Chapter 126

It was the same way back in the first run.

I had never seen Jeffrey do anything himself.

Did I miss something because, true to his mastermind nature, he left everything to his subordinates and operated entirely from the shadows?

‘Or maybe not. It almost feels more accurate to assume he has no reaction at all.’

Thinking from Jeffrey’s perspective, even if someone headed to the county, he probably wouldn’t expect anyone to actually push through that sea of demonic energy.

After all, if you go without the Saintess, it’s an all-party annihilation ending.

He likely figured it wasn’t even worth keeping in check.

‘Well, he probably never imagined that Ivanke would purify the demonic energy of the county and find the ledgers hidden across multiple layers.’

Of course, that hadn’t happened yet, but looking at the current flow, it didn’t seem entirely impossible either.

And even if the ledgers were snatched away by Ivanke, it wouldn’t spell total ruin.

Since the Rubel family name was written on the ledgers, they weren’t clues that could specifically pin down Jeffrey.

The current head of the ducal house was Robert. Ivanke, who harbored affection for the protagonist, wouldn’t be able to publicize ledgers that could crush the protagonist’s father and family.

All the more so because the Exiled Scholar had steadily built up Ivanke’s affection.

‘Come to think of it, I still don’t know why the county incident broke out in the first place.’

Even in the first run, the full details of that were never untangled.

The reason they conducted monster experiments in the county was probably in preparation for an upcoming war.

Yet, aside from that, I didn’t understand why they went out of their way to poison the people of the county. Why on earth did they do that?

‘Was that also part of the monster experiments?’

Judging by the magic stones and the successful cultivation of the mother body, the results seemed exceptional…

‘Was it an accident, or was it a disposal…?’

Anyway, not a single person in the Rubel ducal house was sane.

Robert with his perverted tendencies, Jeffrey the mass murderer, and Carlo who helped him.

On top of that, even the protagonist who went around flirting with multiple women.

If I absolutely had to marry one of them, I figured the protagonist was at least the best of the bunch, so I tried flirting with him, but to find out it wasn’t the right answer is truly unfortunate for Belita.

“Haaam~!”

Finding it terribly boring, Sera let out a big yawn beside me.

Seeing Sera reminded me of how the Duchess had previously worried that the relationship between Sera and me was bad.

Should I probe her about it while I have the chance?

With my lips poked out, complaining about when she was ever going to come out, I casually tossed a question to Sera.

“Do you think the Duchess is doing alright?”

Sera turned to look at me with a skeptical gaze.

“You, of all people, know how to care about things like that? I thought you were only capable of saying things like ‘We just need to do our own job well’.”

This girl, instead of just answering smoothly like she used to, starts picking fights right off the bat.

“Well, this time I’m on the same page as you. The Duchess will handle things herself. It’s not like it’s our place to worry about her, is it?”

“You’re not worried?”

“What difference does it make if we worry?”

“…I suppose that’s true.”

When I chimed in appropriately, Sera suddenly scowled.

“What do you mean, ‘that’s true’. I heard you’ve run into her quite often since you were little, don’t you have any attachment? I might not care, but you should be a lot more worried.”

‘What’s with this sudden 180-degree turn?’

Just a moment ago she was asking what good worrying would do, and now she wants me to worry a bit.

Since neither the Duchess nor her maid was in their right minds, I should seriously consider requesting them to bring in a doctor proficient in psychiatric disorders one of these days.

“Didn’t the Duke and Duchess help you out a lot? Besides, you were friends with that adopted son, weren’t you? Talking about it like it’s someone else’s business is really going too far.”

Friends with the adopted son? Being from an orphanage was the sum total of what I knew about Belita.

There was simply too little information to sustain this conversation. Just as I was thinking it would be best to keep quiet on this topic,

“Huh? Sera, why are you here?”

Noah returned right on time. Despite the chilly weather, there was sweat on his forehead and his breathing was slightly ragged, as if he had run all the way from somewhere.

Screech—!

Immediately after, the door flew open and the Duchess walked out of the room. She glanced briefly at Noah without even casting a look in my direction and walked away. Sera hurried after her.

“Ah, so the Mistress was here. What brings her?”

