Barefaced sneers hung on the faces of the maids who had brought the food.
“Acting like a great noble, are we?”
The corners of Jesi’s mouth curled upward. She watched the maids from behind, quietly cracking her knuckles.
The maids, who hadn’t seen Jesi, exchanged glances among themselves.
A short while ago, Flora had called them in and said:
‘You girls must attend to that woman’s dinner.’
‘Us? But what about the young lady’s dinner...?’
‘Go and find out more about that woman. For your information, the woman His Grace brought in is not a noble. She is a commoner without even a family name. And yet, she is putting on airs like a noble.’
‘Then the woman brought in like a maid is...’
‘It must be His Grace’s consideration? He is a kind man.’
The woman who had occupied the Chandelier Room without knowing her place did not so much as spare them a glance when they arrived. She seemed to think herself some great noble.
The maids’ gazes grew ferocious.
To become a maid in the ducal castle, one needed a clear lineage even among commoners. Naturally, there had to be no criminals among one’s immediate family, and the household needed a certain degree of wealth.
They could tolerate serving lower nobles. Of course, that was hardly satisfying, but at least they were nobles. However, serving another commoner—and one whose origins were even more unclear than their own—was utterly unpleasant.
A dining table had been separately prepared inside the room. But the maids pushed their trays all the way to the work table.
It was proper etiquette not to eat at the work table. Perhaps light tea would be acceptable, but generally, not even finger food was placed there. Servants were trained to quietly set the dining table and withdraw to wait if their employer was working. But the maids smiled as they lifted the food domes in front of the work table.
“You must be hungry? We’ll lay out the food for you.”
“Nobles usually dine alone. Unless there is a special occasion, they dine in their respective rooms.”
And before Grace could even give permission, they began the setting.
They had not wiped the table, nor had they laid down a table mat. They placed an excessively large plate before Grace, upon which sat a single lump of meat no bigger than a child’s palm. The meat was burnt black and looked tough.
Then they arranged the cutlery on the unwiped table as if on display. Unlike the meat, which showed no effort, five kinds of knives and forks, along with two kinds of spoons, were lined up surrounding the massive plate.
Finally, they placed a champagne flute and poured water into it. Having completed this absurd setting, the maids stared at Grace with fixed smiles.
No matter how elegantly she carried herself, she would not know dining etiquette. She would drink the water like champagne, cut the steak with the wrong forks and knives. And she would eat the meat covered in heaps of salt and pepper. It would be laughable if she spat it out, and even funnier if she swallowed it.
They intended to watch Grace eat unculturedly and then report back to Flora.
But Grace, who had been sitting straight and looking down at the table, lifted her eyes to meet theirs.
“...”
When her green eyes stared steadily at them, a very strange feeling came over them. The smiles instantly vanished from the maids’ faces.
Then the silent Grace opened her mouth.
“Who told you to do this?”
“...Pardon?”
A surprised maid belatedly echoed back.
But Grace did not repeat herself. She leaned back in her chair and said something else.
“I’ll give you another chance.”
“...?”
“Correct what is wrong right now. While you’re at it, you would do well to look around this entire room and correct that too.”
“...”
The maids’ breathing gradually grew louder.
Their instincts demanded they not fight the woman before them, but at the same time, the imposing figures of Flora and the Countess came to mind.
‘That wench will definitely be driven out. The way His Grace looked at me was unusual.’
As Flora’s voice rose in their minds, the strange fear that had momentarily welled up within them vanished without a trace. One of the maids put on a kind smile again and spoke gently.
“This is the Chandelier Room where the Duchesses of past generations have stayed. But is there something you find unsatisfactory?”
Emboldened by her companion’s words, the other maid chimed in with a smile.
“Indeed. This room is perfect. I suppose your nerves are on edge because you are hungry. The meat will get cold. Please, eat.”
“Ah, or are you dissatisfied with how small the meat is? But usually, noble ladies leave even this much uneaten. They consider the habit of eating too much vulgar. That is... well, because it is a poor habit?”
In their attempts to somehow degrade her character, Grace was reminded of Duke and Duchess Taylor. It was utterly sickening, and she was fed up.
