Chapter 5: The First Trial (4)

Praise slipped out from the stern Grand Duke’s mouth.

After that, only a quiet stillness lingered in the office.

“……”

Duke Luton only spoke again after he took a monocle out of the drawer.

The Grand Duke set the lens into the deep shadow of his eyes and silently turned his gaze back to the state documents.

「I have nothing more to say.」

As usual, he grew indifferent, never raising his head until Echina left.

He merely left behind one detached piece of advice.

「When you go down to meet the director, keep that mindset.」

“I will keep it in mind.”

However, at his cold demeanor, the Grand Duke’s daughter did not feel disappointed.

On the contrary, she quietly repeated his indifferent praise and advice to herself, maintaining a humble attitude.

“Then, I will take my leave.”

Echina bowed her head, hiding her expression.

But I could easily guess the feelings she tried to conceal.

The Grand Duke’s daughter had been quite flustered by her father’s reaction.

‘She’s probably wearing an awkward smile under that hair.’

Imagining the sight, I almost let the corners of my mouth curl up.

Perhaps noticing this, Echina kept glancing at me out of the corner of her eye as she walked to the main door.

As she passed by me, she whispered in a very small voice.

“Follow me.”

――――――.

Her hard military boots echoed through the wide office.

I leisurely followed her dancing black hair out of the room.

Along the way, I gave a light nod to Freya and Edward, whom I encountered.

“How curious. I never thought that child would make it up here.”

The eldest daughter of the Luton family rested her fingers against her gentle jawline.

And she quietly watched my shabby figure recede into the distance.

“Who is that.”

Edward, his hands clasped behind his back, leaned forward and asked.

When he saw my worn-out uniform, his brows drew into a harsh frown.

It seemed he had even forgotten I existed on the first floor.

“That secretary candidate. I thought she’d drop out soon, since the others ostracized her.”

Freya answered in a doll-like, cold voice.

The kind smile she’d shown on the first floor had vanished, and she already knew the reason I’d been hurt.

“Turns out she has some unexpected talent. To think she’d be chosen by our Echina.”

The eldest daughter looked at me with interest, as I served the notoriously particular Echina.

Just like that, the prominent figures of the family recognized my existence on the very first day of the practical trial.

Only Duke Luton, the Grand Duke of the North, still kept his head lowered.

‘He hasn’t changed.’

If someone was of no benefit to him, he wouldn’t even treat them as human.

Even though he had clearly noticed me, he didn’t spare a single glance.

Well, it was to be expected.

Right now, I had returned as nothing more than a secretary candidate.

But this life would be different.

Before he fell ill and died within the next ten years, I planned to leave this place first.

Through the knowledge I had heard and experienced while working as the chief secretary, I would secure “wealth” and “honor” in my own way.

Until then, I needed to win over someone trustworthy in the Grand Duke’s household.

That was my current first objective.

――――――.

The massive office door closed slowly.

Echina checked to be sure it had shut properly, then let out a faint breath.

“You were right.”

She had confidently claimed her father wouldn’t pay her any attention.

Thinking of her father beyond the firmly closed door, she asked firmly,

“How did you know?”

When I didn’t answer right away, Echina turned her head.

With her hands clasped behind her back, she kept her doll-like indifferent expression as she asked again,

“How could washing my face alone make my father take an interest in me?”

I walked alongside the Grand Duke’s daughter at an unhurried pace.

Soon, I looked at her with a calm gaze.

“As I said just before, there is no father in the world who completely ignores his child.”

Echina frowned at me, as though irritated by the way I spoke like some old sage.

Matching her reaction, I added one more sentence.

“He is simply clumsy at expressing himself.”

“Expressing himself… are you saying my father actually wanted to say something else to me?”

At her question, I gave a soft smile and nodded.

Perhaps finding that sly smile distasteful, Echina tilted her head slightly.

“His daughter, whom he hasn’t seen for a long time, washed her face despite the bad conditions, all to come see him. Isn’t that the perfect timing for him to say something?”

