Why Is Lady Annette Here…?
Why is Lady Annette here of all places…?
I froze for a moment.
It wasn't a dangerous situation—the assassin's breath had been snuffed out completely—but still, it was a scene I would rather no one had witnessed if I could help it.
I slowly lifted my foot from the crumpled assassin's neck.
Well, nothing for it.
After a moment's hesitation, I made my way over to Lady Annette. Her golden eyes flickered, ever so slightly, and the bewilderment in them was plain to see.
"Was I being too loud?"
"…No. It wasn't that."
Hmm… Lady Annette's gaze darted between my face and the body on the floor, and there was a great deal of anguish packed into those frantic eyes.
I positioned myself to block the corpse from her view and approached slowly.
"By the way, what brings you out here? Weren't you asleep?"
"…"
"Or is there something you need?"
At that, Lady Annette shook her head. Then, staring straight at me, she asked, "…Can you, …use aura?"
"Ah, yes, that's right."
Lady Annette's expression warped even further. Apparently the Grand Duke hadn't mentioned that much to her.
Disbelief washed over her face—the look of someone who had received a report they couldn't quite bring themselves to believe. Or perhaps someone who had just collided with a reality they wished they could unsee.
So the mother is more openly emotional than her son, huh.
I walked over to the frozen Lady Annette and took hold of her arm. "Are you feeling unwell anywhere?"
Lady Annette looked down at the hand steadying her arm. Her gaze lingered on it for quite a long while. Then, after a beat, she answered in a voice that seemed like it might gutter out at any moment.
"I am… fine."
She seemed to have collected herself somewhat.
I heard she's a knight who practically lived on the battlefield—why is she this flustered over something like this?
It wasn't as if this would be her first time seeing a body or blood.
The way Lady Annette's eyes kept darting between me and the assassin's corpse was very odd indeed.
"Let me escort you back to your chambers."
But she shook her head. "I'm fine. I can walk myself."
Her voice was still drained of its strength, so I didn't press the matter further.
"Then I'll go finish up here."
That was when it happened. Lady Annette snatched my wrist as I turned away and spun me back around.
"Wh-what's wrong?"
What met my eyes as I turned was Lady Annette's face, twisted in something frighteningly close to fury.
"Finish up? Finish up what?!"
"That would be…"
I glanced back at the body sprawled across the floor. "Dealing with the corpse."
Lady Annette exploded.
"Why would you do it?!"
"…I'm sorry?"
Her thunderous shout made my eyes go wide. "Wh-what do you mean?"
"Don't you dare!"
Lady Annette seized my hand and began marching off somewhere, dragging me along with her.
"L-Lady Annette?"
"Dealing with an assassin is more than enough duty for a butler! What?! Now you have to deal with the bodies too?!"
Some kind of misunderstanding must have taken root. I hurried to correct it. "It seems there's been a misunderstanding. To be precise, the disposal of bodies is something my aide handles for me."
"What does that have to do with anything?! The problem starts with the fact that you're the one taking on assassins in the first place!"
First the maid duties, now the head butler's? This is beyond bearing. Beyond bearing, I say.
Lady Annette muttered something under her breath, too small to make out. Even as she hauled me along, I kept trying to talk her down.
"Lady Annette, that's simply what's expected of the Grand Duchy's butler—"
"Expected? Nothing about this is expected!"
Her tirade continued.
"How many grown men live in this enormous estate?! With all those men at your disposal, why in the world are you the one taking down the assassin with your own hands?!"
"…"
"Put Jayden on it, put Allen on it, or if nothing else, order Cadrian to deal with it himself! It isn't enough that you slay assassins yourself—now you're cleaning up their corpses too!"
Lady Annette roared about how dare anyone let blood stain my hands.
Am I… being scolded right now?
It seemed so. I was definitely being scolded.
And yet, somehow, it didn't feel like being scolded at all.
It's worry, isn't it.
I could tell that Lady Annette's anger was rooted in concern.
And the object of that concern is this body's original owner.
