Chapter 35
#35: Servant Cedric - Redvell's Villainess
「One of the three pillars supporting the Kingdom of Birka.」
This was the assessment scholars gave House Redvell.
Moreover, one of those three pillars was none other than the royal family itself.
A mere noble house was treated as a category on the same level as the royal family, the kingdom's very pinnacle.
And this assessment of House Redvell was by no means an exaggeration.
Even the land Redvell directly governed accounted for 7% of the kingdom's total area, and if you counted the areas it could indirectly rule, that figure rose to 20%.
Thanks to its control of the major trade routes linking it to other countries, it possessed immense wealth. Its military power was relatively lacking, but even that only lagged behind the other two pillars—the royal family and the count's house—and was nothing that could be compared to any other petty lord.
The current Redvell marquis was praised as a hero who had raised a family on the brink of ruin to its present position in just a few decades, and his children, as if taking after their father, also showed competence in every field and enhanced Redvell's fame.
However, among them, there was one and only one exception.
The marquis's youngest daughter, Claudia Redvell, was that exception.
If one were to list even a few of the dazzling rumors surrounding her, they would go like this.
-She keeps a giant man-eating monster as a pet and feeds anyone who displeases her to it.
-She tortures people at the drop of a hat, so blood has soaked into her whole body, and she masks it with perfume so strong it is overwhelming.
-The reason the Redvell marquis deliberately chose the quiet countryside territory of 'Eched' as his youngest daughter's private domain was that if he left her in a large estate, no one knew what she'd do.
A heavenly flower on the outside, a hellish gutter on the inside.
Such was the noble young lady who received wildly opposite evaluations: Claudia Redvell.
Naturally enough, there were few who would be happy to work under such a young lady.
So the people who came looking for work at Claudia's mansion in Eched territory were usually one of two kinds.
One kind was people who didn't know Claudia's rumors and simply applied after seeing the enormous pay offered by the marquis house.
The other was people who knew Claudia's rumors but had no choice but to endure them because their living conditions were so poor.
Of these, the one preferred by Bestian, the mansion's head butler, was the latter.
The former would run away after only a few days anyway, while the latter had at least some chance of continuing to work.
'...But this applicant seems to be the former, doesn't he.'
Thinking that, Bestian scrutinized the young man before him closely.
Plain brown hair and brown eyes.
Not enough to call him a striking beauty, but his features were mild and unassuming overall.
His puppy-like eyes gave off none of the ferocity usually seen in someone backed into a corner.
“Yes, you said your name was Cedric. Where are you from?”
“A city called Colim in the eastern part of the Aizern Empire!”
“That's quite far. Why did you go out of your way to come all the way down to the Kingdom of Birka and apply as a servant?”
“My father served for many years as a servant in the prominent Knuuk family of Colim. His main duty was kitchen assistance. I thought I would serve the Knuuk family just like him someday, but unfortunately the Knuuk line died out, and my place of employment disappeared as well. Since the only thing I'd learned since childhood was this line of work, I wandered around looking for a new master to serve, and that's when I heard the rumors about this mansion and came here!”
“Oh... Then you can cook rather well, can you?”
“I wouldn't call it perfect, but I do think it's at least decent enough to make and eat myself.”
He was quick-witted, and his overall expression and demeanor were bright.
The fact that he was a foreigner and that there was no way to verify whether what he said was true didn't matter.
No, for a house like the marquis house, that kind of thing should normally be checked very strictly, but in this Eched villa, where they were barely filling two-thirds of the regular staff because people kept running away, something like that could be forgiven as a harmless quirk.
The problem was actually somewhere else.
'Hah, I wonder how many days that bright-eyed young man can possibly last in front of the young lady's venom.'
Bestian had watched, more than once, servants who had started out full of enthusiasm when they were hired, only to wither day by day under Claudia's temper and leave the mansion.
Thinking that this young man would end up taking the same route made his conscience ache, but there was nothing else he could do.
Keeping Claudia living a life that looked as 'normal' as possible to outsiders was the marquis's wish, and the current situation—where the mansion had no servants and the empty gaps were glaring—went against that order.
Bestian had to replenish the mansion's workforce by any means possible.
“Good. Let's start with a three-month contract. Needless to say, if you quit before the term is up, there will be no pay.”
“Understood!”
'If I put him on kitchen duty, he'll hardly ever run into the young lady, so he should be able to hold out a little longer.'
And Bestian's plan collapsed exactly one week after Cedric entered the mansion.
***
The reason Cedric's presence came to light far sooner than Bestian expected was simple.
Cedric was just too competent.
“Cedric? He's the real deal. He understands things quickly, and once you tell him something, he never forgets it.”
“Normally, when a new hire comes in, it takes several days just to adjust, but Cedric was practically useful from the day he arrived. Thanks to him, things have gotten easier for everyone.”
“I hadn't been able to rest properly because there was no one to take my shift, but thanks to this new hire, I think I'll be able to get a little rest.”
“He's good with words, and he has a knack for making people laugh. He's probably the type who can fit in anywhere.”
Cedric's assigned job was kitchen assistance.
His movement was limited to the kitchen and the food storeroom, and unless they deliberately put him on serving duty or something, Claudia would have no reason to meet Cedric.
In that sense, Bestian's plan wasn't wrong, but the problem lay in the attitude and atmosphere of the other servants.
It was only natural that their happiness levels would not suddenly soar to the ceiling just because Cedric was there.
But if a red tulip is mixed in among a flower bed full of white tulips, it can't help but stand out.
