The Villain Family’s Strongest Butler
Chapter 17
I crouched down and examined the assassin’s face closely.
The face revealed under the faint moonlight was unfamiliar.
‘A face I’ve never seen before?’
Whether I should call it a relief or not, he didn’t seem to be someone who had joined while I was leader.
‘Then he’s just a stranger.’
I stood back up, sliding the sword I had used to slice away the piece of cloth back into its scabbard.
There was no need to overthink it.
From the start, the Ariad Assassins had always been individualistic.
Even though I had been their leader, given the nature of assassination missions, it was difficult to expect a strong sense of belonging.
So to me, he was a stranger.
Well, of course, it would be a lie to say I didn’t feel at all unsettled.
‘Still, letting someone who broke into the Grand Duke’s Residence live makes no sense either.’
Assassins came to the Grand Duke’s Residence whether the Grand Duke was present or not. Those who came when he was away were mostly targeting the classified documents kept in his office.
Whether they were after the Grand Duke’s life or his secrets.
From the moment they stepped foot inside the Grand Duke’s Residence, those wretched assassins’ fates were as good as sealed.
Only, a sudden worry crossed my mind.
‘What if a familiar face shows up next time?’
I rubbed my furrowed brow with a fingertip.
‘I can’t rip open the left shoulder of every assassin who comes in, and in the end, I’ll only be able to check their face after killing them.’
It wasn’t as if I hadn’t worried about this at all before. I had considered that among the assassins sent by the Tenasis Empire, there might be members of the Ariad Assassins.
‘Perhaps there were some among the assassins I’ve disposed of so far.’
Because I hadn’t checked the shoulder tattoo every time an assassin came.
Take this assassin, for example. If not for the dagger at his waist, I wouldn’t have even thought to check for the tattoo on his shoulder.
‘Did Serhin decide to make a move?’
For the first time in a long while, I thought of Serhin. Sparkling, with both eyes and hair shining a brilliant gold—my close friend.
‘Come to think of it, it feels like it’s been quite a while since I last thought of Serhin.’
Things really had been hectic ever since I became the butler. Nodding to myself, I dragged the corpse to a suitable spot.
Then, laying the corpse at the edge of the carpet lining the hallway, I began rolling it up.
‘It’s ruined anyway since it’s soaked in blood.’
Where in the world would you find a butler like this?
Taking out assassins, then disposing of the bodies too.
Truthfully, I mostly just wanted to toss it somewhere in a secluded corner of the backyard and go rest.
However, thinking of the servant who would discover a corpse the moment they woke up in the morning, I figured it was better for me to suffer a little more.
Especially considering that Sophia, who was in charge of cleaning the third floor of the Main Building, was currently pregnant.
‘It’s a time when she should only look at pretty things and eat good food.’
Hup!
I hoisted the thickly rolled carpet over my shoulder and slipped carefully out through the back door of the Main Building.
It was to head toward the incinerator via the backyard of the Grand Duke’s Residence’s Main Building.
The surroundings remained quiet. Here, a person had infiltrated in secret and met an untimely death with a single strike, yet no one would ever know.
The low, rumbling calls of unidentified birds from the mountain behind the Grand Duke’s Residence deepened the eerie atmosphere.
Just then.
“Halt right there.”
“……”
I froze in my tracks. Then, a man who had walked up from behind stepped in front of me.
‘Ah, caught.’
It was the aide, Ed.
Ed had taken over escorting me in Sir Allen’s stead when Sir Allen set out on the expedition with the Grand Duke. Though in reality, his role was more likely that of a watchdog.
In any case, that aide seemed far better suited to being a watchdog than Sir Allen. Because Sir Allen had felt much more like a guardian than a watchdog.
Crossing his arms, Ed gestured with his chin toward my shoulder.
“Put that thing on your shoulder down on the ground.”
“Yes.”
I answered meekly and lowered the carpet concealing the corpse to the ground.
“You really don’t have to do this every time.”
At that, Ed scoffed with a “Ha!”
“Forget it. It’s better for me to handle it myself than to watch you dig some half-assed pit and set it on fire like last time.”
“……”
“Anyway, I’ll take care of this level of cleanup. I’d appreciate it if you’d just take care that the corpse inside this doesn’t end up being you, Freya-yang.”
“Haha.”
I gave a quiet laugh.
Our dear aide certainly has a talent for saying gruesome things in such a sweet manner.
Six months since I was appointed butler.
In that time, I had produced roughly ten corpses.
Saying I “produced” them makes me sound like some grand craftsman, but it just means I killed the assassins who infiltrated.
The day I killed the first assassin.
I dragged the body up the mountain behind the estate and set it on fire.
Of all things, Ed caught me in the act, and that served as the turning point.
Ever since, whenever I dealt with an assassin, Ed would show up and dispose of the body for me.
In a way, you could call him an accomplice.
Since he took care of the tedious and dirty work in my place, I was simply grateful.
Feeling too embarrassed to say thank you, I just rubbed the tip of my nose with my fingers.
‘Tomorrow, I should brew a big batch of the apple honey tea Ed likes so much—’
Just then, as Ed went to move the carpet, he snapped in a hushed fury.
“F-Freya-yang! What is this?! This carpet! Isn’t this the carpet from the third floor?!”
