Translator and Editor: Effe and Nabi

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Chapter 23

“…”

“…”

The violet eyes narrowed. Alexei, embarrassed, put an excuse in his mouth.

“No, I wasn’t trying to laugh at you!”

“What, then?”

“That’s, um, b-because…”

Alexei didn’t know what to do, so he just rolled his eyes, attempting to avoid her eye contact. Seeing so, Anriche’s eyes that were staring at him became even more persistent.

Eventually, he declared defeat.

“Just because it looked a little cute somehow.”

“Aha.”

Then, Anriche turned to a proud glance away and nodded eagerly.

“Well, our Elliot and Liliana are very adorable.”

“…Well, they are.” Alexei laughed awkwardly.

He was too embarrassed to say, ‘Not only just the children, but you are also very cute as well.’ Just in time, Anriche gazed slightly down.

“I have to go wash the children’s hands, so I’ll go first.”

“Oh, go on.”

He nodded his head, and Anriche led the children to the kitchen and disappeared.

Alexei couldn’t take his eyes away from her back that was disappearing in the distance. ‘A little more… I want to spend time and be with you a little more.’ Though he couldn’t figure out exactly why he felt so regretful.

“D-Duke.”

Hearing a voice calling for him, Alexei, whose thoughts were wandering around, came back. Suddenly, Meg appeared behind him.

“What’s going on?”

“I have a word for you.”

Meg tried to look as alluring as possible while smiling with her eyes.

“It’s about Master Elliot.”

***

Alexei took Meg into his office.

Looking at his beautiful face sitting in front of her, Meg felt a thrilling sensation inside her heart.

‘How many employees are able to be alone with the master like me?’

Aside from her, the only servants who were usually alone with Alexei were the butler. She gently pressed down her beating heart and opened her mouth slowly.

“Thinking about it now, it’s been a long time since I’ve been alone with the master like this.”

“…What?”

“You seem to be very busy… How is your health? Are you exhausted?”

Alexei narrowed the eyebrows without knowing. She called to discuss with him because she mentioned Elliot… ‘So, why is she talking about something else?’ On top of that because of the incident with the Londini family, Meg did not particularly look good in his eyes.

However, her eyes had a faint light as if jogging down her old memories.

“I remembered the old days. When the master was still the Heir Apparent, I was able to take care of you right by your side…”

Meg sighed exaggeratedly, glancing at Alexei with a moist and wet gaze.

“The butler can’t even properly serve the master, and he doesn’t know what to do.”

“…”

“Sometimes, I wish I could go back to my childhood.”

Then, she concluded the talk by dyeing both her cheeks red.

“When I was able to be alone with the master… those beautiful days.”

After hearing all her words, Alexei couldn’t hide his subtle expression any longer.

“Didn’t you say you have something to tell me about Elliot before?”

“Yes? Ah, yes.”

“So, why are you rambling out a random childhood story instead of telling me what was going on?”

In a rather sharp voice, Meg had an embarrassed face. He leaned against the sofa and asked questions again.

“I wish you could just say what you wanted to quickly.”

“Oh, well. That’s…” Meg, who glanced at Alexei, opened her mouth in determination. “Recently, the maids complained to me a lot.”

“…Complain?”

“Yes, the madam treats the maids too severely, and…”

She curated a sorrowful voice and continued.

“The sudden visit of Miss Liliana gave the maids a lot of work to do.”

“…”

He frowned right away at her words.

She clearly said before that she wanted to discuss about Elliot, but the only thing Meg brought up was gossip about Anriche.

“So, just because of a single person, Liliana, the workload increased immensely and the maids couldn’t handle it?” Alexei asked back with a stern look.

“It’s weird. The butler never mentioned this to me at all.”

“The, the butler is…he doesn’t directly deal with the employees.”

“Even if you say that, I’ve already seen the butler taken care of housework several occasions before.”

Oh no.

