The Top-Tier Butler of the Marquis Family

Chapter 008

Was this what it felt like to be stabbed in the back?

Who would have guessed that Cornel, the strict Training Officer whom everyone respected, had achieved the triple crown of Embezzlement, Fraud, and Breach of Trust? He even had the Document Falsification Trait. At that point, he practically qualified as a professional swindler.

His major Trait levels were all A.

Up to now, A-rank was the highest rank I had ever seen.

As I watched Cornel’s back recede into the distance, I muttered,

“It seems to me that the one who really needs two heads is not me, but you.”

Of course, Cornel was too far away to hear it.

After returning to my quarters, I could not help continuing to think about him.

Cornel was respected not only by the Butler Apprentices, but by the other butlers as well. There was always reason behind his actions, and he carried himself with the dignity of a noble.

For reference, Training Officer Cornel held the title of Baronet. Since he was not an ordinary butler, but one who had been given an official post, he had been granted a title along with it.

“If the Status Window is telling the truth.... Is this not an enormous problem?”

If I assumed the Status Window was true, then a very interesting scenario took shape.

It would mean he had been living a completely double life, like Janus. It would be the shocking sort of story where a man known for being devoted to his wife turned out to be maintaining a second household in secret.

In truth, carrying out fraud or embezzlement required a high degree of ability. You had to manipulate ledgers, plant your own people, and continue managing those relationships over time.

That was why stupid people either could not pull such things off at all, or got caught almost immediately if they tried.

In that sense, Training Officer Cornel’s administrative ability was perfectly suited for stabbing the marquis in the back.

“This seems worth investigating.”

When I had seen Training Officer Cornel earlier, I had confirmed that he was on his way home from work. If that was the case, then his office should be empty right now.

What if I went in and searched for traces of something?

My heart tightened with excitement.

Enough that a scene from Mission: Impossible flashed through my mind.

To think I had started entertaining thoughts this bold.

They really were right when they said a man was shaped by the position he occupied. Back when I had been a pitiful graduate student, I never would have imagined anything like this.

But things were different now.

I had power, and I had confidence.

Suddenly, the beautiful image of Young Lady Sapiela, whom I had met earlier, floated into my mind. I could not let our little darling be forced to eat low-quality ingredients.

I looked around for some sort of tool.

The Training Officer’s office was a place where many people came and went, and since it was not somewhere that stored precious valuables, I figured I could get in just by picking a single lock.

At that moment, I spotted something in the drawer glittering in the light.

It was a piece of decorative wire.

Without the slightest hesitation, I pulled it free.

Back when I had been an active-duty soldier, I had learned how to pick locks with wire. With my nimble skill and a piece of wire of just this thickness and length, I ought to be able to crack the lock in under a minute.

“So, you made it back alive?”

At that moment, the door opened, and Rohan stepped inside. I let out a small laugh.

“Were you hoping I would not?”

“Not exactly. You are not hurt anywhere, are you?”

“It never even turned into that kind of situation. They turned me away at the door. I did not have any reason to draw the sword.”

“Really? I guess that is a relief.”

Rohan dragged over a chair and sat beside me. I straightened the wire a bit more, then slipped it into my pocket.

“So what are you going to do now?”

“I left a message with the Arkain Merchant Company, but they will probably ignore it. If that happens, then we will have to move directly.”

“Directly?”

I looked at Rohan for a moment.

Fixedly.

Perhaps because of that, Rohan tilted his head at the burden of my gaze.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I was checking to see how trustworthy you are.”

“You are seriously saying that to the friend who sat here waiting for you to come back alive?”

A sworn friend, was it? So they used expressions like that here too? Interesting.

Certainly, I had heard that Rohan and Arwen were both my childhood friends. They had been born and raised in the same village as me.

In other words, inside this monstrous mansion, they were the only people I could truly call allies.

All right.

Let us place a bet.

“I think Training Officer Cornel is involved in this incident.”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“To put it simply, I think he has been deliberately turning a blind eye to the Arkain Merchant Company’s abuses. There is no way that so many apprentices and butlers have never reported anything about them. Would it not be stranger if everything had remained perfectly clean?”

“That is true enough.”

“My guess is that, because of his position, the Training Officer blocked all the information before it could go any further.”

If only there were some way to show Rohan the Status Window I could see, I would have done that instead of explaining it.

This bastard’s Fraud, Embezzlement, and Breach of Trust are all A-rank!

And A-rank was the highest rank I had seen so far.

Which meant he must have stolen a staggering amount.

“Hah, this is ridiculous. Why do not you quit being a butler and try writing novels instead?”

Rohan let out a sigh.

He could let the merchant-company investigation slide, more or less.

But trying to accuse the Adeline Marquis House’s own Training Officer of wrongdoing was another matter entirely.

It meant openly opposing a man of minor noble rank.

And that too without any political backing whatsoever.

“After the accident, once I started thinking clearly again, everything that happened to me began fitting together like puzzle pieces. Are you curious about the man who pushed me off the balcony?”

“Pushed you? Did you not just slip while cleaning and fall?”

What an innocent friend.

I shook my head.

“Then what happened?”

“Some of my memory came back. The one who pushed me from the third-floor balcony was that man named Beron. The one you know.”

Rohan frowned.

He did not look especially shocked. It seemed he knew quite well how vicious Beron could be.

“Then we should go tell the Training Officer right aw.... No, we should not, should we?”

I nodded.

At last, even this dense friend seemed to be getting the picture.

