Chapter 2359: A Maid’s Duty

Chapter 2359: Chapter 2359: A Maid’s Duty

"Cough, cough."

Shard, who had just reached the entrance of the barnyard with Mr. Albert, happened to hear these last few words. The coroner showed no expression, while Shard coughed lightly:

"Though it was wrong of us to leave you alone here, you don’t have to ’retaliate’ against me like this?"

Mr. Benhart immediately turned around, seeing both of them returned safely, he smiled and asked:

"All sorted out?"

"Yes, it’s solved. That thing won’t appear in Moon Bay for the next few hundred years. Whether it’s the Marquis, the Captain, or Mrs. Jude, they’re all safe."

"You see."

So Mr. Benhart then turned to Mrs. Jude and said:

"You should say whether we helped you or not."

Shard noticed the corners of the Noble Lady’s mouth trembling.

However, Mrs. Jude was not so angry about Shard’s harsh measures earlier. Proof of this was that while she kept complaining to Mr. Benhart, she stopped saying anything when Shard appeared.

Of course, part of the reason was that they indeed resolved the trouble. Shard wasn’t sure if she was grateful to them or afraid of them.

Mr. Benhart had probably already explained the traits of [Richard’s Notes] to her, but she still asked Shard and Mr. Albert about it. After confirming that it really wouldn’t come back, she dramatically patted her chest and sincerely thanked Shard for saving her.

But Shard still asked the question:

"Didn’t you promise Miss Les not to indulge in your little hobby for the time being?"

The four of them returned to the barn, where the child continued to sleep soundly on the table. Mr. Benhart went over to touch her neck, while Mrs. Jude first said:

"She is only hypnotized by me, and now she is having a sweet dream."

Then she mumbled some unintelligible words, eventually lowering her head to admit her mistake to the three of them:

"I won’t pursue what you did to me tonight, but could you please not tell Miss Les about this incident?"

The three exchanged glances:

"This isn’t a fair exchange. We have been around Moon Bay lately and might occasionally visit your orphanage. If we find one or two children missing from their beds during a sudden nighttime visit, don’t expect us to keep your secret."

"I understand... You three men are truly boring; can’t you show a bit of compassion to me?"

So none of them said anything, just looked at her. Mrs. Jude bravely met their gaze for a while before nodding and lowering her head.

In short, the busy day starting from the morning finally ended. Shard wasn’t in a hurry to find "Desire," and upon returning to the city, he bid farewell to Mr. Benhart and Mr. Albert, then headed back to Belindel Estate.

Because they remembered Shard hadn’t eaten yet, the girls at the estate were waiting for him to return. The night was very deep, so almost everyone was present: Miss Belindel, Luviya, Miss Eles, Miss Aphrola, Miss Swift, Tifa, Miss Matilda, Emilia, Angelina...

Seeing Shard’s fatigued appearance, they didn’t rush to ask him about what happened tonight.

"Go take a bath first, and after that, enjoy a hot meal; the night snack is ready soon. Go eat by yourself, let Matilda and Tifa serve you, and the others won’t disturb you."

The Countess said softly, and Luviya gently took the cat that was rubbing against Shard’s feet with affection:

"You must be exhausted today; I’ll take care of Little Mia first."

As she spoke, she handed it to Angelina beside her. The Little Princess blinked, not understanding why Luviya’s care for the cat involved her.

"After you eat, you can choose whether to go home to rest or stay here."

Miss Aphrola also said, taking the longsword from Shard’s hand:

"Go take a bath and have your meal, rest well for the night, and tell us what happened tomorrow."

After a day of rushing around, Shard finally got the chance to rest. After bathing, a sumptuous dinner was already served in the dining room. Tifa and Miss Matilda, having placed the food, didn’t disturb Shard further and stood outside the slightly ajar dining room door.

At the long table with a white tablecloth, Shard was left alone. Although it felt somewhat desolate, it also allowed Shard to carefully reflect on the day’s events and plan for any future implications.

"He seems very troubled."

The two maids, wearing black and white maid dresses, watched Shard from outside the door. Seeing Shard eating but still frowning in thought, Miss Matilda quietly said to Tifa.

Tifa pursed her lips and nodded:

"He’s always like this, even in Tobesk. He keeps many things to himself, only sharing them with the ladies once they’re truly resolved."

Having said that, she also glanced at the blonde maid next to her. Matilda blinked in confusion, listening to the Northern Country maid speak earnestly:

"When the master is troubled, simply standing by and lamenting is not something a maid should do."

"Then what should be done?"

She asked the head maid of the Northern Duchess.

"Could you lend me your hairpin for a moment?"

"Of course."

Taking Miss Matilda’s hairpin, Tifa also removed her own, then pushed the door open and stepped into the dining room, adjusting the door to leave only a small gap once again.