A cold sweat ran from Meg’s back. After realizing that she couldn’t make a solid basis, she quickly changed the topic around.

“Be-besides. There are other problems…”

“What is that?”

“The madam only cares for Liliana, but not Young Master Elliot at all.” Meg, who swallowed dry saliva, observed Alexei’s expression.

“As a nanny of the young master, I am worried that it will hurt the young master…”

“It’s very different from what I thought, though.”

However, Alexei cut off her word with a single sharp cut, like a honed knife.

“In my eyes, my wife doesn’t just care about Liliana.”

Meg’s eyes went wide open.

“It seems as though you’re creating a situation where you have no choice but to blame Liliana.”

“…What, what do you mean by that?”

“Today, in the garden, the maids openly belittled Liliana.” He said in a cold and sharp voice. The blood was gone from Meg’s face at that point.

“Liliana is Elliot’s fiancée, and she is also the heiress to inherit everything from the Count Aberyt family.”

“Master…”

“That means, Liliana is not in the position to be put in such difficult conditions in the first place…”

Continuing in blunt words, he tilted his head at an angle while glaring intensely at Meg. With the chilled gaze staring at her, she felt a tingling sensation running down her back.

“So, isn’t it just the case of the maids being so arrogant because the head maid didn’t manage the maids properly?”

At the harsh question, she was utterly speechless. Nevertheless, his words are far from over.

“In the current situation, it is quite natural for my wife to rule the maids strictly.”

“…”

“If the head maid hadn’t neglected to supervise the maids in the first place, my wife wouldn’t have to come forward in the first place, and nothing like this would have happened.”

Alexei nailed the statement tightly.

“I respect the head maid’s opinion, but the behavior of the head maid today seemed to have crossed the line.”

“Cross, crossing the line…?”

“Not only did you find faults in the way the mistress controlled her subordinates, but the head maid also claimed she was discriminating between her children?”

The cold voice fell.

“You’re not Elliot’s mother, you’re the nanny. Don’t cross the line.”

With his eyes agape in front of Meg, Alexei sighed slightly.

“It’s true that we’ve been friends when we were younger, so I’ve been more trusting in the head maid.”

“Ma-master…”

“But now, Valois has a mistress.”

At that moment, her face frowned noticeably.

“So, in such a situation, wouldn’t it be the right thing for you to go to my wife before me?”

“Well, that can’t be helped, isn’t it? Madam wasn’t interested in the household chores nor Young Master Elliot at all…!”

“Of course, it might have been that way in the past. However…” He recalled the appearance of Anriche in the garden. She treated the children with a gentle manner and consistently bright smile, paying close attention to them with care.

“…Does it seem that my wife really doesn’t care about the children at all right now?”

She bit her lips tightly. What he said was true. Since then, Anriche had changed into a completely different person, so she couldn’t deny his words.

Alexei, who was watching her, made a bitter smile.

“Even you can’t deny that.”

“However…!”

“Just wait and see.”

She tried to plead somehow, though all that came back was a stubborn refusal. He declared to Meg with his eyes full of disappointment.

“In the future, I won’t be meeting the head maid personally like this.”

***

Meg got out of the office, biting her lips firmly till it bled.

‘Everyone has changed! Both the lord and Young Master Elliot…!’ She was full of anger while thumping across the hallway.

‘How can they do this to me?!’

She was the master’s childhood friend.

She had been serving the master since he was very young!

“But now, Valois has a mistress.” She chewed on Alexei’s cold words over and over again. She was in pain as though a blade was stirring through her stomach.

It was her who had served the master for the longest time.

Until the young girl became a woman in her late twenties, she had been embarrassing only the lord in her heart for a long while. With the gap between their status, she couldn’t confess her heart to him…

‘Because I was not a noble, the master couldn’t choose me.’

Meg’s eyes trembled finely. Of course, that would be the reason. Otherwise, why would he bring her in the County and have her as the head maid?

‘It’s clear that the master didn’t want to part with me…!’

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