Someone interfered. Damn it. That girl Ran is utterly useless when it matters!
After leaving Cecilia’s room, Leni bit her lip as she threw away the now-cold tea.
I was going to slowly ruin her from the inside with a poisonous herb that causes lethargy and addiction...
Thinking of the item in her room, Leni swallowed hard. She needed something dangerous yet certain.
And the item was already prepared.
**
Pleased with the tea Ran had prepared, Cecilia headed not to her own room, but to a place in the estate where she could enjoy tea.
"It is lovely tea."
"I’m glad it suits your taste, Lady Cecilia."
Watching Ran’s eyes sparkle like a puppy begging for praise, Cecilia smiled without realizing it.
"Ran, sit and keep me company. It would be such a shame to enjoy this alone."
"Pardon? But..."
"It is all right. Come, quickly."
Once seated, Ran eagerly stabbed her fork into Chef Hans’s special tart on the table.
"It’s delicious!! And so fresh!!"
"Is that so? Hehe."
Cecilia resolved to reply to the Merchant Alliance soon, the one that had created a distribution network not only for Walterheim Estate but throughout the North.
If only to thank them for moving the adorable maid devoted to her so deeply.
"Lady Cecilia, why do you think Head Maid Leni was so angry earlier?"
"Did she look angry to you, Ran?"
"Mm-hm. How should I put it? The head maid has this particular expression she makes when something has not gone the way she wanted. That was the expression she had."
"Hmm."
Cecilia took a sip of tea and recalled what had happened in her room. Tea containing a highly addictive poisonous herb.
A poisonous herb difficult to obtain in the North, and Head Maid Leni.
"There seems to be quite a lot to think about."
"Pardon? Is there?"
"Hehe."
Creak.
At the sound of the greenhouse door opening, Cecilia turned her head and saw Viktor standing there.
"Your Grace."
"W-Wow... Your Grace!"
Cecilia and Ran quickly rose from their seats and greeted Viktor.
"It seems I have interrupted your tea time."
"Not at all. Did you come looking for me?"
"Yes. That is right."
"Then..."
Ran nodded and began setting out another teacup.
"Please, sit."
"Hm."
Viktor sat down and began staring intently at Cecilia.
"If there is something you wish to say to me..."
"I heard that you were of great help with the distribution network the Merchant Alliance opened in the North."
"Oh, I merely asked those with whom I had connections for help."
"That is your strength, is it not? I am simply grateful that you used it for the North."
"I have entered your protection, Your Grace. It is only natural."
As long as he protected her, Cecilia wanted to show him that she, too, was someone worth protecting.
She did not want Viktor to regret becoming a shield for her and for House Roienthal.
Yes. That is the nature of this contract.
"Ah."
A cold wind slipped in through the greenhouse window, and Cecilia hunched her shoulders. Just as she thought that, as Ran had said, the wind in the North truly was
terribly cold—
Tap.
"Oh?"
A thick fur coat settled over her shoulders, and Cecilia looked up at Viktor in surprise.
"The weather is still cold. I heard you do not yet have suitable clothes."
"Ah, it is fine. It is not as though I go out very often anyway—"
Without listening to all of Cecilia’s response, Viktor left the greenhouse. Cecilia stared blankly after him, then buried herself in the fur coat wrapped around her.
"...It’s warm."
**
When Jester saw me return to my office, he smiled broadly.
"Where did you leave the coat you wore out, Your Grace?"
"I gave it to someone who looked cold."
"Hohoho. Well, well..."
"It is not like that."
It really was not like that. I had gone to the greenhouse to offer my thanks and talk with her, but when I saw Cecilia draw in on herself against the cold, an alarm bell went off in my head.
She caught a cold in the original story too, but that bastard Crown Prince did not even visit her once. He poured all of his attention into the female lead and only raised Cecilia’s rampage gauge. This is dangerous. Colds eat away at the mind and heart!
Emotional stability was essential to preventing Cecilia’s rampage. It would be dangerous if she even caught a cold.
"Tell Hans in the kitchen to prepare something good for a cold tonight."
"Hohohoho."
"I said it is not like that!"
Jester’s pleased smile, as though I were some man afflicted with a possessive obsession with his wife when I was merely struggling to survive, irritated me immensely.
**
After dinner, Cecilia returned to her room. At the sight of the coat hanging on the rack, she recalled what had happened in the greenhouse.
Was he looking out for me? No, that cannot be.
She and the grand duke were bound only by a contract. She must not forget that. Yet even so—
It was the first time. The first time someone had cared about me.
That warmth, that consideration for her. For Cecilia, it was the first time anyone other than family had given her such things.
Just as she calmed her fluttering heart and was about to sit on the bed—
"..."
Cecilia felt an inexplicable sense of unease.
"Ran."
"Yes, Lady Cecilia."
"Aside from you and Head Maid Leni, did any other maids enter my room today?"
"No. There was no maid scheduled to come clean your room today, Lady Cecilia."
"I see."
Swish!
Cecilia drew out her wand and began concentrating. A moment later—
"What?"
Seeing dozens of footprints appearing across the floor, Ran hurried toward Cecilia in shock.
"Lady Cecilia? What is this?"
"Do not worry. Ever since my father secretly stole and read my diary when I was young, I have made a habit of setting up a visitor-detection spell."
