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Chapter 8
“Your Grace.”
The unexpected group blocking our way were servants wearing the same maid uniforms as Betty.
Among them was the maid who had come to the cabin on my first day in Celeste, calling for Betty.
Her name was Dora, if I remembered correctly.
But aside from her, most of the others looked… suspiciously well-built.
The maids stood with strict, serious expressions, hands firmly on their hips as they stared at me.
Their sharp noses cast dark shadows, made even more noticeable by their strong, muscular builds.
If we ended up fighting them…
‘…I’d lose.’
One hundred percent chance of defeat.
As tension flooded me and I swallowed nervously—
“What are you doing?!”
Even though she was about the same height as me, Betty fiercely stepped in front of me as if shielding me.
For some reason, I felt deeply moved.
“Huh?
Betty didn’t back down at all. Instead, she pushed her face right up to theirs, baring her teeth provocatively.
“What? What?! Are you here to pick a fight? Huh?!”
‘Cerberus…’
How reliable!
For some reason, I suddenly felt brave too. I lightly tapped Betty’s shoulder and stepped forward solemnly.
‘Calm down, Cerberus. You don’t need to step in.’
Perhaps she understood the meaning in my touch, because Betty stopped growling and returned to stand quietly beside me.
Watching us carefully, one of the maids in the center spoke.
“Betty, since when did you become Her Grace’s loyal dog? Just this morning, you were—”
“Grrrr!”
“Calm down, calm down. Cerber—I mean, Betty.”
I stopped Betty, who was about to launch into attack mode again, and spoke firmly.
“I don’t think calling Betty my loyal dog is a very appropriate expression. More importantly, what business do you have with me?”
“We want to become Your Grace’s loyal dogs as well.”
“…?”
What?
I blinked, wondering if I had misheard, when the maid on the right side of the group shouted passionately.
“We were wrong! We misunderstood Your Grace all this time!”
“But now we understand. That elegant attitude… and those firm, cool eyes!”
“Please accept us as Your Grace’s foot wipers!”
“Even if other households try to scout us, we’ll never even look their way!”
Their desperate declarations sounded more like testimonies.
Honestly, their over-the-top enthusiasm made my head hurt even more than Betty’s ever had.
I squeezed my eyes shut, then looked at Betty.
It was a silent signal: You handle this.
But…
“I knew it! I knew you’d be like this!”
“…Betty?”
As if she hadn’t been trembling with anger just moments ago, Betty now twisted her body shyly with sparkling round eyes.
She seemed delighted to have found comrades.
But somehow… it didn’t look like a group of maids excited to serve the same mistress.
‘It looks more like a bunch of fans who share the same favorite idol.’
And that idol is… me?
Honestly, I didn’t want to understand this any further.
“I don’t think ‘foot wiper’ is a very good expression either. First of all, what are your names?”
“My—my name?”
“Yes. All of you.”
“Eek! What do we do?!”
I did my best to ignore their dramatic reactions and calmly listened to their excited self-introductions.
“So in order: Garnet, Nina, Dora, Ria, and Mari?”
“Yes!”
And with Betty too?
Why do the names suspiciously sound like they’re in alphabetical order …?
It’s probably nothing. Let’s move on.
“From now on, we’ll help you, Your Grace! We’ll do anything for you!”
I still didn’t fully understand what was going on, but hearing those warm words, I couldn’t help but smile sincerely.
“Alright. Thank you.”
***
After that day, the atmosphere inside the grand duchy strangely split into factions.
“There she goes again, Lady Hugo. Even if she’s a count’s daughter, she’s still just the grand duchess’s attendant. She’s in a similar position to us, so why does she act so arrogantly? Compared to her, Lady Renée is an angel.”
Some people quietly sided with Renée Blanche.
“But that woman is definitely cursed! Red eyes? Just thinking about it is ominous. Lady Katarina may have a bad personality, but at least she doesn’t have any creepy rumors attached to her.”
Others still sided with Katarina Hugo because they disliked Renée.
In truth, the servants were divided based on which of the two women they disliked more. Small and large conflicts broke out here and there.
“…As a result, internal division has become severe.”
“Ha…”
A deep sigh escaped from the carefully shaped lips of a man.
Pressing a hand to his aching head, Xenos slowly opened his eyes.
“All of this… in just the few days I was gone?”
“Well, that is…”
The head butler, reporting the situation, looked troubled behind his monocle.
Xenos shook his head.
“I’m not blaming you, Karl.”
“I apologize for failing to maintain discipline.”
“How could that possibly be your fault? It’s all because of… the stones that rolled in.”
One side had been relatively quiet, so he had been considering how to naturally separate the noisier side.
But while he had stepped away urgently due to sudden bad news—
It was as if his own front yard had caught fire.
“Damn it.”
***
A few days earlier, Xenos had rushed out after receiving news that a monster had suddenly appeared at the outskirts of the Celeste territory.
Monsters were creatures that only appeared in the founding myth, where the first emperor, Albert Rembrandt, and an ancient dragon sealed them away.
Hundreds of years had passed since the founding of the Rembrandt Empire.
Dragons and monsters were practically stories from another world.
Magic still existed, but its power was weak.
The temple had long taken its place.
As divine power rose, magic naturally declined.
“…”
Xenos followed his train of thought and slowly raised his head.
When he arrived at the scene, the village that had supposedly been damaged by a monster had vanished without a trace.
Of course, there was no monster either.
Had someone made a false report to lure him away from the grand duchy?
If so, that meant there was a spy inside the grand duchy.
Until now, no one had dared infiltrate so boldly.
The most suspicious person was, of course…
“Ha.”
He was reaching his limit.
His eyes burned with cold anger.
“Fine. You may go.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
The old butler, who understood his master well, bowed briefly and withdrew.
For a long time afterward, Xenos remained still, lost in thought, before finally rubbing his face.
“…Nothing but exhausting matters.”
His vision felt blurry.
Not being able to sleep was nothing new, but after traveling nonstop through harsh terrain and freezing weather for several days, the fatigue had piled up more than usual.
Yet the more his body screamed in exhaustion, the clearer his mind became.
That contradiction was something he never grew used to.
‘It’s already this late…’
Even when Karl had entered earlier, most people would have been asleep.
Hours later, the outside had turned into a deep midnight filled only with quiet moonlight.
Pressing his temples firmly, Xenos stood.
Since he wouldn’t sleep tonight anyway, he decided to take a walk.
Step. Step. Step.
The heavy sound of his boots echoed through the dark hallway of the mansion.
Walking without thinking, he found himself in an area he rarely visited.
And then—
“…!”
He sensed sudden movement beyond the corner of the hallway.
Having lived his life walking on the edge of a blade, Xenos’s instincts sharpened immediately.
‘An intruder? No. It doesn’t feel threatening. Rather…’
It didn’t feel like someone sneaking around.
An assassin would never be this careless.
But it wasn’t a busy enough time to have servants working at this hour either.
Moreover, the servants’ quarters were in a separate building, away from the main house.
‘Then who?’
Even as he thought, the light footsteps kept coming closer.
Who on earth would be walking through the main building at this hour—
“Who is it?”
“Eek!”
But the person he encountered was neither an assassin nor a servant…
It was someone completely unexpected.
