Chapter 17
“This is the Lady of Crost,” Knox repeated.
“The Lady? You… You found her? No, I haven’t heard any such news….”
At the mention of the title, the Marquis flinched, his shoulders twitching in visible agitation.
However, after stroking his scratchy chin a few times, he spoke.
“Aha. So you are the Duke’s child.”
He looked down at me, his lips curling into a sinister smirk.
It seemed he had heard the news that Duke Calips had adopted a child.
“Yes, yes. It’s been five years since the Duke lost his family… It’s only natural he’d be lonely.”
Taking a step toward me, he bent his knees to bring himself level with my height.
“Little girl. What about your ability?”
Up close, the Marquis’s face was even more wrinkled. He looked exactly like a greedy proboscis monkey.
Ugh. Gross.
I tilted my head back and answered.
“I don’t have one.”
“Oho, you don’t? I see. You’re just a mediocre child with no ability and no special talents. Hahaha!”
Marquis Lillis’s laughter echoed through the high-ceilinged corridor.
Everyone’s expression soured, but no one spoke up.
It was only natural.
I was an unacknowledged Lady, and he was the father of an ability user.
“Do you want to see my ability?”
It was then. Emboldened by the talk of powers, Tex stepped forward with a shrug.
Just as I was about to shake my head because I really didn’t want to see it—
CRACKLE—!
“Kyaa!”
“Oh, goodness!”
The maids screamed, covering their ears with both hands.
A massive icicle had formed in the middle of the hallway with the thunderous roar of water freezing.
And apparently, he wanted to show it to me very closely.
“…….”
If I hadn’t jumped and clung to Knox’s leg like a cicada, I might have been skewered by the icicle.
“This is an ability.”
Tex chuckled as if savoring the people’s screams and lowered his upper body for me.
“Well, since they say you’re a Crost too, I’ll accept you as my younger sister once I become the successor.”
However.
“No. You’re disqualified from being the successor,” I replied without a moment’s hesitation.
“…What?”
“Do you know why the Duchy of Crost is respected by the people?”
Tex frowned at the sudden quiz before giving a half-hearted answer.
“Because they have the ice ability?”
“No. They are respected because they use the ice ability to protect people.”
Then, pointing a finger at Tex, I continued.
“But you used it to threaten someone instead. Therefore, you aren’t qualified to be the successor.”
“…….”
The surroundings fell silent in an instant.
Marquis Lillis, who had been smirking mockingly. The startled maids. Even Knox, who had been standing by like a bystander.
“…What do you know!”
Tex, who had looked stunned for a moment as if caught off guard, reached out to grab my collar—
“She is the direct Lady.”
A large hand moved between Tex and me.
“If threatening behavior toward the direct Lady continues, we will be forced to take action, regardless of your status as the House of Lillis.”
Expressionless, Knox stared down Marquis Lillis with a cold gaze.
The Marquis, who had been watching everything from behind Tex’s shoulder, clamped his mouth shut.
No matter if I was an adoptee, I was still an official Lady recognized by Calips.
“Tex. Let’s go.”
“B-but Dad!”
“I said let’s go!”
The Marquis seemed to realize that causing more of a scene here would only damage his reputation.
Roughly grabbing the sulking Tex’s hand, the Marquis glared at Knox.
“…Knox.”
“Yes.”
“Seeing how an orphan who was just adopted talks like that, it seems you’ve done a thorough job with the indoctrination.”
A sharp finger poked Knox in the chest.
“When our Tex grows up and becomes the head of the family, I’ll be sure to teach you my own methods of education.”
Most would find a man who looked like a proboscis monkey terrifying at such close range, but Knox didn’t even blink.
“Yes. I look forward to seeing you then.”
“…Tch! How unpleasant….”
There was nothing more Marquis Lillis could do.
He glared at Knox, then at the maids, and finally at me before dragging Tex out of the Duke’s Castle.
Once Marquis Lillis and Tex had disappeared—
“…Why did the Marquis come by again?”
“Who knows? He treats this place like his own home.”
“Sigh, I get so stressed every time he shows up.”
“But wait. Does this mean Young Master Tex will eventually inherit the position of successor?”
“They say the Duke will hold the successor trials once he returns from the monster subjugation… He’ll probably announce something then, won’t he?”
“Didn’t he adopt Lady Aisha as the Lady of the house?”
“…But does Lady Aisha have the ice ability?”
Voices filled with sighs and whispers echoed from all directions.
Ah. Now I understand.
