“Mr. Butler! It isn’t our fault, so why…!”

“How dare you talk back to me!”

The servant didn’t escape the butler’s strike.

After the butler kicked the servant, who was struck down and curled up on the ground, a few times, he panted and pointed towards him.

“If you don’t want to end up like this punk, locate Zenon Lionerik right now! Right now!”

Heloise’s shoulders flinched.

Now, the situation became one that even Zenon couldn’t be unaware of.

When she turned her head, sure enough, Zenon was looking at the butler with a hardened expression.

“What did I just see?”

It was a question, but it was closer to a murmur to himself.

Perhaps it was also Zenon’s first time seeing this side of the butler’s, as his eyes were filled with astonishment and shock.

To offset the shock that Zenon would receive, Heloise thought about whether to defend the butler or tell the truth as it is, and eventually chose to do the latter.

“Truthfully, this isn’t the only peculiar side of the butler that I’d seen.”

“What?”

“For now, let’s go back. If we stay here, we’ll get caught instantly.”

She grabbed the reluctant Zenon by his hand and dragged him away.

However, Zenon, who was unwillingly dragged, instantly grabbed Heloise’s wrist.

Zenon looked at the wrist that he’d grabbed with a grave expression on his face.

“What’s this?”

The pattern that appeared on her wrist after treating Elena was revealed in its totality.

“Oh… It’s nothing much.”

Heloise wasn’t able to hide her perplexed expression and glossed over it. Was she supposed to know what that is?

“Are you, perhaps, a mage?”

As Zenon stared down her wrist, he gave the most plausible answer in this situation.

She would rather say she was one, but even if she avoided it once, the aftermath of her response would be too great.

Heloise denied his words with playful honorifics.

“A mage? No way, Young Master. If that was the case, I would have gone to the Academy before.”

No, on the very first day that she was assigned as a playmate, Zenon would have realised it all.

Without letting go of her wrist, Zenon looked at Heloise’s face with a stiff expression.

When the silence continued, Heloise felt increasingly burdened.

“Wouldn’t you be the first one to feel it? Whether I have mana or not.”

Mages can sense each other’s mana.

The higher the mana one has, the more easily they would store mana, which made it difficult for others to sense it, but there was no need for that in this case, as Zenon was one of the country’s most talented in terms of the sheer amount of mana.

Even if Heloise had mana, it was impossible for her to be able to hide it.

Maybe because Zenon felt that Heloise didn’t have mana, he soon loosened her wrist.

‘You punk, your hands are really strong.’

After barely managing to convince him, Heloise changed back into her original clothes after entering the room she had changed in earlier, and headed towards Zenon’s study with him in tow.

While she did worry about what to do if the tutor, Count Rockford, came first, he just happened to also be away.

“Now, tell me what you were going to say just now.”

Zenon spoke with a serious look.

After letting out a deep sigh, Heloise briefly summarised what she’d seen.

“From the looks of it, the butler seems to be your uncle’s subordinate.”

“…….”

As expected, he had a look of doubt on his face, like he was asking what she was talking about.

Heloise added a remark.

“You can confirm it if you get a chance to see his neck. There should be a strange pattern on his neck.”

“A pattern?”

“It’s a mark of heresy. Not long ago, during the harvest festival, I happened to witness the butler attend some cult’s rally.”

“How did you witness that?”

“I saw a familiar face in the stands of the martial arts tournament, so I followed behind… Anyways, the important thing is that it was a heretical rally, and the butler was there.”

She couldn’t say that she’d followed them after discovering a mark that was similar to the pattern on her wrist, so she roughly muddled through.

“The problem is, I heard from the Information Guild that your uncle is a key member of that cult.”

“So the marquis and the butler believe in the same religion?”

“That’s right. As well as the fact that we were tailed during the founding festival. I think the likelihood of the butler being the source of the leaked information is high. Didn’t you also say so? ‘Uncle’s people are planted in the house.’”

It was probably difficult for Zenon to tell exactly who was ‘Uncle’s person’.

That’s why he didn’t seem very confident on the day he went out.

“What I can definitely tell you is that there’s a side to the butler that we don’t know. From what we’ve just seen, I don’t think he’s the amicable person that we’ve only ever known.”

“…….”

It seemed difficult for Zenon to respond easily.

It’s to be expected. While she didn’t know how long it’s been, between his parents’ death and his uncle’s oppression, the only place he could rely on were the servants, and only the butler amongst them.

How could he not be agitated when such a butler went over to the Marquis of Velks?

