Royals Are All the Same
"Kadrian!"
While I was deep in conversation with the Marquess, a voice rang out from across the hall, calling for the Grand Duke.
When I turned my head, I caught sight of something glittering as it approached. The very air around the man as he walked was enough to announce, I am royalty.
I had barely been watching him for a moment before the Grand Duke and the Marquess both bowed respectfully toward him.
"Your Highness, Crown Prince."
And everyone around them bowed their heads in unison.
Ah, so that's the Crown Prince.
Picking up on the cue, I lowered my head as well.
Crown Prince Artair closed the distance quickly and greeted Kadrian like an old friend.
"So you came all the way to the palace recently and left after seeing nothing but the High Priest?"
"Yes, Your Highness."
At that, the Crown Prince pushed out his lower lip in a pout. He looked exactly like a sulking child.
"Do you have any idea how hurt I was? You come all the way to the palace and don't even stop by to see me?"
At his mischievous expression, the Grand Duke let out a soft chuckle. His reaction was nothing like his usual self. Everything in the Grand Duke's tone and expression said he felt perfectly at ease with the Crown Prince.
So they're close.
About as close as Serhin and I had been, I supposed.
I took my time studying the Crown Prince, who was now absorbed in conversation with the Grand Duke.
Gold hair that shimmered like fine silk thread, fair skin, and eyes as deep and clear as blue sapphires.
I'd thought Sir Allen had a striking presence, but the Crown Prince was in the same league.
Still, there's something oddly different about them.
Sir Allen called to mind a golden field rippling with divine favor, whereas the Crown Prince was more like... a tower of gold bullion stacked to the ceiling beneath a chandelier.
Well, either way, both were very easy on the eyes.
Then, without warning, Crown Prince Artair's gaze rolled my way.
He smiled, eyes curving pleasantly, studied me from head to toe, then turned his attention back to the Grand Duke.
What was that...?
It lasted only an instant, but I could read the intent behind that gaze — he had been sizing me up.
Just as I was appraising him, the Crown Prince just picked me apart.
Between those eye corners bent so sweetly they could pass for kindness, those blue eyes that had swept over me carried not a trace of simple goodwill.
Goodwill? If anything, they were cold enough to feel outright hostile.
They say birds of a feather flock together. So this one's suspicious by nature too.
My mistake was assuming that just because he was the Grand Duke's friend, he'd be friendly toward the Grand Duke's butler.
Royalty is royalty.
Apparently, concealing lecherous, black-hearted schemes beneath the surface was much the same for royals of any nation.
And yet Crown Prince Artair of the Cadea Empire carried himself in a markedly different manner from Serhin, Crown Prince of the Tenasis Empire.
In my mind, the word "crown prince" meant an arrogant, haughty creature drunk on his own magnificence.
Serhin was exactly that.
So I'd assumed this one would be the same. Sure enough, the moment he laid eyes on me, that dissecting look of his felt no different from Serhin's.
But Crown Prince Artair maintained his smile throughout, dealing with everyone graciously. He was clearly a different animal from Serhin, who hadn't even bothered with a mask.
The Crown Prince slung an arm around the Grand Duke's shoulder and continued.
"Oh, Kadrian. Did you hear the news?"
"What news would that be?"
"Well, you see—"
Before the Crown Prince could get started, the Grand Duke smoothly shifted his position.
"Shall we continue this over there, Your Highness?"
"Why not? Although—"
At that moment, the Crown Prince's gaze turned to me.
"Will she be all right? Leaving your butler alone?"
The Grand Duke glanced back at me, then answered without a moment's hesitation.
"...She'll be fine. If I truly believed her so fragile that I couldn't even bring her to a gathering like this, I wouldn't have brought her at all."
The Crown Prince clicked his tongue.
"What a heartless master."
Ha. I laughed as if it were no concern of mine.
Yes, that's the Grand Duke for you.
Heartless? Not at all. That's simply who he is, Crown Prince of Cadea.
Throwing me among the beasts for his own amusement, then watching and observing how I react.
Go right ahead, Grand Duke.