What Cedric managed was only enough to bring a light chuckle or snicker to the staff's faces, but even that was a huge change compared to faces frozen by gloom and duty.
“Hmm, so you're the new servant who came in this time?”
It was a sudden enough event to leave everyone stunned.
The kitchen servants, who had been chatting idly while preparing dinner, turned toward the voice from the entrance in disbelief and froze.
Two maids, their faces as pale as if they feared the catastrophe about to unfold, stood there with their heads bowed.
And among those maids stood one young lady smiling all by herself.
Pale platinum-blonde hair and pink eyes.
Her beauty, possessing both alluring sensuality and youthful freshness like a flower bud just before blooming, was so stunning that the servants who saw that smiling face began trembling as if they had seen a monster.
Perhaps because of the responsibility of being the highest-ranking person here, the head cook cautiously opened his mouth.
“A-ah, my lady. How could you come to such a humble place....”
“Hey.”
“Yes?”
The doll-like beautiful smile crumbled.
With nothing but contempt, fury, and irritation, the flower of Redvell began spitting venom from her mouth.
“When did I ever talk to you? Who gave you permission to open your mouth?”
“S-sorry!”
“And where I go is my business. What gives you the right to chatter on and on? Just because you have a title like head cook or whatever, does that make your master look like a joke? Hm?”
There was no noble young lady's elegance here.
There was no dignified admonishment or rebuke, and there was no polite, roundabout way of speaking either.
The sight of that angelic face spouting threats and sneers one after another like a street thug was so mismatched that it was almost comical.
Thud.
That was when Cedric took half a step forward.
He hadn't deliberately made his footsteps especially loud. Nor had he said anything.
And yet, for some reason, that tiny, casual motion had a strange power that drew everyone's eyes.
A glimmer of interest appeared in Claudia's eyes.
She lost interest in the cook and once again spoke to Cedric.
“What, are you lowborn going to cover for each other? Is that it?”
Even after the sudden insult, Cedric merely blinked and said nothing.
Claudia frowned.
“What, no answer?”
“Hmm, thank you for granting me permission to speak, my lady. I was just having trouble because I couldn't open my mouth freely.”
Claudia looked momentarily as if she didn't understand what he meant, but then she remembered that just a moment ago she had snapped at the cook, telling him not to open his mouth as he pleased. Perhaps this servant was now using that as a pretext to sneer at her.
Anger rose on her face, and the faces of the other servants turned pale.
But only for a moment.
Soon Claudia broke into a slight smile, as if she had thought of something.
“You there.”
“My name is Cedric, Lady Claudia.”
“Right, you. If you're here, that means you're confident in your cooking too, right?”
“I wouldn't dare call myself a professional, but I do judge that it's at least decent enough to make and eat myself.”
“Good. Tonight, you make it and bring it to my room yourself.”
It was an unreasonable demand in several ways.
Asking a mere kitchen assistant to cook dinner was one thing, but telling him to bring it to Claudia's own room was an even bigger problem.
For a male servant to enter a young lady's room could itself be considered sacrilegious.
However, Cedric asked back without the slightest hesitation.
“Though I'm a poor hand at it, if it's your order, I'll do my best. By the way, do you perhaps have any foods you dislike?”
“Something tasteless.”
“I see, a wise answer to a foolish question. I'll prepare it right away.”
Saying that, Claudia watched Cedric begin preparing the ingredients with suspicious eyes.
The other servants around them had been fidgeting from the start, as if they couldn't endure the situation, but she didn't like that he alone seemed so relaxed.
Claudia had thought about slapping him once, but she soon changed her mind.
'Anyway, that composure will only last a little while.'
Even while grinning inwardly, she didn't forget to warn the others.
“You lot, if you interfere in this for no reason, I'll punish you all, so don't get in the way.”
The kitchen servants bowed their heads, and the maids, though afraid, followed after Claudia.
After returning to the front of her room, Claudia sent the maids away and went inside.
Then, using a small blade, she made a tiny cut on the tip of her index finger.
When the blood that welled up and dropped to the ground quickly began to swell in volume,
-Grrrrr...!
Before long, the blood had transformed into the shape of a huge beast.
Its overall form was closer to a wolf's, but it had two heads, and each mouth was large enough to swallow the upper half of a human body in one gulp.
Claudia stroked the twin-headed wolf's head as it brought its muzzle close to her like a pet seeking affection, then gave the wolf an order.
To pounce on Cedric the moment he opened the door and came inside.
She spent a little while imagining the look on his face, which seemed to say that anything he did would be fine, twisting into fear and shock.
Soon after, with a knock, Cedric's voice came from outside the door.
-My lady, I have brought your meal.
With a dark smile on her lips, Claudia replied.
“Come in.”
The door opened, and Cedric entered the room pushing a cart.
At the same time, the wolf waiting in the corner of the room lunged at him.
The wolf's mouth let out a howl meant to terrify its prey─ yelp?!
‘...Yelp?’
Claudia blinked.
She rubbed her eyes for a moment, then looked forward again.
The wolf, her retainer that could make a meal out of most monsters, was sprawled on the floor, whimpering like a frightened mutt.
And in front of it stood Cedric, calmly wiping the hand he had used to flick its forehead with a handkerchief.
He looked at the dazed Claudia and spoke with utmost seriousness.
“My lady.”
“Hm?”
“A pet charging at food meant for people is not a very good habit. It's not good for its health, either. It seems you've taught it the wrong habits.”
“………….”