The Villain Family’s Strongest Butler
Chapter 16
Click—.
Having closed the door to the Grand Duke’s bedroom, I leaned my back against it and caught my breath for a moment.
I felt a little drained.
-“A butler who gets flustered just because I took off some clothes in the bath. Having a butler like that puts me in a difficult spot.”
The Grand Duke’s remark cut deep.
It was enough to make me reflect on the past six months.
Though I hadn’t been a butler for long, I had taken pride in becoming near-perfect at the role.
Yet, it seemed I had merely been acting the part on the surface.
‘To deceive the enemy, I should have deceived myself first.’
I had only focused on fooling the Grand Duke to win his trust and take his head, never truly immersing myself in the profession of a butler.
-“Ah, and one more thing.”
The Grand Duke’s parting words had caught me just as I was leaving the bathroom.
-“Soap isn’t meant to be eaten, Butler.”
-“…….”
In the end, the Grand Duke made it blatantly obvious he had seen everything from the start, humiliating me once again.
‘I’ll kill him. I’ll definitely kill you, Grand Duke.’
Gritting my teeth, I walked slowly down the corridor.
My footsteps were weighed down more by mental defeat than physical exhaustion.
“See you tomorrow, Freya!”
“Yes, get some rest.”
It was well past midnight.
The hands of the clock already pointed to two in the morning.
“Freya-nim! Come over here and have a drink!”
The drinking party underway in the Knights’ Quarters was finally nearing its end.
A knight who had been persistently offering me drinks raised his glass high and called out to me.
Judging by his state, he looked ready to pass out at any moment, just like the other knights around him.
I politely declined the offer and continued on my way.
In the dead of night, the Grand Duke’s Residence was so quiet it felt almost desolate.
It was hard to believe the Grand Duke and his knights had even returned.
After a final check around the Main Building and the annex, I headed up to my quarters.
After becoming the butler, my quarters had moved to the fourth floor of the Main Building.
It was on the same floor as the Grand Duke’s office, directly above his bedroom.
When he wasn’t around, I hadn’t thought much of it, but realizing the Grand Duke was right below me gave me a strange feeling.
Lest I wake him, I tread softly as I got ready to wash up.
Checking the time again, it was past three in the morning.
‘What a hectic day.’
The tension stemming from the Grand Duke’s return had drained far more energy out of me than usual.
Phew—. Letting out a sigh, I untied my hair, which had been bound up high.
‘I should wash up quickly and go to sleep.’
I had been too busy today to even stop by the training grounds.
On days with such exceptional circumstances, there was simply no helping it.
I began running hot water into the bathtub and perched lightly on its edge.
Just as I was blankly staring at the stream of water cascading into the tub—
Eeeeeee—.
A sharp, piercing ringing stabbed at my left ear.
I shot to my feet. Stepping immediately out of the bathroom, I extinguished all the lamps I had left lit in the bedroom.
Then I rushed to the window, pressing my face close against the glass to scan the outside.
It was dark outside. So dark that sight alone could discern nothing.
Yet I could sense it.
Without fail, an assassin had visited the Grand Duke’s Residence tonight as well.
The surroundings were chillingly cold.
The atmosphere of the Valot Grand Duchy’s residence, which he had only heard rumors of, was even more desolate than expected.
Yet for someone, this stillness was a golden opportunity.
‘Even more so for an assassin like me.’
The third-floor hallway of the Grand Duke’s Residence.
According to the map, Grand Duke Valot’s bedroom was here.
Swish, rustle. Footsteps honed for assassination left neither trace nor sound.
Recalling the memorized map, he took careful steps forward when—
The assassin was forced to freeze in his tracks.
A blade was aimed straight at his throat.
“Who’s there……?”
The assassin threw the question into the shadows. An unexpected answer drifted back.
“What kind of manners is it to ask who I am after sneaking into someone else’s house?”
“…….”
The assassin’s pupils trembled.
‘A woman……?’
He hadn’t sensed her approach, nor the drawing of the blade aimed at his neck.
Being subdued in an instant was astounding enough, but by a woman?
Moreover, even knowing he was an assassin, there wasn’t a trace of tension in her voice.
