Villain Family’s Strongest Butler - Chapter 44

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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 47

The Hunt Festival was a month away, the Alliance Festival roughly two months out. And simultaneous with the festival came a diplomatic delegation visiting the Kadea Empire.
‘Events keep piling up that weren’t on the schedule before.’
Of course, the Alliance Festival wasn’t supposed to involve me directly.
I pulled out the notebook where I’d organized my schedule and revised it once more.
‘This is going to be a chaotic year.’
If the Hunt Festival goes well, I should ask for a performance bonus.
I’d already spent all the wages I’d saved up, so it was time to start accumulating again.
I folded the notebook shut and tucked it back into the drawer, then rose from my chair.
The sky beyond the window had grown dark. Below, the quiet voices of employees heading back to their quarters drifted up.
‘I’ll help the remaining staff finish up their work, then head to the Training Ground.’
As I turned my shoulders to work out the stiffness and moved toward the door, a wooden structure topped with a ball of fluff entered my field of view.
‘What on earth is that furry creature up to, being so busy all the time?’
Whatever information it was trying to fetch, I hadn’t caught sight of it in ages.
‘Maybe I should make some more jerky before I turn in.’
I’d need to borrow the kitchen first thing in the morning.
Thinking of the furry creature’s whereabouts and its snacks, I descended to the first floor using the Central Staircase. That was when I encountered Ed coming through the Main Entrance.
“Ah, Miss Freya.”
“Yes.”
As I stepped down from the last step, Ed positioned himself directly in front of me with perfect timing.
“Where is His Highness?”
“He’s in his office at the moment.”
Ed was holding a fresh letter. I glanced at it briefly, then turned my attention back to him.
“Correspondence at this hour?”
Ed nodded in response.
“Yes, it was sent by Anette.”
“Ah…”
I exhaled quietly.
Anette.
Once known as Anette Estan, the Grand Duchess.
That was right. The woman called Anette was none other than the Grand Duke’s mother.
‘And she’s a highly respected female knight of the Kadea Empire, I’ve heard.’
After the previous Grand Duke fell in battle, Anette, who had been the Grand Duchess, passed the title of head of house to the current Grand Duke.
—”My son. Your father is no longer in this world, so now I will pursue what I have always wished to do.”
Born into a family that had produced knights for generations, Anette had loved Estan, the previous Grand Duke, dearly and gladly became his duchess, yet she had always yearned for the battlefield.
Anette spoke of it habitually—that if ever the chance came, she would take up her sword again and return to the field of battle.
That she would remain at the side of the empire’s people and protect them directly.
Knowing this well, the Grand Duke accepted his mother’s wishes and became head of the house.
‘A remarkable family in many ways.’
The Grand Duke was impressive enough, but I found myself curious about Anette as well—the former Grand Duchess.
‘Right, and she prefers to be called Anette rather than the former Grand Duchess.’
Quite distinctive of her.
‘Female knights…’
The Tenasis Empire had female knights too, but they were rare enough to count on one hand.
‘Come to think of it, I’ve encountered fewer than three female knights before I died.’
Even when I did meet them, it was difficult to exchange more than a few words.
Serhin, stern and cold as a blade, was always at my side, and on the rare occasions I was alone, I wore a mask, so no one approached.
‘Rumors even spread that I had contracted a plague. Who would have wanted to come near me.’
Living in such isolation, I had no memory of ever having a conversation with another female knight.
So when I heard that Anette was coming to visit, part of me had felt a flutter of anticipation.
Yet there was a time when Riel had warned me pointedly about this.
—”Anette prefers not to keep unmarried maids at the Grand Duke’s Residence.”
Until a year before I came to the Grand Duke’s Residence, there had been quite a number of unmarried servants there.
But each year, maids with improper intentions would slip into the Grand Duke’s bedchamber, and eventually a knight, mistaking one of these maids for an assassin, killed her.
‘That’s when the Grand Duke’s Residence stopped hiring unmarried maids.’
Even the unmarried maids who had been there originally were all dismissed with letters of recommendation.
‘Well, that makes sense enough.’
Rising in status is a desire everyone possesses.
Moreover, even accounting for the Grand Duke’s cruel temperament and disagreeable nature, he possessed the considerable advantage that no other noble house could match his wealth and power.
‘Come to think of it, the Third Princess is after the Grand Duke as well, isn’t she?’
As though he were some prize stallion, no less.
I clicked my tongue inwardly.
‘Looking at it this way, it seems the Grand Duke hasn’t exactly lived a smooth life either.’
In any case, after that incident, I remained the only unmarried person to enter his employ.
As I stared fixedly at the crimson-hued letter Ed was holding, he spoke first.
“It appears someone is coming to the Grand Duke’s Residence.”
……
I looked at Ed.
“I’ll see that they want for nothing during their stay.”
……
Ed regarded me with a worried expression.
‘He must be afraid I’ll be dismissed.’
I smiled reassuringly.
“Once His Grace sees that I’m simply a capable steward with no ulterior motives, he won’t cast me out. So don’t worry.”
“No, it’s not that……”
“Has our chamberlain grown fond of me already?”
At that, Ed started and his body went rigid.
“W-what do you mean by that! If such a thing reached His Grace’s ears, what would happen!”
……
I tilted my head, watching Ed’s face drain of color.
“Why so serious? I was just joking.”
“A chamberlain’s head could roll for just a single joke!”
“I wasn’t saying I’d devour him.”
“Agh! Please, spare me such remarks!”
He really will die of fright!
“……Really.”
As I made a show of being disappointed, Ed cleared his throat with a nervous “Ahem! Ahem!” and began backing away.
“A-anyway! If anything is decided, I’ll inform you at once. I’ll take my leave!”
……
Ed fled up the stairs. Watching his form disappear rapidly, I turned and murmured to myself.
“The Grand Duke never ordered his servants to keep their distance from one another, so why does he act that way?”
Hah, I might actually run my mouth in front of the Grand Duke at this rate.
Ugh. The moment the image flashed through my mind, goosebumps rose on my skin.
‘That’s definitely not something I should do.’

