Chapter 64
Part 14. The Snare
The young female butler entered the waiting room with the most cautious steps she could manage.
“…I offer my greetings to the First Young Master of the main clan.”
She paid her respects to the First Young Master, pretending she could not bring herself to raise her head.
“Who are you?”
One of the maids, who had been fuming, asked her.
Keeping her head lowered, she secretly shifted her gaze and saw Wongakjeong’s maid uniform.
There was no need to pay attention to a mere maid.
Instead, she introduced herself to the First Young Master.
“I heard that you were looking for me. Please simply call me Butler Bang.”
The reply came from the woman standing beside the First Young Master.
“Butler Bang, you say?”
There was a chill in the woman’s voice.
“Yes, please call me that.”
She swallowed a curse inwardly.
‘A mere head maid of Swordless, and yet she acts so arrogantly…’
Butler Bang knew about Jeong-ah through the Inner Court’s information network.
A bewitching woman who had weighed her options between the Second Young Master and the Third Young Master, then fled to the First Young Master’s side when the situation began to turn unusual.
‘This visit was probably caused by that woman Jeong-ah inciting Swordless as well.’
Thanks to that, she alone had been inconvenienced.
“Were you the one who refused Wongakjeong’s payment?”
The head maid Jeong-ah’s voice was low and heavy.
“Um… by payment request, do you mean the cost of the books?”
‘Making such a fuss over book fees that are only worth a few coins.’
She was, after all, only a second-rank butler of the Inner Court.
The problem began with the fact that she thought the books on regression Yeon Sang-hyeon collected were worth only a few coins, but she herself did not realize that.
And on top of that, she called it a “request.”
This attitude of hers showed that the Inner Court was being privatized by its members.
“A request? Since when did the Inner Court’s duty of handling the expenses of the main clan’s direct bloodline become a ‘request’?”
Butler Bang hurriedly lowered her head even further.
“Ah, I apologize, Head Maid. I misspoke for a moment…”
Jeong-ah merely snorted coldly without replying.
‘A lowborn wench, strutting around just because she has Swordless to rely on…’
At her attitude, Butler Bang suppressed her anger inwardly.
“That is enough. Explain yourself.”
“Yes, First Young Master.”
When Yeon Sang-hyeon intervened, the head maid, who had been like a thorn in Butler Bang’s eye, stepped back.
Butler Bang smiled inwardly.
Instead of immediately pressing her, he said he would listen to an explanation.
‘As expected of Swordless. Even the way he speaks is soft and spineless.’
She appealed to Yeon Sang-hyeon in a tone that suggested she did not know what to do.
“…There was a problem with the documents, and I failed to properly grasp the situation.”
“Is that so?”
When Yeon Sang-hyeon asked back, she nodded eagerly.
“Yes! That is correct! It is truly shameful to report such a thing!”
At this point, with the First Young Master’s personality, he would back down.
She judged that this was where she should put the finishing touch.
“I will call that book broker back and handle everything properly, so if you would forgive me just this once…”
She dropped to her knees with a thud.
It was time for a few tears.
“Please take pity on this lowly one’s circumstances…”
She had already been furious at being ignored by a mere maid from the reception hall, so tears naturally welled up in her eyes.
“How dare you behave so frivolously?!”
“Stop that at once!”
The maids snapped at her from the side, but she ignored them.
In any case, all she had to do was win over the First Young Master, and she had confidence in her own beauty.
If the First Young Master truly only accepted beautiful girls as his maids, there was no way he would simply overlook her tears.
“…Goodness. Are you crying over something as small as this?”
Sure enough, the First Young Master clicked his tongue.
“I-I am sorry, First Young Master.”
She shed her tears even more earnestly.
“…Head Maid, hearing what this child says, it seems certain that it was a mistake. How about letting it pass at this point?”
It sounded like a request, but in truth, it was no different from a gentle command.
‘It is already over.’
It was too easy.
Butler Bang let out a small sigh inwardly.
“…Since Master says so, there is nothing we can do.”
It seemed everything was proceeding exactly as she had expected.
“Then lastly, we shall only check the problematic documents she mentioned.”
“…!”
Butler Bang’s body stiffened.
“T-that is…”
“What is it now?”
It had all been a lie, so how could such documents actually exist?
She quickly racked her brain.
“Those documents had problems, so they have all been burned. It will be difficult to find them.”
There was a slight flaw in that excuse, but Swordless and mere maids would not be able to find it.
“Is that so? Then there is nothing to be done.”
As expected, Swordless was Swordless.
However, one of the maids beside him, whom she had thought of as ordinary, opened her mouth.
“Is that so? Then there should be a document proving the disposal of the papers, so we can check that.”
“Head Maid, I-ryeong is correct. Master is a direct blood relative, so no matter how trivial the contents may be, burning any related documents requires the permission of the person responsible.”
How could these women, mere maids, know about document procedures, which belonged to a specialized field of work?
“Then bring that at once.”
She hurriedly lowered her head.
“P-please wait just a moment!”
It could be dangerous to continue layering lies any further.
Those maids were by no means ordinary people.
She could not fabricate more words without knowing what kind of knowledge and background they possessed.
