My Beloved Dog is the Strongest in Another World

Some of the people who I could hire were the servants

“Um, Ms. Claire. Is something wrong?”
“N-no…not at all.”
“Are you sure?”
“Heh…hehe…”

As she was staring at me so much, I asked Ms. Claire if there was a reason.

She looked surprised for a second but then turned away.

Upon seeing this, Mr. Ekenhart looked like he was trying to hold back his laughter…

Well, right now, I wanted to focus on this list.

“…Sebastian. I recognize a few of these names.”

When scanning the pages, I noticed that I knew some of the people who were listed.

But they already had work here… What did this mean?
And so I asked Sebastian, who seemed to be waiting.

As for the names I recognized, they were Milina, Ms. Lyra, Ms. Gelda, and Mr. Nicholas.

“More than half of the list is made up of people who work here, Mr. Takumi. We are also searching through surrounding areas, including Ractos. But that list will take a little longer to be ready.”

“Yes, I understand that… But why are there people from this mansion?”

According to Sebastian, it was more than half of the list. So even if I didn’t know their names, a lot of the people already worked here.

Well, I had talked to Milina about this already, so it wasn’t strange for her to be listed…

But it seemed off for me to hire the other servants as well?

“Obviously…you would not be hiring all of them. That would not do at all. However, when asking them, many answered that they would be glad to help you.”
“Ah… And you are fine with that? It could not have been easy to hire them in the first place.”
“We do not mind. It will not be too difficult to find replacements. And people come from the orphanage as well.”

So, even if I were to hire some of their servants from the list, they would be able to replace them easily enough.

“Besides, while we currently have guests, like you and Lady Anne, as well as the master…once you leave for Range village, and Lady Anne and the master leaves, we will not need as many servants here.”

“We wanted to use this opportunity to hire people from the orphanage, or who are looking for work. It would be difficult to do this if you didn’t take some off of our hands…”

“Is that right? Very well. So, I can take my pick from here?”
“Everyone on that list has volunteered or given their consent when asked… They are willing to work for you.”

According to Sebastian, even if they had a good number of servants now, I would not be here forever.

On top of that, Mr. Ekenhart would eventually return to the main house, and he would likely take Ms. Anne with him, as she was his ward now.

There would then be too many servants in the mansion.

Furthermore, Ms. Claire said that they wanted to take in new people.

The orphanage was currently full, so they probably wanted to get rid of anyone who was old enough to work.

That was probably the reason there were so many servants shere in the first place.

I checked with Sebastian one more time, and he assured me that everyone on the list would be happy to work for me.

Well, it did make me feel better.

I did not feel too confident as an employer, but… This was still less stressful than hiring people I didn’t know at all.

Besides, since they had been working for the duke, that meant they could be trusted.

Especially people that I knew personally, like Ms. Lyra, Ms. Gelda, and Nicholas.

I still didn’t know how many people I had to hire, but now that they were talking about the orphanage, I suppose that might be an option as well.

It wasn’t like I could only hire from the mansion, and it would be nice if I could help them as well.

After all, that was how Milina had come to be here.

“In that case, I will give it a closer look once I return to my room.”

“You’re not going to look at the whole thing now?”

“Well, it’s about people. I want to read through it very carefully. And I will be able to concentrate better in my room.”
“I see… Well, that’s too bad, isn’t? Claire.”

“…Father, what are you on about? I didn’t… If Mr. Takumi wants to read it in his room, then that is what he should do.”
“I see, I see… Hehe. As if you are not itching to tell him…”
“Father!”

“Oh, I will say no more. Now, Mr. Takumi. Just let me know when you’ve made your decision.”
“Uh…yes.”

I put the list down on the table and decided to look through it later.

While I could read it now, Ms. Claire’s staring at me and Mr. Ekenhart’s chuckling was distracting.

Besides, I could just ask Sebastian later if I had any questions.

But when I said I would read it later, Mr. Ekenhart started teasing Ms. Claire for some reason.

She looked a little frantic, and he was highly amused.

Ms. Claire was quite angry over this, causing Mr. Ekenhart to retreat and turn towards me instead.

I wasn’t sure what they were talking about, and I doubted they would tell me. So I pushed it out of my mind for now.

…Besides, I didn’t want Ms. Claire’s anger to be directed towards me next.