**Stalker Duchess Episode 10**
The knight attached to the baron knew it was unreasonable but spoke to me as if seeking permission anyway.
"Our lord has a rather eccentric personality. If you're not truly acquainted with the child, please hand him over. I'll discipline him. If you need money, we can offer compensation for catching the runaway."
"......"
The child raised a trembling hand anxiously and clutched the hem of my hood tightly.
He seemed convinced I'd sell him out without hesitation.
I feigned contemplation for a moment before speaking.
"I don't need money. I'm not particularly interested in material things......"
"Then the child......"
"I don't want that either......"
"This is truly troubling. In that case, I'll have to take him by force."
We kept circling the same conversation when the baron, finally losing patience, strode toward us.
The man, who appeared to be in his thirties, immediately yelled in a voice dripping with irritation.
"What are you dawdling for?! Bring me my escaped slave at once!"
"A slave? This child? Since when?"
"Since just now!"
"If it's something that just happened, do you mean the carriage accident?"
"Yes! That brat deliberately blocked my path, causing the accident. My carriage is wrecked because of him—I can't go anywhere now."
"That's...... too bad."
I said it in a voice full of genuine sympathy. But I didn't hand over the commoner child hidden behind me. The baron's face twisted oddly.
"Still, why is this child your slave? He seems badly injured in his legs and elsewhere—can't you just let it go?"
"Wrong is wrong, no matter the reason. If he can't pay for repairs, making him a slave is only natural!"
"But why are you speaking so informally to me? Do you know me?"
"Of course! Because your status is lower than mine!"
Seeing me wandering around without a single attendant, hood pulled low, he must have pegged me as some rural noble from the boonies, not the Imperial Capital.
I replied in a startled tone.
"Pardon? Among nobles, it's etiquette to speak informally to those of lower status? Not by age?"
"Exactly!"
"I had no idea. Sorry."
Having arrived here not long ago, I'd unwittingly committed a breach of etiquette.
By not using informal speech, I'd slighted the baron. I apologized sincerely in informal speech.
At that, the baron—who'd been raging moments ago—suddenly deflated, staring at me in bewilderment.
As if wondering what kind of person this was.
"Why informal now?"
"You said to use it on those of lower status."
Why was he flip-flopping? I said it with a truly baffled expression.
I'd only corrected my manners......
Ignoring the still-dazed baron, I turned to his knight.
"Then please bill the repairs to my family. Ah, my name is......"
"What are you? Are you deliberately insulting me now?"
"What?"
Why was his face turning beet red, on the verge of exploding, when I was doing exactly as he said?
"Speaking informally to me but honorifically to my knight—what else could that be but an insult?!"
"I have no idea what's the problem. Is it upsetting to be spoken to informally, or to have your knight addressed honorifically? Pick one."
Why was he so obsessed with honorifics in the first place?
I ignored the ranting baron and continued to his knight.
"Anyway, please send the repair bill to House Prineus. I'm Serabi de Prineus. If requested in my name, the ducal house will handle it. ......Probably."
At the mention of the ducal house, the baron looked momentarily flustered but quickly hardened his expression.
The name Serabi de Prineus was widely known in the empire. But my speech, accent, and appearance were utterly different from hers.
Though our faces matched, with the hood on, it was hard to think we were the same person.
Besides, Duchess Serabi had no reason to go this far for an unknown commoner child.
The baron spoke with obvious overconfidence.
"You seem to think that'll let you off, but impersonating a noble is—"
I ignored his babbling, pulled off my hood, and revealed my face at once.
The baron's face went ghostly pale, as if he'd seen a specter.
It wasn't just from realizing my higher status.
I'd forgotten, but Duchess Serabi was infamous enough to have killed before.
Who knew the title of the empire's worst villain would help in saving someone.
Ironically.
I turned to the baron's knight, still frozen beside him, and confirmed.
"That settles it, right?"
"......"
The knight, stunned by the unexpected figure, nodded as if entranced.
"Then the repairs......"
"Repairs? Nonsense! Ha, haha."
"......"
"It's not something for you, Duchess, to concern yourself with!"
"......"
The baron suddenly used the utmost honorifics. I stared at him in sheer disbelief.
He forced the most benign smile possible.
His attitude shift was too abrupt—anyone would believe it was a different person.
"M-may we take our leave now?"
"Go ahead."
At my permission, the terrified baron fled without a backward glance, leaving me and the child behind.
His pursuing knight glanced at me repeatedly.
He clearly recognized my face but seemed to doubt if it was really me.
They were the ones in the wrong, yet somehow I ended up looking like the bully.
"......"
Now, what to do with this child gazing up at me with shining eyes.
* * *
At the same time, Crown Prince Raven Sequoir was on a rare outing. He'd carved out nonexistent time to inspect the lives of the empire's people.
It was originally the emperor's duty to send someone, but the emperor was incompetent, and the nobles under him untrustworthy.
From childhood, Raven had shouldered the empire's affairs in place of his inept father. And he ground his teeth, vowing to ascend as emperor the day he came of age and purge the nobles.
It was the plan he'd harbored since youth. For the empire's progress, the nobles had to be eliminated first.
To Crown Prince Raven, they were all uniformly extravagant, cunning, indolent, and incompetent. And that was mostly true.
The decisive reason he'd resolved to eradicate the nobles was that his mother had fallen victim to their court intrigues.
Anyway, with his blond hair and golden eyes too conspicuous among commoners, Raven now wore a deep hood to hide his identity.
As he walked casually, something caught his eye.
"You damned commoner scum!"
There was a nobly dressed man and a commoner child being trampled by him.
Raven immediately recalled the nobleman's identity—a baron he'd encountered several times in the Imperial Capital.
Remembering how the man had fawned over him, Raven subtly furrowed his brow. He'd thought poorly of him even then, and here he was proving it.
Raven sighed and moved toward them. Then, the commoner child suddenly bolted up and fled.
"......!"
Startled, Raven chased after the child. Fleeing after wrongdoing meant harsher punishment if caught.
Even if the baron chopped off the child's limbs, there was no recourse. Only he could save the child.
But the child chose not Raven as his lifeline.
"......?"
Raven halted abruptly while pursuing. He slowly examined the woman the child clung to like a lifeline.
Her face was hooded, but her clothes and demeanor suggested nobility. Raven irritably raked a hand through his hair.
"Why a noble, of all people. Now two enemies."
The child had made the wrong choice. Raven predicted the noblewoman would immediately shove the child away like something filthy had touched her.
Then punish him for daring to touch a noble's body. The pattern was predictable.
"......?"
But she didn't cast the child aside. Even while arguing with the knight, she kept the child hidden behind her.
She seemed reluctant but was clearly protecting the child.
"......"
Raven's brow twisted oddly.
No way.
Ah, perhaps...... since the pursuer was a knight, she was putting up a strong front.
If a higher noble appeared and questioned her, she'd hand over the child without hesitation. Raven concluded thus.
To nobles, a commoner's life meant little anyway.
Raven decided to observe the situation for a bit.
Not rushing in immediately but watching out of curiosity about a stranger noble's actions was uncharacteristic of him.
A child's life hung in the balance, yet he hesitated.
But Raven himself hadn't noticed his odd behavior yet.
