On the next day...

“Little Faye, I’ll be conducting an evaluation of your performance as a maid, so I’ll be following Arlea-sama together with you,” Gwen said, dropping a bomb on little Faye.

Little Faye’s body stiffened right away.

Maid evaluation...? If I don’t do well, I can’t be with Arlea-sama again...?

Faye immediately thought to herself and suddenly, a very heavy burden was weighing on her small body.

No matter what, I have to do good in the maid evaluation! For the sake of staying with Arlea-sama!

Her fists clenched, Faye nodded with a determined look.

 

Thus, Faye went together with Gwen that morning to Arlea’s place.

The unusual lineup had Ann surprised, especially since Gwen was standing behind Faye with a menacing look. As if Ann was someone who would gobble up little Faye while Gwen was little Faye’s guardian angel who was trying to threaten her...

“Excuse me, Arlea-sama. I will be tagging along with Faye for her maid evaluation. Please do understand,” Gwen quickly said before Ann could ask anything.

...Maid evaluation?

Ann tilted her head in wonder.

So, a maid had such thing. It must be hard being a maid.

Ann sympathized with all the maids in the world at that very moment. She then bent her body forward to gently pat on Faye’s head.

“Do your best, then, Faye,” Ann said with a smile.

“Of course, I will!” Faye said with a steady and clear voice.

Arlea-sama is rooting for me! I definitely can do this!

 

Meanwhile, Gwen was standing behind them, looking at their interaction. Was this how they usually interact? Or did Arlea’s behavior contain a hidden meaning? In any case, let’s observe them today.

 

The day started as usual with Faye helping Arlea at times. But since this time Gwen was evaluating them, Ann let Faye help her more than she normally did. Luckily, Faye still remembered her maid training and knew what to do.

However...

Little Faye couldn’t stop trembling at all during doing her task!

Her combing Arlea’s hair was done really carefully with slight trembling of the hand. Even Ann could feel it but she could only root for Faye inside her heart.

The keen Gwen noted this and thought to herself.

Just what did Arlea-sama do to Faye, until she trembled like so?

Little did Gwen know that the cause of Faye’s trembling was none other than her.

For Faye, staying with Arlea was a really important thing to do, so she couldn’t help but be nervous.

Thankfully, Faye accomplished her job well even when she was trembling.

 

And when Faye brewed some tea for Arlea...

“Here’s some tea for you, Arlea-sama,” Faye said as she took the glass while trembling, causing the utensils to give the sound of ‘clack clack’ and the hot tea was threatening to be free from its physical prison...

“F-Faye, careful...,” Even Ann couldn’t stand looking at Faye who seemed so close to spill the tea. The tea was hot, what if it were to scald her?

“T-thank you...,” Faye said with a trembling voice as she slowly and carefully put the cup of tea on the table in front of Ann.

“Thanks,” Ann said as she tasted the tea and—

“PFFFT!” ...immediately spurting it out from her mouth.

“F-Faye, did you mistake the salt and the sugar?” Ann asked after she wiped her own mouth.

“E-eeeeeeeh?!” Faye was so surprised that her face turned black.

Did she just mess up real bad?! How will this affect her evaluation?! Will she have to be separated from her beloved mistress due to it?

Faye wished she had the power to rewind time back and redo brewing her tea...

 

At this time, Gwen was sure Arlea would lash out to poor Faye, but...

“That’s fine, we all make mistakes from time to time,” Ann said as she put back her cup of tea on the tray.

Faye excused herself to make another tea. This time, she would make sure 10000 times that it was sugar, not salt!

Gwen was surprised at the turn of the events. And she was finally hit with a realization.

With her here, won’t Arlea hold herself back and behave well?

If so, what’s the point of her monitoring Faye and Arlea to gather some proofs that Faye was being bullied?

But thanks to her monitoring them, Gwen came to see how Faye trembled in the presence of Arlea and even mistook salt for sugar...or was it intentional and Faye knew Arlea won’t say anything with her being there?

Various speculations appeared in Gwen’s mind, none of it being Faye’s trembling was caused by none other than her presence...

 

After that, Faye seemed to be making trivial mistakes here and there, causing Ann to be concerned.

Ann understood really well what Faye was feeling. When she was a corporate slave, she was also nervous whenever there was an evaluation or if the higher-ups were watching her doing her job. Ann was itching to help Faye for she didn’t want Faye to get into trouble, but what if that affected Faye’s evaluation? That won’t be good.

Therefore, during the short moment Gwen wasn’t there, Ann immediately urged Faye to approach her.

“Psst, Faye, come over here a bit,” Ann said.

“Hm?” Faye obediently came over as she tilted her head.

She was totally unprepared for what was to come—Ann hugged Faye really gently as she patted her back.

“Little Faye, there’s no need to be that scared. Consider Gwen as nothing but a vegetable—or a tree and you will do fine. Act as if it’s just the two of us. If things go south, I believe you will just redo your training as a maid, nothing else,” Ann said.

What a baseless confidence, Ann, you didn’t know what was happening behind the scene...

Faye felt a warm sensation welling up in her chest. She liked being hugged and patted in the back by her kind mistress like this...

“Arlea-sama...thank you! I was afraid I won’t be able to stay by your side, so I—”

“Hussh, why are you afraid of that? That won’t happen! If they really are going to do that, then they will have to fight me first!” Ann said as she let go of Faye and tapped on her chest proudly. Yes, she was ready to fight anyone who’s thinking of separating her and her beloved child—err she meant, maid.

At this moment, Allen was sneezing really hard in his office... Gwen felt chills running down her spine.

Faye smiled looking at her dependable mistress.

“Arlea-sama...Thank you so much!” Faye said as she hugged Ann this time.

Ann was caught off guard by Faye’s embrace, her face melted into a smile.

“That’s a given!” Ann said with a chuckle.

 

Thanks to their brief conversation, when Gwen came back to them, she was surprised to see Faye no longer trembling.

Faye was back to her confident self—though she hesitated a bit whenever her eyes accidentally saw Gwen. But at least, her performance was better than before.

 

Despite that, Gwen still noted Faye’s trembling and the various mistakes she made before as a proof to Arlea’s bullying and went on to report it to Allen.

“Is that so?” Allen asked after hearing Gwen’s report.

“Yes, though she somehow stopped trembling and did a good job afterward,” Gwen noted. She won’t lie no matter what happened.

“Hmm...,” Allen went to his thought. That’s weird.

“Anyway, the preparation for Faye’s placement has been done. We can conduct it tomorrow,” Allen said.

“Roger, I will help,” Gwen said.

 

Meanwhile, at the same time, the said mistress and the maid were enjoying themselves reading some books while drinking hot cocoa, totally unaware of what they were going to face the next day...

 

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