Villain Family’s Strongest Butler - Chapter 52

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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 55

When I opened my eyes, I found myself in an unfamiliar place.
As I glanced around wondering where I was, I caught sight of my reflection in the window glass.
Platinum blonde hair, neatly arranged, flowed down to my waist and danced softly; bright blue eyes gleamed with intelligence.
Could I be only ten years old now? The small, delicate girl looked deeply familiar—because she was the girl I had always seen in my dreams.
‘It must be a dream.’
It was a dream I was having after a long time.
Ever since I began taking the medicine that the Grand Duke had procured for me, I hadn’t been dreaming for a while, but for some reason, today I was dreaming.
‘But…….’
Something felt different.
Always before, I had watched from outside, as if observing a stage play, but today I had opened my eyes from within this girl’s body.
Though I couldn’t move or speak of my own will, I could see and hear the world through the child’s senses.
The girl gazed at her reflection in the window and spun around in place with a bright smile.
A dress laden with adorable frills and ribbons swirled open, then settled gently back down.
The girl looked at herself and smiled with satisfaction.
“Perfect.”
After tidying the hem of her dress one final time with practiced ease, the girl walked daintily down the marble corridor, drinking in the beautiful sights around her.
From the high ceiling hung a chandelier dripping with crystals, and on both sides of the snow-white corridor, transparent glass lamps with gold rims lit the way.
Along the right wall of the corridor stood grand windows that rose all the way to the ceiling, and beyond them stretched an elaborately manicured, resplendent garden.
‘This is…….’
The Imperial Palace of the Kadea Empire.
It was not much different from the sight I had seen when I came to the palace with the Grand Duke.
Her light footsteps continued onward.
‘Is this the walk of a prettily dressed girl going to meet a boy?’
But why the palace?
That question was soon answered.
‘Ah, so she’s heading to the Banquet Hall.’
As the girl stepped into the Banquet Hall, people gathered around as if they had been waiting.
Perhaps because it was a dream, these people’s faces were obscured by something like black smoke, making it impossible to recognize them.
Even after entering the Banquet Hall, the girl looked around. She seemed to be searching for someone.
During this time, young lords from various houses and even family elders approached the girl.
But the girl paid them only the bare minimum of courtesy and ignored everyone who tried to address her.
Though it might have seemed arrogant, somehow the people around her accepted it as natural.
‘No ordinary house, then.’
As I tried to deduce which family this girl belonged to, more people approached.
“Young Lady of Flanker House. Our family has recently begun a mining venture…….”
“If you would hear about our trading enterprises…….”
Ha! I let out a quiet laugh.
‘What on earth are they talking to a child about?’
Business? Trade?!
Predictably, the girl gave a lukewarm response and left.
Then another young lord approached and spoke.
“It is my honor to make your acquaintance, Young Lady of Flanker House. Would you not care to dance with me for the next waltz?”
“Young Lady of Flanker House, I hear they have planted new flowers in the Separate Palace Garden. Would you not like to go see them with me?”
Young Lady, Young Lady, Flanker House Young Lady! That name again and again!
‘Ugh, how tiresome!’
Perhaps because I was experiencing it from within the girl’s body.
‘This child is tired of it too. I can feel it.’
The girl gave up searching for whoever she was looking for and slipped out of the Banquet Hall.
“The Separate Palace Garden, was it?”
I recalled what one of the young lords had said about going to see the newly planted flowers.
She didn’t want to go with him, but viewing the flowers seemed appealing.
The girl who had left the Banquet Hall began walking down the corridor leading to the Separate Palace.
“But where on earth has Kardrian gone?”
‘Right. So all that looking around was searching for the Grand Duke.’
Now that I thought about it, this was the first time the young Grand Duke hadn’t appeared in my dreams.
‘He was always by this girl’s side, but where has he gone today?’
Then I felt a subtle aura gathering covertly around the girl.
‘About five people, I’d say.’
Since I sensed no hostility, they seemed to be her honor guard.
Weapons couldn’t be carried within the Imperial Palace, and yet even here, during the banquet itself, she had an escort…….
‘So she’s the Flanker Young Lady.’
During my time studying the Kadea Empire, I’d prided myself on memorizing every noble house within it. Yet I’d never heard of the Flanker House.
‘Which means…….’
The house Kardrian had spoken of before — the one erased from history.
It meant the Flanker House was the one that ruled over Kentrow Territory, slumbering behind its barrier.
I’d told myself not to read meaning into dreams, but now that I was having one this vivid again, I couldn’t help myself.
‘And it’s too clear to feel like a dream at all.’
This was exactly why I kept suspecting I was a fragment of someone’s memory.
I had to face it.
‘This isn’t just a dream.’
The one I’d had before wasn’t either.
Of course, the fact that I hadn’t found the initials on the Pocket Watch or the Memory Box was something I couldn’t quite accept.
‘But so much time has passed that I can’t rule out the possibility that things have changed.’
How long had we been walking? My soles began to warm and ache.
“Wow, we’re here!”
Evidently satisfied that no one was in the garden, the girl bounded into the Separate Palace Garden with a hop and skip.
She had a cheerfulness that was almost absurd.
As if the refinement a noble young lady ought to possess mattered not at all to her.
Once inside the garden, she wandered along the path for a while before spotting a flat lawn and plopping down without ceremony.
She kicked off her shoes with a flourish and stretched her arms wide as she lay flat on her back in the grass.
“Ah……, this is nice.”
Hehe. The girl laughed freely, unburdened.
After closing her eyes for a moment and opening them again, she gazed quietly up at the garden sky. Her toes, clad in pristine white socks, wiggled back and forth.
“Why do they even have banquets? They’re not fun, and they’re not enjoyable.”
More than anything, Kardrian isn’t here.
As she grumbled on, another voice drifted from one corner of the garden.
“Thanks to the banquet, enemies become allies, and misunderstandings tangled like thread come undone.”
“!”
The girl bolted upright. Then she hurriedly gathered her discarded shoes and slipped them back on.
“Who, who are you?”
At the girl’s question, a young boy emerged from the undergrowth.
“I didn’t mean to startle you. We met once when I greeted His Majesty earlier. Do you remember?”
The moment I saw the boy bow respectfully, the girl took a cautious step backward.
Something unpleasant and uneasy was blossoming in the girl’s chest.
I too couldn’t hide my shock. It was as if someone had seized my throat — I couldn’t breathe.
‘You, you, how could you…….’
Though he appeared far younger than the image I remembered, I knew at once who he was.
The boy standing before me was none other than Serhine, Crown Prince of the Tenasis Empire.
‘Serhine……!’
How could you be here……!
The cry I couldn’t utter scattered and vanished within me.

