YSGD 8

Chapter 8 

“Your Highness.”

The unexpected figures were servants dressed in maid uniforms identical to Betty’s.

Among them was the maid who had come to the cabin on my first day in Celeste after calling for Betty.

Dora, was it?

But aside from her, most of them were suspiciously big-boned.

The maids stood with strict, solemn, serious expressions, hands planted firmly on their hips as they stared at me.

Deep shadows fell along their sharp nose bridges, as striking as their burly, muscular builds.

If I were to get into a fight with them…

“…I’d lose.”

A one-hundred-percent chance of defeat.

Just as the wave of tension made me gulp down dry saliva—

“What do you think you’re doing?!”

Even though she wasn’t much taller than me herself, Betty sprang forward fiercely, blocking my way as if to protect me.

A strangely touching feeling welled up inside my chest.

“Huh?!”

Far from being intimidated, Betty shoved her face right up to theirs in provocation, baring her teeth.

“What? What is it? Huh?! Looking for trouble? Hyaaak!”

“…Cerberus.”

How incredibly reassuring!

Feeling a sudden surge of courage myself, I patted Betty’s shoulder lightly and stepped forward with resolve.

Easy there, Cerberus. You don’t need to step in.

As if she’d sensed my intent through my fingertips, Betty stopped growling, rolled her bulging eyes back into place, and obediently retreated to my side.

Watching this closely, the maid standing at the center of the group spoke.

“Betty, since when did you become Her Highness’s loyal dog? Just this morning, you were—”

“Grrrr!”

“Easy, easy. Cerbe— I mean, Betty.”

I stopped Betty as she immediately went into attack mode, stepped forward, and spoke firmly.

“Calling Betty my ‘loyal dog’ doesn’t seem like an appropriate expression. More importantly, what do you want?”

“We also wish to become Your Highness’s loyal dogs.”

“?”

…What?

I blinked in confusion, wondering if I’d misheard, when a maid standing on the right side of the group suddenly shouted in an impassioned voice.

“We were wrong! We’ve misunderstood Your Highness all this time!”

“But now we know! That elegant demeanor— and those decisive, wonderful eyes!”

“Please accept us as Your Highness’s foot-wipers!”

“Even if we’re scouted elsewhere, we’ll never so much as glance their way!”

One fervent declaration after another followed, bordering on outright testimony.

It was somehow even more excessive than Betty’s antics—my head started to ache.

I squeezed my eyes shut, then turned to Betty.

Please do something about this.

But…

“I knew it! I knew you’d be like this!”

“…Betty?”

As if her earlier fury and bristling fur had never existed, Betty’s round eyes sparkled as she wriggled with excitement.

She seemed genuinely thrilled to have companions now.

But somehow… it didn’t feel like the joy of a maid serving the same master as others so much as—

It feels like a gathering of otaku who all share the same favorite idol.

And that favorite idol was… me?

Well, honestly, I didn’t really want to understand any more than this.

“‘Foot-wiper’ doesn’t sound like a very nice term either. For now, what are your names?”

“Gasp—our names?!”

“Yes. All of yours.”

“Kyaaak! What do we do?!”

Doing my best to ignore their over-the-top reactions, I calmly listened to the maids’ enthusiastic self-introductions.

“…So, in order: Garnet, Nina, Dora, Ria, and Marigold?”

“Yes!”

And with Betty included?

For some reason, their names suspiciously sounded like they were in alphabetical order…

That was probably just my imagination.

Let’s move on.

“From now on, we’ll help you, Your Highness—anything you need!”

Setting aside the question of how this all came to be, I couldn’t help but smile sincerely at their warm words.

“Alright. Thank you.”

From that day on, strange factions began forming within the ducal castle.

“Hugo’s young lady is really something. Even if she’s a count’s daughter, she’s still just the Grand Duchess’s attendant. Broadly speaking, she’s no different from us—so why does she act so high and mighty? Compared to her, Lady Renée is an angel.”

