“Cheese in the middle of the night? What are we, some sort of rodent?”
My white squirrels, hearing our conversation, woke up one by one and offered us some small fruits that they had kept for themselves. I thanked them for their generosity.
“Besides, we’ll get fat if we eat at this hour.”
“Yes, but we can’t help but feel hungry!” Parfeil countered.
I had to nod in agreement. She was right. We wouldn’t get fat from a small amount of cheese from the kitchen.
“All right, Parfeil, let’s go to the kitchen!”
“Okay!”
Madeleine was sleeping comfortably, so we made sure not to wake her up. I asked my white squirrels to act as her bodyguards. They took positions around Madeleine’s bed while they held vicious weapons like morning stars and clubs. Apparently, the squirrels had learned magic to let them store various objects, so they were able to carry around such weapons.
“I’ll leave Madeleine to all of you then,” I said.
The squirrels let out tiny squeaks in response, just barely audible so as not to wake her up.
I put on a gown, picked up a magicstone lamp, and headed out into the hallway. The lights in the hallway were off and it was completely dark. Strangely enough, I didn’t feel creeped out by the darkness, perhaps because the walls, floor, and ceiling were all white. Still, this was an unfamiliar place, so I couldn’t say that I wasn’t scared at all. I walked while staying close to Parfeil.
There appeared to be a blizzard raging outside, but it wasn’t cold inside at all. The heating magic in these hallways made use of magicstones, and the way it was set up must have been complex and high-level magic. Servants would usually be patrolling the hallways of a mansion like this, but right now, there was no one else to be found.
“Come to think of it, I haven’t seen that many servants around since we arrived,” I said.
“They might be running the place with minimal staff,” Parfeil surmised.
We walked along the hallway with the assumption that the kitchen was close to the third dining hall. While I couldn’t quite picture the layout of the mansion, Parfeil seemed to have memorized it already.
We did our best to quiet our footsteps as we proceeded down the hallway so as not to bother anyone. Then we heard voices talking in hushed tones. I tried my best to determine their conversation, but I couldn’t tell who was speaking. However, Parfeil, who had good hearing, seemed to have identified them.
“Parfeil, who’s talking?”
“Well, um...”
“Just tell me already,” I insisted.
Parfeil looked hesitant and uneasy, but now that I had ordered her to tell me, she whispered the answer. “I believe it’s the Lord Dragon Duke Vacherin and Lady Fenetra talking.”
What?! I nearly shouted out my thoughts, but I managed to hold it back. Calm down, I silently told myself.
As I approached the source of the voices, I saw a man and a woman huddled against each other. There were no guards or servants to be found with them.
Without a doubt, it was Van and Fenetra. And to be more precise, it was more like Fenetra was pushing herself onto Van.
Fenetra then dropped an outrageous line. “Lord Vacherin, would you like to spend time with me in my bedroom?”
A young maiden inviting Van—a married man—into her own bedroom was unthinkable. Even a young man and woman alone together in a room in broad daylight was already cause for scandal.
Fenetra was looking at Van with a torrid gaze. It was as if she were a completely different woman from the perfect lady she had been this afternoon.
What is Van going to do? My heart was pounding. I held my breath in anticipation.
“I’ll have to decline your offer,” Van replied.
“Oh, but you’re here walking around this late at night. I thought you might be starving for the touch of a woman.”
“Do I look like someone so desperate to be loved that I would lay my hands on anyone I could?” Van gave Fenetra a cold, unamused glare. His tone of voice was just as frigid.
At that moment, Fenetra pulled back. “I-I apologize for overstepping my boundaries! W-Well then, good night, Lord Dragon Duke!”
Fenetra then turned around and attempted to flee, but Van grabbed her arm.
“I will accompany you to your room,” he said.
“Th-Thank you very much.”
Though Van said that he would do that, he didn’t bother to walk beside her. He instead sped off with fast strides, Fenetra right behind him, attempting to catch up.
The hallway went silent once more. I asked Parfeil what we should do now, but we no longer had the desire to grab cheese from the kitchen. Our strong feelings of hunger from earlier were now completely gone.
“I don’t need cheese anymore,” I said.
“What a coincidence. Me neither!”
“Let’s head back, then.”
“You got it, milady!”
