CH 22

Ellia’s worries made even Calib worried.

In the end, Cedric, who couldn’t see this anymore, spoke a word.

[Ellia, if only you keep your mouth shut, no one will know.]

It was obviously Ellia who used Cedric, but as much of that line, it seemed like Cedric used Ellia.

‘How can Ellia feel relieved at such words!’

Calib sincerely thought so, but Ellia was a very unexpected person.

[Really? Then should I sew my mouth?]

Even if Calib found out, she was anxious if she had to explain every word that she had a trap.

[If I keep my mouth shut, everything will be resolved, right? Right? I’ll trust you and follow you!]

Cedric’s intimidating lines were remarkably reassuring.

Seeing this, Calib was puzzled.

‘It didn’t feel like she didn’t believe what I said because I’m still young, though…’

To have such doubts, Ellia has always been sincere towards Calib. That’s why his doubts went sideways.

‘Perhaps… Is Ellia weak against threats? No, she might be weak against her superior to be exact.’

Come to think of it, there was a certain aspect to the relationship between the upper and lower ranks.

‘Everyone except me is very disciplined about that. Like a knight.’

This happened once.

Olivia was ostracized among the maids because she served Ellia, a ‘commoner’.

[No matter how much she’s favored by Sir Cedric and the Grand Young Lord, in the end, she’s a commoner.]

[By the way, did you see that? ‘Miss Ellia~’, ‘Miss Ellia~’ and following along!]

[I guess she really has no pride.]

Other maids may have been commoners or lower classes, however, Olivia was the daughter of the vassal family. She was introduced as a lady-in-waiting for convenience, but she was actually more of a maid. And after Ellia got acquainted with Olivia, she also got to know about this.

By the way, just because she ended up serving a commoner, Ellia, they regarded this as a demotion and talked behind her back! Even the content of this gossip reached Ellia’s ears.

She was walking aimlessly, worried about how Marquis Renold would retaliate against her.

Then she headed to the back of the food warehouse where the maids used to gather.

Ellia disciplined them right on the spot.

[Hey, you there. Wait.]

[Yes, yes?]

[All of you, come here.]

Calib heard this from Edwin.

According to his description. Ellia squatted like a thug in the back alley. It is said that she called up the maids just by moving her fingers. As the maids approached, Ellia said with a stern frown on her innocent face.

[Where, sheesh. You swear about your superior at your workplace, sheesh. Huh? Don’t you guys have any ups and downs? Doesn’t your maid teach you that?]

Countless vulgar words came out of her lips, who used to exude a pure atmosphere. It is well known that although Ellia is Cedric’s fiancée, she’s a commoner.

The maids from similar backgrounds didn’t stand still.

[Miss Ellia, I’ll pretend I didn’t hear you, so just leave.]

[At this point, if Miss Ellia’s arms are all stretched out and there’s a scratch on your skin, only us will be in trouble.]

[Or else, what. Are you going to hit me?]

[I don’t know if she can hit us with her slender arms.]

Those maids were strong. Even so, the physical strength and muscles that were trained by washing, sweeping, and wiping the blankets every day couldn’t be ignored.

However, Ellia was stronger than them.

When Edwin went to get a snack… No. When he went to summon someone, she conquered all the maids.

With her fists!

Ellia squatted down and said, blowing wind on her nails.

[One, spirit, Two, unity. One.]

[Spiiiriit.]

[Two.]

[…Uniiityyy.]

The maids suddenly said they were properly disciplined by doing push-ups.

[Even the knights won’t be disciplined like that.]

Edwin swept away the goosebumps on his forearms.

Cedric was skeptical of this story, but he believed in it like an iron stone. No wonder, he had already realized the power of Ellia once.

‘When I came back, I found out that there were cases where the wolf failed to be defeated even when two skilled knights were against it.’

With such a wolf, Ellia smashed its skull with one single kick.

‘What kind of person Ellia was when she lost her memory? Is she really a person in the first place?’

What kind of person was she to the extent she was so good at subordinate-superior relationships?

Calib didn’t know that originally, Ellia was an athlete, so she was tightly disciplined with physical education.

Because of that, false questions toward Ellia deepened more and more.

‘If Ellia really is weak to her superior… When I’m in a higher position than I am now… ’

He thought quietly.

‘Then will Ellia stay by my side?’

Perhaps the way to attack Ellia is not to change her mind to stay with him by inducing sympathy.

In fact, even if it wasn’t the case, Calib was now in a hurry.

Because Jeryl was kicked out before he could show any pity!

‘Of course, it’s not easy for me to become Ellia’s superior.’

From the beginning, the definition of a superior was vague.

If it’s an employer’s position, he should be the Grand Duke, not the Grand Young Lord. After all, the owner of the castle is the Grand Duke.