“I-I will immediately bring someone who can explain the matter!”
She hurriedly withdrew.
She heard the flustered First Young Master calling after her from behind, but she did not even look back.
***
The fourth-rank Butler Seomun asked, but Butler Bang said nothing and only lowered her head.
It was because Butler Bang knew she had not asked because she failed to understand.
“From what I heard, it seems certain that the woman named Jeong-ah has been fanning the flames from behind.”
The other butlers who had listened to her report together clicked their tongues.
“And those maids who recently entered Wongakjeong must have something to them as well.”
“At this rate, the matter may become messy…”
Butler Seomun rubbed the corner of her eyes.
“But are you certain there was not a single lie in the First Young Master’s reaction that you reported?”
Butler Bang hurriedly bowed her head.
“O-of course! How could I dare lie before you, Butler Seomun?”
Butler Seomun nodded.
Butler Bang was a child she had taught personally, from one thing to the next.
And because she did not speak nonsense to cover up her own mistakes when she made them, Butler Seomun still cherished her.
“Does something about the First Young Master’s reaction seem strange?”
“To me, it did not seem very different from the First Young Master’s original personality.”
They were right.
The reaction he had supposedly shown was not greatly different from the First Young Master they had known from before.
Even when someone committed a wrongdoing, the First Young Master first asked for the reason.
Even if it seemed like a deliberate mistake, he did not respond emotionally, nor did he make the matter bigger.
Until now, even when this side crossed the line, he had always ended it by lightly stepping back.
Only…
When she had visited Wongakjeong over the matter of that maid named Jeong-ah, the First Young Master she had seen had seemed somewhat different…
“…No, it is nothing.”
It was probably because she had become overly sensitive lately due to factions and whatnot.
Even the reaction he had shown then was no different from the way he had responded before.
She rose from her seat.
“In the end, I will have to step forward myself.”
The side that was clearly escalating the issue, which had merely begun with the payment for books, was the First Young Master’s side.
It was obvious that the maid named Jeong-ah had grown arrogant after suddenly obtaining great authority all at once.
If so, she would have to make that little fox feel that power was, in truth, a double-edged sword.
***
Butler Seomun led the butlers following her and appeared in the waiting room with great confidence.
Her rank was merely that of a butler, but that was only because of the special nature of the organization called the Inner Court.
In reality, her position within the Luoyang Sword Clan was close to that of the head of a small organization.
“I greet the First Young Master. I presume there is no need for me to introduce myself?”
The First Young Master, who had been resting his chin in his hand as if bored, opened his mouth.
“Hm, I know your face. Though I do not know your name.”
Her subordinates, whose moods soured, cleared their throats repeatedly.
At the sound of those coughs, Yeon Sang-hyeon’s maids responded with snorts.
The head maid named Jeong-ah merely stood quietly behind the First Young Master.
Strength entered Butler Seomun’s hand.
“My name is…”
Yeon Sang-hyeon waved his hand.
“Enough. I have not the slightest interest in your name.”
For a moment, Butler Seomun was left speechless.
‘This is not the First Young Master I knew!’
Then had Butler Bang told a lie that would soon be exposed?
Her gaze turned behind her.
When she saw Butler Bang’s gaze filled with confusion, she felt herself becoming confused as well.
“So… did you personally trouble yourself to come here in order to explain why my bill was not processed?”
Butler Seomun was certain that something was going wrong.
Now was the time to retreat.
“No, First Young Master. It seems I have misunderstood something.”
She looked straight at Butler Bang.
“I do not know what this child has done.”
She was trying to cut off the tail.
Butler Bang bit her lip.
“I came here to entrust this child’s punishment to the First Young Master.”
As soon as the signs that she was backing down appeared, the other butlers also acted swiftly.
They had already gone out into the corridor.
Only Butler Bang was left in the room, head lowered and body trembling.
Yeon Sang-hyeon walked toward her.
“…Goodness. Are you crying over something as small as this?”
They were words she had already heard once before.
Smiling, he wiped the corners of her tearful eyes.
Butler Bang flinched violently.
It was because his hand was as cold as if it had frozen.
Butler Seomun turned away.
“Then, I am busy with work…”
At that moment, Yeon Sang-hyeon’s voice came from behind her.
“Hm. I wanted to hear an explanation from someone responsible for this matter, but there is nothing to be done.”
She tried to ignore him and move her feet.
“Then I have no choice but to ask the Chief Steward of the Inner Court directly.”
His voice pierced straight through her greatest weakness.
The moment this story reached the Chief Steward of the Inner Court, her punishment would be as good as decided.
Just as she had done to Butler Bang, the Chief Steward of the Inner Court would discard her.
Without giving her even the slightest room to do anything.
She turned back around.
“…If it is only that much of a story, I believe I have more than enough standing to provide it.”
“Is that so? That suits me well.”
Yeon Sang-hyeon had already gone to sit in the seat of honor, as if he had known she would turn back.
He held Butler Bang’s hand and seated her beside him.
“But before that…”
As he smiled, his head maid opened her mouth.
“The First Young Master of the main clan has personally come to visit. How about serving him at least a cup of tea?”