Chapter 20
I honestly wanted to cry.
Why on earth had I volunteered to be the lady of the house in the past?
It was like I had smashed my own foot with a hammer, and with no one else to blame, I wanted to cry even more.
I’d already given up on the “healing” genre and was thinking of switching to “survival.”
But now, it wasn’t even survival—this was labor.
Not a romance fantasy, but a labor fantasy. I was going to lose my mind.
I took a few deep breaths to calm my pounding heart and decided to accept the situation.
If you can’t avoid it, enjoy it—yeah, right.
There was no such thing here. The only answer was to just somehow get through it.
“Alright. Let’s start with the personnel change. What happened to Baron Caitlin? He’s not dead, right?”
“After completing treatment safely, I gave him the most run-down servant’s quarters.”
“You’ve got someone watching him, right?”
“Yes, Milady. I bribed three servants and assigned three shadows to him.”
“Good. I assume he thinks we don’t know the identity of the potion bottle?”
“I doubt he believes he could survive after being caught.”
“Good. Since the baron is cornered, he’ll try to contact whoever’s behind this.
He can’t live the rest of his life as a servant, after all.
The ones behind him will probably use this desperate baron to make one last move.
Let’s leave some gaps and wait.”
“When should I inform the Duke?”
“Tie him up somewhere tomorrow before telling him. That way he won’t run out immediately to cut off the baron’s head.”
“Yes, Milady.”
At Mikhail’s firm answer, an image of Meterio tied up flashed into my head.
Feeling like I’d just imagined something indecent, I quickly shook it away.
“Now that the urgent matter’s settled, can you tell me my work for the day?”
“Your motivation is beautiful, Milady.”
Yeah, well, people who do their job well are always the most beautiful.
Or so I thought—right before I wanted to bang my head on the desk.
Leaving on time was impossible.
To be exact, my official work ended at 6, but studying continued until 10.
I memorized the family trees of 64 influential noble houses in four hours, and Mikhail didn’t let me go until I scored 100 on his quiz.
“Mikhail, please let me go. Isn’t this enough? Doesn’t the back of your head sting?”
The second daughter of the House of Vallienor was glaring at you from the bed, holding her pillow like she’d rip it apart.
Davina had been staging a protest in bed for over two hours, insisting she’d sleep with me tonight no matter what.
“Understood. I’ll see you tomorrow morning at nine.”
After calming the sulky Davina, I took a refreshing bath—only to be greeted by another déjà vu scene.
The silver-haired child had multiplied from one to two.
Jeremiah and Davina were glaring at each other like they might kill one another, engaged in a heated argument.
At this point, I was used to these fights.
“Are you crazy, brother? Get out! How dare you sneak into a lady’s room at night?”
“I can’t during the day… and what about you? Why are you in sister’s room at bedtime?”
“…”
Kids, that’s exactly what I want to say.
“I promised to sleep with her tonight! Don’t get in the way!”
“What’s with that childish tone? ‘Don’t gwe’ in da way~’”
“What? Stop that!”
“Whut? Shtop dat~”
“Ugh, I said stop mimicking me!”
“Ugh, I shaid shtop mimicking me~”
A smug smile spread across the older brother’s face, perfected in the art of irritating his younger sister.
He looked relieved to have avenged his previous loss.
Davina’s lips were pressed tight in frustration, her face flushed red.
I clapped loudly—clap clap clap—to congratulate Jeremiah on his victory and put an end to their battle.
Both turned to me in surprise.
“Both of you, shut it.”
“Yes, Sister.”
“Okay, Sis.”
The moment they saw me, they flipped their attitudes 180 degrees, pretending to be meek little lambs.
It wasn’t cute at all.
Still, not finding it cute didn’t change the fact that I felt responsible for what happened today, so I decided to side with Davina.
“Jeremiah, I promised to sleep with Davina tonight. There was… an incident.”
“May I hear about it as well?”
“Of course.”
I summarized the day’s wild events for Jeremiah.
Davina, however, looked bored and uninterested throughout the explanation.
Jeremiah listened seriously and then replied in a flat tone.
“…Where is the baron now?”
“Did you not hear what I just said? You can’t kill him.”
