A Potato in the Dead of Night
The potato...? My heart was pounding so violently it felt like each second stretched into a year, my breath caught tight in my throat. 'What the hell... why is she here...?'
I had been explicitly told to never set foot on the third floor. So who the hell was the person standing right in front of me?
…Honestly, I had known this moment would come eventually. As the Grand Duchess, there was nowhere in this mansion she couldn’t go. If she wanted to be somewhere, no one would dare stop her. In the seven years I’d worked here to save up for my shop, I had never once believed I could avoid running into her forever. That had just been a foolish hope.
Yes. I had expected it to happen someday. But I never imagined it would be on my very first day of work.
'…At least our eyes didn’t meet.'
I wanted to pat myself on the back for keeping my speed stat at A for the past five days. If I hadn’t immediately lowered my head, I might have locked eyes with the Northern Grand Duchess.
Tap. Tap. The sound of light footsteps echoed from the other side of the room, and my body instinctively shrank in on itself. The closer those footsteps came, the lower my head instinctively dipped, and my heart thrashed harder and harder.
With my gaze fixed on the ground, I rolled my eyes sideways to glance at the black ring on my left index finger. The chances were slim, but if an emergency arose, I would have to use the magic tool to escape. Since teleportation was treated the same as moving into a shadow, even the Northern Grand Duchess wouldn’t be able to stop me from getting away.
But thankfully, it seemed that wouldn’t be necessary.
Tap. Tap. The Grand Duchess walked straight toward me, then simply passed by without a second glance. After that came the sound of the refrigerator door opening, followed by a faint rustling. Once she closed the refrigerator door again, she left the way she had come, without making the slightest disturbance.
Only after confirming that the Northern Grand Duchess had moved on did I cautiously lift my head. Since this was eight years before the original story began, I had expected her to be young… but her small back was even tinier than I had imagined. Her hair, whiter than snow, stood out dramatically, but what truly caught my eye was the object she held in her hand.
…That was.
“A potato…?”
What the Northern Grand Duchess had bothered to come all the way to this remote food storage to take was an unpeeled, raw potato.
A small child, barely ten years old.
White hair like fresh snow.
And a single raw potato clutched tightly in her tiny hands.
After that chaotic encounter with the Northern Grand Duchess passed, I found myself in the underground cafeteria of the maids’ dormitory, which was slightly separated from the main mansion. Having finished my daily tasks, I was eating dinner here.
The head maid hadn’t been exaggerating when she said they provided meals on par with noble standards. The dishes before me looked incredibly luxurious. There was pasta giving off a savory aroma and bread that seemed freshly warmed and steaming hot. Normally I would have devoured every last bite, but right now it felt like I might actually choke if I did. So I could only poke at the noodles half-heartedly with my chopsticks.
“What? You ran into Her Highness the Grand Duchess?”
The senior maid who had abandoned me alone in the food storage widened her eyes in shock.
“Yes.”
“Oh dear… you really have terrible luck on your first day. Good thing you ran away.”
…This person. Was that really something you should say in front of the person you abandoned?
Of course, as a brand-new hire, I couldn’t possibly voice that thought out loud. Instead, I let out a deep internal sigh and took a big bite of the bread. Just then, someone sat down beside me.
“You worked hard today, Alice.”
“Ah. Hello, Senior.”
It was the maid who had shown me to my room on my first day here. A graceful-looking senior with dark black hair that gave her a calm, refined impression. From what I remembered, she was one of the few genuinely good seniors.
“It must have been tough on your first day, right?”
“Not at all. Everyone was kind and explained things clearly, so I was able to learn quickly.”
The black-haired senior let out a soft chuckle, then leaned close to my ear and whispered.
“It’ll be a bit easier starting tomorrow. They always push new hires hard on the first day to establish discipline.”
So that’s why it had felt excessively difficult. Still, if things would loosen up from tomorrow onward, that was a relief.
“Even so, they said you worked diligently without a single complaint. Everyone’s been praising you quite a bit.”
“I’m glad they think well of me.”
“Hehe… maybe we’ve gotten ourselves an ace.”
The senior patted my head affectionately. Caught off guard by the unexpected praise, I felt a bit embarrassed and scratched my cheek while looking at her.
“Ah, Senior. May I ask you something?”
“Sure. Ask me anything.”
I decided to bring up the question that had been circling in my head since earlier.
“Today I happened to see Her Highness the Grand Duchess in the food storage… and she took a raw potato with her?”
