Chapter 18
Chapter 18
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: The War Hero Becomes the Baron's Young Lady's Butler (1)
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In the Senderan Duchy, Albert, the butler of the Arsin Barony, had one major worry.
One might wonder what great concern he could possibly have now that the continent had regained peace after the armistice. But as the butler serving the Arsin Barony, his worry was deeply tied to the family's future.
The middle-aged Baron Arsin had collapsed.
Whether it was poison or some paralysis magic, the baron had fallen into a vegetative state and showed no signs of waking.
The problem was that before collapsing, he had remarried.
Having lost his first wife during the war, Baron Arsin had somehow managed to lead the barony with his one daughter. But the flames of war from the Empire had engulfed even this small territory in the Senderan Duchy.
To protect his family, the territory, and its people, the lord had taken up his sword and marched to the battlefield with his knights.
In the midst of fierce combat, the lord had faced mortal danger, but a certain woman saved his life.
The current Baroness Arsin, Trimien Arsin.
She had been a wandering mercenary on the continent, and saving the baron led her to become his baroness.
There was one minor issue: Baroness Trimien had two daughters of her own.
And those two daughters were each a year or two older than the baron's biological daughter, making his trueborn child the youngest of the three sisters after the remarriage.
Then, suddenly, the lord fell unconscious, leaving the baroness, Trimien, to control everything.
A lavish feast of extravagance and indulgence.
Dresses were bought in droves, perfumes collected by the variety, and the family vaults flung open to purchase the latest trendy jewels.
Albert wanted to stop it.
The circumstances of the family head—the baron—falling into a vegetative state were suspicious enough. How could he stand by and watch her squander the family's wealth on gaudy decorations?
"With the head of the house collapsed, what's the point of the barony if we don't marry off our daughters to noblemen?"
Albert had no choice but to close his mouth when the baroness said that.
Though peace had returned, the postwar situation was dire, and someone needed to step up in place of the fallen baron to revive the barony.
Whether it meant selecting a son-in-law to join the family or marrying into wealth for economic support, marriage was the surest path to avoid ruin.
Of course.
Albert knew the truth.
She was scheming for good matches not for the sake of Diela Arsin, but for the two daughters she had painfully birthed herself.
The two girls were dressed in splendid clothes and desperately dragged to every social gathering, while Diela—the true blood of the barony—was forced into shabby commoner's rags and barred from those very events. It was blatant favoritism.
Yet Albert was powerless to act.
Humiliating as it was, Baroness Trimien was a former mercenary, and some of her old mercenary comrades had infiltrated the barony as "knights" without proper commissioning.
It was practically an occupation by Trimien.
All a powerless old butler could do was cheer on Lady Diela from afar each night, alongside the few retainers who hadn't yet sworn loyalty to the baroness, as she wet her pillow with tears.
Yes.
Lady Diela.
The baroness had even forbidden calling her "miss," ordering the retainers to address Diela as if she were an outsider.
Defy that order?
Those who did no longer existed in the barony.
Once more than five were chased out overnight without severance, the mansion's servants stopped calling her "miss."
Even if the baroness arbitrarily laid hands on Lady Diela, all he could do was sneak ice from the kitchen, wrap it in a cloth, and leave it in her bedroom.
That was why.
"Let go! Let me go!"
He watched in shock at the man gripping the baroness's wrist, yet he couldn't intervene.
Staying out of the way and observing was the best way to help Lady Diela, he believed.
"I don't know who you are, but what rudeness toward the miss."
Look at this man, speaking informally with a cold glare at the baroness.
In this barony, no one could do what he did—boldly seize her wrist simply because he didn't "know" her.
All for the sake of Diela Arsin, who had saved him.
"Wh-what strength...! You brute!"
The baroness struggled desperately to free her hand.
Even in a dress and high heels, she was a former mercenary who had wielded a sword on the battlefield.
"You insolent lowborn!"
She raised her other hand to slap his face.
Unlike when striking Diela, this blow was swift and vicious enough to send a grown man flying—
Grab. Twist. Snap.
