Villain Family’s Strongest Butler - Chapter 6

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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 6

The Grand Duke was reading my thoughts with precision—exactly the plan I’d been turning over in my mind.
As I stared at him in silence, he looked down at me with a faint smile.
As if amused by the sight of me working my thoughts.
“Freya. Do you understand what it means that you know that name?”
……
What do you mean? I know my own name—what’s there to understand about that?
‘No, wait. Why is he saying it like I’m supposed to recognize it?’
I could dimly sense that the Grand Duke knew who the original owner of this body was.
‘But why would he react that way to the name Freya?’
There had been no connection whatsoever between the name Freya and the original owner of this body.
‘There shouldn’t be. The original owner was from an enemy nation.’
Yet the Grand Duke had reacted so sharply to that name.
I looked at him, bewildered.
‘Could it be that the original owner’s name was also Freya?’
Could such an absurd coincidence exist?
My heart was pounding hard at this impossible supposition.
Perhaps now was the moment to ask him—whether he knew who the original owner was, whether he knew the name Freya.
I looked at him and spoke.
“There’s something I’m curious about.”
……
“Do you perhaps… know me?”
At that, a crack appeared in his expression, which had been contemptuous until just a moment before.
“The way you questioned me when I drank the Truth Serum, and the nuance in how you speak of my name…”
……
“Why does it seem like you know me, when I don’t even remember myself?”
Then the Grand Duke’s expression turned cold again.
“Ah. That’s right. You lost your memory, didn’t you. Though not all of it.”
……
There it was.
The Grand Duke had just smoothly changed the subject.
It was clear he had no intention of answering my question about whether he remembered the original owner.
‘Grand Duke, you think I’ll let this flow the way you want?’
I opened my mouth quickly.
“Then if you tell me what you do remember, it could help me recover—”
Just then, the Grand Duke cut off my words and called my name once more.
“Freya, who hasn’t lost all her memories.”
……
He spoke in a voice dropped low, like a warning.
“Drawing the truth from you again wouldn’t be difficult. The Truth Serum isn’t the only thing with that kind of effect.”
The Grand Duke’s narrow eyes held a gleam of arrogance in their gaze.
“And I know how to hear the truth without resorting to such things. In fact, they’re nothing but an inconvenience.”
They have limitations, after all.
“That I refrain from further interrogation isn’t because I’ve decided to trust you.”
The Grand Duke stepped closer. His scent became distinct, close enough to be unsettling.
I flinched and tried to back away, but the wall was right behind me.
The Grand Duke continued without regard.
“Until my doubts are settled and my suspicions become certainty… Freya, you’re curious too.”
His voice reached my ear directly with the narrowed distance between us.
His voice, distinctly low and heavy, clearly had the power to make one shrink back.
“If you don’t reveal your secrets, I have no intention of satisfying your curiosity either.”
The Grand Duke pulled back his upper body and straightened his posture.
“So learn well from Norbert. Who knows? If you grow into someone indispensable to me, perhaps I’ll take it upon myself to reveal the secret you’re so eager to know.”
……
This bastard.
I glared at the Grand Duke with a sharp look.
—”Just wait two years, Grand Duke. Who knows? I might grow into someone magnificent enough to do you harm.”
The Grand Duke merely echoed back every word I’d spoken, then turned away sharply.
I watched his retreating figure disappear down the corridor.
‘But why.’
Why did he look so angry?
Because I still hide things from him?
Because my name happens to be Freya?
Or perhaps.
‘Because this body’s owner doesn’t remember him?’
Probably all of it.
Once the Grand Duke vanished from sight, I turned toward the corridor window.
My reflection in the glass was still unfamiliar, yet still beautiful.
‘Perhaps this body’s original owner…’
…may have been far more important to the Grand Duke than I realized.

