Noah looped the final stretch of rope around the butler’s wrists and pulled it tight, fastening it in place.

He checked the knots, then stood and dusted his hands with satisfaction.

The butler lay on his side on the floor, still breathing, his bowtie now crooked from when Noah had carried him from where he’d slumped.

They were now in the man’s room. The room was small and orderly, the bed was made, and there was a single unlit candle stub on the nightstand.

The room was shrouded in darkness, the only light coming from the lit torches outside the window.

The door was locked behind them. They were betting on the assumption that nobody in this house had any reason to come looking for the butler at this time of night.

Daisy stepped forward, knelt beside him, and placed her palm flat against his temple.

With an exhale, she dove into his mind.

The first thing that met her was recent. The memory was vivid, warm and entirely unhelpful.

It was of the butler and Lady Armand in bed together, the memory carrying the particular texture of something frequently revisited. She caught the name Lady Armand called out.

Robert.

So that was his name.

She moved past it, following the thread of Lady Armand deeper into the sediment of his memory. More of the same followed, each one layered with the same combination of intensity, passion, and guilt, until the quality of the memories shifted.

The warmth drained out of them.

She found herself watching through Robert’s eyes as Lord Armand stood over his wife in the drawing room, his voice low and controlled in a way that was more frightening than shouting as he hit her.

The memory had the particular sharpness of something that had been replayed many times, worn smooth at the edges but still cutting.

She felt what Robert had felt. A helplessness so acute it had calcified into something else over time. Something that had been looking for a direction.

Pure hatred.

She followed that feeling.

More memories of the same. Different rooms and different days, but the same dynamic.

Robert watched from the side, unable to move, unable to intervene, cataloguing each time the man hit his wife and keeping the tally deep in his mind for a future purpose.

Then the memories shifted again to an unassuming dark room.

There were no intense emotions associated with this memory. It held none of the hatred or passion of the ones she’d seen.

All that was in the memory was just Robert sitting at a table and waiting.

She almost moved past it, dismissing the significance of the memory, until the door opened.

The man who entered was immediately recognizable. She had sat across from him that very morning, watching his eyes move between her and Noah with a polite smile.

The man was Tom, the Fontaine family butler.

He crossed the room and greeted Robert with the ease of someone greeting a friend he sees regularly, not a servant from a rival household.

She blinked in surprise. Their greeting had no stiffness or unfamiliarity. Instead, they smiled at each other and began small talk about their respective businesses.

Tom started with the weather and how it had begun to rain just as he arrived at the establishment.

Robert sympathized and the conversation shifted to the rising prices of goods in the markets and how it affected costs.

The door opened again and the person that entered was someone Daisy had to admit she’d been expecting.

How would the Armand and Fontaine family butlers be here, and the Lessworth family butler not make an appearance?

The man greeted Tom first, then Robert, with the same casual familiarity.

There was no need for any introductions and no explanation of why men from three competing households were meeting in a dark room as if they had done it before, because they clearly had.

The three of them settled into chairs around the table.

The small talk stopped.

Silence descended over the memory, the particular kind that arrives when everyone present is waiting for someone to say the thing they actually came to say.

Daisy held herself still inside the memory and waited with them.

She watched with bated breath as Tom leaned forward, his elbows on the table, his voice low and businesslike.

“Progress report.”

Robert went first. “Things are progressing well on my end, but not as fast as I’d like. I’ve brought most of the house guards to my side.”

“I used favors owed to me for some, the promise of wealth for others, and for the particularly stubborn ones, I have one or two… secrets over them. They’d be willing to work on the plan with us.”

“As for the others, I’ll win those I can win over, and those that can’t would be assigned to unfavorable postings. Either way, I’ll have people in place when the time comes.”

“Good.” Tom nodded. “As long as our assets are in place, everything else can be taken care of.”

He turned to the other man. “And you?”

The Lessworth butler smiled, his chest swelling with pride as he spoke. “Unlike my friend here, I already have all the guards. Not just the guards but also the servants. Every worker of House Lessworth belongs in the palm of my hands.”

“Are you sure?” Tom asked.

“Yes.” The man nodded. “They’ll all answer to me before answering anyone carrying the Lessworth family name.” He said it without boasting, like his words were fact.

Tom nodded in approval.

“Good,” he said. “Then we move to the next stage.”

Daisy watched as he laid down their plan. They’d take the family heads out of the picture, and when the heat died down, quietly take over the family operations and make it their own.

And with the soldiers and servants on their side, the transition would be smooth and simple.

“Don’t forget why we started this, brothers.” Tom said, voice filled with conviction. “We’re tired! Tired of standing at doors. Tired of managing households that would never be ours.”

He turned to each butler, holding their gaze. “Tired of being the ones who make everything function while someone else takes the credit and the coin.”

“This is our time now. Our time to change our destiny.”

The memory ended. Daisy withdrew her hand from Robert’s temple and straightened, rolling her neck once before turning to where Noah stood against the wall.

“The three butlers,” she said. “They planned it together. They kidnapped the family heads as the first step of a plan to take over the business empires for themselves.”

Noah laughed at her words. It was a short, genuine sound. “I figured as much.”

“Head back to the palace,” Daisy said, already moving towards the door. “I need reinforcements to make the arrests simultaneously. If one household gets word before—”

“I appreciate the thought,” Noah said pleasantly, “but I have somewhere else to be.”

Daisy stopped. She turned slowly as if she couldn’t believe her ears. “What?”

Noah’s expression was unbothered, his grin wide on his face as if he’d been waiting patiently for this moment.

“I stayed because I was curious and now, my curiosity has been satisfied. That was all I needed.” He tilted his head slightly. “It was genuinely fun, following you around. I mean that.”

Daisy’s eyes narrowed.

Noah smiled.

Then he teleported away.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep