The Radiant Young Lady of the Dark Family - Chapter 10
The Hartbisa standing before her was truly a beauty as if painted in watercolor.
With her light hair tinged with pale pink and transparent skin, she was clearly a person of light hues, yet Tar almost let out an exclamation, wondering why she shone so brightly.
Tar thought she had hidden her emotions well, but to Hartbisa, the thoughts on her face were clear as day.
Hartbisa found it cute and smiled unconsciously before her gaze shifted to the maid uniform Tar was wearing.
It was visibly too large and worn out for Tar to wear.
“I’ll send new clothes to your quarters. Wear those from now on.”
“Th… Thank you!”
Tar blurted out reflexively and then fumbled, seemingly flustered.
She rambled incoherently, saying she couldn’t accept something so expensive when she might be fired soon, and that she was happy to receive a gift.
Hartbisa looked at her with a strange expression and said.
“I owe Azure a debt. Both I and my mother do.”
Azure was the maid who stayed by her mother’s side until the end. Even after her mother passed away and her family turned their backs on each other, she continued to take care of her and her sibling. When Hartbisa asked Salam to check on her whereabouts, she found out that she had already left the duke’s mansion and returned to her hometown.
Unable to call back someone who had already left, the fact she discovered was that Tar was her daughter.
“Honestly, I was curious why you remained here even though Azure had left for her hometown.”
“……”
“Perhaps you want revenge?”
At Hartbisa’s words, Tar turned pale and prostrated herself on the floor.
“I have committed a mortal sin, Miss!”
“Wait… Wait.”
“I didn’t stay with such impure intentions from the beginning! I was upset that my mother had to leave the mansion as if she was being chased out, so I thought I’d uncover a secret or two and then return home to sell it to a newspaper for a quick profit!”
Hartbisa’s mouth gaped open in surprise as Tar trembled and spilled everything with just a slight prod.
She had expected Tar might want revenge, but it seemed she had made more diligent plans than anticipated.
Feeling embarrassed about her probing question, Hartbisa cleared her throat and continued.
“So, have you gathered many secrets?”
“Well, that…”
Tar’s face showed she was trying to gauge how much she could tell the flower-like young lady sitting before her.
Seeing this, Hartbisa couldn’t help but laugh.
“If it’s difficult, you don’t have to tell me. However…”
As Hartbisa suddenly extended her hand, Tar reflexively squeezed her eyes shut.
Helena never let a maid’s mistake slide. It was a habitual response, as she had been hit by her more than once.
But the hand before her was offered as if requesting a handshake. That hand looked white and extremely soft.
“I ask for your continued support. I’m planning to drive my aunt out of the mansion too.”
She whispered gently as if sharing a secret.
In response, Tar hesitated as if she didn’t dare to take that hand, and Hartbisa, unable to wait, grasped Tar’s hand that was hovering in the air.
“Tar, from now on, you’ll be my eyes and ears within the mansion. I’ll protect you.”
Becoming a maid in a duke’s household was as difficult as plucking stars from the sky.
Despite what people outside might say, Tar, born and raised in the duke’s mansion, had pride in it.
Even if it was a mansion losing its way and becoming empty under its current master.
In fact, despite what she had said to the young lady about revenge, Tar had been settling for the high salary from the mansion, half-turning a blind eye to reality.
But now, she felt as if she had discovered a new light seeping into the dark mansion from an unexpected place.
She was truly someone adding color to the pitch-black Cellie family.
Tar’s face reddened as she shook hands up and down, held by Hartbisa’s soft hand.
Hartbisa looked at the young maid with an endearing expression, then her eyes sharpened as she began to speak.
“So, Tar. By any chance, have there been any noble men visiting my aunt in the past month?”
Looking at her face, Tar realized that the words about driving out Lady Winblad that had come from those small, red lips earlier were not mere bravado.
Then, as if trying to lend even a little strength to her new mistress, she pondered before continuing.
“Come to think of it, there was indeed one guest I had never seen before.”
“Do you remember who it was?”
“Well, I couldn’t enter the drawing room, so I didn’t hear the content of their conversation, so I’m not certain…”
“Don’t worry, I’ll make the judgment.”
