~Chapter 43~
“The palace sent an invitation!”
Ares covered his ears, his expression crumpled, at Aveline’s loud shout.
“I’m right in front of you!”
“Ahem.”
Aveline, sensing Ares might leave if she kept shouting, quickly cleared her throat and turned her head.
The direction she faced was where the servants’ quarters were located.
“But that invitation was for me, yet it was strangely delivered to Father? Strangely. Isn’t that really strange?”
“How many times are you going to say the word ‘strange’?”
Ares folded his arms, looking suspiciously at his sister.
‘That volume must have been loud enough for someone to hear.’
Emma’s room was on the first floor of the servants’ quarters, close to the entrance.
So, if her roommate, Lisa, was in the room, she would have heard it clearly.
—Clack.
At that moment, the sound of a window closing came from nearby.
It was the sound coming from the first-floor entrance area.
‘Did someone fall for it?’
Someone had definitely heard, but she couldn’t be sure it was Lisa.
“And I also need to apologize to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince that I almost couldn’t come because the letter wasn’t delivered to me on time. Mis-sorting a letter with the Imperial Seal could lead to a huge mistake.”
“Hmm.”
“Fortunately, Father received it, but if he hadn’t, I would have committed disrespect by ignoring the palace’s invitation, right? Ares, what do you think?”
“That’s true, but…”
Ares replied.
“Why do you keep talking toward a window of someone else’s room?”
“Huh?”
Aveline turned her head and saw that, just as Ares said, she was standing right in front of a first-floor window of the servants’ residence.
‘When did I get this close?’
She had tried to keep a decent distance, but she must have failed to control her position while focusing on talking.
“Ahem.”
Why did the window have to be this close?
Aveline was a little embarrassed, but since she was already close, she decided to peek at the window.
‘I think I see something?’
Beneath the window frame, she could see something like the frills that maids wear on their heads.
‘Aha!’
Someone must have been hiding and straining their ears to listen.
Aveline stepped back and checked the position again.
The place where Aveline had once come to get fresh-baked cookies from Emma was not far from here.
‘At the time, Emma said her room was the second one from the entrance on the first floor.’
One, two.
Coincidentally, the window in front of Aveline was also the second one from the entrance.
This meant the person squatting down beneath the window, listening to Aveline and Ares’s conversation, was either Emma or Lisa.
However, the hair color glimpsed beneath the frills was not brown, so it wasn’t Emma.
Then…
—Thud!
“Aaaah!”
Aveline didn’t hesitate and immediately yanked the window wide open.
At the same time, the maid hiding beneath the window tumbled backward in surprise.
She was a young-looking maid with large, round glasses and thick, curly green hair.
“O-oh, Miss!”
As soon as the maid saw Aveline, she bowed down low to the ground.
‘This must be Lisa.’
The only person who would be in Emma’s room was her roommate, Lisa.
‘But she looks younger than I thought.’
No matter how old she was, she didn’t look like she was even twenty yet.
“Did you hear everything?”
“Yes, yes?”
“The things I just said.”
The maid, presumed to be Lisa, was clearly flustered by Aveline’s question.
“I didn’t try to listen, it was j-just loud!”
“You’re Lisa, right?”
“How did you know that…?”
Lisa gaped, surprised.
“Emma, who I’m close with, uses this room. So the only person in this room would be her roommate, right?”
“T-to be close with a maid… to know about the roommate too…”
Lisa muttered distractedly, shocked by Aveline’s words.
‘Is that shocking?’
If they saw and talked to each other often and played together, wasn’t that being close?
Besides, Aveline had been confined to the mansion for the past few years, so she couldn’t help but be around the servants more often than other noble young ladies.
“Ahem. Anyway, Emma mentioned that you are in charge of letters, correct?”
“H-how did you know that too!”
Lisa raised her head in surprise again.
When her eyes met Aveline’s, she quickly bowed down again.
“You’ve been working for about four years, haven’t you?”
“Heek!”
Lisa flinched in surprise with every word Aveline spoke, making Aveline feel like a talented fortune teller.
“You look young; how old were you when you started working?”
“T-twelve years old.”
Not only Aveline but also Ares beside her were surprised by Lisa’s answer.
That means she is only sixteen now?
“At such a young age?”
“I-I am the head of the household, so…”
Oh, she had such a sad story.
