Behind me as I returned to Walterheim Estate, a carriage from House Roienthal came to a stop. As I stood there blankly, Jester approached me and cleared his throat several times.
"Ahem. Your Grace."
"Hm?"
"Should you not escort your fiancée?"
"Ah."
When the carriage door opened, I approached Cecilia and held out my hand.
"My lady."
"...Thank you."
The moment Cecilia took my hand and stepped down from the carriage, the Roienthal ducal carriage, its task complete, departed for its home.
Jester approached Cecilia as she stood blankly watching it leave.
"Welcome to the North, my lady. I am Jester, the butler of Walterheim Estate."
"Yes. It is a pleasure to meet you."
"Your Grace, what would you like to do next?"
"Please show the young lady around the estate. I will go to my office and deal with the backlog of work."
"Yes, understood."
I left Cecilia in Jester’s care and headed for my office. At the sight of dozens of reports piled across my desk, I sighed and sat down to begin reviewing them.
Most were complaints from the local lords concerning the orcs.
"I need to catch those rats quickly. But how..."
**
"This is the room where you will be staying, my lady."
"This is..."
"It was the room used by the late mistress of House Walterheim."
"I see."
Several years had passed since it lost its owner, yet the room remained impeccably neat and tidy.
"And this is the personal maid who will attend you from now on."
"I am Ran. I look forward to serving you, my lady."
"Yes, I look forward to working with you, Ran."
"Ran, I must go see His Grace now. I will leave the task of attending the young lady to you."
"Yes, understood."
Once Jester had left, Ran began unpacking Cecilia’s belongings.
"Oh, my. If you walk around the North in clothes like these, you will catch a cold in no time!"
"Is that so? I was fine wearing them through winter in the imperial capital."
"Winter in the imperial capital and winter in the North are on entirely different levels. We need to prepare clothes for you to get through the winter..."
Bang!
With the sound of the door opening, a middle-aged woman and those following her entered the room.
"Ugh. Head Maid Leni."
"Ran, what are you doing here?"
"By Butler Jester’s order, I was unpacking the young lady’s belongings."
"Hmph. Are you saying you will obey Butler Jester’s orders while disregarding mine as head maid?"
"That is not what I meant..."
Ran scratched her cheek and gave an awkward smile. Leni glared at her, then turned to Cecilia with a gentle smile on her face.
"Lady Cecilia, I shall show you around the estate. Please come with me."
"..."
Cecilia looked at Ran.
"Was that His Grace’s order?"
"Pardon?"
"Or is this the head maid’s own decision?"
"That is..."
"Ran."
"Yes?"
"Continue unpacking."
Leni glared at Cecilia for dismissing her, then led the maids who had accompanied her out of the room.
"Ah..."
"That was quite the aggressive welcome."
"Head Maid Leni was brought here by the late young masters and became head maid because of them. She clashes with the butler over every little thing, so it is a nightmare for us servants..."
"Is that so?"
"But you sent the head maid away in one go!"
Ran stared at Cecilia with sparkling eyes.
"You are amazing, my lady!"
"It was hardly anything."
Unlike Ran, who sorted through clothes with an innocent smile, the look in Leni’s eyes just now had been the same false smile Cecilia had often seen in the imperial capital’s social circles.
It seems she intends to keep a wary eye on the young lady who suddenly rolled in. There is no reason for me to get dragged into it.
"Ran, once you finish unpacking, could you show me around the estate?"
"Yes! Of course!"
**
"Urgh."
After sorting through the documents piled in the office, a cup of tea fragrant with a pleasant aroma was set before me.
"You have worked very hard."
"This much piled up after I was away only briefly. I am worried about what will happen while I am at the academy."
"If an urgent matter arises, could you not use a gate?"
"You do know how expensive it is to use a gate even once, right?"
"Is money more important when the North is in danger?"
"That is true, so I cannot argue with you. Anyway."
I set down my teacup and looked at Jester.
"How did the investigation into the servants from the imperial capital who remain at the estate go?"
"All of them have someone backing them... but there was one person without any backing."
"Who is it?"
"Head Maid Leni."
"Hah."
"She was clean enough to be unpleasant."
"That only makes her more suspicious."
"Shall I dig deeper?"
"Yes. Please do. Starting with Walterheim Estate, we need to clear out the imperial rats spread throughout the entire North."
Crack!
As I stretched and looked out the window, I spotted Cecilia walking around the estate with a maid.
"That maid is?"
"Her name is Ran. She is a girl I took in and raised as my adopted daughter."
"Jester’s adopted daughter. Then she is trustworthy."
"As you said, Your Grace, would she not be the finest choice to remain at the young lady’s side?"
"Well done. If any vassals or servants provoke the young lady, report it to me immediately."
Jester nodded with a satisfied smile.
"Though this is a contractual relationship, it appears you are rather fond of the young lady."
"It is not like that."
I was only worried that someone would provoke Cecilia without knowing any better and press the detonation switch.
**
At her first breakfast with her fiancé, the Grand Duke of the North, Cecilia inwardly admired Viktor as she watched him observe impeccable table manners, entirely unlike the rumors she had heard in society.
Even the way he holds his cutlery and the order in which he uses it are so neat. The rumors in society truly cannot be trusted. I was worried because I heard he grabbed meat by the bone and gnawed on it.
