The Cowards Who Whisper
'Judging by their attire, most of them were advisors or escort knights, it seemed.'
Which meant I was the only butler here, apparently.
Nearly half of the attendants sat alone at the seats assigned to their houses, absorbed in their own duties.
'The rest seem to have gathered in little cliques of their own.'
The emotions I could read in the eyes turned toward me fell neatly into three categories: displeasure, curiosity, and—for the vast majority—indifference.
Truthfully, the atmosphere wasn't as bad as I'd expected.
'I'd braced myself to be torn apart by everyone. Honestly, this much almost feels like a courtesy.'
Brushing off their stares as if they were nothing, I crossed to the center of the lounge and walked to the seat reserved for the Grand Duchy of Ballot.
Their gazes clung to me the entire way, and even after I found my place, I could sense them murmuring among themselves.
'Let's see. That man should have come up to the second floor as well...'
The lounge was smaller than the banquet hall downstairs, but with so many attendants packed in, it took me a while to pick out a single face.
'Ah, there he is.'
My eyes met someone's.
A face I'd glimpsed briefly in the banquet hall below.
When I spotted him, he was already staring back at me—and his gaze glittered like a child who had just discovered a fascinating new toy.
'Same as ever.'
That damned look in his eyes.
He wouldn't recognize me, but it took me only an instant to see through his disguise.
'The mad doctor.'
Drek Veilhale—the physician who had once served at Serhin's side in the Tenasis Empire.
'He vanished from my sight three years before I died. So this is where he'd crawled off to—the Cadea Empire.'
When I'd caught sight of Drek in the banquet hall earlier, he'd been hovering beside the head of Count Doffin's household.
I confirmed it once more by checking the plaque bearing the family crest on the table where he sat.
An eagle bearing a shield on its back.
'Count Doffin's house, all right.'
I'd heard about the Doffin family from Grandfather before.
"When the eldest son—the promising heir—died, the second son inherited the title instead. That's when the decline began. The second son had precious little talent and greed to spare. A good-for-nothing, through and through."
I remembered how scathing Grandfather's assessment had been.
He'd even mentioned a rumor that the second son was the one who had killed the eldest.
'So the wretch ended up serving under him, of all people.'
Drek had been an exceptionally vile and cruel man.
'He simply didn't see people as people, I suppose.'
As far as he was concerned, they were nothing more than test subjects—means to the end of a successful experiment.
No wonder meeting his stare sometimes made my skin crawl with disgust.
'If Serhin hadn't been there to hold him back, he probably would have used me as one of his specimens.'
A man like that wouldn't have latched onto just any family and slipped into the Empire without a plan.
'There has to be a reason he joined Count Doffin's house.'
But what could it be?
Walking on, I passed right by Drek.
The Grand Duchy's seats sat at the very end of the lounge, so I had to cross in front of the Count Doffin party and keep walking even after putting him behind me.
Having arrived at my destination, I settled onto the sofa facing the other attendants so that I could keep them all in view.
Though it was a touch unnerving to have Drek sitting directly in my line of sight.
"Polken! What are you staring at so hard? Don't tell me you've taken an interest in that woman too?"
An attendant from another family dropped down beside Drek and slung an arm around his shoulders.
'Polken?'
So that was the alias he was using here.
I turned my eyes away from them.
Pretending to whisper while not lowering their voices one bit? Their ploy to draw my attention was transparent as glass.
That woman this, a mere woman that.
I'd endured plenty of this in the Tenasis Empire as well.
The weight I'd been forced to bear as a woman who became a knight—a woman who became the Crown Prince's personal guard. That was the closest way I could describe it.
'Border or no border, men like that exist everywhere.'
Compared to the knights who had sneered at me in Tenasis, these attendants were positively tame.
And then it happened.
"A female butler. Honestly, is the world trying to end itself? Right, Polken?"
The man resting a hand on Drek's shoulder raised his voice louder than before.
"......"
Ah, right. You lot aren't harmless after all, are you?
Feigning deafness, I crossed my legs and sank deep into the sofa.