“Ah.”
“Does she visit the food storage often?”
If that was the case, I should avoid any tasks involving food preparation as much as possible. Just a brief encounter had made my skin crawl. If that kind of situation kept repeating, my heart wouldn’t survive.
The senior glanced around nervously for a moment, then spoke to me with a troubled expression.
“Hmm… we all try to avoid talking about Her Highness the Grand Duchess as much as possible. Nothing good ever comes from anything involving her.”
“Ah, I’m sorry. It was a thoughtless question.”
“No, there’s no need to apologize… um… alright.”
She scooted right up against me and lowered her voice to a whisper so quiet no one else could hear.
“I like you, so I’ll tell you this once. But you must never speak of it carelessly, understand? Talking recklessly about those above us won’t end well.”
I nodded with a serious look in my eyes.
“Yes. I absolutely won’t tell anyone.”
After hearing my resolute answer, the senior finally opened her mouth.
“The truth is, Her Highness the Grand Duchess doesn’t eat meals prepared by others. More precisely, she refuses any food that someone else has made.”
“Eh? Why?”
Could it be that she found food made by others beneath her standards? Given the personality described in the novel, that seemed plausible.
“She was poisoned twice while eating. One time was truly life-threatening. After that, she never touches food prepared by anyone else.”
“…..Pardon?”
Completely unprepared for that answer, I blinked blankly.
Poisoned? Who would dare? The Northern Grand Duchess? That meant someone had mixed poison into her meals? What kind of suicidal fool would do such a thing? She was the Grand Duchess. Not some wealthy upstart, not a minor border noble—she was the only daughter of the Valaxar Grand Duke, who held power second only to the imperial family.
“Just who would try to poison Her Highness the Grand Duchess…?”
“I don’t know either. But from what I’ve heard, there have been multiple assassination attempts in the middle of the night.”
The absurd story that followed left me stunned. No, that didn’t make any sense. Although she had little presence in the novel, the Valaxar Grand Duchy was a prestigious family that had fought for countless years against the beasts swarming the northern frontlines. Who would dare send assassins after such a house? Anyone with even the slightest sense would fear the consequences and never attempt it. So who in the world would dare provoke the Valaxars?
Come to think of it, had there really been assassins? Maybe it was just a baseless rumor.
'Ah.'
Just as that thought crossed my mind, a sudden memory surfaced. Why had I forgotten? In the final part of the novel, the Northern Grand Duchess was missing one arm. And the author had clearly described that she lost it after being ambushed by an assassin. That meant there really was a deranged group attempting to assassinate the Northern Grand Duchess.
Being in such a high position, it made sense that she would have enemies. But… even so…
'No matter what, she’s way too young right now…'
I recalled the glimpse I had caught of the Northern Grand Duchess’s back earlier. She had looked like a tiny child who couldn’t even be ten years old yet. Had she really been living under constant assassination threats since she was that small? A wave of pity washed over me at the cruel reality.
I now roughly understood the situation, but one thing still didn’t make sense.
“Wouldn’t His Grace the Grand Duke do something about it?”
Arvian Valaxar, the current master of the North and known as the Guardian of the Frontlines. He never appeared directly in the novel, but he had been mentioned as a righteous hero. There was no way someone like him would simply stand by while his daughter faced assassination attempts.
“…His Grace the Grand Duke…”
The senior maid glanced around cautiously once more before delivering her final words and standing up.
“His Grace the Grand Duke has no interest whatsoever in Her Highness the Grand Duchess.”
“What? What do you—”
“Alright, that’s enough! It won’t do you any good to know more.”
She clapped her hands loudly and flashed a bright smile. Far from clearing up my questions, my mind had only grown more tangled. But it was clear the senior had no intention of saying anything further.
I let out a short internal sigh, shook my head, and tried to shake off all the complicated thoughts swirling inside me.
'……Yeah. Senior is right.'
Just as she said, there was no point in me digging any deeper. After all, even though I had gained various opportunities after possessing this body, they were all just minor perks that supporting villain characters would normally obtain. I was only strong enough to survive against a pack of beasts. If I got involved in the original story, I’d be killed without even being able to make a sound by any number of powerful figures.
It seemed the Northern Grand Duchess had a complicated story, but it was far too heavy a burden for a mere maid like me to carry. The best I could do was simply not get involved.
All I needed to do was work toward my goal—save up enough money to open a shop in the imperial capital and then leave. Yes… that was all I had to do…
So why did I feel so uneasy?