Villain Family’s Strongest Butler - Chapter 11

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 14

The sharp aroma of fresh bread mingled with the sweet, syrupy scent of caramel. In the oven, meat glistened with fat while herbs perfumed the stew. The Kitchen was ablaze with activity, preparing for the Grand Duke’s arrival.
Tap-tap-tap-tap—young maid Meriyal clutched an enormous bowl against her ribs, whipping cream with determined strokes.
When Meriyal caught sight of me, she broke into a broad grin.
“Freya! The eggs today are so fresh! Do you think the hens knew it was a special day?”
“They’re only so fine because you tend them with such care,” I said.
Meriyal’s cheeks flushed, and she smiled shyly.
“You’re too kind, Freya.”
Bashfully.
I gave her an encouraging word and turned to address Chef Rend.
“How does the lamb look?”
“Excellent, Freya. That was the right call, switching suppliers at the top tier. Better quality, lower price—couldn’t ask for more.”
Rend burst into hearty laughter.
When I took up the position of Butler at the Grand Duke’s Residence, the first thing I did was overhaul the supply contracts.
‘Master filled the vacant position, true enough, but even he had his limits.’
My master was a retainer, not a butler—a living legend in butler circles, yes, but one who moved between the Millard Count House and the Grand Duke’s Residence, never quite able to peer into every corner of the Ballot Grand Duke House’s inner workings.
Still, his presence had kept the merchants sufficiently on their toes.
During the years the position sat vacant, things had only grown slack—nothing catastrophic, but the oversight had frayed at the edges.
I had no intention of letting even the smallest detail slide. That was why I’d moved to sever ties with that food supplier as an example.
‘I won’t tolerate anyone who treats our table lightly.’
I smiled with quiet satisfaction.
“Good. From now on, if any problem arises with the ingredients, tell me at once.”
“You have my word!”
“And—the Grand Duke and the Mars Knights should arrive within two hours.”
“Two hours?!”
“At a rapid advance pace, they may arrive even sooner. Prepare everything so a meal can be served immediately.”
“Done! Don’t you worry—I’ll time it perfectly, down to the minute!”
Rend thumped his broad chest with his fists for emphasis, as if to say trust him alone.
I smiled faintly and turned to leave.
‘Kitchen inspection complete.’
Both the East Annex and the Main Building kitchens.
‘Perfect.’
I stepped into the Central Hall and began to trace the path the Grand Duke would walk—imagining his every move as if I were the Grand Duke myself.
Every corner of each staircase, every curve of the bannister rails.
Wherever my eyes fell, my gloved hands swept across the surface to check for dust.
As I reached the end of the fourth-floor landing and the entrance to the fifth floor, I felt an odd thrill to find not a speck on my fingertips.
‘Perfection itself.’
From the first floor through the fourth.
Nothing could be more flawless. My pulse thrummed—like the moment after a battlefield victory. Perhaps even more so.
Lost in admiration of my white-gloved fingertips, I suddenly found my gaze drifting to a massive black iron door some distance away.
The fifth floor.
“The fifth floor of the Main Building is strictly off-limits. Don’t even think about going up there.”
My master’s warning echoed in my mind.
Mm. Today, like every day, that iron door tested my patience.
For all it was—just a vast slab of metal—that door had spent the last two years needling at my curiosity relentlessly.
‘Bewitching thing.’
Had it been left open by accident, I might have walked through without hesitation.
But during the Grand Duke’s absence, it remained sealed tight.
‘Though the aide seems to go in and out…’
I harbored no resentment that a butler ranked below a secretary. And so perhaps one day I too would cross that threshold.
Why else had I become a butler?
To gain the Grand Duke’s trust and solve the mystery of who I am. And to claim his head as an offering to Serhein.
A butler stands closest to the Grand Duke—close enough to feel the pulse at his throat thrumming beneath an outstretched hand.
That was the sole reason I became a butler.
Of course, reaching this position had not come without cost.
My master, switching my training from maidservant to butler with deliberate purpose, had worked me relentlessly.
‘The founder of the Butler Academy, he’d said.’
My master used to say that the number of students who’d fled her instruction could fill Redianarre Lake, the one behind the Grand Duke’s Residence, and still have room to spare.
I understood that sentiment completely.
Had I lacked purpose, I might well have run away myself.
“A butler who doesn’t know the count of spoons, forks, and knives cannot exist!”
“Cannot exist!”
“When a silver candelabra loses its luster, the household falls to ruin! Polish until your fingerprints wear away, then polish again!”
“Polish!”
