The Top-Tier Butler of the Marquis Family

Chapter 058

I had not expected him to ask a question like that. I had thought I was there only as a decorative backdrop.

I put on an act of surprise. Of course, since I had been genuinely startled to begin with, the performance came quite naturally.

“I am too lowly to have the right to speak in a place like this.”

Young Master Hamel stared at me for a moment, then grinned.

“What does being lowly have to do with anything? I told you to speak. If ordered, you do whatever needs doing. Is that not the mission of the butlers of House Adeline?”

That struck exactly where it hurt, and I closed my mouth.

Even if he looked like a wastrel on the surface, Young Master Hamel was no ordinary man. I might be enjoying this as if it were a game, but he was staking his life on it.

I lowered my head and admitted it.

“You are right, Young Master.”

“Then speak. Tell me what you think. There is no need to cower like that. I already know that you are still investigating that incident.”

So the information had made it this far.

Blaming Rohan had been unfair after all. Then again, if one merely traced my movements, it would not have been difficult to figure out what I was doing, not for someone with the Third Young Master’s information network.

Oddly enough, that put my mind at ease. If the board had already been laid out, there was no reason to refuse.

I decided that I would make my presence unmistakably known here.

“Then allow me to speak. Every crime, and especially every kidnapping, becomes easy to understand once you determine which side stands to profit. In other words, you need only ask who benefits most from kidnapping the Young Lady.”

“A person who profits, is it? Can you think of anyone?”

“Well. Who indeed?”

The nobles played along with my rhythm. It seemed Young Master Hamel forcing me to speak had done the trick.

Young Master Hamel tapped the table lightly with his fingers and asked,

“So according to your deduction, at the very least this was not planned from within House Adeline. A family gains nothing by kidnapping one of its own.”

“That is correct.”

“Then who do you think the real culprit is?”

“At the very least, it is not the Scorpion Gang or the Arkain Merchant Company. They were merely puppets. I too would like to point to House Astria as the force behind it.”

Soft sounds escaped from several places. They were closer to admiration than surprise. The eyes of the nobles watching me changed. They were no longer indifferent, but quietly intrigued.

The gaunt noble had already expressed suspicion toward Count Astria’s house earlier, but there was a fundamental difference between his suspicion and mine.

A mere butler, and an apprentice at that, had just named Count Astria’s house as a criminal force.

Without uncommon nerve, such a thing would have been impossible. Most would never even have thought it.

With that deduction, I had shown them that I was no ordinary Butler Apprentice.

Of course, I still had to prove it.

“Hahahahat! How amusing. Count Astria’s house would be delighted to hear words like that. You must have your reasons for saying so?”

At Young Master Hamel’s words, I lowered my head slightly in agreement.

“The reason is simple. The essence of the matter lies in the fact that Young Lady Sapiela’s marriage is a Political Marriage.”

“So what of it? Political marriages are common enough, are they not?”

“If you change the angle from which you look at it, the story changes.”

When I put force into my words, the hands of the men who had been fondling the women at their sides came to a halt. I had once worked as a university lecturer as well. At the very least, I knew how to capture the attention of an audience.

Mixing in a few light gestures, I continued my explanation.

“A Political Marriage can be defined, in a word, as a marriage formed in order to maximize the interests of one house and another. But Young Lady Sapiela......”

I cut myself off for a moment and looked toward Young Master Hamel, asking permission with my eyes.

“Please forgive the rudeness of the expression.”

“Do not concern yourself! If I meant to care about that sort of thing, I would not have let you speak in the first place.”

“Then I will continue.”

After clearing my throat a few times, I spoke boldly.

“But if one speaks of the essence of it, then in the situation of a Political Marriage, Young Lady Sapiela is not a bride, but a commodity.”

“What?”

“You bastard! What sort of way of speaking is that? Someone seize him at once!”

The male nobles besides Hamel all jumped to their feet. No, but he just told me not to worry about that sort of thing. What exactly did he expect me to do?

At that moment, Young Master Hamel stepped in and calmed the others down.

“Quiet down already! Let us hear the rest first. If you all fly into a rage like this, what does that make me look like?”

The nobles sat back down. Hamel signaled with his eyes, and I continued speaking.

“By selling Young Lady Sapiela as a commodity, House Adeline would obtain part of Count Astria’s strength, and the two houses would form a blood tie as proof of the transaction. But if a problem were to arise with the commodity that must be delivered?”

The course of events after a woman is kidnapped is always obvious.

If a man is kidnapped, they demand ransom. But if a noble maiden is kidnapped, then rape enters the equation as well. Even rule-of-law states are like that, and this place is not likely to be any gentler.

I continued in a cool, indifferent tone.

“In the end, the side selling the commodity would find itself at a disadvantage. Count Astria’s house, having failed to receive the goods in proper condition, could use that as leverage to demand all sorts of things. They might even present another card in place of the marriage itself. To go further, Count Astria’s house likely already intends to demand something from House Adeline. The kidnapping incident is merely one means of justifying that. A count’s house would certainly be capable of handling such things in secret.”

“That sounds plausible.”

“But there is no evidence, is there?”

The one who asked that was the gaunt noble. He was the one most focused on what I was saying. He had also been the first to point at Count Astria’s house as the force behind it.

I want to know his name. I would like to get close to him.

I lowered my head slightly.

“I am doing my utmost, but I have not found it yet. Former Training Officer Cornel, who was the key piece of evidence, was murdered.”

