The Grand Duke's Neck Belongs to Me
Click—.
Having closed the door to the Grand Duke's chambers, I leaned my back against it and caught my breath for a moment.
I felt a little deflated.
"A butler who panics over seeing a bit of undressing in the bath? That kind of butler would be a problem for me."
The Grand Duke's criticism stung.
It was the kind of remark that made me look back over the past six months.
It hadn't been long since I'd become a butler, but I'd prided myself on being as close to perfect as a butler could get.
And yet, apparently, I had only been acting the part — a butler on the surface and nothing more.
'If you want to deceive your enemy, you have to deceive yourself first.'
I had been content to fool the Grand Duke just enough to win his trust so I could go for his throat — I'd never actually let myself dissolve into the profession of butlering.
"Ah, and one more thing."
As I'd been about to step out of the bathroom, the Grand Duke's parting words had come flying at me.
"Soap isn't for eating, Butler."
"……."
He had made it abundantly clear that he'd seen everything from the very beginning, driving the shame in one more time for good measure.
'I'll kill him. I will absolutely kill him, that Grand Duke.'
Gritting my teeth, I walked slowly down the corridor. It wasn't physical exhaustion that weighed on my steps so much as the sting of a spiritual defeat.
"See you tomorrow, Freya!"
"Yes, good night."
The hour had slipped well past midnight. The hands of the clock were already pointing to two in the morning.
"Freya! Come over here and have a drink with us!"
The drinking party at the knights' quarters was winding down to its final stretch. One of the knights, who had been pressing drinks on me all night, hailed me while hoisting his cup high. Judging by his state, he looked about ready to collapse like everyone else around him.
I politely declined the offer and kept walking. Deep in the small hours, the Grand Ducal estate was so quiet it bordered on desolate — you'd never guess the Grand Duke and his knights had returned at all.
After one last inspection around the main building and the annexes, I headed up to my quarters. Becoming a butler had moved my lodgings to the fourth floor of the main building — the same floor as the Grand Duke's office, directly above his bedroom.
When he was away, it had meant nothing to me, but now that he was back and lying beneath my feet, something about it felt strangely odd.
Determined not to wake the Grand Duke if I could help it, I padded along quietly and readied myself to wash up. When I checked the time again, it was past three in the morning.
'What a hectic day.'
The tension that had started with the Grand Duke's return had drained far more of my energy than usual. Phew—. I let out a sigh and loosened the hair I'd wound up high.
'Wash up fast and get to bed.'
I hadn't even managed to stop by the training grounds today, I'd been so busy. On days when special situations like this cropped up, there was nothing to be done about it.
I filled the bathtub with steaming water and settled lightly onto its edge. I was staring blankly at the stream pouring into the tub when—
Screeeeee—.
A piercing ring tore through my left ear. I shot upright, hurried straight out of the bathroom, and switched off every lamp I'd left burning in the bedroom.
Then I dashed to the window, pressed my face against the glass, and scanned the grounds. Outside was darkness — a darkness so complete that nothing could be found by sight alone.
But I could feel it.
Just like every night before, an assassin had come to the Grand Ducal estate.
The surroundings were frigidly still. The atmosphere of the infamous Ballot Grand Ducal estate was even more silent than the reports had suggested.
But to someone, that silence was the opportunity of a lifetime.
'To an assassin like me, especially.'
Third-floor corridor of the main building. According to the map, the Grand Duke's bedroom lay along it.
Shff, shff-shff. Footsteps honed specifically for assassination left neither trace nor sound. The assassin was inching forward, recalling the memorized map, when—
he had no choice but to freeze on the spot.
A blade was pointed at his throat.
"Who's there……."
The assassin hurled the question into the shadows, and an answer he hadn't expected flowed back.
"What kind of question is that, creeping into someone else's house and asking who's there?"
"……."
The assassin's eyes wavered.
'A woman……?'
He hadn't sensed her approach, nor the drawing of her blade against his neck. Being subdued in a single instant was outrageous enough — but by a woman?