The dishes laid before Cecilia were excellent enough not to pale in comparison with what she had eaten at the ducal house.
Is that the chef of Walterheim Estate?
His massive frame lacked any sense of delicacy, and his face was scarred. Had he not been dressed in a chef’s uniform, no one would have found it strange to call him a battle-hardened warrior.
"Is something the matter, my lady?"
At Viktor’s question, Cecilia smiled softly and pointed to the soup before her.
"The soup is so exquisite that I was admiring it for a moment."
"Oh?"
Flinch!
The bald chef briefly flinched at Cecilia’s words, but no one noticed.
"Seeing the tender meat and a soup without a trace of grease, I cannot even imagine how much care the chefs put into it for those who would eat it."
"The chefs of Walterheim Estate are the finest in the North."
"Yes. It would not be an exaggeration to call them the finest on the continent, not merely in the North."
Hans, the head chef of Walterheim Estate, began shedding tears of emotion inwardly.
Sniff! She understands the effort poured into that soup!
The deep flavor of a soup that could only be made by tending the fire all night and skimming away every bit of grease. Looking at Cecilia, who understood the philosophy contained in that soup, Hans made a vow.
From now on, I will use only the finest ingredients in every dish served before the young lady! Sniff!
"Pfft."
Only Jester noticed that the tips of Hans’s ears, a northern man who usually showed no emotion, had turned red with feeling.
*
On the way back to her room after breakfast, Cecilia noticed the maids busily cleaning the estate.
"My lady? Is something wrong?"
"Ran."
"Yes?"
"May I see your hands?"
"Ah... yes."
Cecilia frowned after looking at Ran’s hands. Then she approached a maid who was busy cleaning a window.
"Phew. I am done here... Aah!"
"Watch out!"
"There!"
The young maid, unaware that Cecilia and Ran were behind her, was startled by their presence. Just as she lost her balance and began to fall backward, Ran swiftly caught her and steadied her.
"Ran!"
"Oh, honestly. I told you to check whether there is anyone behind you while you are working."
"I am sorry. Uh... but who is this?"
"This is Lady Cecilia."
"U-uh?!! The... the Grand Duke’s fiancée... I-I am sowwy!"
The maid stumbled over her words as though she had bitten her tongue, like a puppy that had caused trouble.
"Hehe. It is all right. Are you hurt anywhere?"
With a kindly smile, Cecilia reassured the maid.
"No! I am not!"
...This child’s hands, too.
"All right, hurry along and get back to work. If you keep spacing out, Head Maid Leni will scold you."
Watching the maid wave and run away, Cecilia looked at Ran as though she had made up her mind.
"Ran, is there perhaps a place in the estate that could be used as a workshop?"
**
"It has been so long since I have had peace like this."
Having stayed up late working while downing caffeine yesterday, I felt a rush of catharsis at the sight of the empty desk before me.
And at the same time—
"...I am bored."
The overwhelming tedium was beginning to make my mind go blank.
"Maybe I should find something to do..."
"Do you truly mean that?"
"..."
My mouth had gotten me into trouble. Jester set a stack of documents of unknown origin on the desk.
"What is this?"
"The account books of the North and the House of Walterheim."
"..."
"Would you like to go over them together?"
The very thought of me, someone who had kept a wide distance from numbers since my previous life, looking at account books was absurd.
"Jester, I am sorry, but I am terrible with numbers. I would definitely cause a disaster."
"Is that so... What a shame."
"I will take a brief walk."
"Yes... enjoy yourself. I will remain here and organize the account books... alone."
As I left the office, I felt Jester’s resentful gaze at my back and scratched my head, thinking that I ought to hire an administrator to assist him.
"Before I go to the academy, I should sharpen my senses by shooting a bow for the first time in a while... Hm?"
On my way to the estate’s training grounds, I noticed light spilling from a building.
"What is that?"
That building was the magic workshop that had been left abandoned after my mother died and it lost its owner. A sense of unease seized me, and I opened its door.
Thump! Thump!
"My lady, do you think I have ground enough herbs?"
"Yes. Thank you."
Cecilia was mixing the ground herbs while Ran enthusiastically pounded more in a mortar.
"My lady?"
"Ah, Your Grace."
"Aah! Your Grace!"
"What are you doing in here? Could it be..."
In the novel, Cecilia relieved the stress caused by the Crown Prince and the protagonist’s romance by practicing magic and alchemy in a workshop.
Then her mana circuits became tangled, and she read a forbidden grimoire, ultimately going berserk.
Could this be a sign of her going berserk? Is that poison?
"Ah, it is nothing, I simply..."
"The young lady is making moisturizing cream for the maids!"
"Huh?"
Moisturizing... cream? Come to think of it, the finished product over there looked exactly like the moisturizing cream my legal sibling used in my previous life.
"Moisturizing cream? Why are you making that..."
"The hands of those who work at the estate are so damaged. I simply wished to help them, even if only a little, so I allowed myself this indulgence. Ah, I used the money I brought from the ducal house to buy the herbs, so please do not worry."
Gah! Did a flashbang go off somewhere? She is supposed to be a villainess? She looks like a saintess with a halo shining behind her!
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