“Then tear apart the Delfino Merchant Company. You might find some sort of clue.”

“I will keep that in mind. But if it would not be rude, may I ask your name?”

“Why? Are you planning to run to Count Astria’s house and inform on us?”

I made a show of flinching. In truth, I was not especially startled, but nobles liked seeing their inferiors react that way, so I played along once.

Adjusting his monocle, the gaunt noble spoke.

“My name is Pushkin. Third son of the House of Baron Neuer. Remember it.”

“I will certainly remember it.”

“And your name?”

“My apologies. I am Dilen, my lord.”

He nodded and committed my name to memory. It was the first time a noble outside House Adeline had recognized my name.

Someday this rumor would spread far and wide, and more and more places would begin looking for me.

That would be troublesome, but necessary in its own way.

Still, I would need to control the speed of it carefully. If attention gathered too quickly, groups would arise who meant to keep me in check.

“Come to think of it, I heard that Lady Sapiela has lately taken a butler into her favor. It seems that would be this fellow.”

“That is right. Even though he is only an apprentice, he is acting as her dedicated butler.”

“Why not simply appoint him as a Full Butler, then?”

“The fool refused it himself. The idiot kicked away with his own feet the perfect chance to become a noble.”

They all looked at me as though that were unexpected. I felt I could understand, a little, how animals in a zoo must feel.

“Perhaps he is not foolish at all, but clever?”

The only female noble present glared at me as she spoke.

“That is the trait of hidden dragons, is it not? They remain out of sight as much as possible, waiting for the instant when they can soar into the heavens. In other words, waiting to overturn the board in one stroke.”

You are half right and half wrong, my lady.

You are right that I am waiting for an opportunity, but I have no intention of turning the board over in a single blow. Power won too easily never lasts. One must work quietly, the way spring rain seeps into the earth, so that the ground becomes firm.

“It is not quite like that, but I am glad you think so well of me. Thank you, my lady.”

“My name is Isabella. Remember it.”

“I will keep it in mind.”

Then another male noble, whose name I still did not know, spoke to me.

“Are you really a Butler Apprentice? The apprentices in our house are not half so quick as that. They only do what they are told. Are you sure you are not actually a knight pretending to be a Butler Apprentice?”

Young Master Hamel answered for me.

“What sort of house do you think mine is, that yours could even compare? Even the apprentices of House Adeline must be special. There is another apprentice knight who came in this time that shows some promise. I have my eye on him.”

If there was a promising apprentice knight, then it really was Arthas after all.

So his claim that he had a superb eye for people was not merely boastful self-praise. I had recognized Arthas because I could see the Status Window, but if Hamel had judged his potential by his own senses alone, then that was impressive indeed.

It had to be Arthas. Otherwise he would never have matched him against me in a duel.

Young Master Hamel began boasting.

“The amusing thing is that I put this fellow against the apprentice knight I had my eye on the other day, and he beat him with ease.”

“That happened?”

“And you are only telling us something that entertaining now? Damn it! Hurry and tell us more!”

Urged on by his friends, Hamel described every detail of the duel as though it were his own achievement. This bastard had talent for fiction too, did he?

In any case, my exploits were going to spread even further now.

“That is why I marked him out, but I cannot tell whether he is being stubborn or trying to raise his own price. He keeps refusing to come under me.”

“That is only because you are the third son. If you were the eldest, he would have crawled under you on his own.”

“Fuck, did you really have to say it that way? Who among us here is not a third son?”

“Hahahahaha!”

Even while spitting curses, Hamel looked to be in a good mood. The way he looked at me was openly favorable. I could even sense his desire to make me his somehow.

I wish he would just give up on me already. It is exhausting.

The talk of Young Lady Sapiela’s kidnapping gradually died down, and the nobles returned to drinking and carousing. Then, just as the mood reached its height, Young Master Hamel snapped his fingers and summoned a maid.

“Bring that out now.”

“Yes, Young Master.”

A little later, the maid brought out a mysterious violet bottle. Every time the tray shifted, something inside sloshed, so there was clearly some kind of liquid in it.

The atmosphere grew strange.

One often heard that by the time the spoiled heirs of rich houses finished one of their wild parties, they all took a dose of something. Was this the same sort of thing?

Drugs had a longer history than most people thought. I had no idea when liquid-form techniques had first been developed, but I would stake my wrist on the fact that whatever was inside that bottle was stronger than wine.

At that moment, the broad-shouldered noble, Heinel, snatched up the violet bottle.

“As it happens, a new product just came in from the underworld. It was difficult to get, so let us all enjoy it.”

“I hope it hits hard.”

“Hehehe. Let us take a dose first.”

Each of them took up a bottle. Young Master Hamel did as well.

Drugs were illegal. I had heard as much once by chance from Hamel himself. If one were caught, the punishment would not be under territorial law, but under the law of the kingdom itself.

In other words, they were committing a grave crime.

And yet the Guard Knights standing behind them made no move at all to stop their masters. They simply stood there quietly, as though this were nothing new.

Why had they brought me to a place like this when I had not even sworn loyalty yet?

Why, of all things?

Then a single possibility flashed through my mind.

That tiny possibility began to grow larger and larger until it formed itself into a plausible hypothesis, and the moment it did, I reached out and grabbed Young Master Hamel’s arm.

“You must not do that, Young Master.”