The Legendary Butler Returns
Kadrian swept his hair back and leaned against the back of his chair. Then he turned to Norbert, who had been murmuring anxiously beside him.
"I've confirmed she isn't dangerous."
"But, Your Grace…"
"I intend to keep her close and watch her myself. I'd be far more uneasy if she vanished from my sight."
Norbert's eyes narrowed to slits.
"If Your Grace is so uneasy, perhaps you should simply kill her now…"
But Kadrian called his name in a firm voice.
"Count."
"Yes, Your Grace."
"The moment she wakes, have her sign an employment contract. Nothing else first."
"…"
"And."
Kadrian opened a drawer and drew something out. With a soft clatter, he set it on the desk.
"Once the contract is drawn up, put this around her neck immediately."
It was a necklace — a golden chain strung with a gleaming sapphire-blue jewel.
"Ah."
Norbert recognized it at once.
"A necklace bearing a binding spell."
"There's no telling when her memory might return and her sword come at my throat. A minimal safeguard is only prudent."
"Indeed, Your Grace. A wise decision."
"And assign Allen to her side to keep watch."
"Sir Allen, Your Grace?"
"Yes."
Sir Allen was the vice commander of the Grand Ducal House's knightly order, the Mars Knights.
Norbert tilted his head, puzzled.
Really, is that necessary?
That necklace alone would keep her from ever leaving the Grand Ducal Estate or breathing so much as a word about the Grand Ducal Family. It was a remarkably clever trinket, one that would also prevent her from harboring any ill intent and striking at the Grand Duke.
And on top of that, Sir Allen too…?
It struck him as rather excessive. How to put it — it felt less like surveillance and more like…
For some reason, it feels far more like he means to protect her.
Norbert shook his head.
No, surely not. I know exactly what kind of man our Grand Duke is.
A man of utter coldness, rational at every moment, in every circumstance. That was who Kadrian Ballot was.
Norbert pressed one hand to his chest and bowed deeply toward his lord.
"I shall carry out your command, Your Grace."
Thus began the return of the legend of the butler's world — Count Norbert Millard.
I opened my eyes to an unfamiliar room. The air was thick with the scent of simmered medicinal herbs.
Oh, right. I passed out.
My tongue still tasted faintly bitter. My head felt just as foggy as before, and my lips — how much had I bitten and chewed at them? They were swollen and stinging.
But something else concerned me far more than all of that put together.
"You're awake."
"…"
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"…What brings you here, sir?"
The old man gave a careless shrug of one shoulder and smiled, somehow forlornly.
"What's so strange about a vassal of the Grand Ducal House being inside the Grand Duke's residence? If we're ranking strangeness, you lying in a bed instead of a cell is the stranger thing by far."
"…"
It wasn't exactly wrong, so I made no reply. When I tried to rise, he stopped me.
"I told you not to get up yet. I said you wouldn't come to your senses until tomorrow morning, at the earliest… and yet here you are, awake before a single hour has passed."
He muttered it in a tone of grudging disapproval.
Monster of a thing.
Despite his protests, I forced myself upright all the same.
"Spare me the false concern. In truth, there's no one alive who wishes me dead more than you do, is there, sir?"
"…"
He couldn't answer that either.
"…"
"…"
An excruciatingly awkward silence stretched between us for a long moment. At last, the old man let out a slow sigh.
"You must understand I had no choice. I am, above all else, a man whose first duty is the safety of the Grand Duke and this house."
His voice had softened considerably.
What was this?
Why did his tone suddenly change?
This was the man who had lorded over me with high-handed contempt. Yet now he looked almost like someone reflecting on his own conduct. He paused briefly, weighing his words, then went on.
"Besides…"
"Besides what?"
"You told a lie."
"…"
That stung. I'd told so many lies that I couldn't even single out which one he meant.
Whether he knew anything of my complicated circumstances or not, the old man continued.
"You claimed you'd lost all your memories. But the answers you gave after drinking the sap told a different story."
"…"
Well, fair enough.
I did go on about how I'd both lost my memories and hadn't.
I spoke to him plainly.
"That's exactly what happened. I did lose my memories."
"Then what memories did you not lose?"
His sharp gaze bored into me from behind those wrinkled lids. When I didn't answer straight away, he pressed.