I had already guessed that Lady Annette knew about the person whose body I inhabited. But unlike the Grand Duke, who gave nothing away, she wore her feelings openly, vividly, for anyone to see.
Perhaps because I was taking the full, unfiltered force of the emotions Lady Annette poured out…
Something strange happened. The muscles from around my collarbone down to my heart twitched and squirmed, and a peculiar feeling rose in my chest—an odd mixture of tingling warmth and aching flutter.
What is this…?
It was an emotion I had never felt before.
Am I… syncing with the original owner's feelings?
Gazing at Lady Annette's retreating back as she huffed and fumed, I simply let myself be dragged along, endlessly.
Somehow, I felt as if I might cry.
The late Grand Duchess's chambers weren't lavishly decorated, but the subdued-toned wooden furnishings gave the room an air of understated elegance.
Guided by Lady Annette's hand, I sat down in the middle of the long sofa. She settled into the seat across from me, folded her arms, and shut her eyes.
They're unmistakably father and son.
The one difference was that Lady Annette wore every last one of her emotions right there on her face.
Even now, her features flushed red, then paled, then flushed again—as if whatever was churning through her mind were unbearably complicated.
I stayed silent until Lady Annette chose to speak first.
If she's this candid with her feelings, she might just let something slip about the body's original owner without meaning to.
After a short while, Lady Annette finally opened her eyes.
"I seem to… have lost my composure for a moment. My emotions ran away with me."
"…"
Ah. So Lady Annette had decided to keep silent about my true identity—just like the Grand Duke and the aide before her.
I gave a faint smile, as though I'd expected nothing less. "Did you now…"
I rose from the sofa. "Then I'll take my leave. I still have a great deal left to take care of."
Lady Annette flinched. "Call for Ed."
"It's my duty."
"No."
Lady Annette said firmly, as though she'd gathered the scattered pieces of her resolve—and arrived at some weighty decision. "Not while I'm under this roof will I allow you to do such work."
"I beg your pardon?"
Hold on. A butler wants to do butler work, and she's forbidding it…?
She can't possibly be trying to fire me?!
Even as I stared at her in utter disbelief, Lady Annette ignored my gaze entirely and summoned Ed.
"Wh-what can I do for you?!"
Ed came running at Lady Annette's call, breathless, adjusting his glasses a beat too late. She said, "Go dispose of the body in the third-floor corridor."
"Pardon? Ah… yes, of course."
Ed shot me a sidelong glance. I shrugged my shoulders with my best I haven't the faintest idea either expression.
"And station more knights. Throughout the main building—and along every path the butler walks."
"Pardon?"
"Make certain no assassin ever sets eyes on the butler again!"
"Ah, yes, that too, I'll see to it at once."
Ed nodded along blankly, looking rather lost, while Lady Annette pressed on.
"If butlers have died at that rate, you tighten the security until it's airtight—you don't arrange for the butler to go toe-to-toe with assassins?! The Grand Duke and the chief aide alike—do none of you think?!"
Ed protested, looking rather hard done by. "But, Your Highness—"
"Who said you could call me that?!"
"My deepest apologies. Force of habit…"
Ed rubbed his cheek, then pressed on. "Strictly speaking, it isn't that assassins target the butler. It's that the butler is the first one awake and the last one tending to the estate, so statistically the chances of an encounter are simply high—"
"All I hear is excuses."
Lady Annette cut his speech off at the knees. Ed's head bowed instantly.
"…My apologies. I'll correct it immediately."
Ed's shoulders drooped like a chastened puppy.
Hold on.
Reinforcing security? That means when an assassin breaks in, the odds of running into the knights go way up, doesn't it?
No! That will cut down on my own chances of running into the assassin!
That's the only pleasure I have left in this life!
I hurried to speak. "You can't, Lady Annette!"
"…What?"
"That duty is the most fun I have!"
The assassin-slaying part, I mean!
"…I beg your pardon?!"
Aaargh…! Lady Annette clutched the back of her neck and collapsed all over again.