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Chapter : 11
“I suppose you’re lacking in character as well, but since you’re still better than thieves, I’ll let you off with just a glare.”
“I had no idea my personality was that terrible… This is news to me.”
The duke muttered as if wounded, but no matter what, it couldn’t have been worse than the thieves’ pale faces.
Before long, the man wearing a monocle gestured toward the knights.
“Shall we go, Lady Hanisha?”
“Y-Yes…”
As I took his hand and stepped inside the castle, the thieves’ desperate cries for mercy echoed behind me.
The man with the monocle was the butler of the Duke of Stükia.
“You may simply call me Butler.”
As he led me into the castle, I briefly explained why I had come here. I omitted the details and told him only that my family had tried to cast me aside, so I had chosen Stükia instead. It was an expanded version of what I had told the duke earlier.
In case of any misunderstanding, I also added that the man devoured by the monster had been a truly terrible criminal.
“So, Lady Hanisha, if I understand correctly…” the butler said after hearing my explanation.
“You had no choice but to leave your family and grant freedom to the maid you love.”
“Y-Yes.”
“So you lured our gatekeeper with bait, entered the Ducal Castle of Stükia completely unharmed and as adorable as ever, and on top of that, bravely defeated a group of thieves. Is that what you’re saying?”
I never put it quite like that… but it wasn’t entirely wrong, so I found myself nodding.
“Oh, my.”
With a soft sigh, the butler pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed at his eyes.
“A story one cannot hear without tears. This butler is truly moved.”
“Huh? Are you crying?”
“But I am not one to shed tears easily.”
In an instant, his expression cleared. With a sharp snap, he flicked the handkerchief clean.
…
I had thought so from the moment I first saw him.
He was definitely not an ordinary person.
As I unconsciously shrank back, he suddenly looked off into the distance.
“…In any case, this makes the second.”
His voice had lost its humor.
“The second person to open the gates of this castle by offering a human life in exchange—and a very wicked one at that.”
His gaze fell upon the monster nestled in my arms.
“And the second to hold that creature in their embrace.”
There was an unreadable emotion in his eyes.
The second? What did that mean?
Before I could ask, the butler stepped back and bowed politely.
“I shall now show you to a room suitable for your stay.”
As he said this, he gently took the monster from my arms.
“W-Wait a moment!”
When I grabbed at him in alarm, he turned around. The monster in his arms tilted its head as well.
Swallowing nervously, I asked, “Aren’t you going to ask me anything more?”
Even if he asked, I had little I could say—but still, he was the butler of Stükia. The duke might brush things off, but surely he would be curious about who I really was.
“Why would I?”
The answer was not what I expected.
“As you know, this place is a heap of refuse. We accept objects, beasts, monsters—and people alike. It doesn’t matter what kind of person you are, Lady Hanisha.”
He smiled lightly as he said it, as though my origins meant absolutely nothing.
Then he shrugged.
“Well, perhaps you truly are the duke’s daughter.”
“That’s…”
Impossible.
Agnito and Stükia were hostile toward each other, and Stükia had already been known as a ‘heap of refuse’ long before my mother became pregnant with me. There was no reason she would ever have come here.
But I couldn’t say any of that, so I stayed silent.
After watching me for a moment, the butler clapped his hands brightly.
“Now then, please head inside. The maids will guide you.”
As if on cue, maids in uniform appeared.
“This is Lady Hanisha, who will become the duke’s daughter.”
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Lady Hanisha. We look forward to serving you.”
Like the butler, they showed no surprise at the word daughter.
It seems nothing shocks the people here.
I had just released the butler’s hand to take one of the maids’ when—
Ah, come to think of it.
I had heard that the Duke of Stükia always had a right-hand man at his side.
The duke himself was mad enough, but that man was said to be even worse. Even before my regression, Duke Agnito had clicked his tongue and said only someone utterly insane could control him.
With something this big happening, where on earth did that right-hand man go?
Just as I tilted my head—
“Ah, Lady Hanisha.”
I turned at the call.
The butler was looking at me.
“Just in case, I should warn you. You may hear strange noises tonight.”
“…Excuse me?”
“They might sound somewhat like screams and be rather unpleasant to hear, but don’t be too frightened. Once you grow accustomed to them, they’ll sound sweeter than a minstrel’s performance.”
He smiled gently.
A strange unease brushed past my mind.
I swallowed and asked, “M-Mr. Butler.”
“Yes, Lady Hanisha.”
“I’m sorry, but may I ask your name?”
“Ah, I neglected to tell you.”
After a brief sigh, he placed a hand over his chest and bowed.
“My apologies, but I have already cast away my past. I no longer possess something like a name. You may simply call me Butler.”
In other words, he would not tell me.
So I changed the question.
“The screams… they’re not human, are they?”
The butler answered readily again.
“Hmm, no?”
“….”
“They shouldn’t be.”
“….”
“Probably.”
I knew it.
This man had to be Charon.
The duke’s right hand. The Mad Dog of the Battlefield. The man who loved blood more than water—Stükia’s greatest lunatic.
Perhaps thinking I was frightened, he kindly added,
“Just think of it as a lullaby. After all, what comes out of one’s mouth is much the same. If you listen long enough, it becomes quite soothing.”
How could that possibly be similar? How could it ever be soothing?
I swallowed the words that rose to my lips.
The butler left, humming cheerfully as he went.
I was assigned two maids: the brown-haired one was Anna, and the wheat-blonde one was Hati.
With them, I headed straight to the bathing room. I had expected poor conditions, but the interior was cleaner than I thought, and hot water flowed well.
“Is the water temperature all right?”
“Yes, it’s fine.”
“Please speak comfortably. You have come as one who will become the duke’s daughter, so it is only natural that we lower our speech.”
The wheat-blonde maid, Hati, said this.
“O-Okay… I understand….”
Even though I knew, it felt unfamiliar, and I awkwardly added the honorific. Hati smiled gently.
The atmosphere wasn’t as cold and rigid as I had imagined.
After hesitating for a moment, I spoke up.
“There’s something I’m curious about…”
“Please ask.”
“The butler beside the duke—what kind of person is he?”
“The butler? Ah, you mean Sir Charon. He once roamed the battlefield alongside our current Duke of Stükia, Lord Pater.”
“He has since changed professions and become a butler,” Hati added softly.
“Hati,” Anna murmured in mild reproach.
Still, neither of them seemed unwilling to work here.
If anything, they seem deeply loyal.
That was what puzzled me most.
Stükia was infamous as a place unfit for people to live.
Not merely because the North itself was harsh and difficult to survive in.
The reason was the Duke of Stükia himself.
Fifteen years ago, the Duke of Stükia had been the eldest son, Enril Stükia.
Back then, the territory was known only for its cold climate and numerous monsters. It did not yet bear the terrifying nickname of “heap of refuse.”
Enril Stükia—the wise and benevolent eldest son and duke.
And the second son, Pater Stükia—the rough and sly yet powerful master of the sword, the Knight of the Cold Blade.
Everyone believed that as long as the two brothers stood together, the North would remain unshakable.
Moreover, the eldest, Enril, was engaged to Princess Trisha Klein of the Klein Grand Duchy.
A marriage between a flourishing grand duchy’s princess and a ducal heir.
And Enril’s devotion to Trisha was so profound that all anticipated Stükia’s prosperity.
But in an instant, those expectations were shattered.
Trisha became pregnant with another man’s child.
Her fiancé’s younger brother’s child.
In other words—
Pater Stükia’s child.