“As long as I don’t kill him, it’s fine, isn’t it?”
Like father, like son—his identical way of thinking gave me chills.
“Just stay put, please. Honestly, I thought the nanny had treated you both well, but I was shocked to find out that wasn’t the case.”
“To be honest, I didn’t like her either. No one could replace Mother or Sister.”
“Yeah. I only like Mom and Sis, too.”
“I didn’t see Mother often, but unlike her kindness, the nanny was…”
The moment the magic word “Mother” left his mouth, both siblings’ eyes turned red.
A bad premonition ran through me, goosebumps prickling my skin.
It felt like the room might turn into a sea of tears any second.
Please, don’t cry. I’m terrible at comforting people.
Before they could burst into tears, I hurriedly changed the subject.
“Jeremiah, Davina—uh—how about we go on a picnic tomorrow for lunch?”
“Pi… hic… cnic?”
“Sis, wha… sniff… what’s a picnic?”
“A picnic is when you pack lunch in a basket and go somewhere with a nice view. You spread out a mat on the grass, eat together, and talk.”
Their fierce gray-blue and round emerald eyes lit up at once.
The tears were gone instantly.
But Jeremiah’s eyes soon dimmed, his long lashes drooping low.
“I… don’t think Master will allow it.”
“Don’t worry, Brother. If Sister takes out her necklace—bam!—he can’t say anything. It’s super pretty and cool.”
“Necklace?”
“She means the pendant symbolizing the mistress of Vallienor. Sister became the lady of the house.”
When I handed him the pendant, Jeremiah stroked the pattern like he was touching a baby snake.
“That’s Morgause, the divine beast from Vallienor’s myth. Vallienor uses Morgause’s pow—”
“Big Sis! Can we take cake, too? And cookies?”
Sensing he was about to start a boring story, Davina jumped in.
Jeremiah sighed heavily at his sister’s interruption.
“Sis, I have successor lessons every day from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. with Count Pavel. I’m not keen on taking time out of that.”
What kind of killer schedule was that? Even worse than mine.
Well, I guess students often have it tougher than office workers.
“But you could at least join us for lunch, right?”
“Lunch is only 45 minutes, so it’s tight to eat outside the annex.”
A heavy shadow crossed his face. He was clearly burdened by the successor training.
“If Sis just goes ‘bam’ with the necklace, Count Pavel couldn’t say anything…”
“No. If I skip class like that, Count Pavel won’t acknowledge me.”
“…Hmm.”
Won’t acknowledge me?
Maybe I was overthinking it, but the tone didn’t sit right with me. I didn’t like it.
A bad feeling stirred inside me, and my brows furrowed.
“Jeremiah, how are Count Pavel’s lessons? Do you like them?”
“He’s very knowledgeable and deeply loyal to Vallienor, so there’s much to learn.”
“He looks smart, but I don’t like him.”
“Davina! You shouldn’t speak that way about your teacher. You’ll be studying under him next year too.”
Unlike Davina, Jeremiah seemed to respect the count.
But Davina stood her ground without losing confidence.
“Well, it’s true he’s unlikeable.”
Yeah, I agreed with that.
Before even meeting Pavel properly, I had already decided to keep only two preconceptions:
Mikhail said he’s trash.
Davina said he’s unlikeable.
Jeremiah’s opinion went in one ear and out the other.
“Jeremiah, for now, don’t say anything to Count Pavel about the pendant or me being the lady of the house.”
“May I ask why?”
If he knows I’m the lady of the house, he’ll be extra careful not to leave any openings I can use.
Of course, I couldn’t say that, so I made up a reasonable excuse.
“I want to announce it proudly once I’ve proven I can handle the role well. You know Count Pavel has high standards.”
“That’s true. Understood, Sister.”
“So… about the picnic?”
The topic returned to the picnic.
I deliberately left it unresolved and sent Jeremiah back to his room.
Only Davina would hear my sneaky plan.
“Sis, aren’t you taking Brother to the picnic?”
“I am. Don’t worry.”
“How?”
I raised one corner of my mouth.
“Jeremiah will be kidnapped by Mikhail tomorrow.”
That way, we wouldn’t need permission from his teacher—and he wouldn’t get in trouble either.
