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chapter 29
One of the maids suddenly cried out in an agitated voice.
“T-That’s a lie! Lucy was alone when she sold the necklace!”
The moment the words left her mouth, she realized her mistake and snapped her lips shut. Without meaning to, she had practically confessed the crime herself.
After that, everything became simple.
The maids immediately began shifting the blame onto one another.
They started arguing among themselves over who had first suggested stealing the necklace.
Watching them destroy themselves while hurling accusations at each other was rather satisfying. What truly shocked me, however, was the reason they confessed for stealing the necklace.
It was to get revenge on Shuen Felicita.
Before I had entered this body, they had suffered terrible mistreatment at Shuen’s hands.
Harboring resentment, they joined forces and plotted their revenge. They believed that if they framed Shuen for selling the late Marchioness’s keepsake, she would fall out of the Marquis’s favor.
The servants summoned by the butler dragged the three maids away.
The only person left in the study was a small, timid maid who had not participated in the crime.
She admitted that she had known what the others were planning, but they had threatened her into silence.
“I-I have committed a grave sin.”
The maid prostrated herself on the floor, and the Marquis roared at her.
“Why didn’t you tell the truth from the beginning?!”
“S-Sob… I was too scared…”
Tears streamed down her cheeks and splashed onto the wooden floor.
Looking at her brought back old memories.
When I worked at the bakery, situations like this happened all the time. People kept quiet because they didn’t want to get involved, only to end up taking the blame alongside the guilty parties.
I understood exactly how she felt.
Even if she had spoken honestly, she would probably have been dragged into the mess and treated like a criminal anyway.
Considering Shuen Felicita’s original personality, her fear was perfectly understandable.
But the Marquis showed no intention of showing her mercy.
As I watched, I stepped forward.
“That’s enough. Let her go.”
“What do you mean, Shuen?”
The maid lying on the floor also lifted her head slightly and looked at me.
“If we replace all the maids, it’ll take forever to hire new ones.”
I spoke with deliberate irritation.
“It’ll be troublesome if I don’t have anyone to attend me right away.”
Saying it this way kept me from straying too far from Shuen’s original image.
For now, I was exempt from warnings, but the quest would end soon. Speaking like this was the safest choice.
Yet despite my arrogant tone, the maid didn’t look offended at all.
Instead, she seemed deeply moved and repeatedly bowed her head.
“Thank you! Thank you so much, Young Lady…!”
After the maid left, Tarkis spoke.
“If I had known it was stolen property, I would have dealt with it immediately.”
He maintained his usual polished manners.
“I apologize for visiting under such unpleasant circumstances.”
The Marquis shook his head.
“No. This happened because of my own negligence.”
Tarkis turned as if to leave, but before he did, he secretly winked at me.
Even though he acted perfectly respectable in front of the Marquis, the mischievous dragon hadn’t changed at all.
I glanced up at the butler standing beside me.
Like the Marquis, he had been staring at me blankly. But the moment our eyes met, he quickly wiped that expression away.
“Please do not worry, My Lady. I will ensure the culprits receive proper punishment.”
“Uh… okay.”
His reaction was a little strange, but at least everyone’s misunderstanding about me seemed to have been cleared up.
That was enough.
As I pushed the necklace toward the back of the desk, I said,
“I think Father should keep this from now on. It would be terrible if it got stolen again.”
After hesitating briefly, I added the words I had been holding back.
“It’s… important to you too, isn’t it?”
The Marquis’s blue eyes—so much like my own—trembled slightly.
I had just been about to leave after gauging the atmosphere of the room when his voice stopped me.
“Shuen.”
I turned around to face him.
He had been the one to call me, yet he looked as startled as though someone had called his name instead.
His eyes seemed lost, unsure of what to do.
His lips parted and closed several times.
Slow, heavy seconds passed.
Only after a long while did he finally speak.
“I’m sorry. I… misunderstood you.”
It was an unfamiliar voice.
An unfamiliar apology.
The one who had been falsely accused was Shuen Felicita, not me—or so I had thought.
At first, all I wanted was to prevent my relationship with the Marquis from deteriorating completely.
