“The young master said he couldn’t come to meet you because something came up, and he asked me to tell you he’s sorry for not keeping his promise…… No, wait, why are you crying!”

“Huuuuuuuuung!”

“Wait, wait, child. No, Mel. Don’t cry……”

“Mother! The young master sent him! He’s not a suspicious person!”

Mel whirled around and jumped into the arms of her mother, who had been crouching in tension. Bane, who had put his hand through the door gap that opened in the confusion, called out urgently.

“Just a moment, I need to deliver your answer to the young master!”

“Huuuuung! I was scared, I was so scared!”

Not knowing what Mel had been prepared for, Bane couldn’t understand why she was crying so bitterly. After all, he didn’t know what purpose most people had when visiting a slave’s lodging after all work was done for the night.

Bane had to wait helplessly for Mel, who continued crying for quite some time. As her crying gradually subsided, Bane glanced at the mysteriously quiet interior. With the room dark, it was difficult to see inside through the narrow door gap with only moonlight filtering in.

“Excuse me, Mel? I have a duty to deliver your answer to the young master. So I’d appreciate if you could say something.”

“I’m sorry, my child seems to have been too exhausted today. She fell asleep as soon as she felt safe.”

The voice that answered Bane was not Mel’s but that of a mature woman.

‘He said she had a mother.’

He recalled Genoa’s words and deduced the owner of the voice. Was this the mother who was said to be frail?

Bane sighed with difficulty as he thought about it. He had to carry out his master’s orders, and to do so, he needed to hear an answer even if it meant waking the small child from her sleep that was close to fainting.

Bane tried to ask Mel’s mother in a regretful voice.

“Then if I could wake her for a moment……”

But as the woman gradually approached through the door gap, Bane’s words slowed and his lips stopped without finishing the sentence.

“I’m sorry. Please tell that young master that Mel said she’s fine. Our Mel would surely have said that.”

“……”

The face of the woman who approached the door gap looked too young to be the mother of a child. The face of a slave with one daughter that he had imagined wasn’t like this. Not like this,

‘Beautiful.’

He hadn’t expected her to be beautiful at all. So Bane didn’t anticipate that this moment, when he turned around and left the hut with his heart racing madly, would grip his ankle for the rest of his life and shake his very soul.

* * *

“Bane said he’s busy, and if you have a message, you should relay it through me.”

“Really? Nothing else?”

“No. He didn’t say anything else.”

“Really?”

“Oh come on, I said there wasn’t! Do you not trust me, princess?”

“No, no. Of course I trust you, Lin.”

Mel secretly swallowed a sigh as she consoled Lin, who was pouting her lips as if feeling hurt.

She knew Bane felt uncomfortable with her, but she hadn’t expected him to cut off her request for conversation so firmly. She had thought they could have at least one private conversation.

“……He really is a difficult person.”

The Bane from that distant past didn’t seem to have been such a rigid person. His loyalty toward Genoa remained the same then and now, but the Bane of that time was a little softer than he was now.

‘Well, he must have changed a lot during the time I didn’t know him. A person who was an attendant became a knight.’

What had Genoa and Bane experienced during the time Mel was absent, to rise to their current positions? Perhaps she would never know about that time. Thinking this way, the curiosity that suddenly arose now made her feel sad anew.

“Then I guess I’ll meet with the head maid instead.”

“What? Why the head maid?”

Lin immediately made a face of disgust as she asked back. She looked so displeased, with every part of her face that could wrinkle scrunched up, that Mel burst into laughter.

“Ahaha! You told me before, Lin. That there are rumors the head maid takes bribes.”

“That’s right.”

“I’m going to try to blackmail the head maid with that.”

“Oh my!”

Lin’s scrunched-up face smoothed out like silk. Her eyes sparkled with life. Lin put her hands together and moved closer to Mel as she asked.

“How? How will you do it? Should I bring a witness?”

“No, there’s no need for that. I already have evidence.”

“Oh my! Oh my!”

Lin clapped her hands in delight. Mel enjoyed her bouncing reaction thoroughly as she said.

“So Lin, will you call the head maid for me? Of course, since I’ll be doing some unsavory blackmailing, I’d prefer if no one knew about my private meeting with the head maid.”

“Of course! I’ll deliberately pick a fight with the head maid. Then everyone will think we’re fighting and won’t approach. They’ll be afraid of getting caught in the crossfire.”