“Who knows.”

It was a pity that, due to the bedroom’s excellent soundproofing, I hadn’t been able to eavesdrop on their conversation.

If they had fought, they would have raised their voices, but the fact that they hadn’t meant they probably had a calm, quiet discussion.

‘Should I have pressed my ear against the door?’

There were only two spies anyway, so it was worth a shot.

“Noah! Stop muttering outside and get in here!”

“Ahht! Yes-sir!”

‘Is she mad?’

Startled out of his wits, Noah scurried into the room in a panic. Judging by the fact that he probably didn’t hear anything good, a roaring voice chewing him out leaked through the gap in the door.

When Noah came back out, his shoulders were drooping heavily. To raise his affection points and because I felt bad for him, I patted his back.

At that, Noah beamed with a bright smile, as if he had never looked miserable just a moment ago.

“Belita, what are you doing! Get in here too!”

“Ah.”

Oh dear, was this really the time to be pitying Noah?

Next up was my turn.

“What on earth did you talk about with Rachel?!”

My mind went completely blank at the out-of-the-blue roaring.

‘Don’t tell me she told him?!’

Since her affection points were positive and she seemed to view me favorably enough, I had let my guard down—only to get stabbed in the back like this?

“Stop racking your brain and answer me right now!”

Options were suspiciously quiet at a time like this.

Though my head was ringing from the unannounced lightning bolt, I calmly replied first.

“Previously, the Mistress handed me a large sum of money and told me to quit my job. I thought it was over when I returned the money to refuse her offer, but… I apologize for not mentioning it!”

Naturally, the faster an apology, the better.

I bowed my waist so low that the top of my head nearly touched the floor.

“What? Rachel did something like that?”

“Yes…”

Had he calmed down? I raised my head slightly to check Robert’s complexion.

“Didn’t she say anything else?”

“No, she didn’t say a thing.”

“Right, of course she wouldn’t. Haah, I’m sorry. Your back must hurt, you can stand up now.”

His voice was gentle, but Robert was rubbing his face with dry hands as if he had a massive headache.

Seeing it end at this level, it seemed the Duchess hadn’t told him everything.

“That’s enough. You can go out now. Tell Noah to fetch some washing water.”

“Understood.”

He was telling Noah to do it instead of me, even though I was right here?

With a heavy heart at the strangely drawn-up boundary between us, I backed out of the room.

True to form, my ominous premonition didn’t miss the mark.

After the conversation with the Duchess, Robert didn’t touch me.

No, he was now unmistakably cold and stiff.

He didn’t make it painfully obvious, but it was impossible not to notice.

‘Even though his affection value hasn’t changed at all, though.’

If that was the case, why on earth was he keeping his distance from me?

It had already been two weeks since things got like this. During that time, I tried acting all clingy toward Robert and even launched a jealousy operation, but I couldn’t make a single scratch on his solid wall of indifference.

It only added to the list of things that would make me kick my blanket in regret before going to sleep.

The Duchess’s side was quiet, too.

Honestly, I thought she’d want to meet me because of what happened during her sleepwalking, but I guess I was mistaken.

There must have been plenty of things she hadn’t mentioned yet, too.

I had planned to talk my way through it and somehow prompt her to get a divorce, but things didn’t turn out that easily.

Ding!

[ Mo Je-won: These guys are almost there. Are you watching? ]

Unlike me, who had no particular gains, Ivanke and the protagonist were blazing ahead with their progress.

Even though we had traveled with a bare minimum of people to the front-line village of the county, it had taken us a month; yet Ivanke arrived in just two weeks, leading the entire Imperial Knights and Berha Knights.

It was made possible because Ivanke blessed the knights with divine power, granting them divine protection.

Apparently, receiving that protection boosts physical capabilities.

“I feel like I could even fight a Tier 10 magic beast right now!”

“I think I could even beat the Commander!”

“Hold your horses. No matter how strong you lot get, that’s not happening.”

“Vice-Commander! Are you looking down on us? Wanna throw down right now! Let’s see who wins!”

“You want to? Shall we step down from the vice-commander seat and have a go?”

“Cut it out, both of you.”