Yet the moment I heard his words, something inside me shifted.
A knot buried deep in my chest stirred, making its dull presence known.
Was hearing an apology from someone really such a foreign experience?
I gripped the edge of my robe tightly and lowered my gaze.
If I kept looking at him, I felt like my emotions would become complicated.
“No. You had your reasons.”
“…”
“I’ll go get some rest now, Father.”
The Marquis gave no reply.
After leaving the study and closing the large door behind me, I let out a long sigh.
I took several deep breaths, trying to calm the turbulent feelings churning inside me.
Whatever happens, the immediate crisis is over.
With slow steps, I headed toward my room.
The moment I opened the door, my eyes widened.
The room, which I had expected to be empty and quiet, contained several unexpected visitors.
Hiser.
Tarkis.
And Akaterian.
“Shushuuu!”
Aka came flying toward me like a missile.
Barely keeping my balance, I caught Akaterian as he buried his head in my arms.
When I had left with Izael earlier that night, I had told Hiser and Akaterian to wait at the estate.
The baby dragon had desperately wanted to follow me, but Hiser had grabbed him firmly by the scruff of the neck and held him back.
“Aka. Have you been waiting patiently?”
“Kyuuu…”
He whined as if complaining and rubbed his head against me repeatedly.
The tiny horn protruding from his forehead tickled my stomach, making me laugh.
“I figured I might run into you at the auction house, but I never expected you’d follow us all the way to the estate.”
That was Hiser speaking to Tarkis.
Though his face appeared relaxed, his sandy-colored eyes were cold.
Tarkis, however, wasn’t one to back down.
“The bread girl asked for my help first. Besides, I had no idea she was the daughter of Marquis Felicita.”
Akaterian, who had been sniffing me with his face buried against my chest, suddenly shrieked.
“And what would you have done if you had known?!”
Tarkis completely ignored him.
“Well, thanks to that, I got to spend a leisurely evening alone with the bread girl.”
<<The Great Dragon Akaterian is enraged.>>
<<The Great Dragon Akaterian wants to turn Tarkis, the dragon who doubles down after being questioned, into ashes.>>
I hurriedly grabbed the furious Aka and tried to calm him.
“Aka, calm down. Nothing happened. He only helped me a little.”
“Shushu is mine! I’ll kill anyone who touches her!”
There he went again with the she’s mine declaration.
I vigorously patted and stroked him.
The furious dragon immediately calmed down.
After enough petting, he closed his eyes and began purring contentedly, looking exactly like a kitten.
He really was adorable.
I turned to Tarkis, who was still engaged in some inexplicable battle of wills with Hiser, and thanked him.
“Thank you for coming all the way here.”
“Hm? You’re thanking me? Really?”
“Yes…”
Tarkis looked at me with gleeful eyes.
“Then next time, let’s really play a game together.”
Seriously, this dragon was obsessed with games.
“Next time, we’ll compete while wagering something truly precious.”
His meaningful remark made me frown.
Well, I could simply make sure that situation never happened.
Smiling mischievously, Tarkis turned to Hiser.
“Actually, it’s good that I ran into the Lord. There was something I wanted to tell you.”
“What is it?”
“A pretty interesting rumor has been spreading among the dragons lately. Have you heard?”
A rumor?
Still stroking Aka, I perked up my ears.
Lowering his voice as if sharing a secret, Tarkis continued.
“Apparently, a human has appeared who’s hunting dragons.”
“Hunting dragons?”
“Yeah. They say he carries a sword as large as his own body, and his skills are terrifying.”
A chill ran down my spine.
My entire body stiffened.
Aka looked up at me with wide eyes, but I couldn’t move.
Tarkis scratched his cheek and continued.
“What was that human’s name again…?”
I held my breath.
“Oh, right! I remember!”
Clapping his hands together, Tarkis finally said the name.
“Iscarot!”
It felt as though my heart dropped straight into the abyss.
It was a name I knew all too well.
Rahael Iscarot.
He was the master of this world I had fallen into—
and the protagonist of the novel This Life, Together With Dragons.