Worse, even knowing he was an assassin, there was no tension to be found in her voice. If anything, it carried the lazy languor of someone who had just woken from a nap.
The assassin stared hard into the shadow. The woman's face was hidden, veiled in darkness; only the silver blade stretching long out of the shadow glittered.
Gritting his teeth, he spoke.
"Who are you? A mercenary the Grand Duke hired? What organization?"
The dossier he'd memorized on the Grand Duke's household had made no mention of any woman with this kind of skill.
'Which means she's most likely a hastily hired mercenary.'
The assassin pressed on.
"A talent like that is wasted on a mere hireling. Why not join hands with us inst—"
Tsk.
The woman clicked her tongue. With profound, unbridled annoyance.
"Even without me here, you'd never have taken the Grand Duke's head."
"……What?"
"It's a miracle you made it inside the estate at all, with skills like that."
At the mockery in her voice, the assassin's jaw jutted out. Then the blade at his throat pressed into his skin and bit down.
"Shall I tell you something?"
The blade, weighted with force, carved across his flesh and opened a red gash. A thin line of blood trailed down his neck.
"The Grand Duke's head is mine."
"……."
"I was promised it."
So.
"Until I'm strong enough to kill the Grand Duke myself, nobody touches him. Got it?"
"……."
What on earth was she saying?
The assassin could not make heads or tails of her words.
'She's not a mercenary?'
He'd assumed she was here to protect the Grand Duke, and now she was spouting nonsense about his head belonging to her. The moment he sensed something had gone terribly wrong, the woman took a single step out of the shadows.
A slender jaw and red lips came faintly into view. She was smiling — the red corners of her mouth cradling a smile.
Only then did a chill race down the assassin's spine.
He understood instinctively.
Whether this woman was the Grand Duke's ally — or his enemy — she would never let him leave alive.
'……I have to run.'
He had to report that someone absent from their files was inside the Grand Ducal estate.
'That this madwoman might be the one who's been killing every assassin sent to the Ballot Grand Ducal house.'
A new investigation was needed!
'The plan has to be revised ag—'
That was the moment.
The cold blade resting against his throat turned scalding hot in an instant.
'Wha……?'
Shaaaaaak—!
Clutching his throat, the assassin let out a final scream.
"Ghk—!"
A moment later, with a heavy thud, his body crumpled onto the dark corridor floor.
"Eek."
The sound of the assassin's body folding to the ground had been fairly loud. Thankfully, I'd thrown up an aura barrier the instant I spotted him, so none of the commotion should have leaked outside.
'Of course, the Grand Duke will have noticed me using aura anyway.'
I looked down at the assassin sprawled on the floor.
"Killing who, exactly, with skills like that?"
How boring. Nothing but empty husks, the lot of them.
Even I, in the full flower of my prime, couldn't kill the Grand Duke. And these runts thought they could charge in and do it?
They were no different from moths hurling themselves into a fire pit.
'If you want to aim for the Grand Duke's neck, you'd better sharpen your skills for another hundred years.'
I rubbed the blood spattered on my left cheek roughly with the back of my hand.
That said.
'Where did this one even come from?'
His pronunciation had been slurred. Going by that, he was likely an assassin from one of the other empires who'd learned the Cadean tongue half-heartedly.
As I stood studying the corpse in silence, I noticed a dagger tucked into the assassin's belt.
'Hm?'
A fingernail-sized blue jewel caught my eye, set into the hilt.
'……What?'
It wasn't unfamiliar. No — it was positively familiar.
No way…….
I drew my sword again and swiftly sliced away the garment covering the assassin's left shoulder. There it was — a tattoo I knew all too well.
A design of crossing flames and a pointed dagger.
"Ha……!"
A hollow laugh burst out of me.
I knew that tattoo. That tattoo had once been mine, too.
It was the mark of Ariad — the assassin order of the Tenasis Empire, the very one I had led as its commander.
So then. Just now, with my own two hands, I had killed an assassin of the Tenasis Empire.