Villain Family’s Strongest Butler - Chapter 48

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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 51

“No more talk. Stay close to my side.”
Even after the commotion of dawn had settled, Anette didn’t let me stray from her presence.
Through the window, I heard voices calling for me from time to time.
Thinking it must be something I needed to attend to, I spoke to Anette, anxiety creeping into my chest.
“Anette, I…….”
It seemed like it was time I got to work.
Yet Anette kept her eyes closed, turning pages in her book with soft, deliberate motions. Flip, flip.
“Shh. I’m reading. Wait.”
“……Yes.”
Though surely you’d need to open your eyes for that, Anette…….
A sigh escaped me. It was already past noon.
Sitting still during hours when I should have been moving, working, left my entire body aching with restlessness.
‘Another form of confinement.’
Why did this household love imprisoning people so much?
I watched Anette quietly as she turned the pages, and unbidden, the events of dawn surfaced in my mind.
The way she’d spoken and moved—as though comforting a child who’d touched something unclean.
‘For a moment, I felt precious.’
But I’d already suspected as much.
The Grand Duke hadn’t killed me outright and kept pressing me to recover my memories; from that alone, I could infer that this body’s original owner held considerable importance.
The Grand Duke seemed to exercise extreme restraint in expressing that fact, while Anette clearly struggled to hide it, and failed.
‘Perhaps it could be an opportunity.’
A chance to shake Anette and extract the truth.
‘But……somehow, I don’t want to.’
The mere thought of deceiving Anette made my chest ache.
Yes, this is what one might call guilt.
I didn’t want to exploit their affection for this body’s original owner to satisfy my own curiosity.
Setting aside what happened on the battlefield, the Grand Duke had done me no real wrong, and Anette, despite our short acquaintance, had shown me nothing but goodwill.
I didn’t want to betray them.
No matter what I do, I can never be the person they want me to be.
‘And I don’t want to remain trapped in this room either.’
I slowly pushed myself up from the sofa. Anette slammed her book down with a sharp crack.
“I didn’t say you could get up.”
Her voice was firm, yet worry seeped through every word.
I hadn’t noticed it when I was with the taciturn Grand Duke, but now, facing Anette, I understood.
Her blunt tone wasn’t so different from his, but beneath it lay concern and consideration.
‘This is who the original owner of this body must have been—so deeply loved.’
I smiled faintly.
“I understand you were thinking of me.”
“…….”
“And I’m sorry that I can’t remember anything…….”
“No…….”
I apologized to her as if I truly were the body’s original owner.
It was genuine. An apology for inhabiting the body of someone they cherished, for deceiving them.
At my sudden words, confusion flickered across Anette’s face.
In this moment, I wanted to be the original owner of this body.
Someone who was surely raised with love, and is still loved now.
And I resented the heavens.
I wanted to demand: why put me in this body? If you needed someone’s form, why not find an orphan with no ties to anyone?
I’d never felt more pathetic, more wretched than I do today.
‘I need to leave this place.’
I looked Anette directly in the eye.
“As you can see, I’m not weak.”
You already know that, don’t you?
Anette’s gaze wavered for an instant as she studied me.
“The Grand Duke told me to recover my memories. He couldn’t have meant for me to sit meekly in a room and wait for them to return.”
“That’s…….”
Anette trailed off mid-sentence. I gazed at her with warm eyes and offered a slight smile.
“I intend to perfect my duties while recovering my memories.”
……
“When the day comes that I’ve recovered all my memories, please welcome me warmly then.”
Though, perhaps… that day would never come.
I swallowed those final words and bowed respectfully as I left.
As I departed, Anette did not attempt to stop me a second time.
Part of it was that my resolve appeared unshakeable, but mostly it was her consideration — a kindness in refusing to force my will to bend.
‘A good person.’
No matter what else, there were no wicked knights among those who had thrown themselves onto the battlefield for the empire’s sake.
They were all beings worthy of respect.