***

When I opened my eyes, the familiar sight of the Grand Duke’s Estate came into view again.
But it wasn’t the ceiling I was used to seeing.
‘Where is this?’
Startled, I shot upright and looked around in confusion.
Then I gasped in alarm.
“Your Highness?!”
Kardrian was sitting right beside me, watching me quietly.
My heart pounded wildly. But whether I was startled or not, Kardrian, as always, offered a glass of water with an expressionless face and spoke.
“……Drink first, then we’ll talk.”
“Yes, of course…….”
I drank the water he handed me in gulps.
Judging that I’d drunk enough, Kardrian opened his mouth first.
“Are you planning to die before you even recover your memories?”
“……What?”
Right, I had collapsed……
But what? Planning to die?
‘I didn’t collapse because I wanted to!’
How was I supposed to know he’d do that out of nowhere!
‘Really, his manner of speech……’
I shot Kardrian a brief glare, then turned my head away.
‘But why am I in Kardrian’s bedchamber and not my own?’
I pondered this while finishing my water, sipping slowly.
‘And I woke from the dream at such an ambiguous moment.’
The boy I’d seen at the very end was definitely Serhine.
The golden hair and those crimson jeweled eyes that only the Tenasis Empire’s royal blood could possess—that was proof he was Serhine.
And the emotion the girl felt as she looked at Serhine.
It was revulsion and fear.
Had she sensed instinctively that he was a dangerous child?
‘No……. That’s not the problem right now…….’
This body’s original owner met Serhine in her childhood.
‘How is that possible?’
How? How could the Crown Prince of an enemy nation have infiltrated the Imperial Palace of the Kadea Empire?
My mind spun with confusion.
Then Kardrian’s next words made my heart plummet.
“Serhine.”
“……What?”
“How do you know the name Serhine?”

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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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