Chapter 7: First Step
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 7: First Step
”Ah, yes, sir!“
Only after I shouted did the servants drain from the hall like an ebbing tide.
”Why did you yell? What did the servants do wrong?“
There was one more person in the room who couldn't read the atmosphere. Anyone who saw Aenya’s scowl would have thought I was the one at fault.
To think she would stand up for the servants who had just ignored her, all because I raised my voice at them. I knew it was because of the gaslighting, but I couldn't help feeling frustrated.
“I’m going to take this opportunity to teach the servants a lesson.”
“A lesson? What did they do wrong?”
“Mere servants laughed at their master’s daughter. In any other family, their heads would have been cut off and put on display immediately.”
“They laughed at me? When?”
Aenya tilted her head in confusion.
“...They were mocking you for eating like a filthy beggar.”
“But that’s true, isn’t it?”
“Whether it’s true or not is irrelevant. The problem is that a mere servant would say such a thing to their master’s daughter’s face. Have you ever wondered why they can’t do that to me? If we’re counting flaws, I surely have more than you.”
“Uh… now that you mention it?”
“In any case, don’t you worry about it. Just keep eating. I’ll set everything back to normal.”
The most important thing for Aenya right now was to make up for her poor development. She pouted.
“You stood by and did nothing all this time. Why now?”
“The best time to start is when you think it’s too late.”
“You know, you sound just like a scholar.”
A flicker of interest crossed Aenya’s eyes. I clicked my tongue and flicked her on the forehead.
“Ow! You hit me!?”
Aenya clutched her forehead and glared up at me. I, in turn, looked down at her with a stern expression.
“I believe we had a promise about using proper forms of address.”
“You-you-you-you-you-you-you!”
Aenya stuck her tongue out at me before jumping to her feet and running away, the plate she had been eating from still in her hands.
*
“Lord Allen.”
Some time passed while I was alone. Then, as if by a prearranged signal, all the servants working in the mansion entered the hall together. At their head was a stern-looking woman in her mid-thirties.
It was Neri, the head maid.
“Is everyone here?”
I rose from my seat to face the servants. They bowed their heads, avoiding my gaze. Although I had refrained from my usual ruffian antics inside the mansion, I was still a figure of fear to them.
Neri, however, was an exception.
“Lord Allen. For what reason have you suddenly summoned the servants?”
Neri, who had entered the mansion with Sophia and immediately secured the position of head maid, was the de facto second-in-command of the household.
She was also the reason for Aenya’s lack of common sense. Neri had usurped the position of the scholar’s wife, who had served as both nanny and tutor, but had shown no interest in Aenya’s education. On the contrary, she had taken the lead in tormenting Aenya according to Sophia’s wishes.
“Do I need permission to summon my inferiors?”
“It would be one thing if it were one or two, but you’ve summoned all of them, have you not? Everyone has much to do. Furthermore… are the internal affairs of the mansion not strictly under the authority of the mistress, Lady Sophia?”
What a foolish woman. It was no wonder a mere serf like her would dare to talk back. Here was another person so steeped in routine that she no longer recognized wrongdoing for what it was.
The funny thing was that the servants arrayed behind her were nodding in agreement with her words.
It seemed a powerful shock would be needed to restore their sense of propriety. And as it happened, a perfect example stood right before me.
Unaware of my thoughts, Neri’s attitude remained consistently defiant. An observer might have mistaken me for the servant and her for the master.
“My mother is not present.”
“She entrusted the mansion’s affairs to me before she left.”
“How can a mere serf take the place of my mother?”
“Just as a minister acts on the king’s behalf in his absence, it is perfectly normal for me, who serves Lady Sophia most closely, to act in her stead.”
“So, you’re saying you’re acting as my mother right now?”
“That is correct.”
This was the answer I had been waiting for.
“Then the negligence in managing the inferiors is also your responsibility, I presume?”
“What do you…”
“It wasn’t enough to give my sister bread that even a serf wouldn’t eat and clothes that even a serf wouldn’t wear, but this time, they openly mocked her. Mere serfs.”
A muscle twitched between Neri’s brows. At her core, Head Maid Neri was a serf.
The faces of the two maids who had been serving dinner moments ago turned deathly pale. They had finally realized their mistake.
Their gazes darted desperately toward Neri.
“Head Maid, we were just following orders…”
“Quiet.”
Neri quickly silenced the two. Just as I suspected, she had been acting as Sophia’s proxy, encouraging the servants to openly disrespect Aenya.
After meeting the eyes of each servant with a silent warning, Neri turned back to me.
“That was all the mistress’s command. As a man, Lord Allen, you may not be aware, but if a woman’s diet is not managed from a young age, she is prone to gaining weight easily.”
With an argument not even worth refuting, Neri was now trying to paint me as an ignorant fool.
I scoffed internally. Defending the servants who had done wrong? Did she still think she was somebody?
Foolish, so very foolish.
“Are you saying her current state, like a dried-up twig, is normal? Fine. Let’s say that’s the case. What about her clothes?”
Seeing me feign agreement, she seemed to gain confidence, and her voice grew louder.
“It is a lesson to be wary of extravagance.”
“And this is all for my sister’s sake?”
“But of course.”
Neri’s attitude overflowed with confidence. She was even sporting a triumphant smile. The servants nodded again in agreement. But her smile didn't last long.
“Do you not know how grave the sin of deceiving one’s master is?”
“What do you mean—”
Neri hurriedly tried to continue her excuse. Before she could, my palm struck her across the cheek.
Smack.
“Ack—!”
It sounded less like a slap and more like a punch. The fallen Neri’s cheek was caved in, her jaw was dislocated, and blood gushed from her nose, staining her face red.
