Chapter 149

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Translator: Harry Potta
Chapter: 149
Chapter Title: The Servant's New Master
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“…I was planning to return to Esposa and announce my intention to leave the Escalante family….”

For a moment, Inez’s expression was not just dumbfounded but utterly vacant. Even that look was a heavy blow to Alfonso. He was a servant unaccustomed to ever disappointing his superiors.

“Because you’ve achieved your initial objective?”

“…What happens from now on is the Young Duke's affair. I simply do not wish to cause the slightest inconvenience to the future Duchess.”

“Future… Surely you don’t mean me?”

“Yes.”

Alfonso blinked in puzzlement, as if to ask who else it could be. As if he could clearly predict what his master would decide.

“…So it’s all fine as long as Cassel says he’s okay with it?”

“……Yes.”

“As long as he knows everything.”

“Yes.”

“Don Alfonso. If that’s the case, what difference is there from how things are now?”

She asked as if he were the most frustrating person in the world. As if asking why he couldn’t do better than that. Alfonso blinked again and answered cautiously.

“…That the Señor knows?”

He offered the reason, thinking it prudent, but was met with an immediate scoff.

“To think something so trivial was that important. Don Alfonso, you adhere to propriety to a degree that surpasses my imagination, and yet……”

“……”

“For someone so obsessed with propriety, you’re willing to stand by and watch a flawed woman like me become the Duchess…. For a stuffy old man, aren’t you a bit too progressive?”

“The judgment is not mine to make. It is the Señor’s.”

“Yes. That’s right. Judgment is not for the likes of you to dare make.”

She murmured meaningfully, and Alfonso’s eyes darted around with a sense of foreboding.

“Did you say you planned to leave Escalante?”

“Yes. And of course, I would not dare ask for any letter of recommendation in Esposa.”

“And who would that benefit?”

“Yes. So, the letter of recommendation, I won’t….”

“As if I’d let you leave so peacefully.”

“…If you wish to hand me over to the police, I will give my testimony according to your wishes.”

“I’m asking, to whose benefit would I let you leave this residence as you please? Don Alfonso.”

“Yes…?”

“Until I leave Escalante, you will remain where I can see you.”

“…But you must already despise the sight of me.”

The word “leave” caught his ear, but her expression was one he dared not question. Inez merely shrugged.

“There’s a saying: keep your enemies closer than your friends, always keep a servant who knows his master’s secrets in sight, and simply flog a servant who doesn’t know his place until he learns.”

“……”

“You happen to be all three, so you’d best be careful.”

“……So, does this mean you will allow me to continue serving you both?”

It was obvious he was not at all pleased. Inez offered another kind smile.

“Under my supervision.”

“Even if I dare not wish for it….”

“I have little interest in your wishes.”

“But with what leverage….”

“Are you saying you have no weaknesses?”

*No way….* Even Inez’s unspoken words held a hint of surprise. It sounded almost like a light mockery, and Alfonso frowned for a moment before answering directly.

“I have no wife or children, nor any past that could be a particular flaw.”

“Your family?”

“……”

“Ah. That would be too petty. Inappropriate.”

“……”

“Then let’s keep it clean and just use your life.”

“…Use it for what?”

“There is nothing more serious than a person’s life and death.”

“……”

“And no greater weakness.”

“…Señora, are you… are you threatening my life?”

“Didn’t you threaten that very Señora by calling her defective goods?”

As if she were a villain beyond his imagination, Alfonso’s eyes trembled before losing their light and growing dark at her last words.

“Right to my face, you spoke of the marriage returning to square one, this and that.”

“……”

“A truly loyal servant, you were.”

“…What is it, exactly, that you want me to do?”

“Just do what you’ve always done. As if nothing happened.”

“How would that help you, Señora….”

“And in between, occasionally do what I tell you.”

“……”

“Report to me what Cassel instructs you to do as well.”

“…Señora…. Forgive my presumption, but you yourself said that a servant must always prioritize their master.”

“That’s right. But your half-hearted loyalty is already a lost cause, so it won’t matter if you’re tossed about like a dirty rag.”

“……”

Alfonso anxiously ran a hand over his deathly pale face.

“Having two masters should be fun. Right?”

“Señora. I cannot… I dare not do such a thing.”

His expression was as if he were already being tortured. Inez spoke, not bothering to hide her amusement in the slightest.

“Does Cassel Escalante do shameful things that he couldn’t possibly tell me himself?”

