Chapter 71

And so, once Aisha’s group had left—

“Ha ha. Well, in any case, it was a pleasure speaking with you, Duke Pose. Then we shall be...”

“I should be going as well...”

The nobles who had been standing beside Duke Pose also began to edge away from him one by one.

“Ha.”

Duke Pose, who had maintained a smile until the very end, covered his face with one hand.

“So... Aisha. In the end, this means you intend to betray me.”

At last, unable to hide his expression, his murderous gaze flashed between his fingers.

***

Meanwhile, on a deserted outdoor terrace.

“Ha—now I finally feel alive. Don’t you agree, Father? Why was everyone staring only at us?”

Lucas let out a great sigh, rose onto tiptoes, and dangled from the terrace railing.

“Get down. It’s dangerous.”

“That’s quite an impressive warning to give someone who came back from the brink of death at Ahili’s Circus.”

“If your tutor sees you like that, he’ll give you another demerit sticker.”

“Gasp.”

Only then did Lucas’s eyes go round, and he landed neatly on the floor.

Since the gazes of the people inside felt burdensome, we had decided to rest on the terrace for a while.

Father said that, but it must be because of me.

Feeling pointlessly sorry, I quietly kept my mouth shut and stared at the garden beyond the terrace.

...Huh?

Unlike me, who was startled, Father and my older brother were still bickering.

“Father. Is this class time right now? This is the field.”

“That is exactly why I am telling you to behave. Look at your little sister. She is elegant and quiet, as if nobility runs through her bones.”

While Father and my older brother were too busy bickering to pay attention to me, my gaze secretly followed someone’s footsteps, as though bewitched.

Inside the garden arranged like a maze, young noblewomen who had come out for a stroll were walking along the path, bursting into laughter.

But what drew my attention was behind them.

Servants quietly followed at a proper distance from the nobles.

Among them was a woman whose hair, like strands woven from golden thread, had been neatly tied up into one bundle.

Why?

Why did she bother me so strangely?

I wriggled in Father’s arms, poked my face out with a little puff, and narrowed my eyes.

I wanted to see her face, but because only her back was visible, I felt stifled, as if my insides were tightening.

I could not tell Father and Lucas because I was not certain, but I had a feeling.

The moment I saw the back of the woman’s head, my heart dropped.

Human intuition was frightening.

Sometimes, even things one could [N O V E L I G H T] have simply passed by—

“......”

Because of a single portrait I had stared at intently before the banquet—

“......!”

I realized that the side profile of the servant, who was about to follow her master back inside the castle after finishing the walk, was exactly the same as Ariana’s.

She was going inside the castle.

Then, if I ran out now and headed to the corridor near the castle’s main entrance—

“F-Father. Hurry!”

“What?”

“N-no. Over there, the Duchess is... no!”

If I said here that I had seen Duchess Ariana, Calypse would freeze for a moment.

Then time would be wasted.

But I had no time.

“Father, just a moment. I’ll be back in just a moment.”

“Where are you...”

Before the flustered Calypse could catch me, I leaped out of his arms like a swift hamster.

“Aisha.”

Calypse’s voice lowered.

But.

“The promise you made with Father—”

“I’m sorry. I need the bathroom urgently. I’ll be back within ten minutes!”

Cutting off Calypse’s words, I crossed the center of the hall while holding the sleeping Kyle.

“Lady Aisha?”

“Oh my, it is the young lady.”

The nobles nearby acknowledged me, but I could not even force myself to smile politely in response.

She truly looked exactly like Ariana.

If that person really was Duchess Ariana—

Why is she living as a servant?

When I hurried out of the hall, a corridor slightly darker than the hall stretched endlessly ahead.

The direction to the main entrance was left from here.

Naturally, as a spy, I had already grasped the rough layout of the castle in advance. Without hesitation, I turned the corner of the corridor—

“Since the young lady has entered the hall, we will wait here.”

“Yes, understood.”