When I gave them no reaction whatsoever, the barbs started flying higher and meaner.
"A disgrace to the Empire. I half fear the other Empires might hear of it."
"The sheer gall. Turning up her face at an occasion like this. Does she not realize she's dragging the Grand Duchy's name through the mud?"
"Well, if her head worked that way, she'd never have accepted the butler's position in the first place, would she?"
Ahahaha. The attendants roared with laughter, taking turns.
'Ahahaha!'
I laughed along in my head.
That's what they're calling an insult?
'How cute.'
I picked up the teapot already set out on the table and filled my cup.
With a soft trickle, golden tea brimmed to the edge of the porcelain.
The adorable little jabs kept coming even after that.
"Wouldn't be surprised if the Grand Duchy's head cook and stable hands all turn into women next."
"There's work for women and work for men, that's all I'm saying."
And then, little by little, the target of their mockery began to shift.
"And you think it stops at the knights? What man alive keeps a woman with that face and that figure as nothing more than a butler? For all we know, 'butler' isn't her real occupation."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying she might have a different trade entirely. The butler's post is just for show."
"Oho! Now that actually holds together. So that's why His Grace has turned down every fine marriage proposal all these years—don't tell me..."
"Well, with a woman like that at his side, what chance would any other noble lady ever stand?"
"......"
Now they'd finally crossed the line.
They hadn't stopped at insulting me—they were dragging the Grand Duke's name through it as well.
A few attendants who noticed it suddenly fell silent.
"Do not let yourself be underestimated."
The Grand Duke's voice surfaced in my memory.
Click— I set down my teacup and lifted my gaze, slow as molasses.
The attendants clustered around Drek flinched and shuddered the moment their eyes met mine.
Tilting my head lazily to one side and folding my arms across my chest, I spoke as though murmuring to myself.
"No courage to make a peep in front of the Grand Duke himself, yet the fact that his household's butler is a woman galls you so terribly."
"......"
Ah, whatever.
"Pathetic lot."
"Wh-what?!"
My voice hadn't been loud, but the lounge was so silent that it must have carried perfectly.
Several of them flushed crimson and shot up from their sofas.
I continued, perfectly calm.
"Oh, did you hear that? My muttering must have been too loud. Everyone here mutters at this volume, so I assumed it was permitted."
"Th-this lunatic—"
I tilted my head.
"Is the fact that I'm a woman really so important? Well, I suppose it could be. And yet... it seems you're the only group in this room thoughtless enough to keep whining about it out loud."
"......"
Only then did the four or five attendants gathered around Drek become aware of their surroundings.
The attendants who had regarded me with mere curiosity—or plain indifference—were now staring at them with open contempt, or shaking their heads as if the whole display were pitiable.
One of them, his face burning red, shouted at me.
"W-we were only worried the Grand Duchy and His Grace's reputation might be tarnished! That's—that's all!"
There we go.
Haha. I laughed lightly.
"A woman serving as the Grand Duchy's butler would tarnish its reputation? And yet you'll utter such cheap, vulgar jokes without a second thought, but worry for your own families' reputations never crosses your minds?"
"What did you say?!"
"And another thing."
I went on, one corner of my mouth curling upward.
"If you're so very concerned for His Grace, why not march up and say all of that to his face? I'd be happy to arrange the meeting myself."
"...Huh?"
"What's the matter? Can't do it? Shall I do it for you? 'His Grace, appointing a woman as his butler? Has he lost his mind? Thanks to him, the honor of a Grand Duke's house lies trampled in the dirt. Ah, or perhaps he simply grew lonely at night and wanted company? My, what exotic tastes he has. Hahaha.' There—shall I deliver it just like that?"
The attendant stammered, flustered.
"N-no, that's not—I never said anything like—"
"Then I will."
Cutting the man off mid-sentence, I inclined my head ever so slightly.
"On behalf of the attendants of the Marquessate of Doirit, the Countship of Stron, and the Countship of Mylo, allow me to convey your sentiments directly."
There. Satisfied?
At my words, the faces of the attendants from the named families began to drain a deathly shade of blue.