Chapter 122

Thanks to Robert dismissing people early on, I was the only one who heard Carlo whispering in the quiet hallway.

Without breaking my stride, I replied calmly.

“…Thank you.”

“It seems Elder Brother trusts you quite a bit. Up until now, only Villero was ever allowed into meetings with me.”

“Is that so?”

“Unexpected? You look quite surprised.”

I was surprised, indeed. But I accepted it right away. Didn’t I save a dying Robert? It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say I gained his trust right then and there.

“Not at all.”

“Take a compliment as a compliment. Elder Brother is notoriously guarded. Breaking through even one layer of that is a huge feat.”

“Thank you.”

“That’s probably why he keeps the location of the ledger a secret from everyone, hiding it somewhere only he knows.”

Pardon?

“Until now, no one has gotten this close to Elder Brother. This is an opportunity, Belita. You need to find it.”

‘Dammit, not the ledger again.’

Just hearing the word “ledger” was starting to give me neurosis.

‘Well, it makes sense, I suppose.’

Jeffrey had ordered the spies who infiltrated the mansion to dig up Robert’s weaknesses.
Carlo was also one of Jeffrey’s pawns. Carlo was working on undermining Robert, too.
The documents Carlo handed over to Robert earlier.

‘A petition… or something along those lines, probably.’

Judging by the fact that Carlo brought them in person, this seemed like another plot to bring Robert to ruin.

They intended to send Robert to prison on charges of corruption, but since he wasn’t sharing the crucial evidence—the ledger—with Carlo, he was telling me to go find it.

‘Just how many people in this mansion are scheming to drag Robert down?’

At this point, I was almost starting to feel sorry for Robert.

“I will keep that in mind.”

As we headed toward the main entrance, a few servants started coming into view, and we naturally closed our mouths.

After sending Carlo off with formal farewells and returning inside, Robert called me out to his study for a private talk.

“Right. Did Carlo leave safely?”

“Yes.”

“What do you think?”

“Pardon?”

“No need to play dumb. I’m asking what you thought about our conversation just now.”

Though he tossed the topic out lightly with a bright tone, I couldn’t miss the sharp, scrutinizing gaze carefully probing my reaction.

It seemed he wanted to test my loyalty…

If so, this answer might just act as the finishing blow to earn Robert’s complete trust.

Ding!

…Act like a clueless servant with a closed ear, answer honestly, or evade the conversation.

I wondered which of these answers he would prefer.

Robert had a much more meticulous and cautious personality than I thought.

Seeing as he was still perfectly fine despite Jeffrey and Carlo pulling out all the stops to dig up his weaknesses.

‘Then he probably prefers someone whose lips are sealed tight under any circumstances.’

Even in a situation like this.

“Was there something I heard? I don’t recall anything.”

“Haha! You really know how to play innocent.”

As Robert burst into a hearty laugh of satisfaction, I let out a long-pent-up sigh of relief.

“You aren’t entirely devoid of wits. Still, I would prefer it if you gave me a proper answer.”

“I am the Duke’s maid. I merely move according to that duty under any circumstances. Besides, I have no interest in anything else.”

“That’s music to my ears. No interest in anything… except me, is it? That sounds a bit strange, or is it just my imagination?”

Calling it his imagination, of course.

When I instinctively furrowed my brow out of displeasure, Robert’s affection went up.
He must have been enjoying my reaction, right? I immediately handed him the answer he wanted.

“That wasn’t what I meant. My apologies.”

“Really? Well, you’re dating Noah, so my imagination must be right. Though, it feels like you’re always overly conscious of me.”

“I suppose my desire to serve you well was a bit excessive. I apologize if it made you uncomfortable.”

“Pfft! You sure have a way with words. Sidestepping and dodging your way out is an absolute art.”

Had I played hard to get too much? But I had no idea how far to advance the progress or at what timing.

How was I supposed to know and predict the psychology of Robert, who liked stealing other people’s women?

If I gave in too quickly, his interest would probably fade just as fast, so maintaining this ambiguous tug-of-war until my affection level hit at least 70 was probably the right call.

“Let’s stop here for today. There’ll be plenty of days ahead. You worked hard. You may head off to rest.”

…Stepping out of Robert’s room, twilight was already falling. Which meant another day had barely come to an end.

“Die… If you… should…!”

Thud!

“Ah, guess this isn’t it…? Hehe, made a mistake. Then… it must be you!”

Thud! Thud!

“Hahaha! Oh? This isn’t it either? W-where’d you go!”

The sound of something being brutally hacked to pieces jolted me awake.

Though I didn’t catch on immediately due to the drowsy haze of sleep, the reek of blood was thick in the room.

Sleepiness vanished in an instant, and I immediately snapped my head toward the direction of the sound.

Splat!

The very first thing I saw was a spray of blood splashing onto the floor.

Since the curtains weren’t drawn, the faint moonlight illuminated the room, making it easy to spot dark red chunks of gore.

Splat!

Pristine white feet stepped right into the puddle of blood, creating a gruesome squelch.

Following the feet upward, I saw a woman with wildly disheveled, unkempt hair repeatedly stabbing a knife downward toward the opposite bed.

‘That’s Io’s bed.’

Panic froze me so completely I couldn’t move a single fingertip.