And there, smiling at the end of it, stood a blonde woman.

A woman with the same gentle, smiling eyes as in the portrait appeared before me.

“......”

When a person is too shocked, the heart stops for a moment. That was exactly what happened to me now.

Wearing a purple-toned servant’s outfit, her hair tied to one side and rolled up, she looked much plainer than the woman I had seen in the portrait.

There was no white dress. Nor was Father standing guard beside her.

“By the way, was Lady Liana not truly beautiful today?”

“She was. Her face is lovely, and the dress she wore was so beautiful—”

She was merely a servant wearing low-heeled servant’s shoes, waiting through a tedious stretch of idle time.

Why on earth? Why are you, the person Father searched for everywhere—

Should I call her Ariana?

That thought crossed my mind, but I had no certainty that she was Ariana. So first, I decided to address her by the status visible before my eyes.

“...Maid sister.”

My voice was hoarse, making my speech clumsy.

But the maid somehow understood and turned her head, her eyes widening.

“...Yes, young lady? Is there something you need?”

She smiled gently, as if ready to attend even to me, though I was not the noble she served.

“......”

When I met her golden eyes from the front, I became even more certain.

She was Duchess Ariana from the portrait.

But why was it? She seemed to have no such memories at all. As if she truly believed she was a maid.

What else had happened to her?

Feeling a heartbreaking sorrow, I approached Ariana.

“Do you not remember?”

“Yes...? What do you mean?”

Ah. Memory loss.

I closed my eyes and shut my mouth. For now, the priority was bringing Ariana to Father.

“Maid sister. Could you come with me to the hall for a moment?”

“Has something happened?”

“...No. It is just a request. I do not know which noble you serve, but if it is a request from the young lady of the Kreutz family, they will gladly allow it.”

If her master was a royal, that would be a different matter.

But the young noblewomen I had seen in the garden were not royals. That meant their status was lower than the Kreutz family’s.

“Um...”

At my words, Ariana’s eyes widened, and she closed her mouth with a briefly flustered expression.

Then.

“Yes. Of course I can go with you. But I think I should receive permission from my mistress first. Could you wait just a moment?”

Saying that, she quickly tried to move somewhere.

It was not toward the hall. It was somewhere else.

“N-no!”

So without realizing it, I grabbed her sleeve. Because I was afraid she might vanish again, just like this.

Because I was afraid this person might be a mirage, and if I blinked, she might disappear.

“...Yes?”

Ariana turned her head, startled by her sleeve suddenly being caught.

She seemed to want me to let go of her sleeve, but because I was a noble, she appeared unable to say it easily.

“T-then I’ll go with you! To get permission from that mistress of yours!”

“Ah...”

“I am the young lady of the Kreutz family. You know the Kreutz family, don’t you, sister?”

Ariana smiled softly.

“Of course I do. They are a high-ranking noble family of great status.”

You are the Duchess of that high-ranking noble family!

This was frustrating. But I had to protect our precious Duchess. Ha, I just wanted to tell her that she was the Duchess. No. Our precious Duchess would be shocked.

After shaking my head inwardly, I made a bright proposal.

“If, because of me, your mistress and Duke Kreutz end up having a conversation, your mistress will be very happy, you know?”

“Hmm...”

Whether because of that or not, Ariana pondered for a moment before soon nodding in acceptance.

“Then shall we go together?”

Yes!

“Yep!”

Justice prevails. No, endurance prevails.

If I bring Duchess Ariana to Father like this...

Afraid I might lose her, I held Ariana’s hand tightly.

Then, with my ominously flaring nostrils, I fell into imagination.

Heh heh. Father.

This Golden Seed has found the Duchess after older brother Lucas.

If we find the eldest young lord like this, then—ah, no, we need to find the young lady too.

Anyway.

“Sister. Where were you born?”

Returning to reality, I asked Ariana. I was curious how much of her memory she had lost.

But Ariana answered with an awkward smile.

“Well...”