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Chapter 31
For the first time.
For the first time, someone wanted to hear what I had to say this badly.
A strange feeling rose within me. Something tingling and impossible to ignore.
Finally finding myself in a situation where I could speak, I slowly parted my lips.
“…I told you. Please check my teacup. That woman… put something in my tea!”
Killian approached the table with a stiff expression and picked up the teacup.
He examined the tea, smelled it, then carefully brought it to his lips and tasted it.
“…Ugh!”
Frowning deeply, Killian spat out the tea that had touched his tongue.
At the same time, the maid who had been lying prostrate on the floor turned as pale as a sheet.
‘As I thought…’
There was definitely something in it.
Otherwise, there was no way tea could have been brewed to taste that bitter.
Wiping his lips with the back of his hand, Killian’s face gradually hardened.
“This is…”
“I told you! How could that possibly be tea? Someone clearly put something in it!”
As I cried out desperately, the maid crawled forward with a face that had now turned deathly pale.
“N-No, Young Duke! That’s not true! I simply brewed the tea incorrectly… I’ve never added anything to it! Nothing at all…!”
“You added nothing?”
“Y-Yes! I swear it!”
“Then why don’t you drink it yourself?”
“Pardon?”
Killian personally bent down and held the teacup out toward her.
His expression was colder than anything I had ever seen.
The maid immediately shut her mouth upon seeing the cup before her. Her eyes trembled continuously.
Noticing that moment of hesitation, Killian crooked his lips into a mocking smile.
“Why? You can’t do it? If it’s merely bad tea, there shouldn’t be any problem.”
“T-That is…”
…Just what did she put in it to react like that?
Wasn’t it simply something bitter?
Suddenly, I remembered the sip I had barely managed to swallow earlier, and a chill ran down my spine.
Crash!
The teacup fell from Killian’s hand and shattered into pieces.
With an icy expression, he slowly crushed the broken shards beneath his foot.
Crunch.
The sound echoed through the room.
“…Lock this maid up immediately! She dared to put poison in the young lady’s tea!”
“…!”
P-Poison?!
My eyes widened as I stared at the maid being restrained by the knights.
‘I drank a sip of that!’
The maid looked just as shocked as I was and began screaming.
“Y-Young Duke! No! It wasn’t poison! It was a laxative! A laxative! I wasn’t trying to kill the young lady—I only wanted to embarrass her!”
“You’ve confessed.”
“…!”
The maid froze in the middle of her outburst.
“I’ll amend the charge. The crime is insulting a noble. Take her away immediately!”
…The result was the same.
Watching the room return to order in an instant, I let out a hollow laugh.
After the maid was dragged away, other servants entered to clean up the broken teacup and the spilled tea.
The gathered crowd quickly dispersed as well.
It could have been resolved this easily all along.
As everything was settled in the blink of an eye, exhaustion finally hit me.
‘Ah, I’m tired.’
It feels like I’ve just gone through some major ordeal.
Standing there quietly and watching for a moment, I sighed and turned around.
I planned to head straight to bed and get some rest.
But then I noticed Killian still standing awkwardly near the door instead of leaving.
“…Brother?”
“Um… Evelyn.”
He scratched the back of his neck.
‘What’s wrong with him?’
The situation had been resolved.
The misunderstanding had been cleared up.
And I really wanted to rest now.
My brain was nearly at its limit after overthinking everything.
Killian’s lips twitched.
“…What is it, Brother? I’m a little tired.”
“R-Right. You must be tired. Don’t worry about that maid. I’ll deal with her personally.”
…Deal with her?
The word bothered me a little.
Eh, surely he wasn’t going to kill her.
I dismissed the thought casually and looked at him.
Then—
“I… I’m sorry!”
Whoosh.
Blurting out the words in a rush, he practically ran out of the room.
…What was that about?
“Young Lady, are you feeling better?”
Jenny asked cheerfully.
“What reason would I have not to be? That lowly creature simply tried to harm me and destroyed herself instead.”
Having woken from a refreshing nap, I answered in an energetic voice.
“I knew it! You wouldn’t hit someone without a reason, Young Lady!”
…How exactly is that a compliment?
Shaking my head, I sat at my desk and began writing something while even whistling.
Jenny glanced at the paper and nearly jumped.
“W-What is this? How many zeros are there…?”
“What else? It’s a bonus for Sir Maren.”
“That much?”
Well, in any case, it was thanks to those two that I hadn’t activated the choice system.
‘Every time I look at those choices, they leave a bad taste in my mouth.’
No matter how many choices appeared, I still had to pick one of them.
In the end, nothing truly happened according to my own will.