Shard looked curiously at the well-built black-haired girl, wondering what she was up to. Then, he saw Tifa walking forward while using those hairpins to pin her long black hair into a neat bun, even arranging the strands by her cheeks.

"What are you..."

"Please continue dining, I just... want to make you a bit happier."

She crouched slightly next to Shard, then crawled under the table covered by the white tablecloth. Shard wanted to stop her, but it was too late. He tried to lift the tablecloth to look underneath, but his hand was pushed away by a hand from under the table:

"Please wait, I..."

His face flushed red, holding a fork in his left hand and a knife in his right, he sat uneasily at the dining table, but at least the troubled and worried look on his face had disappeared.

Probably because his attention was distracted, Shard did not notice the eyes peering through the door crack that never left. A blonde maid from the Southern Nation hoping to learn new "knowledge" clutched her apron tightly with nervous hands, her eyes wide open and her face blushing red as she watched the scene unfold in the dining room:

"Oh, she, she actually..."

In any case, although the ladies at the manor were all curious about why Shard suddenly felt better after eating a late-night snack, as long as he was no longer troubled, they were not worried.

The night was deep, and Shard did not linger here any longer. After tonight, it would be the Month of Blossoms in August, heralding a new month and the ability to use the black Time Key again.

Long-haired Luviya had reminded him that when facing the Deity who devours dragons, Miss Isabella and the Apocalypse Power from the Bygone Era could be key. But Shard needed Miss Isabella to accept the effect of the "Love God’s Sting" and also needed to figure out how to bring Miss Isabella back to the "Present World" again.

These two requirements were something he hadn’t yet figured out how to achieve, so the key wasn’t suitable for use now. Although he now possessed "Witch Echo: Last Speaker Isabella," the problem was that "she" had said this echo had a special nature, and Shard couldn’t use the Low Ring Ascension Words of "Space-Time’s Echo Vibrates the Sleeping Power" to call her forth.

"Why did you furrow your brow again?"

After "dinner," when the ladies were seeing Shard off, Luviya asked worriedly, to which Shard immediately shook his head:

"It’s nothing, just a little problem I can solve myself."

"He’s always like this."

Miss Aphrola shook her head, curious as to why the two Head Maids hadn’t come to see Shard off.

"Well, I’ll be off now, around nine or ten in the morning tomorrow I’ll come by."

He stood in the grand foyer of the manor, turned the cat back into a toy to store away, waved goodbye to them with a smile, and disappeared by throwing out the Crystal Shoes.

The girls seeing Shard off finally returned upstairs together, as they also needed to rest. Meanwhile, at the corner of the ground floor corridor, a black-haired maid with her arms crossed was being questioned by the manor’s Blonde Head Maid:

"Servit, how could you do such a thing?"

"He’s the future husband of Duke Galina, and I’m the Head Maid of Duke Galina. Isn’t it common for maids and their male masters to do such things?"

The black-haired maid had an inquisitive look in her eyes, and Miss Matilda was momentarily speechless, nervously playing with the strands of hair by her ears:

"But, but he..."

She bit her lip, not knowing what else to say.

On the other side, as Shard returned home and walked down from the attic, he saw the lights on downstairs and felt an inexplicable warmth in his heart.

[The matter of calling Adel Isabella, perhaps there’s no rush.]

"She" suddenly said.

"Why?"

[Although the normal state of the Low Rank Ascension Words cannot call her, if the ’Philosopher’s Stone’ is used...]

Shard raised an eyebrow:

"But I still lack a specific location that meets the standards for a time ritual."

"She" chuckled softly in Shard’s ear:

[Can’t you really find one?]

"Would that place count?"

[Why wouldn’t it count?]

Shard thought about it and felt it was better to have a backup plan.

Letting the toy turn back into a real cat and letting it play on the stairs, Shard spread his arms to embrace Miss Galina and Dorothy who came to greet him:

"It really has been a long day, you can’t imagine all I did."

"Really now, why are you coming home so late?"

The Red-Haired Duchess complained:

"Where have you been ’fooling around’ today?"

"Horse racing in the morning, card games in the afternoon, and a rendezvous with a wealthy merchant’s widow in the barn at night... she wasn’t too fond of my restraints."

Shard replied with a smile, then was lightly slapped by Miss Writer:

"You really are something, busy for another day? Didn’t Luviya and the others help you with anything?"

"Some things I have to do myself. Oh, it’s so late already, did you stay up waiting for me? You should go rest, I don’t want to greet the arrival of the Month of Blossoms in a wakeful state."

He said, and walked up to the second floor shoulder to shoulder with Dorothy, with Miss Galina smiling and following behind them—there wasn’t enough room for three people to stand side by side on the stairs.

But the Duchess suddenly took a gentle sniff, feeling that Shard carried a very, very faint but familiar scent. However, given the many girls at the Belindel Estate, she did not pay it any mind.