***

That evening.
I finished my duties as a butler while avoiding Anette’s gaze.
‘I shouldn’t train today.’
I was anxious about what reaction Anette might have if she discovered I was using the Grand Duke’s Personal Training Grounds.
But I shook my head immediately.
‘I can’t afford to skip even one day.’
I had missed far too many training days while traveling between the capital and here.
‘I’m still far from where I need to be.’
It was true that my Aura Manipulation and Swordsmanship had improved dramatically compared to two years ago.
Yet I still could not shatter the jewel in my Dog Collar.
Someone stronger than me had made it.
‘Whether it’s the Grand Duke or a mage from the Mage Tower.’
In other words, with my current strength, I couldn’t break this collar, which meant I couldn’t escape either.
‘Just a little stronger and I think I could manage it.’
In truth, there was no place quite as ideal as the Grand Duke’s Household for honing my abilities without restraint.
‘They provide the space, they provide the weapons, and they don’t exhibit any territorial pettiness or make me feel unwelcome.’
Ah… had I adapted too well?
‘What if I end up not wanting to leave…’
It had already been two years in this body, but the moment I thought of escaping, it felt as though I’d stolen a corpse.
Especially since Anette appeared, that uneasy feeling had taken root in a corner of my heart and refused to leave.
‘But I can’t exactly slip my soul out and leave the body behind either.’
That would be no different than asking me to die again.
‘Is freedom a luxury for me?’
I had thought I would live a new life, neither returning to the Tenasis Empire nor becoming entangled with Serhin, living freely instead.
‘But is it right for me to live that way in a body that isn’t even mine?’
Thinking such things made me suddenly choked up.
What would I do if they said no? I wasn’t about to die again.
‘But I can’t spend my whole life playing the body’s rightful owner, doing what they want either.’
That would surely become its own prison, or its own hell.
‘Ah, I don’t know anymore.’
I really don’t.
‘I thought escaping would be the end of it, but now the future feels even more uncertain.’
It was better when I had only that one plan — to escape.
The more I became entangled with the people of the Grand Duke’s Household, the more I felt like an ant thrashing about in an antlion’s pit.
I shook off the idle thoughts from my mind and focused on training.
Time passed like that.
Since Anette was staying at the Grand Duke’s Household, I practiced only Meditative Aura Control Practice today instead of loudly swinging a sword.
When I opened my eyes again, it was already past three in the morning.
After tidying the training grounds and stepping outside, cool dawn air washed over me. I walked slowly along the stone path connecting Berdan’s Tower to the Main Residence, breathing in the crisp morning air.
‘That’s refreshing.’
The chill seemed to cool my lungs, which had been burning with heat.
That was when.
‘The third floor…!’
I felt an extremely faint movement from the Main Residence’s third floor.
‘Is it the Grand Duke?’
The presence resembled his, yet it carried an aura that was somehow unsettling and precarious.
I decided it would be better to see for myself, and quickly scaled the building’s wall to slip through the third-floor window.
The corridor lay pitch black, every lamp extinguished.
At the end of that hallway, before the Grand Duke’s bedchamber, a dark silhouette stood motionless.
I spoke, eyeing the figure.
“……Your Highness?”
“…….”
The shadowed form standing in the corridor was the Grand Duke.
‘It’s him, but something feels off.’
I stepped carefully toward the Grand Duke.
“……Are you all right, Your Highness?”
A gruff reply came back.
“Don’t worry about it.”
The Grand Duke answered curtly and moved to open his chamber door and enter.
‘What is he thinking?’
Isn’t it the butler’s job to look after his master’s welfare? Then who’s supposed to care?
‘Is he telling me to work or to leave him alone?’
Before the door could close, I rushed forward and pushed my body into the Grand Duke’s chamber.
Thud—the door swung shut at the same moment.
The Grand Duke, caught off guard, swept his bangs back and spoke with irritation in his voice.
“……What is this nonsense, Butler?”

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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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