Extra 1- Ductility Tea Time (2)

“You look like you have a mountain of questions.”

“He, but! I never imagined anything like this.”

“It’s no big deal. I just hired her because I thought I wouldn’t mind if she had a disability or not if she was good at her job.”

“But still…”

“It’s hard for people with disabilities to have stable jobs.”

At that, Ezet let out a small sigh.

In the past, Ezet’s mansion also had a servant with a disability. It wasn’t innate. It was a gardener who was blinded by an accident.

He was initially a worker who went to each mansion and national park to trim trees. The National Park no longer accepted him as he lost his hearing when he fell and injured his head while trimming the beautiful tree in the garden. Other mansions also asked other gardeners to stop working, saying, ‘I don’t want people with disabilities to come and go.’ So Ezet’s grandmother, Marianne Harriet, kept the gardener as the exclusive garden of her mansion. He worked as an employee of Viscount Harriet’s for a while. But Viscount Harriet is generous to their employees.

Realizing that it was an economic situation not unable to pay, he quit his job in a few years and left for another city.

He said, ‘I want to help them because there are not enough people in a small town, unlike a big city.’

After years of living together, Ezet, who was trying to stop the attached gardener from leaving, dissuaded her. She said she was sorry to hold him while she couldn’t afford to pay him well. He also noted that in large cities where there are many aristocrats, the prejudiced eyes of others would make it harder.

So, looking at the gardener’s bent back as he quietly left, she could only do so by waving her hand.

“Edmond, I mean… You hired them to give jobs to people who can’t work in aristocratic mansions or public institutions because of their disabilities.”

“Didn’t I tell you I’m working on welfare policy?”

He said that. Edmond confidently declared that the welfare level within the Jaxen-controlled territory is better than anywhere else on the continent. No children cannot attend school due to lack of money, and the unemployment rate is almost zero.

There must be people who are having a hard time working, but she wondered how it was possible. Don’t say it was on the duke!

Noblesse oblige, in a broad sense, is that so?

“I don’t know if Edmond is generous or strict.”

“I just live my own way. As always.”

Edmond grinned. The smile eventually made Ezet laugh, too.

Edmond Jaxen. A man whose common sense does not work. A man who is not bound by any principles but does what no one else has done. The incompetent employees are threatened to be fired immediately without mercy. Still, he is generous enough to help the poor, the uneducated, the accused, and the disabled to take their part.

“Well done, Edmond; I’m sure the employees are grateful to Edmond.”

“Grateful. They’re going to want to kill me.”

“What?”

“The Jaxen employment test is stringent. Passing the test is not the end, but three times a year. Below the threshold, salaries are cut in half.”

“Oh, my God. Half of it?”

“If you fail twice, you will have to live at one-quarter of your salary, and if you fail three times, you will be fired and have to complete the full-time employment program again from the beginning. It’s impossible to do a side job instead of living expenses during education. It’s a dormitory system.”

It is true to give them jobs, let them learn as much as they want, and support them so that they do not neglect their entire lives, but on the contrary, those who settle for the benefits and become lazy fall into the abyss at once.

Employees of the Jaxen family enjoy a wide range of incomparably higher benefits than those of other mansions. However, to maintain that life, they feel as if they are still bleeding after becoming employees.

They have no choice but to study with and sharpen themselves.

In Edmond’s explanation, Ezet glanced through the servants. The appearance of the servants standing there like stills without a movement is certainly not seen as a person educated for a day or two. How hard did they try to get here?

“But… as capable as I am, I think it’s a good thing to be treated.”

“Is that so?”

“There are many people in the world who are capable but not recognized for their status or other reasons.”

It is also a favorite subject of mystery novels to show their abilities in a twisted way because of their origin, gender, or sometimes because they were hateful to their superiors. The mystery novel that Ezet recently read was also the story of a researcher who killed a professor who extorted research results by undermining a competent student extraordinarily.

‘If they are treated as much as they put in their efforts, and as much as they are capable, at least such a tragedy will not happen.’

Ezet took a sip of hot tea, thinking so. Dark red tea with a mellow scent was an unexpectedly perfect temperature to drink. It seemed to have been boiled with tea leaves that were quite good for the first taste to be sweet, not thick, and clean.

“Does it suit your taste?”

“Yes, it’s perfect.”

“That’s a relief.”

Edmond smiled pleasantly. When he was invited to the Emperor’s Tea Room, Edmond tried to do something dirty, so he didn’t even know if the tea was going into his mouth or nose, and the tea made by Marchioness Spencer was too hot to drink properly. And when he was invited to the Empress’s tea room, he had an accident after talking for a while, so it was the first time for Ezet to have tea time with someone so leisurely.

“What kind of tea does Edmond like?”

“I like teas without poison.”

Pfft. Ezet almost sprayed tea water.

“Who, who is poisoned…”

“It’s a habit, never mind.”

Can he still not give up the tension of being mercenaries? Ezet felt a little sorry for Edmond.

“Edmond, aren’t you tired?”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s hard to live nervously. You must be tired and want to rest, too.”

“That’s why I told you I needed you.”

Ezet is Edmond’s only resting place.

When he hugs her warm body and kisses her fragrant lips, the tension and fatigue so far are relieved instantly.