Chapter 7: The Duke

Creak–.

I felt a sharp gaze behind me from when I turned the doorknob and until when I got out to the hall.

I felt a refreshing emotion realizing that he gave a different reaction than when I entered the room earlier.

However, I decided to not mind any of that.

The duke wasn’t a character I needed to raise the interest within, and he was an existence that I won’t have to deal with until the ending at the coming of age ceremony.

Clack, I gently closed the door behind me and turned away from it.

It was then.

“I’m certain that I told you to live like a mouse without causing any commotion.”

“Gasp!”

A cold toned voice entered my ears.

I turned around from the surprise.

There by the hall where the shadow took over stood a figure in an unpleasant position.

In the dark I could see the shining letters written to show [Interest 0%].

The barely seen black hair, and ice blue eyes.

It was the first son of the duke family, Derrick.

“Emily.”

“…… .”

“A loyal maid who worked for this family for almost 10 years.”

Step, step. Derrick walked out from the shadow.

The man who came across the large hall within a second arrived in front of me in a short time.

He looked down at me with a sharp aura held in his eyes. It was as if he was looking at some trash.

I didn’t do anything wrong but I had to cower myself from the hatred and disgust I was getting from him.

“No one wanted to be your personal maid even though we’ve said we’ll pay extra. Out of all those maids, the one maid volunteered to serve you.”

“…… .”

“And I guess today’s the end of that. Since you went crazy and chased out your one and only personal maid, not knowing your place.”

I felt unfairness rise within me from Derrick’s words.

When did I go crazy to chase her out? The one who went crazier than I did was that pink head.

‘And it was me who was almost chased out of life, eating those rotten food!’

I wanted to shout due to the annoyance of this situation.

What stopped me from doing so was the [Interest 0%] above Derrick’s head.

‘Hold it in. If it goes any further down than that, I’m dead.’

I inhaled and exhaled a couple of times and calmed down.

‘Interest 0%. 0%…… .’

I was already tired after talking with the duke.

Also, since I’ve only focused on trying to ‘off’ the choices, I didn’t remember much of what happened in this scene in the game.

That’s why I decided to use some help from the system.

‘Choice ON.’

Ha! Guess she served you at night in bed, huh?

Maybe she’ve been chased out because she’ve done something that was worth being chased out.

(Glare without saying a word.)

Scanning through the choices, I hurried and mentally shouted.

‘Choices OFF! OFF!’

Do You Want To [OFF] The Choices?

[Yes. / No.]

I hurriedly pressed [Yes.].

If I chose one of the 3, I would be heading to hell.

The time seemed to have passed a lot from me doing all that, that Derrick’s gaze grew more colder.

“Ha. Looks like my words aren’t like words to you anymore.”

His gaze was so sharp that he even looked like he was going to kill me.

I opened my mouth with no choice.

“I apologize for the fuss.”

How many times would I have to beg like this even though I did nothing wrong?

I was also a person that I had a thing called pride, so I felt disgusted and bad to bow my head down like a slave.

However this was nothing if the purpose of it was to live.

Besides, these people aren’t real but just some fake characters from the game.

That bitch scratched me and left a scar here, father! Brother!

Of course, a mouse-like bitch acts like one like a beggar.

I begged for forgiveness countless of times before I went out to live on my own in my previous life.

This was the same situation of that time.

In my previous life, it wasn’t that my life would’ve been in danger if I didn’t begged for apologies like in this game.

However I was pretty young that time that every situation seemed killing to me.

That’s why I lived begging on the ground to the point my hands seemed to become feet.

Comparing that to this, this wasn’t something that I could find unfair of. Penelope did create major fuss unlike I did.

I don’t know if its due to my experience in my past life that apologizing all my life to live seemed really easy to me.

‘This is annoyingly similar.’

I opened my mouth, thinking about the time in my past life.

“Just like you said, I didn’t know my place up until now.”

“……What?”

“It is my fault that I wasn’t able to handle my situation well in the first place, so you don’t need to fire her. I was just on my way back to my room after apologizing to father.”

hearing my words, Derrick’s expression changed to a weird one.

His slightly wider blue eyes was refreshing to see. It was the similar reaction to that of the duke’s.

I opened my mouth. Repeating these dialogues weren’t that hard since I’ve already said these lines multiples of times.

“I will live my life so quiet from now on that you won’t even notice to mind anything. So please forgive me this once.”

I bowed my head.

‘Was I too lifeless while talking?’

I came to realize just how insincere my tone was that it started to worry me now.

But he wouldn’t slice his sister’s neck out of nowhere even though it’s in a cruel game.

I waited for an answer with a light mind, trusting my thoughts that this wasn’t a situation with the cruel psychopathic crowned prince involved.

I wanted this to end quick and go back to the room.

Even standing was a torture now.

Now that I think about it, my body’s not in the best condition due to the incident in the morning with the maid, and I didn’t eat anything after that.

Derrick spoke after more than 5 minutes unlike my desire for this situation to end quickly.

“……This once.”

“…… .”

“I’ll forgive you just this once.”

Without giving me a chance to thank him, he added,

“However, keep in mind that this will be the last time I’ll be forgiving you behaving that way.”

It was a more unpleasing reply than the duke’s reply.

I felt relieved that it wasn’t an answer related to death like how I expected.

But no words of thanks came from my mouth no matter how I tried to force it out.

‘Yes, yes. This is only for my safety.’

I bent my back forward and bowed with a disgusting feeling like how I did to the first bastard in my last life.

After that, I immediately turned to head back to my room.

It was then.

“Ah…… .”

My head started to hurt as I felt dizzy and nauseous. My sight was blurry.

I don’t know if it was this sudden relief that came to me from the fact that I didn’t die, but all strength left my legs.

I soon lost my balance and stumbled.

‘I’m falling……!’

I was getting closer to the floor.

Tak-. Someone roughly grabbed onto my one shoulder.

“Hey.”

I felt the force pulling me back up.

I turned my head and saw flaming blue pupils right before my eyes. Derrick had caught me from me falling.

“I’ve heard that you eaten rotten food.”

I felt my mentality swooshing back to me as I heard his emotionless voice.

He asked when I just stared at him in surprise.

“Don’t you need a doctor?”

My complicated mind settled down in an instant.

‘He knew.’

He knew that it wasn’t Penelope’s fault.

He knew but he still tried to push all the responsibility to me, and even the maid’s wrongdoings.

‘If I didn’t ask for forgiveness, he’d probably jump to kill me with no hesitation.’

I felt like I’ve just been dumped with iced water.

“No, young master.”

Tak, I snached my hand out of his. It was an unconscious movement that came from my survival instincts.

But soon after that, I regretted it. He probably would’ve felt unpleasant, so I forced a smile on my face.

“I’ve already told you just earlier that I’ll do my best for you to not mind me at all.”

So mind your own business.

“Then.”

I politely bowed once again and quickly walked away.

I would look ridiculous as I was walking down the hall so fast that probably looked as if I was running away from something.

However that is correct. I was scared if he’d take out his sword at me.

I couldn’t notice from hurrying down the hall towards the stairs.

The look on the face of the man remaining behind me.

***

“……The first young master, huh.”

Derrick unexpectedly repeated what Penelope said before she left.

The bitch couldn’t even call the duke ‘father’, but always called him and Rennald ‘brother’.

The image of her pale face when he caught her from falling wouldn’t leave his mind.

The blue eyes flashed as he watched Penelope leaving as if she’s running away.

But soon, he turned away as if he’s disinterested.

[Interest 5%]

Over his head sparkled the letters written in white which Penelope failed to notice.

_______

-CatLovesTowels -Lizette ~~ <3>