“······.”
Rose had been busy looking around everywhere with an ecstatic face since earlier. She seemed so focused that she couldn't even hear my question.
“Madam.”
“Huh?”
Rose, who had barely come to her senses, looked my way. Her cheeks were flushed with excitement.
“Did you call for me?”
“How is it? In your eyes, Madam.”
“Ah, here?”
Rose looked around once more, then covered her mouth as if she didn't know what to say.
“It's too... it's too wonderful.”
After taking her hands off her mouth, Rose murmured softly.
“The room is large, and all the equipment is state-of-the-art. Having my own lab was my lifelong wish... It feels like a dream. I never knew it would come true.”
She seemed to choke up a little during her speech, but Rose soon composed herself resolutely. Then, bowing, she bent her waist to me.
“Thank you, Your Grace. I truly, sincerely appreciate it.”
“Is it to your liking?”
“To my liking? It's more than that. I'm so... so happy.”
Rose's eyes trembled with emotion. Her hands seemed to be shaking too, as she was clutching them tightly. Seeing her so happy put my mind at ease.
“Good job, Andersen.”
“Not at all.”
Standing beside me, looking at Rose, Andersen was grinning for some reason.
“You gave me a generous budget, so spending the money was quite entertaining.”
“If anyone saw this, they'd think I shortchanged your research funds.”
“That's not what I meant, but... Heum heum.”
Scratching his head awkwardly, he added.
“I thought it would take more time than expected, but thanks to the supplies arriving right on schedule, I finished quickly.”
“Hm.”
“It seems you ordered them quite early, Your Grace. Am I correct in my assumption?”
I had started preparing various things in advance from the day Rose arrived at the castle. Andersen's guess was quite close to the truth.
“We couldn't afford any delays in the schedule.”
“Yes, well. That must be the reason.”
Andersen kept grinning. He had the look of someone dying to speak but forcing himself to hold it in.
“What's so amusing?”
“If I say it, you'll chase me out, so I'll stay quiet.”
“…….”
His attitude was oddly irritating, but since the lab's construction wasn't completely finished yet, I left him alone.
Andersen, who was testing the waters to see if another scolding would come his way,
“Heum heum, then I'll be off to finish up...”
Left the room with that sly smile of his. Then, as if to show off, he grabbed Rose and began explaining the interior of the lab.
“Have you seen this circuit before?”
“Huh? It's my first time seeing it. I haven't even seen it at the Academy. Was it recently released?”
“That's right. It seems His Grace swept every shop in the kingdom clean. This dramatically increases mana consumption efficiency...”
There was no subtle flirting between a man and a woman, nor any aggressive physical contact. It was just a heated discussion about magical scholarship.
Perhaps because I had already warned him, Andersen didn't try to tempt Rose into becoming his disciple. He was simply giving a plain explanation of the lab's structure and uses.
But why was that sight so irritating? Why did I find the very sight of another man standing next to Rose so distasteful? It was a mystery.
‘Hah.’
I shouldn't be doing this. Wasn't I unknowingly acting like Dane from the novel?
This was merely out of concern that Rose might fall into the abyss of ruin by becoming Andersen's disciple.
Yes, that's all it was.
Jeobeok.
I shook my head and stepped out of the room. Then I sat in my office and processed the documents piled on my desk.
Sabak.
A piece of paper tucked under the pile of documents caught my eye.
‘The prisoner on the second basement floor escaped… committed a capital offense… I will take responsibility and step down…’
It was an incident report filed by the prison guard.
The ends of the letters were warped, looking as if he had written it with trembling hands. A prisoner escaping was a big deal, but this was excessively submissive for just that.
‘Is it because I killed the stable hand right in front of him?’
Since I had instigated the matter, I ended it with his dismissal without any further punishment. And I left the guard's position vacant.
Because there were no prisoners left to watch. I planned to kill them all from now on, so there would be no new prisoners coming in.
However, it bothered me that Helena had gone completely silent since escaping the very next day.
‘It's almost been three days.’
The question of whether she had actually returned to the guild was slowly rearing its head.
Putting the question away in a corner of my mind, I was busy moving my quill when,
Deolkeong, deolkeong.
The sound of a servant pushing a cart reached my ears from the hallway. Normally, it would have been a sound I would have just ignored.
“…….”
The reason I was so sensitive to that sound was because there were almost no footsteps that should have naturally followed it.
Either the person pushing the cart was deliberately muffling their steps, or...
Ttok ttok.
Someone knocked on the office door.
“Your Grace, I've brought your tea.”
I didn't recall ordering any tea. Besides, the voice outside the door was quite familiar.
“Come in.”