"Aaaahhh!!"
Albert saw it.
The man casually seized her other wrist, then fluidly twisted her arm and shoulder, subduing her effortlessly.
"Aaaahhh!!"
Like bending a criminal's arm and pinning their back, the man handled the baroness with ease, looking down at her coldly.
"How dare you..."
"Y-you dare?! Do you know who I am?!"
"Who are you?"
"I am the lady of this Arsin Barony! How dare a filthy commoner of unknown origin touch a noble's arm...!"
At the words "commoner" and "noble," the man released her hand.
The baroness immediately put distance between them, her wrist flushed red—
"Y-you son of a...!"
Not just red, but turning an ugly purple with bruises in that brief moment. She nearly spat vulgarity unworthy of a noblewoman but barely held back.
"For insulting a noble—"
"Calm down, Mother!"
But her rage over the twisted wrist wouldn't be contained. As she invoked noble insult laws, Diela stepped forward protectively, arms spread wide.
"Please, calm down!"
"You...!"
"Head Butler Albert!!"
Diela's shout echoed through the mansion.
The usually timid girl roared like a lion, freezing both Albert watching from behind and even the baroness.
"Escort the baroness to her room! Call a priest to heal her wounds!"
"L-Lady...?"
"Now!"
"Y-yes!"
Albert had a gut feeling.
He didn't know who the man was, but for Diela to act so boldly, there had to be a reason.
"You...!"
"Lady of the house."
Albert addressed her with her favorite title and whispered softly.
"That man might be a high noble from a foreign land."
"!!"
High noble.
From a "foreign" country, no less.
Not some piddling place like the Senderan Duchy, but a proper kingdom like Grates?
"...Hmph!"
The baroness glared at the man, rubbed her wrist, snorted derisively, and left.
"Then, if you'll excuse me."
Albert saw it.
Even under the baroness's blatant hostility, the man didn't see her as any threat.
His gaze was fixed solely on Diela.
"......."
Albert despaired.
At his own powerlessness in having to entrust the family's blood—the miss—to an amnesiac outsider.
Yet in that despair, he glimpsed a ray of hope.
The man's instinctive reaction, moving first to protect her from the baroness's violence.
It was the ingrained instinct of a knight guarding his lady.
He shouldn't, but Albert couldn't help pinning his hopes on this outsider.
Please.
Let this stranger ensure Diela Arsin is called Diela "miss" once more.
A short while later.
I entered the barony's study, guided by Diela.
"First off."
Now alone with her, Diela faced me, grasped the hem of her skirt, and curtsied in proper etiquette.
"Thank you for helping me."
"......."
How should I respond?
If it were that white-haired, green-eyed woman from before, she'd have immediately cornered me alone and...
-Do you even know what you've done?
...hissed venomously, demanding accountability.
Of course, I wouldn't have pulled a stunt like that in front of her, but I was only just beginning to understand Diela Arsin's principles.
"Think nothing of it."
Was her pure heart as warm and kind as it seemed?
Instead of raising her voice like "That could have been dangerous!", she thanked me first for helping her.
"But... 'helped'?"
"......The barony is in a complicated spot right now. She's my mother, but my stepmother."
"Stepmother..."
"Yes. She's not my birth mother. Actually..."
"I figured as much."
Before she could delve into the family drama, I snapped my fingers as if I'd caught on immediately.
"I thought it impossible for an angel like you to come from a poisonous mushroom of a woman. And sure enough."
"......."
Someone might think, "What cheesy flirtation is this?"
But I knew better.
The servants' attitudes while watching the baroness incident, and the subtle shift in Diela's expression when I twisted the baroness's arm.
Just as she'd saved me without hesitation, Diela had been startled when the baroness got hurt but never tried to stop me.
"Um."
Diela fidgeted with her fingers, perched lightly on the corner of the desk, and looked at me.
"What should I call you?"
"Pardon?"
"A title. Or... a name."
Gripping the desk tightly, swallowing hard, she said to me,
"Until you remember... may I give you a name?"