Digging Up Nothing
“Hm?”
“......”
Listening to the furball's report, it seemed my earlier deductions had been right on the mark. The Grand Duke's presence had vanished the instant he stepped onto the fifth floor. Which led me to believe that something, or somewhere, entirely different might lie beyond that door.
There's no way he'd seal off an empty space that thoroughly.
Most likely, the furball had simply failed to satisfy whatever condition was required to pass through into that place.
That Grand Duke. Meticulous, isn't he?
Even if someone did manage to break into the fifth floor, his will to keep them from slipping into that space was plain as day. Which, of course, meant that whatever existed there mattered deeply to him.
I gave a slow nod, then glanced at the furball, who was hard at work licking her chocolate-colored paw pads.
Wait a moment. You're already earning your keep, and nobody even asked you to?
So I wouldn't need to train her with dried meat jerky after all? I'd assumed the creature had zero situational awareness, and apparently that wasn't entirely true.
It was a promising start. At this rate, if she kept trotting back with tidbits of information one by one, something worth salvaging was bound to turn up eventually.
Good. Possibility confirmed.
I addressed the furball with the magnanimous air of a queen dispensing favors.
“Furball. What would you like to eat?”
The furball looked up at me, hind leg still raised mid-lick. Then she bounced straight into the air and came hurtling into my arms.
“......”
I had a feeling I'd be turning her loose on the hills behind the ducal estate before long.
Rising from my desk, I walked to the window.
The memory box.
I recalled the box from my dream, and the spot where it had been buried.
I know that place.
A place I would never have found had I not asked for a private training hall — and had that request been denied.
Beside Verdan's Tower, wasn't it?
A narrow path ran alongside the tower where my private training hall stood, one the household rarely used. Long years without a living soul's touch had let the weeds run wild, so that now it hardly looked like a path at all, though someone must have walked it once.
I kept thinking I'd clear it out someday anyway. Well, how convenient.
Tonight, after dark, I intended to deal with those weeds and dig.
I'll have to borrow a shovel and some pruning shears from Patrick.
Having roughly settled my plan, I tucked the letter under my arm and left the room.
“Mm.”
And with that, I saw myself off — or rather, the furball did, yawning hugely as she waved me out the door.
A day at the Grand Duke's estate flew past.
It was another world entirely from the endless tedium of the imperial palace.
“Lady Freya! Something's wrong with the cold storage for the ingredients!”
“I'll send Mr. Ted over. Check the temperature regulator first, and if the mana stone's the problem, contact the Magic Tower.”
“Yes, understood!”
“Freya! A shipment of ore just came in — give it a look, will you?”
“Right away.”
“...Hey, you there! Topple the forge and you're out on your ear!”
The estate thrummed with energy and heat, so completely that the dull hours I'd whiled away at the palace had all but faded from memory.
I had to keep moving, inspecting every last storehouse in the duchy and leaving not a single work area of the hired hands unchecked.
This. This feeling, indescribable in words, filling my chest to the brim.
This swell of pride. This sensation of having proven my own worth.
It struck me anew, with every errand and every fix.
Am I, perhaps, genuinely built for this butler life?
Puffed up with vanity, I spent the whole day touring the estate with my shoulders practically at my ears.
And at last, the dark of night fell.
While most of the hired hands dragged their weary bodies toward the dormitories, I stayed behind until the very end to help close up the estate.
That should just about do it.
As the night deepened, the Grand Duke, his aide Ed, and even Sir Allen had all vanished somewhere together.
What on earth could be so busy the moment they got back?
Several auras that should have been in the knights' dormitory were missing as well — which meant he'd probably taken a handful of knights along, wherever he'd gone.
I'm technically the butler here, and they're keeping a schedule hidden from me.
My mood soured. It felt like fresh confirmation that I still hadn't earned their trust.
I'll pour this rage right into the ground as I dig.
Grinding my teeth, I headed for Verdan's Tower.
“Mm-hm. It was around here.”
Using the tools I'd brought along, I made quick work of the weeds and brambles and pressed deeper in. And there it was — a scene almost identical to the one from my dream.
Except that the soft green grass was long gone, leaving nothing but dark, damp, bare earth.
This red brick, and this square boulder right here. It's certain. This is the place.
I began to dig with the shovel, right where the little girl in my dream had dug.
Thud! Crack! Thud—!
This really is the last time.
Trusting that bizarre dream and going through all this...
Thwack. Thwack. Thwack!
So come out. This time you'd better come out.
And so I dug, and dug, and dug.
Strange to say, nothing turned up.
In the dream she was digging with her bare hands, wasn't she?
How deep could a child digging with her fingers possibly get?
