What was this nonsense?

‘You nicely let me go before.’

Were they persecuting me for becoming a maid? huh?

But I didn’t senselessly open my mouth. I still had a brain.

A maid talking back to a Duke…. He probably wouldn’t care, but since I’d decided to go my separate way from Raphael, I wanted to interact with him as little as possible.

“Hm. My Daisy?”

But as always, Rue didn’t act as I wanted.

“What do you want to do? Your mistress will follow your wishes.”

Raphael turned his gaze back at me, and I couldn’t help but give him a slight glare.

I was really annoyed with him.

What’s the point of a 10-year-old friendship when it can’t even help me live my life as a maid?

‘What should I do?’

If I considered my position here, it was only right to bow to his excellency, the Archduke Raphael, and treat his words as heaven’s will and his orders as God’s command.

But…

‘You first let me out of the island easily and now are twisting your words and saying you need to do an additional investigation. Isn’t this as suspicious as it gets?’

Presumably, Raphael must’ve not been very interested when he first heard news of my appearance in Queen Island. He seemed to have changed his mind after today’s encounter.

Then it was a dilemma.

Which would be the best option to be able to continue my life as a maid of the Weatherwoods?

<1. Accept the investigation and be interrogated. I am branded as a criminal because I keep my mouth shut so as to not reveal my identity. Then I’m on the run from the authorities. I get kicked out of the Weatherwoods.>

It couldn’t be any worse. Next?

<2. Refuse to the interrogation. A national investigation into the Weatherwoods family is launched. The relics of Dian Cecht are revealed to the world. They’re taken away. I get kicked out of the Weatherwoods.>

This was even worse. Both of these options were out.

In this case, I had to use my last resort.

“My lady.”

I inched closer to Rue and blinked my shiny eyes at him.

“I will obey my master’s orders. For I, Daisy, am my master’s obedient servant.”

Rue, who smiled back, patted me on the back,

“Do you mean you don’t want to?”

“If the lady wishes.”

“Yes, my maid doesn’t like that idea, so I must stop it. Duke Zenail? I refuse your request. Oh, by the way, do I receive the death penalty if I refuse?”

Desherro anxiously watched Rue’s wild behaviour.

Rue was being blatantly rude.

The interesting thing was that because of his beauty, no one was even calling him daring or rude, just pretending that he was ignorant of social cues. After seeing the pitiful expression he gave me, they were just thinking of him as a ‘kind-hearted lady who considers even the feelings of her employees.’

This world was really big on appearance. Tsk.

‘But this was a good calculation.’

This way, if the head maid blamed me for any crimes committed here, I could just pass on all the blame to Rue. Afterall, it’s not like the Duke will blame the maid for her master’s actions.

“Raphael.”

Alas.

“Is there a problem?”

Another uninvited guest had come here.

“No, Duke Jurian. Did you manage to finish the job you were working on?”

“Indeed. Most of it is done.”

…this was a bit.

‘This is very uncomfortable.’

At least right now, the swordmaster was way more dangerous than Raphael. My heart thumped faster. I hid behind Rue’s back with my head slightly lowered. The swordmaster must’ve already heard about my victory from defeat, so if my presence caught his eyes in a situation where was paying particularly close attention to Viscount Weatherwoods…

If the swordmaster’s astonishing sixth sense and insight noticed any similarities between me and Viscount Weatherwoods, this would all become a lot more tiresome.

The swordmaster, who exchanged a few more words with Raphael, looked back at Rue. He bowed his head slightly with a soft smile in contrast to how Raphael had greeted him.

“Nice to meet you, Mrs. Weatherwoods. My name is Jurian Berkeley Gratten. I don’t see Mr. Gray Weatherwoods here?”

As the two warriors stood side by side, an intangible pressure that hadn’t been there before formed, along with the stuffy feeling of not wanting to stay in the same space as them for too long.

The quick-witted became to distance themselves one by one. Of course, this didn’t include Rue. He smiled brightly and accepted the swordmaster’s greeting.

“Nice to meet you, Duke Berkeley Gratten. I heard about you from my husband. Unfortunately, he is recuperating separately. The magic trap caused him great psychological and physical damage.”

Yeager, who stood by his side, suddenly questioned,

“But a moment ago, the lady said he was hurt in his duel with Miss Jea-”

Shut up.

