Chapter 72
At the appearance of an unexpected person, I could only blink.
“Who… are you?”
“She is a newly arrived maid.”
“It was found that quickly?”
They made it sound like it would take several days, yet they brought someone back this fast.
“After growing up together with the children, too…”
Isn’t this just a total scam? He spoke as if he’d be considerate of everything. A vague sense of disappointment washed over me. As if noticing how I felt, Rex hurriedly opened his mouth.
“His Grace the Grand Duke asked me to add a word in case there might be a misunderstanding. Since she is not yet a maid he has acknowledged, he said you should live without discomfort.”
“…Huh?”
He had said to grow alongside the children until the maid he acknowledged arrived. I silently looked at Rex. Perhaps sensing my bewildered gaze, he awkwardly introduced the maid beside him.
“Liren. A maid introduced by the High Priestess. She is still lacking in her training, but the High Priestess said she is someone trustworthy, so she asked that we bring her here immediately and be sure to convey that to you.”
“Someone sent from the temple?”
I didn’t expect them to send someone so openly.
“Nice to meet you, Aisha-nim.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Aisha.”
“Yes. I will do my utmost. If there is anything that makes you uncomfortable, please tell me at any time.”
Even her gaze was fundamentally different from the maids here. The expression of someone who genuinely wished to serve me. Children are unusually sensitive to such emotions—whether someone likes them or dislikes them.
At the very least, she was different from everyone else I’d met so far.
“Yes!”
“Then, since it’s late at night, I will take my leave.”
Perhaps worried that even staying here too long as a knight might give rise to rumors, Rex hurriedly said his goodbyes.
“Take care!”
“Yes. I will look into the item you mentioned as thoroughly as possible.”
Only after nodding did Rex leave.
“Shall I prepare things so you can go straight to sleep?”
“Before that… are you really someone the High Priestess sent?”
I stared intently at Liren. I was worried that someone else might have come while claiming to have been sent by the High Priestess.
“Yes. There is no one who would dare use the High Priestess’s name falsely.”
Liren let out a small laugh and nodded. That was true. Just the fact that she mentioned the High Priestess’s name, not merely the temple, said enough.
No matter that the High Priestess was currently unable to move without others’ help—she was still the High Priestess. There were still many who followed her. She herself was the very symbol of the temple.
“Right…?”
“Yes. And I’ve also heard that Aisha-nim, who stands before me, is a special person.”
She smiled softly and bowed toward me.
“Not only while you are here, but when you later go to the temple, and even after that, I will serve you with all my heart.”
“Ah…”
So she already knew that I would become the next High Priestess. I smiled awkwardly at her.
“Yes… Ah, I—I have a favor to ask!”
Thinking about it made me sad. The very idea of having to part from the twins. But if there is something to lose, there is also something to gain. For the twins’ future, it would be right for me to become the High Priestess. The god even turned time back for me.
“A favor?”
“Yes. Before that, please greet Rohen and Lari!”
After looking at her, I quickly moved toward the bedroom. Ever since Lari collapsed, Rohen had been almost constantly glued to her side. He was still clingy toward me, but for Rohen, Lari came first.
As if to show that, Rohen’s expression stiffened at the visit of a stranger.
“What is it. Who’s that person.”
“She’s a new maid the High Priestess sent.”
“The High Priestess? Why is that person being so nice to us?”
Rohen, now sensing something strange himself, was wary of her.
“Because the god is benevolent, and the High Priestess who conveys His will is also benevolent.”
“They say there’s no such thing as someone being nice for no reason.”
It was the petulant remark of a child, something that could have been uncomfortable to hear, but Liren only smiled.
“Young Master. If my presence burdens you, please tell me at any time. I am merely someone who came to serve the three of you comfortably, not to make you uncomfortable. I can stand quietly and do nothing until you feel at ease.”
“I’m not… it’s not like I’m punishing you or anything. That’s not what I meant… it just feels strange, that’s all.”
Rohen, who had always been far more guarded, wasn’t quite that bad anymore. He still grumbled, trying to protect Lari, but that was all.
“Anyway! This is Liren, who was introduced by the High Priestess and came here as a maid. You know who we are, right?”
“Yes. There is no way I wouldn’t know the Young Master, the Young Lady, and Aisha-nim.”