***

The next morning.
Before dawn broke, Norbert came to find me in my room.
“…What are you doing awake?”
He stared at me in surprise, his question sharp with confusion.
“Didn’t you say you’d begin teaching me today?”
“…So you were preparing in advance?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
I tilted my head slightly. I genuinely didn’t understand his shock.
In the Tenasis Empire, my mornings had always begun before sunrise. I rose before anyone else, ran the Training Grounds, and wielded my sword.
Because I’d taken up the blade later than the other knights, I’d had to overcome their hazing, and to surpass them in skill, I’d needed to work several times harder than they did.
‘It’s no different now.’
Compared to the servants of the Grand Duke’s Residence, I clearly lacked skills and would struggle with stamina. Besides, word of my mysterious status as a suspicious hired hand had already spread.
‘My effort’s purpose simply changed from knight to servant.’
I only needed to repeat the effort I’d always made.
And the first part of that effort was rising before anyone else.
“What should we start with?”
“….”
For some reason, Norbert regarded me with a lukewarm expression. His gaze lingered briefly on my face before drifting to my necklace.
“Don’t break this one.”
“…That wasn’t me, I told you.”
The necklace that had broken during yesterday’s Aura awakening had already been replaced with a new one by Norbert. Since then, every time he saw my face, he’d been launching into complaints.
“Do you have any idea how much that cost? More than your entire year’s wages, that’s what.”
“But I’m telling you, I didn’t break it—”
Norbert turned away with that same dull expression and headed for the door.
“Follow me.”
My fists clenched without my meaning to.
‘Bear it. Just bear it.’
Yes, I was grateful he wasn’t making me pay for the necklace.
I followed silently in his wake.
Norbert immediately dragged me through every corner of the Grand Duke’s Residence.
“Today we’re only checking locations. Starting tomorrow, you’ll learn the tasks performed in each area, so remember that.”
“Yes.”
The main building of the Grand Duke’s Residence, five stories tall, with four annexes connected to its rear courtyard, and roughly a hundred storage rooms.
Norbert guided me through with meticulous care before returning to the main building.
“Rest a moment.”
“Yes…”
I gripped the staircase railing and forced my trembling legs to hold me upright.
‘My stamina isn’t holding up—I can’t even use my Aura freely…’
If I hadn’t channeled Aura to my legs bit by bit, I never would have managed to keep up with Norbert this whole time.
‘This won’t do. I need to train my stamina too.’
At this rate, I might lose consciousness and collapse in front of him. I had to avoid that humiliation at all costs.
‘I’ll cut back on sleep.’
While I was mentally reorganizing tomorrow’s schedule, a middle-aged woman approached Norbert and me.
Norbert, standing before the central staircase, introduced me to the approaching servant.
“Barisol, this is Freya, who will be starting work as a trainee employee at the Grand Duke’s Residence from today.”
At the old man’s words, a middle-aged woman looked toward me with a welcoming expression.
“My goodness, how lovely to meet you. I’m Barisol. I have the honor of serving as head housekeeper of this residence.”
Ah, head housekeeper. Of course—I understood well enough how weighty such a position was.
I offered a respectful greeting to Barisol, keeping my expression carefully composed.
“It’s an honor to meet you, Barisol. My name is Freya.”
“Please, call me Barisol—no need for formality.”
“That is… I’d prefer to wait a little longer before doing so.”
“Of course. If that’s more comfortable for you, we’ll do it your way.”
Even at my formal distance, Barisol’s expression remained gentle.
A warmth emanated from her face—as if she could embrace everything with kindness.
Barisol took my hand firmly.
“Let’s get along well, Freya.”
“Yes, thank you for your kindness.”
The old man turned to Barisol.
“I’ve taken it upon myself to oversee Freya’s training.”
Barisol’s eyes widened in surprise. Something about the atmosphere shifted.
Again. Again.
All the staff at the residence reacted with astonishment at the news that the old man would be teaching me.
It was wonder mixed with something else—admiration, perhaps, but closer to sympathy.
I couldn’t have said what that emotion truly meant, but following the old man around had taught me a few things.
First and foremost: the Grand Duke’s Residence currently had no butler.
The Grand Duke had squandered his life so thoroughly that he’d amassed countless enemies within and beyond the empire, and assassins sent by those enemies had claimed the lives of butler after butler.
The position had earned itself a dark reputation because of it.
‘Only strict, capable butlers ever fell.’
After all, assassins skilled enough to kill the Grand Duke weren’t easy to find. Whoever sent them would have aimed at someone with enough rank to serve as a warning—someone far easier prey than the Grand Duke himself.
‘If I couldn’t kill the Grand Duke, it stands to reason an assassin couldn’t either.’
And there was another thing I’d learned: Norbert bore considerable renown within the Kadea Empire.
Count Norbert Millard.
A loyal retainer of the Balot Grand Duke Household, and a figure of legend in butler circles, or so they said.
Word had it he was the founder of Kadea’s only butler academy, the Leonhardt.
‘A man of such stature taking on my education…’
From the reactions of the household staff, it was clear his temperament was notoriously difficult.
I stared at the back of his head for a long moment, then suddenly my eyes widened as a thought struck me.
‘Wait.’
The residence had no butler now, and it wouldn’t gain a new one for some time.
Which meant the butler’s position would remain vacant for a while…
‘To learn from the Grand Duke what I need to know about my master, I must grow closer to him.’
By “closer,” I did not mean the mere distance between bodies.
I meant closeness of heart—trust earned through demonstrated loyalty and proven competence.
‘There is no position better suited to building that trust than butler.’
For the role of butler was trust itself.
‘That the position is dangerous is actually to my advantage.’
Saving the Grand Duke from an assassin’s blade would be the fastest path to earning his trust.
As time passed, my Aura and physical condition would grow sharper still. Once I recovered the prowess of my former prime, assassins would pose no threat whatsoever.
‘The real challenge is proving my worth as a butler.’
And the answer to that challenge stood right in front of me.
I gazed at the back of Norbert’s head as intently as a parched deer spotting an oasis. He felt the weight of my stare and turned to face me.
One of his eyebrows twitched.
“…What?”
“…”
“What exactly are you thinking, looking at me like that?”
I sent him a gaze of careful reverence—as if I’d been waiting for this very moment.
With the same delicate, patient tenderness I might use to soothe a child, or the profound respect one shows when in the presence of nobility—solemn and sacred.
I poured all my sincerity into my voice, making it as earnest as I could manage.
“Master…”
“…What? M-master…?”
The skin at the corners of Norbert’s eyes trembled slightly.
‘What kind of lunatic is this…’
That’s what his eyes seemed to be saying as he looked at me.

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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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