Chapter 9
9
"……."
"……."
Silence filled the bathroom, but for some reason, I no longer felt afraid of the Duke.
Was it because this great man was kneeling in front of a child, washing her feet?
Or was it because the touch that washed my feet was so gentle?
After washing my feet, the Duke even rinsed my hands in the water before rising.
Soon, we left the bathroom. As the door opened, Leah, who had been waiting anxiously in front of the bathroom, quickly rushed over.
The Duke handed me over to Leah and said,
"Go and apply the medicine."
"Yes?"
"The medicine."
"Ah… yes, yes!"
Leah, startled back to her senses, and the maids took me and hurried down the hallway. It was almost running.
The maids collapsed, panting, as they entered the room.
"I thought the master was going to do something to the young lady…"
"M-me too."
I cautiously looked around. Leah's expression twisted painfully as she looked at me.
Leah stroked my rain-soaked hair and whispered softly,
"It's okay, young lady."
"……."
"No one is angry with you."
"……."
"It's okay, it's okay."
Her voice was so kind that tears finally welled up in my eyes.
I spent the next few days anxiously. But the Duke really didn't punish me.
He didn't demand the Newt back from the Empress Dowager, nor did he send me back to the capital. On the contrary, he didn't even show any displeasure.
Besides.
'He didn't throw away the flower I picked.'
It was dark when I picked it, so I didn't realize it, but in the light, it wasn't a carnation.
It wasn't a carefully cultivated flower, but a mere wildflower that had bloomed by chance while laying the lawn in the garden.
Yet, that wildflower was in a vase in Duke Dubled's office.
I felt uneasy seeing a single wildflower in an incredibly luxurious vase.
'What is he thinking?'
If it were someone other than the Duke, I would have thought that he couldn't throw away a flower that a child had struggled to pick in the middle of the night, but…
It's Duke Dubled, isn't it?
Theodore Dubled, who massacred all the foreign tribes for being unpleasant.
Moreover, he had become a little kinder to me since that day. Enough to have meals with me.
"Does your stomach have beggars in it?"
Even if he had become kinder, it was only a little.
The Duke stared at me with a strange expression as I devoured a chicken leg.
But it had no effect.
'I do have beggars in my stomach, okay?'
I was a beggar in my past life, after all.
And what's more important than that right now is…
'This is so delicious!'
The chicken dish, steamed with various spices and glazed with a sweet sauce, was truly delicious.
The meat was tender, and the sauce was sweet and savory.
The Duke stared at me as I devoured the chicken mindlessly.
"……."
"……?"
What, why is he like that?
'…Does he want to eat it?'
I stealthily covered the plate with my arm, afraid that he would take away my precious chicken leg.
Then the Duke's eyebrows twitched.
'He's so stingy, so stingy.'
He's eating that big lamb steak all by himself, yet he's eyeing a child's food.
I groaned inwardly.
I was truly grateful that he had let the Newt incident pass.
The Newt was a precious treasure. When it fell into the Emperor's hands, the Pope himself visited the Imperial Palace to request that it be kept in the custody of the Order.
As the only remaining relic of the Evil God, it had not only historical value but also endless uses.
After looking back and forth between the chicken leg and the Duke for a while, I made up my mind.
I bit my lip and suddenly held out the chicken leg.
"Here. (I'll give it to you.)"
He narrowed his eyes at me, seeing my desperate face as I glanced at the chicken leg that I had offered myself.
"Just what…"
A short chuckle escaped from his lips.
"I want to open up your head and see what's inside."
Is he really going to open my head? The Duke is capable of anything.
I was startled and pressed my hands firmly against my head.
"If you open it, I die! (If you open it, I'll die!)"
Then, a chuckling sound came from the doorway. It was Noth, who was carrying documents.
He cleared his throat when the Duke's gaze turned to him.
"This is the list of tribute for the Emperor's Anniversary Celebration."
"What about the item to replace the Newt?"
"It seems the traders have secured a rather decent item. The head of the trading company seemed quite confident. I received word that they will arrive at the castle this afternoon at the earliest."
An item to replace the relic, the Newt.
Even if I don't know, it must be an unimaginably expensive item.
'I'm glad they found it, though.'
If Dubled is offering the Newt to the Emperor as tribute, it means there's something he's going to get from the Emperor in return.
If the deal falls through because of me, the adoption is as good as gone.
The item found by the traders really has to be good.
'But was there any talk of traders bringing in something of equal value to the Newt around this time?'
I absentmindedly muttered, "Traders……." Then Noth smiled.
"Are you curious about what traders are?"
"Huh?"
"Traders are merchants who travel between countries to sell goods."
Thinking that it might be a difficult word for a child, I pretended to be surprised and said, "Wow!"
