Chapter 68
“Pardon?”
“Rex. Is Rex the offspring of a filthy bloodline?”
“What??”
More flustered than the maids was Rex himself. Perhaps because unexpected words had burst out of my mouth, Rex did nothing but blink.
“That maid said it.”
At that moment, Rex’s gaze turned toward the maid.
“…What kind of things have you been going around saying to Lady Aisha?”
“I… I was just….”
“That’s enough. Why should you feel intimidated? It’s not like you said something untrue. It’s a fact.”
That was when it happened.
The maid who had been laughing the loudest jabbed the cowed maid in the side. The name of the loudest-laughing maid was Marie. The name of the cowed maid was Selfie.
“But….”
“What are you going to do if you glare at us like that? If you’re so unfairly treated, why don’t you argue back? We didn’t lie—we just told the truth. Is there anything wrong with that?”
Marie was nothing if not confident. All the maids in the ducal household were of noble birth. That was why, even when speaking to Rex—known to be from a baron’s family and in fact currently of baronial origin—they didn’t yield an inch.
“You people have not even a shred of manners.”
“Manners? We’re just being honest.”
Using honesty as a weapon to trample others. No—those women were deliberately looking down on Rex. Their expressions all but said, What are you going to do if you glare at us like that?
Honestly, whether they fought or not didn’t really matter. Power struggles among servants were commonplace, and it didn’t cause any problems in caring for the twins, so there was no particular reason for me to step in.
But I couldn’t stand that sight.
“Rex.”
I tugged on Rex’s arm.
“Let’s just go inside, Lady Aisha. I don’t think it’s necessary to talk to people like that.”
“Look at that—because they have nothing to say. Honestly, on top of having a lowly family, someone with that kind of birth being in the ducal household lowers its standing.”
“That’s why, instead of guarding the twins… they’re probably stuck guarding… well… someone like that.”
Now their contempt turned toward me. But perhaps because they knew well by now that I wasn’t someone to mess with, they trailed off mid-sentence when speaking to me. Though they didn’t say it outright, the fact that they looked at me when they used the words “someone like that” made their intent obvious.
“You people call yourselves maids of the ducal household….”
I tugged on Rex’s arm once more.
“Ha… it’s nothing, Lady Aisha. I’m sorry for raising my voice. Let’s go inside now. I got carried away….”
“No. Let’s go to His Grace the Duke, Rex.”
“What?”
“Rex, you’re good at reporting things, right? Let’s report this too while we’re at it. We can’t keep such ill-mannered people here.”
I looked at the maids, then shifted my gaze back to Rex.
“You want me to report everything to His Grace the Duke?”
“Yes. So let’s go together and tell him.”
Only then did the maids seem to grasp the seriousness of it, as they hurriedly called out to me.
“Lady Aisha?”
“You’re going to tell on us for what we said? But there’s really nothing worth reporting.”
Seeing how boldly they acted, I nodded.
“Yeah. I’m going to report it.”
“What are you going to say—‘The maids bullied Rex, waah, please scold them’—something like that?”
It seemed the maid who had been scolded because of me last time might be friends with Marie. Judging by how sharply she was treating me.
“No. If you can be so rude even to a knight sent by His Grace, what do you think you’ll be like with the children? That’s what I’m going to tell him.”
“Uh, well….”
Rex scratched his head hesitantly, as if he had something to say. Normally, he would have gone right away, so it felt strange that he was hemming and hawing today. Just as I was thinking that, the other maids filled in the gap for him.
“Why make such a big deal out of it? What we said to that knight was just talk among ourselves.”
The other maids stepped in belatedly, but I shook my head.
“Even if it doesn’t happen to me, I’m worried you might do the same to my kids. I can’t stand seeing that. It’s better to cut it off at the bud.”
“Cut it off…!”
“Marie. Apologize now, at least. ‘That person’ told us to keep our heads down and not cause trouble!”
“I don’t know. Why should I apologize? I didn’t say anything wrong. There’s no way this could become a problem.”
“Marie!”