"Don't think about lying. Fetching more sap from the Temple and forcing it down your throat would be no trouble at all."
"…"
I looked him dead in the eye. His were the eyes of a devoted, loyal vassal — and in them, I glimpsed a firm resolve never to let anyone with impure intentions stand beside the Grand Duke he served.
In moments like this, throwing him a single bone was the right move. If it shaved even one doubt off his list, I had nothing to lose.
I deliberated a moment, then opened my mouth.
"My name."
"Your name?"
"Yes. The truth is, I do remember my name."
"…And what would that name be?"
"…"
I studied the old man for a beat, then answered, slow and deliberate.
"Freya."
"…"
"Freya. That's my name."
My true name was Freya.
When I first met Serhin, it was the only thing that came back to me with any clarity — a name, and nothing more. It was a name even Crown Prince Serhin did not know.
Serhin had been the one to save me, yes, but back then I hadn't trusted even him. More than half of my face had been covered in burn scars, and those scars were no accident, no unfortunate mishap. They had been inflicted with very deliberate intent.
The marks of torture.
So I came to a conclusion: I might well be connected to the ones who had led the rebellion against the Tenasis Empire. Which meant I could not give anyone my real name.
I had lost my memories, but I still wanted to live. I refused to be trampled into the ground as some leftover ember of a rebellion, hunted down over nothing but a name — when I couldn't even remember what the rebellion had been.
So I hid my true name from Serhin too, and quietly began investigating my own identity.
Though in the end, they dug up exactly nothing.
In the Tenasis Empire, the name 'Freya' alone had been useless for tracing me. It was a common name, and crucially, I hadn't remembered the one thing that mattered — my family's name.
Would the Cadea Empire be any different?
If anything, being in a distant foreign empire would only work in my favor.
And besides… I wanted to live under this name at least once.
My true name — a name no one had ever recognized, a name no one had ever called me by.
"Freya, you say? Is that truly the whole of what you've been hiding?"
Even after hearing my name, the old man kept studying me with narrowed, suspicious eyes.
"That's all of it."
"No family name? A house name, I mean. Ah — so you're telling me you're no noble?"
"Even that, I don't remember."
When I shook my head, the old man barked, Ah, for heaven's sake!
"I can go back to the Temple and fetch more sap!"
"Oh, then by all means, go fetch it! I have nothing else to hide!"
"…"
Got you every single time, haven't I! I threw my head back and declared it loud and proud.
The old man's wrinkled eyes grew sharper still. He was no doubt judging whether my bravado was real or a bluff.
Go ahead and fetch the World Tree sap again, sir. This time, it won't work on me.
Heh. I scoffed inwardly. I knew how to neutralize and purge any poison or foreign substance that entered my body — a technique only those who had tempered their Aura could ever awaken to.
Granted, this body had only just taken its first steps.
But they'd said this body had already manifested Aura.
And this time, there was no shackle suppressing the ability.
Given a little time to wake my Aura, I could purify the sap — mere poison, really — the instant it touched my stomach.
While the old man's off fetching the sap, I'll just rouse the Aura sleeping in this body. Simple.
Once I'd reasoned that far, I had absolutely nothing left to fear. The old man, who had been watching my face intently through it all, let out a shallow sigh and spoke.
"…You may use this room from now on."
I blinked at him.
Wasn't I supposed to go back to the dungeon?
He caught my bewilderment and went on.
"It means the Grand Duke has seen fit to take you in. So then…"
Hm. He mulled it over for a moment, apparently searching for the right words, and tried again.
"You have been employed at the Ballot Grand Ducal Estate — the workplace coveted by every servant in the empire. How's that?"
"…I'm sorry, what?"
The old man straightened his back and looked down at me, still sitting on the bed.
"Ah, of course — the one teaching you the work will be me."
He added it with a mischievous grin. What on earth was all this? I could only stare back, dazed, and ask again.
"So you're saying that right now, I…"
Beam. His smile only deepened. Before I could even finish my sentence, he broke into a wide, beaming grin.
"Yes — quick on the uptake, aren't you? Just as you've guessed: starting tomorrow, you'll be learning to be a maid."
Ha! With a hearty, booming laugh, the old man pulled out a sheet of paper with perfect composure and set it on the bedside table.
It was an employment contract.