Translator: Nox

Ch#98

"The Lord's Castle of Kaldbain-Ridge has a different structure from typical castles. There are two prisons."

Tie stared at Adelin, who was speaking quickly, with her eyes wide open.

"I don't know exactly where your comrade is locked up, but if it's the top of the northern tower, it won't be easy to access. The only entrance is the stairs in the tower."

The other members were equally speechless in shock.

Especially Raoul and Enzo, who looked like they couldn't comprehend the situation.

However, Adelin continued.

"The underground prison is better than the top of the tower. There's a hidden back path, and I've never seen more than four guards posted there. Maybe they think escape is impossible due to the complex layout......"

"Hold on."

At that moment, Basto interrupted Adelin.

He approached her with a serious face.

"Who are you? How do you know the layout of the Lord's Castle?"

Thinking about it, Adelin had been suspiciously enigmatic from the start.

Running a pub yet exhibiting ingrained noble etiquette.

And having enough personal funds to cover the village's tributes.

Enzo, watching her with a confused face, also spoke up.

"Lady, were you perhaps...... working under Lord Reginald's wife?"

This was the only way to explain all the suspicious points.

That Adelin had been the lady of the castle's maid.

"I noticed from the first day you came to the pub. You have noble etiquette ingrained in you. And using your savings to cover everyone's tributes......"

Raoul nodded and continued Enzo's words.

"Please tell us the truth. Were you the lady of the castle's maid? Were you hiding it to avoid conflict with the villagers if this came out?"

If she had been the lady of the castle's maid, it wouldn't be so strange that Adelin had ample savings.

Maids were basically provided room and board by their mistress.

So if they lived frugally, they could save their entire salary.

But Adelin didn't answer easily.

She just pressed her lips together and stared at the floor.

"Look here. We need to know who you are to trust the information you've given us, right?"

Even Nordics, unable to bear it, spoke up, and

"......Yes. I worked as a maid for four years. But not for the woman you're thinking of, Letchia."

Adelin finally opened her mouth in a small voice after the silence.

She lifted her head and looked straight at Raoul and Enzo.

"I know you. I wasn't sure at first, but upon closer look, you match the people I knew. You're the sons of the Wavebrill Viscount, right? You were in the Capital's Holy Knight Order."

Raoul and Enzo narrowed their brows and stiffened.

They had never imagined Adelin would know them from their Holy Knight Order days in the Capital.

But Adelin's words didn't end there.

"Don't you remember? At the consecration ceremony."

"What......"

"Don't hang your head recklessly. Your father was honorable. So you must carry on his legacy."

Enzo drew in a small breath.

It suddenly came back to him.

The consecration ceremony held not long after their father, the twins' dad, had passed away besieging a magic stone.

There, someone who had approached them quietly to offer comfort......

'I, Ardiana Rackricia, pledge on the name of the honorable imperial family. The Empire wishes blessings upon your path.'

The words of the Empire's crimson princess, Ardiana.

"......No way."

Enzo muttered.

Raoul also stared at Adelin with a confused expression.

"Are you saying you were Her Highness the princess's maid?"

Not exactly, but he vaguely remembered too.

The young maid standing quietly behind the princess.

Her composed and skilled assistance to the princess despite her youthful face had left an impression.

"Yes. I served Her Highness the princess back then."

"But why would someone like you......"

At this moment, the twins' minds were on the verge of exploding from complexity.

'Not just any noble lady's maid, but a former princess's maid—why?'

Why had she left the central Capital for this remote rural area?

Why was she running a pub?

How did she know the layout of Kaldbain-Ridge's Lord's Castle?

There were so many questions they didn't know where to start.

"......There were circumstances."

Adelin said in a sigh-mingled voice.

Then she added matter-of-factly.

"Her Highness was considerate of someone like me. People say those who serve the imperial family can never leave the palace for life...... but she was so kind. And I had to return to my hometown no matter what."

Tie pursed her lips and tried hard to organize in her head what she'd heard from Adelin.

So.

'Adelin sis was originally taking care of the princess of this world......'

But one day she had to go back to her hometown suddenly, so she quit?

'It's hard......'

Her head was already spinning.

But contrary to that, Adelin continued.

"To explain this, I need to start from how I became Her Highness's maid......"

Adelin swept back her hair as if it was complicated and closed the door.

Then she spoke flatly.

"In conclusion, it was because it should have been me originally."

"......What?"

"Being the lord of Kaldbain-Ridge here."

Her eyes quickly filled with faint resignation and sank.

* * *

"What? You say I'm sick?"

Adelin's father was a foolish man.

Adelin had always thought her father seemed somehow precarious.

"Th-that can't be. Examine me again. Hurry-!"

But in the year she turned fifteen.

Adelin's premonition came true as if to show off.

"Me, dying. Only a few months left......"

The incompetent and unremarkable lord father was given a terminal diagnosis before even reaching forty.

At first, he denied reality.

He poured down the strong liquor the doctor absolutely forbade on an empty stomach and shut himself in his study all day, smoking harsh tobacco.

To Adelin, it looked like he was venting on his already broken body.

'That won't change anything.'

But on the other hand, she could understand his feelings.

Because if he died, he'd never enjoy the things he loved in life again.

Her father was thrashing in his final struggle against the fate dragging him to the temple.

But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't twist fate.

He lived exactly one week longer than the doctor predicted before passing away.

A will was found in the lord's bedroom.

[I, Roman, lord of Kaldbain and lord of Kaldbain-Ridge, leave this will feeling death approaching.]

The will was long, filling three full sheets of paper densely.

But summarized, the content was simple.

[My heart is heavy thinking of my daughter and wife who will be left behind, and the territory's people. But even after I depart, Kaldbain's glory must continue.

Until my successor, Adelin Kaldbain, reaches adulthood, I wish my brother and the family's steadfast pillar, Reginald Kaldbain, to take charge of the family's protection and the territory's management.]

It was content delegating his authority as lord to his younger brother, Reginald Kaldbain.

Until young Adelin grew up and could fulfill her duties as lord.

[I hope Reginald will protect Adelin and my wife according to my will, and safeguard the family's legitimacy and the people's well-being.]

But the will was not honored.

Or more precisely, only half of it was.

"You've grown so much since last I saw you, Adelin. Greet her. I'm Aunt Letchia, whom you'll live with in this castle from today."

Reginald began exercising authority as the proxy lord.

He filled the castle with his own cronies and dismissed almost all the existing servants, hiring new ones.

But he did not protect Adelin's mother and her.

"......Adelin. Leave for the central Capital. This place is too dangerous."

If anything, he began to threaten them.