In a future less than ten years away,

I recalled Duke Luton, who would pass away from illness.

Even though he was regarded as the most powerful man in the Empire, none of his children were at his deathbed.

And, just before he died, the Duke had regretted never meeting his daughter again.

“The more responsibility someone bears, the less easily they act.”

I lifted the white towel draped over my right arm so she could see it clearly.

On the white cloth were the red bloodstains and dirt that Echina had wiped from her face.

“My role is simply to give such people a little push so they can act more comfortably.”

“A little push…”

Echina slowly repeated that phrase to herself.

Then, she stopped for a moment in the middle of the hallway.

“You…”

The Grand Duke’s daughter fixed me with her characteristic cold stare.

From farther down the corridor, Tobang and Windsor, who had been waiting in boredom, watched the scene with interest.

They had probably expected Echina to question me again for overstepping my place.

“Aren’t you a spy sent from some noble family?”

As expected, she was quick to pick up on things.

Her wary eyes studied me, the one who carried herself so differently from others our age.

“I’ve seen countless secretary candidates, but none of them ever spoke like you.”

‘I have to answer this carefully.’

It would be dangerous if I were carelessly suspected of being a spy sent by another noble family to steal information from the Grand Duke’s house.

I still needed to build connections and experience here, so I had to get through this safely.

“I merely repeated exactly what Chief Secretary Debier taught me.”

“Uncle Debier?”

I had learned the speech of the man who had served by my demanding father’s side all his life.

Just saying that was enough to make my words sound quite credible.

“Yes, he always gave me much guidance so I could be of help to my lord. I simply shared one of those teachings.”

Echina slowly half-closed her sharp eyes and studied me intently.

But then she looked at the pitiful sight before her—

The shabby uniform I wore, and my face stained with dirt like a boy who had been digging coal.

“……”

No matter how she looked, it was hard to believe I was a well-trained spy from another house.

I hadn’t expected that getting beaten up by Tobang’s gang would end up helping me like this.

Unaware of any of this, those boys were still waiting for Echina to interrogate me further.

“You.”

Sure enough, the Grand Duke’s daughter’s cold gaze struck me again.

But—

The words that left her red lips were not what the watching secretary candidates had been hoping for.

“How old are you?”

At the short and resolute question, I blinked both eyes.

The teardrop-shaped mole on my cheek moved along with them.

“I’m nineteen this year.”

I responded to her frosty stare with my characteristic warm smile.

Echina seemed unsettled by the contrast between our demeanors, tilting her head slightly.

“That’s odd. I’m only a year older than you…”

She turned away, perhaps to avoid my sly grin, and hurried her steps.

Afterward, she went down the stairs alone, muttering to herself like a girl.

“You really do talk just like Uncle Debier…”

It seemed she instinctively felt as though she were being disciplined.

And so, the Grand Duke’s daughter went down to the first-floor lobby alone.

“You have good instincts, as always.”

I looked fondly at the small black crown of her head, growing more distant.

Then I slowly lifted my gaze to look back toward the office entrance.

There stood Tobang and Windsor, who had been staring at us fixedly since earlier.

They looked like dogs waiting for their master who had gone into a shop, left behind in the corridor.

As if they had been miserably tied to the doorknob.

“What are you looking at.”

Tobang bit down hard, like a dog, clearly annoyed by my calm expression.

As though desperate to tear me down somehow, he spat out his sneer.

“You think you’ve become someone important just because the Grand Duke’s daughter pointed you out once?”

He knew all too well how particular Echina was.

After all, his father had served as an instructor in the Grand Duke of the North’s knight order, so he would have been warned in advance.

“Don’t fool yourself. You just happened to be lucky for a moment.”

He was the type who thought he was superior to the other candidates for exactly that reason.

In truth, he didn’t even realize that all the information he had came courtesy of his father.

“The youngest lady probably doesn’t even know your name.”

I simply stared at the blond youth, barely twenty, who was ranting by himself.