‘Even if Brother helps me more actively, the vassals won’t easily acknowledge me.’

Calib’s position was already quite narrow.

The situation didn’t change even after Cedric renounced his right to succession to the Grand Duke and declared that he would marry a commoner.

When he got married, he became a member of the family. He knew it might seem like he was solidifying a position within the family.

‘That is why the vassals won’t let go of the hope that Brother may become the Grand Duke.’

However, if his marriage partner is a commoner, the story is a little different.

Because no one would want to serve the Grand Duchess who was a commoner.

‘In case of an emergency, it becomes difficult to borrow the power of the maternal family.’

Nevertheless, the vassals were still trying to establish Cedric as Grand Duke.

‘Why the hell are you trying not to set me up as a Grand Duke like this?’

In the meantime, he couldn’t afford to be curious about it just by enduring the gaze of the vassals looking at him.

However, at this point, even Calib who heard the sound of ‘the child who ate their parents’ was bound to be curious.

At the same time, what Ellia had said came to mind in Calib’s mind.

[It’s only natural for parents to find their lost child!]

[Which parent in the world would want to give up when there is a chance that their child is still alive?]

[I will happily run even on thorny roads even though I don’t know what danger lurks in.]

Unlike Cedric, is it because she had feelings?

‘When Ellia said it, it really seemed like that, that’s why I believed everything.’

Thanks to this, Calib now knows that he doesn’t have to feel guilty about his parents’ absence. And the fact that adults who carry this kind of debt on their backs are strange.

‘It’s kind of weird. I think they’re trying not to make me Grand Duke for some other reason.’

Thanks to Ellia, the weight of his heart was eased a little, and now a reasonable doubt arose.

‘I want to know what it is. And… Let’s see if Ellia is really a weak person to her superior.’

And if Ellia is such a person, then it’ll be enough when he becomes the Grand Duke.

‘Yes. There’s no reason why I can’t be the Grand Duke. No, as Brother said, they died to protect me, so I must become the Grand Duke for my parents.’

On second thought, there was nothing wrong with Cedric’s words.

‘If I become the Grand Duke, I’ll no longer have to be afraid of the Grand Duke’s Castle!’

He shook his head several times as if he had made a resolution.

“What are you thinking so deeply about?” Cedric, who had just arrived, asked in a very low voice.

It was already lunch time. Calib glanced behind Cedric, who had come alone, and asked.

“Hm? What about Ellia?”

“I asked her to come together, but she said she was taking a break because she was tired as she had a lot of work in the morning.”

“Is she very tired?”

“Um, it looks like she got tired of having a meeting for the wedding in the morning.”

Now that Renold, who strongly opposed the couple’s marriage, had lost momentum, they had to hurry.

Since it was a hastily arranged marriage to a commoner, Ellia, it was easy to come up with gossip, so there were many things that had to be done.

Rumors were already rife that, “They are getting married to go to the Sanctuary of Knowledge to break the curse.”

However, the nobles were gossip-loving people, so there was no harm in preparing.

He was also looking for friends and relatives of Ellia.

But aside from this and that, the reason she didn’t eat lunch together with them was simple.

She couldn’t disturb the brothers’ private time like Jeryl!

So she was tired and hung around, but they didn’t know. In fact, Calib was full of anticipation of being able to eat with Ellia after a long time.

After coming back to the Grand Duke’s Castle, he had only a handful of times he ate with Ellia.

‘I hadn’t eaten the food Ellia made for a long time.’

Calib sighed briefly, looking at the luxurious table set up quickly.

He missed her potato soup sprinkled with pepper and freshly caught grilled salmon.

In particular, he wanted to eat a dish called ‘potato pancake’, which Ellia introduced confidently.

[Try something else. Ah, that’s right. I’m really good at potato pancakes. When it rains, everyone wants me to make this.]

‘It’s not raining, so it’s kind of vague to ask for potato pancakes…’

Calib, who was quietly recalling Ellia’s words, suddenly felt a sense of incompatible

‘Huh? By the way… Didn’t Ellia say that she had lost her memory and that she didn’t even know who she was, whether she had relatives or not?’

She knew all of the other common sense, yet strangely she couldn’t recall memories of herself. She didn’t even know why she was in a vacant hut built in the thick forest.

To Calib who was suspicious of this, Ellia responded with sweat.

[Head! I think I banged my head hard.]

He knew that a major blow to her head could cause memory loss. And that any fragmentary memories could come to her mind at some point.

‘She must’ve remembered while making potato pancakes.’

The reason why she didn’t tell him that fact wasn’t important.

‘When she said that she gave someone a potato pancake, that means that Ellia knows some people.’

Someday, those people would come to find Ellia.

Then Ellia might leave with them.

That was the only thing that mattered to him.

‘I have to take action to be more exact.’

Calib thought, shaking his head.