Episode 5
The ducal family’s treasured ring had disappeared!
The sunroom was sealed at once, and every servant in the mansion was summoned.
Tiseriel was crying in a way that looked pitiful to anyone who saw her.
“W-What do I do…? What should I do…? Sob…”
Even in the middle of all the chaos, some of the young noble boys were impressed.
‘A pretty and kind girl really does look that beautiful and helpless even when she cries.’
The nanny hugged the lady, who was delicately dabbing at her tears with a handkerchief.
While resting in her arms, Tiseriel gave orders with her expression and gestures.
The nanny, who had raised Tiseriel since she was a baby, understood her perfectly.
“Don’t worry, my little lady! I’ll get your treasure back for you!”
The nanny called in the head butler.
Normally, the head butler outranked the nanny.
But the nanny acted as if she were stepping in on behalf of her kind young lady, and tried to order the butler around like he was beneath her.
“How exactly have you been managing this house? All the magic lamps went out, and now there’s even a thief who stole my lady’s ring! What are you going to do about this?”
“…We will search the sunroom and all the servants immediately.”
The butler’s face twisted, but he could not ignore the will of the lady in the nanny’s arms.
Just then, the eyes of Tiseriel, who had only been crying pitifully, briefly turned toward Tii, who was sitting on the floor.
The nanny quickly noticed and pointed at Tii as she asked,
“What about that low creature?”
“What?”
“That low creature should be searched first! She went near my lady before the lights went out!”
This time too, Tiseriel supported the nanny’s accusation just by crying helplessly.
In the end, Tii was searched first.
She was not even allowed to move to a room for the search. The nanny insisted strongly on that.
“Strip her here. So she can’t try any tricks!”
At least the butler had enough sense to bring curtains and tell them to search her behind those.
The nanny even followed inside the curtains to watch.
But—
“Didn’t you see? There’s nothing.”
“What? That’s impossible! Show me everything that little rat is carrying!”
All the maids who searched her could place before the nanny was a filthy rag.
It was blackened from cleaning the sunroom all night and smelled of lye.
The nanny frowned and threw it away.
Amid the flustered nanny and Tiseriel, and the frowning guests,
the young girl called Tii kept her head lowered pitifully.
No one noticed the secret smile at the corner of her mouth.
Even if nothing else, searching a young girl’s body in front of everyone was cruel.
Even the noblewomen nearby frowned at it.
“No matter what, this is too much. She looks like the youngest maid.”
“At that age, shouldn’t she just be starting to learn maid work? To go this far…”
“Just because the mistress is young, does that nanny think she can do anything she wants…?”
The butler noticed the mood around them and tried to distract Tiseriel.
“We will now search the inside of the sunroom and the servants present here. Please permit it, my lady.”
“…Do it.”
The full search began.
Tii had to be searched a second time too. Of course, that was because of the nanny’s orders.
And of course, nothing was found on her the second time either.
The problem was that nothing was found in the sunroom or on the other servants either.
The guests’ dissatisfaction began to grow.
“It’s already dawn. I’m tired.”
“Mother, I want to go home.”
“My poor daughter.”
“If they searched this much and still found nothing, maybe it was lost somewhere else? Maybe the lady was mistaken about something…”
“But it’s true that the ring was on the lady’s table before the lights went out.”
“No matter how precious the ring is, how can they keep all the guests trapped like this…?”
And because the star of this tea party was the young Tiseriel, many of the guests were children too.
Since it was so late, more and more people were getting exhausted.
“My lady. Perhaps we should send the guests home first, and then continue…”
At the butler’s advice, Tiseriel’s face turned pale. Beside her, the nanny jumped up.
“No! Do you even know what kind of ring that is?!”
Just then—
Thunk!
The sound of metal striking marble rang out.
At the same time, the voice of a middle-aged woman, cold and edged like steel, was heard.
“She’s right. Of all things, it is the Lady’s Ring!”
The wall of servants opened like a curtain, and a middle-aged woman in a white fur coat, leaning on a cane, walked in. The splendid military uniform beneath the coat looked unusual.
She was Countess Danika Sellos, Tiseriel’s biological mother.
She was the niece of the late former Duke of Atherion, and also the cousin of the former Lady of Atherion.
At present, she was acting in place of the duke as Tiseriel’s guardian.
“We cannot simply let go a thief who dared to steal the lady’s treasure from the great Atherion mansion!”
A wave of murmuring spread everywhere.
“Wait, is she saying she’s sure one of us is the thief?”
“That’s ridiculous. There’s no proof!”
“We never even went near the lady!”
“The same goes for me and my daughter!”
Even faced with the guests’ protests, Danika did not move an eyebrow.
“Search the guests as well.”
Naturally, the backlash was fierce.
“This is outrageous rudeness!”
“Are you treating us the same as maids and servants?!”
“If anyone lays a hand on me or my daughter, I will make a formal complaint!”
Thunk!
Danika struck the floor with her cane and spoke coldly.
“The Lady’s Ring is one of the heirlooms of the Atherion ducal house. It is the symbol of the direct daughter of Atherion! It has disappeared. As the lady’s guardian, how could I possibly sit still?”
A viscountess tried to protest.
“But we are not thieves!”
“If you are not thieves, then you should be even more willing to cooperate!”
When Danika struck the floor again with her cane, servants approached the viscountess.
“Don’t touch me! If you lay a hand on me, I’ll make this public! This is unbelievable humiliation!”
“…Which family do you belong to?”
“She is Viscountess Milan!”
“Then shall I take it that the Milan viscount family is disregarding the authority of the Atherion ducal house?”
“…What?”
The viscountess’s face went white.
The situation had been so unreasonable that she had spoken in anger, but she had not expected it to become a matter of openly challenging ducal authority.
“Answer me. Shall I tell Viscount Milan that you insulted the Atherion ducal house?”
“Th-That…”
The previously bold viscountess immediately faltered.
Just as Danika said, there was no one here who could openly stand against the authority of the Atherion ducal house.
To begin with, this tea party had gathered people who wanted a maid position near the lady or hoped to make an impression.
They were all middling nobles hoping to cling to Atherion power and influence.
In the end, even the invited guests had to undergo body searches.
Tiseriel whimpered in Danika’s arms.
“What do I do, Aunt? I lost such a precious ring. What should I do?”
“Don’t worry, my little lady. I will definitely find it for you.”
In truth, they were mother and daughter, but officially they pretended to be aunt and niece.
Because Tiseriel was officially “Stacia Atherion.”
And despite Danika’s confidence, once again, nothing was found.
Even Danika could not keep the noble guests there forever after even searching their bodies.
Only around daybreak were the guests finally able to leave the mansion, all with displeased expressions.
“What was all that? In the end, they found nothing!”
“It was my first time ever being searched like that! This isn’t even the imperial palace!”
“No, even in the imperial palace it wouldn’t be like this!”
“This is absurd… That woman acts like she’s the real duke.”
“Isn’t that a famous rumor? That Countess Sellos was terribly jealous of the former Lady of Atherion.”
“Ah, I heard that too. They were even rivals in love…”
“Shh! Someone might hear you!”
They lowered their voices and whispered nasty gossip.
But no one would be able to complain officially.
All that had happened was that more secret bad rumors were added about the proud acting ruler of the Atherion house.
***
That night.
In the darkness of the attic, I was smiling, my face flushed with excitement.
On my palm lay a ring set with a blue glowing jewel.
Of course, it was the Lady’s Ring.
‘Success!’
I had taken back my mother’s keepsake.
At last, I had stolen something back from Tiseriel.
And not just anything—
the most important thing of all.
