Chapter 43
Chapter 43
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 42
Chapter Title: Servant Cedric (8) - Lord of Eched
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"Hasn't the young lady changed since that apology last time?"
"Yeah. She hasn't laid a hand on anyone recklessly, and even when she scolds, it's just with words."
"I-I-I even got praised for shining the shoes well last time. I thought she didn't care what we did at all, but she must've been watching everything."
"Her mother collapsed, so she had to rush home, but the young lady gave us the day off. How considerate can she be?"
"Honestly, a lady like her makes for a pretty decent master, don't you think? At least she doesn't withhold wages or anything."
"You think so? Well, that old rampage of hers was still..."
"Hey! Rampage? It was just a phase, a phase! Doesn't every girl go through that at her age?"
"Last time you were grumbling that she'd be someone you wouldn't deal with if not for the pay."
"Wh-what are you talking about? Don't make up stories that never happened!"
Whispers buzzed through the air.
Murmurs spread.
In the Redbell mansion built in the Eched domain,
the servants couldn't stop chattering every day about the changes in their "young lady."
At first, they had watched her warily with eyes mixed with suspicion and unease, but as Claudia actively showed kindness and refined demeanor, they began to slowly loosen their guard.
The change had been so abrupt that it was bewildering and strange, no doubt.
But if asked whether they disliked it? Of course not—they welcomed it.
Who wouldn't prefer a gentle, elegant noble lady over a mad dog that might snap and bite at any moment as their superior?
However, Claudia, at the center of all this gossip, saw things a bit differently.
"I'm tired... This is so exhausting..."
In Claudia's room,
she whined, slumped over the table.
Maintaining an attitude and speech calculated to win favor and respect from everyone around her, always conscious of their gazes—it drained an unimaginable amount of mental strength and stamina.
For Claudia, who was used to venting her frustrations immediately when annoyed and acting on her whims right away to feel satisfied, this was especially grueling.
"Cedric. How long do I have to keep this up?"
"Hahaha, young lady. You're asking the obvious. Why, for life, of course."
At Cedric's reply, Claudia's face twisted in indescribable despair.
"For real? I have to put on this fake act my whole life?"
"That's how society works. Living while baring all your desires and complaints makes you less human and more beast!"
"Are you saying your master is a beast right now?"
"Which suits your taste better: the truth mixed with personal feelings, or the plain objective truth?"
"...Forget it. I don't wanna hear it."
"What a shame. I was hoping to offer you another valuable piece of advice."
Claudia shot a sharp glare at Cedric, who smacked his lips with genuine regret, then let out a deep sigh.
She grumbled here and there, but even she knew the evaluations around her were rising remarkably fast.
Frankly, the results were so dramatic in such a short time that she felt a bit dazed by it.
"It's good that you're pleased with the progress, but this is just the beginning. It's still far too meager to show the Marquis Redbell."
At Cedric's pointed remark, she frowned for a moment but quickly straightened up and asked,
"So, what's next?"
"Just to confirm again, you are the lord of this Eched domain, correct?"
She nodded.
"Nominally, yes. The deputy handles the actual management, but it's just some rural backwater anyway—no one cares much."
"First, we need to correct that mindset. This place is absolutely not some rural fief."
"What?"
Claudia looked baffled, but Cedric was unwavering.
And rightly so—this Eched domain was no place to be undervalued, in his eyes.
The guild's eastern branch where adventurer Bern mainly operated had a city population of a few thousand.
Yet Eched's population easily surpassed ten thousand, and its territory was nearly five times larger.
The reason Claudia dismissed it as "rural" was simple.
The Redbell family's other domains were even juicier prizes.
'Even with the Adventurer's Guild—strong with its semi-noble tendencies—spreading influence across the kingdom, I see why they don't draw swords lightly against inept rural nobles. The nobles near the capital are too powerful.'
The royal family, marquisate, and countships—known as the kingdom's three pillars—combined held less than 30% of the land.
Yet in population terms, that 30% matched or even exceeded the remaining 70%.
With more people crammed into relatively small territories, talent and capital abounded, and each domain developed rapidly.
To Cedric, it seemed an imbalanced structure ripe for problems, but for now, it worked in his favor.
Otherwise, Marquis Redbell wouldn't have handed a domain like this to his out-of-favor daughter, calling it "rural."
"Listen well. What you need to do from now on is—"
"From today, I'll manage this place directly, so you can step back and rest."
When Claudia barged into the government office and made that demand, the deputy lord of Eched felt a whirlwind of complex emotions.
But stripping it down to one word? Pathetic.
Masking his face with a friendly smile, the deputy lord said to Claudia,
"Lady Claudia, your words are so sudden—it's hard to understand. Telling me to step down out of nowhere?"
"I'm the lord of Eched, aren't I? If the lord wants to manage the domain herself, what's the problem?"
There was.
A huge one.
Her lordship wasn't granted in any proper sense to begin with.