If anything, it held a languid ease, as though she had just woken from sleep.
The assassin stared into the shadows.
The woman’s face remained hidden in the darkness. Only the silver blade extending long from the shadows gleamed faintly.
Grinding his teeth, the assassin spoke.
“Who are you? A mercenary hired by the Grand Duke? Which faction do you belong to?”
The preliminary reconnaissance reports on the Grand Duchy contained no mention of a woman with such skill.
‘Which means she’s most likely a mercenary hired in haste.’
The assassin pressed on.
“Your skills are wasted as a mere mercenary. Why not join hands with us instea—”
Tsk.
The woman clicked her tongue, sounding utterly bored.
“Even without me, you wouldn’t be able to take the Grand Duke’s head.”
“……What?”
“With skills like yours, it’s a wonder you even managed to slip inside the mansion.”
At her mocking tone, the assassin clenched his jaw.
Just then, the blade pressed at his throat bit firmly into his skin.
“Shall I tell you something?”
The blade pressed with deliberate force, drawing a red scratch across his flesh. A thin trickle of blood ran down his neck.
“The Grand Duke’s head belongs to me.”
“…….”
“He promised to give it to me, you see.”
So.
“That means no one gets to touch him until I’m strong enough to kill him myself.”
Got it?
“…….”
What was she talking about?
The assassin couldn’t make any sense of her words.
‘Is she not a mercenary?’
He thought she was here to protect the Grand Duke, yet out of nowhere she was spouting absurdities about the Grand Duke’s head belonging to her.
The moment he realized something was terribly wrong, the woman took a step out of the shadows.
Her slender jawline and red lips faintly came into view.
She was smiling. Her crimson lips curled into an amused curve.
Only then did a chill run down the assassin’s spine.
He realized instinctively.
Whether that woman was the Grand Duke’s ally or his enemy—
She had no intention of letting him leave alive.
‘……I have to run.’
He had to report that someone unaccounted for in the records was inside the Grand Duke’s Residence.
‘That the one who killed all the assassins sent to the Valot Grand Duchy might be this crazy woman.’
That they needed a new investigation!
‘We need to revise the plan—’
It was at that moment.
The cold blade resting against his neck suddenly burned as hot as molten iron.
‘Huh……?’
Slash—!
Clutching his neck, the assassin let out a dying gasp.
“Kehk!”
Moments later, with a heavy thud, the assassin’s body collapsed onto the darkened corridor floor.
“Oops.”
The sound of the assassin crashing to the floor had been rather loud.
Fortunately, I had erected an aura barrier the moment I spotted him, so none of the commotion should have leaked outside.
‘Though the Grand Duke surely noticed that I used aura.’
I looked down at the assassin lying on the floor.
“Trying to kill someone with this level of skill?”
How boring. Every single one of them is useless chaff.
Even in my prime, I couldn’t kill the Grand Duke. For small fry like this to charge in thinking they could take his life—
They were no different from moths throwing themselves into an open flame.
‘If you want to take the Grand Duke’s head, you’ll need to train for another hundred years.’
I roughly wiped the blood splatter from my left cheek with the back of my hand.
Anyway.
‘Where on earth was he sent from?’
His pronunciation had been awkward. Judging by that, it was possible he was an assassin from another empire who had clumsily learned the Cadea Empire’s language.
Gazing quietly at the corpse, I noticed a dagger tucked into the assassin’s waist.
‘Hm?’
A fingernail-sized blue jewel embedded in the dagger’s hilt caught my eye.
‘Wait……?’
It wasn’t unfamiliar. In fact, it was all too familiar.
No way…….
I drew my sword once more and swiftly sliced through the fabric covering the assassin’s left shoulder with the tip of the blade.
A tattoo I had seen countless times was revealed.
A tattoo of a flame motif crossed with a sharp dagger.
“Ha……!”
A hollow laugh escaped me.
I knew that tattoo. I had once borne it myself in the past.
It was the mark signifying membership in Ariad, the assassination order of the Tenasis Empire that I had once commanded as its leader.
Indeed. I had just killed an assassin of the Tenasis Empire with my very own hands.
