Chapter 3
Upon arriving at the mansion by carriage, Philip was standing at the door with an umbrella, as if he hadn’t gone to sleep yet.
“How did you know when I’d be back?”
“How could a butler go to bed before his master arrives? More importantly, Miss, what happened to your robe? You’re soaked.”
“Something happened. It wasn’t a big deal, so don’t worry too much.”
Once I entered the mansion, I sent Iggy back to the spirit world.
Although he had mostly dried me, my wet hair and the mud stains on my clothes remained.
Philip let out a deep sigh as he looked at me in this state.
“Miss, what is this disheveled appearance?”
“Hilda, you’re still awake too?”
Hilda came rushing down the stairs from the second floor.
“Of course! You should have listened when I said I’d send a carriage. Please, next time, take a carriage.”
“It’s fine, it doesn’t take that long. Besides, it costs a fortune to rent a noble’s carriage. I can just walk or take a public carriage like today.”
The Ventus family currently didn’t own a carriage. After both of my parents passed away, the cost of my treatment had drained the family’s finances to rock bottom.
Moreover, my suicide attempt led to the unreasonable purchase of a magic mattress, pushing the ducal family’s finances to the brink of collapse.
After nearly going bankrupt, I had worked hard with Iggy to earn money, but by my standards, it wasn’t enough to live a life of luxury.
Anyway, I was often away, joining monster subjugation teams or mine excavation teams, and I usually only traveled between the Imperial Palace and home.
Since I didn’t attend tea parties or salons in the capital like other noble ladies, there was no real need for a carriage.
Well, I thought so, but Philip and Hilda did not.
“Miss, you are the sole heir of the House of Count Ventus. How can you be walking around soaked in the rain? It seems I’m too old and lack the ability to care for you. When I meet the Count and Countess later, how should I explain about this disloyalty…?”
After Philip wiped his eyes with a well-ironed handkerchief, Hilda urged me on.
“Miss, wouldn’t this be a good time to purchase a carriage? The accountant who visited last time said the finances are no longer dire enough to worry about buying one. It breaks my heart. How can the daughter of a noble house be out in the rain like this?”
“Hilda, why are you like this? This isn’t something to cry over.”
As if they had planned it in advance, Philip and Hilda wiped away tears with their handkerchiefs, begging me to buy a carriage. If I came home soaked in the rain one more time, it would be a funeral.
“Oh, alright, alright. I’ll buy a carriage this time. Phew… so please, everyone, don’t cry. It breaks my heart.”
They were like my true family, who had raised me without abandoning me in even the most extreme circumstances after I fell into this world.
Because it hurt to see them cry over me, I agreed to buy a carriage. At that, Philip and Hilda, who had instantly stopped crying as if it had all been an act, pushed me towards the second floor.
“I’ve instructed Liche to draw a bath. Please go straight to the bathroom, Miss.”
“Then I’ll start looking into carriages first thing tomorrow.”
“Uh, okay…”
It felt somewhat planned, but fatigue washed over me, so I surrendered to Hilda’s push and went upstairs.
* * *
“Good morning. I’m glad you returned safely, Lady Ventus.”
“Thank you, Sir Kuer. I’m absolutely exhausted.”
After a monster subjugation that lasted about a month, I entered the Imperial Palace for the first time in a while. To be precise, it was the Magic Division of the Imperial Palace.
The Emperor’s residence in the main palace also housed the administrative and military branches of the empire.
Of course, the buildings were separate, but they were only about a 10 minute walk apart, so I often encountered knights from the military division in the hallway.
“You came straight to work after the subjugation ended. No wonder you’re tired.”
“Indeed. This world’s too harsh. They should let us rest. The Imperial Palace is too cold-hearted.”
When I playfully pretended to cry, Sir Kuer chimed in.
“Exactly! How nice would it be if we could rest and eat something delicious after a business trip? Ugh.”
“Speaking of delicious, it reminds me of the Marignon Restaurant’s steak. It’s really tasty…”
Following my stream of consciousness, I thought of my favorite food in this world. I couldn’t eat it often because it was too expensive, but I wanted it even more on a day like this.
“Marignon Restaurant… that’s the taste of heaven. But even I go there maybe once a year. It’s expensive and hard to get a reservation… But Lady, I saw you at the Imperial Palace entrance earlier, are you still taking public carriages? I heard you earned a lot of money during this monster subjugation, why don’t you buy a carriage?”
Sir Kuer, who belonged to the Royal Third Knight Order, often had overlapping work hours with me. Sir Kuer was one of those people who couldn’t understand why a Count’s family didn’t have a carriage when even he, a baron, had a family carriage.
“I was planning to buy one this time anyway.”
“Oh, really? That’s a good idea. I was worried because public carriages are uncomfortable and unsanitary. You made a good decision. You’ve worked tirelessly and earned a lot of money.”
“I’ve earned a lot, but money flows out quickly if you’re not careful. You have to save up.”
Nobles who spend lavishly can go bankrupt at any time. I don’t want to go back to the days of lighting campfires.
“Hmm, the prices of noble carriages these days are quite high… Sir Kuer Bach of the Third Knight Order, greets the Commander!”
As soon as we turned the corner, Sir Kuer snapped to attention and loudly saluted a man we encountered.
He had short silver hair and violet eyes. It was Grand Duke Havel Precia, the commander of the Empire’s First Knight Order and Supreme Commander of the imperial knights.
My ears were almost deafened by the sudden shout, but I didn’t show it, and calmly lifted the hem of my dress towards the man standing in front of me.
“Greetings, Your Royal Highness the Grand Duke.”
The Grand Duke gestured slightly at Sir Kuer, signaling him to leave. And Sir Kuer quickly left as if he felt a strong wind from the gesture.
