“Hey, why are you sitting in the car ahead of your master? At times like this, isn’t it normal to get out and open the door to greet them? Aren’t you a maid? You should at least say, ‘Welcome home, Master.'”
Kurumizawa-san muttered this, sighing in exasperation.
Meanwhile, Mary, despite her frustrated expression, got out of the car as instructed and bowed her head to Kurumizawa-san.
“W-Welcome home, Master…”
“Good job. You managed to say it. From now on, make sure you work hard enough that you won’t be praised for something this simple.”
Kurumizawa-san then strode confidently and got into the car.
As I watched her, I suddenly heard a small voice mutter:
“Someday, I’ll kill her.”
That was terrifying, Mary…
Also, her complaint was unusually crude and uncharacteristic. Mary, who usually excelled at sarcastic irony, seemed to be too agitated to maintain her usual composure.
Moreover, she must have been careless because Kurumizawa-san seemed to hear her. This was really unlike Mary.
“Can you keep your arrogance to your chest size? Now, close the door… and make sure to properly greet my classmate here. Don’t embarrass me, the one employing you, and bow deeply.”
“Damn it…”
Then, Mary-san turned towards me and, of all things, bowed deeply.
“Don’t look. Don’t look at me like this…!”
“…I would rather not if I could.”
“Damn it.”
When Mary raised her head, her eyes were slightly teary.
…She has always been a handful and, if I had to choose, I’d say she’s not my favorite person.
But if I had to choose between liking or disliking her… well, I didn’t dislike her.
Though I didn’t like her either, she was certainly unique and talking to her was never boring.
Maybe that’s why, right now, I felt a bit sorry for her.
“What happened that Mary-san ended up working as a servant…?”
I couldn’t help but ask.
She, making sure Kurumizawa-san couldn’t see, flipped her the middle finger and explained how this situation came to be.
“A divine intervention happened, and my dad’s company went bankrupt. We lost everything, had nowhere to live, and so I had no choice but to work at her place.”
“…What? Mary-san’s family was so well off. Can you really lose everything so quickly?”
“Could you not say ‘lost everything’? It’s true, but still… So, as I said, a ‘divine intervention’ took away all the money that was the source of my omnipotence.”
Divine intervention?
At first, I thought it was a metaphor, but… she seemed to be using the term ‘divine intervention’ quite literally.
“A series of seemingly impossible ‘miracles’ happened in succession. Trusted subordinates betrayed us, several partner companies went bankrupt, shady dealings were exposed, new ventures failed… and to top it all off, there was a mistake in tax processing — boom, over. After that, I lost contact with my dad. Well, he’s a resourceful man, so I’m sure he’s living well somewhere, but I was cut off.”
Mary recounted her misfortune matter-of-factly, yet it was incredibly tragic.
If it weren’t her, I doubt anyone else could have coped with such events.
Indeed, for something like this to happen… it must be called a ‘divine intervention’ — there’s no other way to describe it.
