Chapter 53
#53. Servant Cedric (Cedric) (19) - Reasonable Inference
Claudia had almost never run as hard as she could on two legs in her life.
To begin with, she wasn't the type who especially liked moving her body, and as a noble young lady for whom even walking counted as part of 'etiquette,' that was all the more true.
But at this very moment, she was running with all her might, making that past seem irrelevant.
The manor's servants looked at her with startled eyes and seemed about to say something, but she didn't care; even her breath, caught up to her throat, was a secondary concern.
「By the way, it's about Cedric. Lately, I think his condition has gotten a lot worse.」
「Compared to before, the amount of work he does has dropped a lot, and his speed has slowed down quite a bit too. Even so, he still does more than one person's share, but how should I put it... if before it felt like he was at a level no one could ever catch up to, now it feels like he's fallen to the level of 'an exceptionally capable person among his peers.'」
「I just thought the manor and the territory had both settled down, so he was taking things a little easier, but the other day I saw him, um... vomiting blood.」
「What's more, he didn't seem especially flustered or surprised; he calmly erased the traces, so it seemed like Cedric himself also knew his own condition well.」
「It's basically someone else's private matter, so I hesitated over whether I should say anything, but I thought the young lady ought to know.」
Claudia kept running clumsily, replaying the maid's testimony in her head over and over as it echoed in her ears.
And at last, she arrived at the room where Cedric was staying and flung the door open.
No, she tried to.
Clunk! Clunk!
“Cedric! Open the door! Cedric!!”
After she kept pounding on and yanking at the locked door, it opened from the inside after a moment and Cedric appeared.
Cedric, with his signature puppy-like face, widened his eyes in surprise and looked at Claudia, who was panting hard, with puzzlement.
“Young lady, what is it?”
“Y-you...! Haa, so, haa!”
“First, calm down and get your breathing under control. Now, slowly, slowly.”
With Cedric's help, Claudia finally steadied her breathing and then pressed him as if interrogating him.
“Cedric, you... are you hurt somewhere? Huh? Don't lie, tell me the truth!!”
At Claudia's urging, Cedric narrowed his eyes for a moment, then soon gave a bitter smile as if he had guessed what was going on.
“It's nothing for the young lady to worry about.”
“How can I not worry!! Where, where does it hurt? Have you seen a doctor? Should I call one? Huh?”
“Young lady.”
“Why didn't you say anything if you were hurt in the first place! Is that why you're quitting? Because you're afraid you'll be kicked out if you can't work while hurt?”
“Young lady.”
“There's no way I'd throw you out for something like that! You don't have to work at all. Omurice, black tea, all of that is fine, so just stay by my side...”
“Claudia, young lady!”
Unlike Cedric's usual teasingly raised voice, the tone was as if he were truly scolding her, and Claudia flinched hard and trembled.
“I'm sorry for cutting you off so abruptly. However, it seemed that the young lady was misunderstanding something, and I wanted to correct that much.”
Looking at his trembling young mistress, who gazed up at him anxiously, the servant calmly continued.
“First, it's true that I'm not feeling very well, but it's nowhere near serious enough for the young lady to worry this much.”
That much was true.
“And the reason I'm leaving is because I've finished everything I needed to do here. I'm simply leaving to do new work in a new place. It's not because of some negative reason like the one the young lady is imagining.”
That too was true.
“Lastly, someone who simply stays by his master's side without doing anything and merely relies on his master's mercy can never be called a 'servant.' Becoming such a being would go against my pride.”
Cedric had not told a single lie.
He was undoubtedly telling Claudia nothing but the truth.
The attitude was so firm and resolute that even Claudia, who had been certain Cedric was gravely ill, felt confused for a moment.
In the end, she had no choice but to back off for now.
“W-well. If you're okay, then fine. Let's talk about rehiring again tomorrow.”
“I don't think my answer will change, but understood.”
After saying goodbye to Cedric with a bow, Claudia had no choice but to move away from his room.
If she stayed here, Cedric wouldn't be able to rest his sick body, so she reluctantly did just that.
Unaware of the strange looks from those around her, Claudia became lost in thought.
‘Is Cedric's condition really not serious? But they said he vomited blood....’
Claudia didn't have any special insight that let her judge another person's rank or physical condition just by looking at them.
The Blood Demon Beast might be able to assess the other party with its beastlike senses and relay that to Claudia, but even that wasn't very reliable.
They couldn't properly figure Cedric out even when they were gathered as a powerful elite group; how much less now that they had been split into tiny pieces and scattered everywhere?
Calling a doctor over to examine him was one option, but for some reason she felt that Cedric would probably be able to fool that just as skillfully as well. Even if the doctor said he was fine, that anxiety probably wouldn't disappear.
At that moment, someone's face suddenly flashed through Claudia's mind.
If it had been the Claudia of old, she would have bitten her tongue off before ever trying to ask him for help, but where Cedric was concerned, that was a different story.
Claudia steeled herself.
***
“Huh, so you're saying I should look into that servant's condition? Right now?”
A look of disbelief crossed Marquis Redbel's face.
It couldn't be otherwise.
