Chapter 8

“Your Highness.”

The unexpected newcomers were servants wearing maid uniforms like Betty’s.

Among them was the maid who had come to the cabin calling for Betty on the first day I arrived at Celeste.

Was her name Dora?

But aside from her, most of them were strangely well-built.

The maids stood with stern, solemn, and serious expressions, their hands planted firmly on their waists as they stared at me.

Dark shadows fell along their prominent noses, which stood out just as much as their bulky, muscular physiques.

If I actually got into a fight with them…

…I’d lose.

My chances of victory were exactly zero percent.

Just as I swallowed nervously under the mounting tension—

“What do you guys want?!”

Despite being about the same height as me, Betty stepped forward fiercely and blocked me protectively.

For some reason, I was deeply moved.

“Huh?!”

Betty didn’t back down at all.

Instead, she shoved her face right in front of them as though challenging them, baring her teeth.

“Whaddya want~? What?! You here looking for trouble? Grrr!”

…Cerberus.

How reassuring!

For some reason, courage suddenly welled up inside me as well. I patted Betty’s shoulder and stepped forward solemnly.

You stay back, Cerberus. There’s no need for you to get involved.

Perhaps she understood the intention behind my fingertips, because Betty stopped glaring with her eyes practically popping out of her head and obediently moved back to stand beside me.

The maid standing in the middle of the group watched her carefully before speaking.

“Betty, since when did you become Her Highness’s loyal dog? You were fine until this morning…”

“Grrrrr!”

“Calm down, calm down. Cerber— Ah, no. Betty.”

I stopped Betty as she immediately went into attack mode, then stepped forward and spoke firmly.

“I don’t think calling Betty my loyal dog is quite the right expression. More importantly, what brings all of you here?”

“We want to become Her Highness’s loyal dogs too.”

“?”

…What?

I blinked, wondering if I’d heard incorrectly.

Then the maid standing on the right side of the group suddenly shouted in an emotional voice.

“We were wrong! We’ve been judging Your Highness however we pleased!”

“But now we understand. That elegant manner of yours… And that firm, magnificent gaze!”

“Please accept us as Your Highness’s doormats!”

“Even if another household tries to recruit us, we’ll never even give them a second glance!”

One heartfelt cry after another followed, sounding almost like a religious testimony.

Somehow, their shameless devotion was even more excessive than Betty’s, and I felt a headache coming on…

I squeezed my eyes shut before turning toward Betty.

Please try to stop them.

But…

“I knew you guys would be like this!”

“…Betty?”

As though her earlier display of rage, trembling body, and raised fur had never happened, Betty’s round eyes sparkled as she twisted her body excitedly.

She seemed absolutely delighted to have gained some companions.

But somehow, rather than looking like maids overwhelmed with emotion at the prospect of serving the same person together…

It just looks like a gathering of otaku who have the same favorite idol.

And that favorite idol was…

Me?

Hmm. Honestly, I didn’t particularly want to understand this any further.

“I don’t think ‘doormat’ is a very good expression either. First, what are your names?”

“Huh? My name?”

“Yes. All of you.”

“Eeeek! What do we do?!”

I desperately pretended not to notice their shameless enthusiasm and calmly listened to the maids introduce themselves.

“…So, in order, you’re Garnet, Nina, Dora, Lia, and Marie?”

“Yes!”

And Betty too?

Why did their names suspiciously seem to follow the Korean alphabetical order?

Must be my imagination.

Let’s just move on.

“We’ll help you from now on, Your Highness. Anything you need!”

Whatever the circumstances behind all this might have been, I couldn’t help smiling sincerely at those warm words.

“All right. Thank you.”

After that day, a strange division of factions emerged within the Grand Ducal Castle.

“Lady Hugo really is ridiculous. No matter how much of a count’s daughter she is, she’s ultimately just Her Highness the Grand Duchess’s maid, isn’t she? If you look at it broadly, she’s in a similar position to us, so why does she treat everyone so terribly? Renee is an angel compared to her.”

There were those who subtly sided with Renee Blanche.

“But still, that woman is definitely cursed! Those red eyes. Just thinking about them gives me an ominous feeling. Lady Katarina may have a terrible personality, but at least she’s a noble lady without a single ominous rumor surrounding her.”