"Oh..."
"Hmm. These are my footprints, these are yours, Ran... and these are..."
Examining the footprints, Cecilia found Leni’s tracks—the same Leni who had tried to serve her tea—near the bed, and let out a sigh.
"Hmm."
After confirming that Leni had done something here before leaving the room, Cecilia began searching around the bed. Yet she could find nothing suspicious anywhere.
"Ran."
"Yes."
"Could you bring someone trustworthy to lift the bed for me—"
"The bed? Like this?"
Thud!
Cecilia was briefly dumbfounded as Ran lifted the enormous bed by herself, but she soon regained her composure and began checking beneath it. Then—
"Found it."
"Huh? What is that?"
Smiling, Cecilia severed the mana connection of the magical device installed directly beneath the bed.
"It is a magical device enchanted with an eavesdropping spell. It seems someone prepared it to listen to everything I say here."
"What? Who on earth would do that?"
"That is what we are going to find out now."
Cecilia left the room with Ran. As they inquired after Head Maid Leni’s whereabouts, they learned she was currently doing paperwork in the estate archive. So they headed there and waited by a wall near the archive for Leni to emerge.
"Um, Lady Cecilia."
"Yes, Ran? What is it?"
"You said Head Maid Leni installed that magical device, right?"
"Yes."
"Honestly, I do not understand. Why would the head maid do something like that...?"
"The human heart is difficult to understand, Ran. Especially for someone who has lived in a place devoid of human warmth in the Imperial Capital."
"Pardon?"
"That is why I like the North. I like the kindness of you and everyone else here."
"Hehehe. Kindness, what a thing to say..."
"Shh."
Once she saw Leni exit the archive and head toward her room, Cecilia walked to the archive.
"...It is locked."
"Ah, the archive contains all sorts of documents related to Walterheim Estate and the North, so anyone other than the butler or head maid is not allowed..."
"Is that so?"
Cecilia immediately headed for the butler’s room, where Jester was.
"For the young lady to seek out this old man so late at night—has something urgent happened?"
"I would like to enter the archive."
"The archive? Why?"
"There is something I wish to verify."
"..."
Jester looked into Cecilia’s eyes for a moment, then smiled and handed her the archive key from his pocket.
"When you are finished, where should I come find you?"
"Please come to the head maid’s room."
"Very well. Then I hope you obtain satisfactory results."
After watching Cecilia and Ran head for the archive, Jester made his way to Viktor, who was likely wrestling with paperwork in his office.
Creak!
"Whoa... There are so many documents."
"Not this... nor this one."
As Cecilia examined the documents concerning Walterheim Estate and the North in the archive, she discovered subtly falsified figures in the latest record of the dowry inventory House Roienthal had sent. As she cross-checked it against other records, Cecilia burst out laughing.
"Hahahaha!!!"
"Lady Cecilia? What is it?"
"Ah... Really... What an utterly underhanded method."
**
Knock, knock.
Leni opened the door to see who had come looking for her late at night. The instant she saw the person standing there, her heart nearly stopped.
"Head Maid."
"...My lady?"
"Would it be all right if I came in for a moment?"
"Ah... yes."
Entering the room, Cecilia naturally took the seat of honor and looked at Leni.
"You are originally from the Imperial Capital, are you not?"
"Yes, that is correct."
"Where did you work before coming to Walterheim Estate?"
"Haha... After graduating from the academy, I rested at my family home for a while. Then, through a fortunate connection, I became a maid at Walterheim Estate."
"I see."
"Why... do you ask?"
"No particular reason. It is just that your handwriting... resembles a certain handwriting I have seen far too closely."
"I-I do not understand what you mean by that."
As Cecilia looked at the documents resting on the desk, Leni swallowed hard.
What is this...? What on earth did she come here to say...?
"As a member of House Roienthal, I often have occasion to see documents from various agencies of the Imperial Family."
Cecilia pulled out the dowry inventory she had brought from the archive.
"Among them, this style of notation is used by the Imperial Treasury. It is not used in the North, so why is Head Maid Leni, the last person to write this, using it?"
"Th-That is simply what feels natural to me—"
"Head Maid."
Leni looked into the violet eyes fixed upon her. Violet eyes that seemed to see through everything.
"You subtly falsified the details of the dowry and redirected it to the Imperial Family. Taking advantage of how busy His Grace and the butler are... how underhanded of you, truly..."
"How... how did you...?"
"To dare manage the dowry that House Roienthal delivered to the Northern Grand Duke in this manner... Ah. Perhaps it is only natural. You are—"
Tap.
The magical device rolled across the floor. Leni knew it well. It was the eavesdropping device she had installed in Cecilia’s room.
"The Imperial Family’s faithful dog."
"W-What nonsense!!! Me, who has served the North faithfully for so many years... You would seize on such... such absurd grounds!!!
I will never forgive you... Never forgive you!!!"
When Leni drew the dagger from her bosom, Cecilia pointed her wand at her. At that very moment—
Whoosh!!!
With a sound tearing through the air, the door to the head maid’s room flew open.
"Aaaah!!!"
A bolt pierced through Leni’s arm, making her drop the dagger. Turning her head, she looked up at the man entering the room—black-haired, his red eyes blazing with fury—and began to tremble in fear.
"Explain what the hell is going on."
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