Chapter 12: The Butler’s Awakening
My name is Glen Peltra, and I have served the House of Lautavaara as a butler for many years.
The Peltra family has served the ducal house for generations, and from childhood we are taught absolute obedience toward the House of Lautavaara.
When it was first decided that Lady Yuliana—the daughter born to one of Her Grace’s cousins and a mistress—would be taken into the ducal household, I offered no objections.
If my master had decided it, then that was that.
At the time, Lady Yuliana was being mistreated by the legal wife and her children.
She was a well-mannered child with a pleasant disposition, the sort of girl everyone naturally wanted to cherish.
Thus, the servants came to serve her just as faithfully as they served the ducal family themselves.
Naturally, some relatives complained.
However, the House of Lautavaara possessed enough power that such objections hardly mattered.
And so it was decided that Lady Yuliana would remain under the ducal family’s care until the day she married into another household.
The surrounding nobles heard this and began speculating.
The ducal house had two sons.
Surely they intended to marry her to one of them?
No, others argued.
In the end she was merely the illegitimate daughter of a viscount’s family.
Surely she would eventually be married elsewhere.
Regardless, becoming connected to the House of Lautavaara practically guaranteed prosperity.
Winning the hand of either handsome and accomplished ducal son would be difficult.
But Lady Yuliana, an illegitimate daughter of a viscount’s house?
That was another matter entirely.
As a result, more and more nobles sought to draw Lady Yuliana into their circles.
Whenever she attended social gatherings, there was no doubt that every noble present treated her with extraordinary favor.
They flattered her.
Praised her.
And catered to her every whim.
Thus, when I first heard stories that multiple young noblemen were constantly gathered around Lady Yuliana, I found it unsurprising.
So many families wanted connections to the House of Lautavaara that such behavior was inevitable.
Because of this situation, however, more and more noble ladies grew to dislike her.
And whenever conflict arose, Lord Niklas and Lord Olivier would step in to protect Lady Yuliana as their precious younger sister.
I always felt it was a troubling pattern.
But as servants, there was little we could say.
Then the royal family launched the great railway project.
And it was decided that Lord Olivier, the second son of the ducal house, would marry.
Recently, it had become painfully obvious that both ducal sons no longer concealed their feelings for Lady Yuliana.
Even among the servants, most believed Lord Niklas held the advantage.
Therefore, we thought it was a very good thing that Lord Olivier, whose chances seemed slimmer, would marry first.
Regardless of Lord Olivier’s feelings, the marriage was practically a royal command.
Every servant sincerely hoped the couple would live happily together.
Yet Lord Olivier remained unable to abandon his feelings for Lady Yuliana.
He never visited his bride on their wedding night.
And he seemed determined to ignore his new wife entirely.
Surely Lady Kastehelmi would be furious.
She had already met Lady Yuliana.
And seeing Lady Yuliana receive all of Lord Olivier’s affection, she might very well react with jealousy and hatred.
Fearing Lady Yuliana might be harmed, I kept a close watch on Lady Kastehelmi.
Later, I would come to deeply regret that decision.
“Glen, I apologize, but would you accompany me for a little while?”
One day, Lady Kastehelmi said this to me and instructed me to follow her.
That day happened to be the scheduled delivery for a shipment of wine.
From where we stood, I could see wagons carrying wine barrels and bottles approaching the rear of the ducal estate.
Several apprentices had delivered the shipment.
Lady Kastehelmi and I hid behind a tree and observed them.
Then Lady Yuliana appeared from the back entrance looking unusually excited.
She approached one of the apprentices—a particularly tall young man.
The two clearly knew one another.
As they chatted enthusiastically, Lady Yuliana repeatedly tapped his shoulder and laughed happily.
The young man eventually pulled something resembling a hair ornament from his pocket and personally placed it in Lady Yuliana’s hair.
Lady Yuliana hugged him happily.
The young man nodded with satisfaction.
Then he departed alongside the other apprentices in their wagon.
Lady Yuliana watched them leave for a while before skipping cheerfully back toward the mansion.
Had an actual daughter of the ducal house behaved that way, it would undoubtedly have been a serious issue.
However, Lady Yuliana was technically an illegitimate daughter of a viscount’s family.
Given her position, some interaction with commoners could be tolerated.
Lady Kastehelmi, who had married into the house as Lord Olivier’s wife, often spoke of supporting the siblings’ bond and watching them from afar.
But perhaps she had disliked Lady Yuliana after all.
Now then…
How should I protect Lady Yuliana from whatever Lady Kastehelmi intended?
As I pondered this, Lady Kastehelmi suddenly spoke.
“The tall man Lady Yuliana was speaking to earlier.”
“He’s from Omuks.”
I involuntarily swallowed.
“Gardener Alan’s grandmother was from Omuks.”
“And according to him, that man speaks with the same Omuks accent she had.”
I knew of Alan’s circumstances.
His step-grandmother had indeed been from Omuks.
We had verified that she was deceased before hiring him.
“Lady Yuliana seems awfully friendly with someone from an enemy nation.”
“What do you think, Glen?”
“At that rate, it almost looks as though she would answer any question he asks about the ducal house.”
This was very bad.
Extremely bad.
If Lady Yuliana had leaked even a little information, the House of Lautavaara could be accused of treason by the royal family.
In the worst case, the ducal title itself could be stripped away.
“I wanted to support Lady Yuliana’s polyandry.”
“But this is becoming problematic, isn’t it?”
“Lady Kastehelmi… what exactly is this ‘polyandry’?”
“No way.”
“You still haven’t figured it out?”
The look she gave me practically screamed:
‘You’ve served as a butler for decades and you’re still this stupid?’
“In the same way some countries practice polygamy, there are southern islands where female warriors encourage polyandry.”
What exactly was she talking about?
“Instead of loving only one man, a woman loves many men equally.”
“The men, meanwhile, share a single woman.”
“And they feel no aversion to doing so.”
“They all love the same woman together.”
I…
I wasn’t entirely following.
“Have you truly failed to notice that Lady Yuliana loves Lord Niklas and Lord Olivier equally?”
“Have you failed to notice that outside the ducal estate, she directs the same affection toward multiple men?”
“Honestly, Glen, you yourself are one of the men Lady Yuliana is targeting.”
“She touches you excessively, and you seem delighted by it.”
“But I believe it’s only a matter of time before you become one of her many husbands.”
“N-no… no way!”
“Lady Yuliana touches me out of affection—”
“Your nose was practically pointing toward the ceiling.”
“No way!”
Instinctively, I touched beneath my nose.
Lady Kastehelmi sighed.
“When a young woman speaks kindly to you and touches your shoulders or arms, even an old man like yourself starts feeling pleased.”
“Especially when she’s a girl you’ve watched over since she was eight years old.”
“The head maid feels exactly the same way you do.”
“But Lady Yuliana only acts friendly toward people who can benefit her.”
“She doesn’t even greet servants she considers beneath her.”
“She believes that, as someone protected by a great ducal house, she has no reason to concern herself with common servants.”
“You’re a butler, aren’t you?”
“Then listen more carefully to the voices of those below you.”
“It’s absurd that I, a woman who only recently married into this house, understand better than you how many servants dislike her.”
For once in my life, I had absolutely nothing to say.
The head maid and I had unquestionably come to view Lady Yuliana as though she were our own daughter or granddaughter.
And before we realized it, we had begun treating anyone who disagreed with us as someone unsuitable for the House of Lautavaara.
That realization struck harder than any reprimand ever could.