Chapter 30
It had been a few days since the Lenoa abuse incident broke out.
Even after quite some time had passed, I still hadn't shaken off the shock. That's how violent the sight of Lenoa being abused had been.
Because of that, I couldn't even get a good grip on my sword, so I skipped training.
Instead, I focused on gathering information.
I wrung various bits of information out of maids who loved meddling in other people's business.
1. Lenoa is an illegitimate daughter born to the duke and a concubine, not the lawful wife.
2. Lenoa is confined here, not at the main estate.
3. The wife who dislikes Lenoa comes by from time to time and beats her.
'So, to sum it up, this is what it means....'
I never would have guessed there was this kind of backstory. It wasn't even revealed when I played the game.
'Goddamn it, you insane game company. There are stories you don't hide, and stories you do.'
Are they saying they'll never allow a villain to tug at people's heartstrings and get whitewashed?
If so, that's a huge success.
Even I had no idea until this incident happened.
Who would've thought Lenoa was a victim of domestic abuse? So that's why she turned out twisted?
I thought she was just a psychopathic villainess, but it turns out she was a psychopathic villainess with a tragic backstory.
Whether that backstory can justify her sins is a separate matter.
'But that's strange. How could there not be a single rumor about it?'
Now that I'd uncovered the secret, a few pieces of foreshadowing came to mind, but even taking those into account, the information was being blocked off far too unnaturally.
If she was an illegitimate child looked down on by the family, it would be strange if no rumors spread outside.
In the game too, that was the case, and when Lenoa visited the arena, Bardic had welcomed her enthusiastically.
The reason for that, too, I learned from the maids.
"Leon, you're a slave, so you wouldn't know? When you're hired by the manor, you sign a contract. You're forbidden from telling outsiders about anything that happens in the manor."
"There's a nasty clause like that?"
"Yeah. But the pay is waaaay better than anywhere else. They pay five times what the noble house I worked for before did. It's shady, but bearable."
"It's pretty good, if you ask me. Our family depends on me anyway, so thanks to it I can give my family meat every week."
That was why.
Revealing anything that happened in the manor to outsiders was forbidden. If you broke that, you wouldn't escape punishment under the contract.
There was no way that secret clause existed simply so they could bully Lenoa in peace.
Most likely.
'It must be because of black magic.'
By then, something had come to mind. The incident where they captured one of the duke's people and interrogated them, only for them to die for no reason anyone could understand.
It's not just the servants. The noble children in this manor—the apprentice knights—were all no different from hostages.
'Though it doesn't seem like the people involved know that yet.'
Did they sign because the pay was good and they were promised help restoring their family line? Not even realizing they'd walked into the abyss of evil on their own.
'What am I supposed to do...?'
My head was a mess.
I had no idea what I was supposed to do.
It wasn't like a slave like me, still lacking in skill, could just storm the ducal estate by myself.
"Hmm..."
I shook my complicated thoughts away and cleared my mind.
'For now, let's deal with Lenoa first.'
In the end, I was Lenoa's slave.
She held my life and death in her hands. Lenoa's well-being mattered far more than House Edelheid's survival.
In the worst case, even if the ducal house were destroyed, I could just run away with Lenoa. Then at least survival would be possible.
'Good.'
Once I'd made up my mind, action had to be even faster. I went straight to Lenoa's study.
Roxy noona was standing in front of the door.
"Leon? What brings you to the study?"
"I came to see the young lady. Could you let her know I'm here?"
"I don't know why, but it would be better if you didn't come for a while. There's no benefit in needlessly provoking her."
I knew. I knew better than anyone.
But I was worried. Worried enough that I couldn't get my sword in my hand.
As someone who'd spent three years on a time attack, I couldn't allow even a single day to go to waste.
"Please."
"...I warned you."
Roxy noona let out a shallow sigh and knocked on the door.
"Miss, Apprentice Knight Leon is here to see you."
Silence.
There was no response.
"See? I told you it wouldn't work. Go on home today and come back later..."
"Come in."
Permission was granted. I shrugged my shoulders at Roxy noona, who looked like she couldn't believe it.
-Creak.
When the heavy door opened, the old-paper smell unique to a study rushed out with the wind.
The freshness of the forest instantly washed away that stale odor. The curtain hanging by the window swelled into the air and danced.
Like a white ghost, or like the wings of a huge bird.
In the middle of it all was Lenoa.
Lenoa sat at her desk with her back to the window, while the forest and lake stretched out behind her like a backdrop.
Whenever the wind blew, her long hair fluttered into the air.
She looked incredibly mysterious. I momentarily forgot why I had come and just quietly watched her.
"Were you planning to just stand there?"
My reverie didn't last long. Lenoa's words of impatience soon dragged me back to reality.
"No, I came because I had something to say..."
"Sit."
I sat down on the sofa, fidgeting.
Lenoa still wasn't taking her eyes off the book. Her complexion was unnaturally pale.
As though she'd piled on makeup to hide something.
Seeing that brought back the memory of a walk I'd once taken with Lenoa.
Even then, I'd felt the same sense of incongruity in her face that I was seeing now.
What Lenoa had said to me back then.
'You and I weren't so different, were we...'
I had thought it was meant to mock me, but now I can understand a little of what she meant.
"What did you come to say?"
"I haven't thanked you yet after going out, so... thanks to you, I had a good time."
"Mm."
"I walked around the streets, looked around the market, and even bought a present for my benefactor."
"Mm."
Her reply was calm and flat, with no emotion to be found. Her gaze was still fixed on the book.
"Finished?"
"On the way back, I stopped by a general store in the city. I bought gifts for the maids, and then I suddenly thought of you, young lady."