The reason why Knox had been reluctant to acknowledge me.
‘Whether I’m the Lady or not, since I don’t possess the ice ability, Tex ends up as the successor anyway.’
I stroked my chin in thought.
Actually, when I realized the Lady couldn’t be found, I had considered looking for the Young Lord instead.
‘But what if the Young Lord has also disappeared, unlike in the original story?’
If so, the Duke, who had kept believing in me, would inevitably be disappointed.
‘I need to find the Young Lord without bringing him up myself….’
Finding no immediate solution, I turned my head in thought—
And saw the back of Knox as he walked away silently with a sigh.
I was watching him with a touch of pity when—
“Huh?”
Something on the floor caught the light and sparkled.
Approaching to investigate, I saw it was a fountain pen made of gold.
‘Is it Marquis Lillis’s?’
It must have fallen when he roughly grabbed Tex earlier.
“…Ruth?”
However, the name engraved on the pen was Ruth, not Lillis.
“Ruth? Is it a nickname for Marquis Lillis?”
It was a common enough practice. Nobles often engraved their nicknames on their belongings.
But then.
“Oh.”
As I picked up the fallen pen, a good idea struck me.
If I couldn’t be the one to speak first.
…I could just make the other person curious about me, just like this pen.
A few days later.
“You’re going to see Lady Aisha, aren’t you? Shall I prepare some refreshments in advance?”
The Duke’s Castle, which had been in an uproar due to the Marquis’s appearance, was trying its best to ignore the bitter atmosphere and return to its usual self.
However, Knox shook his head with a still-stiff expression.
“No. I’d like to rest alone today.”
In fact, Knox’s mood had been at its worst since that day.
‘To think a branch family enters and exits the Duke’s Castle as if it were their own.’
He knew Marquis Lillis coveted the succession, but he hadn’t expected him to visit the castle without permission.
It was something that would never have happened if Duke Calips were present.
‘No, if only the Young Lord were here, even if it wasn’t Duke Calips….’
Knox shook his head, cutting off the thought. Such hypotheticals were meaningless.
“So please tell Lady Aisha as well. I’ll be alone until dinner, so tell her to stay quietly in her room.”
“Yes. I’ll let her know.”
After parting from May and heading toward his private office—
“…….”
He turned back the moment she was out of sight.
‘I can’t just spend my time being depressed. I have to do something.’
Unfortunately, the matter of Marquis Lillis was not something he could interfere with.
But Aisha.
‘Uncovering the truth about that little spy brat is something I can do right now.’
The place he headed to outside the castle walls was none other than the walls themselves.
To be precise.
It was the side that offered a view of Aisha’s bedroom window.
‘But you used it to threaten someone instead. Therefore, you aren’t qualified to be the successor.’
Knox faltered for a moment as the child’s words suddenly came to mind.
To be honest, in that moment, Aisha truly felt like the Lady of the house.
In fact, he thought he’d rather have Aisha as the successor than a scoundrel like Tex.
“…No.”
But Knox forced himself to shake his head.
“It could be an act.”
His monocle flashed chillingly as he stared at the window.
Why was the word ‘profession’ even attached to the contemptible act of deceiving others to extract information?
Because they received that much professional training.
Naturally, Knox did not trust the brat who came from the House of Pose.
The fact that her face was cute?
Spies were usually good-looking.
The way she chirped like a baby bird about the House of Pose?
It was likely a scheme to lower people’s guards.
The way her cheeks puffed out cutely when she ate?
Disguising one’s face was child’s play for a spy.
‘I thought I’d get something if I kept sticking to her.’
At first, he had monitored her twenty-four hours a day to catch even the smallest clue. But a problem arose.
Because he was sticking to her to find a fault, the little brat couldn’t perform her primary duties.
‘If I give her time to be alone like this, she might show her true colors.’
Since he’d sent word through May, Aisha should be alone by now.
He didn’t know what she might be doing inside that bedroom.
Who knows.
If she was writing a report to send to the House of Pose, that would provide a definitive excuse to kick her out.
“…Ha. To think I have to scale the walls like a common thief.”
The only thing bothering him was his pride as the aide of the Crost family.
He thought of the career he had built up until now.
The youngest aide in the history of the Crost Duchy.
The first expert in monster rearing.
The president of Ma.Sa.Mo (The ‘I Love Monsters So Much I Want to Tear Them Apart’ Club).
‘But it must be done.’
Adjusting his monocle, he steeled his nerves and gripped the stone wall.
