Chapter 549 – 549. The Plum Blossom Swordsman Reincarnated Into The Baek Family
549. The Plum Blossom Swordsman Reincarnated into the Baek Family
Clunk.
The door, which I had clearly locked, opened, and someone entered.
It was Mary, wearing a blood-red dress.
My mind instantly became a mess. I was sure I had locked the door, so how did she get in? No, before that, why was Mary here?
“So, the two of you were in that kind of relationship. I had a vague feeling from the beginning that it wasn’t just a normal master-servant relationship.”
Mary said calmly.
I was screwed.
Our relationship was exposed. If this became a rumor, the main Philta family would try to kill me.
‘…No. It doesn’t matter if I die. I’ll just start over anyway.’
I suppressed my panic and regained my composure.
“That’s rude, Miss Mary Komotopfs. What do you want from us, barging in here after opening a locked door?”
“Ha. What do I want? Why, it’s obviously your ruin. At the very least, I don’t want to see you two happy.”
Mary’s eyes gleamed venomously. It was hard to believe she was the same person who used to exude a bright, early-summer atmosphere.
“Do you have a grudge against us?”
“Ha, you’re so shameless. Do you think I don’t know that you’re behind Lord Yorsen’s departure and Lord Mathis’s death?!
“Did Crown Prince Parein tell you that?”
“You know it well. I heard that it was all the Duchess’s idea to make Lord Yorsen misunderstand me and investigate Lord Mathis. You’re really amazing. You’re so smart… How can you play with people like that? A normal woman like me can’t even come close to the Duchess.”
My hand clenched into a fist. If necessary, killing Mary here and making it a perfect crime was one option.
“It seems you’ve heard strange things from Crown Prince Parein. It was Crown Prince Parein who asked for my help first.”
“Crown Prince Parein changed because of you. If you hadn’t done anything, this wouldn’t have happened. Lord Mathis wouldn’t have died either…”
“Miss Mary, let’s get our facts straight. The root of all this lies with you. If you hadn’t attracted so many men in the first place… No, if you had chosen one person from the start, things wouldn’t have gone this far. Crown Prince Parein changed because he loved you. It’s all your fault.”
“Hmph. I’m speechless. Do you think I don’t know that you pushed the Crown Prince to break off our engagement? I can never watch you love each other happily. At the very least, I’ll break up the relationship between the Duchess and Eugene. Just like you did to me.”
“Does Crown Prince Parein know about this?”
“Yes. You can tell by the fact that I have the key to this room. Crown Prince Parein is pleased that he can reduce the influence of the Philta Duchy.”
In short, Crown Prince Parein was also involved.
I sighed.
Let’s just smash Mary’s head here and go back to the beginning of the chapter. Now that I know the masquerade ball was a trap, I won’t fall for it again.
Yuria grabbed my wrist, stopping me from stepping forward.
“Miss Komotopfs, what are you going to do now?”
“What else? I’m going to tell everyone about this. I’m going to spread the love story of the promising Philta Duchess and her butler far and wide. The commoners will love it. There aren’t many sensational scandals like this.”
Mary laughed at Yuria and me, then turned and left. Immediately after, the guards who had been hidden behind the wall followed her. There were more than five guards. Each one was elite. They were so skilled that it was hard to believe they were knights of a baronial family.
‘Those must be the guards Crown Prince Parein assigned.’
Unless it was an assassination, there was no chance of winning in a head-on fight.
“…Duchess. What should we do? If you want to escape, I’ll prepare immediately. If you order me to commit suicide, I will do so immediately.”
“Eugene. I have no intention of running away. It was bound to be revealed someday. But before that… there’s one thing I need to confirm.”
“Just give me the order. I’ll confirm whatever it is.”
I thought she would order me to find out Crown Prince Parein’s weakness or something.
Yuria stared at me with her deep blue eyes. There was no sign of panic or fear. Even though we were clearly in a disadvantageous situation, she remained calm.
“Eugene. Do you love me?”
“Yes. I love you, Duchess.”
Yuria reached out to me. She wrapped one arm around my neck and pulled me into an embrace with the other. I also wrapped my arms around her slender waist.
“Eugene. You might have to go through some hardship. But please endure it. There will be a way. But if it doesn’t work out…”
“I can endure anything. But please, answer just one thing. Do you love me, Duchess?”
“There has never been a time when I didn’t love you, Eugene.”
Yuria and I kissed.
「Chapter 15. The masquerade ball is complete.」
「Chapter 16. An impossible love begins.」
「Chapter 16. An impossible love.
There are many kinds of love in this world. There are obstacles to love, and some obstacles are too difficult to overcome with the power of love alone. For example, the love between a duchess and her butler.」
•••
The day after the masquerade ball, Yuria and I immediately received a request to return to the main family.
The retainers and knights of the Philta main family appeared in an instant, using magic. It was called a request to return, but in reality, it was more like being dragged back to the main family.
I was subdued by the knights, and Yuria was watched by the retainers. We weren’t even allowed to make eye contact with each other.
While being dragged back to the main family, the people of the territory saw us. They couldn’t curse Yuria, the successor of Philta, so they whispered and cursed at me.
They said I used evil magic to seduce the Duchess.
That was the gist of it.
‘Tsk. If this were my territory, I would have hanged them all.’