As if I'd ever tuck my tail and run.
I lifted my head and looked at the Grand Duke.
My gaze met his violet eyes. With the faintest hint of a smile, I lowered my head again.
Then the Grand Duke guided the Crown Prince away.
"Shall we go, Your Highness?"
"Let's."
The Grand Duke and the Crown Prince settled into a spot some distance off and began their conversation.
Perhaps because those two men stood within easy view, no one dared pick a fight with me or come nosing around.
Thanks to that, the Crown Prince's fears went unfulfilled.
Bored, I began quietly sampling the food laid out for the banquet.
And I confirmed that Ed had been telling the truth when he praised the imperial palace's head chef.
If it weren't for all these watching eyes, I could eat so much more...
People didn't approach, but the furtive glances in my direction were as plentiful as ever.
A shame, but this much would have to do.
I am a butler who must consider the dignity of House Grand Duke, after all.
Meanwhile, the banquet ripened.
Unlike the early stretch of greetings and pleasantries, talk of politics gradually began to dominate the room.
Which meant it was time for the attendants to slip away.
The attendants who withdrew from the banquet hall made straight for the lounge upstairs, where they would hold their own round of networking, or so I'd been told.
Hm.
I looked back and forth between the staircase leading to the second floor and the corridor leading to the private quarters provided for the noble houses.
"You can exchange information with attendants from the other noble houses."
"You want ME to do that?"
"Ah — no, not you, my lady. This time, you need only stay in the quarters."
Aide Ed had told me there was no need for any networking — I should simply rest in my quarters.
But resting was never my plan to begin with.
That was why. I had the Grand Duke's blessing.
And there was one face I was rather looking forward to seeing, too.
Without much deliberation, I climbed the stairs to the second floor.
My steps toward the lounge felt inexplicably light.
Because I'd left the banquet hall a little late, there didn't seem to be a single spot left for me. The attendants who had claimed the lounge were all busy chattering away at one another.
"Did you see her earlier? That was definitely a woman, right?"
"She was wearing trousers, but with that face and that figure? No way that's a man."
The attendants gathered in the lounge were already talking about me.
"But hold on — didn't they say all the other butlers died within a month? Was that just a rumor too?"
"No, my friend's older brother joined the Grand Duke's household as a butler and came out a corpse in fifteen days."
"Good heavens!"
"Oh, I heard it firsthand too. The second son of the Milhund family, he—"
As if they'd been waiting for an opening, stories came pouring out from every corner — tales of people who had joined the Grand Duke's household as butlers and left as corpses.
Then someone shouted.
"Quiet! Who cares who died or how many died? What matters is this — that female butler is past the six-month mark. Why is she still alive?"
"How should we know? Maybe no assassin has shown up in all that time."
A nearby attendant gave a shrugging snicker.
"Or she's being kept safe inside the Grand Duke's bed."
Hahahaha! Laughter erupted all at once.
Despicable, every last one of them.
They can beg me to come in all they like — that room is the one place I have zero interest in entering, thank you very much.
Have you all seen it? What's between his legs, hm? That thing, as big as the greatsword the Grand Duke swings around, just standing there!
...Ah, why is it so hot in here?
My neck was burning for no good reason.
Ahem!
Anyway. A pack of ignorant fools running their mouths.
Tsk.
I didn't wait another moment. I flung open the lounge door.
Every gaze in the room snapped to me. The men who had been laughing and chattering just moments before all went silent, as if someone had sewn their lips shut.
They'd gone quiet back in the banquet hall too, but the looks they gave me here were nothing like the ones there.
These were not the veiled, furtive glances of the banquet hall — these stares had their blades drawn, plain and open.
So this is different from being in front of the nobles, is it?
Meaning they do mind their manners when they have the Grand Duke to answer to.
Do they think that without the Grand Duke present, there's no one they need to mind?
How foolish of them.
Because when the Grand Duke isn't watching, I don't mind mine either.
Same goes for me, my dear little darlings.
Heh. Curling one corner of my mouth into a smirk, I strode into the lounge.