Some subtly sided with Renée Blanche.

“Give me a break. That woman is definitely cursed! Red eyes—just thinking about it is ominous. Lady Katarina may have a foul personality, but at least there aren’t any bad rumors about her.”

Others, who detested Renée Blanche, continued to side with Katarina Hugo.

In effect, depending on which of the two women they disliked more, people took sides, and small and large disputes broke out everywhere.

“…As a result, internal division has become severe.”

“Haa…”

A deep sigh escaped the carefully sculpted lips of the man.

Xenos, pressing a hand to his throbbing temple, slowly opened his eyes.

“All this happened in just a few days while I was gone?”

“Well, that is…”

The head butler, who had been delivering the report, wore a troubled expression beneath his monocle.

Shaking his head, Xenos spoke.

“I’m not blaming you, Kal.”

“I apologize for failing to maintain discipline.”

“How could that be your fault? It’s all because of those stones that rolled in from outside.”

Since one side seemed relatively quiet, he had been considering ways to naturally separate the noisier faction first.

Then, while he’d hurriedly stepped away due to sudden bad news—

It was as if his own front yard had gone up in flames.

“Damn it.”

A few days earlier.

Xenos had urgently ridden out upon hearing reports of monsters appearing on the outskirts of the Celeste territory.

Monsters were beings that existed only in founding myths or ancient legends—creatures said to have been sealed away by the first emperor, Albert Rembrandt, and an ancient dragon.

Now, hundreds of years after the founding of Rembrandt—

Dragons and monsters alike were little more than stories from another world.

Magic still existed, but its power was weak.

The temples had long since claimed that domain.

As divine power grew more prominent, it was only natural for magic to decline.

“….”

His thoughts spiraled onward, and Xenos slowly lifted his head.

When he arrived at the scene, the civilian homes reportedly damaged by monsters had vanished without a trace.

Naturally, the monsters themselves were nowhere to be found either.

Had someone filed a false report to lure him away from the ducal castle?

If so, that meant there was a spy inside the castle, monitoring its movements.

Until now, no one had ever hidden so boldly within the ducal castle.

The most suspicious individual was, as expected…

“Ha.”

He was reaching his limit.

Xenos’s eyes flickered with cold fury.

“Fine. You may go.”

“Yes.”

The old butler, who understood his master’s heart without words, withdrew with a brief reply.

Left alone, Xenos remained lost in thought for a long while before finally rubbing his face dryly.

“…What a mess.”

His vision felt clouded.

Sleeplessness was nothing new, but the exhaustion had piled up more than usual after days of nonstop travel through harsh mountains and cold.

Yet the more his body cried out in fatigue, the clearer his mind became.

No matter how many times he experienced it, that disconnect never felt familiar.

It’s already this late…

By the time Kal had entered earlier, most people would already have been preparing for bed.

A few more hours passed, and outside the window, the deep night settled into silence beneath pale moonlight.

Pressing his temple firmly with one hand, Xenos rose from his seat.

Since sleep was out of the question anyway, he decided to take a walk.

Step, step, step.

The heavy sound of his shoes echoed through the dark corridors of the mansion.

As he wandered aimlessly, he found himself in areas he rarely visited—purely by chance.

Then—

“…!”

A sudden presence was felt beyond a bent corridor.

Xenos’s senses, honed by a lifetime spent walking on the edge of blades, snapped sharply alert.

An intruder? No. Not threatening. Rather…

It didn’t feel like someone who had snuck in secretly.

An assassin wouldn’t be this careless.

And it wasn’t a time when the castle was busy enough to have servants working.

More than that, the servants’ quarters were in a separate annex, far from the main building—so servants were naturally excluded.

Then who could it be?

Even as he wondered, the quick, light footsteps continued to draw closer.

Who on earth would be walking through the main building corridors at this hour…?

“Who’s there?”

“Eek!”

But the figure he encountered was neither an assassin nor a servant—

It was someone completely unexpected.