Chapter 115

The Duchess had a face that was hard to believe belonged to a mother with a grown-up son.

‘Robert was the same way, though.’

However, unlike Robert, who had a gentle impression, Duchess Rachel had thin and fierce eyes, giving off a sharp vibe. Moreover, her brow was deeply wrinkled, and her eyes glared at me with a coldness that sent a chill down my spine.

‘She’s so terrifying.’

Feeling like a rabbit before a tiger, I swallowed hard and offered a polite greeting.

“Ah, so I finally get to see you. That despicable mug of yours.”

“……”

“No answer. What, is your conscience pricking you now of all times? No, if it were pricking you, you wouldn’t have pulled off a stunt like this.”

I had simply kept quiet because I didn’t particularly have anything to say, but she was putting on a whole one-man show all by herself.

Besides, didn’t Robert say he would talk to her properly?

An explanation became necessary as to why the result turned out like this.

“Look at this one. Keeping her mouth shut till the end, aren’t we? Well, what would wretches like you who try to snare a man to rise in status know about anything? It’s my own fault for trying to talk to a beast that can’t even communicate.”

Rachel let out a hollow laugh and pulled the cord beside her. It was the cord used to summon servants.

Not long after, Sera, a servant who had been called, entered.

“I have brought it.”

Sera was holding a massive leather pouch in her hand. The clinking sound coming from it made it seem as though it was packed with a bundle of money.

‘Ah, don’t tell me this is that thing you only see in morning soap operas…’

Rachel tossed the leather pouch onto the floor in front of me and cried out.

“Take this and get lost!”

To think the day would come when I’d actually get to hear this line in person. If this were reality, I’d gladly say thank you very much, Mother, take the money, and be satisfied, but the me right now couldn’t do that.

Even while thinking that, I involuntarily picked up the money bag and methodically counted the number of coins inside.

‘Let’s see, two, four, six, eight…’

“Are you really counting that here of all places? That’s a whopping fifty gold!”

Thanks for saving me the trouble of counting.

Still, fifty gold.

‘Way too stingy.’

I had made several hundred gold even through gambling using the protagonist, and my monthly salary back in my days as the Saintess was a whopping thousand gold.

Of course, fifty gold was still a huge sum of money that a commoner could never even touch in a lifetime. But from the perspective of someone who had already handled much larger sums, it looked like mere pocket change.

‘No, is money even the issue right now…?’

You couldn’t clear quests with money. This was a matter of winning over a person’s heart.

‘Though, of course, the more, the merrier.’

Let’s think about money matters later. There was nowhere I needed to spend money right away anyway.

Since there wasn’t a broadcast going on.

“Duchess! Young Master Hereis is currently visiting the mansion…!”

“Our son has arrived?”

The deeply furrowed expression on Duchess Rachel’s face instantly brightened, and she bolted right out the door.

Going from a malevolent spirit to a loving mother in a split second. Witnessing such an extreme shift in facial expression right before my eyes gave me goosebumps.

And the protagonist, huh…

I hadn’t seen his face even once since entering the second playthrough.

I saw enough of him to get sick of it in the first playthrough, and now he had no utility value left, so I suppose I didn’t need to pay him any mind.

“Hey, Belita.”

……?

Come to think of it, Sera was still lingering in the room. Despite being a personal maid, she hadn’t followed the Duchess.

Left behind in the empty room with just the two of us, Sera spoke to me in a tone tinged with anger.

“Are you out of your mind?”

“What is that supposed to mean? Speak so I can understand.”

“You!”

Phew, letting out a sigh, Sera checked her surroundings and continued.

“Why are you acting like someone who’s desperate to stand out? And why didn’t you submit your periodic report again?”

Lowering her voice while pointing a finger at me, Sera started and her shoulders trembled as if she had just realized something.

“Don’t tell me, you’re not planning to betray us, are you?”

Sera’s attitude made it certain. Just as I suspected, Belita was indeed a spy. Sera beat around the bush by calling him “that person,” but whoever was behind it was undoubtedly Jeffrey.

Besides, periodic contact. I had thoroughly searched through Belita’s belongings a long time ago just in case something like that existed.

‘And yet I found nothing.’

It seemed there was some other special method I wasn’t aware of.

While I did hope they would reach out to me first since there wasn’t much I could do on my end, I hadn’t expected her to bring it up so bluntly.

I couldn’t care less about spying or whatever else; my heart was set on treating this as a betrayal and simply going off to seduce Robert, but…

‘This playthrough is a bit different from the last one, where ghosting them posed no problem at all.’

In the first playthrough, my living quarters and identity had changed, so it probably wouldn’t have been easy for Jeffrey’s side to track me down either.

Besides, it didn’t seem likely they’d pour that many resources and time into chasing down a mere low-level spy.

They would have been displeased at being betrayed, but how much would they really care about an expendable, minor operative used merely as cut-out material?

However, given my current situation where I had to keep staying within the ducal household, ignoring the spy role wasn’t realistic.

It would also be annoying to keep being nagged by Sera, and I might even get disposed of for not doing my job properly.

For now, my only choice was to juggle the plan of seducing Robert and acting as Jeffrey’s spy at the same time.

Now then, what kind of excuse should I make? What should I say as the reason for not making contact…

“Well, it’s not like you’d betray us, of course.”

Before I could even come up with an excuse, Sera waved her hand dismissively and jumped to her own conclusion.

“He said he understands since you must have been swamped. It’s not like he doesn’t know how scatterbrained you are.”

……? Just like that?

“Don’t forget next time you report. Do you have any idea how much Evan grumbles about how only your report is missing every single time?”

Sera looked over my face, gave a slight grimace, and lightly tapped my back with her palm as if encouraging me.

