Chapter 39
At that moment, Eva slapped my hand away.
It stung, but not enough to cry about.
Her face didn’t look particularly emotional either.
“Forgive me. Since the young lady, who doesn’t know better, was about to touch such a precious heirloom, I feared you might damage it.”
I hadn’t touched it. I hadn’t even thought of touching it. Anyone could see I was only pointing from afar.
But adults and children’s words are always different.
And the credibility of those words being accepted is different too.
“…Sorry. I guess I was just curious.”
Rubbing the faintly reddened back of my hand, I obediently apologized.
And just as she wanted, I acted like an innocent, rustic country child.
“Wow, but this place really has everything, doesn’t it? Amazing! There are such beautiful swords, and rubies bigger than my fist…”
Her eyes stared down at me, pretending to be polite but actually condescending.
I smiled brightly at that unpleasant gaze and added—
“And even an auntie acting like a mother-in-law when she isn’t one.”
A suffocating silence. And then her failure to keep her expression in check.
In that instant, I witnessed her face twist wretchedly—and my smile grew even brighter.
“Found it?”
“Yeah.”
At Levi’s voice, Eva flinched and quickly returned to her usual self—a calm and proper head maid.
It all happened in a flash.
I, too, greeted Levi as if nothing had happened.
As he approached, Levi personally tied the strings on my coat.
And naturally, he noticed the back of my hand.
“You’re hurt?”
Of course he asked with a stiff face.
I glanced at Eva on purpose.
“Ah… it’s nothing.”
“It’s swollen.”
“Forget that. Carry me. My calves hurt, please?”
I whined like a child, leaving him no room to press further. He bent down to give me his back.
While I stuck my tongue out at Eva. Once was hard, but twice was easy—and again, I got to see her face crumble apart.
Pathetic.
I snorted and climbed onto Levi’s back.
Eva never followed us out of the annex. Not for a long while.
‘The more I think about it… sure, the idea could be childish. But the actual execution? That takes a strangely big scale, doesn’t it?’
Switching bathwater the servants carried, obtaining dangerous oil to pour, stripping waterproof coating off shoes?
Realistically, the only thing a nine-year-old could pull off alone would be throwing a dead mouse around.
As Levi carried me on his back, I kept remembering that sharp voice screaming innocence.
In the end, nobody had believed him.
‘That’s the biggest problem—his reputation in the household is already rock bottom.’
When the incidents happened, not a single person reacted with, “Our young master would never go that far.”
That kind of atmosphere must have been Franz’s fault too, but Eva definitely helped shape it.
It’s always easy for an adult to make a child into either the village idiot or the public enemy.
“Still, you shouldn’t have gone along with it.”
“…Huh?”
He mumbled through squished cheeks as I pinched him, and I chuckled.
Cute.
I withdrew my hand from attacking his face and explained carefully, like teaching a child.
“He’s your little brother. You’re the elder. You should’ve believed him at least once.”
“…”
“Of course, choosing your wife first was admirable. Keep doing that.”
So what was the point?
I ruffled his round head that looked troubled and sorted out my own thoughts.
Wolfgang wouldn’t arrive for a few more days, and even then, there was no guarantee he’d solve everything.
Who would he believe more?
The long-serving head maid who had earned his trust enough to look after his child? Or the cheeky child bride claiming she was being cleverly bullied?
Maybe it wouldn’t even reach Wolfgang.
I sighed and pressed my forehead into Levi’s back.
“Levi, you like Eva, don’t you?”
“No.”
“…Wait, what?”
Really?
Yes, really. Levi never lied, and I could feel his indifference toward her.
So what was all my cautious scheming for?
I had been afraid to mention, “I suspect Eva,” in case it sounded like I was trying to sow discord—but apparently there was no need.
A petty truth, but a relief nonetheless.
As soon as I realized it, I held out my still-red hand.
“Hey, she hit me!”
Levi froze in the middle of the dark garden. Then slowly turned his face, his crimson-black eyes flashing. Nothing about him was gentle.
Yikes.
I quickly wrapped my arms around his neck before things got ugly.
“J-just let it go! Please, be good…!”
At once, the murderous aura leaked out of him and disappeared.
He really was like January. In her pack, whenever she got too sharp as the protector, April would cling to her neck and calm her down. Did they both have some kind of button there?
Shoving stray thoughts aside, I focused on the important issue.
“B-but still, I thought you cared about Eva. You gave her special treatment.”
“…Not me.”
“Then?”
“Franz cares about her.”
Brothers are brothers, even if clumsy, even if not overt.
I stared at Levi’s hair swaying as he resumed walking, making sure I wasn’t cold.
How could I explain?
That very Franz might be Eva’s biggest victim. That some affections are actually poison.
