Chapter 44
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 44
“I-I just didn’t understand what was being said, so…”
“You didn’t understand?”
“Y-yes.”
“Who do you think you are?”
“N-no, it’s not that…”
“What, are you a Duke or something?”
“What? No, of course not!”
“Then are you a Marquis, at least?”
“No! I only hold a single-generation title…!”
Do you even know this is a class-based society?
I left that part unsaid. After all, every nation on the continent in The Milk Bread followed a strict social hierarchy.
So, I just gave him a clean, bright smile.
“You’re fired.”
“…Pardon?”
The librarian seemed to process my words a beat too late.
He hurriedly began to plead.
“L-Lady Tulia! I was wrong!”
“Wrong? Right. And what exactly did you do wrong?”
That’s the thing about people with a lot on their conscience.
When asked what they did wrong, they can’t answer immediately. They hesitate.
Just like this young librarian.
From the looks of it, he hadn’t been a librarian for very long.
I can tell just by looking at him—he’s rotten to the core.
Since he worked in the Frezier Grand Duchy, he must have already heard the rumors. At the very least, he’d know that Marquis Aster Frezier hadn’t returned from the border front.
And as for Tulia, word must have spread among the servants that she recently received the Lineage Pendant and earned the Grand Duke’s trust.
But the two young lords of the Marquis’s house were a different story.
Leon and Lisian rarely came to the main castle of the Grand Duchy; they spent most of their time at the Marquis’s castle in the Imperial Capital.
There was no way this young librarian didn’t know these facts.
Servants usually memorize the traits and personalities of their superiors like a family tree, passing the information down to one another.
Especially in a massive high-noble family like this.
He must have heard through the grapevine that Lisian’s personality was as soft as a soaked sponge.
That’s why he dared to be so incredibly disrespectful.
“Can’t say what you did wrong?”
“It’s not that.”
“It’s not?”
“I-I simply failed to recognize the young lord…”
“Failed to recognize him? I distinctly heard you call him ‘Young Lord’ earlier.”
“Th-that… I-I just lost my head for a moment…”
“And you didn’t hear me call him ‘Brother’?”
“Th-that…!”
“Aha, so you’re lying to my face now?”
“N-no, I’m not!”
His face was pale as he spat out frantic excuses.
This librarian was clearly terrified of me—of Tulia Frezier.
I knew it, too.
When Tulia smiled with malice, she looked as terrifying as a gumiho about to devour a human.
Right now, my eyes were surely shimmering with a poisonous deep green, exactly like Tulia’s illustration as the official trash of The Milk Bread.
Without taking my eyes off the librarian, I slammed my hand down on the desk.
Bang!
The librarian, whose face was already devoid of color, flinched violently.
“Hey.”
“Y-yes, Lady Tulia…”
“Go get the Head Librarian.”
“Eek!”
At the mention of the Head Librarian, the man gasped.
He seemed to realize instantly just how much I intended to escalate this.
The librarian immediately began to beg.
“L-Lady Tulia…!”
He said he was sorry, that he’d never do it again.
None of it was worth listening to.
This wasn’t a mistake; it was clearly intentional.
If Lisian had brought even one other servant with him, this man wouldn’t have dared to be so arrogant.
He was the type of person who would look at someone coming to him alone for help and mock them just because they had a stutter.
Even when that person was of a much higher status than himself.
Why should I tolerate a librarian with such a rotten personality?
Especially when I was currently in the body of Tulia, who was (once) famous for her foul temper.
“Go get him, now!”
When I barked the command, the librarian ran off, his face completely white.
You’re dead meat.
Taste some trash, you piece of trash.
* * *
The main castle’s library, the ‘Corridor of Wisdom,’ was turned upside down.
The Head Librarian was the chief of all librarians.
He was someone who would be acquainted with chief aides like Luc Kelposher and would even personally greet my grandfather several times a month.
Naturally, he would never tolerate such an act of insubordination.
“…I will see to it that he is properly disciplined.”
Whether that meant discipline or dismissal, I didn’t intend to interfere further.
Don’t you dare mess with Lisian, you bastards.
The Head Librarian apologized to Lisian several more times. The librarian stood beside him with a miserable expression, looking as if he were about to drop to his knees.
“Then…”
“Wait a moment.”
I stopped the Head Librarian as he was about to withdraw after bowing repeatedly.
“Before you go, find a book for me.”
The title was…
“A book called The Proper Monarch Method for Successors.”
Was that it?
Is that the right title?
“Lisian?”
Feeling unsure, I turned to Lisian.
“Was that the right title?”
“…Yes. Th-that’s the one.”
“You heard him?”
I immediately laid down the law.
“Bring that book here this instant. Your time limit is…”
I glanced at the massive grandfather clock, one of the library’s prides.
“Five minutes.”
“Y-yes, right away!”
The Head Librarian hurried to gesture to the other librarians. The library became frantic in an instant.
I turned back to Lisian and gave him a mischievous, bratty smile.
“They’ll find it soon.”
Lisian stared at me for a moment before slowly nodding.
His eyes had widened slightly.
Like leaves that had grown lush under the summer sun.
* * *
After the librarians retreated, keeping a wary eye on us, the library became cozy and quiet.
Now, this is more like it.
“B-but, Tu-Tulia.”
While I was looking around the library with satisfaction, Lisian spoke up.
“Wh-what did you c-come to see me for?”
“I came because I had something to give you.”
“S-something to give me?”
I quickly pulled a packet of medicine from my robe.
“You swapped food with me earlier, Brother.”
I thought I heard him mutter, “Brother?” under his breath, but regardless.
“I thought you might have caught my cold, so I got this medicine from the chief physician. Take it now, just in case.”
“Ah…”
“I should ask for some water. Wait a moment…”
Lisian stopped me as I started to get up from my chair.
“I-I can just sw-swallow it.”
“…Without water?”
“Y-yeah.”
I blinked.
He can take medicine without water?
…That’s impressive.
After watching Lisian take the medicine, I asked, “Why didn’t you get angry at that librarian earlier?”
“I-it was only for a m-moment.”
“…”
“A-and, it’s true that I-I’m frustrating because I st-stutter.”
“You’re not frustrating.”
“…Huh?”
“The people who are truly frustrating are the ones you can’t communicate with.”
Like that guy Leon Frezier, not you.
“You’re not frustrating at all, Oppa.”
“Oppa…”
Lisian muttered again softly.
“Y-you’re using the w-words of the Su-Summer Continent kingdoms.”
“Hmm?”
“In-instead of ‘Orabeoni,’ you s-said ‘Oppa.’”
So the word ‘Oppa’ was from the Summer Continent? That was a bit of lore that never appeared in The Milk Bread, so it was news to me.
“It’s a Summer Continent word, so should I not use it?”
“It d-doesn’t matter.”
Lisian gave a strangely nostalgic smile.
“M-mother was also f-from a Summer Kingdom, a-after all.”
Ah.
I blinked.
I see…
The story of Tulia’s mother—Marquis Aster Frezier’s wife—was never detailed in The Milk Bread.
There was only the setting that she had abandoned the Marquis and run away with another man, taking only Tulia with her at the time.
Because of that, the nobles secretly doubted Tulia’s lineage.
I thought it was just a plot point to justify Tulia’s role as a villainess.
But looking at Lisian now, there was no trace of that kind of loathing or suspicion in his eyes—no ill will whatsoever.
“Y-you look the m-most like Mother.”
“…I do?”
Lisian gazed at me for a moment, then smiled gently.
“Yes.”
Perhaps it was because no one had ever said that to me, either outside the game or inside it.
Lisian’s words covered my heart like pure white falling snow.