“That’s a good idea. You’re so smart, Lin.”

“Hehe. I’ll go right away.”

Mel smiled and waved her hand for a long time at Lin’s back as she hurried out to call the head maid. Lin would probably not return for a long time. Because she wouldn’t be able to find the head maid anywhere in the mansion.

“You can come out now.”

As Mel muttered toward an empty space, the wardrobe door creaked open, and the head maid emerged in a disheveled state. Her face was as pale as it could be.

“There are rumors that I take bribes?”

“Yes.”

“That’s a lie.”

The head maid glared at the door Lin had exited through, grinding her teeth. Mel shrugged as if she couldn’t care less about the head maid’s reaction.

“That’s what the rumors say. How have you been behaving for such talk to circulate among the servants?”

“……It’s just a rumor.”

“At this rate, I have no reason to trust you and take risks for you.”

Mel’s quiet voice remained clear and gentle. But her words meant that she could easily break the promise she had made with the head maid. After all, hosting a tea party for the head maid was a very trivial matter.

“I’ll handle the rumors.”

“Didn’t you hear what I said earlier? I told you I have evidence.”

“What? But that was just an excuse to send Lin away……”

“No, it wasn’t.”

Mel smiled as she approached the bedside table. She then took out a letter from the drawer and handed it to the head maid.

“When I said I would blackmail you, I meant it.”

The head maid reluctantly opened the letter Mel had given her. It was a simple letter with just the proper formalities, not stamped with a noble family’s seal nor made of high-quality paper. Because of this, the head maid wondered what kind of evidence it could possibly be.

However, as the head maid read the contents of the letter, her face gradually hardened, then turned pale blue as her hands trembled.

[To the beloved Princess of Reibritton.

I hope this finds you well? I am trembling with joy under the warm compassion you have bestowed upon me. I am grateful with all my soul for your grace in not only forgiving my inadequate and shameless self but also providing me with a way to live.

……Therefore, I will offer to you everything I have received from the head maid of the Ivanstein ducal mansion. I hope these will be of use to you. Should you find them insufficient, I will cut off my hands, feet, and even my soul for you to use until you are satisfied.

……I wish you good health.

— The tailor Tiburian, who is forever indebted to you]

The letter was from Ivanstein’s exclusive tailor who had been called in previously to take Mel’s measurements.

At the end of this letter, which elaborately praised Mel’s mercy for forgiving his shameful act of insulting her, it stated that he would resign as Ivanstein’s exclusive tailor.

Confessing that it was the head maid who had created the position of exclusive tailor for the Duke of Ivanstein.

“How dare he……”

“Well? I think this allows me to have a deeper conversation with you.”

Mel lightly snatched the letter from the head maid’s hand. The head maid’s eyes, which looked at her with an “oh no” expression, were bloodshot.

“What exactly do you want from me? Didn’t I agree to cooperate with you, princess?”

“I just needed something to ensure that you would never refuse any requests I might make in the future.”

“……”

“If you just do as I ask, I can handle this letter and the tea party. Everything according to your wishes.”

Mel’s voice sounded like both a devil’s whisper and an angel’s offer. Mel smiled cheerfully as she saw the head maid’s trembling eyes gradually calm down.

“So? Will you do it?”

“Let’s hear what you have to say.”

“My request is simple. I want to take a walk in the western garden.”

“That’s not possible.”

“Then I won’t help you either.”

“Princess!”

The head maid called out to her as if screaming when Mel spoke lightly, as if giving up on a fun prank. The head maid’s fists were tightly clenched.

Nevertheless, Mel maintained her relaxed smile. She knew better than anyone that she held the upper hand in this conversation.

“Why? With your ability to hold secret tea parties in the Ivanstein mansion without the duke knowing, and to take bribes without being caught, shouldn’t a request like this be nothing?”

“But the western garden is!”

To make it seem like her interest in entering the western garden was merely casual curiosity, Mel sat down heavily on the bed, placing a pillow on her knees as she spoke.

“Why? What’s there?”

The head maid couldn’t hide her dismay when Mel grinned with an overtly curious voice, and she just kept gripping and releasing her innocent skirt hem.

“Even I and the butler cannot enter the western garden freely. Only the duke and Sir Bane are allowed access there.”