“……”
Ah, he noticed that too?
Avoiding Ed’s gaze, I dug at the innocent ground with the tip of my shoe.
Ed’s enraged voice continued:
“Seriously! I told you this carpet is hard to come by, so if possible, don’t kill them on the third floor!”
Ed trembled from head to toe.
Was it said to have been made by a renowned artisan from the Eastern Continent?
He had also mentioned that even with all the money in the world, it was impossible to obtain another now.
Hmph, I let out a light scoff.
“Why keep something so hard to get on the third floor in the first place?”
“What?! Because it’s the finest one, so of course it belongs on the third floor!”
Because that’s where His Highness spends the most time!
I replied calmly to Ed, who was passionately trying to make me understand.
“That’s my point. Why put such a precious, fine thing in a place like that?”
“Freya-yang!”
“Ed. Why do you think assassins break into the Grand Duke’s Residence?”
“……Well, that’s.”
I pressed on without missing a beat.
“Then, what’s the very first place an assassin heads to when they enter the residence?”
“……The third floor.”
Where His Highness’s bedchamber was.
“Exactly. Most assassins who infiltrate the Grand Duke’s Residence targeting His Highness attempt to sneak onto the third floor.”
“……”
“Now then, let’s think about this. Is it my fault the carpet got stained? Or is it Ed’s fault?”
At my question, Ed’s expression grew convoluted.
Likely because he had never seriously contemplated it from that angle before.
After a moment’s thought, Ed furrowed his brow and spoke.
“Because of me……?”
At his words, my eyes rounded, and I answered resolutely.
“Of course not. It’s the fault of the assassin who snuck in, so why would it be either of ours?”
Right? I asked back.
“……”
For a moment, Ed’s eyes wavered.
Though my logic seemed exceedingly dubious, he appeared immensely relieved by the fact that it wasn’t his fault regardless.
Ed slung the carpet over his shoulder, glanced back at me three or four times, and disappeared toward the mountain behind the estate.
And so, unintentional as it was, only one remained of that special carpet said to exist in merely two copies worldwide.
-“I hate it, it sounds like a boy’s name!”
My eyes snapped open.
The sky visible outside the window was still dark.
Checking the time, only about an hour had passed since I fell asleep.
‘Ah, I keep having strange dreams lately.’
Scratching my head, I got out of bed and began changing into the clothes I had ironed beforehand before going to sleep.
‘Who was that child?’
Lately, I had been hearing a little girl’s voice in my dreams.
It didn’t particularly torment me, so I couldn’t call it a nightmare, but having it repeatedly made me attach meaning to it in spite of myself.
‘Could I be seeing someone’s childhood?’
My own lost childhood, perhaps, or memories belonging to the owner of this body.
Or if not that, just a random, nonsense dream?
Yet there were too many odd aspects to this dream to simply dismiss it as nonsense.
Surprisingly, the dream was growing clearer little by little.
What had been pitch black at first grew brighter day by day, until now, the faint figures of children had begun to appear.
A little girl screaming that she hated it because it sounded like a boy’s name, and beside her, another child indulging her tantrums.
My vision wasn’t clear enough yet to discern what the children looked like.
It was so blurry that I couldn’t even tell if they were wearing hats or if it was just their hair.
‘At this rate, it’ll take a whole year before I can see their faces.’
Putting the unsettling dream aside for the moment, I hurried and finished getting dressed.
The second day since the Grand Duke returned.
‘Today of all days, I must show a flawless performance.’
Giving my attire one last check, I stepped out of the bedchamber.
When I descended from the fourth floor, where my bedchamber was located, to the third floor, a new carpet was laid out in place of the one removed at dawn.
I stared intently at the newly laid carpet.
‘He disposed of the corpse and laid down a new carpet in that short time?’
Just what kind of guy was Aide Ed?
I was someone who tended to cut back on sleep to get things done, but Ed seemed even more extreme than me.
‘It feels like he has some hidden ability…….’
Whenever I dragged a body out of the building, he would appear, having caught on like a ghost.
‘They say Beastman blood runs through his veins—is that why he’s so sensitive to the smell of blood?’
Silver-gray hair and green eyes. There were times when encountering that face under the moonlight gave me a slight jolt of surprise.
‘Maybe he’s a wolf.’
No, considering his actions and personality, there was also a chance he was a snake.
In any case, I was keeping a close eye on Ed. Because I had judged him to be the person to be most wary of in the Grand Ducal household after the Grand Duke.
After stepping firmly across the third-floor carpet, I turned to head down to the second floor.
Just then, a door rattled open—.
The sound echoed from somewhere along the third-floor hallway.
When I turned my head toward the sound, my eyes met the Grand Duke’s, who had taken a step out of his room.
‘Ah…….’
Perhaps because last night’s events were still vivid, I felt a bit uncomfortable.
‘Let’s just give a light greeting and head down.’
Just as I was about to greet him with that thought in mind.
A nod. The Grand Duke gestured toward his room with his chin.
‘Huh?’
And then, without a single word one way or the other, he stepped right back into his room.
‘Is he telling me to come in?’
Ah, why?!
Could it be because of what happened at dawn?
Since I was a butler who couldn’t be free from the Grand Duke’s orders, I had no choice but to tilt my head in wonder and step into his room.