‘Does that mean this might just be a lack of experience due to her young age?’
Aveline had initially suspected that someone had put Lisa up to it, but after hearing that Lisa started working at the age of twelve, her heart began to soften slightly.
“…Is the work manageable?”
“T-to even ask about that!”
Lisa once again flinched and ducked her head.
“If you’ve done it for four years, it should be completely routine by now.”
At that moment, Ares, who had been quietly watching, cut in.
“Heek!”
Lisa’s shoulders twitched even more when Ares, who had been silent, finally spoke.
“You almost went soft, didn’t you? After hearing she started at a young age.”
“…N-no?”
Aveline, whose secret was revealed, shook her head awkwardly.
“Is that so? Then why did your face suddenly become so kind when you were just questioning her? Today’s letter incident is a big mistake. Even though Father received it, the Crown Prince sent it to you, so you should have received it.”
Ares pointed out the facts.
“That’s true.”
Thanks to him, Aveline quickly regained her composure.
“I almost became too generous. It’s not the time for that yet.”
“H-heek.”
Lisa gasped again when Aveline came back to her senses.
“Ares is right. I will mention today’s incident to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. Because, due to you mis-sorting the letter, I didn’t receive it in time, and I will be slightly late for his invitation.”
“B-but!”
Lisa cried out, sounding wronged by Aveline’s words.
“You d-did receive the delivery properly! I-I tried my best!”
“What’s the use if it didn’t reach my hands?”
“I t-thought delivering it to the Count was the quickest way…”
“Hmm.”
Aveline’s eyes narrowed at Lisa’s words.
“So you’re saying that you intentionally diverted the letter meant for me to Father?”
“Heek!”
At Aveline’s observation, Lisa bowed even lower.
‘She’s practically touching the floor.’
A small head could be seen trembling violently.
‘She seems very easily scared, yet her actions are so audacious.’
The balance felt off.
If she hadn’t often meddled with letters, she wouldn’t have been bold enough to interfere with an invitation from the palace like today.
“This isn’t your first time, is it?”
“Yes, yes?”
Lisa raised her head blankly at Aveline’s question.
“I don’t understand what you mean…”
“I mean stealing the letters meant for me all this time.”
“I don’t know…”
“All the letters addressed to me stopped coming after you arrived at the mansion. And only on the one day you took a break did a letter reach me normally—the day Emma covered for your work.”
“…”
When Aveline laid out the evidence, Lisa’s mouth clamped shut.
“Well, since there weren’t many letters coming to me anyway, no one suspected anything until now. Even I didn’t.”
“…”
“But Serbel has been sending letters every single day recently, right?”
“…!”
Lisa’s eyes, visible beyond her large, round glasses, flickered nervously.
“Those letters were also delivered to me only on the days you were absent. Isn’t that strange?”
“…”
Lisa’s face was colored with terror as she could no longer find an excuse.
“What? Is that true?”
Ares cut in as soon as Aveline finished speaking.
“You dared to interfere with letters entering the mansion? We need to tell Father and have you sent away from the estate.”
Ares spoke coldly and turned as if to immediately head back into the mansion.
“P-please spare me!”
Seeing Ares’s firm demeanor, Lisa fell to her knees and clasped her hands together, begging.
“M-my siblings are in the orphanage, I-I only did what I was told!”
Then she began to voluntarily confess.
“Because of my mother’s dying wish that I take responsibility for my siblings… Huk, I-I apologize!”
This side of the story also seemed quite complicated.
However.
‘Still, a mistake is a mistake.’
Although it was sad that she became the head of her household at a young age, the isolation Aveline had felt for the past four years due to Lisa’s wrongdoing could not be compensated.
“How far did you go with this?”
Ares, who had stopped on his way into the mansion, asked.
“Now that you mention it, I felt things were strange recently. The love letters flying my way haven’t been showing up lately, either.”
“…”
“I’ll ask you now. Did you, by any chance, meddle with my letters too?”
Ares, who had returned, folded his arms and put on an arrogant expression.
“If you presumed to interfere simply because you thought I might be tired of love letters now…”
“N-no, I didn’t!”
Lisa’s face went pale, and she shut her eyes tightly, interrupting Ares.
“I didn’t touch any of the letters sent to the Young Master!”
