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Chapter : 08
The piled-up documents and books toppled over one after another, knocking into nearby objects as they fell.
And from among them, a cup flew straight toward me.
“M-Miss!”
Mary dropped the newspaper and wrapped herself around me protectively.
“What do you think you’re doing?!”
Fortunately, Mary wasn’t hurt.
Because someone who had suddenly appeared shoved both of us aside and took the hit instead.
“……Gwampa?”
The cup struck Grandfather’s hand before crashing onto the floor.
Crash!
Shards from the shattered cup embedded themselves into the back of his hand.
“Gasp.”
Mary froze completely, unable to say a word.
“S-Sir!”
“Are you alright?!”
Soon after, people who had heard the commotion came rushing in.
Grandfather snorted mockingly at them.
“To think I’d live long enough for a bunch of slugs to worry about me. Should I feel honored?”
“Khm.”
“Ahem!”
“Get back to your work, you useless idiots!”
Then he turned sharply and began walking away.
I stood there blankly for a moment before noticing the blood dripping from his arm and leaving a trail across the floor.
Then I hurried after him.
“W-Wait for me!”
Grandfather returned to his room.
While waiting for the physician and the Duke to arrive, I sat beside him.
But I had no idea what to say, so I merely sat there, stealing glances at him.
Then suddenly, Grandfather spoke first.
“Is that maid so precious to you?”
I flinched instinctively.
“That’s….”
“That’s why you keep watching my mood, isn’t it?”
He was right.
If the whole story came out, Mary might get thrown out.
After all, both my trip to the study and the reason Grandfather got hurt were connected to her.
And on top of that, Mary wasn’t particularly good at her job. She was already disliked by the head maid, so there was a high chance she’d get dismissed over this.
“Why care so much about such an ordinary maid? If you wanted someone similar, you could probably bring dozens from across the Empire.”
“No! Mary’s diffewent!”
“How so?”
“Mary ish….”
Before answering, I looked at Grandfather’s hand.
The bleeding had mostly stopped, but that didn’t mean the wound was gone.
For a swordsman, his hands were as precious as his life.
Was it really okay to say this to Grandfather after he had injured that very hand?
My hesitation made me close my eyes.
Grandfather’s hand disappeared from view.
And then I saw Mary’s hands instead.
Rough. Calloused. Strong enough to break things easily.
Hands perfectly suited for destruction.
Yet the Mary who possessed those hands…
[Oh dear!]
[Did you break something again?]
“She’sh bad at work.”
“Hm?”
“Wike, weally weally bad at it.”
Grandfather’s expression turned strange, but I didn’t take the words back.
Because it was true.
“But still.”
I remembered Mary clearing away the stones on the path where I often tripped.
I remembered her hiding her dirt-covered hands behind her back while smiling and saying I could walk more safely now.
I remembered how, whenever someone pointed out the scratches on her hands, she would simply laugh and say she was clumsy.
And because of that, I could say it.
“She’sh a good person.”
“What? Then what about me? Am I not a good person?”
“Gwampa is…”
I smiled brightly.
“Someone Elisha woves.”
“What a cheeky little thing.”
Grandfather let out a huffing laugh.
Still, he didn’t seem displeased.
At that moment, the Duke arrived first.
“What happened to your hand? I thought only the study was wrecked.”
The Duke grumbled as he sat beside me.
“Of course it ended up wrecked! Who could stay calm after seeing that mess?!”
“What are you dissatisfied with now…?”
“There was no organization whatsoever! None! Can you even think properly in a place that filthy?”
“What…?”
The Duke opened and closed his mouth several times, unable to continue.
“So you destroyed the study over that? And injured your hand too?”
“I simply redecorated a little! Doesn’t it look manly and refreshing?”
“……I’ll request restoration work.”
“Unfortunately, that doesn’t match our company’s style.”
The Duke sighed and pressed a hand against his forehead.
Still, he didn’t continue arguing about it, as though he had simply given up.
Then the physician entered.
“The injured person is… Ah, Lord Patriarch, it was you?”
“When did they send for you?! At this rate, will you only show up after I’m dead to collect the corpse?”
“Hahaha….”
Apparently accustomed to Grandfather’s sharp tongue, the physician merely laughed it off.
