IMBSM 12

Chapter: 12

“What the hell is that guy doing out there right now?”

At the voice coming from the doorway, Ibnia looked up in surprise.

Ram was leaning against the entrance to the kitchen, pointing outside with an incredulous expression.

It didn’t take long for Ibnia to realize who he meant.

“Sir Guillermo?”

“Yeah.”

“He should be polishing the silverware. They’re all high-quality pieces, but they were in terrible condition from lack of care. It didn’t look like he knew how to clean them properly, so I showed him.”

“Silverware? He’s polishing the armor we’ve got standing in the main hall.”

Ibnia was struck speechless.

Had he already finished all the silverware and moved on to another area?

She had been amused by how excited he got watching the cutlery return to a like-new shine and had thought she’d discovered an unexpected hobby of his—but she never imagined he’d start polishing decorative armor.

“Maybe being a butler is Sir Guillermo’s true calling.”

“He’s not a butler. I told him to handle odd jobs, and one day he just went and put a fancy title on himself.”

“For a self-appointed position, he looks pretty convincing.”

“That’s only because you’ve seen him for five minutes. If you knew how much trouble he’s caused while pretending to be human, you wouldn’t say that.”

Listening to Ram, Ibnia suddenly grew curious about how Guillermo had come to live in this castle.

Guillermo claimed Ram had dragged him here against his will, but it seemed the other side of the story was quite different.

Ibnia was wondering whether it would be okay to ask Agram about Guillermo’s past when Ram stepped over the threshold and walked into the kitchen.

Standing beside her, he looked over the cluttered countertop and asked,

“So what are you doing in here? Where did everyone else go?”

“Ah—today I’m planning to host a dinner. I’m inviting everyone who lives here.”

When Emilia arrived in Ritberg, Guillermo would surely try to serve a welcome banquet, just like he had done for her.

Ibnia herself hadn’t cared about the quality of the food back then, but ruining Emilia’s first impression with something like that would be disastrous.

The moment Emilia got offended, Guillermo’s chances of being pardoned would vanish.

There was a mountain of things to teach him, but today Ibnia decided to start with the basics—how to set a table and serve food.

Cooking wasn’t something that improved overnight, and frankly, she wanted to eat something that actually tasted decent too.

Besides, treating the people she would be living with to a proper meal didn’t sound like a bad idea.

Thinking about the new housemates she had just met, Ibnia added,

“Sir Max looks like he barely eats. His armor was hanging loose on him.”

“Sir Max? Oh, the knight who showed up while I was asleep?”

Ibnia nodded.

She couldn’t get him out of this place, but she could at least give him one good meal.

Poor food was probably part of why he was so desperate to leave—maybe this would ease his resentment a little.

“But why is he walking around in shattered armor?”

“That’s… not something you should ask me.”

She trailed off awkwardly, though she had a pretty good idea.

He wouldn’t have brought repair tools while sneaking in to steal, and even if he had, fixing broken parts wouldn’t have been possible.

Then Guillermo forced him into the role of a knight, so he probably threw on whatever broken equipment he could find.

Honestly… why would a young man go around stealing other people’s things…

Ibnia clicked her tongue inwardly, feeling sorry for him, though that didn’t mean she meant to excuse his crime.

“I heard he got caught while stealing. Maybe that’s when the armor broke?”

“So I’ve even got a thief living in my castle? While I was sleeping, this place really went to hell.”

Muttering in disbelief, Ram tilted his head at Ibnia.

“You don’t have to feed people like that. Leave it. I was actually looking for you because I thought you needed to eat something.”

“Can you cook, Lord Ram?”

“No, I was going to go out and buy something.”

“Then eat this today. It’s almost ready.”

As she spoke, Ibnia dumped the vegetables she had been chopping straight from the cutting board onto an oven tray.

Fortunately, there were still plenty of ingredients left over from the banquet Guillermo had prepared the day before.

Aside from that, the castle’s usual food situation was bleak enough to make you wonder how anyone survived here at all…

But at least for today, they could make do with what they had.

Agram stared at the prepared dishes for a moment, then turned to Ibnia.

And repeated the question she had just asked Ram.

“You can cook?”

“I’m not a professional.”

“Every noble lady I know isn’t supposed to know how to prepare a banquet. You said you weren’t close with your parents—did you work as a maid in your own house?”

“I just did it because I liked it.”

Ibnia hurried to cut off the suspicious look in Ram’s eyes and added,

“My sister was loved plenty, too.”

He seemed to immediately understand why she’d added that.

Ram opened his mouth, then replied,

“Thanks for telling me. But just now, I was worried about you.”

Ibnia knew that already—that he could be gentle like that.

Instead of saying something embarrassing to his face, she focused on trimming the rest of the vegetables.

Simple, repetitive work had a way of clearing the mind.

That was probably why, even though she had started cooking for other people, she eventually came to enjoy being in the kitchen herself.

“I know what you’re thinking, but they weren’t bad people. They loved their children deeply. After my sister became the way she was… neither of them could really eat anymore. I started cooking because I wanted them to have something.”

“That still sounds strange.”

“What does?”

“People who are truly good parents wouldn’t have made a young child worry that much.”

The Count and Countess of Hessen had been good parents—at least to Emilia.

The orphan they had taken in had never truly been considered their child, so using that to judge their love wouldn’t be fair.

Ibnia casually changed the subject.

“I’m not a child.”

“That’s exactly what makes you sound like one.”

Coming from the man who had demanded a child bride, that was rich.

If her sister had come here instead, he would have devoured her in an entirely different sense.

Ibnia felt ridiculous.

“You told them to send my sister here the moment she turned twenty. So you were planning to marry a child, weren’t you?”

“I told you—I’m a thief. Honestly, she’d need to be about sixty before our mental ages matched. But I couldn’t wait that long, so I brought her as early as possible.”

Ram didn’t look the least bit shaken.

Human lifespans were short—only a few decades at best.

To him, time must have been like sand slipping through his fingers, something he desperately wanted to hold close.

In a surprisingly candid tone, he said,

“If I’d had my way, I would’ve brought her here the moment I heard she was born.”

“Then why didn’t you?”

“An old man who told me my wife would be reincarnated in your family warned me. He said I must never look into how she lived until she reached adulthood.”

As he spoke, he pulled a mixing bowl toward himself.

Apparently bored, he grabbed a whisk and began stirring aimlessly.

“Rules like that can’t be broken. You’ve heard myths about people who looked back once and fell straight into the underworld again, right? It’s something like that. Of course, I wasn’t stupid enough to lose my chance over a mistake like that.”

Was that why he hadn’t realized the Count and Countess of Hessen were hiding her sister?

Ibnia had found it odd before—why someone like him, who surely could have visited whenever he wanted, knew so little about that household.

The Hessens had been meticulous, but if Ram had been just a little more proactive, deceiving him would’ve been impossible.

“Just in case, I didn’t even leave my home after your sister was born. I was afraid I might run into her by accident because of some twist of fate. He said that if I broke the promise, I’d never be able to meet my wife again.”