Then, at the voice that floated up from the bottom of the stairs, I couldn’t help but give him a short laugh.

“Hurry up and come down, Julius Roger.”

Regrettably for him, the Grand Duke’s daughter had called my name very accurately.

“……”

I smiled calmly, looking at Tobang’s face gone stark white.

When I gave him that characteristic old-soul smile, the skin beneath his eye twitched.

“What was it you just said, Tobang?”

I tilted my head, repeating the question to him.

Perhaps too stunned, Tobang opened his mouth but couldn’t get a word out.

“I couldn’t quite hear you. Why don’t you come closer and say it again?”

Secretary candidates were supposed to wait at the office entrance to escort their lord.

That was why I could stand there so leisurely with my hands clasped behind my back.

“Oh—are you having trouble because of your dog leash?”

I tapped my own neck lightly and spoke firmly.

Then, just as I used to in my days as chief secretary, I gave him an elegant parting gesture.

“Nothing to be done, then. Let’s talk when your master decides to give you some free time.”

“You bastard… When this is over, I won’t let you off…”

Tobang muttered in a low voice, quite unlike his usual self.

But I paid him no mind and started down the stairs.

I was only going to meet the Grand Duke’s daughter waiting at the bottom.

“Did you call for me?”

I quieted my steps as I came to her side.

She turned her head—and at the sight of me appearing so suddenly, her brows flickered in surprise.

“Yes.”

“Please, speak. I will follow your command.”

Echina composed her voice again, as if trying to reassert her dignity.

“You must have learned this already, but our Luton family is strict in both reward and punishment.”

“That’s correct. A principle that has been passed down for three generations.”

I nodded as though complimenting her for upholding it.

Echina seemed momentarily annoyed by that old-soul atmosphere again.

Then, she continued in a calm tone.

“Therefore, since your judgment was a help to me, I intend to grant you a reward.”

Clad in her white uniform, the Grand Duke’s daughter folded her arms and looked up at me.

At just twenty-one years old, she already carried herself with the dignity of a ruler.

“Do you have any specific reward you desire?”

Her tone was cold, as if she were attending a formal ceremony.

At that, I briefly turned my gaze to the reception room she was headed for.

The same place where we had listened to the debate over the excessive response during the sparring match.

It had been quite an awkward issue back then, since the opponent was the daughter of the Academy director.

In fact, Echina had given her a harsh punishment when she’d used magic to toy with others.

If I recalled correctly, during this period in my past life, they had only traded arguments before the matter quietly faded away.

Thanks to that, a small stain had remained on the Grand Duke’s daughter’s Academy record: “Strong sense of self-assertion.”

But this time would be different.

Since she had once called me family, I intended to make her a steadfast partner in this life.

Before leaving this place, I would give her a gift.

“Yes, I do.”

When I responded so readily to the topic of a reward, Echina nodded.

To an outsider, I might have seemed materialistic, but she didn’t show the slightest change of expression.

“Speak.”

Like a young lioness already determined to fulfill her duty.

She looked boldly at me without even knowing what I was about to ask.

“However, I am worried. What I wish for is rather awkward.”

“Don’t worry. I am someone who always keeps my promises.”

Even with that warning, Echina’s gaze remained calm and unflinching.

So I met her eyes with a resolute look and voiced my request.

“The reward I desire is…”

I took hold of the soiled towel draped over my right arm with both hands.

Then, I thrust it toward Echina’s noble face and declared,

“For you, Grand Duke’s daughter, to dirty your face again.”

The quiet first-floor lobby of the mansion.

There, I made my request with solemn eyes.

“If you could look as wretched and pitiable as a weary knight, I would be most grateful.”

At the nature of this reward, Echina’s brows creased before she could stop herself.

Her usually expressionless face contorted spectacularly.

“You… have a very strange preference…”

She stepped back from me, visibly repulsed, as I approached holding out the towel.

She trembled in disgust, wearing a look of pure scorn.

“That’s not what this is about!!”

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