Io’s arm, barely visible between the blankets, was twitching pathetically.

‘Insane.’

Once I had grasped the situation and my cold rationality returned, I jumped down from the bed and shoved the woman’s back.

“L-let go of me!”

The woman stumbled and dropped her knife, and I dashed over in a single breath to check the conditions of Io and Isabella, who looked critical.

Just as expected, the two of them were in terrible shape at a glance.

The blankets were soaked in blood from how many times they had already been stabbed by the woman, and blood was trickling from their mouths.

‘They’re not already dead, are they?’

Just as I was about to lift the blanket to check their wounds, I stopped my hand and immediately purchased two recovery potions.

Without even needing to check, the two of them were already at a point where there was no hope without a potion.

At the same time, I dismissed the thought of calling someone to ask for help. There was no way to explain the absurd regenerative power of the potions.

Pouring the potions into the mouths and onto the wounds of the two respectively, thankfully they must have still been breathing, as their wounds began to close up.

And soon, steady breathing could be heard.

With this, the dream of purchasing a new trait drifted further away into the distance, but it was a relief I wasn’t too late, unlike the incidents with Emily or Oscar.

‘Then now…’

Treatment was finished, and thinking I needed to securely subdue the woman for good, I rolled up a nearby blanket.

However.

‘No. Wait a minute.’

Despite the bruises she likely sustained from crashing heavily against the bed frame in her heightened state of fever, the woman was getting up with a limp.

Thanks to that, the woman’s face became visible. Fierce eyes, and sharp features resembling the protagonist. That was none other than the Duchess!

“It’s you! It’s you! Because of you! Die!”

I kicked the Duchess before she could larget the knife again. The knife slid under the bed, but what the Duchess aimed for next was my hair.

Swish!

Fortunately, my body moved instinctively, allowing me to avoid the savage grasp by stepping a single pace to the side. In the process, I ended up flinging the leftover potion I was holding right into the Duchess’s face.

I had thought I needed to shut her up just in case she made too much noise and attracted people, but in the heat of the moment, my thoughts seemed to have manifested this way all on their own.

Wasting a precious potion into thin air.

It was so wasteful that tears pricked my eyes.

“Ugh… ugh…?”

Yet, the Duchess’s condition somehow seemed strange.

She had clearly been swinging the knife with venomous eyes driven by the single-minded obsession to kill someone, but suddenly she scanned the room as if confused and even recoiled in horror upon seeing the blood-stained bed.

Her reaction was as if she were completely unfamiliar with this situation she had created herself.

If she had just taken a cold bath of water, she should have snapped out of it; I had no idea why her condition was getting even worse.

“W-why am I here…? Huh? D-did you do this?”

The Duchess pointed a finger at me and spoke. It didn’t seem like she was trying to pin the blame on me; she genuinely seemed to believe it.

If her behavior was sincere, it was at a level where mental illness had to be suspected.

“No, why am I here… Did you, did you bring me here? Why?”

“…I did not do this. The one who came into a room where people were soundly sleeping and used a knife is the Duchess. The blood on your hands can hardly be a decoration, can it?”

At my words, the Duchess only then glanced down at her own hands.

The Duchess recoiled in horror at her hands, which were sticky and stained with blood.

“W-what is the meaning of this! I-I couldn’t have done such a thing!”

“…Duchess. Do you have any memories of leading up to coming into this room?”

“I-I… don’t know! I remember nothing at all!”

“You have no memory of even coming here? I clearly witnessed you stabbing my companions with a knife, are you really going to feign ignorance?”

“No! No… I went to sleep just like any other night…”

You went to sleep like any other night?

‘Could it be sleepwalking?’

Come to think of it, the Duchess’s pronunciation earlier had been a bit slurred. To the point where it was hard to make out what she was even saying. If she had been sleepwalking, that would explain it.

I recalled hearing news stories about sleepwalkers waking up in their sleep, leaving the house, and attacking strangers for no reason at all.

‘Are you kidding me…?’

I had only made a rough guess, but I hadn’t expected it to actually be correct.

Swallowing back the sigh that threatened to escape, I asked the Duchess.

“Duchess. Have there been instances before where you woke up from sleep to find yourself in unfamiliar places?”

The Duchess looked as though she were in a state of panic, but slowly nodded at my words.

“I-it’s true that sometimes I’d wake up just wandering around the room, or if I went out into the hallway, that child Sera would wake me up and—”

If the Duchess was a sleepwalker, her symptoms must have manifested even in normal times. If the people around her had been aware of this, there definitely would have been personnel assigned to monitor her throughout her sleep. That must have been the Duchess’s personal maid, Sera.

‘Then did she intentionally leave her unattended?’

It was a fully plausible deduction.

“I see. So the Duchess didn’t come here to punish me for being close to the Duke and mistakenly kill those two thinking they were me?”

“N-no! No matter how much I hated someone, h-how could a person ever think of killing another human being!”

“I heard several maids committed suicide because of the Duchess, though.”

“I didn’t kill them! I-I didn’t tell them to die either, they just got scared! I-I didn’t mean for that to happen…!”

Truly, her talent for dodging responsibility was top-tier.

Ignoring the Duchess as she tore at her face in anguish, I briefly shifted my gaze to the glowing side screen.