“Of course not…! No. Not at all, the Señor would never do such things.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

As if asking how she could not know what the problem was, his unnerved eyes wavered wildly, but they quieted as if doused with water the moment they met Inez’s cold gaze.

“I’m just telling you to report to me. Is that so difficult?”

Inez’s question sounded like an assessment of his meager abilities. His spirit, crushed by her ever since he sat down, was on the verge of giving her the answers she wanted to every question she asked. *No. How could it be difficult? It’s very easy….*

As Alfonso barely managed to keep his mouth shut, Inez shrugged and continued.

“I won’t interfere with your work, for the most part. I won’t use what comes from your mouth to harm Cassel. I won’t cause him even the smallest scratch. I swear it. Even if he were to meet ten or twenty women, I’d just listen and think, ‘Oh, is that so?’”

“…Señora. That in itself seems problematic….”

“It’s not. It means that no matter what comes out of your mouth, I will never use it to harm your Señor.”

“……”

“And Raúl.”

“…You mean Raúl Valan?”

“Watch him too.”

“……Me, you mean?”

“Yes.”

“Me… watch Valan.”

He muttered, bewildered. The man who supposedly revered Inez more than God. The one who was like her henchman.

“He needs an eye on him that he could never imagine.”

“Valan is already wary of me, as if he wants to kill me.”

“As a servant of Escalante, yes. But what if you were my eyes?”

*That would be new. He would never imagine it.*

“…You don’t trust Valan?”

“I do.”

“But then.”

“I’m watching him because I trust him.”

“……”

Inez’s words were as nonsensical as saying you would kill someone because you love them. But Inez’s face was filled with such sincerity that as time passed, Alfonso only grew more confused by the whole situation.

“Because I know he’d do anything for me.”

“……”

“Because I know that for my sake, he’s capable of disobeying even my own words.”

“Valan, that man, at least when it comes to your affairs, Señora….”

“Right. So shut up and watch him closely, and report every single thing.”

Inez cut Alfonso off with a wave of her hand, as if telling him to stop his useless chatter. He was newly intimidated by the cold gesture. Even in his youth as a valet in Esposa Castle, he had never experienced such contemptuous treatment.

“Especially what kind of joint ventures Valan is up to with Cassel.”

“…With the Señor…?”

“Don Alfonso… you really are unobservant. You see the two of them together and still don’t know.”

“……”

Being blackmailed with his life, only to be ordered to watch two people she seemingly had no reason to suspect… The noble Señora had no way of understanding why he would naturally wear such an expression.

“…Then how can you trust me?”

“I will never trust the likes of you, not until the day I die. If need be, I can just drag you to any port on the Calsteran coast and drop you in.”

“……”

“Don Alfonso, I trust only in the finiteness of your life.”

Despite the title being used repeatedly as a mockery, the way servants would address him as their superior, he could only swallow hard.

“Of course, it’s not for free. I’m not that cruel a master. Besides, thanks to your ineptitude, I’ve come to my senses at quite an opportune moment, so I should naturally reward you.”

“I desire nothing—”

“Of course not. Not now that your spirit is completely broken.”

“……”

“But you did before. When you first heard my story.”

“That was.”

“‘I must separate that crazy woman from the Young Duke as soon as possible. It would be best if the Señor knew the whole story and cast her out. That wretched woman must not, under any circumstances, become the future Duchess of Escalante.’”

“……”

As if his past thoughts had truly been laid bare, Alfonso’s ears turned bright red, soaked in shame. But a wish was, literally, just a wish.

“You’re right about all of it. Your thoughts weren’t wrong from the start… So revive that loyal heart of yours now. I’ll give you what you wanted.”

“Pardon?”

“You’re naturally unskilled at blackmail, negotiation, and trickery, so I’m personally helping you out. Now, make your proposal to me again.”

“……”

“‘Señora Escalante. Allow me to remind you once more that I am aware of your sordid secret.’”

“…Señora Escalante. Allow me to remind you once more that I am aware of your sordid secret.”

“‘In exchange for my silence, I urge you to leave Escalante when the appropriate time comes—’”

“—Señora, I ask just to be sure, but when you say ‘leave’… you mean *I* will be the one leaving, correct?”

“You idiot……”

Inez pressed a hand to her forehead. Alfonso still wore a look of common sense, an attitude that showed he had no idea why he had just been insulted.

“Judging by the context and everything else, it would obviously be me.”

“…But why on earth would you, Señora….”

“Because after I have the child, and before a year has passed, I will leave Cassel Escalante.”