“Rachel, there’s a proposal for you.”

“What is it?”

From the moment Rachel received her separate summons, she had guessed that Dante had a personal mission to assign her. However, what came from Dante’s mouth was far beyond her expectations.

“The Grand Duchess has taken a liking to you. She asked me to find out if you’d be willing to accept a position as her lady’s maid.”

Faced with this shocking proposal, Rachel could only blink. The sound reached her ears, but she couldn’t properly comprehend its meaning.

‘A lady’s maid?’

Rachel recalled a provincial nobleman at a banquet she had attended long ago, boasting that his cousin’s wife’s second younger sister had become a lady’s maid to a princess. Such a distant relation—practically a stranger—yet it seemed worth mentioning, which made her realize it must be a position of considerable value.

‘And if it’s the Grand Duchess, that’s a status even higher than a princess in the Eastern region. I’m going to serve someone like that?’

Rachel felt somewhat dazed.

Dante, perhaps misunderstanding that she didn’t want the position, added:

“The Grand Duchess said she would completely respect your wishes. If you prefer your current position in the intelligence unit, that’s fine too.”

“Wow! Her Highness the Grand Duchess has a heart as smooth as silk!”

Seeing Rachel lavish praise even in this situation made Dante feel like his migraine was returning.

Rachel truly had thick skin. She possessed a mouth capable of reflexively pouring out embarrassingly excessive compliments.

After rubbing her chin for a moment, Rachel soon smiled and answered:

“I’ll do it. I want to become Her Highness’s lady’s maid.”

Gideon, standing beside her, twitched his eyebrow.

“Rachel, you rascal. Aren’t you deciding without even thinking it through?”

“Huh? I was just thinking about it.”

“What thinking? It hasn’t even been a minute! All that effort raising a subordinate, for nothing. Sigh, if you do this, your commander might cry from disappointment.”

Gideon scolded her while repeatedly poking her side with his elbow.

Though he acted playfully, there was a degree of sincerity in his reproach.

The intelligence unit was always maintained as a small elite force, and Gideon, as its leader, paid close attention to those working under him despite his seemingly casual demeanor.

Rachel made an “ugh” sound and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

“I didn’t mean to disappoint you, Commander. It’s just that there’s no benefit in thinking about it for too long. The only person who comes up with better ideas the longer they think is someone like that meticulous Assistant Rupert. Unlike Assistant Rupert, I’m not smart. Whether I think for a long time or a short time, the result will be the same, so why waste time pretending to consider it?”

“……”

“……”

Gideon and Dante were speechless. Rachel’s argument was strange, but within its strangeness, it had its own logic that made it difficult to refute.

Rachel’s lake-blue eyes turned toward Dante.

“I’m not accepting without reason. I have my own reasons.”

“Explain.”

When Dante nodded, Rachel began counting on her fingers methodically.

“First, while I like working in the intelligence unit, I want to try other things too. There seems to be so much in the world that I haven’t experienced yet.”

“…Continue.”

“And do you remember when I said that Her Highness the Grand Duchess had a very nice scent? Actually, in a tin case that was among my mother’s belongings, there was a cream with a similar fragrance.”

The cream seemed extremely old. Much of the scent had faded, and it was somewhat deteriorated, but with her keen senses, Rachel could detect the similarity between the two fragrances.

“I’ve never interacted with noble young ladies, so I don’t know much about such delicate and luxurious items. But Her Highness the Grand Duchess seems to know them very well…”

Rachel scratched the back of her head.

She knew she was unconventional. Her slick way of speaking like a neighborhood ruffian and her rough, boisterous behavior that completely disregarded others’ gazes had made her an outcast in Eastern high society.

Occasionally, a few young ladies her age would show curiosity. But conservative noble matrons were different. They worried excessively about their daughters being negatively influenced and, upon discovering them conversing with Rachel, would hastily grab their daughters’ hands and leave as if Rachel were some kind of contagion.

For these reasons, despite being formally knighted, Rachel had never been properly integrated into noble society.

Rachel didn’t particularly want to mingle with them either. However, being openly rejected to her face wasn’t a pleasant feeling, so afterward, she completely avoided social events unless her attendance was mandatory for work reasons.

Yet, the refreshing mint scent from Esteller had awakened memories of her mother that she had forcibly buried for a long time. Moreover, unlike those who went out of their way to avoid her, the Grand Duchess had even reached out to her first.

‘A beautiful, kind person with a lovely scent!’

Rachel wasn’t the type to weigh and analyze things. When she felt something was good, she accepted that feeling as it was.

“If I become a lady’s maid, I’ll be right beside Her Highness the Grand Duchess to assist her, so I might learn various things, right? Then someday, I might understand a little about what kind of person my mother was.”

However she had ended up on that terrible island, her mother had been a dignified person.

The various wives and children in the pirate king’s mansion had particularly despised that quality in her mother. Her unfading, clear light seemed to irritate them.

Her mother had wanted to tell Rachel about her origins and family. However, after the pirate king threatened to drown them both alive in the deep sea on a stormy day if she attempted such nonsense, she kept her mouth firmly shut.

After several years passed, her mother stopped speaking altogether. She silently performed menial tasks like a slave who couldn’t hear or speak, until she eventually fell ill.

By the time Rachel managed to escape from the water prison, her mother had already passed away. There wasn’t even a will.

All her mother had left her was a tin case containing cream with a strange scent and a worn-out locket necklace.

‘Why did mother keep those items until the end? What was so special about them?’

It was an incredibly weak lead, but it was all she had left.

Rachel had persistently sniffed the cream like a hunting dog tracking prey and had taken the locket necklace to a jeweler for appraisal.

She was told the cream’s scent wasn’t popular in the East, and the locket was the kind of thing only young people without money would wear—not a particularly valuable accessory.

Thus, even the few clues she had seemed to lead nowhere. Rachel was momentarily discouraged but then resolved not to dwell on futile matters and began to carry on with her life.

But the moment she unexpectedly encountered Esteller, the spark of hope she had thought long extinguished began to flare up again in her heart.

“Um… I have good instincts, right? I’ve overcome many crises by following these instincts. The moment I first saw Her Highness the Grand Duchess, I really felt something good. So this time too, I want to trust and follow my intuition.”

Rachel thumped her chest.

“If I become a lady’s maid, I’ll follow Her Highness’s instructions and absolutely never do anything she forbids. Also, I’ll use all my skills to protect Her Highness from harm.”

Though it was a simple gesture, it carried the weighty presence of a knight. Rachel’s pledge was unadorned and rough, but simultaneously reliable.

Dante completely erased his initial doubts.

He had never doubted Rachel’s abilities in the first place. He had been worried that she might make a decision on a momentary whim and then retract her acceptance of the position.

With Rachel holding such determination, he could entrust the position of Esteller’s lady’s maid to her without concern.

“I’ll go back and tell the Grand Duchess that you’ve agreed. Hand over your duties in the intelligence unit and come to the main castle starting next week.”

“I will obey your command, Your Highness the Grand Duke.”

Rachel’s voice as she answered was spirited and resonant.

A new connection was about to begin.