Turning around, Fei saw that it was a young housemaid. The girl looked terrified and began screaming. Why?
When the girl saw that it was Fei who was in the room, not a monster, she blushed all the way to her ears and subconsciously began to apologize. But then she remembered.
"W-W-Why were y-you in the storeroom without even t-turning on the lights?" She bravely asked in a stuttering voice. Her entire body was stiff with fear.
As expected though, Fei didn't answer. She took a few steps forward to walk out of the room, with the mop in her hand. The maid hurriedly took a few steps backward in response.
The maid's screams attracted many other worried and confused servants to the entrance of the storeroom. Soon there was a crowd of people asking the girl what happened.
"When I came down to the storeroom, I found that the door was open, but the lights were off, and it was very dark. I couldn't see clearly. So when I saw a shadow and different colored eyes, I was very startled. I thought it was a monster. It was very startling. Yeah, it was very startling. That's why I screamed." The maid explained hurriedly, trying to cover up her timidness. She felt like a coward, screaming hysterically just because she thought she saw a monster.
However, no one was thinking of this point. One person asked, "What was she doing in the storeroom without turning on the lights? It would be completely dark inside."
Similar murmurs of puzzlement went through the crowd.
The witness answered, "Well, I asked her, but it's not like she underst--"
"What happened here?" An authorizing voice sounded.
Felicia had arrived. There were no traces of how she looked during the previous tussle, her dress was void of crumples and her dark hair was neatly pulled back into a bun.
When Felicia had heard that a situation regarding the new maid with heterochromia had occurred, she immediately put down all her other work and hurried to the storeroom entrance.
The maid who saw Fei in the room recalled what she had seen and quickly relayed all that she knew to the head maid. She hid her trembling hands behind her back and had her head down the entire time she was speaking. The girl was not good at hiding her emotions and seemed more scared of Felicia than the monster that she thought she had seen.
After hearing the summary of the situation, Felicia's eyes narrowed. She knew that an opportunity had arrived.
Felicia looked at Fei, who didn't seem to understand the situation that she was in. "(Feixin, why were you in the storeroom without opening the lights?) Could it be that you were doing something suspicious? Something that is forbidden? Like stealing Rochester property?"
Without waiting for Fei to reply, she continued, turning towards the crowd. "This is a serious matter that involves the reputation of the Rochesters. I will conduct an interrogation myself, with the help of several maids that I shall handpick myself."
She turned back to Fei and commanded coldly, "(Come to my room half an hour from now. I'll be waiting.)"
After saying her piece, Felicia spun around and left, full of confidence.
After she left, the servants that surrounded Fei began whispering with one another. They were very sure that Feixin would experience something terrible, but that wasn't something the gossipy servants cared about; there was a more pressing issue.
This maid... actually had the guts to steal from the Rochester family! The esteemed Rochester family! How stupid. Only a person who is courting death would do it.
Every servant there greatly respected the noble family they served and so they looked at Fei with disdainful and judgmental looks.
Fei clearly noticed their strange looks. But she didn't care. After standing in place for a while, she decided to go back to her room. As she began walking, the crowd immediately parted to form a path around Fei.
As Fei moved farther away and was about to turn a corner, she turned around.
She had sensed someone following her.
It was Feechi.
Feechi was surprised that Fei had noticed him, as he made little to no sound when walking, but he didn't ponder too much on the matter and began to speak. "(Feixin, did you really plan to steal from the storeroom?)"
Fei furrowed her eyebrows. "(What do you mean? I didn't steal anything. Why would I?)"
"(You didn't? Then why were you in the room without turning on the lights? Everyone thought that you were doing something suspicious.)" Feechi was surprised to hear this reply. But then again, Feixin probably was unaware of the accusations placed against her due to the language barrier.
Fei replied with a puzzled expression, "(I wanted to put back the mop that I used, but I couldn't find a suitable location to place it in the storeroom. I didn't turn on the lights because it was already very bright in the room, and I didn't need to.)"
Feechi scratched his head in thought. "{What?}*"
He looked at the mop that Fei held and thought back to when he first met Fei earlier in the day. Indeed, he hadn't paid attention to it at the time, but the tool that Fei used was very strange. It was an incredibly old model and was made up of a bundle of string attached to a wooden pole. You wouldn't be able to get that type of mop in the Rochester mansion. Only those who couldn't afford more technologically advanced tools, those either in the slums or highly undeveloped places, used this type of mop. The Rochester mansion gave only the best equipment to its servants.
Feechi narrowed his eyes. This is very suspicious. He then smiled apologizingly at Fei. "(Sorry, I have to go soon since I still have chores to do. I just came to look for clarification. I can't really help you with your unfortunate circumstances, but I," he scratched his head awkwardly, "think you should probably try and follow the head maid's instructions as faithfully as possible. If you don't, you could stir up even larger problems.)"
After giving his advice, Feechi immediately ran away as quickly as possible. He already offended the head maid once, he certainly couldn't do it a second time, or else, he might end up becoming the second "Feixin."
Fei looked at Feechi's rapidly departing back in a daze. He didn't say goodbye, nor did he wave, she thought. It was a little saddening, somehow, the way that he left so fast as if she was poisonous or something.
She quickly shook off her strange thoughts and continued her way to her room.
Upon arriving at the room, Fei placed the mop horizontally on the floor and sat at the edge of her bed and stared blankly at the plain white walls and empty bed across from her own. She had nothing else to do since Felicia directly oversaw her today, but Felica hadn't given her any assignment other than mopping the floor, which she had already done multiple times.
As such, Fei could only think of sitting in her room to wait for the thirty minutes to pass. As she waited, she couldn't help but think of the only word that felt intimate and familiar to her.
Master.