Chapter 67: Picking a Fight (Part 2)
“That lass… It seems there might be something more to her than meets the eye.”
It was at Ryan’s room.
With his older brother standing in front of him, Lloyd started to explain what he saw.
Two days ago, Lloyd saw the wooden sword that Nainiae swung sliced the training dummy in half. It was still clear in Lloyd’s head.
“I have no idea how she did it. It’s intriguing.”
“How about her form?”
“Her form was clean, but it was a basic stance.”
Having heard what Lloyd said, Ryan murmured as he fiddled with his chin.
“In that case… It couldn’t be that she is just powerful or is good at waving her hand around. It would be the most plausible explanation to assume she used mana without realizing it.”
‘She’s a maid who claims to have never held a sword in her life, yet she sliced the Iphelleta House’s training dummy in half? In one strike? On top of that, it was a clean cut?’
Ryan, who was mumbling, had a pretty serious look on his face. As expected, the maid that Riley brought in was not an ordinary person.
‘I had a bad feeling about this all along, but where did he find a maid like that…’
That story was already all over the place. It was the story about how Nainiae cut down a training dummy in half with just one strike.
Even Stein was interested. He was watching Nainiae.
Because of the situation with Nainiae, Ryan was concerned Riley might get pretty high points in the successor competition.
“If it is possible, I wish I could see it again.”
Lloyd mumbled as he bit his lips.
After all, he was the second son of the Iphelleta House.
He was a swordsman, it was only natural to have emotions such as admiration or envy toward others who had better swordsmanship.
Lloyd was mumbling as he bit his lips, and now he asked Ryan a question,
“What should we do?”
Ryan had to make his thoughts brief, and he had to make a quick decision.
Lloyd was asking Ryan about what to do with Nainiae, Riley’s maid.
Lloyd asked carefully to his older brother,
“Should I put pressure…on her?”
It was understandable.
It didn’t seem like a good idea to do something to Nainiae, a maid that Stein would be watching.
“Hmm…”
It was a problem that required a serious thought.
Ryan fiddled with his chin. He was holding himself from giving a reply. It was at that moment.
“…Ha!”
Baam!
The closed door opened wide and Annabelle walked in.
Judging from her red face, it didn’t look like she came with a good news.
“Annabelle?”
“Sister in law?”
Shocked by Annabelle’s sudden entrance, Ryan and Lloyd called her.
Step Step
In her high heels, Annabelle walked in and frustratedly plummeted in the sofa.
“Did something happen outside?”
“Big Bro. There’s no need to even guess. It must have been Riley. He must have done something bad to her…”
“…No.”
Annabelle opened her mouth and interrupted Lloyd.
With a question mark above his head, Lloyd looked at Annabelle,
“There wasn’t an incident…like that…”
Annabelle said as she bit her lips.
Again, she said there wasn’t an incident like that.
‘…It would be best if you didn’t touch my young master. Of course, I would like to also advise you against running your mouth carelessly.’
Those were the words she heard from Nainiae just now in the corridor. Annabelle ran into Nainiae the maid again in the corridor, and Annabelle just came from being threatened by Nainiae.
It appeared that Nainiae was a mage who had been hiding her true identity. Annabelle thought about how Nainiae made threats with a ball of flame floating on her palm. Annabelle’s shoulders were still shivering a little.
‘I heard you are a daughter of a famous House, however… That is not all that important to me. I only act for the sake of my young master.’
Annabelle was half scared and half infuriated.
‘That girl, she is just a lowly commoner, yet she dared to talk to me like that?’
The thought was dominating her head at the moment.
‘I’m not expecting an apology from you. So, I’ll advise…no. I’ll warn you once again. If you pester my young master again, I’ll demonstrate my abilities to you. Since you are well educated, you do understand that this is the first and the last warning, right?’
It was a threat that stated Nainiae will demonstrate her abilities if Annabelle displeased her.
‘She is just a maid, but she dared to make threats to a daughter of a nobility?’
This was the first time Annabelle ever heard of a threat like this. She felt there wasn’t anything more humiliating than this.
“…”
Although Lloyd couldn’t tell, Ryan noticed that Annabelle’s shoulders were shivering.
However, he didn’t know why she was choking in fear or why she was so infuriated.
‘So, although I don’t know how many Circles she has, she is saying that she’s a mage, is that right?’
Annabelle tightly grabbed the sofa’s armrest.
When Nainiae made threats to Annabelle, Nainiae didn’t say anything about how many Circles she had.
Recalling this, Annabelle made up her mind.
‘I don’t know where she learned the magic, but I bet she is at three or four Circles at most.’
Annabelle knew that even three or four Circles was enough to hurt her.
Nainiae’s threat was effective.
This fact was the reason why Annabelle was so infuriated.
‘Five Circle or above will be enough to kill.’
Because of her desire for revenge, Annabelle started to show deadly aura.
“Excuse me, Young Master Ryan.”
“Yes?”
“May I use a homing pigeon…for a personal reason?”
“A homing pigeon?”
“Yes!”
Annabelle responded with a smile.
It was a perfect control of her facial expression that belied what she was really feeling.
***
A day, or two…and subsequently… After several days have passed, Riley, who had been excusing himself from having to greet Annabelle, was finally going to see her when she was about to leave the mansion.
“…Riley. You can’t do that to her. Ms. Annabelle is a daughter of a nobility family.”
“That is, the thing is.”
Riley was at it because Iris advised him.
Riley said he will be having a word with Ian for reporting the incident with Annabelle to Iris.
Riley walked the corridor with Iris. He forced himself to hide the expression on his face that screamed just how annoyed he was.
He was annoyed because they were on their way to greet Annabelle in an official capacity.
“Her dress looked too much like a maid. There was the thing about the lace on her dress too.”
