If You Wish to Have Me - Chapter 111

Once her mind was made up, she had to take action.

“But what should I do.”

Kisa stared at the neatly arranged cookies on the plate, lost in thought.

The faces of Daniel and the three men who had first given her information flashed through her mind.

‘I probably won’t get anything more from those people.’

Father Emil seemed to have said everything he intended to say, and Daniel had outright told her to find evidence herself.

If there had been something more, he likely would have revealed it on the spot.

“And he tells me to find it myself…….”

Easier said than done, Kisa muttered, letting out a deep sigh.

Certainly, she was engaged to Seyard and had entered his private spaces a few times, but that didn’t mean she could freely rummage through this mansion.

When all was said and done, she was still an outsider. If Kisa wandered around here and there without Seyard, the people of Hillan would surely find it strange.

‘Most importantly, it would make Seyard suspicious.’

As his face came to mind, her expression naturally hardened.

From deep within her heart arose a thread-thin wish to just confess everything to him honestly.

They say you’re a criminal who murdered Vischer Hillan and usurped the family. Is that true?

How would Seyard react then?

Even to her own mind, it was such an absurd imagination that Kisa shook her head vigorously.

‘That’s ridiculous.’

This wasn’t about anything else—it was suspicion that he had killed his own brother.

The moment those words left her mouth, the relationship between him and Kisa could never return to what it was before.

Even if all suspicions were cleared, there was a high probability that an eternal grudge would remain between the two…….

‘And if by any chance it were actually true.’

For a moment, her blood ran cold.

Kisa tried to stop the trembling by putting strength into her shaking hands.

While doing so, she attempted to approach the problem by assuming, as much as possible, that it involved a third party rather than Seyard.

No matter how she thought about it, asking directly seemed like the worst possible choice.

Would a murderer really admit the truth without any concrete evidence?

Rather, it would only serve to convince him that she suspected him.

Moreover, since he was someone who had already harmed others, there was no law saying he wouldn’t do so again.

‘Then what should I do.’

While she was pondering this for quite some time, something suddenly came to mind in Kisa’s head.

“Excuse me.”

And almost simultaneously with that thought, the door opened and Lily entered the reception room.

She approached Kisa and poured hot, freshly heated tea into the cup that had been drained to the bottom.

“You must be bored waiting, aren’t you?”

“No, I was reading this, so it’s fine.”

In response to her question, Kisa held up the novel she had only spread out but not been reading, and smiled.

Lily answered as if she felt ashamed.

“Gilliam said the meeting might run a bit longer.”

Seyard was currently in conversation with people who had come regarding family business matters.

“It’s fine. I’m the one who came without an appointment.”

In fact, for Kisa, it was rather welcome that Seyard wasn’t there right now.

She could think about various things more comfortably than when she was by his side, and she could also spend time alone with Lily like this.

“But Lily, I have something to ask you.”

“Yes, please go ahead.”

“Do you happen to know who the longest-serving servant in the Hillan family is?”

“Pardon?”

Perhaps it was an unexpected question, as Lily’s eyes widened.

“I’d like to hear some stories before getting married.”

Kisa explained the intention behind her question.

“Soon I’ll become the duchess and manage this household, so there might be things I need to be careful about. Of course, I’ll ask Seyard too, but there are probably things that only the servants working throughout the mansion would know.”

“Ah, I see.”

“While I’m at it, I’d like to hear how the former duchess managed the household, so I’d like to have a conversation with the most senior servant. What do you think?”

“That’s an excellent idea.”

Lily nodded without showing any sign of finding it strange.

It seemed to be a fairly good excuse for something made up on the spot.

“As far as I know, the person who has worked for the Hillan family the longest is Gilliam.”

Come to think of it, Seyard’s aide had said he had worked for Hillan since the time when not only Vischer Hillan but also the two brothers’ father was the head of the family.

But the person Kisa wanted to confirm wasn’t Gilliam, whom she already knew well.

“Hmm, isn’t there anyone else? Who’s the next longest-serving servant?”

“Well, since he serves the Duke, household management wouldn’t be his area of expertise. In that case, it would be the head maid. She’s the next most senior.”

But Lily, who had been answering well, suddenly made an “ah” sound.

“However, the head maid probably wouldn’t know much about how the former duchess managed the household.”

“Why is that?”

“Because she came to the Hillan family after the former duchess’s health deteriorated and went away for recuperation.”

“What? The head maid?”

“Yes. That’s right, but…… is there something wrong?”

Kisa waved her hand, having unconsciously raised her voice a bit.

