“I’ve been preoccupied with attending to the investors visiting the Count’s residence lately and haven’t been able to properly supervise the servants’ conduct. I will have these two dismissed by tomorrow, so please set aside your anger.”

“B-Butler, that’s absurd!”

“This is unfair! You haven’t even heard our side of the story!”

The servants began to protest at the butler’s declaration to expel them from the Count’s residence.

However, the butler did not relent and coldly reprimanded the servants.

“If you had conducted yourselves properly, I wouldn’t have to go this far.”

“Butler!”

“Stop blocking the young lady’s path and follow me.”

I stared at the back of the butler as he bowed to me once more and took the servants up the stairs.

He seems like quite a decent person.

As they say, clear water flows from a clean source. With the Count and Countess Ferial being the way they are, this household was full of rotten people.

Among them, there was only one person who didn’t lose their center, and that was this butler.

He was the only one who treated Rosemary, who was disrespected even by servants, like a proper human being.

Even if I have to drive everyone else out later, I’ll have to keep that person.

With such thoughts, I went down to the second floor. Then I flung open the door at the very end of the corridor.

“Hehe. My love… W-Who is it?!”

And as expected.

I made eye contact with Benjamin, who was sticking a portrait on the wall with an unsightly face.

Benjamin jumped up as if he hadn’t expected me to barge in so suddenly.

“What do you think you’re doing! Who told you to barge into someone else’s room!”

“Hand it over.”

As I approached and held out my hand, Benjamin looked at me with a dumbfounded expression.

“What did you say?”

“I said, hand that over.”

Benjamin’s gaze then turned to his own hand.

It was a portrait containing the face of the Saintess, Cynthia.

Belatedly realizing the situation, Benjamin’s face flushed bright red.

“W-What… What would you do with this!”

“Report it.”

“What…?”

I blinked calmly.

“Or would you prefer to turn yourself in first?”

Since we’re family, I’ll specially give my brother a choice.

As I spoke with a benevolent smile, Benjamin wore a stupid expression.

“D-Don’t talk nonsense!”

Soon, Benjamin exploded with anger, tore up the portrait vigorously, and began to mock me.

“Hehehe. What now? The evidence has disappeared.”

Then he got up from the bed and looked down at me from right in front.

“Did you think I would let you hold my weakness?”

Looking at Benjamin, I thought.

Is he an idiot?

The entire wall is plastered with portraits. Is tearing up just one of them supposed to solve anything?

I sighed and called out to Benjamin.

“Brother.”

“I told you to stop saying that creepy word!”

“Hey.”

“……”

As if he’d lost his mind, Benjamin opened his mouth like an idiot.

“Why do you live like this?”

“W-What did you say?”

“I’m seriously embarrassed for you. It’s pitiful.”

You pathetic human.

“How dare you talk to me like that… Rosemary Ferial!!”

Benjamin, who had been looking at me with a dumbfounded face, belatedly exploded with anger and raised his hand.

And that’s when it happened.

Feeling a strange sensation rising from my toes, I swung my foot.

SMACK-!

“Argh!!”

Benjamin, who took a direct hit to his shin from my foot, screamed and fell backward.

I grinned and looked at the window across from me.

Outside the window, Wit was glaring at Benjamin as if he wanted to kill him.

Well done, Wit.

I gave Wit a thumbs up, secretly from Benjamin who was rolling on the floor clutching his thigh.

It seemed like I’d done well to coordinate with Wit in advance for situations like this.

“Ughh… You… you underhanded bastard. What did you wrap around your foot?!”

“I didn’t wrap anything.”

I lifted the hem of my dress to show my bare leg in stockings, and Benjamin’s eyes widened as if they would pop out.

“There’s nothing…?”

“Yes. Nothing at all.”

“Then that just now was purely your own strength?”

When I nodded, Benjamin tightly closed his mouth.

“……”

He only slunk backward, trying to avoid me.

I looked at Benjamin pathetically and took a step forward. Benjamin startled and shouted.

“D-Don’t come closer!”

“……”

“Th-This is an expensive rug, don’t step on it carelessly.”

Benjamin’s face had turned red, seemingly embarrassed by his own words.

I sighed and shook my head.

“Why don’t you just confess now and find salvation?”

I thought I was being rather kind with my suggestion.

However, Benjamin bristled, reacting like someone who’d been directly threatened.

“Why should I confess? What wrong have I done!”

It seems he intends to deny it to the end.

I pointed at Cynthia’s portraits plastered all over the wall and said.

“It was you, right?”

“What do you mean it was me!”

“The person who stalked the Saintess recently.”

“Stop talking nonsense…!”

Benjamin closed his mouth again. I could see a look of dismay crossing his face as he bristled with a vein popping on his forehead.

“It was you. Wasn’t it?”

As I asked while staring intently, Benjamin’s face turned red in silence. Just like someone who had been hit right on the mark.

But that didn’t last long. As if deciding to pretend ignorance, he started fuming again.

“Y-You suspect me because of those pictures? I merely collected portraits of the Saintess!”

“Is that all?”

“Yes!”

“Really?”

As I took a step forward, Benjamin startled and barely managed to squeak out in a voice as tiny as an ant crawling:

“Y-Yes…!”

So you’re going to keep this up?

Tsk. I clicked my tongue and was about to take out the fairy tears I had brought as a last resort from my pocket.

“I never ordered anyone to investigate the Saintess’s daily routine, nor did I command anyone to draw portraits of her!”

“……”

Did this idiot just confess to his crime with his own mouth?

I was truly at a loss for words at his unexpected stupidity.

How has he even survived until now?

I barely composed my expression before asking.

“I’ll ask you one last time. Will you go and turn yourself in, or do you want me to forcibly take you there?”

“You….”

Me, what?

As I looked at him pathetically, Benjamin glared at me with wide eyes as if he were dying from injustice.

“I’ve been wanting to say this. Why are you suddenly pretending to be an ethical citizen when it doesn’t suit you at all?”

“What are you talking about? Don’t change the subject,”

“You stalked Holy Knight Adriel, too!”

It was an undeniable fact for me to say “when did I ever…”

To be precise, it was something the original Rosemary had done, not me. But how would Benjamin know that?

Unable to refute, I kept my mouth shut, and Benjamin sneered as if he had expected this.

“If you report me, I won’t stay quiet either, okay?! It’ll be mutual destruction!”

Benjamin, who had somehow become emboldened, stood up straight and looked down at me with an arrogant face.

What should I do with this guy, really?