Riley mumbled and complained as he thought about the conversation with Annabelle a few days ago when Annabelle was pestering him.
Of course, Annabelle’s dress didn’t really look like a maid dress in Riley’s opinion.
“Ugh…”
Watching her son scratching the back of his head awkwardly, Iris sighed and continued,
“It probably could not be helped. Since it is dinner time now, looks like we could greet her by joining her for the dinner. You need to apologize to her properly, do you understand?”
Although she just sighed, she smiled soon after. Watching this, Riley responded as if he understood.
“Yes.”
After walking for about three minutes, they reached the front of Annabelle’s room.
Iris first fixed her son’s clothes. After that, she raised her hand and knocked on the door.
“Who is it?”
“Ms. Annabelle. It’s Iris.”
“…Oh!”
A surprised response could be heard from inside.
Along with the stepping sounds of the high heels on the ground, the door opened, and Annabelle revealed herself. She welcomed Iris.
“Lady Iris, welco…”
“…”
Annabelle’s eyes met with Riley who was standing next to Iris. That made her voice stop for a moment.
However, she smiled refreshingly soon as if nothing happened. She greeted both, including Riley, with a smiling face.
“Welcome! Young Master Riley. You are here too?”
“Yes. I was thinking if you would like to join us for dinner. You didn’t have dinner already, right?”
Riley asked with a refreshing smile.
Having seen this, Annabelle responded with a smile as if she was trying not to lose,
“Of course. As much as you want.”
Riley and Iris led the way toward the dining room. Meanwhile, Annabelle stood there and watched the back of Riley and Iris. Annabelle’s face started to twitch.
It was because of the maid that was always sticking next to Riley like glue.
‘…It would be best if you didn’t touch my young master.’
Nainiae, who was sticking right next to Riley, casually turned her head to look at Annabelle.
Nainiae looked at Annabelle with her narrowly open eyes. Annabelle felt like Nainiae was threatening her again.
Annabelle tightly grabbed her skirt.
“…Kuk.”
“Nainiae, Sera is in charge of the kitchen today, right?”
Iris, who was leading the way in the front, asked Nainiae.
Having heard the question, Nainiae immediately changed the look on her face and lowered her head.
“Yes, Lady Iris. For today’s dinner…”
Nainiae summarized what would be on the dinner table.
Meanwhile, Annabelle was following the group from the back as she watched the back of Nainiae. The inside of Annabelle was boiling.
Riley did it once, and Nainiae did it once as well.
They both seriously spoiled her mood, but as if that was not enough, Nainiae even threatened her. This was the reason why Annabelle’s insides were boiling.
‘How dare…’
There was one thing that made her even more infuriated.
It was the fact that she was shaking in fear because of Nainiae’s threat with a gray colored flame.
Annabelle couldn’t snap back and say ‘Do you have any idea who you are talking to? Just go ahead if you think you can do it!’ because of Nainiae’s flame.
‘…You just watch. Just wait and see.’
Annabelle thought about it over and over. Riley, Iris and Annabelle finally arrived at the dining room.
It looked like Stein, Ryan and Lloyd already came by and left the dining room. There were a few maids and butlers carrying empty dishes.
“Annabelle, I’m sorry about what happened before. I’m really dense, so. Haha.”
Riley said as he cut the meal on the dish with a knife.
“…I… It’s fine.”
Annabelle was scratching the dish with her dining knife. For now, Annabelle responded politely with a smile.
It was because she could not afford to reveal her blade edge of vengeance.
“So, when are you going back? When did you say it was again?”
“Ah, I think I’ll be heading back as soon as the carriage from the family arrives. I’m not in position to stay here for long. I also have personal matters to handle.”
She had two personal matters.
First one was investigating about ‘Tes Trading Company.’ It was Ryan that asked her that favor.
A butler came into the dining room and said,
“Excuse me. A carriage has arrived at the mansion.”
“Ah!”
Annabelle’s face brightened in an instant.
The second personal matter was about the Five Circles mage that she called. She wanted to have him obliterate Nainiae.
“It must be the carriage from my family!?”
Annabelle’s plan was to expose that a mere maid threatened her. The plan was to use that to corner Riley and make him lose the competition for Iphelleta House’s successorship.
She was certain this was going to help Ryan, her fiancé.
“No. It is not from Mogared House.”
“…Pardon?”
Until now, Annabelle had a bright expression on her face. Now, a question mark floated up above her head.
‘If it is not the carriage I called for, then where did it come from?’
“It is a carriage from the Solia Temple.”
“Solia…Temple?”
Annabelle tilted her head to the sides.
‘Solia Temple? Why would a carriage from the Solia Temple be here all of a sudden?’
“Ah, is it because of that?”
Riley mumbled with his mouth full.
Annabelle noticed that Riley seemed like he knew something about it. That made Annabelle to have yet another question mark float up above her head.
“Looks like he is here.”
The butler, who came in to tell everyone about the carriage from the Temple, left the scene.
Immediately after the butler left, an old man in white walked in.
Even at a glance, it was obvious he was a high ranking priest.
“Oh my? Archbishop Rebethra?”
Iris greeted him first.
“Haha. Lady Iris. Have you been well?”
“Of course! What brings you here?”
Annabelle had no idea what this was about, so she still had a curious look on her face.
‘Is he here to see Lady Iris?’
Annabelle knew Iris had an illness. It was an illness that Iris had for a long time.
‘Is he here to check up on her illness?’
Annabelle was thinking that. In that moment,
“Young Master Riley, and…”
With his head, the Archbishop Reberthra bowed to Nainiae who was standing next to Riley.
“Ms. Nainiae… It’s been a while.”
“…?”
Annabelle was surprised that he addressed the maid so respectfully.
Clueless about what’s happening, Annabelle’s face became weirder