Yuria was summoned by the Philta Duchess, and I was thrown into the deepest dungeon in the castle. It was a dark, damp, and fishy-smelling place where no sunlight entered. It was not a place to live.
My hands were in handcuffs, and my feet were in shackles.
‘Now the torturer will come. Damn it. I can’t believe I’m going to be tortured. I hate being tortured for no reason. Should I use auto-progress? Or just escape? I think I can do it.’
About two hours passed.
The dungeon door opened, and a middle-aged man entered with a torch. The man, who hadn’t even bothered to groom his beard, scanned me once with dead eyes. He brought a chair and a storage cart filled with torture tools into the dungeon.
I remembered that face. I had seen it a few times while working as a butler. But I didn’t remember his name. Since we had different jobs, we hadn’t talked much.
“I never thought I’d see you here. The world is a strange place. Don’t you think so?”
“Yes, I agree. What did the Duke tell you to make me spill?”
“It’s not an interrogation. It’s torture just to inflict pain. He told me to make you suffer as much as possible for forgetting your duty as a butler.”
“That’s scary. Where are you going to start?”
“Scary? You don’t look scared at all.”
He sat down on the chair. He was about 3 meters away from me, which was a bit far for torturing.
“…?”
“Duchess Yuria told me to just pretend to torture you. The setting sun and the rising sun. There’s no need to think too hard about which one is more important.”
“Is that okay? If the Duke finds out, you’ll be the one sitting in this chair.”
“I’m already in my mid-40s. In five years, I’ll be in my 50s and have to retire from this job. A torturer’s retirement isn’t very good. But if the Duchess has my back, I can have a retirement that’s better than a knight’s.”
Yuria had bribed him. I felt grateful for her consideration and relaxed a little.
“Don’t you think the Duchess could be deposed because of this?”
“Come on. Do you think I, a torturer, don’t know what’s going on in the Philta family? The Duchess has already taken control of half the family.”
The chapters before the academy were mainly about Yuria taking control of the family. In that process, I became her right-hand man, killing those who needed to be killed and saving those who needed to be saved.
But it wasn’t enough. Unless she inherited the dukedom. The Duchess’s power was still strong.
“The Duke also knows that there’s no successor more suitable for the dukedom than Duchess Yuria. It’s a given that Duchess Yuria will inherit the dukedom.”
“The problem is that it could happen after I’m executed.”
“Haha. Do you think the Duchess would just watch her lover get executed? She’ll do something. More importantly, tell me some stories.”
“Huh?”
“About the Duchess. How did you seduce her? I won’t tell anyone, so tell me. I’m the head torturer of Philta, you know. My lips are heavier than anyone else’s.”
“Well, if you’re curious, I’ll tell you. But if you talk carelessly… you’ll incur the Duchess’s wrath, and your retirement will be very tiring.”
“Hoo. That’s very scary. I need to keep my mouth shut.”
“Before that, can I have some water?”
“Water? You’ll have to talk a lot, so of course, I’ll give you some.”
He rummaged through the storage cart full of torture tools.
“Aaaaaaaah!”
Someone’s scream was heard through the open door.
“Oops. I forgot to close the door. It’s from the next room. Ignore it.”
He closed the door.
“He sounds like my senior. What crime did he commit to end up here?”
“He’s a merchant who supplies food, candles, and cloth. He took money from other merchants and played tricks during the delivery process. He’ll probably be executed in two weeks.”
He threw me a water bottle. I caught the bottle and opened the cap. There was a pungent smell. It wasn’t water, but alcohol.
“This is alcohol.”
“It’s a lubricant that makes your tongue more slippery.”
“I hope it’s not so slippery that there’s an accident.”
I gulped down the alcohol. I felt my cold body getting warmer.
“I met Duchess Yuria a long time ago. You must remember the incident where someone tried to poison her.”
“Oh, I know. Duchess Yuria almost died, and the retainers were purged. Come to think of it, you were the young butler who saved the Duchess.”
“Yes. That young butler was me. You could say that my relationship with the Duchess started from then.”
I embellished the story a bit. Normally, I wouldn’t have had this kind of conversation, but in this boring dungeon, my mouth just opened on its own.
After the story was over, he gave me an old cloth to use as a blanket and left.
「You can skip part of the record. Do you want to skip?」
“I knew this would pop up. Skip.”
「28 days have been skipped.」
About a month had been skipped.
I was still in the dungeon. I had hoped to get out of the dungeon, but it seemed that wasn’t the case.
The torturer came and explained the current situation.
The Philta Duchess and Yuria were in conflict, and the castle was in a tense atmosphere.
The Duchess was pushing for a new engagement, but Yuria was adamantly refusing. She was also demanding that the Duchess release me from the dungeon. Of course, the Duchess, who cared more about the family than anything else, wouldn’t listen.
Their conflict only made the lower-ranking people look down at the ground.
‘The problem with this dungeon is that I can’t tell if it’s night or day. That guy left a few hours ago, so it’s probably night?’
Being stuck in this damp place made me think all sorts of strange things.
Clunk.
The dungeon door opened, and someone entered. I thought it was the torturer, but it was someone completely unexpected.
A man with a sharp impression. It was Kopan, who had made me feel murderous several times.
“The Duke has ordered you to be disposed of.”
The butler, who was blindly loyal to the Philta family, approached me.
“…Do you assassinate people with a bunch of keys these days?”
Kopan inserted a key into my handcuffs.