It was already ridiculous enough that his youngest daughter, who was currently drawing all the attention of the political world and had to move carefully with every step, had barged in without even making an appointment; and the request she made after coming here was to use the head of House Redbel as a reader of a mere servant's health—how absurd was that.
“If it's a joke, I'll rate it as not bad. When something is too absurd, even a hollow laugh tends to slip out.”
“Do I look like I'm joking?”
Even with the marquis's banter, Claudia's gaze remained utterly serious.
So the marquis also answered with a bit of sincerity.
“Then it had better be a joke. Otherwise it would mean that the brat who calls herself my daughter is being this reckless over the living quarters of a mere servant.”
That was, in a sense, a warning.
If the marquis's other children had been here, they would either have gone pale and bowed their heads, or suppressed their feelings and stepped back.
However, Claudia's response was neither of those.
“To me, Cedric matters more than your approval.”
“Do you think everything you have will remain as it is without my approval?”
“Don't act as if the forest that grew from a single seed you planted in the ground belongs to you. How long are you going to keep milking it?”
Given the customs of the Kingdom of Virka, where the authority of the family head was strong and the idea that children were their parents' property ran deep, this was the kind of remark that, except for a few special cases, would have made people gasp in shock or fly into a rage.
And Marquis Redbel was by no means someone detached from power and authority.
He wasn't.
“Hmm.”
At the same time, because he was capable, if it meant greater authority and power, he could suppress a momentary burst of anger or displeasure without hesitation.
Weighing whether to brush Claudia off here or make a compromise, he soon reached a conclusion and opened his mouth.
“I can at least do that much and check his condition. But even then, it'll probably mean little.”
“What do you mean?”
“Didn't he say it himself? That he had to leave for a new place to do new work. Once that's been decided, nothing you do will change it. He'll leave.”
“What?”
As if still unable to make sense of it, Claudia asked back, and the marquis calmly continued.
“If he were only after wealth and glory, that servant named Cedric would have no reason to leave. Just staying by your side would let him live out the rest of his life enjoying a life most commoners could only dream of. At least, so long as you don't change your mind.”
Cedric had achieved a great deal at Claudia's side.
Achievements so overwhelming that even if Claudia were to favor Cedric after this, no one would be able to complain.
And yet why was Cedric trying to end the renewed contract and leave?
“You must have guessed some of it too, haven't you? That Cedric is absolutely no ordinary commoner. No, even a decent noble couldn't display such overwhelming ability. That is talent nurtured on purpose by at least a nation, or some massive power on par with one.”
Claudia couldn't offer a rebuttal.
Because even she thought the logic was extremely sound.
“What's more, the power that raised that man Cedric deployed such a high-grade talent to a foreign country as nothing more than a mere servant. And they worked him so harshly that he vomited blood. In other words, to the one behind him, Cedric was nothing more than a mere pawn. He wasn't so cheap that they would waste him carelessly, but he also wasn't irreplaceable. That was probably about the extent of it.”
In fact, the way the Crown Prince handled his own double was exactly that level, so it wasn't wrong.
Sure enough, the marquis's insight, which had grabbed a family on the verge of ruin by the hair and raised it back up to the very top of the kingdom, was exceptional.
Claudia asked in a trembling voice.
“Then, then who in the world is it...? What guys are roughing Cedric up however they please?!”
“Let's see. I'm no fortune-teller, so I can't say for sure. But if his claim of being from the Empire isn't just a cover and instead an expression of confidence that it wouldn't matter even if he were exposed, then the one behind him would be the imperial family. If he were from some other group within the Empire, even if they had the ability, they wouldn't casually say something that hinted at the Empire's existence.”
That was a deduction so sharp that, had the Great Demon seen it, it would have flat-out declared you a fortune-teller.
“No way...”
Claudia covered her mouth with both hands.
Since the Kingdom of Virka, located at the southwestern edge of the continent, and the Empire in the northwest did not border each other, the Empire was not a country Virkans knew very well.
There was only the vague impression that it was a great power far away.
However, as she was trying to learn the various bits of knowledge needed to be a lord, she knew.
That there was currently no country on the continent that could stand up to the Empire and win alone, and that only when the countries ranked second and third joined forces would they barely have a chance.
Much less Virka Kingdom, which might not even make it into the top ten; even if it devoted all its strength, it would have nothing it could do beyond a little resistance.
“Do you understand now? If you really want to keep that servant Cedric in your grasp, you have to gain at least enough power and authority to be able to negotiate face-to-face with the Empire's crown prince. For someone like you now, it's a realm you aren't even allowed to speak of, let alone discuss.”
Even Marquis Redbel, a powerholder whom even the king of Virka couldn't recklessly treat lightly, would be nothing more than just another provincial powerholder in the Empire.
Needless to say, that went doubly for Claudia, who had only just spread her wings.
As if to show a little kindness to his daughter, who seemed crushed by the height of the wall she had to climb, the marquis decided to indulge her a little.
Because Cedric's advice—to be careful if she didn't want to be lonely in her later years—came to mind.
“Don't try to force your way into holding on to what can't be held. At the very least, spend the time you have left cherishing it.”
Claudia trembled all over as if trying to deny those words, opening and closing her mouth several times, before finally hanging her head.
That was all she could do before the marquis's far too reasonable inference.