“Huuup—”
The servants’ eyes went wide as they held their breath. They couldn't help but be shocked that I, who had refrained from my ruffian ways at home for fear of my stepmother, had suddenly resorted to violence—and against my stepmother’s own lackey, no less.
“You… you hit me? You ruffian?”
It seemed Neri was the most shocked of all. The woman who had been using difficult words to sound cultured was now revealing her true colors all too easily.
“Still so insolent. Is it because you’re a serf? You don’t seem to learn, even when taught a lesson.”
Neri glared up at me, her eyes filled with venomous hatred.
“Do you think the mistress will tolerate this!”
“Tsk. Still haven’t learned your lesson. Fine. Go ahead. Try to have my mother save your pathetic life. I’ll give you exactly five minutes. If my mother fails to stop me by then…”
Shing—
I drew the sword from my hip. Only then did Neri’s face turn deathly pale, as if she finally understood her place.
“You will pay the price for your arrogance and insolence.”
“Why… why…?”
Leaving the terrified Neri behind, I turned my gaze to the servants. They bowed even lower, showing me the crowns of their heads. My reputation as a ruffian had its uses, after all.
“Who am I?”
The gleaming tip of my sword followed my gaze. A drop of sweat trickled down the forehead of the servant it was pointed at.
“You are Lord… Lord Allen!”
A strangled, metallic sound came from his throat, but no one laughed. I turned the sword to the servant next to him.
“Who am I?”
Precedent is a wonderful thing. The servant’s response was quicker.
“You are the sole legitimate son of Sir Maxim Tobalts, and the rightful heir who governs this estate in his stead!”
As I lowered my sword, the servants let out sighs of relief. In the meantime, Neri was scrambling away on all fours.
“Still so insolent. I did not give you leave to withdraw.”
I followed Neri slowly, allowing her to savor her terror to the fullest, and ensuring the servants would recall this moment whenever they thought of messing with Aenya.
“Hiiik—”
Horrified, Neri picked up her pace. Her hands and knees were scraped and bleeding from crawling on the floor, but she didn’t stop. There was only one door to the hall, however, and my back was to it.
There was nowhere to run.
“Mistress! Mistress! Help me! Mistress—!”
Cornered against a wall, Neri shrieked loud enough to shake the mansion. But there was no way Sophia, who should have reached the capital by now, would suddenly appear. I waited until she gave up.
When her throat grew hoarse and only a wheezing sound came out instead of a voice, I moved again and stood before her.
“Ah, ahh…”
She hugged herself, trembling uncontrollably.
I raised my lowered sword high again. The blade, which alternately darkened and brightened with the flickering candlelight, gave off a chilling aura. Perhaps it was because it was about to be stained with blood.
“Your sin is failing to recognize your master.”
“If the mistress… if the mistress finds out, you won’t get away with this either…!”
“It’s just a ruffian being a ruffian. If she intended to stop my misdeeds, she would have done so long ago.”
Sophia would probably think the ruffian was finally extending his reach into the mansion. I would think the same in her position. Was I not the kind of scoundrel who would have been stripped of his heirship long ago if there had been another son?
The mask of a ruffian had its uses.
“I am the mistress’s right hand…!”
“Really, I wonder if my mother thinks so too? You foolish woman. You’re nothing but a tool. One that can be replaced if it breaks, a common trifle that can be swapped out at any time.”
Sophia’s favor might have made her think she was somebody, but her value was no more than that of a useful tool.
“You think I’m wrong? Why do you think that cunning woman had you do something so obviously problematic instead of doing it herself? She must have known that Father, who adores Aenya, would be furious if he found out.”
The abuse Sophia had inflicted directly was only verbal, leaving no evidence. Tearing the dress was the first time she had resorted to physical means.
“Lies…!”
Despite her words, Neri’s eyes trembled like the ground in an earthquake. She, too, knew I wasn't wrong.
“Shall we make a bet? Ah, I suppose we can’t. You’ll be dead here. But don’t be disappointed. I’ll be sure to bury your dear master right next to you.”
I whispered the last words directly into her ear so only she could hear.
“You… you…!?”
Finally realizing my true intentions, Neri tried desperately to raise her voice. My sword was faster. A brief, faint resistance, and then the sensation of cutting through flesh and bone traveled up the blade.
“Gurgle.”
Neri gurgled on a mouthful of blood and grabbed my sword. Her hands were instantly covered in it, but the blade didn't move an inch. The light in Neri’s eyes slowly began to fade. Her hands fell limply to her sides.
This was the end of the head maid who had thrown her weight around the mansion with Sophia as her backer.
“Kyaaah—”
Belatedly, the servants screamed.
And then,
[Calculating experience points. Target level is too low. No experience gained.]
A translucent window popped up in the lower right of my vision. It was remarkably similar to a scene from a game in my memories as a modern person. It seemed my memories weren't the only thing I had regained.
Without showing any reaction, I turned my back.
“Huuup—”
The servants, pressed against the opposite wall to get as far away from me as possible, clamped their hands over their mouths and trembled.
Yes. This is it.
Show me your fear, as you should.
For I am the master who holds the power of life and death over you.
“Bring me a cloth.”
“Yes! Here you are.”
The head maid, who had run rampant with Sophia’s backing, was dead. They must have realized that no one was safe from me. Now, they would think twice before following Sophia’s orders.
I wiped my sword with the cloth and sheathed it. Neri’s warmth still lingered on the blood-soaked fabric. When I handed it back to the servant, he flinched.
“Hiiik—”
I paid him no mind.
This was just the beginning. From now on, I would cut down Sophia’s cronies one by one until she was forced to leave the mansion of her own accord.