She no longer wished to bandy words with them, nor was there any need to. Grace precisely picked up the main fork and knife. And while the maids faltered, she cut the meat. Her posture holding the fork and knife, down to her very fingertips, was perfect. Grace cut the meat exactly in half, then set down the fork and knife and commanded:
“Clear it away.”
“...”
When they still did not move, Grace stared at them fixedly. In the end, the maids had no choice but to clear the dishes without having fed Grace the meat covered in salt and pepper.
Perhaps because they were deeply dissatisfied by this, their hands as they collected the food were rough, and they left without even a word of parting.
“Those little...!”
Jesi ground her teeth and muttered, but Grace calmly gathered her thoughts.
“The maids just now. They are the ones who guided me and His Grace to the Chandelier Room earlier, correct?”
“Yes, that is right.”
For maids—not even lady’s maids—to be so rude to the Duke’s lover who had taken the Chandelier Room. This was something that could never happen unless they had reliable backing that provided them with reliable information.
“Watch those maids secretly.”
“Is it enough to simply watch them?”
“Where they go, who they meet.”
“Understood.”
* * *
The maids who had entered the corridor flinched upon seeing Joseph leaning against the wall. Just as children are influenced by their parents, servants were inevitably influenced by their employers.
Given the long-standing contempt for knightly houses, the maids did not even offer Joseph a polite greeting. They gave him a barely perceptible nod, then glanced at the door with unpleasant expressions and moved away.
Shortly after, when Jesi came out of the room, Joseph quietly informed her,
“They went that way.”
“Thank you.”
At Joseph’s words, Jesi’s smile deepened.
“You seem rather displeased as well, Sir Knight?”
“They were rude.”
Joseph stood leisurely and then looked out the window.
The darkness that had driven away twilight was dyeing the world black. And there was a man cutting through it.
One could tell without looking just how dense and dark Walter’s aura was as he approached the main building. Very rarely, Walter took off his mask. When he did, even Joseph—who prided himself on having endured every hardship imaginable—felt a chill run down his spine. The very fact that he hid his ferocious, savage aura so perfectly already felt like madness itself.
But one thing was certain: had he not been mad to that degree, Walter would already have been slaughtered by demonic beasts. Nor would he have been able to bring back all the knights who accompanied him alive.
The Richmond Knights were ready to storm the Imperial Palace itself if Walter commanded it. They followed his orders unconditionally. Over the past ten years, Walter had never once disappointed them.
But sometimes, Joseph worried about Walter. What would relieve the madness that had only ever been suppressed? Could it even be relieved?
He sighed, then chased away a servant who was hiding behind a pillar, trying to listen to sounds coming from the Chandelier Room.
“If you come pressing your ear to that door again, you’ll live the rest of your life with only one ear. Understood?”
“U-understood, yes!”
* * *
The darkness that had settled like water mist was not even an obstacle to Walter.
Like the old adage that pain which cannot kill me makes me stronger, he had grown stronger by devouring pain.
Having faced unseen things for so long, he could now read even the faintest movements, and he could maintain his mind for days without sleep. Those in this comfortable castle, desperately trying to hold onto their gained wealth and honor, knew nothing of that. That was why they had attached those pathetic creatures to him under the guise of surveillance.
Walter knew exactly that there were six people monitoring him.
Veins bulged on the back of his hand. The urge to grab them by the nape, drag them out, and slaughter them horribly arose. Like the moment he had subjugated demonic beasts at the Wall of Death, the urge to recklessly pour out his accumulated madness arose.
Walter held his breath and told himself:
Endure. Now is the time to endure.
It felt like swallowing a great fire.
Having entered the main castle in what state of mind, he had already begun climbing the stairs before he knew it. Then, catching sight of his reflection in the huge window of the stairwell, he thought of a monster.
Blue veins throbbed at his nape, and flickering flames dwelled within his jet-black pupils. Like the man said to have become a monster while trying to catch one, the monster inside Walter had already awakened and was ready to spring forth at any moment.
Arriving in front of his bedroom, his gaze turned to the Chandelier Room right beside it. After standing there for a moment, he left a word for Joseph, who was waiting nearby, to handle matters as he saw fit, then quietly opened the bedroom door.