There were also those who continued to side with Katarina Hugo because they hated Renee Blanche.

In effect, depending on which of the two women they disliked more, people split into opposing sides here and there, resulting in large and small quarrels throughout the castle.

“…And as a result, the internal division has become quite serious.”

“Haa…”

A deep sigh escaped from the man’s lips, which looked as though they had been carefully sculpted.

The man who had been rubbing his throbbing forehead slowly opened his eyes.

It was Zenos.

“In the few days I was away?”

“W-Well…”

The head butler, who had been giving him the report, looked troubled beneath his monocle.

Zenos shook his head and continued.

“I’m not blaming you, Kal.”

“I apologize for failing to maintain discipline.”

“How could that possibly be your fault? It’s all because of those… outsiders who rolled in.”

Still, one side seemed to be behaving fairly quietly, so he had been considering ways to naturally separate the more troublesome side from the rest.

But while he’d suddenly been forced to leave because of some bad news—

It seemed as though a fire had broken out right in his own front yard.

“Damn it.”

A few days earlier.

Zenos had hurriedly ridden out after hearing that a monster had suddenly appeared on the outskirts of the Celeste territory.

Monsters were beings that appeared only in the founding myths and ancient legends, said to have been sealed away by Albert Rembrandt, the First Emperor, and an ancient dragon.

Now, several hundred years had passed since the founding of the Rembrandt Empire.

Dragons and monsters were practically nothing more than stories from another world.

Magic existed, but its power was weak.

The temples had long since taken its place.

As divine power became more prominent, it was only natural that magic would decline.

“…”

His thoughts continued one after another, and Zenos slowly raised his head.

When he arrived at the scene, the residence that had reportedly been damaged by the monster had disappeared without a trace.

Of course, the monster was gone as well.

Had someone fabricated a false report in order to lure me out of the Grand Ducal Castle?

If so, that meant there was a spy inside the Grand Ducal Castle keeping tabs on his movements.

No one had ever been bold enough to infiltrate the Grand Ducal Castle so deeply.

The person he suspected most was, of course…

“Hah.”

He was gradually reaching his limit.

His eyes were filled with cold fury.

“All right. Go ahead for now.”

“Yes.”

The old butler, who knew his master’s feelings all too well, withdrew with a brief response.

Zenos remained standing there, lost in thought for quite some time before eventually rubbing his face with both hands.

“…Nothing but troublesome things.”

His vision was hazy.

Being unable to sleep was nothing new, but after traveling nonstop through rugged mountains and freezing weather over the past few days, his accumulated fatigue seemed to be worse than usual.

Yet the more his exhausted body cried out for rest, the clearer his mind became.

No matter how many times he experienced that contradiction, he could never become accustomed to the sensation.

Already this late…

Even when Kal had entered, it had already been late enough that most people would have gone to bed.

Several more hours passed, and outside the window, the night had deepened into the quiet hours before dawn, with nothing but serene moonlight remaining.

Pressing his temples with one hand, Zenos rose from his seat.

Since he had no chance of falling asleep tonight anyway, he decided to take a walk.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The heavy sound of his dress shoes echoed through the dark corridors of the mansion.

As he walked wherever his feet happened to take him, he eventually reached an area he rarely visited.

It was entirely by chance.

But then—

“……!”

He suddenly sensed someone beyond the bend in the corridor.

Zenos’s instincts, honed from a lifetime of walking on the edge of a blade, immediately became sharply alert.

An intruder? No. They don’t feel threatening. If anything…

It didn’t feel like someone had secretly sneaked in.

An ordinary assassin wouldn’t be this careless.

And it wasn’t a particularly busy period at the Grand Ducal Castle either—certainly not one where servants would be working at this hour.

More importantly, the servants’ quarters were located in a separate annex away from the main building, naturally ruling them out as well.

Then who could it be?

Even as he wondered, the light, hurried footsteps continued drawing closer.

Who on earth would be walking through the main building’s corridors at this hour…?

“Who is it?”

“Eek!”

But the person he encountered was neither an assassin nor a servant…

It was someone he never would have expected.