It was a forced title given to Claudia—whose volatile temper made social gatherings or temple service impossible as a proper noble lady—so she could claim "difficulties due to lordly duties" as an excuse for dodging external activities.
Just paper credentials to inflate her value slightly for a future political marriage using her.
Under his smiling facade, the deputy lord clicked his tongue inwardly.
From his position, tasked directly by the marquis to manage this place, every second wasted talking to this spoiled brat felt like pure loss.
"Hoho, Lady Claudia. Managing a domain demands immense responsibility and effort. If you meddle lightly and cause chaos, even the marquis would be most displeased."
A flinch.
The deputy lord's eyes didn't miss Claudia's body stiffening.
He savored the quiet satisfaction.
'Hmph. That might fly with lowly servants, but you think your tantrums work on me, who received direct orders from the marquis?'
If it had been one of her other siblings instead of Claudia, he wouldn't have been so openly dismissive.
But Claudia was the exception.
Her mother had been Birka royalty, yet the support from her maternal family was worse than that of a typical rural noble.
The Birka royals of that era lacked any standout figure in legitimacy or ability, trapped in endless political strife, and had no interest in wasting resources supporting an "outsider" former royal.
While her other siblings—who had also lost their mothers—had absorbed the resources from the first wife's connections, Claudia had only her father, the marquis, to rely on, and even that relationship was shaky at best.
A lady with a grand facade but no real power.
For him—a vassal entrusted with an entire domain—there was no need to fear or cower before such a girl.
Or so common sense dictated.
"I'll pretend I didn't hear that today. So if you could just leave—"
"—Hey."
Claudia's voice dropped to a chilling low.
By the time the deputy lord snapped to attention, a blood-red twin-headed wolf had already pinned him to the floor.
Grrrrrrrr!
Grrrrrrrr!
Its body like forged from blood, the monstrous wolf with two heads growled from each maw.
Overwhelmed by the blood beast's menace—as if it would tear out his throat and crunch his skull—the deputy lord could only gape silently, too terrified to scream.
"L-Lord!!"
The guard knights who had entered the reception room with him gasped and reached for their swords, but it was far too late.
Fearsome blood beasts radiating murderous intent had long since appeared before them as well.
Faced with beasts poised to lunge at any moment, the guards swallowed hard.
As Redbell vassals, they knew exactly what blood beasts were.
Immensely powerful even by raw force alone, these magic beasts charged heedless of any injury.
Even a fully formed unit would hesitate to fight them—let alone half-ambushed indoors.
In the end, all they could do was raise their voices in plea.
"Young lady!! Are you in your right mind?!"
"Shouldn't I be asking you that?"
Claudia's gaze, brimming with irritation and disgust, pierced the deputy lord and his men.
They shrank involuntarily under eyes that stabbed like icicles one by one.
"A mere deputy daring to intimidate the lord? And you there—you called this guy 'lord' earlier, not 'deputy lord.' You call me 'young lady,' but him 'lord'? Hilarious. Isn't it?"
As if echoing her rage, the blood beasts' killing intent surged fiercer.
Emotions are akin to consumables, after all.
Those vented too often turn frivolous.
But emotions long suppressed and released explode outward, overwhelming all around.
Claudia's savage nature—reined in lately to show only her good side to the servants—burst forth with the perfect trigger, leaving the deputy lord's group breathless.
Staring down at the pinned deputy, Claudia declared each syllable deliberately, enunciating clearly.
"Go tell Father. I'm going to change Eched. He can decide what to do with me after seeing the results."
"Th-that..."
"Don't twist my words, got it? I've memorized all your faces here. Even if I'm sold off somewhere weird, I can track you down and turn you into wolf chow—so watch yourselves."
"......"
"No reply?"
"Y-yes, understood! I'll relay it! So please, remove these beasts!"
Claudia snorted, and the blood beast pinning the deputy with its forepaw backed off to her side.
Even after it withdrew, the deputy lord gasped raggedly several times.
He shot Claudia sidelong glances full of unspoken grievances but ultimately left the office without a single complaint, his guards trailing silently behind.
Claudia turned to her head butler Bestian and select servants brought from her villa and commanded,
"Tell the office servants that I'm taking charge here starting today. Absorb those who accept smoothly, purge the rest, and take their positions. But even when purging, make sure they hand over all duties completely—don't forget that."
"Understood, young lady."
Perhaps because she had handpicked those especially loyal and favorable toward her from the mansion, none voiced complaints or worries.
In the now-empty room after the other servants left,
Claudia sat in the chair the deputy lord had occupied and asked the sole remaining servant, Cedric,
"...Can I really do this?"
Cedric replied,
"Regrettably, I lack the ability to see the future, so I can't give a definitive answer."
"Sigh, yeah. Of course."
"But."
"?"
Cedric smiled.
"The current you suits being my master far better than the girl who wasted her days lashing out at everyone around her."
Not the usual mad glint, but a soft smile and gentle words.
"Eek."
Caught off guard, Claudia flushed, then snorted and puffed out her chest.
"Cheeky for a mere servant."