“What color is the fifth lamp on the second floor of the East Annex?”
“…Pardon?”
“At four o’clock from the Garden Fountain, how many fingers does the goddess statue have folded?”
“….”
Someday she would surely demand I memorize the number of hairs on the Grand Duke’s head.
Thus I crammed every detail of the Grand Duke’s Residence into my mind and recited them as naturally as breathing.
My master was satisfied only when I could recite not just the Main Building but every corner of the Separate Building, down to the placement of each small vase.
Running through that vast residence left my toenails torn out hundreds of times over.
Simply navigating the Grand Duke’s Residence was training enough—I needed no separate conditioning.
‘I even bled from my nose so badly the cartilage nearly split.’
I endured through sheer willpower.
This was the position of butler, which others could only claim after graduating from the Butler Academy.
‘With an unclear background like mine, there’s no way forward except through the body.’
My determination to become a butler—no matter the cost—kept me going.
In the process, my Aura went haywire more than once, nearly killing me, and I lived with torn muscle fibers and bruises covering my legs.
Ah, wait.
I leaned against the wall, pressing my forehead down.
Ugh.
Remembering those days made the tip of my nose sting unexpectedly.
‘Enough. What good does it do to dwell on the past now?’
I had already achieved my goal, and now the Grand Duke was returning.
Soon all that previous effort would bear fruit.
I glanced once more at the black iron door.
Truly. Intensely. Desperately curious, that place was.
‘With the finish line so close, I can’t afford to poke around and get dismissed at the last moment.’
It wasn’t curiosity worth dying for. I deliberately tamped down the impulse and turned away.
In truth, I’d already taken the liberty of feeling out the lock on that iron door a few times under the pretense of cleaning.
That was enough—sufficient to satisfy my impulsive curiosity for now.
Having confirmed all preparations were complete, I returned to my quarters and made a final check of my appearance.
It was the most important task.
This would be my first meeting with the Grand Duke since becoming his butler.
I had become a butler six months ago.
It was when the Grand Duke was still on the battlefield.
“His Highness has already given his permission.”
That was all my master said.
At first, I suspected a trap—was she placing me in a butler’s position only to have me killed by an assassin hiding in wait?
But watching how ruthlessly she trained me, I realized that wasn’t her intent.
I straightened the collar around my neck with my fingertips and tied the knot at my waist even tighter.
I checked once more the ornate metal chain and the pocket watch hanging from its end, then met my own eyes in the mirror.
Two years. It had already been two years since I began living in this new body.
By now, I’d grown accustomed to it.
‘Running in this form, wielding Aura and blade alike.’
And yet.
“Hide it as much as you can. Keep hiding, and one day that secret of yours will save your life when you need it most.”
Following my master’s counsel, I never revealed the level I had reached.
The Grand Duke likely had no idea how far I had come.
Hmph. I let out a soft laugh and left the room.
Soon enough, vibrations from the earth grew closer—the Mars Knights led by the Grand Duke had reached the Main Gate.
Every staff member stopped what they were doing and came out to greet his return.
Countless employees lined up in orderly rows along the path connecting the Main Building to the Main Gate.
Seeing them standing in such perfectly straight lines, as if measured by ruler, filled my chest with emotion.
Among them, I stood.
A complete outsider—one who could justly be called an enemy.
Screech, clang—!
The Grand Duke’s Residence’s towering iron gate swung open with a heavy metallic groan, and through it came a column of riders.
Slate-grey armor bearing the Ballot House crest, and helmets worked into sharp points like demon horns.
The Mars Knights of the Ballot Grand Duke House, returned from their victory procession through the Capital.
And leading them at the front, as expected.
‘Cardrian Ballot, Grand Duke.’
The Grand Duke and his knights slowed their rapid advance as they reached the Main Building, only coming to a complete halt once they had stopped before it.
Thud, thud, thud. The war horses stamped their hooves in unison, their rhythm drumming through the air.
The entire Residence trembled.
I felt that heartbeat-like reverberations through my whole body as I watched the Grand Duke astride the lead horse.
Upon his black horse, clad in black armor, he resembled nothing so much as death itself come to claim my head.
His cool violet eyes, looking down at me, gleamed with something closer to curiosity than question.
The Grand Duke from the battlefield—the one I never thought I would face again while living. My fingertips tingled.
After regarding me for a long moment, the Grand Duke raised his hand. In an instant, the horses stilled.
The tremor that had shaken the earth and resonated through my chest ceased, and silence descended.
I felt overwhelmed by a suffocating tension.
Only then did the Grand Duke dismount.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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