“Let’s look at the wound first.”
Grandfather stopped complaining and showed him the injury.
The elderly physician, who looked nearly as old as Grandfather himself, began treatment. Grandfather assisted naturally by moving his arm or handing over bandages whenever needed.
The entire exchange felt incredibly natural.
It was as though they shared two heads but one body.
The treatment ended quickly. As the physician withdrew his hands, he remarked,
“Still, what a rare sight this is. To think Lord Patriarch would actually get injured. I never imagined this old man would witness such a thing before climbing into his coffin.”
“What patriarch? I quit that damned position ages ago, so stop spouting nonsense!”
The physician looked awkward.
“Ah. Right, that’s true. Perhaps I’m getting senile in my old age. I keep forgetting things these days. Haha.”
“Hmph. Excuses.”
Grandfather shot him a glare before suddenly nodding.
“Well… I suppose that can happen when you get old.”
The reaction felt strangely unnatural, making me blink.
[I never thought I’d witness such a thing before entering my coffin.]
The old physician’s words echoed in my ears.
My wandering gaze stopped.
Grandfather’s hand filled my vision.
There was definitely something strange.
‘When the cup fell.’
In that urgent moment, Grandfather had knocked the cup away with his hand. That was why he got hurt.
But the injury never should have happened in the first place.
Just as the physician had found it strange while examining the wound.
‘Ah.’
In that instant, I realized the source of the discomfort I had been feeling.
‘Why didn’t Grandfather use his shield?’
The Duke seemed to arrive at a similar conclusion.
“You blocked the cup with your bare hand and ended up injured?”
he muttered in disbelief.
“What’s unbelievable is your desk! I’ve never seen one so filthy in my life! Is that a person’s desk? It’s an ogre’s nest!”
“With reports coming in from all directions, it couldn’t be helped— Wait, why are you hitting me?!”
“Clean it immediately!”
For some reason, the exchange felt oddly familiar…
Like watching a family conversation from somewhere in my previous world.
A long while later, the Duke rubbed his back and muttered something.
‘…Maybe?’
I tilted my head.
Grandfather couldn’t have known Mary and I would be in the study, nor that an accident would occur.
Saving us had been almost entirely coincidence.
It had been such a sudden situation that perhaps shields simply hadn’t crossed his mind.
‘That could… happen, I guess.’
Though it still felt a little suspicious.
“You’ll end up seriously injured one day if you keep doing things like that.”
“Stop cursing me, you brat.”
Even while I was lost in thought, Grandfather and the Duke kept bickering.
Then suddenly, my eyes met Grandfather’s.
He subtly gestured behind me with his eyes.
Toward where Mary was standing.
Before the Duke noticed anything, he was telling me to go.
‘If that’s what you want.’
There was an old saying: never refuse an opportunity given by your elders.
I grabbed Mary’s hand.
“Let’s go.”
Mary blinked in confusion before hurriedly bowing her head.
“Y-Yes, Miss! Then we’ll excuse ourselves, Master.”
And later, I got another chance to see the newspaper in question.
The Duke had lost interest in it and allowed me to take it.
“Thank you, Daddy!”
I brought it straight to Mary, but—
“I’m not qualified to look at something like this.”
Mary lowered her head without even glancing at the newspaper.
She kept her gaze firmly down, almost as if she was trying to prevent herself from accidentally looking at it.
“Daddy said he was gonna throw it away.”
“I put you in danger, Miss. And the elder was truly injured because of me.”
I blinked slowly.
And then I could see it.
Mary’s emotions.
“Are you sowwy to me and Gwampa?”
“I know it’s only because of you that I wasn’t thrown out of the mansion.”
Mary’s shoulders curled inward.
“Th-That alone is already more than enough for me. I’ve received tremendous kindness.”
Her posture conveyed deep gratitude.
If Mary were dismissed, she had nowhere to go.
Because Mary had originally belonged to an assassin guild—and had run away right before her first mission because she hated killing people.
In the original story, after leaving the ducal household, she wandered the streets.
Even though she herself had been struggling, Mary willingly hid Ian when he was fleeing from Claude.
‘That’s just how good of a person she is.’
And besides—
“I wike Mary.”
There was also one personal reason.
