Villain Family’s Strongest Butler - Chapter 35

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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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Episode 38

The long meeting had clearly worn Cardrian down—his brow was already deeply furrowed.
Oh, a mistake.
‘I should have gotten up right away when the Crown Prince appeared and gone to him…….’
The Crown Prince’s presence here meant the meeting had already ended. I’d meant to make brief conversation and slip away, but it seemed I’d lost more time than expected.
I drew out the chair across from the Crown Prince with practiced calm, positioning it so Cardrian could sit, then stepped nimbly back.
“I’ll bring tea at once, Your Highness. Please, speak freely.”
“…….”
Yet Cardrian did not sit. He merely stared at the Crown Prince.
‘What is this? This mood?’
The air in the dining room seemed to freeze solid, not merely cool but positively glacial.
Then Cardrian turned his body and spoke.
“I’m tired.”
Ah! He wanted rest!
I followed after him in quick strides.
“I’ll prepare a bath at once, Your Highness.”
“…….”
All the while, I remembered to bow respectfully toward the Crown Prince behind me.
When I turned back around, Cardrian had already moved far ahead.
Cursed long legs!

***

“Hmm.”
Click. Rickson set a glass of Honey Tea with floating ice onto the table.
“A cool drink for you, Your Highness.”
“Right.”
Artear, left alone after Freya and Cardrian departed, opened his mouth while propping his chin on his hand.
“Rickson.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Didn’t it seem like the Grand Duke just got sulky?”
“Ha…… well, I wouldn’t presume to…….”
Rickson stumbled over his words, plainly uncomfortable.
Artear tilted his head.
He was definitely sulky. That man was properly offended.
Artear was one of the few friends who could detect even the faintest shifts in Cardrian’s expression.
The creased brow was unmistakable evidence, and the minute tension in his jaw muscle when his teeth clenched was proof enough.
‘Evidence of offense.’
For someone who rarely displayed emotion like that.
Still…….
“If the Third Princess finds out, there’ll be chaos. Or has it already reached her ears?”
Since things had gone awry from the moment I stepped out of the carriage, Freya’s story had surely already reached the Third Princess.
Then.
“What about me?”
“…….”
A familiar voice came from behind.
Damn. Artear muttered quietly to himself and turned slowly around. Before him stood a girl with delicate, doll-like features and honey-blonde hair that gleamed as sweetly as gold itself.
The Third Princess, Ellaris—only a few months away from her Coming-of-Age Ceremony.
Artear rose from his chair and offered a smile as if drawn by brush strokes. It was the same mask he wore when addressing crowds at state functions.
“My beloved sister. What brings you to this place? I thought you’d rather die than set foot in Byeol Palace’s dining room, what with all the stench.”
It was a place she’d always held in contempt, a location teeming with the common rabble.
As expected, Ellaris held her fan below her nose and knitted her brow as severely as possible.
“Brother. Weren’t you just talking about me?”
“Was I?”
Ha ha—Artear narrowed his eyes with laughter. The sight of that grin was apparently so disagreeable that Ellaris shoved his shoulder sharply.
“Move.”
“…….”
Ellaris, who had been staring down the corridor for some time, finally spoke.
“……Is that the woman?”
“Hmm?”
Ellaris gestured toward Cardrian and Freya, who stood far down the hall. “That woman—the servant the Grand Duke brought with him.”
The Grand Duke brought her? Artear smirked inwardly. A servant who couldn’t even catch his eye, and yet Ellaris spoke of her with such presumption.
‘If Cardrian had heard that, he’d have drawn his blade.’
Artear clenched his fist where Ellaris couldn’t see and fixed her with a hard stare.
Ellaris’s eyes burned brighter than usual.
“She’s not worth your concern. She’s merely a servant of the Grand Duke’s Household.”
“…….”
At that, Ellaris’s cold gaze turned toward Artear.
“You always say things like that. But do you know what? Of all the things you’ve called insignificant, not a single one ever truly was.”
“…….”
“Why? Because I ruin everything I touch?”
“Ellaris. That’s not what I meant—”
“Spare me the excuses. I don’t need them. I’m capable of seeing through you.”
Ellaris spun on her heel and left the dining room. Artear sank back into his chair, watching her go.
‘Another storm brewing.’
He exhaled quietly, his eyes following the direction where Cardrian and Freya had disappeared.