Honestly, my greatest enemy wasn’t the Crown Prince or Grand Duke Kashien.
It was the system itself.
I should avoid activating the choice function whenever possible.
Putting on a villainous expression again, I replied to Jenny.
“Hmph. A commoner who dared help me deserves this much compensation. You worked hard, after all.”
Even the real Evelyn probably would have done this much.
She was extremely moody, but when she was in a good mood, she could be surprisingly generous.
As I continued writing numbers, I added,
“Don’t be so shocked over something this trivial.”
“Trivial…? This is…”
“You’ll get one too.”
Jenny’s eyes widened.
A short while later, Maren burst into my room.
“Young Lady! Waaaah!”
“Stop crying! Quit bawling!”
What kind of grown man cried this much?
He was crying just because he received a bonus!
I backed away in disgust from the weeping Maren.
His sleeves were already soaked with tears and snot.
‘Ugh. Gross.’
No wonder he’d cried like that when I paid his younger sibling’s school tuition.
“Every month, you send sponsorship money to my sibling’s school… and now you’re giving me this much too. I can’t accept it, sob.”
That was only because it had been a quest!
The linked sponsorship quest had been providing me with plenty of stat rewards every month.
Watching tears and snot drip onto the floor, I frowned and pulled out a handkerchief, nudging it toward him with my fingertips.
For some reason, he interpreted that as a touching gesture.
With a moved expression, Maren accepted the handkerchief and blew his nose loudly into it.
“T-Thank you… I’ll wash it and return it…!”
“…No, just throw it away.”
Please.
“Huh? But this handkerchief is expensive…”
“Throw it away.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Whether he listened or not was questionable.
Maren carefully folded the snot-covered handkerchief and tucked it into his clothes.
“My younger brother is studying well thanks to you, Young Lady. There was an exam recently, and he got first place!”
“…And?”
“He says he’ll definitely repay your kindness, so he’s studying harder than ever.”
There’s really no need for that.
Still, having talented people emerge for the country was a good thing.
“My brother’s name is Max!”
“I didn’t ask for a commoner’s name.”
I wasn’t curious, either.
Yet for some reason, Maren kept smiling brightly and handled all my sharp remarks with ease.
“Even if you didn’t ask, I’ll tell you anyway!”
“Pointless.”
“Even if it is!”
“It’s not necess—ugh, never mind.”
After yesterday’s incident, Jenny had driven away all the maids in the ducal castle who were giving me trouble and was handling everything related to me herself.
She made sure no other maid could enter my room.
‘She doesn’t really need to go that far.’
What could they possibly do?
At worst, they might put laxatives in my food, bring me cold meals, or pretend to forget and not bring food at all.
That was about it.
Pretty harmless, really.
“Sir Maren was originally supposed to be assigned to the Northern Front, but he got reassigned as your attendant, Young Lady!”
Jenny chimed in while brewing tea.
“Isn’t that right?”
At her words, Maren nodded.
“That’s correct. I was supposed to join the army under His Highness the Second Prince, but it was suddenly canceled. According to rumors, the military will be withdrawing from the Northern Front entirely soon.”
Pretending not to be interested, I perked up my ears.
‘Hmm, just as expected. It seems the conflict with the tribes has been resolved successfully.’
That was originally Rakiel’s specialty.
Diplomacy and negotiations.
Where the Crown Prince dominated others through his imposing presence, the Second Prince preferred to smooth things over and mediate.
The two brothers had completely opposite personalities.
Jenny placed a steaming cup of tea before me.
Unlike yesterday, a rich, nutty aroma reached my nose.
‘More importantly, how am I supposed to gather relief funds…?’
Taking a sip of the warm tea, I sank into thought.
The Rosenthal Duchy had developed around the ducal castle.
Part of its territory bordered the Valter Empire, but Duke Rosenthal was not solely responsible for guarding the border.
‘Still, it’s a fairly sensitive area.’
Most of the land consisted of peaceful commercial districts and farmland.
However, military camps and small fortresses were scattered throughout the southwestern region.
Of course, I had never visited them.
After all, there had been a war not too long ago.
Fortunately, House Rosenthal was unbelievably wealthy.
Evelyn spent money recklessly, yet she had never even come close to exhausting her allowance.
Just a small portion of that wealth could save countless lives.
“Hmm…”
The sound of fingers tapping lightly against the table echoed through the room.
Because of yesterday’s incident, Jenny was practically guarding me full-time, making it difficult to sneak away.
Then…
‘Should I just take them all with me?’
Scrape.
I pushed back my chair and stood up.
“Shall we go for a little walk?”
The two of them blinked and looked at me.