Marie was right. In an ordinary situation, this would never become an issue. Gossip among maids—and what they said wasn’t wrong. But this wasn’t an ordinary situation.
“They say that, so let’s go.”
I pulled on Rex’s hand.
“I don’t think you need to go out of your way.”
“What?”
Why—was he trying to let it slide like this? If he didn’t do as I wished, I felt like I’d be a little disappointed. It was just as I was thinking that—
“It might become a problem.”
A sudden male voice. It was the Duke’s voice. At the most perfectly timed moment, the Duke appeared.
“Y-Your Grace.”
The maids noticed him first and hurriedly bowed their heads.
“It was so noisy that when I listened, it sounded like all sorts of things were being said.”
“Ah… well… we were just having a brief conversation among ourselves.”
“Yes. I see.”
The Duke slowly nodded. What—was it really going to end like this?
“What brings Your Grace here?”
“Have the ones called maids forgotten that I come here at the same time every day?”
At his sharp words, the maids were too busy exchanging glances among themselves.
“Ah… we know. But it seemed you came a little earlier than usual.”
“Must even I, a duke, report myself before coming? Is a mere maid daring to say such a thing to me?”
The maid who had spoken needlessly waved her hands frantically, her face drained of color.
“No, that’s not what I meant….”
“From now on, I’ll be sure to report beforehand. After all, I’m the duke—though I’m not sure whose household this is anymore. To think a mere servant could spout such nonsense to me.”
Even as he said he’d report himself, he twisted their words diligently, like a tightly braided pretzel.
Only then did the color drain completely from the maids’ faces.
“No, that’s not it. We just….”
“What isn’t it? Ah—are you saying I’m not the master of this household? Or that you aren’t mere servants?”
“That’s not it—we think you may have misunderstood what we said….”
“Oh? So my insides are so twisted that I even misunderstand now?”
Realizing that nothing they said would get through, the maids bowed deeply and apologized.
“I’ve known for a while that you’ve been disrespecting me in subtle ways. I left it alone because I didn’t want to make trouble. But that ends now. Mere servants daring to disrespect a duke.”
The Duke was not, by nature, a gentle or soft person.
His emotions were parched like a desert, and he did as he pleased. Until he found the twins, perhaps out of sheer boredom with the world, he hadn’t bothered with much else. He had simply let the Duchess do whatever she wanted, and the reason she could run rampant in the ducal household was due to all those compounded circumstances.
Taking advantage of that, the Duchess had tried to seize the Duke’s weakness and tear off his wings completely—and in the book, that had actually worked.
But it doesn’t seem like that now.
Was it because the twins had arrived? Or because of some other change of heart? The Duke’s shoulders rose and fell.
“What happened here?”
When the maids said nothing and only kept their heads bowed, the Duke’s gaze turned to me.
“They looked down on Rex! They said he was the offspring of a filthy bloodline, that his family was lowly, that someone like him being in the ducal household lowered its standing.”
“Is that true?”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
Rex, who had been silent the entire time, slowly bowed his head at my words.
“But I’m fine, Your Grace.”
“I’m not fine!”
Knowing that nothing would change even if he talked further, Rex shook his head, trying to end things there.
I’d expected that. Rex had always heard remarks about his birth and had grown somewhat accustomed to them. On the contrary, he seemed quite cautious, worried that this incident might offend the Duke.
“It felt like they were talking about me. It was Your Grace who told me to stay here, but it sounded like they were saying someone like me lowered the dignity of the ducal household—and that made me feel bad! Talking badly about Rex, too. I was upset.”
I whined to him like a child.
In any case, it was clear the Duke intended to punish these people properly. That was why he had come into the room in the first place.
The old him might have just passed by. He had been that listless. Or rather, no one had ever given him guidance on what to do. In a way, such behavior had been inevitable.
“Is that what you said?”
“W-We didn’t mean that toward Lady Aisha at all! We had no such intention!”
“Oh. If it wasn’t toward Aisha, then does that mean it’s fine to say such things to Rex, whom I personally appointed as an escort?”
