I Formed a Party with a Girl via an Adventurer Matching App - Chapter 20

 Suspicions of a Sheltered Upbringing

"This towel might be getting a little dirty."

We had just finished bathing. Cordelia, wrapped comfortably in a bathrobe, muttered the observation as she unwound the towel she had used to wrap up her wet hair. I leaned over to sneak a peek, but the fabric didn't look dark or stained in the slightest.

Perhaps sensing my scrutiny, Cordelia offered a defensive justification.

"It smells a bit off." 

"Ah. Yeah, I guess you notice that kind of thing pretty easily with towels." 

"Exactly. It bothers me."

Nodding in agreement, Cordelia casually tossed the towel straight into the trash can without a shred of hesitation.

"Whoa! Wait a minute!" 

"Eek—?! W-What is your problem all of a sudden?!"

Utterly shocked by her casual display of mindless vandalism, I quickly fished the towel back out of the bin. While the simple white towel was admittedly damp, it didn't possess a single visible stain. If anything, tossing it into the trash had only caused it to collect a layer of fine dust, making it dirtier than it originally was.

"Honestly, Kent…… look, I know you are madly in love with me, but could you please refrain from scavenging through the garbage? I know our compatibility is off the charts, but if you desire me that intensely, even I am going to be a little creeped out." 

"Why the hell are you the one getting creeped out by this sequence of events?!"

I carefully folded the perfectly functional towel back up, fixing Cordelia with a stern look.

"Why did you just throw away a towel out of nowhere?! It’s still perfectly usable!" 

"Huh? But it smells." 

"Then just wash it!" 

"Wash it……?" 

"Wait, what?! Why are you looking at me with a blank stare?! How do you normally handle your laundry?!"

For context, the standard method of doing laundry for most regular folks involved heading to a nearby clean river if one was available, or filling a washbasin with water and stomping on the clothes to clean them.

Cordelia, however, offered the following response:

"Laundry? ……That is a job for a professional service, isn't it? It isn't something an individual does by themselves." 

"Well, yeah…… I mean, I've heard there are premium services that handle high-end garments delicately so they don't get ruined, but……" 

"If it’s something that isn't worth the hassle of sending out to a professional, I just throw it away." 

"You do what?!" 

"If a towel gets dirty, you simply discard it and buy a new one." 

"WHAT A HORRIBLE WASTE!!!" 

"W-Why are you getting so incredibly angry……?"

Faced with my sudden explosion of disbelief, Cordelia actually recoiled a bit. Apparently, she wasn't joking. She genuinely had never done a load of laundry in her entire life, and firmly believed that when an object became soiled, the only two options in existence were "paying someone to clean it" or "throwing it in the trash."

As I stood there completely dumbfounded, she finally seemed to realize just how wildly out of touch she was with the real world. Pouting her lips, she shot me a sharp look.

"Now that you mention it, I suppose I do recall hearing stories in the past about people washing their own garments." 

"This isn't some ancient town folklore you're trying to recall from memory!" 

"But even back then, that was a chore the housemaids handled. I have never done it myself, so I wouldn't know the first thing about it."

As she spoke with absolute confidence, I had to admit that Cordelia truly was wrapped in an aura that felt entirely divorced from the gritty reality of everyday life.

She was currently supposed to be nothing more than a rookie adventurer, yet she lived in a spectacular apartment like this. And even though it was technically a loan, she hadn't hesitated for a single fraction of a second to pay an exorbitant sum upfront for my top-tier adventuring gear. Add to that her spectacular lack of worldly awareness regarding basic laundry, and the picture became clear.

This woman named Cordelia. I had harbored my suspicions for a while now, but…… could she actually be a far more sheltered, upper-class lady than I had originally imagined?

To come from a household that casually employed housemaids meant her family had to be incredibly wealthy. Why would the daughter of an elite, sheltered noble house throw away her life of luxury to become an adventurer……?

Sucked into a swirling vortex of sudden questions, I fell completely silent. Cordelia shifted uncomfortably under my gaze, watching my expression, when suddenly—

Thud! Thud!

A heavy, low sound echoed through the apartment. It was coming from past the bathroom, right at the front entrance.

It was almost certainly the sound of a visitor using the heavy door knocker. Since the front door of this apartment was equipped with a solid brass knocker shaped like a lion's head, the sound of a knock reverberated deep through the space.

"Oh, perfect. I wonder who that could be."

Seizing the opportunity to escape the awkward atmosphere like it was a lifeline, Cordelia immediately marched off toward the foyer.

A moment later, I heard the audible click of the door lock turning.

……Wait. That idiot just got out of the bath, didn't she? She’s currently wearing nothing but a bathrobe, exactly like me, right? Furthermore, because her body was still flushed and radiating heat from the hot water, hadn't she left the front of her robe completely loose and hanging open……?

"H-Hey, Cordelia, wait a sec——"

I bolted after her in a panic, but I was exactly one step too late.

Cordelia was already standing in the foyer, pulling open the door for whoever had knocked. Secured only by her loosely tied bathrobe, she slowly swung the heavy door open……

Standing right on the other side of the threshold was a woman clad in a classical, immaculate maid uniform.

Age-wise, she looked to be somewhere in her mid-to-late twenties.

Her deep blue hair was elegantly gathered into a neat chignon capped with a crisp white headpiece. A pair of large, round-rimmed spectacles framed her eyes, her nose was soft, and her thin lips were pulled into a taut, professional line. A small beauty mark rested near the corner of her eye and another at the edge of her lip, and she wore minimal makeup. Her attire consisted of a long-sleeved, ankle-length black dress under a pristine, heavy-duty white apron. Both of her hands were encased in thin, snow-white gloves, her fingers extended and pressed together perfectly.

The maid began to lower herself into a practiced, elegant bow for the mistress who had answered the door, but the moment she laid eyes on Cordelia's current state—

"What on earth are you wearing to answer the door, Lady Cordelia?!"

Realizing just how staggeringly defenseless Cordelia's attire was, her eyes went wide and she let out a piercing shriek.

Cordelia, for her part, gasped in genuine shock as she recognized the maid.

"Susie?! What are you doing all the way out here……" 

"Never mind that, your current appearance is the only thing that matters right now! Answering the door for a guest looking like that…… how utterly scandalous!"

The maid named Susie forcefully shoved Cordelia back across the threshold into the apartment, stepping inside right behind her.

"For a young lady of eligible age to expose so much bare skin to the outside world is absolutely out of the question! Ah, look at this! You cannot leave your chest hanging wide open like that!"

Having closed the front door behind her to block out any prying eyes from the street, Susie finally let out a long, exhausted sigh of relief. Turning her attention back to Cordelia, she spoke with an exasperated tone.

"Honestly, my lady. If a display like that were ever witnessed by some random nobody off the street, I might accidentally find myself forced to gauge their eyes out on impulse!"

Finally calming her nerves, Susie slowly swept her gaze past the shoulder of the bathrobed Cordelia, peering deeper into the apartment.

And there, standing awkwardly in the middle of the room, she spotted me—likewise wearing nothing but a loosely tied bathrobe.

"…………Y-YOU RANDOM NOBODY!!!!!!!!!!"

Forming her right hand into a lethal, two-fingered scissor strike, Susie charged directly at my face, forcing me to frantically flee for my life.

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