“Ah, and while your attempt to become Sir Robert’s maid was a good idea, you stood out way too much. Don’t be too greedy, and let’s keep things calm. Understand?”

‘What the—’

Why is she being so friendly?

Even though she was the one who tried to frame me as a murderer and kill me? As if we were genuinely close comrades? Is Belita really just that scatterbrained, so she’s just letting it slide?

Wait, can a spy even afford to be scatterbrained in the first place?

‘Come to think of it…’

“What are you even doing here? Did you tag along as a servant?”

The words the Countess of Garain had said suddenly flashed through my mind. Despite quite a bit of time having passed since I left the ducal mansion without reporting, and despite committing the major accident of killing a fellow spy, the Countess had treated me quite casually.

She had scolded me, sure, but she definitely didn’t look like she thought I had betrayed them.

At the time, I figured the news of my going into hiding just hadn’t reached their side yet.

‘Was Belita’s loyalty supposed to be so deep that betrayal was completely unthinkable?’

That unsparing trust from my fellow spies probably stemmed from this very thing.

“You’re spacing out again. Are you not going to answer?”

Ah.

Ding!

Pressing my index finger firmly against my throbbing temple, I chose the third option…

According to Sera, going to Robert directly and expressing my intent to resign was what Duchess Rachel wanted. It was also in exchange for taking the money.

Trying to buy someone off with money was a classic move, but effective, and also the most moderate approach.

My top priority was the quest.

I could figure out how to deal with the spy business and Duchess Rachel later; for now, I needed to focus on rapidly raising Robert’s affection.

To do that, rejecting Duchess Rachel’s proposal was naturally the right call.

I decided to return the money later and headed straight to the dressing room where Robert was supposed to be.

“Oh, I heard you’re starting work here today! I’m Noah, the Duke’s dedicated attendant. It’s great to meet you.”

A beanpole of a guy with brown hair was waving brightly in front of the dressing room.

Noah, Noah. Where had I heard that name before?

“You let your hair down again? B-but it still looks pretty!”

‘Are you out of your mind?’

A grown man was twisting his body and talking to me, giving me total goosebumps.

“Ah, the Duke will be coming out soon. Young Master Hereis has returned after a long while, so we’re going to go meet him.”

“Is that so? Thank you.”

“N-not at all!”

Looking embarrassed, Noah fingered his earlobe.

He rolled his eyeballs back and forth and asked me with a trembling voice.

“Uhm, by any chance, do you have… someone you’re seeing? No, I’m really not the type of person to say this sort of thing on a first meeting. But ever since last time…”

Click—!

Right at the moment when I was about to be utterly disgusted by a question that couldn’t possibly be more bewildering for a first meeting, a man who looked like an elderly, veteran butler came out of the dressing room along with Robert.

“What on earth are you talking about so much, Noah?”

“Huk, I’m sorry!”

Looking above the speaker’s head, a name appeared: Villero Gabre. Hearing our conversation even from inside the dressing room, Villero scolded Noah.

He spared a brief glance at me as well, though it didn’t last long. On the other hand, Robert looked at us with a playful smile as if finding it cute.

“Well, since it’s Noah’s first time working with a peer of the opposite sex, it’s only natural he’d get a bit fluttered.”

“Villero, don’t be too hard on him either. You should cheer the two of them on.”

“…Understood.”

“Hehehe. Thank you, Your Grace!”

Noah scratching the back of his head, looking pleased.

Robert watching him with a warm expression.

…It felt like we had gotten off on the wrong foot right from the very first button.

Swallowing a groan, I followed behind Robert along with Villero and Noah, heading toward the mansion’s entrance.

In the foyer in front of the entrance, the Duchess and the protagonist were talking with affectionate expressions.

“Our dear son, haven’t you been away from home for far too long? Do you have any idea how much this mother missed you!”

“I’m sorry. But actually, I think something even more sorry is about to happen.”

“Why? Is something the matter?”

“I’m heading out on an expedition this time. It looks like I’ll be going rather far away.”

“An expedition?”

“Ah, Father!”

Robert strode over and pulled the protagonist into a tight embrace. Then, he affectionately stroked the protagonist’s head. It was the picture-foundational scene of a touching reunion between father and son.

It was a stark contrast to the murderous intent Duchess Rachel had been directing at me just moments earlier. Not even having made it all the way down the stairs, I forced myself to look at a distant wall and averted my gaze.

“What kind of expedition is it?”

When Robert asked with a worried expression, the protagonist shrugged his shoulders and replied.

“Just the usual magic beast subjugation. It’s just that the distance is far so it’ll take a while, nothing special.”

“Nothing special, my foot! Do you have any idea how panicked I was when they told me you subjugated a Grade 10 magic beast last time?!”

The protagonist spoke with a nuance that it was no big deal so as not to cause worry, but it didn’t seem to work.

The Duchess immediately raised her voice, scolding the protagonist by saying that just thinking about that time still terrified her.

“Rachel. Stop it. He did a good job on his own assignment; praising him isn’t even enough. He isn’t a child in the palm of your hand forever.”

Robert clicked his tongue and tried to stop Rachel.

“He’s doing things he doesn’t even need to do, that’s why! What does the Knights’ Order even matter?! He’s the child who’s going to become the next Duke!”

“Don’t talk about what the boy is doing like that. Just how prestigious of a position is the Vice-Commander of the Knights? He’s even on the verge of becoming a Swordmaster.”

“He can just take successor classes! To hell with that Knights’ Order! And what’s so great about being a Swordmaster anyway? He just keeps getting dragged into dangerous situations!”

“Rachel!”

Ding!

Whose side should I take?