I elbowed Yeager’s waist. His complexion turned pale in an instant, and his breaths heavied as he held his side.

‘I hit you so lightly. Look at how you’re making a fuss.’

Raphael’s eyes met mine. I turned away pretending not to notice.

“Oh Goodness, is he in a bad condition? That’s too bad. I wished to have a long conversation with him about the duel. I will definitely make sure to compensate the viscount for the damage he’s sustained today.”

Raphael looked at the Duke with questioning eyes.

“Duel?”

“Ah, right, the Archduke must not know. Viscount Weatherwoods’ swordsmanship skills are very good. I guess it’s not so surprising when you think of his father, who was revered as a hero in Midwinterre.”

“It’s unlike you to praise someone so generously. Who did he duel with?”

“He fought our Jean.”

“…you must mean Miss Jean Berkeley.”

That’s where Raphael’s words ended.

He seemed to have no interest in the outcome of the duel.

Yeager, whose ears were raised since the topic came up, sighed in disappointment.

‘Judging from how he’s reacting… don’t tell me, are the results of the duel still not known to people?’

It wasn’t bad for my duel with Jean to end quietly.

However, if Jean denied defeat and didn’t step down as successor, it was a different matter altogether.

“Ah, Mrs. Weatherwoods. Jean told me that she wanted to learn swordsmanship under Viscount Weatherwoods. Have you heard about this yet?”

“…swordsmanship?”

My already uncomfortable seat became 10 times more uncomfortable.

‘Why are you suddenly bringing that up?!’

Jean, I’d told you to keep your mouth shut, why were you going around speaking about this?

“She also said that Viscount Weatherwoods allowed her to. I plan to send her to your family home soon. It will be an honour for Jean to be able to learn under the Viscount as his disciple. Please take good care of her.”

When did I give her permission?

The insanely uncomfortable position became a 100 times more uncomfortable.

I swallowed slowly to find composure.

‘Are they taking me for a fool?’

Who was lying here? Jean, or the swordmaster?

‘No, Jean is not the type to lie.’

But the swordmaster I knew also wasn’t the type to speak lies that could be easily caught like this.

He certainly wasn’t…

‘He’s now after the Weatherwoods themselves.’

His target was the relics of Dian Cecht. Therefore, there was a high probability that the swordmaster was the one lying here, not Jean.

‘Did he change his plans? Rather than annihilating the Weatherwoods, he’s now planning to send Jean to us and make her his own eyes and ears.’

What should I do? I’d become caught in an unexpected trap.

Rue, who was blinking in what seemed to be slight surprise, soon let out words dripped in pure arsenic.

“Ah, disciple.”

‘No, don’t look at me. Don’t look at my face to determine the truth. Those two monsters over there are clever. I’m sure they’ll begin to doubt us.’

“I’ve never heard such a thing. It’s weird. My husband tends to tell me about everything, no matter how trivial it is.”

Luckily, Rue didn’t look at me.

“I’m worried. What am I supposed to do?”

What should I do?

We must get through this difficulty as soon as possible. Otherwise, Rue will definitely throw an outburst and cause a bigger incident.

How could I not accept Jean as a disciple?

‘…wait. If I think about it, there’s no problem with taking her in, is there?’

First, regarding the swordmaster’s shady plans.

Jean wasn’t a magic tool. She would have to use some sort of communication to deliver her findings to the swordmaster. Such as letters.

‘Even if we accept Jean into the mansion, wouldn’t it be alright as long as I cut off her means of communication with the duke?’

Second, the assassin-butler’s request.

What the butler wanted was the mess that was caused when the leader of the guild <Clone> changed. More specifically, he wanted to use that chance to get out of their sight.

‘Can’t I get the two of them to meet and come to an agreement?’

Third, regarding getting the head maid’s permission.

‘If I give her an unpaid maid, she’ll definitely be pleased.’

This… maybe it wasn’t so bad afterall?

‘How should I go about this?’

Hmm.

I decided to act after I decided on my plan.

I had to convey my intentions on accepting Jean very clearly so as to not raise any suspicion.

“My lady.”

“What?”

“It just so happens that the mansion is short of cleaning staff.”

A cold silence befell the area.

It was like everyone had been struck by the statement all the same.