As he set me carefully on the sofa in my room, I hesitated, then asked:
“Hey, Levi. How much do you trust me?”
He tilted his head as if the question made no sense.
Maybe it was too abstract.
For example—
“What if I said airplanes are real. Would you believe me?”
“Yes.”
That was too fast.
I narrowed my eyes, suspicious if he had even thought about it.
“…Even if I said something heretical?”
“Yeah.”
“Then, what if…”
What if I said this world was a book, and I knew the future?
I clenched and unclenched my fists, and Levi took one in his hand.
“I’d believe you.”
“…”
“If it’s you saying it.”
And then, like a promise, he hooked his pinky with mine.
I burst out laughing like air from a balloon.
This kid. He’s been trained too well.
I squeezed his calloused finger tightly.
“…Really?”
“Yeah.”
“If you don’t, I’ll divorce you.”
Levi paused, then nodded heavily.
Not so much to me, but as if vowing to himself. I’ll believe her no matter what, forever.
What was that nod worth?
I didn’t know. But strangely, it felt like all my problems were solved just by it.
So I whispered carefully—
“I think it’s Eva.”
“What is?”
“Everything. Except the mouse.”
Levi’s eyes sharpened with realization.
I quickly squeezed his hand before he could overreact.
“But we don’t have proof.”
“Even without—”
“No. We must have proof.”
Only then could we crush her completely.
Besides, the discipline of the household was fragile.
If a head maid got punished just on the word of a child bride like me, the servants’ backlash could be catastrophic.
Honestly, I hadn’t seen Eva commit the acts with my own eyes.
But when, where, and how should I catch her?
A crime caught red-handed was always the best.
A net.
A fish enraged by bait might thrash—but eventually it would fall into the net.
Heh. Just imagining it made my mouth water.
“…Levi.”
And nets are better when cast together.
“This will be our first outing as a husband-and-wife con team!”
The Next Morning
The outside was noisy unusually early.
I was dead tired, having stayed up all night talking with Levi.
As I rubbed my eyes, Betty came into the room.
“Betty, what’s going on?”
“Well… one of the annex heirlooms has gone missing.”
“Ah, Eva then.”
“…Pardon?”
“Nothing.”
But really—it was Eva.
Not unexpected.
Actually, it was welcome. My bait—ointment, keys, all of it—was finally paying off.
I forced my expression to stay calm.
“What exactly is missing?”
“A ruby said to have been the twelfth head’s betrothal gift.”
Oh, that one bigger than my fist. Pretty. Looked expensive.
I nodded nonchalantly and asked,
“That’s terrible. So what now?”
“I don’t think it was a thief, nor does it seem like an inside job. Still, they’ll search…”
“Then they’ll search my room first.”
I muttered under my breath, then gestured at Betty.
“Betty, go tell Levi.”
“…Tell him what?”
“That the operation has started.”
Before Betty could even ask what I meant—
Knock knock.
“Excuse us.”
Without waiting for a reply, servants barged into the room in a swarm.
Even quiet Betty looked ready to explode at such rudeness.
“How dare you—!”
“Betty.”
I gave her a look, and she swallowed her anger and ran outside.
Meanwhile, the intruders stood triumphant, with a crowd of confused onlookers filling the hallway.
Eva had clearly dragged them all here to make a public spectacle.
She stood forward now, sheepish in her sheep’s clothing, pretending calm.
I clutched my chest theatrically.
“Goodness, what’s happening?”
“We’ve come to see you, the prime suspect of an unfortunate incident.”
So smug. Disgustingly so.
I swallowed the bile rising in my throat and put on my clearest smile.
“Unfortunate? Suspect? Sounds delicious.”
“….”
“You all came to play with me and Asha, right?”
If anyone here was wearing sheep’s wool, I was the whitest, purest lamb of all.
At my innocent—or idiotic—remarks, the tension in the air deflated.
A few servants who had only come along out of curiosity left muttering, “Ha, as expected.”
Eva’s cold glare burned into me. And then she spoke:
“Search.”
Whoa—I thought she meant kill me.
Thankfully, the servants brushed past me and began rummaging through my room.
All unfamiliar faces.
They were the ones who avoided me, mostly servants working upstairs.
‘So Eva isn’t alone in this, huh.’
I had suspected as much from the dirty water and black cloth always turning up at just the right time.
Among them, one freckled maid moved with suspicious familiarity through my room.
I had never even seen her face before, let alone invited her here.
‘Could it be… even the fireplace Betty worried over, always going out, was her doing?’
As I nurtured this reasonable suspicion—
The freckled maid raised her hand, holding a blazing red ruby.
“Found it—!”
“Ah, I’ve been caught!”