“Beron is probably going to try to retaliate against me. He is likely desperate to find an opening. And earlier, I saw him having a secret conversation with Training Officer Cornel. If Cornel is truly engaged in corruption, then the relationship between Beron and Cornel must be very close. His father is a senior executive in the merchant company, is he not?”

“That would make sense. Then what about going directly to Lord Yanrof?”

I shook my head. There was no such thing as CCTV in this world, after all.

When I had time later, I really ought to try making something like that.

“It is dangerous to move carelessly without evidence. If I came from a noble family, it might be another matter. In any case, one thing is certain: in this mansion, Beron and Training Officer Cornel have far more people on their side than I do.”

“That is a headache.”

“The moment I fell from that balcony, everything started going wrong.”

To be precise, it had not originally been my problem.

But now it had become mine.

There was no helping that. Since I had ended up using this body, I had to cleanly resolve everything bound up with it.

“So then. What are you going to do now?”

“There is one method.”

“What is it?”

When I deliberately hesitated for a moment, Rohan frowned and pressed me for an answer. He must have had the kind of personality that could not stand not knowing.

“Tonight, I am going to break into the Training Officer’s office.”

“You insane bastard!”

Rohan seized both my shoulders.

I had not expected such an extreme reaction.

“Are you in your right mind? Breaking into his office? Does hitting your head make a person start thinking like this? Are you completely mad to die?”

“There is no other way.”

I said it firmly.

“I need physical evidence, and if I go raid the merchant company’s warehouse first, Training Officer Cornel might destroy the evidence. So it is only right that I make the first move on this side.”

“It is too dangerous.”

“There is no helping it. The more dangerous it is, the sweeter the reward when it comes back.”

“Hah....”

Rohan shook his head and lowered it deeply. I patted him on the shoulder.

I understood how he felt. The friend who had once been timid and pathetic had changed so abruptly that confusion was only natural.

“That is why there is something I need you to help me with.”

“What?”

“Stand watch in front of the office. If anyone comes close, talk to them and buy me some time.”

Rohan clutched his head.

I understood. He would be taking part in what amounted to a serious crime.

But at the same time, it was also a moment that would show me just how much Rohan truly cared about me.

That made me expectant in more ways than one.

After agonizing over it for quite a while, Rohan suddenly sprang to his feet.

“Fine! What is the worst that could happen? Let us do it. What are friends for? Come on!”

“Wait a little longer. There is no need to move until the moon rises.”

I spent the time talking over the plan ahead with Rohan. Much later, the moon climbed into the sky and began pouring down its brilliant light.

The time had come.

***

Click. Tick. Tick.

The wire seemed to be touching something, yet the door refused to open. Rohan, who was standing beside me to block me from view, was breaking out in a cold sweat.

We were in the middle of conquering the entrance to the Training Officer’s office.

But it was harder than I had expected.

Everything was like that. In your head, anyone could be Newton or Einstein.

Reality, however, was full of people who could not even survive mathematics.

“Not yet?”

“Shh.”

The principle behind a lock was always the same. Just because this was another world did not make it special.

It did not seem to be protected by magic or anything of the sort.

The problem was simply that the lock was old and the opening had an unusual shape, which was making things awkward.

Tick tick!

Click!

“Got it.”

The door opened.

It was pitch-dark inside, but I paid it no mind and slipped in at once. Then I lit the small lantern I had prepared in advance.

Once the door closed, the light from the corridor was cut off, and the interior became drastically darker. Only the pale moonlight around the window cast a cold glow.

I had gotten so used to fluorescent lights that using a lantern again made it hard to adjust to such a narrow source of light.

Still, there was no help for it.

I had no other choice.

Outside, Rohan was carrying out his part of the plan. He was pretending to sweep the corridor while watching for anyone who might approach.

With Cleaning at A-rank, he was reliable.

Based on the information I had gathered and my own observations, all the daily activities of the Butler Apprentices had already ended for the night, so no one should be coming here.

And since the owner of this place, Training Officer Cornel, had already gone home, I could search the inside at my leisure.

I had received assignments here several times before, so I roughly knew the layout of the room and where documents were usually kept.

But I had no intention of starting with brute-force searching from the top.

“If I were Training Officer Cornel, where would I keep the most important documents?”

Was there not a saying about putting yourself in another’s place? No matter the matter, to understand someone else, you first had to become that person.

“The desk drawer.”

Watching spy films had paid off after all.

In particular, I focused on the bottom drawer on the far right, the place least likely to draw the hand or eye.

I reached out and carefully tried to open it.

Thunk.

Well now.

It was locked.

I tried tugging it once or twice more, thinking perhaps papers inside were catching and blocking it, but it felt the same each time.

Looking around, I saw no obvious keyhole or anything of that sort on the front of the drawer. For the moment, I set the lantern on the floor and felt around nearby with both hands.

“Bingo.”

I found a small hole in the side where a key could be inserted.

For the time being, I pushed the wire into the opening.

When in doubt, a man had to try putting it in first.

Tick! Tick!

Tick tick tick!

The wire kept slipping off the mark.

“Damn it. Open Sesame!”

Was it because I was nervous?

I glanced briefly toward the door, then took a deep breath. Rohan was doing his part well outside.

First, wipe the sweat off. Then try again, carefully and calmly.

Tick tick!

Click!

Something turned.

The lock had opened.

When I pulled the drawer open, it was stuffed with bundles of documents. Holding the lantern in my left hand, I began rifling through them with my right.

A moment later, a smile spread across my face.

And not just any smile.

A triumphant smile.