Looking at her, I held out the doll we had set aside.
“Then please take this.”
“What is this?”
“The favor I mentioned earlier. There’s something strange inside the stuffing of the doll. Please find out what it is.”
“Ah. Yes, I understand.”
She nodded without any sign of reluctance.
With this, I had entrusted both of them with the investigation. Now all I had to do was wait for them to bring back the results, while doing what I could investigate myself.
“Then, is there anything else you need?”
“No. I think you can go for today.”
At those words, she bowed her head deeply and left.
“Is she trustworthy?”
“Well… for now?”
“Mm… Aisha. When will Lari wake up? Since we cleared away all the dolls, won’t there be some kind of reaction?”
“It seems complicated. It probably wasn’t just one doll that put Lari to sleep. And given the current situation, with all of the Duchess’s limbs cut off… they’ll show some kind of next reaction.”
After looking at Lari, I climbed onto the bed.
“Let’s sleep for now. I’m a bit tired.”
“Yeah. Let’s sleep.”
Rohen simply sat on a chair, watching me lie down facing Lari.
“Rohen, aren’t you sleeping?”
“I’ll guard. I don’t want anyone… to get hurt anymore.”
“How are you going to guard us?”
“Just… I don’t know. Still, I’ll guard.”
At those ordinary words—so typical of a child his age, saying he would protect everyone—I nodded, then drifted off to sleep. I could hear Rohen muttering to himself now and then, as if truly guarding us, but out of exhaustion I couldn’t properly make out his words and fell into dreams like that.
The next day. It seemed Rohen had also fallen asleep at some point, as he was now leaning against the bed, asleep.
Feeling both sorry for him and finding him adorable, I was stroking his hair when—
“That won’t do.”
Suddenly, it became noisy outside.
The person saying it seemed to be trying to keep some restraint, speaking quietly, but the others raised their voices even louder.
In the end, as soon as I woke up, I went outside.
“What’s going on?”
Only after seeing the scene before my eyes did I realize, belatedly, why the High Priestess had deliberately sent her openly under her own name. Because she knew how the twins were living in the grand ducal household, and how I was living here—it seemed she intended for her name to be used as a shield.
A way to make others hesitate, knowing the High Priestess was backing us.
“There’s no need to worry, Aisha-nim. I will stop them.”
The Duchess’s maids were trying by any means to enter the bedroom. Liren stood in their way, firmly shaking her head. Because Liren was blocking them, they couldn’t force their way in, but the Duchess’s maids looked impatient, like people desperate to catch my eye.
If it weren’t for Liren, they would have barged straight into the bedroom as they were.
“What is there to block? This is the grand ducal household. Even if you were sent by the High Priestess, there’s no reason for you to block us, is there?”
“What do you mean there’s no reason? Do people normally just barge into a room like this?”
“Pardon?”
“I never said you could come in. This isn’t even my room—it’s the room of the Young Lady and Young Master of the Grand Duke, you know?”
“Th-That’s why we only brought food.”
That must have been the excuse they came up with. I gave a small laugh as I looked at them.
While the meals hadn’t been bad usually, they were holding silver trays piled with food so appetizing it made one’s eyes spin, trying to enter.
“I never said I wanted to eat.”
“But you should eat something delicious.”
“I don’t know. What I find harder to understand is why you, who barged into the room of the Young Master and Young Lady, are doing this at all. What grounds do people who were cut down here before have to act like this?”
In the meantime, Rex, who had been fidgeting anxiously in front of the room trying to block them, also stepped inside.
‘So they have to be inside this room no matter what.’
What could be here? Next time, I should probably just clear out all the dolls entirely.
“That matter is…”
“Rex. Since Rohen and Lari are uncomfortable, please don’t let anyone else in. Ah, except for the physician Her Grace the Duchess mentioned.”
“Yes, understood. You heard her.”
“No, but this room belongs to the Young Master and Young Lady, so why—!”
Those who were already unruly seemed to have decided to be even more so, voicing their complaints. At that moment, Rohen, who had been asleep, came outside.
“Aisha’s thoughts are our thoughts. If Aisha says that’s what we’re doing, then that’s what we’re doing—so don’t argue.”
At those words, the maid who had been speaking just moments ago hurriedly retreated.
