This incident was like a warning of their loss that they could lose her.
And, none of those who sat in this chair could survive without Irene in any way.

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There was a moment of silence after they realized that fact.

It was Otis who broke it.

“…It would be nice if Irene could tell us about the spy directly.”

“She will tell us.
It is Irene, not anyone else.”

“No, she will not tell us.
You do not know her.”

Saying so, Otis laughed out of nowhere.
Meanwhile, hearing those words, Ahibalt’s eyebrows twitched.
Though, of course, both of them were good at painting smiles on their faces, so no one made an impression.

“I wonder why you think so, Otis.”

“When Irene woke up, she had something to tell me in a hurry.”

‘In our mansion…’

She stopped her words then, but it must have been a story about a spy.
He then added his words as he slowly got up.

“If she were really going to say it, she would have said it then.”

Looking at his face, it seemed that he did not even notice.

That being said, Otis’ eyes were sharp.
As if he knew that Ahibalt had been to Irene before coming to this meeting.

Sharp gazes passed between the two for a moment, and it was Ahibalt who spoke first.

“If she did not tell us, would it mean that she knew that she would be in danger, too? Otherwise, she could have been falsely accused.”

“Well, there are two reasons.
It is either she has an idea, or she does not have enough trust to tell us that much.”

‘I think it is the latter, though.’

Otis added in his thought with a bitter laugh.
Of course, it was only briefly before he, smiling as before, held up his hands.

“I’m still not sure, so let’s wait for Irene to talk to us first.
In the meantime, brother should do a background check on the servants, while Rodion monitors Louise Orpen.
I will try to come up with something that will make you change her mind about quitting.”

“I want to be with Rea.”

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“Suit yourself.
I’ll be busy for a while.”

“What is the matter?”

He rolled his eyes in response to Ahibalt’s question.

“My mother wants me to go to a social party.
Is she really going to get us all married?”

Hearing that, one of Ahibalt’s eyebrows rose.

“…Not me, but you? I thought it was going to be me who would go back and forth with her about attending the social world right now.”

“That’s right.
It would be difficult for me to stay in the mansion for a while, so I am asking you two to take care of things here.”

‘You all know, right? That Irene is someone who does take care of herself.’

After saying that, he left first.

Maybe, it was just their feeling that his heels stuck in the hallway sounded sharper than usual.

Otis has kept his word since then.

Because he hardly ever set foot in the mansion except when he was sleeping.
Often when he came back, he would be in Irene’s hospital room, or sitting still in the greenhouse for some reason and then going back.

It was a bonus that he had even fewer interactions with Ahibalt than usual.

And, during that time, Ahibalt realized that Otis was right.
No matter how much he and Rodion visited her, Irene did not open her mouth.
Even when he moved his office, at the very least, he thought she would.

However, she had no unusual reaction about knowing that there was a spy here.

But, looking back, when was Irene’s reaction energetic?

Even though her reaction was no different than usual, Ahibalt was nervous.

‘Do you trust me, Irene?’

‘I trust you, First Master.’

He was afraid she would lose confidence in this everyday question-and-answer.

Ahibalt did not remember ever complaining about the distance between Irene and himself.
Because of that, once the doubts settled, he was easily shaken.

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After all, wanting to be a little closer to the one you love was also an unavoidable human desire.

Every time she seems to be moving away from him, he wants to hold on to her…

Eventually, he couldn’t endure the distrust any longer, so he decided to ask.

“Then, why didn’t you tell me there is a spy in the mansion?”

At the question being spouted out, Irene turned her body.

Confused eyes gazed at him.

At that moment, he reached out his hand towards her without knowing.
It was an act that came out of nowhere.

Does he want to hold on to her?

Or, did he want to pull her closer…?

Maybe, he just wanted to tidy up the little hair that had poked out under her hairband.
Unlike her, who was good at everything she did, Ahibalt himself was not good at refining appearance.
In the first place, he had never tried to tidy up someone’s appearance.

Even that would be a good excuse for someone who has a crush…

But, the moment Ahibalt’s hand got closer…

“Miss Irene!”

Someone jumped out of the threshold.

A maid with long silver hair, tied high like Irene when she was young.

Louise Orpen

Seeing her, Ahibalt hurriedly removed his hand, while Irene raised her head.
At the moment of that intersection, he could see.
The moment she saw Louise, Irene’s expression brightened up.

“Miss Louise.”

At Irene’s voice calling for Louise, her relief and joy were evident.

Fortunately, Louise did not notice the strange atmosphere in this room.
She only bowed her head and greeted Ahibalt cheerfully.

“Yes! Oh, the First Master was also here.
Excuse me.”

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“…It is all right.
What is going on?”

“It is just that there is something Miss Irene has to do urgently.
Are you very busy?”

“Oh, no.
I am already finished.
First Master, then I will come back to inform you when the painter arrives.
Didn’t the Master say that he was preparing for an executive meeting?”

“…All right.
I will be in the office, so come over there when you need to find me.”

“Yes, I see.”

Finally, she greeted him with impeccable respect and left the room.

As always.

It was always Ahibalt, the only one holding onto her feet.

 

* * *

 

‘I almost got into trouble…’

Irene swept her chest inside.

It felt like an emergency just now because the sound of her heart pounding still seemed to ring in her ears.

She obviously thought Ahibalt could not understand her pronunciation when her tongue was stiff, though he did.

If she said something wrong, it would surely have put her in jeopardy.

When he asked why she did not tell him, Irene had nothing to say about it in moderation.

The problem was that if a servant seemed suspicious to the employer, she would just not be fired, although her neck might be cut off…

‘My head just went white, and I could not think of anything… but luckily, thanks to Louise, I can buy time.’

Irene closed the door behind her back and walked over to Louise as if running away.

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“So, Louise.
What is the matter? Are you having a hard time organizing the corsages?”

“No! Thank you for teaching me, now, the corsage is very well organized, right? You will be surprised later.”

“Then?”

“There was a guest outside, and the butler was not here..”

“Oh.”

At Louise’s words, she nodded her head.

The Lavrenti’s butler was off duty from last night until this evening.
It was also one of the few vacation days, and it was due to the worsening of a chronic illness that his wife was suffering from.

In a normal mansion, if there was no butler, the head maid would welcome guests.
However, here, there was no head maid, so Louise naturally came to find Irene.

Fortunately, she already knew who the guest was.

The main character of this episode…

Andrei, the painter sent from Lichpen that was sent to paint a portrait of Ahibalt.

First of all, welcoming guests was a priority, so Irene hastily wiped her hands dry on her apron.

“If we have guests, you have to prepare tea first.
By the way, I knew the painter would only come in the evening, but for some reason, he came so quickly?”

“A painter…?”

Hearing her words, Louise tilted her head.

Seeing her reaction, Irene had an intuition that, in her experience so far, things never worked out when these objections came back.

“It was not a painter.”

“…Yes?”

“The guest is a noble lady.
I heard her name was Charlotte Eunice.”

As soon as she heard those words, Irene could feel that her mind, which had been absent for a while, quickly returned to its place.

The reason was simple.

It was because it was not Charlotte Eunice’s turn to appear yet.

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