The Grand Duke briefly looked at Sir Kuer’s retreat with sharp eyes before turning his gaze to me.
“Lady.”
It was frustrating that even though I clearly worked in the Imperial Palace as a spirit user, I didn’t have a title like Sir Kuer. Still “Lady, Lady.”
It was the result of this country’s rotten ideology that looked down on women.
It’s annoying. I’ve sacrificed much more for this country than Sir Kuer, but because he has ‘something’ down there, he’s ‘Sir,’ and I’m ‘Lady.’
If I were a man, I’d probably already have the title of Count.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
So, as you can see, in the Imperial Palace, I was the head of the general knight order, but I couldn’t call the Grand Duke “Commander.” I had to call him “Your Highness the Grand Duke.”
I’m not some commoner. It’s annoying.
As I put on a smile, concealing my true feelings, the Grand Duke’s handsome face inexplicably stiffened.
Why is he like that? Is my smile really that unpleasant? As someone who prides myself on my beauty, his attitude was baffling.
Before I could drop my smile, the Grand Duke lowered his gaze from my face to my shoulder.
“Lady, you’re buying a carriage?”
“Yes?”
“I just overheard your conversation with Sir Kuer.”
“Ah, yes. I’ve decided to buy a carriage. I didn’t want to keep taking public carriages.”
I was wondering why he bothered asking, but then the Grand Duke cleared his throat and moved his finely shaped red lips.
“I was thinking of disposing of one of our Grand Ducal carriages. Would you accept it?”
“What? A Grand Ducal carriage?”
The Grand Ducal family disposing of a carriage? The Grand Ducal carriages are only specially made and bestowed by the imperial family, aren’t they? Could they even be ‘disposed’ of?
I tilted my head in doubt, and my gaze met the Grand Duke’s violet eyes.
He stared at me so intensely that I momentarily forgot the doubt that had popped into my head.
“Take it. There’s nowhere else to dispose of it anyway.”
“…Yes. I will gratefully accept it.”
If I didn’t accept, he looked like he was about to hit me.
I slightly bowed my head to express my gratitude.
I thought I heard a faint chuckle above my head, but when I looked up again, the Grand Duke had already turned his back to me and was walking away.
“He really does have an overwhelming presence…”
Even though we had encountered each other for quite some time, both in the Imperial Palace and in the field, he was someone I had never had a comfortable conversation with.
Honestly, he didn’t even feel human
He was a man who won a swordsmanship tournament at the age of fifteen, and at sixteen, he mastered water-element magic, earning the title of the strongest magic swordsman in the Empire.
Of course, I also contracted with Iggy at the age of twelve and was a relatively famous spirit user in the Empire, but I was nowhere near his level of experience.
I don’t want to get involved with him.
Perhaps because he wielded water magic, we didn’t seem to get along. Anyway, being with him made me uncomfortable.
* * *
“Now that I think about it, this is the second time. I’ve unintentionally received help.”
“What kind of help?”
As soon as I sat on the sofa in the spirit users’ office, a familiar voice came from behind me.
“Ah, Sir Chent.”
He patted my shoulder and sat in the opposite seat.
Sir Chent was one of only three spirit mages in the empire and the oldest among them. He had a contract with a low-level wind spirit and was the head of the spirit user team.
He always held a teacup filled with herbal tea. He elegantly crossed his legs and sat down, taking a sip of tea before asking me again.
“Who helped you twice? You’re not the type to go around and accept help from others.”
One of my life motto was ‘one must always repay kindness shown by strangers,’ so I didn’t particularly like receiving help from others.
Because you have to return as much as you receive.
However, there was only one person in my life who I hadn’t been able to repay as much as I had received, and that was Grand Duke Havel Precia.
Six years ago, when I was seventeen, I was tirelessly working as a spirit user to earn money.
However, back then, the Count’s residence was located in the outskirts of the capital, so commuting to the Imperial Palace every morning was quite a hardship.
I had to transfer public carriages three times, and it took two hours, so I always had to wake up at dawn and go back and forth between the Imperial Palace and the mansion with a haggard appearance.
I started looking for a mansion near the central plaza, thinking I might die from overwork, but the money I had saved at the time was nowhere near enough.
So, I gave up on the mansion and was looking for a small room when, suddenly, just like today, the Grand Duke appeared out of nowhere and offered to sell me a house.
He said he had four houses in the plaza, and they were all moldy because he didn’t even use them.
Of course, I couldn’t believe him. Mold in the Grand Duke’s house? That made no sense. The mansion managers would be sweeping and cleaning every day.
Feeling burdened, I expressed my refusal, but the Grand Duke muttered that he should just get rid of the useless mansion and practically forced me into the deal.
It was so bad that his aide, who was standing next to the Grand Duke, turned pale and begged me to buy it.
However, I was in a difficult situation because the price was too low, and after much struggle, I finally concluded that I would rent the Grand Duke’s mansion for 2 gold a month.
For reference, considering that a commoner’s monthly living expense was 1 gold, it was an incredibly cheap amount.
Anyway, the important thing wasn’t this, but the fact that I was receiving a mansion, and now a carriage, was the problem.
“I need to repay him somehow, but something mediocre won’t satisfy him…”
“So who’s this person that helped you twice?”
As I got lost in thought, Sir Chent, sitting opposite me, asked again.
Just blurting out “Grand Duke Precia” wasn’t someone to be mentioned lightly.
A member of the imperial family, isn’t he at the top of the food chain in this world? Getting involved with him would surely not lead to good rumors.
I shrugged, as if it was nothing.
“Just, someone I know. Not anyone important.”
“Really? Well, given your personality, you wouldn’t have gone around accumulating large debts.”
As I nodded vaguely to Sir Chent and pondered what to do, there was suddenly a knock on the office door.