We returned to the room and lay down, but I couldn’t fall asleep. I just couldn’t get that conversation between Van and Fenetra out of my mind.
I can’t believe I caught Fenetra trying to seduce Van.
Was Lady Opera right? Was she really trying to take the title of Dragon Duchess consort? Or did she just want to spend at least one night with Van?
I had no clue.
“Lady Mille-Feuille, you should get some rest. We still have things to do tomorrow,” Parfeil chided me.
“I know, I know.”
Unfortunately, I was now wide awake. I was trying to think of how I could go back to sleep, but Parfeil started patting my belly.
“Parfeil, are you trying to get me to fall asleep?”
“I’m doing my best, milady,” she whispered. I couldn’t help but giggle at her trying so hard to get me to relax. Even the white squirrels started patting my belly too, and I ended up laughing even harder. If anyone else were to see this scene, they might’ve thought that this was some kind of strange ritual.
“Jeez, you all don’t have to try and make me sleep!” I cried.
“Staying up late isn’t good for you, milady!” Parfeil replied, and the squirrels all went “squeak, squeak!” as if in agreement.
“All right, all right. I’ll do my best to rest, so you all better go to bed too!”
I went and hugged Parfeil, and the squirrels squeezed themselves in between us. The sensation of being surrounded by fluffy creatures helped me doze off, and before I knew it, I was fast asleep.
The next day, we were all dressed to the nines as we headed for breakfast. Once again, Fenetra’s servants led us to the third dining hall. Yesterday, it had been just us, but today, the house’s maids were here.
“Please enjoy yourselves,” Fenetra’s maids said before leaving the dining hall.
I thought Lady Opera would be upset, but she just kept putting food on her plate. “It is a waste of time to be upset. We should proceed with our breakfast.”
Thus, we had our second buffet meal.
Once we had returned to our room, Lady Opera could no longer hold back her anger. “What is with the way they are treating us?!” she roared.
This time, I couldn’t help but agree. We had already been led to eat at a time when nobody else was, and now we had been told to eat with the servants of the Noisette mansion. This was beyond insulting.
Lady Opera had apparently tried to protest our treatment but to no avail. “I ordered my knights to try and contact my brother, but...”
According to her knights, a large number of the Noisette household servants were stationed around Van’s guest room, so they were unable to approach him.
“No one is allowed to see my brother unless he says so himself.”
“They’re being way too conceited,” I grumbled.
Why are we being treated like this? I couldn’t help but be puzzled at this turn of events. Then, Lady Opera shared a ridiculous piece of information that one of her knights had obtained.
“According to my knights, House Noisette thinks that we are the Dragon Duke’s concubines.”
“What?!”
We definitely made it clear in our introductions that we are the Dragon Duke’s attendants, so how could they think that we are his concubines?!
Madeleine, apparently in shock, was holding her head in her hands. Parfeil stared blankly into the air. Lady Opera was furious.
“The first time she saw us, Fenetra was looking at us like we were pathetic creatures,” I recalled. Back then, I had thought that she was pitying us because we were cold. But apparently I had misunderstood—she was seeing us as pathetic, boorish concubines latching ourselves onto the Dragon Duke on this important trip.
“My brother must be keeping us at a distance because he is worried our identities will get revealed if he tries to take care of us,” Lady Opera surmised. If so, his decision had backfired, and now we were completely unable to get information from him.
“Millefie, what’s wrong?” Madeleine was worried about me.
To be frank, I did not want us to be dancing in the palms of their hands. We had to do something to get things going.
“We’ll be going out to look for hot spring sources,” I announced. I planned to take just Parfeil with me, and Madeleine and Lady Opera would stay behind at the mansion.
“I want to go as well,” Lady Opera said.
“We’re just going out to investigate for now. Once we know that it isn’t dangerous, we’ll take you with us,” I said.
“I understand,” Lady Opera said. I thought that she would insist on going, but she was pretty compliant this time. “Madeleine, let us do some sewing.”
“All right!”
We began preparing for our expedition. Just in case, I told them to inform the knights if we weren’t back by sunset. I put on my thick fur coat to keep myself warm in the snow. I also wore a cap and a pair of gloves, all made of fur. My white squirrels stuffed themselves in my pockets and cap. Having the squirrels around made it even warmer than just the fur coat would’ve done—it turned out that they were quite useful for keeping me toasty too.