As Zenon remained silent, the door to the study slammed open without a knock.

Heloise’s shoulders flinched in surprise.

It was the butler.

He opened the door with a fully distorted face, and his expression gradually softened when he found Zenon and Heloise.

“Oh, goodness… Young Master, where have you been? The Miss is here, too.”

“Hn……”

Zenon remained silent despite Heloise’s reluctant answer.

“I’ve really found you. If only the news of the Miss’ arrival was delivered sooner, but it seems that the education of those lower people wasn’t sufficient.”

The butler couldn’t contain his excitement and used crude language.

Goosebumps appeared all over Heloise.

At that time, Zenon, who had been silent so far, opened his mouth.

“It’s stifling.”

“Yes?”

“It’s so stifling that I called for Heloise. Because I wanted to go out together.”

“……Out, you said?”

The butler’s face hardened.

It was an obviously unwelcome look.

Heloise gave Zenon an obvious sign, but he nodded nonchalantly like he didn’t get the hint.

“Yeah, I liked it when I went out during the founding festival, so I wanted to go out during the harvest festival, but I couldn’t. I called Heloise today because I wanted to go out.”

“Ah…… That’s……”

“Why, can’t I?”

Zenon’s blue-gray eyes narrowed.

“No, it’s not that…Alright. Please don’t worry. I’ll make proper preparations so that it won’t get in the Marquis’ ear.”

Zenon didn’t even mention the marquis, but the butler took the lead and quickly vowed to keep it from getting caught by the marquis.

Zenon nodded half-heartedly and looked at Heloise.

“You should also get ready if there’s a need for you to.”

“……Get ready?”

“I’m going to change.”

With that said, Zenon left the study and headed towards the dressing room.

Seeing how the waiting maids followed after Zenon, it seems that Zenon was really changing his clothes.

‘What is that punk thinking?’

Even though I’d told him that the butler might be a bad guy, why was he suddenly going out?

The problem came when Zenon finished changing and was really preparing a carriage to go out.

As soon as Heloise, who was holding Zenon’s hand, and about to sloppily follow him onto the carriage, knights in black armour appeared.

Obviously, this schedule was decided much more urgently than the founding festival, but it was impossible to know who notified them to make their appearance.

Well-trained and with large statures, there were about twenty of them.

The man at their forefront took off his helmet and spoke coldly.

“I’m sorry, but Young Master. Personal outings are prohibited.”

To think that personal outings are prohibited.

In that case, does that mean that he’s allowed to go out in public?

All of Zenon’s public outings were seized by the Marquis of Velks.

So that was a ridiculous remark.

Zenon stood on the carriage’s steps and looked down at the knight without responding.

Then, the butler appeared and intervened between the knight commander and Zenon.

“Please don’t do this, Sir Commander. Don’t you feel sorry for the Young Master?”

“Rules are rules.”

“But the Young Master will succeed this family in the future… How can you recklessly block the Young Master’s path? If the previous Duke was still alive, something like this wouldn’t have happened.”

When comments about the deceased previous duke came out of the butler’s mouth, a cold glint flashed past the knight commander’s eyes.

“Don’t carelessly mock me with that mouth.”

The eyes of Heloise, who was already in the carriage, weren’t focused at all.

Honestly, she thought that they were doing a live show.

The whole lot of them possessed such great acting skills that if she wasn’t careful, she would have been fooled.

Perhaps Zenon’s thoughts weren’t different from hers, as he watched them with an expressionless face.

“But…!”

“I’ll cut you if you say another word.”

When their performance was reaching its climax.

Heloise lost her patience and opened her mouth.

“Alright.”

The knight commander, who looked as though he was about to draw his sword immediately, turned his gaze towards her.

Heloise got out of the carriage while holding Zenon’s hand tightly.

Zenon’s planned test had ended and he had already finished all that he needed to. There’s no reason for this to drag on.

“Let’s not go, young master. If the Marquis’ will is to confine the Young Master at home, let’s do that.”

Zenon seemed to be quite bewildered at her partially sneering words.

“Heloise.”

The knight commander defended the Marquis in a blunt tone, like he was trying to rebuke her.

“The Marquis took this measure for the sake of the Young Master’s health. There isn’t anything else to it.”

“……I know what you mean.”

After quietly agreeing, Zenon bowed his head.

Heloise snorted and added sarcastically.

“Of course that’s the case. We’ll turn around as you wish.”

She then grabbed Zenon’s hand and returned back to the mansion.

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