I stood up. I fished the bookmark out from inside my uniform and slid it across the desk.
For a moment, Lenoa's eyes left the book.
"...What is this?"
"A pressed-flower bookmark. I made it by pressing a four-leaf clover into it. You always read, young lady, so I thought it'd be useful. Of course, I bought it with your money, though..."
"..."
Lenoa picked up the bookmark and turned it over, examining it.
What kind of reaction would she show, I wondered.
To be honest, I had no expectations at all.
I'd prepared for every possibility, from her tearing it apart to tossing it in the trash.
I wouldn't get hurt.
....
'Still, I hope she doesn't do it right in front of me.'
Lenoa toyed with the bookmark for quite a long while. If she was going to throw it away, why was she inspecting it for so long?
In the end, unable to bear it any longer, I spoke first.
"I'm sorry. There are probably plenty of bookmarks already, and I think I did something presumptuous. I'll throw it away, so hand it over—"
"That's enough."
"...Please...?"
"That's enough. Are you done? Then get out. I'm going to read."
A firm, yet somehow hurried, order to leave was given.
Was this good or bad?
What came into view, as I stood there bewildered, was Vivi. She slowly nodded and gave me a thumbs-up.
It seemed things had somehow worked out.
I left the study. Roxy noona looked at me with eyes full of curiosity.
"What did the young lady say?"
"She told me to get out because she was going to read."
"That's it?"
"Yes."
"What on earth is that supposed to mean?"
A reaction that said she couldn't understand it.
I wasn't all that different from her, but I still felt much lighter than I had before going into the study.
'Should I go back to training?'
***
The study after Leon had left.
As soon as he was gone, Lenoa's gaze returned to the bookmark.
A completely ordinary bookmark. They were everywhere on the market, and Lenoa had dozens just like it.
Compared to the silver bookmark inlaid with jewels that Lenoa usually used, it was no better than a leaf lying by the roadside.
And yet, for some reason, Lenoa couldn't take her eyes off that cheap little thing.
"Did Vivi tell you to do this?"
"No. Apprentice Knight Leon brought it up first. Choosing the bookmark was his idea too."
"Hm."
Lenoa's fingers slowly traced the bookmark's rough texture. Naturally, the quality wasn't very good.
Should she call it thoughtful, or should she call it fearless? To think a slave would dare to give a noble a gift.
Any ordinary noble lady would have taken it as an insult and shoved it straight into the trash.
But Lenoa didn't.
It was the first gift she'd ever received in her life.
That unfamiliar, ticklish sensation was spreading from the tips of her fingers up toward her chest.
"Wait a second."
Lenoa, who had been fidgeting with the bookmark, suddenly lifted her head.
"I think you said you bought something for the maids too."
"That's right. I got one too."
Vivi rolled up her sleeve and showed off a bracelet. A faint crease appeared between Lenoa's brows.
"...You picked that out too?"
"No, I chose this one. I wanted it."
"Then it's not a gift, it's just you buying something with my money. I'll deduct it from your wages."
"Ah."
Vivi protested with an aggrieved look. Lenoa gave a dry laugh, as if it were absurd.
"What about the other maids? You didn't hand out bookmarks to them too, did you?"
"I gave moisturizing ointment as gifts to the maids and Candidate Helena."
"All of them?"
"Yes, I chose the same thing for everyone. I standardized on something practical since their hands get chapped."
"I see..."
A peculiar look of relief flickered at the corners of Lenoa's mouth.
Ointment was a consumable that would wear out and disappear. On top of that, it had been given equally, without distinguishing between people.
Only she had received something different.
That small difference gave Lenoa a little satisfaction.
'...Strange.'
Why was she feeling so relieved by this insignificant piece handed over by a slave?
Suddenly, a memory from a few days earlier flashed through her mind.
When Duchess Florencia's razor-sharp violence had been tormenting Lenoa, it had been the same.
Cursed child.
Shame of the family.
When everyone turned away from Lenoa and left her neglected, even those who usually swore loyalty bowed their heads.
Only Leon had stepped between Florencia and her.
What had she felt then?
Admiration?
Gratitude?
Jealousy?
No, none of those. It was hard to put into words. After all, it was the first time she'd ever felt something like it.
Even now, after all this time, she still didn't know what it was, but one thing was certain.
It wasn't a bad feeling.
"Vivi."
Lenoa called in a low voice.
"Do you remember where this bookmark was bought?"
"At the castle shop."
"How much stock was left?"
"There looked to be dozens left."
"Buy them all and burn them."
Lenoa ordered in a flat voice.
Even if she was only half a daughter, she was still, in name, a duke's daughter. Using something as common as that wouldn't do for her dignity.
If the item's inherent value was lacking, all she had to do was make it rare.
Vivi bowed her head and withdrew.
Left alone again, Lenoa lifted the bookmark and held it up to the sunlight.
A pressed-flower bookmark.
What had been pressed into it was a four-leaf clover.
A green color much like Lenoa's own eyes.
People often say it's a symbol of luck, but in truth, a four-leaf clover is biologically a deformity.
A mutation born among normal three-leaf clovers.
"A mutation..."
Lenoa let out a self-mocking smile.
Like the abnormality among ordinary people everywhere, she too was a being born under a curse—an anomaly herself.
Maybe Leon had known.
That this mutant clover leaf resembled her more than anyone else.
"So that's why you gave me this?"
It was irritating, but not bad.
The world called it a deformity, but people called it luck.
Could she, too, as a cursed mutant, become someone's luck?
Or was he trying to become my luck?
"...."
Lenoa quietly slipped the bookmark between the pages of her book.
Perhaps this worthless slave might be the one to pull her out of the cage.
That vague expectation was quietly beginning to sprout in a corner of her heart.