"It seems you want to see the traders."
"Uh-huh… Sort of, I guess."
Actually, I'm not that curious. Unless it's about the item that the traders brought.
As I was thinking that, Noth said,
"You can look at the items with the young lady. There are many interesting things to see."
Of course, I'd like to, but…
I glanced at the Duke. I wondered if he would say I was going to break something again, but he didn't say anything.
'I guess it was a good thing I gave him the chicken leg.'
Around the time we finished our meal, word came that the traders had entered the Dubled territory.
The Duke and Noth left the dining hall to discuss matters related to the Emperor's Anniversary Celebration.
And I decided to go to the library with Leah and the other maids to kill time until the traders arrived.
"You haven't seen the Dubled Castle library, have you, young lady?"
"Nope."
"It's full of all kinds of books. Of course, there are many fairy tales too."
I was about to have my eyes pop out as I entered through the door that Leah opened.
'Oh my god.'
How can a library be so amazing?
The room, which was large enough to ride a horse in, had an incredibly high ceiling.
The center was open, and a spiral staircase connected the floors, with countless bookshelves on each floor.
There was no empty space to be found on the long bookshelves, which were easily over 3 meters long.
It was an enormous library that seemed to have gathered all the books in the world.
I looked around the library, which boasted an enormous presence, and headed to the fairy tale corner.
The maids said with sparkling eyes.
"Now, choose!"
They had the look of doting parents, watching with excitement to see what kind of book our child would like.
I was pushed by the burdensome gaze and headed to the bookshelf.
Since I had to pretend that I couldn't read yet, I should just pick a book with a pretty cover.
As I was looking around to see which book was the most colorful, I discovered something unusual and blinked.
'Why doesn't this one have a title?'
Moreover, the book was only half there, and the other half was cut off.
I tilted my head and opened the book.
'It's not a fairy tale.'
[The most sacred achievement of Freed I, the founding emperor, would be the defeat of Ivan, the Familiar of the Evil God.
(Omitted)
According to Ivan's records, there are two conditions for the Evil God's Special Ability to be manifested.
The first is contact with a relic, which is the key to unlocking the latent power, and the acquisition of a medium that allows the power to be exerted…]
That was the end.
The rest was cut off, so I couldn't read any further.
'What is this, it's unsettling.'
At that time, Leah asked.
"Have you chosen, young lady?"
I quickly put the book I was holding back and picked up any book next to it.
"Uh-huh. I picked one."
"I'll read it to you when we get back."
I took Leah's hand and left the library.
The maids, who had tremendous talent for storytelling, gave excellent performances, but my mind was complicated.
The untitled book I read in the library kept coming to mind.
'Why does it have to be about the Evil God of all things?'
The Evil God was also related to me.
Neriad, the righteous goddess of the empire, sealed the Evil God, the source of all evil, for the sake of humanity.
But the seal had loosened over time, and Mina's power, the Child of Destiny, was needed to reseal the Evil God.
'And I was the sacrifice for that ritual.'
The ritual was so painful that I just wanted them to kill me quickly.
My face darkened as I recalled that, and Leah looked at me with a worried expression.
"I wonder why the young lady has such a sad face."
I couldn't say that I remembered my previous life, so I rolled my eyes and said,
"Lion scawy. (Lion scary.)"
I clung to Leah's arm, making excuses that I was scared of the part in the fairy tale where the lion tried to eat the main character, the elephant.
Then the maids shouted, "Kya!" and shook their fists.
"Were you scawed~ Our young lady was scawed of the lion~"
"The mean lion went 'Roar~' So you went, 'Ahgoo. Scawy!'~"
The maids, who were cooing and teasing me, rubbed their cheeks against my face from both sides.
'Oh, these ladies are getting worse and worse.'
I guess I put too much of a filter on them.
I endured the maids who were at a loss for what to do because I was so cute with a hazy look.
As I was doing that, it was noisy outside.
Leah opened the door slightly and looked down the hallway.
"It seems the traders have arrived."
Then she held out her hand to me, saying, "Shall we go see?"
I took Leah's hand and left the room.
When we arrived at the Great Audience Hall, the Duke was sitting on an ivory chair with luxurious craftsmanship.
Behind his chair was the tapestry of the founding emperor, which Duke Dubled had obtained while conquering the land of ice.
This tapestry, inscribed with Ancient Language, was a symbol of Dubled's military power, and the nobles, who admired it, all followed suit and decorated the back of their heads' chairs with tapestries.
A man who seemed to be a trader was prostrating himself below the Duke.
"I greet Duke Dubled."
I recognized the man right away.
'Why is that swindler here!'
Turba, the wealthy merchant.
Later, he was a wanted criminal for selling forged paintings to the Imperial Family.
