Chapter 14
Cecil stuck her tongue out cutely and smiled.
“Head Chef Hans did all the hard parts, Your Grace.”
“……”
“Aren’t you going to try it? Please, just one bite. Just one!”
After their last meeting, Cecil had realized that the Duke responded better to her acting more like a child than being overly polite or mature. So now, she spoke to him in a playfully coaxing tone.
As Cecil urged him, the Duke finally gave in and picked up a canapé, placing it in his mouth.
“Everyone, please help yourselves too.”
At her invitation, the organization members eagerly reached for the food.
“Wow! This is amazing!”
“Incredible!”
The members, who had been intimidated after being scolded by Duke Bartholomew, quickly regained their spirits and began chatting loudly again.
“If food tasted like this every day, I’d be in heaven!”
“What’s this sauce? It’s so savory!”
“You’re telling me that little girl—no, Her Highness made this?”
Duke Bartholomew spoke with a calm expression.
“Address her as Miss Cecil.”
“Yes, Boss!”
As the rowdy members devoured the food, Cecil thought to herself:
‘Of course it tastes good. I used plenty of premium ingredients, including my secret sauce, and waited until they were at their hungriest to serve it. Hmm… even so, their reaction is a bit more over-the-top than I expected.’
Just like the first time they met her, the organization members were now once again making a huge fuss.
It was a complete contrast to the hostile atmosphere she had faced in her past life.
“Thank you all for enjoying the food. It makes the effort worth it. You always work so hard, and I really appreciate it!”
Cecil flashed a perfectly calculated smile. Her eyes curved like crescent moons, and the deep dimples in her cheeks were enough to make anyone’s heart ache from how lovely she looked.
The members seemed deeply touched.
Delicious food after long hours of grueling meetings with no time to eat—plus a kind, uplifting comment just when they’d been scolded and felt down.
Especially words like “You work so hard”—something a member of a crime syndicate would rarely ever hear.
Living under a terrifying boss, these people had their own burdens. It was inevitable that her words would strike a chord.
Among the slightly embarrassed members, one man showed an unusually emotional response.
“Sniff… Miss… earlier, I didn’t mean to scare you. I just wanted to say hi, but it kind of turned into that… I’m really sorry!”
A man with a red mohawk and a bump on the back of his head sniffled, moved to tears.
A skeleton-faced colleague handed him a handkerchief, and he blew his nose into it loudly.
Cecil knew who he was very well.
He was like a hunting dog—once he sank his teeth into prey, he never let go. One of the two always ended up nearly dead before the fight ended.
Cecil had never lost to him, but his persistence and cruelty made every battle with him exhausting.
Every time his vicious kukri glinted under the moonlight, her heart would sink in terror.
‘…To think he had this kind of side to him.’
Even someone like Cecil, who had seen it all, was genuinely shocked to witness this fearsome enemy sniveling and apologizing.
Then her eyes met the Duke’s.
“Your Grace, what do you think? Did you enjoy it too?”
Duke Bartholomew hesitated for a moment, then spoke in a low voice.
“……Yes. It is good.”
“Whoa! The boss gave a compliment! A compliment!”
“This can’t be happening!”
“Is the world ending tomorrow?!”
The Duke shot them a sharp glare, and the rowdy members immediately quieted down, pretending innocence.
Either way, the task was complete. It was time to leave so they wouldn’t interfere with work any further.
Cecil and Hans bid farewell and exited the office.
As the door closed, Cecil let out a quiet sigh of relief without realizing it.
Strangely enough, the same sound came from beside her—Hans had sighed at the exact same time.
“That was… really nerve-wracking.”
Hans spoke first as their eyes met.
“And chaotic too,” Cecil added.
Hans nodded in agreement.
‘I thought of the organization as nothing but ruthless monsters, but maybe they’re not entirely like that.’
Before her regression, the group had a fearsome reputation. They were instrumental in earning Duke Bartholomew the infamous title “Father of Crime.”
She had suffered terribly at their hands and had never intended to get involved with them again.
But after what she saw today, she realized dealing with them might not be as difficult as she’d thought.
‘My goal is to get close to the Duke and build rapport, but his defenses are way too strong… Maybe it’s easier to win over the people around him first.’
While the members feared the Duke, she sensed a strange casualness in how they interacted with him.
‘To get close to the Duke, I should probably win over the organization members as quickly as possible.’
Cecil made up her mind.
But at that moment—
“Miss Cecil, and Head Chef Hans.”
Unexpected visitors approached them. Cecil recognized one of them instantly and felt a wave of relief.
“Isaac? What’s going on?”
But something was off. The always-smiling Isaac looked uncharacteristically serious.
Behind him stood several large, strong-looking attendants.
Sensing the tension, Cecil closed her mouth and carefully observed the situation.
Isaac glanced at her and gave a slight smile, as if to reassure her. But his expression turned cold when he looked at Hans.
“Chef Hans, you’ll need to come with us. Please also cooperate with the account books inspection.”
“O-of course, if that’s your instruction, Steward. But… may I ask what this is about?”
Hans asked, visibly confused.
“You’re familiar with the company ‘Schwarman Grocery,’ aren’t you?”
“Of course. It’s the primary supplier of ingredients to the kitchen.”
“There has been a case of embezzlement involving illegal kickbacks in collusion with Schwarman Grocery. Testimony and evidence from employees of the company identify you as the embezzler.”
“W-what?!”
Gasps of shock echoed around them.
The corridor was filled with passing staff.
In an instant, all eyes turned toward Hans—some shocked, others full of contempt. Hans turned pale and shook his hands desperately.
“T-there must be some mistake, Steward! Embezzlement? I swear on everything—I would never even imagine doing such a thing…!”
“Where I come from, fraud and lies are daily fare, and anyone remotely naive becomes prey. I don’t believe in verbal oaths.”
Isaac cut him off coldly. His expression and tone were icy beyond belief.
Cecil was suddenly reminded of her memories before the regression—the ruthless way Isaac had treated her, a dark sorceress.
His eyes, like frozen flames, weren’t even directed at her, yet her hands and feet went cold as if she’d been transported back in time.
‘From the look of it, he’s already convinced Hans is guilty.’
Cecil couldn’t just stand by and watch.
She reached out and tugged on Isaac’s pants hem.
“Isaac, as a guest of this household and someone who’s spent the whole day with Hans, may I say something?”
Isaac paused.
Normally, no one would seriously listen to an eight-year-old in an embezzlement case.
But Isaac already knew Cecil wasn’t an ordinary eight-year-old, and he owed her a lot in various ways.
“If it’s you, Miss, I’m always willing to listen.”
Isaac gave her a gentle smile, as if all his harshness moments earlier had been a lie.
Cecil met his eyes and spoke with a firm, convincing tone.
“I don’t know what kind of evidence you have, so I’ll be careful with my words—but I’d like you to consider that Hans stayed loyal to the ducal household for two years, even through difficult times. If he were the kind of person to commit embezzlement, I don’t think he would’ve stayed in a struggling household for that long.”
She didn’t say things like “Hans is a good person” or try to appeal to emotion or kindness.
Cecil, too, had grown up in the “underworld,” just like Isaac.
She knew very well how someone like him thought. Appeals based on baseless goodwill would only backfire with someone like him.