And I'm using a shovel, and it still hasn't appeared?
Half in dread, half in denial, I dug a little further — until at last I lost my temper and slammed the shovel down into the earth with a whump, leaving it standing upright in the dirt.
“Ha...... I've lost my mind, haven't I.”
Trusting that stupid dream, and doing this again on top of it all.
I wiped the sweat beading on my brow roughly against my sleeve, then began shoveling the dirt back into the hole.
Right. This much verification is plenty.
The dream had simply been a dud. A stupid, pointless dream, cooked up by my half-baked reasoning and wishful thinking.
Once I'd restored the ground to something like its original state, I hoisted the shovel over my shoulder and stood looking down at the earth I'd stamped flat.
To think a single dream would drive me to dig up the yard.
Then again, that same cursed dream had cost me my annual salary, too.
Though if I think of the pocket watch as a gift, it doesn't sting quite so much.
Still, the fact that I'd snuck out in the dead of night to dig where no one could see did provoke a small twinge of self-loathing.
Perhaps I was still being swayed by that one line from the Grand Duke — how it would be better to recover my memories sooner rather than later.
“Phew.”
Time to head back.
I'd checked this far, at least. This much, I'd done everything I could.
Trudge, trudge. Anyone watching me make my way along the stone path behind the rear courtyard would have taken me for a soldier limping home from a lost war.
Phew...... haa...... ugh......
Head hanging low, sighing hard enough to sink the ground beneath my feet, I was on my way back to the shed to return the tools when a black shadow suddenly fell across my path.
Hm?
I stopped and lifted my head — and met a pair of violet eyes.
“Oh.”
“......”
“Your Highness?”
My heart lurched. Like a criminal caught red-handed over some great sin.
No, I didn't secretly bury a corpse or anything.
Ahem. Clearing my throat, I asked:
“Coming back from somewhere, Your Highness?”
“......”
In answer, the Grand Duke's gaze slid past me — to the path I'd just walked.
He saw it?
I forced a smile.
“Is there something you need?”
“...Did you bury a person in the hills?”
“Hahaha, what a joke—”
I laughed, perfectly composed.
It seems he thinks I went up to the hills behind the estate?
Evidently he hadn't guessed that I'd been digging in the earth right beside Verdan's Tower.
I kept my cool and smiled as I spoke.
“I did once report to you that poisonous weeds had been discovered in the garden.”
“......”
“The Magic Tower says the soil where they grew must be examined, so I was just collecting a sample of dirt from the rear courtyard on my way back.”
For a long moment, the Grand Duke's eyes darted between my face and the shovel.
“Just say you went out to bury a corpse.”
“Oh — should I? Right. I buried a corpse.”
“......”
“......”
Haah. The Grand Duke heaved a sigh.
Hm. Did I take the joke a little too readily?
“Haha. It was a joke, Your Highness.”
“......”
The Grand Duke ran a hand back through his bangs, then turned away.
“Leave the corpse-burying to Ed. The butler shouldn't be doing it personally.”
“......”
Wait — does he actually believe it?
I flung the shovel sideways onto the ground and hurried after him.
“You believe me, then?”
The Grand Duke answered as he walked toward the main hall.
“Why? What if I didn't? Would you like me to interrogate you?”
“No. Absolutely not that.”
“Then what? Has the taste of World Tree sap grown on you again, perhaps?”
“I don't imagine I'd drink it quite so meekly this time.”
“I could arrange for you to be meek about it.”
“Oh, honestly, Your Highness. Not a single word out of you without a threat attached.”
“Look who's talking.”
Pfft. Trailing a few steps behind him, I let a laugh slip out.
Even under circumstances as suspicious as these, the Grand Duke pressed no further.
Could this be, perhaps, his own particular way of expressing trust? The thought crossed my mind.
And along with it came the reminder that all those moments I'd been tossed about by a single dream had been for nothing.
Right. I lived the past two years just fine without my memories.
Only two years, though. Back in my days as Sia, I'd had no memories of my childhood either, and I'd managed well enough.
I'd learned back then that a memory which refuses to surface will never surface, no matter what you do — and here I was, repeating the same mistake all over again.
Maybe...... the Grand Duke as he is now.
It felt as though he might be willing to wait a little longer for me.
No — even if I never do remember......
Somehow, I had the strange sense that he wouldn't kill me.
The pre-dawn air that swept past just then was crisp and cool.
When I paused and tipped my head back to look up at the night sky, the Grand Duke stopped as well and glanced back at me — with an expression asking why I wasn't keeping up.
I smiled faintly and started walking toward him.
As if the restlessness and hollowness I'd felt only moments ago had never existed, the wind simply carried it all away.