<Chapter 9>

“…So noisy.”

Chester muttered as he massaged his temple. No one dared to barge into the Duke’s office so rudely.

“What is it this time?”

His voice was thick with exasperation.

Chester had no tolerance for insolent servants and would normally fire them on the spot. But Marlenda had been hired by Mave.

Which meant he couldn’t dismiss the nanny so easily.

What’s more, she was the one who had accompanied Kailas when Mave entrusted him to the Duke. She’d cared for the boy since birth.

The child was already emotionally unsettled from being separated from his mother. He couldn’t very well take his nanny away too.

That was why Chester had tolerated the noisy woman. And perhaps because of that leniency, she’d become bold enough to pull off today’s stunt.

“Let her in.”

When Chester nodded at Enzo, he opened the door. Marlenda burst in the moment the door cracked open.

“Your Grace! It’s terrible! Absolutely terrible!”

She must have run here straight from the nursery, her forehead glistening with sweat.

“Oh, I don’t even know what to do. I was so startled, I—!”

Chester stared indifferently at the panting, shrieking woman.

“Explain what happened.”

“Y-yes, of course!”

Marlenda beamed. Whether it was because the Duke was actually listening to her, or she was excited about what she was about to share, she practically vibrated with glee.

“It’s about the new tutor, the young woman named Yure… something. I was going to show her around, you see. I spend all day with the young master, after all.”

It’s not ‘Yure something,’ it’s Yurenia.

‘Her memory is hopeless.’

Chester listened to her ramble with a stony face. Unbothered by his cold demeanor, Marlenda kept chattering away.

“Even before I opened the young master’s door, she insisted on doing it herself, which was already suspicious, and sure enough she caused an accident.”

“An accident?”

“Well, she suddenly flung the door open, and I spilled the milk I was carrying!”

“Was anyone hurt?”

“Sorry?”

“I said, was anyone hurt?”

Chester’s sharp eyes quickly scanned her up and down. She was clearly fine, which meant it was more likely that either Yurenia or Kailas had been injured.

“Did you call for a physician?”

“Ah, a physician…”

Marlenda hesitated, her eyes darting around nervously.

She’d expected the Duke to explode in anger if she said the child had milk spilled on him. Instead, he asked about a physician.

‘Why’s he worried?’

The situation wasn’t going as she expected, and her lips puckered in irritation.

Chester rarely asked about Kailas. She’d assumed he had no attachment to his nephew.

But maybe blood ties really did kick in at strange times.

‘Nobles and their precious bloodlines, I swear.’

Marlenda inwardly sneered as she forced her smile back in place.

“You don’t need to worry! The new teacher just got a little wet, that’s all. Everything’s fine otherwise!”

She waved her hands dismissively and laughed loudly. Chester’s face hardened at her shrill laughter.

‘She made a fuss over this?’

He’d been holding back his irritation for some time. Kailas’s nanny was a constant source of headaches.

‘What a waste of time.’

Chester turned away from her. Talking to this woman any longer was pointless.

If she weren’t Kailas’s nanny, he would’ve dismissed her long ago.

He gestured to Enzo. Reading the Duke’s intent, Enzo stepped forward.

“It sounds like you’re done here. You can tell the rest to me, Marlenda.”

“What? What do you mean? I’m talking to His Grace right now!”

When the aide tried to usher her out, Marlenda resisted.

“This isn’t something I can discuss with you, Enzo!”

She clutched Enzo’s arm firmly and raised her voice.

“I mean, we’ve had plenty of teachers come and go, but none of them caused a mess on the very first day, right? I’m telling you, this one’s trouble from the start!”

“…And?”

Chester, who had been about to return to his work, suddenly asked in a low voice. The cold edge in it made Marlenda flinch.

“So, you barged in here without an appointment to tell me what, exactly?”

“I—I just thought…”

“I asked for your point.”

Marlenda gulped as the Duke’s frigid presence washed over her.

Suddenly, the rumors of his cruelty came rushing back to her.

The Duke of Valerio was said to be utterly ruthless.

‘Not that it matters. He can’t fire me.’

Marlenda thought back to years ago, when Marquess Mave Dalton had begged her to care for her son.

Before she came here, Mave had pressed into her hands a sum of money equivalent to the cost of a four-horse carriage.

Ever since, every letter Marlenda sent received a generous response filled with thick wads of cash.

Mave Dalton firmly believed that Marlenda was taking excellent care of her son.

So while Marlenda lived in the Duke’s estate, her true employer was Marquess Dalton.

Which meant the Duke couldn’t touch her. He never had, and he never would.

“Thankfully, nothing happened this time and the young master handled the situation safely. But what about next time? What if that new teacher harms the young master when I’m not around…?”

The Duke said nothing. He simply stared at her in silence. Flustered by his unreadable reaction, Marlenda quickly added,

“And! Master Kailas himself said the new tutor should be dismissed! So before another incident occurs, I think it’d be best to—”

“…Kail said that?”

For the first time since Marlenda started speaking, the Duke lifted his head. He stared straight at her and spoke.

“That’s odd.”

“S-sorry? What is?”

“You said the new tutor got splashed with the milk you were carrying. And since we don’t know when this might happen again, she should be fired. And you claim Kail agrees?”

Chester placed his pen down on the desk.

“Yurenia was the one who got hit, so why should she be fired? Shouldn’t the person who caused the mistake be the one held accountable?”

He pushed himself up from his seat. As he rose, Marlenda instinctively stepped back. His piercing gaze pinned her in place.

“Why would Kail ask to dismiss the tutor instead of the nanny? Doesn’t that seem strange to you?”

“Uh…”

Marlenda stammered as the tide turned against her. At this rate, she might end up being the one dismissed.

“M-maybe I misheard him… If Your Grace could just pretend you didn’t hear it either…”

She rubbed the back of her neck and faltered. Chester’s lips curled faintly at her transparent scheme.

“That won’t do.”

The Duke stepped closer and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Anything said by my nephew’s nanny can’t be taken lightly.”

“Hic!”

As his grip tightened, her plump shoulders bounced from the pressure.

Chester looked down at her hiccuping frame and spoke calmly.

“I’ll speak to the new tutor myself.”

* * *

A short while later.

Second floor corridor, West Wing of the estate.

Chester stood in front of Yurenia’s quarters, only to find the room completely empty.

She must not have unpacked yet since none of the furniture showed any signs of use.

‘I’ll have to return later.’

With a soft sigh, Chester turned to leave. It seemed all he could do for now was issue yet another warning to Kailas’s nanny.

Not that it would change anything.

‘Shame, but there’s no helping it.’

He gestured to Enzo, who had been waiting in the hallway. As he prepared to leave, a small voice caught his ear from the adjacent room.

“…What should I do?”

Faint but distinct, it was a boy’s voice.

In that instant, Chester remembered: the room next to the tutor’s was Kailas’s.

When the boy first arrived, he’d told Branson to assign him the largest, most luxurious room with all the newest furnishings.

He hadn’t given it a second thought since then.

‘So this is the place.’

The soft, sporadic words suggested Kailas and the new tutor were having a conversation.

Chester quietly reached for the doorknob. He had no intention of interrupting their time together.

“Lillian got sick… because of me.”

At least, not until he heard Kailas’s confession.
 

<To be continued>

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