I replied and swept the documents off my desk. I had a premonition that I wouldn't have time to look at them soon.
Sure enough.
Deolkeong, deolkeong.
The maid who entered pushing the cart was a familiar face.
“Master.”
Helena, her bright blonde hair tied up neatly and covered with a veil, wearing a maid's uniform, stood before the desk.
“It's been a while.”
As Helena smiled with her eyes, the beauty mark near the corner of her eye stood out.
“You're here.”
Having only seen her in filthy rags, seeing her like this was a fresh sight. Wearing the loose maid uniform, she actually looked quite neat.
Though there was the minor issue of her flashy face standing out even more because of the plain clothes.
‘No wonder it was so quiet.’
Not only had she entered the castle long ago, but she was also living as a servant—what a mischievously clever idea. Seeing as she hadn't been caught and kicked out by Selma yet, she must have been doing a good job of imitating an ordinary maid.
“How did you get in?”
“You recently put up a new job posting. It said you were looking for a hardworking maid, so I thought, 'Oh, isn't this me?' and applied right away.”
I had told them to increase the maids recently to ensure there would be no disruptions in attending to Rose. Anyway.
“Hardworking?”
“I carried out my master's orders so diligently. Aren't I?”
Helena babbled, forming her plump lips into a round shape.
“The interview was a breeze, too? Maybe because I have such an honest-looking face, but I was hired on the spot.”
“Nonsense.”
Bill and Selma only hired those with letters of recommendation, and even then, they observed how they acted during a probationary period.
That was because there was a possibility that other noble houses might try to plant spies.
Dozens of servants had been filtered out that way. The only ones left now were the cream of the crop that Bill and Selma had thoroughly vetted and kept.
“Ah, you're no fun.”
Helena let out a puu of a sigh, as if it wasn't the reaction she had expected at all.
“Master, human to human, couldn't you at least make a face like, 'Is that so?' Calling it nonsense right off the bat is too much.”
“Explain yourself properly.”
“Well, even if it wasn't recent, Schmaichel Castle's job postings are always up. You must change out your servants quite often.”
Helena added a pointed remark, then continued speaking.
“Actually, I snatched it from a woman who brought a letter of recommendation. Thanks to that, I'm being called Lune here.”
“What about the real Lune?”
“Hmm, I wonder. What could have happened to her? Anyway, she's not here. She won't be here forever, either.”
Helena's beaming face held not a single ounce of guilt. She had the attitude that a woman suddenly robbed of her letter of recommendation and murdered was no skin off her back.
“······.”
I deliberately showed no emotion as I stared at Helena.
I could see her secretly gauging my reaction. It was a look measuring how far this person would tolerate me.
‘She's testing me.’
In front of those eyes, reproaching her for killing someone was meaningless. To Helena, it was merely a means to an end.
Truthfully, I didn't have the intention to reproach her, either. I had hired Helena precisely because I wanted that kind of ruthlessness.
My subordinates tried by any means to find the key to a lock. But Helena chose the method of breaking the lock itself.
“Understood.”
I nodded, satisfied that I had chosen the right person.
“What, you're not angry?”
Helena leaned her arms on the desk and brought her body closer. Both of her eyes sparkled with anticipation.
“I thought you'd throw a fit about me killing an innocent person. Knights do that, right? They argue about justifications and demand a fair fight.”
“Humans die. Whether they are guilty or not.”
As she came closer, Helena's eyes darted frantically across the desk. Thinking it was a good thing I had cleared the documents beforehand, I added.
“Besides, if we were to strictly assign blame, it would fall on me for not clearly defining the boundaries of acceptable behavior.”
“…Hehe.”
Like she discovered a fun new toy, a gaze full of interest and delight observed me persistently.
“Actually, I didn't kill her.”
After a moment, Helena's lips moved slowly as she confessed the truth.
“I didn't forcefully take the letter of recommendation, either. Lune—I mean, the real Lune—didn't want to work here anyway.”
“There was no blackmail?”
“Yeah, I just asked for her letter of recommendation, and she gave it to me? After that, I let her go wherever she wanted.”
Helena flashed a wicked smile and leaned closer to me.
“How about it, Master?”
It seemed she had a charm that could make even a maid's uniform, which should look ascetic, appear as something dangerous.
“Did I do well?”
Here was a cat that had dragged in a mouse her master hadn't even asked for, purring as if begging for his affection.
“Hmm.”
I wasn't particularly relieved that Helena hadn't killed someone. I just thought I needed to make my instructions clearer from now on.
Bringing answers in ways I didn't want was something I would decline.
“You did well.”
For now, I offered Helena the little bit of praise she wanted. Because giving the right treat was the way to train a cat.