ein-san and Zwei-san have prepared for it with overwhelming speed, and the date to hold it has been decided and preparations have been completed, apparently.
　So what is the problem that is currently bothering me.............

"....Lilia-san.
Yes.
'Mr. Illness is too awesome...'
I understand. I know how you feel, Kite, and it hurts.

　Yes, it was about Illness-san, who is currently doing almost all the work of my house.......and the mansion by herself.

''Lilia-san, normally in a mansion of this size, you need a lot of servants, right?''
'Yes, you need a good number of people just for maintenance work like cleaning, and you can't have just one gardener, so you need more than one. There's a lot of work to do besides that.
'When you're going to do that many jobs, ten or twenty people aren't enough, are they?
'Of course. Each of us needs a break and a vacation, and we still need a good number of them. Rather, my mansion is one of the lesser employers for a high-ranking nobleman.

　Hearing my words, which are spoken gravely, Lilia-san also returns my words with a serious expression.
　My house is the same size as Lilia-san's mansion.......the same size as the mansion of Lilia-san, who has a very high position as a duke, the king's own sister, and a very large number of subordinates who have been following her since the days of the knightly order.
　I don't know the exact number of people who work at Lilia-san's mansion, but there are more than 50 people whose names I know alone. Some of them I've never spoken to, so there are probably many more than that in fact.
　Well, in Lilia-san's case, there are civil servants who help her with her work as a duke and people who guard the mansion, so I can't generally say that the same number of people are needed, but...........................Still, it's clear that a good number of people are needed to maintain the mansion.


...Yes, I still managed to reduce it a lot, but...
'When you have to do the work of an entire mansion, it's not ten times as much, is it?　It could be dozens or hundreds of times that amount of work, isn't it?
'Yes, sir. I am aware of that.

　

...
"...he even brought me a cake and helped me with some backlogged work.
What do you think?
''To be honest, I'm shivering. As expected, no matter how much of an earl's level you are, I thought it would be hard to have that much housekeeping instead of fighting, and I thought that even if you were unconcerned, you'd still be exhausted.
...right?
''.......Yes. I didn't think........I'm not kidding, I really didn't think I was in a rather 'handful' of situations until now.

　Lilia-san knows, of course, that Illness-san is doing most of my house work alone. Rather than that, it seems that Illness-san has made an offer to me.
　 There are.

　The first is that Illness-san has done everything by herself, except for the work of Anima, Eta, Theta and Caraway-san, without a care in the world.
　If Illness-san looked like she was having a hard time or was fatigued, she could have been forced to send an additional person, but instead of looking like she was having a hard time, she was like, 'I'm grateful to be able to do what I'm doing because I had no time to do it until now, Illness-san. is working in a slightly better mood than ever before.

　In addition, unusually for Illness, who rarely asserts herself, she herself told Lilia-san and me that she wants to continue working in my home.
　When it comes to the request of Illness-san, which is rarely, if not almost never, made by her, neither Lilia-san nor I can disregard it.

　And that's not the only problem, Irnes-san's abilities are too high. Illness-san is currently doing things like gardening, let alone cleaning and washing, but all of her workmanship is top-notch.
　 There is no merit in hiring them.

　I asked Illness herself if she was taking it too far, but she said, "I may be selfish, but I'd be happy if you could leave it to me," and that she would continue doing most of the work on her own. Hope.
　

　By the way, I digress, but........ "I've been a housewife for a long time, so I can at least help with the housework! Mom, who had confidently told her that she was going to have to do something, was broken by the work of Mr. Illness and said, "...What is that man.......the god of housework? And there was some anguish, such as murmuring, "I want to pay Irnes-san a proper salary, but....

As for me, I want to pay Irnes-san a decent salary since he does the work at home for me, but... ...
'I understand. What you're thinking about, Kite, is something I've experienced many times myself.
"...How do you think Mr. Illness will accept receiving a salary?
I'd rather hear about it.

　Yes, what me and Lilia-san have been struggling with is about Illness-san's salary. For me, I want to pay Illness-san a proper salary. In fact, I'd like to pay him an amount equivalent to the number of servants I would have hired.
　But I know very well that Lilia-san has made many such proposals in the past, and that Illness-san is adamant about it.
　To be honest, even if I told you straight up, the only thing I can see is a "no thanks" response. I really don't know what to do....

　As I was thinking about this, I heard a regular knock at the door and when Lilia-san allowed her to enter, the very same Illness that we were talking about just now came in.

''Excuse me. Today~Lunamaria is off today, so I've brought you some tea~
Oh, thank you.

　I could see Lilia-san's expression tighten.
　Maybe, but that's exactly what Lilia-san's mansion and my house together could be turned around by Irnes-san alone if she wanted to.......

''Oh?　Both of you - you both have a dark expression on your faces, what's going on?

　Illness-san is a person who is keenly aware of the subtleties of other people's emotions, so she seemed to notice immediately that Lilia-san and I were troubled about something, and asked us with a nod of her head.
　Well, what should we do.......since it's the right time, shall we cut to the chase about the salary?　Although it would be refused nine out of ten, it's also possible to think of a way to persuade her after seeing Illness-san's reaction.
　When I glanced at Lilia-san while thinking about that, she nodded silently, as if she had sensed my thoughts.

''.........Actually, I'm having Illness-san work on my house, and I'd like to pay Illness-san a salary from me, apart from Lilia-san, but.......''
I see. Thank you for your concern. I respectfully accept your kindness.
'Yes, I know Mr. Illness is like that, but I'd like to - yes?　Wait a minute, Mr. Illness.
Yeah?
'Well I may have misheard you, so let me say it again. I would like to pay Mr. Illness a salary.
Yes, thank you very much. I'll leave the amount of money up to you, Mr. Kite.


　Lilia and I both nodded our heads at the totally unexpected answer.