It was a voice full of confidence. To this, Tar nodded and answered.
“The seal stamped on the briefcase that noble guest was carrying was definitely in the shape of a scorpion.”
Tar had remembered the pattern on the briefcase she had seen for just a moment. She was a child with naturally good observation skills.
At those words, Hartbisa smiled wryly. There was only one noble family that used a scorpion as their emblem.
“Viscount Merian.”
“If it’s Viscount Merian, could it be that the lady is thinking of purchasing land?”
Merian was a nouveau riche who had increased his wealth through brokerage and bought his title. Tar, knowing this fact, immediately deduced, but if her memory was correct, it wasn’t the lady who was trying to buy land.
Hartbisa praised Tar’s intelligence, and she, with a face as red as a carrot, vowed to help her mistress even more diligently.
***
“So, is this all for the list of candidates?”
Duke Vanwilhelm wearily scanned the documents on the desk.
Beneath the documents lay a large map of the empire. As business trips became more frequent, the fatigue in procuring supplies was increasing.
Recently, it wasn’t uncommon to be away from the mansion for nearly half a year at a time.
As a result, work efficiency had plummeted while the cost of business trips had only increased.
It was because Chelsea, where the Cellie territory was located, was quite far from the central part of the empire. It had reached a point where it might be more efficient to purchase new land closer to the central area.
Above all, the reason for considering the purchase was to reduce travel time even a little.
“It’s all thanks to you, Father. Thank you.”
Lately, he had developed a desire.
A desire that he might be able to mend the relationship with his daughter, which he had thought was irreparably broken.
So he was hurrying the purchase, but there were no suitable places.
Orsay, standing opposite the Duke who had furrowed his brow, spoke.
“Due to the exceptionally good harvest in the central jurisdictions, land acquisition is not easy.”
“It seems they’ve put in a lot of effort.”
Two years ago, during the Empire’s Founding Day celebrations, the Emperor himself had visited and blessed the lands of the central jurisdictions along with the priests.
Whether it was due to the blessing passed down in the imperial family, since the establishment of the Tastian Empire, the central jurisdictions had been experiencing unusually good harvests.
However, this was only within the jurisdictions. The imperial citizens outside the jurisdictions were marginalized and festering. It was an extreme situation of polarization.
Vanwilhelm looked down at this unpleasant situation with displeasure before turning his gaze to Orsay.
“By the way, what happened to that broker Helena introduced last time?”
“If you mean Viscount Merian, the investigation is complete. The land he proposed has no nearby villages and has a long stretch of flat land, which isn’t bad. There were no noticeable issues in the documents, but…”
“The timing is suspicious, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it’s not dirt cheap, but it’s not exorbitantly priced either. The fact that land so close to the central area hasn’t been sold until now is also concerning.”
In response to Orsay’s concerns, Vanwilhelm listlessly scanned through the materials about Merian that Orsay handed over.
Helena, with her uncanny sense of timing, had introduced the broker almost as soon as the Duke started considering land purchase.
It seems she’s planted her little mice even around him.
After his wife died, he found that, due to his inability to cope, every moment spent in the mansion was painfully unbearable.
Every space that touched his skin held traces of Anelia.
So he immersed himself more in work, and when Helena came up to the mansion, he entrusted her with the lady’s duties.
He believed that she would be better at raising a young girl of her age than his own clumsy hands.
But it was obvious that she was sneaking around doing shady things behind his back.
Even when he first brought Anelia for marriage, she had tried to block the marriage path by mobilizing the senate members.
But that’s as far as it goes.
“At best, she’s probably thinking of selling flawed land at a high price.”
He knew that was the limit of his sister’s capabilities, no matter how much she might squirm.
“In terms of distance, is that the closest?” he asked, leaning back comfortably in his chair.
Orsay hesitated for a moment before answering.
“Actually, a land recommendation letter arrived for you today, Duke.”
“A land recommendation letter?”
“It’s for Dux Mountain.”
“Who is it from?”
At that question, Orsay scratched his Adam’s apple as if he had been asked the most difficult question.
“Well, it’s from the Grand Duke Bertolph Radant.”
