* * *

A few days later, at the Noart estate.

“Sigh…”

I sat on the garden swing, lost in thought.

“I miss Zahid… He’s grown up so well, and now we’re separated again? What the hell is this…”

I kept pushing off with my feet, swinging back and forth when—

A small vine started moving slowly along the garden wall.

“Ah!”

I jumped down and grabbed the letter tied to the end of the vine. It was a message from Yuta.

We couldn’t meet in person in case we got caught, so we always kept in touch through notes like this.

Zahid is safe. He’s sneaking around the Temple like it’s his own house, just as I planned.

When the High Priest is absent, when Yuta is distracting people, and when the guards are bound to be careless—Zahid was working hard whenever those three conditions lined up.

And he sent a whole bunch of bad news. First off, the production of Karso has started again.

Man, I really hope my father dies within the next ten years.

I just imagined it, and if I can’t help but dance at his funeral, Rosie, stop me.

“Hey, kid! Was that a message from Yuta? Huh?”

Julian suddenly appeared behind me and butted in.

And according to Zahid, the High Priest probably used the Sacred Relic before. The Relic of Power, I mean. That’s probably how he’s able to steal other people’s divine power and use it like it’s his own.

Julian looked over my shoulder and read the note with me.

“A Sacred Relic? What’s that?”

“Mm, ordinary folks wouldn’t know, right?”

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I explained the little I’d heard back when I was an apprentice.

“There are two Sacred Relics—the Relic of Power and the Relic of Time… You need an insane amount of divine power to activate either of them.”

I had once activated the Relic of Time, but I still didn’t know much about Sacred Relics.

Honestly, not even Temple people knew the full details about them.

Don’t you think Zahid would make a better thief than a duke? If I leave him be, he’ll just keep living true to his calling, so I’ll have to keep reforming him endlessly.

“Zahid’s doing his job perfectly. We just need to do ours just as well.”

I quickly folded the letter and stuffed it into my pocket, turning to Julian.

“Speaking of which, did you look into the Duchess of Idra? I feel like I asked you a while ago.”

“I did. That’s actually why I’m here.”

Julian ran a hand through his hair and spoke low. Then he handed me a report.

“It was definitely weird… And there’s something particular about the dates when Lady Linna Idra goes to visit her.”

I took the report from Julian, excitement all over my face.

“Thanks, Julian. Seriously, thank you.”

“And I found out something else pretty shocking.”

“What?”

“There’s actually a maid in our Noart estate who used to work at the Idra estate over twenty years ago.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Back when Cecil came here with that bullshit about being pregnant with my kid, she told the other servants that ‘that woman’s nasty temper is just like the Duchess of Idra’s.’”

Julian grinned and tapped the report.

“I added that maid’s statement at the end. I think it might be pretty important.”

“Wow, really?”

I lit up, flipping through the report eagerly and reading it thoroughly. I committed each page to memory.

Linna definitely acted like the Empress Dowager and the Temple had something on her. And that something might just be the Duchess.

“I feel like… if we could sneak into that villa, we’d find something good…”

I hurriedly turned to the last page with the maid’s statement.

The Duchess of Idra, Lady Anais Idra, took great pride in her bloodline.

And no wonder—her mother’s side is related to the Empress Dowager, and her father’s side is direct lineage of the royal family of Nazz.

Because of that, she didn’t treat lower-class servants or even lesser nobles as people.

However, she was always frail, and Lady Linna was also sent to the Kingdom of Nazz for rest and gave birth there.

After that, before Lady Linna and Lady Anais returned to the Empire, the Idra estate fired most of the servants.

They targeted people without family or anyone to vouch for them, and I was dismissed for the former reason. After that, I was hired here at the Noart estate.

As I furrowed my brow and focused on reading—

“Lady Rosie! Lady Rosie!”

Heidi suddenly came running into the garden. She looked more pale than I’d ever seen her.

“Oh no! Something terrible’s happened!”

Julian and I jumped up, startled.

Heidi’s hands were trembling as she rushed over.

“What’s wrong! Heidi, what happened?”

I grabbed her hand with a serious look.

Heidi shouted in a panicked, almost dumbfounded voice.

“There’s been a message from the Idra estate!”

Julian and I both stood there, dumbstruck.

“They said no matter what it costs, they want to take me, Heidi Oroz, as Lady Linna’s personal maid!”

Heidi was shaking all over, her face pale with rage.

“What the hell is this? That spoiled brat of a noble girl is just going to steal a stranger’s maid she’s never even seen?”

“H-Heidi…”

“Or maybe she’s going to take me and torture me for information about Lady Rosie? That wicked bitch! She can tear out all my fingernails, and I still won’t say a word!”

Heidi was already lost in her imagination, shaking with what looked like real pain at the torture scenes she was dreaming up.

Meanwhile, Julian rolled his eyes once and whispered to me.

“Wait a sec… When you were on the Entoho, and you were wearing an Idra maid’s uniform…”

I nodded, looking a little sheepish.

“Yeah… I did something kind of immoral, faked my identity and used a fake name…”

One thing was for sure.

Because of my immoral and shameless impersonation, I now had another shot at getting close to the Idra family’s secrets.

“Heidi, calm down for a second.”

I jumped off the swing and spoke to her.

“What exactly did they say? How are they planning to take you? Just throw money at us? The Idra estate is famous for being closed off, so there’s gotta be some kind of process.”

“L-L-Lady Rosie? Y-You’re really going to send me? Huh?”

Heidi looked completely shocked, mouth agape, but then she snapped out of it.

“No, wait. You want to send me in as a spy, don’t you? I can totally do that kind of thing!”

She made up her mind on her own and grinned proudly.

“They said it doesn’t matter how much the contract cancellation fee is. They’ll pay ten times the penalty if needed. Now that I think about it, this means they’ve recognized me, Heidi Oroz, as your number one closest aide to bribe, right? That’s a good thing, right?”

“Hmm…”

“I’ll just feed them a bunch of fake info. Like, Lady Rosie cares more about money than a guy’s face, stuff like that.”

Heidi’s eyes were sparkling now. She was already picturing her undercover life with great resolve.

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