“…….”
“I heard they provided a meal in the Meeting Room, but I wanted to make sure.”
“…….”
“You must be tired. Shall I have water prepared for you?”
“…….”
As I followed Cardrian, I posed the question several times over.
But he walked in silence, offering no reply.
‘What on earth is wrong with him?’
I bit down hard, barely managing to contain the frustration building inside me.
“Or would you prefer to rest immediately?”
“…….”
Still nothing. The Grand Duke, who had maintained his silence all along, only turned to face me once we had entered the bedroom at Byeol Palace.
“You……!”
“……Yes?”
His voice was lower than usual, though even this deeper tone remained pleasant to the ear.
I blinked rapidly, looking up at him, and he swallowed hard before speaking again.
“Do you intend to forge friendships with everyone gathered at the Imperial Palace?”
“…….”
“Ed specifically said you had no need to interact with the attendants, so why did you go to that gathering?”
“Well, that was because—”
“And the Crown Prince called you by your name.”
“Ah, that was—”
“Have you grown so close that he addresses you familiarly?”
“No, Your Highness. That’s—”
“When?”
“…….”
“Did you meet him every time I stepped away?”
“…….”
The Grand Duke fired his questions without pausing to let me answer.
‘What is this? What misunderstanding has he gotten into now?’
I racked my brain, trying to figure out what mistake I could have made.
Hmm.
‘I have no idea.’
As far as my duties as a servant went, I hadn’t made a single error—not here at the Imperial Palace, at least.
‘But then, what is this?’
This atmosphere. This situation.

‘Something feels familiar.’
A strange sense of déjà vu washed over me.
Then, suddenly—sharp.
‘Ah, my head…….’
A headache struck without warning. I found myself rubbing my temple.
“……What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, Your Highness. It’s an old ailment of sorts. I get headaches from time to time…….”
Especially when I’m around you—I swallowed the rest unsaid.
Then came another sharp pang.
Ah……. It felt as if someone were pricking my skull with a needle…….
‘Why is this happening?’
In that moment of confusion, the headache intensified suddenly, and my vision blurred white. In a panic, I reached for the side table beside me, but my hand slipped and I lost my balance.
‘Ah—! I’m falling!’
I clenched my eyes shut. And then.
“Freya!”
I heard the Grand Duke’s urgent voice, and my falling body halted abruptly at some point.
It felt as if something solid had caught me. At the same moment, the headache vanished.
I slowly opened my eyes. Yet my vision remained blurred. Something dark moved across my hazy field of sight—it seemed to be the Grand Duke’s face.
It appeared he had caught me as I fell.
Thump, thump, thump. I could hear his heartbeat through his chest, pressed against my ear.
His breathing, slightly ragged, made my head swim. The scent of him, which had grown familiar, suddenly felt overwhelming.
Though I could see nothing, perhaps because of that, he felt all the more vivid.
His body, disciplined and well-trained as it was, felt firm rather than soft. And yet, cradled against him, I was seized by an inexplicable sense of security.
Perhaps because of that. The headache had stopped, but my mind swam in a fog and my eyelids began to grow heavy.
‘How warm.’
Whether from his remarkably high body heat or from being held like this, it felt as though my entire body were submerged in warm bathwater.
My eyelids drifted closed.
And then, as my whole body surrendered to a deep sense of relief, darkness rushed in before my eyes.
I lost consciousness.

***

-“Why are you angry?”
The voice of that girl from the dream—one I’d always heard—came to me.
But this time, it wasn’t only the girl’s voice. For the first time, I heard a boy’s voice as well.
-“Isn’t that the affectionate nickname I gave you?”
Most likely, it was the boy who had never shown his face in the dream until now.
The boy continued, his tone wounded.
-“How does that Rickson know that nickname? Wasn’t it something only you and I were supposed to know?”
-“It’s not that. I didn’t tell him—.”
-“When did you become so close to Rickson? Was it when I went down to the Southern Territory?”
-“Cardrian, please, just calm down―.”
-“Who else knows? That nickname you gave me. The one only the two of us were meant to know.”
-“That’s not it! Cardrian! You fool!”
Gasp—!
My eyes flew open.
The girl’s final cry from the dream still seemed to ring in my ears.
I rubbed my ear, recalling the dream I had just had.
‘What……. What was that…….’
Cardrian?
For the first time, the girl’s voice in the dream had spoken that name.
‘Could that boy in the dream really have been the Grand Duke?!’

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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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