Chapter 29

“What do you mean?” Yelena replied and sighed in her heart.

Incan was nothing more than a good person, as shown by the way he took care of the maid and answered her questions.

Even though Yelena tried to be biased, there was no way to look at it any differently.

‘Oh my.’

She hoped that he was a criminal, but she concluded that she was simply mistaken.

‘First of all, I’ll go to my room and wait for Abbie…’

At that moment, while Yelena was lost in thought, a bee flew in front of her.

‘This darn bee!’

Yelena was startled and took a step back, but this time, she stumbled backward.

Incan hurriedly supported Yelena’s back as she was about to fall.

“Are you all right?”

“… Oh, yes. I’m fine. Thank you.”

“You often lose your footing.”

Incan helped Yelena get up as he laughed at his joke, but Yelena couldn’t laugh or answer him.

Her mind was distracted by the unpleasant goosebumps on her back where Incan had touched.

***

Before Yelena returned to her room, she met the gardener, Gardner. She gave him instructions to deal with all the bees in the garden.

Then, in the evening, Abbie arrived at her door.

“Madam, Abbie is here.”

“Come in.”

Abbie, who entered the bedroom, carefully approached Yelena. “As you asked, I looked into–”

“What did you find?”

“Nothing, I couldn’t find anything suspicious.”

“… Okay.”

“But…”

Yelena lifted her bowed head and stared at Abbie. “But?”

“I don’t know if it has anything to do with Sir Marezon.”  Abbie hesitated before continuing.  “After Sir Marezon started visiting the castle, there was one maid who resigned within two months.”

“Resigned?”

“Yes.”

“… When did Incan Marezon start delivering to the castle?”

“Three years ago.”

“Has any other maid resigned since then?”

“If you look at my records, yes.”

Abbie took a piece of paper out of her arms and handed it to Yelena.

The paper recorded the respective dates that Incan went to the Duke’s castle for the supply of herbs and when the maid stopped working.

‘The timing is off.’

He had said it was less than two months, but one maid resigned after six weeks, while another maid resigned after completing two months.

Moreover, Incan visited the castle only two or three times a year.

It was mysterious.

‘Since there are so many maids working, it’s not unusual for a few maids to quit during the year…’

However, Yelena couldn’t let it go.

Every time she passed the garden, the goosebumps she felt that day seemed to cling to her back unpleasantly.

Yelena picked up the paper and, after much thought, finally spoke.

“Please call the head maid, Lula.”

[Note there’s an intentional one line space here].

“I heard you called for me, Madam.”

“Yes.”

Yelena sat on the sofa opposite Lula.

“These maids. Did all these maids quit after working here?”

Based on the paper brought by Abbie, she had copied the names of the maids onto a separate piece of paper. She handed the paper to Lula.

After Lula picked up the paper and quickly scanned the content, she answered immediately.

“That’s right.”

“Do you remember what the circumstances were when they quit? Why did they quit, or was there anything different than usual…”

This time, Lula took a moment to think before speaking.

“The reasons for quitting were all similar. They said that something just came up, and they had to return back to their hometown.”

“Hometown? Is everyone not from this fief?”

“Yes, all of them were from other territories.”

Yelena recalled that this fief had grown in earnest a few years ago.

It wasn’t that strange when she thought about it.

“As for what was different from the usual… Well, I don’t remember anything, but the children who were close to these maids still remain in the castle, so I’ll call them if you need them.”

“Please.”

A short time later, Yelena faced several maids.

Among them, a maid nervously stepped forward and opened her mouth. “I remember. There was something strange.”

“What was strange?”

“She looked a little sick… and she was nauseous. And she kept muttering these words.”

“What kind of words?”

“She would say, ‘This can’t be happening’…”