***

That night.
I visited my private Training Ground for the first time in ages.
The heavy groan of the iron door at the tower entrance, the creaking of the weathered wooden door to the Training Ground—everything felt like a welcome greeting.
‘Today, I’ll pour it all out.’
My entire body felt sluggish from not having properly used my Aura recently.
One must pour it out fully, then as one refills what was emptied, the vessel itself grows larger.
Having neglected that training, the Aura within my body had grown restless and turbulent.
But today, this place is entirely mine!
‘Today I’m going to destroy this building, or……wait?’
The moment I stepped into the Training Ground, burning with intensity.
I noticed something I’d never seen before and paused mid-stride.
‘That’s……’
On one wall of the Grand Duke’s private Training Ground stood a weapons rack displaying an array of arms.
Since most of the weapons had been crafted to fit his hands, I could not readily use them for training even during his absences.
But today.
Among them, a single sword I had never before seen was glimmering softly.
‘Good heavens!’
Suppressing the exclamation threatening to burst forth, I rushed toward the blade.
The outer form was certainly crude.
Set among the Grand Duke’s ornate weapons, its plainness stood out all the more starkly.
Perhaps that was why my heart reached out further.
I found myself drawn forward, extending my hand to draw the sword from its resting place.
Click—. From the unassuming scabbard, a sleek silver blade emerged.
“Oh.”
I marveled again.
The feel of the grip filling my palm, the weight of the blade singing through my fingertips—both were achingly familiar and perfectly balanced.
Though this was surely not a sword I had forged or wielded before, it fitted my hand as though I’d carried it all my life.
And yet.
‘Why is this here?’
It seemed someone had placed it while I was away at the Capital.
‘…Who could it be?’
The Grand Duke?
I tilted the silver blade, examining it closely.
This was decidedly not a sword that belonged to the Grand Duke.
Long and supple, slender and elegant—it bore no resemblance to the blade he typically carried.
‘Perhaps he simply left it for practice?’
No, the craftsmanship was far too fine for mere practice steel.
‘It’s old enough, but it shows no real signs of use.’
There was no doubt.
‘This is not the Grand Duke’s sword.’
Instead, it had taken to my hand as though it belonged there.
‘It’s similar to the one I carried during my time in Xia.’
The length, the weight, even the shape of the scabbard.
‘How strange. How wonderful.’
With a feeling of unexpected delight, I swung the blade lightly through the air.
Whoosh, whir—. The sound of steel cutting through stillness rang cleanly.
As the blade passed through empty space, wind brushed against my skin, and the living vibration of the steel sang through my fingertips.
‘This. This is it.’
This is what I wanted!
My heart thundered like a war-drum announcing the beginning of battle.
It was an excitement utterly different from training my Aura or conditioning my body.
Thump, thump, thump.
The drumming in my chest echoed on and on.
A signal to move. A signal to fight.
A signal to prove myself, to affirm my own existence.

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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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