From the screen, the voices of the protagonist, Arianne, and the subordinate knights chatting cheerfully could be heard.

“Belita.”

Shifting my gaze back to the screen, I looked at the person who had called out to me.
It was Evan—Noah’s friend and a fellow spy alongside Belita.

“I-I heard there’s something else you want to entrust to me t-this time.”

Ah. Was today the regular reporting deadline?

I finally realized that every other Tuesday was the delivery cycle.

I handed the pre-prepared note over to Evan.

“I-It has been safely received. From now on, i-it would be nice if you came and brought it yourself… uh…”

He was trembling from head to toe, yet he managed to say everything he wanted. The original rule must have been to bring it directly to Evan, after all.

Today, he probably sought me out because it looked like I was going to miss the report date again.

“Ah, Evan! Me too, me too! Ah, I forgot to write mine down!”

“Hehe, I wrote mine out in advance~ Evan, please take care of this one.”

Whenever the servants had requests for Evan, they always wrote down the necessary items on a note and handed them over.

Because of this, I and the other spies who had no major ties to Evan could safely deliver secret letters without raising any suspicion.

“Just bring it to me by lunchtime today. I’m heading out.”

“Okey-dokey~ Thanks, Evan!”

‘What the. He isn’t stuttering.’

I couldn’t hide my astonishment at Evan’s smooth and clear response.

Was he only like that in front of me? I deduced that maybe he had some bad memories with Belita beforehand, though I had no idea what.

“W-Waiiit~! Evan!”

“Take mine too!”

“M-Me too, I have one!”

Someone waved their hand and desperately called out to stop Evan as he was about to leave.

Then, catching sight of me standing right next to him, they flinched in shock.

“Oh, it’s Belita. Do you have something to ask Evan for too?”

Bridget and her clique. Whenever we occasionally crossed paths in the past, they were always too busy running away blatantly, but today of all days, they actually spoke to me.

“Hey, hey, we shouldn’t act like we used to anymore. It’d be a huge deal if you ran straight to the Duke and talked trash about us!”

Strictly speaking, it looked like she let it slip by mistake.

Habits really were scary things.

“B-Belita isn’t such a petty person, right?”

“You won’t tell on us, right…?”

The way they asked so cautiously was almost pitiful now.

My fighting spirit, which had been eyeing an opportunity to secure a Cider-path¹ achievement, completely vanished.

I swallowed a sigh inwardly and said,

“As long as you guys don’t bully Io and Isabella, I won’t tell.”

“Ah.”

Bridget’s minion number one flinched and averted her gaze. Then Bridget and the remaining two zipped their lips tight.

I had instructed Io and Isabella to tell me if those girls ever gave them a hard time. But to think they’d have a reaction like this.

Could it be they didn’t say anything because they were worried I’d get concerned?

“Did you bully them?”

“N-No, we didn’t! We didn’t bully them!”

Minion number two tried to salvage the situation.

However, my suspicions had already flared up.

“Tell me the truth.”

“No, seriously. We d-didn’t do much.”

“What do you mean, ‘not much’? Tell me right now and I won’t rat you out.”

Of course, I had no clue if telling on them would actually do anything, but on the surface, Robert acted as though he trusted me quite a bit, so the threat was effective.

Even if it had cooled down a bit lately, up until the incident with the Duchess, he had always dragged me along to important places and things like that.

“We just made them do some difficult chores or something, we didn’t really yell at them harshly or anything!”

We decided to define that as workplace harassment.

“From now on, if word reaches my ears that something like that happened again… you know what happens, right?”

“Y-Yeaaah… you bet, you bet!”

“Let’s play nice, yeah?”

“H-Hey… seriously, you gotta b-be good… you guys are really gonna be in t-trouble…”

“Evan, wh-why are you shaking so much?”

“You’re t-trembling too, you know.”

“N-No, I am not!”

Are they running a sketch comedy or something, seriously…

Evan, why on earth was this guy still standing around watching instead of leaving?

“Ah, I didn’t get to hand over my note…”

Bridget and her three minions objected to Evan’s warning and bolted away in a hurry.

I didn’t think I was acting that scary, but they were definitely overreacting.