“No, I just thought it was later than expected. Then how long has the head maid been working here?”

“I think it’s been about 6 years.”

“…….”

Six years—that was indeed short.

In most noble families, there would typically be four or five servants who had worked for over ten years.

For employers too, rather than frequently changing people and making the household chaotic, it was better to let existing staff work for a long time, and servants also preferred to show their loyalty to employers to receive generous treatment.

The Vansfelt family also had several servants who had been there for over ten years, and just the nanny alone had been at the count’s residence since Kisa was a baby, making it over twenty years of service.

In the case of Hillan, whose family history was much longer than Vansfelt’s, she had thought this tendency would be even stronger, not weaker…….

‘Six years would only be mid-level in our family. What’s going on here?’

This question of Kisa’s was soon resolved by Lily.

“That’s right. As you said, miss, except for Gilliam, the servants of Hillan haven’t actually been working here very long.”

“Is there a particular reason?”

“The current Duke dismissed almost all the senior servants before he took the position of family head. He gave them double the promised severance pay.”

“…….”

“The mansion was really bustling then. Even people who hadn’t worked long were clamoring to retire quickly.”

Lily chattered away with laughter.

“Whether such talk reached the Duke’s ears, not long after, the remaining servants received huge performance bonuses. Thanks to that, his reputation shot up immediately.”

“I, I see.”

When she thought about it, there wasn’t really anything too strange about it.

As the younger of twins, born without proper heir education and raised in a monastery, when he first inherited the family, there would have been a lot of talk among the servants.

Questions like whether he could really lead the family well.

Considering such circumstances, spending money to win their favor from the start wasn’t a bad strategy at all.

‘……Though I wonder if that’s all there was to it.’

In Seyard’s diary, that old notebook, were written the targets of his childhood resentment.

His brother Vischer and stupid Cobi, the parents who sent him to the monastery and the abbot, his teacher Brother Makkio, and…… servants.

That’s right. The servants who had directly dragged Seyard from the ducal residence on the Duke and Duchess’s orders.

A moment ago, when Kisa recalled the existence of the diary, she suddenly became curious about how those people written in it were doing these days.

As she well knew, Vischer and the former Duke and Duchess had died, and Cobi had gone to one of Hillan’s villas, making verification impossible.

As for the abbot and Brother Makkio, she had confirmed with her own eyes just a few months ago that they were doing fine, so what remained were the servants.

‘But except for Gilliam, none of the servants who worked here when Seyard was at this mansion remain.’

Six years ago, when the head maid who was the next most senior after Gilliam came here, Seyard would have already been grown up.

A mild headache began. Could this really be a coincidence?

……Were the servants who left the ducal residence with generous severance pay living well?

She thought it might be an overly sensitive thought, but once it bothered her, she became strangely anxious.

“Lily.”

“Yes, miss.”

“…….”

“Miss?”

Kisa suddenly stood up from her seat.

“I feel like taking a walk. I thought I might stroll through the garden—would you like to come with me?”

“If it’s all right with you, miss, I’d be happy to.”

As she left the reception room with Lily, Kisa swallowed dryly.

She had almost asked her about the whereabouts of the retired servants.

But thinking about it again, that would have been going too far.

What reason would she, who hadn’t even become the Duchess of Hillan yet, have to be curious about retired servants, let alone current ones?

‘My mind has just become more complicated.’

As Kisa was walking through the garden, swallowing a sigh, she heard voices from the direction of the main gate.

Looking in that direction, she saw the gatekeeper and a man in her field of vision.

Somehow that man seemed familiar, and when he looked this way, his face brightened.

Oh, that appearance…….

“Brother Vishius?”

It was the young monk who had guided Kisa at St. Pavela Monastery.

“Why are you here?”

When Kisa approached the gate and greeted him, the gatekeeper blinked.

“Are you perhaps a servant of the Vansfelt family?”

She was about to say no, but she saw Brother Vishius behind the gatekeeper shaking his head.

Could it be that he wanted to hide his identity?

Kisa answered yes somewhat bewildered, and the gatekeeper advised the monk to clearly state his identity from the beginning next time, then let the monk into the mansion.

“What’s going on, Brother?”

As soon as they moved away from the gatekeeper, Kisa asked, and Brother Vishius scratched his head.

“Since I came without notice anyway, if I told the gatekeeper the truth, wouldn’t it spoil the fun?”

“Spoil the fun?”

The young monk grinned.

“I’m going to make a surprise appearance and startle Brother Hillan—no, the Duke. It’ll be fun, won’t it?”